Robin Marantz Henig
Robin Marantz Henig
Robin Marantz Henig is a freelance science writer and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. Her articles have also appeared in Scientific American, Seed, Discover and assorted women's magazines. In addition, she writes book reviews and occasional essays for the Washington Post, as well as articles for The New York Times science section, op-ed page, and Book Review...
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love man married meet might relatives spend surprised time
Friends and relatives might be surprised that I think of myself as lonely. I'm married to a man I not only love but like, and we spend a lot of time together. If I feel like socializing, I can usually find someone to meet for coffee or a drink.
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As the brain matures, one thing that happens is the pruning of the synapses. Synaptic pruning does not occur willy-nilly; it depends largely on how any one brain pathway is used.
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Many of us are tethered to bodies that sabotage us in our struggle to keep from getting fat, or to slim down when we do.
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Biology sets the context, and that is critical, but obesity still boils down to whether a person eats too much or exercises enough.
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Anxiety is not fear, exactly, because fear is focused on something right in front of you - a real and objective danger.
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Even though loneliness affects so many of us, it has gotten scant research attention compared to related conditions like depression or anxiety.
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I regret not working harder to create true friendships with other couples, not seeking out people with whom to go do things and go places - people with whom to have a few crazy, memorable bonding adventures.
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Elderly parents tend to think their relationship with their middle-aged children is smoother than the children do. Adult grandchildren, who have little stake in pulling away from their grandparents, tend to describe that relationship as less rose-colored than do Gram and Gramps.
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It's almost a rite of passage for the middle-aged, it seems, to invent generational stereotypes for dumping on the young.
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Angels, demons, spirits, wizards, gods and witches have peppered folk religions since mankind first started telling stories.
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Hardships of early human life favored the evolution of certain cognitive tools, among them the ability to infer the presence of organisms that might do harm, to come up with causal narratives for natural events and to recognize that other people have minds of their own with their own beliefs, desires and intentions.
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If you're satisfied with your social life, according to psychologists, you tend to be satisfied with life in general.
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Kids don't shuffle along in unison on the road to maturity. They slouch toward adulthood at an uneven, highly individual pace.
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In the modern world, the anxious temperament does offer certain benefits: caution, introspection, the capacity to work alone. These can be adaptive qualities.