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March is Women's History Month!

This Is Your Brain On The Outdoors

Alexander Burzik
/
iStockphoto

The New York Times recently carried a fascinating report on how a walk in nature can actually change the wiring in your brain. According to the story, not only did a brief walk in the woods make people report they felt happier but, using brain scans, researchers found time nature changed neurological functioning as well.

As the story puts it: "These results 'strongly suggest that getting out into natural environments' could be an easy and almost immediate way to improve moods for city dwellers ..."

So, here is the thing: I could spend the next few hundred words commenting on the science or riffing on the tragedy of a society that needs research to tell us something so obvious.

But I won't.

How about this: Let's make a deal. I will close this laptop now and go find some woods to walk in, if you will do the same. Really. No need to think about. Let's go. Right now. Later, we can add some comments to this post get our internet yaya's out. But for now...

See ya!


Adam Frank is a co-founder of the 13.7 blog, an astrophysics professor at the University of Rochester, a book author and a self-described "evangelist of science." You can keep up with more of what Adam is thinking on Facebook and Twitter: @adamfrank4.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Adam Frank was a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. A professor at the University of Rochester, Frank is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and currently heads a research group developing supercomputer code to study the formation and death of stars. Frank's research has also explored the evolution of newly born planets and the structure of clouds in the interstellar medium. Recently, he has begun work in the fields of astrobiology and network theory/data science. Frank also holds a joint appointment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a Department of Energy fusion lab.