You get anxious if there's no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You feel upset if your phone is getting low on power and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you're not there. All these can be called “always on” stress caused by smart phone addiction.

    For some people, smart phones have set them free from the nine-to-five work. Flexible working has given them more control over their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smart phones have become cruel masters in their pockets, never allowing them to turn them off and relax.

    Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favor of his iPhone. So he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they're spending on the device and set up warnings if the usage limits are broken. “Moment's goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”

    Dr. Christine Grant, an occupational psychologist at Coventry University, said, “The effects of this ‘always on' culture are that your mind is never resting, and you're not giving your body time to recover, so you're always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.”

    And as the number of connected smart phones is increasing, so is the amount of data. This is leading to a sort of decision paralysis (瘫痪) and is creating more stress in the workplace because people have to receive a broader range of data and communications which are often difficult to manage. “It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many do less because they're controlled by it all and feel they can never escape the office,” said Dr. Christine Grant.

    A new study has discovered that meditation（冥想）and oxygen sport together reduce depression. The Rutgers University study found that this mind and body combination, done twice a week for only two months, reduced the symptoms for a group of students by 40 percent.

    “We are excited by the findings because we saw such a meaningful improvement in both clinically depressed and non-depressed students,” said lead author Dr. Brandon Alderman. “It is the first time that both of these two behavioral ways have been looked at together for dealing with depression.”

    Researchers believe the two activities have an interactive effect in combating depression. Alderman and Dr. Tracey Shors discovered that a combination of mental and physical training (MAP) enabled students with major depressive disorder not to let problems or negative thoughts defeat them.

    Rutgers researchers say those who participated in the study began with 30 minutes of focused attention meditation followed by 30 minutes of oxygen sport. They were told that if their thoughts drifted to the past or the future they should refocus on their breathing, enabling those with depression to accept moment-to-moment changes in attention.

    Shors, who studies the production of new brain cells in the hippocampus—part of the brain involved in memory and learning—says scientists have shown in animal models that oxygen sport exercise keeps a large number of certain cells alive.

    The idea for the human intervention（干预）came from her laboratory studies, she says, with the main goal of helping individuals acquire new skills so that they can learn to recover from stressful life events.

    By learning to focus their attention and exercise, people who are fighting depression can acquire new learning skills that can help them process information and reduce the overwhelming recollection of memories from the past, Shors says.

    “We know these treatments can be practiced over a lifetime and that they will be effective in improving mental health.” said Alderman. “The good news is that this intervention can be practiced by anyone at any time and at no cost.”

    How fit are your teeth? Are you lazy about brushing them? Never fear: An inventor is on the case. An electric toothbrush senses how long and how well you brush, and it lets you track your performance on your phone.

    The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

    The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don't forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you're brushing long enough. “It's kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.

    The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also fun,” Several says.

    Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.

    The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.

    Serval says that one day, it'll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush.

    Every morning my father buys a newspaper on his way to work. Every evening my mother looks through magazines at home. And every night, I look at the posters with photos of David Beckham and Yao Ming on my bedroom wall before I go to sleep. Can we imagine life without paper or print?

    Paper was first created about 2,000 years ago, and has been made from silk, cotton, bamboo, and, since the 19th century, from wood. People learned to write words on paper to make a book. But in those days, books could only be produced one at a time by hand. As a result, they were expensive and rare. And because there weren't many books, few people learned to read.

    Then printing was invented in China. When printing was developed greatly at the beginning of the 11th century, books could be produced more quickly and cheaply. As a result, more people learned to read. After that, knowledge and ideas spread quickly.

    Today information can be received online, downloaded from the Internet rather than found in books, and information can be kept on CD-ROMs or machines such as MP3 players.

    Computers are already used in classrooms, and newspapers and magazines can already be read online. So will books be replaced by computers one day? No, I don't think the Yao Ming poster on my bedroom wall will ever be replaced by a computer two metres high!

    Crossing your legs is an extremely common habit. While you may find it comfortable to sit with one knee crossed over the other, it might be causing health problems that you are not aware of.

    A study published in Blood Pressure Monitoring stated that sitting with your legs crossed can increase your blood pressure. The reason this happens is because the blood in your legs has to work against gravity to be pumped back to your heart, crossing one leg over the other increases resistance, making it even harder for the blood to circulate. You won't feel any immediate effects, but sitting for long periods of time will hurt you forever.

    Crossing your legs can also lead to neck and back pain. Ideally, it's best for our bodies to sit with our feet planted flat, hip width apart, on the floor, but it's not easy to maintain perfect posture all day at the office. When you sit with your legs crossed your hips are in a twisted position, which can cause one of your pelvic bones(骨盆) to rotate. Since your pelvic bone supports your neck and spine（脊椎）, this can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck.

    You also might notice that when you sit with your legs crossed for long periods of time your feet and legs get painful or have the feeling of being asleep. This is because when one leg sits on top of the other it causes pressure on the veins（静脉） and nerves in your legs and feet. It can cause numbness and/or temporary paralysis in the legs, ankles, or feet. While the feeling of discomfort may only last a minute or two, repeatedly crossing your legs until they feel numb can cause permanent nerve damage.

    So next time you sit down, try to get yourself in the habit of sitting with both of your feet on the floor. Not only will it help your posture and stability, but it will also save your health in the long run.

    We work with Cambridge County Council's Participation Team to create opportunities for young people to visit the University and learn more about it. The following events are scheduled for the 2019/2020 academic year.

    SuperStar workshops

    12 workshops are planned for young people aged 7 to 11. These half-day visits will be held throughout the year, at times when young people are not at school. If participants complete 8 of the 12 workshops, they will be awarded the nationally recognized SuperStar Crest Award.

    Please note, workshops will only run if we have a sufficient number of attendees (usually around 3+ participants).

    Explore University Days

    Explore University Days are for young people aged 12-15. Participants visit the University for two days and take part in a variety of university-related workshops, and other fun activities.

    Previous participants have joined in the following:

    • Visited the Sports Centre

    • Took part in a Neuroscience workshop

    • Enjoyed a two-course meal at a University College

    Dates will be confirmed in early December 2019, and a schedule for event will follow in the New Year.

    Events for post-16 students

    If you are studying for your post-16 qualifications and are considering applying for Cambridge or would like to find out more about a specific subject, the following events might be for you:

    • University and College Open Days

    • Subject Masterclasses

    • Cambridge Science Festival