Explainer

An astronaut working outside a spacecraft above Earth

Twenty-five astronauts took 10 thinking tests before, during and after 6-month ISS missions and most scores stayed steady while early flight slowed attention, working memory and some processing speed tasks

Twenty-five astronauts completed a broad set of cognitive tests across five mission phases tied to roughly six months aboard the International Space Station and the main result was reassuring: overall performance stayed fairly stable. The clearest changes appeared early in flight, when a few tasks that depend on quick responses, working memory and sustained attention…

A propeller airplane mid-flight against a clear blue sky, captured from below

Space Explainer

Eighteen people played Pac-Man while tracking odd tones through 25 parabolic arcs and weightlessness left the main game intact while errors rose on the secondary task, revealing how attention can narrow even when primary performance looks steady

The International Space Station orbiting above Earth

Space Explainer

Twenty-two astronaut-like volunteers breathed four carbon dioxide levels for less than three hours and the sharpest drop in decision-making appeared at 1,200 ppm before higher concentrations produced no clear step-by-step decline across the study’s cognition measures

A professional scuba diver swimming underwater

Health Explainer

Twelve professional divers spent 20 minutes at 10 meters and their cortisol climbed while sustained attention and response speed slipped soon after they surfaced

A scuba diver wearing a mask and preparing to enter the water

Humans Explainer

Twenty-seven scuba divers cleared masks and solved a Stroop task at 5 meters and those with higher trait anxiety needed 3.7 more seconds for the mask skill while their underwater responses slowed by about 8 seconds

A bird watcher using binoculars beside Lake Balaton

Humans Explainer

Beside a suburban lake, 132 students spent two hours spotting up to 43 bird species and the people who felt most restored were the ones whose curiosity and enjoyment stayed engaged throughout the guided walk

Volunteers collecting litter from an ocean beach

Oceans Explainer

A survey of 1,226 U.S. adults found 27 percent felt overwhelmed by ocean decline and the same anxiety tracked stronger conservation concern and reported action

Scuba divers exploring underwater near a wreck

Humans Explainer

Thirty-seven adults took a one-week scuba course while 30 chose a multisport course and only the divers still showed lower perceived stress one month later in a small exploratory trial

Thirty-seven scuba divers entered a one-week course with stress scores much like those of 30 people who chose other vacation sports. By the end, both groups reported better mood. One month later, the clearest lasting stress change belonged to the divers. A Frontiers in Psychology study published in 2017 compared a recreational diving group with…

Woman floating calmly with her eyes closed

Health Explainer

Seventy-five adults with anxiety and depression tried 6 sessions of floating or chair-based rest and both water groups finished more sessions with no serious adverse events

Seventy-five treatment-seeking adults entered a careful test of deep rest and the simplest number from the trial was about showing up. People assigned to the two water-based groups completed 85% and 89% of their six planned sessions. People assigned to chair-based rest completed 74%. The PLOS ONE study, published in June 2024, tested whether repeated…

A person sitting quietly on a rocky coast beside the sea

Humans Explainer

8 Belgian coastal residents described the shore as a safe haven where awe and nostalgia helped them regulate emotion and recover from daily strain

A preregistered interview study put the coast at the center of a question about emotion, familiarity and well-being. Writing in Frontiers in Psychology, researchers from the Flanders Marine Institute, KU Leuven and Ghent University asked how young people who live near the Belgian coast make sense of what they feel there. Their paper followed eight…

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