Buzz

A small study shows that an antioxidant in chocolate appears to improve some memory skills that people lose as they age. Reported in the New York Times, the study followed healthy people, ages 50 to 69, who drank a mixture high in antioxidants called cocoa flavanols for three months. 

The cocoa-positive results?  Those who drank cocoa flavanols performed better on a memory test than people who drank a low-flavanol mixture.

Singing is as ancient as our species. Evolutionary biologists believe that we sang to survive. Groups who bonded over song and who developed the capacity to communicate effectively through song had an advantage. Most religious traditions have a long tradition of singing as a means of connecting with the divine. Whatever your beliefs about our past as a species, there’s no escaping it: singing is our heritage.

In modern-day terms, those of us who sing regularly know how therapeutic it is. In an era when the pace of life seems to increase exponentially, it can be difficult to slow...