I mentioned Steven Johnson in a previous blog entry -- he's the author of a book arguing that popular culture is not "dumbing us down", but on the contrary, making us smarter. It turns out he keeps a blog of his own; here's an interesting entry about the younger generation and how they're doing better than we think.

New York Times has a nice article reviewing recent research that bears on the genetics of behavior.

ScienCentral also has some interesting new articles: one on hypnosis and cognitive conflict (go to my blog entry for July 6 for the link to a Scientific American article on this subject); one about how baby dolphins and whales and their mothers sleep hardly at all in the first postpartum month -- in stark contrast to other mammalian species; and one on an imaging study that's been looking at what goes on in the brain when we're making moral choices.

To my complete lack of surprise (though not the researchers'), a survey of over 400 Scottish pensioners (senior citizens) found no association between measured intelligence (these people were part of a group given an intelligence test at 11) and current level of happiness. While intelligence may accrue you certain material benefits, it may also lead to more dissatisfaction.

Preliminary results from the first study of the effect of fish oil on preschoolers indicate dramatic improvement in the performance of underachieving (often disruptive and inattentive) preschoolers.

Memory news reports for June have now been uploaded.