Courage has very little to do with fearlessness. In fact, courage is all about fear. Courage is acting in the company of fear. It?s feeling fear, and doing it anyway.
Courage ?is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk, danger, uncertainty or intimidation,? write authors Nina Lesowitz and Mary Beth Sammons in their book The Courage Companion: How to Live Life with True Power.
Courage isn?t just heroic acts. Courage is many things. And often courage is quiet, spoken in hushed tones, like the well-known and beautiful quote from Mary Anne Rademacher: ?Courage doesn?t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I?ll try again tomorrow.?
?What we discovered is that courage can be a form of tenaciousness, a refusal to quit because you?re tired, or hurt, or humiliated, or emotionally broken,? according to Lesowitz and Sammons.
In The Courage Companion, they share many powerful stories of people who?ve faced everything from deep depression to the suicide of a loved one to months of unemployment. They explain that their goal was to show readers what courage looks and feels like.
Lesowitz and Sammons also share how we can cultivate courage in our daily lives and ?tap into your own inner brave heart.? In one chapter they offer the helpful suggestion of creating a courage ritual. They recommend turning to your ritual ?when you are so scared that you question your ability to keep going.?
These are some of their tips for a courage ritual:
Create a safe retreat in your mind. When you?re feeling scared, visit that place.
Look in the mirror and say, ?I love you? to show yourself support.
Imagine you?re strong. You might pick a strong symbol like a superhero.
Ask a trusted friend for support.
Connect to your gratitude, and give thanks for your blessings.
Listen to music that soothes you.
Practice yoga or stretch your body.
Picture yourself as a plant or flower being nourished and basking in the sun.
Of course, courage is often complicated, and there?s no quick fix for overcoming one?s fears. But it helps to have several concrete, practical strategies that help you take the first or second step toward chipping away at your concerns, worries and doubts. That help to remind you of your inner valor.
What helps you tap into your brave heart? What helps you cultivate courage? ?
?
Strong girl photo available from Shutterstock
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. is an Associate Editor at Psych Central and blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her own blog, Weightless.
Like this author? Catch up on other posts by Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. (or subscribe to their feed).
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 15 Dec 2012 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Tartakovsky, M. (2012). Creating a Courage-Cultivating Ritual. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 16, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/15/creating-a-courage-cultivating-ritual/
Following reports that the Connecticut mass shooting suspect was named Ryan Lanza, many media outlets linked to the Facebook account of a Ryan Lanza from Newtown, Conn. The account has since been taken down.
This Ryan Lanza's picture and information about him was featured on Fox, CBS, and many other outlets.
However, it appears to be the wrong guy. The New York Post has reported that the name of the suspect is actually Adam Lanza. According to reports over at the Newtown Patch, sources say Ryan Lanza has told friends his "developmentally disabled brother may have committed the crime". It is believed that Adam Lanza may have taken his brother's ID.
A number of people were friends with Ryan Lanza on Facebook say that Lanza has been posting that he is not the shooter (the posts can apparently only be seen by those who are friends with Lanza).
One Twitter user, Andrew Fletcher, tweeted this apparent screenshot from Lanza's account:
Another user, Matt Bors, tweeted this apparent screenshot:
* Syphilis, gonorrhea rates largely unchanged * STDs hit the young, gay and bisexual men hardest By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The number of Americans newly diagnosed with chlamydia continued to rise in 2011, likely due to increased screening and more sensitive tests, while rates of syphilis remained unchanged and rates of gonorrhea hovered at near-historic lows, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual report on sexually transmitted diseases, which tracks cases of the three reportable STDs - chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis - young people and gay and bisexual men continue to be most affected by STDs. In 2011, gay and bisexual men made up nearly three-quarters, or 72 percent, of all cases of syphilis. Young people had the most cases of chlamydia and gonorrhea, the CDC report found. If left untreated, gonorrhea and chlamydia cause infertility, and syphilis can lead to serious long-term complications, including brain, heart and organ damage. People with any of these diseases are at greater risk for infection with human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Here are some details from the report: * Gonorrhea - Overall, rates of gonorrhea rose 4 percent to 321,849, the second consecutive year of increases. But the disease remains at historically low levels. * Chlamydia - Reported cases of chlamydia rose 8 percent to 1.4 million in 2011, compared with 2010, continuing the 20-year increase in diagnoses due to expanded screening efforts and more sensitive screening tests. * Syphilis - The overall number of syphilis cases held steady in 2011 at 13,970, after falling 1.6 percent in 2010. According to the CDC, the steady trend masks declining infections among women and increases among men, especially gay and bisexual men.
It?s a tough month to be a European finance minister. Just after EU finance ministers met yesterday and formed an agreement to appoint the ECB as the head of Euro-zone wide banking supervisor, Euro-zone finance ministers are again meeting today to discuss releasing the 34.4 billion Euro aid tranche to the Greek government.
The Greek government completed a buyback of bonds on Tuesday, and that was one of the measures it agreed upon with its creditors in hopes of lowering the country?s debt to GDP ratio to 124% by 2020. Yet despite all the positive predictions, judging from Euro performance in forex markets today, there seems to be doubts over the ministers? ability to reach an agreement today.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the buyback program qualified Greece for aid and that Greek reforms will boost growth. EU?s Rehn also said that he is confident that a decision will be made to go forwards with Greek aid today, and his comments were also reflected by optimistic comments from the French and Dutch finance ministers.
The only doubts about today?s meeting were raised by the Cyprus finance minister, who said that ?we?ll see? if Greece gets approval for more aid. As those comments were released, the Euro began a 40 point decline from 1.3090 that more than erased the gains made following the announcement of the banking supervisor approval that was made towards the end of the Asian session. The comments do not seem significant enough to be the sole reason behind the decline, and therefore it is tough to say exactly what was behind the Euro selloff, and it might have been just some unwinding of a 3-day and 200 point rally.
At the start of the Euro decline, the SNB also announced that it will maintain the 1.20 Franc ceiling against the Euro, and there is no limit to the central bank?s purchase of foreign currencies. The central bank also said that the Franc is still too high, and the SNB might take further action. SNB President Jordan later said he hasn?t ruled out negative interest rates.
The Euro is currently trading around 1.3050 against the US Dollar in currency markets, and resistance has been provided over the last 3 month around 1.3139.
In other economic news, the European Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin that it expects the Euro-zone economy to gradually recover in late 2013 following further weakness. The statement echoed ECB?s Draghi comments at the press conference following the rate decision on December 6. The IFO also predicted today that the German economy will contract 0.3% in the current quarter, but expand by 0.7% in 2013. Spain sold bonds today for 2.02 billion Euros versus a 2 billion Euro target, and Italy sold 2015 bonds for 2.50% average yield versus 2.64% in November. Greek unemployment rose to 24.8% in Q3 according to today?s release.
Reality check for DNA nanotechnologyPublic release date: 13-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Patrick Regan regan@zv.tum.de 49-089-289-10515 Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Lowering barriers to DNA-based nanomanufacturing
Two major barriers to the advancement of DNA nanotechnology beyond the research lab have been knocked down. This emerging technology employs DNA as a programmable building material for self-assembled, nanometer-scale structures. Many practical applications have been envisioned, and researchers recently demonstrated a synthetic membrane channel made from DNA. Until now, however, design processes were hobbled by a lack of structural feedback. Assembly was slow and often of poor quality. Now researchers led by Prof. Hendrik Dietz of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have removed these obstacles.
One barrier holding the field back was an unproven assumption. Researchers were able to design a wide variety of discrete objects and specify exactly how DNA strands should zip together and fold into the desired shapes. They could show that the resulting nanostructures closely matched the designs. Still lacking, though, was the validation of the assumed subnanometer-scale precise positional control. This has been confirmed for the first time through analysis of a test object designed specifically for the purpose. A technical breakthrough based on advances in fundamental understanding, this demonstration has provided a crucial reality check for DNA nanotechnology.
In a separate set of experiments, the researchers discovered that the time it takes to make a batch of complex DNA-based objects can be cut from a week to a matter of minutes, and that the yield can be nearly 100%. They showed for the first time that at a constant temperature, hundreds of DNA strands can fold cooperatively to form an object correctly, as designed within minutes. Surprisingly, they say, the process is similar to protein folding, despite significant chemical and structural differences. "Seeing this combination of rapid folding and high yield," Dietz says, "we have a stronger sense than ever that DNA nanotechnology could lead to a new kind of manufacturing, with a commercial, even industrial future." And there are immediate benefits, he adds: "Now we don't have to wait a week for feedback on an experimental design, and multi-step assembly processes have suddenly become so much more practical."
Atomically precise control
To test the assumption that discrete DNA objects could be assembled as designed with subnanometer precision, TUM biophysicists collaborated with scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. They produced a relatively large, three-dimensional DNA-based structure, asymmetrical to help determine the orientation, and incorporating distinctive design motifs.
Subnanometer-resolution imaging with low-temperature electron microscopy enabled the researchers to map the object which comprises more than 460,000 atoms with subnanometer-scale detail. Because the object incorporates, in effect, a whole library of different design elements, it will also serve as a resource for further study. The results, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, not only demonstrate atomically precise assembly, but also show that such structures, formerly thought to be jelly-like and flexible, are rigid enough to be probed by electron microscopy.
Fast processing, near-100% yields
In contrast, DNA objects with 19 different designs including plate-like, gear-like, and brick-like shapes were used for a second series of experiments at TUM, reported in the latest issue of Science. Here the researchers' main focus was on the dynamics of DNA folding and unfolding. The usual self-assembly process is often described as a "one-pot reaction": Strands of DNA that will serve as the template, instructions, and building material for a designed object are placed together at a relatively high temperature where they will remain separate; the temperature is gradually lowered, and somewhere along the line the DNA strands zip together to form the desired structures.
Observing this process in unprecedented detail, the TUM researchers discovered that all of the action takes place within a specific and relatively narrow temperature range, which differs depending on the design of the object. One practical implication is that, once the optimal temperature for a given design has been determined, DNA self-assembly nanomanufacturing, in essence could be accomplished through fast processes at constant temperatures. Following up on this lead, the researchers found that they could "mass-produce" objects made from hundreds of DNA strands within minutes instead of days, with almost no defective objects or by-products in the resulting batch.
"Besides telling us that complex DNA objects are manufacturable," Dietz says, "these results suggest something we hardly dared to imagine before that it might be possible to assemble DNA nanodevices in a cell culture or even within a living cell."
From the viewpoint of fundamental biology, the most intriguing result of these experiments may be the discovery that DNA folding resembles protein folding more closely than anticipated. Chemically and structurally, the two families of biomolecules are quite different. But the researchers observed clearly defined "cooperative" steps in the folding of complex DNA objects, no different in principle from mechanisms at work in protein folding. They speculate that further experiments with self-assembly of designed DNA objects could help to unravel the mysteries of protein folding, which is more complex and less accessible to direct study.
###
This work was supported by the European Research Council (HD, Starting Grant #256270); the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Excellence Clusters CIPSM and NIM, the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, and the Collaborative Research Center SFB863; and the Medical Research Council.
Original publications:
Xiao-chen Bai, Thomas G. Martin, Sjors H. W. Scheres, Hendrik Dietz. Cryo-EM structure of a 3D DNA-origami object. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Dec. 4, 2012, 109 (49) 20012-20017; on-line in PNAS Early Edition, Nov. 19, 2012. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215713109
Jean-Philippe J. Sobczak, Thomas G. Martin, Thomas Gerling, Hendrik Dietz. Rapid folding of DNA into nanoscale shapes at constant temperature. Science, vol. 338, issue 6113, pp. 1458-1461. DOI: 10.1126/science.1229919
See also: Martin Langecker, Vera Arnaut, Thomas G. Martin, Jonathan List, Stephan Renner, Michael Mayer, Hendrik Dietz, and Friedrich C. Simmel. Synthetic lipid membrane channels formed by designed DNA nanostructures. Science, vol. 338, issue 6109, pp. 932-936. DOI: 10.1126/science.1225624
Contact:
Prof. Hendrik Dietz
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Physics Dept., Walter Schottky Institute / ZNN
Am Coulombwall 4a, 85748 Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)89 289 11615
E-mail: dietz@tum.de
Web: http://bionano.physik.tu-muenchen.de
Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) is one of Germany's leading universities. It has roughly 480 professors, 9,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 32,000 students. It focuses on the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences, medicine, and economic sciences. After winning numerous awards, it was selected as an "Elite University" in 2006 and 2012 by the Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). In both international and national rankings, TUM is rated as one of Germany's top universities. TUM is dedicated to the ideal of a top-level research-based entrepreneurial university. The university's global presence includes offices in Beijing (People's Republic of China), Boston (USA), Brussels (Belgium), Cairo (Egypt), Mumbai (India) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). The German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), founded in 2002 in Singapore, is the first research campus of a German university abroad. www.tum.de
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Reality check for DNA nanotechnologyPublic release date: 13-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Patrick Regan regan@zv.tum.de 49-089-289-10515 Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Lowering barriers to DNA-based nanomanufacturing
Two major barriers to the advancement of DNA nanotechnology beyond the research lab have been knocked down. This emerging technology employs DNA as a programmable building material for self-assembled, nanometer-scale structures. Many practical applications have been envisioned, and researchers recently demonstrated a synthetic membrane channel made from DNA. Until now, however, design processes were hobbled by a lack of structural feedback. Assembly was slow and often of poor quality. Now researchers led by Prof. Hendrik Dietz of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have removed these obstacles.
One barrier holding the field back was an unproven assumption. Researchers were able to design a wide variety of discrete objects and specify exactly how DNA strands should zip together and fold into the desired shapes. They could show that the resulting nanostructures closely matched the designs. Still lacking, though, was the validation of the assumed subnanometer-scale precise positional control. This has been confirmed for the first time through analysis of a test object designed specifically for the purpose. A technical breakthrough based on advances in fundamental understanding, this demonstration has provided a crucial reality check for DNA nanotechnology.
In a separate set of experiments, the researchers discovered that the time it takes to make a batch of complex DNA-based objects can be cut from a week to a matter of minutes, and that the yield can be nearly 100%. They showed for the first time that at a constant temperature, hundreds of DNA strands can fold cooperatively to form an object correctly, as designed within minutes. Surprisingly, they say, the process is similar to protein folding, despite significant chemical and structural differences. "Seeing this combination of rapid folding and high yield," Dietz says, "we have a stronger sense than ever that DNA nanotechnology could lead to a new kind of manufacturing, with a commercial, even industrial future." And there are immediate benefits, he adds: "Now we don't have to wait a week for feedback on an experimental design, and multi-step assembly processes have suddenly become so much more practical."
Atomically precise control
To test the assumption that discrete DNA objects could be assembled as designed with subnanometer precision, TUM biophysicists collaborated with scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. They produced a relatively large, three-dimensional DNA-based structure, asymmetrical to help determine the orientation, and incorporating distinctive design motifs.
Subnanometer-resolution imaging with low-temperature electron microscopy enabled the researchers to map the object which comprises more than 460,000 atoms with subnanometer-scale detail. Because the object incorporates, in effect, a whole library of different design elements, it will also serve as a resource for further study. The results, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, not only demonstrate atomically precise assembly, but also show that such structures, formerly thought to be jelly-like and flexible, are rigid enough to be probed by electron microscopy.
Fast processing, near-100% yields
In contrast, DNA objects with 19 different designs including plate-like, gear-like, and brick-like shapes were used for a second series of experiments at TUM, reported in the latest issue of Science. Here the researchers' main focus was on the dynamics of DNA folding and unfolding. The usual self-assembly process is often described as a "one-pot reaction": Strands of DNA that will serve as the template, instructions, and building material for a designed object are placed together at a relatively high temperature where they will remain separate; the temperature is gradually lowered, and somewhere along the line the DNA strands zip together to form the desired structures.
Observing this process in unprecedented detail, the TUM researchers discovered that all of the action takes place within a specific and relatively narrow temperature range, which differs depending on the design of the object. One practical implication is that, once the optimal temperature for a given design has been determined, DNA self-assembly nanomanufacturing, in essence could be accomplished through fast processes at constant temperatures. Following up on this lead, the researchers found that they could "mass-produce" objects made from hundreds of DNA strands within minutes instead of days, with almost no defective objects or by-products in the resulting batch.
"Besides telling us that complex DNA objects are manufacturable," Dietz says, "these results suggest something we hardly dared to imagine before that it might be possible to assemble DNA nanodevices in a cell culture or even within a living cell."
From the viewpoint of fundamental biology, the most intriguing result of these experiments may be the discovery that DNA folding resembles protein folding more closely than anticipated. Chemically and structurally, the two families of biomolecules are quite different. But the researchers observed clearly defined "cooperative" steps in the folding of complex DNA objects, no different in principle from mechanisms at work in protein folding. They speculate that further experiments with self-assembly of designed DNA objects could help to unravel the mysteries of protein folding, which is more complex and less accessible to direct study.
###
This work was supported by the European Research Council (HD, Starting Grant #256270); the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the Excellence Clusters CIPSM and NIM, the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, and the Collaborative Research Center SFB863; and the Medical Research Council.
Original publications:
Xiao-chen Bai, Thomas G. Martin, Sjors H. W. Scheres, Hendrik Dietz. Cryo-EM structure of a 3D DNA-origami object. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, Dec. 4, 2012, 109 (49) 20012-20017; on-line in PNAS Early Edition, Nov. 19, 2012. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215713109
Jean-Philippe J. Sobczak, Thomas G. Martin, Thomas Gerling, Hendrik Dietz. Rapid folding of DNA into nanoscale shapes at constant temperature. Science, vol. 338, issue 6113, pp. 1458-1461. DOI: 10.1126/science.1229919
See also: Martin Langecker, Vera Arnaut, Thomas G. Martin, Jonathan List, Stephan Renner, Michael Mayer, Hendrik Dietz, and Friedrich C. Simmel. Synthetic lipid membrane channels formed by designed DNA nanostructures. Science, vol. 338, issue 6109, pp. 932-936. DOI: 10.1126/science.1225624
Contact:
Prof. Hendrik Dietz
Technische Universitaet Muenchen
Physics Dept., Walter Schottky Institute / ZNN
Am Coulombwall 4a, 85748 Garching, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)89 289 11615
E-mail: dietz@tum.de
Web: http://bionano.physik.tu-muenchen.de
Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) is one of Germany's leading universities. It has roughly 480 professors, 9,000 academic and non-academic staff, and 32,000 students. It focuses on the engineering sciences, natural sciences, life sciences, medicine, and economic sciences. After winning numerous awards, it was selected as an "Elite University" in 2006 and 2012 by the Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). In both international and national rankings, TUM is rated as one of Germany's top universities. TUM is dedicated to the ideal of a top-level research-based entrepreneurial university. The university's global presence includes offices in Beijing (People's Republic of China), Boston (USA), Brussels (Belgium), Cairo (Egypt), Mumbai (India) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). The German Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), founded in 2002 in Singapore, is the first research campus of a German university abroad. www.tum.de
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Dec. 12, 2012 ? Tropical montane cloud forest trees use more than their roots to take up water. They also drink water from clouds directly through their leaves, University of California, Berkeley, scientists have discovered.
While this is an essential survival strategy in foggy but otherwise dry areas, the scientists say that the clouds the trees depend on are now disappearing due to climate change.
"The study highlights the vulnerability of this rare and already endangered ecosystem to climate change," said Todd Dawson, senior author of the study and UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. Changes in cloud cover have already been correlated to declines and disappearances of cloud forest animal populations, such as frogs and salamanders.
The new study will be published next year in the journal Ecology Letters and is available online this month.
In tropical montane cloud forests, leaves are constantly bathed in clouds, making them wet. The leaves of the most common cloud forest trees drink this cloud water when water from the soil just isn't enough, said Greg Goldsmith, lead author of the study and a graduate student in Dawson's lab.
"Many cloud forests experience an annual dry season when the primary water source isn't rain, but rather, the moisture from the clouds," he said. "This is when the trees are most likely to draw water in through their leaves."
Working in Monteverde, Costa Rica, the researchers studied patterns of leaf wetness caused by the clouds by setting up small plastic "leaves" that use changes in the voltage of an embedded electrical circuit to detect wetness. Then, they installed miniature sensors on the branches of cloud forest plants to see whether or not water was entering leaves when they were wet.
"The textbooks teach us that water enters roots, moves up the trunk and into the branches, then finally exits the leaves. That's true, but it's not the whole story," Goldsmith said. "With our sensors, we observed water entering the leaves and actually moving back down the branches toward the trunk."
The research builds on previous work by Dawson, who demonstrated a similar phenomenon in California redwoods.
However, the study found that not all trees can drink the same amount of cloud water.
"The trees that are drinking the most water through their leaves may be more vulnerable to decreases in cloud cover resulting from rising temperatures," said Goldsmith, who received funding from a National Geographic Society Young Explorers Grant to conduct the research.
"The study provides a clear demonstration of the interactions between clouds and cloud forest plants and will serve as a cornerstone for future research on the effects of climate change on tropical montane cloud forest ecosystems," Dawson added.
In addition to funding from the National Geographic Society, Goldsmith was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a Smithsonian Institution Short-Term Fellowship and a Wang Family Fellowship from UC Berkeley.
UC Berkeley graduate student Nicholas J. Matzke is also a co-author of the report.
Editor's note: More information available at http://www.canopyintheclouds.com/
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. The original article was written by Robert Sanders.
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Journal Reference:
Gregory R. Goldsmith, Nicholas J. Matzke, Todd E. Dawson. The incidence and implications of clouds for cloud forest plant water relations. Ecology Letters, 2012; DOI: 10.1111/ele.12039
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Courage has very little to do with fearlessness. In fact, courage is all about fear. Courage is acting in the company of fear. It?s feeling fear, and doing it anyway.
What helps you tap into your brave heart?
Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. is an Associate Editor at Psych Central and blogs regularly about eating and self-image issues on her own blog, Weightless.
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