I ♥ scientific studies about cool stuff.

And there are a lot more than you'd think.  Like studies that explore how sleep erases bits of our memory each day.  And why people who are good at self-deception are better athletes.  And how our brains perceive who we are.  And why the plecebo effect works so well.  Scientists are doing all kinds of interesting stuff.  And lots of it is digested for us and presented in a really, really interesting form on Radio Lab, my favorite radio program by far.  I listen to the podcast while I run and sometimes I just have to stop and be aghast while I process what they just told me.  Thanks Ryan for expanding my world by recommending it.  

On the radio a while ago {can't remember what program}  I heard about this study done in Scandinavia, exploring what activities improved longevity.  The top three activities to do regularly to lengthen your life?

Go ahead, have a guess.  

I'll wait.  

Yeah I would have guessed yoga, healthy eating, and getting enough sleep or some other boring thing like that.  Or maybe I would've guessed some Scandinavian things since the study was done there...like whaling, or, um, arctic...exploring.  But actually the top three were cool.  

Camping.

Dancing.

Singing.

Do you think is has to do with having a happy soul or something?  You can chow down on wheat germ and organic honey all you want, but what you could do instead is boogie down for a bit.  In the woods.  While singing along.  

Hmmm, this is certainly what our ancient ancestors did, pretty much every night.  Maybe they had something there...