Building Shadow Boxes to Help Ease Grief

To help those grieving the loss of a loved one, Angela Craig, owner of Spiritual Care Package, is hosting a workshop from 1 to 3:30 p.m., April 29, at the South County Art Association, in Kingston, Rhode Island.

Using mementos and inner creativity, participants will build a shadow box to honor and celebrate the life of a loved one who has passed. Craig says, “It is an exercise for you to express your love and your continued connection with this person. It allows you to feel both the sadness and the joy of that connection which ultimately promotes healing.”

The combination of art and creativity using special items that connect personally and uniquely to a loved one offers a type of cathartic healing in and of itself. A $20 supply fee will cover the cost of provided materials which include a 12-square-inch shadow box (black or white), a variety of paper, glue gun and double-sided tape, string, charms, clothespins, washi tape, markers, scissors and pins.

Cost: $60 members/$80 nonmembers. Location: 2587 Kingstown Rd., Kingston, RI. For more information, call 401-413-9462 or visit SpiritualCare Package.net/More-Musings-of-Memories.

The Benefits of Tarot Readings

Intuitive Tarot Reader Nicole Pirani is offering readings to people looking for an additional tool for self-care. For centuries, the Tarot deck has inspired conversations about the human experience. “Even today, the card meanings and imagery can be a useful tool for reflection and self-care,” Pirani says. “As the divination tool follows the Fool on its journey to enlightenment, it allows us to see personal journeys in a universal way, thus allowing the client to feel less alone.”

A reading with a thoughtful specialist can often clarify challenging situations, empower a decision or validate certain emotions. She confirms, “The sessions should be about personal growth and hope, not gloom and doom.”

For more information or to schedule a reading, call 781-698-9855 or visit NJPTarot.com. See Resource Guide on page 36.

The Importance of Vitamin D

Adequate vitamin D intake is essential for optimal health. The body depends on it for a variety of health and wellness processes, from a robust immune system to strong bones and improved mental health. It also lowers the risk of some cancers. Vitamin D may help the body fight off pathogens that cause colds, the flu and other diseases as well as alleviate some of the inflammation brought on by autoimmune illnesses.

It can be challenging to get enough vitamin D, though, due to the nature of the nutrient. About one in four Americans is thought to be vitamin D deficient. When deficient, a vitamin D injection can be helpful, as vitamin D3 is absorbed most effectively when it enters the circulation right away.

The Ivy Drip Bar, located at 7 Brighton St., Belmont, MA, is offering $10 off first injections when mentioning this brief. For more information, call 617-221-5070 or visit TheIvyDripBar.net. See ad on page 9 and Resource Guide on page 38.

De-Stress With Sauerkraut

A new study published in Molecular Psychiatry has shown that eating more fermented foods and fiber daily for just four weeks significantly lowered perceived stress levels. Forty-five participants with relatively low-fiber diets were split into two groups.

One group met with a dietitian that recommended a psychobiotic diet, which included six to eight daily servings of fruits and vegetables high in prebiotic fibers, such as onions, leeks, cabbage, apples, bananas and oats; five to eight daily servings of grains; three to four servings of legumes per week; and two to three daily servings of fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha. The control group received only general dietary advice based on the healthy eating food pyramid.

The group following the psychobiotic diet reported feeling less stressed compared with those in the control group. Moreover, significant changes in the level of certain key chemicals produced by gut microbes were found in these participants. Some of these chemicals have been linked to improved mental health, which could explain why the participants reported feeling less stressed. The quality of sleep improved in both groups, but those on the psychobiotic diet reported greater sleep improvements.

Pomegranate May Offer Skin and Gut Benefits

Pomegranate fruit has been widely used in traditional medicine, and a new, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine looked at the effects of taking pomegranate extract for a period of four weeks on different aspects of skin and gut health. Using facial imaging, researchers found the group that received the pomegranate extract had significant reductions in wrinkle severity and a decrease of forehead sebum excretion. They also found beneficial effects to the gut-skin axis, noting that par ticipants in the pomegranate extract group had a higher abundance of Eggerthellaceae in the gut with accompanying wrinkle reduction. The scientists concluded that the skin benefits from pomegranate extract may be due to the potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of phytochemi cals, as pomegranate contains more than 100 bioactive constituents.

Exercise for the Brain

Researchers in the UK compared the effect that different types of daily movement had on overall cognition, memory and executive function. Their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, reported that replacing sitting, sleeping or gentle movement with less than 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity (brisk walking, bicycling, running up and down stairs, aerobic dancing, jogging, running or swimming) can protect the brain and improve working memory and executive processes like planning and organization. The intensity of the exercise matters, and study participants that engaged in light physical activity, rather than more vigorous activity, saw declines in cognitive performance. However, light activity is still more beneficial than sitting, the scientists found.

The data for these findings was taken from the 1970 British Cohort Study, an ongoing survey that tracks the health of a group of UK-born adults. The group of nearly 4,500 participants consented, at age 46, to wear an activity tracker and complete verbal memory and executive functioning tests, and they were followed from 2016 to 2018.

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Insect-Inspired Drones Build Structures

Two London-based roboticists, Mirko Kovac and Robert Stuart-Smith, have developed new technology that mimics the way bees work together to build a structure. They used two free-flying drones to build a human-sized tower. The “build drone” carried expanding foam and sprayed it in slow, steady circles to form layers, while the “scan drone” surveyed the structure and identified spots where the last layer was either too thin or too thick, and it then created a plan for the build drone to even things out on the next pass to keep the structure straight and sturdy. In a second demonstration of the technology, the drones made a cylinder the size of a large round cake using a cement-like material. The duo exhibited a great deal of precision in stacking the material to within millimeters.

The team plans to take the drones outdoors to deal with the elements and add to the complexity of the objectives and number of drones involved. If the technology can be perfected, these collaborative construction drones could be used in places where it is difficult for humans and heavy machinery to reach, like the tops of buildings, remote pipelines and disaster areas.

Lowering the Carbon Footprint of Batteries

A Swedish battery manufacturer, Northvolt, in partnership with Stora Enso, one of the largest private forest owners in the world, has developed a battery for electric vehicles (EV) with an anode made of sustainably raised and harvested wood instead of graphite, paving the way for battery production from a renewable source.

The partners figured out a way to extract lignin, a carbon-rich natural binder that comprises up to 30 percent of many trees, and turn it into a material they call Lignode. According to Stora Enso, by replacing graphite or copper anodes with Lignode, lithium-ion batteries will offer faster charging and discharging, higher cycling stability and more efficient performance in low temperature.

More than 50 percent of the EV’s carbon footprint comes from the manufacture of its battery—both in sourcing raw materials and producing the component. Mining graphite is an expensive and labor-intensive process that requires considerable resources that come from parts of the world where workers’ rights are inadequately protected. While Northvolt’s battery is not on the market yet, this development, along with others like solid-state batteries, may help to reduce the carbon footprint of EVs.

Rebuilding Coral Reefs With Sound

Rapid ocean warming and other effects caused by climate change have stressed and degraded corals around the globe, and scientists have been studying ways to rebuild, manage and conserve these vital ecosystems. A new Australian study published in Journal of Applied Ecology tested whether playing certain sounds underwater at reef restoration sites could boost the recruitment of oysters and enhance their habitat-building activities. Australia’s flat oyster is a key reef-building organism targeted for restoration efforts.

Previous studies had shown that the sound of healthy reefs differs from that of damaged reefs. Using inexpensive marine speakers, the researchers reproduced the sound of a healthy reef at four sites across two of the largest oyster reef restorations in Australia and compared the results to areas that did not receive this soundscape enrichment. The sonically enhanced areas resulted in the presence of more and larger oysters that formed more three-dimensional habitats atop the reef restorations. The scientists propose that the use of marine soundscapes during early stages of new reef restoration projects could reduce the cost of habitat recovery.