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“In the experiment, preliminary results of which were presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, scientists allowed one group of rats to run. Another set of rodents was not allowed to exercise. Then all of the rats swam in cold water, which they don’t like to do. Afterward, the scientists examined the animals’ brains. They found that the stress of the swimming activated neurons in all of the ’ brains. (The researchers could tell which neurons were activated because the cells expressed specific genes in response to the stress.) But the youngest brain cells in the running rats, the cells that the scientists assumed were created by running, were less likely to express the genes. They generally remained quiet. The “cells born from running,” the researchers concluded, appeared to have been “specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm.”

Learn more from the full NY Times article here.

Reinventing the MBA: 4 Reasons to Mix Business With Design Thinking | Innovation | Fast Company

It’s not that either businesspeople or designers have a monopoly on good ideas. It’s that there is a vanishingly small number of people who are actually interested in solving mysteries: as few as 10 to 15 percent at traditional strategy firms, a similar number in design firms, and even fewer among most corporations. Most people, whatever their background, are more comfortable reapplying a formula that has worked in the past than at generating new possibilities. They just try to use a template from an existing success, which is the chief reason we see so many copycat products and copycat strategies. We don’t necessarily need more design-minded businesspeople or more business-minded design people. We just need more people ready to take on mysteries.