If there’s a scientific puzzle to be explored or a little-known phenomenon to be analyzed, Elizabeth is on it!

Here are some of her favorite reported pieces:

New York Times: An Athletic Coach for the Mind?
Part counselor, part strategist, mental skills trainers have helped pro competitors wrap their heads around success for decades.

Inverse: How to Leave a Cult
Cults are going virtual, but deprogramming needs one old-school tactic.

Greater Good: Can The Olympics Change How We Think About Mental Health?
This year’s Olympics is raising questions about the relationship between success and well-being.

Aeon: A Bittersweet Madeleine
Nostalgia is the rocket fuel that powers hope and change.

Scientific American: Will Probiotics Save Corals or Harm Them?
Microbial treatments show great promise for shoring up the health of struggling coral reefs. But will they do unintended damage along the way?

Greater Good: What Does “Tough Compassion” Look Like in Real Life?
Tough compassion means speaking up, setting boundaries, and making uncomfortable choices for the greater good.

The Atlantic: New Tools Could Help Pin Down the Cause of a Failing Memory
By measuring the changing volume of patients’ brains, some physicians hope they can offer targeted treatments even without an official diagnosis.

The Washington Post: What a ‘Grumbling Appendix’ Can Tell You
The signs of acute appendicitis are fairly clear-cut but not so with chronic appendicitis, which is also called “grumbling appendix.

The Washington Post: What Makes Whistleblowers Speak out?
Why do some people make their voices heard, while others stay quiet about wrongdoing?

Aeon: Are Aptitude Tests an Accurate Measure of Human Potential?
Aptitude and IQ tests are used to distinguish those young people who deserve a chance from those who do not. Do they work?

Aeon: The Power of Story
Across time and culture, stories have been agents of personal transformation, in part because they change our brains.

bioGraphic: A Cure for Coral Reefs
A team of intrepid researchers seeks to rescue damaged reefs by seeding corals with just the right cocktail of microbes.

Technology Review: Hacking Voters’ Brains with “Neuropolitics”
These experts say they can divine political preferences you can’t express from signals you don’t know you’re producing.

The Atlantic: The Reason Some Hyperlocal Languages Survive
Uncommon tongues are more likely to last when young people are actively speaking them.

The Wall Street Journal: Hard-Wired for Giving
Contrary to conventional wisdom that humans are essentially selfish, scientists are finding that the brain is built for generosity.