Do We Feel More Disconnected Even When Strangers Ignore Us?
A study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is based on the idea that people need to feel connected to be happy, and that a person can be negatively affected when even a stranger doesn’t acknowledge his or her presence, researchers said. (Amanda Chan, The Huffington Post)

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
“This could be the first step down a path not only to maximizing human potential but to increasing it” University of Oxford ethicist Julian Savulescu says. “It has significant potential advantages to every human being because the capacity to learn is fundamental to our humanity.” (Tom Feilden, BBC News)

Bosses Who Exercise Are Nicer
We’ve all heard exercise is good for your physical and mental well-being. But a good workout can actually influence the mental well-being of others, too. Because bosses who hit the gym tend to be less abusive to their employees. That’s according to a study in the Journal of Business and Psychology. (Christopher Intagliata, Scientific American)

NASA Confirms the Existence of 26 More Planets
The science team for NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting mission nearly doubled their list of confirmed planets beyond our solar system in one fell swoop, announcing the discovery of 26 planets spread among 11 star systems. (Alan Boyle, Cosmic Log, msnbc.com)

Newt Gingrich’s Moon Mission
Appearing on MSNBC’s Martin Bashir, director of the Hayden Planetarium and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson sympathized with Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich’s ambitious vision for a moon base. “If the nation dreams big and that percolates its way through society, the dreams are enabled by prowess in science. Once everybody gets the feeling through them, they want to become scientists and engineers and participate in this adventure,” Tyson exclaimed. (James Crugnale, Mediaite)

Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns and Tithes
Sociologists have studied the correlations between religiosity and giving and niceness, and have discovered that the more people give, the nicer they are. That is to say, generous giving to religious institutions correlates to giving to secular charities (the Boy Scouts, say, and the American Heart Association), which correlates to volunteerism and civic mindedness and, broadly speaking, altruism. (Lisa Miller, On Faith, The Washington Post)

Alaska Airlines Will Stop Giving Prayer Cards to Passengers
“This difficult decision was not made lightly,” Alaska Air Group CEO Bill Ayer and Alaska Airlines President Brad Tilden wrote in an email to regular customers. “Some of you enjoy the cards and associate them with our service,” they wrote. “At the same time, we’ve heard from many of you who believe religion is inappropriate on an airplane.” (Melissa Allison, The Seattle Times)