Gudak turns your $1,000 iPhone into a $20 disposable camera

With their simple controls and lack of preview, disposable cameras are fun to use and let you relive the party once the film is developed. Gudak wants to give you that feeling with its iPhone app — it has a number of features that are pretty bizarre at first glance, but make sense if you get into the spirit of things.

You’re limited to 24 photos per day, and a "processing laboratory" tells you when the images are "developed." That might seem weird if you’re used to taking 24 digital photos of one subject, but it does force you to choose the best moments. There’s also a tiny, simulated viewfinder that’s impractical as hell, but again, it means you can only do basic composition chores, rather than micromanaging the shot and spoiling the moment.

You also have to wait three entire days before you can see the images. Here, the app is really pushing it with the Kodak impression, trying to be the Daniel Day-Lewis of disposable camera apps. However, that was part of the charm of those cameras — you shot it and forgot it, then after developing the film, get your pals together, have some laughs and relive the party all over again.

There are even simulated "light leaks" randomly introduced into shots, along with the reddish, over-saturated color wash you remember. Sure, it’s a bit gimmicky, but it’s cute as hell and for $0.99, could be fun for awhile. It’s now on the iPhone app store, but not yet on Android.

Via: Petapixel

Source: Gudak (iTunes)

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Seminal sci-fi magazine ‘Galaxy’ is now free online

The next time you watch a big blockbuster sci-fi film like Alien: Covenant, you can thank the original pulp magazines. The written form of the popular genre got its start in comic book-sized magazines like Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. These publications, under the direction of influential editors like John W. Campbell, Jr., helped improve the genre from basic adventure stories to more thoughtful, well-written speculative fiction by authors like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke. It’s not an overstatement to say that these magazines created the current science fiction craze. Now, Galaxy Science Fiction, a magazine that published Ray Bradbury’s "Fahrenheit 451" and Alfred Bester’s "The Demolished Man," is available for free online.

From 1950 to 1980, the digest-sized Galaxy Science Fiction magazine became well-known for its focus on social issues rather than technology, which became its own sub-genre (New Wave) within the larger speculative fiction scene. Author Frederik Pohl helped the original editor, H.L. Gold, craft the production from the late 1950’s, eventually taking over officially in 1961. There were a string of editors after the magazine was sold in 1969, and the quality never quite recovered barring a couple of solid stints by talented editors like James Baen, who went on to found sf imprint, Baen Books. The final issue came out in 1980; a semi-professional publication came out in 1994 under the same name but only lasted eight bimonthly issues.

You can read 355 separate issues spanning the years 1950 – 1976 of Galaxy Science Fiction over at Archive.org right now. Each one is available for download in a variety of formats, too, including accessible ones like Abby and Daisy, along with the more typical Epub, Kindle, and PDF versions. Having such a wealth of seminal, modern science fiction at your fingertips is yet another example of how great the internet can be.

Via: The Verge

Source: Archive.org

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How Valve inspired Neill Blomkamp to start his own movie studio

Neill Blomkamp has a question: "If you could break apart films and treat them a little bit more like software, what would that look like?"

Whether it’s blindly following Amazon Instant recommendations or waiting for a film to hit Netflix instead of buying it, video streaming has slowly ushered in a new cinematic landscape; changing the way we consume movies drastically. Yet, despite the impact of the internet on movie-watching, filmmakers’ still haven’t truly changed their creative process.

Cult sci-fi director Blomkamp wants to do exactly that. After District 9, Elysium and Chappie, the director set up Oats Studio, which has just released three short films — Firebase, Rakku and Zygote (collectively titled Volume 1). With YouTube and Steam as distribution platforms, Blomkamp’s new endeavor is aiming for a more collaborative approach to crafting movies.

While he’s still toying with how best to monetize his creations, the short films are all free on YouTube and Steam. But that’s just the start: Alongside each film, Oats is also selling "DLC" — its 3D assets and raw sound files — on Steam for $5.

For Blomkamp, this video-game-inspired "free to watch" approach is all about collaboration. By putting the shorts online for free, Blomkamp and his studio can see which ideas people gravitate toward rather than pouring millions of dollars into an idea that might never recoup its costs. More importantly, though, the DLC gives young creators access to big-budget assets, allowing fans to recut Oats’ shorts or even use complex CG models for movies of their own.

All the shorts boast cinema-quality visual effects, and Zygote and Rakku feature performances from stars like Dakota Fanning and Sigourney Weaver. After watching Volume 1, I spoke with Neill Blomkamp to find out more about this ambitious project and how he sees the internet shaping his future movies.

The concept for Oats Studios is pretty bold. After years of making big-budget movies, how did the idea for this back-to-basics approach come about?

I think the core place that Oats came from was just me wanting to be more expressive and free to play around with ideas. I want to paint montages, not to fit into the rigid system that filmmaking has become. It’s been really cool because it’s very outside of directing in a traditional sense.

As well as giving you independence, Oats obviously uses the internet to connect you with audiences directly. What inspired the more collaborative approach?

The analogy that I think is quite fitting is thinking of [Volume 1] like an album. Films cost so much money and they’re so regimented that a lot of experimentation and passion gets removed from the process — because it is all so militaristic and hierarchical in how it’s executed. And it has to be like that because so many dollars are being spent.

Yet [albums] don’t require that level of cash, so [artists] can be freer to kind of play around a bit more. Short films also allow for that sort of experimentation. It feels really cool to be able to do that because you can start to tell when something is working and when something isn’t. And once all of the pieces that you feel do work get put out there, you can see whether the audience rejects them or whether they’re actually kind of into them. That can really inform which films, as full-scale features, you can feel confident about making.

Was it always the plan to distribute these shorts free online, or did the ideas for the films come first and then YouTube and Steam come further down the line?

The initial idea was Steam. It was an extremely Steam-centric project, and, well, it could still be pretty Steam-centric. But regardless of the actual distribution method, what felt very strange to me was the idea of charging the audience for something that typically is not charged for. People are OK with digesting something for free, but if you’re going to charge them for it, there’s an expectation. Whether it’s like a one-hour kind of HBO-style piece, a two-hour feature film or, you know, a 30-minute network comedy, they know what they’re getting and they can prepare for it and not feel ripped off.

I felt like that, given the strangeness of the format, people could feel very offended by having paid for them once they’ve seen them. And that just felt kind of innately wrong. I thought, if you release everything for free, whoever likes it is now familiar with what Oats is. So you could then theoretically charge for Volume 2 without feeling too bad. Then we could keep the lights on so that [we] can make Volume 3.

Given Steam is largely known as a gaming store, what made the service attractive to you as a filmmaker?

Well, I mean Valve is a very interesting company. Around the time that I was thinking about building a studio that made short films, I went down to Valve to look at some of their VR technology. I just loved their mind-set and what they did with video games and how they created microtransactions. It’s a very fascinating thing.

And so my initial thing was, I said to Valve, "Would you guys mind if I sold short films on Steam?" And they came back saying, like, "Well, no, we don’t mind, but you should also think about opening up all of the elements that you use to make the film in the way that we do with games, and gamers around the world do, by making skins or maps."

And that kind of just opened up a bunch of things inside everyone who works at Oats’ mind. We were like, "That’s really interesting. If you could break apart films and treat them a little bit more like software, what would that look like?" And again, we were never sure if anybody would even be interested. [Selling assets] was never, ever going to come close to paying off how many millions we need to make one of these volumes, but it was a way to see if people were actually interested in [Oats]. Which is always like analytical data, really.

And it turns out that they are, which is kind of fascinating!

Given the prominence of crowdfunding, I’m surprised that wasn’t your first port of call. You already have a fanbase — have you considered using something like Kickstarter to fund any of your feature-length movies?

Yes. I mean, we may actually be doing that going forward. I think what we want to do is difficult on Steam because Steam doesn’t really do anything like Kickstarter. Early Access is more a case of having, you know, beta-level games people are kind of experimenting with and knowing that they’re in testing, where for us that isn’t the case. If we were going to make a feature film out of one of the ideas, we would need to crowdfund it from zero, so there’s nothing to beta-test.

So that forces us more into like a Kickstarter, Indiegogo kind of corner, rather than Steam, even though I would prefer to use Steam. The goal is to remain fiercely independent and kind of just always be using our own money. If that means that we reach a point where we kind of really appeal to anybody who likes the stuff so far to help us fund our first feature, and then that means we can then make a feature that then may pay the bills for Volume 2 and 3 — then that’s ideal. So make film, get proceeds, go back into experimentation. And the experimentation is always free.

Can fans expect to see larger asset packs released on Steam at a higher price down the line?

It’s not really about enticing buyers because there’s no universe in which like, $5 ancillary pieces will ever pay off how expensive the films are. So there is no real threshold for us where we’re pushing [asset] sales and then suddenly we break even; it’s never going to happen that way. You could go the other way and actually start making DLC stuff free, eventually, which is probably what we should do. But the reason to charge for it initially was because I wanted to know if we could eventually charge for say, one of the films. So you put out three 20-minute films and then put the fourth 20-minute film only on Steam to be sold.

If you assume the DLC stuff is either cheap or for free going forward, then yeah, I totally want to put more stuff in there, just to give away whatever the tools are that we’re using. You know, I think of myself as a 19-year-old, what would I have been interested to get my hands on? We were thinking of giving away all of the raw footage. Just give away everything. But the problem is the amount of data — it’s just ungodly. We’ve already given away our sound files, music. So they really could actually recut the film. That’s pretty fascinating.

With the newfound focus on Oats, does this mean fans can expect you to retire from directing more traditionally funded films?

In terms of other feature films, which means me just working more like a traditional director, I’m definitely looking for that as well. You know, this doesn’t negate that. There’s a project I’m working on right now with Fox called The Gone World, which is unbelievable. It’s my favorite feature project I think I’ve ever been connected to. It seems very difficult to make, though, so I’m hoping it works out, but that is an amazing film.

What about the long-awaited Alien project you were meant to be working on?

In terms of Alien, there’s just no news. I mean, it’s not happening, and there’s nothing else really to say.

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Doctor Who: Jodie Whittaker spectacularly unveiled as the 13th Doctor

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Jodie Whittaker, who worked with new Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall on Broadchurch, has been unveiled as the 13th Doctor.

She will be the first female actor to play the Time Lord in the history of Doctor Who.

In a publicity chat with the BBC, Whittaker urged Whovians to be open about the Doctor’s gender switcheroo. “I want to tell the fans not to be scared by my gender. Because this is a really exciting time, and Doctor Who represents everything that’s exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one.”

In January, Peter Capaldi confirmed he would be quitting the TARDIS after a three-series run. He joined as the 12th actor to play The Doctor when he replaced Matt Smith in 2013, during the show’s 50th anniversary year. His departure coincides with showrunner Steven Moffat’s departure from Doctor Who.

I understand that Oliva Colman, who also starred in Chibnall’s Broadchurch alongside 10th Doctor David Tennant, was offered the part of the 13th Doctor but turned it down.

In our recent Ars poll, readers—after some very heated discussions—settled on Kris Marshall to play the next Doctor. Richard Ayoade was a close second on that particular wish-list.

Now read all our reviews of season 10 of Doctor Who

This post originated on Ars Technica UK

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Unable to Buy U.S. Military Drones, Allies Place Orders With China

Last October, satellite images captured the distinctive outlines of some powerful new weaponry at a Saudi runway used for military strikes in Yemen. Three Wing Loong drones had appeared, Chinese-made replicas of the U.S. Predator with a similar ability to stay aloft for hours carrying missiles and bombs.

The same month, another Chinese military drone, the CH-4 Rainbow, appeared in a photo of an airstrip in Jordan near the Syrian…

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Doctor Shortage In Rural Arizona Sparks Another Crisis In ‘Forgotten America’

To help locals get the health care they need, the 14-bed Copper Queen Community Hospital in remote Bisbee, Ariz., has incorporated Mayo Clinic doctors into its practice — via telemedicine consultations.

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To help locals get the health care they need, the 14-bed Copper Queen Community Hospital in remote Bisbee, Ariz., has incorporated Mayo Clinic doctors into its practice — via telemedicine consultations.

Krik Siegler/NPR

For Heather Gijanto, going to the doctor means taking a day off work and driving at least 60 miles round-trip from her home in McNeil, Ariz., to the town of Bisbee. And that’s assuming there’s a primary care doctor available in Bisbee to get her in.

“You select one doctor and then you find out a few months later that that doctor is no longer going to be available,” Gijanto says. “So then you have to start the whole process over again. And then you find that doctor and, for whatever reason, that doctor leaves as well.”

Gijanto is frustrated, and says she and her husband and their two young kids have had to change family doctors four times recently. Ideally, she says, the family would have one doctor who knew each member’s medical history, so “I didn’t have to explain my chart every single time, or have to go over medications all the time with each new physician.”

It’s long been hard to recruit new doctors to rural America. They can make a lot more money in metropolitan areas as specialists, and many choose to do that, especially if they’re saddled with mounting debt from student loans.

But the shortage, especially of primary care providers, has gotten steadily worse in recent years. According to the National Rural Health Association, rural areas could be short 45,000 doctors by 2020. And other trade groups warn those numbers of unfilled positions could loom even larger. Since 2010, more than 70 rural hospitals have closed.

The fallout is felt most acutely in small towns like Bisbee, which has a population of 5,400. The Victorian-era town has struggled since the 1970s, when the copper mines closed. Much of its economy now depends on tourists, who come to see the town’s well-preserved old West architecture and scenery, and to enjoy the local arts and music. But that income is largely seasonal. Bisbee’s full-time population has been steadily declining.

Today, says Mayor David Smith, a lot of Bisbee residents are uninsured, or rely on Medicaid. And this region has only about half the doctors it needs.

Copper from Bisbee, Ariz., is what helped win World War I. And yet, when we are in need, we are forgotten, because it’s not convenient, and because it’s not a whole bunch of people here that are voters.”

“Because of the lack of doctors, they actually end up using the emergency room for their normal needs,” Smith says. “They get a bad cold and they end up in the emergency room.”

Located in the mountains about 5 miles north of the border between the U.S. and Mexico, Bisbee is remote. Smith says they’ve worked hard to improve the town’s amenities. Among other things, this summer the public pool is finally reopening.

Still, there is no movie theater. There is only one grocery store left in town, no soccer fields. Little things like these can be a deal breaker when it comes to recruiting new doctors and other professionals.

And though the shortage of doctors all across rural America is a crisis affecting some 90 million Americans, the problem is not even part of the health care debate in Washington right now.

A mountain of mine tailings frame a Bisbee park — a legacy of the copper mines that once fueled the local economy.

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A mountain of mine tailings frame a Bisbee park — a legacy of the copper mines that once fueled the local economy.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

“Rural America is a forgotten America,” says Bisbee’s mayor, who believes the doctor shortage is just part of a broader story of rural neglect.

Smith points to the problem of student loan debt. Leaders in towns like this have long called for more generous debt-forgiveness programs for medical students, so that young doctors actually could afford to come out to underserved areas and work.

They’re starting to call the rural areas ‘the new inner city,’ because we have the same shortages and lack of access to care.”

The mayor says there’s no sign this is being addressed by national politicians. They talk about rural America, he says, but when they get here they realize it’s complicated, and they leave and wait until the next election.

“Copper from Bisbee, Ariz., is what helped win World War I,” Smith says. “And yet, when we are in need, we are forgotten because it’s not convenient — and because it’s not a whole bunch of people here that are voters.”

Over at Bisbee’s Copper Queen Community Hospital, CEO James Dickson goes further.

He sees the doctor shortage as the latest example of why people in towns like this are feeling left behind, untouched by the economic booms in many American cities. It’s a likely contributor to the country’s growing economic and cultural divide, Dickson says.

“They’re starting to call the rural areas ‘the new inner city’ because we have the same shortages and lack of access to care,” he says.

How do you have a thriving economy if you don’t have access to health care?

“They can’t export a health care system like you all have in [Los Angeles] and other places,” Dickson says. “Doctors don’t come here. Doctors want a reasonable income, and I don’t blame them.”

Dickson’s 14-bed hospital and health clinic sit at the base of a mountain of old mine tailings — a legacy, if a somewhat bitter reminder, of better economic times. Copper Queen is often held up as a success for its low-cost model of high quality, especially when so many other rural hospitals are closing, or facing the threat of closure.

Rural hospitals have relied on foreign-born doctors who work in underserved towns in exchange for green cards, explains James Dickson, CEO of Bisbee’s hospital. But that’s changing. “They cap the number of visas and we can’t get doctors down here,” Dickson says.

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Rural hospitals have relied on foreign-born doctors who work in underserved towns in exchange for green cards, explains James Dickson, CEO of Bisbee’s hospital. But that’s changing. “They cap the number of visas and we can’t get doctors down here,” Dickson says.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

For now, Copper Queen has been able to get around the shortage of family doctors by incorporating telemedicine into its practice. Patients in need of specialty care or other emergency services can get consultations in real time from physicians at the Mayo Clinic. The hospital also has been able to hire more nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

But no one knows if these coping strategies are sustainable. Dickson thinks there’s another big problem, beyond the student loan issue, that’s being ignored: a shifting immigration policy that’s squeezing off the supply of young physicians from outside the U.S.

“They cap the number of visas and we can’t get doctors down here,” Dickson says.

Rural hospitals have relied heavily on foreign-born doctors who do residencies in underserved towns, in exchange for green cards. The cap means Dickson hasn’t been able to recruit a doctor to his hospital or clinic for 18 months.

No one is counting on a more liberal immigration policy under the Trump administration. And there’s a pervasive sense, in Bisbee anyway, that even if the national government weren’t divided, there’s only so much national leaders can do to solve the crisis.

Just as much of the responsibility lies within the local community, the mayor believes. Small towns like Bisbee that used to be wholly dependent on natural resources have struggled to reinvent themselves. Smith foresees some tough conversations.

“A lot of people still think that the mines are going to come back and resurrect this town. And of course that’s not going to happen,” he says. The mining industry has increasingly focused its business in South America. “Business practices have changed.”

It’s been hard for the economy to diversify, especially in a remote border region like this, Smith says. “And that hurts small towns with vision.”

Heather Gijanto, the mother of two who drives many miles to Bisbee for medical care, figures one of the solutions to breathing life into the region is to attract more private investment. She’s had the same job at a local Safeway for 14 years because she hasn’t been able to find much else.

“There’s not that much for people here,” Gijanto says. “There needs to be more options.”

More options, she says — and then maybe the doctors will come.

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Forest Bathing: A Retreat To Nature Can Boost Immunity And Mood

Clare Kelley practices “forest bathing” along the edge of an urban forest on Washington D.C.’s Roosevelt Island, in the middle of the Potomac River. In contrast to hiking, forest bathing is less directed, melding mindfulness and nature immersion to improve health.

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Clare Kelley practices “forest bathing” along the edge of an urban forest on Washington D.C.’s Roosevelt Island, in the middle of the Potomac River. In contrast to hiking, forest bathing is less directed, melding mindfulness and nature immersion to improve health.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

When my editors asked me to report on forest bathing, I packed a swimsuit. I assumed it must involve a dip in the water.

It turns out, my interpretation was too literal.

I met certified Forest Therapy guide Melanie Choukas-Bradley and several other women who’d come along for the adventure at the footbridge to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a dense jungle of an urban forest along the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

Here, I began to get it. Forest bathing isn’t a bath. We sat on the banks of the river, but we did not get in the water.

It’s not a hike either. We did walk the forest trails, but we meandered with no particular destination in mind.

Melanie Chouckas-Bradley leads a group of five women in a forest bathing excursion. She is certified as a forest therapy guide through the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy.

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Melanie Chouckas-Bradley leads a group of five women in a forest bathing excursion. She is certified as a forest therapy guide through the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy.

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The aim of forest bathing, Choukas-Bradley explained, is to slow down and become immersed in the natural environment. She helped us tune into the smells, textures, tastes and sights of the forest. We took in our surroundings by using all our senses.

As we passed through a stand of pawpaw trees, we touched the bark. We smelled the black walnuts, which give off a lovely citrus fragrance. We got a little shower of ripe mulberries, too.

“Close your eyes and just breathe, just breathe,” Choukas-Bradly intoned. It felt a bit like a meditation retreat.

It took me a few minutes to clear out the clutter in my brain, and tune into the natural world.

“When you open your eyes, imagine you’re seeing the world for the very first time,” Choukas- Bradley told us.

Melanie Choukas-Bradley reads some nature-inspired poetry and quotes from renowned naturalist John Muir, as part of the walk. “The air is as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue,” Muir wrote. “That could describe our day here now,” Choukas-Bradley says.

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Melanie Choukas-Bradley reads some nature-inspired poetry and quotes from renowned naturalist John Muir, as part of the walk. “The air is as delicious to the lungs as nectar to the tongue,” Muir wrote. “That could describe our day here now,” Choukas-Bradley says.

Allison Aubrey/NPR

After I opened my eyes, the green looked a lot greener. And I began to see things I hadn’t noticed before: the flutter of birds, the ripple of the water, the swaying of trees.

A forest guide “helps you be here, not there,” says Amos Clifford, a former wildnerness guide with a Masters degree in counseling, and the founder of the Association of Nature & Forest Therapy, the organization that certifies the guides.

Clifford’s goal is to encourage health care providers to incorporate forest therapy as a stress-reduction strategy. There’s no question that stress takes a terrible toll in the United States; a 2015 study found work-related stress accounts for up to $190 billion in health care costs each.

“It’s my hope that the health care system will include [forest therapy] into the range of services they reimburse for,” Clifford says.

The practice began in Japan. Back in the early 1990s the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries coined the term Shinrin-yoku — which translates roughly as forest bathing.

An invasive non-native plant called Wineberry (left) produces delicious red fruit related to raspberries. Choukas-Bradley and the forest bathers (right) open a bladdernut capsule and see the shiny seeds — like popcorn kernels inside. This forest bathing excursion was sponsored by the Audubon Naturalist Society.

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Now, forest bathing is starting to take off in the U.S. The Associations of Nature & Forest Therapy plans to train and certify about 250 new guides next year. “We’re aiming to have 1,000 trained guides within three years,” Clifford says.

There’s a growing body of evidence that the practice can help boost immunity and mood and help reduce stress. “Medical researchers in Japan have studied forest bathing and have demonstrated several benefits to our health,” says Philip Barr, a physician who specializes in integrative medicine at Duke University.

One study published in 2011 compared the effects of walking in the city to taking a forest walk. Both activities required the same amount of physical activity, but researchers found that the forest environment led to more significant reductions in blood pressure and certain stress hormones.

On average, the forest walkers — who ranged in age from 36 to 77 — saw a reduction in their systolic blood pressure from 141 mmHg down to 134 mmHg after four hours in the forest.

This might not sound like a big difference, but it can be clinically significant. Most doctors these days agree that people younger than 60 should aim to keep their blood pressure under 140.

“I’m very impressed with the primary research done in Japan,” Barr says. He thinks many patients could benefit from forest bathing, especially those who are under stress.

“Forest bathing could be considered a form of medicine,” Barr says. “And the benefits of nature can be accessed so simply.”

It’s not a big surprise that researchers were able to document a decrease in blood pressure among forest bathers. As people begin to relax, parasympathetic nerve activity increases — which can lead to a drop in blood pressure.

There’s another factor that might help explain the decline in blood pressure: Trees release compounds into the forest air that some researchers think could be beneficial for people. Some of the compounds are very distinctive, such as the scent of cedar. Back in 2009, Japanese scientists published a small study that found inhaling these tree-derived compounds — known as phytoncides — reduced concentrations of stress hormones in men and women and enhanced the activity of white-blood cells known as natural killer cells .

Another study found inhalation of cedar wood oils led to a small reduction in blood pressure. These are preliminary studies, but scientists speculate that the exposure to these tree compounds might enhance the other benefits of the forest.

The idea that spending time in nature is good for our health is not new. Most of human evolutionary history was spent in environments that lack buildings and walls. Our bodies have adapted to living in the natural world.

But today most of us spend much of our life indoors, or at least tethered to devices. Perhaps the new forest bathing trend is a recognition that many of us need a little nudge to get back out there.

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