How to stop being tracked through your email, how tree rings helped identify a Rhode Island whaler lost at sea, and more.

Lex Ashcroft’s reads

Social media use: disassociation, not addiction? Excessive online activity or phone use is often labeled as addiction, rather than disassociation, which is a part of healthy cognitive functioning. In a recent study, researchers found that about half of participants were disassociating while using an app over the course of a month. Writing for The Conversation, study author Amanda Baughan explains how creative and informed design can help reduce disassociation, and details some of the more effective interventions developed by her team.

You’re being tracked through your email. Here’s how to stop it. By now most of us are aware of the various ways companies track our online activity. But it may come as a surprise to find out just how much information can be gleaned by opening a marketing newsletter you actually signed up for, including where you opened the email, and what kind of device you used. Writing for Vox, Sara Morrison explains why you should consider using services to make your email more private, such as email encryption, protected browsers, email aliases, and a special (free) feature for iPhone users. 

Allie Rudin's reads

How to 'gamify' your workout, according to behavioral scientists. Can exercise feel more like playing a video game? According to scientists that research behavior, it can–and if we want to encourage healthy exercise habits, it should. Writing for NPR's "Life Kit," Vincent Acovino and Audrey Nguyen explore the world of "fitness gamification," in which the addictive elements of a video game, like points, levels, and competition, are applied to physical activity. For those looking to harness this motivation in their own fitness routines, Acovino and Nguyen provide four expert-backed strategies to begin gamifying your workout.

How tree rings helped identify a Rhode Island whaler lost at sea. Dendochronologists, or tree ring experts, are stepping into the scientific spotlight for using wood analysis to solve a mystery over a century old. When shipwreck remains were found off the coast of Patagonia in 2004, scholars suspected that it belonged to a whaling ship that vanished in 1858, but confirmation eluded them until now. As April Rubin explains for the New York Times, tree rings in the lumber pieces were analyzed like a fingerprint to provide the evidence that supported investigations by anthropologists and maritime archeologists into the shipwreck and into the whaling trade activity around South America.