A randomized controlled trial of rural Lebanese women found that three months of Transcendental Meditation practice significantly increased happiness, resilience and self-efficacy while reducing perceived stress, according to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Women's Health. 

Efficient amide bond synthesis is essential for biology, medicine and materials chemistry. However, conventional approaches often require expensive or harsh reagents. In a new study, researchers demonstrated that dichloromethane, a widely used solvent, can serve as an effective coupling reagent for direct synthesis of amides from carboxylic acids and amines. The approach has broad scope, produces relatively benign byproducts, and is practical for scale-up, offering a potentially simpler strategy for amide synthesis.