1) Miller-McCune writes Studies show nature restores our spirits, improves our thinking, keeps us healthier and probably even saner:

…“Attention Restoration Theory” or ART, which posits that a walk in the woods helps refocus the mind and revive the spirit, has been a growing field of research for the past 20 years. New studies are quantifying the restorative powers of nature and suggesting how the restorative process works.

“In the late 1980s, I discovered that ‘favorite places’ could be a good window [measurable unit of analysis] into how humans use their environment to restore themselves,” states psychologist Kalevi Korpela with Finland’s University of Tampere.

2) In Nature Nicola Jones writes about a collaboration between Vancouver ecologists (including some friends of the RA) and dancers in Dance: Rhythm and reason

3 ) Urban blog Polis writes about the evolution of Jane Jacobs’s ideas about the importance of old buildings in encouraging urban innovation in The use of old buildings, 50 years later