"A garden is more than just a pretty space; what you plant and how you plant it can affect the mind, body, and spirit," says Jenny Rose Carey, director of Temple's Ambler Arboretum, who led a public lecture on the topic. In fact, many medicinal plants are native to our area, and grow in the Ambler Arboretum's own Ernesta Ballard Healing Garden where color, texture and aromas combine to appeal to all of the senses in soothing ways.

The reward centers of the adolescent brain are much more active than those of either children or adults. What teenagers want most of all are social rewards, especially the respect of their peers. In a recent study by Temple psychologist Laurence Steinberg, teenagers did a simulated high-risk driving task while being monitored by an fMRI. Their brains' reward systems were stimulated much more when they thought another teen was watching — and they took more risks.

Faced with the grim reality Philadelphia is now averaging about one to two murders per day, Mayor Nutter has announced a number of crime-fighting initiatives, including cash — $20,000 for tips that lead to the arrest and conviction of a murder suspect, and $500 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of thugs who carry or sell illegal guns. Temple criminologist Jerry Ratcliffe, who has helped the Police Department develop crime-fighting strategies, said "the more-specific, focused strategies have the best chance of succeeding. . . .