7 Things You Need To Know Today (January 5)

France has opted to grant its employees a "right to disconnect" from technology. Under the new law, companies will be required to negotiate with employees on times when it is all right to switch off. In other words: Many people now have a legal right to ignore work emails after hours. (The Guardian)

If listening to music makes you feel "meh," you could be part of the very small percentage of the population with a condition called anhedonia, which means you have reduced functional connectivity in the part of the brain that processes sound and the area that processes joy. Now you know. (Science Daily)

A study undertaken 16 years ago to explore the relationship between a life's meaning and its length is finally bearing interesting fruit. As of 2014, 9 percent of the 6,000-person sample had died. After controlling for other factors, purposeful people—those who agreed with the statement, "Some people wander aimlessly through life, but I am not one of them" and disagreed with "I live life one day at a time and don’t really think about the future”—were more likely to outlive their directionless peers, reiterating the power of purpose. (Science Of Us)

From arbitrarily excluding whole food groups, to the concept of sustainability, it might be worth reexamining your approach to diet in a way that feels more genuine to you and your lifestyle. Food for thought. (The Atlantic)

Researchers at Michigan State University have identified a human-made chemical compound that blocks gene activity associated with melanoma progression. Preliminary research on the compound shows its ability to reduce the spread of melanoma cells by about 90 percent, which is huge because melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Bravo, science! (Science Daily)

Science shows that it is, in fact, probably something else. In a study of 900 women, researchers from University of Kentucky and Indiana University concluded that although contraceptives—both hormonal and nonhormonal—affected changes in sexual drive, when contextual information such as length of relationship and age was adjusted for, those differences were not significant. (Medical News Today)

In the seventh annual iteration of the U.S. News' diet ranking, we're kind of surprised that Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig still make the list. Time to wake up and smell the bulletproof coffee! (U.S. News)