6 Things You Need To Know Today (July 28, 2017)

The actress has been candid about her health struggles in the past—most notably a preventive double mastectomy—and is now suffering from Bell's palsy. This illness, characterized by a dropping eyelid, muscle weakness, and paralysis, has everything to do with inflammation and nerves in the face. But when she turned to acupuncture as a treatment method, it changed everything and she gives it all the credit for her recovery. (Vanity Fair)

A new study, published in the journal Behavior Research Methods, revealed the funniest words in the English language. The results? Nitwit, twit, waddle, tinkle, bebop, and egghead. Are you laughing yet? (Science of Us)

After inducing cognitive fatigue in participants, researchers gave the participants a five-minute break to either sit silently, to participate in a guided relaxation activity, or to play a video game. The only participants who felt better after the break were the ones who played the video game. Those who took the silent break actually felt less engaged with work and more worried as a result. (Newsweek)

As counterintuitive as it seems, a new study used a word-learning task to test recall and memory in people who did and did not drink. Surprisingly, those who drank while learning the task were able to remember more than those who didn't. Scientists speculate that booze turns off the processing between short- and long-term memory, giving you easy access and ability to store new tasks into long-term memory. (IBTimes)

After dealing with sky-high avocado prices for months due to bad weather in Mexico, there's some hope in sight: The price of wholesale Hass avocados just dropped 6 percent. "Prices in the foreseeable future will stabilize a little, and you won’t see a sharp incline," Robert Bonghi, director of procurement and pricing at the Produce Alliance, said. "Growers are trying to put more trees in the ground to keep up." Hallelujah! (Grub Street)

It's actually really rare to find a blue flower in nature, and most of the shades we see fall into the violet or purple spectrum. But a new discovery has made it possible for scientists to engineer blue flowers out of red ones in the lab, and they now have a better understanding of why it doesn't exist in the wild. Bring on the moody blue bouquets! (Science)