There’s a lot of buzz about artificial intelligence these days: It’s driving cars, playing games, and helping out on factory floors. But most of us don’t really know how to think about AI. Is it a computer or is it a brain? Can it think or know things, or does it just make guesses based on past experiences? Former animal trainer Heather Roff, now an artificial intelligence scholar, suggests that we humans already have a concept that could help us understand AI much better: animals.

Mental disorders have long been difficult to diagnose and to treat, and faulty definitions of them have only made it harder, write four researchers in psychiatry and psychology who recently helped to put together a new framework for classifying mental illness. This new framework, they write, “can revolutionize how we diagnose and treat the different ways that people struggle with their mental health” .

And if your own mental health could use a moment of zen, have you considered gazing at some fractals? University of Oregon’s Richard Taylor suggests these repeating patterns show up in both nature and art – and are both aesthetically appealing and can chill you out.