Perhaps more than any other technology, wireless communication is incredibly seductive and increasingly cheap. We can gab on our cellphones for hours, thanks to gazillions of “free minutes”; keep up with our email from practically anywhere on our BlackBerries; and Wi-Fi our way around the planet free. These technologies “connect” us like never before. But like many things sexy and cheap, there’s a downside.

A spate of new studies suggests vitamin D offers health benefits far beyond strengthening bones. Researchers report that “the sunshine vitamin” may cut cancer risks and help the immune system fight infections. Together these studies raise the possibility that a brief daily dose of sun combined with a vitamin D supplement could help stave off everything from breast cancer to the flu.

If you’re feeling down, consider digging in the dirt. British researchers have shown that a “friendly” bacterium common in soil can activate brain cells that produce serotonin, a hormone that helps regulate mood. Low serotonin is linked with depression.

Scientists now agree that we have to make huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for the next twenty five years and beyond if we want to limit, then reverse, global warming. This means burning fewer fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal). It also means acknowledging that global warming is not mainly a technical problem, but a social and political problem -- primarily an issue of global justice.

Imagine a cancer center constructed without materials that contain known human carcinogens, or a hospital with healing gardens and beautiful views. These are among the more than 160 strategies that define a new age of “high-performance healing environments,” according to the Green Guide for Health Care, a new tool being used to guide development of some of the largest health care construction projects in Boston.

Pete Myers is a founder, CEO, and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences, a nonprofit that increases public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental contaminants and human health. Myers also is a co-author of Our Stolen Future, a groundbreaking book that sounded the alarm on the effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on health and development.

In the decade since the book’s publication, mounting scientific evidence has further supported the authors’ warnings that industrial chemicals interfere with key biological processes, leading to disease and disability. Myers spoke with Kim Ridley about current research, controversies, and reasons for hope.