Bees Act Like Serial Killers

Bumblebees foraging for food avoid stopping at flowers too close to home, perhaps to avoid attracting predators. Known as geographic profiling, this science has allowed scientists to locate the entrance to a hive by mapping which flowers the bees visit.

It is now being used to predict where serial killers might live based on where they commit crimes. Murderers operate fairly close to home, but maintain a kill-free “buffer zone.”

Loud Bar = More Beer

Research found that when bar music was louder, alcohol consumption rose.

Researchers think 1) loud music may energize and excite bar-hoppers, encouraging binging; or 2) it was too loud to talk, so people focused more on drinking.

Alcoholic Animals

In the Malaysian rain forest, scientists noticed a yeasty smell from a local palm and a frothy substance resembling the head of beer. The palm’s nectar has as much alcohol as some beer.

The pen tailed treeshrew and slow loris were found to repeatedly drink the nectar every night - equivalent of ~9 drinks, but they don't act "drunk." Also, they act as the plant’s pollinator.

Amazonian Tribe Doesn't Use Numbers

Scientists have found an Amazonian tribe that has no words for numbers. The Piraha people use “2” to mean even "5" or "6" and “1” is used for anything less than that. So words don’t stand for numbers, but for relative amounts.

These findings suggest language for exact numbers is a cultural invention rather than universally linguistic.

Bad Singing

Researchers randomly asked people to sing Quebec’s anthem. 40 out of 42 people sounded as good as the pros.

But why couldn’t the 2 bad singers carry a tune?

Repeating the experiment, researchers asked people to sing Jingle Bells and then tested their ability to listen to some music and identify bad notes. They found that bad singers either cannot recognize the wrong notes ... or simply do not care how they sound.

Write to Lose Weight

Research finds that people who write down everything they eat each day lose twice as much as those who don’t.

~1,700 participants were asked to follow a heart-healthy diet, attended weekly group sessions and did moderate exercise for 1/2 hour daily. After 6 months, ~2/3rd had lost at least 9lbs. Moreover, those who wrote down what they ate lost twice as much as others.

Vote Carefully

Researchers have found that the physical location of where people vote affects how they vote. Studying the 2000 general election, in Arizona the ballot included an initiative to raise state taxes to support education. People who voted in a school building were more likely to vote for the proposal than those voting at elsewhere.

In the lab, subjects were shown images, some pertaining to schools. Later, they were asked to vote on funding for education - those who had looked at lockers were more likely to vote yes.

Keep Your Depression To Yourself

Research argues that people who don’t discuss their feelings after a tragedy fare better than those who do. Shortly after 9/11, participants could share their thoughts. 2 years later, scientists found those who did not express their feelings were better off.

Cleaning Oil Spills

~200,000 tons of oil have polluted waters around the world from 2000=2010 alone. In response, researchers have designed nanowires of potassium manganese oxide that feels like paper. Tiny pores between the wires absorb oil (up to 20 times its weight) but repel water. It can also be reused because potassium manganese oxide is stable at high temperatures. This means one simply heats the nanowires above oil's boiling point so the oil evaporates while the paper is clean ... and the oceans

Leaves Maintain a Constant Temperature

Research shows that leaves on trees in the tropics to the Arctic maintain a fairly constant temperature of 70°F.

Scientists assumed leaf temperature was the same as its environment because trees are not warm-blooded. The shocking find reveals that leaves from the tropics evolved mechanisms for keeping cool (e.g. angling themselves away from the sun) while trees in polar regions have ways to heat their leaves (e.g. having more leaves per branch to bundle up).

Man Made Lightning

Researchers used lasers to generate lightning. It was suggested 30 years ago but lasers weren’t strong enough then.

As of now, the electrical channels don’t last long enough to bring lightning to earth.

Diet May Affect Gender

Researchers studied 750 first-time pregnant women. Those who ate more calories and a wider range of nutrients, 56% had boys vs. 45% of lowest caloric intake. The highest calorie group was also the most likely to eat breakfast.

Breakthrough of 2010: First Quantum Machine

While both verifiable, the two big fields of physics - classical mechanics and quantum mechanics - seemed incompatible ... until now.

Before 2010, all human-made objects moved according to the laws of classical mechanics. In March, researchers designed a gadget that moves according to quantum mechanics (governing the behavior of tiny things like atoms).

Science has called this discovery the most significant scientific advance of 2010.

Here's a video explanation.

Colors Nutritional For Trees

Research shows that fall's bright red leaves deliver more nutrients to trees than if they were not so colored.

Trees in nutrient-poor soil produced more red pigment, backing a 2003 discovery that blocking red pigment production makes leaves ultra-sensitive to sunlight, causing less nutrients to be delivered to the plant.

This means that when the soil is poor, making the red pigment keeps those leaves working longer.

Marketing to Toddlers

American food and beverage industries effectively spend $10+ billion/year in marketing to children.

One study reveals that preschoolers were given the exact same food in unmarked or McDonald’s packaging. All the kids liked the marked packaging better - even if it was carrots. The effect may be observable in 2 year old's.

Travelling Light

Because photons impart momentum, physicists demonstrated that light can move insect's wings.

A wing experiences different pressures on its top and bottom side to stay in flight. But aside from air, light can also create pressure. When photons pass through or reflect off of something, they induce momentum in that object. Researchers zapped a tiny wing-shaped rod with a laser beam causing the wing to move.

Happiness Is Contagious

Research shows a happy person influences those around them to be happy to 3 degrees of separation.

Findings indicate that the effect's strength is inversely proportional to distance - next-door neighbors and friends living nearby were affected the most. Strangely, sadness had little affect on social networks.

Brain Smarter Than Person Using It

Research indicates our subconscious brain is excellent at making decisions based on data

Subjects stared at randomly moving dots and a set number were moving right or left. When asked if the dots were moving left or right, the longer subjects stared at the screen, the more confirmed their answers became. If dots moved to the right, a part of the brain that recognizes right-direction movement became activated and increased as time passed until the subjects gave a definitive answer ... meaning subjects were subconsciously gathering information until they finally felt sure of the answer.

Tetris Good For Brain

Prolonged Tetris exposure can lead to more efficient brain activity as energy consumption decreases (measured by glucose consumption) - meaning the brain is operating more efficiently. 1/2 hr/day for 3 months can increase "critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing" and increase cerebral cortex thickness.

New Life Form Found on Earth

NASA announced today that it has discovered a microorganism that lives off arsenic. It has been dubbed microbe GFAJ-1 and is the first known life to have a DNA structure different than all other life forms. 6 elements are considered the building blocks of life on earth - arsenic not being one of them. Before this, scientists thought an environment without these elements (especially phosphorus) could not support life.

The discovery lends support to life existing elsewhere in the universe.