Parks & Public Health

Research finds parks increase physical activity across age groups, thereby helping lower healthcare costs. In a five-city survey, 38% of people over 50 used a park at least 1/week. Other studies showed similar effects on teenage boys and girls. With observable effects with only an increase of $10/person in parks, parks alone can put a dent in the $8,000/year health care costs per person.

Noise = Stroke for Elderly?

For people over 65, research finds a 27% increase for risk of stroke for every 10-decibel increase in street noise.

Researchers studied 51,000+ Danish city dwellers for ~10 years. The study, however, doesn't categorically prove road noise causes strokes. But studies have linked noise to heart attacks and higher blood pressure — possibly because of increased stress and less sleep.

Writing Can Decrease Exam Anxiety

Writing about your worries just before an exam can reduce the risk of performing poorly due to anxiety.

In the study, 20 students were given two math exams - doing nothing special before the first exam. Before the second exam, students were told they would receive money for high grades. Half of the students (Group 1) were then instructed to take 10 minutes and write down any concerns they had about the exam.

Group 2 did 12% worse on the 2nd test vs. the 1st. In contrast, Group 1 experienced a 5% improvement on the 2nd exam. The research found that writing had to be about test-related concerns, not writing in general.

Self-Esteem is Supreme

College students were asked to rate various activities based on their desirability (e.g. drinking, hanging out with friends, intercourse, getting paid). Results found that while the above categories were desirable, students most strongly preferred getting good grades or a compliment.

Thinking More = Eating Less

Research finds that the more of a food item you actually imagine eating, the less you will actually eat it. Group 1 imagined eating 33 M&Ms. Group 2 imagined putting 33 quarters into a clothes dryer. Then they gave each group a bowl of M&Ms. Not surprisingly, Group 1 ate fewer M&Ms.

Imitate Accent to Understand

Research finds that imitating a foreign accent increased understanding vs. simply listening to those with a foreign accent. In the study, psychologists spoke to volunteers in an invented accent. Subjects who imitated the odd sounds had a better understanding of what was said vs. those who listened or repeated the sentence in their normal voice.

Tasty Lungs

Research finds that the lung has receptors for bitter taste although they are not clustered in taste buds like the tongue. It was further discovered that activating these receptors by exposing them to bitter compounds relaxes airways better than any existing asthma drug.

Coldest Glaciers Help Mountains Grow

Dubbed "glacial armoring," researchers discovered that the coldest glaciers protect mountains, allowing them to grow taller (*note: glaciers normally cause the erosion of mountains). Studying the Andes mountains, they found that the northern and warmer area eroded much faster in comparison with the southern and colder area. This is because colder glaciers don’t move much, thereby sealing the mountains and preventing erosion.

Music = Romance

Research finds that an average-looking man's chances of getting a woman's phone number after flirting doubled when the woman had just heard romantic music.

A guy whom women rated as average talked about food products with ~90 women, aged 18-20. Before the conversation, Group 1 heard a romantic French tune, Je L’aime a Mourir. Group 2 heard a "neutral" French song, L’heure du Thé.

After talking, the guy only 28% of Group 2 women's phone # vs. 52% of Group 1.

Baby Babble

This video of twin babies "talking" has received 55 million+ views. But are they really talking? Probably not.

Babies normally babble by 10 months and use identifiable words by 14 months. Experts say the twins are engaging in “reduplicated babbling,” where they simply repeat a sound without knowing what is really going on.

But they are exhibiting a lot of the characteristics of normal speech (evidently from viewing others around them): taking turns babbling, imitating various speech intonations, emphatically ending sentences or exclamations, using gestures to supplement the babbling and body distance is "very appropriate for most Americans; not too close, but not too far either."

Icicle of Death

A video shows the formation of a brinicle (underwater icicle) which freezes everything in its path.

Essentially, sub-zero brine slowly sinks to the ocean floor and freezes warmer water along the way. Brinicles form in, "very calm ocean conditions, when there's a big differential between the water temperature (around -1.9C) and the air temperature about the sea ice (below -20C)."

When Bubbles Burst

What happens when a bubble bursts?

Research indicates when bubble skin breaks, it retracts and, while folding in on itself, it can trap air to form baby bubbles which, in a chain reaction, collapse on themselves to create even smaller baby bubbles. The smaller the bubble, the greater the internal pressure, the quicker the burst.

Here's a video.

Ummmm

Why do we say words like "um"?

1) No reason: Father of modern day linguistics, Prof. Noam Chomsky believes such phrases are simply "errors in applying knowledge of language in actual performance."

2) For Control: One school, for example, believes the usage is deliberate - if anticipating a delay in speech, the speaker uses these signals to inform the listener we need a second to formulate our thoughts. Otherwise, the listener may feel the speaker is finished. They say "um" almost always sets up a long delay in speech, while "uh" signals a brief pause. Speakers also extend vowels of words if searching for the next word. They say such "disfluencies" make up 6-10% of spontaneous speech and all languages have these "disfluencies".

3) For Comprehension: Other research argues toddlers use disfluencies to focus on words that follow. As compared with a normal sentence, toddlers over 2 years of age tended to pay more attention when they heard a sentence with "um" or "uh". Researchers argue this is because 2 year olds understand that "uhs" often precede unknowns.

Laughter a Form of Exercise

Research shows laughter can produce the same health benefits as physical exercise. Volunteers watched 20 minutes of a funny movie or comedy stand-up and revealed that laughing lowered their blood pressure, altered their appetite hormones as moderate exercise would.

In the spirit of this study, this video should provide you with your daily workout's worth.

Another Benefit of Washing Hands

Recent research suggests that washing hands after making a decision can prevent second-guessing our choice.

A previous post showed hand washing can remove the guilt of past misdeeds. But it was unclear if it was due to the brain linking physical and moral cleanliness or because one forgets about the past.

So psychologists removed any moral implications from the decision - asking subjects to choose between a pair of CDs or flavors of jam. Subjects who washed their hands immediately after making their choice didn't second-guess but the rest spent more time justifying their decision.

Walking = Happiness

Research shows even 5 minutes of exercise in a natural setting can significantly increase happiness. 10 different studies where 1,200+ people did activities such as gardening, sailing and country walks demonstrated the effect. People with mental disorders benefited the most.

Brain Can Hear by Seeing

Research suggests the brain actually links hearing with sight because simply seeing a vase shatter activates the brain's auditory areas. In other words, you can "hear" even when you only "see" the sound being produced. MRI scans of silent videos of things being broken or instruments being played revealed activation of the auditory cortex and categorization of the sound.

Hyena's Laugh When They're Serious

Research finds that hyenas laughter is used to send status cues to the group. Research also found that each hyena's laugh's voice establish a hyena's identity and age. Moreover, the dominant hyena's have a monotone laugh while subordinate hyenas are more erratic.

Too bad the calls didn't work with this lion.

Science of Motivation

Think money is a legitimate motivator? Only sometimes.

See the video.

Arranged Love Lasting, "Real" Love ... Not so Much

Research found that arranged marriages can surpass love marriages in regards to long-term contentment and love.

For example, a study compared love in love marriages vs. arranged marriages in India. Love in the love marriages starts out very high but decreases over time. In arranged marriages, the love starts out relatively low (people often don't know each other well before marriage) and increases gradually. In fact, it surpasses love marriage love in 5 years. In 10 years, its double.

Obesity & The Last Supper

Research finds a trend of painting larger portion sizes in the Last Supper.


Da Vinci​’s painting is the famous but there's 50+ other such paintings of the last 1,000 years. While the apostles' heads are the same and people are thin, the bread was 23% bigger in more modern paintings, the entrees 70% bigger. This means the trend started well before the modern obesity epidemic.

DST Increases Injuries

Research of injury reports from 1983-2006 revealed that unlike other days, the Monday following the change to daylight saving time experienced an increase in work-related injuries. Data found that people sleep ~40 minutes less the Sunday night before DST and the injuries to be more severe.

Altruism Takes Time

Research of the survival rates of men, woman and children from the Titanic and the Lusitania revealed that more men survived when the ship sunk fast - i.e. time is controlling.

The Titanic took ~3 hours to sink - survivors were mostly female or children. On the Lusitania, which sank in 18 minutes from a German torpedo, survival of the fittest kicked in and healthy young males mostly survived. Panick controlled the Lusitania while planning and chivalry controlled the Titanic's passengers.

You Are What You Drink (sort of)

Research argues that it is not entirely true that alcohol sheds inhibitions. High alcohol consumption does impair physical and mental abilities. But alcohol doesn't cause selective recklessness. Instead, it argues that cultural norms affect alcohol's effect on us. In other words, "when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioral effects of alcohol."

Some societies associate drinking with recklessness (US, UK). But others (Latin, Mediterranean) is morally neutral - like coffee. But the 2nd group has "significantly higher per-capita alcohol consumption" than the 1st group! In experiments, group 1 drinkers were given non-alcoholic "placebos" ... but still shed their inhibitions. So you can get "drunk" of non-alcoholic beer if you think that's what beer is supposed to do. And since alcohol "causes" bad behavior, you're not responsible. Experiments, however, show even when very drunk, if people are given an incentive (financial reward or social approval) they can control themselves.

Want to Learn More? Sleep on It

Research finds that naps help move newly learned information from short-term memory storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the cortex. 2 groups of adults went through rigorous memory exercises. The group that took a 90-minute nap performed better than their initial performance while the non-nap group performed worse.

Take Your Time in Gunfight

Research finds that reacting to a movement (e.g. being drawn on in a gunfight) is faster than the initiating movement. In other words, the person who is drawn on (not the one who draws the gun) reacts quicker.

Gunfighter 2 can be 10% faster reacting than if the same person drew his gun first (~21 milliseconds faster than gunfighter 1). Still, unless gunfighter 2 is a better shot, he will probably die because while #2 moves ~21 milliseconds faster than #1, the initiation of #2's movement is ~200 milliseconds.

King Tut's Hardship

JAMA reports that King Tut - the boy king - suffered from serious bone disease and malaria.

Using genetic fingerprints from Tut and presumed relatives, a family tree revealed history of clubfoot and scoliosis. CAT scans revealed foot deformities, fractured femur, and bone necrosis (foot bone dying due to poor blood circulation). DNA also contained "Plasmodium falciparum" - i.e. Tut and his great-grandparents suffered from malaria.

Researchers think a weak Tut broke his leg which, coupled with malaria, took his life.

Bees Can Recognize Human Faces

Research finds that bees can be trained to recognize human faces

Researchers drew simple faces and bees were trained to distinguish between narrower and wider facial features. Then bees won sugary rewards if they distinguished face-like features from non-face images. Then they were trained to select real faces from images in which those same features were scrambled - e.g. selecting between a face and something that had all the features of a face but in a disorganized fashion.

Origins of Pleasure

Watch this great lecture by Paul Bloom on the reason why certain things give us pleasure and identical things don't.

Sneaky snake

The tentacled snake has a unique way of catching its prey.

Kids Change Mothers Brain

Children don't just affect a mother's attitude - they actually change a mother's brain. See the video.

Mindbending Music

Music on another level, using the pentatonic scale - see the video

Our Brain Lies To Us

Sometimes we believe things from our past happened, only to find out our brains created them out of thin air.

This video explains why

Serial Killers A Lot Like Us

Neuroscientist James Fallon, while studying psychopathic killers brains, discovered he comes from a long line of murderers (including his infamous cousin, Lizzie Borden). Fallon discovered that he has two of the three ingredients for psychopathology.

How Big Are Solar Flares?

In a word: HUGE.

Teen Driving Restrictions Little Impact

Research shows that deadly car accidents aren't really about driver age but driver experience.

States with strict teenager driving laws wanted to separate novice drivers from dangerous situations. Basically since its inception in 1996, drivers of graduated programs were linked to 1,348 fewer fatal crashes involving 16-year-old drivers but 1,086 more fatal crashes involving 18-year-old drivers.

This means restrictions on driving only limits exposure to risky situations but eventually those kids will have to navigate those situations - and that's where the trouble is born.

Plants Created River Bends

Research shows that ancient rivers were broad straight sheets of water, but plant colonization changed water flow.

The first vascular plants took root because of the abundant water and began to hold sediment in place - creating riverbanks, thinning waterways. Paleozoic-era plants bunched together at the water’s edge and colonized the Earth. Over the next 50 million years this led to today's curving rivers and all the green we see around.

TV = Death

Research finds that cardiovascular disease rates rise with average daily TV viewing times - even if you're physically fit.

Researchers studied the viewing habits and health of ~9,000 adults. For every hour watching tv each day, risk of death from cardiovascular disease increased 18%. People watching 4 hours or more each day were 80% more likely to die from cardiovascular disease vs. those who watched for 2 hours or less each day.

The same applies for sitting in front of a computer or sitting idly - sitting for long stretches negatively affects levels of blood sugar and fats.

All Animals Sound the Same

Researchers compared the calls of 500 different animals - insects, mammals, reptiles, fish - you name it. They found that the basic features of every animal’s cry (e.g. frequency, duration) depend on the animal’s metabolism, which depends on the animal’s size and body temperature.

When the calls account for body size and temperature, a whale sounds a lot like a frog and vice versa. Researchers think a metabolic link exists, because energy use affects the nerves and muscles animals use to make noise.

Driving Affects Listening

Studies have shown that talking on a cell phone can impair our ability to drive. A new study shows that driving makes it hard to hear.

96 participants were paired in a simulator - 1 driving, 1 talking as a passenger or on the phone. Drivers and talkers were told a number of stories. Sure enough, drivers had 20% less ability to recall the details as compared with the passengers. And their conversational skills were the worst when navigate intersections or handling traffic.

Free Soloing

No science, just pure insanity

Hurricanes 101

Informative clip on science of hurricanes

Of Babies and Property Rights

Research investigated young children's understanding of property rights. 2 and 3-year-olds participated in situations where an actor (1) took an object for himself, and (2) attempted to throw it away. Sometimes the actor owned the object, sometimes the child, sometimes a 3rd party.

Results found that 2 and 3-year-olds protested frequently when their own object was involved, only 3-year-olds protested more when a third party's object was involved as compared with the object being the actor's. This suggests that by 3, children begin to understand property rights.

Smaller Fingers = More Sensitive Finger Tips

Research finds that people with smaller fingers have more sensitive fingertips, probably because of a higher concentration of touch receptors in that area.

100 volunteers' index fingertips were measured. Researchers pressed parallel grooves against the subjects’ fingertips. If they could feel those grooves, then they pressed a narrower set, and so on (kind of like an eye test where you read progressively smaller letters until they’re indistinguishable).

Those with the smallest fingertips felt the narrowest grooves. Scientists think its because of a higher density of receptors - like a larger pixel count that creates a clearer image. Researchers then measured sweat pores density because touch receptor cells cluster around sweat pores. They found that smaller fingers did have a higher concentration of sweat pores.

Talk it Out

Research finds that students who worked out math problems out loud got more accurate results, and faster. Math students solved math problems and researchers found that students who reasoned through their thinking out loud, or drew out pictures for the problem, answered questions quicker and more accurately than their counterparts

Fitter = Smarter

Research suggests that adolescent physically fit men tend to be more intelligent than their non-athletic counterparts.

Animal studies have long shown a link between physical activity and better memory. In humans, aerobic exercise can boost cognitive function in old people. Scientists found that of 1+ million men enlisted for military service @ 18, cardiovascular fitness, not muscle strength, was associated with overall intelligence (in the Swedish army). Physical fitness at 18 also foreshadowed greater academic achievement later in life for the public in general. Even among the twin pairs, the fitter brother tended to be the smarter.

Faster = Funner

Instead of "Time flies when you’re having fun," research indicates that when you're having fun, time flies.

In a 10-minute test, “time’s up” was called when only five minutes had passed. The other half worked for 20 minutes before their 10-minute test was done. Results found that the 5 minute team said they had more fun.

Plants Kind to Relatives

Research shows that plants know if they're next to a relative and will grow to allow the relative more access to light.

Previous research showed that plants can recognize relative's root systems from the same mother plant and will give them a fairer share of nutrients. The new study found when impatiens plants shared a pot with seeds from the same parent plant, they grew taller with more branches and fewer leaves. When planted with other non-sibling impatiens, they grew more and larger leaves that crowded out non-relatives. Roots alert plants to the relationship of nearby plants because when impatiens were planted near siblings but in separate pots, they didn’t recognize their relatives.

TV & Sex

Research studied the effects of exposure to sexual content on television by genre on adolescents' sex-related views and behaviors. Overall exposure to sexual content was not related to teens' engagement in sexual intercourse the following year. By genre, however, exposure to sexual content in comedies increased chances of sex the next year and sexual content in dramas had a negative effect.

Almost too Good to be True

Some things just seem to good to be true. Research suggests if you're selling such a product, make sure to say something bad about it as well.

Research shows that sometimes people will behave more favorably to a product when a small amount of negative information is added to an otherwise positive description. The effect increases when the information is easily processed and when negative information follows positive information.