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- January 30, 2013
- 04:23 AM
- 136 views
Flirting Most Effective on a Sunny Day
by Carian Thus in United Academics
Studies have shown that sunshine activates positive emotions and good mood, which in turn can facilitate social relationships. For example, we are more likely to help others on sunny days. Now, a French researcher explored whether positive weather conditions also benefit courtship behavior.
So how do you test this? Simple: ask attractive, 20-year-old men to approach young women (about 500) walking alone in a shopping mall on either cloudy or sunny days (controlling for temperature). Their goa........ Read more »
Guéguen, N. (2013) Weather and courtship behavior: A quasi-experiment with the flirty sunshine. Social Influence, 1-8. DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2012.752401
- January 30, 2013
- 04:18 AM
- 95 views
Happier Children Earn Higher Wages in Adulthood
by Jalees Rehman in United Academics
There is quite a bit of debate about the scientific validity of the proverb “money can’t buy happiness”, because studies on this topic have resulted in discordant results. Some studies support the idea that richer people are happier on average than poor people, but there are also reports that while the median income in the US has grown in recent decades, average happiness among Americans has hardly changed.... Read more »
De Neve, J., & Oswald, A. (2012) Estimating the influence of life satisfaction and positive affect on later income using sibling fixed effects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(49), 19953-19958. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211437109
- January 29, 2013
- 10:25 AM
- 132 views
Penicillin, Not The Pill, Started The Sexual Revolution
by Zach Urbina in United Academics
A new study that analyzes the costs of risky sex has found that the sexual revolution actually began during the 1950s, a decade earlier than popular culture concedes.
Emory University economics researcher Andrew Francis analyzed data from US health agencies from the 1930s to the 1970s and found that between 1947 and 1957, the syphilis death rate dropped by 75 percent, while the syphilis rate of incidence dropped a staggering 95 percent.... Read more »
Francis, A. (2012) The Wages of Sin: How the Discovery of Penicillin Reshaped Modern Sexuality. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42(1), 5-13. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-012-0018-4
- January 29, 2013
- 09:11 AM
- 127 views
Is Sex Necessary?
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Sex, it turns out, is a risky affair. Besides infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy, it can also perpetuate harmful genes. Also, compared to asexual reproduction, it’s very inefficient—bacteria, strawberries and even some amphibians don’t have to look for a mate. So, why have sex—sexual reproduction, that is?... Read more »
Otto, S. (2008) Sexual reproduction and the evolution of sex. Nature Education, 1(1). info:/
- January 29, 2013
- 06:52 AM
- 121 views
Is Working from Home Satisfying?
by Mark Fonseca Rendeiro in United Academics
As you read this very post, you may be sitting at home, one of the small but growing percentage of individuals around the world who work from home. Or perhaps you some work from home and other days you go to the office. Whatever the arrangement, is it a well known trend with a mix of benefits and long term questions, as more businesses and workers invest in the concept of what is sometimes called telework. Frequently updated research looks into aspects such as cost/benefit and productivity. ........ Read more »
Wheatley, D. (2012) Good to be home? Time-use and satisfaction levels among home-based teleworkers. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27(3), 224-241. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-005X.2012.00289.x
- January 28, 2013
- 07:00 PM
- 108 views
You Can Turn Healthy by Quiting at 40
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
Smokers, it’s not too late. Researchers showed that quiting before fourty gets you back almost the whole ten years usually lost by smoking.... Read more »
Jha, P., Ramasundarahettige, C., Landsman, V., Rostron, B., Thun, M., Anderson, R., McAfee, T., & Peto, R. (2013) 21st-Century Hazards of Smoking and Benefits of Cessation in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 368(4), 341-350. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1211128
- January 28, 2013
- 10:12 AM
- 119 views
Is Working from Home Satisfying?
by Mark Fonseca Rendeiro in United Academics
Are you one of the millions around the world that work from home full time? Are you satisfied with your work-life balance? New research from the UK compares the level of satisfaction between those working from home, those working at the office, and those in between.... Read more »
Wheatley, D. (2012) Good to be home? Time-use and satisfaction levels among home-based teleworkers. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27(3), 224-241. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-005X.2012.00289.x
- January 28, 2013
- 06:22 AM
- 134 views
10 Reasons to Yawn
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
We’ve all had our rough moments trying no to yawn in front of company. Yawning, after all, means you’re bored, right? Not necessarily. Yawning can also be sign of sexual arousal. Here are 10 explanations scientists have come up with.... Read more »
Norscia I, & Palagi E. (2011) Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens. PloS one, 6(12). PMID: 22163307
Helt, M., Eigsti, I., Snyder, P., & Fein, D. (2010) Contagious Yawning in Autistic and Typical Development. Child Development, 81(5), 1620-1631. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01495.x
- January 25, 2013
- 05:00 PM
- 113 views
http://www.united-academics.org/magazine/mind-brain/10-reasons-to-yawn/
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
Yawning: a sign of boredom, empathy or sexual arousal.
... Read more »
Norscia I, & Palagi E. (2011) Yawn contagion and empathy in Homo sapiens. PloS one, 6(12). PMID: 22163307
Helt, M., Eigsti, I., Snyder, P., & Fein, D. (2010) Contagious Yawning in Autistic and Typical Development. Child Development, 81(5), 1620-1631. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01495.x
- January 25, 2013
- 08:18 AM
- 153 views
Older Brains Actually Become ‘Full’
by Zach Urbina in United Academics
Newly published research shows that learning gets more difficult as we age, because we can’t push older memories out of our brains. Research conducted by neuroscientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University demonstrated that mice with genetically modified brains, made to resemble those of humans in adulthood, had no difficulty forming the kind of strong synaptic connections responsible for learning.... Read more »
Cui, Z., Feng, R., Jacobs, S., Duan, Y., Wang, H., Cao, X., & Tsien, J. (2013) Increased NR2A:NR2B ratio compresses long-term depression range and constrains long-term memory. Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/srep01036
- January 24, 2013
- 09:22 AM
- 115 views
Obese Drivers 80% More Likely to Die in Accidents
by Zach Urbina in United Academics
Obesity is an ongoing global health concern, perhaps second only to the trend of climate change, and a recent study has discovered that auto accidents are a new venue of risk of fatality for obese people. Recently published research has indicated that the significantly overweight are 80% more likely to perish in an auto accident.... Read more »
Rice T, & Zhu M. (2013) Driver Obesity and The Risk of Fatal Injury During Traffic Collisions. Emergency Medicine Journal. DOI: 10.1136/emermed-2012-201859
- January 24, 2013
- 07:29 AM
- 152 views
We Smell Ourselves (No, Not That Way)
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Ever wonder why a perfume (or cologne) smells better on somebody else than on you? The reason lies in the interactions of our brains, immune system and nose. Our brains literally know exactly what we smell like and can set preferences based on that for associations with others (particularly sexual partners).... Read more »
Manfred Milinski, Ilona Croy,, Thomas Hummel, & and Thomas Boehm. (2013) Major histocompatibility complex peptide ligands as olfactory cues in human body odour assessment . Proc. R. Soc. B., 280(20122889). info:/10.1098/rspb.2012.2889
- January 24, 2013
- 04:44 AM
- 95 views
Men Are More Likely to Commit Scientific Fraud
by Carian Thus in United Academics
You’ve probably heard of the scientific fraud conducted by Diederik Stapel, a former professor of social psychology in the Netherlands, which affected at least 55 publications. That he was a male faculty member isn’t that exceptional, according to a recent review of the United States Office of Research Integrity reports. It seems that men are overrepresented among scientists who commit fraud, on all academic levels.... Read more »
Fanga, FC, Bennettb, JW, & Casadevallc, A. (2013) Males Are Overrepresented among Life Science Researchers Committing Scientific Misconduct. mBio, 4(1). info:/doi:10.1128/mBio.00640-12.
- January 24, 2013
- 04:32 AM
- 118 views
The Cello Scrotum Hoax
by Carian Thus in United Academics
Being a professional musician means playing for hours every day, and this devotion can have consequences for the body. Singers may get sore a throat, pianists painful shoulders and male cello players an irritated scrotum – or maybe not.... Read more »
Murphy, J. (1974) Letter: Cello scrotum. BMJ, 2(5914), 335-335. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.2.5914.335-a
- January 23, 2013
- 07:00 PM
- 121 views
Good to know: Why do we laugh
by Katja Keuchenius in United Academics
We don’t laugh because things are funny, but because we feel connected. Just like monkeys.... Read more »
Dunbar, R., Baron, R., Frangou, A., Pearce, E., van Leeuwen, E., Stow, J., Partridge, G., MacDonald, I., Barra, V., & van Vugt, M. (2011) Social laughter is correlated with an elevated pain threshold. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1731), 1161-1167. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1373
- January 21, 2013
- 06:03 AM
- 129 views
Re-Thinking Raw Food Diets
by Patrick Meyer in United Academics
Many health-conscious people have turned to raw foodism (also referred to as raw veganism or raw vegetarianism) in the past decade seeking a dietary plan that maximized the nutritional content of food. The core principle of the raw food diet was that cooking removes significant amounts of vitamins and minerals from food as well as enzymes that aid the body in digestion. It seemed like a health nut’s dream: consumers theoretically get the most vitamins and minerals from food with the least ........ Read more »
Talcott, S., Howard, L., & Brenes, C. (2000) Antioxidant Changes and Sensory Properties of Carrot Puree Processed with and without Periderm Tissue. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 48(4), 1315-1321. DOI: 10.1021/jf9910178
Dewanto, V., Wu, X., Adom, K., & Liu, R. (2002) Thermal Processing Enhances the Nutritional Value of Tomatoes by Increasing Total Antioxidant Activity. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50(10), 3010-3014. DOI: 10.1021/jf0115589
- January 21, 2013
- 06:02 AM
- 114 views
Possible or Impossible: a Even Bigger Whale
by Gunnar de Winter in United Academics
The Blue Whale (or Balaenoptera musculus) is big. Very big. In fact, as far as we know, it’s the largest animal to have ever lived on earth, growing to roughly 30m and weighing in at an impressive 175 tons. But could there be, or have been, a bigger whale?
A recent research article at PLOS ONE took on the challenge of answering this question.... Read more »
Clauset, A. (2013) How Large Should Whales Be?. PloS one, 8(1). info:/
- January 21, 2013
- 06:00 AM
- 96 views
Scientists Create Gasoline From Plants
by Zach Urbina in United Academics
The next step forward in biofuel production has come from an unlikely source, using a century-old process. A team of chemical engineers at the University of California Berkeley has transformed plants into a clean burning propellant that holds potential to replace gasoline.... Read more »
Anbarasan P, Baer Z, Sreekumar S, Gross E, Binder J, Blanch H, Clark D, & Toste F. (2012) Integration of Chemical Catalysis with Extractive Fermentation to Produce Fuels. Nature, 491(7423), 235-239. DOI: 10.1038/nature11594
- January 17, 2013
- 12:01 PM
- 112 views
Q&A: Is Industrial Living Making Us—and our Descendants—Obese?
by Andrew Porterfield in United Academics
Common chemicals could be making us obese.... Read more »
Chamorro-García, R., Sahu, M., Abbey, R., Laude, J., Pham, N., & Blumberg, B. (2013) Transgenerational Inheritance of Increased Fat Depot Size, Stem Cell Reprogramming, and Hepatic Steatosis Elicited by Prenatal Obesogen Tributyltin in Mice. Environmental Health Perspectives. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1205701
- January 17, 2013
- 09:21 AM
- 140 views
Good to Know: Most People Only Breathe out of One Nostril at a Time
by Carian Thus in United Academics
Did you know that around 85% of humans only breathe out of one nostril at a time? This fact may surprise you, but even more remarkable is the following: our body follows a pattern and switches from breathing out of one nostril to the other in a cyclical way.... Read more »
Gotlib T, Samoliński B, & Arcimowicz M. (2002) [Spontaneous changes of nasal patency, the nasal cycle, classification, frequency, and clinical significance]. Otolaryngologia polska. The Polish otolaryngology, 56(4), 421-5. PMID: 12378800
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