The Helper
Jun
18
Whether a person believes obesity is caused by overeating or by a lack of exercise predicts his or her actual body mass, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Obesity has become a pressing public health issue in recent years, with two-thirds of U.S. adults classified as overweight or obese and similar trends unfolding in many developed nations. Researchers Brent McFerran of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology wondered whether individual beliefs might play a role in these trends.
From an initial online survey, they discovered that people seem to subscribe to one of two major beliefs about the primary cause of obesity:
“There was a clear demarcation,” says McFerran. “Some people overwhelmingly implicated poor diet, and a roughly equal number implicated lack of exercise. Genetics, to our surprise, was a far distant third.”
McFerran and Mukhopadhyay wanted to dig deeper to see if the pattern could be replicated and, if so, what implications it might have for behavior. They conducted a series of studies across five countries on three continents.
Read more here.
Obesity has become a pressing public health issue in recent years, with two-thirds of U.S. adults classified as overweight or obese and similar trends unfolding in many developed nations. Researchers Brent McFerran of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology wondered whether individual beliefs might play a role in these trends.
From an initial online survey, they discovered that people seem to subscribe to one of two major beliefs about the primary cause of obesity:
“There was a clear demarcation,” says McFerran. “Some people overwhelmingly implicated poor diet, and a roughly equal number implicated lack of exercise. Genetics, to our surprise, was a far distant third.”
McFerran and Mukhopadhyay wanted to dig deeper to see if the pattern could be replicated and, if so, what implications it might have for behavior. They conducted a series of studies across five countries on three continents.
Read more here.
Jun
18
Honoré de Balzac is said to have consumed the equivalent of fifty cups of coffee a day at his peak. He did not drink coffee, though—he pulverized coffee beans into a fine dust and ingested the dry powder on an empty stomach. He described the approach as “horrible, rather brutal,” to be tried only by men of “excessive vigor.” He documented the effects of the process in his 1839 essay “Traité des Excitants Modernes” (“Treatise on Modern Stimulants”): “Sparks shoot all the way up to the brain” while “ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages.”
Balzac’s novels and plays endure, but modern science is challenging his view of caffeine causing ideas to “quick-march into motion.” While caffeine has numerous benefits, it appears that the drug may undermine creativity more than it stimulates it.
When we drink a caffeinated beverage, the caffeine quickly crosses the blood-brain barrier—an interface of sorts between the brain and the body’s circulatory system, designed to protect the central nervous system from chemicals in the blood that might harm it—and proceeds to block the activity of a substance called adenosine. Normally, a central function of adenosine is to inhibit the release of various chemicals into the brain, lowering energy levels and promoting sleep, among other regulatory bodily functions. When it’s blocked, we’re less likely to fall asleep on our desks or feel our focus drifting. According to a recent review of some hundred studies, caffeine has a number of distinct benefits. Chief among them are that it boosts energy and decreases fatigue; enhances physical, cognitive, and motor performance; and aids short-term memory, problem solving, decision making, and concentration.
But all of that comes at a cost. Science is only beginning to unravel the full complexity behind different forms of creative accomplishment; creativity is notoriously difficult to study in a laboratory setting, and the choice of one approach over another limits the way that creativity can be measured. Still, we do know that much of what we associate with creativity—whether writing a sonnet or a mathematical proof—has to do with the ability to link ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways. This ability depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocussed mind.
Read more here.
Balzac’s novels and plays endure, but modern science is challenging his view of caffeine causing ideas to “quick-march into motion.” While caffeine has numerous benefits, it appears that the drug may undermine creativity more than it stimulates it.
When we drink a caffeinated beverage, the caffeine quickly crosses the blood-brain barrier—an interface of sorts between the brain and the body’s circulatory system, designed to protect the central nervous system from chemicals in the blood that might harm it—and proceeds to block the activity of a substance called adenosine. Normally, a central function of adenosine is to inhibit the release of various chemicals into the brain, lowering energy levels and promoting sleep, among other regulatory bodily functions. When it’s blocked, we’re less likely to fall asleep on our desks or feel our focus drifting. According to a recent review of some hundred studies, caffeine has a number of distinct benefits. Chief among them are that it boosts energy and decreases fatigue; enhances physical, cognitive, and motor performance; and aids short-term memory, problem solving, decision making, and concentration.
But all of that comes at a cost. Science is only beginning to unravel the full complexity behind different forms of creative accomplishment; creativity is notoriously difficult to study in a laboratory setting, and the choice of one approach over another limits the way that creativity can be measured. Still, we do know that much of what we associate with creativity—whether writing a sonnet or a mathematical proof—has to do with the ability to link ideas, entities, and concepts in novel ways. This ability depends in part on the very thing that caffeine seeks to prevent: a wandering, unfocussed mind.
Read more here.
Jun
17
Newswise — DURHAM, N.H. – “It’s not fair!” “ “You’re not the boss of me.” “She hit me!” “He started it.”
Fights between siblings – from toy-snatching to clandestine whacks to being banished from the bedroom – are so common they’re often dismissed as simply part of growing up. Yet a new study from researchers at the University of New Hampshire finds that sibling aggression is associated with significantly worse mental health in children and adolescents. In some cases, effects of sibling aggression on mental health were the same as those of peer aggression.
“Even kids who reported just one instance had more mental health distress,” says Corinna Jenkins Tucker, associate professor of family studies at UNH and lead author of the research, published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics. “Our study shows that sibling aggression is not benign for children and adolescents, regardless of how severe or frequent.”
The study, among the first to look at sibling aggression across a wide age and geographic range, is unique in its size and scope. Tucker and her co-authors from UNH’s Crimes against Children Research Center – center director and professor of sociology David Finkelhor, professor of sociology Heather Turner, and researcher Anne Shattuck – analyzed data from the center’s National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), a national sample of 3,599 children, ages one month through 17.
Read more here.
Fights between siblings – from toy-snatching to clandestine whacks to being banished from the bedroom – are so common they’re often dismissed as simply part of growing up. Yet a new study from researchers at the University of New Hampshire finds that sibling aggression is associated with significantly worse mental health in children and adolescents. In some cases, effects of sibling aggression on mental health were the same as those of peer aggression.
“Even kids who reported just one instance had more mental health distress,” says Corinna Jenkins Tucker, associate professor of family studies at UNH and lead author of the research, published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics. “Our study shows that sibling aggression is not benign for children and adolescents, regardless of how severe or frequent.”
The study, among the first to look at sibling aggression across a wide age and geographic range, is unique in its size and scope. Tucker and her co-authors from UNH’s Crimes against Children Research Center – center director and professor of sociology David Finkelhor, professor of sociology Heather Turner, and researcher Anne Shattuck – analyzed data from the center’s National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), a national sample of 3,599 children, ages one month through 17.
Read more here.
Jun
17
It is one of the inexplicable frustrations of modern life, but scientists believe they have now discovered the cause of those bad hair days when your locks just will not do what you want.
Researchers have discovered that traces of copper in the water that people wash their hair with from the pipes in their homes can damage their locks.
They found the metal gradually builds up in hair, helping to speed up damage caused by sunlight, causing split ends, fly-away strands and less shine. The effect is even more pronounced in those who use hair dyes, they claim.
Beauty giant Procter and Gamble is now attempting to exploit the findings by developing new hair dyes and range of shampoo to prevent copper from causing damage.
Dr Jennifer Marsh, a research fellow at Proctor and Gamble who led the research, said: “Copper is not present in large amounts but it is important as it is catalytically active.
Read more here.
Researchers have discovered that traces of copper in the water that people wash their hair with from the pipes in their homes can damage their locks.
They found the metal gradually builds up in hair, helping to speed up damage caused by sunlight, causing split ends, fly-away strands and less shine. The effect is even more pronounced in those who use hair dyes, they claim.
Beauty giant Procter and Gamble is now attempting to exploit the findings by developing new hair dyes and range of shampoo to prevent copper from causing damage.
Dr Jennifer Marsh, a research fellow at Proctor and Gamble who led the research, said: “Copper is not present in large amounts but it is important as it is catalytically active.
Read more here.
Jun
17
Some strange pottery found at an ancient settlement in southeastern Utah contains the oldest known traces of chocolate in the United States, an anthropologist says.
The site dates back to the 8th century -- 200 years earlier than the only other known evidence of the food, found at Chaco Canyon, the famous ceremonial and trade center of the Ancestral Puebloans.
The residents of the Utah settlement, known as Alkali Ridge, were also Pueblo ancestors, but the chocolate found in so many of their jars, pitchers, and bowls -- as well as the pottery itself -- suggests that they might not have been alone.
Dr. Dorothy Washburn, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, studied the residues in 18 vessels first unearthed at one of the settlement's sites in the 1930s. She and her team -- including her husband, a chemist for Bristol-Meyers Squibb -- found that 13 of the artifacts contained traces of cacao, also known as cocoa.
Read more here.
The site dates back to the 8th century -- 200 years earlier than the only other known evidence of the food, found at Chaco Canyon, the famous ceremonial and trade center of the Ancestral Puebloans.
The residents of the Utah settlement, known as Alkali Ridge, were also Pueblo ancestors, but the chocolate found in so many of their jars, pitchers, and bowls -- as well as the pottery itself -- suggests that they might not have been alone.
Dr. Dorothy Washburn, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, studied the residues in 18 vessels first unearthed at one of the settlement's sites in the 1930s. She and her team -- including her husband, a chemist for Bristol-Meyers Squibb -- found that 13 of the artifacts contained traces of cacao, also known as cocoa.
Read more here.
Jun
14
It's often said that money corrupts. But a new study says that just the thought of getting some hard cash will do the trick.
The report by University of Utah and Harvard researchers found that individuals who could gain monetarily through unethical behavior were more likely to demonstrate that behavior than those who weren't offered a financial gain.
"Were were interested in why good people would do bad behavior," said Kristin Smith-Crowe, a management professor and co-author of the study released last month.
"We certainly found that the love of money is corrupting and just the mere exposure to it makes people do bad things," Smith-Crowe said.
Read more about it here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100810791
The report by University of Utah and Harvard researchers found that individuals who could gain monetarily through unethical behavior were more likely to demonstrate that behavior than those who weren't offered a financial gain.
"Were were interested in why good people would do bad behavior," said Kristin Smith-Crowe, a management professor and co-author of the study released last month.
"We certainly found that the love of money is corrupting and just the mere exposure to it makes people do bad things," Smith-Crowe said.
Read more about it here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100810791
Jun
14
Hardcore gamers "see the world differently", says the author of a study that suggests gamers who play action games have better visual skills than non-gamers.
"They need less [visual] information to arrive at a probabilistic conclusion, and they do it faster," said Greg Applebaum, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Duke School of Medicine in North Carolina.
The study, published in the June issue of Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, tested how well 125 non-gamers and intensive gamers could identify letters that flashed up for only a fraction of a second.
In the test, a circle of letters appeared for 0.1 seconds followed by an arrow in the centre of the circle, pointing to where one of the letters had previously been. The study participants were then asked to identify the letter.
The arrow appeared between 13 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds after the letters flashed up. The gamers outperformed the non-gamers for all time intervals.
Read more here.
"They need less [visual] information to arrive at a probabilistic conclusion, and they do it faster," said Greg Applebaum, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Duke School of Medicine in North Carolina.
The study, published in the June issue of Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, tested how well 125 non-gamers and intensive gamers could identify letters that flashed up for only a fraction of a second.
In the test, a circle of letters appeared for 0.1 seconds followed by an arrow in the centre of the circle, pointing to where one of the letters had previously been. The study participants were then asked to identify the letter.
The arrow appeared between 13 milliseconds to 2.5 seconds after the letters flashed up. The gamers outperformed the non-gamers for all time intervals.
Read more here.
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