The News:
Finicky eating inherited
Study shows genetics are key in food choices
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By By Maria Cheng, Associated Press August 25, 2007
Having trouble persuading your child to eat broccoli or spinach? You may have only yourself to blame.
According to a study of twins, neophobia ? or the fear of new foods ? is mostly in the genes.
"Children could actually blame their mothers for this," said Jane Wardle, director of the Health Behavior Unit at University College London, one of the authors of the study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Research News:
Out-of body experiences induced in lab
By Sandra Blakeslee The New York Times
Article Last Updated: 08/24/2007 12:31:33 AM MDT
Using virtual-reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.
When people gaze at an illusory image of themselves through the goggles and are prodded in just the right way with the stick, they feel as if they have left their bodies.
The research reveals that "the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self," is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said Matthew Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, an expert on body and mind who was not involved in the experiments.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
"The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences"
"Video Ergo Sum: Manipulating Bodily Self-Consciousness"
Out-of body experiences induced in lab
By Sandra Blakeslee The New York Times
Article Last Updated: 08/24/2007 12:31:33 AM MDT
Using virtual-reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.
When people gaze at an illusory image of themselves through the goggles and are prodded in just the right way with the stick, they feel as if they have left their bodies.
The research reveals that "the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self," is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams, said Matthew Botvinick, an assistant professor of neuroscience at Princeton University, an expert on body and mind who was not involved in the experiments.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
"The Experimental Induction of Out-of-Body Experiences"
"Video Ergo Sum: Manipulating Bodily Self-Consciousness"
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Research News:
Sex study finds seniors stay active
By Marilynn Marchione The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/23/2007 03:52:09 AM MDT
A study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having had sex the previous year.
An unprecedented study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. That may be too much information for some folks.
But it comes from the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds in the United States. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having sex in the previous year.
And the drop-off has a lot to do with health or lack of a partner, especially for women, the survey found.
The federally funded study, done by respected scientists and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, overturns some stereotypical notions that physical pleasure is just a young person's game.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Sex study finds seniors stay active
By Marilynn Marchione The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/23/2007 03:52:09 AM MDT
A study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having had sex the previous year.
An unprecedented study of sex and seniors finds that many older people are surprisingly frisky - willing to do, and talk about, intimate acts that would make their grandchildren blush. That may be too much information for some folks.
But it comes from the most comprehensive sex survey ever done among 57- to 85-year-olds in the United States. Sex and interest in it do fall off when people are in their 70s, but more than a quarter of those up to age 85 reported having sex in the previous year.
And the drop-off has a lot to do with health or lack of a partner, especially for women, the survey found.
The federally funded study, done by respected scientists and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, overturns some stereotypical notions that physical pleasure is just a young person's game.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Research News:
Many kids unaware of blood pressure problems
A study says 1 million who have hypertension are not diagnosed because doctors assume it's an issue only for adult patients.
By Lindsey Tanner The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/21/2007 09:50:36 PM MDT
Chicago - More than 1 million U.S. youngsters have undiagnosed high blood pressure, leaving them at risk for developing organ damage down the road, a study suggests.
Calculating elevated blood pressure in children is trickier than in adults, and many doctors may not check kids' numbers because they assume hypertension is an adult problem.
But the study highlights that many children are affected, too, said lead author Dr. David Kaelber of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Harvard Medical School. Roughly 2 million U.S. youngsters have been estimated to have high blood pressure; the study suggests that three-quarters of them have it but don't know it.
The numbers are driven at least partly by rising rates of obesity, which is strongly linked with high blood pressure.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Many kids unaware of blood pressure problems
A study says 1 million who have hypertension are not diagnosed because doctors assume it's an issue only for adult patients.
By Lindsey Tanner The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/21/2007 09:50:36 PM MDT
Chicago - More than 1 million U.S. youngsters have undiagnosed high blood pressure, leaving them at risk for developing organ damage down the road, a study suggests.
Calculating elevated blood pressure in children is trickier than in adults, and many doctors may not check kids' numbers because they assume hypertension is an adult problem.
But the study highlights that many children are affected, too, said lead author Dr. David Kaelber of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Harvard Medical School. Roughly 2 million U.S. youngsters have been estimated to have high blood pressure; the study suggests that three-quarters of them have it but don't know it.
The numbers are driven at least partly by rising rates of obesity, which is strongly linked with high blood pressure.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Research News:
Breaking up not that hard to do
EVANSTON, Ill., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Lovers may anticipate a breakup as much more devastating than it actually is, U.S. researchers have found.
Study co-author Eli Finkel, a psychologist in Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in Evanston, Ill., says there is a growing body of literature showing that people demonstrate remarkably poor insight when asked to predict the magnitude of their distress following emotional events such as a breakup.
In the study, each participant needed to be involved in a dating relationship of at least two months and participants completed a set of questionnaires every two weeks for 38 weeks, for a total of 20 online sessions, to measure predicted and actual stress, as well as how much in love they felt.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Journal of experimental social psychology.
Breaking up not that hard to do
EVANSTON, Ill., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Lovers may anticipate a breakup as much more devastating than it actually is, U.S. researchers have found.
Study co-author Eli Finkel, a psychologist in Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences in Evanston, Ill., says there is a growing body of literature showing that people demonstrate remarkably poor insight when asked to predict the magnitude of their distress following emotional events such as a breakup.
In the study, each participant needed to be involved in a dating relationship of at least two months and participants completed a set of questionnaires every two weeks for 38 weeks, for a total of 20 online sessions, to measure predicted and actual stress, as well as how much in love they felt.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Journal of experimental social psychology.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Research News:
Power plants not so green
Biofuel carbon count makes it a poor alternative to forests
Total carbon emissions from biofuels far exceed those generated by burning fossil fuels, according to research published this week in Science. Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, together with University of Leeds Earth scientist Dominick Spracklen, present data outlining various routes to alternative power, such as production of ethanol and diesel from crops, and conversion from one land use type to another. There’s a startling bottom line: over a thirty-year period, an area of forested land will lock up between two and nine times as much carbon as the emissions avoided if the same area was instead devoted to biofuel production.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
Power plants not so green
Biofuel carbon count makes it a poor alternative to forests
Total carbon emissions from biofuels far exceed those generated by burning fossil fuels, according to research published this week in Science. Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, together with University of Leeds Earth scientist Dominick Spracklen, present data outlining various routes to alternative power, such as production of ethanol and diesel from crops, and conversion from one land use type to another. There’s a startling bottom line: over a thirty-year period, an area of forested land will lock up between two and nine times as much carbon as the emissions avoided if the same area was instead devoted to biofuel production.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Science.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Research News:
Ancient farmers bred white rice
ITHACA, N.Y., Aug. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say white rice evolved from wild red rice some 10,000 years ago through a mutation spread by early farmers.
The Cornell University report says 97.9 percent of all white rice is derived from a mutation in a single gene originating in the Japonica subspecies of rice.
The report, published online in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics, suggests that ancient farmers actively bred and spread white rice varieties -- first throughout the Himalayan region and then the rest of the world -- because the varieties cooked faster, their hulls were easier to remove compared with red rice, and disease and insects were easier to see amid the white grains, the university said Friday in a release.
Researchers said farmers also may have favored one mutation over the other because it may have produced favorable grains more consistently.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Public Library of Science: genetics.
Ancient farmers bred white rice
ITHACA, N.Y., Aug. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say white rice evolved from wild red rice some 10,000 years ago through a mutation spread by early farmers.
The Cornell University report says 97.9 percent of all white rice is derived from a mutation in a single gene originating in the Japonica subspecies of rice.
The report, published online in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics, suggests that ancient farmers actively bred and spread white rice varieties -- first throughout the Himalayan region and then the rest of the world -- because the varieties cooked faster, their hulls were easier to remove compared with red rice, and disease and insects were easier to see amid the white grains, the university said Friday in a release.
Researchers said farmers also may have favored one mutation over the other because it may have produced favorable grains more consistently.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Public Library of Science: genetics.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Research News:
Painful, emotional memory harder to forget
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Painful memories that people most likely want to forget may be the toughest to forget, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study found.
Lead author Keith Payne said the brain is adaptive and is able to intentionally forget neutral events such as a friend's outdated phone number or a switched meeting time.
Payne and former psychology graduate student Elizabeth Corrigan found that even "mild" emotional events, like getting a bad grade on a test or a negative comment from a co-worker, can be hard to forget.
The study, published in the September print issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found study subjects could not intentionally forget emotional events as easily as mundane ones, however, both pleasant and unpleasant emotional memories were resistant to intentional forgetting.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of Social Experimental Psychology.
Painful, emotional memory harder to forget
CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Painful memories that people most likely want to forget may be the toughest to forget, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study found.
Lead author Keith Payne said the brain is adaptive and is able to intentionally forget neutral events such as a friend's outdated phone number or a switched meeting time.
Payne and former psychology graduate student Elizabeth Corrigan found that even "mild" emotional events, like getting a bad grade on a test or a negative comment from a co-worker, can be hard to forget.
The study, published in the September print issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found study subjects could not intentionally forget emotional events as easily as mundane ones, however, both pleasant and unpleasant emotional memories were resistant to intentional forgetting.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of Social Experimental Psychology.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Research News:
Irrigation might no longer cool the world
LIVERMORE, Calif., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggested that while irrigation has masked some symptoms of global warming, it might not make much of a difference in the future.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and University of California-Merced said irrigation's influence on climate is often overlooked when studying the human effect on regional climate change.
"Globally we derive 40 percent of our food from irrigated regions, so we'd like to be able to model future climate changes in these regions," said Celine Bonfils, lead author of the study. But a study based on observations of temperature and irrigation trends has demonstrated irrigation-induced cooling in agricultural areas is slowing.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Irrigation might no longer cool the world
LIVERMORE, Calif., Aug. 15 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggested that while irrigation has masked some symptoms of global warming, it might not make much of a difference in the future.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and University of California-Merced said irrigation's influence on climate is often overlooked when studying the human effect on regional climate change.
"Globally we derive 40 percent of our food from irrigated regions, so we'd like to be able to model future climate changes in these regions," said Celine Bonfils, lead author of the study. But a study based on observations of temperature and irrigation trends has demonstrated irrigation-induced cooling in agricultural areas is slowing.
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Research News:
Pregnancy-weight advice may be revised
A medical panel is acting at the behest of doctors who say heavy moms are gaining too much weight, raising risks for their kids.
By Daniel Yee The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/14/2007 10:41:57 PM MDT
Atlanta - An influential U.S. medical panel is considering changes to the medical guidelines for how much weight a woman should gain during pregnancy.
It's acting on the insistence of doctors who say that heavy moms are gaining too much weight and that the current recommendations do not factor in the country's obesity epidemic.
Carrying too much weight while pregnant increases the risk of complications for mother and baby, including birth defects, labor and delivery problems, fetal death, and delivery of large babies, according to the March of Dimes.
A revision is long overdue, said Dr. Raul Artal of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
"The reality is, for too long we are telling pregnant women to take it easy during pregnancy, be confined and to eat for two," he said. "This has been one factor in causing the epidemic of overweight and obesity that we see in our country."
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal American journal of obstetrics & gynecology.
Pregnancy-weight advice may be revised
A medical panel is acting at the behest of doctors who say heavy moms are gaining too much weight, raising risks for their kids.
By Daniel Yee The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 08/14/2007 10:41:57 PM MDT
Atlanta - An influential U.S. medical panel is considering changes to the medical guidelines for how much weight a woman should gain during pregnancy.
It's acting on the insistence of doctors who say that heavy moms are gaining too much weight and that the current recommendations do not factor in the country's obesity epidemic.
Carrying too much weight while pregnant increases the risk of complications for mother and baby, including birth defects, labor and delivery problems, fetal death, and delivery of large babies, according to the March of Dimes.
A revision is long overdue, said Dr. Raul Artal of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
"The reality is, for too long we are telling pregnant women to take it easy during pregnancy, be confined and to eat for two," he said. "This has been one factor in causing the epidemic of overweight and obesity that we see in our country."
The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal American journal of obstetrics & gynecology.
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