Like a self-absorbed teenager, insects spend a lot of time grooming.
In a study that delves into the mechanisms behind this common function, North Carolina State University researchers show that insect grooming – specifically, antennal cleaning – removes both environmental pollutants and chemicals produced by the insects themselves. (more…)
Study of seventh and eighth graders finds no difference between boys, girls
Bullying, whether it’s physical aggression or spreading rumors, boosts the social status and popularity of middle school students, according to a new UCLA psychology study that has implications for programs aimed at combatting school bullying. In addition, students already considered popular engage in these forms of bullying, the researchers found.
The psychologists studied 1,895 ethnically diverse students from 99 classes at 11 Los Angeles middle schools. They conducted surveys at three points: during the spring of seventh grade, the fall of eighth grade and the spring of eighth grade. Each time, students were asked to name the students who were considered the “coolest,” the students who “start fights or push other kids around” and the ones who “spread nasty rumors about other kids.” (more…)
Through the ages man has formulated various ways to provide an insight to his nature that comprises of tarot cards, dream interpretation, astrology, palmistry as well as basic numerology. These methods are used to discover the inner self. All of these practices share a common reputation as “the tools of divination”. Though, it is often said that there is no one to predict your future accurately. Instead basic numerology as well as other tools teaches us about ourselves and it also offers various options available to us in any given circumstances.
There are several methods of divination which are intimately intertwined, each of which are related to the other in some way or the other. In the tarot, basic numerology as well as astrology is both portrayed in the symbols that are used to illustrate the cards. Astrology depends on the mathematical correspondences to help construe what each of the twelve houses symbolizes, just as basic numerology, a numbers vibrations might communicate to a particular planet or sign which rules the sign. A reader will make use of each approach to do a reading or she can also get herself specialize in any one. (more…)
Married men and women who divide household chores in traditional ways report having more sex than couples who share so-called men’s and women’s work, according to a new study co-authored by sociologists at the University of Washington.
Other studies have found that husbands got more sex if they did more housework, implying that sex was in exchange for housework. But those studies did not factor in what types of chores the husbands were doing. (more…)
Analysis of Online Video in Brazil Shows Facebook as the Fastest Growing Top 10 Online Video Destination in Past Year
Sao Paulo, Brazil, February 6, 2013 – comScore , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an analysis on online 
video activities in Brazil based on insights from its comScore Video Metrix service. The study found that Google Sites is the largest online video destination in Brazil, while Facebook is the fastest growing among the top ten. The study also showed that Brazil is the seventh largest online video market worldwide with a viewing audience of 43 million people in December.
“Online video is an important part of the internet landscape in Brazil, reaching a large number of people in an engaging context that is attractive to marketers and advertisers,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “comScore Video Metrix supports this growing market in Latin America by providing accurate and objective insights on online video viewing behavior that publishers, advertisers and agencies can rely on to make smarter digital investments.” (more…)
A team of materials scientists at Harvard University and the University of Exeter has invented a new fibre which changes colour when stretched. Inspired by nature, the researchers identified and replicated the unique structural elements, which create the bright iridescent blue colour of a tropical plant’s fruit.
The multilayered fibre, described in the journal Advanced Materials, could lend itself to the creation of smart fabrics that visibly react to heat or pressure.
“Our new fibre is based on a structure we found in nature, and through clever engineering we’ve taken its capabilities a step further,” says lead author Dr Mathias Kolle, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). “The plant, of course, cannot change colour. By combining its structure with an elastic material, however, we’ve created an artificial version that passes through a full rainbow of colours as it’s stretched.” (more…)
Collaboration Led by Berkeley Lab Researchers Creates High-Resolution Map of Gene Regulatory Elements in the Brain
Future research into the underlying causes of neurological disorders such as autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia, should greatly benefit from a first-of-its-kind atlas of gene-enhancers in the cerebrum (telencephalon). This new atlas, developed by a team led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is a publicly accessible Web-based collection of data that identifies and locates thousands of gene-regulating elements in a region of the brain that is of critical importance for cognition, motor functions and emotion.
“Understanding how the brain develops and functions, and how it malfunctions in neurological disorders, remains one of the most daunting challenges in contemporary science,” says Axel Visel, a geneticist with Berkeley Lab’s Genomics Division. “We’ve created a genome-wide digital atlas of gene enhancers in the human brain – the switches that tell genes when and where they need to be switched on or off. This enhancer atlas will enable other scientists to study in more detail how individual genes are regulated during development of the brain, and how genetic mutations may impact human neurological disorders.” (more…)
Viruses such as those that cause the common cold are some of the most hardy and adaptable things on earth, but even they have trouble surviving the unpredictable and sudden temperature changes predicted by climate change models. (more…)
