Category: Research Discoveries

What were you dreaming about last night? For roughly one in four people, that question draws a blank. For others, the answer comes easily, complete with vivid details about flying through clouds or showing up unprepared for an exam. This stark contrast in dream recall ability has baffled researchers for decades, but a new study reveals there’s more to remembering dreams than pure chance.

From March 2020 to March 2024, scientists from multiple Italian research institutions conducted a sweeping investigation to uncover what determines dream recall. Published in Communications Psychology, their research surpassed typical dream studies by combining detailed sleep monitoring, cognitive testing, and brain activity measurements. The study involved 217 healthy adults between ages 18 and 70, who did far more than simply keep dream journals; they underwent brain tests, wore sleep-tracking wristbands, and some even had their brain activity monitored throughout the night.

Understanding dream recall has long puzzled researchers. Early studies in the 1950s focused mainly on REM sleep, the sleep stage characterized by rapid eye movements and vivid dreams. Scientists initially thought they had solved the mystery of dreaming by linking it exclusively to REM sleep. However, later research revealed that people also dream during non-REM sleep stages, though these dreams tend to be less vivid and harder to remember.

According to researchers at the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, three main factors emerged as strong predictors of dream recall: a person’s general attitude toward dreaming, their tendency to let their mind wander during waking hours, and their typical sleep patterns.

To measure attitudes about dreaming, participants completed a questionnaire rating how strongly they agreed or disagreed with statements like “dreams are a good way of learning about my true feelings” versus “dreams are random nonsense from the brain.” People who viewed dreams as meaningful and worthy of attention were more likely to remember them compared to those who dismissed dreams as meaningless brain static.

Mind wandering proved to be another crucial factor. Using a standardized questionnaire that measures how often people’s thoughts drift away from their current task, researchers found that participants who frequently caught themselves daydreaming or engaging in spontaneous thoughts during the day were more likely to recall their dreams. This connection makes sense considering both daydreaming and dreaming involve similar brain networks, particularly regions associated with self-reflection and creating internal mental experiences.

The relationship between daydreaming and dream recall points to an intriguing possibility: people who spend more time engaged in spontaneous mental activity during the day may be better equipped to generate and remember dreams at night. Both activities involve creating mental experiences disconnected from the immediate external environment.

People who typically had longer periods of lighter sleep with less deep sleep (technically called N3 sleep) were better at remembering their dreams. During deep sleep, the brain produces large, slow waves that help consolidate memories but may make it harder to generate or remember dreams. In contrast, lighter sleep stages maintain brain activity patterns more similar to wakefulness, potentially making it easier to form and store dream memories.

Age was also a factor in dream recall. While younger participants were generally better at remembering specific dream content, older individuals more frequently reported “white dreams,” those frustrating experiences where you wake up knowing you definitely had a dream but can’t remember anything specific about it. This age-related pattern suggests that the way our brains process and store dream memories may change as we get older.

The researchers also discovered that dream recall fluctuates seasonally, with people remembering fewer dreams during winter months compared to spring and autumn. While the exact reason remains unclear, this pattern wasn’t explained by changes in sleep habits across seasons. One possibility is that seasonal variations in light exposure affect brain chemistry in ways that influence dream formation or recall.

Rather than relying on written dream journals, participants used voice recorders each morning to describe everything that was going through their minds just before waking up. This approach reduced the effort required to record dreams and minimized the chance that the act of recording would interfere with the memory of the dream itself.

Throughout the study period, participants wore wristwatch-like devices called actigraphs that track movement patterns to measure sleep quality, duration, and timing. A subset of 50 participants also wore special headbands equipped with electrodes to record their brain activity during sleep. This comprehensive approach allowed researchers to connect dream recall with objective measures of how people were actually sleeping, not just how they thought they slept.

“Our findings suggest that dream recall is not just a matter of chance but a reflection of how personal attitudes, cognitive traits, and sleep dynamics interact,” says lead author Giulio Bernardi, professor in general psychology at the IMT School, in a statement. “These insights not only deepen our understanding of the mechanisms behind dreaming but also have implications for exploring dreams’ role in mental health and in the study of human consciousness.”

The study authors plan to use these findings as a reference for future research, particularly in clinical settings. Further investigations could explore the diagnostic and prognostic value of dream patterns, potentially improving our understanding of how dreams relate to mental health and neurological conditions.

Understanding dream recall could provide insights into how the brain processes and stores memories during sleep. Dreams appear to draw upon our previous experiences and memories while potentially playing a role in emotional processing and memory consolidation. Changes in dream patterns or recall ability might serve as early indicators of neurological or psychiatric conditions.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/why-some-people-remember-their-dreams-others-dont/

New research reveals a surprisingly simple way to improve mental health and focus: turn off your phone’s internet. A month-long study found that blocking mobile internet access for just two weeks led to measurable improvements in well-being, mental health, and attention—comparable to the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy and reductions in age-related cognitive decline.

Researchers from multiple universities across the U.S. and Canada worked with 467 iPhone users (average age 32) to test how removing constant internet access would affect their daily lives. Instead of asking people to give up their phones completely, the study took a more practical approach. Participants installed an app that blocked mobile internet while still allowing calls and texts. This way, phones remained useful for basic communication but lost their ability to provide endless scrolling, social media, and constant online access.

The average smartphone user now spends nearly 5 hours each day on their device. More than half of Americans with smartphones worry they use them too much, and this jumps to 80% for people under 30. Despite these concerns, few studies have actually tested what happens when people cut back.

The results were significant. After two weeks without mobile internet, participants showed clear improvements in multiple areas. They reported feeling happier and more satisfied with their lives, and their mental health improved—an effect size that was greater than what is typically seen with antidepressant medications in clinical trials. They also performed better on attention tests, showing improvements comparable to reversing 10 years of age-related cognitive decline.

To measure attention, participants completed a computer task that tested their ability to stay focused over time. The improvements were meaningful—similar in size to the difference between an average adult and someone with mild attention difficulties. This suggests that constant mobile internet access may impair our natural ability to focus.

The study design was particularly strong because it included a swap halfway through. After the first two weeks, the groups switched roles—people who had blocked mobile internet got access back, while the other group had to block their internet. This strengthened the evidence that the improvements were caused by reduced mobile internet access rather than other factors.

“Smartphones have drastically changed our lives and behaviors over the past 15 years, but our basic human psychology remains the same,” says lead author Adrian Ward, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin, in a statement. “Our big question was, are we adapted to deal with constant connection to everything all the time? The data suggest that we are not.”

An impressive 91% of participants improved in at least one area. Without the ability to check their phones constantly, people spent more time socializing in person, exercising, and being outdoors—activities known to boost mental health and cognitive function.

Throughout the study, researchers checked in with participants via text messages to track their moods. Those who blocked mobile internet reported feeling progressively better over the two weeks. Even after regaining internet access, many retained some of their improvements, suggesting the break helped reshape their digital habits.

Interestingly, the benefits weren’t just from less screen time. While phone use dropped significantly during the study (from over 5 hours to under 3 hours daily), the improvements appeared linked specifically to breaking the habit of constant online connection. Even after getting internet access back, many participants kept their usage lower and continued feeling better.

One surprising finding involved people who started the study with a high “fear of missing out” (FOMO). Rather than making their anxiety worse, disconnecting from mobile internet led to the biggest improvements in their well-being. This suggests that constant access to social media and online updates may fuel digital anxiety rather than relieve it.

Blocking mobile internet also helped participants feel more in control of their behavior and improved their sleep. Without instant access to endless entertainment and social media, people reported having better control over their attention and averaged about 17 more minutes of sleep per night.

However, sticking to the program was difficult—only about 25% of participants kept their mobile internet blocked for the full two weeks. This highlights how dependent many of us have become on constant connectivity. Still, even those who didn’t fully adhere to the program showed improvements, suggesting that simply reducing mobile internet use can be beneficial.

The researchers noted that a less extreme approach might work better for most people. Instead of blocking all mobile internet, limiting access during certain times or restricting specific apps could provide similar benefits while being easier to maintain.

The takeaway is simple: reducing mobile internet access—even temporarily—can help improve well-being, mental health, and focus. While not everyone is ready to disconnect completely, finding ways to limit our online exposure could make us happier, healthier, and more present in our daily lives.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/digital-detox-keeping-phone-internet-off-wellbeing-focus-sleep/

It’s no surprise that our mental acuity and mood wax and wane during the day, but it may be surprising that most of us seem to be morning people.

In a study at University College London, researchers analyzed data collected from a dozen surveys of 49,218 respondents between March 2020 and March 2022. According to the report published recently in the British Medical Journal Metal Health, the data showed a trend of people claiming better mental health and wellbeing early in the day. They reported greater life satisfaction, increased happiness, and less severe depressive symptoms. They also reported a greater sense of self-worth earlier in the day. People felt worst around midnight. Mental health and mood were more variable on weekends. Loneliness was more stable throughout the week.

Dr. Feifei Bu, principal research fellow in statistics and epidemiology at University College, said in an email to CNN, “Our study suggests that people’s mental health and wellbeing could fluctuate over time of day. On average people seem to feel best early in the day and worst late at night.”

Research Limitations

Even though a correlation was discovered between morning, better mood, life satisfaction, and self-worth, there may be factors affecting the results not apparent in the research, Dr. Bu says.

How people were feeling may have affected when they filled out the surveys. As with most research, the findings need to be replicated. Studies need to be designed to adjust for or eliminate confounding variables, isolating specific questions as much as possible.

In addition, although mental health and well-being are associated, they are not the same thing. Well-being is a complex medley of mental, emotional, physical, cognitive, psychological, and spiritual factors. According to the World Health Organization, well-being is a positive state determined by social, economic, and environmental conditions that include quality of life and a sense of meaning and purpose.

Mental health is a significant contributor to well-being, but they don’t entirely overlap. Many people with mental health issues also enjoy what they describe as a good quality of life.

Also, while many reported feeling better in the morning, better is relative. When someone feels better in the morning, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they feel good.

In addition, mood is a temporary state; mental health and well-being are more stable conditions.

Do hard work when it’s best for you

Do these results mean to confront problems or do your hardest work first thing in the morning? Or does it mean not to problem-solve in the evening – just go to bed and tackle your issues in the morning? Not all research agrees, but more evidence points to late morning as the most productive time for problem-solving. Studies suggest that mood is more stable in the late morning, making it easier to confront more demanding matters with a cool head and less emotional influence.

Cortisol, an important body-regulating hormone that your adrenal glands produce and release, has a daily rhythm of highs and lows. It can also be secreted in bursts in response to stress. Cortisol tends to be lower in the midafternoon. This time is also associated with dips in mood and “decision fatigue.”

Source : https://studyfinds.org/why-morning-people-conquer-challenges/

 

Intermittent fasting has become one of the most popular eating patterns of the past decade. The practice, which involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting, has been praised for its potential health benefits. But a new mouse model study suggests that age plays a crucial role in how the body responds to fasting — and for young individuals, it might do more harm than good.

A team of German researchers recently discovered that while intermittent fasting improved health markers in older mice, it actually impaired important cellular development in younger ones. Their findings, published in Cell Reports, raise important questions about who should (and shouldn’t) try this trending eating pattern.

Inside our bodies, specialized cells in the pancreas produce insulin, a hormone that helps control blood sugar levels. These cells, called beta cells, are particularly important during youth when the body is still developing. The researchers found that in young mice, long-term intermittent fasting disrupted how these cells grew and functioned.

“Our study confirms that intermittent fasting is beneficial for adults, but it might come with risks for children and teenagers,” says Stephan Herzig, a professor at Technical University of Munich and director of the Institute for Diabetes and Cancer at Helmholtz Munich, in a statement.

The study looked at three groups of mice: young (equivalent to adolescence in humans), middle-aged (adult), and elderly. Each group followed an eating pattern where they fasted for 24 hours, followed by 48 hours of normal eating. The researchers tracked how this affected their bodies over both short periods (5 weeks) and longer periods (10 weeks).

At first, all age groups showed improvements in how their bodies handled sugar, which, of course, is a positive sign. But after extended periods of intermittent fasting, significant differences emerged between age groups. While older and middle-aged mice continued to show benefits, the young mice began showing troubling changes.

The pancreatic cells in young mice became less effective at producing insulin, and they weren’t maturing properly. Even more concerning, these cellular changes resembled patterns typically seen in Type 1 diabetes, a condition that usually develops in childhood or adolescence.

“Intermittent fasting is usually thought to benefit beta cells, so we were surprised to find that young mice produced less insulin after the extended fasting,” explains co-lead author Leonardo Matta, from Helmholtz Munich.

The older mice, however, actually benefited from the extended fasting periods. Their insulin-producing cells worked better, and they showed improved blood sugar control. Middle-aged mice maintained stable function, suggesting that mature bodies handle fasting periods differently than developing ones.

This age-dependent response challenges the common belief that intermittent fasting is suitable for everyone. The research suggests that while mature adults might benefit from this eating pattern, young people could be putting themselves at risk, particularly if they maintain the practice for extended periods.

The findings are especially relevant given how popular intermittent fasting has become among young people looking to manage their weight. While short-term fasting appeared safe across all age groups, the long-term effects on young practitioners could be significant.

“The next step is digging deeper into the molecular mechanisms underlying these observations,” says Herzig. “If we better understand how to promote healthy beta cell development, it will open new avenues for treating diabetes by restoring insulin production.”

Despite the attention they receive from athletes and wellness influencers, popular dietary trends aren’t one-size-fits-all. What works for adults might not be appropriate for growing bodies — all the more reason that understanding these age-related differences becomes increasingly important.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/intermittent-fasting-harmful-teens/

As cities worldwide crack down on diesel vehicle emissions, a more insidious form of air pollution has been quietly growing alongside increased traffic – brake dust. Research concludes that the particles released when vehicles brake may actually be more harmful to human lung cells than diesel exhaust, with copper-rich brake pads emerging as a particular concern.

This finding comes at a critical time, as the shift toward heavier electric vehicles means more brake wear and potentially higher exposure to these harmful particles. While governments have made substantial progress in reducing exhaust emissions, brake dust remains largely unregulated despite contributing up to 55% of all traffic-related fine particles in urban areas.

Researchers at the University of Southampton and their collaborators examined how tiny particles from different types of brake pads affected human lung cells, focusing on the delicate air sacs where oxygen enters our bloodstream. They compared brake dust from four common types of brake pads against diesel exhaust particles. Much like comparing different recipes to see which ingredients might cause problems, they tested low-metallic, semi-metallic, non-asbestos organic (NAO), and ceramic brake pads.

Their findings, published in Particle and Fibre Toxicology, painted a concerning picture: brake dust from copper-enriched NAO and ceramic brake pads caused significantly more cellular stress and inflammation than both other brake pad types and diesel exhaust. These copper-rich particles triggered inflammatory responses and altered cell metabolism in ways that could potentially lead to disease.

Modern brake pads contain a complex mixture of materials that help vehicles stop safely. NAO brake pads, the most common type in the U.S. due to their low cost and good performance, were developed to replace asbestos-containing pads. However, manufacturers added copper fibers to maintain heat conductivity – a role previously filled by asbestos. This copper content turned out to be problematic.

When researchers exposed lung cells to NAO brake dust, copper accumulated inside the cells steadily as exposure increased. Using specialized molecules that bind to specific metals – like a magnet that only attracts one type of metal – they confirmed that copper was driving the harmful effects.

Perhaps most concerning was the discovery that copper-rich brake dust triggered a cellular response called “pseudohypoxic HIF signaling.” In simple terms, this means the cells behaved as if they were starving for oxygen even though plenty was available – similar to a false alarm that keeps cells in an unnecessary state of emergency. This same mechanism has been linked to various diseases, including certain cancers and scarring of lung tissue.

Some U.S. states, including California and Washington, have already begun restricting copper in brake pads – but these rules were originally created to protect fish and aquatic life from copper washing off roads into waterways, not to address human health concerns. This study suggests these restrictions may have the unexpected benefit of protecting human health as well.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/brake-dust-more-harmful-than-diesel-exhaust/

For years, experts have praised yogurt’s potential benefits for digestive health, but that’s not the only punch it packs. New research suggests its cancer-fighting properties might be more nuanced than previously thought. A new study reveals that yogurt consumption may help prevent certain types of colorectal cancer, specifically those containing higher levels of beneficial bacteria called Bifidobacterium.

Colorectal cancer ranks as the third most common cancer worldwide, affecting both men and women. Prevention strategies have become increasingly important as rates rise, particularly among younger adults. While regular screening through colonoscopy remains the gold standard for early detection, researchers continue searching for dietary and lifestyle factors that might reduce cancer risk.

Research teams from Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School analyzed data from over 132,000 health professionals spanning multiple decades. Research published in Gut Microbes reveals a surprising link between yogurt consumption patterns and subsequent colorectal cancer diagnoses.

“Our study provides unique evidence about the potential benefit of yogurt,” says Dr. Shuji Ogino, chief of the Program in Molecular Pathological Epidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in a statement. “My lab’s approach is to try to link long-term diets and other exposures to a possible key difference in tissue, such as the presence or absence of a particular species of bacteria. This kind of detective work can increase the strength of evidence connecting diet to health outcomes.”

Through two major studies, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, researchers tracked more than 100,000 female nurses since 1976 and 51,000 male health professionals since 1986. Every two years, participants answered detailed questions about their health, lifestyle, and medical history. Every four years, they provided specific information about their diets, including how much plain and flavored yogurt they consumed.

This long-term tracking allowed researchers to understand not just occasional yogurt consumption but established eating patterns over decades. When participants developed colorectal cancer, researchers analyzed tumor samples for the presence of Bifidobacterium, a type of beneficial bacteria naturally present in the human gut and commonly added to yogurt products.

Among 3,079 documented colorectal cancer cases, researchers examined 1,121 for Bifidobacterium content. The findings revealed that this beneficial bacteria was quite common. Thirty-one percent of cases were Bifidobacterium-positive, while 69% were negative. For participants who ate two or more servings of yogurt per week, researchers observed a 20% lower rate of Bifidobacterium-positive tumors compared to those who ate yogurt less than once per month.

Most notably, this protective effect appeared strongest in the proximal colon, also known as the right side of the colon. Located near where the small intestine connects to the large intestine, the proximal colon poses unique challenges for cancer detection and treatment. Cancers in this area often grow with fewer obvious symptoms and are harder to spot during routine colonoscopy procedures. Research has shown that patients with proximal colon cancer typically face worse survival outcomes than those with cancers in other parts of the colon.

“It has long been believed that yogurt and other fermented milk products are beneficial for gastrointestinal health,” says co-senior author Dr. Tomotaka Ugai. “Our new findings suggest that this protective effect may be specific for Bifidobacterium-positive tumors.”

Bifidobacterium, a beneficial gut bacterium often found in yogurt, plays a role in digesting dietary fiber, maintaining gut barrier integrity, and regulating immune responses—all factors linked to colorectal cancer risk. The study’s authors hypothesize that yogurt consumption may contribute to a healthier gut microbiome, which in turn could influence cancer risk, particularly in the proximal colon.

However, because different yogurt products contain varying levels and strains of probiotics, more research is needed to determine whether specific types of yogurt provide greater protective benefits than others. Future studies may explore how dietary patterns interact with individual gut microbiomes to influence cancer risk, potentially leading to more personalized dietary recommendations for colorectal cancer prevention, though this remains an emerging area of research.

Regular yogurt consumers in the study demonstrated other healthy habits as well. They typically exercised more, smoked less, and maintained better overall dietary patterns than those who rarely ate yogurt. However, even after accounting for these factors, the association between yogurt consumption and reduced risk of Bifidobacterium-positive proximal colon cancer remained significant.

“This paper adds to the growing evidence that illustrates the connection between diet, the gut microbiome, and risk of colorectal cancer,” says Dr. Andrew Chan, chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Beyond the general recommendation to consume yogurt, this research raises questions about which products might offer the most benefit. Not all yogurts contain the same bacterial strains or concentrations. While many products include Bifidobacterium, the amounts can vary significantly. Future research may help determine whether certain formulations provide better protection against colorectal cancer.

Different subtypes of colorectal cancer may respond differently to preventive measures, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all approach to prevention might not be optimal. This understanding could eventually lead to more personalized prevention strategies based on individual risk factors and gut bacterial composition.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/eating-yogurt-colon-cancer/

There is only so much thinking most of us can do in our heads. Try dividing 16,951 by 67 without reaching for a pen and paper. Or a calculator. Try doing the weekly shopping without a list on the back of last week’s receipt. Or on your phone.

By relying on these devices to help make our lives easier, are we making ourselves smarter or dumber? Have we traded efficiency gains for inching ever closer to idiocy as a species?

This question is especially important to consider with regard to generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology such as ChatGPT, an AI chatbot owned by tech company OpenAI, which at the time of writing is used by 300 million people each week.

According to a recent paper by a team of researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, the answer might be yes. But there’s more to the story.

Thinking well
The researchers assessed how users perceive the effect of generative AI on their own critical thinking.

Generally speaking, critical thinking has to do with thinking well.

One way we do this is by judging our own thinking processes against established norms and methods of good reasoning. These norms include values such as precision, clarity, accuracy, breadth, depth, relevance, significance and cogency of arguments.

Other factors that can affect quality of thinking include the influence of our existing world views, cognitive biases, and reliance on incomplete or inaccurate mental models.

The authors of the recent study adopt a definition of critical thinking developed by American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1956. It’s not really a definition at all. Rather it’s a hierarchical way to categorise cognitive skills, including recall of information, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

The authors state they prefer this categorization, also known as a “taxonomy”, because it’s simple and easy to apply. However, since it was devised it has fallen out of favor and has been discredited by Robert Marzano and indeed by Bloom himself.

In particular, it assumes there is a hierarchy of cognitive skills in which so-called “higher-order” skills are built upon “lower-order” skills. This does not hold on logical or evidence-based grounds. For example, evaluation, usually seen as a culminating or higher-order process, can be the beginning of inquiry or very easy to perform in some contexts. It is more the context than the cognition that determines the sophistication of thinking.

An issue with using this taxonomy in the study is that many generative AI products also seem to use it to guide their own output. So you could interpret this study as testing whether generative AI, by the way it’s designed, is effective at framing how users think about critical thinking.

Also missing from Bloom’s taxonomy is a fundamental aspect of critical thinking: the fact that the critical thinker not only performs these and many other cognitive skills, but performs them well. They do this because they have an overarching concern for the truth, which is something AI systems do not have.

Higher confidence in AI equals less critical thinking
Research published earlier this year revealed “a significant negative correlation between frequent AI tool usage and critical thinking abilities”.

The new study further explores this idea. It surveyed 319 knowledge workers such as healthcare practitioners, educators and engineers who discussed 936 tasks they conducted with the help of generative AI. Interestingly, the study found users consider themselves to use critical thinking less in the execution of the task, than in providing oversight at the verification and editing stages.

In high-stakes work environments, the desire to produce high-quality work combined with fear of reprisals serve as powerful motivators for users to engage their critical thinking in reviewing the outputs of AI.

But overall, participants believe the increases in efficiency more than compensate for the effort expended in providing such oversight.

The study found people who had higher confidence in AI generally displayed less critical thinking, while people with higher confidence in themselves tended to display more critical thinking.

This suggests generative AI does not harm one’s critical thinking – provided one has it to begin with.

Problematically, the study relied too much on self-reporting, which can be subject to a range of biases and interpretation issues. Putting this aside, critical thinking was defined by users as “setting clear goals, refining prompts, and assessing generated content to meet specific criteria and standards”.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/is-ai-making-us-stupider-maybe-according-to-one-of-the-worlds-biggest-ai-companies/

If you’ve ever wondered about the best time to take a nap, researchers have found your answer: 1:42 p.m. This oddly specific time emerged from a new nationwide study that looked at how Americans nap and what makes some people better nappers than others.

The survey, conducted by Talker Research and commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress, found that most people aim for a 51-minute nap, which would have them waking up at 2:33 p.m. But there’s a catch – napping too long can leave you feeling worse than before you closed your eyes.

“As a psychologist, I see firsthand how sleep — especially napping — affects mood, focus and overall well-being. So many people nap the wrong way and then wonder why they feel groggy instead of refreshed,” says Nick Bach, who holds a doctorate in psychology, in a statement.

When Does a Nap Become Too Long?

The study found that naps lasting longer than an hour and 26 minutes – about 35 minutes past the “perfect” length – enter what researchers call the “danger zone.” At this point, you might feel groggy and disoriented instead of refreshed. And if you’re still sleeping after an extra hour and 44 minutes? That’s no longer a nap – you’ve drifted into a full sleep session.

But even the ideal 51-minute nap might be too long for most people. Bach warns, “I always tell people that if they nap too long, they risk entering deep sleep, which makes waking up harder. A quick 20-minute nap is perfect for a recharge without the dreaded sleep inertia.”

The Great Debate: TV vs. Silence

While sleep experts often recommend quiet, dark rooms for napping, many Americans have different ideas. The study found that 44% of people like having some background noise during their naps – similar to the 50% who prefer noise while sleeping at night. Nearly half of these nappers (47%) fall asleep with the TV on, while only 7% use a white noise machine.

Bach suggests a middle ground: “I always recommend napping in a quiet, dark and cool space. If total silence isn’t an option, using white noise or soft music can help.”

When it comes to where people nap, there’s another split between expert advice and real-world habits. While 53% follow the traditional route and nap in bed, 38% prefer catching their midday rest on the couch. As Bach notes, “Napping on the couch can work, but a bed with good support is usually better.”

Are Nappers More Successful?

Here’s where the research gets interesting: people who regularly take naps might have better social lives. The study found that 48% of self-described “nappers” report having a “thriving” social life, compared to 34% of non-nappers. The pattern continues in their love lives too, with 50% of nappers reporting satisfaction versus 39% of non-nappers.

While both groups were equally likely to be happy (74% of nappers versus 73% of non-nappers), nappers had a slight edge in feeling successful – 39% compared to 32% of non-nappers. They’re also more likely to care about making sustainable choices, with 74% of nappers considering environmental impact in their decisions versus 68% of non-nappers.

Getting the Timing Right

The study’s finding that 1:42 p.m. is the perfect nap time isn’t just a random number – it fits right into expert recommendations. “I think one of the biggest mistakes people make is napping too late,” Bach explains. “If you nap in the late afternoon or evening, it can mess with your nighttime sleep. Ideally, napping before 3 p.m. keeps your sleep schedule on track.”

The benefits of a well-timed nap are clear: 55% of people in the study said they felt more productive right after waking up from a nap. However, there’s a concerning trend – the Americans surveyed only felt well-rested for about half of an average week, suggesting that many might be using naps to make up for poor nighttime sleep.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/best-time-nap/

Study shows uncertainty might be the key to breaking self-deceptive behaviors

A fitness tracker mysteriously logs extra steps. A calorie-counting app somehow shows lower numbers. An online quiz score seems surprisingly high. While these scenarios might seem like harmless self-improvement tools, new research reveals they represent a fascinating psychological phenomenon: we often cheat unconsciously simply to feel better about ourselves, even when there’s nothing tangible to gain.

“I found that people do cheat when there are no extrinsic incentives like money or prizes but intrinsic rewards, like feeling better about yourself,” explains Sara Dommer, assistant professor of marketing at Penn State and lead researcher of a groundbreaking study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. “For this to work, it has to happen via diagnostic self-deception, meaning that I have to convince myself that I am actually not cheating. Doing so allows me to feel smarter, more accomplished or healthier.”

This phenomenon, which researchers call “diagnostic self-deception,” helps explain behaviors that traditional theories about cheating cannot. While previous research focused on cheating for material gain, Dommer’s work examines why people cheat even when the only reward is an enhanced self-image.

Inside the Self-Deception Experiments

Through four carefully designed studies, Dommer and her team revealed how this self-deceptive behavior works in everyday situations.

They snooze in parking garages, on side streets before the afternoon school run, in nap pods rented by the hour or stretched out in bed while working from home.

People who make a habit of sleeping on the job comprise a secret society of sorts within the U.S. labor force. Inspired by famous power nappers Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein, today’s committed nap-takers often sneak in short rest breaks because they think the practice will improve their cognitive performance but still carries a stigma.

Multiple studies have extolled the benefits of napping, such as enhanced memory and focus. A mid-afternoon siesta is the norm in parts of Spain and Italy. In China and Japan, nodding off is encouraged since working to the point of exhaustion is seen as a display of dedication, according to a study in the journal Sleep.

Yet it’s hard to catch a few z’s during regular business hours in the United States, where people who nap can be viewed as lazy. The federal government even bans sleeping in its buildings while at work, except in rare circumstances.

Individuals who are willing and able to challenge the status quo are becoming less hesitant to describe the payoffs of taking a dose of microsleep. Marvin Stockwell, the founder of PR firm Champion the Cause, takes short naps several times a week.

“They rejuvenate me in a way that I’m exponentially more useful and constructive and creative on the other side of a nap than I am when I’m forcing myself to gut through being tired,” Stockwell said.

The art of napping

Sleep is as important to good health as diet and exercise, but too many people don’t get enough of it, according to James Rowley, program director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center.

“A lot of it has to do with electronics. It used to be TVs, but now cellphones are probably the biggest culprit. People just take them to bed with them and watch,” Rowley said.”

Napping isn’t common in academia, where there’s constant pressure to publish, but University of Southern California lecturer Julianna Kirschner fits in daytime naps when she can. Kirschner studies social media, which she says is designed to deliver a dopamine rush to the brain. Viewers lose track of time on the platforms, interrupting sleep. Kirschner says she isn’t immune to this problem — hence, her occasional need to nap.

The key to effective napping is to keep the snooze sessions short, Rowley said. Short naps can be restorative and are more likely to leave you more alert, he said.

“Most people don’t realize naps should be in the 15- to 20-minute range,” Rowley said. “Anything longer, and you can have problems with sleep inertia, difficulty waking up, and you’re groggy.”

Individuals who find themselves consistently relying on naps to make up for inadequate sleep should probably also examine their bedtime habits, he said.

A matter of timing

Mid-afternoon is the ideal time for a nap because it coincides with a natural circadian dip, while napping after 6 p.m. may interfere with nocturnal sleep for those who work during daylight hours, said Michael Chee, director of the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at the National University of Singapore.

“Any duration of nap, you will feel recharged. It’s a relief valve. There are clear cognitive benefits,” Chee said.

A review of napping studies suggests that 30 minutes is the optimal nap length in terms of practicality and benefits, said Ruth Leong, a research fellow at the Singapore center.

“When people nap for too long, it may not be a sustainable practice, and also, really long naps that cross the two-hour mark affect nighttime sleep,” Leong said.

Experts recommend setting an alarm for 20 to 30 minutes, which gives nappers a few minutes to fall asleep.

But even a six-minute nap can be restorative and improve learning, said Valentin Dragoi, scientific director of the Center for Neural Systems Restoration, a research and treatment facility run by Houston Methodist hospital and Rice University.

 

Time flows as a constant stream of moments, but your brain sees patterns in this flow. Now, scientists have discovered exactly how individual neurons learn to recognize and predict these patterns, providing the first direct evidence of how our brains map out the structure of time.

The study, published in Nature, was conducted by researchers at UCLA Health. It required recording the activity of individual neurons in patients who had electrodes implanted in their brains for epilepsy treatment. These recordings offer a rare glimpse into how individual brain cells behave during learning and memory formation—something that’s impossible to observe with standard brain imaging techniques.

“Recognizing patterns from experiences over time is crucial for the human brain to form memory, predict potential future outcomes, and guide behaviors,” says Dr. Itzhak Fried, director of epilepsy surgery at UCLA Health, in a statement. “But how this process is carried out in the brain at the cellular level had remained unknown – until now.”

Prior to the main experiment, researchers needed to identify which images would trigger strong neural responses in each participant. They showed participants about 120 different pictures over 40 minutes, including images of celebrities, landmarks, and other subjects chosen partly based on each person’s interests. Based on how brain cells responded, researchers selected six specific images for each participant to use in the main experiment.

The main study had three phases. In the first phase, images appeared in random order while participants performed simple tasks, like identifying whether the person shown was male or female. During the middle phase, images appeared in sequences that followed specific rules, though participants weren’t told about these rules. Instead, they focused on a new task: determining whether each image was shown normally or in a mirror image. The final phase returned to random sequences and the original gender identification task.

The sequence rules were based on what researchers called a pyramid graph. Six points were arranged in a triangle shape, with each point representing one of the selected images. Lines connected certain points, indicating which images could appear after others. Some images were directly connected, like neighboring points on the graph. Others required taking an indirect path through multiple points to get from one to another.

What makes this study particularly fascinating is that it revealed how individual neurons adapted as participants became familiar with these sequences. At first, a neuron would respond strongly to just one specific image. But over time, these same neurons began responding to images that frequently appeared close together in the sequence, essentially mapping out the temporal relationships between different images.

The brain’s ability to encode these temporal patterns shares remarkable similarities with how it represents physical space. Previous research discovered that certain neurons act as “place cells,” firing when an animal reaches specific locations, while others function as “grid cells” that help measure distances. The new study shows the brain uses comparable mechanisms to map out sequences of events and experiences.

This research also builds on earlier discoveries about “concept cells,” neurons that respond to specific individuals, places, or objects. These specialized brain cells appear to be fundamental building blocks of memory. The new findings show how these neurons work together to create structured representations of our experiences through time.

The researchers discovered that this neural mapping created what they call a “successor representation,” a predictive map that considers not just immediate connections but likely future events. Rather than simply linking one moment to the next, your brain builds a broader model of likely future possibilities based on learned patterns.

“This study shows us for the first time how the brain uses analogous mechanisms to represent what are seemingly very different types of information: space and time,” explains Fried. “We have demonstrated at the neuronal level how these representations of object trajectories in time are incorporated by the human hippocampal-entorhinal system.”

During breaks between testing phases, researchers observed “replay” events, moments when neurons would rapidly rehearse the learned sequences in a compressed timeframe. This neural replay happened in milliseconds, suggesting a mechanism for consolidating learned patterns into memory.

Understanding how the brain encodes temporal patterns goes beyond basic science. The findings could help develop new treatments for memory disorders and advance the design of brain-computer interfaces. They may also inform artificial intelligence systems that aim to process sequential information in ways that mirror human cognition.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/brain-experiences-sense-of-time/

From personalized medicine to wearable technology to hair loss innovations, this year could provide no shortage of ways for humans to live healthier
Remember when science fiction promised us flying cars and robot butlers? Well, 2025’s actual breakthroughs might not help you commute through the clouds, but they’re poised to transform something far more important: how we understand and care for our human bodies and minds. From reversing hair loss to regenerating teeth, from predicting mental health patterns to personalized genetic treatments, we’re standing on the edge of discoveries that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago.

We asked a panel of nine experts to provide us with their predictions for this year’s biggest research breakthroughs. If there’s one thing we can say, we’re looking forward to a world where the ability to gauge and improve our health might be easier than ever before.

What makes these predictions (or should we really call them expectations?) especially fascinating is how they’re all connected by two powerful threads: the rise of personalized medicine and the integration of artificial intelligence. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all healthcare – whether we’re talking about stress management, dental care, or treating obesity, researchers are uncovering ways to tailor treatments to each person’s unique genetic makeup, gut microbiome, and lifestyle patterns.

But perhaps the most exciting shift isn’t just in what these breakthroughs might achieve, but in how they’re changing our entire approach to healthcare. Instead of waiting for problems to occur and then treating them, 2025’s innovations are all about prevention and early intervention. Imagine a world where your smartwatch can predict a mental health dip before you feel it, where your genes can be edited to prevent diseases before they start, or where your teeth could actually repair themselves. That world isn’t just science fiction anymore – it’s right around the corner.

Advancements in Aging and Mental Health Research

As a geriatric psychiatrist and someone deeply immersed in caregiving and aging issues, I predict 2025 will bring significant advancements in research focused on aging, mental health, and caregiver support. One of the most exciting areas is the use of AI-driven health technologies to detect and manage age-related conditions earlier. For example, wearable devices are becoming smarter at identifying early signs of cognitive decline or physical frailty. I anticipate new breakthroughs in how these tools deliver actionable insights, empowering families and caregivers to intervene before major health events occur.

Another area I’m watching closely is personalized medicine for mental health. Research into biomarkers and genetic testing is advancing quickly, and I believe we’ll soon see targeted treatments for depression, anxiety, and cognitive disorders that are more effective and have fewer side effects. This could be life-changing for older adults who struggle with medication tolerance or for caregivers managing their own stress.

Finally, I predict a surge in studies exploring the psychosocial aspects of caregiving. Researchers are diving deeper into the mental health impacts of caregiving and testing interventions — like mindfulness programs, virtual support groups, and even VR therapy-that help caregivers cope with stress and maintain their well-being. These innovations are essential as caregiving responsibilities grow more common and complex.

What excites me most is the focus on holistic approaches that integrate mental, emotional, and physical health. Whether it’s smarter tech, personalized care, or emotional resilience tools, I believe these breakthroughs will make life better for aging adults and their caregivers too — helping us all age with more grace, dignity, and support.

Mind-Body Connection and Stress Management

2025 will be the year of the mind-body connection — specifically, in understanding how chronic stress physically impacts our bodies. Eighty percent of our nervous system carries information from the body to the brain, not the other way around – yet our approach to mental health targets the mind first.

We’ve already seen at NEUROFIT that our average active user reports a 54% reduction in stress after just one week of mind-body practices — more studies will show how physical interventions can be more effective than traditional cognitive approaches for managing stress and mental health.

Measurement technology can help lead this trend. With wearables becoming more sophisticated, I anticipate studies showing how real-time biometric data can predict stress-related health issues before they become severe. Our own research analyzing millions of stress data points shows that certain physiological patterns consistently precede burnout. Given that chronic stress leads to $1T+ in healthcare expenses each year, I expect to see major studies validating these early warning signals, potentially revolutionizing preventive healthcare.

Another exciting area is the intersection of behavioral science and technology. Studies are currently exploring how brief, targeted interventions can create lasting changes in stress response patterns. We’ve found that 95% of our users experience immediate stress relief within five minutes of specific somatic exercises. I predict we’ll see research showing how short, consistent practices can rewire the nervous system more effectively than longer, sporadic interventions.

Finally, I think we’ll see breakthrough research on social connection’s role in nervous system regulation. Our data shows that prioritizing social play can improve emotional balance by up to 26%. I expect studies in 2025 will further validate how structured social interactions can significantly impact stress resilience and overall mental health outcomes.

These developments could radically change how we approach stress management and mental health care, moving from reactive treatment to proactive regulation and prevention.

Regenerative Medicine in Dentistry

As a dentist, I’m particularly excited about advancements in regenerative medicine and biomaterials for dentistry. Researchers are exploring ways to grow dental tissues or repair teeth using stem cells, which could revolutionize how we treat tooth decay and damage. Imagine being able to regenerate lost enamel or even replace a missing tooth without needing implants. These breakthroughs could lead to less invasive and more natural dental solutions for patients.

In the broader medical field, wearable technology and AI-driven diagnostics are also advancing quickly. Devices that monitor health metrics like glucose levels, heart rate, and oral health indicators in real time could become more accurate and accessible. These tools could improve preventive care by catching potential health issues early, leading to better outcomes for patients. I believe 2025 will bring us closer to more personalized and proactive healthcare.

AI-Driven Personalized Medicine

By 2025, I foresee significant advancements in AI-driven personalized medicine, wherein the integration of genomics, patient data analytics, and AI will result in much more precise and targeted treatments. There is a growing interest among researchers in developing AI-powered algorithms that could forecast disease progression based on a person’s genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environmental exposure. This would facilitate more proactive and personalized interventions, especially in chronic disease management, oncology, and neurology.

Another field that I predict breakthroughs in is the integration of AI and wearables for real-time health monitoring. Various studies are underway that test wearable technologies that gather continuous physiological data, to be analyzed by AI to spot early signs of impending heart attacks, strokes, or complications arising from diabetes, even before symptoms begin to appear. This will change healthcare from being a reactive practice to proactive care and ensure timely intervention for patients.

Finally, I foresee a rapid increase in research on regenerative medicine, specifically on stem cell therapies and tissue engineering. With technological advancement, there may come the ability to regenerate tissues and organs damaged from specific life traumas, diseases, and conditions that, until today, could not be cured-such as heart disease, spinal cord injury, and neurodegenerative diseases. This space will no doubt interconnect with AI and machine learning to better results and hastened efficacies in treatments.

As schools nationwide grapple with smartphone policies, new research provides unprecedented and shocking insight into how teenagers use their phones during school hours. Using sophisticated tracking technology, researchers discovered that students spend an average of 92 minutes on their smartphones during a typical school day, with a quarter of students exceeding 2 hours of use.

Moving beyond simple screen time measurements, researchers deployed passive sensing technology to paint a detailed picture of how and when adolescents use their phones during the school day. Their findings raise important questions about the role of smartphones in modern education and their potential impact on learning.

Research led by Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis at Seattle Children’s Research Institute found that this school-day phone use accounts for approximately 27% of students’ total daily phone usage, which averages 5.59 hours. More revealing than the raw numbers is how students spend their phone time during school hours.

Social media and messaging dominate school-hour phone use, with Instagram leading social platforms. Instagram users in the study spent an average of about 25 minutes on the platform during school hours alone. Messaging and chat applications averaged 19.5 minutes of use during school hours, while video streaming services claimed about 17 minutes.

Looking at demographic patterns, older teens (ages 16-18) logged significantly more phone time during school hours compared to younger teens (ages 13-15), spending about 33 more minutes on their devices. Female students showed higher usage rates than male students, using their phones approximately 29 minutes more during school hours.

Parental attempts to limit screen time appeared to have little impact on school-hour phone use. Students with parental limits on screen time showed similar usage patterns to those without restrictions, suggesting that school-based interventions might be more effective than home-based rules.

Educational background of parents emerged as a significant factor. Students whose parents held bachelor’s degrees spent about 32 minutes less time on their phones during school hours compared to peers whose parents did not have college degrees. This correlation raises important questions about the role of family educational culture in shaping student technology habits.

The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, also revealed interesting patterns among different demographic groups. Hispanic students showed significantly higher social media use during school hours compared to their white peers, spending about 25 more minutes on social platforms. Meanwhile, students identifying as LGBTQIA+ showed similar usage patterns to their non-LGBTQIA+ peers, with no statistically significant differences in overall phone use.

While smartphones offer potential benefits for learning and communication, these findings suggest their primary use during school hours may be misaligned with educational goals. More schools are expected to implement phone restrictions in the coming years, with research like this providing valuable data to inform those policy decisions.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/teens-spend-90-minutes-phones-during-school/

It’s no secret that a good night’s sleep plays a vital role in mental and physical health and well-being. The way you feel during your waking hours depends greatly on how you are sleeping, say sleep experts.

A pattern of getting inadequate or unsatisfying sleep over time can raise the risk for chronic health problems and can affect how well we think, react, work, learn and get along with others.

According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, an estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have sleep disorders, and one in three adults does not regularly get the recommended amount of uninterrupted sleep needed to protect their health.

Many factors play a role in preparing the body to fall asleep and wake up, according to the National Institutes of Health. Our internal “body clock” manages the sleep and waking cycles and runs on a 24-hour repeating rhythm, called the circadian rhythm. This rhythm is controlled both by the amount of a sleep-inducing compound called adenosine in our system and cues in our environment, such as light and darkness. This is why sleep experts suggest keeping your bedroom dark during your preferred sleeping hours.

Sleep is also controlled by two main hormones, melatonin and cortisol, which our bodies release in a daily rhythm that is controlled by the body clock.

Exposure to bright artificial light—such as from television, computer and phone screens—late in the evening can disrupt this process, making it hard to fall asleep, explained Sanjay Patel, director of the UPMC Comprehensive Sleep Disorders Clinical Program and a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

Keeping our body clock and hormone levels more-or-less regulated are the best ways to consistently achieve good sleep, Patel said. He encouraged people with sleeping struggles to focus more on behavioral changes than seeking quick fixes, such as with over-the-counter sleep supplements like melatonin or by upping alcohol intake to feel drowsy.

Patel said there’s not much clinical evidence that melatonin supplements work very well, and that “a lot of the clinical trials of melatonin haven’t shown consistent evidence that it helps with insomnia.”

He did point out that the supplement isn’t particularly harmful either, except when “people start increasing and increasing the dose. And in particular, we worry about the high doses that a lot of children are being given by their parents, where it really can cause problems,” he said. Taking any more than three to five milligrams doesn’t increase the sedative effects, “and yet, we see people showing up to clinic all the time taking 20 milligrams.”

Sleeping potions

Many have suggested that warm milk, chamomile tea or tart cherry juice can induce a somniferous effect. While Patel said there’s no evidence they work, he did point out that they’re preferable to a nightcap.

“Alcohol is really bad for your sleep long term, for a number of reasons,” Patel said. First, alcohol can relax the throat muscles and can make sleep apnea and snoring worse for sufferers. Secondly, the body metabolizes alcohol rather quickly so its sedation effects do not last throughout the night.

“So while it may put you to sleep, what happens is, three or four hours later, the alcohol has been metabolized, and now you will wake up from not having alcohol in your system,” he said.

Evening libations can also increase acid reflux and long-term drinking can cause “changes in your brain chemistry and is a big cause of insomnia,” he said. Heavy drinkers who suffer from insomnia will often increase their intake of alcohol in an effort to fall asleep, thus creating a dangerous cycle that could lead to alcohol use disorder.

Cannabis is not much better, Patel said.

While a handful of pot users—specifically those who use it to treat anxiety—may see some sleep benefits, for the most part cannabis often does not help chronic insomnia and will likely make it worse.

“They actually see a lot of people whose sleep gets better when they stop using (cannabis),” Patel said.

Instead of turning to sleep aids—natural or otherwise—Patel said developing a bedtime routine that promotes relaxation and unwinding is a much better route to a good night’s rest.

Whether it’s taking hot bath, reading a book, meditating or even tuning into the nightly news, the brain will associate an oft-repeated bedtime ritual with the relaxation required to fall asleep, he explained.

You can watch television, but stay off social media, he said. “The algorithms on social media are designed to keep us engaged and end up contributing to people not closing their eyes until much later than they planned.”

Other common reasons that sleep can be unsatisfying or elusive are stress, worry and the simple fact that many people don’t give themselves enough time for rest.

“We see all the time that people plan to go to bed at a certain time, but then once they get into bed, they do other things and keep their mind active,” such as responding to emails, paying bills or scrolling on social platforms.

Aging influence

The rhythm and timing of the body clock changes with age, Patel said.

People need more sleep early in life when they’re growing and developing. For example, newborns may sleep more than 16 hours a day, and preschool-age children need to take naps.

In the teen years, the internal clock shifts so that they fall asleep later in the night, but then want to sleep in late. This is troublesome for teens because “they need to be up for school at 6:30 a.m. and so that’s causing lots of problems,” Patel said.

Some school districts in the region, including Pittsburgh Public in 2023, have shifted to later start times with this in mind.

For adults, sleep during middle age can be tricky with young children in the home who disrupt parents’ sleeping patterns. This is also a time of life when stress and worry are heightened, he said.

Older adults tend to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, but they’ve got their own unique challenges, Patel said.

“A lot of physical problems mean that people are often waking up more in the night as they age. They have to get up to go to the bathroom. They have chronic aches and pains that wake them up. They’re often taking medications that … have side effects that affect your sleep,” he said.

Source : https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-zzzs-science-night.html

 

If you’re like many Americans, you probably didn’t take all your vacation time this past year. Even if you did, chances are you didn’t fully unplug while away from the office. But according to new research from the University of Georgia, those vacation days aren’t just a nice perk—they’re crucial for your well-being.

The research, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, analyzed 32 different studies across nine countries. Researchers discovered something surprising: vacation benefits last much longer than previously believed. While we’ve long known that vacations can improve well-being, this comprehensive review found these positive effects persist well after returning to work, challenging earlier beliefs that vacation benefits quickly disappear.

“We think working more is better, but we actually perform better by taking care of ourselves,” explains lead author Ryan Grant, a doctoral student in psychology at UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, in a statement. “We need to break up these intense periods of work with intense periods of rest and recuperation.”

The catch? How you spend your vacation matters significantly. The research team found that truly disconnecting from work produced the greatest benefits. This means avoiding work emails, skipping those “quick check-ins” with the office, and genuinely allowing yourself to mentally detach from workplace responsibilities.

“If you’re not at work but you’re thinking about work on vacation, you might as well be at the office,” says Grant. “Vacations are one of the few opportunities we get to fully just disconnect from work.”

Physical activity emerged as another key factor in maximizing vacation benefits. But don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you need to run marathons during your beach trip.

“Basically anything that gets your heart rate up is a good option,” explains Grant. “Plus, a lot of physical activities you’re doing on vacation, like snorkeling, for example, are physical. So they’re giving you the physiological and mental health benefits. But they’re also unique opportunities for these really positive experiences that you probably don’t get in your everyday life.”

The length of your vacation also plays a crucial role. The study found that longer vacations generally led to greater improvements in well-being, though these effects also tended to decline more quickly upon return. The researchers recommend building in buffer days both before and after your trip. Taking time to pack and prepare reduces pre-vacation stress while having a day or two to readjust after returning can ease the transition back to work life.

Cultural differences revealed interesting patterns, too. In countries where work achievement and success are highly valued, people experience more dramatic benefits from vacation time, likely because they really need the break. However, they also show steeper declines in well-being when returning to work. Workers in countries with more mandatory vacation days tended to get more out of their time off, possibly because taking vacations is more normalized and accepted.

These findings arrive at a critical moment, as vacation usage has declined in recent decades. In 2018 alone, American workers left 768 million vacation days unused, surrendering approximately $65 billion in benefits. This trend persists despite mounting evidence that prolonged work without adequate breaks can lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, and even physical health problems.

Maybe we should all rethink how we view vacations. Rather than seeing them as optional luxuries, we should recognize them as essential tools for maintaining well-being and long-term productivity. Whether it’s a two-week adventure or a long weekend getaway, the key is to fully disconnect and engage in activities that provide both physical and mental benefits.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/vacation-days-long-term-health/

In an age of endless productivity hacks and work-life balance tips, new research offers a refreshing perspective: what if you could advance your career while actually enjoying your leisure time? A study suggests this elusive goal might be more achievable than previously thought, introducing a concept called “leisure-work synergizing” that could revolutionize how we think about professional development.

Conventional wisdom has long suggested that work and leisure should remain separate. Clock out, go home, and leave work behind. But researchers Kate Zipay from Purdue University and Jessica Rodell from the University of Georgia have uncovered evidence that thoughtfully blending certain work-related elements into leisure activities might actually enhance both professional growth and personal enjoyment.

The concept, published in Organization Science, goes beyond simply answering emails after hours or catching up on work during weekends.

“We found that employees who intentionally integrate professional growth into their free time – like listening to leadership podcasts, watching TED Talks or reading engaging business books – report feeling more confident, motivated and capable at work,” explains Zipay. This innovative approach allows people to develop professionally without sacrificing the fundamental pleasure of leisure time.

The Science Behind the Strategy

The research team tracked 89 professionals over five weeks, examining how their leisure choices influenced their work performance and emotional state. Participants completed surveys about their activities and experiences during evenings and weekends, followed by assessments of their workplace mindset and performance the next day.

What emerged was a clear pattern: when people engaged in leisure activities that had some connection to professional growth, they reported significantly higher levels of self-assurance, feeling more confident and capable at work. This boost in confidence translated into better overall workplace performance and satisfaction.

However, the research revealed an important caveat: personality matters. Not everyone benefits equally from blending work and leisure. The study identified two distinct types of people: “integrators” who naturally prefer fluid boundaries between work and personal life, and “segmenters” who thrive on keeping these domains separate.

“Employees who prefer a clear separation between work and personal life might struggle with this approach,” notes Zipay, “highlighting the importance of tailoring the practice to individual preferences.”

For integrators, leisure-work synergizing proved particularly beneficial, actually reducing fatigue rather than adding to it. Meanwhile, segmenters showed less positive results from the practice, suggesting that forcing this approach when it doesn’t align with personal preferences could be counterproductive.

‘Done right, it’s a game-changer’

This research arrives at a crucial moment when traditional boundaries between work and personal life continue to blur, especially in the wake of remote work trends. Rather than fighting against this evolution, the study suggests we might benefit from being more strategic about it.

“This isn’t about making your free time feel like work,” emphasizes Zipay. “It’s about leveraging activities you already love in a way that fuels your professional growth. Done right, it’s a game-changer for employees and employers alike.”

Look for those natural overlaps where professional growth can occur alongside genuine enjoyment. For instance, the explosive growth of platforms like MasterClass and the surging popularity of business and personal development podcasts suggest many people already naturally gravitate toward this kind of enriching leisure activity.

For organizations and employees alike, these findings open up new possibilities for professional development. Instead of relying solely on traditional training programs or expecting employees to sacrifice personal time for growth, companies might benefit from supporting more flexible and integrated approaches to skill development.

Rather than choosing between career advancement and personal enjoyment, careful integration of the two might offer the best of both worlds, proving that sometimes you really can have your cake and eat it too.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/secret-to-career-success-free-time/

Going out to restaurants, playing bingo, visiting friends, or attending religious services could give you extra years of healthy brain function, according to new research from Rush University Medical Center. Their study found that older adults who stayed socially active typically developed dementia five years later than those who were less social. It’s a difference that could both extend life and save hundreds of thousands in healthcare costs.

“This study shows that social activity is related to less cognitive decline in older adults,” said Bryan James, PhD, associate professor of internal medicine at Rush, in a statement. “The least socially active older adults developed dementia an average of five years before the most socially active.”

The research team followed 1,923 older adults who were initially dementia-free, checking in with them yearly to track their social activities and cognitive health. They looked at six everyday social activities: dining out, attending sporting events or playing bingo, taking trips, doing volunteer work, visiting relatives or friends, participating in groups, and attending religious services.

Over nearly seven years of follow-up, 545 participants developed dementia, while 695 developed mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often precedes dementia. After accounting for factors like age, education, gender, and marital status, the researchers found that each increase in social activity was linked to a 38% lower chance of developing dementia.

Being social seems to help the brain in several ways. When we engage socially, we exercise the parts of our brain involved in memory and thinking. “Social activity challenges older adults to participate in complex interpersonal exchanges, which could promote or maintain efficient neural networks in a case of ‘use it or lose it,’” explains James.

The benefits of social activity appear to work independently of other social factors, like how many friends someone has or how supported they feel. This suggests that simply getting out and doing things with others could be more important than the size of your social circle.

The research takes on new urgency following the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many older adults isolated. The findings suggest that communities might benefit from creating more opportunities for older adults to engage socially, whether through organized activities, volunteer programs, or regular social gatherings.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/social-seniors-five-years-dementia/

Next time you take a sip of coffee and scrunch your nose at its bitter taste, your DNA might be to blame. New research from scientists in Germany has uncovered fascinating insights into why Arabica coffee’s signature bitterness varies from person to person, and it’s not just about how dark the roast is.

The study, published in Food Chemistry, was conducted at the Technical University of Munich’s Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology. Researchers have identified a new group of bitter compounds formed during coffee roasting.

“Indeed, previous studies have identified various compound classes that contribute to bitterness. During my doctoral thesis, I have now identified and thoroughly analyzed another class of previously unknown roasting substances,” says study author Coline Bichlmaier, a doctoral student, in a statement.

While caffeine has long been known as coffee’s primary bitter component, even decaffeinated coffee tastes bitter, indicating other compounds are at work. At the heart of this bitter business is a compound called mozambioside, found naturally in raw coffee beans. It’s about ten times more bitter than caffeine and particularly abundant in naturally caffeine-free coffee varieties. However, this may not be at the root of that bitter taste.

“Our investigations showed that the concentration of mozambioside decreases significantly during roasting so that it only makes a small contribution to the bitterness of coffee,” says principal investigator Roman Lang.

Through detailed chemical analysis, researchers tracked mozambioside as coffee beans roasted. They found it breaks down into seven specific compounds, each contributing its own bitter properties. Using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry, essentially very precise chemical detection methods, they measured exactly how much of each compound forms during roasting and transfers into your cup.

When studying Colombian Arabica coffee specifically, they found that not everyone experiences these bitter compounds the same way. A specific gene called TAS2R43, which codes for one of our approximately 25 bitter taste receptors, plays a crucial role. About 20% of Europeans have a deletion in this gene, meaning they’re missing that particular bitter taste receptor entirely.

In standardized taste tests with 11 volunteers, researchers analyzed each participant’s DNA using saliva samples to determine their TAS2R43 gene status. Their genetic test revealed that two participants had both copies of the TAS2R43 gene variant defective, seven had one intact and one defective variant, and only two people had both copies fully intact.

The results revealed striking differences in bitter perception based on genetics. When combining mozambioside with its roasting products in a sample, eight out of eleven test subjects perceived a bitter taste, one found it astringent, and two didn’t notice any particular taste.

During roasting experiments at different temperatures, researchers discovered that some bitter compounds peaked at 240°C, while others continued increasing up to 260°C. These findings join our existing knowledge about other bitter-tasting substances formed during roasting, including compounds called caffeoylquinides (from chlorogenic acids), diketopiperazines (from coffee proteins), and oligomers of 4-vinylcatechols (from caffeic acids).

Bitter taste receptors aren’t only found in our mouths. They exist throughout the body in various organs and tissues. Studies indicate they help fight pathogens in our respiratory tract, assist with defense mechanisms in our intestines and blood cells, and may play a role in metabolism regulation.

“The new findings deepen our understanding of how the roasting process influences the flavor of coffee and open up new possibilities for developing coffee varieties with coordinated flavor profiles,” says Lang. “They are also an important milestone in flavor research, but also in health research. Bitter substances and their receptors have further physiological functions in the body, most of which are still unknown.”

With global production reaching 102.2 million 60-kilo bags of Arabica coffee in 2023/24, understanding these bitter compounds and their perception is major. For coffee lovers and producers alike, this research provides scientific validation for something many have long suspected: we really do experience coffee differently from one another, and it’s written in our genes.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/why-coffee-tastes-different-to-everyone/

From frying pans to muffin tins and saucepans – you can get nonstick surfaces on just about any type of cookware. However, did you know that the nonstick coating can make some people ill?

In 2023, 267 reports of suspected polymer fume fever or “Teflon flu” were reported to U.S. Poison Centers, triple the annual number in previous years. In 2019, 79 cases were reported. Similar reports have been reported since 2011, and they are increasing in frequency.

The 267 cases were not all confirmed, and not all patients reported symptoms. Some patients may have been exposed to chemicals at work.

The disorder is called polymer fume fever since the polymers that make up the nonstick coatings typically come from polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE), which prevents foods from sticking to a pan. According to the National Institutes of Health, this material can break down into tiny particles at normal cooking temperatures, releasing toxic gases and chemicals.

Remember when the biggest threat online was a computer virus? Those were simpler times. Today, we face a far more insidious digital danger: AI-powered social media bots. A study by researchers from the University of Washington and Xi’an Jiaotong University reveals both the immense potential and concerning risks of using large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in the detection and creation of these deceptive fake profiles.

Social media bots — automated accounts that can mimic human behavior — have long been a thorn in the side of platform operators and users alike. These artificial accounts can spread misinformation, interfere with elections, and even promote extremist ideologies. Until now, the fight against bots has been a constant game of cat and mouse, with researchers developing increasingly sophisticated detection methods, only for bot creators to find new ways to evade them.

Enter the era of large language models. These AI marvels, capable of understanding and generating human-like text, have shown promise in various fields. But could they be the secret weapon in the war against social media bots? Or might they instead become a powerful tool for creating even more convincing fake accounts?

The research team, led by Shangbin Feng, set out to answer these questions by putting LLMs to the test in both bot detection and bot creation scenarios. Their findings paint a picture of both hope and caution for the future of social media integrity.

“There’s always been an arms race between bot operators and the researchers trying to stop them,” says Feng, a doctoral student in Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, in a university release. “Each advance in bot detection is often met with an advance in bot sophistication, so we explored the opportunities and the risks that large language models present in this arms race.”

On the detection front, the news is encouraging. The researchers developed a novel approach using LLMs to analyze various aspects of user accounts, including metadata (like follower counts and account age), the text of posts, and the network of connections between users. By combining these different streams of information, their LLM-based system was able to outperform existing bot detection methods by an impressive margin—up to 9.1% better on standard datasets.

What’s particularly exciting about this approach is its efficiency. While traditional bot detection models require extensive training on large datasets of labeled accounts, the LLM-based method achieved its superior results after being fine-tuned on just 1,000 examples. This could be a game-changer in a field where high-quality, annotated data is often scarce and expensive to obtain.

However, the study’s findings weren’t all rosy. The researchers also explored how LLMs might be used by those on the other side of the battle — the bot creators themselves. By leveraging the language generation capabilities of these AI models, they were able to develop strategies for manipulating bot accounts to evade detection.

These LLM-guided evasion tactics proved alarmingly effective. When applied to known bot accounts, they were able to reduce the detection rate of existing bot-hunting algorithms by up to 29.6%. The manipulations ranged from subtle rewrites of bot-generated text to make it appear more human-like to strategic changes in which accounts a bot follows or unfollows.

Perhaps most concerning is the potential for LLMs to create bots that are not just evasive but truly convincing. The study demonstrated that LLMs could generate user profiles and posts that capture nuanced human behaviors, making them far more difficult to distinguish from genuine accounts.

This dual-use potential of LLMs in the realm of social media integrity presents a challenge for platform operators, researchers, and policymakers alike. On one hand, these powerful AI tools could revolutionize our ability to identify and remove malicious bot accounts at scale. On the other, they risk becoming a sophisticated weapon in the arsenal of those seeking to manipulate online discourse.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/social-media-bots-ai/?nab=0

The road to 6G wireless networks just got a little smoother. Scientists have made a significant leap forward in terahertz technology, potentially revolutionizing how we communicate in the future. An international team has developed a tiny silicon device that could double the capacity of wireless networks, bringing us closer to the promise of 6G and beyond.

Imagine a world where you could download an entire season of your favorite show in seconds or where virtual reality feels as real as, well, reality. This is what scientists believe terahertz technology can potentially bring to the world. Their work is published in the journal Laser & Photonics Review.

This tiny marvel, a silicon chip smaller than a grain of rice, operates in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum that most of us have never heard of: the terahertz range. Think of the electromagnetic spectrum as a vast highway of information.

We’re currently cruising along in the relatively slow lanes of 4G and 5G. Terahertz technology? That’s the express lane, promising speeds that make our current networks look like horse-drawn carriages in comparison.

Terahertz waves occupy a sweet spot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and infrared light. They’ve long been seen as a promising frontier for wireless communication because they can carry vast amounts of data. However, harnessing this potential has been challenging due to technical limitations.

The researchers’ new device, called a “polarization multiplexer,” tackles one of the key hurdles in terahertz communication: efficiently managing different polarizations of terahertz waves. Polarization refers to the orientation of the wave’s oscillation. By cleverly manipulating these polarizations, the team has essentially created a traffic control system for terahertz waves, allowing more data to be transmitted simultaneously.

If that sounds like technobabble, think of it as a traffic cop for data, able to direct twice as much information down the same road without causing a jam.

“Our proposed polarization multiplexer will allow multiple data streams to be transmitted simultaneously over the same frequency band, effectively doubling the data capacity,” explains lead researcher Professor Withawat Withayachumnankul from the University of Adelaide, in a statement.

At the heart of this innovation is a compact silicon chip measuring just a few millimeters across. Despite its small size, this chip can separate and combine terahertz waves with different polarizations with remarkable efficiency. It’s like having a tiny, incredibly precise sorting machine for light waves.

To create this device, the researchers used a 250-micrometer-thick silicon wafer with very high electrical resistance. They employed a technique called deep reactive-ion etching to carve intricate patterns into the silicon. These patterns, consisting of carefully designed holes and structures, form what’s known as an “effective medium” – a material that interacts with terahertz waves in specific ways.

The team then subjected their device to a battery of tests using specialized equipment. They used a vector network analyzer with extension modules capable of generating and detecting terahertz waves in the 220-330 GHz range with minimal signal loss. This allowed them to measure how well the device could handle different polarizations of terahertz waves across a wide range of frequencies.

“This large relative bandwidth is a record for any integrated multiplexers found in any frequency range. If it were to be scaled to the center frequency of the optical communications bands, such a bandwidth could cover all the optical communications bands.”

In their experiments, the researchers demonstrated that their device could effectively separate and combine two different polarizations of terahertz waves with high efficiency. The device showed an average signal loss of only about 1 decibel – a remarkably low figure that indicates very little energy is wasted in the process. Even more impressively, the device maintained a polarization extinction ratio (a measure of how well it can distinguish between different polarizations) of over 20 decibels across its operating range. This is crucial for ensuring that data transmitted on different polarizations doesn’t interfere with each other.

To put the potential of this technology into perspective, the researchers conducted several real-world tests. In one demonstration, they used their device to transmit two separate high-definition video streams simultaneously over a terahertz link. This showcases the technology’s ability to handle multiple data streams at once, effectively doubling the amount of information that can be sent over a single channel.

But the team didn’t stop there. In more advanced tests, they pushed the limits of data transmission speed. Using a technique called on-off keying, they achieved error-free data rates of up to 64 gigabits per second. When they employed a more complex modulation scheme (16-QAM), they reached staggering data rates of up to 190 gigabits per second. That’s roughly equivalent to downloading 24 gigabytes – or about six high-definition movies – in a single second. It’s a staggering leap from current wireless technologies.

Still, the researchers say it’s not just about speed. This device is also incredibly versatile.

“This innovation not only enhances the efficiency of terahertz communication systems but also paves the way for more robust and reliable high-speed wireless networks,” adds Dr. Weijie Gao, a postdoctoral researcher at Osaka University and co-author of the study.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/6g-record-breaking-data-speed/?nab=0

“Please” and “thank you” — these simple courtesies might be worth more than their weight in gold, according to a stunning new study. Researchers have uncovered a startling link between workplace rudeness and team performance that’s forcing organizations to rethink their approach to interpersonal dynamics.

In an era where workplace efficiency is paramount, who would have thought that a careless comment or a dismissive email could be the wrench in the gears of productivity? However, according to the research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, incivility is wreaking havoc in our offices, operating rooms, and boardrooms.

Far from being a mere annoyance, the study suggests that rudeness is a silent saboteur, capable of derailing team performance and potentially endangering lives. The study, conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Florida, Indiana University, and institutions across the U.S. and Israel, paints a sobering picture of how even mild instances of incivility can have far-reaching consequences.

“Many workplaces treat rudeness as a minor interpersonal issue,” says Dr. Amir Erez, a professor at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business, in a statement. “Our research shows that it’s a major threat to productivity and even safety. Organizations should treat it as such.”

Through a series of five innovative studies, the researchers peeled back the layers of workplace interactions to reveal the insidious effects of rudeness. From laboratory experiments involving bridge-building with newspaper and tape to high-stakes medical simulations, the findings consistently pointed to a disturbing truth: rudeness dramatically impairs team functioning.

Perhaps most alarming is the disproportionate impact of rudeness relative to its perceived intensity. In one study, seemingly mild rude comments from an external source accounted for a staggering 44% of the variance in medical teams’ performance quality. This suggests that even small slights can have outsized effects on team outcomes.

How exactly does rudeness wreak such havoc?

The researchers found that rudeness acts as a social threat, triggering defensive responses in team members. This threat response shifts individuals from a collaborative mindset to a self-protective one, reducing what the researchers call “social value orientation” (SVO) – essentially, the degree to which people prioritize collective interests over their own.

This shift towards self-interest manifests in reduced information sharing and workload distribution among team members, two critical components of effective teamwork. In medical settings, this translates to poorer execution of potentially life-saving procedures.

“Our research helps us understand the effect rudeness can have on team dynamics, especially in urgent, intense situations like in health care,” says Jake Gale, Ph.D., an assistant professor of management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. “By understanding how rudeness triggers self-focused behaviors and impairs communication, we’re not just advancing academic knowledge; we’re uncovering insights that could save lives. It’s a powerful reminder that the way we interact with each other has real-world consequences, especially in critical situations.”

The implications of these findings extend far beyond the medical field. Whether in a high-powered corporate boardroom or a local retail store, rudeness from any source – be it supervisors, colleagues, or customers – consistently degrades team cooperation and coordination, leading to poorer outcomes across the board.

Given the pervasiveness of rudeness in modern workplaces, with over 50% of employees reporting weekly encounters, addressing this issue becomes not just a matter of politeness but a critical factor in organizational effectiveness and safety.

The researchers suggest that organizations take proactive steps to create work environments that foster respect and civility. This could include implementing training programs to build resilience against rudeness or promoting mindfulness practices that help employees maintain a collective focus even in the face of interpersonal challenges.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/workplace-rudeness-productivity/?nab=0

Picture this: You’re playing a game of “Guess Who?” with a five-year-old. You’ve narrowed it down to the character with the red hat, but instead of triumphantly declaring their guess, the child keeps flipping over cards, examining every detail from mustaches to earrings. Frustrating? Maybe. But according to new research, this seemingly inefficient behavior might be a key feature of how young minds learn about the world.

A study published in Psychological Science by researchers at The Ohio State University has shed new light on a longstanding puzzle in child development: Why do young children seem to pay attention to everything, even when it doesn’t help them complete a task? The answer, it turns out, is more complex and fascinating than anyone expected.

For years, scientists have observed that children tend to distribute their attention broadly, taking in information that adults would consider irrelevant or distracting. This “distributed attention” has often been chalked up to immature brain development or a simple lack of focus. But Ohio State psychology professor Vladimir Sloutsky and his team suspected there might be more to the story.

“Children can’t seem to stop themselves from gathering more information than they need to complete a task, even when they know exactly what they need,” Sloutsky explains in a media release.

This over-exploration persists even when children are motivated by rewards to complete tasks quickly.

To investigate this question, Sloutsky and lead author Qianqian Wan designed clever experiments involving four to six-year-old children and adults. Participants were shown images of cartoon creatures and asked to sort them into two made-up categories called “Hibi” and “Gora.” Each creature had seven features like horns, wings, and tails. Importantly, only one feature perfectly predicted which category the creature belonged to, while the other features were only somewhat helpful for categorizing.

The key twist was that all the features were initially hidden behind “bubbles” on a computer screen. Participants could reveal features one at a time by tapping or clicking on the bubbles. This setup allowed the researchers to see exactly which features people chose to look at before making their category decision.

If children’s broad attention was simply due to an inability to filter out distractions, the researchers reasoned that hiding irrelevant features should help them focus only on the most important one. However, that’s not what happened. Even when they quickly figured out which feature was the perfect predictor of category, children – especially younger ones – continued to uncover and examine multiple features on each trial. Adults, on the other hand, quickly zeroed in on the key feature and mostly ignored the rest.

Interestingly, by age six, children started to show a mix of strategies. About half the six-year-olds behaved more like adults, focusing mostly on the key feature. The other half continued to explore broadly like younger children. This suggests the study may have captured a key transition point in how children learn to focus their attention.

To rule out the possibility that children just enjoyed the action of tapping to reveal features, the researchers ran a second experiment. This time, they gave children the option to either reveal all features at once with one tap or uncover them one by one. Children of all ages strongly preferred the single-tap option, indicating their goal was indeed to gather information rather than simply tapping for fun.

So, why do children persist in this seemingly inefficient exploration? Sloutsky proposes two intriguing possibilities. The first is simple curiosity – an innate drive to learn about the world that overrides task efficiency. The second, which Sloutsky favors, relates to the development of working memory.

“The children learned that one body part will tell them what the creature is, but they may be concerned that they don’t remember correctly. Their working memory is still under development,” Sloutsky suggests. “They want to resolve this uncertainty by continuing to sample, by looking at other body parts to see if they line up with what they think.”

Source: https://studyfinds.org/over-exploring-minds-attention-kids/?nab=0

What if the secret to unlocking your child’s cognitive potential was as simple as a 10-second stretch? It may sound too good to be true, but a revolutionary study from Japan suggests that brief, light exercises could be the key to boosting brain activity in children, challenging our understanding of the mind-body connection.

The findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest that these quick, low-intensity activities could be a valuable tool for enhancing cognitive function and potentially improving learning in school settings.

The research, led by Takashi Naito and colleagues, focuses on a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This area, located at the front of the brain, is crucial for many important mental tasks. It helps us plan, make decisions, control our impulses, and pay attention – all skills that are vital for success in school and life.

As children grow, their prefrontal cortex continues to develop. This means that childhood is a critical time for building strong mental abilities. However, many children today aren’t getting enough physical activity. In fact, a whopping 81% of children worldwide don’t get enough exercise. This lack of movement could potentially hinder their brain development and cognitive skills.

While previous studies have shown that moderate to intense exercise can improve brain function, less was known about the effects of light, easy activities – the kind that could be done quickly in a classroom or during short breaks. This study aimed to fill that gap by examining how simple exercises affect blood flow in the prefrontal cortex of children.

“Our goal is to develop a light-intensity exercise program that is accessible to everyone, aiming to enhance brain function and reduce children’s sedentary behavior,” Naito explains in a statement. “We hope to promote and implement this program in schools through collaborative efforts.”

The researchers recruited 41 children between the ages of 10 and 15 to participate in the study. These kids performed seven different types of light exercises, each lasting either 10 or 20 seconds. The exercises included things like stretching, hand movements, and balancing on one leg – all activities that could be easily done in a classroom without special equipment.

To measure brain activity, the researchers used a technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). This non-invasive method uses light to detect changes in blood flow in the brain, which can indicate increased brain activity. The children wore a special headband with sensors while doing the exercises, allowing the researchers to see how their brain activity changed during each movement.

Most of the exercises led to significant increases in blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, suggesting increased brain activity in this important region. Interestingly, not all exercises had the same effect. Simple, static stretches didn’t show much change, but exercises that required more thought or physical effort – like twisting movements, hand exercises, and balancing – showed the biggest increases in brain activity.

These findings suggest that even short bursts of light activity can “wake up” the prefrontal cortex in children. This could potentially lead to improved focus, better decision-making, and enhanced learning abilities. The best part is that these exercises are quick and easy to do, making them perfect for incorporating into a school day or study routine.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/10-seconds-exercise-brain-activity/?nab=0

A foreign tourist has died in south Iceland after ice collapsed during a visit their group was making to a glacier, local media report.

A second tourist was injured but they have been taken to hospital and their life is not in danger, while two others are still missing.

Rescuers have suspended the search for the missing in the Breidamerkurjökull glacier until morning because of difficult conditions.

Ice collapsed as the group of 25 people were visiting an ice cave along with a guide on Sunday.

Emergency workers worked by hand to try to rescue those missing.

First responders received a call just before 15:00 on Sunday about the collapse.

“The conditions are very difficult on the ground,” said local police chief Sveinn Kristján Rúnarsson. “It’s in the glacier. It’s hard to get equipment there… It’s bad. Everything is being done by hand.”

Local news outlets reported that 200 people were working on the rescue operation at one point on Sunday.

Speaking on Icelandic TV, Chief Superintendent Rúnarsson said police had been unable to contact the two missing people.

While the conditions were “difficult”, the weather was “fair”, he said.

Confirming that all those involved were foreign tourists, he said there was nothing to suggest that the trip to the cave should not have taken place.

“Ice cave tours happen almost the whole year,” he said

“These are experienced and powerful mountain guides who run these trips. It’s always possible to be unlucky. I trust these people to assess the situation – when it’s safe or not safe to go, and good work has been done there over time. This is a living land, so anything can happen.”

The police chief was quoted as saying that people had been standing in a ravine between cave mouths when an ice wall collapsed.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8ny80e6lyo

The proverbial “sugar high” that follows the ingestion of a sweet treat is a familiar example of the potentially positive effects of food on mood.

On the flip side, feeling “hangry” – the phenomenon where hunger manifests in the form of anger or irritability – illustrates how what we eat or don’t eat can also provoke negative emotions.

The latest research suggests that blood sugar fluctuations are partly responsible for the connection between what we eat and how we feel. Through its effects on our hormones and our nervous system, blood sugar levels can be fuel for anxiety and depression.

Mental health is complex. There are countless social, psychological, and biological factors that ultimately determine any one person’s experience. However, numerous randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that diet is one biological factor that can significantly influence risk for symptoms of depression and anxiety, especially in women.

As a family medicine resident with a Ph.D. in nutrition, I have witnessed the fact that antidepressant medications work for some patients but not others. Thus, in my view, mental health treatment strategies should target every risk factor, including nutrition.

The role of the glycemic index
Many of the randomized controlled trials that have proven the link between diet and mental health have tested the Mediterranean diet or a slightly modified version of it. The Mediterranean diet is typically characterized by lots of vegetables – especially dark green, leafy vegetables – fruit, olive oil, whole grains, legumes and nuts, with small amounts of fish, meat and dairy products. One of the many attributes of the Mediterranean diet that may be responsible for its effect on mood is its low glycemic index.

The glycemic index is a system that ranks foods and diets according to their potential to raise blood sugar. Thus, in keeping with the observation that blood sugar fluctuations affect mood, high glycemic index diets that produce drastic spikes in blood sugar have been associated with increased risk for depression and to some extent anxiety.

High glycemic index carbohydrates include white rice, white bread, crackers and baked goods. Therefore, diets high in these foods may increase risk for depression and anxiety. Meanwhile, low glycemic index carbs, such as parboiled rice and al dente pasta, that are more slowly absorbed and produce a smaller blood sugar spike are associated with decreased risk.

How diet affects mood

Many scientific mechanisms have been proposed to explain the connection between diet and mental health. One plausible explanation that links blood sugar fluctuations with mood is its effect on our hormones.

Every time we eat sugar or carbohydrates such as bread, rice, pasta, potatoes, and crackers, the resulting rise in blood sugar triggers a cascade of hormones and signaling molecules. One example, dopamine – our brain’s pleasure signal – is the reason we can experience a “sugar high” following the consumption of dessert or baked goods. Dopamine is the body’s way of rewarding us for procuring the calories, or energy that are necessary for survival.

Insulin is another hormone triggered by carbohydrates and sugar. Insulin’s job is to lower blood sugar levels by escorting the ingested sugar into our cells and tissues so that it can be used for energy. However, when we eat too much sugar, too many carbs, or high glycemic index carbs, the rapid increase in blood sugar prompts a drastic rise in insulin. This can result in blood sugar levels that dip below where they started.

This dip in blood sugar sparks the release of adrenaline and its cousin noradrenaline. Both of these hormones appropriately send glucose into the bloodstream to restore blood sugar to the appropriate level.

However, adrenaline influences more than just blood sugar levels. It also affects how we feel, and its release can manifest as anxiety, fear, or aggression. Hence, diet affects mood through its effect on blood sugar levels, which trigger the hormones that dictate how we feel.

Interestingly, the rise in adrenaline that follows sugar and carbohydrate consumption doesn’t happen until four to five hours after eating. Thus, when eating sugar and carbs, dopamine makes us feel good in the short term; but in the long term, adrenaline can make us feel bad.

However, not everyone is equally affected. Identical meals can produce widely varying blood sugar responses in different people, depending on one’s sex, as well as genetics, sedentariness, and the gut microbiome.

And it’s important to keep in mind that, as previously mentioned, mental health is complicated. So in certain circumstances, no amount of dietary optimization will overcome the social and psychological factors that may underpin one’s experience.

Nevertheless, a poor diet could certainly make a person’s experience worse and is thus relevant for anyone, especially women, hoping to optimize mental health. Research has shown that women, in particular, are more sensitive to the effects of the glycemic index and diet overall.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/food-choices-anxiety-depression/

Just 10 minutes of daily mindfulness practice, delivered through a free smartphone app, could be the key to unlocking a healthier, happier you. It sounds almost too good to be true, but that’s exactly what researchers from the Universities of Bath and Southampton have discovered.

In one of the largest and most diverse studies of its kind, 1,247 adults from 91 countries embarked on a 30-day mindfulness journey using the free Medito app. The results were nothing short of remarkable. Participants who completed the mindfulness program reported a 19.2% greater reduction in depression symptoms compared to the control group. They also experienced a 6.9% greater improvement in well-being and a 12.6% larger decrease in anxiety.

The benefits didn’t stop there. The study, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology, uncovered an intriguing link between mindfulness practice and healthier lifestyle choices. Participants who used the mindfulness app reported more positive attitudes towards health maintenance (7.1% higher than the control group) and stronger intentions to look after their health (6.5% higher). It’s as if the simple act of tuning into the present moment created a ripple effect, influencing not just mental health but also motivating healthier behaviors.

What makes this study particularly exciting is its accessibility. Unlike traditional mindfulness programs that might require significant time commitments or expensive retreats, this intervention was delivered entirely through a free mobile app. Participants, most of whom had no prior mindfulness experience, were asked to complete just 10 minutes of practice daily. The sessions included relaxation exercises, intention-setting, body scans, focused breathing, and self-reflection.

“This study highlights that even short, daily practices of mindfulness can offer benefits, making it a simple yet powerful tool for enhancing mental health,” says Masha Remskar, the lead researcher from the University of Bath, in a media release.

Perhaps even more impressive than the immediate effects were the long-term benefits. In follow-up surveys conducted 30 days after the intervention ended, participants in the mindfulness group continued to report improved well-being, reduced depression symptoms, and better sleep quality compared to the control group.

The study also shed light on why mindfulness might be so effective.

“The research underscores how digital technology – in this case, a freely available app – can help people integrate behavioral and psychological techniques into their lives, in a way that suits them,” notes Dr. Ben Ainsworth from the University of Southampton.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/10-minute-app-mental-health/?nab=0

For nearly half a century, astronomers have been puzzled by a brief and unexplainable radio signal detected in 1977 that seemed to hint at the existence of alien life. Known as the “Wow! Signal,” this tantalizing cosmic transmission has remained one of the most intriguing mysteries in the search for signs of intelligent life in outer space. Now, scientists may finally know where it came from!

A team of researchers may have uncovered a potential astrophysical explanation for the Wow! Signal that could reshape our understanding of this enduring enigma. Their findings, currently published in the preprint journal arXiv, suggest the signal may have been the result of a rare and dramatic event involving a burst of energy from a celestial object interacting with clouds of cold hydrogen gas in the Milky Way galaxy.

“Our latest observations, made between February and May 2020, have revealed similar narrowband signals near the hydrogen line, though less intense than the original Wow! Signal,” explains Abel Méndez, lead author of the study from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, in a media release.

“Our study suggests that the Wow! Signal was likely the first recorded instance of maser-like emission of the hydrogen line.”

The Wow! Signal was detected by the Big Ear radio telescope at The Ohio State University on August 15, 1977. It exhibited several intriguing characteristics, including a narrow bandwidth, high signal strength, and a frequency tantalizingly close to the natural radio emission of neutral hydrogen — an element abundant throughout the universe. These properties led many to speculate the signal could be of artificial origin, perhaps a deliberate message from an extraterrestrial intelligence.

This passing burst of activity in space led Dr. Jerry Ehman to famously write “Wow!” next to the print-out of the signal, which was like nothing else astronomers were seeing in space at the time. However, the signal was never detected again, despite numerous attempts to locate its source over the ensuing decades.

This has posed a major challenge for the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) community, as repetition is considered essential for verifying the authenticity of a potential extraterrestrial signal — also known as a technosignature.

This new study, however, is pushing the conversation away from an alien radio transmission and closer to a once-in-a-lifetime natural occurrence in deep space. The researchers’ key insight stems from observations made using the now-decommissioned Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes until its collapse in 2020.

For now, the Wow! Signal remains shrouded in mystery, but there is now at least a plausible explanation for its existence — one that does not involve aliens.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/wow-signal-decoded/?nab=0

Leadership is a critical component in every aspect of human activity, from business and education to government and healthcare. We often assume that those who aspire to leadership positions are the most qualified for the job. However, a new study challenges this assumption, revealing a striking disconnect between ambition and actual leadership effectiveness.

The study, conducted by researchers Shilaan Alzahawi, Emily S. Reit, and Francis J. Flynn from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, explores the relationship between ambition and leadership evaluations. Their findings suggest that while ambitious individuals are more likely to pursue and obtain leadership roles, they may not necessarily be more effective leaders than their less ambitious counterparts.

At the heart of this research is the concept of ambition, defined as a persistent striving for success, attainment, and accomplishment. Ambitious individuals are typically drawn to leadership positions, motivated by the promise of power, status, and financial rewards. However, the study, published in PNAS Nexus, raises an important question: Does this ambition translate into better leadership skills?

To investigate this question, the researchers conducted a large-scale study involving 472 executives enrolled in a leadership development program. These executives were evaluated on 10 leadership competencies by their peers, subordinates, managers, and themselves. In total, the study analyzed 3,830 ratings, providing a comprehensive view of each leader’s effectiveness from multiple perspectives.

Perhaps the most thought-provoking finding of the study is the significant discrepancy between how ambitious leaders view themselves and how others perceive them. Highly ambitious individuals consistently rated themselves as more effective leaders across various competencies. However, this positive self-assessment was not corroborated by the evaluations from their peers, subordinates, or managers.

For instance, ambitious leaders believed they were better at motivating others, managing collaborative work, and coaching and developing people. They also thought they had a stronger growth orientation and were more accountable for results. Yet, their colleagues and subordinates did not observe these superior abilities in practice.

This disconnect between self-perception and reality has significant implications for how we select and develop leaders. Many organizations rely on self-selection processes, where individuals actively choose to be considered for leadership roles. The assumption is that those who step forward are the most capable candidates. However, this study suggests that such an approach may be flawed, potentially promoting individuals based on their ambition rather than their actual leadership skills.

The researchers propose that ambitious individuals may be drawn to leadership roles for reasons unrelated to their aptitude. The allure of higher salaries, greater authority, and increased social status may drive them to pursue these positions, regardless of their actual leadership capabilities. To justify this pursuit, ambitious individuals may unconsciously inflate their self-perceptions of leadership effectiveness.

This phenomenon aligns with psychological concepts such as motivated reasoning and cognitive dissonance. Essentially, people tend to interpret information in a way that confirms their existing beliefs or desires. In this case, ambitious individuals may convince themselves of their superior leadership skills to justify their pursuit of higher positions.

Organizations and individuals may need to rethink their approach to leadership selection and development. Rather than relying solely on self-selection and ambitious individuals dominating candidate pools, companies might benefit from actively identifying and encouraging individuals who possess leadership potential but may lack the confidence or ambition to pursue such roles.

Moreover, the research highlights the importance of gathering diverse perspectives when evaluating leadership effectiveness. Relying solely on self-assessments or the opinions of a single group (e.g., only peers or only subordinates) may provide an incomplete or biased picture of a leader’s true capabilities.

This study urges us to look beyond ambition when selecting and developing leaders. By focusing on actual leadership skills rather than mere drive for power, we can cultivate leaders who are truly capable of guiding us through the challenges of the 21st century.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/the-ambitious-leaders-dilemma/?nab=0

In the vast, mysterious depths of the ocean, where some of the planet’s deadliest creatures reside, scientists have discovered an unexpected ally in the fight against diabetes and hormone disorders. A new study finds that the geography cone, a venomous marine snail known for its lethal sting, harbors a powerful secret: a toxin that could revolutionize the way we treat certain diseases.

The geography cone (Conus geographus) isn’t your typical predator. Instead of using brute force to capture its prey, it employs a more insidious method — a cocktail of venomous toxins that disrupt the bodily functions of its victims, leaving them helpless and easy to consume. However, within this deadly arsenal lies a remarkable substance, one that mimics a human hormone and holds the potential to create groundbreaking medications.

Publishing their work in the journal Nature Communications, scientists from the University of Utah and their international collaborators have identified a component in the snail’s venom that acts like somatostatin, a human hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar and various other bodily processes. What’s truly astonishing is that this snail-produced toxin, known as consomatin, doesn’t just mimic the hormone — it surpasses it in stability and specificity, making it an extraordinary candidate for drug development.

How can a deadly venom become a life-saving drug?
Somatostatin in humans serves as a kind of master regulator, ensuring that levels of blood sugar, hormones, and other critical molecules don’t spiral out of control. However, consomatin, the snail’s version of this hormone, has some unique advantages. Unlike human somatostatin, which interacts with multiple proteins in the body, consomatin targets just one specific protein with pinpoint accuracy. This precise targeting means that consomatin could potentially be used to regulate blood sugar and hormone levels with fewer side-effects than existing medications.

Consomatin is also more stable than the human hormone, lasting longer in the body due to the presence of an unusual amino acid that makes it resistant to breakdown. For pharmaceutical researchers, this feature is a goldmine — it could lead to the development of drugs that offer longer-lasting benefits to patients, reducing the frequency of doses and improving overall treatment outcomes.

While it may seem counterintuitive to look to venom for inspiration in drug development, this approach is proving to be incredibly fruitful. As Dr. Helena Safavi, an associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Utah and the senior author of the study, explains, venomous animals like the geography cone have had millions of years to fine-tune their toxins to target specific molecules in their prey. This evolutionary precision is exactly what makes these toxins so valuable in the search for new medicines.

“Venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in the prey and disrupt it,” says Safavi in a media release. “If you take one individual component out of the venom mixture and look at how it disrupts normal physiology, that pathway is often really relevant in disease.”

In other words, nature’s own designs can offer shortcuts to discovering new therapeutic pathways.

In its natural environment, consomatin works alongside another toxin in the cone snail’s venom, which mimics insulin, to drastically lower the blood sugar of the snail’s prey. This one-two punch leaves the fish in a near-comatose state, unable to escape the snail’s deadly grasp. By studying consomatin and its insulin-like partner, researchers believe they can uncover new ways to control blood sugar levels in humans, potentially leading to better treatments for diabetes.

“We think the cone snail developed this highly selective toxin to work together with the insulin-like toxin to bring down blood glucose to a really low level,” explains Ho Yan Yeung, a postdoctoral researcher in biochemistry at the University of Utah and the study’s first author.

What’s even more exciting is the possibility that the cone snail’s venom contains additional yet undiscovered toxins that also regulate blood sugar.

“It means that there might not only be insulin and somatostatin-like toxins in the venom,” Yeung adds. “There could potentially be other toxins that have glucose-regulating properties too.”

Source: https://studyfinds.org/sea-snail-venom-diabetes/?nab=0

Step right up, folks, and feast your eyes on the colorful cast of characters that have been tempting our taste buds and raiding our wallets for decades! We’re talking about those lovable (and sometimes slightly unnerving) fast food mascots that are as much a part of our culture as the greasy, delicious food they’re hawking. From the golden arches of McDonald’s to the finger-lickin’ goodness of KFC, these animated pitchmen have wormed their way into our hearts faster than you can say “supersize me.” They’ve made us laugh, occasionally made us cringe, and more often than not, made us inexplicably crave a burger at 2 AM. So, grab your favorite value meal and get ready for a nostalgic trip down fast food memory lane as we rank the best fast food mascots. Trust us, this list is more stacked than a triple-decker burger!

If fast food mascots feel like old friends, you aren’t alone. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the top best fast food mascots from 10 expert websites. Did your favorite make our list? As always, we’d like to see your own recommendations in the comments below!

The Consensus Best Fast Food Mascots, Ranked
1. Colonel Sanders – KFC
Who doesn’t love a heaping bucket of fried chicken? “One of the most popular and recognizable fast food mascots is KFC’s Colonel Sanders. Not only is this a mascot and symbol for the brand, it directly represents the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken — Colonel Harland David Sanders,” notes Restaurant Clicks.

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What makes him stand out? “As a character, Colonel Sanders is a lovable, sweet old man with plenty of personal ties to KFC. He’s often portrayed by comedians, which gives the brand plenty of room to create funny and innovative commercials,” adds Ranker.

“Dressed in a white suit and black bow tie, accessorized with glasses and a cane, the Colonel’s image has become synonymous with the brand’s finger-licking good fried chicken. His face, etched in the memories of countless fried chicken fans, carries an aura of professionalism, quality, and trustworthiness,” suggests Sixstoreys.

2. Ronald McDonald – McDonald’s
One of the most recognizable fast food mascots, Ronald McDonald even has his own balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. The mascot, “was first introduced to audiences in 1963, when actor Willard Scott (who played the immensely popular Bozo the Clown at the time) took on the persona of the red-haired clown for three TV ads promoting McDonald’s. He was referred to as ‘Ronald McDonald – the hamburger-happy clown’ and sported a drink cup on his nose as well as a food tray as a hat,” according to Lovefood.com.

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Ronald is the perfect combination of fun and odd for a mascot. “He has Wendy’s red hair, The King’s freaky appearance, and the Colonel’s kindly character. Put it all together and you have a master of the mascots,” adds WatchMojo.

Thrillist writes: “Ronald is without a doubt the most polemic fast-food mascot. He’s friendly and instantly recognizable, but he’s also a clown. Most normal people are terrified by clowns regardless of nostalgia, so whether he reminds you of Saturday mornings spent watching cartoons and eating Happy Meals or the scariest moments or Stephen King’s ‘It’ is all on you.”

3. The King – Burger King
Who remembers going into Burger King as a kid and getting one of those paper crowns? “The first iteration of the Burger King was an unsuspecting fellow with a lopsided crown sitting atop his burger throne, cradling a soda. Today, he’s a life-size dude with a massive plastic head. He’s always smiling, giving him an almost menacing air — he might be outside your bedroom window right now,” points out The Daily Meal.

You know who we are talking about. “That unsettling-yet-unforgettable maniacal grin has been producing nightmares across the U.S. since 2004, when the current, plastic-costumed incarnation was introduced to the world,” says Mashed.

Restaurant Clicks writes: “Sometimes creepy and odd is what restaurants need to make people pay attention. It’s also fitting that he’s wearing a paper crown, similar to the ones kids can get in-store.”

I had to ask my 9-year-old if she thought The King was creepy. Her response? “A little, but I like him.”

4. Wendy – Wendy’s

Consider Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas as the ultimate girl dad. His daughter, Melinda was the idea behind the smiling, freckled, red-headed girl that the fast food chain still embraces.

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You don’t think of Wendy’s without conjuring up an image of this red-haired sweetheart. “She’s been the primary logo of Wendy’s since the beginning and her image is irrevocably tied to the restaurant chain. Her personality is a central part of the fast food chain – that of a sweet young girl with plenty of pep and enthusiasm. Plus, her association with her father gives the brand a family feel, even though it has grown into a huge corporation,” notes Ranker.

Sixstoreys adds, “the character has remained a consistent symbol of the all-American, wholesome cuisine that Wendy’s seeks to provide. Her warm and approachable demeanor instantly evokes a sense of familiarity and family, resonating with customers who appreciate the brand’s commitment to quality, freshness, and friendliness.”

“She isn’t animatronic, she doesn’t have any particular peculiarities, but she is one of the most famous faces in all of fast food,” points out WatchMojo.

5. Jack Box – Jack in the Box
Rounding out our top five is Jack Box, from (you guessed it) Jack in the Box. “An adaptation of the fast food chain’s original clown head mascot, the geometrical character has become a classic American mascot. The franchise has employed Jack in its advertising since 1994 – part of a larger rebranding effort after a 1993 food contamination scandal,” according to The Drum.

 

Source: https://studyfinds.org/best-fast-food-mascots/?nab=0

Three in four Gen Z Americans are putting the blame on social media for having a negative impact on their mental health.

The survey, commissioned by LG Electronics and conducted by Talker Research, offers compelling insights into the digital habits and emotional responses of 2,000 Gen Z social media users. In a startling revelation, 20% of Gen Zers cite Instagram and TikTok as detrimental to their well-being, followed by Facebook at 13%.

Despite these concerns, social media remains an integral part of Gen Z’s daily life. The average user spends a whopping five-and-a-half hours per day on social media apps, with 45% believing they outpace their friends in usage time. Boredom (66%), seeking laughter (59%), staying informed (49%), and keeping tabs on friends (44%) are the primary motivators for their online engagement.

However, this digital immersion comes at a cost. Nearly half the poll (49%) report experiencing negative emotions from social media use, with stress and anxiety affecting 30% of respondents. Even more alarming, those who experience these negative feelings report that it takes only 38 minutes of scrolling before their mood begins to sour.

“We spend a significant portion of our lives online and often these experiences may leave us feeling drained and not mentally stimulated,” says Louis Giagrande, head of U.S. marketing at LG Electronics, in a statement. “We encourage everyone to be more conscious about the social media content they choose to engage with, bringing stronger balance, inspiration, and happiness to their lives. If we focus on optimism, we will be better equipped to deal with life’s challenges and build a happier life.”

The study also uncovered a desire for change among Gen Z users. In fact, 62% wish they could “reset” their social media feeds and start anew. Over half (53%) express frustration with content misalignment, feeling that their feeds don’t reflect their interests. Moreover, 54% believe they have limited or no control over the content populating their feeds, with only 16% claiming total control.

Yet, it’s not all doom and gloom. Four in five respondents (80%) associate social media with positive impacts on their mood. Comedy (65%), animal content (48%), beauty-related posts (40%), and prank videos (34%) are among the top mood boosters. Two-thirds of users say that social media has turned a bad day into a good one, and 44% believe it positively impacts their outlook on life.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/gen-z-blames-social-media-for-ruining-their-mental-health-but-no-ones-signing-off/?nab=0

The Sun is going through a period of high activity, but it is nothing compared to an enormous solar event that slammed into our planet 14,000 years ago. If one were to occur today, the effect on Earth could be devastating.

The oldest trees on Earth date back a whopping 5,000 years, living through all manner of events. They have stood through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the birth of Christianity, the European discovery of the Americas and the first Moon landing. Trees can even be fossilised in soil underground, giving us a connection to the last 30,000 years.
At first glance, these long-lived specimens might just appear to be static observers, but not so. They are doing something extraordinary as they grow – recording the activity of our Sun.

As trees photosynthesise throughout the year, they change in colouration depending on the season, appearing lighter in spring and darker by autumn. The result is a year-on-year record contained within the growth “rings” of the tree. “This gives us this really valuable archive of time capsules,” says Charlotte Pearson, a dendrochronologist – someone who studies tree rings – at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, US.

For most of the 20th Century, dendrochronologists have largely used tree rings to investigate change across wide chunks of history – a decade or more. Yet at certain points in time, the change they document has been more sudden and cataclysmic. What they are finding evidence of are massive solar events that reveal disturbing insights into the turbulent recent past of the star at the centre of our Solar System.

“Nobody was expecting a brief event to appear,” says Edouard Bard, a climatologist at the College de France in Paris. But in 2012 a then-PhD student called Fusa Miyake, now a cosmic ray physicist at Nagoya University in Japan, made an astonishing discovery. Studying Japanese cedar trees, she discovered a huge spike in a type of carbon known as carbon-14 in a single year nearly 800 years ago, in 774 CE. “I was so excited,” says Miyake.

After doubting the data at first, Miyake and her colleagues soon came to an unnerving conclusion. The spike in carbon-14 must have come from something injecting huge numbers of particles into our atmosphere, since this radioactive isotope of carbon is produced when high-energy particles strike nitrogen in the atmosphere. Once linked perhaps to cosmic events like supernovae, studies have since suggested another probable cause: a monster burst of particles thrown out by the Sun. These would be generated by superflares, far bigger than anything seen in the modern era.

“They require an event that’s at least ten times bigger than anything we’ve observed,” says Mathew Owens, a space physicist at the University of Reading in the UK. The first recorded solar flare sighting dates back to the middle of the 19th Century, and are associated with the great geomagnetic storm of 1859, which has become known as the Carrington Event, after one of the astronomers who observed it, Richard Carrington.

Miyake’s discovery was confirmed by other studies of tree rings and analysis of ancient ice in cores collected from places such as Antarctica and Greenland. The latter contained correlated signatures of berylium-10 and chlorine-36, which are produced in a similar atmospheric process to carbon-14. Since then, more Miyake events, as these massive bursts of cosmic radiation and particles are now known, have been unearthed. In total, seven well studied events are known to have occurred over the past 15,000 years, while there are several other spikes in carbon-14 that have yet to be confirmed as Miyake events.

The most recent occurred just over 1,000 years ago in 993 CE. Researchers believe these events occur rarely – but at somewhat regular intervals, perhaps every 400 to 2,400 years.

The most powerful known Miyake event was discovered as recently as 2023 when Bard and his colleagues announced the discovery of a carbon-14 spike in fossilised Scots pine trees in Southern France dating back 14,300 years. The spike they saw was twice as powerful as any Miyake event seen before, suggesting these already-suspected monster events could be even bigger than previously thought.

The team behind the discovery of this superstorm from space had scoured the Southern French Alps for fossilised trees and found some that had been exposed by rivers. Using a chainsaw, they collected samples and examined them back in a laboratory, discovering evidence for an enormous carbon-14 spike. “We dreamed of finding a new Miyake event, and we were very, very happy to find this,” says Cécile Miramont, a dendrochronologist at Aix-Marseille University in France and a co-author on the study.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240815-miyake-events-the-giant-solar-superstorms-that-could-rock-earth

The South American lungfish is an extraordinary creature – in some sense, a living fossil. Inhabiting slow-moving and stagnant waters in Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana and Paraguay, it is the nearest living relative to the first land vertebrates and closely resembles its primordial ancestors dating back more than 400 million years.

This freshwater species, called Lepidosiren paradoxa, also has another distinction: the largest genome – all the genetic information of an organism – of any animal on Earth. Scientists have now sequenced its genome, finding it to be about 30 times the size of the human genetic blueprint.

The metric for genome size was the number of base pairs, the fundamental units of DNA, in an organism’s cellular nuclei. If stretched out like from a ball of yarn, the length of the DNA in each cell of this lungfish would extend almost 200 feet (60 meters). The human genome would extend a mere 6-1/2 feet (2 meters).

“Our analyses revealed that the South American lungfish genome grew massively during the past 100 million years, adding the equivalent of one human genome every 10 million years,” said evolutionary biologist Igor Schneider of Louisiana State University, one of the authors of the study published this week in the journal Nature

In fact, 18 of the 19 South American lungfish chromosomes – the threadlike structures that carry an organism’s genomic information – are each individually larger than the entire human genome, Schneider said.

While huge, there are plants whose genome is larger. The current record holder is a fork fern species, called Tmesipteris oblanceolata, in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific. Its genome is more than 50 times the human genome’s size.

Until now, the largest-known animal genome was that of another lungfish, the Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri. The South American lungfish’s genome was more than twice as big. The world’s four other lungfish species live in Africa, also with large genomes.

Lungfish genomes are largely composed of repetitive elements – about 90% of the genome. The researchers said the massive genome expansion documented in lungfish genomes seems to be related to a reduction in these species of a mechanism that ordinarily suppresses such genomic repetition.

“Animal genome sizes vary greatly, but the significance and causes of genome size variation remain unclear. Our study advances our understanding of genome biology and structure by identifying mechanisms that control genome size while maintaining chromosome stability,” Schneider said.

The South American lungfish reaches up to about 4 feet (1.25 meters) long. While other fish rely upon gills to breathe, lungfish also possess a pair of lung-like organs. It lives in oxygen-starved, swampy environs of the Amazon and Parana-Paraguay River basins, and supplements the oxygen gotten from the water by breathing in oxygen from the air.

Lungfish first appeared during the Devonian Period. It was during the Devonian that one of the most important moments in the history of life on Earth occurred – when fish possessing lungs and muscular fins evolved into the first tetrapods, the four-limbed land vertebrates that now include amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/science/south-american-lungfish-has-largest-genome-any-animal-2024-08-16

Colorectal cancer rates are rising at an alarming rate among young adults, but the reason behind the increased diagnoses has been a medical mystery. However, the Cleveland Clinic has released a study that pinpoints a major cause for the spike in cases: diet.

When looking at the microbiomes of adults 60 years and younger with colorectal cancer, researchers found an unusually high level of diet-derived molecules called metabolites. The metabolites involved in colorectal cancer usually come from eating red and processed meat.

“Researchers—ourselves included—have begun to focus on the gut microbiome as a primary contributor to colon cancer risk. But our data clearly shows that the main driver is diet,” says Dr. Naseer Sangwan, a director at the Microbial Sequencing & Analytics Resource Core at the Cleveland Clinic and study co-author, in a media release. “We already know the main metabolites associated with young-onset risk, so we can now move our research forward in the correct direction.”

The study is published in the journal npj Precision Oncology.

The researchers created an artificial intelligence algorithm to examine a wide range of datasets in published studies to determine what factors contributed most to colorectal cancer risk. One crucial area to explore was the gut microbiome. Previous research showed significant differences in gut composition between younger and older adults with colorectal cancer.

One of the most striking features among young adults and older adults with colorectal cancer is the differences in diet, reflected through the type of metabolites present in the gut microbiome. Younger people showed higher levels of metabolites involved in producing and metabolizing an amino acid called arginine, along with metabolites involved in the urea cycle.

According to the authors, these metabolites likely result from overeating red meat and processed foods. They are currently examining national datasets to confirm their findings.

Choosing between the two, it is much simpler to change a diet than to completely reset a person’s microbiome. The findings suggest that eating less red and processed meat could lower a person’s risk of colorectal cancer.

“Even though I knew before this study that diet is an important factor in colon cancer risk, I didn’t always discuss it with my patients during their first visit. There is so much going on, it can already be so overwhelming,” says Dr. Suneel Kamath, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic and senior author of the study. “Now, I always make sure to bring it up to my patients, and to any healthy friends or family members they may come in with, to try and equip them with the tools they need to make informed choices about their lifestyle.”

Making healthier dietary choices is also a more accessible method for preventing colorectal cancer. While screening is an important tool, Dr. Kamath notes it is impractical for doctors to give every person in the world a colonoscopy. In the future, simple tests that count specific metabolites as a marker for colorectal cancer risk may help with increased monitoring. On the research side, the authors plan to test whether particular diets or drugs involved in regulating arginine production and the urea cycle can help prevent or treat colorectal cancer in young adults.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/colorectal-cancer-diet/?nab=0

For years, families of brain-injured patients have insisted their unresponsive loved ones were still “in there.” Now, a groundbreaking study on consciousness suggests they may have been right all along.

Researchers have discovered that approximately one in four patients who appear completely unresponsive may actually be conscious and aware but physically unable to show it. This phenomenon, known as cognitive motor dissociation, challenges long-held assumptions about disorders of consciousness and could have profound implications for how we assess and care for brain-injured patients.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, represents the largest and most comprehensive investigation of cognitive motor dissociation to date. An international team of researchers used advanced brain imaging and electrophysiological techniques to detect signs of consciousness in patients who seemed entirely unresponsive based on standard behavioral assessments.

The findings suggest that cognitive motor dissociation is far more common than previously thought. This has major implications for clinical care, end-of-life decision-making, and our fundamental understanding of consciousness itself.

The study examined 353 adult patients with disorders of consciousness resulting from various types of brain injuries. These conditions exist on a spectrum, ranging from coma (where patients are completely unresponsive and show no signs of awareness) to the vegetative state (where patients may open their eyes and have sleep-wake cycles but show no signs of awareness) to the minimally conscious state (where patients show some inconsistent but reproducible signs of awareness).

Traditionally, doctors have relied on bedside behavioral assessments to diagnose a patient’s level of consciousness. However, this approach assumes that if a patient can’t physically respond to commands or stimuli, they must not be aware. The new study challenges this assumption, revealing signs of consciousness that may not be outwardly visible.

Strikingly, the study found that 25% of patients who showed no behavioral signs of consciousness demonstrated brain activity consistent with awareness and the ability to follow commands. In other words, one in four patients who appeared to be in a vegetative state or minimally conscious state without command-following ability were actually conscious and able to understand and respond mentally to instructions.

“Some patients with severe brain injury do not appear to be processing their external world. However, when they are assessed with advanced techniques such as task-based fMRI and EEG, we can detect brain activity that suggests otherwise,” says lead study author Yelena Bodien, PhD, in a statement.

Bodien is an investigator for the Spaulding-Harvard Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery.

“These results bring up critical ethical, clinical, and scientific questions – such as how can we harness that unseen cognitive capacity to establish a system of communication and promote further recovery?”

The study also found that cognitive motor dissociation was more common in younger patients, those with traumatic brain injuries, and those who were assessed later after their initial injury. This suggests that some patients may recover cognitive abilities over time, even if they remain unable to communicate behaviorally.

Interestingly, even among patients who could follow commands behaviorally, more than 60% did not show responses on the brain imaging tests. This highlights the complex nature of consciousness and the limitations of current detection methods.

The findings raise challenging questions about how we diagnose disorders of consciousness, make end-of-life decisions, and allocate resources for long-term care and rehabilitation. It also opens up new avenues for potential therapies aimed at restoring communication in these patients.

While the study represents a significant advance, the authors caution that the techniques used are not yet widely available and require further refinement before they can be routinely used in clinical practice.

“To continue our progress in this field, we need to validate our tools and to develop approaches for systematically and pragmatically assessing unresponsive patients so that the testing is more accessible,” adds Bodien. “We know that cognitive motor dissociation is not uncommon, but resources and infrastructure are required to optimize detection of this condition and provide adequate support to patients and their families.”

Source: https://studyfinds.org/brain-consciousness-vegetative/?nab=0

This technology could be aah-mazing!

Researchers in Iraq and Australia say they have developed a computer algorithm that can analyze the color of a person’s tongue to detect their medical condition in real time — with 98% accuracy.

“Typically, people with diabetes have a yellow tongue; cancer patients a purple tongue with a thick greasy coating; and acute stroke patients present with an unusually shaped red tongue,” explained senior study author Ali Al-Naji, who teaches at Middle Technical University in Baghdad and the University of South Australia.

“A white tongue can indicate anemia; people with severe cases of COVID-19 are likely to have a deep-red tongue,” Al-Naji continued. “An indigo- or violet-colored tongue indicates vascular and gastrointestinal issues or asthma.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/08/13/lifestyle/ai-model-98-accurate-in-detecting-diseases-just-by-looking-at-your-tongue/

The West Coast of the United States is home to some of the most breathtaking beaches in the world. From California’s dramatic cliffs to Oregon and Washington’s peaceful shores, there’s a beach for every vibe. With nearly 8,000 miles of shoreline, it would take years to get to every beach. That’s why we’ve created a list of the best West Coast beaches that travel experts across seven websites recommend adding to your bucket list. So, grab your sunscreen and towel, and discover what could become your new favorite spot. Is there a beach you love that’s not on the list? Let us know!

The List: Top 6 Must-Visit Beaches on the Left Coast

1. Cannon Beach, Oregon

You won’t be able to put your camera down when visiting Cannon Beach along the Oregon coast. The breathtaking sunsets rival those in far-off lands, with the towering Haystack Rock providing an incredible backdrop. Nestled in the charming town of Cannon Beach, this coastal gem is a favorite spot for day-trippers from Portland, says Roam The Northwest.

You’ll also encounter plenty of wildlife at the beach, from tide pools to unique marine life. Nearby, Ecola State Park offers hiking trails and lookouts – perfect for selfies. Sixt recommends a stroll through Cannon Beach’s downtown area, filled with unique boutiques and galleries. It’s a full-day adventure!

Swimming might not be the main attraction at Cannon Beach, but that doesn’t bother visitors reports Your Tango. There’s plenty to do, from exploring vibrant nature trails to walking to Haystack Rock at low tide. The beach promises fun times for everyone, even if you don’t take a dip!

2. La Jolla Beach, California

According to USA Today, this popular San Diego beach is a dream come true with its miles of turquoise water and gentle waves, making it the perfect place to learn to surf. The swimming and snorkeling are unbeatable with plenty of colorful fish and marine life.

The beach is an ideal destination for families looking to enjoy the sand, surf, and explore the nearby State Marine Reserve. Roam the Northwest recommends bringing a bike to tour the Coast Walk Trail or visit other nearby beaches.

If you enjoy kayaking or snorkeling, Your Tango says that this beach offers some of the most secluded caves to explore. Just a short walk from La Jolla Cove is the Children’s Pool, an ideal spot for families with small children.

3. Rialto Beach, Washington

The highlight of this stunning Olympic Coast beach is the aptly named Hole-in-the-Wall, located about a mile north of the parking lot. Accessible only at low tide, this natural rock formation is perfect for exploring and taking photos. It frames the sea stacks that line this stretch of beach beautifully, according to Roam the Northwest.

The water can be chilly in the summer, around 59 degrees, but Cheapism says the stunning scenery more than makes up for it. You’ll find massive sea stacks just offshore, piles of driftwood scattered along the beach and the famous Hole-in-the-Wall sea cave arch. The wildlife here is a real treat too—otters, whales, and seals are regulars!

This beach is one of the rare spots where you can bring your pets, but Yard Barker says you must keep them leashed and don’t let them go past Ellen Creek. It’s a popular place for beach camping too, though sadly, your four-legged friends have to sit that one out.

4. Ruby Beach, Washington

This is one of Washington State’s best-kept secrets according to Yard Barker. Adjacent to Olympic National Park, this spot is more “beachy” than Rialto. If it weren’t for the cooler weather, you might think you were in California. This spot is a must-add to any vacation itinerary.

Ruby Beach is conveniently located off Highway 101 and is perfect for day-trippers. With its towering sea stacks and cobbled stones, Roam the Northwest guarantees you’ll spend hours beachcombing and soaking in the wild beauty. Its remote charm and stunning landscapes keep people coming back for more.

During low tide, visitors can explore rocky areas and discover marine life in the tide pools, while photographers capture the scenic sea stacks and driftwood. For a more active experience, the nearby Olympic National Park offers coastal trails with stunning views of the Pacific Ocean. As Sixt highlights, the 1.5-mile hike to the Hoh River is breathtaking, featuring sea stacks, driftwood, and the chance to spot eagles and other wildlife.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/best-west-coast-beaches/?nab=0

The Mediterranean diet has long been touted as the gold standard for healthy eating, but a new contender has emerged from an unexpected corner. Recent research shows that a low-fat vegan diet not only promotes more weight loss but also dramatically reduces harmful substances in our food.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an agency that promotes plant-based foods, compared the effects of a Mediterranean diet and a low-fat vegan diet on overweight adults. Participants on the vegan diet lost an average of 6 kilograms (about 13 pounds) more than those on the Mediterranean diet, with no change in their physical activity.

But the benefits, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, didn’t stop at weight loss. The vegan diet also led to a dramatic 73% reduction in dietary advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). These harmful compounds, formed when proteins or fats combine with sugars, have been linked to various health issues, including inflammation, oxidative stress, and an increased risk of chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Why you should eliminate AGEs from your diet

To understand AGEs, imagine them as unwanted houseguests that overstay their welcome in your body. They form naturally during normal metabolism, but they also sneak in through our diet, especially in animal-based and highly processed foods. AGEs are particularly abundant in foods cooked at high temperatures, such as grilled meats or fried foods. They can accumulate in our bodies over time, causing damage to tissues and contributing to the aging process – hence their nickname, “glycotoxins.”

The Mediterranean diet, long praised for its health benefits, surprisingly showed no significant change in dietary AGE levels. This finding challenges the perception that the Mediterranean diet is the gold standard for healthy eating. The vegan diet, on the other hand, achieved its AGE-busting effects primarily by eliminating meat consumption (which accounted for 41% of the AGE reduction), minimizing added fats (27% of the reduction), and avoiding dairy products (14% of the reduction).

These results suggest that a low-fat vegan diet could be a powerful tool in the fight against obesity and its related health issues. By reducing both body weight and harmful AGEs, this dietary approach may offer a two-pronged attack on factors that contribute to chronic diseases.

Mediterranean diet not best for weight loss?
The study’s lead author, Dr. Hana Kahleova, says that the vegan diet’s benefits extended beyond just numbers on a scale. The reduction in AGEs could have far-reaching implications for overall health, potentially lowering the risk of various age-related diseases.

“The study helps bust the myth that a Mediterranean diet is best for weight loss,” says Kahleova, the director of clinical research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in a statement. “Choosing a low-fat vegan diet that avoids the dairy and oil so common in the Mediterranean diet helps reduce intake of harmful advanced glycation end-products leading to significant weight loss.”

This research adds to a growing body of evidence supporting the benefits of plant-based diets. Previous studies have shown that vegetarian and vegan diets can reduce the risk of developing metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes by about 50%. The dramatic reduction in dietary AGEs observed in this study may help explain some of these protective effects.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/vegan-vs-mediterranean-diet-which-is-healthier/?nab=0

In a remarkable feat of nanoscale engineering, scientists have created the world’s thinnest gold sheets at just one atom thick. This new material, dubbed “goldene,” could revolutionize fields from electronics to medicine, offering unique properties that bulk gold simply can’t match.

The research team, led by scientists from Linköping University in Sweden, managed to isolate single-atom layers of gold by cleverly manipulating the metal’s atomic structure. Their findings, published in the journal Nature Synthesis, represent a significant breakthrough in the rapidly evolving field of two-dimensional (2D) materials.

Since the discovery of graphene — single-atom-thick sheets of carbon — in 2004, researchers have been racing to create 2D versions of other elements. While 2D materials made from carbon, boron, and even iron have been achieved, gold has proven particularly challenging. Previous attempts resulted in gold sheets several atoms thick or required the gold to be supported by other materials.

The Swedish team’s achievement is particularly noteworthy because they created free-standing sheets of gold just one atom thick. This ultra-thin gold, or goldene, exhibits properties quite different from its three-dimensional counterpart. For instance, the atoms in goldene are packed more tightly together, with about 9% less space between them compared to bulk gold. This compressed structure leads to changes in the material’s electronic properties, which could make it useful for a wide range of applications.

One of the most exciting potential uses for goldene is in catalysis, which is the process of speeding up chemical reactions. Gold nanoparticles are already used as catalysts in various industrial processes, from converting harmful vehicle emissions into less dangerous gases to producing hydrogen fuel. The researchers believe that goldene’s extremely high surface-area-to-volume ratio could make it an even more efficient catalyst.

The creation of goldene also opens up new possibilities in fields like electronics, photonics, and medicine. For example, the material’s unique optical properties could lead to improved solar cells or new types of sensors. In medicine, goldene might be used to create ultra-sensitive diagnostic tools or to deliver drugs more effectively within the body.

How They Did It: Peeling Gold Atom by Atom
The process of creating goldene is almost as fascinating as the material itself. The researchers used a technique that might be described as atomic-scale sculpting, carefully removing unwanted atoms to leave behind a single layer of gold.

They started with a material called Ti3AuC2, which is part of a family of compounds known as MAX phases. These materials have a layered structure, with sheets of titanium carbide (Ti3C2) alternating with layers of gold atoms. The challenge was to remove the titanium carbide layers without disturbing the gold.

To accomplish this, the team used a chemical etching process. They immersed the Ti3AuC2 in a carefully prepared solution containing potassium hydroxide and potassium ferricyanide, known as Murakami’s reagent. This solution selectively attacks the titanium carbide layers, gradually dissolving them away.

However, simply etching away the titanium carbide wasn’t enough. Left to their own devices, t

he freed gold atoms would quickly clump together, forming 3D nanoparticles instead of 2D sheets. To prevent this, the researchers added surfactants — molecules that help keep the gold atoms spread out in a single layer.

Two key surfactants were used: cetrimonium bromide (CTAB) and cysteine. These molecules attach to the surface of the gold, creating a protective barrier that prevents the atoms from coalescing. The entire process took about a week, with the researchers carefully controlling the concentration of the etching solution and surfactants to achieve the desired result.

Results: A New Form of Gold Emerges

The team’s efforts resulted in sheets of gold just one atom thick, confirmed through high-resolution electron microscopy. These goldene sheets showed several interesting properties:

1. Compressed structure: The gold atoms in goldene are packed about 9% closer together than in bulk gold. This compression changes how the electrons in the material behave, potentially leading to new electronic and optical properties.
2. Increased binding energy: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the electrons in goldene are more tightly bound to their atoms compared to bulk gold. This shift in binding energy could affect the material’s chemical reactivity.
3. Rippling and curling: Unlike perfectly flat sheets, the goldene layers showed some rippling and curling, especially at the edges. This behavior is common in 2D materials and can influence their properties.
4. Stability: Computer simulations suggested that goldene should be stable at room temperature, although the experimental samples showed some tendency to form blobs or clump together over time.

The researchers also found that they could control the thickness of the gold sheets by adjusting their process. Using slightly different conditions, they were able to create two- and three-atom-thick sheets of gold as well.

Limitations and Challenges

Could skipping a few meals each week help you fight cancer? It might sound far-fetched, but new research suggests that one type of intermittent fasting could actually boost your body’s natural ability to defeat cancer.

A team of scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) has uncovered an intriguing link between fasting and the body’s immune system. Their study, published in the journal Immunity, focuses on a particular type of immune cell called natural killer (NK) cells. These cells are like the special forces of your immune system, capable of taking out cancer cells and virus-infected cells without needing prior exposure.

So, what’s the big deal about these NK cells? Well, they’re pretty important when it comes to battling cancerous tumors. Generally speaking, the more NK cells you have in a tumor, the better your chances of beating the disease. However, there’s a catch: the environment inside and around tumors is incredibly harsh. It’s like a battlefield where resources are scarce, and many immune cells struggle to survive.

This is where fasting enters the picture. The researchers found that periods of fasting actually “reprogrammed” these NK cells, making them better equipped to survive in the dangerous tumor environment and more effective at fighting cancer.

“Tumors are very hungry,” says immunologist Joseph Sun, PhD, the study’s senior author, in a media release. “They take up essential nutrients, creating a hostile environment often rich in lipids that are detrimental to most immune cells. What we show here is that fasting reprograms these natural killer cells to better survive in this suppressive environment.”

How exactly does intermittent fasting achieve this?
The study, which was conducted on mice, involved denying the animals food for 24 hours twice a week, with normal eating in between. This intermittent fasting approach had some pretty remarkable effects on the NK cells.

First off, fasting caused the mice’s glucose levels to drop and their levels of free fatty acids to rise. Free fatty acids are a type of lipid (fat) that can be used as an alternative energy source when other nutrients are scarce. The NK cells learned to use these fatty acids as fuel instead of glucose, which is typically their primary energy source.

“During each of these fasting cycles, NK cells learned to use these fatty acids as an alternative fuel source to glucose,” says Dr. Rebecca Delconte, the lead author of the study. “This really optimizes their anti-cancer response because the tumor microenvironment contains a high concentration of lipids, and now they’re able enter the tumor and survive better because of this metabolic training.”

The fasting also caused the NK cells to move around the body in interesting ways. Many of them traveled to the bone marrow, where they were exposed to high levels of a protein called Interleukin-12. This exposure primed the NK cells to produce more of another protein called Interferon-gamma, which plays a crucial role in fighting tumors. Meanwhile, NK cells in the spleen were undergoing their own transformation, becoming even better at using lipids as fuel. The result? NK cells were pre-primed to produce more cancer-fighting substances and were better equipped to survive in the harsh tumor environment.

 

Source: https://studyfinds.org/intermittent-fasting-fight-cancer/

Depression and anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health issues worldwide, yet current treatments often fail to provide relief for many sufferers. A major challenge has been the heterogeneity of these conditions. Patients with the same diagnosis can have vastly different symptoms and underlying brain dysfunctions. Now, a team of researchers at Stanford University has developed a novel approach to parse this heterogeneity, identifying six distinct “biotypes” of depression and anxiety based on specific patterns of brain circuit dysfunction.

The study, published in Nature Medicine, analyzed brain scans from over 800 patients with depression and anxiety disorders. By applying advanced computational techniques to these scans, the researchers were able to quantify the function of key brain circuits involved in cognitive and emotional processing at the individual level. This allowed them to group patients into biotypes defined by shared patterns of circuit dysfunction, rather than relying solely on symptoms.

Intriguingly, the six biotypes showed marked differences not just in their brain function, but also in their clinical profiles. Patients in each biotype exhibited distinct constellations of symptoms, cognitive impairments, and critically, responses to different treatments. For example, one biotype characterized by hyperconnectivity in circuits involved in self-referential thought and salience processing responded particularly well to behavioral therapy. Another, with heightened activity in circuits processing sadness and reward, was distinguished by prominent anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure).

These findings represent a significant step towards a more personalized, brain-based approach to diagnosing and treating depression and anxiety. By moving beyond one-size-fits-all categories to identify subgroups with shared neural mechanisms, this work opens the door to matching patients with the therapies most likely to help them based on the specific way their brain is wired. It suggests that brain circuit dysfunction may be a more meaningful way to stratify patients than symptoms alone. In the future, brain scans could be used to match individual patients with the treatments most likely to work for them, based on their specific neural profile.

More broadly, this study highlights the power of a transdiagnostic, dimensional approach to understanding mental illness. By focusing on neural circuits that cut across traditional diagnostic boundaries, we may be able to develop a more precise, mechanistic framework for classifying these conditions.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time we’ve been able to demonstrate that depression can be explained by different disruptions to the functioning of the brain,” says the study’s senior author, Dr. Leanne Williams, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and the director of Stanford Medicine’s Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness. “In essence, it’s a demonstration of a personalized medicine approach for mental health based on objective measures of brain function.”

The crucial early years of a child’s life lay the foundation for their lifelong growth and happiness. Spending quality time with parents during these formative stages can lead to substantial positive changes in children. With that in mind, researchers have found an important link between a father’s involvement and their child’s successful development, both mentally and physically. Simply put, being a “super dad” results in raising super kids.

However, in Japan, where this study took place, a historical gender-based division of labor has limited fathers’ participation in childcare-related activities, impacting the development of children. Traditionally, Japanese fathers, especially those in their 20s to 40s, have been expected to prioritize work commitments over family responsibilities.

This cultural norm has resulted in limited paternal engagement in childcare, regardless of individual inclinations. The increasing number of mothers entering full-time employment further exacerbates the issue, leaving a void in familial support for childcare. With the central government advocating for paternal involvement in response to low fertility rates, Japanese fathers are now urged to become co-caregivers, shifting away from their traditional role as primary breadwinners.

While recent trends have found a rise in paternal childcare involvement, the true impact of this active participation on a child’s developmental outcomes has remained largely unexplored. This groundbreaking study published in Pediatric Research, utilizing data from the largest birth cohort in Japan, set out to uncover the link between paternal engagement and infant developmental milestones. Led by Dr. Tsuguhiko Kato from the National Center for Child Health and Development and Doshisha University Center for Baby Science, the study delved into this critical aspect of modern parenting.

“In developed countries, the time fathers spend on childcare has increased steadily in recent decades. However, studies on the relationship between paternal care and child outcomes remain scarce. In this study, we examined the association between paternal involvement in childcare and children’s developmental outcomes,” explains Dr. Kato in a media release.

Leveraging data from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, the research team assessed developmental milestones in 28,050 Japanese children. These children received paternal childcare at six months of age and were evaluated for various developmental markers at three years. Additionally, the study explored whether maternal parenting stress mediates these outcomes at 18 months.

“The prevalence of employed mothers has been on the rise in Japan. As a result, Japan is witnessing a paradigm shift in its parenting culture. Fathers are increasingly getting involved in childcare-related parental activities,” Dr. Kato says.

The study measured paternal childcare involvement through seven key questions, gauging tasks like feeding, diaper changes, bathing, playtime, outdoor activities, and dressing. Each father’s level of engagement was scored accordingly. The research findings were then correlated with the extent of developmental delay in infants, as evaluated using the Ages and Stages questionnaire.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/super-dads-super-kids/

A groundbreaking new study has uncovered genetic factors that may help explain why some women experience a phenomenon called mosaic loss of the X chromosome (mLOX) as they age. With mLOX, some of a woman’s blood cells randomly lose one of their two X chromosomes over time. Concerningly, scientists believe this genetic oddity may lead to the development of several disease, including cancer.

Researchers with the National Institutes of Health found that certain inherited gene variants make some women more susceptible to developing mLOX in the first place. Other genetic variations they identified seem to give a selective growth advantage to the blood cells that retain one X chromosome over the other after mLOX occurs.

Importantly, the study published in the journal Nature confirmed that women with mLOX have an elevated risk of developing blood cancers like leukemia and increased susceptibility to infections like pneumonia. This underscores the potential health implications of this chromosomal abnormality.

Paper Summary

Methodology

To uncover the genetic underpinnings of mLOX, the researchers conducted a massive analysis of nearly 900,000 women’s blood samples from eight different biobanks around the world. About 12% of these women showed signs of mLOX in their blood cells.

Results

By comparing the DNA of women with and without mLOX, the team pinpointed 56 common gene variants associated with developing the condition. Many of these genes are known to influence processes like abnormal cell division and cancer susceptibility. The researchers also found that rare mutations in a gene called FBXO10 could double a woman’s risk of mLOX. This gene likely plays an important role in the cellular processes that lead to randomly losing an X chromosome.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/women-losing-x-chromosomes/

Are you an open book, your face broadcasting every passing emotion, or more of a stoic poker face? Scientists at Nottingham Trent University say that wearing your heart on your sleeve (or rather, your face) could actually give you a significant social advantage. Their research shows that people who are more facially expressive are more well-liked by others, considered more agreeable and extraverted, and even fare better in negotiations if they have an amenable personality.

The study, led by Eithne Kavanagh, a research fellow at NTU’s School of Social Sciences, is the first large-scale systematic exploration of individual differences in facial expressivity in real-world social interactions. Across two studies involving over 1,300 participants, Kavanagh and her team found striking variations in how much people moved their faces during conversations. Importantly, this expressivity emerged as a stable individual trait. People displayed similar levels of facial expressiveness across different contexts, with different social partners, and even over time periods up to four months.

Connecting facial expressions with social success
So what drives these differences in facial communication styles and why do they matter? The researchers say that facial expressivity is linked to personality, with more agreeable, extraverted and neurotic individuals displaying more animated faces. But facial expressiveness also translated into concrete social benefits above and beyond the effects of personality.

In a negotiation task, more expressive individuals were more likely to secure a larger slice of a reward, but only if they were also agreeable. The researchers suggest that for agreeable folks, dynamic facial expressions may serve as a tool for building rapport and smoothing over conflicts.

Across the board, the results point to facial expressivity serving an “affiliative function,” or a social glue that fosters liking, cooperation and smoother interactions. Third-party observers and actual conversation partners consistently rated more expressive people as more likable.

Expressivity was also linked to being seen as more “readable,” suggesting that an animated face makes one’s intentions and mental states easier for others to decipher. Beyond frequency of facial movements, people who deployed facial expressions more strategically to suit social goals, such as looking friendly in a greeting, were also more well-liked.

India might not be the first country that springs to mind when someone mentions video games, but it’s one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.
Analysts believe there could be more than half a billion players there by the end of this year.
Most of them are playing on mobile phones and tablets, and fans will tell you the industry is mostly known for fantasy sports games that let you assemble imaginary teams based on real players.
Despite concerns over gambling and possible addiction, they’re big business.
The country’s three largest video game startups – Game 24X7, Dream11 and Mobile Premier League – all provide some kind of fantasy sport experience and are valued at over $1bn.
But there’s hope that a crop of story-driven games making a splash worldwide could inspire a new wave of creativity and investment.
During the recent Summer Game Fest (SGF) – an annual showcase of new and upcoming titles held in Los Angeles and watched by millions – audiences saw previews of a number of story-rich titles from South Asian teams.

One of those was Detective Dotson by Masala Games, based in Gujarat, about a failed Bollywood actor turned detective.
Industry veteran Shalin Shodhan is behind the game and tells BBC Asian Network this focus on unique stories is “bucking the trend” in India’s games industry.
He wants video games to become an “interactive cultural export” but says he’s found creating new intellectual property difficult.
“There really isn’t anything in the marketplace to make stories about India,” he says, despite the strength of some of the country’s other cultural industries.
“If you think about how much intellectual property there is in film in India, it is really surprising to think nothing indigenous exists as an original entertainment property in games,” he says.
“It’s almost like the Indian audience accepted that we’re just going to play games from outside.”
Another game shown during SGF was The Palace on the Hill – a “slice-of-life” farming sim set in rural India.
Mala Sen, from developer Niku Games, says games like this and Detective Dotson are what “India needed”.
“We know that there are a lot of people in India who want games where characters and setting are relatable to them,” she says.

New study shows damage from cosmic radiation, microgravity could be ‘catastrophic’ for human body
LONDON — As humanity sets its sights on deep space missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, a team of international researchers has uncovered a potential problem lurking in the shadows of these ambitious plans: spaceflight-induced kidney damage.

The findings, in a nutshell
In a new study that integrated a dizzying array of cutting-edge scientific techniques, researchers from University College London found that exposure to the unique stressors of spaceflight — such as microgravity and galactic cosmic radiation — can lead to serious, potentially irreversible kidney problems in astronauts.

This sobering discovery, published in Nature Communications, not only highlights the immense challenges of long-duration space travel but also underscores the urgent need for effective countermeasures to protect the health of future space explorers.

“If we don’t develop new ways to protect the kidneys, I’d say that while an astronaut could make it to Mars they might need dialysis on the way back,” says the study’s first author, Dr. Keith Siew, from the London Tubular Centre, based at the UCL Department of Renal Medicine, in a media release. “We know that the kidneys are late to show signs of radiation damage; by the time this becomes apparent it’s probably too late to prevent failure, which would be catastrophic for the mission’s chances of success.”

We’ve all been there — a big task is looming over our heads, but we choose to put it off for another day. Procrastination is so common that researchers have spent years trying to understand what drives some people to chronically postpone important chores until the last possible moment. Now, researchers from the University of Tokyo have found a fascinating factor that may be the cause of procrastination: people’s view of the future.

The findings, in a nutshell
Researchers found evidence that having a pessimistic view about how stressful the future will be could increase the likelihood of falling into a pattern of severe procrastination. Moreover, the study published in Scientific Reports reveals that having an optimistic view on the future wards off the urge to procrastinate.

“Our research showed that optimistic people — those who believe that stress does not increase as we move into the future — are less likely to have severe procrastination habits,” explains Saya Kashiwakura from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Tokyo, in a media release. “This finding helped me adopt a more light-hearted perspective on the future, leading to a more direct view and reduced procrastination.”

Methodology
To examine procrastination through the lens of people’s perspectives on the past, present, and future, the researchers introduced new measures they dubbed the “chronological stress view” and “chronological well-being view.” Study participants were asked to rate their levels of stress and well-being across nine different timeframes: the past 10 years, past year, past month, yesterday, now, tomorrow, next month, next year, and the next 10 years.

The researchers then used clustering analysis to group participants based on the patterns in their responses over time – for instance, whether their stress increased, decreased or stayed flat as they projected into the future. Participants were also scored on a procrastination scale, allowing the researchers to investigate whether certain patterns of future perspective were associated with more or less severe procrastination tendencies.

Results: Procrastination is All About Mindset
When examining the chronological stress view patterns, the analysis revealed four distinct clusters: “descending” (stress decreases over time), “ascending” (stress increases), “V-shaped” (stress is lowest in the present), and a “skewed mountain” shape where stress peaked in the past and declined toward the future.

Intriguingly, the researchers found a significant relationship between cluster membership and level of procrastination. The percentage of severe procrastinators was significantly lower in the “descending” cluster – those who believed their stress levels would stay flat or decrease as they projected into the future.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/being-more-optimistic-can-keep-you-from-procrastinating/

About 1 in 6 Americans are age 65 or older, and that percentage is projected to grow. Older adults often hold positions of power, have retirement savings accumulated over the course of their lifetimes, and make important financial and health-related decisions – all of which makes them attractive targets for financial exploitation.

In 2021, there were more than 90,000 older victims of fraud, according to the FBI. These cases resulted in US$1.7 billion in losses, a 74% increase compared with 2020. Even so, that may be a significant undercount since embarrassment or lack of awareness keeps some victims from reporting.

Financial exploitation represents one of the most common forms of elder abuse. Perpetrators are often individuals in the victims’ inner social circles – family members, caregivers, or friends – but can also be strangers.

When older adults experience financial fraud, they typically lose more money than younger victims. Those losses can have devastating consequences, especially since older adults have limited time to recoup – dramatically reducing their independence, health, and well-being.

But older adults have been largely neglected in research on this burgeoning type of crime. We are psychologists who study social cognition and decision-making, and our research lab at the University of Florida is aimed at understanding the factors that shape vulnerability to deception in adulthood and aging.

Defining vulnerability
Financial exploitation involves a variety of exploitative tactics, such as coercion, manipulation, undue influence, and, frequently, some sort of deception.

The majority of current research focuses on people’s ability to distinguish between truth and lies during interpersonal communication. However, deception occurs in many contexts – increasingly, over the internet.

Our lab conducts laboratory experiments and real-world studies to measure susceptibility under various conditions: investment games, lie/truth scenarios, phishing emails, text messages, fake news and deepfakes – fabricated videos or images that are created by artificial intelligence technology.

To study how people respond to deception, we use measures like surveys, brain imaging, behavior, eye movement, and heart rate. We also collect health-related biomarkers, such as being a carrier of gene variants that increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease, to identify individuals with particular vulnerability.

And our work shows that an older adult’s ability to detect deception is not just about their individual characteristics. It also depends on how they are being targeted.

Individual risk factors
Better cognition, social and emotional capacities, and brain health are all associated with less susceptibility to deception.

Cognitive functions, such as how quickly our brain processes information and how well we remember it, decline with age and impact decision-making. For example, among people around 70 years of age or older, declines in analytical thinking are associated with reduced ability to detect false news stories.

Additionally, low memory function in aging is associated with greater susceptibility to email phishing. Further, according to recent research, this correlation is specifically pronounced among older adults who carry a gene variant that is a genetic risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life. Indeed, some research suggests that greater financial exploitability may serve as an early marker of disease-related cognitive decline.

Social and emotional influences are also crucial. Negative mood can enhance somebody’s ability to detect lies, while positive mood in very old age can impair a person’s ability to detect fake news.

Lack of support and loneliness exacerbate susceptibility to deception. Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased reliance on online platforms, and older adults with lower digital literacy are more vulnerable to fraudulent emails and robocalls.

Finally, an individual’s brain and body responses play a critical role in susceptibility to deception. One important factor is interoceptive awareness: the ability to accurately read our own body’s signals, like a “gut feeling.” This awareness is correlated with better lie detection in older adults.

According to a first study, financially exploited older adults had a significantly smaller size of insula – a brain region key to integrating bodily signals with environmental cues – than older adults who had been exposed to the same threat but avoided it. Reduced insula activity is also related to greater difficulty picking up on cues that make someone appear less trustworthy.

Types of effective fraud
Not all deception is equally effective on everyone.

Our findings show that email phishing that relies on reciprocation – people’s tendency to repay what another person has provided them – was more effective on older adults. Younger adults, on the other hand, were more likely to fall for phishing emails that employed scarcity: people’s tendency to perceive an opportunity as more valuable if they are told its availability is limited. For example, an email might alert you that a coin collection from the 1950s has become available for a special reduced price if purchased within the next 24 hours.

There is also evidence that as we age, we have greater difficulty detecting the “wolf in sheep’s clothing”: someone who appears trustworthy, but is not acting in a trustworthy way. In a card-based gambling game, we found that compared with their younger counterparts, older adults are more likely to select decks presented with trustworthy-looking faces, even though those decks consistently resulted in negative payouts. Even after learning about untrustworthy behavior, older adults showed greater difficulty overcoming their initial impressions.

Reducing vulnerability
Identifying who is especially at risk for financial exploitation in aging is crucial for preventing victimization.

We believe interventions should be tailored instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, perhaps machine learning algorithms could someday determine the most dangerous types of deceptive messages that certain groups encounter – such as in text messages, emails, or social media platforms – and provide on-the-spot warnings. Black and Hispanic consumers are more likely to be victimized, so there is also a dire need for interventions that resonate with their communities.

Prevention efforts would benefit from taking a holistic approach to help older adults reduce their vulnerability to scams. Training in financial, health, and digital literacy are important, but so are programs to address loneliness.

People of all ages need to keep these lessons in mind when interacting with online content or strangers – but not only then. Unfortunately, financial exploitation often comes from individuals close to the victim.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/whos-most-vulnerable-to-scams/

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers about a mushroom-infused chocolate bar that has reportedly sent some people to the hospital.

The FDA released an advisory message about Diamond Shruumz “microdosing” chocolate bars on June 7. The chocolate bars contain a “proprietary nootropics blend” that is said to give a “relaxed euphoric experience without psilocybin,” according to its website.

“The FDA and CDC, in collaboration with America’s Poison Centers and state and local partners, are investigating a series of illnesses associated with eating Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars,” the FDA’s website reads.

“Do not eat, sell, or serve Diamond Shruumz-Brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars,” the site warns. “FDA’s investigation is ongoing.”

“Microdosing” is a practice where one takes a very small amount of psychedelic drugs with the intent of increasing productivity, inspiring creativity and boosting mood. According to Diamond Shruumz’s website, the brand said its products help achieve “a subtle, sumptuous experience and a more creative state of mind.”

“We’re talkin’ confections with a kick,” the brand said. “So if you like mushroom chocolate bars and want to mingle with some microdosing, check us out. We just might change how you see the world.”

But government officials warn that the products have caused seizures in some consumers and vomiting in others.

“People who became ill after eating Diamond Shruumz-brand Microdosing Chocolate Bars reported a variety of severe symptoms including seizures, central nervous system depression (loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness), agitation, abnormal heart rates, hyper/hypotension, nausea, and vomiting,” the FDA reported.

Six people reportedly experienced such severe reactions that they sought medical care.

“All eight people have reported seeking medical care; six have been hospitalized,” the FDA’s press release said. “No deaths have been reported.”

Diamond Shruumz says on its website that its products are not necessarily psychedelic. Although the chocolate is marketed as promising a psilocybin-like experience, there is no psilocybin in it.

“There is no presence of psilocybin, amanita or any scheduled drugs, ensuring a safe and enjoyable experience,” the website claims. “Rest assured, our treats are not only free from psychedelic substances but our carefully crafted ingredients still offer an experience.”

“This allows you to indulge in a uniquely crafted blend designed for your pleasure and peace of mind.”

Officials warn consumers to keep the products out of the reach of minors, as kids and teens may be tempted to eat the chocolate bars.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/health/mushroom-infused-microdosing-chocolate-bars-sending-people-hospital-prompting-investigation-fda

 

They say elephants never forget a face, and now as it turns out, they seem to remember names too. That is, the “names” they have for one another. Yes, believe it or not, a new study shows that elephants actually have the rare ability to identify one another through unique calls, essentially giving one another human-like names when they converse.

Scientists from Colorado State University, along with a team of researchers from Save the Elephants and ElephantVoices, used machine learning to make this fascinating discovery. Their work suggests that elephants possess a level of communication and abstract thought that is more similar to ours than previously believed.

In the study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the researchers analyzed hundreds of recorded elephant calls from Kenya’s Samburu National Reserve and Amboseli National Park. By training a sophisticated model to identify the intended recipient of each call based on its unique acoustic features, they could confirm that elephant calls contain a name-like component, a behavior they had suspected based on observation.

“Dolphins and parrots call one another by ‘name’ by imitating the signature call of the addressee. By contrast, our data suggest that elephants do not rely on imitation of the receiver’s calls to address one another, which is more similar to the way in which human names work,” says lead author Michael Pardo, who conducted the study as a postdoctoral researcher at CSU and Save the Elephants, in a statement.

Once the team pinpointed the specific calls to the corresponding elephants, the scientists played back the recordings and observed their reactions. When the calls were addressed to them, the elephants responded positively by calling back or approaching the speaker. In contrast, calls meant for other elephants elicited less enthusiasm, demonstrating that the elephants recognized their own “names.”

Elephants’ Brains Even More Complex Than Realized

The ability to learn and produce new sounds, a prerequisite for naming individuals, is uncommon in the animal kingdom. This form of arbitrary communication, where a sound represents an idea without imitating it, is considered a higher-level cognitive skill that greatly expands an animal’s capacity to communicate.

Co-author George Wittemyer, a professor at CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources and chairman of the scientific board of Save the Elephants, elaborated on the implications of this finding: “If all we could do was make noises that sounded like what we were talking about, it would vastly limit our ability to communicate.” He adds that the use of arbitrary vocal labels suggests that elephants may be capable of abstract thought.

From gurgling “goos” to squealing “wheees!”, the delightful symphony of sounds emanating from a baby’s crib may seem like charming gibberish to the untrained ear. However, a new study suggests that these adorable vocalizations are far more than just random noise — they’re actually a crucial stepping stone on the path to language development.

The research, published in PLOS One, took a deep dive into the vocal patterns of 130 typically developing infants over the course of their first year of life. Their discoveries challenge long-held assumptions about how babies learn to communicate.

Traditionally, many experts believed that infants start out making haphazard sounds, gradually progressing to more structured “baby talk” as they listen to and imitate the adults around them. This new study paints a different picture, one where babies are actively exploring and practicing different categories of sounds in what might be thought of as a precursor to speech.

Think of it like a baby’s very first music lesson. Just as a budding pianist might spend time practicing scales and chords, it seems infants devote chunks of their day to making specific types of sounds, almost as if they’re trying to perfect their technique.

The researchers reached this conclusion after sifting through an enormous trove of audio data captured by small recording devices worn by the babies as they went about their daily lives. In total, they analyzed over 1,100 daylong recordings, adding up to nearly 14,500 hours – or about 1.6 years – of audio.

Using special software to isolate the infant vocalizations, the research team categorized the sounds into three main types: squeals (high-pitched, often excited-sounding noises), growls (low-pitched, often “rumbly” sounds), and vowel-like utterances (which the researchers dubbed “vocants”).

Next, they zoomed in on five-minute segments from each recording, hunting for patterns in how these sound categories were distributed. The results were striking: 40% of the recordings showed significant “clustering” of squeals, with a similar percentage showing clustering of growls. In other words, the babies weren’t randomly mixing their sounds, but rather, they seemed to focus on one type at a time, practicing it intensively.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/baby-talk-explained/

Everything in biology ultimately boils down to food and sex. To survive as an individual, you need food. To survive as a species, you need sex.

Not surprisingly, then, the age-old question of why giraffes have long necks has centered around food and sex. After debating this question for the past 150 years, biologists still cannot agree on which of these two factors was the most important in the evolution of the giraffe’s neck. In the past three years, my colleagues and I have been trying to get to the bottom of this question.

Necks for sex
In the 19th century, biologists Charles Darwin and Jean Baptiste Lamarck both speculated that giraffes’ long necks helped them reach acacia leaves high up in the trees, though they likely weren’t observing actual giraffe behavior when they came up with this theory. Several decades later, when scientists started observing giraffes in Africa, a group of biologists came up with an alternative theory based on sex and reproduction.

These pioneering giraffe biologists noticed how male giraffes, standing side by side, used their long necks to swing their heads and club each other. The researchers called this behavior “neck-fighting” and guessed that it helped the giraffes prove their dominance over each other and woo mates. Males with the longest necks would win these contests and, in turn, boost their reproductive success. That favorability, the scientists predicted, drove the evolution of long necks.

Since its inception, the necks-for-sex sexual selection hypothesis has overshadowed Darwin’s and Lamarck’s necks-for-food hypothesis.

The necks-for-sex hypothesis predicts that males should have longer necks than females since only males use them to fight, and indeed, they do. But adult male giraffes are also about 30% to 50% larger than female giraffes. All of their body components are bigger. So, my team wanted to find out if males have proportionally longer necks when accounting for their overall stature, comprised of their head, neck, and forelegs.

Necks not for sex?
But it’s not easy to measure giraffe body proportions. For one, their necks grow disproportionately faster during the first six to eight years of their life. And in the wild, you can’t tell exactly how old an individual animal is. To get around these problems, we measured body proportions in captive Masai giraffes in North American zoos. Here, we knew the exact age of the giraffes and could then compare this data with the body proportions of wild giraffes that we knew confidently were older than 8 years.

To our surprise, we found that adult female giraffes have proportionally longer necks than males, which contradicts the necks-for-sex hypothesis. We also found that adult female giraffes have proportionally longer body trunks, while adult males have proportionally longer forelegs and thicker necks.

Giraffe babies don’t have any of these sex-specific body proportion differences. They only appear as giraffes are reaching adulthood.
Finding that female giraffes have proportionally both longer necks and longer body trunks led us to propose that females, and not males, drove the evolution of the giraffe’s long neck, and not for sex but for food and reproduction. Our theory is in agreement with Darwin and Lamarck that food was the major driver for the evolution of the giraffe’s neck but with an emphasis on female reproductive success.

A shape to die for
Giraffes are notoriously picky eaters and browse on fresh leaves, flowers, and seed pods. Female giraffes especially need enough to eat because they spend most of their adult lives either pregnant or providing milk to their calves.

Females tend to use their long necks to probe deep into bushes and trees to find the most nutritious food. By contrast, males tend to feed high in trees by fully extending their necks vertically. Females need proportionally longer trunks to grow calves that can be well over 6 feet tall at birth.

For males, I’d guess that their proportionally longer forelegs are an adaptation that allows them to mount females more easily during sex. While we found that their necks might not be as proportionally long as females’ necks are, they are thicker. That’s probably an adaptation that helps them win neck fights.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/why-do-giraffes-have-long-necks/

The Nepalese army says it has removed eleven tonnes of rubbish, four corpses and one skeleton from Mount Everest and two other Himalayan peaks this year.
It took troops 55 days to recover the rubbish and bodies from Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse mountains.
It is estimated that more than fifty tonnes of waste and more than 200 bodies cover Everest.
The army began conducting an annual clean-up of the mountain, which is often described as the world’s highest garbage dump, in 2019 during concerns about overcrowding and climbers queueing in dangerous conditions to reach the summit.
The five clean-ups have collected 119 tonnes of rubbish, 14 human corpses and some skeletons, the army says.
This year, authorities aimed to reduce rubbish and improve rescues by making climbers wear tracking devices and bring back their own poo.

In the future, the government plans to create a mountain rangers team to monitor rubbish and put more money toward its collection, Nepal’s Department of Tourism director of mountaineering Rakesh Gurung told the BBC.
For the spring climbing season that ended in May, the government issued permits to 421 climbers, down from a record-breaking 478 last year. Those numbers do not include Nepalese guides. In total, an estimated 600 people climbed the mountain this year.
This year, eight climbers died or went missing, compared to 19 last year.
A Brit, Daniel Paterson, and his Nepalese guide, Pastenji Sherpa, are among those missing after being hit by falling ice on 21 May.
Mr Paterson’s family started a fundraiser to hire a search team to find them, but said in an update on 4 June that recovery “is not possible at this time” because of the location and danger of the operation.
Mr Gurung said the number of permits was lower this year because of the global economic situation, China also issuing permits and the national election in India which reduced the number of climbers from that country.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq5539lj1pqo

For female athletes, the impact of the menstrual cycle on physical performance has been a topic of much discussion. But what about the mental side of the game? A groundbreaking new study suggests that certain cognitive abilities, particularly those related to spatial awareness and anticipation, may indeed ebb and flow with a woman’s cycle.

The findings, in a nutshell
Researchers from University College London tested nearly 400 participants on a battery of online cognitive tasks designed to measure reaction times, attention, visuospatial functions (like 3D mental rotation), and timing anticipation. The study, published in Neuropsychologia, included men, women on hormonal contraception, and naturally cycling women.

Fascinatingly, the naturally cycling women exhibited better overall cognitive performance during menstruation compared to any other phase of their cycle. This held true even though these women reported poorer mood and more physical symptoms during their period. In contrast, performance dipped during the late follicular phase (just before ovulation) and the luteal phase (after ovulation).

“What is surprising is that the participant’s performance was better when they were on their period, which challenges what women, and perhaps society more generally, assume about their abilities at this particular time of the month,” says Dr. Flaminia Ronca, first author of the study from UCL, in a university release.

“I hope that this will provide the basis for positive conversations between coaches and athletes about perceptions and performance: how we feel doesn’t always reflect how we perform.”

This study provides compelling preliminary evidence that sport-relevant cognitive skills may indeed fluctuate across the menstrual cycle, with a surprising boost during menstruation itself. If confirmed in future studies, this could have implications for understanding injury risk and optimizing mental training in female athletes.

Importantly, there was a striking mismatch between women’s perceptions and their actual performance. Many felt their thinking was impaired during their period when, in fact, it was enhanced. This points to the power of negative expectations and the importance of educating athletes about their unique physiology.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/womens-brains-show-more-mental-agility-during-their-periods/

There can be a lot of inconsistent dietary advice when it comes to gut health, but those that says that eating lots of sugar is harmful tend to be the most consistent of them all. Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh are now showing that consuming excess sugar disrupts cells that keep the colon healthy in mice with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

“The prevalence of IBD is rising around the world, and it’s rising the fastest in cultures with industrialized, urban lifestyles, which typically have diets high in sugar,” says senior author Timothy Hand, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics and immunology at Pitt’s School of Medicine and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “Too much sugar isn’t good for a variety of reasons, and our study adds to that evidence by showing how sugar may be harmful to the gut. For patients with IBD, high-density sugar — found in things like soda and candy — might be something to stay away from.”

We often think of war, terrorism, and deadly diseases as the greatest threats to human life. But what if the real danger is something we encounter every day, something that’s in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and even in the noise that surrounds us? A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reveals a startling truth: pollution, in all its forms, is now a greater health threat than war, terrorism, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, drugs, and alcohol combined. Specifically, researchers estimate that manmade pollutants and climate change contribute to a staggering seven million deaths globally each year.

“Every year around 20 million people worldwide die from cardiovascular disease with pollutants playing an ever-increasing role,” explains Professor Jason Kovacic, Director and CEO of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Australia, in a media release.

The findings, in a nutshell
The culprits behind this global death toll aren’t just the obvious ones like air pollution from car exhausts or factory chimneys. The study, conducted by researchers from prestigious institutions worldwide, shines a light on lesser-known villains: soil pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, and even exposure to toxic chemicals in our homes.

Think about your daily life. You wake up after a night’s sleep disrupted by the glow of streetlights and the hum of late-night traffic. On your way to work, you’re exposed to car fumes and the blaring horns of impatient drivers. At home, you might be unknowingly using products containing untested chemicals. All these factors, the study suggests, are chipping away at your heart health.

“Pollutants have reached every corner of the globe and are affecting every one of us,” Prof. Kovacic warns. “We are witnessing unprecedented wildfires, soaring temperatures, unacceptable road noise and light pollution in our cities and exposure to untested toxic chemicals in our homes.”

How do these pollutants harm our hearts?
Air Pollution: When you inhale smoke from a wildfire or exhaust fumes, these toxins travel deep into your lungs, enter your bloodstream, and then circulate throughout your body. It’s like sending tiny invaders into your system, causing damage wherever they go, including your heart.

Noise and Light Pollution: Ever tried sleeping with a streetlight shining through your window or with noisy neighbors? These disruptions do more than just annoy you—they mess up your sleep patterns. Poor sleep can lead to inflammation in your body, raise your blood pressure, and even cause weight gain. All of these are risk factors for heart disease.

Extreme Heat: Think of your heart as a car engine. On a scorching hot day, your engine works harder to keep cool. Similarly, during a heatwave, your heart has to work overtime. This extra strain, coupled with dehydration and reduced blood volume from sweating, can lead to serious issues like acute kidney failure.

Chemical Exposure: Many household items — from non-stick pans to water-resistant clothing — contain chemicals that haven’t been thoroughly tested for safety. Prof. Kovacic points out, “There are hundreds of thousands of chemicals that haven’t even been tested for their safety or toxicity, let alone their impact on our health.”

The statistics are alarming. Air pollution alone is linked to over seven million premature deaths per year, with more than half due to heart problems. During heatwaves, the risk of heat-related cardiovascular deaths can spike by over 10%. In the U.S., exposure to wildfire smoke has surged by 77% since 2002.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/pollution-causes-more-deaths/

In the lush forests of India’s Arunachal Pradesh, a team of intrepid researchers has made a startling discovery: a never-before-seen species of ant that sparkles like a brilliant blue gemstone. The remarkable find marks the first new species of its genus to be identified in India in over 120 years.

Dubbing the species Paraparatrechina neela, the fascinating discovery was made by entomologists Dr. Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan and Ramakrishnaiah Sahanashree, from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) in Bengaluru, along with Aswaj Punnath from the University of Florida. The name “neela” comes from Indian languages, meaning the color blue. And for good reason – this ant sports an eye-catching iridescent blue exoskeleton, unlike anything seen before in its genus.

Paraparatrechina is a widespread group of ants found across Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific. They are typically small, measuring just a few millimeters in length. Before this discovery, India was home to only one known species in the genus, Paraparatrechina aseta, which was described way back in 1902.

The researchers collected the dazzling P. neela specimens during an expedition in 2022 to the Siang Valley in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas. Fittingly, this trip was part of a series called the “Siang Expeditions” – a project aiming to retrace the steps of a historic 1911-12 expedition that documented the region’s biodiversity.

Over a century later, the area still holds surprises. The team found the ants living in a tree hole in a patch of secondary forest, at an altitude of around 800 meters. After carefully extracting a couple of specimens with an aspirator device, they brought them back to the lab for a closer look under the microscope. Their findings are published in the journal ZooKeys.

Beyond its “captivating metallic-blue color,” a unique combination of physical features distinguishes P. neela from its relatives. The body is largely blue, but the legs and antennae fade to a brownish-white. Compared to the light brown, rectangular head of its closest Indian relative, P. aseta, the sapphire ant has a subtriangular head. It also has one less tooth on its mandibles and a distinctly raised section on its propodeum (the first abdominal segment that’s fused to the thorax).

So what’s behind the blue? While pigments provide color for some creatures, in insects, hues like blue are usually the result of microscopic structural arrangements that reflect light in particular ways. Different layers and shapes of the exoskeleton can interact with light to produce shimmering, iridescent effects. This has evolved independently in many insect groups, but is very rare in ants.

The function of the blue coloration remains a mystery for now. In other animals, such striking hues can serve many possible roles – from communication and camouflage to thermoregulation.

“This vibrant feature raises intriguing questions. Does it help in communication, camouflage, or other ecological interactions? Delving into the evolution of this conspicuous coloration and its connections to elevation and the biology of P. neela presents an exciting avenue for research,” the authors write.

The Eastern Himalayas are known to be a biodiversity hotspot, but remain underexplored by scientists. Finding a new species of ant, in a genus that specializes in tiny, inconspicuous creatures, hints at the many more discoveries that likely await in the region’s forests. Who knows – maybe there are entire rainbow-hued colonies of ants hidden in the treetops!

Source: https://studyfinds.org/blue-ants-discovered/

Babies with higher stress hormone levels late in their mother’s pregnancy can end up having trouble falling asleep, researchers explain. The sleep research suggests that measuring cortisol during the third trimester can predict infant sleep patterns up to seven months after a baby’s birth.

Babies often wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble falling asleep. A team from the University of Denver says one possible but unexplored reason for this is how well the baby’s hypothalamic-adrenal-pituitary (HPA) system is working. The HPA system is well-known for regulating the stress response and has previously been linked with sleep disorders when it’s not working properly. Cortisol is the end product produced from the HPA axis.

Collecting hair samples is one way to measure fetal cortisol levels in the final trimester of pregnancy.

COVID-19 taught most people that the line between tolerable and toxic stress – defined as persistent demands that lead to disease – varies widely. But, some people will age faster and die younger from toxic stressors than others.

So, how much stress is too much, and what can you do about it?

I’m a psychiatrist specializing in psychosomatic medicine, which is the study and treatment of people who have physical and mental illnesses. My research is focused on people who have psychological conditions and medical illnesses, as well as those whose stress exacerbates their health issues.

I’ve spent my career studying mind-body questions and training physicians to treat mental illness in primary care settings. My forthcoming book is titled “Toxic Stress: How Stress is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It.”

A 2023 study of stress and aging over the life span – one of the first studies to confirm this piece of common wisdom – found that four measures of stress all speed up the pace of biological aging in midlife. It also found that persistent high-stress ages people in a comparable way to the effects of smoking and low socioeconomic status, two well-established risk factors for accelerated aging.

The difference between good stress and the toxic kind

Good stress – a demand or challenge you readily cope with – is good for your health. In fact, the rhythm of these daily challenges, including feeding yourself, cleaning up messes, communicating with one another, and carrying out your job, helps to regulate your stress response system and keep you fit.

Toxic stress, on the other hand, wears down your stress response system in ways that have lasting effects, as psychiatrist and trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk explains in his bestselling book “The Body Keeps the Score.”

The earliest effects of toxic stress are often persistent symptoms such as headache, fatigue, or abdominal pain that interfere with overall functioning. After months of initial symptoms, a full-blown illness with a life of its own – such as migraine headaches, asthma, diabetes, or ulcerative colitis – may surface.

When we are healthy, our stress response systems are like an orchestra of organs that miraculously tune themselves and play in unison without our conscious effort – a process called self-regulation. But when we are sick, some parts of this orchestra struggle to regulate themselves, which causes a cascade of stress-related dysregulation that contributes to other conditions.

For instance, in the case of diabetes, the hormonal system struggles to regulate sugar. With obesity, the metabolic system has a difficult time regulating energy intake and consumption. With depression, the central nervous system develops an imbalance in its circuits and neurotransmitters that makes it difficult to regulate mood, thoughts and behaviors.

‘Treating’ stress
Though stress neuroscience in recent years has given researchers like me new ways to measure and understand stress, you may have noticed that in your doctor’s office, the management of stress isn’t typically part of your treatment plan.

Most doctors don’t assess the contribution of stress to a patient’s common chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, partly because stress is complicated to measure and partly because it is difficult to treat. In general, doctors don’t treat what they can’t measure.

Stress neuroscience and epidemiology have also taught researchers recently that the chances of developing serious mental and physical illnesses in midlife rise dramatically when people are exposed to trauma or adverse events, especially during vulnerable periods such as childhood.

Over the past 40 years in the U.S., the alarming rise in rates of diabetes, obesity, depression, PTSD, suicide, and addictions points to one contributing factor that these different illnesses share: toxic stress.

Toxic stress increases the risk for the onset, progression, complications, or early death from these illnesses.

Suffering from toxic stress
Because the definition of toxic stress varies from one person to another, it’s hard to know how many people struggle with it. One starting point is the fact that about 16% of adults report having been exposed to four or more adverse events in childhood. This is the threshold for higher risk for illnesses in adulthood.

Research dating back to before the COVID-19 pandemic also shows that about 19% of adults in the U.S. have four or more chronic illnesses. If you have even one chronic illness, you can imagine how stressful four must be.

And about 12% of the U.S. population lives in poverty, the epitome of a life in which demands exceed resources every day. For instance, if a person doesn’t know how they will get to work each day or doesn’t have a way to fix a leaking water pipe or resolve a conflict with their partner, their stress response system can never rest. One or any combination of threats may keep them on high alert or shut them down in a way that prevents them from trying to cope at all.

Add to these overlapping groups all those who struggle with harassing relationships, homelessness, captivity, severe loneliness, living in high-crime neighborhoods, or working in or around noise or air pollution. It seems conservative to estimate that about 20% of people in the U.S. live with the effects of toxic stress.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/how-much-stress-is-too-much/

Trauma, abuse, and neglect — in the current cultural landscape, it’s not hard to find a myriad of discussions on these topics. But with so many people chiming in on the conversation, it’s more important now than ever to listen to what experts on the topic have to say. As we begin to understand more and more about the effects of growing up experiencing trauma and abuse, we also begin to understand that the effects of these experiences are more complex and wide-ranging than we had ever imagined.

Recent studies in the field of childhood trauma and abuse have found that these experiences can affect a wide range of aspects of our adult life. In fact, even seemingly disparate topics ranging from your stance on vaccinations to the frequency with which we experience headaches, to the types of judgments that we make about others are impacted by histories of abuse, trauma, or neglect.

Clearly, the effects of a traumatic childhood go far beyond the time when you are living in an abusive or unhealthy environment. A recent study reports that early childhood traumas can impact health outcomes decades later, potentially following you for the rest of your life. With many new and surprising effects of childhood trauma being discovered every day, it’s no wonder that so many people are interested in what exactly trauma is and how it can affect us.

So, what are the long-term ramifications of childhood neglect? For an answer to that question, StudyFinds sat down with Michael Menard, inventor-turned-author of the upcoming book, “The Kite That Couldn’t Fly: And Other May Avenue Stories,” to discuss the lesser-understood side of trauma and how it can affect us long into our adult lives.

Here is his list of five hidden effects of trauma, and some of them just might surprise you.

1. Unstable Relationships
For individuals with childhood trauma, attachment issues are an often overlooked form of collateral damage. Through infancy and early childhood, a person’s attachment style is developed largely through familial bonds and is then carried into every relationship from platonic peers to romantic partners. When this is lovingly and healthily developed, this is usually a positive thing. But for children and adults with a background of neglect, it often leads to difficulty in finding, developing, and keeping healthy relationships.

As Menard explains it, a childhood spent feeling invisible left scars on his adult relationship patterns. “As a child, I felt that I didn’t exist. No matter what I did, it was not recognized, so there was no reinforcement,” he says. “As a young adult, I panicked when I got ignored. I was afraid that everyone was going to leave. I also felt that I would drive people away in relationships. I would only turn to others when I needed emotional support, never when things were good. When things were good, I could handle them myself. I didn’t need anybody.”

Childhood trauma often creates adults who struggle to be emotionally vulnerable, to process feelings of anger and disappointment, and to accept support from others. And with trust as one of the most vital components of longterm, healthy relationships, it’s clear where difficulty may arise. But Menard emphasizes that a childhood of neglect should not have to mean a lifetime of distant or unstable relationships. “A large percentage of the people that I’ve talked to about struggles in their life, they think it’s life. But we were born to be healthy, happy, prosperous, and anything that is taking away from that is not good,” he says.

“The lesser known [effects] I would say are the things that cause disruption in relationships,” Menard adds. “The divorce rate is about 60%. Where does that come from? It comes from disruption and unhappiness between two people. Lack of respect, love, trust, sacrifice. And if you come into that relationship broken from childhood trauma and you don’t even know it, I’d say that’s not well known.”

2. Physical Health Issues
The most commonly discussed long-term effects of childhood neglect are usually mental and emotional ones. But believe it or not, a background of trauma can actually impact your physical health. From diabetes to cardiac disease, the toll of childhood trauma can turn distinctly physical. “Five of the top 10 diseases that kill us have been scientifically proven to come from childhood trauma,” says Menard. “I’ve got high blood pressure. I go to the doctor, and they can’t figure it out. I have diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cardiac disease, COPD—it’s now known that they have a high probability that they originated from childhood trauma or neglect. Silent killers.”

In some cases, the physical ramifications of childhood trauma may be due to long-term medical neglect. What was once a treatable issue can become a much larger and potentially permanent problem. In Menard’s case, untreated illness in his childhood meant open heart surgery in his adult years. “I’m now 73. When I was 70, my aortic valve closed. I had to have four open heart surgeries in two months — almost died three times,” he explains. “Now, can I blame that on childhood trauma? I can, because I had strep throat repeatedly as a child without medication. One episode turned into rheumatic fever that damaged my aortic valve. 50 years later, I’m having my chest opened up.”

From loss of sleep to chronic pain, the physical manifestations of a neglectful childhood can be painful and difficult. But beyond that, they often go entirely overlooked. For many people, this can feel frustrating and invalidating. For others, they may not know themselves that their emotional pain could be having physical ramifications. As Menard puts it, “things are happening to people that they think [are just] part of life, and [they’re] not.”

3. Mental Health Struggles
Growing up in an abusive or neglectful environment can have a variety of negative effects on children. However, one of the most widely discussed and understood consequences is that of their mental health. “Forty-one percent of all depression in the United States is caused by childhood trauma or comes from childhood trauma,” notes Menard. And this connection between trauma and mental illness goes far beyond just depression. In fact, a recent study found a clear link between experiences of childhood trauma and various mental illnesses including anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders.

Of course, depression and anxiety are also compounded when living in an environment lacking the proper love, support, and encouragement that a child deserves to grow up in. For Menard, growing up in a home with 16 people did little to keep the loneliness at bay. “I just thought it was normal—being left out,” Menard says. “We all need to trust, and we need to rely on people. But if you become an island and self-reliant, not depending on others, you become isolated.”

In some cases, the impact of mental health can also do physical damage. In one example, Menard notes an increased likelihood for eating disorders. “Mine came from not having enough food,” he says. “I get that, but there are all types of eating disorders that come from emotional trauma.”

4. Acting Out

For most children, the model set by the behavior of their parents lays the foundation for their own personal growth and development. However, kids who lack these positive examples of healthy behavior are less likely to develop important traits like empathy, self-control, and responsibility. Menard is acutely aware of this, stating, “Good self-care and self-discipline are taught. It goes down the drain when you experience emotional trauma.” Children who are not given proper role models for behavior will often instead mimic the anger and aggressive behaviors prevalent in emotionally neglectful or abusive households.

“My wife is a school teacher and she could tell immediately through the aggressive behavior of even a first grader that there were multiple problems,” adds Menard. However, his focus is less on pointing fingers at the person who is displaying these negative behaviors, and more about understanding what made them act this way in the first place. “It’s not about what’s wrong with you, it’s about what happened to you.”

However, for many, the negative influence extends beyond simple bad behavior. Menard also describes being taught by his father to steal steaks from the restaurant where he worked at the age of 12. This was not only what his father encouraged him to do, but also what seemed completely appropriate to him because of how he had been raised. “I’d bring steaks home for him, and when he got off the factory shift at midnight, that seemed quite okay,” Menard says. “It seemed quite normal. And it’s horrible. Everybody’s searching to try to heal that wound and they don’t know why they’re doing it.”

Source: https://studyfinds.org/5-hidden-effects-of-childhood-neglect/

From the surface to the inner core, Earth has several layers that continue to be a mystery to science. Now, it turns out one of these layers may consist of material from an entirely different planet!

Deep within our planet lies a mysterious, patchy layer known as the D” layer. Located a staggering 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) below the surface, this zone sits just above the boundary separating Earth’s molten outer core from its solid mantle. Unlike a perfect sphere, the D” layer’s thickness varies drastically around the globe, with some regions completely lacking this layer altogether – much like how continents poke through the oceans on Earth’s surface.

These striking variations have long puzzled geophysicists, who describe the D” layer as heterogeneous, meaning non-uniform in its composition. However, a new study might finally shed light on this deep enigma, proposing that the D” layer could be a remnant of another planet that collided with Earth during its early days, billions of years ago.

The findings, in a nutshell
The research, published in National Science Review and led by Dr. Qingyang Hu from the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research and Dr. Jie Deng from Princeton University, draws upon the widely accepted Giant Impact hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that a Mars-sized object violently collided with the proto-Earth, creating a global ocean of molten rock, or magma, in the aftermath.

Hu and Deng believe the D” layer’s unique composition may be the leftover fallout from this colossal impact, potentially holding valuable clues about our planet’s formation. A key aspect of their theory involves the presence of substantial water within this ancient magma ocean. While the origin of this water remains up for debate, the researchers are focusing on what happened as the molten rock began to cool.

“The prevailing view,” Dr. Deng explains in a media release, “suggests that water would have concentrated towards the bottom of the magma ocean as it cooled. By the final stages, the magma closest to the core could have contained water volumes comparable to Earth’s present-day oceans.”

Is there a hidden ocean inside the Earth?
This water-rich environment at the bottom of the magma ocean would have created extreme pressure and temperature conditions, fostering unique chemical reactions between water and minerals.

“Our research suggests this hydrous magma ocean favored the formation of an iron-rich phase called iron-magnesium peroxide,” Dr. Hu elaborates.

This peroxide, which has a chemical formula of (Fe,Mg)O2, has an even stronger affinity for iron compared to other major components expected in the lower mantle.

“According to our calculation, its affinity to iron could have led to the accumulation of iron-dominant peroxide in layers ranging from several to tens of kilometers thick,” Hu explains.

The presence of such an iron-rich peroxide phase would alter the mineral composition of the D” layer, deviating from our current understanding. According to the new model proposed by Hu and Deng, minerals in the D” layer would be dominated by an assemblage of iron-poor silicate, iron-rich (Fe,Mg) peroxide, and iron-poor (Fe,Mg) oxide. Interestingly, this iron-dominant peroxide also possesses unique properties that could explain some of the D” layer’s puzzling geophysical features, such as ultra-low velocity zones and layers of high electrical conductance — both of which contribute to the D” layer’s well-known compositional heterogeneity.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/layer-inside-earth-another-planet/

NEW YORK — The average American spends nearly two and a half hours a day “dreamscrolling” — looking at dream purchases or things they’d like to one day own. While some might think you’re just wasting your day, a whopping 71% say it’s time well spent, as the habit motivates them to reach their financial goals.

In a recent poll of 2,000 U.S. adults, more than two in five respondents say they spend more time dreamscrolling when the economy is uncertain (43%). Over a full year, that amounts to about 873 hours or nearly 36 days spent scrolling.

Conducted by OnePoll on behalf of financial services company Empower, the survey reveals half of the respondents say they dreamscroll while at work. Of those daydreaming employees, one in five admit to spending between three and four hours a day multitasking while at their job.

Gen Zers spend the most time dreamscrolling at just over three hours per day, while boomers spend the least, clocking in around an hour of fantasy purchases and filling wish lists. Americans say looking at dream purchases makes it easier for them to be smart with their money (56%), avoid making unplanned purchases or going into debt (30%), and better plan to achieve their financial goals (25%).

Nearly seven in 10 see dreamscrolling as an investment in themselves (69%) and an outlet for them to envision what they want out of life (67%). Four in 10 respondents (42%) say they regularly spend time picturing their ideal retirement — including their retirement age, location, and monthly expenses.

Many respondents are now taking the American dream online, with one in five respondents scrolling through listings of dream homes or apartments. Meanwhile, some are just browsing through vacation destinations (25%), beauty or self-care products (23%), and items for their pets (19%). Many others spend time looking at clothing, shoes, and accessories (49%), gadgets and technology (30%), and home décor or furniture (29%).

More than half (56%) currently have things left open in tabs and windows or saved in shopping carts that they’d like to purchase or own in the future. For those respondents, they estimate it would cost about $86,593.40 to afford everything they currently have saved.

Almost half of Americans say they are spending more time dreamscrolling now than in previous years (45%), and 56% plan on buying something on their dream list before this year wraps. While 65% are optimistic they’ll be able to one day buy everything on their list, nearly one in four say they don’t think they’ll ever be able to afford the majority of items (23%).

More than half (51%) say owning their dream purchases would make them feel more financially secure, and close to half say working with a financial professional would help them reach their goals (47%). Others feel they have more work to do: 34% say they’ve purchased fewer things on their dream list than they should at their age, with millennials feeling the most behind (39%).

Rising prices (54%), the inability to save money (29%), and growing debt (21%) are the top economic factors that may be holding some Americans back. Instead of doom spending, dreamscrolling has had a positive impact on Americans’ money habits: respondents say they better understand their financial goals (24%) as a result.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/shopping-browsing-cant-afford/

In the pantheon of Renaissance art, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa stands as an unrivalled icon. This half-length portrait is more than just an artistic masterpiece; it embodies the allure of an era marked by unparalleled cultural flourishing.

Yet, beneath the surface of the Mona Lisa’s elusive smile lies a debate that touches the very essence of the Renaissance, its politics and the role of women in history.

A mystery woman

The intrigue of the Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, isn’t solely due to Leonardo’s revolutionary painting techniques. It’s also because the identity of the subject is unconfirmed to this day. More than half a century since it was first painted, the real identity of the Mona Lisa remains one of art’s greatest mysteries, intriguing scholars and enthusiasts alike.

The Earth beneath our feet may feel solid, stable, and seemingly eternal. But the continents we call home are unique among our planetary neighbors, and their formation has long been a mystery to scientists. Now, researchers believe they may have uncovered a crucial piece of the puzzle: the role of ancient weathering in shaping Earth’s “cratons,” the most indestructible parts of our planet’s crust.

Cratons are the old souls of the continents, forming roughly half of Earth’s continental crust. Some date back over three billion years and have remained largely unchanged ever since. They form the stable hearts around which the rest of the continents have grown. For decades, geologists have wondered what makes these regions so resilient, even as the plates shift and collide around them.

It turns out that the key may lie not in the depths of the Earth but on its surface. A new study out of Penn State and published in Nature suggests that subaerial weathering – the breakdown of rocks exposed to air – may have triggered a chain of events that led to the stabilization of cratons billions of years ago, during the Neoarchaean era, around 2.5 to 3 billion years ago.

To understand how this happened, let’s take a step way back in time. In the Neoarchaean, Earth was a very different place. The atmosphere contained little oxygen, and the continents were mostly submerged beneath a global ocean. But gradually, land began to poke above the waves – a process called continental emergence.

As more rock was exposed to air, weathering rates increased dramatically. When rocks weather, they release their constituent minerals, including radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, and potassium. These heat-producing elements, or HPEs, are crucial because their decay generates heat inside the Earth over billions of years.

The researchers propose that as the HPEs were liberated by weathering, they were washed into sediments that accumulated in the oceans. Over time, plate tectonic processes would have carried these sediments deep into the crust, where the concentrated HPEs could really make their presence felt.

Buried at depth and heated from within, the sediments would have started to melt. This would have driven what geologists call “crustal differentiation” – the separation of the continental crust into a lighter, HPE-rich upper layer and a denser, HPE-poor lower layer. It’s this layering, the researchers argue, that gave cratons their extraordinary stability.

The upper crust, enriched in HPEs, essentially acted as a thermal blanket, keeping the lower crust and the mantle below relatively cool and strong. This prevented the kind of large-scale deformation and recycling that affected younger parts of the continents.

Interestingly, the timing of craton stabilization around the globe supports this idea. The researchers point out that in many cratons, the appearance of HPE-enriched sedimentary rocks precedes the formation of distinctive Neoarchaean granites – the kinds of rocks that would form from the melting of HPE-rich sediments.

Furthermore, metamorphic rocks – rocks transformed by heat and pressure deep in the crust – also record a history consistent with the model. Many cratons contain granulite terranes, regions of the deep crust uplifted to the surface that formed in the Neoarchaean. These granulites often have compositions that suggest they formed from the melting of sedimentary rocks.

So, the sequence of events – the emergence of continents, increased weathering, burial of HPE-rich sediments, deep crustal melting, and finally, craton stabilization – all seem to line up.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/earths-unbreakable-continents/

Move over Usain Bolt, because in the animal kingdom, speed takes on a whole new meaning! Forget sprinting at a measly 28 mph – these record-breaking creatures can leave you in the dust (or water, or sky) with their mind-blowing velocity. From lightning-fast cheetahs hunting down prey on the African savanna to majestic peregrine falcons diving from incredible heights, these animals rely on their extreme speed to survive and thrive in the wild. So, buckle up as we explore the top seven fastest animals on Earth.

The animal kingdom is brimming with speedsters across different habitats. We’re talking about fish that can zoom by speedboats, birds that plummet from the sky at breakneck speeds, and even insects with lightning-fast reflexes. Below is our list of the consensus top seven fastest animals in the world. We want to hear from you too! Have you ever encountered an animal with incredible speed? Share your stories in the comments below, and let’s celebrate the awe-inspiring power of nature’s speed demons!

The List: Fastest Animals in the World, Per Wildlife Experts

1. Peregrine Falcon – 242 MPH

The peregrine falcon takes the title of the fastest animal in the world, able to achieve speeds of 242 miles per hour. These birds don’t break the sound barrier by flapping their wings like crazy. Instead, they use gravity as their accomplice, raves The Wild Life. In a blink of an eye, the falcon can plummet towards its prey, like a fighter jet in a vertical dive. These dives can exceed 200 miles per hour, which is the equivalent of a human running at over 380 mph! That’s fast enough to make even the speediest sports car look like a snail.

That prominent bulge of this falcon’s chest cavity isn’t just for show – it’s a keel bone, and it acts like a supercharged engine for their flight muscles. A bigger keel bone translates to more powerful wing strokes, propelling the falcon forward with incredible force, explains A-Z Animals. These birds also boast incredibly stiff, tightly packed feathers that act like a high-performance suit, reducing drag to an absolute minimum. And the cherry on top? Their lungs and air sacs are designed for one-way airflow, meaning they’re constantly topped up with fresh oxygen, even when exhaling. This ensures they have the fuel they need to maintain their breakneck dives.

These fast falcons might be the ultimate jet setters of the bird world, but they’re not picky about their digs. The sky-dwelling predators are comfortable calling a variety of landscapes home, as long as there’s open space for hunting, writes One Kind Planet. They can be found soaring over marshes, estuaries, and even skyscrapers, always on the lookout for unsuspecting prey.

2. Golden Eagle – 200 MPH

The golden eagle is a large bird that is well known for its powerful and fast flight. These majestic birds can reach speeds of up to 199 mph during a hunting dive, says List 25. Just like the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle uses a hunting technique called a stoop. With a powerful tuck of its wings, the eagle plummets towards its target in a breathtaking dive.

They are undeniably impressive birds, with a wingspan that can stretch up to eight feet wide! Imagine an athlete being able to run at 179 miles per hour! That’s what a golden eagle achieves in a dive, reaching speeds of up to 87 body lengths per second, mentions The Wild Life. The air rushes past its feathers, creating a whistling sound as it picks up, hurtling toward its prey.

They also use these impressive dives during courtship rituals and even playful moments, states Live Science. Picture two golden eagles soaring in tandem, one diving after the other in a dazzling aerial ballet. It’s a display of both power and grace that reaffirms their status as the ultimate rulers of the skies. Their habitat range stretches across the northern hemisphere, including North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). So next time you see a golden eagle circling above, remember – it’s more than just a bird, it’s a living embodiment of speed, skill, and breathtaking beauty.

3. Black Marlin – 80 MPH

The ocean is a vast and mysterious realm, teeming with incredible creatures. And when it comes to raw speed, the black marlin is a high-performance athlete of the sea. They have a deep, muscular body built for cutting through water with minimal resistance, informs Crosstalk. Think of a sleek racing yacht compared to a clunky rowboat. Plus, their dorsal fin is lower and rounder, acting like a spoiler on a race car, reducing drag and allowing for a smoother ride through the water. Their “spears,” those sharp protrusions on their snouts, are thicker and more robust than other marlins. These aren’t just for show – they’re used to slash and stun prey during a hunt.

Some scientists estimate their burst speed at a respectable 22 mph. That’s impressive, but here’s where the debate gets interesting. Some reports claim black marlin can pull fishing line at a staggering 120 feet per second! When you do the math, that translates to a whopping 82 mph, according to Story Teller. This magnificent fish calls shallow, warm shores home, their ideal habitat boasts water temperatures between 59 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit. – basically, a permanent summer vacation!

The secret behind its impressive swimming prowess lies in its tail. Unlike the rounded tails of many fish, black marlin possess crescent-shaped tails, explains A-Z Animals. With a powerful flick, they can propel themselves forward with incredible bursts of speed. This marlin also boasts a long, thin, and sharp bill that cuts through water, offering minimal resistance as it surges forward. But that’s not all. Black marlin also have rigid pectoral fins that act like perfectly sculpted wings. These fins aren’t for flapping – they provide stability and lift, allowing the marlin to maintain a streamlined position in the water.

4. Cheetah – 70 MPH

The cheetah is Africa’s most endangered large cat and also the world’s fastest land animal. Their bodies are built for pure velocity, with special adaptations that allow them to go from zero to sixty in a mind-blowing three seconds, shares Animals Around The Globe. Each stride stretches an incredible seven meters, eating up the ground with astonishing speed. But they can only maintain their high speeds for short bursts.

Unlike its stockier lion and tiger cousins, the cheetah boasts a lean, streamlined physique that makes them aerodynamic. But the real innovation lies in the cheetah’s spine. It’s not just a rigid bone structure – it’s a flexible marvel, raves A-Z Animals. With each powerful push, this springy spine allows the cheetah to extend its strides to incredible lengths, propelling it forward with tremendous force. And finally, we come to the engine room: the cheetah’s muscles. Packed with a high concentration of “fast-twitch fibers,” these muscles are specifically designed for explosive bursts of speed. Think of them as tiny, built-in turbochargers that give the cheetah that extra surge of power when it needs it most.

These magnificent cats haven’t always been confined to the dry, open grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa. Cheetahs were once widespread across both Africa and Asia, but their range has shrunk dramatically due to habitat loss and dwindling prey populations, says One Kind Planet. Today, most cheetahs call protected natural reserves and parks home.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/fastest-animals-in-the-world/