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 Matthew Love  Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0 
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Clean Air Adds Months to Life Between 1980 and 2000, Americans' average life span increased almost three years, and researchers believe that nearly 5 months of that increase is the result of dramatic improvements in air quality. Residents of cities that were most successful in reducing air pollution showed the biggest jump in life span. People living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for example, could expect to live an extra 10 months with their cleaner air. Many other factors also boost life expectancy, including improved socioeconomic status and reduction in smoking prevalence   LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 858585 ·  |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Marijuana Use Down Among Teens A study of 15-year-olds in 30 countries found that teens are going out less at night and smoking less marijuana. In the US, Canada, and a number of European countries, teen pot use declined rapidly between 2002 and 2006. Researchers believe that technology along with drug prevention efforts may be responsible for the recent drop. Kids are going out less with their friends at night, instead using cell phones, instant messaging, and e-mail to maintain contact with their peers LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 861874 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Ocean Exploration Now Available with Google Earth Approximately 70% of Earth’s surface is covered with water, and now users of the 3D mapping program Google Earth can virtually dive beneath the water’s surface and explore the terrain of the ocean floor. The program’s newest features also allow users to browse ocean-related content contributed by marine scientists and view videos on marine life, shipwrecks, and dive spots. Another new tool allows people to see how parts of the planet have changed over time. Conservation groups hope that the new features will raise awareness about the climate crisis as well as the dangers faced by marine life. LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 862343 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Colors May Impact Task Performance According to researchers, seeing the color red improves attention to detail while blue inspires creativity. These subconscious effects may be the result of learned associations. People learn early in life to associate red with danger, and researchers believe that this association may cause people to be more cautious and careful. A recent study found that people perform better on tests of recall and attention to detail when looking at computer screens with red backgrounds but exhibit more creativity and imagination when viewing a blue background. The color blue is often associated with freedom and peace LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 863246 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Butterfly Young Trick Ants into Raising Them The larvae of the European butterfly Maculinea rebeli have learned to infiltrate ant nests and trick adult ants into feeding them. The caterpillars accomplish this feat by mimicking the ants’ young. Not only do the parasitic larvae take food from the ant providers, they earn special treatment by imitating the sounds of an adult queen. In times of food shortage, these ants have been known to feed their own young to their queens, and the crafty caterpillars are thus more likely to survive periods of stress LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 863570 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Sites Take Steps to Curb Cyber-Bullying A recent survey of teenage Internet users found that 29 percent of them have been bullied on the Web. The European Commission marked the sixth Safer Internet Day by unveiling the terms of an agreement aimed at curbing cyber-bullying on social networking websites. Seventeen social networking sites in Europe, including MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, have pledged to proactively protect young users by developing easily-accessible "Report Abuse" buttons that allow teens to report misconduct with just a single click. The sites will also ensure that profiles of users under the age of 18 are set to private and that they are not searchable on search engines LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 864510 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Birds Shifting North in Winter A US study of bird migration habits from 1966 through 2005 found that more than half of 305 bird species in North America are wintering farther north than they did 40 years ago. The purple finch is an extreme example of this shift, spending its winters more than 400 mi (643.7 km) farther north than it did in the past. Most of the bird species observed are staying an average of 35 mi (56.3 km) north of their previous winter spots. Over the last 40 years, the average January temperature in the US rose about 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and experts believe that this warming has prompted the birds to winter in more northerly areas LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 864696 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Gestures Linked to Broader Vocabulary Child development experts have long known that a child’s vocabulary at the time he begins school is a strong predictor of future educational success, and new research suggests that children whose parents demonstrate a broad range of gestures may develop stronger language skills. Previous research has shown that parents from higher socioeconomic backgrounds tend to talk and read more to young children and to use more complex syntax and varied vocabulary, but a recent study has shown that they also gesture more around their children. The youngsters, in turn, learn a greater variety of gestures early in life and have richer vocabularies as they prepare to enter kindergarten LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 865115 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Shrinking Linked to Breathlessness Researchers have found that as the arm span-to-height ratio increases in seniors, lung function tends to decrease and breathlessness increases. Arm span measurement is typically close to a person’s standing height, so an increasing arm span-to-height ratio indicates a probable loss of height. The researchers suspect that a loss of height may reduce the space available for the lungs to expand, resulting in this shortness of breath. They also found that cardiac complications may be linked to a discrepancy between arm span and standing height LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 865861 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Vitamins May Prevent Vision Loss According to a new study, women who take a combination of B6 and B12 vitamins along with a folic acid supplement have a 34 percent lower risk of developing age-related macular degeneration than women taking a placebo. Age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in people 65 and older. The progressive deterioration of a critical region of the retina called the macula blurs the center of the field of vision, making it difficult to recognize faces, read, drive, and perform various day-to-day tasks LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 870076 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Alcohol Linked to Cancer in Women A study of nearly 1.3 million British women found that middle-aged women who said they drank in moderation had a higher risk of liver, rectal, and breast cancer in the seven years after they completed the study's questionnaire compared to women who said they drank less than two drinks per week. The risk goes up the more you drink, whether it be spirits, wine, or beer. Although moderate drinkingâ€â€considered one drink a day for women, two drinks a day for menâ€â€is thought to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, the study highlights alcohol’s dangers as well. LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 870888 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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TV Habits Linked to Asthma Children who watch two or more hours of television a day have twice the risk of developing asthma than those who watch less. Scientists have long suspected that sedentary behavior and poor physical fitness have an effect on respiratory development, especially the smooth muscle tissue of the airway, and the results of a long-term study of more than 3,000 children seem to support this hypothesis. While the study’s authors say that watching television is not problematic in itself, they believe it is indicative of a sedentary lifestyle LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 872722 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Sixty Percent of the World Has Cell Phones According to a UN report, mobile phones are now the communications technology of choice for people around the globe. Six in 10 people have cell phone subscriptions, and two thirds of the world's 4.1 billion cell phone subscriptions are in developing nations. While just 1 in 50 Africans had a cell phone in 2000, 28% of the population now has a cellular subscription. When it comes to Internet access, however, poor countries still trail industrialized nations. The report places Sweden at the top of a list ranking countries according to how advanced their use of information and communications technology is. LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 872883 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Archeologists Rediscover Ancient Tomb Belgian archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old Egyptian tomb that disappeared under sand after it was first found about 130 years ago. The tomb, which was originally discovered in 1880 by Swedish Egyptologist Karl Piehl, belongs to Amenhotep, the deputy seal-bearer for King Thutmose III who ruled Egypt in the 18th Dynasty. Most of the inscriptions on the tomb’s walls are damaged, a sign that it may have been robbed in the early 19th century. LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 873428 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Belly Fat May Hurt Lungs Abdominal obesity is already linked with diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease as part of a group of health problems known collectively as metabolic syndrome, but researchers now say it poses another health hazardâ€â€it impairs lung function. They have found that waist measurement is strongly associated with decreased lung function, and they believe that belly fat may cause this by impeding the way the diaphragm and chest function. In this study, researchers defined abdominal obesity as a waist circumference of greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 874050 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Warm Weather Migraine Trigger? Warm weather and changes in atmospheric pressure may trigger headaches and migraines. In a recent study, researchers found that with every 9° F (5° C) increase in temperature, the risk of severe headaches jumps by nearly 8 percent. Lower barometric pressure also appears to be a trigger, but it is not as strongly associated with headache incidence as temperature. Scientists do not know why higher temperatures are linked to headaches, but they do know that warmer weather leads to lower blood pressure, and there is evidence that migraines are related to changes in blood flow around the brain LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 875094 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Ozone Exposure Linked to Premature Death The first nationwide US study to evaluate the impact of long-term ozone exposure on human health found that people who live in areas with the most ozone pollution are 25 to 30 percent more likely to die from lung disease than those living in areas with the cleanest air. Ozone, an allotropic form of oxygen with three atoms in its molecule, is considered beneficial in the earth's stratosphere, where it forms a shield that blocks the sun's harmful rays, but doctors have long known that ground-level ozone is hazardous. Short-term exposure aggravates asthma symptoms and causes breathing problems, and experts now know that long-term exposure increases mortality LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 875458 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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New Lithium-Ion Battery Charges in Seconds Lithium-ion batteries are the most common rechargeable batteries found in consumer electronics. They can store large amounts of energy, but they discharge the energy slowly and require hours to recharge. Scientists have traditionally blamed slow-moving lithium ions for the batteries’ sluggish nature, but a group of researchers recently found that the problem actually stems from the way ions pass through lithium iron phosphate, a material commonly used in lithium ion batteries. By altering the surface structure of this material, they were able to create a small prototype battery that could be fully charged in less than 20 seconds LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 875930 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Meat-Free Diet Linked to Less Cancer A study of meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans has found that those who do not eat meat have significantly fewer cancers overall than those who do. Surprisingly, this trend was reversed for colorectal cancer, with vegetarians having a significantly higher incidence of the condition than the other groups. Previous research has linked colorectal cancer to eating red meat. This study highlights the complex relationship between diet, lifestyle, and cancer risk LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 877319 · |
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Matthew Love Send message Joined: 26 Sep 99 Posts: 7763 Credit: 879,151 RAC: 0
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Maggots as Good as Hydrogel for Leg Ulcers Researchers have concluded that maggots are no better than the standard therapy when it comes to treating leg ulcers. Because maggots eat dead and rotting tissue but leave healthy tissue alone, they have been used to treat wounds for hundreds of years. In the first study to compare maggots with a standard wound-cleaning product, researchers found that while the flesh-eating creatures do clean leg ulcers more quickly than normal treatment, this does not lead to faster healing. Patients whose venous leg ulcers were treated with maggots also experienced more pain than those who received the traditional hydrogel treatmen. LETS BEGIN IN 2010 ID: 877920 · |
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