What's Going On

原文 Pacemakers are expensive.  Though  some pacemaker  manufacturers   have  dropped the price down to  $ 800  in   poorer   countries,  that ’s  still  out of   reach  for  many . One to two million  people die  each year because they don ’ t have  access  to  this   life- saving technology . So researchers at  the   University   of   Michigan’s   Cardiovascular Center have  investigated pacemaker recycling -harvesting  working pacemakers from the  recently   deceased.  According to  a position  paper  in the  journal  Circulation , 84  percent  of heart patients  said   they’d   be  willing to give away their  pacemakers  after they ,  well, no longer need them . [Timir   Baman   et   al., "Pacemaker   Reuse"] Most   pacemakers   remo...

原文 You ’ve tried everything to lose weight : portion control, fasting, liquid diets, even eating meals on a treadmill . Now , a new study suggests that maybe you should try turning out the lights . Because , at least in mice, exposure to light at night leads to weight gain. The work appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Laura Fonken et al., "Light at Night Increases Body Mass by Shifting the Time of Food Intake"] Obesity is an epidemic . Maybe it’s because we eat too much and spend too much time in our seats . But another factor could be that these days we ’re never really in the dark. Streetlamps and indoor light sources now brighten our nights. And that light pollution could be messing with our circadian rhythms, which control not only sleep, but metabolism. In fact , mutant mice that have no circadian clocks tend to be chunky . To test the connection between photons and fat, scientists took mice a...

原文 Whether you 're a hunt-and-peck typist or a Rachmaninoff of the keyboard , you will make mistakes . But it's not just your eyes catching typos when you see them on the screen . Your hands know when you mess up too. That’s according to a study in the journal Science. [Gordon Logan and Matthew Crump, "Cognitive Illusions of Authorship Reveal Hierarchical Error Detection in Skilled Typists"] Researchers recruited expert typists - college students , of course - and showed them 600 five - letter words , one at a time. And they asked the students to type those words as quickly and accurately as possible . But sometimes , the researchers inserted typos in the word as it appeared on screen, when the students hadn’t made one. Other times they automatically corrected typos the students did make. And the students tended to believe the screen . So if a typo had been added, they figured they must have messed up. If a typ...

原文 On October 9th, we reported that cats born deaf develop enhanced vision . Now researchers find that blind people perceive touch faster than do those with sight. The work is in the Journal of Neuroscience. [Daniel Goldreich et al., citation to come.] Volunteers who were sighted or who had varying levels of vision loss were asked to sense the movements of a small probe tapped against the tips of their index fingers . Everyone did well distinguishing light taps from stronger taps. But when a light tap was followed almost instantly by a big , long-lasting vibration, those who had been blind since birth perceived each touch much better than did the sighted volunteers or those with only partial vision loss. The researchers also varied the period between the tap and the vibration, and then measured the minimum separation time needed for participants to perceive the two separately. And congenitally blind people needed less t...

原文 The racks leading up to the checkout line are prime real estate for impulse buys . Merchandise near the register moves , whether it ’ s a magazine, a pack of gum or another bottle of hand sanitizer . Now a new study suggests that the same strategy can get kids to make healthy choices in the school cafeteria. Obesity is a growing problem, particularly for children. Nutritionists have tried everything to help kids cut calories, from banning sodas at school to rolling out ad campaigns that make baby carrots cool. But Brian Wansink’ s team at Cornell University is finding that the secret may lie in the presentation . In one set of schools studied , fruits moved twice as fast when they were placed in a colorful bowl . Salad sales tripled when the salad bar was moved to in front of the register . And stacking the chocolate milk behind the white milk led more students to reach for the straight up moo juice . The findings were ...

本文 You ’re trying to exercise willpower- to avoid eating that second piece of cake or buying an electronic toy you don ’ t really need . Try firming up your muscles. Any muscles . Now you can walk away -as long as walking away is truly in line with your overall goals. Researchers created various tests of discipline . In one test, participants got a so- called health tonic of diluted, but unpleasant tasting vinegar . Those committed to their long term health who also tensed their calf muscles were more likely to drink more of the vinegar. In another test , subjects had to choose whether to look at disturbing images of post- earthquake Haiti as part of an effort to solicit donations. Half clenched their fists , half didn’t. And a much larger percentage of those who clenched were able to watch the images and pledge to help. Another test involved snack choices . Subjects who had had health as a priority and who tightened their f...

本文 If 50 is the new 40 and 60 is the new 50 , what ’s the new 70 ? Well, it seems safe to at least say that 70 isn’t what it used to be . And that ’ s good. Because a new study finds that 70-year-olds did better on intelligence tests than 70 year olds used to do . In Sweden, anyway. The research was published in the journal Neurology. [Simona Sacuiu et al, Secular changes in cognitive predictors of dementia and mortality in 70-year-olds] The study compared a group of people born in 1901 and 1902 and tested in 1971 with another group born in 1930 and tested in 2000. And the newer crop of 70 years old performed far better than the previous generation did . The researchers say the newer seniors had numerous advantages . They had better pre and postnatal care than their predecessors . They also had better nutrition, a higher quality education , and better treatment of high blood pressure and cholesterol. And , the researchers say...

本文 We tend to think of cavemen as pretty serious carnivores, hunting game and then roasting the yummy bits over a roaring campfire . But scientists just reported discovering traces of starch on some ancient stone tools . Which suggests that there were probably more than a few bakers in the bunch way back when . The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Anna Revedin et al., "Thirty thousand-year-old evidence of plant food processing"] Researchers collected stone tools from three archaeological sites in Italy , Russia and the Czech Republic . Our Paleolithic ancestors called these digs home some 30,000 years ago. The markings on the recovered tools suggest that they were used like grindstones and pestles for processing grains. And they still contained traces of flour. The flour grains came mostly from cattails and ferns , plants whose roots are rich in starch , kind of like a potato. ...

本文： That ’80s power ballad had it all wrong . Love may keep you from hurting . Two researchers -pain specialist Sean Mackey at Stanford and love specialist Arthur Aron at S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook-met at a neuroscience conference . They realized they were talking about the same brain region . So back at Stanford , researchers recruited 15 undergrads in the early euphoric throes of a relationship . The volunteers had photos of the romantic partner and of an attractive acquaintance . As they looked at the photos , their palms were safely heated to mild pain. Then the volunteers repeated the experiment but were distracted by tasks such as : think of sports that don ’ t use balls . Previous research found that distraction can ease pain . Both distraction and the pictures of new loves reduced pain. But , the love photo acted in a totally different area of the brain - the primitive reward system region that lights up wher...