Urban Farming Around the World - Photo Essays. Study: Buying Organic Food May 'Harshen Moral Judgments' Are these strawberries organic? Is this omelette made with free-range eggs? Can you swap out the rice for quinoa? Is this kale locally sourced? Pesticide-free? Fair trade? Are the hazelnuts local? The onslaught of questions from an enlightened eater can test the patience of even the calmest restaurant server. And a new study shows that organic foodies’ humane regard for the well-being of animals makes some people rather snobbish. (VIDEO: Organic Taste Test) “There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous,” the study’s lead author, Dr.
Reacting to the events on a numbered scale, the organic-food participants were more judgmental than those in the comfort-food category. “There’s something about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves,” he told the Today show. PHOTOS: Urban Farming Around the World. Untitled.
Why dogs yawn when we yawn. If your canine companion has ever yawned after you yawned, it could be because he empathizes with you, according to a new study. It may seem simple, but the fact that this behavior is contagious is actually quite remarkable because very few animals do it. Yawning itself is rare in the animal kingdom, and besides people and dogs, contagious yawning has been observed only in gelada baboons, stump-tail macaques and chimpanzees. We know that humans and chimps tend to yawn more with friends and family, suggesting that “catching” someone’s yawn is tied to feelings of empathy, and past research has shown that dogs are more likely to yawn after watching familiar people yawn. However, until recently, it was unclear if dogs’ yawns were tied to empathy. But a recent study conducted by researchers at Portugal's University of Porto found that dogs yawn even when they hear only the sound of a person yawning, providing the strongest evidence yet that man’s best friend is able to empathize with us.
7 Thoughts That Are Bad For You. Our personalities do more for us than determine our social circles. Temperament can impact a person's physical health. "The idea that behavior or personality traits can influence health is one that's been around for a long time. We're just now getting a handle on to what extent they do," said Stephen Boyle of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. From those with a chill demeanor to the completely frazzled types, mental factors are ultimately tied to physical health.
And while a highly neurotic person might deteriorate more quickly than others, not every character trait will kill you. Some might even boost lifetimes. No. 7: Cynicism Cynics who tend to be suspicious and mistrustful of others, a character trait that scientists refer to as hostility, may have an increased likelihood of developing heart disease. No. 6: Lack of meaning If you lack a sense of purpose, your stay on Earth could be truncated. No. 5: Fretting No. 4: Lack of self-control Late for appointments? No. 3: Anxiety. Modern Insanity: What Really Makes Us Crazy. Last month, researchers found that schizophrenics were more likely to have been subjected to influenza in the womb than healthy individuals. Other common experiences can also drive away our wits, long after we are out of diapers.
In fact, the typical American lifestyle teems with risk factors for mental illness, says Stephen Ilardi, a psychologist at the University of Kansas and author of "The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs" (DeCapo Press, 2009). But we can protect ourselves by adopting the habits of our distant ancestors, he said. "In modern life, our environment is continually activating the brain's stress response," Ilardi said, bombarded as we are by email, tragic news and interpersonal demands. In many mental disorders, "inflammation is a big culprit," Ilardi said. In short bouts, inflammation is the body's way of protecting itself. The relative sanity of our distant ancestors should not imply they led stress-free lives. Balance your Omegas. Neurotic? Why You're Likely to Die Prematurely.
Neuroticism can shave years off a person's life, at least in part because a nervous Nellie is more likely to smoke, a new study suggests. The finding adds to a mountain of evidence suggesting personality and psychological traits — from mellowness to anger and even degree of social engagement — help determine how long you'll live and how healthy you'll be. While the latest results are based on a survey of men, it is "very likely" they also apply to women, though follow-up research is needed to confirm, according to study researcher Daniel Mroczek, a professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University in Indiana.
Smoking calms and kills Past research has shown that people who are highly neurotic — constantly worried and anxious, and prone to depression — die sooner on average than their chill counterparts. In the new study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 1,800 men who were on average 51 years old in 1975, at the start of the 30-year study. Personality and health. Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas.
Beyond the Grave: Death Gets More Interesting. Going six feet under is just so passé. A new underwater memorial reef set to open off the coast of Florida is part of an emerging trend for offbeat burials, sending people to new frontiers after they die, from outer space down to the ocean floor. The man-made reef—the world's largest—will offer room for the remains of up to 125,000 individuals, said Jerry Norman, CEO of The Neptune Society, the group responsible for creating the revolutionary resting place.
"The Neptune Memorial Reef provides a natural setting for loved ones that is also a awe-inspiring destination where family can gather and enjoy," Norman said. Unique demands The Neptune Memorial Reef is a response to the demand for more unique alternatives to traditional burial practice, said Norman, whose Neptune Society is the sole cremation-only funerary service in the U.S. "We live in a more mobile society and one that is moving away from traditional services," Norman said. Space is the final frontier Behind the phenomenon. After Death: 8 Burial Alternatives That Are Going Mainstream | Natural & Green Burials | Funerals, Death & Dying.
Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer | September 12, 2011 04:45pm ET Credit: Vacclav / Shutterstock.com The ancient world is full of examples of burial customs that seem strange now, from Egyptian mummification to bodies dumped in bogs to departed Vikings launched out on ships-turned-crematoriums. But space constraints and environmental concerns are pushing modern man to explore new options for dealing with the dead. The most recent of these to land on American shores is a process that uses heat, pressure and chemicals to liquefy a body in just a few hours, leaving behind sterile remains that can be poured into the wastewater system.
But unusual customs, from launching cremated remains into space to old-fashioned burials in hand-dug graves, are a growing trend. Here are some of the newest choices (not all eco-friendly) for the end of life. 5 Foul Things That Are Good For You | Rat Poison & Bread Mold. 50 Fabulous 4th of July Facts: The 13 Original Colonies | Independence Day Facts. Top 10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart. Ten Most Common Poisonous Plants. Robin Lloyd | May 17, 2007 04:43pm ET <div class="countdown_data"><div><h2>Top 10 Poisonous Plants</h2><p>Deceptively attractive, some common flowers and plants can give you headaches, cause convulsions or simply kill you, according to the "Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants" (Springer, 2007). Children under 6 are especially vulnerable; they account for 85 percent of all calls to poison centers, though the most commonly consumed culprits in poison cases are cosmetics, personal care products, cleansers and pills.
Most plants are safe, but here are some you need to know about. They might be in your own yard or even in the house. </p></div><div><h2>Wisteria</h2><p>Wisterias form romantic cascades of sweetpea-like flowers that fall in lush blue, pink or white masses from woody vines that grow mainly in the South and Southwest. The Top 10 Mad Scientists.
Mellow Demeanor May Stave Off Dementia. People who are socially active and mellow may be less likely to develop dementia, a new study finds. Dementia is a loss of mental function, such as memory and reasoning, that is severe enough to interfere with everyday life. Several diseases can cause dementia, including Alzheimer's (the most common cause of dementia in the United States) and Parkinson's disease as well as nutritional deficiencies, stroke and infections that affect the brain. About one in seven Americans aged 71 and older has some form of dementia, the study researchers say. However, scientists have yet to pinpoint a single cause of dementia beyond the general associations with disease. While genes play a role in some kinds of dementia, dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease and some other disorders results from a combination of genes, lifestyle and other environmental factors, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Personality and lifestyle Stop the stress. 7 Things That Will Make You Happy | Happiness Tricks & Tips | Well-being & Life Satisfaction. Future Rx: Marijuana without the forgetfulness. Marijuana's negative effects on memory are well known. But now scientists have pinpointed where in the brain the drug causes this forgetfulness, and it's separate from where pot exerts its medicinal effects. If this finding, drawn from experiments with lab mice, is also found to apply to humans, it means scientists someday may be able to design medical marijuana that doesn't impede a patient's working memory while treating his or her pain. Working memory is the ability to hold more than one thought in your head for a period of time. "We have found that the starting point for this phenomenon — the effect of marijuana on working memory — is the astroglial cells," study researcher Giovanni Marsicano, of the French biomedical researcher institution INSERM, said in a statement.
Brain cells The researchers found that this disruption of working memory comes not from the drug's effects directly on the brain's neurons, but on a different type of cells: the brain's helper cells called astroglia. 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Brain | Human Brain & Neuroscience | Brain Facts. 6 Action Steps to Take When You Feel Financially Vulnerable. EmailEmail A report released last week gave the shocking news that half of all Americans are financially fragile and would not be able to come up with $2,000 in 30 days without having to resort to borrowing money or pawning/selling items that they own. It’s apparent that it’s not just the poorest families that are financially vulnerable, many middle class families are also in the same boat. Ask yourself how easy would it be for you to come up with $2,000 to pay for a necessary car repair, vet bill or home repair. Would you be able to take it from a savings account or would you have to put it on a credit card or borrow it from family?
If it’s the latter, it’s time to take action. Be sure to account for all of your expenses, including ones that only come up once a year or so, like car registration fees and holiday gifts.As you write your budget, look for expenses you can trim or eliminate altogether. 3. 6. Are you financially vulnerable? Tagged as: Better Yourself Related Posts. Can’t Get Enough Coffee? It Might Be in Your Genes. If you rely on a deep, sludgy kick of java to get you through the day, your need for caffeine might have something to do with your genes: a team of researchers have identified variations on two genes that may influence how much coffee people consume.
The study was a meta-analysis of data from five studies involving 47,341 U.S. participants of European descent, and run by scientists from the National Cancer Institute, Harvard School of Public Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The genes in question are known as CYP1A2, which is involved with the body’s caffeine metabolism, and AHR, which regulates CYP1A2. Scientists found that people with high-consumption variants of either gene on both chromosomes consumed on average about 40 mg more caffeine per day than people who didn’t have the mutation on either chromosome. (More on Time.com: Drinking Coffee May Lower Women’s Risk of Stroke) The Boston Globe‘s Daily Dose blog reported: Sleeping Late on Weekends Not a Remedy for Lost Snooze Time. Staying in bed on the weekend might not be enough to make up for a weeks' worth of sleep deprivation, a new study suggests. In the study, after five days with only four hours of sleep, a 10-hour doze did remedy some of the ill effects of chronic sleep restriction.
However, even after an extended snooze, participants still experienced lapses of attention and delayed reaction times. The findings agree with those of a previous smaller study showing that people can accumulate a sort of sleep debt by going long periods with little sleep even if they also sleep in every once in a while. The current study suggests complete recovery from sustained sleep restriction may require even more sleep during one night or multiple nights of extended sleep, the researchers say. "The sleep restriction was severe enough that recovery of alertness was not complete following a single night of extended sleep," said study researcher David Dinges, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Sleep deprived. 10 Scientific Tips For Raising Happy Kids | Moms, Dads, Families & Children | The Science of Parenting. 6 (Other) Great Things Sex Can Do For You | Benefits of Sex | Sexual Health.
Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders. No Sex Required: Women Have Orgasms at the Gym | Women Sexual Health & The Female Orgasm. Women may not need a guy, a vibrator, or any other direct sexual stimulation to have an orgasm, finds a new study on exercise-induced orgasms and sexual pleasure. The findings add qualitative and quantitative data to a field that has been largely unstudied, according to researcher Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University.
For instance, Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues first reported the phenomenon in 1953, saying that about 5 percent of women they had interviewed mentioned orgasm linked to physical exercise. However, they couldn't know the actual prevalence because most of these women volunteered the information without being directly asked. Since then, reports of so-called "coregasms," named because of their seeming link to exercises for core abdominal muscles, have circulated in the media for years, according to the researchers. Pleasure at the gym Abdominal exercises may be best Learning about the 'Big O'
Gender Differences, Female Hormones & Human Brain | PMS,Female Brain Book & Gender Studies. By Robin Nixon | June 03, 2011 09:16am ET Credit: Dreamstime"There is no such thing as a unisex brain," says neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine of the University of California in San Francisco and author of "The Female Brain. " Despite the trumpets of women's lib, science suggests sex differences are innate. Women, apparently, are not curvy versions of men sporting high-heeled shoes. Here are 10 things every woman-loving man should know. Author Bio Robin Nixon Robin Nixon was a staff writer for Live Science. Robin Nixon on. Matters of the Brain: Why Men and Women Are So Different | Gender & Cognition.
Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead. 10 Things You Didn't Know About You. Why Mom Wakes Before Dad | Sleep, Seasonal Depression & Sex. 5 Things You Must Know About Sleep. Jet Lag Caused By Out-of-synch Brain. Night Owls Stay Alert Longer than Early Birds. SETI Astronomers Launch New Campaign to Eavesdrop on E.T. If Aliens Exist,They May Come to Get Us, Stephen Hawking Says. Huge Fridge Colder Than Outer Space.
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