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Cats Are Left or Right-Pawed

(Newser) - Cats may appear ambidextrous when pawing a ball of string but actually lean lefty or righty when it comes to tough tasks, the New Scientist reports. It comes down to sex: girl kitties are mostly righties and boys lefties, say researchers at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland. Hormone levels...

What Your BLT Says About You
 What Your BLT Says About You 
Jul 23, 2009 1:50 PM CDT

What Your BLT Says About You

Sandwich choices offer insight into personality, love connections

(Newser) - Online dating sites and jury-selection pools may have a new criterion for determining personality traits: sandwich choice. A new study breaks down the deli line, finding, among other things, that BLT lovers are devoted perfectionists who are best matched with loyal, unselfish seafood-salad lovers, the Chicago Tribune reports. More culinary...

Girls Bond, Boys Compete: Brain Study

Scans confirm gender split on one-on-one interaction

(Newser) - Ever wonder why girls are so fixated on swapping friendship bracelets? They may just be wired that way, according to a new study. Using MRIs to look inside tweens' and teens' brains, researchers found that one-on-one interactions got girls’ synapses firing, Time reports. Boys focused less on other individuals than...

Fetuses Form Memories: Study
 Fetuses Form Memories: Study 
Jul 16, 2009 10:55 AM CDT

Fetuses Form Memories: Study

At 30 weeks, have 10-minute memory

(Newser) - Fetuses can form memories, an important indicator of nervous-system maturation that may help doctors detect developmental problems, Dutch researchers say. Fetuses exposed to sound and vibration for 1 second every 30 seconds became accustomed to the stimuli, a process known as habituation. "Habituation is a form of learning,"...

Coffee Can Make You Hallucinate, Study Says

Too much caffeine increases odds of seeing, hearing things

(Newser) - Caffeine junkies shouldn’t always trust their ears, according to a new study. Subjects who drank the equivalent of seven cups of coffee proved three times more likely to hear voices, and slightly more likely to experience other hallucinations, than those consuming less than a cup’s worth. Researchers theorize...

Fish Oil Reverses Tide on Memory Loss

(Newser) - Regular doses of Omega 3, found in fish oil, can help reduce memory loss, reports the Telegraph. Healthy 70-year-old subjects taking capsules containing 900 mg of the fatty acid docosahexaenoic slashed errors on a test that measured learning and memory, according to researchers. The improvement, exhibited over a six-month period,...

Swearing Cuts Pain, Dammit
 Swearing Cuts Pain, Dammit 
Jul 12, 2009 12:05 PM CDT

Swearing Cuts Pain, Dammit

Scientists suggest link to fight-or-flight response

(Newser) - Stubbed your toe? Let loose a torrent of profanity and you may actually feel better, a study suggests. Scientists had subjects stick their hands in ice water for as long as they could, once while cursing and again using only G-rated language. The researchers discovered that cursing subjects could keep...

Celiac Disease Diagnoses Skyrocket
Celiac Disease Diagnoses Skyrocket
Jul 10, 2009 1:53 PM CDT

Celiac Disease Diagnoses Skyrocket

Many with gluten intolerance may not know of condition

(Newser) - The number of Americans diagnosed with celiac disease has quadrupled since the 1950s, and the condition "is emerging as a substantial public health concern," Mayo Clinic researchers warn. People who had the gluten-intolerance disease and didn’t know it were four times more likely to have died during...

The Power of Negative Thinking
The Power
of Negative Thinking
Jul 8, 2009 2:50 PM CDT

The Power of Negative Thinking

Better to acknowledge bad feelings than recite phony good ones

(Newser) - Deliberate positive thinking—from Norman Vincent Peale to Stuart Smalley—has long been touted as a way to overcome feelings of worthlessness and self-doubt. But a new study suggests that repeating positive mantras may often backfire, making people with low self-esteem feel even worse about themselves. For many, it may...

A Quarter of Defaulters Are Doing It on Purpose

(Newser) - As many as 26% of mortgage defaults are deliberate moves by homeowners who owe more than their house is worth, finds a new study that asked 1000 people if they knew anyone who had defaulted even though they could still make payments. Researchers caution that the study isn’t precise,...

Social Security Numbers Guessable From Public Data

Available birth info can ease identity theft

(Newser) - Social Security numbers can be predicted, making them unfit to be “authentication devices” amid increasing worry over identity theft, researchers warn the Washington Post. Knowing a person’s birthday and birthplace can point the way to the first five digits, a study finds. “If they are predictable from...

Subtle Sweet Tooth May Keep Brits, French Alive

(Newser) - If Marie Antoinette really said "Let them eat cake," she probably knew the French wouldn't bite. Along with the British and other Europeans, the French have developed genetic variants that make them more sensitive to sweetness in food, a new study says. Africans, on the other hand,...

Users Prefer Bing to Google But Won't Switch: Study

Focus group users prefer design, organization of Microsoft search engine

(Newser) - Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, impresses users—but not enough to make them switch from Google, TechCrunch reports. Asked to rate Bing’s features, users in a study by the Catalyst Group thought Bing beat Google in almost every category, including visual design, organization, and filtering options. The exception...

Positive Thinking Can Make You Feel Worse: Study

Affirmations don't help low self-esteem

(Newser) - It turns out the Little Engine That Could had it all wrong. Repeating positive statements to yourself doesn’t appear to help people with low self-esteem, according to a new study. Researchers asked students to repeat statements like “I am a lovable person” to themselves, then measured their mood....

Glaciers May Vanish in 'Geologic Instant'

Prehistoric glacier's rapid meltdown could happen again: researchers

(Newser) - New data about a prehistoric Canadian glacier that rapidly vanished is giving scientists a stronger model to predict the radical effects of climate change. It's very possible that the same conditions could quickly shrink today's larger ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, prompting sea levels to soar in a "...

Great Whites Hunt Like Serial Killers

(Newser) - Great white sharks lurk in the dark and follow young victims much like serial killers on the prowl, the AP reports. Far from being random attackers, the sharks pursue specific victims from 100 yards off—far enough to see but not be seen—hiding in areas they know well. "...

Add a Little Weight, Gain 6-7 Years: Study

(Newser) - Being a touch on the heavy side could help you live an extra few years, Japanese researchers say. People who were a little overweight at 40 lived 6 to 7 years longer than those who were very thin at that age, AFP reports. The very thin had a life expectancy...

One in 4 South African Men Admit to Rape

Many repeat offenders; three quarters make first attack as teens

(Newser) - One in four men in South Africa admitted to rape in an anonymous study, and many say they’ve attacked multiple times, the Guardian reports. Three-quarters of rapists first did so as teenagers and half are repeat offenders; 5% of the men surveyed said they’d raped a woman or...

Men Hot for Average Women: Study

Sorry, hotties: scientists find males prefer typical to supermodel

(Newser) - Women need not be supermodels or Playboy bunnies to attract men’s attention. In fact, guys tend to find so-called average women the most attractive, scientists tell the Telegraph. They polled 100 male students on line drawings of women’s torsos with varying measurements, and found that the men preferred...

If You Snooze, You Cruise: Scientists

Napping, dreaming boost problem-solving skills, say researchers

(Newser) - Napping—particularly if it includes dreaming—may help people think more creatively, the Telegraph reports. Researchers gave young adults creative word-association tasks in the morning, then allowed some to sleep. The extra time and z's appeared to improve their scores on the same tasks; on new tasks, patients who had...

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