Category: Science

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Here’s How You Can Recognize the Symptoms of a Heart Attack in Women

There’s a sad lack of knowledge and attention to the fact that women’s heart attacks begin and progress differently from men’s. We’re all shown the “typical” shortness of breath, pain the left arm, and finally in the chest…but if you’re a woman who thinks that’s how it’s going to happen for you, well, it could be too late to save your life by the time you realize you’re in trouble.

It’s important for everyone to know what they’re looking for when it comes to heart attacks in women – this is one of those things where your much better off safe than sorry – so here’s what happened to one woman when her heart went on the fritz:

Researcher Matthais Meyer seconds all of this information, and encourages women to stay in touch with how they’re feeling.

“Women and men have a similar amount of pain during a heart attack, but the location may be different. People with pain in the chest and left arm are more likely to think it’s a heart attack, and these are usual symptoms for men. Women often have back, shoulder, or stomach pain.”

Considering heart disease is the #1 killer of women in the United States, this is information we should all have and share – so pass it on.

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People Think up the Scariest Messages That Aliens Could Possibly Send Us

If we ever make contact with aliens, it’d be arguably the most major event in our entire species’ history so far. But depending on how that first meeting goes, it could either be a revelation or a terror.

On AskReddit, a user asked what the “scariest” message would be to hear from aliens from outer space. Here are 14 of the spookiest ideas.

1. A cry for help.

“A species more advanced than us screaming for help would imply something much worse is already after them…”

“A cry for help originating from millions of light-years away. By the time the message reaches us, its been floating through space for millions of years. We’ll never know if we just heard the last words of an alien civilization or if it was saved by another civilization. Regardless, it would be a harrowing message.”

2. Earth is a video game.

“Sorry guys; dinner’s ready and mum says I should turn you off.”

3. Earth is a simulation.

“Experiment’s goals accomplished. Simulation scheduled for termination on January 1st.”

4. Just “hello.”

“A random hello would scare the fuck out of everyone at NASA let me say that.”

5. A warning to run.

“RUN.”

“There’s something just so viscerally terrifying about receiving just that one-word command: run. It doesn’t say what’s coming. It doesn’t say when. It doesn’t say where to go. All you know is that you cannot stay where you are and that whoever sent the warning was only able to get out a single word to communicate the impending threat to the rest of the universe.”

6. A warning not to run.

“Do not leave your star system. Trust us.”

7. A countdown.

“…14…13…12…11…10…”

8. Deja vu.

“Hm. Your race was just like this last time too.”

“Don’t try this again… after the 5th time we’re tired of sending your planet back to the stone age…”

9. They’re among us.

“We’re coming to pick up the 2 billion members of our species living on your planet.”

10. Pyramids.

“Radio…? Why aren’t you using the Pyramids?”

11. God didn’t make them.

“God created you, he didn’t create us.”

12. We’ll be harvested.

“CHOOSE HALF OF YOUR HUMANS FOR HARVESTING. IF YOU DO NOT CHOOSE WE WILL.”

13. Taxes.

“You now have to pay galactic taxes.”

“Can’t wait for the Boston tea party 2.”

14. Literally anything.

“I honestly think any communication with extraterrestrial life with freak us out, even if it was totally benevolent or even benign, like we accidentally picked up a communication (don’t tell me this can’t happen. A LOT of accomplishments and discoveries were made entirely by accident).”

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When You’re Stressed About Money, This Is What Happens to Your Body and Your Brain

I think a lot of us can say that we’ve felt this kind of stress before: stress about being broke or very close to it. But how does this stress affect us, physiologically speaking?

We all have a fight-or-flight response system in our bodies that developed when our ancestors were roaming the land trying to avoid the many threats that could literally kill them at any time. Stress hormones are released when we’re presented with what we interpret as these kinds of situations – times when we humans have to decide whether to stick it out and fight or to run for our lives.

Stressed

But there are fewer saber-tooth tigers these days, and your fight-or-flight reflex is much more likely to be triggered by social issues – including dealing with money problems. When it does happen, the fight-or-flight reaction is very hard on the body. It can tense up our muscles until they hurt and mess up how our immune systems work, leaving us more vulnerable to getting sick. It can also cause constant stomach aches and headaches.

Stress

Another bad side effect: you might make bad decisions, even though, deep down, you know better. Aimee Daramus, a clinic psychologist, said, “Under stress, blood flow and electrical activity are reduced in the frontal and prefrontal lobes and increased in the survival parts of the brain, such as the amygdala.”

Since the parts of the brain where blood flow is reduced influence impulse control and planning, your decision-making process might get thrown for a loop, causing you to do things you normally wouldn’t do. Basically, you start to feel the walls closing in, which pressures you to act in ways that actually hurt your situation.

Daramus added, “We act quickly and decisively, but not always as accurately as usual.”

Depressed

On top of that, frequent stress reactions – whether caused by money issues or not – may cause anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Chronic stress might even lead to long-term physical ailments such as heart disease and diabetes. Finally, the stress may lead you to take comfort where you can find it – and that can sometimes mean in alcohol and drugs, which may lead to substance abuse problems.

Money problems are hard – really hard – but try to take care of yourself.

Remember, your only real wealth is health.

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Toucans Are Really Weird and People Are Sharing Facts About Them on Tumblr

Birds totally freak me out. They’re a little too smart, their beaks a tad too sharp…they’re just too much like dinosaurs for my liking.

That said, I have no trouble admitting that they’re interesting, and fun facts are business, so…here are some things you probably didn’t know about toucans.

You’re going to be glad you read through these, I promise.

First, this Tumblr thread that just can’t get over how big their beaks really are (and also, how they sleep omg).

https://worriedaboutmyfern.tumblr.com/post/171023585676

Then, let’s move on to the fact that their beaks are used as cooling mechanisms. What even?

Toucan’s bill has a network of blood vessels and expand them to cool down its body temperature — just like the elephants use their big ears from r/Awwducational

Who doesn’t love babies? ONLY MONSTERS.

Toucans have a courtship ritual that involves throwing and catching berries to each other with their beaks from Awwducational

Baby Toucan Bird from interestingasfuck

This is why they can fly with that enormous beak:

Image Credit: Blogspot

Seriously, that’s so weird!

An X-rayed toucan’s beak from interestingasfuck

Here’s a bonus photo of this “opportunistic omnivore” actually fishing. Sometimes I guess you just get a hankering for meat!

Image Credit: Wikipedia

I promised weird and random, and did I deliver, or what?

Did we leave anything out? Are you enamored with toucans now? Tell us about it below!

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Research Shows That Underwater Speakers Can Help Revive Dying Coral Reefs

Dying coral reefs have been a problem for years now, and scientists have struggled to figure out ways to revive struggling reef ecosystems. But a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications has given scientists (and everyone, really) newfound hope about this critically important issue.

The study found that playing sounds on underwater speakers could entice fish to come to dying reefs. The sounds being played on these speakers aren’t pop music, to be clear. Rather, they mimic the sounds of a healthy reef. Researchers found that when a loudspeaker played the sounds of a healthy reef, double the number of fish came by, and 50% more fish species visited compared to dead coral reef areas without any artificial sounds.

The experiment lasted 40 days, and the species of fish that flocked to the coral with the loudspeakers were very diverse. This is valuable because fish clean reefs of choking algae and help make space for new coral to grow. While this certainly isn’t the only ingredient in reviving dying coral reefs, it definitely can help reefs begin to recover. And diverse fish species bring different functions to coral reefs, which further helps recovery.

Andy Radford, a co-author of the study, said, “If combined with habitat restoration and other conservation measures, rebuilding fish communities in this manner might accelerate ecosystem recovery.”

Coral Reef, Florida

There are many factors that cause a cause reef to suffer or die. In the Florida Keys, sewage and fertilizer runoff has led to nitrogen enrichment in areas with coral reefs, killing corals. Rising ocean temperatures kill coral as well – around 50% of Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef has been bleached to death because of high oceanic temperature caused by climate change. Though, on a positive note, it looks like some corals are becoming more resistant to increasing temperatures in the water.

Let’s hope that research and ACTION continues to develop for this very important cause. We only have one Earth, let’s take care of it!

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A Study Shows That Cats Are Less Stressed When They Have Access to Cardboard Boxes

If you have a cat, you’ve probably suspected this for a long time, but now we know that it’s official: cardboard boxes help alleviate cats’ stress.

Researchers from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands conducted the study on shelter cats to see if access to cardboard boxes genuinely helped lower their stress levels in a scientifically measurable way. The scientists used 19 shelter cats in the study, 10 of which were given access to boxes, while 9 were not.

What...?

The study showed that the cats who had access to the boxes showed a faster recovery ability and adapted more quickly to their new environment than those cats that didn’t have access to boxes. The researchers noticed major differences between the two groups just three or four days into the study.

Nap time photoshoot

The researchers explained, “Stressful experiences can have a major impact on the cats’ welfare and may cause higher incidences of infectious diseases in the shelters due to raised cortisol levels causing immunodeficiency. Though several studies showed preference for hiding places and stress-reducing effects of hiding boxes on cats in combined studies, none of these studies determined if proper hiding enrichment would be effective in a quarantine cattery.”

Muffin9

The study lasted 14 days and the cats who had access to the cardboard boxes had a lower mean CSS, which means they had lower stress levels than the cats without the cardboard boxes. Also, the 10 individual cats with the boxes showed little difference in their stress levels while the 9 cats with no access to boxes showed high variance in their levels.

Bottom line: if you have cats, you’ll probably make them feel a lot more comfortable if you toss some old boxes around the house. It makes sense – in the wild, cats are pretty small, and would likely spend quite a lot of their time hiding out of sight.

So help your kitties keep those stress levels down!

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A Czech Drugstore Has a Shampoo Refill Station to Help Cut Down on Plastic Waste

What a great idea!

This is something that definitely needs to happen in other countries besides the Czech Republic.

A Reddit user shared a photo with a caption that said, “Some drugstores in the Czech Republic introduced shampoo and shower gel filling machines. Customers can refill their empty bottles with various products so they don’t have to buy a new one every time.”

Some drugstores in the Czech Republic introduced shampoo and shower gel filling machines. Customers can refill their empty bottles with various products so they don’t have to buy a new one everytime from interestingasfuck

The photo looks like a regular, everyday drug store, but that filling station for shampoo and shower gel must cut down on plastic waste in a big way. Think about how often you buy a new bottle of shampoo or some kind of soap for your shower…and then think about everyone else who uses your local CVS.

Those numbers add up.

These kinds of measures not only cut down on plastic waste, but also reduces landfilled trash in general, which cuts down on methane release. And, on top of that, it helps reduce the demand for new plastic to be produced (which takes more fossil fuels). It’s all a cycle, you see?

At the landfill

Shopping in bulk is a classic way to cut down on plastic waste, and if you’re looking to do your part, it’s a good route to go – because I don’t know how common these kinds of soap refilling stations are in the U.S. There are a lot of good resources online for buying in bulk and to help you cut down on waste, including the blog Litterless and the website Zero Waste Home.

RECYCLE

This is a seriously great idea, and I hope it turns into a worldwide trend. We all need to do our part to help out the environment – climate change isn’t going to solve itself, and even though reducing trash doesn’t seem like it makes a difference, when enough people do it, it really does.

So let’s get moving in the right direction. Every little bit helps.

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An Expert Says That Unmarried Women Without Kids Are the ‘Healthiest and Happiest Population Subgroup’

We all face a lot of pressures in our lives – pressures about marriage, kids, happiness, and what the perfect ingredients are to live a “perfect” life. Well, the older we all get, we know that there is no such thing as perfect,’ and we also know that what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for someone else.

As a man, it seems to me that women have it much tougher than men when it comes to societal expectations (though I can only speak from my personal experience). A lot of people still think that women are supposed to settle down, get married, have children, and raise a family. That’s been the ‘traditional’ way for generations, but what if those pressures really aren’t pushing women toward happiness at the end of the day?

Woman pointing

A professor of behavioral science named Paul Dolan published a book in 2019 called Happy Ever After: Escaping the Myths of the Perfect Life in which he makes some very interesting claims. Dolan, who teaches at the London School of Economics, said something quite controversial: he claims that “married people are happier than other population subgroups,”  but only “when their spouse is in the room when they’re asked how happy they are. When the spouse is not present: f—ing miserable.”

Wow. That sure turns a lot of ‘common knowledge’ on its head, doesn’t it? On top of that, Dolan said that “the healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children.”

Dolan’s book and his claims are based on research that polled people who are married, single, divorced, separated, and widowed. Dolan also claims that men seem to get more out of marriage because many of them “calmed down” after getting married.

Dolan pointed out the different effects that marriage has on the sexes: For men, “you take less risks, you earn more money at work and you live a little longer. She, on the other hand, has to put up with that, and dies sooner than if she never married.”

Woman's portrait

Dolan also added this little nugget about his research and findings: “You see a single woman of 40, who has never had children — ‘Bless, that’s a shame, isn’t it? Maybe one day you’ll meet the right guy and that’ll change.’ No, maybe she’ll meet the wrong guy and that’ll change. Maybe she’ll meet a guy who makes her less happy and healthy, and die sooner.”

Yikes.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

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A Biology Student Gave Wasps Access to Colored Paper and They Made Rainbow Nests

I’m not sure I can ever be a wasp lover…

That said, they can built some pretty-looking nests if you give them some colorful tools!

University of Florence biology major Mattia Menchetti came up with the idea: he would slowly fed a captive colony of paper wasps different colors of paper over time.

The result? Nests that look more like trippy kaleidoscopes than the houses of terror that they actually are.

View this post on Instagram

They’re the #product of an #experiment conducted by #MattiaMenchetti, a #biology #student at the #UniversityofFlorence. He realised that by giving a #captive #colony of #European #paper #wasps #different #colored #paper over time, the #insects would eventually #construct their own #kaleidoscopic #houses. And as you can see, the result is #pretty remarkable, if not slightly reminiscent of a #bad #trip. While this #experiment was deliberate, unintentional #human interference with the insect world has also produced some equally surprising results. In 2012 for #example, #beekeepers in #France were amazed to discover that their #bees had created #green and #blue #honey. The reason? The unsuspecting insects were using sugar collected from the shells of M&Ms at a nearby waste-processing plant. #ARTLifeForever http://www.boredpanda.com/colorful-paper-wasp-nests-rainbow-mattia-menchetti/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=BPFacebook

A post shared by #ARTLifeForever (@livetheartlife) on

It’s not the first time scientists have realized that the insect world can get more colorful than nature intended – sometimes, with no intentional human intervention at all. In 2012, a group of French beekeepers discovered that their bees were creating green and blue honey. The culprit?

Bits of M&M shells they had found at a nearby waste processing plant.

Honestly more depressing than magical, if you ask me. Which no one did, I realize.

These pictures still 100% give me the heebies, even if they’re technically pretty.

What about you? Are you a wasp fan now?

If so, please explain yourself or submit for voluntary psychological hold.

It’s for your own good, I swear.

Check out Mattia’s Twitter or Facebook for more pics like these, or to see what amazing thing this young scientists comes up with next!

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