Category: Science

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Study Finds That Poorly Wrapped Gifts Make People Happier Than Perfect Ones

Are you stressed out about getting your gifts perfectly wrapped for the holidays? A new study says: don’t be.

Researchers at the University of Nevada found that poorly wrapped presents make people happier than perfectly wrapped ones. This is because, in part, perfect-looking presents look so great on the outside that whatever’s inside may not live up to expectations. If a gift looks sloppy, though, the recipient is likely to be pleasantly surprised by the actual gift. They also appreciate the effort that was made. The gratitude and surprise leaves them feeling happy and joyful.

Photo Credit: iStock

One of the study’s co-authors, Jessica Rixom, Ph.D., got her idea for the study from her time working at a chocolate shop. She explained,

“They offered a wrapping service, so I learned how to wrap very neatly with crisp edges, just the right amount of paper, etc. I started wrapping my own gifts that way and many years later, when wrapping presents with a friend, I noticed that all of the gifts in my pile were neat while all of theirs were messy, even though they were trying. This made us wonder whether the way the gift was wrapped would have any influence on how the gifts themselves were perceived and that’s how it started.”

The study tested what Rixom and the other researchers call “expectation disconfirmation theory.”

Photo Credit: iStock

“Based on participants’ answers to various questions, it suggested that the reason why this happens is because the neat wrapping sets higher expectations for the gift inside, which makes it harder for the gifts to live up to those expectations. When the gifts are unwrapped, the recipient is a bit disappointed whereas when it’s wrapped sloppily, expectations are lower so the gift is more of a pleasant surprise.”

So, don’t worry at all if your gifts look like they were wrapped by a five-year-old. It doesn’t take away from the power of the gift—it might even make it stronger.

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People Born in December Have Advantages over Others, Studies Show

We all like to to give a shout-out to the month we were born (February, what up!). But is there really any advantage to being born in one month as opposed to any of the others?

Surprisingly, studies point to YES. And I’m talking about multiple studies that suggest December is the best month in which to be born.

Let’s look at the evidence.

First, one study showed that babies born in December fall asleep faster and earlier than babies born during the summer months. Furthermore, another study suggested that December babies are more likely to be “morning people” than people born in any other month, and we all know that is a MAJOR life advantage.

Bebe durmiendo.

Second, research shows that people born in December have a better chance to live to the age of 100. The study also showed that an impressive number of December-born folks actually lived to be 105 or older.

Studies also show that those born in the twelfth month of the year have lower rates of cardiovascular disease than those born in the other eleven months of the year.

Elderly couple

What about the brains of December babies? Well, because they are usually the youngest in their classes, they often benefit academically. It can be hard being the smallest kid in the class when you’re younger, but think about how ahead of the curve you’ll be when you apply to colleges.

One more thing: if you’re worried about what kind of career your kiddo might have, consider this: people in December are the most likely to work as dentists, for some reason, which is definitely a good thing.

dentist

Now I’m kind of bummed I was born in February…thanks for nothing, Mom and Dad!

What month were you born? Share with us in the comments!

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This Electric Eel Generates Enough Electricity to Light a Christmas Tree

‘Tis the season for eels to power your Christmas lights.

Isn’t that the way the saying goes? No?

Well it might be now, after the Tennessee Aquarium live-tweeted their resident social media eel, Miguel Wattson, using his bio-electric discharges to light up a Christmas tree.

Their “Shocking around the Christmas Tree” exhibit uses a special system to connect Miguel’s tank to the light strands on a nearby tree, and it’s honestly more magical than you might expect.

The aquarium issued a statement on their newest sensation:

“Whenever Miguel discharges electricity, sensors in the water deliver the charge to a set of speakers. The speakers convert the discharge into the sound you hear and the festively flashing lights.”

Despite being dubbed “electric eels,” they aren’t eels at all, but freshwater knifefish. They’re closely related to carp and catfish, but because of their appearance, get lumped in with eels instead.

They can generate up to 860 volts of electricity – which means they could power a refrigerator, too, if only for a short while.

“The rapid, dim blinking of the lights is caused by the constant, low-voltage blips of electricity he releases when he’s trying to find food. The bigger flashes are caused by the higher voltage shocks he emits when he’s eating or excited.”

Typical male, if you ask me.

Electrophorus electricus can also use the low pulsating electric discharges to communicate with one another in the slow-moving, murky rivers where they live in South America. The fish also use their shocking ability to hunt, and as defense mechanisms in the event another animal tries to bite them.

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These Great Facts Might Make Your Day a Little Bit More Interesting

I need some good brain food to get through the day sometimes.

Know what I’m saying?

Well, I have just what you need! A great set of facts for you!

Let’s begin!

1. The world’s smallest park.

Photo Credit: did you know?

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2. Wow, that’s fascinating.

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3. The name game.

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4. Roly poly.

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5. I’m not even gonna try.

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6. Nazi hunters.

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7. But…why?

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8. Interesting…

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9. The demon cat.

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10. They’re everywhere.

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Have a great day, a great week, and a great month!

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This Is Why Dogs Kick Their Feet After They Poop

If you’ve ever had a dog, there’s a good chance you know what I’m talking about: your dog sniffs around, sniffs some more, turns in circles, then finally finds the perfect (and apparently only) spot in the yard to do their business.

Afterward, they move a few inches and then kick their feet backward, sort of covering the mess with dirt and flying grass.

But why?

Even though dogs have been domesticated for a very, very long time, they still retain some behaviors from the days before they were man’s best friend – they were once wild animals after all. It is innate instinct that drives around 10% of dogs to kick at the ground after going to the bathroom.

Dogs are territorial as a species, and are always sensitive to other dogs encroaching on their territory (it’s also why they bark out the window when another dog takes a stroll past, or – GASP – wanders onto “their” lawn).

Pooping sends a message to other dogs that the property has been claimed, and by kicking up dirt afterward, they stir up the scent that, along with pheromones released from glands on their feet, creates a strong and distinct smell. A “this is mine” sort of smell.

Other dogs then take the kicked-up grass as a clue that they’re treading on stinky, owned ground.

The pheromones actually smell stronger than the pee or poo, and can alert dogs to other things, like food trails or potential danger.

Experts warn against interrupting your dog during the ritual, claiming that doing so can make your dog feel vulnerable and confused.

So, just stay out of the way (and hope your lawn-obsessed neighbor isn’t watching your dog toss around their new grass seed. Oops.) and let nature take its course.

There’s no way to stop (or speed up) evolution, you know, so just give you pooch a pat and thank them for their vigilance.

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Birth Control for Men Injection Might Be Available Soon

For centuries, most of the responsibility for long-term birth control solutions has fallen on female shoulders. And even though the side effects of non-barrier contraceptives range from annoying to life threatening, women have done it because being able to have some semblance of control over what happens to our bodies and lives is important.

That said, I imagine many females around the globe will heave a sigh of relief at hearing a male birth control method is on the horizon. Finally.

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India will soon get world's first male contraceptive. Thoughts? ______ The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has successfully completed clinical trials of the world’s first injectable male contraceptive, which has been sent to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for approval, according to researchers involved in the project. . The contraceptive is effective for 13 years, after which it loses its potency. It is designed as a replacement for surgical vasectomy, which is the only male sterilisation method available in the world. To read more on this, visit hindustantimes.com . #contraception #malecontraceptive #sexualhealth #sexeducation #InstaWithHT #birthcontrol #india #healthylifestyle

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The Indian Council of Medical Research has announced the end of clinical trials for the world’s first injectable contraceptive for men, a treatment that’s now awaiting approval by the governing body in India. If approved, it could be available within with next 6-7 months.

“The product is ready, with only regulatory approvals pending with the Drugs Controller. The trials are over, including extended, phase 3 clinical trials for which 303 candidates were recruited with 97.3 percent success rate and no reported side effects,” confirmed Dr. RS Sharma, the senior researcher who led the trials.

It lasts up to 13 years and is a non-surgical alternative to a vasectomy.

So here’s how it works: a polymer is injected directly into the vas deferens, which are little tubes outside of the testicles that transport sperm to the penis for ejaculation.

Don’t worry, guys, they totally numb the area first, and the recovery time is nothing compared to a vasectomy.

The polymer coats the inside of the vas deferens and, basically, destroys the sperm as it goes through. And it’s completely reversible. Speaking of which, the procedure/product is called reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance (RISUG), and it “can safely be called the world’s first male contraceptive.”

Indian scientists have been working on making this moment a reality since the 1970s and have persevered through a number of setbacks to make it to today.

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A male contraceptive that reportedly will last around 13 years could be available to the public in the next seven months, according to scientists in India. The Indian Council of Medical Research completed clinical trials for the contraceptive, which has been sent to the Drug Controller General of Indian for approval. The contraceptive is a replacement for surgical vasectomy and loses potency after about 13 years. “The product is ready, with only regulatory approvals pending with the Drugs Controller. The trials are over, including extended, phase 3 clinical trials for which 303 candidates were recruited with 97.3% success rate and no reported side-effects. The product can safely be called the world’s first male contraceptive,” Dr. RS Sharma, senior scientist with ICMR said. . . . . #malecontraceptive #doctors #hospital #pharmacist #scientist #medicalschool #treatment #clinic #research #university #healthy #medicos #Nigeriandoctor #Nigeria #surgery #doctor #nurse #Nigeria #mymobiledoccares

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The market for a product like this has been increasing in recent years, and more offerings are likely to be offered in the near future – one of which is a gel rubbed onto the shoulders that causes a decrease in sperm production.

Weird, right?

However it ends up happening, though, I know I’m not alone in believing it’s high time men shouldered some of the responsibility for not making babies. However they choose to do it, it’ll be nice for them to be able to take control in some situations, too.

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Ford Is Making Headlights from McDonald’s Coffee Bean Waste

This is pretty cool!

Coffee beans and headlights don’t seem like a natural pairing, but McDonald’s and Ford are working to change that.

The two historic American companies have come together in a joint effort to drive sustainability initiatives in quite a unique way. This year, Ford began utilizing coffee chaff—the coffee bean skin that comes off during the roasting process—as a key component of its plastic headlamp housing. Naturally, the iconic car manufacturer turned to McDonald’s to steer them in the direction of the fast-food giant’s coffee bean suppliers.

As data showing the harmful effects of plastic pollution and carbon emissions makes its way into the public consciousness, there has been a trickle-down effect into the business world as well. Environmentally-conscious consumers continue to push for products that are comprised of sustainable materials.

Hence: coffee bean waste into plastic alternatives.

Debbie Miewelski, Ford’s senior technical leader of materials sustainability, explained that the coffee-containing version of the company’s headlamps is more sustainable than its traditional plastic and talc-based models due to its lighter weight. Additionally, talc is not a renewable component, whereas coffee chaff is widely available and has typically been discarded.

The coffee chaff innovation is just the latest in a long line of sustainability projects by Ford. Ford vehicles have featured soy-based foam in their cushions since 2011, and waste from wheat, coconut, tomato and other plants has been utilized in other Ford car components.

“If you came to our lab, it looks somewhere between a landfill and a farm,” Miewelski said.

When Ford decided coffee was its next fix, its team reached out to McDonald’s due to its scale and similar sustainability goals.

The gigantic fast-food restaurant chain achieved its goal of sourcing all of its U.S. coffee sustainability a year ahead of schedule in 2019. Their partnership with Ford will hopefully lead to more opportunities for crafting environmentally-friendly, sustainable products.

As Ian Olson, senior director of global sustainability at McDonald’s, said, “This is just scratching the surface of trying to understand what’s possible.”

Cheers to that!

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Some Scientists Think Humans Began Walking Upright Because of an Ancient Supernova

Humans have always been trying to figure out where we come from. How did we get here, and why do we look the way that we do?

One trait that sets humans apart from other apes is the ability to walk upright. Proto-humans began to walk upright about 6 million years ago. According to one theory, the ability likely gave us an evolutionary advantage — it allowed us to excel at hunting in the savanna, because we were able to see prey at a distance.

But where did the ability come from? Scientists believe that the ability to walk upright is due to a gene mutation on chromosome 17. An event in ancient history must have selected for this mutation, but it’s not clear was it was.

In The Journal of Geology, scientists propose that the event was an ancient supernova.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

It may seem unlikely that a faraway exploding star could have affected our evolutionary development, but the theory is surprisingly easy to understand.

According to the theory, a star detonated near the Earth and showered the planet with energetic cosmic rays, which in turn increased the amount of highly energetic particles in the atmosphere. As a result, lightning strikes become a lot more common. Lightning strikes are the biggest natural cause of wildfires. Wildfires create treeless savannas. Treeless savannas are where upright-walking humans found success because being able to see over the tall grass was such a benefit.

This theory may seem farfetched, but the timeline matches up — the geological record shows an increase in forest fires 7-8 million years ago, just a million years before humans began walking upright. Also, a separate ancient supernova event was possibly connected to an increase in wildfires.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

It’ll be a long time before anyone knows whether this theory is valid or not — for one, scientists would have to wait for a modern supernova to put the lightning theory to any practical test.

Nonetheless, the idea that human evolution could be affected by the stars isn’t so far-fetched after all!

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Cows in Russia Are Wearing Virtual Reality Headsets Showing ‘Summer Fields’ to Combat Their Winter Depression

In Russia, cows are getting a new tool to help fight the winter blues that a lot of us deal with. A dairy farm in that country is outfitting its cows with virtual reality headsets to help the animals tone down their anxiety and to fight their winter depression. The moooooove (see what I did there?) is also intended to boost milk production from the farm animals.

The headsets display green fields and pastures to the cows in order to make them feel more relaxed. The project is taking place at RusMoloko farm, outside of Moscow.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region said that the virtual reality headsets have achieved “a decrease in anxiety and an increase in the overall emotional mood of the herd.”

The plan is to monitor the cows wearing the headsets to see if their milk production increases throughout the winter. The ministry said that “technology improvements should impact the industry as a whole.”

In addition to the look of green fields and pastures, the developers of the virtual reality headsets gave the design a predominantly red color scheme because studies have shown that cows see red better than other colors of the spectrum.

Is this the wave of the future in farming? Will the results show that the impact of these VR headsets is positive among the cattle and this technology become commonplace for animals?

Time will tell…

But I think I might need to get my hands on one of these for myself this winter.

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Plastic Straws Aren’t the Biggest Offenders When It Comes to Oceanic Plastic Pollution

Well, this is interesting…

Plastic straws have been in the news lately, and not for anything good. People want to get rid of them, and consumers have been encouraging businesses and consumers alike to get on board in order to start trying to mitigate single-use plastics’ devastating effect on the world’s marine ecosystems.

But plastic straws only make up about .02% of ocean waste – not that much, in the scheme of things.

It turns out, that there’s a much bigger enemy to ocean life: cigarette butts.

 

According to an NBC News report, cigarette butts are the number one human contaminant in the ocean, but they have not, thus far, been significantly regulated.

The filters on cigarettes are made of cellulose acetate, which takes more than a decade to decompose. 60 million cigarette butts have been collected on the world’s beaches since 1986.

Cigarette makers invented the filters to alleviate health concerns (lol), but they created a concurrent pollution problem because smokers “flick” their butts – a habit no anti-littering campaign has been able to curb.

The Cigarette Butt Pollution Project hopes they can finally change attitudes with their new campaign.

“Cigarette butt waste has polluted our beaches, parks, and communities long enough – it’s time to take action!”

The U.S. government has attempted to curb the problem here and there, but legislation proposing to ban filters or raise the costs of cigarettes to cover the clean-up have sputtered and died.

A theme park in France has trained ravens to pick up cigarette butts in exchange for treats, but, though awesome, that’s not exactly a global solution.

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For those who think cigarette smoking is cool please think again. It doesn't only pollute you but also the environment immensely. Trillions of cigarette butts are thrown into the environment every year, where they leach nicotine and heavy metals before turning into microplastic pollution. Smokers around the world buy roughly 6.5 trillion cigarettes each year. That’s 18 billion every day. While most of a cigarette’s innards and paper wrapping disintegrate when smoked, not everything gets burned. Trillions of cigarette filters—also known as butts or ends—are left over, only an estimated third of which make it into the trash. The rest are casually flung into the street or out a window. Cigarette filters are made of a plastic called cellulose acetate. When tossed into the environment, they dump not only that plastic, but also the nicotine, heavy metals, and many other chemicals they’ve absorbed into the surrounding environment. . . Follow @anonymous_earth_person Follow #anonymous_earth_person For more information ? . #cigarettebutts #cigarette #pollution #airpollution #savetheearth #saveenvironment #saveanimals #ecofriendly #ecosystem #biodiversity #smokingkills #smoking #dontsmoke #microplastics #plastic #plasticpollution #plasticfreeliving

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As with the campaigns against plastic straws, it’s going to take a concentrated, sustained, and – most important – publicly supported effort to reduce the number of cigarette filters that end up in the oceans.

Do your part, and also…maybe don’t smoke in the first place? Because cigarettes kill more than marine life.

Just sayin’.

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