fact
Tired of teaspoons being stolen from the breakroom, a medical institute conducted a study on the rate of disappearance of the spoons. They concluded that “an estimated 250 teaspoons would need to be purchased annually to maintain a practical institute-wide population of 70 teaspoons”.
The post Tired of teaspoons being stolen…. appeared first on Crazy Facts.
And how the heck does it work? Does it want to be my friend? And can it make me rich, somehow? These are the questions we’ll be exploring today on our journey through the cosmos of science memes.
Come aboard our ship of the imagination, and cruise the dank depths of human knowledge.
This is why Plankton on Spongebob is always struggling so much.
I think we might be putting a little too much pressure on this one little letter.
I may not be the smartest, but you’re an absolute zero.
Another star’s career ruined by chemicals. Sad.
I’m going to plant a seed of affection.
If you think you understand it, you’re wrong.
Don’t you leave him behind, you monster.
You made this? I made this.
I mean, sure, they’re experts who have dedicated their lives to studying these things, but I also saw a Facebook meme, so.
The laws of nature are tough but fair.
I feel smarter already! But in all seriousness – please listen to experts when they tell you science stuff. Please? Before we ruin everything forever? Thanks.
What’s your favorite science fact?
Tell us in the comments.
The post Science Memes That Will Make You Smart…Maybe appeared first on UberFacts.
Books are the best, huh? I’ve got piles upon piles around my house. And I’ve actually read a decent bit of them! But there are still plenty I haven’t read yet, which makes me feel a little guilty.
Believe it or not, there’s actually a word for my affliction…
Photo Credit: did you know?
The good news, however, is my so-called “affliction” may mean I’m smarter than you. A study by researchers led by Joanna Sikora of Australian National University showed that people who had around 80 books in their home while growing up tend to have average literacy scores, which is defined as “the ability to read effectively to participate in society and achieve personal goals,” and people with less than 80 books tend to have below-average literacy.
According to the study, the literacy rate continues to rise as the number of books increases, but after 350 books, the rate remains steady. So, based on this study, I should be a genius (sadly, that isn’t the case).
Photo Credit: iStock
The subjects were between the ages of 25 and 65, and came from 31 countries around the world. Before they were tested, they were asked to estimate how many books they had in their home when they were 16 years old. The researchers found that “growing up with home libraries boosts adult skills in these areas beyond the benefits accrued from parental education, or [one’s] own educational or occupational attainment.”
Photo Credit: Unsplash,Chris Benson
The study also showed that there is a relationship between having books at home and having positive skill sets such as reading comprehension, math skills, and the ability to use digital technology to communicate.
So get back to reading (and buying) those books!
The post Growing up in a House Filled with Books Is Good for You, Study Confirms appeared first on UberFacts.
Memories may be passed down through generations in DNA in a process that may be the underlying cause of phobias.
Memories can be passed down to later generations through genetic switches that allow offspring to inherit the experience of their ancestors, according to new research that may explain how phobias can develop.
Scientists have long assumed that memories and learned experiences built up during a lifetime must be passed on by teaching later generations or through personal experience.
However, new research has shown that it is possible for some information to be inherited biologically through chemical changes that occur in DNA.
Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, found that mice can pass on learned information about traumatic or stressful experiences – in this case a fear of the smell of cherry blossom – to subsequent generations.
The results may help to explain why people suffer from seemingly irrational phobias – it may be based on the inherited experiences of their ancestors.
So a fear of spiders may in fact be an inherited defence mechanism laid down in a families genes by an ancestors’ frightening encounter with an arachnid.
Dr Brian Dias, from the department of psychiatry at Emory University, said: “We have begun to explore an underappreciated influence on adult behaviour – ancestral experience before conception.
“From a translational perspective, our results allow us to appreciate how the experiences of a parent, before even conceiving offspring, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations.
“Such a phenomenon may contribute to the etiology and potential intergenerational transmission of risk for neuropsychiatric disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.”
See full articles from Telegraph
In their book Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton draw on years of quantitative and qualitative research to explain how money can buy happiness, but only if we spend it in certain ways.
The key lies in adhering to five key principles: Buy Experiences (research shows that material purchases are less satisfying than vacations or concerts);Make it a Treat (limiting access to our favorite things will make us keep appreciating them); Buy Time (focusing on time over money yields wiser purchases); Pay Now, Consume Later (delayed consumption leads to increased enjoyment); and Invest in Others (spending money on other people makes us happier than spending it on ourselves).
Recently we featured a video illustrating the emotional benefits of buying experiences. In the following sequel, Norton again gives some cash to two women in Harvard Square. The catch this time: Each of them must spend the money on someone else.
“We’ve shown in our research that giving money to others actually does make people happier,” says Norton, an associate professor of marketing at Harvard Business School. “One of the reasons is that it creates social connections. If you have a nice car and a big house on an island by yourself, you’re not going to be happy because we need people to be happy. But by giving to another person, you’re…creating a connection and a conversation with that person, and those things are really good for happiness.”
Watch the video to find out how the women in Harvard Square chose to invest in others—and whether it made them happier!
Full Article from Forbes.com
Eating chocolate could improve the brain’s ability to do math, a new study suggests.
Mental arithmetic became easier after volunteers had been given large amounts of compounds found in chocolate, called flavanols, in a hot cocoa drink.
They were also less likely to feel tired or mentally drained, the findings, presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton show.
Prof David Kennedy, director of the brain, performance and nutrition research centre at Northumbria University, and a co-author of the study, said that chocolate could be beneficial for mentally challenging tasks.
The findings suggest students who binge on chocolate when revising for exams may gain a real benefit from doing so.
“For things that are difficult to do, mentally demanding things that maybe crop up in your work it could help,” Prof Kennedy said.
The flavanols, part of a group of chemicals called polyphenols, work by increasing the flow of blood into the brain.
For the study 30 volunteers were asked to count backwards in groups of three from a random number between 800 and 999 generated by a computer.
The findings show that they could do the calculations more quickly and more accurately after they had been given the drink.
However, the same was not true when the group was asked to count backwards in groups of seven, which the researchers described as a more complex task, requiring a slightly different part of the brain.
The findings also show that the volunteers did not get as tired doing the calculations if they had been given the cocoa drink, despite being asked to do them over and over for an hour.
The researchers gave the volunteers a total of 500mg of flavanol.
Although the amount was too great to be found naturally in the diet, researchers said that people should ensure that they have lots of flavanols, also found in fruit and vegetables, on a regular basis.
Emma Wightman, one of the study’s lead researchers, said: “You can get bars of chocolate that have 100mg of flavanol, and we are also going to look at the effect of lower doses of flavanol on the brain.”
Dark chocolate contains higher quantaties of the chemical than plain or milk chocolate.
Prof Kennedy added: “The amount that you are giving is more than in the diet but there is quite a lot of evidence that general amounts are protective against declining function and that kind of thing.
“The more fruit and vegetables and things that are high in polyphenols the better that is for your brain in the long run.”
(via Telegraph)
