Personal Touch In Farming: Giving A Cow A Name Boosts Her Milk Production:
A cow with a name produces more milk than one without, scientists at Newcastle University have found. Drs Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson have shown that by giving a cow a name and treating her as an individual, farmers can increase their annual milk yield by almost 500 pints.
Wild Boar Given Plenty Of Food And Shelter Do Not Live As Long As Struggling Wild Boar:
Lack of shelter and the large amount of food available from crops in the mid-valley of the Ebro reflect primarily how human beings influence the landscape, and the demography and reproduction of wild boar. Wild boar living in the Ebro Valley do not survive for as long as those living in the Pyrenees. These are the conclusions of a study carried out by a team of Spanish ecologists.
Why Don't More Animals Change Their Sex?:
Most animals, like humans, have separate sexes -- they are born, live out their lives and reproduce as one sex or the other. However, some animals live as one sex in part of their lifetime and then switch to the other sex, a phenomenon called sequential hermaphroditism. What remains a puzzle, according to Yale scientists, is why the phenomenon is so rare, since their analysis shows the biological "costs" of changing sexes rarely outweigh the advantages.
Phytoplankton Cell Membranes Challenge Fundamentals Of Biochemistry:
Get ready to send the biology textbooks back to the printer. In a new paper published in Nature, Benjamin Van Mooy, a geochemist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and his colleagues report that microscopic plants growing in the Sargasso Sea have come up with a completely unexpected way of building their cells.
Novel Method Of Immunization Completely Eliminates Malaria Parasites:
Singapore scientists report that they have discovered a novel method of immunization that completely eliminates the malaria parasites in both stages of the parasite's development.
Animal Eggs Not Suitable Substitutes To Produce Stem Cells, Study Demonstrates:
Since the cloning of Dolly the Sheep over a decade ago, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been considered a promising way to generate human, patient-specific stem cells for therapeutic applications. The shortage of human donor eggs has led to efforts to substitute animal oocytes.
Not Just Your Imagination: Brain Perceives Optical Illusions As Real Motion:
Ever get a little motion sick from an illusion graphic designed to look like it's moving? A new study suggests that these illusions do more than trick the eye; they may also convince the brain that the graphic is actually moving.
Early Humans Had 'Jaws Of Steel':
Your mother always told you not to use your teeth as tools to open something hard, and she was right. Human skulls have small faces and teeth and are not well-equipped to bite down forcefully on hard objects. Not so of our earliest ancestors, say scientists.
Driving Under The Influence (Of Stress): Regional Effects Of 9/11 Attacks On Driving:
The September 11 terrorist attacks had a profound impact on this country's psyche. Eight years after the attacks, we are still learning how those terrible events affected us. A number of studies have shown that people who lived closest to the sites of the terrorist attacks experienced heightened levels of stress and anxiety in the months following the September 11 attacks. Research has also indicated that elevated levels of stress can greatly impact day-to-day behaviors such as driving.
The Irony Of Harmony: Why Positive Interactions May Sometimes Be Negative:
History abounds with examples of dramatic social change occurring when a disadvantaged group finally stands up and says "Enough!". By recognizing their inequalities, members of disadvantaged groups can mobilize and attempt to bring about change. Traditional methods of improving relations between different racial and ethnic groups have focused on creating harmony between those groups. For example, "contact theory" proposes that bringing members of opposing groups together by emphasizing the things they have in common can achieve harmony by increasing positive feelings towards the other group. However, research has shown that positive contact not only changes attitudes, but can also make disadvantaged group members less aware of the inequality in power and resources between the groups.
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The results of the two studies suggest that positive contact with majority groups may result in disadvantaged groups being less likely to support social changeââ¬" with improved attitudes towards the advantaged groups and reduced attention to social inequality, the disadvantaged groups may become less motivated to promote change.
These findings have important implications, not just for global diplomacy, but also in our everyday encounters. The authors note that positive contact between groups does not necessarily have to undermine efforts towards equality. Rather, they suggest that "encounters that emphasize both common connections and the problem of unjust group inequalities may promote intergroup understanding as well as recognition of the need for change." The authors conclude that such mixed-content encounters can bring members of all groups together and "perhaps motivate them to eliminate social inequalities."
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