In another instance of sheep-like behavior, research shows that a banner message on Facebook showing users’ friends who voted drove a third of a million more voters to the poll booths in the 2010 US elections. It’s not simply people responding to a message, but rather seeing their friends had voted, that they then followed suit.
For most 15-year olds, the last thing they want to do after school is head to a lab and work on their biology. Jack Andraka however, is not most 15-year olds and after school he heads over to Johns Hopkins University where he’s working on a test for cancer that is leaps and bounds ahead of what’s ahead now.
A question for all those hyper-nice, socially aware, dream dinner party guests out there – have you ever considered that your people-pleasing tendencies may be making you fat?
Neuroscientists have discovered that using Facebook has a measurable impact on the size of particular areas of the brain. The results of a recent study show that the more Facebook friends you have, the bigger and denser become the three parts of your brain which are associated with the power to socialise. It’s unclear whether by ‘socialise’ they mean really, in real life. But maybe.
A new study has found that drinking alcohol primes certain areas of our brain to learn and remember better. In a nutshell, when we drink alcohol (or take certain other drugs) our subconscious is learning to consume more. But it also becomes more receptive to forming subconscious memories and habits with respect to food, music, and even people or social situations. I’ll toast to that!
World Wide Worx, the research company with their fingers on the pulse of SA’s cell phone data usage habits has ascertained, with careful research and tireless data sifting that, yes, Twitter is the next big thing. They estimate that at least 1 million South Africans are “using the service”.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you read that right, oral sex will kill you. According to scientists, who are yet to get past first base, people who have had more than five oral-sex partners in their lifetime are 250% more likely to have throat cancer than the orally celibate.
Is your toddler impulsive, easily frustrated, restless and unable to think about his/her long-term future? If they are, you’re unfortunately the proud parent of a future alcoholic, drug addicted, criminal with no future prospects whatsoever. No, really, that’s a scientific fact.
The thing about the future that excites me the most, besides the talking monkeys and the sexy robots, is the cure for the hangover. Some mornings I wake up and I just want to pry out my liver with a spoon and get myself a new one – and thanks to the researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, that dream is a possibility.