Futurity.org » Science & Technology

In guys, women pick healthy over manly

Lindsay Brooke-Nottingham — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:47:49 +0000

U. NOTTINGHAM (UK) — Having a healthy skin color is more important in determining how attractive a man is to women than how manly he looks.

Researchers in the Face Perception Group at University of Nottingham took photographs of 34 Caucasian and 41 black African men’s faces in carefully controlled conditions and measured the skin color of the faces.

Practice, practice, practice makes muscles efficient

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:20:47 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Practice makes perfect, but continued practice could make you more efficient.

A new study looked at how test subjects learned particular arm-reaching movements using a robotic arm.

Gold nanoparticles relay signals down the line

Mike Williams-Rice — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:41:21 +0000

RICE (US) — Tiny channels of gold nanoparticles may transmit electromagnetic energy that starts as light and propagates via “dark plasmons.”

The Rice University study, published in the journal Nano Letters, shows how even disordered collections of nanoparticles in arrays as thin as 150 nanometers can be turned into waveguides and transmit signals an order of magnitude better than previous experiments were able to achieve.

After collision, ‘Amasia’ supercontinent is born

Eric Gershon-Yale — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:01:54 +0000

YALE (US) — A new forecast for the formation of supercontinents predicts a far-future collision between America and Eurasia.

Geologists at Yale University have proposed a new theory to describe the formation of supercontinents, the epic process by which Earth’s major continental blocks combine into a single vast landmass.

Nanospheres trap light and hold on longer

Andrew Myers-Stanford — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:25:42 +0000

STANFORD (US) — Engineers have created photovoltaic nanoshells that harness a peculiar physical phenomenon to better trap light.

The results could dramatically improve the efficiency of thin-film solar cells while reducing their weight and cost.

Uncertain choices light up ‘explorer’ brains

David Orenstein-Brown — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:52:51 +0000

BROWN (US) — People who consistently select for uncertainty may harness the computational power of a specific brain region.

Some people—”explorers”—choose to grapple with uncertainty head on. It’s a strategy of maximizing rewards by discovering whether as yet unexplored options might yield better returns. While some might stick with the usual, “explorers” might order the special in a restaurant because they aren’t sure they’ll like it.

Lizard’s evolution keeps ancestors close

Kat Kerlin-UC Davis — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:46:58 +0000

UC DAVIS / DUKE (US) — A devastating 2004 hurricane that wiped out a Caribbean lizard population offered an unprecedented opportunity to put an evolutionary theory known as the “founder effect” to the test.

The founder effect describes the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population. The extent to which it contributes to evolution has been up for debate since the early 1940s, when German evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr first outlined it.

Endangered whales stressed by noisy ships

Karl Bates-Duke — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:43:13 +0000

DUKE (US) — Exposure to low-frequency ship noise may be associated with chronic stress in whales, according to a new study.

The study, conducted in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, has implications for all baleen whales in areas with heavy ship traffic, and for the recovery of the endangered North Atlantic right whale population.

U.S. shark attacks down, but more fatal abroad

Danielle Torrent-Florida — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:55:12 +0000

U. FLORIDA (US) — Shark attacks in the U.S. declined in 2011, but worldwide fatalities reached a two-decade high.

While the U.S. and Florida saw a five-year downturn in the number of reported unprovoked attacks, the 12 fatalities—which all occurred outside the U.S.—may show tourists are venturing to more remote places, says ichthyologist George Burgess, director of Florida’s International Shark Attack File report, produced at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida.

Thanks to copper, sulfur’s stink repels us

Karl Bates-Duke — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:11:14 +0000

DUKE (US) — Copper ions may be the cause of our sensitivity to sulfurous odors, like skunks, volcanic gases, and armpits.

When Hiroaki Matsunami, associate professor at Duke University, set out to study a chemical in male mouse urine called MTMT that attracts female mice, he didn’t think he would stumble into a new field of study.