This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has three segments. Here’s how they begin: Seeking a soft landing — The elegant structure of a naturally evolved cat’s paw has inspired a new way to protect paratroopers’ legs…. A bit Heath Robinson — The cat’s-paw-pads-for-paratrooper-protection patent reminds Feedback, a little, of a […]
Comes yet another discovery about relative finger lengths. The new study is: “Prenatal exposure to testosterone (2D:4D) and social hierarchy together predict voice behavior in bankers,” Erik Bijleveld, Joost Baalbergen, PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 6, June 28, 2017, e0180008. The authors, at Radboud University and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, explain: “Prohibitive voice behaviors are […]
Researchers Jeanne Bovet, [left] and Michel Raymond [right] of the Institute of the Evolutionary Sciences department, University of Montpellier, France, have been examining pictures of Playboy models and winners of several Miss pageants from 1920 to 2014. They point out that : “The ratio between the body circumference at the waist and the hips (or […]
A person could use this new study to make sense of almost all aspects of biology and sex, if a person had a way of doing so: “Sociosexual Orientation and 2D:4D Ratios in Women: Relationship to Men’s Desirability Ratings as a Long-Term Pair Bond,” Tara L. DeLecce, John P. Polheber, Robert L. Matchock [pictured here], Archives […]
You may find it hard to argue against, or even to begin arguing for, the line of reasoning in this study. It shows how a people’s capacity to make moral judgments is related to the relative lengths of two of their fingers: “Testosterone administration modulates moral judgments depending on second-to-fourth digit ratio,” Estrella R. Montoya, […]
Which person goes into which branch of the military? The answer is related to the relative lengths of each person’s fingers, suggests this study by a researcher named Huh: “Born to be a Marine: Digit ratios and military service,” HaengRyang Huh, Personality and Individual Differences, Volume 53, Issue 3, August 2012, Pages 166–168. The author, […]
In case you were wondering: “The Left Hand Second to Fourth Digit Ratio (2D:4D) Does Not Discriminate World-Class Female Gymnasts from Age Matched Sedentary Girls,” Maarten W. Peeters, Albrecht L. Claessens [pictured here], PLoS ONE 7(6): e40270. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0040270. The authors are at KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
A new Italian study points towards a handy way to identify who might become a top doctor. The method: Compare the lengths of a person’s second finger and fourth finger. It’s that simple. The monograph is called The Second-To-Fourth Digit Ratio Correlates with the Rate of Academic Performance in Medical School Students and appears in […]
Yet another advance in FR(finger ratio)enology research! A Corcordia University press release explains: Alpha males take greater risks Potential investors might wish to examine the fingers of their financial advisor prior to signing over any savings. A new study from Concordia University has found the length between the second and fourth finger is an indicator […]
Moelselio Schaechter and Stanley Maloy consider an old, and increasingly good question in the Small Things Considered blog: How often have you heard it said, or seen it stated in writing, that we carry ten times more microbial cells than cells of our own? We don’t dispute this figure, at least not as a ballpark […]