This week’s Feedback column (that I write) in New Scientist magazine has four segments. Here are bits of each of them: Time for a nap — Brainy people get to dream a little more than not-quite-so-brainy people, correlationally speaking, if their brains and genomes accord with the findings of researchers from the University of the Republic in Uruguay, University […]
Researchers point out that as a field of research becomes big, much of the attention sinks into a middling pool of ideas. Unlikely ideas tend to get squeezed out. They explain, in this study: “Slowed Canonical Progress in Large Fields of Science,” Johan S.G. Chu and James A. Evans, Proceedings of the National Academy of […]
The gentle pulsing in size of body parts is one of Nature’s seasonal wonders. Evidence of this — with skulls and penises, respectively — is documented in two (well, three) studies published this year. Some Weasel Skulls Pulse Bigger and Smaller, Seasonally “Growth overshoot and seasonal size changes in the skulls of two weasel species,” […]
“The medial [sic] appeal of table tennis seems to go down in terms of TV hours, at least outside Asia. One of the reasons is the fact that the speed of the game is nowadays so high that it is very hard for spectators to follow the balls.” So, in terms of slowing down the […]
Researchers in Sweden and Australia published a new study exploring how the length of males’ genitalia affects the size of females’ brains. Anyone who reads the study discovers that it’s about a species of tiny fish; and the effect, if it happens, occurs over the span of many generations, possibly not so much with individual females […]
Some humans are always hunting for thoughts about their brains. Some humans are always hunting for birds. Sometimes, as in a newly published research study, these sometimes occurrences combine in provocative ways. The study is: “Brain Size and the Risk of Getting Shot,” Anders Pape Møller, Johannes Erritzøe, Biology Letters, vol. 12, no. 11, November […]
One way to measure a human subject’s intranasal volume is to perform a structural whole-brain T1-weighted MRI scan, and then use computerised volumetric image analysis software on the resulting data. But is there an easier way? Yes, there is, according to a group of researchers from the Taste and Smell Clinic, University Hospital Carl Gustav […]
Confused about the difference between the effects of plant size on (1) industrial relations and on (2) the expression of cleistogamy in Mimulus nasutus? These two studies might help you sort it all out: The influence of Plant Size on Industrial Relations, Sherrill Cleland [pictured here], Princeton University, 1955. and “The Effect of Plant Size on […]
This tiny Italian study examined the gently-directed breast-centric introspection of a few women who had recently quit smoking. The study is: “Breast change perception in women after smoking cessation. A pilot study,” Cinzia De Marco, Giovanni Invernizzi, Rosalba Miceli, Luigi Mariani, Anna Villarini, Elena Munarini, Roberto Mazza, and Roberto Boffi [pictured below], Tumori, vol. 97, no. 5, pp. 672-675. […]
Are krill charismatic, in human eyes? Should they be? What bodes this? Those questions are addressed in the study: “Charismatic Krill? Size and Conservation in the Ocean,” Elizabeth Leane and Steve Nicol, Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, Volume 24, Number 2, June 2011 , pp. 135-146(12). The authors explain: […]