We’re all a little bit radioactive now. Thanks to atom bomb tests in the mid-20th century, it’s possible to use radioactive (but harmless) carbon-14 to date not only bristlecone pines and putative Noah’s Arks but also, in a recent Karolinska Institutet study, Grandma and Grandpa’s artery fat.
The technique used in this study—radiocarbon dating—is widely employed by archaeologists and geologists to determine when organisms like fossilized trees or plants lived. All organisms absorb carbon-14 along with normal carbon-12 in a ratio that mirrors how much of each type is present in the atmosphere. (Carbon-14 is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays, and then mixes throughout the atmosphere and into the oceans.) When an organism dies, the carbon-14 starts to decay at a known rate—half the atoms become nitrogen-14 in about 5,700 years—and the amount left in the tissue when it’s dug up can be used to back-calculate its age.
Sex. Dark chocolate. Nintendo’s Wii. It seems like most anything can be correlated with health and longevity nowadays. Now, some researchers want to add shopping to that list, after they saw a possible link between daily shopping and death age. Not everyone agrees, though, with this “shop so you don’t drop” mentality (surprise!).
In the study, published by the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, the researchers followed nearly 2,000, independently living, Taiwanese citizens who were at least 65 years old. The researchers gathered their shopping habits by looking at a 1999-2000 survey that evaluated how often these Taiwanese geriatrics shopped, and then they used national death registries to keep track of the study groups’ deaths until 2008. After correcting for age, gender, health, ethnicity, financial status, and other factors, the researchers discovered that daily shoppers were 27% less likely to kick the bucket than their less shop-happy peers (aka those who shopped only once a week or less). Oddly enough, the best shopping-related survival record goes to the men, who reduced their chances of dying by 28% by shopping; women who shopped daily cut their chances by 23%. The effect was slightly more pronounced in men than women.
When it comes to male fertility, length matters—the length between the scrotum and anus, that is. New research suggests that measuring a man’s “anogenital distance,” or AGD, is a fast, low-tech, relatively accurate method of getting an idea of the quality of a man’s sperm.
In a new study, University of Rochester professor Shanna Swan and her colleagues broke out the measuring tape and assessed the anus-to-scrotum distance of 126 men born in 1988 or later. The men whose AGD’s were shorter than the average of two inches were 7.3 times more likely to have low sperm counts than their more well-endowed…er, well-distanced, brethren. These men with shorter AGD’s also had low sperm motility and poor sperm morphology.
So why on Earth, you’re wondering, would this be the case?
Spasms. Burning sensations. Sleep deprivation. To those suffering with restless leg syndrome (RLS), these are nightly afflictions. New research suggests that orgasm—by any means possible—may be a good way to alleviate the condition.
RLS is a neurological disorder that afflicts upwards of 10% of people in the U.S. and Europe: As RLS-sufferers try to sleep, their legs experience burning, tickling, aching, and itching sensations; these uncomfortable feelings build up until the leg spasms out of control. This cycle repeats throughout the night, writes news.com.au Technology Editor Peter Farquhar, and “it’s not unusual for people who suffer RLS … to describe it as torturous.”
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hGC), a hormone produced during pregnancy, is isolated from the urine of pregnant women and used to treat infertility. Since the 1950s, however, it’s also been used as a weight-loss aid—and still is, even though there’s no solid evidence showing it works.
But taking hCG could be worse than just ineffective: A new study shows that doses of the hormone can transmit prions, the misfolded proteins that cause mad cow disease and its human equivalent, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, an invariably fatal form of dementia that riddles the brain with holes (photo).
That’s right: There’s a potential risk of contracting deadly, brain-destroying illness by injecting yourself with proteins taken from other people’s urine—and you won’t even lose weight.
There are certain things you’re not supposed to do during sex and having a heart attack is one of them. We’ve known for a while that bursts of moderate to intense physical activity—including sex—increase heart attack risk, but a few scientists have now put number on that risk. And especially for out-of-shape folks, the diagnosis doesn’t look good (unless you’re aiming for death by sex, of course).
Studying death and sex is a tricky subject: Scientists can’t just round up volunteers, watch them make love, and then note which ones die. So instead they analyzed data from 14 different studies to single out connections between sex, exercise, and the risk of cardiac death or heart attacks.
As the researchers wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Acute cardiac events were significantly associated with … sexual activity.” When exercising, you’re 3.5 times more likely to get a heart attack, and when having sex (or immediately after sex), you’re 2.7 times more likely.
If the snake in YouTube’s latest viral video could talk (and were still alive), it’d probably take a line from Mark Twain: “Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” After it bit Israeli model Orit Fox’s fake breast during a photoshoot in Tel Aviv, it apparently died of silicone poisoning—which is a ridiculous rumor at best, though you can be the judge of that:
The snake did die, but it doesn’t take a snake biologist to explain that it probably wasn’t from silicone poisoning. I went ahead and talked to a snake biologist—University of Sydney scientist Rick Shine—anyway, who wrote in an email: “I’m skeptical—it’s hard to believe that it could have ingested any significant amount of silicone from the bite shown in the video clip.” And even if the snake did get a mouthful of silicone, there isn’t any evidence that medical-grade silicone can poison a snake, he added. (Though he did point out—with a laugh—that some snakes do eat mammals, and this one went straight for mammaries…)
With no official snake autopsy (shucks), we don’t know the true cause of death, but Universidad Central de Venezuela snake biologist Jesus Rivas thinks that it’s probably what happened to the snake after the bite that killed it. As he told me via email, “The film does not go far enough but it seems like they could have man-handled the snake a bit too hard to get her to release (with their hooking teeth releasing is not easy) and they might have killed the snake in that process.” Certainly more likely than silicone poisoning.
As for Fox, she was rushed to a hospital, jabbed with a tetanus shot, and left a few hours later. No word yet on the fate of the snake carcass.
If someone thought you had an Elmer-Fudd temper or ears like Mickey Mouse, chances are you wouldn’t feel complemented. And while having a butt like Popeye’s bicep sounds even worse, it’s actually a medical first, according to some scientists who, after diagnosing the first medically-described butt-muscle rupture, gave the condition the official name of “popeye gluteus.” And the strange name isn’t just frivolous: enlisting Popeye imagery is supposed to help doctors better visualize—and presumably diagnose—the injury.
The story starts with an unfortunate 42-year-old English cyclist who got rear-ended (and I do mean “rear”) by a bus one day, causing not only extensive bruising, but also a buttock avulsion: Medically speaking, his gluteus maximus muscle detached from his posterier gluteal line, though all the man knew was that he was in a world of pain. And this pain wouldn’t go away; he couldn’t stay seated for long periods of time, and—despite all efforts to rest—eventually couldn’t even continue with his job as an aircrew member for the Royal Air Force. It was time to call in the experts.
Most people try not to associate themselves with bad breath, let alone the smells of purifying flesh. But that doesn’t deny the fact that your body naturally contains the same chemical underlying both of these smells—and in the future, people may even pay good money for that chemical, as new research shows that it helps (amphibian) victims of epileptic seizures.
The chemical is called putrescine (1,4 diaminobutane), a malodorous organic compound within the polyamine family—a group of molecules already known to play a crucial role in important functions like cell division. In large doses, it is quite toxic, and scientists weren’t so sure why this rotten-smelling compound shows up in the brains of seizure-stricken patients. Until now.
Not many people would be excited about getting shocks to their vagus nerve, but a new electronic device implanted into the abdomen does just that in an effort to keep appetites in check.
The tiny device, called abiliti and made by Intrapace, attaches to the vagus nerve, which sends status updates about the body’s organs to the brain. The pacemaker then hacks the nervous system’s normal communication, according to the company’s website:
The abiliti system is designed to support these good habits by making the patient feel full sooner when eating. The abiliti system may also help in keeping them satisfied longer and helping them to eat less frequently.
Intrapace reports that the 65 study participants in the initial trials have lost on average 22 percent of their body weight; the biggest loser dropped 38 percent. (These results haven’t been published or peer-reviewed.)
Discoblog is DISCOVER's compendium of quirky, funny, and surprising science news from the edge of the known universe. It's written by Veronique Greenwood and Valerie Ross. Email tips and suggestions to vgreenwood [at] discovermagazine [dot] com.
Should we be strapping these to our torsos?
Sex. Dark chocolate. Nintendo’s Wii. It seems like most anything can be correlated with health and longevity nowadays. Now, some researchers want to add shopping to that list, after they saw a possible link between daily shopping and death age. Not everyone agrees, though, with this “shop so you don’t drop” mentality (surprise!).
After correcting for age, gender, health, ethnicity, financial status, and other factors, the researchers discovered that daily shoppers were 27% less likely to kick the bucket than their less shop-happy peers (aka those who shopped only once a week or less). Oddly enough, the best shopping-related survival record goes to the men, who reduced their chances of dying by 28% by shopping; women who shopped daily cut their chances by 23%. The effect was slightly more pronounced in men than women.
There are certain things you’re not supposed to do during sex and having a heart attack is one of them. We’ve known for a while that bursts of moderate to intense physical activity—including sex—increase heart attack risk, but a few scientists have now put number on that risk. And especially for out-of-shape folks, the diagnosis doesn’t look good (unless you’re aiming for death by sex, of course).
If someone thought you had an Elmer-Fudd temper or ears like Mickey Mouse, chances are you wouldn’t feel complemented. And while having a butt like Popeye’s bicep sounds even worse, it’s actually a medical first, according to some scientists who, after diagnosing the first medically-described butt-muscle rupture, gave the condition the official name of “
Most people try not to associate themselves with bad breath, let alone the smells of purifying flesh. But that doesn’t deny the fact that your body naturally contains the same chemical underlying both of these smells—and in the future, people may even pay good money for that chemical, as new research shows that it helps (amphibian) victims of epileptic seizures.
