Good news for couch potatoes: A few weeks ago the New YorkTimes touted the advantages of a high protein, high fatdiet, so you can go ahead and bring home those fast foodburgers. Now scientists say that early morning exerciseweakens your immune system and makes you more vulnerable toinfections.
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Scientists have proof that when someone we love touches us,we can feel it in a special way. A tender caress stimulatesa different part of the nervous system than the everydaysensation of touch.
Scientists have finally been able to prove this by testing a54-year-old Swedish woman who has no normal sense of touch.An illness at age 31 left her main touch nerves unable tofunction. For instance, when something is dragged across herskin, she can’t tell which direction it’s moving.
But she still has full use of the touch fibers known as CTnerves, so when her arm was stroked lightly with a softpaintbrush, mimicking a lover’s touch, she could feel aslight, pleasant sensation.
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From 1976-77, the Chinese Government sponsored an expeditionof 100 researchers to the Shennongjia Mountain Forest insearch of the Yeren (wildman) who has been seen there. Thattrip produced samples of hair, footprints and feces from anundiscovered species, possibly the missing link between manand ape. According to a 1988 report, an analysis of hairsamples allegedly taken from the wildman proves he exists.
Government-sponsored expeditions have documented many Yerensightings among local residents. Reports describe him asabout 9 feet tall, with large feet, red hair and terriblebody odor. He’s apparently a vegetarian.
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What turns men into sexual predators? We now know that largenumbers of priests regularly abused children. A man in SouthAfrica was recently convicted of raping a 9 month old child.Little girls are abducted from their homes, raped andmurdered. What turned these men into monsters?
Researchers disagree about what causes sexual abuse and what(if anything) can cure it. Little is known about the mentaland biological development of sexual desire. Jim Breiling,of the National Institute of Mental Health, says, “This is ayoung, difficult, sensitive, controversial area of science.”
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