Astronauts took worms into space?now they’ve used them to unlock the secret of longer life. Before, the only advice scientists had for us was to eat a severely calorie-restricted diet (which makes us wonder if living longer would be worth it). Now, thanks to worm research, they have more palatable advice for us.
read more
Brazil, home of the amazon rain forest, is a major source of soy beans. A major US corporation is exporting soy from Brazil to the United States and Europe, causing land prices there to increase almost 20%. Millions of acres of rain forest have been turned into soy fields. Since we don’t eat that much Chinese food in Europe and the US, who is consuming all this soy? It’s being fed to cattle and other livestock.
In the Independent, Andrew Gumbel writes that “an estimated 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been destroyed, and about 6,500 square miles more was lost between 2005 and 2006.”
read more
UPDATE – A Continental Airlines jet touched down at Newark Airport earlier today with 280 passengers aboard, 85 of whom had taken a river cruise in China and appeared to be sick with a flu-like disease. Has bird flu arrived in New Jersey? UPDATE: On CNN.com, Katy Byron quotes Dennis Quinton of the New Jersey Dept. of Homeland Security as saying that there is “nothing to be concerned about. The plane has officially been allowed to enter the US.”
read more
The Mozart Effect is real. This is the realization that listening to classical music?especially Mozart?can increase your brainpower, especially if you do it just before taking a test. Now scientists have uncovered that PLAYING music can make your brain work better.
Playing music sharpens your hearing as well, but this is less of a surprise. In LiveScience.com, Charles Q. Choi quotes neuroscientist Nina Kraus as saying, “Music classes are often among the first to be cut when school budgets get tight. That’s a mistake.”
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
read more