Quirky Science

PHOTO COURTESY: CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Maybe birds can have it all: Dazzling colours and pretty songs

The natural world is full of showstoppers -- birds with brilliant colours, exaggerated crests and tails, intricate dance routines, or virtuosic singing. But it's long been thought that these abilities are the result of trade-offs. For a species to excel in one area, it must give up its edge in another. For example, male Northern Cardinals are a dazzling scarlet but sing a fairly simple whistle, whereas the dull brown House Wren sings one of the most complicated songs in nature.
Now a study of one of the world's largest and most colourful bird families has dispelled a long-held notion, first proposed by Charles Darwin, that animals are limited in their options to evolve showiness. "Animals have limited resources, and they have to spend those in order to develop showy plumage or precision singing that help them attract mates and defend territories," writes Nick Mason the paper's lead author of Cornell University. "So it seems to make sense that you can't have both. But our study took a more detailed look and suggests that actually, some species can."

Back away, please: Humans tend to fear things approaching, even if non-threatening

In our long struggle for survival, we humans learned that something approaching us is far more of a threat than something that is moving away. This makes sense, since a tiger bounding toward a person is certainly more of a threat than one that is walking away.
Though we modern humans don't really consider such fear, it turns out that it still plays a big part in our day-to-day lives. According to a study by  University of Chicago Booth School of Business Professor Christopher K. Hsee, we still have negative feelings about things that approach us -- even if they objectively are not threatening.
“In order to survive, humans have developed a tendency to guard against animals, people and objects that come near them," Hsee explains. "This is true for things that are physically coming closer, but also for events that are approaching in time or increasing in likelihood."
He co-authored the study that was published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Photo courtesy: science daily

Cynical? You may be hurting your brain health

People with high levels of cynical distrust may be more likely to develop dementia, according to a study published in the, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Cynical distrust, which is defined as the belief that others are mainly motivated by selfish concerns, has been associated with other health problems, such as heart disease. This is the first study to look at the relationship between cynicism and dementia.
The study was led by Anna-Maija Tolppanen, PhD of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.

Association found between maternal exposure to agricultural pesticides and autism

Pregnant women who lived in close proximity to fields and farms where chemical pesticides were applied experienced a two-thirds increased risk of having a child with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental delay, a study by researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute has found. The associations were stronger when the exposures occurred during the second and third trimesters of the women's pregnancies.
The large, multisite California-based study examined associations between specific classes of pesticides, including organophosphates, pyrethroids and carbamates, applied during the study participants' pregnancies and later diagnoses of autism and developmental delay in their offspring. It is published online in Environmental Health Perspectives.
Similar research is necessary in Bangladesh to find out the impact of excessive use of pesticides on fruits and vegetables.