Quirky Science

Awake within a dream: Lucid dreamers show greater insight in waking life

People who are aware they are asleep when they are dreaming have better than average problem-solving abilities, new research has discovered.
Experts from the University of Lincoln, UK, say that those who experience 'lucid dreaming' –a phenomenon where someone who is asleep can recognise that they are dreaming—can solve problems in the waking world better than those who remain unaware of the dream until they wake up.
The research by Dr Patrick Bourke, Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology, is the first empirical study demonstrating the relationship between lucid dreaming and insight.
“It is believed that for dreamers to become lucid while asleep, they must see past the overwhelming reality of their dream state, and recognise that they are dreaming,” he writes. "The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated while awake by a person's ability to think in a different way when it comes to solving problems."

How children's brains memorise math facts

As children learn basic arithmetic, they gradually switch from solving problems by counting on their fingers to pulling facts from memory. The shift comes more easily for some kids than for others, but no one knows why.
Now, new brain-imaging research gives the first evidence drawn from a longitudinal study to explain how the brain reorganizes itself as children learn math facts. A precisely orchestrated group of brain changes, many involving the memory centre known as the hippocampus, are essential to the transformation, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
"We wanted to understand how children acquire new knowledge, and determine why some children learn to retrieve facts from memory better than others," writes Vinod Menon, the senior author of the study. "This work provides insight into the dynamic changes that occur over the course of cognitive development in each child.”

Women who earn engineering degrees soon leave profession, study finds

Nearly 40 percent of women who earn engineering degrees quit the profession or never enter the field, and for those who leave, poor workplace climates and mistreatment by managers and co-workers are common reasons, according to research presented at the American Psychological Association's 122nd Annual Convention.
While women accounted for more than 20 percent of engineering school graduates over the past two decades, only 11 percent of practicing engineers are women, and only 9 percent of electronic and environmental engineers are, said Nadya Fouad, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She presented findings from the first phase of a three-year National Science Foundation study that surveyed 5,300 engineering alumnae spanning six decades, mostly from the 30 universities with the highest number of women engineering graduates and from 200 other universities.

Can instant noodles lead to heart disease, diabetes and stroke?

Instant noodle eaters, take heed. Recent Baylor research shows that significant consumption of the convenient food product—ramen included—may increase a person's risk for cardiometabolic syndrome, especially in women. The findings, recently published in The Journal of Nutrition, could shed new light on the risks of a worldwide dietary habit.
Because ramen consumption is relatively high among Asian populations, the research focused primarily on South Korea, which has the highest per-capita number of instant noodle consumers in the world.
Dr Shin, who led the study on behalf of the Baylor Heart and Vascular Hospital (BHVH), found that eating instant noodles two or more times a week was associated with cardiometabolic syndrome, which raises a person's likelihood of developing heart disease and other conditions, such as diabetes and stroke.