Quirky Science

PHOTO COURTESY: SCIENCE DAILY

A wife's happiness is more crucial than her
husband's in keeping marriage on track

When it comes to a happy marriage, a new Rutgers study finds that the more content the wife is with the long-term union, the happier the husband is with his life no matter how he feels about their nuptials.
"I think it comes down to the fact that when a wife is satisfied with the marriage she tends to do a lot more for her husband, which has a positive effect on his life," said Deborah Carr, a professor in the Department of Sociology, School of Arts and Science. "Men tend to be less vocal about their relationships and their level of marital unhappiness might not be translated to their wives."
Carr and Vicki Freedman, a research professor at the University of Michigan, co-authored the study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Can your blood type affect your memory in later years?

People with blood type AB may be more likely to develop memory loss in later years than people with other blood types, according to a study published in the journal Neurology.
The study found that people with AB blood were 82 percent more likely to develop the thinking and memory problems that can lead to dementia than people with other blood types. Previous studies have shown that people with type O blood have a lower risk of heart disease and stroke, factors that can increase the risk of memory loss and dementia.
The study was authored by Mary Cushman, MD, of the University Of Vermont College Of Medicine in Burlington.

Creating simplicity
How music fools the ear

What makes music beautiful? The best compositions transcend culture and time -- but what is the commonality which underscores their appeal?
New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Research Notes suggests that the brain simplifies complex patterns, much in the same way that 'lossless' music compression formats reduce audio files, by removing redundant data and identifying patterns.
Dr Nicholas Hudson used 'lossless' music compression programs to mimic the brain's ability to condense audio information. Dr Nicholas Hudson writes, "Enduring musical masterpieces, despite apparent complexity, possess high compressibility" and that it is this compressibility that we respond to. So whether you are a diehard classicist or a pop diva it seems that we chose the music we prefer, not by simply listening to it, but by calculating its compressibility.

Babies are born to dance, new research shows

Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.
The findings, based on the study of infants aged between five months and two years old, suggest that babies may be born with a predisposition to move rhythmically in response to music.
The research was conducted by Dr Marcel Zentner, from the University of York's Department of Psychology, and Dr Tuomas Eerola of the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.
Dr Zentner writes,  "Our research suggests that it is the beat rather than other features of the music, such as the melody, that produces the response in infants.”
"We also found that the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled.