Nov 13, 2009 -
Can you imagine leaving a piece of fruit in the crisper and being able to take a bite out of it after four months? That's the idea behind a new variety of apple that's being tweaked by researchers at Queensland Primary Industries. The RS103-130, as it's called, can stay fresh for at least 14 days without refrigeration, and keep in a refrigerator for four months.
- 18 Comments
Nov 05, 2009 -
Australian psychology professor Joe Forgas has concluded through his research that grumpy people tend to think more clearly, and because of their skepticism, they also make better decisions than their more cheerful and gullible counterparts.
Cheerfulness isn't all bad, though. Forgas says it encourages creativity.
- 3 Comments
Oct 14, 2009 -
Are you cursed and blessed with a good sense of smell? Cursed because you smell every ungodly stink no matter how far away, and blessed because lovely smells affect you deeply?
Psychology professor Denise Chen at Rice University thinks you may also be more empathetic than your olfaction-challenged neighbor.
- 11 Comments
Oct 02, 2009 -
As if single women were not stigmatized enough, researchers at Oklahoma State University, likening single women to certain species of "mate-poaching" birds and fish, claim that a study they conducted reveals that single women are more likely to pursue men who are taken than single.
Melissa Burkley, who conducted the study with her colleague Jessica Parker, told 184 heterosexual university student participants they would be involved in a study on sexual attraction. The volunteers (equal numbers men and women, half attached and half single), were told that a computer program would match them with an ideal partner.
- 16 Comments
Sep 21, 2009 -
Maureen Dowd asks why women seem unhappier today than ever in her New York Times column over the weekend. Are they unhappier? Women today seem way happier than the defeated and bitter Betty Draper on Mad Men.
- 61 Comments
Sep 17, 2009 -
A new British study finds that about four in 10 women cannot keep a secret no matter how confidential the subject. What really surprised the researchers was the speed with which the confidantes spilled the beans: in less than 48 hours!
The study, which was commissioned by the UK Director of Wines of Chile (?!), involved 3,000 women between the ages of 18 and 65.
- 11 Comments
Sep 06, 2009 -
In news that will surprise absolutely no one, researchers have found that men get so flummoxed when speaking to attractive women — using up most of their cognitive abilities trying to impress them — that they sometimes forget basic personal information like their own addresses!
Research showed that if (presumably straight) men spent even a few minutes with an attractive woman, they didn’t perform as well on tests that measure brain function than they did after speaking to someone they didn’t find attractive. Women didn’t seem to have this reaction in the presence of men they considered handsome.
- 9 Comments
Sep 06, 2009 -
About four percent of the adult, American population has arachnaphobia — a fear of spiders — and of that percentage, women are four times as likely to be afraid.
Researchers concluded that girls have a genetic predisposition to be afraid of dangerous animals like spiders. Coded into our DNA, apparently, is the desire to stay away from dangerous things and protect our children, where men are supposed to be risk-takers and generally less likely to be afraid of spiders.
- 34 Comments
Sep 02, 2009 -
It's no surprise that how women determine facial attractiveness is complicated. Unlike many men who may give a woman's body a once-over, and then look at her face, deeming her attractive or unattractive, women, when checking out a man's face, tend to evaluate it on two levels, according to a study that was just published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The first level women use to evaluate men's faces is sexual: they zero in on features like the jawbone, cheekbones, and lips.
- 9 Comments
Aug 25, 2009 -
If you do, that might mean you suck at it.
Although we hear all the time that women are better at multitasking than men, a new study says that regardless of gender, media multitaskers (those who simultaneously use their computers, watch TV or text on their phones, for example) aren't as good at doing several things at once as they think they are.
The study was initiated when researchers asked themselves what it was about "high multitaskers" that allowed them to do what they do so well.
- 7 Comments