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Study results that make you go ... huh? // HANNAH DECLERK
Four strange-but-true scientific studies that will leave you scratching your head We are taught things throughout our lives that may or may not be true. "If you stare at the television too long you will go blind," or "if you cross your eyes too long they will get stuck that way." As outrageous as these statements sound, we believed them. But what if blue M&M's contained nutritional value, or that women are generationally getting hotter? Researchers across the globe have set out to prove many things that are weird but true, things that make people scratch there heads and say, "what?"
Blue M&M's may have health benefits.
M&M's are usually thought of as the delicious little morsels with the "hard candy shell." But what if I were to tell you that these treats do more than just "melt in your mouth."
Germaine Reinhardt, associate director of public relations at the University of Rochester Medical Center, says that "Brilliant Blue G," the compound that has proven successful in reducing secondary injury after a spinal cord injury, is a close cousin to the commonly used blue food dye. The dye contains the component, Brilliant Blue G, which blocks a chemical set out to kill healthy spinal cord cells.
According to a recent CNN article, when lab rats were given large quantities of Brilliant Blue G, their spinal problems eventually went away, but the dye temporarily turned them blue.
A new study conducted by researchers at the University Of Rochester Medical Center in New York found that these savory morsels are good for people with spinal problems. Why? It's not the chocolate itself, but the dye contained in the candy.
Sorry, men. Women are getting hotter. You are not
Although this is kind of awesome,looking like a Smurf probably wouldn't be great for your social life.
That's right, men are actually from Mars and women are from planet hotness.
Beware that even though it seems like a brilliant idea to eat a ton of these candies, especially after breaking your back thanks to a heavily loaded backpack of books (or beer), there are still some kinks that need to be straightened out.
Photo by Amanda Kistner
Don't believe me? Ask the research team at
the University of Helsinki, who found that women with traits associated with physical "attractiveness" are disproportionately more likely to have daughters than sons. The daughters then inherit the attractive traits, and so on.
According to The Times of London, Markus Jokela, a researcher at the University of Helsinki, used data gathered in the United States by tracking 1,244 women and 997 men over four decades. Their attractiveness was gathered from photographs taken during the study, and rated on physical characters that most human beings would consider "attractive." The researchers then collected data on the number of children they had. The "beautiful" women had up to 16 percent more children than their plain-looking counterparts.
Cory Kasten, Alton, Ill., senior, was not in the least bit upset by this news. In fact, he was relieved to know that he can get fat and old, while his wife remains good looking.
I'll just take the ... uh ...
French fries
Thinking about ordering a salad? Even if you don't, you may feel like you did, giving you a reason to reward yourself with a side of fries. Confused? Allow me to explain.
Gavan Fitzsimons and his team of researchers at Duke University recently discovered that the more healthy options there are on a menu, the more likely a person is to order junk food. Known as "vicarious goal fulfillment," only thinking about ordering a salad may make you feel like you did. Fitzsimons said that in the lab experiment, participants possessing high levels of self-control related to food choices avoided French fries, the least healthy item on a menu. But when a side salad was added to this menu,
Time crunch: Not quite a case of the Mondays. A recent study conducted in Britain found that participants reported that Tuesday at about 11:45 a.m. was the most stressful time of the week because they wasted Monday.
they became much more likely to want the unhealthy stuff.
AH! IT'S 11:45 A.M. ON TUESDAY!
For many students, Mondays are pretty average. Recovering from the weekend, you slowly move through your day with a small amount of motivation. Then all of a sudden, Tuesday comes around, it's almost noon and you realize, "Oh my God. I have four tests, a 10-page paper and a speech to give on nuclear biochemical engineering!" Sound familiar?
A recent study conducted in Britain by Graham Waters and a team from Health Supplement Bimuno, polled 3,000 working British adults to find out when the most stressful time of the week was. According to Waters, more than 53 percent of those polled admitted not doing much on Mondays and one in 10 said they delayed their weekly work by checking Facebook to view photos from their weekend debauchery.
After realizing that they had barely accomplished anything on Monday, and spending Tuesday morning spent dwelling on what should be done, the specific stressful time and day of the week becomes apparent: Tuesdays at 11:45 a.m.
Dom Martinez, Dallas senior, said he not only agrees with this fact, but can attest to it.
"I realize now how lazy I am on Mondays, and
it really makes a lot of sense why I am so stressed the rest of the week," Martinez says.
So, stop using Mondays to upload weekend photos of your friends, and start using it productively, before the dreaded 11:45 a.m.
FIVE STUDIES THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE CUT:
- Having a Facebook will make you more inclined to stalk, dwell, and spy on past love interests, according to a study reported by CyberPsychology & Behavior.
- Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica reported recently that pissing in the bathub will help to save the environment. That is, if you retain from flushing the toilet once a day, you will conserve 1,000 gallons of water annually.
- People have a 75 percent chance of developing skin cancer when using tanning beds. According to the medical journal Lancet Oncology.
- Men are just as afraid to swim with snarks as they are of getting married, according to a survey given to 3,000 British men by Vue Cinema.
- Beer guts have a lot more to do with genetic makeup than with the actual consumed beverage, according to a study done by a German and Swedish Research team, recently published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
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