![]() | |
When you are getting an injection, do you look at the needle or look away? Research suggests that looking away when receiving an injection reduces the strength of the expected pain. In the study, it was discovered that when participants viewed a video of a needle pricking a hand, they experienced a pain that was more intense than viewing a hand only or a hand that was being touched by a Q-tip. The intense pain sensation was also accompanied by increased activity of the participants' autonomic nervous system.
...Next Mother's Day, say it with an evolved model of logistical efficiency — a flower. A new discovery about how nature's icons of romance manage the distribution of sperm among female gametes with industrial precision helps explain why the delicate beauties have reproduced prolifically enough to dominate the earth.

This image shows the differences in chemical structure of the
5-methylcytosine (5mC) base (left) from the 5-hydroxymethylcytosine
(5hmC) base in DNA against a background of DNA sequencing imagery. Imagine reading an entire book, but then realizing that your glasses did not allow you to distinguish "g" from "q." What details did you miss?
![]() | |
Be careful when you eat. A study published in the journal Cell Metabolism indicates that eating at random times throughout the day can lead to weight gain. The researchers believe this to be so because our organs, including those of the digestive system, have times when they work most efficiently and times when they rest. Our metabolic cycles are set to "turn on" when we eat and slow down when we are not eating. Eating at various times of the day can upset these metabolic cycles.
...![]() | |
Photo Credit: Renjith Krishnan FreeDigitalPhotos.net | |