BlogPaper

A new study proves the old Roman saying, "A sound mind in a sound body" — the more fit one's heart is, the more one's brain seems to benefit, scientists now find. Many earlier studies have linked physical exercise with brainpower in humans and animals, but most of the research in people focused on children or older adults. The few studies of young adulthood — when the brain changes rapidly, establishing many traits linked with intelligence — have yielded ambiguous data. [Read More]

Men with long-term partners are more likely to be satisfied with their relationships if they're getting lots of hugs, cuddles and other signs of physical affection, a new study finds. The research, to be published in August in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, also found that men are more likely to say they're happy in their relationships, while women are more likely to say that they're sexually satisfied. Those findings were opposite of what the researchers expected, said study author Julia Heiman, a psychologist and the director of The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University. [Read More]

Feeling depressed may increase the risk of stroke, at least among older adults, a new study suggests. The study involved about 1,100 people living in New York City; the participants had an average age of 70 and had never had a stroke. At the start of the study, participants filled out a survey designed to measure symptoms of depression, such as feeling sad or feeling like everything is an effort. Based on the survey, the people were given a depression score ranging from 0 to 60, with scores over 16 considered " [Read More]

There's something strange about the oxygen in the atmosphere above Mars' Gale Crater: Its levels fluctuate dramatically as the seasons change. And this mysterious oxygen cycling can't be explained by any known chemistry, a new study found. Gale Crater is a 96-mile-wide (154 kilometers) depression that was created by a meteor crash 3.5 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring the crater since 2012, when it landed at the foot of Mount Sharp, a giant mountain at the heart of the crater, according to NASA. [Read More]

The Timex Ironman Run Trainer 2.0 is a GPS-enabled watch that runners of all levels can use to log their workouts and measure their time, distance, heart rate and other useful training-related data. The Run Trainer 2.0 costs $180 (or $220, if you get a heart-rate monitor, too), which makes it cheaper than similar devices such as the TomTom Multi-Sport or the Garmin Forerunner 220. I used the Ironman for a few weeks and found it easy to use and especially useful for training, but perhaps too sophisticated for casual runners. [Read More]

Only one of two recently examined ancient tunics thought to be worn by the Roman Catholic friar Saint Francis of Assisi is an authentic relic of the saint, according to a new analysis. Using a radiocarbon dating method, physicists at the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Florence, Italy, analyzed material fragments from two tunics assumed to be relics of Saint Francis, one preserved in the Church of Saint Francis in Cortona in Italy and the other in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. [Read More]

A new species of spiny ant with intricate, wrinkled skin has been found in the Singaporean rainforest. Myrmecina magnificens, named for its beauty, lives in leaf litter on the forest floor and probably preys on tiny mites, said discoverer Mark Wong, an ecologist and independent researcher in Singapore. It has skin with a fingerprint-whorl pattern and delicate golden spines that point, unusually, toward the front of its body. "Some people say it looks a little bit like a fearsome raisin," [Read More]

A baby in North Carolina has received a first-of-its-kind heart transplant that may prevent his body from rejecting the organ without the need for lifelong drugs to suppress the immune system. The child, Easton Sinnamon, is the first person to receive a heart transplant along with implantation of thymus tissue from the same donor, according to a statement from Duke University, where the procedure was performed. Because the thymus plays an important role in immune system function — in particular, teaching the body to recognize its own cells and tissues versus foreign invaders — it's possible that this combination transplant could allow the child's body to accept the new heart as part of itself instead of treating it as a foreign organ. [Read More]

Sharing your germs with your mate when you're dining out makes you look like a close couple, a new study finds. People who watched videos of a man and a woman sharing a meal were more likely to rate the pair as "highly involved" if the one member of the couple fed the other food they'd already nibbled on, compared with pairs who fed each food they hadn't contaminated with their saliva. [Read More]

It seems like every bit we eat or drink is shrouded in plastic. Plastic hugs our microwave burrito, scrambles our eggs, houses our water and feeds our babies. But is it a problem for our health? Well it depends on what kind of plastic, what you’re doing with it, and whom you ask. Bisphenol-A, a plastic ingredient, may be on your mind because its safety has recently been called into question. [Read More]