Science News for Writers

It's getting hard to find anything that isn't a flat-out unintended environmental disaster.  Now Easter Eggs.  Next, Santa's reindeer will be busted for a particularly disgusting aerial discharge - without the proper waste disposal permits. When will it end? Here' the story.  I'm going out to drown my sorrow in chocolate schnapps. *  *  *  *  * Is your Easter egg bad for the environment? A recent study by researchers at The University of Manchester and published in the journal Food Research International has looked at the carbon footprint of chocolate and its other environmental impacts. It has done this by assessing the impacts of ingredients, manufacturing processes, packaging and waste. The study estimates that the UK chocolate industry produces about 2.1m tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) a year. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of the whole population of a city as large as Belfast. It also found that it take...

2013_Freedom_House_world_map.svg The idea that English is becoming grammatically simpler as it spreads makes sense; as does English gaining in vocabulary as it borrows words and meanings from the many other languages with which it mingles. So here's the story on this research. *  *  *  *  * What happens to language as populations grow? It simplifies, say researchers Languages have an intriguing paradox. Languages with lots of speakers, such as English and Mandarin, have large vocabularies with relatively simple grammar. Yet the opposite is also true: Languages with fewer speakers have fewer words but complex grammars. Why does the size of a population of speakers have opposite effects on vocabulary and grammar? Through computer simulations, a Cornell University cognitive scientist and his colleagues have shown that ease of learning may explain the paradox. Their work suggests that language, and other aspects of culture, may become simpler as...

Credit: © fizkes / Fotolia Stellar grades in college could hurt -- rather than help -- women new to the  job market, according to a new study that suggests employers place more  value  on the perceived "likability" of female applicants than on their academic success. Given all they must fight. who'd be a woman?  According to this study, you bust your ass getting good grades, even graduating with honors. . . and academic success is held against you in the job and career market. This despite the facts.  Research clearly shows that businesses with women in leadership positions are less likely to fail or to be lead aimlessly into bankruptcy.  Businesses with women in leadership positions are more profitable with fewer problems.  That businesses with women in leadership positions live longer. Yet despite this, a woman can't win, no matter what she does. It's not just a glass ceiling, it's a glass box, trapping you on all sides. P...

Source: Chicago Music I've always liked the simple headline.  Music makes kids smarter.  So does art. Straight forward, easy to grasp. And true. A reason why there must be art and music taught in our schools. *  *  *  *  * Music lessons improve children's cognitive skills and academic performance Cognitive skills developed from music lessons appear to transfer to unrelated subjects, leading to improved academic performance The first large-scale, longitudinal study adapted into the regular school curriculum finds that structured music lessons significantly enhance children's cognitive abilities -- including language-based reasoning, short-term memory, planning and inhibition -- leading to improved academic performance. Visual arts lessons were also found to significantly improve children's visual and spatial memory . Published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, the research is the first large-scale, longitudinal study to be a...

F-bombs notwithstanding,  all languages skew toward happiness: Universal human bias for positive words " Vermont currently has the happiest signal, while Louisiana has the saddest. And the latest data puts Boulder, CO, in the number one spot for happiness, while Racine, WI, is at the bottom ." In 1969, two psychologists at the University of Illinois proposed what they called the Pollyanna Hypothesis -- the idea that there is a universal human tendency to use positive words more frequently than negative ones. "Put even more simply," they wrote, "humans tend to look on (and talk about) the bright side of life." It was a speculation that has provoked debate ever since. Now a team of scientists at the University of Vermont and The MITRE Corporation have applied a Big Data approach -- using a massive data set of many billions of words, based on actual usage, rather than "expert" opinion -- to confirm the 1960s guess. Movie ...

Source:  Positive Writer This is one of the cooler bits of research published this year, with implications for the writer. One, you can turn failure to success by writing about the experience of failure. Two, you can turn down your stress level by writing about the experience of failure. Three, having a character write about the experience of his or her failure as a device to turn it around also teaches your reader a useful technique. And how cool is this? Here's the research: *  *  *  *  * Analyzing past failures may boost future performance by reducing stress Study shows for first time that writing critically about past setbacks leads to lower stress responses, better choices and better performance on a new stressful task Insights from past failures can help boost performance on a new task -- and a new study is the first to explain why. US researchers report that writing critically about past setbacks leads to lower leve...

Credit: Elisabeth Holmqvist-Sipilä Map of neolithic pottery exchange network in the Baltic Sea region. It seems that it is mostly men who receive credit for innovation.  Scientists assume the first stone tools were made by men.  The first farmers were men.  The first fishers were men.  Women were gatherers and caretakers in the ancient hunter gatherer societies.  Were they? Seriously, were they? How does anyone know? Was testosterone found rubbed into the surface of a 500,000 year old hand ax indicating it was made by a man? It could have been a woman watching the kids take a nap in camp while the men were out scavenging dead meat who invented the first hand ax or spear point.  It could have been a woman who wove the first basket.  It could have been a woman who painted the first bison on the wall of a cave.  (You know how men are about decorating the home.  It's a struggle.) We simply don't know.  And there is no ...

Source:  medicinenet Pain in the low back can be a result of conditions affecting  the bony lumbar spine, discs between the vertebrae, ligaments around the spine and discs, spinal cord and nerves, muscles of the low back, internal organs of the pelvis and abdomen, and the skin covering the lumbar area. Yes, this research focuses on the effects of back pain in Britain, but the problem is certainly global.  I've had more than a few back issues (resolved with physical therapy fortunately) and nearly everyone I know or am related to has had disabling episodes.  My aunt, who was quite the athlete, has suffered a lifetime of back pain.  We're not alone in back pain. Now imagine a protagonist with recurring back pain, say, that impedes the efforts of that man or woman from stopping a crime or preventing a war or simply accomplishing a goal.  A story we could all relate to? Here's the story. *  *  *  *  * Glob...

Credit: © freefly / Fotolia Americans may be aging more slowly than they were two decades ago. The original title of this research study issued by the University of Southern California was:   Is 60 the New 50? Examining Changes in Biological Age Over the Past Two Decades.   It was changed by someone to a more accurate form. Well, at the risk of being a wet blanket, seventy is seventy, twenty is twenty, and there is no way for them to be anything other than what they are. A "sixty is the new fifty" headline is an advertising slogan designed to make people feel guilty about acting their age in an effort to sell them products, services, foods or medicines they really don't need or want.  Shame on the researchers at USC for mislabeling their research. Saying sixty is the new fifty implies that I  must live a certain way when I'm sixty or something is wrong with me.  Right, and I should exhibit a certain body composition with the right hair ...

Source :  Northwestern University CNET A drawing from a Draw-A-Scientist study. It is important for any writer to stay current with how our society and culture is changing, and how we perceive those changes. *  *  *  *  * US children now draw female scientists more than ever Change suggests children's stereotypes linking science with men have weakened over time When drawing scientists, US children now depict female scientists more often than ever, according to new research, which analyzed five decades of 'Draw-A-Scientist' studies conducted since the 1960s. This change suggests that children's stereotypes linking science with men have weakened over time, said the researchers, consistent with more women becoming scientists and children's media depicting more female scientists on television shows, magazines and other media. "Given this change in stereotypes, girls in recent years might now develop interests in science more freely than ...

Source:  Livestrong.com Don't know about you.  But I find people fascinating.  As in, really?  People do that?  Sacre' merde, they do? Who'd a thunk? So now a study reveals that people as young as five years old are aware of having a reputation.  And caring about it. I've always been an odd man out when it comes to reputation.  I simply am not aware of what people think of me, and never have. It's not that I don't care, I do care.  Quite a bit.  I just don't think about it.  Example:  My friends were surprised when I recently started shaving my head again. I had shaved my head for some years, but let it grow back in about three years ago.   I just shaved it because, and this is the truth, not because I was trying to change my image.  No, I was out of shampoo.  They laughed when I told them that, which surprised me.  I wasn't making a joke.  Understand the difference?  Bu...

The implication here is quite clear: Law enforcement must be aware that teenagers are more likely to plead guilty to crimes, though it may not be clear to them why.  This research suggests what should be an obvious reason.  Immaturity and a lack of understanding of the consequences of a guilty plea. For writers, this suggests both non-fiction and fiction stories, or at least it should. *  *  *  *  * Teenagers more likely to plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit     Teenagers are more likely to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit because they are less able to make mature decisions, new research shows.  Experts have called for major changes to the criminal justice system after finding innocent younger people are far more likely admit to offences, even when innocent, than adults. Those who carried out the study say teenagers should not be allowed to make deals where they face a lesser charge in return for pleading guilt...

Source:   LA Times Evidence for key milestones in humans’ evolutionary past comes from the Olorgesailie Basin in southern Kenya, which holds an archeological record of early human life spanning more than a million years. (Human Origins Program, Smithsonian) The story of our development is fascinating.  How did an upright walking ape with a brain smaller than a ripe orange wandering around East Africa some 6.5 million years ago survive, let alone so dramatically and unpredictably?  There were times in the not too distant past only a few hundred humans existed, yet here we are, tremendously successfully while actively endangering our own survival by our very biological success. Every one of the eight billion are descended of two individuals, who might be described as  genetic Eve and genetic Adam*. The full story of homo sapiens is far more dramatic and action filled than anything dreamt of by the most creative of writers.  Our history is ...