Here's a scientific proof why you should eat popcorn in the cinema

A study by researchers at the Cologne Institute has determined that eating popcorn makes moviegoers at least somewhat immune to advertisements—for example, those godawful commercials that you’re forced to sit through before the movie starts. “Thank you for watching Regal FirstLook” my tuchus. Not like I have a choice, Regal.

The idea behind the study, published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, is that whenever we hear a new name our tongue subconsciously practices its pronunciation, and that’s how commercials manage to imprint brand names onto our brain. But if we’re eating popcorn our mouths are already moving, so that process is interrupted. The researchers invited 96 people—half of whom got free popcorn, half of whom only got a small sugar cube that dissolved instantly in their mouths, poor guys—to watch a commercial/movie combo. The ads left no psychological impact on the popcorn group, but the sugar cube group found themselves with warm, fuzzy feelings toward Coke or Toyota or whatever the ads were for.

“The mundane activity of eating popcorn made participants immune to the pervasive effects of advertising… This finding suggests that selling candy in cinemas actually undermines advertising effects, which contradicts present marketing strategies. In the future, when promoting a novel brand, advertising clients might consider trying to prevent candy being sold before the main movie.”

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The Nerdiest and Most Gangster Yearbook Quote of the Year

Jessica Lee wins. She wins everything. Drawing on her knowledge of the periodic table, the graduating high school senior's parting words of wisdom -- published under her photo in the Garfield High School yearbook -- appear to be a nerdy recitation of elements. But wait. Look a little closer.

I could tell you what the translation is…but I think it’s more fun if you click on this periodic table, and solve it for yourself! (Especially since the resulting lyric is a teeny bit NSFW.)

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End World Hunger with 3-D Printed Food

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

Ubiquitous food synthesizers would also create new ways of producing the basic calories on which we all rely. Since a powder is a powder, the inputs could be anything that contain the right organic molecules. We already know that eating meat is environmentally unsustainable, so why not get all our protein from insects?

If eating something spat out by the same kind of 3D printers that are currently being used to make everything from jet engine parts to fine art doesn’t sound too appetizing, that’s only because you can currently afford the good stuff, says Contractor. That might not be the case once the world’s population reaches its peak size, probably sometime near the end of this century.

“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently,” says Contractor. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”

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Scientific Seven-Minutes Workout

Exercise science is a fine and intellectually fascinating thing. But sometimes you just want someone to lay out guidelines for how to put the newest fitness research into practice.

“There’s very good evidence” that high-intensity interval training provides “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time,” says Chris Jordan, the director of exercise physiology at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Fla., and co-author of the new article.

Work by scientists at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and other institutions shows, for instance, that even a few minutes of training at an intensity approaching your maximum capacity produces molecular changes within muscles comparable to those of several hours of running or bike riding.

Interval training, though, requires intervals; the extremely intense activity must be intermingled with brief periods of recovery. In the program outlined by Mr. Jordan and his colleagues, this recovery is provided in part by a 10-second rest between exercises. But even more, he says, it’s accomplished by alternating an exercise that emphasizes the large muscles in the upper body with those in the lower body. During the intermezzo, the unexercised muscles have a moment to, metaphorically, catch their breath, which makes the order of the exercises important.

The exercises should be performed in rapid succession, allowing 30 seconds for each, while, throughout, the intensity hovers at about an 8 on a discomfort scale of 1 to 10, Mr. Jordan says. Those seven minutes should be, in a word, unpleasant. The upside is, after seven minutes, you’re done.

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Yoga and meditation may change your genetics instantly

Researchers may have a new clue as to what’s behind the feelings of well-being that come with activities like yoga or guided meditation. A new study shows that these forms of practiced relaxation have the potential to change which genes a person is expressing almost instantaneously. One yoga session is not going to alter your genetic structure and turn you into a superhuman, of course, but it could influence the function of genes associated with metabolism and immune system function in a hot second, which, really, is weird and surprising enough for our tastes.

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center took multiple blood samples from a small group of test subjects who had little prior experience with relaxation practices. Comparing over 22,000 different genes at points when subjects were going about their normal day to when they were practicing relaxation, the team found that blood samples taken during relaxation indicated increased activity in genes that regulate energy metabolism, while gene pathways that regulate inflammation and stress at a cellular level were suppressed. That’s not concrete proof, but it does make one suspect that the benefits of meditation are more than just blowing off some steam and taking a moment to yourself.

While this isn’t yet proof that meditation can change gene expression — lots of further study will be needed to demonstrate that convincingly — it’s a pretty intriguing indicator that the physical benefits of just taking a step back and a couple of deep breaths could go right down to our DNA.

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NASA found a planet similar to 'Gallifrey', homeworld of Doctor Who and Time Lords!

In news that's sure to excite everyone except people who aren't super into Doctor Who, astronomers have just announced the discovery of a planet very similar to Gallifrey, the home world of Doctor Who and the Time Lords.

According to an article in the Register, NASA came across what it calls a “transiting circumbinary multi-planet system” – in layman’s speak, “two worlds orbiting two suns” – using its Kepler planet-hunting telescope, and the Register likens to “Doctor Who’s Time Lord homeworld [of] Gallifrey – or alternatively the luxury-planet-builders’ planet Magrathea [from] The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy”!

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Hello Kitty in Space

Remember the experiment “The effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature” by a 7th grader that sent Hello Kitty to space in a rocket? The talented teenager has now been declared one of four top award winners at Cornerstone Christian School’s seventh-grade science fair. An award well deserved by 13 year old Lauren Rojas who is one of two winners in the physical science category for her weather balloon’s 90-minute test of the effects of air pressure and temperature. The popularity of the project video gained popularity and also received national and international media attention, including from Canada, India and the Discovery Channel.



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According to CDC, vegetables are the biggest cause of food-borne illness

Good news for anyone who hates vegetables, or just wants to shut up their smug vegan friends! A new study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that the majority of food-borne illnesses come from green vegetables, not meat or dairy products. Take that, vegetables!

The study found that 51% of the 9.6 million cases of food-borne illnesses were traced to contaminated plants, while all meat and poultry combined came in at a mere 22%. Leafy greens themselves cause 23% of the illnesses, which include the norovirus that causes the stomach flu.

You shouldn’t really stop eating vegetables. The untainted ones are good for you, and some are even not gross. It’s also worth noting that even though you’re more likely to get sick from a vegetable than any other food, the particularly nasty and deadly illnesses are still more commonly found in things like under-cooked chicken.

The bigger lesson here is that if you don’t want to get sick you should make sure you’re getting food from safe sources, and that you wash and cook everything thoroughly. If you do want to get to sick though, go eat a bunch of vegetables. I hear they’re terrible for you!

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One Step Closer to Male Contraceptive Pill

Surely, a birth control pill for men makes a lot more sense than pills for female. It is much better to unload the gun than shooting at a bullet proof vest! A male birth control pill has been the subject of scientific curiosity for a while, and a new study has found that rather than killing the sperm or preventing their existence, a male contraceptive pill might be the product of preventing the sperm from swimming.

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Bill Nye: Creationism is not appropriate for children

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Science of Doctor Who

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Super Hydrophobic Finger

By rubbing your finger with superhydrophobic aerogel powder you can make it superhydrophobic. Then, when sticking the finger into water no water droplet will stick on the finger. All water is completely repelled. A thin air layer forms between the finger and the water. This makes the finger shining silvery and looking cool.

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Exercise-Induced Orgasms are more common that you think

Women may not need a guy or any other direct stimulation to have an orgasm.

Herbenick and her colleagues used online surveys to gather their data, which included answers from 124 women who had experienced exercise-induced orgasms and 246 women who reported exercise-induced sexual pleasure. Most of the women, ages 18 to 63 and an average age of 30, were in a relationship or married and 69 percent said they were heterosexual.

Of the women who had orgasms during exercise, about 45 percent said their first experience was linked to abdominal exercises; 19 percent linked to biking/spinning; 9.3 percent linked to climbing poles or ropes; 7 percent reported a connection with weight lifting; 7 percent running; the rest of the experiences included various exercises, such as yoga, swimming, elliptical machines, aerobics and others.

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Either a vortex cannon or a Skyrim shout

Youtube

What does gaming do to your brain?

Another day, another curious infographic on the subject of gaming. This one comes from Online Universities, and examines the neurology behind video games, which have long been claimed to warp our fragile young children’s minds. But do they?

Forbes

The Most Astounding Fact about the universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Youtube

The animation of Evolution by students at Patrick Henry School of Science and Art

This animation here involves the group from Patrick Henry School of Science and Art and is roughly 100 or so of their creatures, with their own unique ending to the animation- the Ice Age.

Youtube

Periodic Table of Cupcakes

Epic Ponyz

She can't kiss her fiance because she's allergic to water

A person with Aquagenic Urticaria is essentially allergic to water. After coming into contact with water - or blood, sweat and tears - the sufferer develops painful, itchy hives that spread over the affected area.

These can last anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour-and-a-half. Some sufferers have to lie down to let the pain subside.

Daily Mail

The robots are taking over!

Youtube