I don’t think there’s anyone who loves cute animals more than my roommate. Every time I get home, she’s always “aww”-ing at something fluffy on her computer screen. While part of me is tempted to ask her how she somehow never has work to do, something always stops me. I remembered hearing before that looking at cute animals can help increase productivity, but how could that be?

According to an article in the Huffington Post, Hiroshima University conducted a study about “cute animals” led by Japanese researcher Hiroshi Nittono. For the experiment, Nittono studied 48 students as they completed a task similar to playing the game “Operation.” The students were asked to attempt the task 3 times: “the first after looking at a series of pictures of baby animals, then after seeing adult animals and finally after seeing pictures of delicious foods.” The results showed that participants performed the task more carefully after seeing the cute baby animal images. “This is interpreted as the result of a narrowed attentional focus induced by the cuteness-triggered positive emotion that is associated with approach motivation and the tendency toward systematic processing.”

But this seemed to good to be true; I can take a study break by looking at cute animals AND it will actually be beneficial? I had to see some serious scientific evidence…

According to the Washington Post, adults tend to slow down speech when talking to puppies and kittens, and these behaviors “may transfer to subsequent task performance.” I found myself being able to relate to this hypothesis considering the way I talk to my dog at home… But not all people talk to puppies and kittens, and I’m sure not everyone talks to them slowly. Could there be another reason behind the findings of the study?

Luckily in the world of science, there’s always room for another potential answer. “Caring for babies (nurturance) not only involves tender treatments but also requires careful attention to the targets’ physical and mental states as well as vigilance against possible threats to the targets. If viewing cute things makes the viewer more attentive, the performance of a non-motor perceptual task would also be improved,” the study stated. To me, this reasoning seemed much more legitimate because it was based on the natural, compassionate way that humans tend to care for babies, which I think we all can agree holds true.

I never thought I’d see the day, but there you have it: puppies are scientifically proven to help you focus. As college students, we’ve all had those moments where we just can’t bring ourselves to be productive. So next time you’re ready to throw in the towel for the night, follow @CuteEmergency on Twitter! But in the mean time, enjoy these puppies J

80 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, Saturday afternoon was ideal weather for the first home game at Beaver Stadium. Unfortunately, it seemed like not too many students remembered to wear sunscreen along with their Penn State attire. After the game, I noticed countless students suffering from sunburn. Even though I did not wear sunscreen, I was fortunate enough to somehow not get burnt… But why did so many others?

According to Mayo Clinic, “people with darker skin have more melanin, which offers some protection from sunburn but not from UV-induced skin damage.” So basically, even if you didn’t turn tomato-red from being outside at the game, your skin is still suffering, you just can’t see it at the surface. But then there’s still the people who say, “I don’t need suntan lotion; I never burn. I just get tan.” Regardless of your skin color, the sun’s energy is still absorbed into the skin and capable of damaging DNA cells. When these cells die, they release damaged RNA.

We’ve all heard it a million times: one bad sunburn puts you at risk for skin cancer. But what’s really going on with our skin cells? Your skin reacts to UV light by accelerating the production of melanin, which is the dark pigment that gives your skin its natural color. Extra melanin is produced to protect your skin’s deeper layers, which creates a darker external skin color (or as we call it, a “tan”). Melanin amounts vary genetically, and some people can’t produce the amount needed to protect the skin well enough, causing sunburn. According to Dr. Richard Gallo, professor of medicine at University of California, “The inflammatory response is a normal part of our protection against the sun.”

 According to skincancer.org, over the past three decades, more people have had skin cancer than all other cancers combined. While not all cases of skin cancer are preventable, many are. So why do we even take the risk of not wearing sunscreen when it could help save our lives? Are we that “obsessed” with being tan? Do we not care? Do we have the mentality that it won’t ever happen to us, or are we just unwilling to face the facts? It’s time our world, more specifically our generation, wakes up and puts on some sunscreen.

After responding to the smoking poll in class today, we concluded that most of us did not smoke regularly. After countless health classes and lectures, it’s obvious that we aren’t blind to the fact that smoking is bad for you. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped tobacco companies from trying to entice us. I have to read US Today daily for my PR class, and after seeing countless articles about e-cigarettes, I thought it was about time I learned more about them.

For starters, these battery operated cigarettes still contain nicotine, but in a vaporized form. This means they are still addictive and can still damage the lungs. Many companies are offering e-cigs as a healthier alternative to smoking when little to no information is known about what they contain. These products are not regulated by the FDA, but will be soon.

According to USA Today, 21% of smokers have tried e-cigs, and 67% of adults who have tried them tend to smoke less. So is this helping people quit? It could be. But then the new question rises, who’s getting hooked? E-cig companies are starting to target younger audiences with the appealing “modern technology” of the product. The NY Times reported 1.8 million middle and high school students admitted to trying e-cigarettes in 2012, which is a startling amount. E-cigarettes even come in various flavors, so let’s face it, these kids are not just trying them once. While adults may be using the e-cigarettes to wean themselves off of regular cigarettes, adolescents have just opened the door to the tobacco world.

We’re not stupid, we really aren’t. We know cigarettes are harmful to our bodies. We know they cause lung cancer. It’s evident that the addictive characteristics of cigarettes make it difficult to quit, especially with the help of technology creating intriguing new ways to smoke, like e-cigarettes.  Once people get hooked there’s no turning back, which is why tobacco companies are starting to make products appealing to a younger audience. It’s sickening that companies rely on our deteriorating health to make money, but hey, that’s the world we live in today. 

            People everywhere have resorted to drinking diet soda instead of regular soda because it contains little or no calories. So then logically, less calories would mean it’s better for you, right? After realizing this was way too good to be true, I started researching the dangers behind diet sodas and was astonished at what I found:

“The artificial sweeteners in diet soda can cause weight gain, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and heart disease, adding to mounting research about the potential health risks of diet soft drinks.” 

Wait, WHAT? A beverage with the word “diet” in it can cause weight gain and other health problems? I mean, I figured it wasn’t all that good for you, but I had no idea it was that dangerous…

As I read on, I discovered that researchers at Perdue University discovered these surprising facts after spending 40 years studying “the effects of artificial sweeteners and the health problems associated with diet soda.” Because diet soda contains artificial sweeteners instead of real sugar, the human body does not know how to respond it. Your body thinks it recognizes the similar sweet taste and causes the pancreas to release insulin, just as it would do if you consumed actual sugar.

Essentially, these health problems can link back to obesity. Researchers at the University of Texas Health Center discovered a clear link between diet soda and obesity. 54.5% of obese people surveyed admitted to drinking 1-2 cans of diet soda per day while only 32.8% of obese people surveyed said they were drinking 1-2 cans of regular soda. These startling statistics prove that drinking diet soda had a higher correlation with obesity than drinking regular soda did.

Society has put such an emphasis on body image that we all seem to think that putting the word “diet” or “zero calories” in front of anything makes it the better choice. Are we blinded by the word “diet?” Many of us seem to think anything with the word “diet” on it can’t hurt us (or is good for us), but it’s important that we aren’t fooled. Most of us would argue eating fast food everyday is a poor health decision, so what makes drinking diet soda everyday acceptable? Are we aware of the fact that diet soda isn’t good for us, but continuing to drink it anyway? Where do we go from here? Is it KILLING us?