Studies have found that loneliness may be a threat for health, and can even increase a person’s risk of premature death, but scientists have yet to find any reason. Now, scientists have discovered one way loneliness can affect a person healthy: Loneliness may cause gene alter its expression in cells, thus reduce a person’s ability to fight with infections.

In a study constitutes 141 elderly people, the researchers investigated the genic expression patterns and relationships of loneliness and leukocytes. 36 of elders were classified as chronic loneliness.The researchers found that compare with non-chronic loneliness people, chronic loneliness ones have more  body cells and gene expression of inflammation to fight potential bacterial infection. But ability for cells to fight is reduced.

Psychologist John Cacioppo, who works at University of Chicago said this gene expression patterns makes the body more prone to inflammation than normal. This reaction, at the expense of the cost against the potential virus infection, enhance the organism’s ability to fight bacterial infections.In other words, lonely people has  weaker ability to fight against the virus,  and their body more good fight bacteria.More importantly, the study found that response patterns of loneliness and inflammatory often occur in pairs, and even they will be spread over time assisted by each other. Depression, stress levels and social support were unable to explain these results.

Researchers in another experiment found a lonely macaques also appeared changes in gene expression patterns of the same inflammatory response. They also found this change associates with its immature mononuclear white blood cells (released by the immune system). These cells are highly inflammatory genic expression levels of the protein, but the genic expression of anti-viral protein is very low.Scientists have found that inflammatory genic expression changes will affect the health of the monkey. When they let the monkey infected with simian immunodeficiency virus, the virus propagate much faster in lonely monkeys than in non-lonely monkey. Cacioppo said: “Lonely monkey have more serious illness than non-lonely monkey.” The researchers also expressed their intention to continue studying how loneliness led to weak people and how to avoid these effects.

This is a very interesting topic, since I want to know how loneliness can affect human. Besides social aspect, now I know it also affects genetically.  However, how can our bodies know what is loneliness? I mean, each person view loneliness differently. Some people like to stay alone and they never feel longly. How can this be counted? I think this researchers need to test more group of monkeys in varied conditions. Loneliness is a subjective feeling, and there is no standard to  judge it. So in what condition that this feeling would be harmful to human bodies? I hope researchers will figure out eventually through more detailed and more comprehensive further studies.

For me, I am a person who loves dogs so much and always dream to be companied by a dog. But unfortunately, my father is allergic to any small animals with furs. I still hold a dream that when I have a child, I would absolutely buy him or her a dog. A dog is a core member of many families: funny, naughty, likes to make trouble. However, their presence has a more important role. For example, the prevention of childhood anxiety.

New York Bassett Medical Center researchers explored this issue. They evaluated 634 children who are over a half years old (mean age 6.7 years) to see anxiety levels among those with or without dogs. Before the children participated in the study, they have to be conducted a series of filters to control physical activity, screen time, overall mental health and pet-related issues. It was found that about 58% of them have dogs in families, and 12 percent in tests showing anxiety; On the other hand, children with no dogs show 21 percent of anxiety.Although the study could not show a causal relationship between these two variables, but researchers said there should be more researches conducted on this topic. A senior pediatrician, Anne Gadomski, who has 30 years of experience, said she often saw a baby’s first word he or she learned is the name of family dog. This attachment relationships may benefit children in her hope. Assessment shows that there is somewhat relationship between dogs and  children’s anxiety, but still need to be studied.

The study also showed that, along with a friendly dog ​​also reduces cortisol levels, which can reduce the physiological response to stressful situations. Pets-assisted-therapy can benefit emotional and behavioral effects of these hormones.he view of dogs can prevent obesity and anxiety among children is still at the exploratory stage, but it has been fully investigated the possibility of treatments offered by companion animals. Non-profit research and educational organization created a “Human-animal Bonding Research Program” , which is a collection of all the studies that show pets can enhance spiritual, social, mental health status.

However, some scientists did not fully agree with that point. In 2011, Professor Harold Herzog said in his paper, “Pet- Effect is an unproven hypothesis rather than facts”. He believes that media plays an inappropriate role,  and many studies have their flaws. Some studies do show that having pets can have a positive impact, but there are many other studies could not find this effect, or even find negative effects.

Personally, this article attracts me a lot, because I always think parents, children and dog can create a perfect picture called “family”. However, any study without a clear conclusion may mislead the public. One of the most serious problem is potential selective reporting. Researchers have responsibilities to publish findings with positive or negative outcomes. And media also should report more openly and balanced about the effects of pets on human. Without surprise, the public likes to attracted by positive news, but some people have to act roles to warn them. Moreover, this study also did not compare children who have dogs with children who have cats. So how can they be so sure that dogs have a fantastic treatment effect?

An NHS (UK National Health Service) public hospital did a “Weekend Effect” study and found that, compared to children born in weekdays, weekend-children are more likely to die in the first week after birth.Similar comprehensive studies had found that problems are more appear to be happened during Saturdays and Sundays than the other days, except Thursday. The study found that when the baby was born on Thursday, the perinatal period holds the highest mortality rate, followed by The Saturday and Sunday; On the other hand, when the baby was born on Tuesday, the lowest perinatal mortality appears.

According to Statistics, the average perinatal mortality rate of weekdays is 6.4 / thousand babies, while that of weekend is 7.3 / thousand babies.The researchers estimate that if the hospital’s performance maintains the same during weekdays and weekends, compared to the current infant deaths per year, “weekdays” will reduce 770 potential dead babies, and infected mothers will reduce 470.

A previous studies have found another phenomenon. Comparing to weekdays, a greater risk of suffering complications during treatment process happens in NHS on weekends.  This study, published in the British Medical Journal, showed during April 2010 to March 2012 in UK, 1.3 million productions in maternity wards have suffered a similar weekend effect.Imperial College of Medicine researchers say they also compared the gestational age, the difference weight, mother’s age and medical history of mothers, found the weekend effect has a significant influence on the statistics.Professor Paul Aylin Imperial School of Public Health, said: “We are trying to find this result is just a coincidence of evidence, however, after getting rid of a lot of factors, we still found that complication rates in maternity wards have very big change among different days. ”

Personally, I think this topic is very interesting. Who can imagine the dates we born would somehow affect our destines, even though at very early ages. With this article published, I believe more and more pregnant women would choose which dates they intend to give a birth. But how can they completely control that? As researchers assume that there must have some relationships between dates and rates of complications, but still did not give a clear explanation, I wonder if there is a possible that this has something to do with the number of nurses and midwives who work in hospitals during weekends. As we all know, when a pregnant woman gives a birth, she needs a professional team to help her. But if there is not that much people who is willing to work at weekends? It is such a good thing that researchers pay attention to this phenomenon, and the next step is figure out why it happens.  I do believe through their efforts, more babies and less mothers would lose their valuable lives in the future.

If you ever choose to drink any sugar-free drinks, we brought some good news and some bad news for you. The good news is you successfully reduce excessive sugar intake, but the bad news is that they are still detrimental to your teeth. University of Melbourne researcher Eric Reynolds said that sugar substitutions are completely safe for teeth like many people thought. You cannot truly believe those labels on popular drinks.

The researchers tested a large number of soft drinks, sports drinks and confectionery products, and found that products with less sugar also can destroy your dental health. Studies have shown that, despite the sugar substitution can sometimes reduce the risk of dental caries, but sugar-free products still may be harmful to teeth due to its high acid content. The surface acid can erode the enamel and invade toward softer dentin.Although the pH value can indicate which products are relatively more acid (such as soft drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, fruit juice, wine, red wine), but some food also contain chelating agents (such as citrate). Chelating agents will be combined with other substances and calcium, This particularly aggressive combination would remove calcium from the tooth surface.

The researchers tested 15 kinds of soft drinks (including three kinds of sugar-free brand) on human’s no-caries molars, and found all the drinks are a significant cause of enamel erosion. These teeth have reduced mass of surface area. At the same time, there is no significant difference between sugary soft drinks and sugar-free soft drinks. Eight brands of sports drinks is similar to the results of the test, 75 percent of which caused significant loss of enamel and softened surface area – even though they are not serious as Coca-Cola’s influence. Coke and bottled mineral water are two control groups.Sugarless sweets damage teeth as well, because they contain citric acid and other food sour agent – especially in lemons, oranges and other fruit-flavored candy.

So, in order to reduce the chance of tooth decay and dental erosion, what not to eat? The researchers recommend fluoridated water, because the benefits of fluoride cannot be brought by bottled water. Besides, milk is another excellent choice, because it is not corrosive.Water is more highly recommended than any soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit juices and other drinks, which is obviously corrosive for the teeth, whether they contain sugar or not. Chewing sugarless gum is also recommended, because it can stimulate saliva to flow, wash away the acidic substance, and make the softened enamel to re-strengthening. Interestingly, the researchers said that we should not brush our teeth immediately after we eat or drink an acidic product. Instead, we should first drink or gargle with water, and then brush one hour after. Of course, see your dentist regularly is a great way to make sure that the teeth maintain the best state.

Personally, this is an useful article for me, who loves beverages. I thought drinking sugar-free ones is much healthier than regular ones. But the researchers told me I was wrong. But does the impact on teeth varies person by person? Once I saw a news: a hundred-old woman was interviewed. When asking what her secret was to maintain health, she laughed (with healthy white teeth) and said 1L Pepsi per day. I think there has to be more factors to decide whether how much impact soft drinks made on teeth. On the other hand, how do readers know this article is not influenced by particular industry? Soft drinks create a massive market, and news such as “Harmful for Health” or “Do Not Trust Labels!” would absolutely have a negative impact on soft-drinks companies. As a result,  people may find other drinks instead like milk to have a healthier life-style. But overall, though holding little doubts, I do believe we should drink less soft-drinks. These are some tips that would be useful to avoid teeth eroded by sugary drinks.

A new study found that about 20 minutes after we eat, bacteria in gut will produce a protein suppressing appetite, indicating that in fact our own efforts to control appetite is smaller than we expected before.After the scientists researched the role of E. coli, they found that E. coli releases adequate nutrients protein which can affect the transmission of signals between the gut and the brain after people intake of food, and even activate appetite related neuronal thus let you produce a sense of satiety.

Sergueï Fetissov, who works at University of Rouen in France, participated in the study, he said: “There are many surveys have studied the composition of microorganisms in different pathological environment, but they do not explore the mechanisms behind these associations. E. coli can be released from the bacterial protein involved in the body in the same manner as the saturation signal transmission path molecule, now we need to understand how a group of intestinal microflora is altered can affect such physiological functions. “When we could not eat another piece of pie at the time, not because our stomach and intestines have been extended to the extreme, but because our gut bacteria want to let us know that they have received adequate nutrition, and hope we do not continue eating.

Fetissov and colleagues analyzed protein produced in rat’s E. coli before reaching their conclusions. Within 20 minutes after a meal, the rats began  to produce different types of proteins which were not seen before the meal. Even more interesting is that in humans, about 20 minutes after the meal is exactly the time that we feel very satisfied and very sleepy. The researchers isolated this particular protein: ClpB, and injected into rats, to see if their appetite are affected. They found that both normal-appetite mice or on-diet mice,  their appetite are both reduced and eventually eat less.

This is not the first time researchers have found evidence that bacteria can regulate our appetite, then why do bacteria care so much about how much we eat?It turned out that we have a lot of bacteria inside bodies, but they always maintain a certain balance. Once the number of bacteria increased or decreased, will bring us a lot of health problems. This is what our body’s microbial parasites do not want to see. In fact, E. coli is to maintain their equpium by adjusting the number of our appetite.  Fetissov explains: “I do not know why they put their number remained at around one billion. But within 20 minutes they will be able to breed a new one billion bacteria, and began to produce new proteins regulate our appetite.”

Personally, I think this study has been conducted great. If bacteria can control our appetite, it can also explain why sometimes I feel full enough but just cannot stop eating. On the other hand, researchers still did not answer why the time E. coli produce its protein is 20 minutes, and how ClpB relate the feeling of sleepy. But, I think some medicine companies can put further efforts according to the conclusion draw from this study. If ClpB does restrain appetite, more effective diet products can be made. However, before that, scientists have to make sure that too much ClpB produced by E.coli does not have any side-effects. According to Fetissov, the main purpose for this protein is to maintain a balance inside our bodies. In other words, using proteins for diet is also a way to break this balance. Much more further experiments have to be conducted to claim any other statement.

In these years, the rate of suffering by stroke is increasing. More and more people are seeking methods to avoid stroke. What is a stroke? A stroke is a”brain attack”. It can happen on any people at anytime, but elders are affected on a higher possibility. “It occurs when blood flow to an area of brain is cut off. When this happens, brain cells are deprived of oxygen and begin to die. When brain cells die during a stroke, abilities controlled by that area of the brain such as memory and muscle control are lost.” (Stroke.org)

According to the latest study, learning another language,  not only benefit for communicating, but also extend to many hidden cognitive domains, such as to protect your brain in the event of a stroke or dementia and other health problems.Researchers from Britain and India collected data 608 stroke patients in Hyderabad. They found that  the patients who can handle more than one language have a greater chance of recovery from stroke. Rehabilitation also increased prospects for a very high level. Bilingual people have the probability of recovery twice more than that of monolinguals after stroke, even taking into account other factors, such as smoking, hypertension, diabetes, and age.

The researchers found that brain is challenged when people say more than one language, and this experience will inspire cognitive reserve, which would enhance the brain’s ability to deal with damage caused by a stroke and other diseases.Bilingual people can switch between two languages, when they stop using one, it is necessary to activate another language to communicate,” Thomas Bak, one of the study authors at the University of Edinburgh, said, “This switch allows the brain to continuous evolving, thus becoming factors in helping stroke patients to have rehabilitation. Apart from showing better recovery on brain function after a stroke, bilinguals who are able to speak more than one language also perform better in stroke sequelae tests, including tests of attention, gather and organize information.

It is worth noting that the amazing recovery results of this study demonstrates particular related areas. According to the researchers published  “Stroke” magazine, Hyderabad is a multicultural city, mixed with a lot of languages, including Telugu, Urdu, Hindi and English. These people live in Hyderabad receive daily “brain training” – so it has been a corresponding benefit – which is difficult to have the same conditions as in other places.

Personally, I think this study did not explain clearly enough. It takes a long page to state the importance of knowing different languages. But how can we classify “different”? For example, in China, even nearby provinces have varied dialects. Can dialects be counted? Or two have to come from completely different phylum? Moreover, the question is “Has Learning languages to  be the only way?” In my opinion, as long as you keep your brain actively often enough, you will always be influence less after a brain damage. For many, learning anything that new for them can be beneficial, including reading a new book or using a new ways to play poker. More detailed guidance for people to maintain an active brain can see here. Overall, I think this group of researchers claim their founding a little subjective. I believe learning new languages is only one way to exercise brains. We should find out the real reason for impact but not hold one example too tight.

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Since I come from China, my family taught me how to be a gentle eastern girl. “Getting angry in public is really an inappropriate thing for a female.” This is my grandma told me since I was young. Recently, the authors of a new paper in the journal Law and Human Behavior, Jessica Salerno of Arizona State University and Liana Peter-Hagene of the University of Illinois at Chicago stated, “When women express anger during group deliberation, it ends up undermining their argument, and people are less likely to be influenced by their opinion.” However, for men, the opposite is true. The more a man express his anger, the more influence he will have. The reason may associate women’s power is potentially having less influence on society.

In the study, Salerno and Peter divided 200 students into two groups. Presenting two different video to them, about the same case on Supreme Court: a wife is suspected to kill her husband. When she state her innocence, one video is she said calmly, while the other one is she said angrily. When students finished watching, researchers asked them to judge whether they believe the wife told a lie or not. Not surprisedly,  the result match the original hypothesis: People are less influenced by women if she gets angry. Some students thought that if the wife got angry, they would think that her anger was totally because of lack of confidence of her own words or even guilty.

Why is there a huge different between men and women? Is this phenomenon associate with the inequality between genders? In the company where mu father works, I have seen males get outraged about aborted projects or contracts usually, but seldom see a female lose her temper in the office, even those females who held huge power in the entire company. Many office women have learned to stay incredibly clam and be careful about their tone of speaking. “When you get anger, you can release it, but you can never lose it.” This is someone told me when I got an internship during summer. Angry women tend to give a impression of bitchy  and shrill. All these behaviors give people an justice excuse to discount what she is saying. On the other hand, a man who gets angry does not mean that he has a bad personality but he has a strong opinion. It often makes people who disagree with him feel stupid for themselves  and thus cowed into agreeing.

Is there some other third variables that make women unconvincing such as women are less capable of illustrate her points logically when they get angry than men does? Besides bias other than a woman should be calm and gentle, what else could affect people to have attitudes differs for angry women and men? Though I think the outcome is here, women still need to speak up if occasions need her to do so.

Since I was very young, my mother always said to me I should compare my grades got in school to my classmates’ to achieve having academic progress. Then when I grow older, I asked my parents to buy me something my friend already had. They said, “Don’t keeping up with the Joneses.” As we all know that human are social animals who has to get involved to this world.

According to Adam Galinsky and Maurice Schweitzer, both are social psychologists and co-authors of a book called Friend and Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both, “There is a truth about social comparison: It’s pretty much inevitable, so you may as well learn to use it to your advantage.” In their book, Galinsky and Scheweitzer state that compare yourself to peers is an innate human tendency, whether you think it is good or bad, but it surely play a large role to determine your level of happiness in daily life.

Even monkeys has inevitable tendency to have comparison with others. According to a well-known experiment conducted by Emory University. There were two monkeys stayed in different cages where close to each other. At first researchers gave both of them cucumbers, and these two monkeys were perfectly satisfied. However, later when researchers gave one monkey juicy grape while still gave the other cucumber. The monkey who received tasteless cucumber got so angry that it shouted and shook the cage. Inequality can be perceived easily among many species. The authors write “What this experiment demonstrates, is that our evolutionary ancestors did not evaluate their outcomes in isolation; rather, they evaluated outcomes in a comparative process.” (To see the monkey experiment video can click here)

In my opinion, since comparison is inevitable, we had better to learn how to live with it. Rivalries, can absolutely be motivating. According to a study raised by psychologist Gavin Kiduff from New Yorker University, people tend to have a better performance when their rivals are known, compare to their performance against totally random strangers. It is pretty obvious in daily life. When I run with my friend on campus, I always run greatly faster than when I run alone. Besides, I do believe that competitive and cooperation feelings can co-exist perfectly. Human is a complex combination and absolutely handle emotions that appear to be contrary. My father told me once, if I want to get happiness, I shall seek favorable comparisons. But if I want to get improvement, I absolutely have to find harsh ones.

Since I was young, I always associate the brain size with that person’s IQ. Scientists have debated the importance of brain size for centuries. Recently, researchers from University of Vienna suggests brain size only plays a small role in intelligence. In 1836, a German anatomist Friedrich Tiedemann raised a statement in the journal Philosophical Transactions, “There is undoubtedly a connection between the absolute size of the brain and the intellectual powers and functions of the mind.” Since then, debates over whether this theory right or wrong started. As technologies develop, advanced devices enable scientists to make more thorough  assessments toward brains.

The University of Vienna found an international team to study the relationship between brain size and IQ by  analysis 148 sample from 8,000 participants. Jakob Pietschnig from the Institute of Applied Psychology of the University of Vienna stated that “brain volume plays only a minor role in explaining IQ test performance in humans.” For example, the sperm whale has a much more larger brain than that of human, but the difference of IQ between sperm whale’s and human’s is obvious. Another example is, it’s known that men have larger brains than women, but there has no report about men have a more outstanding result in IQ tests. Contrarily, there exists a kind of growth development disorder called megalencephaly syndrome, which the brain achieve a size that is unusual large. Typically, people who suffer this disorder have a lower grades in IQ tests than normal people. Brain structure appear to be have a more strong relationship associate with IQ. The importance of brain structure becomes obvious when comparing different species.

Though the whole size of brain cannot indicate level of IQ, but sizes of some parts inside the brain do indicate something. Hippocampi (orange part) located in the both left and right sides of the brain, which is responsible for forming new memories.

When they are impaired, Alzheimer’s disease is likely to occur. The larger this part is, the more unlikely a person have a reduced risk of memory decline. A journal called Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy published an article about a study of examined 226 people for the relationship between the size of hippocampi and memory. This finding can predict potential developing dementia.

Is there a possibility that because some people are good at remembering things and improve their memories very often, so their hippocampi becomes larger? Just like muscles, some athletes use them more often, then they have a larger biceps. Is there a third variable that affect both the size of hippocampi and memory such as a hormone that circulates in the brain? These are my questions toward this topic that waited for further studies to answer.

When I was young, once I asked my sister why I have some little dots on my body, she answered those were unique marks let angels to recognize me. The more moles a person had, the greater chance he or she would be found by angels. Recently, experts from King’s College in London published an article in the British Journal of Dermatology,  suggests that they have found a new way to predicts whether somebody is potential to develop melanoma: to counting moles on body such as arms. More than 30 percent of melanoma arises from pre-existing moles. Besides, having more than 100 moles on the body is a strong predicator of skin cancer. Wellcome Trust funded the study to analysis data from 3,549 female twins. Professional nurses from St Thomas’ hospital performed the counting on 17 areas of each person’s body.  Scientists found that the number of moles on right arms is the most predictive for the total number of moles on entire body. Researchers demonstrated that if  the number of moles on the arm is greater than 11, it has a significant risk of having more than 100 on the whole body. This is a strong predicator of risk for melanoma. The findings have a significant impact for people who worry about skin cancer. Counting moles can be a easy and directly way to predict. More patients at risk of getting melanoma can be targeted and monitored.

Some people may ask, what causes moles? Genes play a large role in it. Genetic scientists said that the number of moles and freckles are greatly decided by the genes we inherit from our parents. Besides, the amount of exposure to sun also decide the chance to have new moles. The more your skin stay under the sun, the more moles would likely to appear on your skin. I have a mole that lie on my sole, where is sun-protected area. It may occur because of my genes. According to Medicinenet, the total number of moles appear on a person’s body usually peaks on an average of 35. After 35, people would more likely to get freckles or seborrheic keratoses instead of moles.

However, is there  a third variable that link to moles and skin cancer?  Is it possible those people who have more than 11 moles on right arm have already got skin cancer but not detected by modern technologies yet? Or moles are not predicators for skin cancer, but both of them are created by some particular genes that have other characteristics such as skin type, hair or eye color?  To find out, comparing the number of patients who get skin cancer among a large amount of variables is necessary needed.

When I was young, I played with my little cousin, who was a girl liked to cry a lot. Once I took her doll to make her chase me, she fell down from upper stairs. She cried so loud that made me panic because who wanted to be blamed by adults? Suddenly, I came up with something. I gave her a candy, and told her it was a magic pill that could cure her pain. After she swallowed, she told me her body was not painful any more. According to official definition on Medicinenet, Placebo Effect is a phenomenon that a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful.

Recently, scientists from McGill University stated a finding that Americans are becoming more likely to to report they have feelings of effect after taking fake painkillers. Only in America, the placebo effect has affected people strongly since 1990s. They collect data of  84 drug trials of painkillers tests based on patients’ self-report of feeling the pain after taking either the actual medicine or the placebo. The result founds that, according to Melissa Dahl who writes an article about this topic, “in 1996, medications were rated as being 27 percent more effective painkillers, on average, as compared to placebos. By 2013, however, that difference had shrunk to just 9 percent.” The practical implication has frustrated many companies, which make painkillers. In the last decade, more than 90 percent pills have failed to show a significant affect by comparing taking placebos in the final stages of drug trials. The researchers conclude one potential explanations. The first one is, US is one of the only two countries that medicine companies can advertise their products directly to consumers. Advertisements may increase consumer’s expectation of the potential efficiency toward the pills.

However, are people truly feel better from the bottom of their hearts? Is there some possibilities for patients who report they feel better merely because other patients who took the pill and all said it worked? Or because they do not want to let the one makes the drug disappointed? In other words, can this be a file drawer problem? (explanation of its phenomenon can be found here). This can be a social behavior problem rather than a medical one. People are more dependable and see themselves more through other’s eyes than before.  “Do I suppose to fake a big smile after he passes the pill to me?”  There are too much potential variables that can affect a patients’ reception of pain and their thoughts to express the pain. How to reduce the challenge brought by placebos? It is a worthy discussion that scientists should work on.

When I decide to come to Penn State University several months ago, I started to find my roommate online. One of the most important source that allows me to know my future roommate better was Facebook– The most popular social media website world widely. According to Jo Hemmings, a behavioral psychologist, three quarters of people judge their peers based on their Facebook profile. In other words, fictitious network plays a more and more important part in actual world, because it affects our opinion toward things and people around us more and more heavily. A survey conducted by HTC, a smartphone maker, found that in oder to make their Facebook seem to be more exciting, six percent of users had borrowed items to show off on their homepage and state them as their owns. Most surveyed people said those posted images are merely intend to cause jealousy among friends and family. There is a common desire to show off how rich people are through network, to prove themselves as successful people. Thus, those “fake posts” may as expectedly contain stuff such as houses, cars and luxuries. I always cannot understand this kind of people. When their followers are deceived that they appear to be rich, what is the next? They can bring you nothing except “wow!” or “cool!” Though they may admire you, can they bring you money?   No. Can they come to you and try to build a deeper friendship with you? Maybe, but are you going to welcome those people who decide to come closer to you only after knowing you are rich? You know what you are, why we have to live like some actors?

Nowadays people live in a world that filled with instant communication, and obviously more rely on each other than decades ago. Through social media, we can know what our friends are wearing, what cars they are driving immediately. Online peer-to-peer recommendation influence 76 percent of surveyed people to buy things. This can absolutely have great advantages among lives. For example, before  I  buy a body lotion, I can search “body lotions” on Instagram first,  to see how many “likes” below each type and what those comments talk about. Technologies make life convenient. However, on the other side, technologies make people more dependable at the same time. Undeniably, beings are social animals that have to depend on each other, but it does not mean that they have to share the same viewpoints on most things. If I wear one my favorite shoes and post it on my Instagram,  but most my friends comment that this pair is old-fashioned, do I need to feel bad for my taste and delete this post immediately? Do I need to care that much about others’ opinion?

Recently, a new study shows that cats, unlike dogs, do not need their owners to make them feel secure and safe. Some pet-owners like to retreat their pets as babies or little children. However, secret cameras putting in houses showed that cats show no sign of anxiety at all. This conclusion may sway the image of little kitties waiting to be touched and to be cared. Comparing to dogs, cats are more desire to look after themselves. Some cat lovers may get disappointed about their little guests at home, but at the same time, cats become an ideal pet for people who live in cities and who have to work long hours.

In order to keep on studying cats’ relationship with owners, researchers divide twenty cats in three groups: with their owners, with a stranger and on their own. Then after a long-term observation, researchers found that though cats are more vocal if someone is near them, there is no significant difference between cats with their owners and a stranger.

However, the author of Cats Behaving Badly and How To Read Your Cat’s Mind, Celia Haddon said owners should not hold a feeling that their cats do not love them. They may love a owner as same much as a dog, the only differences are cats’ expression is different and act more independent, that’s it. She gave an example, if a cat feels unsafe toward a house or an owner, they would not give anyone a opportunity to be able to touch it. It will jump on wardrobe or hide under a bed. If it hang out around its owner, it must be satisfied about everything around it.

Being “aloof” is a genetic naturally for cats, owners should not worry too much about.

Recently, a new psychological research suggests that people are more likely to cheat for their own benefits when they get closer to finish an accomplishment.  In order to research this “cheat at the end” effect, scientists conducted a coin-flipping experiment. Through the internet, participants need to flip a quarter to guess which side it would land on. Once they got it right, they would get a small cash as a reward. Actually, before participants can choose their results, they have to agree on a statement: DO NOT CHEAT! As we all know  that if everyone told the true result he or she got, the percentage of being right or wrong should be fifty percent. However, the statistics tell us the overall result chose by participants were much greater than what it supposed to be.

More interestingly, the chances of people thought they left has a large correlation with how much they cheated.  The scientists divide participants into two groups: one have seven chances to flip the coin, the other has ten. The result shows that at the seventh time, “seveners” reported a correct percentage of 75%. On the other hand, the result of “tenners” still kept around 50%. But these tenners waited to enlarge their correct percentage until the last chance came. Scientists analysis the reason is that participants anticipate they would regret if they did not find any way to raise their percentage of correct answers. In order to avoid regretting, people choose to lie.

Scientists wanted to see if this effect has the same result in daily life. Later, they gave this two groups of people either seven or ten articles to read. Then asked them to record the time they spent on reading each one. But actually, there was a secret timer to record their reading time. After comparing the time they reported and the actual one, not surprisingly, the overall result: when will participants more likely to lie, is the same as the former experiment as flipping coins.

Information about the main conductor of this :cheat at the end” experiment, click here.

According to a report published by Pew Research Center, there is a huge knowledge gap among races in USA. The organization gave 12 science related questions to Hispanics, Blacks and Whites. Whites show the average of 8.4 correct answers, while Hispanics is 7.1 and 5.9 for Blacks. Scientists said this result is consistent with  many other factors, such as the percentage of race entering in colleges and the number of job placements for differences races in advanced science industry.

The National Opinion Research Center conducted a General Social Survey (GSS) before. It suggests that Americans who experience more formal education in colleges are more likely to be interested in science, no matter which major he or she studies.   Another result come from this survey is compare to other races, whites are more likely to graduation with a diploma that relates to science and engineering. According to a report by the National Science Board, nearly 63% white students devote themselves in science majors, while 10% for Hispanics and 9% for Blacks.  Besides in colleges, there also have differences on high school level. Whites and Asians are more likely to do a better job on standardized tests than Hispanics and Blacks. Moreover, the former two groups of students are also more likely to take advanced science courses.

Some people suggest another factor that causes this knowledge gap in science is Blacks and Hispanics are less likely to work in scientific field. Throughout history, science is mainly dominated by white males. These years, government starts to put effort to reduce this imbalance and create a more diversity atmosphere.

Recently, species of extinct human is discovered. Surprisingly, their brains are merely about the size of an orange. According to archaeologists,  this species, named Homo naledi,  is unearthed in South Africa. It presents some unusual characteristics such as having feet which are suitable for walking on ground, while hands are more adaptable for living in trees. This finding may cause scientists to rewrite the recorded history of early human beings.  The new found species only has a brain that only about 30.5 cubic  inches, nearly as large as an orange. Normally, a brain of modern human is about 73 to 97 inches. 

One explanation for its small size is the incapability for using tools, because many scientists believe that the ability of using tool boost brain size. However, to everyone’s surprise,the shape of hands of Homo naledi shows they have enough ability to make tool. Besides its unusual shape of hands, its feet are also special. Based on its bones, it seems like they are adapted to walk in a long distance on ground. However, at the same time, their curved fingers suggest a hint toward a life suited for climbing trees. 

More intriguingly, homo naledi even disposed its ritual behavior toward death, which is only known among modern human. This caused a huge dilemma for anthropologists, because they have no idea where to put this species in categories.  

Who do not want to live longer? Throughout Chinese history, a few outstanding emperors even died after eating elixir they ordered ministers to make. It seems funny for us, but extend longevity is not an unusual dream. Fearing of death is an instinct for beings. No matter how powerful or how wealthy a person is, having a long longevity is  one of the things they can never buy using money.  However, according to World Health Statistic 2014, humans are expected to be able to live longer than before. This conclusion is based on a fact that much fewer children die before reaching five years old. However, here still exits a huge gap of average life expectancy: 19 years, between rich and poor countries.  (rich: 82 years, poor: 63 years)

Knowing the rising trend of life expectancy, a British scientist named Dr De Grey, who is a biomedical gerontologist work for an organization dedicated to do research on longevity,   assumes that a person who is able to live for a thousand years will be born in next two decades.  According to his theory, aging is the accumulation os life-long damage. But if any technology can reduce the pace of damaging cells even a little bit, people can live much longer than before.

This is absolutely a world-shaking statement and attract countless overwhelming doubts instantly. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review Journal even offered $20,000 to any molecular biologists who can prove his statement was so wrong that no worthy points shall be debated over his topic. Others also concern about stresses the society will be sustained if extension of longevity expands. However, Dr De Grey said insisted his points strongly and concluded seven main categories which repair techniques should be advanced to achieve his anticipation. Nowadays, he is working with other molecular biologists to study enzymes that can break down damaged cells and  the ways to clean out from body. In interviews, Dr De Grey refused to make a guess about how long human can live in the future, but he does believe the first people reaches one thousand-year-old will be born less than 20 years.