It's an age-old gripe on date nights: men race through their meals. Photo / Richard Robinson
It's an age-old gripe on date nights: men race through their meals. Photo / Richard Robinson
Blokes eat more when around women
It's an age-old gripe on date nights: men race through their meals, leaving their female dining partners feeling rushed to finish their course.
Now there's peer-reviewed evidence to back that up - plus the interesting finding that men are likely to eat more when opposite females.
Cornell University researchers observed 105 adults lunching at an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet over the course of two weeks, and found men who dined with at least one woman ate 93 per cent more pizza and 86 per cent more salad than men who dined with only other men.
While the amount women ate didn't differ when eating with other women or with men, many women indicated feeling that they over-ate and were rushed through their meal with a bloke across the table.
Most of us would love our children to one day become All Blacks or Silver Ferns, but science simply can't predict it.
A panel of international scientists this week determined there was no scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of commercial genetic testing to identify sporting talent or boost performance in young children or adolescents.
Their exhaustive review found there was only a weak link between specific gene sequences and enhanced performance, and the limited knowledge on the genetics of sports performance was already being mis-used for commercial gain. Rather than looking to science, parents might be better served by Richie McCaw's simple hypothesis of hard work and Weet-Bix.
Why humans have built-in 3D glasses
Humans possess visual system that keeps information from each eye separate until it reaches the brain's visual cortex and culminates in 3D-vision. Photo / Supplied
Never mind The Terminator - we humans hold an astonishing biological ability to scan our surrounding environment and detect signs of danger instantly.
But how does our natural radar compare to that of rats, which you might think are more developed to recognise prey and predator?
Well, humans have the advantage of two forward-facing eyes that capture the same view from slightly different angles, and a visual system that keeps information from each eye separate until it reaches the brain's visual cortex and culminates in 3D-vision.
Rats, on the other hand, are more preoccupied with detecting and avoiding predators, and their visual systems reflect this: their eyes are on each side of their head, scanning different fields of view, and stereo vision is poor.
Researchers have however just found that both arrays can be traced back through evolution to the primitive systems of vertebrates like fish and frogs.
The workplace gender equity barrier
Women are less likely to get top jobs in companies that already have women in senior positions, according to analysis of 20 years of data from 1500 companies.
The US scientists behind the work say firms feel they've ticked the gender equality box by appointing a few women at the top, and may resist appointing more women.
The findings suggest that without efforts to promote greater gender equity, women may remain an isolated minority in top management. "A firm's efforts to promote gender diversity in management may need to redouble, rather than relent, once the firm makes some initial progress," said Professor David Gaddis Ross, author of the study featuring in the Strategic Management Journal.
These pigeons can detect breast cancer
US scientists have successfully trained pigeons to distinguish between dangerous and harmless breast cancers by looking at slides and X-rays. Photo / Supplied
You might have heard about dogs trained to detect cancer in humans, but pigeons?
US scientists report in journal PLOS ONE how they have successfully trained pigeons to distinguish between dangerous and harmless breast cancers by looking at slides and X-rays.
Tempting food rewards were used to teach the birds to distinguish between the types of cancer, and they were then able to apply their knowledge to cancers they had never seen before.
Although the pigeons proved to be as good at spotting malignant cancers as humans were, don't expect feathered oncologists just yet. The study was intended to help us learn about humans' ability to interpret medical images, not to recruit pigeons into the medical profession.
