Aren\’t There More Important Things To Study?

By Knight Pierce Hirst

Yale University psychologists did studies to demonstrate the mind/body connection. Volunteers who were given a cup of warm coffee to hold rated the giver as being a more social and happier person than did the volunteers who were given a cup of iced coffee to hold. In a related study volunteers who were asked to evaluate a therapeutic hot pad were more likely to choose a gift for a friend when asked to choose a gift for participating in the evaluation. The volunteers who were asked to evaluate a cold pad usually chose a gift for themselves. Maybe “warm hands, warm heart” is a scientific fact.

If it’’s a fact you”re losing sleep over the financial crisis, you”re not alone. Ninety-two percent of the 1,137 adult, working respondents to an online survey are losing sleep too. The survey done by ComPsych Corp broke down the primary cause of worry this way. Thirty percent worried most about cost of living, 29% about credit card debt, 14% about mortgage payments, 13% about retirement accounts and 3% each about health care and children’’s school tuition. The remaining 8% said they weren”t worried about the economy, which could give the other 92% something more to worry about.

Then there’’s the research from Australia’’s Queensland University that showed honey bees can count. The researchers put 5 striped markers inside a flight tunnel. When the bees were released inside the tunnel, they flew to the marker where nectar had been put and continued to fly there even when the nectar was gone. When the nectar was randomly placed at markers 1 through 4, the bees could be trained to fly to those markers. Four, however, was as high as the bees could count - but with a brain the size of poppy seed, that shows remarkable “foursight”.

Finally, zoo keepers at the Kushiro Zoo in northern Japan discovered a significant reason why polar bears won”t mate. In 2005 the zoo acquired Tsuyoshi, a male polar bear cub, for the sole purpose of siring more polar bears. After waiting 3 years for Tsuyoshi to reach reproductive age, he was introduced to the zoo’’s eleven-year-old female polar bear, Kurumi. When 5 months passed without Tsuyoshi making a sexual advance, zoo officials became concerned about the bear’’s health and had him anesthetized for examination. That’’s when Tsuyoshi was diagnosed with an incurable condition. The bear fact was Tsuyoshi’’s female.

About The Author

Knight Pierce Hirst takes a second look at what makes life interesting and it takes only second at http://knightwatch.typepad.com