Science suggests chocolate “better than music”

November 7, 2012 – 7:02 am

Image captured from  http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/were-only-human/the-brain-is-not-an-explanation.html#.UJlc02_Mi4s

Ever since humankind grew its first sweet tooth, there has been nothing like chocolate to raise the spirits.

For many years, scientists are trying to find out exactly what makes chocolate so irresistible.  Was it because of the metal elements like magnesium and calcium that help lower our blood pressure and our stress levels or the “pleasure-promoting” chemical phenylethylamine or any of its other 300 compounds that can boost energy and libido?

Now, scientists at Cambridge University have revealed a new leads for the possible explanation. By employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers were able to identify and track the activity of the pleasure centre in a human brain.

Image contributed by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-128858/Scientists-prove-chocolate-better-love.html

The colored region of this brain scan shows how listening to nice music stimulates a feel-good factor linked to feelings of wellbeing.


Image contributed by http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-128858/Scientists-prove-chocolate-better-love.html

The colored area of this brain scan shows how the effect of eating chocolate on the brain is much greater than that of  listening to music. It seems like chocolate has a unique blend of sensory qualities which make us feel good, activating pleasure centres in the brain.

Cambridge neuroscientist, Adrian Owen, commented: “Both smelling and eating chocolate activate areas of the brain that are known to be involved in creating feelings of pleasure. The significant effects of having chocolates seem to be mainly psychological, rather than through direct biological action. The unique combination of aroma, texture and taste makes eating chocolate a pleasurable experience that stimulates the emotional feel-good centres of the brain.”

In short, the chocolate tastes good, so we feel good!

So in these stressful days (exam reviewing, assignment writing, meeting deadlines etc etc), please find your “lost” feel-good moments in heeding the advice of writer Charles Dickens “In trying times, there is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”  :-)

By MengJie | Posted in Meng Jie Hu | Comments (0)

Movies about mathematics

November 5, 2012 – 4:46 pm

We know that since high school, maths is a boring and hard subject. Why don’t  we watch some movies about it and make it more interesting

sure, watch it after exam ;)

1. π or 3.14159265358 (1998)

Talented mathematicians in the past decade notice that the stock market manipulate by a set of mathematical models behind the original chaotic fluctuations. So he committed to research to find out the mathematical model. However a Wall Street consortium as well as a Kabbalah religious organizations which are both looking for him at them same time. the movie is about he need to both protect his own safety, and also to identify these affect the world financial the password of the market as so as possible.

2. A Beutiful Mind (2001)

The story is about a mathematician, Jr.John Forbes Nash. In his early life he makes the astonishing mathematical discovery, began with an international reputation. However Nash superior intuition by schizophrenia troubled, so he has undergone tremendous change to the highest academic level into the glorious journey. Nash in love with his wife, Alicia. And she helps Nash to overcome schizophrenia, and in 1994, he won the Nobel Prize.

3. Good Will Hunting (1997)

An MIT professor of mathematics wrote a very difficult question on the bulletin board of mathematic department. And hope his outstanding students to be able to find the answer. However no one can. The story start at a young cleaner saw the question when he is cleaning the class room, and he solves it easily…

4. Fermat’s Room (2007)

Four people who do not know each other are invited by a  mysterious host called Fermat. However when they finally made the way to the meeting room , they found that the room is compressing unless they can solve the questions within a limited time. And they are required to find the link between four of them and  who is the murder.

The movie come across with Goldbach’s conjecture, this is one of the well know and the oldest unsolved problem in number theory.

It states that: every even integer which is greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two primes number.

And the best result is done by Chen Jimgrun(2002) , and named Chen’s theorem.

after all, good luck for exam

By chan | Posted in Chi Chan, general | Comments (0)

The gull dance

November 5, 2012 – 5:45 am

Sea Gulls Fish Too by Old Shoe Woman http://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/… Licensed under Creative Commons

Have you ever seen a gull stomping on the spot in shallow water or looking like it is doing a little jig on the grass?

This amusing behaviour of quickly raising alternate feet up and down (access the following link to watch a short video: http://youtu.be/jImEhCZ43YU), is known as ‘foot paddling’. It is thought that this movement suspends sediment in shallow water creating a type of quicksand, bringing invertebrates to the surface or making them move and become visible (O’Donnell, 2008). While foot paddling on moist grassy soil encourages earthworms to the surface in response to the vibrations (O’Donnell, 2008).

If we danced while shopping for food, life would be a lot more interesting!

By Fiona | Posted in Fiona Shackleton | Comments (0)

Killing killer dingoes

November 5, 2012 – 2:59 am

Danger, agressive dingo! @ Fraser Island, QLD by M i x y http://www.flickr.com/photos/ladymixy-uk/5368214284/ Licensed under Creative Commons

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to go on a day trip to Fraser Island, Queensland. However, I remember being quite taken aback when our tour-guide sadly and angrily pointed out were traps had been laid by rangers to capture the island’s iconic dingo (Canis lupus Dingo) for the purpose of euthanasia.

Surely these vulnerable animals were protected on this World Heritage listed island?

Dingoes are the poster-animal for Fraser Island, enticing tourists to get a glimpse. However, with more tourists, there have been more incidents with dingoes, likely to be due to people thinking a dingo is like a dog and leaving human food out, and not knowing how to behave in the presence of these wild animals.

In 2001, a nine year old boy was killed by a dingo. This led to a government-ordered cull of dingoes.

Burns and Howard (2003) amalgamated the responses from stakeholders regarding this incident (p.3):

It’s all pretty straight forward really. The tourists are stupid. The residents short-sighted. The dogs starving. The rangers, who don’t know how to look after the island, are over-worked and under-funded. And the government doesn’t give a damn … until somebody dies that is, and then they only give a damn about their political future.

A report by Lawrance and Higginbottom (2002) regarding the behavioural responses of dingos to humans on Fraser Island showed that the dingoes were habituated to humans and had predictable responses to human behaviour, which could be utilised for human safety.

Habituation

  • Dingoes in highly used areas by humans, more actively sought human food
  • Dingo behaviour was disturbed by people and vehicles
  • Dingos in higher used areas by humans had different movement patterns compared to dingoes in lower human used environments, with less time spent resting

Dingo behaviour affected by human behaviour

  • A person turning around and moving away from a dingo triggered an aggressive response
  • Moving towards a dingo and making loud noises and quick movements prompted in the dingo retreating or behaving submissively
  • A person staying still and quiet resulted a dingo to lose interest and /or move away

Lawrance and Higginbottom (2002) believe managers need to control the available human food on the island, and that tourists and locals need to be educated in the dangers of feeding dingoes and about the behaviours best displayed in front of the animals. Research into dingo behaviour also needs to be investigated further.

The recent educational flyer, The dingos of Fraser Island: Safety and information guide (2011), by the Queensland government is an illustration of useful fact sheet, and will hopefully help to reduce human-dingo conflict in the future.

Day 104- On the beach on Fraser Island – Australian Dingo by Nina Matthews Photography http://www.flickr.com/photos/21560098@N06/6536838899/ Licensed under Creative Commons

By Fiona | Posted in Fiona Shackleton | Comments (0)

Coffee, Alzheimer’s and dementia

November 5, 2012 – 12:23 am

Big Cup of Coffee by Avital Pinnick Creative Commons

Having a coffee is a regular occurrence for many of us, be it to break through the morning fog, for that perfect cup at a favourite café, or to help you through the late night chores.

I used to drink around four mugs of percolated coffee a day. When it occurred to me that this was probably a bit excessive. I cut down and became extremely grumpy, had nasty headaches, and lived with a hazy feeling for around week. Interpreting this as some type of withdrawal – surely coffee wasn’t good for me?

Interestingly, a study suggests drinking a number of cups of coffee a day could actually be a great benefit.

Eskelinen and colleagues (2009) used a random selection of survivors from two large population-based cohorts from studies in the 1970’s and 1980’s. There were 1409 individuals aged from 65 to 79 years old, who completed the follow-up survey in 1998. Results showed that people that drank coffee at midlife had a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease later in life, than those who did not drink coffee or only a little. People who drank 3-5 cups per day were found to have the lowest risk (65% decrease).

So maybe that extra cup of coffee is not so bad after all…

By Fiona | Posted in Fiona Shackleton | Comments (1)