Ontophilia

13th February 2012

Photo reblogged from (±0.2 Billion Years.) with 383 notes

expose-the-light:

The Cognitive Benefits Of Chewing Gum
Why do people chew gum?
If an anthropologist from Mars ever visited a typical supermarket, they’d be confounded by those shelves near the checkout aisle that display dozens of flavored gum options. Chewing without eating seems like such a ridiculous habit, the oral equivalent of running on a treadmill. And yet, people have been chewing gum for thousands of years, ever since the ancient Greeks began popping wads of mastic tree resin in their mouth to sweeten the breath. Socrates probably chewed gum.
It turns out there’s an excellent rationale for this long-standing cultural habit: Gum is an effective booster of mental performance, conferring all sorts of benefits without any side effects.
While previous studies achieved similar results — chewing gum is often a better test aid than caffeine — this latest research investigated the time course of the gum advantage. It turns out to be rather short lived, as gum chewers only showed an increase in performance during the first 20 minutes of testing. After that, they performed identically to non-chewers.
What’s responsible for this mental boost? Nobody really knows. It doesn’t appear to depend on glucose, since sugar-free gum generated the same benefits. Instead, the researchers propose that gum enhances performance due to “mastication-induced arousal.” The act of chewing, in other words, wakes us up, ensuring that we are fully focused on the task at hand. Unfortunately, this boost is fleeting. The takeaway of this research is straightforward: When taking a test, save the gum for the hardest part, or for those questions when you feel your focus flagging. The gum will help you concentrate, but the help won’t last long.
Last month, scientists at Coventry University found that people chewing mint gum showed a dramatic decrease in feelings of sleepiness. The subjects also looked less exhausted when assessed with the Pupillographic Sleepiness Test (PST), which uses the oscillations of the pupils as a metric of tiredness. When we chew gum, we gain alertness and attention, but without the jitters.
And then there’s this paper, from a researcher at Cardiff University. 133 volunteers were given cognitive tests with and without chewing gum. After each testing session, the volunteers rated their mood and underwent a number of physiological measurements, including heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. As expected, gum chewers were more attentive than non-chewers, with elevated heart rates and cortisol levels. They also had much faster reaction times, especially on more difficult reaction tests. They even appeared to be in a better mood.
A recent review of the gum-chewing literature summarizes the science: “Gum appears to be a functional food with function but no food.”
Photo: Flickr/world of jan

The Cognitive Benefits Of Chewing Gum

Why do people chew gum?

If an anthropologist from Mars ever visited a typical supermarket, they’d be confounded by those shelves near the checkout aisle that display dozens of flavored gum options. Chewing without eating seems like such a ridiculous habit, the oral equivalent of running on a treadmill. And yet, people have been chewing gum for thousands of years, ever since the ancient Greeks began popping wads of mastic tree resin in their mouth to sweeten the breath. Socrates probably chewed gum.

It turns out there’s an excellent rationale for this long-standing cultural habit: Gum is an effective booster of mental performance, conferring all sorts of benefits without any side effects.

While previous studies achieved similar results — chewing gum is often a better test aid than caffeine — this latest research investigated the time course of the gum advantage. It turns out to be rather short lived, as gum chewers only showed an increase in performance during the first 20 minutes of testing. After that, they performed identically to non-chewers.

What’s responsible for this mental boost? Nobody really knows. It doesn’t appear to depend on glucose, since sugar-free gum generated the same benefits. Instead, the researchers propose that gum enhances performance due to “mastication-induced arousal.” The act of chewing, in other words, wakes us up, ensuring that we are fully focused on the task at hand. Unfortunately, this boost is fleeting. The takeaway of this research is straightforward: When taking a test, save the gum for the hardest part, or for those questions when you feel your focus flagging. The gum will help you concentrate, but the help won’t last long.

Last month, scientists at Coventry University found that people chewing mint gum showed a dramatic decrease in feelings of sleepiness. The subjects also looked less exhausted when assessed with the Pupillographic Sleepiness Test (PST), which uses the oscillations of the pupils as a metric of tiredness. When we chew gum, we gain alertness and attention, but without the jitters.

And then there’s this paper, from a researcher at Cardiff University. 133 volunteers were given cognitive tests with and without chewing gum. After each testing session, the volunteers rated their mood and underwent a number of physiological measurements, including heart rate and salivary cortisol levels. As expected, gum chewers were more attentive than non-chewers, with elevated heart rates and cortisol levels. They also had much faster reaction times, especially on more difficult reaction tests. They even appeared to be in a better mood.

A recent review of the gum-chewing literature summarizes the science: “Gum appears to be a functional food with function but no food.”

Photo: Flickr/world of jan

Source: expose-the-light

13th February 2012

Chat reblogged from Phreddie with 72,862 notes

france: ten
france: twenty
france: thirty
france: forty
france: fifty
france: sixty
france:
france:
france: sixty ten
world: france what are you do—
france: four twenties
world: france stop it
france: four twenties ten
world: france that doesn't even make any sense
france:
france:
france:
world:
france:
world:
france: hundred.

Source: didyoudrinkmygingerale

17th January 2012

Photo reblogged from cwl with 61 notes

cwnl:

Closest Dione Flyby

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

Flying past Saturn’s moon Dione, Cassini captured this view which includes two smaller moons, Epimetheus and Prometheus, near the planet’s rings.

The image was taken in visible light with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera during the spacecraft’s flyby of Dione on Dec. 12, 2011.

This encounter was the spacecraft’s closest pass of the moon’s surface, but, because this flyby was intended primarily for other Cassini instruments, it did not yield Cassini’s best images of the moon. Higher resolution images were obtained during earlier flybys (At Carthage Linea).

Source: ikenbot

17th January 2012

Photo reblogged from cwl with 1,297 notes

cwnl:

Cosmos Master-Post

“Spread Knowledge, It Is Power, It Is Free”

From the lives of the stars to creation theories, functions of the human brain, and the ongoing search for extraterrestrial intelligence, Cosmos asks big questions. When appropriate, Sagan offers big answers, or asks still bigger–and yes, even spiritual–questions at the boundaries of science and religion.

What’s most remarkable about Cosmos is that it remains almost entirely fresh, with few updates needed to the science that Sagan so passionately celebrates. It is no exaggeration to say that Cosmos–for all the debate it may continue to provoke–is a vital document for humanity at a pivotal crossroads of our history.

The complete landmark TV series – 13 one-hour episodes, including:

I: The Shores Of the Cosmos II: One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue III: The Harmony Of the Worlds IV: Heaven and Hell V: Blues For A Red Planet VI: Travellers’ Tales VII: The Backbone of Night VIII: Travels In Space and Time IX: The Lives Of the Stars X: The Edge Of Forever XI: The Persistence Of Memory XII: Encyclopedia Galactica XIII: Who Speaks For Earth?

Cosmos eBook

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7KHI378G

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The Music of Cosmos – Collector’s Edition

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8N4YWUG4

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=06XIT86O

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I: The Shores Of the Cosmos

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6938FERP

II: One Voice In the Cosmic Fugue

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HMKA1OUU

III: The Harmony Of the Worlds

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G0ZLTD7S

IV: Heaven and Hell

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=V78R0CVE

V: Blues For A Red Planet

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H6Y3QHTJ

VI: Travellers’ Tales

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2V6VCIH0

VII: The Backbone of Night

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6R4SZZ2K

VIII: Travels In Space and Time

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TBMLCCTX

IX: The Lives Of the Stars

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JLJ35C6X

X: The Edge Of Forever

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2QF3TCD7

XI: The Persistence Of Memory

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=61UUP810

XII: Encyclopedia Galactica

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=OH383SCZ

XIII: Who Speaks For Earth?

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RLZB7HL9

XIV: A Dialougue Between Carl Sagan & Ted Turner

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=16LG66I0

Via:MegaRelease

Can also be found on Hulu.