June 3rd, 2008 ecoli
Pure Pedantry cites this interesting article, showing that access to restaurants is statistically unrelated to the obesity epidemic.
The whole experiment can pretty much be summed up in these two graphs:
Though it has been suggested in the past, that eating at restaurant promotes a larger calorie intake, this study seems to show that this is unrelated to obesity at large.
Its interesting work, but I think there are too many assumptions that we are expected to take at their word. For example, what type of restaurants are these? Perhaps people who live near the restaurants are mostly eating at a health food vegan sandwhich place, while the other group is eating fast food.
The other issue, is that they assume that living near a restaurant indicates a higher likelyhood of eating out. While, it takes no imaginative leap to assume that, I think a study which claims statistical relavence needs to prove these sort of assumptions. For example, could we also not assume, that people who live near restaurants are sick and tired of seeing them all the time, and therefore would rather eat at home?
Posted in link out, musings | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2008 ecoli
I first heard this story on the radio and then again at Sciencedaily.
Images of sexy women tend to whet men’s sexual appetite. But stimulating new research in the Journal of Consumer Research says there’s more than meets the eye. A recent study shows that men who watched sexy videos or handled lingerie sought immediate gratification—even when they were making decisions about money, soda, and candy.
I don’t think this finding is that surprising, though it is interesting. What I suspect, is that the evolution has selected for males who seek immediate sexual gratification. Reproducing early and often is a trait selected for in the right conditions. What these results seem to suggest, is that there is a psychological link between sexual desire and other material desire, such as tasty snacks, or an impulse purchase.
Though, brain scanning experiments will have to be done to confirm this (if they haven’t been done already) what I expect is that these ‘desire’ traits will be linked in the area of the brain as well.
What I want to know next, is that if it works the other way around. Does seeing a delicious snack make us want to fufill sexual gratification as well?
Regardless, I’m sure the advertisers are all over this one. Soon, we’ll be seeing pictures of bikini-clad women in all male-oriented stores.
Posted in evolution, neurobiology, news | No Comments »
June 3rd, 2008 ecoli
For those of you who aren’t in the know, right now the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) conference is being held in Boston, Massachusetts. I’m not there, unfortunately, but it sounds like an amazing place to be if you’re a microbiologist. This enormous conference is being held at the Boston Convention Center, has drawn 12,000 people, taking up 23,100 hotel rooms. According to this report from Boston.com, the conference is estimated to bring in $15.6 million dollars in “economic activity” into the Boston area.
I look forward to hearing stories about the conference.
post script: Also, there seems to be some Science Social Media breakfast, that a couple of bloggers have been talking about. Apparantly, its open to the public, but not directly associated with ASM. That’s about as much detail as I can find. Does anyone want to explain, in further detail, what exactly this thing is?
Posted in microbiology, news | No Comments »
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