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People Naturally Walk in Circles
00:05 Aug 21 2009
Times Read: 563


Emily Sohn, Discovery News; Aug. 20, 2009



If you're lost in the woods and you feel like you're walking in circles, you probably are. Without landmarks to guide us, people really do go around and around, found a new study.



The finding emphasizes the importance of being prepared if you're going to set off into the wilderness or even into a maze of city streets.



"Just walking in a straight line seems like such a simple and natural thing to do, but if you think about it, it's quite complicated thing going on in the brain," said Jan Souman, a psychologist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tubingen, Germany.



"After these experiments, I would never go into a big forest or desert without a compass or GPS anymore."



Souman's project started when a German popular-science television show approached his group with a viewer question: Why do people walk in circles when they're lost?



At first, Souman wasn't sure if that common sensation was actually true. When lost, he suspected, people might veer to the left or right. But he didn't expect them to actually walk in true circles. To find out, he instructed nine people to walk as straight as possible in one direction for several hours.



Six walkers forged through a flat, forested region of Germany. Three trekked through the Sahara desert in southern Tunisia. (A sand storm stopped further testing in the desert). All walkers wore GPS receivers so that the researchers could analyze their routes.



The results, published today in the journal Current Biology, showed that no matter how hard people tried to walk in a straight line, they often ended up going in circles without ever realizing that they were crossing their own paths. But there was a twist.



Circular walking befell only the four forest walkers who had to walk in overcast conditions and the one desert walker who walked at night after the moon had set. Those who could see the sun or moon managed to travel fairly straight.



Previous studies have shown that bees, pigeons and a variety of other animals move in tight circles when orienting cues like the sun are missing. The new study suggests that, whether we're conscious of what we're doing or not, people are tuned into those types of environmental signals, too.



"People find it really hard to say what they did exactly," Souman said. "It's pretty clear from our data that they do use the sun somehow."

In a follow-up experiment, the researchers challenged 15 people to walk straight while blindfolded. When they couldn't see at all, the walkers ended up going in surprisingly small circles -- with a diameter of less than 66 feet.



In repeated attempts, blindfolded walkers circled in one direction sometimes and in the opposite direction other times.



The blindfold experiment dispelled one theory -- that people might walk in circles because one leg tends to be longer or stronger than the other. Instead, Souman suspects that little mistakes in brain add up until the sense of what's straight turns into something round.

The results aren't necessarily surprising, said Randy Gallistel, a cognitive neuroscientist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Most dead hikers, after all, are found within a mile, if not 100 meters from where they got lost.



Still, he said, if you do get lost, it's important to know that your body might end up doing the opposite of what your brain intends.



To counter the tendency to spiral, Gallistel suggested that hikers learn some simple Boy Scout tricks. Moss grows on the north side of trees. There is less vegetation on the south-facing side of a valley than on its north-facing slopes. And the sun moves from east to west throughout the day.



Better yet, bring a map and compass or GPS device.



"If you are going to move, make sure you know how to move in a straight line," Gallistel said, adding that it's hard to find a spot in the continental United States that's more than 20 miles from a road. "Straight lines are helpful. Circles don't get you anywhere."

Chocolate 'Cuts Death Rate' in Heart Attack Survivors
15:16 Aug 13 2009
Times Read: 572


by Marlowe Hood – Thu Aug 13, 7:02 am ET



PARIS (AFP) – Heart attack survivors who eat chocolate two or more times per week cut their risk of dying from heart disease about threefold compared to those who never touch the stuff, scientists have reported.



Smaller quantities confer less protection, but are still better than none, according to the study, which appears in the September issue of the Journal of Internal Medicine.



Earlier research had established a strong link between cocoa-based confections and lowered blood pressure or improvement in blood flow.

It had also shown that chocolate cuts the rate of heart-related mortality in healthy older men, along with post-menopausal women.

But the new study, led by Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, is the first to demonstrate that consuming chocolate can help ward off the grim reaper if one has suffered acute myocardial infarction -- otherwise known as a heart attack.



"It was specific to chocolate -- we found no benefit to sweets in general," said Kenneth Mukamal, a researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a co-author of the study.



"It seems that antioxidants in cocoa are a likely candidate" for explaining the live-saving properties, he told AFP in an exchange of e-mails.



Antioxidants are compounds that protect against so-called free radicals, molecules which accumulate in the body over time that can damage cells and are thought to play a role in heart disease, cancer and the aging process.



In the study, Janszky and colleagues tracked 1,169 non-diabetic men and women, 45-to-70 years old, in Stockholm County during the early 1990s from the time they were hospitalised with their first-ever heart attack.



The participants were queried before leaving hospital on their food consumption habits over the previous year, including how much chocolate they ate on a regular basis.



They underwent a health examination three months after discharge, and were monitored for eight years after that. The incidence of fatal heart attacks correlated inversely with the amount of chocolate consumed.



"Our findings support increasing evidence that chocolate is a rich source of beneficial bioactive compounds," the researchers concluded.

The results held true for men and women, and across all the age groups included in the study.



Other factors that might have affected the outcome -- alcohol consumption, obesity, smoking -- were also taken into account.



So should we all be loading up on cocoa-rich sweets?



"To be frank, I'm pretty cautious about chocolate because we're working on weight problems with so many individuals," said Mukamal, who is also a practising physician.



"However, I do encourage those who are looking for healthier desserts to consider chocolate in small quantities," he said.



"For individuals with no weight issues who have been able to eat chocolate in moderation and remain slim, I do not limit it," he added.

The researchers caution that clinical trials are needed to back up the findings of their study.



In the meantime, however, a bit of chocolate may not be amiss, they suggest.

Kenyan Offers Livestock Dowry for Chelsea Clinton
13:09 Aug 08 2009
Times Read: 576

(CNN) -- What can 40 goats and 20 cows buy a Kenyan man? Chelsea Clinton's love, if you ask Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor.



Hillary Clinton says she would let her daughter Chelsea know about a Kenyan man's unique marriage offer.



The Kenyan man first offered the dowry nine years ago to then-President Bill Clinton in asking for the hand of his only child. He renewed it Thursday after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the proposal at a Nairobi town hall session.



CNN's Fareed Zakaria, the session's moderator, commented that given the economic crisis at hand, Chepkurgor's dowry was "not a bad offer."



However, Clinton said her daughter was her own person.



"She's very independent," she said. "So I will convey this very kind offer."



The audience laughed, but Clinton's comments were no joke to Chepkurgor, who described the younger Clinton as a "beautiful, disciplined and well-natured woman."



"Of course I have never met her, but I like her family and how they stick together," Chepkurgor told CNN. "I've waited for a long time. I'm still waiting to meet her and express my love for her."



Chepkurgor operates a small electronics and computer shop in Nakuru, a major city northwest of Nairobi. He may still be waiting for Chelsea, but he's not exactly single. He married his wife Grace, a college classmate, in 2006.



"My wife has no problem with this," he insisted. "She listened to the answers given by Hillary and did not complain."



Polygamy is legal in Kenya, so Chelsea would be Chepkurgor's second wife.



"Is that allowed in your side of the world?" he laughed.



In Kenya, a man proposes with dowry for the prospective bride, Chepkurgor explained. He said he stands by his initial livestock offer until someone makes a counteroffer.



Chepkurgor, now 39, first made his intentions known when all three Clintons visited East Africa in 2000. He wrote a letter to the former president, offering himself as his only child's suitor. He said he had not expected the secretary of state to address the issue during her visit to Kenya this week.



However, he admits his chances might be rather slim.



"Unfortunately, I don't have their contact information," he said.



"I just want to convey my message of goodwill to the Clintons," he said. "And to all of America."

Doctors Baffled by Indian village of Over 200 Sets of Twins
21:31 Aug 05 2009
Times Read: 587


By Arko Datta – Tue Aug 4, 11:56 pm ET



KODINJI, India (Reuters Life!) – Walk around Kodinji village and you'll think that you have double vision.



The village is home to as many as 230 sets of twins. Nobody knows why there are so many twins in the village of 15,000 people, although one local doctor suspects it might be due to the water. In fact with about 35-45 twins per live birth, this village in North Kerala, India, has four times more twins than normal. Not surprisingly, the village has been dubbed "the twin village."



The latest official estimates by the Kodinji's Twins and Kins Association (TAKA), which conducted door-to-door surveys at the start of the year, found that there were 204 sets of twins. Based on births since the survey was conducted, there are probably now around 230 sets of twins in the village, locals said. That number is set to rise as there are five women pregnant with twins.



"It's an amazing phenomenon to see a medical marvel occurring in such a localized place where the people are not exposed to any kinds of harmful drugs or harmful chemicals. It's a virgin village," said Dr. Sribiju, a researcher.



Pathummakutty and Kunhipathutty, 65, are the oldest surviving twins in the village. The youngest are Rifa Ayesha and Ritha Ayesha, born on June 10. Their proud parents already see a slight difference between them as one lies fast asleep, while the other kicks away with a mischievous grin on her face.



Being a twin is not always easy. Pathummakutty, who like many in the village have a single name, recalls how her family struggled financially when she was a child. But she also remember good times such as laughter after yet another mix up with her twin sister. It is not uncommon to run into an identical twin while walking down the hilly roads of Kodinji and there are many tales of teachers getting mixed up between twin students.



At the local school, 15-year-old Salmabi said teachers often confused her for her twin sister and she was once reprimanded for something that her twin did.



"It happens all the time," the students pipe in a chorus.



Scientists are still trying to uncover the mystery of why there are so many twins in the village.



"Based on scientific facts, we feel something in the environment is causing this. It could be something in the water," said a local doctor, M.K. Sribiju.



"All the world over the cause of twins is mainly because of drugs. Everywhere in the Western world, people are exposed to fertility drugs, their food habits, they consume more dairy products. Everywhere the age of marriage is increasing. There are late marriages predisposed to occurrence of twins," he said.



However in Kodinji, most marriages are between people aged 18 to 20 years old.



"All the factors leading to the occurrence of twinning world wide, we cannot see it here. There is something unknown that is causing this phenomenon," he said.



The locals also believe it has to do with the water. Kodinji is surrounded by water in the fields and during the monsoon season it becomes inaccessible from heavy rains.



As scientists try to find the reason for the large numbers of twins in the village, the parents are busy trying to tell their children apart. It doesn't help that many of the twins have similar names and often wear similar clothes.



While parents light-heartedly point out that their twins even seem to fall sick together, not all traits are shared. Identical twins Anu and Abhi prefer different film stars and one of the boys likes to play cricket, while the other prefers kicking a soccer ball.



With all the attention being showered on the twins of Kodinji, Ajmer, a 12-year-old school boy, feels like the odd one out in a village where being a twin is trendy.