Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women

Men lose their minds speaking to pretty women - Telegraph: "The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.
Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

The findings have implications for the performance of men who flirt with women in the workplace, or even exam results in mixed-sex schools.

Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man." more -->

A One-Way Ticket to Mars

A One-Way Ticket to Mars - NYTimes.com: "The most challenging impediment to human travel to Mars does not seem to involve the complicated launching, propulsion, guidance or landing technologies but something far more mundane: the radiation emanating from the Sun%u2019s cosmic rays. The shielding necessary to ensure the astronauts do not get a lethal dose of solar radiation on a round trip to Mars may very well make the spacecraft so heavy that the amount of fuel needed becomes prohibitive.

There is, however, a way to surmount this problem while reducing the cost and technical requirements, but it demands that we ask this vexing question: Why are we so interested in bringing the Mars astronauts home again?"

Human Size Consistency Baffles Scientists

Human Size Consistency Baffles Scientists | Wired Science | Wired.com: "Crunch the numbers on the animal kingdom%u2019s sizes and shapes, and humans differ from each other far less than most species. The reason why is a mystery.



%u201CWe don%u2019t have an answer. We have this interesting observation, but the explanation is an open hypothesis,%u201D said evolutionary biologist Andrew Hendry of McGill University.

Hendry and Queens University biologist Ann McKellar combed through the scientific literature on body size and length in more than 200 species, from insects to fish to birds and, of course, humans."

Norm MacDonald on Conan