This is genuinely good news! According to a new study we want to help others!
The two say altruism is something that makes people feel good, lighting up a primitive part of the human brain that usually responds to food or sex.
Grafman and Moll have been scanning the brains of volunteers who were asked to think about a scenario involving either donating a sum of money to charity or keeping it for themselves.
Good news for those who like animals! The U.S. National Institutes of Health has decided to stop breeding chimpanzees for biomedical research. Chimps that are already being used for research remain as test animals, but the fact that more chimps won’t be used in this way is a step in the right direction for the ethical treatment of animals.
“This decision is a huge step towards a day when chimpanzees are no longer used in invasive biomedical research and testing,” Kathleen Conlee of the Humane Society said in a statement.
Apparently drinking coffee lowers your risk of getting the gout. I’m going out for some coffee right now!
In this study, American and Canadian researchers tracked almost 46,000 men for 12 years. The men were ages 40 to 75 at the start of the study and had no history of gout.
The researchers found that men who drank six or more cups of coffee a day were 59 percent less likely to develop gout than those who never drank coffee, while the risk was 40 percent lower for men who drank four to five cups a day.
Over at the ever-informative DeSmogBlog, they argue that based on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change conclusion that it takes only 0.12% of the world’s domestic product to essentially save the planet.
The bottom line is that the cost works out to $10 a person to save the planet.
Traditional HIV tests have used blood samples, but that has meant discomfort for the people being tested and not particularly easy to setup. Oral tests for HIV have been tested and have received positive feedback, people prefer the oral test than getting poked by a needle.
According to lead author Nitika Pai of the McGill University Health Centre, Canada, the test is simple and quick. Swabs of oral fluid are taken and tested for the presence of antibodies against HIV. “The test kit is all-inclusive. It contains the swab, a stand and test solution. You get the test result in less than 20 minutes,†Pai told SciDev.Net.
The study also found that 66% of those who did a blood test for HIV complained of discomfort, while only 8% of those who submitted to the oral test had complaints.