Sci-tech
Waiting
for a Chocolate Sundae Turns it Tastier
Waiting
for the delivery of your new dress from the showroom or that
tempting chocolate sundae you wish to eat post dinner, may
seem to be a torture but it is actually a blessing in disguise,
say researchers from Arizona State University and the University
of Arizona. The findings reveal that the effects on consumers
of delayed enjoyment of a product can cause both good and
bad effects, depending on the nature of the wait. Stephen
Nowlis, professor of marketing at Arizona State University
and his colleagues summarise three studies that sought to
fill a research void with regard to consumer wait and found
that waiting for a product only enhances the consumption pleasures.
"Delay increases consumption enjoyment for pleasurable
products when actual consumption occurs but decreases enjoyment
for imagined consumption. This was made salivatingly sure
when study subjects were forced to wait a half-hour between
choosing a chocolate candy and actually being able to eat
it-even though they could see it. The subsequent enjoyment
was pretty significant," the authors write.
A
Spectacle that can Adjust to the Eye Power
A
professor from Oxford University has devised a new kind of
eye glass that has the adaptability of changing itself to
the change in the visual power of the eyes. Dr Joshua Silver
has invented a pair of glasses that range from powers of +12
dioptre to -12 dioptre and can be adjusted according to the
visual power of the eye. Although not available in the market,
it is expected to be affordable to even the weaker sections
of the society. The spectacles are based on the principle
of fluid filled lenses. The spectacles comprise of two concave
membranes with a gap in between. It has a small cylinder replete
with silicon oil. When this oil is filled into the gap in
between the two membranes by the help of the pump attached
to the cylinder, the lens slowly becomes convex, thus adjusting
itself to the visual power of the eye.
Some
Video Games are Harmful for Kids!!!
With
the increase in the negative influence of video games on kids,
it has become imperative for the games industry to ensure
that parents know which video games are suitable for children.
Children all over the world may be playing games aimed at
adults, which include high levels of violence. Parents spend
millions on video games and consoles. Violent games have been
hit by controversy after the game Manhunt was blamed by the
parents of 14-year-old Stefan Pakeerah, who was stabbed to
death in Leicester in February. His mother claimed that the
teenager who murdered her son had mimicked behaviour in the
game. The issue of warnings on games for adults was raised
by British Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt. Adults
can make informed choices about what games to play. Children
can't and they deserve to be protected. The Industry will
consider how to make sure parents know what games their children
should and shouldn't play said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
Formulation of proposals to promote greater understanding,
recognition and awareness of the games rating system should
be made to ensure that young people are not exposed to inappropriate
contents.
Safest
Car on the Road
Silver
cars are much less likely to be involved in a serious crash
than cars of other colours, suggests a new study of over 1000
cars. People driving in silver cars were 50 per cent less
likely to suffer serious injury in a crash compared with drivers
of white cars. White, yellow, grey, red and blue cars carried
about the same risk of injury. But those taking to the roads
in black, brown or green cars were twice as likely to suffer
a crash with serious injury. Sue Furness, at the University
of Auckland, led the study but says the team does not know
why silver cars appear safer. "We think it may be due
to a combination of light colour and high reflectivity,"
she speculates. She suggests that increasing the proportion
of silver cars on the road might provide a "passive strategy"
to cut car crash injuries. "If there's proof that certain
colours are safer and easier to see in all road conditions
that might be useful to people in terms of purchasing a car,"
says Roger Vincent, of the UK Royal Society for the Prevention
of Accidents. But he adds: "A lot of people will buy
things purely on fashion."
Sound
Processing in an Alternate Way
A
new study conducted by scientists at the University of California,
San Francisco suggests that the brains of rats can be trained
to learn an alternate way of processing changes in the loudness
of sound. This discovery according to them has potential for
the treatment of hearing loss, autism and other sensory disabilities
in humans. It also gives clues, they say, about the process
of learning and the way we perceive the world. The team led
by Daniel B. Polley trained two groups of rats to become "
experts" at discriminating between very small differences
in loudness - an ability that untrained rats do not have.
Then they looked at how the expert rats processed changes
in loudness compared to two groups of untrained rats and found
that the auditory cortex in the expert rats contained groups
of neurons that had become selective for specific volume levels.
They fired only at those levels and were quiet otherwise.
Tests confirmed that the untrained rats' brains were not registering
volume increases in this new way; it had been learned by the
expert rats as they became better at discriminating changes
in volume. "There is still proportionality between response
strength in the brain and the stimulus. But now neurons are
much more selective, and can represent sound intensity with
decreasing firing rates as well as increasing firing rates,"
Polley added.
Copyright
(R) thedailystar.net 2004
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