Quirky Science

Where did the fat go?

Despite our obsession with diets and fitness programmes, most health professionals cannot say where body fat goes when we lose weight, a University of New South Wales study shows. Most doctors, dieticians and personal trainers have a misconception that the missing mass has been converted into energy or heat.
"There is surprising ignorance and confusion about the metabolic process of weight loss," writes Professor Andrew Brown, head of the UNSW School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. The study was published in the British Medical Journal.
"The correct answer is that most of the mass is breathed out as carbon dioxide. It goes into thin air," writes the study's lead author, Ruben Meerman, a physicist and Australian TV science presenter.
In the study, the authors show that losing 10 kilograms of fat requires 29 kilograms of oxygen to be inhaled and that this metabolic process produces 28 kilograms of carbon dioxide and 11 kilograms of water.

Men are idiots, study shows

It is well documented that men are more likely to be admitted to emergency after accidental injuries, more likely to be admitted with sporting injuries, and more likely to be involved in a fatal road traffic collision.
However, little is known about sex differences in idiotic risk-taking behaviour. According to Science Daily, “researchers in north east England decided to test 'male idiot theory' (MIT) that many of the differences in risk seeking behaviour may be explained by the observation that men are idiots and idiots do stupid things.”
The researchers reviewed data on idiotic behaviours demonstrated by winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period (1995 to 2014), noting the sex of the winner…”Of these 318 cases, 282 Darwin Awards were awarded to males, and just 36 awards given to females. Males thus made up 88.7 oercent of Darwin Award winners, and this sex difference is highly statistically significant, say the authors.”

Photo Courtesy: wikipedia

Looking at origins of agriculture to shape the future of food

According to new research by the University of Sheffield, Agricultural decisions made by our ancestors more than 10,000 years ago could hold the key to food security in the future.
“Before humans learnt how to farm, our ancestors ate a much wider variety of grasses,” Dr Catherine Preece, an author of the study writes,  “If we can understand what traits have made some grasses into good crops then we can look for those characteristics in other plants and perhaps identify good candidates for future domestication."

Groupthink leads to bad decisions?

Research led by the University of Exeter and published in the Royal Society journal Interface shows that “individuals have evolved to be overly influenced by their neighbours, rather than rely on their own instinct. As a result, groups become less responsive to changes in their natural environment.”
Lead author of the report, Dr Colin Torney, from the University of Exeter's Mathematics department writes, “Copying what other individuals do can be useful in many situations, such as what kind of phone to buy, or for animals, which way to move or whether a situation is dangerous.”