Below are 10 science news that I found interesting and are related to topics I care about.
Screen-addicted teens are unhappy – Researchers found that teens who spent a lot of time in front of screen devices — playing computer games, using more social media, texting and video chatting — were less happy than those who invested time in non-screen activities like sports, reading newspapers and magazines, and face-to-face social interaction. The happiest teens used digital media for less than an hour per day. But after a daily hour of screen time, unhappiness rises steadily along with increasing screen time. Science Daily
New Eocene fossil data suggest climate models may underestimate future polar warming – A new international analysis of marine fossils shows that warming of the polar oceans during the Eocene, a greenhouse period that provides a glimpse of Earth’s potential future climate, was greater than previously thought. Science Daily
First evidence of winds outside black holes throughout their mealtimes – New research shows the first evidence of strong winds around black holes throughout bright outburst events when a black hole rapidly consumes mass. The study sheds new light on how mass transfers to black holes and how black holes can affect the environment around them. Science Daily
Dietary fiber protects against obesity and metabolic syndrome, study finds – Consumption of dietary fiber can prevent obesity, metabolic syndrome and adverse changes in the intestine by promoting growth of ‘good’ bacteria in the colon, according to a new study. Science Daily
MIT Engineers Have Designed a Chip That Behaves Just Like Brain Cell Connections – For those working in the field of advanced artificial intelligence, getting a computer to simulate brain activity is a gargantuan task, but it may be easier to manage if the hardware is designed more like brain hardware to start with. Science Alert
This New Brain Study Shows Why Some People Are More Creative Than Others – Creativity is often defined as the ability to come up with new and useful ideas. Like intelligence, it can be considered a trait that everyone – not just creative “geniuses” like Picasso and Steve Jobs – possesses in some capacity. Science Alert
Every Single Piece Of Plastic Packaging In The EU To Be Reusable Or Recyclable By 2030 – The European Union has launched an ambitious campaign against single-use plastic, in an urgent plan to rid the continent of the flood of damaging plastics that are now choking the rivers, oceans, and countryside. IFLScience
Retirement Makes Short-Term Memory Decline 38 Percent Faster In Old Age – Dementia and Alzheimer’s are growing problems in many Western nations as people are living longer. While a treatment for these cognitive conditions still evades detection, there are certain behaviors and lifestyle choices that are known to exasperate the issue. It now seems that retirement might be one of them. IFLScience
The world’s largest set of brain scans are helping reveal the workings of the mind and how diseases ravage the brain – ENIGMA, the world’s largest brain mapping project, was “born out of frustration,” says neuroscientist Paul Thompson of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In 2009, he and geneticist Nicholas Martin of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, were chafing at the limits of brain imaging studies. The cost of MRI scans limited most efforts to a few dozen subjects—too few to draw robust connections about how brain structure is linked to genetic variations and disease. The answer, they realized over a meal at a Los Angeles shopping mall, was to pool images and genetic data from multiple studies across the world. Science Mag
Stars with too much lithium may have stolen it – Something is giving small, pristine stars extra lithium. A dozen newly discovered stars contain more of the element than astronomers can explain. Science News
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