Men and Women Visually Focus on Different Things

A recent study published in PLoS One has found that men and women view images in different ways. University of Bristol researchers asked 26 male and 26 female participants, ranging from ages 19-47, to study various images. From this, researchers found that gender differences emerged in terms of where the subjects tended to focus on in the images. These images included scenes from movies such as The Sound of Music, Inside Man, and The Blue Planet, and artwork including "People in the Sun" by Edward Hopper and "Three Graces" by David Bowers.

Image from National Geographic

Researchers found that women tended to view more of the overall image than men did. They also found that women also often focused on non-facial areas as well as areas slightly below where men tended to focus. Lead author Felix Mercer Moss, a vision researcher and doctoral student at the University of Bristol in the UK believes that risk aversion may be the cause of these differences. He says that, "Women may be attaching more risk to looking people in the eye."This may be the reason as to why women tend to focus their attention to a lower part of the body than men do. Previous studies have shown that there are clear gender differences when viewing an image that is emotional or sexually suggestive. However, this study differed in that Mercer Moss wanted to see if these gender differences would persist through more general and basic stimuli, and it turns out that they would.

Red regions are what women tend to look at. Blue regions
are what men tend to look at. See above image.
Image from National Geographic

I found this article interesting because I when I looked at the photo showing the regions where women viewed the photograph most often, I found that I viewed those same spots as well. The regions that the men were shown to have looked at I did not view as closely as they did. I would like to know why this occurs and I find it fascinating that it even occurs in the first place. I don't think I have any problems staring into the eyes of someone in a photograph since they aren't even there, so I'm not sure if I back up the whole "risk aversion" theory. That being said, perhaps I am just unaware that I am averting their eyes on a subconscious level.


Article: Battle of the Sexes: How Women and Men See Things Differently
Written By: Jane J. Lee
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/121130-gender-differences-eyes-science/

Image from Nature News

NASA's orbiting MESSENGER probe has recently confirmed that, in face, ice exists on Mercury, the planet closest to the sun. This ice is found at the poles of Mercury, thought to perhaps a hold a trillion tons of water ice trapped in craters. To put that in perspective, that is enough to fill 20 billion Olympic skating rinks. In addition, this ice seems to be much purer than water found on the Earth's moon.

So how can the planet closest to the sun contain ice craters when 400 degrees celsius temperatures dominate its atmosphere? For starters, Mercury's rotational axis is perpendicular to its orbital plane, meaning they are constantly shadowed and are never exposed to the sun. It has also been suggested that Mercury could be a better trap for comets and asteroids containing icy materials.

Google Images

Three different sources of evidence back this assertion up. Firstly, infrared laser pulses aimed by MESSENGER's Mercury Laser Altimeter have shown a bright regions within nine separate darkened craters near the northern pole and these bright regions are believed to be ice water. Secondly, the bright regions thermally line up with Mercury's coldest locations (-170 degrees celsius), so it would make sense for those areas to have ice water. Lastly, using MESSENGER's Neutron Spectrometer, a team has spotted the giveaway signs for the presence of hydrogen in those bright regions. They believe that the hydrogen in locked up within the ice water. David Lawrence, a planetary scientist from the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland and leader of the team stated, "Not only is water the best explanation, we do not see any other explanation that can tie all the data together."

Google Images

I found this article very interesting because it seems so unlikely that ice could possibly exist on the planet closest to the sun. But if the poles are never exposed to the sun, then I suppose it would make sense. Now knowing that there is water, I'm sure that scientists will soon begin studies to see if there may be some sort of life. It would be intriguing to discover a new life form on another planet, especially one that can survive in such extreme environmental conditions. We will have to wait and see!

Article: Stores of ice confirmed on Sun-scorched Mercury
Written by: Maggie McKee
http://www.nature.com/news/stores-of-ice-confirmed-on-sun-scorched-mercury-1.11922

The "Benjamin Button" jellyfish is finally receiving some recognition outside of the academic world. In 1988, German marine biology student Christian Sommer was conducting research on hydrozoans in Rapallo, a small city on the Italian Riviera. Hydrozoans are small invertebrates that resemble either a jellyfish or a soft coral depending on what stage of life its in. While he was collecting the hydrozoans, he inadvertently picked up a tiny, relatively unknown species of jellyfish named Turritopsis dohrnii.

Turritopsis dohrnii
Image from The New York Times

He kept the hydrozoans and Turritopsis dohrnii in petri dishes for observation and noticed that the jellyfish acted very oddly. Incredibly, this species of jellyfish simply did not die. He couldn't come up with any explanation as to why this happened, but it appeared to age in reverse. The jellyfish grew younger and younger until it reached the very first stage of its development, and then its life cycle would begin again. It took nearly a decade for the word "immortal" to describe the species, because what was going on was simply not understood.

Intrigued with Sommer's finding, biologists in Genoa continued to study the species and in 1996, they published a paper entitled "Reversing the Life Cycle" which described that how, at any stage of development, the jellyfish could transform itself back into a polyp (its earliest stage of development) "thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality." Recently, studies have found that the reason that these jellyfish start to age in reverse is caused by some sort of environmental stress or physical assault. However, the most incredible thing about this whole story is that "Reversing the Life Cycle" barely got any recognition outside of the academic world.

Image from The New York Times

I found this article fascinating because I cannot believe such a creature exists yet hardly anybody knows about it. How have we not funded more research into finding out how this creature never dies?? You would think that humans, who are always looking for a way to extend our lives, would be totally invested in discovering this species' secrets of immortality. I would be very interested to see where this leads and if this jellyfish can help humans unlock the secrets of immortality.

Article: Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?
Written by: Nathaniel Rich
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?ref=science