10 Daily Things

Here is some useful news you can use. Morning “big gulp” coffee drinkers are misusing the power of caffeine. Researchers at the Sleep Disorders Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago along with colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have shown that caffeine is best administered in a larger number [...]

Most people know that nerves work by passing electrical currents from cell to cell. But you might be surprised to learn that no one knows exactly how anesthetics stop nerves from carrying pain signals. That’s why two scientists believe that we really don’t know how nerves work after all.
According to their controversial theory, electricity is [...]

For women hoping to become hostesses at next year’s Beijing Olympic Games medal ceremonies, here come the criteria: no tattoos, no big bottoms, and cut down on the earrings.
Tattoos and earrings tend to look sleazy, while big bottoms could stick out too much, state media reported Friday, quoting officials selecting candidates for medal ceremonies and [...]

Mark Pagel, head of the evolutionary biology group at the University of Reading in England and editor of The Encyclopedia of Evolution, fills us in:
We humans are conspicuous among the 5,000 or so mammal species in that we are effectively naked. Just consider what your pet dog or cat (or, for that matter, a polar [...]

Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland’s east coast.
The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice.
But [...]