Is it good for a baby to have a very young mother? And what about having a much older mother? We hear quite a lot about young girls getting pregnant, but there is also a small but increasing number of women giving birth aged 60+. For example, Rajo Devi had a baby at the age of 70. What are the psychological implications for attachment between a baby and much older parents, would the age difference matter? Might there be benefits to the attachment? And what are the psychological implications as the child grows up?
A team at the University of London have just published a report of their study linking stress to atheroschlerosis (narrowing of the arteries), which is a major factor in heart attacks. Hamer et al. (2010) worked with 514 healthy men and women (mean age 62.9 years). The participants were given various tasks to increase their stress levels (such as the Stroop task). Cortisol levels in the saliva were measured before and after the stress tasks (cortisol is a hormone produced when we are stressed). Coronary artery calcification (thickening) was also assessed. The study found that only 40% of the participants had raised cortisol levels after the task but of this group there were significantly more people with thickened arteries. These results support the idea that hypothalamic pituitary adrenal activity (which produces cortisol) is a risk factor for CHD.
Long-time depression researcher Eva Redei recently reported some of her latest findings. She has spent decades breeding rats who are severely depressed (mating depressed rats with depressed rats so you get ‘who are believed to be the most depressed rats in the world’ (!!)). This meant she could identify genes linked to depression. Next she exposed a different group of rats to stressful situations for two weeks which enabled her to identify the genes that consistently were associated with a poor response to stress. The big news is that there was no overlap between the depression genes and the stress genes. This suggests that the idea that stress causes depression may be wrong. And, furthermore, she claims the reason antidepressants are often ineffective is because they treat stress and not depression and she has now shown that the two are not linked, though they may co-occur. So that’s one reason why antidepressants only work for some people (those suffering from stress and depression). Before you say ‘ah well, this is just an effect in rats’, Redei claims that rat brains are very similar to human brains, so it is reasonably to draw analogies. It also may explain why we like cheese. (No, that last bit was a joke).
AQA have announced a new look answer booklet (see example here). It is essentially similar to the older-style ones, just with lines, though there are special spaces to insert the number of the question being answered. This means that there is no indication of how much to write when answering a question and it also may make it more difficult for students to answer the questions in any oder - though there’s no reason why they shouldn’t.
The case of Simon Singh has challenged British libel laws. Simon Singh is a science writer - having authored best selling books such as Fermat’s Last Theorem and contributing regularly to The Guardian. In 2008 he was sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) because of an article he wrote pointing out that some of the treatments offered are bogus, such as those for treating child colic and feeding problems. Singh’s view was that such practice was pseudoscientific and not evidence-based. However the BCA’s claim is that Singh has no evidence to support this and therefore his views are libelous. Within the scientific community this is regarded a challenge to the very nature of science - it should not be libelous to ask a scientist ‘where’s your evidence’ - in fact such a move would stifle the progress of science. Singh’s case and campaign has gained very high profile support from the science and entertainment business (including Jonathan Ross and Stephen Fry) - you can see the names and read much more about the case here (KEEP LIBEL LAWS OUT OF SCIENCE) or here.
Diathesis-stress is an example of nature AND nurture, as it can be interpreted as a gene or genes switched on by environmental factors. Recently it’s been suggested that being lonely and stressed could affect the expression of cancer-linked genes, triggering their action. The research has been done in the USA on rats, comparing those kept in isolation with those living in groups. The former group had over three times the frequency of breast tumours than the latter group, and their breast tumours were also more aggressive and deadly. The isolated rats also produced more stress hormones and were more reactive to stressful situations. Rats, like ourselves, are social animals and so being isolated is likely to cause stress.
Perhaps the most influential change in society in recent years has been the vast involvement of technology in our everyday lives; such as mobile phones, digital cameras and the many practical uses of computers, such as data compiling, e-mailing and so forth. This has reached such a level that some see no reason for physical copies of music, such as records and cds, or even books on printed-paper. In California there has Read the rest of this entry »
A team at the University of London have just published a 
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