Young people (24 years and younger) spend an average of six hours a day online, primarily using their smartphones, according to research from the University of Surrey. Older people (those 24 years and older) spend 4.6 hours online. Surrey’s study, which involved 796 participants, introduces a new internet addiction spectrum, categorising internet users into five...
Author: sp (sp )
Discrimination Alters Brain-Gut ‘Crosstalk,’ Prompting Poor Food Choices and Increased Health Risks
People frequently exposed to racial or ethnic discrimination may be more susceptible to obesity and related health risks in part because of a stress response that changes biological processes and how we process food cues. These are findings from UCLA researchers conducting what is believed to be the first study directly examining effects of discrimination...
Your Zoom Background Might Influence the First Impression You Make
In a new study, participants tended to judge faces appearing against backgrounds featuring houseplants or bookcases as more trustworthy and competent than faces with a living space or a novelty image behind them. Gender and facial expression also appeared to influence judgments. Research led by Paddy Ross, Abi Cook and Meg Thompson at Durham University,...
Inspired by Llamas, the Desert and Mother Earth, These Craftswomen Weave Sacred Textiles
In northern Chile, Teófila Challapa learned to weave surrounded by the hills and sandy roads of the Atacama Desert. “Spin the threads, girl,” her grandmother told her a half a century ago. Aymara women like Challapa, now 59, become acquainted with wool threads under blue skies and air so thin that outsiders struggle to breathe....
As Shipping Costs Rise, Galleries Get Creative
‘Shipping has become a nightmare,’ says Mihai Nicodim, owner of Nicodim Gallery (Los Angeles and New York City). ‘It almost doubled. When the pandemic hit, we were getting quotes that quadrupled overnight.’ Talk to any dealer right now about shipping costs and you are likely to get the same reaction. Dealers responding to a survey for the Art...
Elevated Temperatures and Climate Change May Contribute to Rising Drug and Alcohol Disorders
Hospital visits from alcohol- and substance-related disorders are driven by elevated temperatures and could be further affected by rising temperatures due to climate change, according to new research by environmental health scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study, which is published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Medicine, is likely the first comprehensive investigation of...
The FTC, 1Health.io, and Genetic Data Privacy and Security
A genetic testing company publicly stored consumers’ genetic data with no encryption. The FTC stepped in. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has finalized an order with 1Health.io (formerly Vitagene), a genetic testing company that was the subject of a June 2023 FTC complaint. 1Health.io, to quote the FTC’s recent press release, “left sensitive genetic and health data unsecured,...
Nigeria’s Slick Netflix Epic, Jagun Jagun, Explores a Rich Past That Also Reflects the World Today
Netflix’s recently released film Jagun Jagun (The Warrior) is set in pre-colonial Nigeria and follows the story of a feared warlord named Ogunjimi. While playing out in the past, it is steeped in contemporary universal cultural, political and socio-economic realities. The first 15 minutes of the movie establishes that the story is centred on a...
New Research Reveals Extreme Heat Likely to Wipe Out Humans and Mammals in the Distant Future
A new study shows unprecedented heat is likely to lead to the next mass extinction since the dinosaurs died out, eliminating nearly all mammals in some 250 million years time. The research, published in Nature Geoscience and led by the University of Bristol, presents the first-ever supercomputer climate models of the distant future and demonstrates how...
New Research Findings: Understanding the Sex Life of Coral Gives Hope of Clawing It Back from the Path to Extinction
For the first time, scientists have mapped the reproductive strategies and life cycle of an endangered coral species, offering hope it can be clawed back from the path to extinction. The purple cauliflower soft coral, Dendronephthya australis, is endemic to south-eastern Australia, with the largest populations historically found in the Port Stephens estuary in New South...






