Time for a nap
Brainy people get to dream a little more than not-quite-so-brainy people, correlationally speaking, if their brains and genomes accord with the findings of researchers from the University of the Republic in Uruguay, University College London and the Broad Institute in Massachusetts.
âOur findings suggest a modest causal association between habitual daytime napping and larger total brain volume,â the researchers say in a published in the journal Sleep ÎçŇš¸ŁŔű1000źŻşĎ.
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They crunched numbers obtained from brain scans and genetic information. The crunching involved brain sizes (normalised, says the report, for peopleâs head sizes) from one group of people. The crunching also made use of other, genetically-similar-in-some-ways peopleâs answers to the question âdo you have a nap during the day?â.
The team notes that ânapping is notoriously difficult to measure using objective methodsâ. Fighting to overcome that difficulty, the numerical crunching joined together genome info from the scanned group and the nap-queried group. Previous research had produced the knowledge â or suspicion â that certain stretches of DNA seem to be associated with a personâs proclivity to nap.
Feedback is eager to see the modesty of the causal association evident in future head-size-normalised, genome-augmented studies, if there are any, of habitual daytime napping in huge and tiny animals (elephants, perhaps, and fruit flies), in notoriously nap-loving dogs and cats, and in two and three-toed sloths. Thanks to Kit Thompson for awakening us to this line of research.
Beyond sloth sleep
Scientists have been awake to many facets of sloths, but not so much to their hair.
Perhaps the most beloved sloth study was done 15 years ago and given the title ââ. It looked at electroencephalogram recordings of snoozing âbrown-throated three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus) inhabiting the canopy of a tropical rainforestâ. That experience led the researchers, a team from Germany, Switzerland, the US and Panama, to âsuggest that sleep in the wild may be markedly different from that in captivityâ.
Now, awakened to the range of sloth unknowns, an Australian team has published a study called ââ. The researchers hasten to explain their interest: âextensive studies have been conducted on sloth phylogeny, anatomy and locomotion, suspensory lifestyle, mutualism and even their sleeping habits. However, in comparison, there are fewer articles that concentrate on another unusual feature of these ancient creatures â their hair.â
After studying hairs from two-toed and three-toed species of sloth, the researchers report that, in most respects, âtheir hairs did not differ greatly from each other or from that found in other mammalsâ.
Apples and onions
Elizabeth Gilliard cries foul over a medical teamâs inconclusive conclusion, as reported by Feedback on 12 August, that âthe effects of apples and apple derivatives on disease risk reduction are both challenging and encouragingâ.
âThe present day maxim is a corruption,â Elizabeth tells Feedback, because âthe original was âan onion a day keeps the doctor awayâ, and a roast onion is still reckoned good for colds.â
Researchers in the US looked at the apple/onion distinction, then presented their findings at the American Thoracic Societyâs 2023 International Conference in Washington DC. They called their report ââ.
The researchers got their data from a âfood frequency questionnaireâ carried out in 2003-2004 that asked people about their âconsumption of apples and onions in the previous 12 monthsâ. The data convinced them, they report, of at least three things. First, that eating at least an onion a day resulted in slightly greater odds of ânot having a head or chest coldâ if you were one of the people who answered that survey. Second, that there was no such association with eating apples.
Third, that quercetin, âa flavonoid abundant in onions and applesâ and âa key component of the Mediterranean dietâ, may be âa biologically plausible therapeutic to prevent/treat acute respiratory illnessâ. But, they add, maybe traditionally, more research is needed.
Eclipse of a meeting
Two persistent activities that physicists pride themselves on: achieving higher accuracy and seeking awareness of confounding factors. The American Physical Society (APS) displayed both qualities in this : âThe 2024 APS April Meeting dates have been adjusted to Wednesday, April 3, through Saturday, April 6, 2024 â three days earlier than initially planned.â
âThe decision to shift the dates,â it goes on to say, âwas driven by member feedback regarding the total solar eclipse that will take place on April 8, 2024.â
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Marc Abrahams created the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony and co-founded the magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Earlier, he worked on unusual ways to use computers. His website is .