Oreos as Addictive as Cocaine: A Study

Oreos are as addictive as cocaine, a study of rats suggests. (Photo : Wikimedia Commons)

Oreos are as addictive as cocaine, a study of rats suggests.

In order to test the cookie's addictiveness, researchers from Connecticut College gave hungry rats in a maze either Oreos or rice cakes, depending on which side of the labyrinth they were on. The rats then had the option of spending time on either side of the maze.

The scientists compared the results to those from rats that received an injection of cocaine or morphine on one side of a maze and saline on the other.

In the end, the cookie-fed rats spent as much time on the Oreo side of the maze as the rats hoping for a shot of cocaine or morphine spent on their corresponding side of the maze.

Furthermore, by measuring the expression of a protein called c-Fos, which marks neuronal activation, in the nucleus accumbens -- the brain's "pleasure center," the researchers found that Oreos activated significantly more neurons than cocaine or morphine.

"Our research supports the theory that high-fat/ high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do," Joseph Schroeder, a neuroscience professor, said in a statement. "It may explain why some people can't resist these foods despite the fact that they know they are bad for them."

Based on the results, co-author Jamie Hanohan argues that products like Oreos may pose a greater threat to the general public than the addictive drugs.

"Even though we associate significant health hazards in taking drugs like cocaine and morphine, high-fat/ high-sugar foods may present even more of a danger because of their accessibility and affordability," she said.

And while not necessarily scientifically relevant, the researchers pointed out that rats preferred to consume Oreos much like many humans.

"They would break it open and eat the middle first," she said.

Read More

Brain may flush toxins out during sleep

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists suggest sleep clears the brain of damaging molecules associated with neurodegeneration -- the loss of brain function as in Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, and colleagues said they unexpectedly found sleep might be the period when the brain cleanses itself of toxic molecules.

The study, published in Science, found a plumbing system called the glymphatic system might open and let fluid flow rapidly through the brain during sleep.

Nedergaard's lab recently discovered the glymphatic system helps control the flow of cerebrospinal fluid, a clear liquid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Initially dye was injected into the cerebrospinal fluid of mice and he researchers watched it flow through their brains while simultaneously monitoring electrical brain activity.

The dye flowed rapidly when the mice were unconscious, either asleep or anesthetized, but barely flowed when the same mice were awake, Nedergaard said.

"We were surprised by how little flow there was into the brain when the mice were awake," Nedergaard said in a statement. "It suggested that the space between brain cells changed greatly between conscious and unconscious states."

To test this, the researchers inserted electrodes into the brain to directly measure the space between brain cells and found the space inside the brains increased by 60 percent when the mice were asleep or anesthetized.

Previous research suggested toxic molecules involved in neurodegenerative disorders accumulate in the space between brain cells. In this study, the researchers tested whether the glymphatic system controlled this by injecting mice with beta-amyloid, a protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. They measured how long it lasted in their brains when they were asleep or awake.

Beta-amyloid disappeared faster in mice brains when the mice were asleep, suggesting sleep normally clears toxic molecules from the brain, Nedergaard said.

The results may also highlight the importance of sleep.

"We need sleep," Nedergaard said. "It cleans up the brain."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2013/10/17/Brain-may-flush-toxins-out-during-sleep/UPI-20861382065779/#ixzz2i2klRHLv

Read More

Google Tops Estimates, but Prices of Ads Slide

Outside of Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google is still the leader in online advertising, according to eMarketer, yet the advertising business is changing under its feet.

SAN FRANCISCO — For more than a decade, Google’s search advertising business has seemed almost magical in its ability to mint money. But the magic is beginning to wear off as people spend more time on mobile devices, where the company makes less money on ads.

Shareholders sent the stock up 8 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday, after Google’s better-than-expected third-quarter financial report. Still, the results revealed the company’s deep challenges: as its desktop search and advertising businesses mature, along with overall business in the United States, its growth rate is slowing and the amount of money it makes from each ad it sells is falling.

The problem is that mobile ads cost half to two-thirds as much as desktop ads, yet they lead to purchases just a quarter to a third of the frequency that desktop ads do. That’s because advertisers have not yet figured out the best format for mobile ads, tracking the effectiveness of such ads is harder and buying things on small screens is more cumbersome for consumers.

Google executives, on a call with analysts, acknowledged those challenges by emphasizing that they were embracing phones and other mobile devices, as well as nonadvertising businesses like hardware and business services.

“For years, everyone talked about the multiscreen world. Now it’s arrived, and on a scale few imagined,” said Larry Page, Google’s chief executive. Most consumers have more than one device, he said, and devices for people’s homes and bodies, like glasses and watches, will proliferate. The mention of watches was particularly intriguing because while Google has explored building a watch, it has not publicly announced one.

People activate 1.5 million Android devices a day and Google introduced its first Motorola phone, the Moto X. It has been encouraging advertisers to transition to mobile, like requiring them to buy mobile ads when they buy desktop ones, known as enhanced campaigns, and introducing new tools like one to track consumers across devices and tell marketers whether a consumer makes a purchase on a computer after researching an item on a phone.

Mr. Page also addressed long-term research projects, like Calico, the new health start-up financed by Google to investigate aging and its causes. “It’s hard to spend meaningful amounts of money, relative to Google’s scale, on things that are speculative,” Mr. Page said. “You should probably be asking me to make more significant investments.”

A closer look at Google’s revenue growth showed that it was largely driven by growth in some parts of Europe, Brazil and Japan, and by selling apps on Google Play, which returns little profit to the company.

“Over all, Google’s doing exactly what it should be doing, investing in emerging markets and in mobile technologies,” said Jordan Rohan, an Internet analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “While we’re not seeing any profits related to that today, it’s inflating the revenue number and will someday lead to a more profitable business.”

Yet in Google’s core business — the sale of ads — the price that advertisers pay each time someone clicks on an ad decreased for the eighth quarter in a row. It fell 8 percent from the same period last year, largely because mobile ads cost less than desktop ones.

Google is still the leader in online advertising, earning 41 percent of all digital ad revenue and 53 percent of mobile ad revenue, according to eMarketer. Yet the advertising business is changing under its feet.

People are spending vastly more time on mobile devices. Clicks on Google on computers last quarter were flat, while clicks on tablets increased 63 percent and clicks on phones more than doubled, according to the Search Agency, a digital marketing firm. At the same time, computer ads are becoming more personalized and increasingly automated.

As the ad landscape changes, Google has been introducing new tools for advertisers. Last week, it announced a change that would allow it to show people’s social networking activity, like photos and comments, in ads across the Web. It is trying to capture TV ad dollars, including with two new products — Chromecast, a device for watching Web video on TVs, and Google Fiber, the ultra-high-speed Internet and TV connection now available in Kansas City, Kan.

Google’s ad innovations have prompted criticism from privacy advocates and some consumers. In recent weeks, Google faced an uproar over its plan to use personal information in ads and lawsuits over personalized ads in Gmail.

Google reported third-quarter revenue of $14.89 billion, up 12 percent from a year ago. Net revenue, which excludes payments to ad partners, was $11.92 billion, up from $11.33 billion. Net income rose to $2.97 billion, or $8.75 a share, from $2.18 billion, or $6.53 a share. Excluding the cost of stock options, Google’s third-quarter profit was $10.74 a share.

The results exceeded the expectations of analysts, who had predicted revenue of $14.82 billion and earnings, excluding the cost of stock options, of $10.35 a share.

Read More

Nokia boasts that its phones, um, never break

In a probably amusing tweet, Nokia harks back to times when phones were really phones. Or something. In any case, it wants you to dump your iPhone or Galaxy -- which presumably break all the time.

Full article here.

Read More

Yetis are real? Geneticist offers a plausible explanation

A alleged Yeti scalp on display at the Khumjung Monastery in Nepal.

(Credit: Nuno Nogueira)

The Yeti, Bigfoot's cold-climate cousin, is back in the limelight. There's no mysterious giant footprint or shaky video footage, but there is a well-regarded British geneticist at the center of it all. Bryan Sykes, a professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford, is featured in an upcoming documentary called "Bigfoot Files" on Channel 4 in the UK.

Ahead of the show's October 20 debut, Channel 4 released the news that Sykes conducted DNA research on hair samples purported to be from Yetis. What he claims to have found is a genetic match for an ancient polar bear.

The two hair samples came from different areas in the Himalayas, but matched up genetically with a 40,000-year-old polar bear jawbone found in Norway.

"This is an exciting and completely unexpected result that gave us all a surprise," Sykes said.

Full article here.

Read More