Health & Science

Why men swoon for curvy women

Men have a good evolutionary reason for preferring women with narrow waists and wide, womanly hips, says the London Sunday Times. Women with a classic “hourglass” figure, a new study has found, tend to have smarter children. Using data from 16,000 women, University of Pittsburgh and University of California researchers found that moms with large hip-to-waist ratios were more intelligent themselves, and gave birth to children who scored higher on standardized tests. Growing babies’ brains thrive on omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in the type of fat that tends to settle around a woman’s hips. Tummy fat, on the other hand, is high in omega-6 fats, which don’t seem to promote brain development. Women who are thin or stick-figured also tend not to have high levels of omega-3s. This may be one reason evolution programmed men to be attracted to curvy women. Previous studies have found another possible reason: Women with this body shape tend to be more fertile.

Yellowstone is rising

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A massive volcano under Yellowstone National Park is stirring, exuding enough magma beneath Earth’s crust to lift the park about

3 inches every year, says Nationalgeographic.com. Yellowstone sits atop a geologically active, 40-mile-wide “caldera,” or volcanic crater. The crater is just the top of a major “hot spot” that extends 400 miles down into the Earth’s molten interior. Since 2004, the region of the park over the crater has been steadily rising at an extremely fast rate, indicating that fresh lava is pouring out miles below the surface. About 640,000 years ago, geologists say, there was a “supervolcano” on this site that exploded in a titanic eruption. If it were to erupt again, it would cause an explosion hundreds of times stronger than that of Mount St. Helens, spreading ash all over the continent. But geologists say the recent rumblings don’t portend disaster. “There is no evidence of an imminent volcanic eruption or hydrothermal explosion. That’s the bottom line,” says study author Robert Smith. “A lot of calderas worldwide go up and down over decades without erupting.”

Growing out of ADHD

Half the kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) don’t have permanent deficits—their brains just need more time to develop, says a new study. Given a few extra years, the brains of many children with ADHD will catch up with those of their peers’, giving them more control over their minds and actions. Using detailed, three-dimensional images from brain scans of 446 children, researchers found that kids with ADHD had less developed cortexes—the area that helps children focus, control impulses, and make connections as they learn new things. But for half the kids, the difference was only temporary. Whereas “normal” kids reached peak cortical thickness at age 7½, half the children with ADHD got there at age 10½. Kids with attention deficits “may be 11, but their brain is 8,” Dr. F. Xavier Castellanos tells the Los Angeles Times. “They can’t act their chronological age.” The fact that half these children simply “grow out” of their attention difficulties, however, should provide some reassurance to the 4.4 million school-age children in this country with ADHD. With further study, researchers said, they may find that there are different kinds of ADHD—some temporary, and some that last into adulthood.

Strong handshake, strong genes

A strong handshake, it’s long been said, tells you a lot about a man. Now, says Science, there’s evidence that there may be a good genetic reason for this truism: The firmness of a man’s grip is a good indicator of physical health and aggressiveness. A group of researchers at the State University of New York at Albany measured the hand-grip strength of 143 men and compared it to their life histories. Men in the upper ranges of grip strength had a long history of dominant male behavior: They’d lost their virginity the earliest, had slept with the most women, and were at the top of the pecking order during their teen years. About 65 percent of grip strength is genetically determined (with only 35 percent related to exercise and overall muscularity), so researchers said it appears to indicate innate vitality and dominance. Men with strong grips, they said, are more likely to find mates and pass along their dominant DNA.

Getting bombed on chocolate

Central Americans were drinking chocolate 3,000 years ago, new evidence scraped from ancient pottery has found. But those first chocolate beverages were a lot more potent than the hot cocoa we drink today. Back in 1100 B.C., the cacao seed pods were pounded to pulp and fermented to make a strong, bitter cocoa beer, with not even a hint of sweetness. “It was beer with a high kick,” study author Rosemary Joyce tells National Geographic News. “It would not have tasted anything like the chocolate we have today.” Chocolate beer was apparently highly prized, with Olmecs making special pitchers and drinking cups with which to serve it at celebrations of weddings and births. It wasn’t until about 300 years later that the ancient Hondurans started making cocoa without alcohol. In the 16th century, Spanish explorers brought non-alcoholic chocolate beverages back to Europe.