SciTechBits – Interesting Bits of Science & Technoglogy Served For You!

Is it the face or the body which attracts you? Does this attraction change based on whether it is for a long-term relationship or short-term relationship?

Breast size, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), symmetry, volume-to-height ratio, foot size are some of the factors which have been studied for their impact on attractiveness. However very few studies analyzed these factors in relation, as most studies analyzed just one factor at a time. Of the very few studies which analyzed these factors in relationship, a researcher proposed that men could use women’s WHR as a ‘wide first-pass filter,’ screening out those women who may be unhealthy, have low reproductive capability, or be pregnant. However, a different group of researchers found no evidence for such a role. Researchers also found that the minimum acceptable levels for a number of factors increased with the length of relationship sought, but each factor was different in the way it increased and was different for each sex.

With numerous advantages presented by renewable energy and the monetary subsidies at various levels, the desire to install a renewable energy solution is at its highest now. But do you know much cost reduction is possible by just conserving energy? Research answers this ……

Energy intensity index is a term which refers to the energy consumption per GDP normalized with respect to certain time. By efficient use of energy it is possible to reduce the energy intensity index while not changing or increasing the amount of work gained. With 1961 as a baseline, Denmark has been able to reduce its energy intensity index by 40%. Within US, California has reduced by about 12% while the US as a whole has only reduced by about 3%. This statistic heavily stresses on the need for efficient energy use.

Yalcintas et al., present an insightful article in the journal Energy Policy, which compares the cost benefits of installing solar systems versus making existing buildings energy efficient. This study was performed for the state of Hawaii, which gets about 90 percent of its energy from imported fossil fuels. The authors present 4 interesting case studies, where they compare replacement or retrofitting of old and inefficient equipment with new energy-efficient technologies with installing renewable energy systems. Solar systems were the best possible renewable options given the urban setup of the 4 locations considered for the studies. Of the four cases presented, two cases were highly impressive.

In one of the cases involving a 2200 room hotel, a two step solution of installing energy management systems (EMS) in the rooms and installing variable frequency drives in the air handling units was employed. The EMS systems were configured to control the cooling in the rooms based on occupancy. These two enhancements resulted in a saving of $264,500 at an installation cost of $1,125,000 – which meant a 4.3 years payback period. On the other hand, if solar systems were used to create the same energy saving effect, it would cost about $7,250,000 ($4,575,000 after tax credits & other savings) – which meant a 17.3 years payback period. Additionally, the solar panel installation needs 725,000 sq.ft of open area, which is impossible in an urban setup.

In another case involving a manufacturing facility, 316 metal halide lighting fixtures were replaced with 299 4L-T5HO lighting fixtures with new ballasts. Each of the 4L-T5HO fixtures had 4 lamps as compared to the single lamp in the halide fixtures. This change resulted in more than 50% drop of the power used for lighting. Financially, this cost about $90,000 while the yearly estimated savings is $103,000 – a payback period of only 1 year. Had solar panels been used, for the same energy savings it would have cost $2,020,000 – a payback period of about 20 years.

The other 2 cases presented involved replacement of selective cooling equipment and resulted in significant savings. The authors continued to estimate that such energy conservation techniques save more than 50% on an average as compared to deploying renewable energy options to save equal amount of energy.

It should here be stressed that energy conservation is a good first step, however once all possible energy conservation options are exhausted deploying renewable energy options are the natural end point.

At residential levels, heating, cooling & lighting cover about 70% of energy used. Simple solutions like replacing with higher efficient equipment and avoiding wastage (example: room cooling vs central cooling) will result in drastic savings of energy. Only upon energy optimizing all the equipments, installation of renewable energy options should be considered, for enhanced financial savings as well as long term over all energy savings.

Journal Reference: doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.04.029

Image Credits: Flickr, Flickr

Is the RIAA’s strategy to stop music piracy working? According to a recent study, interesting data has been collected from college students that holds both good and bad news for the RIAA. Where does this leave the future of downloading?


204 undergraduates from a large Midwestern University were promised anonymity and were recently sampled in a piracy study since students download more often than non-students. Researchers believed college students were the best representatives of digital music consumers and studied an equal number of males and females in regards to software piracy, movie piracy, and music piracy. The Elsevier findings blew away previous research and statistics about digital pirates.

Researchers set out to test these business students for the decision factors of obtaining online music, such as how important the ethical, legal and social consequences are in of music piracy. Motivations and theoretical research found that among 24 kinds of questionable Internet behaviors, downloading copyright-protected music and movies is considered the least wrong. An acquisition-mode framework for musical piracy was developed and was based upon previous research.

Women’s behavior towards men or sexual interest across the menstrual cycle have been studied previously. For first time, researchers in France have tried to find the change in women’s receptivity to an explicit courtship solicitation across different phases of the menstrual cycle.

Several studies have shown that during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle – women show greater preference for facial masculinity, taller men, men expressing dominant behavior, male voice pitch, olfactory cues about body symmetry etc. Researchers term this as the “rose-tinted-spectacle” effect. It is also found that during the fertile phase, women are more prone to fantasizing about having sexual intercourse with a man other than their current partner, their overall interest and thoughts about sex peaked, they dress more provocatively, their frequency of intercourse was very high at ovulation & declined abruptly thereafter and women initiated sexual activity peaked during ovulation. However no research was conducted to directly test the receptivity of women to courtship applications, across different stages of the menstrual cycle.

New research has demonstrated that one of our two closest primate relatives, the chimpanzee can settle conflicts of interest over resources in mutually satisfying ways – even without the social norms of equity, planned strategies of reciprocity, and the complex communication characteristic of human negotiation.

Dr. Alicia Melis from the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany has been conducting various experiments with chimpanzees. An article recently published in the journal “Evolution and Human Behavior” authored by Dr. Melis has shed light on the various intricate negotiating capabilities of  chimpanzees.

Basic cooperation among social species in aspects like travel direction or activity timing has long been documented however solving conflicts on resources like food have had very little research. Dr. Melis and team, trained a group of chimps on various aspects including the importance of cooperation. The chimps were taught that cooperation benefits both. The chimps were also paired containing a dominant partner and a subordinate partner. Most of these chimps had been already involved in cooperation oriented experiments. Here is a clip which demonstrates how chimps are demonstrated the importance of cooperation.

Your right to privacy is shrinking, but it’s happening quietly without much publicity. Identity theft steals far more than your privacy.  So far in 2009, over 13 million records have been breached! Here are the top privacy breaches this year.

by Angie Porter
Cyberspace is the new Wild West frontier where sophisticated hacking is like having the fastest gun. Man-in-the-middle attacks are common place, while credit card PIN crackers lead the pack of cyber outlaws. Neither SSL websites nor the “smart” grid can be considered safe anymore. Lucifer, AKA a social engineer, may dwell on your friend’s list within instant messengers or social sites. Even if you manage to avoid tweeting your intentions, botnets, or clickjackers, the vast frontier of cyberspace is shrinking in regards to your privacy.

Welcome to SciTechBits – A website dedicated to innovations & research in the fields of science & technology.  The main purpose of this website is to bring the latest news at the research level in different fields of expertise in a simpler manner such that it reaches people of all backgrounds. Our main focus will be on reporting – unreported yet interesting research news. However to make sure that you do not miss out any latest research, we will also be covering very prominent research happenings reported at other media outlets.