Nearly half of all hayfever sufferers are more irritable while they are suffering from hayfever symptoms and that impacts their relationships, according to a new survey published today.[1]  The survey suggests that up to 2 million people with hayfever[2] feel less affectionate in relationships and up to 600,000 people with hayfever have had an argument due to their hayfever symptoms. Even potential new relationships are at risk, with 6% having cancelled a date or prior arrangement because of their symptoms and 75% feeling self conscious about their appearance.(*)

The findings, announced today, arose from a survey of 787 people with hayfever conducted by YouGov on behalf of Schering-Plough last summer.

One more book to pile on my to-read list. Via Carl Zimmer (go follow the link for a bloggingheads video interview), a fascinating book on bioengineering, Learning to Fly, by Rob Carlson, is coming out this fall.

He has some insightful thoughts:

The past few months, it has been difficult to watch TV, browse the internet or any other form of media viewing without some mention of the Octamom. If you are wondering why the villain from Spiderman 2 is on TV so much, then you need to readjust your POV.

In January, Nadya “octamom” Suleman made history when she gave birth to octuplets with the help of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

A team of Oregon State University researchers say they have implemented a classroom-based intervention that reduces the amount of violent TV that children watch - by 18 percent among first- through fourth-grade children.  And that's good, they say, because youth violence is a big issue, though not so much as 30 years ago when everyone assumed we would be living out scenarios from either "The Warriors" or "Escape From New York" by now. 

Galileo Galilei Linceo was, among other talents, a solar physicist. While not the first to observe sunspots, he sketched (in 1612) some of the earliest surviving tracings of sunspots. Observing their daily motion, he deduced that a) they were on or near the surface of the sun and b) that the sun was rotating.

Geneticists have tackled a question that has perplexed humanity since the dawn of time: does love at first sight truly exist?

Maybe, according to a study published in the April 2009 issue of the journal GENETICS.  A team of scientists from the United States and Australia say they have discovered that, at the genetic level, some males and females are more compatible than others, and that this compatibility plays an important role in mate selection, mating outcomes, and future reproductive behaviors. In experiments involving fruit flies, the researchers found that before mating, females experience what amounts to "genetic priming," making them more likely to mate with certain males over others.

Weight discrimination appears to add to the glass ceiling effect for women, according to a new study in the British journal Equal Opportunities International.

Overweight and obese women are significantly underrepresented among the top CEOs in the United States, according to the research.   However, while obese men were also underrepresented, overweight men were actually overrepresented among top CEOs.

The different results for women and men suggest weight bias may contribute to the glass ceiling on the advancement of women to the top levels of management, said Mark Roehling, Michigan State University associate professor of human resource management.

Although fractions are thought to be a difficult mathematical concept to learn, the adult brain encodes them automatically without conscious thought, according to new research in the April 8 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study shows that cells in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and the prefrontal cortex — brain regions important for processing whole numbers — are tuned to respond to particular fractions. The findings suggest that adults have an intuitive understanding of fractions and may aid in the development of new teaching techniques.

Acupuncture cannot be shown to have any positive effect on hot flashes during the menopause, says the conclusion of a systematic review of literature by three groups in Daejon, Busan (South Korea) and Exeter (UK), published in the current edition of the peer-reviewed journal Climacteric.

Many women are concerned by the unfavourable publicity given to HRT use, but still have to deal with the symptoms which can occur during and after the menopause. A significant minority of women look for alternatives to HRT to deal with these symptoms. Often these alternatives are untested, and it can be impossible to balance the risks and benefits of these treatments against the risks and benefits of conventional treatments or the discomfort of untreated menopause.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne and Princeton University have shown for the first time that the difference in reflection of light from the Earth's land masses and oceans can be seen on the dark side of the moon, a phenomenon known as earthshine.

Sally Langford from the University of Melbourne's School of Physics who conducted the study as part of her PhD, says that the brightness of the reflected earthshine varied as the Earth rotated, revealing the difference between the intense mirror-like reflections of the ocean compared to the dimmer land.

"In the future, astronomers hope to find planets like the Earth around other stars. However these planets will be too small to allow an image to be made of their surface," she said.