Here's another reason why dieters should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: When faced with a large variety of items, consumers tend to underestimate how much of each item is present, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Authors Joseph P. Redden (University of Minnesota) and Stephen J. Hoch (University of Pennsylvania) investigated consumers' perceptions of quantity in a set of experiments that may help us understand how quantity perceptions influence portion sizes.

"Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" the researchers asked. "Contrary to popular belief, the presence of variety actually makes it seem like there are fewer items."

Some consumers will opt for local products and others always prefer global brands.   A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research takes a look at why local goods can even beat out recognizable global brands like Coke or Pepsi.

"Due to rapid globalization, local products—products with specifications and packaging tailored for local markets, such as Mecca Cola (France) and Fei-Chang Cola (China)—and global products (products with the same specifications and packaging for consumers from around the world) such as Pepsi and Coke, routinely compete against each other," write authors Yinlong Zhang (University of Texas at San Antonio) and Adwait Khare (Quinnipiac University).

It has been revealed that 1 in 3 people in the UK are still struggling to find an NHS dentist, according to new research from Simplyhealth.

Simplyhealth's Annual Dental Survey has revealed that alarmingly just over a third of Brits (35%) struggled to find an NHS dentist over the last year, which has increased from 23% at the same time in 2008.

Perhaps more shocking is the fact that this figure soars in certain areas of the UK, with over half of the people in Plymouth finding it difficult to get an NHS dentist, closely followed by those in Southampton and Manchester, where 45% and 43% have struggled.

The severity of the situation this year has been heightened by the economic downturn, as almost half of people across the UK have put off visiting the dentist becaus

There are four caffeine-induced psychiatric disorders recognized by the DSM-IV, the diagnosis manual of the American Psychiatric Association: caffeine intoxication, caffeine-induced anxiety disorder, caffeine-induced sleep disorder, and caffeine-related disorder not otherwise specified.

And, as you know if you have ever had to walk low-Starbucks-density wastelands, withdrawal can result in nausea, lethargy and depression. But what of the classic, washed-up-child-star-style overdose?

Cicadas are nature’s candy—fat meaty bugs straight out of a Temple of Doom buffet.  Though most cicadas worldwide live typical insect lives, the Magicicada genus in the eastern US has a special power move to counterbalance its deliciousness: periodicity. 

I recently saw W D Hamilton’s 1970 paper “Geometry for the Selfish Herd” described as “a classic in its own right.” As a long-time bibliophile this made it irresistible, but I was also intrigued by the incongruity of “selfish herd” and of linking geometry to animals. I have to report that the paper certainly is a classic, for all the wrong reasons, but it contains a valuable message.

The introduction to the paper began with:
This paper presents an antithesis to the view that gregarious behaviour is evolved through benefits to the population or species. Following Galton (1871) and Williams (1964) gregarious behaviour is considered as a form of cover-seeking in which each animal tries to reduce its chance of being caught by a predator.

 

Researchers at the universities of Leicester and Oxford have made a discovery about plant growth which could potentially have an enormous impact on crop production as global warming increases.

Dr Kerry Franklin, from the University of Leicester Department of Biology led the study which has identified a single gene responsible for controlling plant growth responses to elevated temperature.

As more research is conducted on the development and spread of pandemic type II diabetes, there is more evidence than ever that diabetes is intricately linked to obesity, which is spreading in the US at an alarming rate.

To combat the struggle of managing type II diabetes, physicians have turned to unconventional methods to reduce fat and likewise combat diabetes symptoms.  Obesity reduction was the theme of the 2009 UK Diabetes Professional Conference in Glasgow, and efforts to treat and reverse diabetes through bariatric surgery was one of the most controversial topics.

Dr. James E. Hansen, head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Al Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” is quoted and referred to in the New York Times article "The Civil Heretic - Freeman Dyson - Profile"  - by Nicholas Dawidoff, March 29, 2009, New York Times, page MM32 and in the New York Times Magazine, March 25, 2009.

Dr. Hansen sent his response to the article to those who have subscribed to his e-mail commentaries the day before its publication in the Sunday New York Times. He has given me permission to convey his clarification in its entirety:

New York Times Magazine