New Study Shows 6 Percent of Galaxy Hosts Earth-Size Worlds

You know what that means… We are not alone!

The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced Wednesday that some 60 percent of the galaxy’s most ubiquitous stars are likely host planets smaller than Neptune and about 6 percent host Earth-size planets. Astronomers talked of a “Goldilocks” zone where liquid water—and life as we know it—are possible.

Courtney Dressing, a graduate astronomer who led the study, says that “the nearest Earth-like planet is expected to be about 13 light years away.” In other words, if the Milky Way was the size of the United States and earth was located on one side of Central Park, the nearest Earth-like planet is just across the park. SCARY but exciting! (CBS News)

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Minerals From Mars May Produce ‘Strongest Evidence’ for Life

Enter the Twilight Zone, humans may not be alone.

Using data from the US space agency (NASA), the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Aberdeen, said the ingredients for life could have been in a zone up to 5km down. The team said that rocks below the surface of Mars could hold the strongest evidence that the red planet supported life. The research backs up an existing theory that Mars could have supported life due to micro-organisms hidden beneath the surface.

Don’t pull out the welcome mat for extraterrestrials just yet. Dr Joseph Michalski, lead author and planetary geologist at the Natural History Museum, said that the paper simply presents a strong case for exploring the subsurface of Mars. Doing so would help scientists obtain more substantial evidence and also help find out what’s lurking beneath earth’s surface as well. 

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Loneliness May Lead to Decline in Physical Health, Study Says

Valuable and healthy relationships should improve poor immunity.

Bad relationships or little to no relationships at all can actually affect a person’s physical health, researchers report. In a study of 200 breast cancer survivors compared to study participants with more social connections, people who felt lonely showed more inflammation in response to stress and higher levels of a latent herpes virus—a sign of poor immunity.

"It is clear from previous research that poor-quality relationships are linked to a number of health problems, including premature mortality [death] and all sorts of other very serious health conditions,” said study author Lisa Jaremka, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. “And people who are lonely clearly feel like they are in poor-quality relationships.”

The reactivation of a latent herpes virus is known to be linked to stress. Investigators said these findings suggest that lonliness acts as a chronic source of stress that triggers a poorly controlled immune response. The data and conclusions are viewed as preliminary until published by a peer-reviewed journal. (U.S. News)

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Secret to Happiness: Chocolate, Puppies and Money

Finding money produces the highest pleasure.

Life just got a lot easier. There is finally an answer to the age-old question, ‘what is happiness?’  According to new research, puppies, chocolate, and money is all you need to have a happy life. Scientists at Birkbeck Univeristy in London performed tests on 80 volunteers whose brainwaves were recorded while they engaged in various activities. Finding a stray £10 note came top of the list, followed by playing with puppies and eating chocolate; cue the rising obesity rates and uneasy financial climate. The results were produced on a pleasure scale ranging from minus 100 to plus 100. Listening to bad played violin was one of the most unpleasant experiences, with a rating of minus 55.7

The study was commissioned by chocolate brand Beyond Dark and was released on ‘Blue Monday, the third Monday in January and traditionally the most depressing day of the year. (Huffington Post)

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