The pick of the science news
"I think it's coming, I really do. At some point, we'll turn over a rock and, by gosh, there it is
– Peter Smith, principal investigator of Nasa's Phoenix Mars Mission, speaking at the University of Delaware last week about the search for evidence of life on the red planet
Failing memory is something to forget
If you are convinced that your memory will fail with increasing age, the chances are that it will. Older adults who buy into negative stereotypes about ageing and memory, or who feel stigmatised because of age, are more likely to perform poorly in memory tests themselves, according to research published this month in the Experimental Aging Researchjournal.
The study claims that the converse also holds true: where more positive views of ageing are activated, subjects tend to fare better with memory-related tasks.
“The take-home message is that social factors may have a negative effect on older adults’ memory performance,” says lead researcher Dr Thomas Hess, from North Carolina State University.
Breast best for a mother’s heart
Women who breastfeed their babies could be protecting themselves against heart problems in older age, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh looked at data from almost 140,000 post-menopausal women and analysed the number of months in total that individuals had breastfed their babies.
Breastfeeding for between one and six months was associated with a reduced incidence of diabetes and healthier blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while the women who had clocked up more than a year of breastfeeding were 10 per cent less likely to have a heart attack or stroke when older.
By numbers
1.9
The number of earth-masses of a newly discovered exoplanet (a planet beyond the solar system), Gliese 581 e, which orbits its host star in the constellation Libra.
570,000
The number of images snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope since its launch 19 years ago.
Claire O’Connell
e-mail: 1000.claire@gmail.com