Down with meetings
The number of meetings in the average workplace more than doubled in the second half of the 20th century. If that made you smile a little, then you likely have something researchers refer to as high “accomplishment striving.” Such people tend to set out goals they mean to accomplish over the course of a day, and they tend to see meetings as interruptions. People with low accomplishment striving, however, enjoy frequent meetings, which they associate with a sense of well-being. (Journal of Applied Psychology)
Hide your mirrors
Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have cobbled together a portable cocaine detector, using only off-the-shelf components. The sensor uses a specially tailored DNA molecules that change shape in the presence of coke and produce a reading when current is passed through them. The so-called “Scott test” cops currently use involves pouring a reagent on the suspicious white powder and looking for a colour change, but cocaine “manufacturers” have learned to foil this trick by adding various chemicals to their snuff. Right now, the sensor can detect 0.3 parts per million of cocaine in saliva or blood-meaning the subject would have to be well knackered to get caught. (Journal of the American Chemical Society)
Conservative or chicken?
Dr. David Romer, a UC-Berkeley economist, says that when it comes to playing a fourth down in football, coaches are rather risk-averse punters-preferring to boot the ball down the field, instead of going for a first down. This despite the fact that attempting a pass increases a team’s chance of winning a game by roughly three per cent, according to his numbers. (Journal of Political Economy)
-Mike Ghenu
