Not your average “wingman”
How far would you go to help your best friend get the girl of his dreams? If you were a male lance-tailed manakin, you’d dance for her. The mating ritual of this tropical bird involves two males, one high-ranking alpha and one subordinate beta, performing a “leapfrog” dance punctuated by intervals of flight. But the alpha male, of course, gets to mate with the thoroughly impressed female. So what’s in it for the beta male? Some theories proposed that the beta male covertly mates with the female in order to father the clutch, but recent work at UC Berkeley proves that this is not the case-the DNA of the chicks were nearly always related to the alpha male. The group did find that beta males eventually gained alpha status when the opportunity opened up, often in other territories. Scientists suggest that the betas undergo an apprenticeship with the alphas where they learn and perfect their dance moves, and, sometimes, garner a following of betas themselves.
Source: University of Chicago Press Journals news release
-Sandy Huen
Downing starchy diets
A recent Stanford study found that the Atkins diet was the most successful weight-loss strategy among 300 female subjects, beating out the Zone, LEARN, and Ornish diets. The diets were chosen for their range of carbohydrates, fat, and protein levels, with Atkins being the lowest in carbs and the Ornish highest. The LEARN diet adheres to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s food guide for a low-fat, high-carb diet and the Zone prescribes a ratio of fat, carbs, and protein that supposedly minimizes fat and hunger. Over the course of a year, all groups lost weight but the Atkins group achieved the greatest overall weight loss despite regaining some weight in the second half of the year. According to the researchers, the Atkins diet was successful because it encouraged women to drink water instead of sweetened beverages that may contain refined sugars, like corn syrup, which is a major concern in today’s diet. The long-term health effects of any diet, such as vitamin or mineral deficiencies, were not considered in the study but should be an important consideration when choosing a diet.
Source: Stanford University news service
-S.H.
Sadly, no luck for early lungs
Despite detecting lung cancer early, smokers may still develop the disease at the same rate as those who did not receive screening. This was the conclusion of a recent study that analyzed the rates of computed tomography screening for smokers and their subsequent development of lung cancer. With the development of the sensitive CT screening methods, it was believed that screening high-risk individuals would detect lung cancer while they are still localized and curable, reducing mortality by treating the cancer early. But the study showed that this was not the case. While CT scanning does speed up diagnosis and treatment, it may not have an impact on reducing deaths from lung cancer.
Source: JAMA
-Mayce Al-Sukhni
