[via:visualoop]

WATCH: NatGeo explains the biology of homosexuality

(Source: youtube.com)

liberalsarecool:

Sanctimonious and proud.

(Source: shyjinx, via liberalsarecool)

A look at fascinating research by Dr. Niobe Way of New York University in her new book Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection that connects what happens with friendships between boys and the emotional development of their older selves as men. The article notes:

Despite stereotypes of teenage boys as grunting, emotionally tone-deaf creatures who bond over sports talk and risk-taking, she said, their need for intimate friendship is as potent as it is for girls. Boys in early adolescence would speak candidly about those friendships to Dr. Way and her researchers, acknowledging the importance of having a best friend who was both repository and guard for their most private feelings.

But as the boys grew older, the intensity of those relationships faded. Boys feared being seen as “too girly” or even gay for expressing attachments to one another, even just for feeling them.

She [Dr. Way] leaned forward with evident urgency: “This is not some academic read I’m doing. The boys are aware of the power of their relationships. They are overtly saying, ‘I want him, I need him, I miss him — no homo!’ And then they grow up and become depressed.”

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A fascinating report on a recent piece in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology where online gamers help create a 3D model of the monomeric protease enzyme in retroviruses, including HIV.

WATCH: Japanese Researchers Create Artificial Meat From Human Feces

You can’t make this shit up!

[source]

Dr. Jeffrey Fishberger, a psychiatrist and LGBTQ youth mental health special for The Trevor Projects’s The Trevor Lifeline, reports on a recent study published in Pediatrics by Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler who was looking into the relationship between the social environment of lesbian, gay, bisexual youth and rate of suicide.

Dr. Fishberger states the obvious:

The findings in Dr. Hatzenbuehler’s recently published study in Pediatrics largely mirror what we have learned through the Trevor Lifeline regarding social environments and the risk for suicide among LGTBQ youth — namely that young people who live in areas with a more negative sociopolitical climate towards LGBTQ young people and without affirming resources are at an increased risk for suicide when compared with their peers in more supportive environments.

Hatzenbuehler’s research lays groundwork, but as Fishberger correctly notes, it did not include transgender, gender-queer youth who do not identify with either gender taxonomies.

+ on the study here

[Source: Phlebotomist]

Once again, science has spent time and money on interesting yet inconsequential study:

The first gene that shows a correlation is DRD2, which also influences drinking behavior. Now, there are obviously some non-biological explanations for why that relationship might exist. After all, people who possess the gene are more likely to be social drinkers, which in turn means they’re more likely to meet similar people at bars or parties. But the strength of the connection does seem to suggest there’s a biological component to this as well, as people with the DRD2 gene consistently flocked together.

The final gene of the six also showed a relationship, although it was a negative one, meaning that we’re attracted to people who display the opposite of some of our traits. What’s intriguing about these results is they actually seem to have found a genetic basis for relationship clichés like “opposites attract.” Indeed, what this study is basically talking about is chemistry, the notion that some people just seem to naturally click together better than others.

So does this prove the correlation between a drunk and his/her circle of slutfriends?

Fossil hunters uncover complete 252m year-old underwater world

A spectacular haul of 20,000 fossils including plants, carnivorous fish and large reptiles, has been found in a hillside in Luoping, southwestern China.

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