Pluck 200 hair to grow 1,200 new ones!

In a good news for men facing incessant hair loss, researchers have discovered that by plucking 200 hair strands in a specific pattern and density, they can induce up to 1,200 replacement hairs to grow!

Scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have demonstrated this on a mouse. “It is a good example of how basic research can lead to a work with potential translational value,” said lead researcher Cheng-Ming Chuong.

“The work leads to potential new targets for treating alopecia, a form of hair loss,” he added.

Viagra not universal ‘cure-all’ for impotency

If you are suffering from impotence or erectile dysfunction, reaching out for Viagra and other related drugs may help you increase the levels of your sexual activity, but not satisfaction, suggests a new research.

Moreover, people suffering from erectile dysfunction have higher odds of suffering from high blood pressure and diabetes.

Accept your situation to ward off frustration

Unconscious acceptance of your current situation — good or bad — works better in regulating frustrating emotion, say researchers from Southwest University of China.

They showed that unconscious priming of acceptance attitude works well in reducing frustrating emotion, at little cost of cognitive efforts but producing best mood stability during frustration.

This provides an important perspective to cope daily frustration, the education of adaptive coping and the development of a healthy personality.

Rs.60 test detects early-stage prostate cancer

A test that costs less than $1 (Rs.60) and yields results in minutes is more sensitive and exact than the current standard test for early-stage prostate cancer, US-based researchers say.

The simple test, developed by University of Central Florida scientist Qun “Treen” Huo, holds promise of early detection of one of the deadliest cancers among men.

It would also reduce the number of unnecessary and invasive biopsies stemming from the less precise prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test that is now being used.

Eating raw fruits can lead to poor semen quality

Do you love strawberries, spinach or apple? Wash them properly before consuming especially if you are a man and plan for babies.

According to researchers from Harvard University, men who ate fruits and vegetables with higher levels of pesticide residues had a lower sperm count and a lower percentage of normal sperm than those who ate fruits with lower residue levels.

Anxious, slow talkers often rejected for job

You must exude warmth and be assertive during a job interview if you want to make a good impression, suggests a study.

People who are anxious going into an interview often do not get hired, found the researchers.

The study, published in Springer’s Journal of Business and Psychology, found that organisations often reject potential candidates with interview jitters who are otherwise quite capable of doing the job.

Older employees bring valuable skills to the job

When companies the world over are looking to hire fresh, young employees brimming with ideas, a new study reveals that older employees bring valuable knowledge to the job.

They have higher “crystallised intelligence,” which includes verbal ability and knowledge born of experience, the findings showed.

But compared with their younger counterparts, older executives show marked declines in “fluid intelligence,” which involves the ability to reason, the researchers found.

Flexible working hours make workers happy: Study

Allowing workers to choose the slot of hours they want to work in is good for their well-being, says a study from Loughborough University, England.

The study found that people who become overworked are less satisfied with their lives and experience lower levels of psychological well-being.

The key factor to happiness, according to the study, was whether the hours people work reflect the hours they want to work.

The study, published in the journal Human Relations, examined the working time patterns and well-being levels of 20,000 individuals over an 18-year period.

Providing too much attention to a task may be futile

Being too focused on a task may not yield perfect results as researchers have found that too much attention hinders the brain from switching from an ongoing strategy to a new and perhaps more efficient one.

The study published in the journal Neuron showed that activity in a region of the brain known as the medial prefrontal cortex is involved in shifting focus from a successful strategy to one that is even better.

Prince Charles, Britain’s best dressed man: Liz Hurley

Actress-model Elizabeth Hurley finds Prince Charles as Britain’s best dressed man.

The actress, who features in “The Royals”, is disappointed she isn’t a “private friend” of any of the British royals, and admits she has a particular soft spot for the 66-year-old heir to the throne, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“I’ve had the honour of meeting some members of the royal family at various events, but as a private friend, sadly not. I’ve met Prince Charles a couple of times because I’m a patron of one of his charities and I have to say I’m a huge fan of his.

Why businessmen prefer to work in car parking

Noisy and cramped conditions in trains, planes and airports are discouraging many commuters and business people from working while travelling, new research shows.

The most popular place to work was in vehicles in the car park, the study found.

In a paper in the journal Work, Employment and Society, sociologist Donald Hislop of the Loughborough University and psychologist Carolyn Axtell of the University of Sheffield, said “significant variations” in noise and lack of space “inhibited people’s ability to work” on trains and planes.

Rajesh Pratap Singh: Finding perfection in black-and-white world

Most Indian fashion designers play with a gamut of colours, but Rajesh Pratap Singh prefers to to spread magic through his black and white creations. He says he wants to perfect two colours, instead of painting a riot of hues on the runway — something he did in the past, but went unnoticed.

There’s usually a hint of colour here and there in his garments, but what stands out through his collection is the usage of the two stark colours – black and white.

Gene therapy to treat erectile dysfunction

There is some good news for those who can’t have ‘it’ up on the spur of the moment! Researchers have devised a gene therapy that triggers reliable erections.

Some men reach for the ‘blue pills’ to deal with erectile dysfunction. However, Viagra helps only to prolong an erection, it does not actually trigger it.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have now developed a gene therapy that triggers erections even without sexual stimulation.

Men prefer women with curvy backside: study

Evolution may be the reason why men prefer women with a curvy backside, scientists say.

The study investigated men’s mate preference for women with a “theoretically optimal angle of lumbar curvature,” a 45.5 degree curve from back to buttocks.

The research, led by the University of Texas at Austin alumnus and Bilkent University psychologist David Lewis, consisted of two studies.

The first looked at vertebral wedging, an underlying spinal feature that can influence the actual curve in women’s lower backs.

Informal email address hampers your hiring chances

An applicant’s email address can greatly impact first impressions and affect one’s chances of getting hired, according to a new study.

Job recruiters may review hundreds of online resumes for a position, often screening them quickly and discarding those that are not appropriate.

“We all have unconscious biases, and first impressions, as we know, are often difficult to change,” says Brenda K. Wiederhold, editor-in-chief of Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking where the study appeared.

Why sexually active boys watch more music on TV than girls

A new study has demonstrated that when girls and boys perceive males in music videos as being sexually active, it makes boys watch more music TV, and girls watch less of them.

The study conducted at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, showed that TV watching receive its fair share of criticism for having too much sexual content, for objectifying women and for promoting a recreational view of sexual activities involving active men. It has been linked to teenagers’ becoming sexually active earlier in life.

Male appetite drives sexual activity among older adults

Sexual activity among older adults is fuelled largely by male appetite – women are less likely to be active if their partners do not experience much desire and more likely if their partners do, new research has highlighted.

“In other words, our studies suggest that women’s desire is not decisive for how active they are,” said Nils Beckman from Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

“One reason may be the gender roles that these generations grew up with, which dictate that men always take the initiative,” Beckman said in his doctoral thesis.

Why obese men face greater diabetes risk than women?

Obese men are more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than obese women due to differences in the activity of a protein in the muscle, new research has found.

As people become overweight, their skeletal muscle develops insulin resistance that can lead to Type 2 diabetes.

In this study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the research team found the activity of a protein called PTEN (for Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10), is different between men and women.

E-cigarette advertising triggers urge to smoke

Television advertisements for e-cigarettes may be enticing current and even former tobacco smokers to reach for another cigarette, new research reveals.

People who smoke tobacco cigarettes daily and who watched e-cigarette advertisements with someone inhaling (or vaping) or holding an e-cigarette showed a greater urge to smoke than regular smokers who did not see the vaping.

After watching e-cigarette advertisements with vaping, former smokers feel less confident that they could refrain from smoking tobacco cigarettes than former smokers seeing e-cigarette ads without vaping.

Encourage your spouse to stay fit by hitting the gym yourself

A new study has revealed that your spouse is likelier to increase exercise levels if you do.

Research by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health finds that if one spouse improves his or her exercise regimen, the other spouse is significantly more likely to follow suit, which suggests that a better approach to helping people boost their physical activity to improve health might be to counsel married couples together instead of individually.

Depressed dads turn toddlers into troubled kids

Not just mothers but new fathers who are depressed do not make as much eye contact or smile at their toddlers, leading them to develop troubling behaviour such as hitting, lying, anxiety and sadness as they grow, new research has found.

The more disengaged parents are from their child, the greater the risk the child will have forming close attachments and healthy emotions, the team from the Northwestern University noted.

Flexible work schedule good for workers’ well-being

Flexible work schedules aren’t just more convenient, they can really make a difference in the way we feel and for our long-term health, a study reiterates.

In today’s fast life, our daily schedules often don’t match our bodies’ natural rhythms. This causes a ‘social jetlag’ as we lose sleep.

The condition can be a particular problem for shift workers, who work into the night or on a shifting schedule.

“A ‘simple’ re-organisation of shifts according to chronotype allowed workers to sleep more on workday nights,” said Till Roenneberg of the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Germany.

Selfless behaviour key to get ahead at workplace

Going the extra mile with the company’s benefit at heart may bring you more rewards than working harder to advance your own personal ambition, says a study.

Good supervisors are not easily duped by the motives of people who go the extra mile – they know when an employee is sucking up to them because of personal ambition, or when such actions truly have what is best for the organisation, the findings showed.