Stories by Erika Beras

Emergency room visits due to high heel shoe–related injuries doubled between 2002 and 2012. Erika Beras reports

The six million black people who left the South between 1910 and 1970 had better economic opportunity but a lower chance or reaching their 70s. Erika Beras reports

People of all ages find background sound distracting, but noise appears to impede memory formation in older people. Erika Beras reports

High-calorie and exceedingly pleasurable foods appear to change rat brain rewards circuitry, causing the rodents to continue to seek such fare. Erika Beras reports

Working-class kids ask for help from teachers less often and less aggressively than do their middle-class counterparts

 

The simple question “To what extent do you agree with this statement: I am a narcissist” is about as good at identifying narcissists as a 40-question clinical assessment. Erika Beras reports

Study volunteers who had listened to bass-heavy music were more likely to act dominant or aggressive in games and debates. Erika Beras reports

Women who reported feeling stressed or depressed burned fewer calories after a calorie-packed meal than mellow women. Erika Beras reports.

Survey subjects rated life experiences as making them happier and as a better use of money than buying objects. But they actually spent their cash on material goods, whose value is more easily quantifiable. Erika Beras reports

Monkeys trained to play fixed video games made moves indicating that they expected certain patterns to occur. Erika Beras reports
 

Kids deemed cool in early adolescence have a poor chance to keep that status by their early 20s, because their behavior gets old. Erika Beras reports 

 

Tiny spores from mosses, algae and lichens can stick in bird feathers, travel from the Arctic to the bottom of South America and grow into whole new specimens. Erika Beras reports 

 

Five-year-olds in highly decorated classrooms were less able to hold their focus, spent more time off-task and had smaller learning gains than kids in bare rooms. Erika Beras reports

 

As northern Europe warms, the light-colored butterflies and dragonflies typically found in the Mediterranean are moving north, and outcompeting their darker-colored rivals. Erika Beras reports
 

A clinical trial tests whether induced hypothermia can allow surgeons to save critically wounded patients who would not survive surgery at normal temperatures. Erika Beras reports

 

Girls who played with dolls were then asked about future careers. Those who played with Barbie more likely to envision traditional pink-collar jobs than were girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head. Erika Beras reports

 

People who played instruments as children responded a bit quicker to complex speech sounds as adults, even if they had not played an instrument in many years. Erika Beras reports