Spring 2009 discoveries revisited

Tim Green — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:22:15 +0000

The spring 2009 semester has ended and that’s a good time to take another look at some of the research that came out of University of Texas at Austin labs in the past few months.

Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting discoveries in exercise, psychology, business and statistics.

Add crunch to your post workout recovery

In a study of well-trained cyclists, exercise physiologist Lynne Kammer found that a bowl of whole grain cereal is as good as a sports drink for recovery after exercise. The research was supported by the General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition.

At the tone, say goodbye to that bad memory (someday)

Marie Monfils

Marie Monfils, an assistant professor of psychology at The University of Texas at Austin, has taken advantage of a key time when memories are ripe for change to substantially modify memories of fear into benign memories and to keep them that way. Here experiment manipulated the memory of rodents, but it also could indicate a potential treatment for humans suffering from anxiety-related disorders.

Is that market index half full or half empty?

Nicholas Seybert

Wishful investors who make overly optimistic investments will ultimately harm themselves financially, but they can harm entire markets as well, according to research from business professors Nicholas Seybert, an assistant professor The University of Texas at Austin, and Robert Bloomfield, a professor at Cornell University.

Stocks or Scratch-off game? Same thing for some investors

Alok Kumar

The socioeconomic characteristics of people who play state lotteries are similar to investors who pick stocks with a lottery quality—high risk with a small potential for high return, and just like the lottery, returns on average are lower for those who invest this way in the stock market, research from business professor Alok Kumar shows.

Coffee’s not the only thing mountain grown; Amazon’s frogs are, too

Colorful poison frogs in the Amazon owe their great diversity to ancestors that leapt into the region from the Andes Mountains several times during the last 10 million years, a new study from graduate student Juan Santos suggests.

Been screened at the airport too often? Statistics to the rescue!

William Press

William Press, a computational biologist, has found that secondary security screening at airports is mathematically flawed, and has identified a way to select people for screenings more efficiently and fairly.

Further Findings » airport

Spring 2009 discoveries revisited