Laughter is the best medicine. We’ve heard the expression time and again. For decades, researchers have explored how humor helps patients relieve stress and heal.
Melissa B. Wanzer, EdD, professor of communication studies at Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, has taken it one step further, with her research on how humor helps medical professionals cope with their difficult jobs, ScienceDaily reported.
She also looked at how humor affects the elderly and how it can increase communication in the workplace and in the classroom.
She wondered, how do healthcare providers care for the terminally ill people and manage to come back to work each day? So she asked them, in large-scale studies. Their answer? Humor. Wanzer has found humor to be beneficial in other areas as well.
“If employees view their managers as humor-oriented, they also view them as more effective,“ notes Wanzer.
“Employees also reported higher job satisfaction when they worked for someone who was more humor-oriented and used humor effectively and appropriately.“ Wanzer and her colleagues found that humor is an effective way to cope with on-the-job stress--again, when used appropriately.
Wanzer also recently collaborated on research that found aging adults who used humor more frequently reported greater coping efficacy, which led to greater life satisfaction. This was the third study she conducted, with three different populations, where the conclusion was the same.
But what if you don’t consider yourself to be particularly funny? Wanzer says that while you can’t change your personality, you can find ways to integrate humor into your day-to-day life and change your communication patterns.
“Self-disparaging humor, making fun of oneself, is a very effective form of humor communication, as long as it is not done excessively,“ says Wanzer, who adds that telling jokes is just a small portion of humor communication.
“I also tell people to use what is around them; ’props can be humorous too, so long as they are used appropriately and are not perceived as distracting.“
Wanzer teaches a course in “Constructive Uses of Humor,“ at Canisius College, which always fills to capacity. Students are required to prepare and perform a stand-up routine in front of the class. But the class is not all fun and games. Students read through journal articles and interpret factual studies on humor.
One such case involves Southwest Airlines’ strategic effort to integrate humor into the workplace, in order to create a positive environment for employees and customers.
Wanzer’s research also shows that students report learning more from teachers who use humor effectively.

Crewless robotic aircraft will fly into the lowest and most turbulent layers of hurricanes, spiral up the eye, or loiter above the top of the storm to gather data beyond reach using traditional methods.

Unmanned aircraft are to help scientists with research flights that are too dangerous or difficult for human pilots.
Robot planes have long been used by the military, but they are now being adapted for scientific use, according to BBC.
Noaa researchers (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) say it could revolutionize the way the Earth’s systems are monitored.
The agency has announced a $3 million investment into the technology.
“A big chunk of the atmosphere remains relatively unobserved. I think unmanned aircraft are a key to that solution and they will become ubiquitous in the coming decade,“ said Marty Ralph, a research meteorologist at Noaa’s Earth System Research Laboratory, Colorado.
Co-worker Sandy MacDonald added: “They are great for the missions we call dirty, dull and dangerous.“
The $3 million will be invested into projects to use unmanned aircraft for three main purposes: to predict a hurricane’s intensity, track how fast Arctic summer ice will melt and whether Pacific storms will flood the west coast of America.
In November 2007 Noaa flew the first unmanned plane, called an Aerosonde, into hurricane force winds.
Scientists were able to monitor hurricane Noel using an “integrated observing concept“ by combining data taken from manned aircraft, the Aerosondes and satellites.
Said Ralph, “By getting these two looks at the same time and then the satellite looking from the top - we can really understand how the hurricane is getting its energy and maintaining it better.“
Another advantage of the unmanned aircraft is continuous sampling, opposed to the snapshot values received from manned “hurricane hunters“ which drop down tube-like, data-gathering devices to measure moisture, temperature and wind speed.
Ralph explains, “What you can do with the Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) is fly down in a continuous mode and keep sampling--essentially follow the storm so we can actually track changes. It is a very unique capability. We are getting the types of measurements we should not otherwise be able to get.“
The scientists will investigate various unmanned aircraft models for the different mission needs.
The UAS used in hurricane Noel is know as a low altitude long endurance (LALE) plane. It is able to fly for a day, at 70 knots (129km/h) with a payload of a few pounds.
MacDonald said, “Unmanned aircraft can go in so low that they get salt water on the wings.“

Face-recognition systems are more accurate at identifying a face created by blending several photos of the same person than if the software relied on a single snapshot, finds a new study.
Experts in homeland security, crime prevention and immigration and employment verification could use automatic face recognition systems to confirm photo identifications, LiveScience.com wrote.
But for a variety of reasons, including the variability of photos themselves, most systems are too unreliable.
For instance, the appearance of a person’s face changes from photo to photo due to real-life changes such as aging and facial expressions, the angle of one’s head, how far away the photo was taken, and the direction and type of lighting in a photo.
“The machines just can’t handle that kind of variability,“ said co-author Rob Jenkins, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
By merging several photos, the researchers found they could get rid of irrelevant features and boost computer recognition. Their work is detailed in the Jan. 25 issue of the journal Science.
The psychologists tested their theory using a publicly available Web site, MyHeritage.com.
Originally a strictly genealogy domain, the site now includes a celebrity look-alike feature.
When you upload images of yourself, for instance, face recognition software called FaceVACS scans through more than 30,000 celebrity photos to find the one that most resembles your photo.
Instead of personal photos, Jenkins and Glasgow colleague A. Mike Burton submitted about 460 images of 25 male celebrities taken from a separate image database.
When the images were uploaded separately, the recognition software was accurate 54 percent of the time.
Then, the researchers used a computer program to average about 20 images of each of the male celebrities, resulting in a composite image for each celebrity. The performance of FaceVACS shot up to 100 percent recognition for the composite-type images.
The image-averaging process is one the researchers say our brains might use to assimilate actual mental pictures of familiar faces.

Trial participants will wear the helmet for 10 minutes a day.

An experimental helmet is being tested by scientists as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
It delivers low levels of infrared light, which researchers at the University of Sunderland, believe may stimulate the growth of brain cells, BBC said.
Tests in mice showed it improved learning ability and a study in humans is due to begin in the summer.
Current treatments for Alzheimer’s delay progression of the disease but cannot reverse memory loss.
The infrared therapy was first developed to treat cold sores. But when researchers studied how it worked, they found it stimulated growth of cells and may have applications in other conditions.
In tests in people with dementia using infrared lasers, eight out of nine people showed some improvement, said Dr Gordon Dougal, a GP and director of Virulite, a medical research company based in County Durham.
However, in order to safely deliver the treatment through the scalp, he developed a helmet which bathes the brain in low levels of infra-red light and would only need to be worn for 10 minutes a day.
Trials of around a 100 people with age-related memory problems will now look to see if the beneficial results seen in mice can be replicated in humans.
Dr Dougal said as cells age they lose the ability to repair and regenerate themselves, which in the brain leads to loss of memory.
“Currently all you can do with dementia is to slow down the rate of decay--this new process will not only stop that rate of decay but partially reverse it,“ he added.
The Alzheimer’s Society said it was a potentially interesting technique.
“A treatment that reverses the effects of dementia rather than just temporarily halting its symptoms could change the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who live with this devastating condition.
“We look forward to further research to determine whether it could help improve cognition in humans.
“Only then can we begin to investigate whether near infra-red could benefit people with dementia.“

Earth’s middle layer may be squishier than previously thought.
A new study suggests the intense heat and pressure deep in the Earth makes sound waves travel more slowly through parts of the lower mantle than had been previously estimated, suggesting that part of this layer of the inner Earth is softer than expected, LiveScience.com said.
Below the crust of the Earth (the layer we stand on) lies the viscous mantle. The lower portion of the mantle lies below the more rigid upper mantle and above the liquid outer core. It extends from about 400 to 1,800 miles (660 to 2,900 kilometers) below the surface.
Temperatures and pressures at this depth are so brutal that they can change the materials there into states that don’t exist on Earth’s surface.
Pressures can reach 230,000 times the pressure at sea level and temperatures range from 2,800 to 6,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 to 3,700 Celsius).
These forces change the configurations of electrons in the mineral ferropericlase in the lower mantle, making it softer than previously estimated.

The Agricultural Research Service has signed a cooperative research and development agreement with Flory Industries of Salida, Calif., to develop an add-on device to control dust emissions from nut harvesters.
Researchers Derek Whitelock, Carlos Armijo and Ed Hughs at ARS’ Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory in Mesilla Park, N.M., and Michael Buser in ARS’ Cotton Production and Processing Research Unit at Lubbock, Texas--working with Flory Industries engineers Seth Richmond and Mike Flora--are testing a prototype device that uses centrifugal force to trap soil and bits of leaves and sticks so the harvester emits cleaner air, ScienceDaily reported.
Mechanical shakers grab trees and shake out nuts--mainly walnuts, almonds and pecans. The nuts, plus unwanted leaves and twigs, fall to the ground and are swept into windrows. Pick-up machines then scoop up the windrows.
Air flowing through the harvester separates the nuts from debris that also includes soil particles. The debris blows out into the air through a side exhaust as the nuts are conveyed into a cart pulled behind the harvester.
The prototype is trapping the debris and some dust, but it needs more work, primarily because of the difficulty presented by the 12,000-cubic-foot-a-minute airflow through the harvester and out the exhaust. Whitelock modeled the device after the large cyclone dust collectors attached to cotton gin exhausts.
But a tree nut harvester can’t afford to have the huge cyclone that would normally handle that much airflow in cotton gin exhaust. Unlike a stationary cyclone attached to the outside exhaust of a cotton gin, the tree nut harvester has to be driven under the low tree canopies of many orchards.
The same harvester, with modifications, is used throughout the country to harvest various tree nuts, mainly almonds and walnuts in California and pecans in Georgia, Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Readius' e-paper display rolls out of a normal-sized cell phone.

Polymer Vision, a spin-off company from Philips, has recently announced the first cell phone to offer a roll-up e-display for reading your favorite websites.
The 5-inch (13-cm)-diagonal display rolls out of a normal-sized phone when users wish to check their email or read the news, Physorg.com wrote.
The Netherlands-based company has named the device ’Readius,’ and plans to sell the gadget starting in mid-2008. The price is not yet specified, but Polymer Vision’s chief executive Karl McGoldrick says it will be comparable to a high-end cell phone.
The Readius’ e-paper screen displays text and images in black-and-white (16 greyscales) that look almost like they have been printed on paper.
McGoldrick has also mentioned that Polymer Vision is planning to develop a cell phone with an 8-inch color display that can show video, which will hopefully be ready within five years.
The Readius connects to the Internet through the third generation (3G) cell phone network, which offers ultra-fast data speeds, similar to WiFi for laptops.
Users set up their email accounts and favorite news sources, podcasts, and blog feeds from a PC, and then the data is automatically updated on the Readius.
The device supports standard POP3 and IMAP for email servers, and uses Micro SD High Capacity storage for quick and easy access to e-books and other information. The storage is flexible, with the first model providing up to 8GB.
The Readius can also play MP3s and audio books. It has just 8 “SimpleTouch“ buttons, and a keyboard may be added to future models. The battery life is up to six times longer than on other cell phones, offering 30 hours of continuous reading.
“We are taking e-reading and bringing it to the mobile phone,“ McGoldrick says. “You get the large display of e-reading, the super battery life of e-reading, and the high-end connectivity ... and the form factor and weight of a mobile phone.“
Polymer Vision hopes that the Readius will offer some competition for Apple«s iPhone and Amazon’s Kindle. The company is currently talking with retailers and mobile operators, and suggests that the device offers the chance for operators to make a profit from increased data storage.
Polymer Vision has hinted at the coming of such a device for the past two years, which it claims “is generations ahead of anything else out there today.“ Now, the company hopes that the mobile e-reader will be poised for an eventful summer.