RANDOM DATA
Runner's high?
12/9/2003
Most of us know a compulsive runner or gym rat who completely freaks out if they have to miss a workout, but it's been debated whether exercise addiction is a real or imaginary phenomenon. Now a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Dec. 1 issue of Behavioral Neuroscience suggests that it may indeed be a physical condition. Researchers showed that animals deprived of exercise revealed brain activity normally associated with drug withdrawal. Zoologist Stephen Gammie and his colleagues studied a special type of mouse, bred to run longer distances than the typical lab mouse. Both the "high-running" mice and the lab mice were allowed to run on a wheel for as long as they liked for six days, with the high-running mice running as much as three times farther in the same amount of time than the lab mice. On the seventh day, the researchers denied access to the wheel to half of the mice in each group, allowing the others to run as before. Then the researchers measured the brain activity in each group. All the mice denied the wheel showed high levels of activity in 16 out of 25 brain regions, but, stated Justin Rhodes, one of the paper's authors, "in the high-running mice, certain brain regions displayed extremely high levels of activity, more than normal. These were the same brain regions that become activated when you prevent rats from getting their daily fix of cocaine, morphine, alcohol, or nicotine." Whether these findings apply to humans still remains to be seen, but true "gym mice" appear to exist after all.
Winter sports threatened by warming
As if rising sea levels aren't scary enough, here's another reason to fear global warming: It could force your favorite ski resort to close. A report issued by the United Nations Environment Program last week said that as global temperatures increase, and the snowline retreats to higher altitudes, many existing low-altitude mountain resorts throughout the world will lack reliable snow cover, be cut off from their ski runs, and risk financial ruin. In one worst-case scenario, none of Australia's ski resorts would be viable by 2070. The report used temperature forecasts produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of some 2,000 scientists, which estimated that world temperatures will rise anywhere from 2.5 to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 unless greenhouse gas emissions are radically reduced. UNEP executive director Klaus Toepfer said that global warming -- in the form of extreme weather such as floods and droughts -- will have the most devastating impact on the world's poorest nations, but "this study on winter sports shows that it is not just the developing world that will suffer. Even rich nations are facing potentially massive upheavals with significant economic, social and cultural implications."
Fast food becominga bear necessity
It seems that black bears are prone to the diet and exercise problems of our modern-day, fast-food existence. According to a recent study published in the Journal of Zoology, black bears living in and around urban areas are up to a third less active and weigh up to 30 percent more than bears living in more wild areas. Biologists from the Wildlife Conservation Society have observed that the bears aren't actively foraging for berries or carrion as they normally would in the wilderness, but instead are dumpster-diving behind the mall or at fast-food restaurants for their meals. "Black bears in urban areas are putting on weight and doing less-strenuous activities," stated Jon Beckmann, the lead author of the study. "They're hitting the local dumpster for dinner, then calling it a day." The researchers also have found that the bears have become more nocturnal than their country cousins, presumably to avoid interacting with humans, and the time they spend in their winter dens also has declined, thanks to a year-round supply of food.
AGNIESZKA BISKUP
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
