Today in Research: Bad News for Frogs; New Heart Attack Finding

More

Discovered: why happier people are happier, a bleak outlook for frogs, a theoretically good snack to keep you awake, an odd finding in a heart-attack study, and why smoggier living may lead to strokes.

  • Why frogs have a reason to be stressed. Lately we've seen a spate of research detailing how certain animals react to stress (dragonflies, for instance, just keel over in certain circumstances while surgeonfish enlist other fish for a helpful massage). It looks like a few amphibians have a reason to be worried today, finds a study in Nature, as relayed by the Associated Press: "Scientists have long known that amphibians are under attack from a killer fungus, climate change, and shrinking habitat. In the study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature, computer models project that in about 70 years those three threats will spread, leaving no part of the world immune from one of the problems." In summary, says one zoologist to the AP: "It's no fun being a frog." In 70 years, that is. [Associated Press]
  • An odd thing happened in one very large study analyzing heart-attack death rate. A study published by the American Heart Association found that the people who were more likely to die from a first-time heart attack weren't those people who exhibited normal warning signs ("high blood pressure, bad blood lipids, diabetes") of risk, The Los Angeles Times reported. Researchers, the newspaper noted, didn't know why this was, but explained it this way: "People who already have risk factors for heart disease are likely to be on medications such as asperin , statins, beta blockers, and so on, so even if they have a heart attack, the attack may be less serious than those experienced by people who were on no meds." [The Los Angeles Times]

Read the full story at The Atlantic Wire.

Jump to comments
Presented by

The Atlantic Wire is your authoritative guide to the news and ideas that matter most right now.

Get Today's Top Stories in Your Inbox (preview)


Elsewhere on the web

Join the Discussion

After you comment, click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be asked to log in or register. blog comments powered by Disqus

Video

Miami: The Next Big Start-Up City?

How the city became a center for innovation

Video

Video

A Brief History of Romantic Comedies

From The Atlantic's Chris Orr

Video

Life in 'the New Arctic'

A moving portrait of a fading landscape

Video

Video

The Rise of New York City

A fascinating look at Manhattan in the 1940s

Video

What Is Methane Hydrate?

"Flaming ice" is a vast natural energy source

Video

NASA's Time-Lapse of the Sun

Now with epic dubstep music

Video

Shaken Not Tuned: Cocktail Experiments

Can a tuning fork improve a cocktail?

Video

Video

Is He Cheating? A 1950s Guide

'That little blonde secretary from the office?’

Video

New Yorkers: Vintage Vacuum-Tube Amps

Risking electric shock to restore old amplifiers

Video

The DIY Piano-Bicycle

Everybody needs a hobby

Writers

Up
Down

More in Health

In Focus

Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma

Just In