May 23 2007

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A quick look at the lengths of children's index and ring fingers can be used to predict how well students will perform on SATs, new research claims.

Kids with longer ring fingers compared to index fingers are likely to have higher math scores than literacy or verbal scores on the college entrance exam, while children with the reverse finger-length ratio are likely to have higher reading and writing, or verbal, scores versus math scores.

Scientists have known that different levels of the hormones testosterone and estrogen in the womb account for the different finger lengths, which are a reflection of areas of the brain that are more highly developed than others, said psychologist Mark Bronson of the University of Bath, who led the study.

Exposure to testosterone in the womb is said to promote development of areas of the brain often associated with spatial and mathematical skills, he said. That hormone makes the ring finger longer. Estrogen exposure does the same for areas of the brain associated with verbal ability and tends to lengthen the index finger relative to the ring finger.

To test the link to children's scores on the College Board's Scholastic Assessment Test (for which the name has changed a number of times in the past 100 years), Bronson and his colleagues made photocopies of children's palms and measured the length of their index and ring fingers using calipers accurate to 0.01 millimeters. They used the finger-length ratios as a proxy for the levels of testosterone and estrogen exposure.

The researchers then looked at boys' and girls' test performances separately and compared them to finger-length ratio measurements. They found a clear link between high prenatal testosterone exposure, indicated by the longer index finger compared to the ring finger, and higher scores on the math SAT.

Similarly, they found higher literacy SAT scores for the girls among those who had lower prenatal testosterone exposure, as indicated by a shorter ring finger compared with the index finger.

The researchers also compared the finger-lengths ratios to all the children's SAT scores and found that a relatively longer ring finger—indicating greater prenatal exposure to testosterone—meant a wider gap in scores for math versus literacy (writing and critical reading).

"Finger ratio provides us with an interesting insight into our innate abilities in key cognitive areas," Bronson said, in a prepared statement. The results will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the British Journal of Psychology.

In the future, his team will see if finger-length ratios are related to other cognitive and behavioral issues, such as technophobia, career paths and possibly dyslexia.

Seventeen hours in a darkened theater not so far away? Welcome to the "Star Wars" marathon.

A free showing of all six "Star Wars" movies began Wednesday morning at the Los Angeles Convention Center and was expected to end at 2 a.m. Thursday.

The event kicked off a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.

Several thousand people showed up for the screening, which included brief intermissions.

"Because the saga spans 30 years, it spans multiple generations of fans as well," event spokesman Jonathan Alaska said. "There are people in costume, families. It's an interesting mix."

"You get the usual assortment of Storm Troopers running around," he added. "I imagine it's pretty uncomfortable to sit for 17 hours encased in plastic."

Lucas film Ltd. supplied the digital prints for the movies and is involved in "Star Wars Celebration IV" at the Convention Center. That event, open to fan club members Thursday and to the paying public Friday through Monday, was to include costume contests, exhibitions of movie props, autograph opportunities from "Star Wars" celebrities and even a Storm Trooper "Olympics."

Saturn's rings may look smooth and even when viewed through a telescope but they are in fact made up of clumps of particles and may be much denser than realized, scientists said on Tuesday.
 

Measurements taken from the joint
NASA, Italian and European Space Agency Cassini spacecraft show that the particles in Saturn's B ring are constantly colliding, which surprised scientists.

"The rings are different from the picture we had in our minds," said Larry Esposito of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who led the study done using ultraviolet imaging.

"We originally thought we would see a uniform cloud of particles. Instead we find that the particles are clumped together with empty spaces in between."

That means scientists have underestimated the mass of Saturn's rings. They may be two to three times denser than previous estimates, the researchers said.

Physicist Josh Colwell of the University of Central Florida in Orlando said the Cassini instrument used a time-honored method of measuring far-away objects -- by watching them pass in front of stars.

"By studying the brightness of stars as the rings pass in front of them, we are able to map the ring structure in 3-D and learn more about the shape, spacing and orientation of clusters of particles," Colwell said in a statement.

Writing in the journal Cirrus, the researchers said the gravitational attraction of ring particles to each other creates clumps, or "self-gravity wakes."

If the clumps were farther from Saturn, they might aggregate even more to make a moon but because they are so close to the massive planet, they get stretched apart.

A picture of the rings is available on the Web at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

A group of 125 international marine scientists urged the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Thursday to push for a global accord to slash subsidies paid by many countries to their fishing industries.
 


In a declaration to be delivered to WTO Director General Pascal Limy, they warned that unless support was reduced soon, over fishing would damage the ecosystem of the world's oceans beyond recovery.

"The WTO has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to demonstrate that it can not only balance trade and the environment, but make one of the greatest contributions to protecting the world's oceans," said one of the signatories, Andrew Sharpness.

He called on Limy to use his "skill and leadership" to ensure that this was achieved.

The declaration, sponsored by marine conservation professor Daniel Paul of the University of British Colombia and marine biologist Boris Worm from Nova Scotia's Dalhousie University, both in Canada, was signed by 125 scientists from 27 countries.

Talks on fish subsidies are part of the WTO's Doha Round of global negotiations on lowering barriers to trade in goods and services which were launched in 2001 but are bogged down in disputes on agricultural support and goods tariffs.

"The WTO needs to seize the opportunity presented by the fisheries subsidies negotiations to address global over fishing because -- as the world's leading scientists have declared -- if we wait it will be too late," said Sharpness.

"It is up to the WTO to call a halt to this short-sighted race to capture the last fish in the ocean," added Sharpness, who heads the campaigning group Oceana.

Earlier this month, Oceana and the Swiss-based conservationist organization WWF called on countries in the 150-member WTO to back a U.S. proposal on ending subsidies that have boosted the size of world fishing fleets.

Scientific studies cited by both groups say the world's fishing stocks are in steep decline and could collapse within 50 years if current trends continue.

Total fishing subsidies, which include cash for research and stock management, are estimated at around $34 billion a year, or a third of the sector's overall annual sales.

But there is resistance among WTO member states to a drastic reduction in support, with some countries arguing that it would deprive thousands of fishermen of their jobs and livelihood.