Science

Insomnia isn’t just a bad deal for those who suffer through it. It’s also a bad deal for the nation’s economy.

Anybody who’s ever boarded an airplane knows that there is something terribly inefficient about the slow, agonizing process. Astrophysicist Jason Steffen decided to do something about the messy procedure, using science to develop a plane boarding method that cuts seating times in half.

In the most stunning piece of planetary news since Pluto’s sad demotion, astronomers have found a star-orbiting land mass that is so dense its carbon is crystalline — which means it’s basically a planet made out of diamonds.

In a study that anyone who works in an office will heartily embrace, researchers found that spending small parts of the day wasting time on the Internet makes workers more productive because it acts to mentally refresh them. “Browsing the Internet serves an important restorative function,” concludes the report from the National University of Singapore.

Attractive people are less likely to cooperate with others, and more likely to focus on their own interest, according to a new study Spanish researchers had volunteers participate in “Prisoner’s Dilemma“-type games and found that those with the most symmetrical facial features generally took the selfish option, whereas less symmetrically-faced folks tended to cooperate for the greater good. Read

After an extensive study which included screening 78 of the saddest scenes in movie history to 500 volunteers, researchers from Stanford University were able to determine that the final scene of 1979 boxing drama ‘The Champ‘ was the most tear-jerking of all.

Two-thirds of the time it is the man who says "I love you" first in a relationship, according to a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study also found that men start considering saying "I love you" an average of six weeks before women do.

Arachnophobes, beware! Scientists have just discovered the world's largest 8-legged creature from the Jurassic period. The 165 million-year-old female spider is part of the Golden Orb Weavers -- a family of spiders that still exist today -- and has a leg span of nearly six inches.