Newscan

Looking at laughter

Using a magnetic resonance imaging machine, recent experiments conducted by Dr. Dean K. Shibata, a professor of radiology at University of Rochester School of Medicine have identified those parts of the brain which induce laughter in human beings.The 13 volunteers in the study did four tasks in the MRI machine:listening to a recording of laughter, quietly laughing along with the recorded laughter, reading jokes and looking at cartoons .

Lying in the enclosure of the machine, the subjects in the experiment had been told not to laugh aloud. Still, brain scans showed that part of the brains' frontal lobes, above the eyes, lighted up as they read the punch line. Those regions, researchers say, are where humour is appreciated. Isolating brain areas involved with humour and laughter could eventually help doctors diagnose depression and other mood disorders.

Burning bright

There is a new star in the skies. The International Space Station, a research outpost being assembled 240 miles above Earth, is rapidly becoming one of the brightest objects in the night sky.

With last week's addition of a giant set of solar power wings, which span 240 feet and are 38 feet wide, the station became even more noticeable in the morning and evening skies around the world. NASA says that only Venus, Jupiter, the star Sirius and a few other objects shine brighter.

The growing station, being built by 16 nations led by the United States and Russia, now weighs 195,000 pounds and includes three main pressurised modules, two with a pair of solar power wings each, and a Soyuz crew ship. The station is to be completed in 2006. If you want more information try - http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station.

Remembering Planck

Nuclear energy, silicon chips and the information age would not exist but for a radical idea published 100 years ago this week. The event marked the birth of quantum theory and the beginning of a real revolution, the most profound in 20th-century science. It began in Berlin on December 14, 1900. On that day, the physicist Max Planck announced a result that marked the beginning of what we now call quantum theory.

Compiled by SUBASH JEYAN

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