Photos of sugary treats may spark cravings, study finds

[Zalis]

Sometimes I am amazed at the studies people are given money to perform.

Like this?
Scientists Crack the Physics of Coffee Rings

A lot of simple things in science turn out to be quite complicated. Take, for example, coffee: You may have noticed that a spilled drop of coffee doesn't dry as a brown blob, but rather as a clear blob with a dark ring around the edge.

It's taken physicists more than a decade to figure out why this effect, known technically as "the coffee ring effect," happens. But now they think they have an answer.

[Alaris]

Like this?
Scientists Crack the Physics of Coffee Rings

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You know, some theoretical stuff ends up being very practical down the line... but sounds pretty absurd when trying to explain it in lay terms. Once a theoretical finding is secured, we can look for practical applications.

[Domitilde]

When I look at pictures of faces, I get a craving.

edit: pretty sure this is old stuff, redone with a brain scanner added in. Boring science at best.

[Alaris]

*yoink*

Good fine, I like.

[JoeKnowMo]

A lot of commonsense notions have been proven wrong. Doing the science is necessary although the public may disagree.

People also seem to have missed that in the second part of the study, if people consumed a sugar drink before viewing the images, they reported increased cravings upon seeing the pictures. That's pretty interesting.

[Ringsgold]

You know, some theoretical stuff ends up being very practical down the line... but sounds pretty absurd when trying to explain it in lay terms. Once a theoretical finding is secured, we can look for practical applications.

This. Depositing a substance in a certain pattern could be very useful.

Though I'd think it could be done in less than 10 years, maybe they were a little too fond of their coffee breaks.


btw if anyone needs a test subject to look at pictures of women, I'm available for the next two months (against compensation of course)

[Alaris]

A lot of commonsense notions have been proven wrong. Doing the science is necessary although the public may disagree.

People also seem to have missed that in the second part of the study, if people consumed a sugar drink before viewing the images, they reported increased cravings upon seeing the pictures. That's pretty interesting.

I'm not up-to-date on research on feeding, but for some reason I would expect those kinds of findings to have been mere replications of very old findings. I mean, you really don't need a brain scanner for this, and moreover, most brain scanner studies I did read were just old stuff re-done in a brain scanner, nothing to be excited about.

Very rarely do I see a brain scanner study where I can say "oh hey they actually found something interesting". Most of it is just hotspots in the brain as if that tells anyone anything of use.

As for the 10 years thing for coffee, I assume that (1) not many people worked on the problem, and (2) it involved a lot of math, not just hand-waving.