Electric Cars Still Generate Pollutants; Babies Understand Everything
Discovered: Electric cars aren't so green after-all, another earthquake on the way for Fukushima?, hearing aids are not popular, everyone hates their bosses, babies understand language.
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Electric vehicles aren't so green after-all. The dream isn't completely crushed, but e-cars emit worse types of pollution than our regular gas-fed friends. Looking at China, where e-cars outnumber conventional cars 2:1, researchers found that these apparently environmentally friendly vehicles emit more harmful particulate matter than those with a combustible engine. "An implicit assumption has been that air quality and health impacts are lower for electric vehicles than for conventional vehicles," said researcher Chris Cherry. "Our findings challenge that by comparing what is emitted by vehicle use to what people are actually exposed to." This sounds worse than it is, however. E-cars still reduce those evil CO2 emissions. And, this research focused on China, where the electricity making plants emit lots more pollution than our American ones. Then again, pollution knows no boundaries. [University of Tennessee]
Another earthquake on the way for Fukushima? The last thing Fukushima needs is another natural disaster, but last March's earthquake and tsunami may have reactivated fault lines even closer to Fukushima. "There are a few active faults in the nuclear power plant area, and our results show the existence of similar structural anomalies under both the Iwaki and the Fukushima Daiichi areas. Given that a large earthquake occurred in Iwaki not long ago, we think it is possible for a similarly strong earthquake to happen in Fukushima," said the researchers. [European Geoscience Union]
Hearing aids are not popular. Even though over 26.7 million Americans need hearing aids, only about one in seven uses them, found research out of Johns Hopkins.One barrier to getting people to wear them: The assumption that hearing loss is a natural part of getting older: "There's still a perception among the public and many medical professionals that hearing loss is an inconsequential part of the aging process and you can't do anything about it. We want to turn that idea around," said researcher Frank Lin. [Johns Hopkins]
Everyone hates their boss. We mean, we don't hate our bosses, who happen to read and edit these words. Our bosses are the greatest bosses that ever bossed. But, we hear things can get rough. Or so says recent research, which found sixty percent of those surveyed reported damaged self-esteem from working with their bosses. That same study also found that nearly half those surveyed think they could perform better than their evil bosses. But given all that power, would they bully, too? Probably. [LiveScience]
Babies understand things. We're totally the types who would reveal national secrets in front of our babies, so we'll keep this in mind. Children ages six to nine months old have comprehension skills, finds research out of the University of Pennsylvania. "I think it's surprising in the sense that the kids at this age aren't saying anything, they're not pointing, they're not walking," researcher Elika Bergelson said. "But actually, under the surface, they're trying to put together the things in the world with the words that go with them." [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]
