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Women don’t find happy smiling men attractive and prefer moody types, a new study has revealed. In one of the first studies of its kind, psychologists from UBC set out to find out if the long-standing advice to smile when meeting someone new is backed up by science.
More than a thousand men and women were shown pictures of faces making various expressions and were asked to rate them for attractiveness. Men were more attracted to happy women, but the women were least attracted to the smiling men.
Canadian tennis star Milos Raonic will meet France’s Julien Benneteau in the second singles match of the Davis Cup World Group tie on Friday. The tie against France is being played in a rink built on the UBC campus for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
When politicians embrace Twitter, they face the problem of retaining an aura of professionalism while meeting the 140-character limit.
Christopher Schneider, assistant professor of sociology at UBC’s Okanagan campus, said tweeting shorthand has pros and cons for politicians. It can help young people connect but it can also make a politician appear less polished or less serious.
Stephen J. Toope, President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC, and Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and executive publisher of the journal Science, write about innovation and the annual meeting of the AAAS, which is being held in Vancouver for the first time.
“By selecting Vancouver as the setting for the world’s largest general scientific conference, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) sought to celebrate multinational collaboration as a critical ingredient for innovation.”
“Globally, our support for basic science and international collaborations must not waver. If we are to com-bat emerging diseases and climate change, and provide food and clean drinking water for a growing global population, we must effectively tap the powerful, combined talents of scientists and engineers worldwide,” they write.
In a letter to the editor, James Ridge, Associate Vice President and Registrar at UBC, responds to Heather Mallick’s column about UBC’s use of broad-based admissions.
“Mallick is mistaken about the grades required to enter UBC, and the impact of considering more than grades for admission, a system called broad-based admissions,” he writes.
“Many of the very best universities in the world, including most U.S. Ivy League universities, use some form of broad-based admissions. Almost every medical and professional program in Canada does so as well.”
Women are being prescribed testosterone and Viagra when there is no evidence either will improve their sex lives, a UBC researcher specializing in sexual health says.
Lori Brotto, a psychologist and professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, said that while there are no treatments approved by Health Canada for female sexual dysfunction, doctors are turning to “off-label” use of drugs approved for other conditions.
Brotto was one of three B.C. scientists on a panel discussing the growing medicalization of women’s sexuality at a forum at UBC’s Chan Centre Thursday night. The event included a screening of a 2009 documentary called Orgasm Inc.
While Canada’s banks are tightening lending standards in a move to avoid a U.S.-style housing correction, experts say Vancouver’s robust housing market isn’t expected to face a severe price correction.
Although the Vancouver housing market may be out of equilibrium, a significant correction is not expected, said Tsur Somerville, director at the UBC Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate at the Sauder School of Business.
The Bank of Canada is trying to reduce the exposure to mortgage debt and put the brakes on the housing market without using “really, really big hammers,” like raising interest rates, Somerville said.
Graduating UBC students Rob Bennett and Joe Cordonier are getting ready to bid adieu to each other on the volleyball court where they have been teammates for 13 years, through elementary school, in a club in high school and then at university.
“You can definitely tell by the way they communicate with each other that they have played together for sure,” said the team coach, Richard Schick.
There is a symbiosis to their playing relationship that has been built over time. “Having played with someone for so long, it’s really a good thing for trust and just for understanding how a person is playing,” said Bennett.
Two UBC researchers who are testing the use of mobile phones to diagnose pneumonia and helping treat AIDS patients in Africa have just won $100,000 grants to help them do just that.
Walter Karlen, a post-doctoral fellow in the university’s department of engineering, is developing a cellphone-based “camera oximeter” that rural doctors and nurses can use to test patients’ oxygen saturations levels — a key indicator of pneumonia.
UBC assistant clinical professor Richard Lester won for his work on WelTel, a program that contacts patients weekly via text message to remind them to follow their drug therapy and address any problems they may have. A preliminary study of 530 AIDS patients in Nairobi using the program found a marked improvement in their health: a 20 per cent reduction in their viral load.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has spoken about a plan to make changes to Old Age Security.
UBC economist Kevin Milligan thinks that it might be wise to raise the eligibility age, in part because boomers will live so much longer than earlier generations that it makes sense for them to start picking up their cheques a bit later, because they will still get a lot more in total.
But to make it worth doing, Milligan says the government must make the change sooner than later. “If you make this so that the boomers still get their age-65 OAS, then you’re not going to save so much money.”
Time: Feb 10 -12
Location: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, 6066 Thunderbird Boulevard
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