As I post this I am traveling to the APS convention in Boston and remembering a funny scene from Stargate!
Here are a few fun things I am reading today! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did:
swarming increases locust’s Brains!
‘He concluded: “Being inside these swarms is really a messy business – it’s driven by hunger and the need to figure out where to find new food. “These insects even turn to cannibalism – if you’re not quick enough you turn into lunch, so the [big] brain gives them the edge in a cut throat situation.”‘
Although the percentage of women over 40 having babies is small, it is an increase of 89% in women over 40 having babies.
4 Comments
Bianca Vasvani · May 26, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Birth Rates
With the studies of issues having children at an older age, I was surprised to see that there were almost 30,000 babies born to women aged 40 and over in 2009. This number has increased significantly since 1989 and 1999.
Despite this increase there has been a decrease for women aged 20-24 and 25-29 by 1.6% and the rates for older women went up.
The recent findings about birth rates has opened up a window for midwives to become a much needed occupation. The birth rate has gone up by 19 % and the number of midwives has only increased y 11%.
The number of births has been accompanied with more complications which means that we need much more midwives. This could be that age is a factor in complication levels. A study on age and complications in birth would be interesting to see if there is a correlation.
carlysamelso · May 26, 2010 at 8:39 pm
I think that it is awesome that women have the ability to have children at older ages now. It gives women the opportunity to be successful business women before they decide to settle down and support a family. However, I’m worried that with the ability to have more kids, more chromosomal disorders such as Down Syndrome will occur. Hopefully women are being careful about when they are getting pregnant, but overall I think that having the ability to have children later in life is great for women!
kjchin · June 1, 2010 at 11:29 pm
It’s actually really funny that I am reading about older women having children, because my co-workers and I were just talking about it at work today. We were discussing what ages we wanted to have kids at. I told them I wanted to have kids by at least 30 years old. The article said the average age for women to have kids now is around 29 years old. So my goal is not too far from the average! It is amazing that women are able to have kids at a later age nowadays. The business world is changing with women getting very high status jobs. Even just observing I already see that many women have established jobs before even thinking about settling down and having children. It is great for women to have the capability now to have kids at a later age!
Bianca Vasvani · June 2, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Swarming
It was fascinating how the gregarious locusts had brains that were 30% larger. The swarming locusts also had enlarged regions of the brain that have to do with learning and memory. It was also interesting how serotonin played a role in the changes of behavior in these insects. Serotonin caused them to take part in the swarm and also causes physical reactions as well. Serotonin seems to be a prevalent chemical that changes many things in insects, animals and humans.
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