‘Prince of the tightrope,’ Adili Wuxor (in red), and an apprentice cross the Great Wall of China at Tianjin the hard way.CHINA DAILY/Reuters
TALK DEEPLY TO ME
Barry White knew what he was doing: The deeper the voice, the more women are drawn to a man. As reported by CBC News, a new study from McMaster University has concluded women are more attracted to men with low-pitched voices, which are the result of larger vocal cords. The McMaster team recorded several male voices and manipulated them to range higher and lower in pitch. A group of women then chose the voices they found most alluring. The results: Women preferred men with lower-pitched voices over all, but – and here's the catch – they also ranked low-pitched voices as belonging to men more apt to cheat on them. "Men with lower-pitched voices have higher levels of testosterone," said study author Jillian O'Connor. "And men who have higher levels of testosterone may be more likely to cheat when they're in a relationship. They're generally less committed."
SUPER SLUG IS COMING!
Beware, farmers of Great Britain. Your crops could soon be at risk from a new breed of "super-slug." The Mirror reports scientists are warning of a potential invasion of Spanish slugs in Britain that has been described as "a disaster waiting to happen." The slugs were spotted last spring, but were mostly wiped out by a late spring frost. Now scientists are fearful the slug could breed with native varieties to create a hybrid species that would combine the worst qualities of the Spanish slug with the indigenous British species. "The Spanish slug is a voracious predator that can survive eating many of the slug pellets that are supposed to kill them," said entomologist Ian Bedford of the John Innes Centre in Norwich.
CLEANING YOUR BRAIN
If you're feeling foggy these cooler fall days, go directly to bed. NBC News recaps a study from the University of Rochester that suggests a good night's rest can leave you feeling sharp, courtesy of a newly discovered system that scrubs away neural waste while you're sleeping. "We have a cleaning system that almost stops when we are awake and starts when we sleep," said study author Maiken Nedergaard. "It's almost like opening and closing a faucet – it's that dramatic." The brain's glymphatic system pumps cerebral spinal fluid through space around brain cells and flushes waste into the circulatory system, where it eventually makes its way to the liver.
THOUGHT DU JOUR
A secret may be sometimes best kept by keeping the secret of its being a secret.
Henry Taylor, dramatist (1800-1886)