Welcome to Fitmodo, your regular weekly round up of the news you need to know to keep your earthly form in top shape — from fitness advice to breakthroughs in medical research.
This week:
Australia: Replace Your Sunglasses At Least Every Two Years
Current national and regional standards require that sunglasses provide levels of UV protection linked to the ratio of transmitted light to incident light, which decides the category of the lenses. But the average Australian’s exposure to the sun may deteriorate sunglasses over time, and the lenses may become lighter, altering the category under which they are classified and how often you should be replacing them.
This deterioration may also affect how “shatterproof” the lens is.
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Robot Babies Do The Exact Opposite Of What They’re Supposed To Do
A teenage pregnancy prevention programme involving a baby simulator does not appear to have any long-term effect on reducing the risk of teenage pregnancy, according to the first randomised controlled trial to test the effectiveness of this intervention.
In fact, the study found that teenage girls who took part were more, not less, likely to become pregnant compared to girls who did not take part. Oops.
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Brains: It’s Not The Size That Counts
A University of Adelaide-led project has overturned the theory that the evolution of human intelligence was simply related to the size of the brain — but rather linked more closely to the supply of blood to the brain.
The international collaboration between Australia and South Africa showed that the human brain evolved to become not only larger, but more energetically costly and blood thirsty than previously believed.
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Also catching our eye:
- Sports drinks seem like they should be healthy. Athletes endorse them, and they don’t have the same “liquid lolly” reputation as the Pepsi a few shelves over. But how helpful are they to serious and casual exercisers? Lifehacker Australia has the answer.
- Ask anyone diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome and they’ll tell you life pre-diagnosis is the worst — even its name is horrible, irritable bowel? I mean, c’mon?! But all jokes aside, it’s a serious illness that affects 2.2 million Aussies, with many more yet to be diagnosed suffering from symptoms consistent with IBS. Popsugar Australia has the info you need to know.