Good looks not only open doors but also guarantee a long, healthy life – from the age of 30, the more attractive you are, the better your health, psychologists have found. Good looks not only open doors but also guarantee a long, healthy life – from the age of 30, the more attractive you are, the better your health, psychologists have found.
Although attractiveness is not a sign of good health in adolescence, the older a person becomes, the more likely it is to indicate good health, a study presented at the American Psychological Society’s annual conference shows.The researchers also investigated, in the first study of its kind, whether baby-faced individuals were perceived as healthier and whether this perception was accurate. Having a baby face – looking younger than you are – was found to be a false advertiser of health until the age of 50 But from the age of 50, baby-faced people had better health. Sir Cliff Richard and Joanna Lumley, for example, may have benefited from retaining their youthful looks.The study involved 250 men and women who had taken part in tests begun between 1928 and 1933. They were assessed for levels of attractiveness and “baby-faceness” at ages 17-18,30-40 and 52-60. Their perceived health, and results of medical examinations, were analysed.People perceived those with baby faces as particularly healthy, whatever their age. But, in fact, at age 17 or 18, having a baby face was linked with worse health, with the effect becoming less as the years went by.

“Baby-faceness was not an indicator of good health for younger people, as it is often associated with obesity,” said Dr Mandy Smith, of BrandeisUniversity, Massachusetts, a co-author of the study.People perceived that the more attractive someone was, the healthier they were. This was not true for teenagers but became more relevant the older someone became. Dr Smith said: “It seems as if, in adolescents, we are blinded by beauty, whereas in early and mid-adulthood we are blinded by the youthful appearance of baby-faced individuals.”She said: “It remains to be determined what it is about attractive faces that reveals health [in adulthood], since it was not symmetry, averageness or body mass index [a ratio of weight to height].”. British scientists have developed a revolutionary technique for precisely measuring the size of the world’s forests by using radar systems in space. British scientists have developed a revolutionary technique for precisely measuring the size of the world’s forests by using radar systems in space.
They believe the technique will play a major role in combating global warming by accurately measuring forest density in 3D, and in mapping how quickly the world’s rainforests are being denuded.But the project, which is being funded by the European Union and the United States’ Office for Naval Research, part of the US Department of Defense, could lead to international tension when it comes fully into use in 2005.Its evidence could add to the criticism by scientists and environmental campaigners of countries such as Brazil and Indonesia over the rate of destruction of their irreplaceable rainforests.Professor Shane Cloude, from Applied Electromagnetics, of St Andrew’s, Fife, the company which has developed the technique, said: “If you could go over Brazil with a satellite without their permission, then of course they’re going to be worried.

There are going to be some political implications with this technology.” An early version of the technology was tested on forests surrounding Lake Baikal, Siberia, from a satellite 10 kilometres high, in 1994.Radar was also used on the space shuttle in February this year to produce detailed maps of the earth, financed by the US DoD. The British team tested a more sophisticated version this week on remnants of the ancient Caledonian forest in Glen Affric in the Highlands. The team plans further tests on much denser tropical forests, probably in the small central American state of Belize.It is then due for its first full trial in space when the Japanese space agency launches its Alos research satellite in September 2002. If that succeeds, commercial “vegetation map” surveys are expected to begin in 2005.Measuring the precise amount of forest cover gives scientists more data to measure climate change from the build-up of carbon dioxide.

“How much carbon is stored in vegetation on the planet is the big unknown,” said Professor Cloude said. “Something like this could provide a much more accurate measure of it.”The technique, being developed by scientists at Edinburgh and Stirling universities, with the British National Space Centre and National Environmental Research Centre, involves bouncing radar waves off a forest canopy.Scientists use the returned signal to measure the size of the forest, its density and the shape of the canopy, down to a five metre resolution. From there, they can estimate the forest’s volume or “biomass”.In Canada, firefighters are to test satellite-based system to help detecting and controlling forest fires, just as the fire season months of July and August approach in Western Canada.The Remsat (Real Time Emergency Management via Satellite) system uses earth observation, navigation and telecommunications satellites to fight fires in remote areas. It can also detect the types of trees involved.The Remsat system allows firefighters to download images of a fire from navigational satellites and add geographical information such as local topography, contours and hazards such as powerlines, as well as the best lakes where water-bombers can fill their tanks.Eventually, fire crews will have hand-held terminals to receive the data by satellite.. Children older than nine when their parents divorce are less likely to grow up close to their siblings than those whose parents stay together.

Children older than nine when their parents divorce are less likely to grow up close to their siblings than those whose parents stay together.
Research presented yesterday at the American Psychological Society’s annual conference in Miami shows for the first time how the trauma of divorce damages siblings’ relationships. Children whose parents split up when they were more than nine years old played less together, did not look after each other as much and shared fewer secrets than those from families that had not separated.Later in adult life, children from broken homes said that they were not as close to their brothers or sisters, did not talk about personal problems and did not enjoy seeing each other as much as those whose parents had remained married.Psychologists believe that children experiencing divorce between the ages of nine and 18 spent longer growing up in argumentative and difficult households, causing them to develop hostile attitudes and behaviour towards close relatives.In contrast, children aged eight or under when their parents divorced had just as close ties with brothers or sisters as those from intact families.In Britain, 150,000 children under the age of 16 experience marital breakdown each year. The Government is so concerned that it is drawing up lessons as part of the national curriculum to teach children how to cope with divorce, separation and their parents finding new partners.However, much of the focus on divorce has been about teaching children to cope with their changing relationships with their parents, not about the devastating impact it can have on the closeness and support from a sibling who is going through the same experience.”When parents get divorced they must not only think about their relationships with their children but also help them to maintain good relationships with each other,” said Heidi Riggio, a lecturer in psychology at California State University, Fullerton, who wrote the study.”Sibling relationships tend to last longer than other types of relationship, continuing from the birth of the youngest sibling until the end of life. They can be significant sources of social and emotional support and companionship, as well as sources of aid in times of crisis,” she said.”Teenagers of divorced parents need help to prevent long-term negative consequences that may last into adulthood.”Researchers interviewed nearly 300 people, aged 18 to 53. Almost 100 were from divorced families while the remainder had parents who were still married. Half of the people from families that had split up were under nine years old when their parents divorced, the rest were between nine and 18.The participants were questioned about their relationships with full brothers and sisters only. The findings showed that, if their parents had split up during their teenage years, those surveyed were much less likely to see a sibling as a good friend, someone they were close to, or someone who was proud of them..