Brains Work Best At Age of 39 267
Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles are reporting that while some people may think "life begins at 40," all it seems to do is slow down. According to recent research, at age 39 our brain reaches its peak speed, and it's all downhill after that. "The loss of a fatty skin that coats the nerve cells, called neurons, during middle age causes the slowdown, experts say. The coating acts as insulation, similar to the plastic covering on an electrical cable, and allows for fast bursts of signals around the body and brain. When the sheath deteriorates, signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down. This means reaction times in the body are slower too."
Myelin supplement scams are next (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ahem ... (Score:3, Informative)
Okay, so maybe they are a little wrong and the actual age of brainy awesomeness is some other number between 35-45. That doesn't make the whole study wrong. What is interesting is that the age they found was 39 instead of, say, 23. We shouldn't start publishing their results in schoolbooks all over the world yet, but the results are interesting and invite further research on the subject.
Don't expect EVERY study to involve thousands of people, that would be way too expensive. Instead you check interesting hypotheses with small groups of people and when you find something interesting you repeat the experiment with a larger group.
Science at its best indeed.
Re:Relates to neurological disease as well (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why didn't the others think for themselves? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:FRAUD ALERT -- Slashdot pseudo-science (Score:5, Informative)
I think that the word you seek with regard to their interpretation of the results is "hypothesis". Were it a Theory, then a claim of over-interpretation would need citation.
This is besides the fact that the "word" over-interpretation doesn't make sense. Try "wild speculation" or "gross misinterpretation" next time.
As to the There is no "should" in science thing: try learning about science one day. Any scientific hypothesis must be able to make certain predictions. Predictions are worded in the subjunctive or conditional, depending on the subject matter and placement of the word. The use of the word "should" in relation to science is quite appropriate for the purposes of prediction.
Re:Noise (Score:4, Informative)
Vipassana or insight meditation is what you are looking for.
Re:...and they said.... (Score:2, Informative)
There is No "one" point where the body stops working.
Actually, I believe its called death.
Important research (Score:3, Informative)