ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Save money and the planet: Turn your old milk jugs into 3-D printer filament
• Are bilingual kids more open-minded? Probably not
• Some metallic toys, low-cost jewelry present health risks for young children
• A wristband for a different kind of cause ... environmental health
• All work and no play for children: Losing their childhood and their happiness?
• Your face says it all? Not so fast
• Higher status than one's partner makes both men, women vulnerable to intimate partner violence
• Determination might be a very human expression
• Military dads have to re-learn parenting after deployment
• Women's jobs are poorer paid, less flexible, more stressful
• Hungry for 'likes': Anxiety over Facebook photos linked to eating disorders

Save money and the planet: Turn your old milk jugs into 3-D printer filament Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:52 AM PST Making your own stuff with a 3-D printer is vastly cheaper than what you'd pay for manufactured goods, even factoring in the cost of buying the plastic filament. Yet, you can drive the cost down even more by making your own filament from old milk jugs. And, while you are patting yourself on the back for saving 99 cents on the dollar, there's a bonus: you can feel warm and fuzzy about preserving the environment. Making your own plastic 3-D printer filament from milk jugs uses less energy -- often a lot less -- than recycling milk jugs conventionally.

Are bilingual kids more open-minded? Probably not Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:52 AM PST Like monolingual children, bilingual children prefer to interact with those who speak their mother tongue with a native accent rather than with peers with a foreign accent. "We show biases early on, so it might be necessary to educate all kids, regardless of their linguistic background, about what an accent is and how it doesn't reflect anything about people other than the fact that they are not speaking their native language," says a co-author.

Some metallic toys, low-cost jewelry present health risks for young children Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:52 AM PST We know that babies and young children often put non-food items in their mouths, a behavior that occasionally leads to swallowing of foreign objects. Metallic toys and low-cost jewelry often contain toxic substances such as lead and cadmium. Do these objects present a health risk for young children? "We observed that cadmium and lead contamination, both very toxic metals, are a major problem, especially when it comes to metallic jewelry and toys. Copper, nickel, arsenic and antimony were also present in some samples," explains the author of a new article.

A wristband for a different kind of cause ... environmental health Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:51 AM PST From 'Livestrong' to 'Purple Paws,' trendy wristbands have come to represent causes from cancer to ending cruelty to animals. Add a new wristband of a different sort: one that could close the loop on determining the potential disease risks of exposure to substances like pesticides.

All work and no play for children: Losing their childhood and their happiness? Posted: 05 Mar 2014 09:51 AM PST A UK Department for Health-commissioned survey in 2004 concluded that 1 in 10 British children aged 5-16 are diagnosed with mental disorders. Childhood stress, psychological problems and self-abuse are increasing. Gone are the hazy days when kids could run free all day and play. Through play "children develop… an emergent sense of competence … feelings of 'belonging', 'usefulness', and subsequent well-being". When deprived of play, children lack social connectivity and have less 'mental wellness'.

Your face says it all? Not so fast Posted: 05 Mar 2014 08:10 AM PST New research calls into question the very foundations of emotion science. It's a con­cept that had become uni­ver­sally under­stood: humans expe­ri­ence six basic emotions -- happiness, sad­ness, anger, fear, dis­gust, and surprise -- and use the same set of facial move­ments to express them. What's more, we can rec­og­nize emo­tions on another's face, whether that person hails from Boston or Borneo. The only problem with this con­cept, according to new research, is that it isn't true at all. Researchers have found that even basic human emotions are in fact not universally perceived.

Higher status than one's partner makes both men, women vulnerable to intimate partner violence Posted: 05 Mar 2014 05:47 AM PST Having a higher income or education than your partner could be risky, as a higher socio-economic status than one's partner increases the chance of psychological violence and abuse. This applies to both men and women. "Whenever power is unevenly allocated in a relationship the chance of physical and psychological abuse increases. And the abused partner is the one with the highest status," says a sociologist.

Determination might be a very human expression Posted: 05 Mar 2014 05:46 AM PST Humans might be using facial expressions of determination as a call for help from others, according to new research. When children and chimpanzees were both given a task that was impossible to solve, children's faces expressed determination or frustration the more they tried to solve the task, but chimpanzees did not. The facial expressions shown by the children -- chin raised and lips pressed together -- could signal effort or frustration, according to a researcher who said it is possible humans have evolved to use these facial expressions to solicit help from others.

Military dads have to re-learn parenting after deployment Posted: 04 Mar 2014 11:16 AM PST Fathers who returned after military service report having difficulty connecting with young children who sometimes don't remember them, according to a study released this week. While the fathers in the study had eagerly anticipated reuniting with their families, they reported significant stress, especially around issues of reconnecting with children, adapting expectations from military to family life, and co-parenting.

Women's jobs are poorer paid, less flexible, more stressful Posted: 04 Mar 2014 09:58 AM PST Women's jobs are poorer paid, less flexible, more stressful, and offer fewer promotion opportunities than men's, a large international study has found. Researchers say that the results disprove the theory that women have voluntarily traded less high-powered jobs in order to have more flexibility for their responsibilities at home. The research "does not support the claim that women enjoy a more relaxed and convenient work environment to compensate for their lack of achievement," the authors conclude.

Hungry for 'likes': Anxiety over Facebook photos linked to eating disorders Posted: 04 Mar 2014 07:24 AM PST There is a positive correlation between an increased use of social media and decreased body image in young women, reveals a study. Facebook has become a global phenomenon and an active space for social comparison. "Facebook merges powerful peer influences with broader societal messages that focus on the importance of women's appearance into a single platform that women carry with them throughout the day. As researchers and clinicians attempt to understand and address risk factors for eating disorders, greater attention is needed to the emerging role of social media in young people's lives," researchers state.

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