The powerful emotions triggered when someone important in our lives smiles at us changes our brain chemistry (Photo by Oshin D. Zakarian)

One smile from a kid is worth more than 16,000 pounds, 2,000 bars of chocolate and even sex. Tests on volunteers reveal that a friend or an offspring smiling can provide a feeling of immense happiness.
However, it depends on who is smiling at you. A beaming Tony Blair or Prince Charles would almost be ineffectual.
Human guinea pigs were wired up to special monitors for tests by Hewlett Packard. They measured brain and heart activity in different situations.
The 109 volunteers responded better when they were shown a picture of a happy face than when they were given sweet treats or money.
Scientists who carried out the tests said the smile from a child or a friend equaled the stimulation from eating 2,000 chocolate bars or receiving 16,000 pounds in cash.
The tests were analyzed by psychologist Dr David Lewis, who says a smile from the right person can be even better than sex. “The powerful emotions triggered when someone important in our lives smiles at us changes our brain chemistry“, The Sun quoted Dr. Lewis as saying.

A shining star has been located that is not much bigger than Jupiter, the biggest planet in our Solar System.
The discovery is fascinating, say scientists, because it shows how small an object can be and still trigger the nuclear reactions for sunshine.
The existence of the star, known as OGLE-TR-122B, was confirmed by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.
Sited in the Carina constellation, the stellar “gnome“ was seen to pass in front of a much bigger companion star.
As it did so, it dimmed the companion’s light received at the VLT, a facility run by the European Southern Observatory organisation (ESO).
It is not known precisely how big an object needs to be to shine. At some point a gas body will become so massive that the gravitational forces pulling material into its core will initiate fusion reactions - just like those at the core of our Sun that give us light.
What is interesting is that although OGLE-TR-122B is a mere 16% larger than Jupiter, it is actually 96 times more massive.
“Imagine that you add 95 times its own mass to Jupiter and nevertheless end up with a star that is only slightly larger,“ suggests Claudio Melo, from ESO and member of the team of astronomers who made the study.
“The object just shrinks to make room for the additional matter, becoming more and more dense.“
Indeed, the density of OGLE-TR-122B is more than 50 times greater than that of our own Sun.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago suggests that natural mentoring relationships positively impact teens, but they do not meet all the needs of at-risk youth.
“Unlike mentors who are assigned by a program, natural mentors come from different areas of the young person’s own life such as their extended family, neighbors, teachers, coaches, religious leaders and employers,“ lead researcher David DuBois said.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the researchers found that more than 70 percent of those in the study reported a mentoring relationship with an adult. These relationships lasted an average of nine years.
Mentors, such as teachers, were often important figures in the day-to-day lives of youth, which may be a factor in promoting positive outcomes, according to the researchers.
The study found that having a natural mentor was associated with a greater likelihood of completing high school, attending college, and working at least 10 hours per week. It also decreased likelihood of being in a gang and having physically hurt someone in a fight in the past year, as well as a lower level of risk taking.
Mentoring led to higher levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction and a greater level of physical activity, as well as regular use of birth control. However, there was no evidence that natural mentors have an impact on other outcomes, including binge drinking, drug use and smoking.
The study concluded that the benefits of having a mentor generally were not enough to outweigh the negative effects of different risk factors that many young people experience, such as poverty, unsafe neighborhoods and troubled family relationships.

Strange world of see-through shrimp, crabs and other life forms teems around a newly explored field of thermal vents near the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, scientists report.
Towering white mineral chimneys mark the field, named the Lost City, a sharp contrast to the better-known black smoker vents that have been studied in recent years, AP reported.
The discovery shows “how little we know about the ocean,“ said the lead researcher, Deborah S. Kelley of the University of Washington.
“I have been working on black smokers for about 20 years, and you sort of think you have a good idea what’s going on,“ she said in an interview. “But the ocean is a big place and there are still important opportunities for discovery.“
The Lost City was discovered by accident in 2000 as Kelley and others studied undersea areas near the midocean ridge.
They returned to the area in 2003 to analyze what they had found and were startled to learn how different the new vent environment and its residents were from the ones studied before.
Their findings are reported in today’s issue of the journal Science.
Black smokers are chimneylike structures that form when very hot water--reaching 700 degrees Fahrenheit--breaks through the ocean floor and comes into contact with frigid ocean water. The minerals that crystallize during the process give the chimneys their black color.
At Lost City, on the other hand, the temperature of the escaping fluids is 150 degrees to 170 degrees. The environment is extremely alkaline, compared with the high acid levels at black smokers.