Science Notes
Psychology and ecology
Making faces in our genes
Athletes who have been blind since birth make the same expressions in triumph and defeat as sighted athletes, suggesting that these joyful or downcast smiles probably have roots in people’s genes.
Congenitally blind athletes “could not have possibly learned to produce those exact facial configurations from modeling the expressions of others,” said lead author David Matsumoto of San Francisco State University.
In the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Matsumoto and Bob Willingham of the Center for Psychological Studies compared the expressions of 76 blind and 84 sighted judo players at the 2004 Paralympic and Olympic games.
Farms can recycle plastics
An environmental project, coordinated by Cornell University, is hoping to convince New York farmers that recycling agricultural plastics is the best way to get rid of them.
Matilda M. Larson, a St. Lawrence County Planner, said most of the county’s farmers pay to have their used plastics hauled to a landfill, but others could be harming the environment by burying or burning them.
Project leader and Cornell Senior Extension Associate Lois C. Levitan said the project is one of three in the state that recycles bale wrappers, silo bunker covers, silage bags, hard plastic containers, planting trays and other plastic farm materials. She said burning is how many farmers across the state dispose of plastics.
“It’s not a local problem,” Levitan said. “One of the things that’s extremely exciting is that in the course of this work, we’ve identified at least two upstate New York manufacturers who are willing to take the material and convert it into other products. It’s a very promising marriage between economic development, environmental protection, those green jobs we’ve been hearing about, and doing good for the agricultural community.”
Levitan is awaiting state funding to bring a baler to northern New York. She said it takes about 30 minutes for the machine to bale used plastics once it arrives at a farm. “That bale can weigh 1,500 pounds, which can be a significant part of a farm’s annual use of plastics,” she said.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is expected soon to have new rules that ban burning waste. “Unless farmers have a decent alternative, they will be caught between a rock and a hard place,” Levitan said.
— Watertown Daily Times
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