SMU Research

The Sydney Morning Herald: Flying in the face of the organic debate

Margaret Allen — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:24:00 +0000

Unlikely as it may sound, a 16-year-old’s school science project has added weight to the organic versus conventional debate

Life & Style reporter Sarah Berry with The Sydney Morning Herald has covered research carried out in the fruit fly lab of SMU biologist Johannes H. Bauer by Plano, Texas, high school student Ria Chhabra. The article, “Flying in the face of the organic debate,” published April 25.

Bauer, an assistant professor in SMU’s Department of Biological Sciences, mentored Chhabra in her research to examine whether there would be health differences to fruit flies fed an organic diet or a nonorganic diet. Chhabra’s study found that flies fed an organic diet fared better on important health tests, particularly fertility and longevity.

Read the article.

EXCERPT:

By Sarah Berry
The Sydney Morning Herald
A 16-year-old’s school science project has added weight to the argument that eating organically has greater health benefits than eating conventionally-grown foods.
Ria Chhabra overheard her parents debating the topic and decided to see if she could find out the answer for herself, the New York Times reports.

To test whether organically grown food provides greater health benefits than its conventionally grown counterpart, Chhabra turned to fruit flies; they have around 75 per cent of the genes that cause disease in humans and have a short life span so a variety of biological factors can be studied in a reasonably short period of time.

Her experiment was conducted over her summer break with the help of an assistant professor and a researcher at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. It won her top honours in a national science competition and has now been published in the respected Plos One journal.

Half of the flies in the experiment were fed an organic diet and the other half a conventional one. She then tested levels of fertility, stress resistance, physical activity and longevity.

They found that eating organically improved levels on virtually all fronts.
“These data suggest that organic foods are more nutritionally balanced than conventional foods, or contain higher levels of nutrients, leading to improved fertility and longevity,” they said.

Similarly, flies on the organic diet were more active and had greater stress resistance.
The main exception to these findings was that the diet had to be balanced. Flies that were fed only one type of organic food had shorter lifespans and were less fertile than those fed a balanced conventional diet.

Read the article.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

For more information, www.smuresearch.com.

SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools. For more information see www.smu.edu.

SMU has an uplink facility located on campus for live TV, radio, or online interviews. To speak with an SMU expert or book an SMU guest in the studio, call SMU News & Communications at 214-768-7650.

Le Huffington Post: Le sommeil rendrait les musiciens plus efficaces — étude

Margaret Allen — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:48:55 +0000

Journalist Matthieu Carlier with Le Huffington Post covered the research of SMU’s Sarah E. Allen, an assistant professor of music education in the Meadows School of the Arts.

Allen’s study examined how the brain learns and retains motor skills, and the findings provide insight into musical skill.

The study found that performance of a musical task improved among pianists whose practice of a new melody was followed by a night of sleep.

Allen’s research is among the first to look at whether sleep enhances the learning process for musicians practicing a new piano melody.

Carlier’s article, “Le sommeil rendrait les musiciens plus efficaces, selon une étude américaine,” was published April 16, 2013.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Le dicton selon lequel la nuit porte conseil serait donc exact. Au moins pour les musiciens. Dans une étude portant sur 60 musiciens diplômés, publiée dans la revue Psychology of Music, des chercheurs de la Southern Methodist University ont montré comment dormir les aidait à retenir une mélodie entendue avant d’aller se coucher.

Divisés en plusieurs groupes assignés à des tâches différentes, les musiciens qui avaient appris une mélodie au piano juste avant de dormir étaient les mieux à même de la reproduire le plus fidèlement au réveil. “Le sommeil semble jouer un rôle très important dans la mémorisation,” indique Sarah Allen, professeure en éducation de la musique, “Il renforce les fonctions mémorielles du cerveau.” Mais pas dans tous les cas.

TRANSLATION:
The saying that the night brings counsel is true. At least for musicians. In a study of 60 music students, published in the journal Psychology of Music, researchers at Southern Methodist University have shown how sleep helped to retain a melody played before bedtime.

Divided into several different tasks assigned to groups, musicians who learned a piano melody just before sleep were better able to reproduce it faithfully in the morning. “Sleep appears to play a very important role in memory,” said Sarah Allen, professor of music education. “It strengthens the memory functions of the brain.” But not in all cases.

Read the full story.

Besides outlets in Canada, Allen’s research has been covered on news blogs around the world:

India — Night’s sleep can enhance musical skills: Study

India — Musicians who learn a new melody demonstrate enhanced skills after a night’s sleep, according to a new study

Iran — Sleep helps musicians play new learned melodies

Ireland — Night’s sleep can enhance musical skills: Study

Italy — Psicologia: cervello rafforza apprendimento durante il sonno

Romania — Somnul îi face pe muzicieni mai eficienţi STUDIU

Spain’s LaFlecha — El cerebro danza con la música y aprende a interpretarla en sueños

EXCERPT:

En el marco de otra investigación reciente sobre música y cerebro, realizada en la Southern Methodist University (SMU) de Dallas, Estados Unidos, un equipo de científicos analizó cómo el cerebro aprende y retiene habilidades motoras para la interpretación musical.

El estudio demostró que pianistas que habían ensayado una nueva melodía y después durmieron durante toda la noche mejoraron su proceso de aprendizaje musical de la pieza, tras el descanso.

Sin embargo, esto no ocurrió cuando los pianistas ensayaron dos melodías similares, una detrás de otra, y luego se durmieron. En este caso, cualquier aumento en la velocidad e interpretación de las piezas alcanzado el día anterior desapareció, explican los investigadores.

TRANSLATION:
In the context of other recent research on music and the brain, held at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, United States, a team of scientists analyzed how the brain learns and retains motor skills in musical interpretation.

The study showed that pianists who had tested a new tune and then slept all night improved their musical learning of the piece, after the break.

However, this did not occur when they tested pianists playing two melodies, one after another, who then slept. In this case, any improvement in the speed and performance of the pieces achieved the previous day disappeared, the researchers explained.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

Yahoo! News: Study shows 45% of Bitcoin exchanges end up failing

Margaret Allen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:35:10 +0000

Technology reporter Brad Reed with BGR News covered the Bitcoin research of SMU cybersecurity expert Tyler W. Moore, an assistant professor of computer science in the Lyle School of Engineering.

Moore’s research found that online exchanges that trade hard currency for the rapidly emerging cyber money known as Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing — often taking their customers’ money with them.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Moore carried out the research with Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Reed’s coverage, “ Study shows 45% of Bitcoin exchanges end up failing,” was published online April 26.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Brad Reed
Yahoo! News
Imagine a world where the Nasdaq, the Nikkei and the FTSE all failed within the span of a week and you have an idea how crazy the world of virtual currency trading has become. Wired reports that a new study from computer scientists Tyler Moore of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Nicolas Christin of Carnegie Mellon University has found that 45% of Bitcoin exchanges end up shutting their virtual doors while leaving their users’ money in limbo. However, this doesn’t mean that the Bitcoin exchanges that have survived so far are safe havens, since the study also shows that they’re under constant assault from cybercriminals who are working around the clock to hack users’ transactions.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

Wired: Study — 45 percent of Bitcoin exchanges end up closing

Margaret Allen — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:59:57 +0000

Technology writer Ian Steadman with Wired in the United Kingdom covered the Bitcoin research of SMU cybersecurity expert Tyler W. Moore, an assistant professor of computer science in the Lyle School of Engineering.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Moore carried out the research with Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Steadman’s coverage, “Study: 45 percent of Bitcoin exchanges end up closing,” was published online April 26.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Ian Steadman
Wired
A study of the Bitcoin exchange industry has found that 45 percent of exchanges fail, taking their users’ money with them. Those that survive are the ones that handle the most traffic — but they are also the exchanges that suffer the greatest number of cyber attacks.

Computer scientists Tyler Moore (from the Southern Methodist University, Dallas) and Nicolas Christin (of Carnegie Mellon University) found 40 exchanges on the web which offered a service of changing bitcoins into other fiat currencies or back again. Of those 40, 18 have gone out of business — 13 closing without warning, and five closing after suffering security breaches that forced them to close. Four other exchanges have suffered serious attacks but remain open.

One of those is Mt Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange, with Moore and Christin stating that at its peak it handles more than 40,000 Bitcoin transactions a day, compared to a mean average of 1,716. It has been the victim of a huge number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks over the past month during the peak of the Bitcoin bubble (and its subsequent bursting — though the price now appears to be rising again). Its latest statement, dealing with the attack it suffered on 21 April, is long and comprehensive, seeking to assuage the fears of Bitcoin users who feel that Mt Gox is becoming a weak chain in Bitcoin’s infrastructure.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

redOrbit: Economists Question Bitcoin Stability Despite Meteoric Rise In Value

Margaret Allen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:39:56 +0000

Technology reporter Peter Suciu with redOrbit covered the Bitcoin research of SMU cybersecurity expert Tyler W. Moore, an assistant professor of computer science in the Lyle School of Engineering.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Moore carried out the research with Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Suciu’s coverage, “Economists Question Bitcoin Stability Despite Meteoric Rise In Value,” was published online April 25.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Peter Suciu
redOrbit
The bank failures that resulted from the 1929 stock market crash took many people’s life savings with it, and some say the same thing could happen – a albeit on a much smaller scale at least – to those who invest heavily in Bitcoins.

According to a new study from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the virtual cyber currency known as Bitcoin could have as much as a 45 percent chance of failing. This could occur if an exchange center that held the currency – much as a bank holds real money – closed, losing customers their Bitcoins and any hard money paid for them.

Bitcoin received a boost in interest this week when PayPal president David Marcus noted that the online payment center would consider making Bitcoin a funding instrument. Many still believe that the sophisticated cyber currency still holds promise for becoming a major international medium of exchange.

Moreover the SMU-CMU study also found that currency exchanges that buy and sell a higher volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down. That’s the good news. The bad news is that these transactions are more likely to suffer a security breach.

The encrypted digital currency has been in the spotlight this week, as 87 percent of the nation’s top economists think that the Bitcoin only has “limited usefulness,” reported TechCrunch. This is according to a recent University of Chicago Initiative on Global Markets (IGM) poll of the 38 of the world’s top economists.

“A bitcoin’s value derives solely from the belief that others will want to use it for trade, which implies that its purchasing power is likely to fluctuate over time to a degree that will limit its usefulness,” the IGM findings noted – a general statement that, though intended to downplay the stability of Bitcoin, is actually true of all forms of currency.

Bitcoin exchanges work two ways. In the first, purchasers can go through an online exchange and pay for the virtual currency with hard currency, typically with a credit card. The exchange then transfers the purchased Bitcoins to the buyer’s account. The second way is for Bitcoins to be purchased from local dealers, where the parties meet in person and the buyer pays in cash.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

Study: High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely to suffer breach

Margaret Allen — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 14:43:31 +0000

Empirical computer science study finds consumers face risk of losing money on Bitcoin currency exchanges, many of which close

Online exchanges that trade hard currency for the rapidly emerging cyber money known as Bitcoin have a 45 percent chance of failing — often taking their customers’ money with them.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Results showed also that currency exchanges that buy and sell a higher volume of Bitcoins are less likely to shut down, but more likely to suffer a security breach.

The study analyzed 40 exchanges that buy and sell the virtual Bitcoin to identify factors that trigger or stave off closure, said the study’s authors, computer scientists Tyler W. Moore, in the Lyle School of Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, and Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

As of April 2013, Bitcoin’s market capitalization had soared to more than $1 billion, making it a frequent target of fraudsters. Bitcoins are encrypted virtual money created by computer programmers and not backed by any country or government.

A traceable form of cyber money, Bitcoins can be purchased and used much like hard currency to pay for goods and services, mostly over the Internet. Part of Bitcoins’ attraction is its potential to reduce transaction fees for online purchases, as well as its mathematically-enforced protections against inflation.

Study authors Moore and Christin identified 40 Bitcoin exchanges worldwide that convert the cyber money into 33 hard currencies. Of those 40, 18 have gone out of business. Nine of the 40 experienced security breaches from hackers or other criminal activity, forcing five of them to subsequently close. Another 13 closed without any publicly announced breach, according to Moore and Christin.

From their study, the researchers found the failure rate of Bitcoin exchanges is 45 percent. The median lifetime of an exchange is just over one year, 381 days.

Of the 18 Bitcoin exchanges that closed, in 11 of those cases the authors were able to find evidence of whether or not the customers were reimbursed their money. Five exchanges didn’t reimburse their customers. Six claim to have done so.

“The risk of losing funds stored at exchanges is real but uncertain,” write Moore and Christin in “Beware the Middleman: Empirical Analysis of Bitcoin-Exchange Risk,” which was invited for presentation at the 17th International Financial Cryptography and Data Security Conference held in Okinawa, Japan, April 1-5.

While various so-called crypto-currencies have been introduced in the past few years, Bitcoin is the first to be so widely adopted. Besides being open source, Bitcoin’s attraction includes real-time peer-to-peer transactions, worldwide acceptance and low or no processing fees.

Crypto-currencies are intended to eliminate reliance on brick-and-mortar middlemen such as banks, exchanges, credit card conglomerates and other financial intermediaries. Despite that, and as a result of Bitcoin’s booming popularity, a wide variety of middlemen have sprung up around the cyber currency. Those range from currency exchanges and online wallets to mining pools and legitimate or Ponzi scheme investment services, the authors said.

Moore and Christin focused their study on currency exchanges to examine the risk Bitcoin holders face from exchange failures.

Middlemen rise up in a system specifically meant to avoid middlemen
“Bitcoin is expressly designed to be completely decentralized with no single points of control,” Moore said. “Yet currency exchanges have become de facto central authorities, and their success or failure drives Bitcoin’s success or failure.”

Recent wild fluctuations in the exchange rate of Bitcoins can be traced in part to the role of digital middlemen, he said, including the emergence of the currency exchanges that buy and sell Bitcoins.

Bitcoin’s trading value at the start of the year was around $10 per Bitcoin. But its price soared as high as $260 earlier in April, then recently took a nosedive and is now hovering around $68, explained Moore.

“Much of that can be attributed to the Mt. Gox exchange temporarily shutting down because of heavy trading that overwhelmed the exchange,” Moore said. “Studying why these exchanges fail helps us better understand the risks of Bitcoin.”

Mt. Gox, https://mtgox.com/, based in Tokyo, is the most popular of the exchanges, with average daily transactions totaling more than 50,000 Bitcoins. Other high-volume exchanges include btc-e.com and Intersango.

Of the 40 exchanges Moore and Christin studied, the median for daily transactions carried out is 290. The mean is 1,716. Some 25 percent of exchanges process under 25 Bitcoins each day on average.

The findings of the study leave Bitcoin buyers in a dilemma: According to the study’s empirical analysis, “Mt. Gox and Intersango are less likely to close than other exchanges” because of their high volume, the authors write.

But the study’s logistic regression model yielded the result that the higher the transaction volume, the more likely a security breach by hackers. “More than 43,000 Bitcoins were stolen from the Bitcoinica trading platform in March 2012,” the authors write, and “in September 2012, $250,000 worth of Bitcoins were pilfered from the Bitfloor currency exchange.” Moreover, Mt. Gox has been breached multiple times.

Holding money at Bitcoin exchanges is risky
There are two ways to buy Bitcoins. Purchasers go online through an exchange such as Mt. Gox. They pay hard currency such as U.S. dollars at the market exchange rate, typically funded by a credit card. The exchange transfers the purchased Bitcoins to the buyer’s Bitcoin address or the money remains in an online account maintained by the exchange.

“In the latter case, customers are at risk of losing their Bitcoins if the exchange suddenly closes,” Moore said. “Believe it or not, many people — if not most —choose to leave the Bitcoins in the exchange account, thinking that their Bitcoins are better protected there and with faster access to convert back to hard currencies.”

Bitcoins also can be purchased from local dealers found on web sites such as https://localbitcoins.com/. Buyers meet up with the dealer online or in person and pay cash for the Bitcoins, which are then transferred to the Bitcoin address provided.

Data for the study included daily trade volumes, average weighted daily price for conversions to other currencies, the lifetime of each exchange, whether investors were repaid following an exchange’s closure, and whether the country where the exchange is based complies with the World Bank’s regulations for Anti-Money-Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism. — Margaret Allen

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

New York Times: Is Organic Better? Ask a Fruit Fly

Margaret Allen — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:46:56 +0000

New York Times reporter Tara Parker-Pope has covered research carried out in the fruit fly lab of SMU biologist Johannes H. Bauer.

The article on the New York Times Wellness blog covers the research of Bauer and Plano, Texas, high school student Ria Chhabra. “Is Organic Better? Ask a Fruit Fly” appeared April 17.

Read the New York Times article.

EXCERPT:

Tara Parker-Pope
New York Times
When Ria Chhabra, a middle school student near Dallas, heard her parents arguing about the value of organic foods, she was inspired to create a science fair project to try to resolve the debate.

Three years later, Ria’s exploration of fruit flies and organic foods has not only raised some provocative questions about the health benefits of organic eating, it has also earned the 16-year-old top honors in a national science competition, publication in a respected scientific journal and university laboratory privileges normally reserved for graduate students.

The research, titled “Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster,” tracked the effects of organic and conventional diets on the health of fruit flies. By nearly every measure, including fertility, stress resistance and longevity, flies that fed on organic bananas and potatoes fared better than those who dined on conventionally raised produce.

While the results can’t be directly extrapolated to human health, the research nonetheless paves the way for additional studies on the relative health benefits of organic versus conventionally grown foods. Fruit fly models are often used in research because their short life span allows scientists to evaluate a number of basic biological effects over a relatively brief period of time, and the results provide clues for better understanding disease and biological processes in humans.

Read the New York Times article.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

New Scientist: Bitcoin hits $200 but swapping for real money is risky

Margaret Allen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:20:48 +0000

Technology reporter Jacob Aron with New Scientist covered the Bitcoin research of SMU cybersecurity expert Tyler W. Moore, an assistant professor of computer science in the Lyle School of Engineering.

The finding is from a new computer science study that applied survival analysis to examine the factors that prompt Bitcoin currency exchanges to close.

Moore carried out the research with Nicolas Christin, with the Information Networking Institute and Carnegie Mellon CyLab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Aron’s coverage, “Bitcoin hits $200 but swapping for real money is risky,” was published online April 9.

Read the full story.

EXCERPT:

Jacob Aron
New Scientist
Online currency Bitcoin hit yet another record high today as it smashed through the $200 barrier, but a new analysis of Bitcoin exchanges shows that swapping real-world cash for its virtual equivalent can be a risky business.

The stratospheric rise of Bitcoin in recent days – it was at $70 just two weeks ago and less than $10 when we first wrote about it – has left many wishing they had got in on the currency when it was much cheaper. But it is easy to forget that Bitcoin exchanges, where many users store their cash, have a history of being hacked or even folding altogether.

Tracking the fortunes of 40 such exchanges over the past three years, Tyler Moore of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Nicolas Christin of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, discovered that 18 have closed. Of these, five failed to reimburse their customers, while six claimed they did. The pair were unable to confirm either way for the remaining seven exchanges.

The pair also used mathematical modelling to predict the general behaviour of Bitcoin exchanges, and found that there is a 30 per cent chance of an exchange folding within one year of opening, increasing to nearly 80 per cent after two years.

Unsurprisingly, the larger exchanges such as Mt.Gox are much less likely to implode, but the findings suggest these popular money-swappers are also at greater risk of hack attacks. “The continued operation of an exchange depends on running a high transaction volume, which makes the exchange a more valuable target to thieves,” say the pair in a paper presented at the Financial Cryptography conference in Okinawa, Japan, last week.

So, jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon by all means – but as with all investments, don’t risk anything you aren’t prepared to lose.

Read the full story.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

Le Journal de la Science: Et si manger bio était bel et bien meilleur pour la santé?

Margaret Allen — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 19:47:48 +0000

Le Journal de la Science: And if eating organic was indeed better for your health?

Science journalist Alain Tranet writing in the Paris-based science publication Le Journal de la Science has covered research carried out in the fruit fly lab of SMU biologist Johannes H. Bauer by Plano, Texas, high school student Ria Chhabra. The article, “Et si manger bio était bel et bien meilleur pour la santé?,” published April 3.

Read the article in French. An English translation follows the French excerpt below.

EXCERPT:

By Alain Tranet
Le Journal de la Science
Manger bio serait-il en définitive meilleur pour la santé ? C’est en tout cas ce que suggère une étude américaine menée… sur la mouche du vinaigre. Un résultat qui contredit plusieurs précédents travaux.

Manger bio a-t-il un effet bénéfique sur la santé humaine ? Alors que ce débat fait rage depuis de nombreuses années maintenant, une nouvelle étude menée sur la drosophile met en lumière l’existence d’une influence positive de l’alimentation biologique sur la santé de cette mouche (laquelle est, rappellons-le, un modèle animal abondamment utilisé par les scientifiques pour toutes sortes d’expérimentation, et notamment celles portant sur les mécanismes cellulaires du vieillissement). Ce résultat a été publié par des biologistes américains de la Southern Methodist University (Dallas, États-Unis) dans la revue en accès ouvert PLoS One, sous le titre “Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster”.

Quelle est la nature exacte du résultat obtenu par le biologiste Johannes H. Bauer et ses collègues ? Ils ont constaté que des mouches drosophiles nourries durant toute leur (courte) existence avec des aliments issus de l’agriculture biologique présentaient une longévité accrue et une plus grande fertilité par rapport à des drosophiles nourries avec des produits issus de l’agriculture conventionnelle.

Plus précisément, les scientifiques ont testé les effets sur la santé de quatre produits issus de l’agriculture biologique : des pommes de terre, du raisin des bananes et du soja. Pour évaluer les effets séparés de ces quatre aliments, quatre groupes de 200 drosophiles ont été constitués, recevant chacun l’un ou l’autre de ces produits durant l’intégralité de leur vie, ainsi que quatre groupes contrôle constitués de 200 drosophiles recevant également durant toute leur existence l’équivalent non biologique de l’un ou l’autre de ces quatre aliments.

TRANSLATION:
Is eating organic ultimately better for our health? That’s what a new U.S. study suggests … for the fruit fly. The result contradicts several previous studies.

Does eating organic have a beneficial effect on human health? While this debate has been raging for many years now, a new study on Drosophila highlights the existence of a positive effect of organic food on the health of the fly (which is, remember, an animal model widely used by scientists for all kinds of experiments, including those on the cellular mechanisms of aging). This result was published by American biologists from Southern Methodist University (Dallas, USA) in the open access journal PLoS One, titled “Organically Grown Food Provides Health Benefits to Drosophila melanogaster.”

What is the exact nature of the result obtained by the biologist Johannes H. Bauer and his colleagues? They found that fruit flies fed throughout their (short) life with organically grown food had increased longevity and higher fertility compared to fruit flies fed with products from conventional farming.

Specifically, the scientists tested the effects on health of four kinds of produce from organic farming: potatoes, grapes, bananas and soybeans. To assess the separate effects of these four foods, 200 fruit flies were sorted into four groups, each receiving either of these products during their entire life, and four control groups consisting of 200 Drosophila also receiving an equivalent non-organic diet.

Read the article.

Follow SMUResearch.com on Twitter.

SMU Research

The Sydney Morning Herald: Flying in the face of the organic debate

Unlikely as it may sound, a 16-year-old’s school science project has added weight to the organic versus conventional debate

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Le Huffington Post: Le sommeil rendrait les musiciens plus efficaces — étude

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Yahoo! News: Study shows 45% of Bitcoin exchanges end up failing

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Wired: Study — 45 percent of Bitcoin exchanges end up closing

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

redOrbit: Economists Question Bitcoin Stability Despite Meteoric Rise In Value

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Study: High-volume Bitcoin exchanges less likely to fail, but more likely to suffer breach

Empirical computer science study finds consumers face risk of losing money on Bitcoin currency exchanges, many of which close

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

New York Times: Is Organic Better? Ask a Fruit Fly

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

New Scientist: Bitcoin hits $200 but swapping for real money is risky

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news

Le Journal de la Science: Et si manger bio était bel et bien meilleur pour la santé?

Le Journal de la Science: And if eating organic was indeed better for your health?

Book a live interview

Related links

More SMU Research news