THE VAINER, weaker sex is definitely male, according to Canadian researchers who studied men and women working out in the gym.

They recruited 44 women and men to a three-month programme of intensive strength-training exercises for five days every week.

At the end, the scientists, from McMaster University, Ontario, asked the study participants to check themselves out in the mirror and decide whether they looked and felt better.

The guys spent a while checking their muscles and preening and, regardless of what physical improvements they had achieved, declared themselves to be happier with their new bodies and significantly more confident in themselves.

The women, however, were more scientific and sceptical. They weren’t too bothered about being thinner or shapelier — they wanted to know whether their physical strength had improved. The ones whose weightlifting abilities had increased were those whose self-image improved the most, says Kathleen Martin Ginis, an associate professor of kinesiology who led the experiment.

Martin Ginis’s work seems to show that women are suspicious of mirrors. An earlier study of hers found that women who can see their reflections exercising feel worse about themselves.

‘Invisible diet’ cons you into slimming

A SCIENTIFIC con trick could put an end to the torture of cravings when on a diet.

Biologists at Utah State University are working to harness nanotechnology to trick slimmers’ brains into believing that they have consumed the fatty foods their bodies desire.

The team calls its scheme the “invisible diet”. It involves injecting nanoparticles made from fat cells into the body, aimed at fat receptors in the gut.

These then tell the brain that it has enjoyed a rich meal and that it can now let the eater feel full, though, in fact, the patient has had only a small, low-calorie dish.

Tim Gilbertson, a Utah State University biologist, claims that some overweight patients’ bodies suffer a kind of fat-blindness. Fat receptors are sited throughout the body, but Gilbertson has discovered that some people are insufficiently sensitive, so they have to eat more fatty foods to feel satiated.

“We’re trying to trick receptors into thinking they have fat when it’s actually not there,” he says. The research is in the early stages, but Gilbertson says his team is encouraged by preliminary results and the technology’s early promise in treating other medical problems, such as cancer and heart disease.

Never say die

IMMORTALITY is within your grasp, but only if you live for long enough. Physiologists claim to have found that people in their seventies can simply stop ageing. They write in the Physiological and Biochemical Zoology that human death rates plateau if we reach late life — and it isn’t down to great nursing homes.

Professor Michael Rose, of California University, says that if we significantly outlive the amount of time nature expects us to last (ie, long enough to breed and raise offspring), we escape the usual ageing process. “These late-life plateaux are characterised by the cessation of age-related deterioration and are sometimes called immortality,” he says. Sadly, the effect is temporary. Then we get really old, wear out and die.

Another fount of youth has been discovered by Edinburgh University neuroscientists, who report that our brains are full of dormant cells that contain robust “survival genes”. When awoken by challenges, such as Su Doku and crosswords, these genes can keep brain cells strong and healthy into old age.

All stand for cure

STARTLING results are being claimed for a new programme to prevent diabetes using the Chinese exercise methods of qigong and t’ai chi.

The pilot study, performed by Queensland University, Australia, claims that after only three months, the 11 test participants significantly reduced the four major risk factors for type 2 diabetes: blood pressure, waist circumference, body weight and blood-glucose level.

Qigong is an undemanding form of exercise. Much of it involves simply standing still. T’ai chi is hardly exhausting either. So why should these regimens be so beneficial? The study, funded by the Diabetes Australia Research Trust, is examining this, but the programme teacher, Liu Xin, says the ancient arts are believed in China to help to cleanse the body of toxins.

Bunny girls

MOST VIDEO games are toys for boys, but Heather Kelly’s Lapis is definitely for girls — it aims to teach them how best to give themselves an orgasm.

Lapis is a video bunny you can stroke, tickle and rub, via a touchscreen, until it hits a state of joy. But it’s an unpredictable creature that needs a variety of sensations, and sometimes nothing seems to work. The game is at protoype stage at the moment, but it sounds like boys could learn from it, too.

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