GIVING a child a sweet to make them feel better isn’t just a parental con trick, it really does kill pain, according to new research from the Monell Chemical Senses Centre, in Philadelphia.

Sugar makes kids feel better physically as well as psychologically. And the new study, published in the journal Pain this month, shows that the children who get the greatest painkilling effect are those who like sweet tastes most.

The researchers measured how long children were able to keep their hands in a bowl of cold water, while drinking water and a very sugary drink. They found that the sugary drink enabled the children to keep their hands in the water much longer than the children who drank the water. And that the effect was more pronounced in children who had a sweet tooth.

Meanwhile, researchers have discovered an easy way of discovering whether a young child is enjoying themselves or not — looking for their tongues.

Child psychologists, from Indiana University, found that 4-week-olds varied the rate of sticking out their tongues according to how much music they were played. The researchers say this is an indication of how interested they are in stimuli.

She’s always the one who starts it

SOME might say it’s because of the constant stupidity they’re forced to put up with, but a new study into romantic relationships shows that women display more hostility to their partners than men. That means they shout, criticise and argue more.

Previous studies about who argues most in relationships have been plagued by a worrying lack of objectivity (“It was him that started it . . .” “No, it was her . . .”) in the people questioned. So the researchers from Iowa, California, and Pennsylvania universities combined a statistical averaging out of questionnaire studies with an observational one. Couples were videotaped as they tried to complete a problem-solving task and discussed potentially inflammatory topics such as relationships with other people.

There were arguments. The study indicated conclusively that the longer a couple had been together the more aggressive they were, and that women consistently showed greater signs of spoiling for a verbal fight than men (actual violence was not studied).

The explanation, say the researchers in the Journal of Marriage and Family, may be that women are generally more expressive of emotion. And, of course, it was him that started it anyway.

Hello, big boy

A NEW use has been found for pioneering tissue engineering techniques to repair injury and deformity — enhancing the girth of under-endowed men.

The breakthrough in penile enhancement, by urologists in Serbia and Montenegro and Russia, could mean that girth ops could rival boob jobs as a popular cosmetic procedure. Reporting in the journal European Urology, the researchers say that results from 84 men show that it is safer and more successful than lipo-filling and fat grafting.

The procedure involves removing skin cells from the scrotum, harvesting them artificially and seeding them over a degradable ring- scaffold. This forms the cells into the right-shaped tissue. The penis is “de-gloved” (you don’t want to know) and the ring of new tissue is transplanted on to the shaft.

Much less traumatic is a technique devised by Greek cosmetic surgeons to help women decide what size of new breast they want. At their initial assessment, they fill their bras with rice until everything seems comfortable and not too saggy.

Fertile ground

TINY hermaphrodite worms are revealing mysteries of reproduction that may help to cure human infertility. Scientists in California report in the journals Cell and Science this month that they have discovered new details about how sex cells such as sperm and eggs are produced by examining the insides of a 1mm-long roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans.

The process by which pairs of chromosomes divide to form sex cells (called meiosis) is potentially fraught and any error may cause infertility. Observing what happens in the cell to head off errors is difficult to observe in humans because meiosis occurs too quickly. But in roundworms it can take three days, allowing scientists to see what processes are in place to prevent fertility-affecting errors.

Baby cheers

BABIES given a supplement of vitamin K at birth have a significantly reduced risk of growing up to be alcoholics, a new study from Denmark indicates. Following up babies who had received the vitamin jab and those who had not 30 years later, the study, in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, showed that it seemed to protect against alcoholism. The reason could be that it protects newborns from brain bleeds, which could damage the neural structures that control pleasure and reward.

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