Weird Science Weekly: Drinking coffee lowers risk of suicide

Weird science happens all around us, every day. In this instalment of Weird Science Weekly, we have coffee apparently lowering the risk of suicide, the full moon giving us a bad night's sleep, rituals making our food taste better, wolves with unique voices and a dizzying dance around a distant planet.

Drinking coffee lowers risk of suicide

Caffeine is a popular target for the 'good for you one moment, bad for you the next' tug of war that goes on in health news, but a new study from the Harvard School of Public Health seems to have confirmed at least one benefit. Researchers reviewing medical data gathered from three large studies have concluded that people drinking two to four Cups o' Joe each day had a 50 percent lower risk of suicide than their decaffeinated peers.

The three studies, which tracked more than 200,000 individuals, found that coffee was overwhelmingly the caffeine-delivery method of choice — the source for more than 70% of the chemical consumed by study participants. That's not to discount the effect of tea or soda, however. The key seemed to be getting about 400 mg of caffeine per day. Having more than that didn't seem to improve your odds any. In fact, a study from 2000 found that drinking more than 8 cups a day actually increased the risk of self-harm.

Before you trade your antidepressants for an armful of extra large double-doubles, though, it's important to note the researchers don't recommend upping your caffeine intake to fight depression. The news release from the school noted that "most individuals adjust their caffeine intake to an optimal level for them and an increase could result in unpleasant side effects." Given that some of caffeine's known negative side effects are high-blood pressure, insomnia, anxiety and the shakes, self-medicating seems like a tricky proposition.

If you're not a four-cup-per-day drinker, you may still be hitting the 400 mg mark. A "Venti" from Starbucks has about 400 mg by itself. Two extra larges from Tim Horton's will get you the same dose.

[ Related: Weird Science Weekly: Sperm have a sweet tooth ]

The full moon can cause a bad night's sleep

Find yourself howling instead of snoozing this past week? Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have released research that might, definitely, explain why. Folklore has long held that people 'go crazy' under the full moon, with stories of everything from the mundane (increased ER visits) to the supernatural (tall, dark and furry). But it seems that the lunar cycle may actually be responsible for disturbances in our sleep cycles.

The study, published in Current Biology, examined an admittedly-small group of 30 volunteers of different ages. The results showed that "both the objective and the subjective perception of sleep quality changed with the moon phases." The test subjects spent more restless nights when the moon was full, taking longer to fall asleep and waking up sooner. Critically, they also showed lower melatonin under the full moon — melatonin is one of the hormones that regulates our body clocks. This effect happened even though sleepers were tucked away in a lab and weren't directly exposed to the light outside.

Lead researcher Christian Cajochen suspects this effect may be a holdover from biological preshistory, citing that many animal species' mating behavior is regulated by moonlight and adding: "This is the first reliable evidence that lunar rhythm can modulate sleep structure in humans." Nowadays, though, the light from your cellphone probably has more influence on your sleep than moonbeams.

Saying grace can make your food taste better...

So can singing Happy Birthday before cutting into the cake, or setting the table the same way each day. What's at work here?

Professor Kathleen Vohs at the University of Minnesota got to wondering about the impact of mealtime rituals and she and her colleagues designed four experiments to shed light on them, and how they influence our perception of various foods.

In one experiment, some subjects were given specific instructions on how to eat a piece of chocolate and others were just told to do whatever they wanted. The results showed that participants who followed the made up ritual reported enjoying the chocolate more, and that they were willing to pay more for it. The next experiment was to show that doing random things before eating didn't have the same effect; it had to be a repeated behavior you did on a regular basis. The final two studies showed that just watching a ritual doesn't work, either - you have to be singing yourself or your cake won't taste any better.

This all seems like a classic bit of 'weird research' at work, but since the researchers showed there was a real, tangible effect to even mundane, completely made up rituals, and that's something that might be exploited for other benefits. Future research avenues might reveal that singing before dinner can do more than make your 4-year-old enjoy her brussels sprouts; Vohs said in the news release: "We are thinking of getting patients to perform rituals before a surgery and then measuring their pain post-operatively and how fast they heal."

[ Related: Weird Science Weekly: Go-karting babies help researchers study fear ]

Sound analysis shows wolves have distinct voices

The wolf's distinctive look holds a particular fascination for a lot of people (t-shirt designers among them), but their voices are pretty remarkable, too. And now for the first time, scientists have devised a way to tell them apart with 100% accuracy, just by listening to their howls.

Researchers at Nottingham Trent University in the UK have developed a sound analysis code that allows researchers to identify an animal without ever seeing it — something that could be a boon to those working to survey and conserve wolf populations around the world.

The code uses pitch as well as volume, or amplitude, to ID the canine in question, based on analysis of an archive of recordings of both individual and chorus howls. The code's authors are hopeful that this will enable future researchers to produce accurate counts of the animals, as well as tracking specific wolves as they move around their territories, without having to use more difficult or expensive methods.

Go for a dizzying dance around the rings of Saturn

Ever since NASA's Cassini spacecraft arrived in orbit of Saturn, over nine years ago, it has been taking some spectacular photos of the planet, its moons, and its amazing system of rings.

Piecing together images from over the past eight years, Fabio Di Donato put together a 3 minute and 48 second short film showing a dizzying dance around the planet:

Although the video has a very weird, retro feel to it, the imagery is incredible. This is why I love astronomy.

[ More Geekquinox: Amazing videos show cockatoos picking multi-stage puzzle lock ]

Keep your eyes on the wonders of science, and if you spot anything particularly strange you'd like me to check out for next week, comment below or drop me a line on Twitter!

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