Delayed Gratification and Higher SAT Scores

• In 1972 psychologist Walter Mischel and his group at Stanford University published their famous “marshmallow study.” Preschoolers received a marshmallow and were told that if they waited 15 minutes to eat it they would get a second marshmallow. Children on average waited only six minutes, but some of the children hid their marshmallows or distracted themselves and were able to delay gratification much longer. This same group of children was studied again in 1988 when they were teenagers. The results showed that the children who delayed gratification longest in the original study were better students, more emotionally balanced, competent in social settings, and had higher SAT scores than those unable to delay gratification. The results also showed that, at age 11, those who failed to delay gratification in preschool had an increased risk of being overweight. How good are you at delaying gratification? (Scientific American Mind, Mar./April, 2013)

• In the past two decades the vulture population in Pakistan, India, and Nepal has plummeted to only one percent of its original size. Until recently, the reason was unknown. Now we discover that an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat pain and inflammation in cattle was poisoning the vultures. The vultures consumed the drug because they are scavengers that “recycle” dead animals, especially cattle. The drug is called diclofenac, and although it provides relief to cattle, trace amounts that remain in carcasses cause kidney failure in vultures. Their loss results in an ecological imbalance, another example of unintended consequences occurring when even trace amounts of a useful drug for one species spells death to another.

A second example is the behavior of fish when they live in water tainted with the anti-anxiety drug, Valium, used to treat humans. When exposed to minuscule amounts (e.g., 2 parts per billion), fish were twice as active, swam more rapidly, fed more aggressively, hid less, and formed groups rather than remaining solitary.

A third example is the discovery that our water supplies, lakes and rivers often contain trace amounts of hormone-disrupting chemicals released in human urine. In aquatic animals, these chemicals can affect sexual development, brain function, the immune system, and bring about changes in metabolism.

There is good news, however. In the case of vultures, diclofenac is now banned in Pakistan and India, and attempts are being made to breed captive vultures and return them to the environment, thus restoring the balance of nature. (Science, Feb. 8, 2013; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Feb. 25, 2013; e360.yale.edu/feature)

• Snails, clams, squid, octopi, scallops and oysters belong to a group of invertebrate (lacking backbones) animals called the Phylum Mollusca. Most intelligent of all the invertebrates are the squid and octopus, and the most intriguing, without question, is the mysterious giant squid. They are the largest of the invertebrates, reaching 60 feet in length, with eyes the size of cantaloupes, mouths shaped like a parrot’s beak, and enormous tentacles equipped with rows of powerful suckers. The bodies of sperm whales often show circular scars left from encounters with giant squid, and occasionally the huge tentacles are found in the stomachs of sperm whales. (angelfire.com; other sources).