Common Denominator of Facebook Users

According to a new study by doctoral candidate Aryn Karpinski of Ohio State University and her co-author Adam Duberstein of Ohio Dominican University, college students who use Facebook, the 200-million-member social network, have one common denominator: they have significantly lower grade point averages (GPA) than those who do not.

The study found that the GPAs of Facebook users typically ranged a full grade lower than those of nonusers — 3.0 to 3.5 for users versus 3.5 to 4.0 for their non-networking peers.

Karpinski says she isn't surprised by her findings, but notes that the study does not suggest Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. "Maybe Facebook users are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators," Karpinski told.

In February, Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield cautioned Britain's House of Lords that social networks like Facebook and Bebo were "infantilizing the brain into the state of small children," by shortening attention span and providing constant instant gratification.

New evidence by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a researcher at USC, shows the digital torrent of information from networking sites could have long-term damaging effects on the emotional development of young people's brains. Sites like Facebook and Twitter may blunt people's sense of morality and users could become "indifferent to human suffering" because they never get time to reflect and fully experience emotions about other people's feelings.

Some experts dismiss all studies of Internet use as flawed, since there is no reasonable way to control for the myriad variables that may affect such research.

Facebook also issued a statement and pointed to another study showing that personal Internet use at work can help focus workers' concentration and increase productivity.

Parents and employers are confused.

Egg Yolk Color Demystified

"Egg yolk color depends on the hen's feed," said Pauline Chan, a dietitian and the managing director of The Nutrition Place, Singapore. "A diet of wheat and white corn meal would produce an almost colorless yolk. If the hen is fed a diet that includes yellow corn meal, marigolds or carotene, the egg yolk would have a deep yellow color."

Brown eggs are produced by hens with red ear lobes and feathers while white eggs are produced by hens with white ear lobes and feathers. There is no significant link between shell color and the nutritional value of an egg.

June Liew, a dietitian at the department of dietetics and nutrition services at Singapore General Hospital added that some people claim that eggs promote soft and healthy hair by nourishing the hair follicles with essential proteins, sulphur content and its wide array of vitamins and minerals. For these reasons, eggs are used to make shampoos and conditioners despite the fact that more studies are needed to prove the efficacy of eggs on skin and hair health.