Alcohol aids creativity

IF YOU are looking for a flash of inspiration, you might find it at the bottom of a glass of wine.

Alcohol can help us think more creatively by freeing up the brain to think in a different way, a study has found.

The researchers gave 70 people normal and non-alcoholic beer, which they were unable to distinguish between. They were then asked to do a word association task, such as determining the word linking “Swiss”, “blue” and “cake”. Those who had drank alcohol were more likely to get the answer right, cheese.

They also did slightly better in a creative thinking task, where they were asked how a tyre could be used. The answer of “a lampshade” was graded as less creative than “a swing”.

However, the authors stressed the finding for the second task was not statistically significant. – Daily Mail

‘Super-Earth planets’

TWO rocky planets of a similar size to Earth are potentially habitable, scientists have discovered.

The planets orbit our nearest sun-like star and can be seen by the naked eye as they are 12 light years away. The “superEarths” belong to a solar system of four planets. British-led astronomers have speculated that the system might one day be a candidate for interstellar colonisation. The key discovery was that the planets have masses as low as 1.7 times the Earth’s, the smallest ever spotted around a sun-like star. – Daily Mail