Social media negatively affects adolescent girls in particular

This 2022 study (a cross-sectional and longitudinal dataset analysis) found social media use is associated with negative impacts among adolescents – and especially younger adolescent females.

The association seems to be weaker for adults.

Side point: the authors had initially done another broader study, focusing on screen time (including social media but also other activities like video calls, homework).

This initially study didn't find any meaningful effects (between screen time and wellbeing). Following some debate, the authors conducted the 2022 study -- that was more specific to social media.

Creatine for cognitive function?

Eating creatine for physical health has become an accepted thing. But what about for the brain?

A while back, I watched this Huberman Labs episode, that covered this.Huberman podcast (with guest Rhonda Patrick) And I wanted to look at the research myself: here's one 2024 systematic review, covering 16 randomised control trials with a total of 492 participants.

You can see the full methodology and results in the credo summary of the paper -- but essentially the review concluded that creatine did have benefits for cognition.

As per the credo summary tldr:

This supplement may modestly improve memory and help people complete attention and fast-thinking tasks more quickly.

Hottest place in the galaxy... Oxfordshire?

Any Infinite Monkey Cage listeners here? Was listening to this episode on Fusion, and they talked about a nuclear fusion reactor in Oxfordshire.

As I understand it, to enable fusion, you need an extremely hot environment.

In the Oxfordshire reactor, scientists conducted an experiment with temperatures so high, that it momentarily became the hottest place in the solar system. Hotter than the sun.

How cool is that. And I found this paper, of a particularly well-known experiment using the reactor (scientists were able to generate a record amount of energy from fusion).

Sharing here -- excerpt from Huberman Labs podcast, on creatine and cognition.

How the "Big Bang" got its name

This story comes up repeatedly (including in the latest StarTalk episode).

Basically physicist Fred Hoyle, who did not believe in an expanding universe, inadvertently coined the "Big Bang". He used the term mockingly on a TV show, and it stuck.

Apparently though, it took a while for the term to really catch on. Found this article, that documents the story.

Really interesting story. Keen to read the actual paper (unfortunately paywalled).