When a friend yawns, women feel urge to yawn too, study says

By Los Angeles Times, Adapted by Newsela staff

02.11.16

If a person yawns, some people will yawn back. Women do this more often than men. Scientists from Italy made this claim recently in a science magazine. They did tests to find out if people can catch the urge to yawn.  

A yawn is involuntary. A person does not mean to do it. It happens by opening the mouth, breathing in, expanding a tube that leads to the eardrums, and then exhaling. The whole event takes about six seconds. 

Catching yawns is an example of a social contagion. A social contagion is when information, ideas or behaviors are spread from person to person. It spreads almost like a cold does. A person who sees a friend yawn might also yawn, even if he or she is not tired. A person may also yawn if they hear, see, read about, or even think about yawning.

It Starts In Childhood

Scientists connect contagious yawning to empathy. When a person is empathic, they can sense other people’s feelings. They may even feel the way the other person does. Contagious yawning seems to start when children are 4 or 5 years old, about the same time children start to develop empathy. In old age it falls off, along with empathy.

Scientists looked at why contagious yawning is related to empathy. They say it uses the same neural network. A neural network is a system of cells that send messages to the brain, spine and nerves. Contagious yawning also happens more with friends and family than with strangers.

People are not the only ones who catch yawns from others. Chimpanzees, bonobos, dogs, wolves and other animals do also. Contagious yawning can even spread between animals and humans. Scientists have found that chimpanzees and dogs both catch human yawns.

Strangers Get No Reaction

Science also suggests that women have more empathy than men do. Scientists connect more empathy to more contagious yawning. They say that if women are more empathic than men, then they must catch more yawns, too.

To find out, the Italian scientists took a closer look. They observed people at work, eating dinner and at other places. Over five years, they recorded almost 1,500 cases of yawning. The scientists watched 92 pairs of people who passed a yawn at least three times.

They found no difference between men and women in ordinary yawning. However, women did catch yawns much more often than men did. Scientists also found that both men and women yawned when friends and family yawned. Neither one yawned very often when people that they did not know well yawned.  

Scientists say the fact that women have more empathy could affect more than just social yawning. It could make them better parents, better at communicating, and better at living in groups. Greater empathy may also allow women to have relationships that last longer.

Vocabulary:

a. empathy 

b. urge

b. contagion 

d. involuntary

- the communication of disease from one person to another by close contact (                     )

- the ability to understand and share the feelings of another           (                         )

- done without will or conscious control (                        )

- a strong desire or impulse (                         )

Questions:

1. What was the claim that the scientists from Italy made?

2. What is the process of a yawn?

3. What cause people to yawn?

4. Why women are more contagious to yawn?

5. In your opinion, how does a good sleep affect a person's daily routine?

Grade Level 5

More than 1 million people sought refuge in Europe this year, report says

By Associated Press, adapted by Newsela staff

12.24.15

GENEVA, Switzerland — More than 1 million people entered Europe in this record-breaking year, migration experts said Tuesday. They were driven out of their home countries by war, poverty and persecution. This mass movement of people has challenged the idea of European unity.

With just days left in 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 1,005,504 people had entered Europe as of Monday. The number was more than four times as many as last year. Almost all of them came by sea, and 3,692 people drowned trying to make the crossing.

European governments must make migration safer, said IOM official William Lacy Swing. He is general director of the organization. 

"We know migration is inevitable. It's necessary and it's desirable," Swing said. He added, "Migration must be legal, safe and secure for all — both for the migrants themselves and the countries that will become their new home."

Getting Accurate Count Is Hard

The IOM gets its the numbers from government records. The figures are from Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Spain, Malta and Cyprus, spokesman Joel Millman said. He noted that the real number of people entering Europe may be even larger. Officials are having trouble getting an accurate number because so many have entered Europe in such a short time.

Most people entered Europe from Greece, which took in 820,000 people this year. Nearly all of them crossed from Turkey by boat across the Aegean Sea. Another 150,000 came into Italy across the Mediterranean Sea from north Africa, while smaller numbers crossed from Turkey by land into neighboring Greece and Bulgaria. Even fewer arrived by boat to other countries around the Mediterranean.

Not all the migrants are included in the IOM count. Others crossed into Europe across other borders. A few thousand people have crossed by bicycle from Russia to Norway.

Many People Drowned During Trek

About half of the people entering Europe were Syrians. Another 20 percent were Afghans, and 7 percent were Iraqis, IOM said.

Many fleeing war and persecution will likely be allowed to stay in Europe. Others who came to find work could be sent back.

Of the deaths, 2,889 were people traveling from North Africa toward Italy, the IOM said. A total of 706 drowned trying to cross the Aegean to Greece, and 72 died trying to reach Spain. No one knows exactly how many have died in shipwrecks or who they were. The bodies of others, including a 3-year-old child, have washed up on Greek beaches. This shocked the world and led European officials to promise to make the migration routes safer.

The war in Syria has been particularly important in the refugee crisis. The war has killed hundreds of thousands and has caused millions to flee. European governments have struggled to agree on how to handle the migrants. They have argued whether to welcome them at all and how best to care for the huge number of people.

Cold Weather Adds To Dangers

Over the summer, some Eastern European countries opened and closed their border, which caused confusion and frustration. Hungary, in particular, angered its neighbors by building a fence to keep people out. Migrants began rushing to find alternate routes through countries, which were unable to handle so many people. A more organized system began in the fall.

Germany and Sweden have welcomed the largest numbers of refugees. About 1 million migrants arrived in Germany this year, including large numbers of people from Eastern Europe who could be sent back.

With cold weather making journeys more dangerous, the number of migrants has slowed, but people are still showing up in Greece. Also, there's no sign that the number of migrants will go down when temperatures start rising again in the spring. IOM said more than 4,100 people arrived on the Greek islands on Monday alone.

Questions:

1. Why did people sought refugee?

2, How many refugee entered Europe in 2015?

3.Where in Europe does the people migrate to?

4.Explain two ways how refugees travel to Europe?

5. Where did the refugees come from?

6. What are the dangers that might be faced by the refugees during their travelling?

7. Do you think our country should welcome refugee? Why?

Animals that were oceans apart are now together, due to melting Arctic ice

By Washington Post, adapted by Newsela staff

12.21.15

Animals have been showing up in strange places lately.

Gray whales live in the Pacific Ocean. In the spring of 2010, though, a single gray whale was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea. It was the first time a gray whale was seen in the North Atlantic in about 200 years. 

How Did YOU Get HERE?

Other animals that live in the Pacific have been appearing in the Atlantic as well. Likewise, creatures that live in the Atlantic Ocean have been seen in the Pacific. 

What is going on? A group of scientists, led by a scientist named Seabird McKeon, published a paper about the strange pattern. The paper was released on Nov. 30 in the magazine Global Biology. It said that the reason animals are moving between the Atlantic and the Pacific may have to do with climate change. 

Between the Atlantic and Pacific are giant continents. Sea creatures cannot cross them. Connecting the two oceans to the north is the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic is one of the coldest places on earth. Because of how cold it is, big parts of the Arctic Ocean are covered in ice. 

Melting Ice Makes Travel Easier

The ice usually keeps animals from using the Arctic to move between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Animals like whales and seals have difficulty getting through the ice. It gets in the way of their swimming and can block them from coming up to breathe. Birds can fly over the frozen ocean, but the ice prevents them from diving for fish.

These days, however, the ice is starting to melt. The climate is changing. Each year, the earth is getting a little warmer. As the Arctic has warmed, ice has started melting. As a result, passageways have opened up in the ice. 

McKeon and his team believe that this has allowed certain animals to cross through the Arctic, letting them move between the Atlantic and the Pacific. It is like a bridge has opened up between two oceans that used to be separate. Animals that used to always be apart can now mix. Scientists call this mixing "faunal exchange."

Studying "Faunal Exchange"

Many animals could become part of the faunal exchange. Birds such as Arctic terns, common eiders, Atlantic puffins and short-tailed shearwaters may start to move between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Beluga whales, ringed seals and Atlantic white-sided dolphins may do so as well.

No one can say for sure what effects the faunal exchange will have. To get some idea, though, McKeon and his team examined past examples of faunal exchange.

The Great American Biotic Interchange was a large faunal exchange. Several million years ago a thin strip of land called the Isthmus of Panama formed between North and South America. The new bridge allowed land animals to cross between the two continents for the first time. As a result, animals from North America invaded South America. They beat out many of the native animals there for food. 

Watch Out For Killer Whales!

McKeon and his team also looked at what happened when killer whales moved into Hudson Bay, a large body of water in Canada. As their name suggests, killer whales are hunters. All of the sudden, the animals in Hudson Bay had to be on the lookout for a new predator. Faunal exchange, in that case, altered the delicate balance of predators and prey.

McKeon and his team argue that the current exchange between the Pacific and Atlantic may have the same kinds of effects. It may lead to genetic changes as well. As animals move to new territories, they mix with different kinds of animals. Sometimes these new neighbors interbreed. New kinds of animals might be born as a result.

What Next?

At this point, scientists can only wait and see, and study. Most scientists seem to agree that faunal exchange between the Pacific and Atlantic is already occurring. It seems like it will only increase as more passages open up in the Arctic. The effects of faunal exchange, however, remain to be seen.

Questions:

1. Where do gray whales live in and where were they found in now?

2. Why the animals are moving between the Atlantic and the Pacific?

3. Why do animals cannot cross between the Atlantic and Pacific?

4. Why does the ice keeps animals from using the Arctic to move between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans?

5. What does "faunal exchange" mean?

6. What are the effects of current exchange between the Pacific and Atlantic?