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Why is newborn baby skin-to-skin contact with dads and non-birthing parents important? Here’s what the science says

<p>Soon after a baby is born, it’s getting more common these days for the father or non-birthing parent to be encouraged to put the newborn directly on their chest. This skin-to-skin contact is often termed “kangaroo care”, as it mimics the way kangaroos provide warmth and security to babies.</p> <p>Mothers have been encouraged to give kangaroo care for decades now and many do so instinctively after giving birth; it has been <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27552521/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shown</a> to help mum and baby <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882596316000531?casa_token=QBk4MOx7VIMAAAAA:3DIH_RF_PdsZDqHkKSYgbM37Tgsau5GpTBPqUowy4kDN3tOwtnnPvpXCGkpBI8lJEQIqSorp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">connect</a> and with <a href="https://connect.springerpub.com/content/sgrnn/27/3/151.abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener">breastfeeding</a>.</p> <p>So what does the evidence say about kangaroo care for other parents?</p> <p><strong>A growing body of research</strong></p> <p>A growing body of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361591701_Fathers_providing_kangaroo_care_in_neonatal_intensive_care_units_a_scoping_review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> shows kangaroo care brings benefits for both baby and parent.</p> <p>One <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apa.14184" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> that measured cortisol (a stress hormone) levels and blood pressure in new fathers found:</p> <blockquote> <p>Fathers who held their baby in skin-to-skin contact for the first time showed a significant reduction in physiological stress responses.</p> </blockquote> <p>Another <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/nrp/2017/8612024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> in Taiwan involving fathers and neonates (newborn babies) found benefits to bonding and attachment:</p> <blockquote> <p>These study results confirm the positive effects of skin-to-skin contact interventions on the infant care behaviour of fathers in terms of exploring, talking, touching, and caring and on the enhancing of the father-neonate attachment.</p> </blockquote> <p>A <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361591701_Fathers_providing_kangaroo_care_in_neonatal_intensive_care_units_a_scoping_review" target="_blank" rel="noopener">paper</a> I co-authored with the University of South Australia’s Qiuxia Dong found:</p> <blockquote> <p>Studies reported several positive kangaroo care benefits for fathers such as reduced stress, promotion of paternal role and enhanced father–infant bond.</p> </blockquote> <p>Qiuxia Dong also led a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jocn.16405" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> (on which I was a co-author) exploring the experiences of fathers who had a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide.</p> <p>This study found kangaroo care helps fathers connect and bond with their baby in an intensive care environment. This had a positive impact on fathers’ confidence and self-esteem. As one father told us:</p> <blockquote> <p>I think after all the stress, when I have skin-to-skin I can actually calm down a little bit. I sit down and relax, I can cuddle my child and it’s just a little bit of a happy place for me as well as him to calm down, not to do any work all the time, not to be stressed out. There’s other things on my mind all the time but it’s time to relax and turn off a little bit.</p> </blockquote> <p>Another told us:</p> <blockquote> <p>She nuzzled around a bit, kind of got my smell I guess and then literally fell asleep. It was great. It was very comforting for both I guess for her and myself.</p> </blockquote> <p>As one father put it:</p> <blockquote> <p>Of course, they can hear your heartbeat and all that kind of stuff, of course warmth […] it’s being close with your baby, I think that would be the best way of building a relationship early.</p> </blockquote> <p>However, this study also reported that some dads found giving kangaroo care challenging as it can be time-consuming. It is not always easy to juggle with commitments such as caring for other children and work.</p> <p><strong>Involving both parents</strong></p> <p>One study noted <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21820778/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dads</a> can sometimes feel like a bystander on the periphery when a newborn arrives.</p> <p>Encouraging and educating all non-birthing parents, including fathers, to give kangaroo care is a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21820778/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">valuable way</a> to get them involved. And if a caesarean birth makes it difficult for the mother to give kangaroo care while still in theatre, the father or non-birthing parent is the next best person to do it while the mother or birthing parent is not able.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=401&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/480777/original/file-20220824-22-j9lpxl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=504&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><em><span class="caption">A caesarean birth sometimes makes it difficult for the mother to give kangaroo care while still in the theatre.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Isaac Hermar/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY</a></span></em></figcaption></figure> <p><strong>More research needed</strong></p> <p>There is a need for broader research on these issues, especially around the experiences of fathers from culturally diverse backgrounds and other non-birthing parents.</p> <p>But the research literature on kangaroo care shows there is good reason for dads and non-birthing parents to do some kangaroo care when a baby is born. As we concluded in our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jocn.16405">study</a>, in the challenging neonatal intensive care unit environment, kangaroo care can serve:</p> <blockquote> <p>as a silent language of love.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188927/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> </blockquote> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mary-steen-970055" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mary Steen</a>, Adjunct professor of Maternal and Family Health, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-south-australia-1180" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of South Australia</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-newborn-baby-skin-to-skin-contact-with-dads-and-non-birthing-parents-important-heres-what-the-science-says-188927" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Image: Getty Images</em></p>

Family & Pets

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"I had visual contact with Lyn Dawson" court hears

<p dir="ltr">Chris Dawson’s judge-only murder trial has aired a recording of the accused's brother-in-law, who claimed that he spotted Lynette Dawson several months after she disappeared back in 1982.</p> <p dir="ltr">A police interview that was conducted between Dawson’s brother-in-law Ross Hutcheon back in 2019 was played in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Hutcheon claimed that he saw Lynette at a bus stop opposite Gladesville Hospital up to six months after she disappeared.</p> <p dir="ltr">"She looked just like the Lyn that I knew — same colour hair, same hairstyle, same glasses. No obvious attempt to disguise herself," he said in the recording.</p> <p dir="ltr">"The other thing that convinced me … was the fact that it was opposite the hospital and she was a nurse."</p> <p dir="ltr">Mr Hutcheon, who died six weeks ago and was married to Dawson’s sister also called Lynette, had claimed to have told her about seeing the missing mother that day.</p> <p dir="ltr">However, it was reported that Mr Hutcheon had instead reported the incident to police years later in 1999 stating he had "no contact with Lynette Dawson since her disappearance".</p> <p dir="ltr">"I had visual contact with Lyn Dawson, not verbal contact," Mr Hutcheon responded.</p> <p dir="ltr">Ms Hutcheon appeared in court on Tuesday and was questioned why she hadn’t discussed the possible sighting of her sister-in-law.</p> <p dir="ltr">She told the court that other people she knew had reported sightings of Lynette Dawson months after she disappeared and it didn’t cross her mind.</p> <p dir="ltr">"My husband had seen her and I had heard that other people had seen her. I thought she had been seen by people that knew her," she said.</p> <p dir="ltr">Chris Dawson has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Lynette, who went missing from the family home in Sydney's Northern Beaches in January 1982.</p> <p dir="ltr">The trial continues.</p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Images: Nine News</em></p>

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An artists success depends on their contacts

<p>As it turns out, the prestigious art world might not be entirely fair.</p> <p>At least, that’s what a group of researchers, led by Samuel Fraiberger of Northeastern University in Boston, US, find out by studying the network of prestigious – or less prestigious – exhibition spaces, such as galleries, museums, and auction houses.</p> <p>In a new study published in the journal Science, Fraiberger and colleagues find that early exposure in posh places pays off.</p> <p>“Early access to prestigious central institutions offered life-long access to high-prestige venues and reduced dropout rate,” they write.</p> <p>To conduct the analysis, art institutions were ranked by prestige, based on longevity, artists exhibited, art fair participation, and other qualities.</p> <p>Within these, the researchers identified a network of cross-exhibiting artists’ work. High-prestige institutions were strongly linked. For instance, New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Guggenheim were linked 33 times more strongly than expected if artists moved randomly between institutions.</p> <p>Fraiberger and colleagues find that artists who exhibit at high-prestige institutions for their first five exhibits were more likely to be at those institutions a decade later. They were also more likely to find long-term success in the art world, with 39% continuing to exhibit versus only 14% for artists whose first exhibitions had been at lower-prestige places.</p> <p>The researchers then looked retrospectively at the careers of 31,794 artists, born between 1950 and 1990, each of whom had at least 10 exhibitions. They find similar results.</p> <p>“As a group, high–initial reputation artists had continuous access to high-prestige institutions during their entire career,” they write. On the other hand, artists that did not have initial access to prestigious institutions advanced only slowly  throughout their careers – assuming their careers continued.</p> <p>The researchers also find that country of origin is related to initial reception, while talent should not be.</p> <p>Fraiberger and his colleagues conclude that the prestige of an artist’s initial exhibition space has a lasting effect on his or her career – and that it may not be related to the “quality” of the art.  Because the value of art is subjective, “reputation and networks of influence play a key role” in an artist’s success, the researchers argue. </p> <p>“Quality in art is elusive,” they write. “Art appeals to individual senses, pleasures, feelings, and emotions. Recognition depends on variables external to the work itself, like its attribution, the artist’s body of work, the display venue, and the work’s relationship to art history as a whole.</p> <p>“Recognition and value are shaped by a network of experts, curators, collectors, and art historians whose judgments act as gatekeepers for museums, galleries, and auction houses.”</p> <p>They suggest that the so-called gatekeepers of the art world should seek to make it more inclusive.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background: white;">“For example, the art world could benefit from the implementation of lottery systems that offer some underrepresented artists access to high-prestige venues, or blind selection procedures, successfully implemented in classical music, enhancing the inclusion of neglected works and artists,” they write.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background: white;"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background: white;">This article originally appeared on <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/for-artists-success-really-does-depend-on-who-not-what-you-know/">Cosmos Magazine</a>. </p> <p style="margin: 0cm; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; color: #333333;"> </span></p>

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Queen's health fears after "close contact" meeting with Charles

<p>As Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid-19 for a second time, Buckingham Palace have expressed their concerns for the Queen. </p><p>Charles' positive result was announced by Clarence House on Thursday evening, and confirmed the royal was isolating and had cancelled all upcoming events.</p><p>"HRH is deeply disappointed not to be able to attend today's events in Winchester and will look to reschedule his visit as soon as possible," Clarence House said. </p><p>Clarence House went on to confirm that Prince Charles is triple vaccinated, but did not state the severity of his Covid symptoms. </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This morning The Prince of Wales has tested positive for COVID-19 and is now self-isolating.<br /><br />HRH is deeply disappointed not to be able to attend today's events in Winchester and will look to reschedule his visit as soon as possible.</p>— The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (@ClarenceHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse/status/1491743935647166468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2022</a></blockquote><p>As news of his diagnosis arose, Buckingham Palace confirmed that Prince Charles had met with his mother Queen Elizabeth earlier this week. </p><p>The palace said Her Majesty is currently "not displaying any symptoms" but would continue to be monitored.</p><p>While it is unknown exactly when the royal met, Prince Charles performed a round of investitures at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, where the Queen had returned the day before from Sandringham. </p><p>Prince Charles' Covid diagnosis comes just one day after he and Camilla attended a large gathering for the British Museum for the British Asian Trust, where they met with dozens of people including UK Treasury chief Rishi Sunak.</p><p>The Duchess of Cornwall tested negative Thursday morning and went ahead with a number of planned engagements, including a visit to a London community food hub.</p><p>This is the second time Prince Charles has tested positive for Covid, after he contracted the virus in March 2020 after having suffered "mild symptoms".</p><p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p>

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How to keep your contact lenses clean (and what can go wrong if you don’t)

<p>You’re rushing and accidentally drop a contact lens on the bathroom floor. Should you:</p> <p>a) run it under the tap and pop it in?<br />b) spit on it and do the same?<br />c) use the cleaning solution your optometrist insists you use?<br />d) replace it with a new lens?<br />e) do any of the above. It doesn’t really matter.</p> <p>Don’t do what champion boxer and rugby league legend Anthony Mundine did in 2007 and go for (b) spit on your lens. He ended up in hospital with a severe eye infection.</p> <p>If you chose c), it’s true that rubbing your lens with the cleaning solution for 20 seconds will remove some microbes. But you would need to soak the lenses in the solution for a minimum four to six hours to disinfect the lens effectively.</p> <p>The best answer is d) replace with a new lens.</p> <p>Running the lens under the tap, option a), risks your lens and eye becoming infected with a microorganism found in tapwater that could lead you to losing your sight.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Not all eye infections are harmless</strong></p> <p>Aren’t all eye infections conjunctivitis? Like the kids get, bit of redness, icky discharge, drops from chemist, all good after a week?</p> <p>No. If your contact lens mixes with water, you could get a rare but severe infection called acanthamoeba keratitis.</p> <p>Of the 680,000 contact lens wearers in Australia, we estimate 10-20 a year are affected by the condition.</p> <p>Of these, we estimate about two to four people a year will need a transplant at the front of their eye to regain vision; about two to five people will need treatment for more than a year.</p> <p>The condition mostly affects people who wear soft contact lenses, the main type worn in Australia.</p> <p>We found about one-third of bathroom sinks in greater Sydney contain acanthamoeba. We assume it’s present in other parts of the country but no-one else has studied it so don’t know how common it is elsewhere in Australia.</p> <p>Acanthamoeba are free-living protozoa (single-celled microorganisms) that feed on bacteria and cells at the front of the eye, the cornea. This leads to inflammation, disorganisation and destruction of the cornea, blocking vision.</p> <p>The vast majority of acanthamoeba keratitis occurs in contact lens wearers.</p> <p>But you can minimise your chance of getting it. Avoid exposing your lenses to water, including running them under the tap, in the shower or while swimming.</p> <p>In fact, many new packs of contact lenses now carry “no water” warning stickers.</p> <p>Another of our studies shows this particular warning sticker can change behaviour. Contact lens wearers who see this sticker are more likely to avoid water. Their contact lens storage cases were also less likely to be contaminated with bacteria, meaning less chance of bacterial infection and less food for acanthamoeba.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>You can catch other eye infections too</strong></p> <p>While acanthamoeba infections are rare, bacterial eye infections are much more common, estimated to affect around four per 10,000 contact lens wearers a year.</p> <p>About 13% of people whose eyes or contact lenses are infected with bacteria lose substantial vision. That’s equivalent to two lines or more on the vision chart optometrists use.</p> <p>Most people’s infections improve in two to four weeks by using antibiotic drops.</p> <p>However, bacterial infections can be severe and fast-acting. The main bacterium responsible for contact lens related infections is pseudomonas, another water-loving microorganism. It can sometimes burrow through the eye surface in hours.</p> <p>There is no evidence to suggest wearing contact lenses increases your risk of being infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>So how do I avoid all this?</strong></p> <p>These evidence-based tips for healthy contact lens wear will help you avoid infections:</p> <ul> <li>wash and dry your hands before handling lenses or touching your eyes</li> <li>rub, rinse and store contact lenses in fresh disinfecting solution. Topping up old solution with new is an infection risk</li> <li>clean your storage case with the disinfecting solution and leave to air dry upside down between uses</li> <li>don’t use water with lenses or cases</li> <li>avoid wearing your lenses overnight.</li> </ul> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><strong>How do I know if I have a problem?</strong></p> <p>If your eyes sting, are red and watery, blurry or are otherwise uncomfortable while wearing your lenses, remove them.</p> <p>If your symptoms get worse, visit an optometrist. GPs do not usually have equipment with enough magnification to diagnose potentially serious eye infections.</p> <p>Pseudomonas is resistant to the strongest over-the-counter drops, chloramphenicol. But most optometrists can treat eye infections by prescribing eye drops and can refer you to an ophthalmologist (a specialist eye doctor) if needed.</p> <p> </p> <p><em>Written by </em><em>Misha Ketchell</em><em>. This article first appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-your-contact-lenses-clean-and-what-can-go-wrong-if-you-dont-141117">The Conversation</a>.</em></p>

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Coronavirus contact-tracing apps: Why most of us won’t cooperate unless everyone does

<p>As governments look to ease general social-distancing measures and instead use more targeted strategies to stop coronavirus transmission, we face a social dilemma about the limits of cooperative behaviour.</p> <p>Consider the controversy over contact-tracing phone apps, which can help authorities identify people with whom someone diagnosed with COVID-19 has recently come into close contact.</p> <p><a href="https://045.medsci.ox.ac.uk/for-media">Oxford University research</a> suggests such apps could effectively stop the epidemic if 60% of the population use them, though even with lower uptake they still have some value.</p> <p>The Australian government’s goal is for <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/coronavirus-mobile-tracking-app-may-be-mandatory-if-not-enough-people-sign-up-scott-morrison-says">40% of the population</a> to use its app. It is hoping people will do this voluntarily.</p> <p>That’s double the uptake so far achieved in Singapore, which launched its <a href="https://www.tracetogether.gov.sg/">TraceTogether</a> app <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/about-one-million-people-have-downloaded-the-tracetogether-app-but-more-need-to-do-so-for">on March 20</a>. This despite a six-nation survey (including Australia) suggesting Singaporeans are the most relaxed about the <a href="https://www.consultancy.asia/news/3126/singaporean-attitudes-to-personal-covid-data-differ-to-overseas-counterparts">personal privacy concerns</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p>My research into cooperative behaviour suggests there’s no reason to believe voluntary uptake will be higher anywhere else.</p> <p><strong>What is a social dilemma?</strong></p> <p>Economists define a <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ps.31.020180.001125">social dilemma</a> as a situation where individual interests conflict with collective interests. More specifically, it is a situation in which there is a collective benefit from widespread cooperation but individuals have an incentive to “free ride” on the cooperation of others.</p> <p>For example, we would have collectively benefited if everyone had shown self-restraint in buying toilet paper and other items in the early weeks of the crisis. But selfish behaviour by some created a crisis for everybody else.</p> <p>Economists, political scientists and evolutionary biologists have used social dilemma paradigms for more than half a century to study the evolution of cooperation in societies.</p> <p>One of the most influential contributions to the field was a 1981 paper, <a href="https://ee.stanford.edu/%7Ehellman/Breakthrough/book/pdfs/axelrod.pdf">The Evolution of Cooperation</a>, by political scientist Robert Axelrod and evolutionary biologist William Hamilton. The paper’s key point is this: cooperation depends not on altruism but reciprocity.</p> <p><strong>Most cooperation is conditional</strong></p> <p>My <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165176518302453">research</a> (with behavioural economist Christian Thöni of the University of Lausanne) confirms this.</p> <p>Based on reviewing 17 social dilemma studies involving more than 7,000 individuals, we estimate no more than 3% of the population can be relied on to act cooperatively out of altruism – independent of what others do.</p> <p>About 20% can be expected to act selfishly (i.e. free ride).</p> <p>The majority – about 60% – are “conditional cooperators”. They cooperate if they believe others will cooperate.</p> <p>Another 10% are so-called “triangle cooperators”. They behave similarly to conditional cooperators, but only to the point where they believe enough people are cooperating. They then reduce their cooperation.</p> <p>The remainder – about 7% – behave unpredictably.</p> <hr /> <p><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/329637/original/file-20200422-82672-vo1c6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="" /> <span class="caption">This infographic illustrates the four cooperation types and levels of cooperation over time. Altruistiic cooperation does not depend on others. Conditional cooperation depends on others cooperating. Triangle cooperation is similar to conditional cooperation to a point, then falls away. Free-riding behaviour is always uncooperative and can only be modified by the fear of punishment.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stefan Volk</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></p> <hr /> <p><strong>The need for punishment</strong></p> <p>The most important group to consider in social dilemma situations is, of course, the majority.</p> <p>Conditional cooperators are very sensitive to what they believe others will do. They will only pay taxes, save water, donate to charities or protect the environment if they believe most others are doing the same.</p> <p>To maintain their cooperation, therefore, it is essential to uphold their beliefs in equality and egalitarianism, where everyone does their part, nobody gets preferential treatment, and nobody gets away with free riding.</p> <p>Research by Swiss economists Ernst Fehr and Urs Fischbacher has found just a small minority of free riders is sufficient to cause a <a href="http://eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Dornhaus/courses/materials/papers/Fehr%20Fischbacher%20human%20altruism.pdf">breakdown of cooperation</a> over time.</p> <p>Conditional cooperators will reduce their own cooperation as soon as they realise one or a few others are not complying with the collectively agreed rules. This in turn causes others to reduce their cooperation. It creates a downward spiral.</p> <p>What stops this happening more is that many conditional cooperators will punish free riders, even at their own expense.</p> <p>Fehr and Fischbacher <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513804000054">demonstrated this</a> through experiments involving “ultimatum games”.</p> <p>They observed games in which one person got to propose how to split a pot of money between two players. If the other player rejected the split, neither got money.</p> <p>In another scenario, the allocator was free to make the split however they liked. But a third party unaffected by the split could spend money from their own allocated pot to deny the allocator income. In 55% of cases, third parties were prepared to spend money to punish allocators who didn’t split the money fairly. Fehr and Fischbacher called this “altruistic punishment”.</p> <p>Their results also showed anticipation of punishment deterred non-cooperative behaviour by free riders and reassured conditional cooperators’ beliefs in maintaining their commitment to collective cooperation.</p> <p><strong>Two-factor validation</strong></p> <p>The evidence from behavioural economics research indicates two mechanisms are essential to ensure cooperative behaviour on COVID-19 measures.</p> <p> </p> <p>First, the majority of us must be reassured others are doing the right thing. This involves showcasing exemplary acts of cooperation and granting no preferential treatment to any kind of interest group.</p> <p>Second, we must be assured others aren’t getting away with uncooperative behaviour. In other words, free riding must be swiftly and visible punished.</p> <p>Without these conditions, an expectation of widespread cooperative behaviour is merely a hope.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135959/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stefan-volk-883484">Stefan Volk</a>, Associate Professor and Co-Director Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-sydney-841">University of Sydney</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-contact-tracing-apps-most-of-us-wont-cooperate-unless-everyone-does-135959">original article</a>.</em></p>

Retirement Income

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Helena Bonham Carter uses psychic to contact Princess Margaret for acting tips from beyond the grave

<p>Actress Helena Bonham Carter has revealed that she’s reached out to Princess Margaret via a psychic to ask for her permission to play her in Netflix’s show<span> </span><em>The Crown</em>.</p> <p>Princess Margaret passed away at the age of 71 back in 2002, so Bonham Carter thought that it would only be right to reach out and get permission before she went forth playing the lady herself.</p> <p>“She said, apparently, she was glad it was me,” Bonham Carter, 53, revealed at <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/helena-bonham-carter-tells-cheltenham-3398590" target="_blank">a sold-out session at the Cheltenham Literary Festival</a> on October 5.</p> <p>“When you play someone real, you really want their blessing because you do have a responsibility.</p> <p>“I asked her, ‘Are you OK with me playing you?’ And she said, ‘You’re better than the other actress that they were thinking of.’</p> <p>“That made me think maybe she is here because it’s a really classic Margaret thing to say – she is really good at complimenting you and putting you down at the same time.”</p> <p>Reaching out to someone from beyond the grave is nothing new for Bonham Carter as she always talks to a psychic when playing a real person who has passed away.</p> <p>The Queen’s younger sister also included some rules for Bonham Carter to follow.</p> <p>She said, “You’re going to have to brush up and be more groomed and neater.”</p> <p>Bonham Carter has been excited to play the role for a while, as Princess Margaret is known in a “one dimensional” way by the public.</p> <p>“Everyone has such a particular idea of Margaret. It’s very daunting and I don’t really look like her,” she told <em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/helena-bonham-carter-known-vulnerable-tricky-combination/" target="_blank">The Telegraph</a> </em>in December 2018.</p> <p>“But like the Queen, no one really knows what they’re like privately, so you can make your own choices.”</p> <p>She also confirmed that she researched for the role by talking to people who knew her closely, including relatives and three former ladies-in-waiting.</p> <p>“They really loved her, and when you go to the inner circle of people … they were very happy to talk about her because they miss her,” she said.</p> <p>“I felt very lucky to suddenly be the receptacle of all these stories. I think, for a lot of the friends, they are so tired with her being portrayed in a one-dimensional, very bitchy understanding of her.”</p>

TV

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When eye contact indicates something much darker

<p>We usually interpret someone looking us straight in the eye during an interaction as a sign of trustworthiness. In fact it can be rather unsettling when someone avoids eye contact. This is at least the case in the Western world, where we use eye contact as a marker of honesty and straightforwardness – taking it as a positive attribute, particularly in those we do business with.</p> <p>But research is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10417940601000576">increasingly challenging</a> this standard view. Our study, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.2336">published in the European Journal of Social Psychology</a>, shows quite the opposite: in a competitive environment where a negotiation is taking place, looking at another person directly in the eye can be a sign of competition and malevolence, rather than benevolence.</p> <p>Across three experiments, we found that looking someone directly in the eye predicted competitive behaviour – and even deceit. In the first experiment, we used an eye tracker to follow 75 people’s retinas while they had to split money with another person. We found that looking at their opponent directly in the eye predicted making a lower first offer toward that person.</p> <p>In another experiment, we assigned 53 people to look at either their opponent’s eyes or other parts of their face. People assigned to the former condition made lower first offers to their opponents in a simulated job contract negotiation than those assigned to the latter.</p> <p><strong>Split or steal</strong></p> <p>Perhaps most interestingly, we also combed through the data of 99 episodes of <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186336/">Golden Balls</a>, a UK game show that ran from 2007-9. The show is structured to allow two players to make it to a final round – accumulating a jackpot along the way. In this final round, the players must decide what to do with this valuable pot of money. In front of each player are two balls, one marked “steal” and the other marked “split”.</p> <p>The two players engage in a dialogue about which ball they will choose. If both players choose to “split”, they get to split the jackpot. And if both players choose “steal”, neither gets anything. But if Player A chooses “split” and Player B chooses “steal”, Player A gets nothing and Player B gets the entire jackpot (or vice versa). That means each player’s goal is to convince the other to choose the “split” ball, with almost all players signalling to their opponent that this is the choice they will make.</p> <p>We watched and coded all the videotapes for the amount of direct eye contact that each player gave to another during this final conversation and then examined if this number could predict players’ ball choice. In fact it did – but in the opposite direction than most would think. Greater eye contact was linked to a player being more likely to choose the steal rather than the split ball – even when they explicitly stated otherwise.</p> <p>The direct eye contact with the other player was measured in terms of the number of times during the interaction that a contestant had direct gaze with the other player.</p> <p><strong>Real life implications</strong></p> <p>While folk wisdom tells us eye contact is a sign of honesty and trustworthiness, these findings were not a surprise to my research team and me. Animals have direct eye contact not before engaging in benevolent behaviours, but rather immediately before an attack – eye contact is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763400000257">sign of challenge and threat</a> from another. We humans seem to be carrying on this tradition by (subconsciously) looking our opponent directly in the eye before we “attack”.</p> <p>What does this mean for the work place? In a competitive business environment, when taking part in negotiations or a business deal for example, be aware that people who look you directly in the eye may not be as friendly as you think. And if you want to come across as honest and trustworthy – especially in more international settings – direct eye contact may indicate the opposite. In many Asian cultures, for example, looking a person of higher status in the eye <a href="http://www.asiamarketingmanagement.com/howtobehaveinchina.html">is a sign of disrespect</a>, while looking away signals deference.</p> <p>All our experiments took place in a competitive environment – negotiations or a high-stakes game show – and must be understood within this context. This means they most likely don’t apply to social environments, such as spending time with friends, family or loved ones. In these cases, direct eye contact, often referred to as a “gaze”, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201404/5-secret-powers-eye-contact">can still be a sign of intimacy</a> and benevolence.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/113787/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em>Written by <span>Jennifer Jordan, Professor of Leadership &amp; Organizational Behavior, IMD Business School</span>. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/think-direct-eye-contact-makes-someone-trustworthy-it-can-be-a-sign-of-something-much-darker-113787"><em>The Conversation</em></a><em>. </em></p>

Mind

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The reason why eye contact is so powerful

<p><span>The adage “eyes are the windows to the soul” is not a mere cliché. As one of the most prominent forms of nonverbal communication, eye contact can have significant influence on the way we socialise and process information.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Extra brain power</span></strong></p> <p><span>Have you ever met the gaze of a dog or a monkey? You may get the impression that they are a smart, conscious being that is capable of judging you. This may not be far off – direct gaze indicates “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167216669124">sophisticated human-like minds</a>” which are capable of social interaction, making us more aware of the other’s agency. </span></p> <p><span>When we lock gazes with someone, our brain immediately engages in a series of activities to take in the fact that we are dealing with the mind of the person who is looking at us. These processes turn out to draw on the same mental resources we use for complex tasks, making it more difficult to perform cognitive functions – such as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-016-1097-3">memorising facts</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25071645">imagining visuals</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027709002984#fig1">focusing on relevant information</a> – at the same time. </span></p> <p><span>A <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27750156">2016 Japanese study</a> found that people performed worse in a verbal word test when they were instructed to look into another person’s eyes on a screen. This shows how maintaining eye contact can drain our mental bandwidth.</span></p> <p><strong><span>Bonding and social cues</span></strong></p> <p><span>Eye contact also has significant impacts on how we perceive each other. We assume people who make eye contact with us to be more <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/11/28/the-psychology-of-eye-contact-digested/">sociable</a>, <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2014/07/22/the-psychology-of-first-impressions-digested/">intelligent</a>, trustworthy, and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886996001481">conscientious</a>. We also tend to believe these people to have more self-control and be <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00221309.2018.1469465">more similar to us</a> in terms of personality and appearance.</span></p> <p><span>However, locking eyes should also be done in moderation. A British <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/07/07/psychologists-have-identified-the-length-of-eye-contact-that-people-find-most-comfortable/">study</a> discovered that people on average are most comfortable with eye contact that lasts for three seconds.</span></p> <p><span>Because of this, it’s no wonder that many people think of eye contact as a form of intimacy. As windows to our souls, the eyes allow us to get a glimpse into other people’s minds – but it also gives away what’s inside of ours. </span></p>

Mind

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Who to contact when something goes wrong on holidays

<p>When holiday plans go astray, it’s important you know who to contact. The problem is this sometimes isn’t clear, especially in the event of an emergency.</p> <p>We’re going to take a run through a series of holiday problems, and who to contact in the event that you have to face them. By knowing your best port of call you’re in the best position to ensure it’s a minor blip on your holiday radar, rather than a big issue.</p> <p><strong>1. If it’s a health concern</strong></p> <p>Well, a lot depends on the severity of the concern, but if you require medical assistance you must contact your travel insurance provider as you may have to foot the bill up front. If you haven’t arranged travel insurance, you may have to contact your financial institution or a family member to make arrangements to cover the medical fees.</p> <p><strong>2. If it’s a monetary concern</strong></p> <p>If you’re short (or running out) of funds overseas it’s generally recommended that you contact a friend or family member to make arrangements for completing your travel plans. That being said, if the issue is severe or due to something out of your hands like theft, it’s recommended that you contact the Australian Government’s emergency consular service.</p> <p>You can all them from overseas on this +61 2 6261 3305.</p> <p><strong>3. If it’s a concern regarding a booking or refunds</strong></p> <p>Generally with issues of this nature you’re best taking it up with the company that issued the goods or services in contention, they can sometimes be uncooperative. If the issue escalates, you may have to contact the local law enforcement agencies.</p> <p><strong>4. If it’s a safety concern</strong></p> <p>If you’re concerned for your safety when abroad, it’s recommended you contact the Australian Government’s emergency consular service mentioned above. It’s also a good idea to regularly check the government’s <a href="http://smartraveller.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Smart Traveller</span></strong></a> resource, for regular updates regarding the safety of the place you’re visiting (or planning to visit next).</p> <p>Have you ever been in a spot of bother while travelling overseas? What measures (if any) did you take to cope and how’d you get out of it?</p> <p>Share your story in the comments.</p> <p><em><strong>Have you arranged your travel insurance yet? Tailor your cover to your needs and save money by not paying for things you don’t need. <a href="https://elevate.agatravelinsurance.com.au/oversixty?utm_source=over60&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_content=link1&amp;utm_campaign=travel-insurance" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">To arrange a quote, click here.</span></a> For more information about Over60 Travel Insurance, call 1800 622 966.</strong></em></p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/06/passengers-share-their-worst-ever-travel-experiences/"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong>Passengers share their worst ever travel experiences</strong></em></span></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/06/5-fake-tourist-attractions-that-have-everyone-fooled/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">5 fake tourist attractions that have everyone fooled</span></em></strong></a></p> <p><a href="/travel/travel-tips/2016/06/23-items-you-must-have-in-your-carry-on-luggage/"><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;">23 items you must have in your carry-on luggage</span></em></strong></a></p>

Travel Insurance

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I contacted my dead husband through a medium

<p><em><strong>Anne Roddick, 76, was sceptical at first, but when she sought out her first ever medium, she was surprised to find herself speaking to her husband, who had passed away a year earlier.</strong></em></p> <p>Bill, my husband of 50 years passed on 20th June, 2011, after years of ill health. I, of course, felt the loneliness terrible. About 10 months after his death I started getting a message, saying “I want to talk”, coming out of sleep. This lasted every morning for three weeks until I got angry and decided to put an end to this nonsense and seek my first ever medium and my first contact with that side of life.</p> <p>I found what I was looking for in a very nice older lady and had my first ever reading. I went into it convinced I was wasting my time and money, and sure nothing would happen. But in the medium’s room, my husband was waiting with my dad, who had passed many years ago. They both started to talk, taking in turns like musical chairs. I borrowed a piece of paper and pen from the medium and started to quickly jot down all I could.</p> <p>Both men talked about my life in the UK, Africa, and Germany, which was years before we had immigrated to Australia. I was starting to believe. How could an Australian medium who had never been to UK ever know about my life? As I said I had no contact with that side of life before, and was not even sure if I believed in that sort of thing! So I was very curious and asked for a second sitting.</p> <p>This was the start of weekly sittings, and as I had a lot of experience with video cameras and making DVDs so I started filming our readings and putting them on DVDs to enable me to transcribe word for word our conversations.</p> <p>On the 5th April 2016 we celebrated our fourth anniversary – four years of talking and healing each other. We now share what we do in our lives, we laugh and tease each other and our readings are as important to him as they are to me. Although a one hour reading now takes me three to four days each week to transcribe (I have well over 3,000 pages of his talking), this has been the most wonderful and happy experience for me. My husband has also brought all my family through, so it’s like a talking family tree and wonderful to know they are all well and working very hard at their duties. The icing on the cake was when he brought through my twin sister, who passed when we were 18 months old in Scotland. She told me, “Apart from Bill when you return home I will be waiting for you and we will be together again.”</p> <p>I know there are many people who have a fear of the afterlife, and so many spend their years in grief. I hope the story of Bill and my healing, our grief will give help and hope to others. I am 76 years old now and hope my love affair with my husband continues for always.</p> <p>Have you made contact with the other side before? Share your experience in the comments below.</p> <p><em><strong>If you have a story to share please get in touch at <a href="mailto:melody@oversixty.com.au">melody@oversixty.com.au</a></strong></em></p> <p><strong>Related links: </strong></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/05/gary-chapmans-five-love-languages/"><em>5 ways giving love is the key to relationship success</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/04/the-reason-we-close-our-eyes-when-we-kiss/"><em>The reason we close our eyes when we kiss</em></a></strong></span></p> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/relationships/2016/04/surprising-reason-you-get-sick-at-same-as-your-partner/"><em>Surprising reason you get sick at same as your partner</em></a></strong></span></p>

Relationships

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Why you need transition lenses

<p>If you’re looking to update your glasses, you might want to consider the technology of transition lenses: lenses that adjust to the indoor and outdoor lighting for you so you don’t have to worry about sunglasses.</p> <p>We spoke to Specsavers’ Ophthalmic Lens Product Manager, Silvia Zutavern, to find out everything you need to know about transition lenses before you make your purchase.</p> <p>So, how do they work? “[Transition lenses] darken automatically when exposed to sunlight, then fade back when you return indoors. The lenses darken with the presence of UV light. They are designed to darken to just the right level depending on the available light,” Zutavern says.</p> <p>When it comes to transition lenses, the technology has both its pros and cons. On the positive side, “One pair of glasses can fill the function of both clear prescription glasses and prescription sunglasses and they provide eyes with full UV protection in any state,” says Zutavern. Transition glasses are also a great option for people of all ages, including the grandkids. “They offer convenience as you don't need to carry a pair of prescription sunglasses with you everywhere you go. They are also great and quite practical for children as they do not have to worry about a second pair that could be lost, and they will always have their eyes protected from UV rays.”</p> <p>However, transition lenses might not be the best option for those who seek to wear them while driving. “The lenses need UV light to activate, so the lenses tend not to react as quickly inside a car as they do in normal conditions. This is because the windscreen blocks the UV light needed to help the lens react. At night or in poor visibility, you must not wear tinted glasses when driving,” Zutavern explains.</p> <p>“If one of the intended use of the glasses is for driving, then a second pair in the form of sunglasses is recommended.”</p>

Eye Care

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Unhygienic things contacts wearers are guilty of

<p>Contacts are an amazing innovation: they correct your vision, allowing you to see clearly, without obstructing your features and view like glasses can. But if you don’t adhere to proper contact care, you could be putting your eyes at serious risk.</p><p>According to a study performed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), risky contact behaviour is alarmingly common.</p><p>The report studied 1,000 contact users, and found that of that many, 99 per cent of wearers performed at least one if not more risky behaviour.</p><p>According to their findings, 82 per cent copped to keeping their contacts in their cases longer than recommended by their doctors. This can lead to an out-growth of bacteria.</p><p>Fifty-five per cent of wearers admitted that rather than replacing existing contact solution with new solution, they simply added more, which can have similar negative effects.</p><p>Eighty per cent of contact wearers showered in their contacts, and 60 per cent even swam in them, both of which is risky behaviour for your vision.</p><p>The big one? 50 per cent of contact wearers admitted to sleeping with their contacts in, which if you’ve ever done it, you know is one of the worst things you can do as a wearer of contacts.</p><p>When you don’t take the time to properly care for your contacts, you put yourself at the risk of eye infection, some of which can even cause blindness. Though one third of those studied by the CDC have been to the eye doctor for an eye condition resulting from improper contact hygiene, this can easily be avoided by not cutting corners when it comes to your eye health.</p><p>Because when it comes to your vision, wouldn’t you rather save your eyesight than save time?</p><p><strong>Related links:&nbsp;</strong></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/07/common-sight-problems/">3 of the most common threats to your sight</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/08/looking-after-your-glasses/">Dos and don’ts for looking after your glasses</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/08/why-wear-computer-glasses/">Why you should consider wearing computer glasses</a></strong></em></span></p>

Eye Care

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Unhygienic things contacts wearers are guilty of

<p>Contacts are an amazing innovation: they correct your vision, allowing you to see clearly, without obstructing your features and view like glasses can. But if you don’t adhere to proper contact care, you could be putting your eyes at serious risk.</p><p>According to a study performed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), risky contact behaviour is alarmingly common.</p><p>The report studied 1,000 contact users, and found that of that many, 99 per cent of wearers performed at least one if not more risky behaviour.</p><p>According to their findings, 82 per cent copped to keeping their contacts in their cases longer than recommended by their doctors. This can lead to an out-growth of bacteria.</p><p>Fifty-five per cent of wearers admitted that rather than replacing existing contact solution with new solution, they simply added more, which can have similar negative effects.</p><p>Eighty per cent of contact wearers showered in their contacts, and 60 per cent even swam in them, both of which is risky behaviour for your vision.</p><p>The big one? 50 per cent of contact wearers admitted to sleeping with their contacts in, which if you’ve ever done it, you know is one of the worst things you can do as a wearer of contacts.</p><p>When you don’t take the time to properly care for your contacts, you put yourself at the risk of eye infection, some of which can even cause blindness. Though one third of those studied by the CDC have been to the eye doctor for an eye condition resulting from improper contact hygiene, this can easily be avoided by not cutting corners when it comes to your eye health.</p><p>Because when it comes to your vision, wouldn’t you rather save your eyesight than save time?</p><p><strong>Related links:&nbsp;</strong></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/07/common-sight-problems/">3 of the most common threats to your sight</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/08/looking-after-your-glasses/">Dos and don’ts for looking after your glasses</a></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><em><strong><a href="/health/eye-care/2015/08/why-wear-computer-glasses/">Why you should consider wearing computer glasses</a></strong></em></span></p>

Eye Care

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6 myths about contact lenses debunked

<p>Heard all sort of things about contact lenses? Let us help you separate fact from fiction.</p> <p><strong>“A contact lens will get lost behind my eyes.”</strong></p> <p>This is impossible – the conjunctiva, a thin membrane, covers the white of the eyes and connects to the inside of the eyelid so a contact lens can never get lost behind the eye.</p> <p><strong>“Contact lenses are uncomfortable.”</strong></p> <p>There is a period of adjustment for some, but it won’t take long for you to get the hang of wearing contacts. Soon you won’t even notice you’re wearing contacts. If you do experience discomfort, there are a number of different types of lenses and remedies that can help so always speak to your eye care professional if you are experiencing problems.</p> <p><strong>“It’s too much of a hassle to take care of contact lenses.”</strong></p> <p>You can clean and disinfect your lenses simple using a one-bottle multi-purpose solution. Your eye care doctor will take your through the steps – it’s really quite easy once you know it. Or you can eliminate the need to care for lenses altogether by wearing daily disposable contacts.</p> <p><strong>“Wearing contact lenses causes eye problems.”</strong></p> <p>While it’s true that wearing contact lenses can increase your risk of certain eye problems, if you follow all your optometrists care instructions then wearing contacts is perfectly safe.</p> <p><strong>“I can’t wear contact lenses.”</strong></p> <p>There have been great advances in contact lens technology so most people can wear contacts nowadays. For people with presbyopia, there’s bifocal contact lens and people who have astigmatism can wear toric soft lenses. Ask your optometrist for the range of options.</p> <p><strong>“I’m too old to wear contact lenses.”</strong></p> <p>There are no age limits when it comes to contact lenses! There are now plenty of lens options including bifocal or varifocal lenses and those specially designed for dry eyes.</p>

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Amateur radio user makes contact with the International Space Station

<p>An amateur radio enthusiast recently made contact with the ISS in space from his garden shed.</p> <p>Adrian Lane managed to reach the International Space Station using a radio as they passed over his property in Gloucestershire.</p> <p>For over a month, Lane has been attempting to contact ISS, and was surprised to finally hear a reply.</p> <p>“They came back to me and said, ‘Receiving you — welcome aboard the International Space Station’,” Lane told BBC.</p> <p>“I just sat back and waited until the main stream calling had died down a little bit and gave them a call and they came back to me,” he said.</p> <p>“I asked him what the stars looked like from up there and he came back to me and said with no atmosphere up here the stars are really bright.</p> <p>“But he told me when you look down on earth it’s something else — it’s just a mass of colour where everything else up here is black.”</p> <p>“It’s quite an achievement, especially when you consider he’s flying over the top of me at 17,500mph (28,000km/h),” he said.</p> <p>Having now succeeded in making contact once, Lane isn’t ready to give up on future ISS contact.</p> <p>“I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again, but (I) will still be trying.”</p> <p><strong>Related links:</strong></p> <p><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/news/news/2015/08/jean-veloz-dance/">This 90-year-old lady has dance skills like you’ve never seen</a></span></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/news/news/2015/08/new-photos-charles-dianas-wedding/">Never-before-seen pictures from Charles and Diana's wedding</a></span></em></strong></p> <p><strong><em><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="/news/news/2015/08/animals-ice-photos/">Adorable animals use ice to cool off</a></span></em></strong></p>

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