Gene that controls sleep found at last!

Everyone knows someone that can get as little as 4 or 5 hours of sleep and be more energized than you would be with 8. Why is it that they can do that and not us? A group of German scientists might have the answer to our question. Named ABCC9, this gene seems to allow you to sleep for significantly shorter periods of time and be just as energized.

To prove that this gene is what differs from a short energizing sleep and a long tedious one, the scientists conducted an experiment on more than 4,000 people that lived across seven European countries. Part of the experiment was filling out a questionnaire about the sleeping habits the people had. The other part? Seeing if they had the correct version of gene ABCC9.

Lo and behold, the people with two copies of the "less sleep" version of ABCC9 slept for a shorter period of time, while people with two copies of the "more sleep" version of ABCC9 slept for much longer.

To test the results they got form the questionnaire, they modified the gene in fruit flies with the help of scientists from the Leichester University in England. The flies also had different sleep cycles now with their new ABCC9 genes, and Till Roenneberg said - one of the study's authors - said that this is means that the same mechanism might work in a wide variety of species. 

Why do we have wisdom teeth?

Why do we have wisdom teeth has been a question that I've personally asked myself many times and always wanted a good answer to the question. It finally seems like that answer has come, and it might surprise you.

A new study that was published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences basically says that our wisdom teeth are there because of our ancestors diets. Hunter-gatherers had a longer, narrower jaw-bone, which in turn allowed for another set of molars, the wisdom teeth for better chewing of the relatively hard foods that they were eating.

On the other side, there were those who got their food from agriculture and the food was often cooked and much softer. This lead to a smaller jaw-bone and no space for that extra set of molars that hunter-gatherers had. This can also explain dental crowding and teeth misalignment. Now that my question has finally been answered, all I need to know is why they call them wisdom teeth.