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Strange, but true. A recent study led by Shevach Friedler published in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility showed that laughter can promote pregnancy:
To test the idea, the research team had a medical clown visit their fertility clinic periodically over one year. Of the 219 women in the study, half underwent embryo transfer on a day the clown was at the clinic.
During recovery from the procedure, each woman had a 15-minute visit from the clown, who performed a specific routine created by Friedler – who has studied movement and mime – and a colleague.
The researchers found that, compared to women who came to the clinic on a "non-clown" day, those who’d had a laugh were more than twice as likely to become pregnant, when other factors such as age, type of infertility and the number of embryos transferred, were taken into account.
Forget DNA! Scientists have re-traced our evolutionary tree and confirmed human’s relationship to fellow apes through laughter.
Who says you can’t learn anything by tickling chimps?
To investigate that, Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in England and colleagues carried out a detailed analysis of the sounds evoked by tickling three human babies and 21 orangutans, gorillas, chimps and bonobos.
After measuring 11 traits in the sound from each species, they mapped out how these sounds appeared to be related to each other. The result looked like a family tree. Significantly, that tree matched the way the species themselves are related, the scientists reported online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
They also concluded that while human laughter sounds much different from the ape versions, its distinctive features could well have arisen from shared ancestral traits.
After measuring 11 traits in the sound from each species, they mapped out how these sounds appeared to be related to each other. The result looked like a family tree. Significantly, that tree matched the way the species themselves are related, the scientists reported online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.
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The World Laughter Pledge is a pledge to get everyone in the world to laugh at 9am, every Saturday, in their respective timezones.
It was started on January 24th by Robin Graham (left) in an attempt to make the world a little happier – one laugh at a time. You can check out the official World Laughter Pledge here.
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