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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1998)
The Battalion Bir —^ ^ S O ■ ^ Infc1 ■ ■■■is Monday • February; Dating success may relate to symmetry not savvy Brie: By Brian Vastag Special to The Battalion In a laboratory version of “The Dating Game,” Dr. Jeffry Simpson is finding that how heterosexual men go after a date depends on how symmetrical they are. “The more symmetrical men are more aggressive, bolder,” Simpson, a psychology professor at Texas A&M University, said. “They will tell the woman that they are the right man to date, and even put down their competitor.” Conversely, men who have less symmetry are “more accommo dating with the woman. “They tend to use tactics like looking for common interests. They aren’t such hard sells.” Simpson starts each round of the dating lab test by measuring the right-left symmetry of a group of men. Using ankle and knuckle width, finger length, and even earlobe size, he comes up with a single “symme try index” for each subject. Then he pits a man with a high index against one with a low index. The unwitting subjects think they are competing for a real date with an attractive woman. Simp son said this ensures that their real dating styles emerge. Since Simpson has only run the test with heterosexual men, it is unknown if other men and women have similar symmetry-dating tac tics differences. So why does symmetry matter? “The symmetrical men are more confident. They have had more dating success and report having had more sexual partners,” Wolves run wild with remarkable recovery IRON RIVER, Mich. (AP) — For centuries the gray wolf thrived in the forests of the Upper Great Lakes, revered by aboriginal tribes as spiritual kin. Then came European settlers, whose cultural heritage abounded with fairy tales depicting wolves as evil. Enraged by attacks on livestock, encouraged by government boun ties, they nearly drove the wolf to extinction. By 1973, only six were believed to remain in Michigan’s north woods. Now the wolf is making what biologists consider a remarkably strong recovery, thanks to migra tion and strict protection laws. Equally pleasing to scientists, many residents are welcoming the creature back to an area where once it was routinely shot on sight. “It’s really an incredible story,” said Jim Hammill, wildlife biolo gist with the Michigan Depart ment of Natural Resources. “They were almost hunted and hounded out of existence, and now they’ve come back of their own accord. And people are allowing them to survive.” A 1990 survey and public meet ings three years later showed over whelming support for the return of the gray wolf, also known as the Eastern timber wolf, the depart ment says. Some farmers worry that wolves will pursue calves and lambs if cold winters decimate the population of their favorite prey — whitetail deer. “If they start harming my ani mals, I intend to do something about it whether I have the DNR’s permission or not,” Chippewa County cattle farmer Bruce Berkompas said. Aware of such concerns, DNR director K.L. Cool in December ap proved a wolf recovery plan devel oped by a team of state and feder al wildlife officials. Among other things, it promises quick investi gations of suspected livestock kills. Simpson said. Symmetrical men may be more confident and have more dating u The symmetrical men are more confident.” Dr. Jeffry Simpson psychology professor success because they are per ceived as more attractive. Re search by University of New Mexi co psychologist Steve Gangestad and others supports this idea. According to Gangestad’s stud ies, symmetrical people are per ceived as more attractive than their less symmetrical counter parts. There are two possible reasons for this, Gangestad said. One is that symmetrical objects including faces, take less time and effort to perceive. So looking at a symmetrical face really is easier on the eyes. Or at least the brain. The other possible explanation has evolutionary roots. “In the ancestral world, where disease killed 30-50 percent of people, it was important to mate with someone who was resistant to disease," Gangestad said. Since healthier people are more symmetrical than those with a his tory of disease, Gangestad said, finding a symmetrical mate meant having healthier children. Healthier children meant a bet ter chance for survival of the species. Survival of the species is the goal of evolution. So the preference for symmetry — which meant healthier children and a better chance for survival — may have been hard-wired into people over thousands of generations. Gangestad said that more re search is needed before either the ory becomes accepted. As for Simpson’s research, do not start measuring yourself yet, men: it’s the relative differences in symmetry that count. You would have to compare yourself to a lot of men who are about the same age to know where you fall on the symmetry-dating tactics scale. Man uncovers mammoth jaw LAKE JACKSON (AP)—Amateur artifact hunter Bri an Miles says he watches the ground whenever he walks anywhere. You never know when you will find an arrowhead or an ancient sea shell... Or the jawbone of a 10,000-year-old woolly mammoth. That was the fossilized jackpot that Miles, 36, and his dad stumbled upon during a hunt near Bay City last Saturday. Remains of woolly mammoths — giant prehistoric mammals the size of elephants that roamed the earth after the dinosaurs — are not uncommon in south eastern Texas, said John Temple, director of volunteers at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. “You don’t find them every day, but you do find diem,” Temple said. But the jawbone represents "the find of a life time” for Miles, whose eyes still glow like a lottery winner’s as he describes himself and his father spotting artifact as it lay in a muddy creekbed, just uncovered by recent rains. “I guess I’d always dreamed of finding a tooth with some bone around it,” Miles said. He added, “Some thing so large and intact, it’s not something you find every day.” Miles’ father, Brad, said he and his son spent two hours digging up the dirt around the jawbone. They used a garden trowel and a pocket knife because they had not expected to find something so large, he added. Brad Miles also said that his son — for whom arti fact hunting has been somewhere between a hobby and an addiction since age 9 — “had to dig for a while and then stand off and look at it.” When they finally got it out, they broke the jaw in half so they could lug the 80-90 pounds of wet, muddy, deteriorating bone back to the car, which was parked a mile and a half away. “As you picked it up, you could feel the bones were soft and eroding away,” Brad Miles said. His son added, “It was like carrying a baby'.” A few years back, Brian Miles also found several pieces of fossilized bone and pieced them into a woolly mammoth’s leg bone. He said he got inter ested in artifacts as a kid when he began collecting arrowheads. He and his father have become so dedicated, in fact, that they braved mud and snakes on Saturday to see what washed up after the rains. Ren Miles, Brian Miles’ wife, said she understands her husband’s pastime, though she doesn’t necessarily share it. “1 don’t like to sit out there for too long, and I don’t like the snakes,” she said. “ But it is really neat when you find things.” Brian Miles explained the attraction this way — “You're finding something that’s been there for thousands of years that’s never been touched,” he said. “You’re seeing it for the first time and it’s in perfect condition. You sit there and wonder, what was this guy like?” Scientists! ‘hairless’gi WASHINGTON (AP- have discovered a ger?| ■« a rare and extreme ftr a finding they say could: to better remedies t | hereditary baldness. Researchers founc:^ appropriately named‘te studying a Pakistanifi j for generations by an , e of alopecia universal^.® born without eyelashe$;* 0 quickly lose the 1 j head and never growaifg It’s a far cry from - :: qi mon male pattern sends millions of growth drugs or toupee: Because the hairie: lates the same hairfo. pears to switch on OL^ genes, it provides a vrs derstanding hair gror lead researcher Angee! Columbia Universitysa: Botanists fi journey foi WASHINGTON (AP - have successfully enty hunt for the gene that in plants, a findingtha: applications rangingfrrr manufacturing to bette: Cellulose is the plant cells and the» abundant biopolymer vast: Cellulose is an etary fiber; it helps or withstand wear andte: the very thin paper of: strong enough for heav But for all the indu; cellulose, nobody kner make it. Now, Richard Wife leagues at Australian’ versity report in Frida) the journal Science:' called RSW1 synthes: zyme responsible forK duction. Do you have a FIRE in your BELLY for Texas A&M? Do 'you love the Howdy tradition? Don’t have time for long meetings? HOWDY WEEK WANTS YOU Voluteer a little time during Howdy Week and have lots of fun! Applications available in Koldus, due Wed. Feb 4 Call Poop at 694'6503 for more information SAY HOWDY! Aggie Muster ‘98 Family Host Informational Come help share the beauty of the Aggie Spirit and the emotion of Aggie Muster by promoting Muster awareness and by hosting a Muster family on April 21st. Please join us at either informational meeting in Room 292A of the Memorial Student Center. Tuesday February 3rd, from 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. or Wednesday February 4th, from 5:30 - 6:45 p.m. In order to receive an application, you MUST attend either informational. Doors will close at 5:35 p.m. No exceptions will be made at that time. If you foresee a problem, please contact Lindsay Harris or Rick Hall at the Muster desk, 862-1191, by February 4. Mays College of Business Spring Career Fair Feb. 16-19 Informational Meeting You must attend one of the two meetings: Tuesday, Feb. 3 7:00-7:30 p.m. Wehner 159 Wednesday, Feb.4 8:00-8:30 p.m. Wehner 118 Career Fair Website: http:!Iwehner.tamu.edulbsc ION Tiffany Inbody, Editor in Chief Helen Clancy, News Editor Brad Graeber, Visual Arts Editor Robert Smith, City Editor Matt Weber, Night News Editor Jeremy Furtick, Sports Editor James Francis, Aggielifs Mandy Cater, Opinion Ec Ryan Rogers, Photo EC Chris Huffines, Radio Pro- Sarah Goldston, Radio Pit Dusty Moer, Web Editor Staff Members City- Colleen Kavanagh, Amanda Smith, Rachel Dawley, Stacey Becks, Stephanie Dosher, Jeremy Magnum, Susan Atchison, Kelly Hackworth, Lyndsay Nantz, Jennifer Wilson & Julietta Amanda Jordan. Science - Jill Reed. 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To charge by credit card, call 845# The Battalion (ISSN #1055-4726) is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall spring semesters and htato: the summer session (except University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University. Second class postage paid at® Postmaster: Send address changes to The Battalion, 015 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Siafoih The Office of Latin American Pn# and the MSC L.T. Jordan Ins; for International Awa' present: beyond what we're toll Join us for a discussion featuring a panel led by: The Cuban Cultural Attache from the Cuban Embassy in Mexico A Tri-nation Forurr Cuban Officio- University Stude : from Mexico and : Tuesday. Feb. 3rd @ 4:00 pm — Academic West 1017 (The BushSfi Eaily anwal is encouraged as space is limited. For more mloimalion oi to inloim us or yom special needs, please call S* 1