Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe MUSICANS HAVE BIGGER BRAINS Musicians have bigger and more sensitive brains than people who do not play instruments, German researchers report. Advertisement The auditory cortex, which is the part of the brain concerned with hearing, contains 130 per cent more "gray matter" in professional musicians than in non-musicians, they say. In amateur players, the volume of the auditory cortex is between the two, according to a team of researchers from Heidelberg University. They used scans and imaging techniques to compare the size and activity of the auditory cortex in 37 people. The professionals, who all performed regularly, showed 102 percent more activity in their auditory cortex than non-musicians. Activity in the brains of amateur musicians was on average 37 percent higher than in those who did not play an instrument, the researchers say in Nature Neuroscience. Those with musical experience had larger amounts of gray matter in the region called the Heschl's gyrus. Advertisement "Our results indicate that the neurophysiology of Heschl's gyrus have an essential impact on musical aptitude," says the report's lead author, Peter Schneider. However, the question remains whether early exposure to music or a genetic predisposition leads to the functional and anatomical differences between musicians and non-musicians, he says. ELEPHANT ART ON THE WEB Ten elephants have been "hired" to paint by Novica.com, the National Geographic-affiliated world arts marketplace, and their "abstract expressionist" paintings go on sale this week. For the first time, donors from anywhere in the world can readily contribute to various elephant foundations and rescue centers by purchasing elephantine paintings online. The painting pachyderms, all Asian elephants -- an endangered species -- live at tropical refuges in Thailand and Indonesia. The 10 elephants join Novica.com's lineup of more than 1,700 participating fine artists and artisans from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Biographies and photos of each artist are prominently featured alongside each artwork. The elephants' paintings, all originals, are priced between $300 and $680, and can be purchased with the click of a mouse. "'An elephant painting in every home' -- that's our motto!" says Roberto Milk, co-founder of Novica.com. The elephant population has dwindled precipitously in recent years and elephants' painting talent emerged as an unexpected way to raise public awareness about the endangered animals. Advertisement For example, in Thailand, the elephant population has fallen from 100,000 to as few as 1,300 in the past 100 years. AMERICAN SENORS PAY THE MOST FOR DRUGS America's senior citizens are paying huge tabs for their prescription drugs -- up to 200 percent more than the elderly in any other developed country, the New York Daily News reports. A study, sponsored by U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Anthony Weiner, both New York Democrats, shows that American seniors without medical coverage pay, on average, more than twice as much as their counterparts in France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. "The cost of these prescriptions are often a life-and-death issue for many seniors," Maloney says. Uninsured consumers in the United States have no protection against price gouging by drug manufacturers, the lawmakers say. However, the maximum profit a drug manufacturer can earn on sales in the United Kingdom is limited to 17 percent. For example, a monthly supply of Prevacid, an ulcer medication, costs $45.02 in the United Kingdom and $137.54 in New York. CATTLE BORN WITHOUT EYES Four years after India exploded a series of nuclear devices in underground tests in the arid Thar desert near the border with Pakistan, some villagers no longer believe government assurances that no radioactivity was released, the Hindustan Times reports. Advertisement In Khetolai, a village of 1,500 inhabitants near the security fence that rings the Pokharan military test range, villagers say their cows have given birth to several blind and diseased calves since the tests. Although they are not sure of the reason, they say they suspect it is because the cattle head up a sandy track leading out of the village to graze on whatever they can find near where the fence cuts through the scrub-dotted desert. Ranjeeta Ramji says his herd had produced four blind calves with tumors since the test blasts. None of the animals survived more than a year. Other villagers had similar reports. "We've contacted the authorities a number of times but no one has to come to see," said Ramji, who remembers the ground beneath his feet shook "like an earthquake" when the five tests were carried out on May 11 and May 13, 1998. No villagers were evacuated when the tests took place. Instead, they say, soldiers arrived in jeeps and told them to stay outside their homes.
