When it comes to determining whether a person is sexy or not, most people rely upon their sight. Now, according to a new study, a person’s voice is more than enough to pass a judgment on their attractiveness.
The study, led by Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, suggests that people with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection.
"The sound of a person''s voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," LiveScience quoted Hughes, as saying. "It can reflect the mate value of a person,” she added.
The study cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.
A symmetric body is genetically sound, scientists say, and in evolutionary terms, in the wild, it can be an important factor when selecting a mate.
However, sometimes changes during prenatal development can slightly skew this balance. For instance, the length ratio between index and ring fingers, known as the digit ratio, is fixed by the first trimester, a time that corresponds with vocal cord and larynx development.
If the hormone surge that affects vocal development also affects finger growth, there should be a connection between an individual''s voice and digit ratio.
Hughes could not demonstrate a connection between voice attractiveness and digit ratio in her previous work, possibly due to vocal changes that occur during puberty.
So in the new study, about 100 individuals listened to previously recorded voices and independently rated them on nine traits important during mate selection: approachability, dominance, healthiness, honesty, intelligence, likelihood to get dates, maturity, sexiness and warmth.
Study participants generally agreed on what made a voice attractive. But when Hughes used a spectrogram to analyze these voice ratings according to different acoustic properties such as pitch, intensity, jitter and shimmer, she could not find a common feature that made these voices seem attractive.
This indicates our perceptual system may be more advanced than expected, Hughes said.
The study is published in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour.
नई दिल्ली। विश्व की अग्रणी विमान निर्माता कंपनी बोइंग ने स्वाति रंगाचारी को भारत में अपना डायरेक्टर [कारपोरेट कम्युनिकेशंस] नियुक्त किया है। रंगाचारी इससे पहले टेक्सास इंस्ट्रूमेंट्स इंडिया में कम्युनिकेशन प्रोग्राम का प्रबंधन संभाल चुकी हैं। वह अदिति एवं तलिस्मा जैसी टेक्नोलाजी कंपनियों में भी महत्वपूर्ण पदों पर रह चुकी हैं। इससे पहले स्वाति प्रसिद्ध विज्ञापन एजेंसी एडमास में वरिष्ठ पद पर भी रह चुकी हैं।
स्वाति ने फोर स्कूल आफ मैनेजमेंट, दिल्ली से इंटरनेशनल मैनेजमेंट, आईसीएचईसी ब्रुसेल्स से पीजी और पूना यूनिवर्सिटी से बीए की डिग्री हासिल की है। बोइंग विश्व में कामर्शियल और सैन्य विमानों की सबसे बड़ी निर्माता कंपनी है। शिकागो स्थित इस कंपनी के कर्मचारियों की संख्या एक लाख 60 हजार हैं।
कंपनी के लिए भारत सिविल एविएशन का प्रमुख बाजार है। कंपनी की डिफेंस यूनिट ने भारत में प्रवेश किया है और उसकी देश के रक्षा प्रोजेक्टों में तगड़ी दिलचस्पी है। कंपनी ने अगले 10 वर्षो में 20 अरब डालर के भारतीय रक्षा प्रोजेक्ट हाथ में लेने का लक्ष्य रखा है।
मंगल पर पानी
यह है मंगल ग्रह पर संकरी घाटी युक्त सबसे बड़ा जल स्रोत क्षेत्र एचस चस्मा। यह तस्वीर मार्स एक्सप्रेस पर मौजूद हाई रिजोल्यूशन स्टीरियो कैमरे द्वारा ली गई है। एचस चस्मा कसेई वाल्स का उद्गम क्षेत्र है जो करीब 3000 किलोमीटर उत्तर तक फैला है।
Google Goobuntu Linux OS : Ubuntu Distro
Google has often been rumored to be working on an operating system product to compete on fair levels with the software giants Microsoft. Albeit doing so is easily said than done, we now have some confirmations on a possible project which might indeed see Google release an operating system. Then again, it could be just another version of a Linux Distro.
Google has somewhat confirmed that they are indeed working on a version of the popular Ubuntu Distro of Linux operating system, and it is codenamed Goobuntu. No other info on the project has been unveiled by Google.
Market experts believe that the company might be developing it just like hundreds of other internal projects for their employees to spend their research work on. It can be used for internal deployment for testing out Linux based software applications or even might see a global release for the general user.
Google showcased their plans to get into software market when they started launching software applications like Google Desktop, Google Talk, and Google Earth. They also recently launched a Google Pack, which comes with their own and third party tools helpful for computer newbies. Releasing an entire distribution of Linux just might be the next big step for the company.
Ubuntu has become one of the most popular Linux distributions for new adaptors of the platform around the world. The organization delivers free CDs to interested users and is being used on servers as well. Makes it the perfect platform for Google to develop their own version of the Linux operating system.
One thing is for sure, the owner of the domain name Goobuntu.com (owned by MundoCubano.com, a Cuban news & culture portal) is a very happy hombre today!
