5 Most Incredible Discoveries of the Week

Jealous dogs and elephants with prodigious senses of smell make the list:

• Dogs Get Jealous Like Us: Dog owners can tell you Fido gets jealous, but is it the same thing that humans feel? New research on puppies, similar to previous research on babies, suggests it is. Humans, say the researchers, don't have a monopoly on the "primordial" feeling.
• Elephants Win Most Discerning Nose Award: Dogs may hold the reputation as having the best noses among mammals, but when it comes to the number of genes associated with smell, the elephant stands alone. New findings suggest that African elephants have 2,000 active olfactory genes, giving them twice the number found in dogs and five times that found in humans. That doesn't necessarily make them better sniffers in every way, though.

• Blacks Age Faster Than Whites: A troubling new study says that black Americans age faster and die younger than their white counterparts, possibly because of the "everyday stressors" of being black. Even when socioeconomic factors are taken into account, researchers found a 3-year gap.
• Why the Appalachian Mountain Chain Bends: If you took a bird's-eye view of the Appalachian mountain chain, you could pretty much trace a 1,500-mile straight line from Newfoundland to Alabama. Except, that is, for a long-unexplained little bend in New York and Pennsylvania. Scientists think they finally have a geologic (and underground) explanation.
• Watching TV After Work Makes You Feel Like a Loser: It seems natural to reach for the remote after a stressful day on the job, but a new study warns that especially work-weary folks who flick on the TV or play video games are more likely to feel like failures afterward.

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