Nothing to fear but fear itself? Simply being constantly scared of terror can harm your health, even if you are not exposed to actual violence. Tel Aviv University researchers, led by Arie Shirom, studied a questionnaire asking 4,877 people at a medical centre to respond to statements about their fear of terror attacks.
It was those who reported the worst fear of terror, rather than those who were exposed to it, who suffered poorer health, even considering factors such as age, depression and socio-economic status. The findings were published in the British Journal of Health Psychology.
Dr Shirom said: “The major objective of terrorism is to create a climate of fear and vulnerability and our study shows this fear has a negative effect of the perceived health of both men and women.”
Perhaps a real-life Spider-Man is on the way after Israeli and German scientists succeeded in creating spider silk outside the bodies of spiders.
The Hebrew University and German researchers produced self-assembled spider web fibres — stronger than those of silkworms — under laboratory conditions.
Researcher Uri Gat explained: “Since spiders and insects are both arthropods, and their genomes are closely related, we felt that we would be able to produce spider fibres using these insects.” Now they are looking for commercial applications.