The pain of downsizing isn't limited to laid-off workers and their families, says a new study. Even a single involuntary job displacement has a lasting impact on a worker's current and future inclination to volunteer and participate in his or her social group and community.

The study by sociologists at UCLA and the University of Michigan found that workers who had experienced just one involuntary disruption in their employment status were 35 percent less likely to be involved in their communities, compared with people who had never experienced being laid off, downsized or having their company close or relocate.

“Even one disruption in employment makes workers significantly less likely to participate in a whole range of social activities, from joining book clubs to participating in the PTA,” said Jennie Brand, a UCLA sociologist and lead study author.

The effect was most strongly felt among workers 35 to 53 years of age, in their prime earning years. Older workers appeared to be less affected than younger ones.

“Being laid off doesn't appear to be as socially damaging for older workers,” said Brand, probably because peers may be experiencing the same thing or they view it as a kind of early retirement, albeit forced.

VERBATIM

The idea that we are “stewards of the Earth” is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body's physiological processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation?

— Biologist Lynn Margulis

BRAIN SWEAT

How big is an exabyte?

PRIME NUMBERS

$7 billion — Amount, in dollars, that Americans spend annually on bottled water

37 — Estimated percentage of Americans who are sleep-deprived

8,500 — Estimated temperature, in degrees Fahrenheit, of the Earth's core

Sources: Scientific American; National Sleep Foundation

BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER

An exabyte is the equivalent of 1 billion gigabytes. A gigabyte is 1,000 megabytes. A megabyte is 1,000 kilobytes or 1 million bytes. A byte is a grouping of 8 bits — the basic unit of information.

Or think about it this way: A single digital character — a letter or number — is a single byte. A typewritten page is about 2,000 bytes or 2 kilobytes; a small, low-resolution image is about 100,000 bytes or 100 kilobytes.

There are roughly 5 million bytes — or 5 megabytes — in the complete works of Shakespeare. A pickup truck full of books might amount to 1 billion bytes, or a gigabyte. One billion book-filled pickup trucks would equal an exabyte.

“TRUE FACTS”

Despite inventing the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell never called his mother. But he had good reason: She was deaf.

BLOGOSPHERE

Science not fiction

blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction

This blog, part of the Discover magazine family of science-related blogs, looks at futurist technologies and the pop culture that grows up around them.

QUIRKS OF NATURE

The Thiomargarita namibiensis bacterium, recently discovered off the coast of Africa, is the largest bacterium known. It can grow up to three-quarters of a millimeter in diameter, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That's 100 times larger than the previous record-holder.

JUST ASKING

What does the phrase “now then” mean?

SCIFAIKU

Bathing

her reptilian skin —

small bubbles on glossy green.

— Tom Brinck

ANTHROPOLOGY 101

According to German superstition, rampant use of bad language leads to an increase in the mouse population.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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