Most people tend to associate video gaming with inactivity. Not anymore. A new study by Liverpool John Moores University has shown that gaming can actually burn calories (no, it's not DDR). Their studies involved gaming consoles, like the Wii, that used body motion to control the video game.

The results of these studies were amazing (much like the results of a similar study). An average gamer in the UK spends 12.2 hours a week gaming; if that gamer had used a Wii, then the gamer could have burned up 1,813 calories.

In "body motion gaming," heart rates jump to about 130 beats per minute (compared to 85 in more traditional consoles). While this is no replacement for actually going out and getting engaged in real sports, it's better than nothing. As an added note, it's interesting to note that guys actually use up more energy than women do.

So if you've been looking for an excuse to get a Nintendo Wii, this is it, you could say you're getting it for "health reasons."

Remember Jurassic Park? The part where Jeff Goldblum says, "Nature finds a way?" That's exactly what Kevin Buley of Chester Zoo in England said when scientists from Northern England's Liverpool University found out that one of the Komodo dragons in the zoo will be having a virgin birth or parthenogenesis.

The scientists discovered that the Komodo dragon, named Flora, became pregnant without male help after doing genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being put in an incubator. These tests confirmed that Komodo dragons can reproduce through self-fertilization. Earlier this year, another Komodo dragon at London Zoo gave birth after being separated from males for more than two years. After hearing about Flora, researchers conducted tests which showed her eggs were also produced without male help.

"Those genetic tests confirmed absolutely that Flora was both the mother and the father of the embryos. It completely blew us away because it (parthenogenesis) has never been seen in such a large species," Buley explained. He fails to mention that in 1998 it was shown that Godzilla, who is much bigger than a Komodo dragon, is also capable of parthenogenesis, but we can understand if he wants to forget that disaster of a movie.

The scientists, reporting the discovery in the science journal Nature, said it could help them understand how reptiles colonize new areas. A female dragon could, for instance, swim to another island and establish a new colony by herself. According to Buley, "The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards means that all her hatchlings would have to be male. These would grow up to mate with their own mother and therefore, within one generation, there would potentially be a population able to reproduce normally on the new island."