Music Sounds Different To Different People

Researchers placed auditory implants in ferrets and each ferret responded differently to the same sound because neurons reacted differently each time, an effect applicable to humans. So, human brains process sounds depending on how our ears deliver that sound. This means different people may hear the same sound differently.

Still, this is music no matter what anyone says.

Superfluidity

Superfluidity occurs when certain liquids are cooled to near absolute zero ... becoming frictionless and defying gravity. As such, they actually move up and out of a container without any external force acting upon them.

Watch the clip.

Superconductivity

Discovered in the early 1900s, superconductivity is the mind bending occurrence of zero resistance to electric flow.

Resistance to electrical flow decreases as temperature cools but conductors generally have a limit to which they can allow electric flow. Superconductivity occurs when the material is cooled below its critical temperature. Placing 2 like pole magnets next to each other an electrical current is induced, causing the repulsion we are so familiar with. If we have a magnetic rail and place a magnetic puck cooled to superconductive levels, the magnetic field repels the puck along the magnetic rail - the puck moving along without physically touching the rail. This continues until the puck warms up.

Watch the clip.

Tidbits on Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds can hover because they move their wings in a figure-8 motion, gaining lift from both sides

Aside from insects, they are the only animal that can fly upside down

They wings can move up to a speed of 200 strokes/sec

Hummingbirds enter a state of "torpor" at night - almost shutting down their heat (cut body temperature in half) and metabolic systems to compensate for not eating

Here's a PBS clip, with the link to the entire documentary on hummingbirds as well.

Chill Out Pre-Workout

50 athletes were placed into a cooling chamber at -120 degrees for 2.5 minutes. They then ran at 90% of their max. After six months, the cooled athletes showed much better results and an increased oxygen carrying capacity.

Scientists think the chilling 1) slows the rise of body temperate, which harms performance; 2) conserves body fluids, because athletes sweat less.

Workers Who Help Are Happy

One study reveals that for a satisfying career and happy life, do something that helps others.

Price Affects Taste

20 subjects were given 5 wines and rated the same wine better when told it was more expensive. Really, there were only 3 wines - 2 offered twice, at a "low" and "high" price. MRI showed no change in taste centers, but there was increased activity in the brain's pleasure centers.

CEO's Face = Company Fortune

Research shows that public perception of CEOs faces matched the companies fortune.

Undergrads rated faces of 50 CEOs from the highest and lowest ranked Fortune 1000 companies on competence, maturity, trustworthiness, etc. Amazingly, students’ impressions coincided with company profits. The more powerful the CEO appeared, the more successful the corporation. The study does not indicate if profitable companies promote people who look like leaders or if successful CEOs grow into the look.

Snakes Hear With Jaws

We know that snakes see heat with their noses and smell with their tongues. Now, we know they hear with their jaws.

Snakes only have an inner ear system. The cochlea - instrumental in hearing - is connected to the snake's jawbone. Vibrations that move a snake's jaw, therefore, allow the snake to hear ... even as minute as that of a rodent. Because snakes can unhinge their jaws one side at a time, they may be able to hear in stereo.

Beauty Affects Purchases

In one study, consumers were more enthusiastic about purchasing clothing if a good-looking person handled it first. 300 shoppers were sent to try on a specific shirt. Interest was markedly higher when a model was wearing the shirt instead of an average looking person. In fact, they were willing to spend more for it.

Scratching Really Helps

Brain scans show that scratching decreases unpleasantness - but it doesn't stimulate pleasure centers. Instead, scratching decreased the activity of brain regions associated with unpleasant sensory experiences.

Detecting Age From Blood Drop

Using a blood drop up to 1.5 years old, forensic experts can now estimate a person’s age to within 9 years. The thymus, the organ that pumps out T cells, is gradually replaced with fat tissue as people age leaving behind genetic artefacts.

Blood can be used to determine gender and eye color but age is tougher, bones or teeth serving as better choice ... for now.

Smelling Sounds, Hearing Colors

Humans can hear colors and smell sounds. Its called synaesthesia and affects ~1 in 1,000 people - most not knowing they have the condition.

"There are people for whom time units evoke colors ... It is also common for a synaesthete to see colors when listening to words, sounds in general or music notes (people who can see music, for instance). There are also cases, although fewer, where people can see colors in flavors, others perceive flavors or experience touch sensations when listening to different sounds, some link flavors to touch sensations, etc."

“Smounds”— We Detect Half Sound, Half Smell

Food smell could be related to the sounds we hear while eating.

Scientists studied the increased activity of mice's olfactory tubercle - a brain structure aiding in odor detection - when making a rattling sound. When clanking a mug, 65% of tubercle cells were activated. A tone only registered 19% activity. Scientists repeatedly sent a mix of odors and tones into tubercle cells. They noted 29% became enhanced or suppressed depending on the presence/absence of the second stimulus.

Shark vs. Octopus

See who wins (attack starts at 1:00)

Happiness Comes and Goes and Comes Back

A cross-cultural study of 74 countries finds that most people have a midlife crisis but most get happy again. Regardless of cultural differences, financial success or marital status, depression settles over our forties. But our late fifties brings happiness - maybe because we learn to expect less from life.

Bad Smells Are Good

Scientists used to think odors directly activate the trigeminal nerve - which responds to touch, temperature and painful stimulation in the head, and extends to the nose. New research suggests that specialized chemosensory cells lining the nasal cavity first detect smells and pass the news to the trigeminal nerve, alerting the brain.

Having these special sensory cells as a medium might make our noses sensitive to a variety of odors which helps us avoid bad stuff.

Cameras Cause Crashes

Research argues that cameras at traffic lights increase the likelihood of car crashes because more drivers break to make a late stop at red-light camera intersections.

The report notes that North Carolina, Virginia and Ontario all had increased crash rates and injuries associated with red light cameras.

Gator's Lungs Help in Locomotion

Research shows that alligator's can effortlessly glide through the water because they shift the location of their lungs. Lungs act like flotation devices which a gator uses to steer just by moving them around. Surfacing means moving lungs forward; diving requires pushing lungs back; changing direction means moving them to one side or another.

Money CAN Buy Happiness

Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else.

In one experiment, volunteers rated their happiness and were then given $5 or $20. Half were told to spend on themselves, half to give it away. Those who gave away the money were the happiness, even if it was only $5.

The finding supports another famous study on happiness.

Performing Arts = Good

A 3-year study finds that early training in performing arts is very good for the brain.

Performing arts developed attention span, which can improve other areas of cognition.

Music training improved the ability to manipulate short-term and long-term memory, geometric representation, and reading skills.

Acting lead to improved memory, b/c of better language skills.

Bacteria That Eat Antibiotics

Research shows that certain soil bacteria feeds on antibiotics. This might be surprising but recall that most antibiotics come from organisms that live in the dirt so some bacteria are bound to adapt.

Take A Good Deal

Research shows that a fair deal feels good because it activates the brain’s reward centers (ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex), just like cocaine.

Participants were given offers to split a sum of money, and almost always accepted 50/50 or 40/60 deals, activating the brain’s reward centers. Bad offers activated the insula - the region associated with disgust.

Keeping Up Appearances

In a wondrous example of tool usage amongst animals, dresser crabs will grab and wear literally anything that is around them for camouflage - even fabric and pearls.

See the video

Mexican Jumping Beans

Why do they jump?

Mexican jumping beans house a moth larvae. The moth lays its eggs in the flower of the jumping bean plant, which become part of the seed. While maturing, the larvae moves, causing the bean to "jump." Light and heat can also induce the larva to move, causing the bean to jump.

Here's a video.

Don't Play The Lottery

Michael Orkin, professor of statistics at California State University at Hayward, argues that if you have to drive 10 miles to buy your lottery ticket, odds of getting killed in a car crash are 16 times greater than your chances of actually winning the lottery. Wait, what about walking? Well, then you face a near 100% chance of losing your money.

Full Fat Ice Cream Improves Fertility

A study of 18,000+ women aged 24-42 reveals that women who ate full-fat milk or ice cream increases chances of ovulating. Also, the more you eat, the more likely you ovulate (if your overall calorie intake remains the same). In contrast, those eating at least two servings of low-fat milk products/day were 85% more likely to have problems ovulating than women who only ate one serving.

Groundhog Day

If groundhogs don't stick their heads up every February 2nd to see if its Spring, why do they do it? To find a mate.

In the study, the first groundhogs to come above ground are all males all looking for female groundhogs. It's usually cold in Pennsylvania in February so groundhogs mark territory, mate, and go back into hibernation. Weeks later, groundhogs wake up when it warm and reconnect with the female.

DON'T Clean Your Plate

During the 2004 Superbowl (Panthers vs. Patriots), 53 football fans participated in an all you can eat chicken wing buffet. During the game, waitresses cleared the chicken bones from only half the tables. Subjects whose plates got emptied ate 43% more wings than those whose plates were covered with bones. Bones apparently provided a visual cue that they ate enough.

Tell that one to your mom.

Freezing Light

Einstein said that the special theory of relativity shows "that mass and energy are different manifestations of the same thing.” Accordingly, researchers have frozen and unfrozen light in an entirely different place.

Researchers sent a light pulse into a sodium cloud of -460 degrees (theoretical point were matter stops). While frozen, the light actually changed state - like frozen water. It also split into two forms of matter. One was frozen while the other moved at 200 meters/hour. The second form - a matter wave - contains the exact information of the original light wave which was converted back into light.

Since fiber-optic communications use light, it means we may one day stop, store and turn messages back on, just like a light switch.

Take A Nap - Its Healthy

Research shows that naps reduced the risk of coronary mortality by 1/3rd. ~24,000 Greeks were studied for 6+ years - none had cardiovascular disease at the study's start. Those taking at least 3 midday naps/week of at least 1/2 hour each had 37% lower risk of coronary-related death. The effect was more among working men, retirees got less of a benefit.

So next time your boss finds you sleeping at work, tell him you're taking care of your health.

Thinking About Buying

Brain activity during simulated shopping shows that thinking about buying a good is itself an enjoyable activity.

When presented with products, participant's nucleus accumbens (subcortal brain region) - associated with the anticipation of pleasure - was activated. When presented with excessive prices: insula (another brain region) activated and medial prefrontal cortex - associated with balancing gains versus losses deactivated.

The study challenges conventional economic understanding of consumer purchases - consumers decide b/w immediate pleasure of a purchase and delayed pleasures of alternative things. Instead, the study suggests that consumers trade off immediate pleasure of a purchase VS. immediate pain of spending money. This may explain why overspending when using credit cards instead of cash.

"Low Fat" Not So Healthy

Research shows that we eat more food if it's labeled "low fat". One study revealed that subjects took 1/3rd more from a candy dish labeled "low fat" than otherwise.

Researchers think people don't realize that "lower fat" doesn't mean "lower calories."

Lifestyle Affects Internal Body Clock

Research shows that despite living in the same time zone, body clock's of people living in the country are closely attuned to time based on the sun's position VS. city folk's internal clocks which social cues (e.g. engagements) greatly affect.

Be Nice To Babies - They Can Tell

Research shows that infants can evaluate individuals based on their action toward others. Babies watched wooden shapes try to make it up a hill while other shapes would help or shove the other shape.

The babies were asked which shape they’d like to play with. Almost every baby reached for the shape that helped the circle rather than hindering it.

Here's a video of the study.

Honey - An Antiseptic

The International Journal of Clinical Practice reports that honey accelerates healing and prevents infection. Honey has many properties that inhibit bacterial growth: low moisture content, as honey glucose breaks down in air it forms the antiseptic agent hydrogen peroxide. The research suggests that honey might be particularly useful for an infected wound or one that will not close post-surgery. Honey even reduced amputation rates among diabetes patients suffering from open, infected sores.

Honey has been used to treat wounds for millenia but was avoided since the 1940s when antibiotics arrived. Because of antibiotic resistance fears today, natural remedies are more popular.

Baby Talk Crucial For Babies

Scientific American reports that adults must engage in silly baby talk ... so babies learn to talk like adults.

Mothers stretch vowels to make speech clearer which is especially attractive to infants and they turn their heads to the sound. They don’t with normal speech. By age 1, the infant brains starts to favor a specific language and ability to understand foreign languages declines while the brains of babies growing up learning two languages may stay open to new sounds longer.

New Pest Control

Fooling mosquitoes into thinking they're virgins could diminish bloodsucking and egg-laying. The idea arose because most female insects behavior changes after intercourse because of a peptide in the males’ seminal fluid.

Researchers have found the females’ receptor for this peptide. Fruit flies without the receptor lay much fewer eggs. As most female insects have this sort of receptor, deactivating it holds promise for disease control and crop protection.

Divorce - Bad for Environment

Divorce isn't just bad for kids - the environment also takes a beating.

After couples split, more land, energy, and water is used because the parties move into smaller, individual households (more land & resources consumed per person).

What to do? Remarry

Traffic Jam Physics

A previous post looked at fluid mechanics to explain why traffic jams form. Another study argues we should study wave mechanics.

If a car suddenly brakes, the car behind does as well causing a chain reaction. A backwards traveling wave is essentially created. Traffic density itself is not the cause, rather a sudden interruption in traffic flow.

So what can we do? Be alert and brake slowly.