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Podcast TranscriptThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
| 29th Sep 2001 | < Previous Show | Next Show > | ||||||||||
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The Elixir of Love
Love potions might exist after all because scientists from Emory University in Georgia have found a hormone that makes male voles fall in love. It makes them more faithful to females and more friendly to fellow males. The researchers have found that by making the same part of the brain that is normally responsible for addiction more sensitive to the hormone vasopressin, male voles quite literally become addicted to their female partners. To test this theory they put pairs of male and female voles together in a cage, increased the levels of vasopressin receptors in the males' brains, and waited for 17 hours. They then put an extra female into the cage and found that the males much preferred to spend time with the first vole than the second. But, Males with normal levels of vasopressin receptors were equally interested in both females. The scientists suggest that this result could help us to understand the human disorder autism in which sufferers find it hard to bond with other people. It also adds weight to the claim that love is indeed an addiction. (Journal of Neuroscience 2001 21: 7392).
29th Sep 2001
Pray for a Baby
Prayer seems to almost double the success rate of in vitro fertilization procedures that lead to pregnancy. The study, involving 200 Korean women, found that a group of 100 women who had people praying for them had a 50 percent pregnancy rate compared with a 26 percent rate in the group of 99 women who did not have people praying for them. None of the women undergoing the IVF procedures, nor the doctors treating them, knew about the praying. The people praying for the women lived in the United States, Canada, and Australia, were from Christian denominations, and were incapable of knowing or contacting the women undergoing the IVF procedures. They began to pray within five days of the treatment beginning. Besides finding a higher pregnancy rate among the women who had a group praying for them, the researchers found older women seemed to benefit more from prayer.
29th Sep 2001
Viagra Wears Off
Recent research from the US suggests that Viagra, the anti-inpotence drug, can stop working for many patients after a few years. The scientists, from the university of Alabama, followed up 151 men who began using the drug in 1997. For most of the men the drug worked initially, but 3 years later, by 2000, it had stopped working for about a third of the men who were still using it. In most cases it took between one and eighteen months to stop working. (BMJ 8/9/01)
29th Sep 2001
The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle Solved
The Bermuda Triangle is a place not many people would venture into without misgivings. Hundreds of ships have allegedly vanished in its waters, leading to strange rumours of paranormal activity and alien invasions. But the ships disappearances could simply been caused by methane bubbles escaping from the sea bed, according to a report in this week's New Scientist. People have often suggested that bubbles in the ocean could sink ships. The principle is simple enough- if you mix enough bubbles into water, you lower the density of the water so that anything floating on its surface will sink. A group of American scientists came up with a simple way of putting this theory to the test. They made bubbles in a beaker of water by feeding air into the bottom of it. Then they dropped in balls of different weights, to see which would float. Balls that floated in still water, sank when the bubbles were switched on. The same mechanism could explain why ships sink in the Bermuda Triangle. Michael Denardo, who led the team, said "If a phenomenon can be made to occur in a lab, it probably happens somewhere in the natural universe."
29th Sep 2001
Remember to Take your Medicine
It can be difficult at the best of times to remember to take medicines regularly, especially for elderly people who are often taking several different pills a day. Luckily help is at hand in the form of the remind cap, a new invention from a Hong-Kong based company. The cap screws onto the bottle of pills and you then programme it to beep and flash at the times that you need to take a tablet, which can be up to 4 times a day for anything up to 36 days. The invention is due to be launched in the US soon. Success rather hinges on remembering to take the bottle everywhere with you in the first place though doesn't it ? (www.reutershealth.com on 21/8/01)
29th Sep 2001
Le Weekend Is Bad for You, in France at Least
In France, the weekends are the most dangerous time of the week for heart-attacks amongst young people, whilst older people are most likely to die from a heart-attack on Monday morning ! Therefore the answer is simple, abolish weekends and Mondays ! In fact, weekends are notoriously bad for our health throughout the Western world because people indulge indulge their passions for vigorous exercise and dangerous pass-times!
29th Sep 2001
So How Much Exercise Do Eu Indulge in ?
So how much exercise do the countries in the European Union take ? A recently published study compared the amount of exercise taken in each of the member states of the EU and found that the Finns topped the league and were the greatest exercise enthusiasts, whilst the Portugese were the laziest !
29th Sep 2001
Bitten By the Ice-cream Bug
What have ice-cream and Antarctic bacteria got in common, apart from both coming from frozen places? Well, ice-creams of the future may be made extra smooth with the help of bacteria which grow in Antarctic lakes. Scientists have found a natural antifreeze in these bacteria. It works by stopping ice crystals growing too large - just the same as the antifreeze you put on car windscreens. But not so toxic of course. This makes a smoother textured icecream. The next problem facing the scientists from Unilever is how to get enough of the protein which they call "marinomonin" - where do they get these names from!
29th Sep 2001
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