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Podcast TranscriptThe Naked Scientists: Science Radio & Science Podcasts |
| 17th Feb 2002 | < Previous Show | Next Show > | ||||||||||
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Everyone Hates a Winner it Seems...
New research by economists at the Universities of Warwick and Oxford in the UK has provided surprising insight into just how much people hate a winner. It also shows what lengths human beings are prepared to go to damage a winner out of a sense of envy or fairness. The researchers, Professor Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick and Dr. Daniel Zizzo of Oxford, designed a new kind of experiment, played with real cash, in which subjects could anonymously "burn" away other people's money -- but only at the cost of giving up some of their own. Despite this cost to themselves, and contrary to economists' usual assumptions, 62% of those tested chose to destroy part of other test subjects' cash. In the experiment, half of all the laboratory earnings were deliberately destroyed by fellow subjects. Everyone in the laboratory sessions was anonymous and hidden. The subjects had only a computer terminal, into which they played, and in which they could see how much other people were winning. In each session, the test subjects began with a betting stage which gave them some money (about 10 pounds, but sometimes much more), creating an unequal wealth distribution. In the final stage, the "burning" stage, subjects could if they wished eliminate ("burn away") other people's money -- but only by giving up some of their own cash winnings. At the most expensive level, they had to give up 25 pence to destroy 1 full pound owned by someone else. It was made clear to all subjects that burning others would reduce the cash of the person choosing to burn. The economists expected little burning, and especially that the laboratory subjects would stop destroying other people's money once the price reached 0.25, but in fact they found that even this high price did little to stop people from annihilating other people's wealth. Most individuals still chose to hurt others, despite the large cost to their own pocket. The researchers found that those who gained the most additional money at the betting stage burned poor and rich alike, while disadvantaged laboratory subjects mainly targeted those subjects they saw getting what they perceived as undeserved financial windfalls. The authors conclude that "our experiment measures the dark side of human nature."
17th Feb 2002
British Scientists Find Worlds First Fossilised Vomit
British scientists have discovered the world's oldest fossilized vomit, believed to have come from a large marine reptile 160 million years ago. The vomit contains the remains of dozens of belemnites-squid-like shellfish that lived in abundance in the seas around what is now Britain. Belemnites were eaten in great numbers by ichthyosaurs, large marine reptiles similar in size and shape to dolphins but with pointed snouts full of sharp teeth. The vomit fossil was discovered in a clay quarry in Peterborough by Professor Peter Doyle, from Greenwich University, and Jason Wood of the Open University. Having eaten dozens of belemnites, an ichthyosaur would regurgitate their indigestible bullet-shaped shells in much the same way that an owl does after eating a mouse whole. It is these shells that have been discovered in the fossil vomit. "We believe that this is the first time the existence of fossil vomit on a grand scale has been proven beyond reasonable doubt," said geologist Professor Doyle. "The Peterborough belemnite shells, viewed under a powerful scanning electron microscope, have revealed 'acid etching' marks caused by digestive fluids from the gut of a marine reptile, proving that the belemnites had been eaten by a predator. The fact that most of these belemnites were juveniles reinforces our view that they did not die of old age." It was highly unlikely that the shells passed through the ichthyosaurs intestines and were excreted as droppings, as they would have damaged the soft tissue of the reptile's internal organs," Doyle said. "The only alternative is that the shells were vomited out, in much the same way that modern-day sperm whales regurgitate the indigestible beaks of squid they have eaten." The large concentration of belemnite fossils in the Peterborough clay quarry suggests that 160 million years ago the area was a shallow-water, coastal feeding ground for belemnites. The abundant shellfish attracted the ichthyosaurs that ate them !
Photograph of a belemnite
17th Feb 2002
Dinosaur Footprints Proove That Dinosaurs Could Run
The University of Cambridge was in the news this week when dinosaur tracks, said to be amongst the best preserved and most extensive in the world, were found in Ardley Quarry, near Oxford, by researchers from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences. Most importantly, one set of prints clearly shows the dinosaur breaking from a walk into a run. The Cambridge team believe they are the first proof of medium-sized or large theropods running. The results were published in the journal Nature and have attracted massive international media attention. The research team, led by Dr Julia Day, have been unable to confirm the dinosaur's species from the prints, but believe it to be a large theropod, possibly a Megalosaurus, a relative of Tyrannosaurus rex. "We knew that small theropods could run fast, but it wasn't clear if the same was true for large theropods," said Dr Day in an interview with the Daily Telegraph this week. "The evidence here shows that these animals weren't lumbering beasts. They were much more agile than some people have imagined. Although we don't know if they could sustain a run, they could clearly run for short bursts."
A Tyrannosaurus rex with arthritis - dinosaur fossils reveal details of dinosaur diseases.
17th Feb 2002
Scientists in America Find the Gene That Lets you Get Used to Smells
You must have noticed that when a smell comes your way, initially, you can smell it very strongly, but as time passes you notice it less and less, such as when you walk into someone else's house for instance, or into a restaurant. Scientists call this process 'adaptation', or odour desensitisation, and both animals and humans use it so that we can tell whether a scent it getting stronger or going away The nose is essentially a collection of nerve cells, some of which fire off signals to the brain when a certain smell is detected. When an odour is present, if you measure the electrical activity in these nerve cells, it slowly declines over time as you get used to the smell. But recently two teams of scientists in America have found that this process does not happen in mice that lack a gene that makes a protein called CNGA4. In these mice, when an odour is presented, the level of activity in the nerves in their noses remains high and they just keep on smelling it. Although the scientists haven't yet figured out exactly how CNGA4 works, they think that it probably helps to close off channels that kick start the cell into sending messages, called action potentials, to the brain. This means that the mice without CNGA4 cannot switch off their smell-sensitive nerve cells and so they keep on smelling the odour !
17th Feb 2002
Why Do We Have Sex ?
Having sex where 2 adults come together and give rise to one offspring is a pretty inefficient way to reproduce. We could increase our numbers much faster if we could simply copy ourselves. Indeed, having sex is downright dangerous for some animals - just ask a male spider or a preying mantis - the female kills them after sex ! But sex is so widespread among both plants and animals that there must be an important evolutionary payoff. So what is sex. Put bluntly it enables us to mix our genes with those of our partner so that our offspring have half our genes, and half of our partners, meaning that an infinite range of new genetic variations is possible, possibly enabling us to adapt to our surroundings more effectively. So for example if I have a gene, call it A, that gives me an advantage in life, and you have a gene, call it B, that gives you a different advantage, the perfect combination would be a person with both A and B. So by mixing your genes with mine, we end up with the super person with both A and B. The opposite is also true in that if I have a bad gene, that makes me susceptible to a certain disease, and I clone myself, then all of my offspring will also be susceptible to that disease. But by having sex and mixing my unhealthy genes with someone elses' healthy genes I am minimising the chances of my children being affected by the disease. So you see, there's more to sex than red roses and valentines day !
Article about the importance of sexual reproduction to genetic fitness.
17th Feb 2002
Number of Radioactivity Accidents Increases
The number of accidents involving radioactive materials in the UK has doubled over the past decade, according to the National Radiological Protection Board. In 2000 38 incidents were reported, compared with only 19 ten years earlier, in 1999. In one reported case 30 industrial smoke detectors containing radioactive materials were dumped in a country park. There are more and more mishaps involving transport of radioactive material. Between 1990 and 2000 over 300 shipments were either contaminated, damaged or simply lost. A lot of these involve radioactive fuel from nuclear power stations, which was being taken to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in Cumbria. At this rate it will be fairly easy for terrorists to get hold of radioactive material unless security is tightened. The environmental group 'Greenpeace' have called trains carrying radioactive material "a walking terrorist target".
17th Feb 2002
Pig Cells Treat Man with Parkinson's Disease
It's one thing to be a guinea pig for medicine, but in 1996, Jim Finn agreed to be part pig. Finn was a victim of Parkinson's disease and allowed surgeons to inject his brain with 12 million brain cells from a pig. Researchers hoped that the foetal pig cells might replace functions he lost from the disease. "This gave me my life back," said Finn. "By now, I'd be unable to drive a car, unable to walk. Now I can walk." The process that uses animal cells or organs to treat human disease is known as Xenotransplantation, and despite Finn's progress, although it saved his life, others could be put in danger from a virus. The major concern is that a pig virus may find its way into a human recipient and then gain the ability to spread amongst humans, causing a new kind of epidemic. So is this a real risk ? Well, in the lab, pig cells are known to transfer "pervs," which stands for porcine endogenous retroviruses, into human cells. But although pig viruses can get into human cells, no pig retrovirus has ever made a human sick. The risk of pervs, however small, makes Jim Finn a guinea pig for life. Doctors must routinely check him and more than 100 other pig-cell-patients worldwide for infections. So far, none have contracted a virus to be alarmed about. Some people are worried that patients like Finn could be carriers of sleeper viruses that could infect the rest of the population. "That's the possibility. It can't be denied," says Finn. But what can not be denied, is that he is walking - over five years later. "Research has got to continue. There are too many people sick and need these cells and organs and tissues,".
17th Feb 2002
Killer Virus Wiping Out Frogs in Southeast England
Common frogs in the South East of England are being wiped out in their thousands by a killer virus brought by goldfish imported from America, according to frog conservation group Froglife Trust. It sounds very unpleasant - the frogs die slowly, developing sores all over their bodies and even losing their toes and legs. The number of dead frogs totals 62,000 although the disease has only been confirmed in 1 in 20 cases. Frogs are invaluable to gardeners as they feed on pests like slugs. But gardeners don't just rely on frogs to get rid of slugs - they also kill them off with copper-coated pellets. Researchers say that frogs feeding on these dead slugs have more copper in their livers and this makes them more susceptible to the killer virus.
17th Feb 2002
Chilean Telescope Can Correct for Atmospheric Distorsion
A new image of Saturn - the Lord of the Rings - shows just how quickly ground-based telescopes are catching up with those in space. The stunning image was taken by a new detector that corrects for distortion introduced by the Earth's turbulent atmosphere, based at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. When observed, Saturn was 1,209 million kilometres (751 million miles) away, with its ring system almost fully displayed. The image is among the sharpest ever obtained from the ground and compares well with some photos obtained from space. Astronomers are excited by the detail seen in the image of Saturn, especially the intricate, banded structure of its atmosphere and the rings. A dark spot is visible at the South Pole at the bottom of the image. One of Saturn's moons, Tethys, is visible as a small point of light below the planet. It was used to guide the telescope and to perform the "refocusing" required to remove atmospheric distortion.
17th Feb 2002
Another Major Breach in Internet Security
A security hole has been discovered in one of the world's most popular file-swapping programs which allows anyone to gain private information about its millions of users. Using the Morpheus file-sharing program, people can swap music, videos or movies with other users of the software. But, security experts have found a way to gain access to the computer hard drives of users of Morpheus, which has taken over from Napster as the leading internet song-swapping service. It means that the personal details, such as bank account numbers, of up to two million people are exposed to prying eyes. The security of the internet has always been a huge issue, and with so many people using the internet now for banking and shopping, it may be that we have invested a lot of faith in something incorrectly.
17th Feb 2002
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