Making Science More Better For You on 12/21/07

So, two psychologists try to walk into a bar, but end up dying of thirst when they get in to an argument over what constitutes causality

Humour 'comes from testosterone' (BBC)

Men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone testosterone, an expert claims.

Men make more gags than women and their jokes tend to be more aggressive, Professor Sam Shuster, of Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, says.

The unicycling doctor observed how the genders reacted to his "amusing" hobby.

Women tended to make encouraging, praising comments, while men jeered. The most aggressive were young men, he told the British Medical Journal.

Previous findings have suggested women and men differ in how they use and appreciate humour.

Women tend to tell fewer jokes than men and male comedians outnumber female ones.

Aggressively funny

Research suggests men are more likely to use humour aggressively by making others the butt of the joke.

And aggression - generally considered to be a more masculine trait - has been linked by some to testosterone exposure in the womb.

Professor Shuster believes humour develops from aggression caused by male hormones.

He documented the reaction of over 400 individuals to his unicycling antics through the streets of Newcastle upon Tyne.


The difference between the men and women was absolutely remarkable and consistent
Professor Shuster

Almost half of people responded verbally - more being men. Very few of the women made comic or snide remarks, while 75% of the men attempted comedy - mostly shouting out "Lost your wheel?", for example.

Mocking and sneering

Often the men's comments were mocking and intended as a put-down. Young men in cars were particularly aggressive - they lowered their windows and shouted abusively.

This type of behaviour decreased among older men however, who tended to offer more admiring comments, much like the women.

"The idea that unicycling is intrinsically funny does not explain the findings," said Professor Shuster.

The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.

"The difference between the men and women was absolutely remarkable and consistent," said Professor Shuster.

"At 11-13 years, the boys began to get really aggressive. Into puberty, the aggression became more marked, then it changed into a form of joke. The men were snide."

The initial aggressive intent seems to become channelled into a more subtle and sophisticated joke, so the aggression is hidden by wit, explained Professor Shuster.

Dr Nick Neave is a psychologist at the University of Northumbria who has been studying the physical, behavioural, and psychological effects of testosterone.

He suggested men might respond aggressively because they see the other unicycling man as a threat, attracting female attention away from themselves.

"This would be particularly challenging for young males entering the breeding market and thus it does not surprise me that their responses were the more threatening."

“The simplest explanation, he says, is the effect of male hormones such as testosterone.” Hmmm. Glad he stuck to the simplest explanation and didn’t actually get involved on any of that icky research stuff. All that testing and measurement is such a drag.

Headline of the day
Roofing magnate dies in fall from roof (CNN)

Maybe he was fixing a hole where the rain gets in…

Is there anything else we should know?

Astronomers: Asteroid could hit Mars in January
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Mars could be in for an asteroid hit.

If the asteroid strikes Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity is exploring.

A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the red planet on January 30, scientists said Thursday.

"These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees.

Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said.

"We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.

If the asteroid does smash into Mars, it will probably hit near the equator close to where the rover Opportunity has been exploring the Martian plains since 2004. The robot is not in danger because it lies outside the impact zone. Speeding at 8 miles a second, a collision would carve a hole the size of the famed Meteor Crater in Arizona.

In 1994, fragments of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smacked into Jupiter, creating a series of overlapping fireballs in space. Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.

"Unlike an Earth impact, we're not afraid, but we're excited," Chesley said.



We think they meant on the head of pin, “Pinhead” being a song by the Ramones. Either way, that’s pretty small.

Nano Bible: Entire Old Testament Written On A Pinhead

ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2007) — In a nanotechnology breakthrough, scientists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have printed the entire Old Testament onto a silicone chip smaller than a pinhead (less than 1/1000th of an inch).

The idea to write the Old Testament on such a tiny surface was conceived by Technion Professor Uri Sivan of the Faculty of Physics, who is also head of the university's Russell Berrrie Nanotechnology Institute.

The text was written using a focused ion beam (FIB) generator that shot tiny particles called Gallium ions onto a gold surface covering a base layer of silicone. In a process that can be likened to digging a hole in the earth using a water jet, the ion beam etched the surface of the gold layer, making the underlying silicone layer visible.

The actual "writing" of the full text took just 90 minutes. The computer program that guided the FIB, however, took more than three months.

"The nano-bible project demonstrates the miniaturization at our disposal," said Sivan. "This research could lead to the creation of more advanced miniature structures -- and imaging -- on a nanometric scale, advances in storing information in very small spaces, and the use of DNA molecules to store information."

The project was managed by graduate student Ohad Zohar and Dr. Alex Lahav, former head of the FIB laboratory in the Technion's Wolfson Microelectronics Research and Teaching Center.

According to the researchers, the nano-bible will now be photographed and expand 10,000 times - and still be small enough to fit into a 75-square foot frame to be hung in the Technion Faculty of Physics. The photograph's size will make it possible to read the entire Old Testament with the naked eye. The height of each letter will be three millimeters. The original nano-bible will be displayed next to the photograph.

“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for anybody to read this thing without a magnifying glass.” Matthew 19:24.


This just in, sitting is not the same as running and pretending to do something is not the same as doing it. Wow, more ground breaking stuff from the U.K.

Active Computer Games No Substitute For Playing Real Sports

ScienceDaily (Dec. 21, 2007) — New generation active computer games stimulate greater energy expenditure than sedentary games, but are no substitute for playing real sports, according to a study in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal.

Young people are currently recommended to take an hour of moderate to vigorous physical exercise each day, which should use at least three times as much energy as is used at rest. But many adolescents have mostly sedentary lifestyles.

Time spent in front of television and computer screens has been linked to physical inactivity and obesity.

The new generation of wireless based computer games is meant to stimulate greater interaction and movement during play, so researchers at Liverpool John Moore's University compared the energy expenditure of adolescents when playing sedentary and new generation active computer games.

Six boys and five girls aged 13-15 years were included in the study. All were a healthy weight, competent at sport and regularly played sedentary computer games.

Before the study, each participant practiced playing both the active and inactive games.

On the day of the study, participants played four computer games for 15 minutes each while wearing a monitoring device to record energy expenditure.

The participants first played on the inactive Project Gotham Racing 3 game (XBOX 360). After a five minute rest, they then played competitive bowling, tennis and boxing matches (Nintendo Wii Sports) for 15 minutes each with a five minute rest between sports. Total playing time for each child was 60 minutes.

Energy expenditure was increased by 60 kcal per hour during active compared with sedentary gaming.

However, energy expenditure during active gaming was much lower than authentic bowling, tennis and boxing, and was not intense enough to contribute towards the recommended amount of daily physical activity for children.

When translated to a typical week of computer play for these participants, active rather than passive gaming would increase total energy expenditure by less than 2%.


Enjoy the holiday weekend. The Brooklyn Better Science Club will return on 12/27/07. Until then, it's up to you to make science more better for everyone else. Peace out yo, as the kids say.