WEBVTT - Ig Nobel Prizes 2018: Part 2 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.840 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.840 --> 0:00:14.360 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.160 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:20.079 and we're back with part two of our ig Nobel 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:25.119 Prize Recipients episode. I was gonna say, if you haven't 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:26.920 heard part one, you need to go back and listen 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:28.880 to that first, but you don't really. I mean, you 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:30.640 should go back and listen to it, but you can 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.279 understand this episode without hearing that one. That's right. We're 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.000 just covering all the winners across two episodes. Ultimately, it 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.440 doesn't matter which order you take them in. Uh. Though, 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.760 the top of the first episode has just a brief 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:44.080 section where we talk about what the ig Nobel Prizes are, 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.960 So if you're if you're not sure on that, I 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:49.519 would recommend checking that little bit out. But have you've 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:51.360 been listening to the show for years, you know that 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.840 we continually do this. We do this pretty much every November, 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:57.960 sometimes in October, but generally it's a November situation where 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.280 we catch back up see uh what the previous months 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:06.120 or technically September's UH honorees were for the ignoble prizes, 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:08.520 and we just talk about them a little bit. Sometime 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:11.360 the past, we've done, uh, you know, two hosts talking 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:13.440 about it. We've done three hosts talking about it. We've 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:15.400 tried to cover them all on a single episode. We've 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.600 covered them across three episodes. This week it's just Joe 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:21.880 and I and we are doing it in two episodes. 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.400 So some of these descriptions are shorter than others. That 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.240 kind of depends on what kind of meat is on 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.480 the bone. Speaking of if you haven't listened to our 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:32.120 last episode, it had some good stuff about cannibalism, so 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.119 I didn't check that out all right, well, speaking speaking 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:39.240 of meat, though, let's go ahead and jump into biology. Okay, 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.839 the biology prize. I gotta start with a question, Robert. 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.200 You know some people are these what would you call it, 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:50.320 the unbothered eaters, the the cool hand lukes of eating stuff. 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.520 If you're everything bagel falls on the floor, you just 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:55.240 pick it up and eat it. It's just a little 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:57.880 more of everything, right, Robert? Are you like that? Or 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.640 are you somebody who can't can't talk all erate getting 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.120 a few hairs off the floor on your food? Who? 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.840 Uh if I am not going to pick a hair 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.440 off of it. But if I dropped something and it's 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:11.120 just there for a second and the floor looks relatively clean, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:13.919 especially if it's in my own house, then yes, I'll 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.960 probably eat it. I do have limits, though, I mean, 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:19.280 there have been times, especially when I've been places with 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.000 my son, who, especially when he was a little younger, 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:24.959 there was a higher probability that what he was trying 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:28.440 to eat might fall onto the ground. I like, I 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:33.120 particularly remember eating these delicious fish sandwiches in Barbados to 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.040 this place called Kuzzes cutters cutter being the uh the 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.840 boji and I believe slang for a sandwich. But it 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.880 was just like a delicious fish and cheese sandwich with 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.639 some boji and hot sauce, absolutely delightful, and we were 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:48.919 just eating it over just this uh like it was 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:52.760 just you know, like gravel and some bottle caps, and 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.800 it was just on the brink of falling apart in 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.280 my son's hands, and I just I just saw it 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.600 in my mind, like that fish is going to the ground. 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.840 The fish Patty's gonna jump out of the sandwich and 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.680 there's gonna just gonna be no reclaiming it. Luckily, it 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.400 didn't happen, Well, thank the gods for that. That's a 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:11.679 that's a deliverance. But if I were in my own 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:14.120 house and that were to happen, I would say, no, 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:16.520 we're not throwing that fish patty out. We're gonna pick 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:18.200 that up. We're gonna brush it off, and you can 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:20.639 finish it. Okay, Parts two and three coming. Part two. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.840 You're at a restaurant. You find a hair in your soup. 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:24.600 Do you just pick it out and keep eating the 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.960 soup or do you eat the hair or do you 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.960 abandon the bowl completely? I think I have. I have 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:34.280 a pretty good ability to quickly remove a hair and 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:36.720 and almost kind of delete the memory of it occurring 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.480 and keep going, especially as long as it's you know, 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:42.360 relatively good. If if the food was already offending me, 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.080 I don't know, it might be different. Yeah, you like 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:47.800 men in black pin yourself. It's just like it's wiped clean. 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.120 Didn't not seeing it? Now, didn't see it. You're just 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:54.040 gonna keep moving. Okay, here's the last one. What if 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:56.560 there's a fly in your glass of wine or your 0:03:56.600 --> 0:03:59.640 cocktail or whatever, do you still drink it? Or is 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.120 the ruined? Has the has the fly simply landed on 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.480 the glass, or is it floating dead in my drink. 0:04:06.320 --> 0:04:08.760 That's a good question. It's let's just say it's in 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:12.160 it's in the liquid. It's in there. Well, once it's 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:14.000 in the liquid, that is kind of gross. I mean, 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.200 you can't help, especially if you're drinking something outside. You 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:20.040 can't help, but have fly or even like a yellow 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:23.200 jacket or something sometimes land on your drink and there's 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:25.600 nothing to be done. If a fly is just floating 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.520 in there, I might have to send it back. Sometimes 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.240 those flies can be disease vectors. Yeah, you don't know 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.279 what they were landing on before this. They might have 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.719 been on sewage. I mean, I think that's that's a 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:38.760 bridge too far from me. Even though it's gross enough 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.839 if one lands on something you're eating or drinking, but 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.720 there's something about the fleeting contact. As gross as it is. 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.039 I can again, I can use the I can delete 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.279 the memory and keep moving. But if I have to 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:52.599 fish the body out of my drink, I don't know. Well, 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:54.760 here's another thing. Have you ever noticed if a fly 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.520 landed in your drink if you could smell it. No, 0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:02.039 I've never noticed that. Well, maybe this is something to 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:05.880 check out next time, because that's what this year's Biology 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:10.280 Prize concerns. So the the paper in question here is 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:14.120 called The Scent of the Fly by Paul Betcher, Sebastian 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.000 le Breton, Erica Wallen, Eric Headenstrom, Philippe Berrero, Echo, Verry, 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:28.160 Marie Bankson, Vulcar Jorger, Peter witzkall, oh, that's the whole list. Sorry, congrats. 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.120 I would have just at all the crap out of 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.560 that one. Oh man, I probably should have. But yeah, okay, 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:37.520 so I've got a new word for you, Robert simio chemicals. 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.560 Heard that one, simio chemicals. Okay, it just means chemicals 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:47.440 used for communication, like semiotics, signs study of science sending communications. 0:05:47.440 --> 0:05:50.240 So the authors of this study point out that all 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:54.279 living things communicate by way of chemicals, quote, unlike sounds 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:59.240 or sites, simio chemicals interconnect species across kingdoms and enable 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:04.080 information exchange between animals, plants, and microorganisms. And I think 0:06:04.080 --> 0:06:07.839 there's some indication that's true, like that they're chemical signals 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.239 that allow your body to communicate with your microbiome. Yeah, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.840 all right, or maybe I'm going on on on in here, 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:15.840 but I mean it seems like Some obvious ones would 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:21.760 be the smell of rotting flesh or rotting organic material, right, 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.880 kind of sends a signal across a species. Yes, you're 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.240 communicating in a way with the bacteria that are consuming 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:31.200 that flesh. And also i'd imagine that the smell of 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.800 something especially sweet, the smell of nectar, etcetera. Right, you 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.280 might be communicating with a plant. Yeah, exactly. So a 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:42.960 fascinating takeaway from this knowledge is that the same one 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:48.240 biocompound maybe bioactive for different species in different ways. In 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:53.279 other words, one semiochemical communicates something to both you and 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.039 some other animals, say your dog or an insect, but 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.760 what it communicates is radically different. And anybody who has 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.680 a dog, in fact, probably is familiar with this because 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:07.679 something that smells repulsive to you smells delicious to your dog. 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:12.320 Uh So, one example is don't you just love the clean, 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:15.960 fresh scent of citrus? You know, it's like it's a 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.600 very calming smell that makes you feel like everything is 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.239 spick and span. Yes, unless it's actual spick and span. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.040 You know, I don't know actual spickin span. Spickin span 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.880 is a cleaning product, right, which is yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:31.920 that's right, but it does this touches on one of 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.440 the key differences for me. If it's legitimate citrus, yes, 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.200 it's beautiful. I love the smell. But if it's something 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:41.960 that it is, like a fake lemon smell, then there's 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:46.120 something unnatural about that. Well, did you know I actually 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:48.320 came across the paper while I was reading about this 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:51.600 that found that, like the title of it was something like, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:57.000 lemon fresh scent causes flies to lay eggs. It's a 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.320 lemon fresh scent. It's a chemical cue that says to you, ah, 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.320 this place is clean and delightful, unless maybe it's the 0:08:04.120 --> 0:08:06.840 synthetic smelling kind that you don't like. But so this 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:08.880 one might be why the fly would be seeking out, 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:11.760 say my tiki drink. Yeah, it's got a lemon fresh scent. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.320 It says to the flies, lay your eggs here, this 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.080 is a great place. And this is probably because the 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:24.680 vinegar fly Drosophila melana gaster prefers to deposit its eggs 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.680 in the peel of citrus fruit as long as yeast 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.760 is present there. And so this particular study, the the 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:35.040 Ignoble winning study, focuses on a compound called Z four 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:39.920 undescinal or Z four eleven a L undicinel or dc 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.720 aldehyde is an organic compound that can be found in 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.800 citrus oils. So Z four eleven a L you can 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.120 associate it with with a kind of citrus peel, clear, 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.120 oily liquid kind of thing, And it is one of 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.320 these volatile compounds that plays a role in the life 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:00.600 of multiple organisms. In vinegar flies, Z four or eleven 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.560 a L is produced by females and it seems to 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:07.160 play a role in the attraction of male mates. But 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.280 Z four eleven a L is also bioactive in other organisms. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:14.080 For example, Z four eleven a L is produced in 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:18.119 the anal glands of male rabbits such as the European 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:21.679 wild rabbit. And it's got a mini splendored scientific name 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:26.559 or ricto legas coniculus. Yeah, that's like it. That should 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.440 be a bond villain name. And so experts believe this 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.559 volatile compound might play some role in territorial marking uh. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:36.240 And one reason for thinking that is that, like studies 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:38.839 have found that when you have other male rabbits smell 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.360 this compound, their heart rates shoot up, maybe like oh, 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:47.240 there's another dude around here. Not having a um. A 0:09:47.360 --> 0:09:49.920 related similar scent has also been found to emanate from 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.040 the colonies of a c bird called the crested auklet, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.920 which is Ethia Christa tella. And this scent has been 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.720 tracked to two associated alde hydes. It's not exactly the same, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.000 it's not Z four eleven a L, but it's the 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:08.360 chain shortened analog Z four decinal as Z four ten 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:12.360 a L and Z two decinal and researchers think that 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.679 these smells function as a parasite repellent and an advertisement 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.880 of mate quality. Another another interesting link, like we've talked 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:23.960 about before, between mating advertisements and the avoidance of parasites. Right, 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:26.760 sometimes when you're showing off how good of a mate 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:28.360 you are, what you want to show is I got 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:30.760 no parasites on me. Look and see. Oh and I 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.760 also just included an image of what crested auklets look 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.200 like because they look really funny. Oh yeah, they're they're beautiful. 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.120 They're are some beautiful birds. And if you want to 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.280 check out a picture of them again, that the spelling 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.800 on that auklet is a u k l et. Yeah, 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:49.040 they've got um so they've got crests like sort of 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.200 mohawks going out of I don't know what you'd call 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.080 that part of the face, the bridge of the nose 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.040 over the beak, uh that like shoot out forward and 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:01.600 then they've got really funny google there are like googly 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:06.360 eyes those eyes. But anyway, but so back to the compound. 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.240 We're talking about Z four eleven a L. But the 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.760 funny thing this study found is that apparently humans are 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:15.480 also highly sensitive to the smell of this particular compound. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:18.000 So it comes out of rabbit anal glands, it comes 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:23.080 out of auklets, but humans also find significant the smell 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.920 of Z four eleven a L, even in tiny quantities. 0:11:25.960 --> 0:11:29.800 And thus humans are highly sensitive to the smell of 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:32.760 the female fruit flies or not fruit flies. Actually they're 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.520 often called fruit flies, but technically they are vinegar flies 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.160 vinegar flies that produce it. And there was an experiment 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.400 that proved this. It was a wine tasting. So you've 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.240 got eight members in the study. That was two women 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:49.040 and six men who were trained wine assessors, wine experts. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.040 You know that those people the smela types who I 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:56.000 think they worked in the wine industry assessing wines in Germany, 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.800 and each sample the aroma of multiple randomized glasses across 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.240 a few tests. So across the different tests, these glasses 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.760 contained either nothing in the control condition, or the scent 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.720 of a female fly, which produces the compound, the scent 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.400 of a male fly, which does not produce the compound. 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.560 Various amounts of synthesized like lab made Z four eleven 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:21.480 a l uh tested against a background content of nothing, 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.600 water or white wine. I believe it was a dry 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:29.040 Pinot blanc from and the results were that tasters could 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.280 strongly detect the smell of a single female fly or 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:35.839 the presence of isolated Z four eleven a l in 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.680 the glass. It was even perceptible at one nanogram that's 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:43.080 one billionth of a gram per glass. So even at 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:47.040 the smallest concentrations, the compound was described as unpleasant and 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.840 as an off flavor. At higher concentrations it was perceived 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:54.480 as a loud off flavor. And so the author's right quote. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:58.000 This supports the observation that one fly spoils a glass 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:00.720 of wine after falling into it. I did. It is 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.040 of the female sex, so it wouldn't just be the 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:07.480 conceptual gross out of having a fly fall in your wine. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:09.959 You wouldn't have to think through, Oh this could be 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.480 a disease vector, or oh it's grossing me out for 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.240 this reason or another. Just if it's a female fly, 0:13:15.520 --> 0:13:18.400 just the smell of it could be repellent enough that 0:13:18.480 --> 0:13:20.840 you would detect it and you would find the glass 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:25.680 revolting afterwards. Interesting. So that's the funny part of the study. Obviously, 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.960 you've got wine wine tasters like sniffing glasses with flies 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:33.319 in them, right, and everybody loves up. I mean, anytime 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.080 there's a scientific article about wine or wine tasting, uh, 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.000 people tend to read it, even if it's relatively unamusing. 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:44.599 But I actually would love to do another episode in 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:48.560 the future just on wine and wine tasting, and not 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:50.640 only the like the biological aspects, but of course the 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:53.559 psychological aspects. We have an older episode of stuff to 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.120 blow your mind that went into it a little bit, 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.480 but I feel like didn't really give the the the 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:04.439 importance of of of priming and the psychological weight of 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.440 of wine tasting. You know, your expectations, the story that's 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.040 told about it, etcetera. I would be more than happy 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:13.520 to come back to that. Uh. So that's the funny part. 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:17.240 The funny part is them sniffing flies. The interesting question, though, 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:21.200 is why why are humans so sensitive to Z four 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.400 eleven A l It's this compound that's very relevant to 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.160 the lives of these vinegar flies. Right, So, if you're 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:31.280 a drosophila, this this compound is super important to your 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:35.640 mating process. But why do humans find it repellent in 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.080 food consumption contexts? The answer to this question is not 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.920 currently known. It's not clear that this compound is of 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:46.680 any biological significance to humans. So the author's hypothesized, well, 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.080 let's see what could be the reasons. Maybe it's reminiscent 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.760 they say, of quote other food alde hides, so like 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.600 our sensitivity to it could be part of a general 0:14:56.720 --> 0:15:01.120 food hunting olfactory package. But then again, why would it 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.760 repel us in the context of wine? And we know 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.360 that sometimes some food smells can be attractive in one 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:12.720 context and repellent in another, like certain smells associated with cheese. Right, Yeah, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:14.880 there have been some wonderful studies that have shown that 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:16.920 if you smell the same thing, if you're told that 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.240 it's a shoe, you'll be grossed out. If you're told 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:22.880 that it's it's a cheese, then you'll run grab some crackers. Delicious, Yeah, 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.480 And I suspect that same smell which would seem to 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.480 be delicious on a cheese, if you smelled it on, like, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:32.160 I don't know, a bunch of strawberries or something, you 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.480 would probably think something was wrong with them. You'd be 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.200 grossed out. But I don't know that that's just my 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:42.200 I'm supposing. But then again, they also hypothesize. The authors 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:44.920 do that the human sensitivity could exist in order to 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.800 quote avert ingestion of fruit that is infested with vinegar flies, which, 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:51.760 as we were talking about earlier, can of course be 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.080 covered in microbes and can easily be a disease vector. 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.520 But at this time we just don't know the answer. 0:15:57.560 --> 0:16:01.400 We don't know why this smell is so salient to humans. 0:16:01.440 --> 0:16:03.400 You would think there need to be a reason for that, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:06.200 but we don't know what it is. Also, the authors 0:16:06.200 --> 0:16:08.240 note that Z four eleven a L is of course 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.800 found in citrus essential oils. For example, it's part of 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:14.120 the smell of clementines, and the authors point out that 0:16:14.160 --> 0:16:17.040 it could play a double role in signaling, not just 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:19.240 as a sign of food, but as a sign of 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.040 of social significance. For example, mate location or territory marking 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.520 in not just flies, but other animals as well, coming 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.560 back to this theme that the same compound that's uh, 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.120 that's very significant to one animal could be significant but 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:35.720 have a totally different meaning to a different animal. And 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.320 ultimately the authors proposed at the end that they just 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:41.280 want more research to provide a deeper understanding sort of 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:45.320 of the the ecology of smells, the way volatile compounds 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.720 connect different organisms to one another, and they write quote 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:53.760 a future challenges to extend functional behavioral, ecological, and phylogenetic 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.200 studies to include vertebrates toward an understanding of the chemical 0:16:57.320 --> 0:17:01.840 vocabulary that interconnects us with other living things. This is 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:05.399 a great um uh prize winner for the Igno Bells. 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:09.120 I think because it touches on tours for for starters, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:14.560 it has that obvious, funny mental image of someone smelling 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.520 the wine and saying, there's a fly in this. But 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.720 then it does get into this, like the deeper roll 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:25.000 of these chemical signals and and the mystery of exactly 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.080 why they're setting us off like this. Uh, there there's 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.600 a mystery to it. Yeah. I liked this one a lot. Alright, 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:32.040 on that note, we're gonna take a quick break and 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.840 when we come back we will look at another two 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:41.320 thousand eighteen Ignoble Prize winner. Than alright, we're back, al right, 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:45.520 So I'm I want to talk about the Reproductive Medicine Prize. Okay, 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.200 So this I like how they have a special category 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:53.600 for reproductive medicine because stuff in there. Yeah, yeah, because there, 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.320 it's gonna be a lot of essentially a lot of 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:58.760 penis jokes, I think are the typical winners. I'm gonna 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:01.240 have to look back at some past winner is to 0:18:00.920 --> 0:18:03.320 to make sure that's the case, but it's certainly the 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:08.479 case with with this particular winner. The title of the 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.840 study that is honored is Nocturnal penile uh to me 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:16.840 essence monitoring with stamps stamps like postage stamps, Yes, with 0:18:16.920 --> 0:18:19.720 postage stamps kind you get in the post office exactly. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:22.720 And this is was published in Neurology back in nineteen 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.960 eighty by authors that Barry blank In Boulou. So for 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:29.520 this one, we're gonna have to talk a little bit 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:34.200 about nocturnal penile too me essence or mpt is. It's 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:37.480 also known exactly what is this this is? Of course 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.439 morning would is that's kind of the colloquial term, right. Uh, 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.040 this is the common sling for it. This is often 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:50.439 this is experienced by males, a waking and perhaps unexplained erection. Now, 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:53.560 the interesting thing, of course, is that the stiffening of 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.160 the member in question is not the work of devilish 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.879 succubi or experimenting aliens. I'm sure have been blamed over 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.639 the years. So yeah, I think that obviously we just 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:05.520 think of it. You have say, particularly if you have 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:10.000 a pious individual, someone who is due to their particular 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:13.840 religious thinking, you know, ab whore the temptations of the 0:19:13.880 --> 0:19:18.280 flesh and um, you know, are staving off their their 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.160 primal hunger. What what does it mean when they're waking 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:24.440 up in the night or in the morning with a 0:19:25.000 --> 0:19:29.640 full erection like fully physic physiologically aroused. Uh, and had 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:31.520 to be a demon. It must be a demon. And 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.640 then of course in some cases there has been nocturnal emission, 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.880 there has been discharge, so it seems like some sort 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.960 of act has taken place, perhaps two. This is coupled 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.359 with dreams, so we have all sorts of of human 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:45.800 complexities that are layered on top of that that can 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:48.880 lead to some confusion. But but of course it's it's 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:51.480 none of these things. It's not the work of the devil, etcetera. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.800 In fact, you know, a healthy male experiences up to 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.720 five I've seen as high as like, I've seen three 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.399 to six also as a figure, but to say five 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.199 or six of these a night as part of his 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:07.080 regular R E. M. Sleep. In fact, m pt s 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:10.760 are so normal that doctors test for them when diagnosing 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.560 erectile dysfunction because you know, think of it. If these 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.600 directions occur on their own during the night, then the 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:23.920 patient's waking problem is likely a psychological rather than physiological. Yeah, 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.080 that makes sense. Yeah, Now you might be wondering the 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:29.720 why do they why do they happen at all? Good question. Yeah, Well, 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:33.600 since they occur during the rim cycle, there's always the 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:38.320 potential for sexually charged dream tie in, but it's not necessary. 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.280 The main IMPT theories actually have nothing to do with 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.919 dreams at all. Rather that the body maybe oxygenating the 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.320 penile tissue as a sort and of a sort of 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.440 maintenance procedure, and the stimulant for this is thought to 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:53.280 be the release of nitric oxide by nerve fibers in 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:56.000 the penis. Oh, and then there's also the full bladder 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.119 bladder ankle as well. The two often occur together and 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:01.440 scientists have have taken note of this as well. So, 0:21:01.560 --> 0:21:03.679 for instance, a mail will wake up in the morning 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:06.560 uh there is an erection and at the same time 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:11.199 they perhaps illogically it seems, need to urinate pretty badly 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:15.960 as well. So some theories view uh impt or morning 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.639 wood is the body's anti bed wedding is the one 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:21.199 of the body's anti bed wedding measures and perhaps a 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:25.000 wake up call to the sleeper himself. So this particular 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.679 study study with the stamps, it has to do with 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:30.520 mpt s role in figuring out what's going on with 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.600 erectile dysfunction, not with where the mail is, right, yeah, no, no, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:38.280 the postage is not intended for mailing purposes because but 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.560 again think about it, aside from self reporting, how do 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.080 you figure out if a patient's if a patient has 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.719 experienced and erection during the night, Because so, I mean, 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.280 I guess you could like have them come into a 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:51.560 clinic overnight, right, right, Yeah, you could do some sort 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:53.919 of observation, but you know, there are a couple of 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:56.280 problems with that as costly you're having you're asking them 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.200 to sleep somewhere else, or you're I guess you could 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.600 say you're think about putting somebody in their room to 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.639 watch them sleep. These are just not good solutions, and 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:08.480