1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. Your parents probably spent years yelling 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:12,959 Speaker 1: at you to clean your room and make your bed, 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:16,800 Speaker 1: and sure, a neatly made bed looks tidy, but science 5 00:00:16,840 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: says that hardly matters. It seems no matter how tight 6 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: your bed corners are, how many quarters you can bounce 7 00:00:22,720 --> 00:00:25,479 Speaker 1: off that blanket, your bed still isn't as clean as 8 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:30,160 Speaker 1: a chimpanzee's. Yep, Apparently chips are clean. We humans are 9 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,280 Speaker 1: the pigs, which are also quite clean. But that's a 10 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: whole other episode. Researchers at North Carolina State University compared 11 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:40,599 Speaker 1: human beds to the tree top nests that chimpanzees make 12 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:44,480 Speaker 1: for themselves nightly. The scientists weren't looking for smooth sheets, though, 13 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: they were comparing microbes and insects and spiders. The lead 14 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: author on the paper, PhD student Megan thoe Ms, notes 15 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:55,880 Speaker 1: that human beds usually contain some of the same microorganisms 16 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: that are found in the rest of the house. She 17 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 1: means germs, but she's being nice about it, she said 18 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:03,840 Speaker 1: in a press statement. For example, about thirty five percent 19 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: of bacteria in human beds stem from our own bodies, 20 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: including fecal, oral, and skin bacteria, which actually, when you 21 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: put it that way, we're not share as technically nice. 22 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:18,319 Speaker 1: Chimpanzees are closely related to humans in evolutionary terms, so 23 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: though I was in her team wanted to see if 24 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: the chimps beds were filled with similar bacteria and bugs 25 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,959 Speaker 1: as humans beds. The answer turned out to be no. 26 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: The team swabbed forty one abandoned chimp beds located in 27 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: trees in Tanzania to look for microbes. They also vacuumed 28 00:01:34,720 --> 00:01:37,280 Speaker 1: fifteen of those nests to pick up any tiny critters 29 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:40,880 Speaker 1: like parasitic insects and spiders. What they found was a 30 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:43,679 Speaker 1: far more diverse group of microbes in the chimp nests, 31 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:46,800 Speaker 1: which makes sense because the nests are outdoors and the 32 00:01:46,920 --> 00:01:49,480 Speaker 1: microbes reflect what you'd expect to find in the forest 33 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:53,800 Speaker 1: where chimpanzees live. But researchers did not find nearly as 34 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: much fecal, oral, or skin bacteria as they did in 35 00:01:56,800 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: the human beds, only about three point five percent, which 36 00:02:00,320 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: was a surprise. The chimp nests also had no insects 37 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:06,960 Speaker 1: or spiders, though the team expected to see some parasitic 38 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,079 Speaker 1: species in the nests, but no, so Emma said. There 39 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,400 Speaker 1: were only four ectoparasites found across all the nests we 40 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:20,000 Speaker 1: looked at, and that's four individual specimens, not four different species. Granted, 41 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: chimps do build new nests every night, and they are 42 00:02:24,080 --> 00:02:27,880 Speaker 1: careful defecators, but fecal matter does build up in chimp 43 00:02:27,960 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: for so the researchers expected to find more of it 44 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: than they did, even in freshly built nests. So Emma said, 45 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: this work really highlights the role that man made structures 46 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: play in shaping the ecosystems of our immediate environment. In 47 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,080 Speaker 1: some ways, our attempts to create a clean environment for 48 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: ourselves may actually make our surroundings less ideal. Today's episode 49 00:02:53,440 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: was written by Kristen hall Geisler and produced by Tyler Klang. 50 00:02:56,680 --> 00:02:59,240 Speaker 1: If you enjoy our show and also wearing T shirts, 51 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:02,079 Speaker 1: check out our online shop at t public dot com 52 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: slash brain Stuff. We've also got a bunch of back 53 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: to school stuff like laptop cases there too, and of course, 54 00:03:08,240 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: for lots more on this and other squeaky clean topics, 55 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:24,679 Speaker 1: check out our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com.