1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:09,400 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel bomb here with a classic 3 00:00:09,400 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: brain Stuff episode. In this one, we delve into a 4 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: study that aimed to discover whether all of humans ingenuity 5 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:22,360 Speaker 1: really makes us any cleaner than other animals, like, for example, chimpanzees. 6 00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel bomb here, Your parents probably 7 00:00:28,280 --> 00:00:30,760 Speaker 1: spent years yelling at you to clean your room and 8 00:00:30,800 --> 00:00:34,280 Speaker 1: make your bed, and sure, a neatly made bed looks tidy, 9 00:00:34,360 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: but science says that hardly matters. It seems no matter 10 00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: how tight your bed corners are, how many quarters you 11 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: can bounce off that blanket, your bed still isn't as 12 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,839 Speaker 1: clean as a chimpanzee's. Yep, Apparently chips are clean. We 13 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:51,239 Speaker 1: humans are the pigs, which are also quite clean, but 14 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:55,000 Speaker 1: that's a whole other episode. Researchers at North Carolina State 15 00:00:55,040 --> 00:00:58,000 Speaker 1: University compared human beds to the tree top nests that 16 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:01,840 Speaker 1: chimpanzees make for themselves nightly. The scientists weren't looking for 17 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,360 Speaker 1: smooth sheets, though, they were comparing microbes and insects and spiders. 18 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: The lead author on the paper, PhD student Megan Thoemus, 19 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:13,400 Speaker 1: notes that human beds usually contain some of the same 20 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:15,760 Speaker 1: microorganisms that are found in the rest of the house. 21 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:19,080 Speaker 1: She means germs, but she's being nice about it, she 22 00:01:19,120 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: said in a press statement. For example, about thirty of 23 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 1: bacteria in human beds stem from our own bodies, including fecal, oral, 24 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:30,119 Speaker 1: and skin bacteria, which actually, when you put it that way, 25 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: we're not sure as technically nice. Chimpanzees are closely related 26 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: to humans in evolutionary terms, so though i us in 27 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: her team wanted to see if the chimps beds were 28 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: filled with similar bacteria and bugs as humans beds, the 29 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,760 Speaker 1: answer turned out to be no. The team swabbed forty 30 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:50,480 Speaker 1: one abandoned chimp beds located in trees in Tanzania to 31 00:01:50,680 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: look for microbes. They also vacuumed fifteen of those nests 32 00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: to pick up any tiny critters like parasitic insects and spiders. 33 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:00,720 Speaker 1: What they found was a far more verse group of 34 00:02:00,760 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: microbes in the chimp nests, which makes sense because the 35 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:06,920 Speaker 1: nests are outdoors and the microbes reflect what you'd expect 36 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:10,919 Speaker 1: to find in the forest where chimpanzees live. But researchers 37 00:02:10,919 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: did not find nearly as much fecal, oral, or skin 38 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: bacteria as they did in the human beds, only about 39 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,440 Speaker 1: three point five percent, which was a surprise. The chimp 40 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: nests also had no insects or spiders, though the team 41 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,240 Speaker 1: expected to see some parasitic species in the nests, but no. 42 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: Tho Emma said there were only four ectoparasites found across 43 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,560 Speaker 1: all the nests we looked at, and that's four individual specimens, 44 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: not four different species. Granted, chimps do build new nests 45 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:45,120 Speaker 1: every night, and they are careful defecators, but fecal matter 46 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:48,079 Speaker 1: does build up in chimp for so the researchers expected 47 00:02:48,120 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: to find more of it than they did, even in 48 00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:54,280 Speaker 1: freshly built nests. The Emma said, this work really highlights 49 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:56,880 Speaker 1: the role that man made structures play in shaping the 50 00:02:56,919 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: ecosystems of our immediate environment. In some ways, our attempts 51 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:04,120 Speaker 1: to create a clean environment for ourselves may actually make 52 00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:14,120 Speaker 1: our surroundings less ideal. Today's episode is based on the 53 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 1: article your bed has more poop than the Chimps on 54 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,440 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com, written by Kristen hall Geisler. 55 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership 56 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:24,080 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works dot com and it's produced by 57 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:27,640 Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. Before more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the 58 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:30,480 Speaker 1: I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen 59 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:31,480 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.