WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Are Chimps Cleaner Than Us?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel bomb here with a classic

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff episode. In this one, we delve into a

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<v Speaker 1>study that aimed to discover whether all of humans ingenuity

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<v Speaker 1>really makes us any cleaner than other animals, like, for example, chimpanzees.

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel bomb here, Your parents probably

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<v Speaker 1>spent years yelling at you to clean your room and

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<v Speaker 1>make your bed, and sure, a neatly made bed looks tidy,

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<v Speaker 1>but science says that hardly matters. It seems no matter

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<v Speaker 1>how tight your bed corners are, how many quarters you

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<v Speaker 1>can bounce off that blanket, your bed still isn't as

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<v Speaker 1>clean as a chimpanzee's. Yep, Apparently chips are clean. We

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<v Speaker 1>humans are the pigs, which are also quite clean, but

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<v Speaker 1>that's a whole other episode. Researchers at North Carolina State

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<v Speaker 1>University compared human beds to the tree top nests that

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<v Speaker 1>chimpanzees make for themselves nightly. The scientists weren't looking for

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<v Speaker 1>smooth sheets, though, they were comparing microbes and insects and spiders.

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<v Speaker 1>The lead author on the paper, PhD student Megan Thoemus,

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<v Speaker 1>notes that human beds usually contain some of the same

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<v Speaker 1>microorganisms that are found in the rest of the house.

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<v Speaker 1>She means germs, but she's being nice about it, she

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<v Speaker 1>said in a press statement. For example, about thirty of

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria in human beds stem from our own bodies, including fecal, oral,

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<v Speaker 1>and skin bacteria, which actually, when you put it that way,

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<v Speaker 1>we're not sure as technically nice. Chimpanzees are closely related

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<v Speaker 1>to humans in evolutionary terms, so though i us in

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<v Speaker 1>her team wanted to see if the chimps beds were

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<v Speaker 1>filled with similar bacteria and bugs as humans beds, the

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<v Speaker 1>answer turned out to be no. The team swabbed forty

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<v Speaker 1>one abandoned chimp beds located in trees in Tanzania to

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<v Speaker 1>look for microbes. They also vacuumed fifteen of those nests

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<v Speaker 1>to pick up any tiny critters like parasitic insects and spiders.

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<v Speaker 1>What they found was a far more verse group of

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<v Speaker 1>microbes in the chimp nests, which makes sense because the

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<v Speaker 1>nests are outdoors and the microbes reflect what you'd expect

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<v Speaker 1>to find in the forest where chimpanzees live. But researchers

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<v Speaker 1>did not find nearly as much fecal, oral, or skin

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<v Speaker 1>bacteria as they did in the human beds, only about

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<v Speaker 1>three point five percent, which was a surprise. The chimp

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<v Speaker 1>nests also had no insects or spiders, though the team

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<v Speaker 1>expected to see some parasitic species in the nests, but no.

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<v Speaker 1>Tho Emma said there were only four ectoparasites found across

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<v Speaker 1>all the nests we looked at, and that's four individual specimens,

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<v Speaker 1>not four different species. Granted, chimps do build new nests

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<v Speaker 1>every night, and they are careful defecators, but fecal matter

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<v Speaker 1>does build up in chimp for so the researchers expected

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<v Speaker 1>to find more of it than they did, even in

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<v Speaker 1>freshly built nests. The Emma said, this work really highlights

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<v Speaker 1>the role that man made structures play in shaping the

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<v Speaker 1>ecosystems of our immediate environment. In some ways, our attempts

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<v Speaker 1>to create a clean environment for ourselves may actually make

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<v Speaker 1>our surroundings less ideal. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article your bed has more poop than the Chimps on

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<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com, written by Kristen hall Geisler.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how Stuff Works dot com and it's produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. Before more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the

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