We Have Concerns

Virtual rabbits across Second Life will fall asleep and never wake up, now that the their digital food supply has been shut down by a legal battle. The player-made and player-sold Ozimals brand of digirabbits are virtual pets that players breed and care for in the sandbox MMO, and even need to feed by buying DRM-protected virtual food. But they rely on servers and soon the rabbits will run out of food and enter hibernation. Anthony is very concerned about this, and tries to explain to Jeff why he is.

Researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands surveyed both scientists and highly educated nonscientists and asked them to rate the two categories of people in terms of objectivity, rationality, integrity, open-mindedness, intelligence and cooperativeness. Both groups rated scientists higher on every one of these measures, yet scientists perceived bigger differences between the two groups than laypeople did. Anthony and Jeff discuss the findings and decide whether scientists are able to be rational about themselves.

Fear, for the most part, is controlled by the brain’s amygdalae, but a team of researchers at University College Cork have discovered that the gut microbiome, that collection of bacteria that lives within your digestive system, appears to also have an effect on the response to and processing of fear in mice. Anthony and Jeff discuss what this might mean for humans, and how the biome will be used to alter mental states in the future.

On October 30, 1919, Tony Pizzo arrived in New York City chained to his bicycle. He had pedaled 3,000 miles in five-and-a-half months, attached to his bike by a three-and-a-half-foot chain and handcuffs welded shut around his wrists. All because of a bet. Jeff posits that this fits yet another in the recurring Chronicles of a Badass segments, but does Anthony agree?

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada recently unveiled what is perhaps the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever unearthed. That’s because, 110 million years later, the bones remain covered by the creature’s intact skin and armor. Anthony and Jeff discuss the discovery and what it means for B- and C-list dinosaurs everywhere.

When residents of other countries are asked “What’s a dead giveaway that someone is American?” one trait comes up over and over again: big, toothy grins. Why do Americans smile so much? Anthony and Jeff dive into the research on the topic and decide whether its worth being happy about.

A huge fish covered in ‘tattoos’ has been caught in the Philippines. Where you would expect plain scales, the fish has intricate blue designs of a crown and a shield, lettering and entwined plant leaves instead. But why? Only Jeff and Anthony can possibly unravel this mystery: The mystery of the tattooed fish.

An exhaustive comparison of Neandertals’ injuries to those of people today finds that water tubing and mishaps involving tables, result in top-heavy fracture patterns most similar to those observed on Neandertal fossils. This analysis illustrates just how little modern evidence reveals about ways in which our evolutionary relatives ended up so battered. Jeff and Anthony tackle the question of whether this question is worthwhile at all.

All mammals poop in 12 seconds and there’s an equation for the ‘duration of diarrheal defecation'. All this and more revealed in a new paper from Nobel Prize winning scientists from Georgia Tech. Jeff and Anthony dive deep into poop science, and come out smelling like experts.

A new paper by Kate Sweeny, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, argues there's an upside to worrying. Anthony, a professional-level worrier, agrees, but Jeff needs some convincing.

Researchers have discovered that mole rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen. What is even more astonishing is how they manage it. The mole rats effectively become plants, altering their metabolism so that cells are powered by fructose rather than glucose, a process which requires no oxygen. Anthony and Jeff discuss the usefulness of such an ability and how humans might benefit.

Scientist Federica Bertocchini of the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain discovered a worm that eats plastic bags and leaves behind antifreeze. Jeff and Anthony discuss the potential of this natural solution to the plastic waste problem, and whether that ends up being good or bad for the worms.

For a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from Philadelphia suspended premature lambs, a close animal model for human fetuses, in a special bag filled with lab-made amniotic fluid, allowing them to further develop for four weeks—longer than in past similar attempts. Anthony and Jeff discuss the benefits of artificial wombs and whether they'd like to see what it would reveal.

Researchers in the US say they've created a fluid with negative mass in the lab. What it means is that, unlike pretty much every other known physical object, when you push this fluid, it accelerates backwards instead of moving forwards. Jeff and Anthony try to work through what this means for the universe and for Tru TV's Impractical Jokers.

We don't always have a good sense of why we fight. What pushes us to the point of conflict, when we know it will make us unhappy? And why does it leave us feeling so glum afterward? Jeff and Anthony take a look at findings from the world of psychology to investigate some less-than-obvious answers.