The Ed's Up #81

Oxytocin Makes New Mouse Mothers Focus on Cries of Lost Pups

This week: a two-parter of cool science about a much-hyped molecule.  "Bianca Marlin from New York University have shown that when virgin females get a boost of oxytocin, they readily retrieve crying pups, just like experienced mothers. The hormone specifically affects a part of their brain that deals with sounds. It tunes the neurons there to make the cries of lost pups more “socially salient”. These sounds now grab attention, just like a name being spoken across the room in a loud party. Oxytocin makes them pop." (Image: Eddy van 3000)

Through This Chemical Loop, Dogs Win Our Hearts

"Wolves are wild, powerful, and fearsome predators, capable of bringing down even large prey. And yet, tens of thousands of years ago, some wolves started forming close associations with humans. They became more docile. Their bodies changed. They turned into domestic dogs. Today, we share bonds with them that can be as strong as those that tie us to other people. How did this happen? How did we go from fear to friendship? How did dogs start inspiring such genuine feelings of love and affection?" (Image: Geoffrey Fairchild)
 

More good reads

• “Egg freezing is not fertility insurance: It’s the perfect regret machine.” Superb piece by Abby Rabinowitz on the social effects that the mere existence of a new technology can have.
• “The fight has astronomers asking whether a pristine view of the stars trumps the beliefs of people on the ground.” Azeen Ghorayshi on the emotional fight between astronomers and native Hawaiians over the construction of a giant telescope.
• In which the wonderful Nancy Kanwisher shaves her head to explain brain anatomy. Trepanning, next?
• It’s a good story: the world's loneliest whale, singing a song that none of its peers can hear. It may, however, not be true. By Chris Baraniuk.
• As the climate changes and ice disappears, scientists who study ice face an increasingly difficult job, as the subject of their research literally melts away. By Neil Savage. 
• Leonardo da Vinci’s resume is incredible.
• “Centuries of Italian History Are Unearthed in Quest to Fix Toilet”. An amazing story of DIY archaeology by Jim Yardley
• “Yes, especially in the context of digital communications, has come to mean something more like no.” Megan Garber on the linguistics of yes. 
• Redeeming the Sea Lamprey: How a Much-Hated Animal Brings Streams to Life. By Brandon Keim. 
• Could a post-apocalyptic world reboot civilisation without fossil fuels? Lewis Dartnell explores.
• Paige Williams on the incredible journey of an Alaskan totem pole that was stolen by a Hollywood star.
• Will the dams of the Mekong River damn the people who live along it? Michelle Nijhuis investigates.

 

Book recommendation

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick, tells the stories of six people who grew up in North Korea before eventually defecting. From teenagers making use of the unlit nights to flirt, to a mother who watches her family starving in the famine, the book truly captures what it's like to endure this weird, totalitarian regime.

What if the nightmare imagined by George Orwell in 1984 were real? What if you had to live in a country where radio dials were fixed to a single government station? Where the surroundings were entirely black-and-white except for the red lettering of the propaganda signs? Where you were required to keep a large portrait of the president on your living room wall and bow to it on national holidays? Where sexuality was repressed except for purposes of reproduction? Where spies like Orwell’s Thought Police studied your facial expressions during political rallies to make sure you were sincere not only in your speech but your thoughts?
 

More good links will be released in tomorrow's linkfest on Not Exactly Rocket Science.

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And that's it! Thanks for reading.

-Ed