Hello and welcome back to my office for another episode of SciShow News.
First, and update on the historic SpaceX launch to the International Space Station I was talking about a couple
weeks ago: since you last saw me, SpaceX has delayed this mission several times; and now it plans to lift-off
Saturday, May 19th. Fortunately for the six astronauts aboard the ISS, the mission is just to deliver
non-essential supplies, so the crew will just have to get another few days out of those dirty socks and
underwear - whatever - while SpaceX finishes its tests. But so far, so good. SpaceX successfully tested its
Falcon IX rocket at Cape Canaveral on April 30th and, at last report, it was testing software that will guide the
cargo vehicle, Dragon, to dock with the ISS on Day 4 of its mission. This will be just the first of twelve resupply
missions that SpaceX has agreed to conduct for NASA and, provided they pull it off, it'll mark the first time that a
private spacecraft has docked with the ISS or anything else in space for that matter. So, beyond that, though,
where are we headed? Well, the European Space Agency has just announced the target of its next wave of
exploration - and I have to say I'm pretty psyched about it: Next stop! The moons of Jupiter!
Over the course of about ten years, a new ESA probe will give us our closest look yet at some of some of the
most mind-meltingly-awesome bodies in the Solar Sys- NO! That's- wrong kind of body! Sorry. That-that was
Scarlett Johansson. I'm referring here to three of the so-called Galilean moons - Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto -
the leading contenders for extraterrestrial life in our solar system. They're all thought to have water ice and
subsurface oceans. Plus, Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system that has its own magnetic field, which is
handy if you want things to live on you. And Europa is so freaking cool, I just want to talk about it for a long time-
actually I did do that. I did a whole episode on it. The new probe, called Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer - or, JUICE -
just-just that's great. We got the juice! - will measure the thickness of the moons' ice sheets, study the dynamics
of their internal oceans, and, in the case of Europa, identify possible sites for future landings. But... I
wouldn't pop the popcorn for take-off just yet because JUICE isn't scheduled to launch until 2022.
Very sad. Painful almost. And it won't reach the Jupiter metro area until 2030. Still! EEEEEEE!!!!!
If you spent a lot of the past week geeking-out over the supermoon, or what have you,
You probably weren't giving enough thought to sex.
But two new studies have some pretty interesting things to say about human sexual behavior.
The first study was carried out by scientists from three of the world's sexiest countries, as far as I'm concerned:
Spain, Argentina, and the Netherlands.
And they were looking at sex and rivalry in the workplace.
After reviewing questionnaires from 200 people of various ages and in all kind of different careers
The researchers found out that women overwhelmingly felt more jealousy and envy
toward other women who were either more attractive or had more power at work.
Men meanwhile didn't care about either of those things and were only jealous of other guys who had better social skills.
So this might explain some of the reptilian office politics that we've all seen
But the research focused specifically on intrasexual rivalry: how people of the same sex compete to get access to the opposite sex.
Their finding suggested that women feel the need to be not only physically attractive,
but also professionally dominant to appeal to men.
While guys just need to, you know, tell a good fart joke every once in a while.
Sometimes I'm really glad I'm a dude.
So that tells us something about heterosexual behavior, but another study, from Samoa
looks at the controversial link between homosexuality and heridity.
The new research, done by Canadian psychologists, sought to explore what's called the sexual antagonism hypothesis.
This hypothesis suggests that being gay may be at least partially genetic.
Because even if men who are strongly attracted to other men reproduce a lot less
the same trait may exist in the gay man's female relatives, who would then be very attracted to men and who would reproduce much more often.
So, in terms of reproductive success, the families of gay men would basically break even.
To test the hypothesis, the team studied an interesting group of Samoan men, known locally as the fa'afafine.
These are men who display feminine behavior and assume women's roles in Samoan society
and who are typically attracted to other men.
The team looked at the extended families of straight men and of fa'afafine
and found that both maternal and paternal grandmothers of fa'afafine reproduced much more than the grandmothers of straight men.
Previous research had found that the same was true for mothers of the fa'afafine,
leading the scientists to conclude that sexual antagonism was a hypothesis that was at least a
"tenable explanation" for the evolution of male homsexuality.
Controversial topic? Possibly. See discussions in the comments below.
Update: Sunday is Mother's Day, at least here in America, and just in case you forgot
I've got three new facts about motherhood that will make you want to bring your mom breakfast in bed.
First: your mom was only able to give birth to you, at least if she did it naturally, because your skull bones didn't fuse together until you were about 2 years old.
This nifty little human trait allows a fetus' skull to flex as it passes through the birth canal
and leaves room for the explosive growth our brains undergo in early childhood.
This week, a team of anthropologists revealed that this squishy skull trait dates back nearly 3 million years!
Studying the fossil skull of an australopithecine 4-year-old child,
the team found that its bones hadn't finished fusing, indicating that other human ancestors had soft skulls as kids, too.
They also found similar growth patterns in Neanderthals and Homo erectus,
suggesting that the appearance of soft-headed babies coincided with the development of bigger brains.
Second: if your mother breastfed you, there were a lot of benefits,
including helping burn off some of her baby weight, and conveying vital immune system support to you
Unfortunately, she also probably lost a lot of money.
A new study conducted by sociologists in Iowa surveyed 13,000 first-time mothers about how they fed their babies--
with bottles or with breasts--and compared their incomes after giving birth.
Results showed that women who breastfed for more than six months gave up considerable income
compared with short-term breastfeeders and bottle-feeders.
That's because, long-term breastfeeders were most likely to switch to part-time work
or leave the workforce entirely, since it can't exactly take your baby to the office every day
and, like, mom can't be everywhere at once, OK?!
But your mom was probably too nice to say it like that.
Finally: a mother's desire to feel like a good mother is so strong
that it can literally affect how she sees you.
Research done on 280 mothers and their toddlers in Maryland found that the vast majority of moms
could not accurate assess the size and weight of their children.
When asked to select the silhouette that most closely reflected their child's shape,
seventy percent of women could not pick the right one.
In particular, mothers of overweight toddlers were nearly 90 percent less likely to accurately assess their child's size
and they were also more likely to say that they were satisfied with their kid's weight.
Researchers think that this is because women often idealize their children, and also see bigger kids as a sign of successful parenting,
even though bigger obviously does not mean healthier.
Motherhood: it makes you weird!
Thank you for watching this episode of SciShow News. If you have any questions, ideas, or comments you can leave them in the comments below.
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and we'll see you next time for more SciShow News.