Humans Have a Generous Impulse

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A new study suggests that how cooperative you are depends on how quickly you respond to the situation. David Rand, Harvard University behavioral scientist and lead author of this new study, conducted an experiment where subjects contributed money to a common pool in a computerized game. In the game, subjects were placed in groups of four and given 40 cents each. Each person was then asked how much they individually wanted to contribute to the pool and was told that whatever amount ended up in the pool at the end would be doubled and divided equally amongst the four players.

They found that people that chose quickly donated an average of 27 cents, while those that took longer to contribute averaged 21 cents. In another experiment, some players were told that they had to make their contribution decision in under ten seconds and others were told they had to wait at least ten seconds before making a decision. Researchers found the same results, that those who had to quickly decide gave more while those having more time to think gave less.

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Psychologic research says that the faster choice is always the more intuitive choice. Rand noted that, "If they stop and think about it, they realize, Oh, this is one of those situations where actually I can take advantage of the person and get away with it." Therefore, when people take more time to evaluate the situation, they act against their cooperative impulse and become more selfish.

I chose this article because I thought it was interesting that humans are actually more intuitively cooperative when you'd think they'd be more greedy and selfish. But when you think of situations involving peer pressure it actually makes sense. If a friend is really hounding you to do something or try something and not giving you any time to think, chances are most people just cooperate with them and do what they're asking them to do. But if you just ignore your friend and take the time to think about the consequences of what'd you be doing, I think a lot more people would refuse the friend's offer. So anytime you are in a situation where you really need a friend to do something for you, your best bet would be to give them very little time to think about it! 

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Article: Mulling Over a Decision Makes People More Selfish, Study Suggests
Written by: Helen Fields

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/mulling-over-a-decision-makes-pe.html?ref=hp 

Electronic Noses Can Sniff Diseases

Hossam Haick, a professor at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, has developed a device known as the artificial nose. What is incredible about this nose is that it has the ability to smell cancer from a patient's breath sample. It can even tell you what kind of cancer the person has, whether it be lung, breast, prostate, head/neck tumors, or even non-small cell versus small cell cancer.

Image from The Scientist

The artificial nose does this by processing the volatile organic compounds of a cancer patients breath and compares it to the composition of a healthy person's breath. It has been discovered that different cancers emit different compounds and therefore change the composition of each patients breathe depending on what kind of cancer they have. Haick is very hopeful about this new technology because it is a very simple, inexpensive, non-evasive way to detect cancer.

Image from Google Images

Haick's cancer-detecting artificial nose is still in clinical trials. However, the French company Alpha MOS is producing artificial noses that test for quality control in the food and beverage industry, as well as for detecting contaminants in plastics and packaging manufacturing, for flavor, and for perfume development.

I found this article extremely interesting because, as a person with year-round allergies, sometimes I wish I had a different nose I could snap on to be able to smell again! The fact that scientists out there are doing just that and giving them the ability is detect diseases is absolutely mind blowing to me. With cancer recently taking the lead as the #1 cause of death in America, this could be such a huge step forward to reducing these numbers if we can start to detect cancers early enough at a cheap cost. The greatest part of this is how non-evasive it is; in my mind, I can't see anyone saying they wouldn't try this test as a potential cancer detector. This is a great achievement in the cancer field. With continued research, imagine what scientists will be able to sniff out in the upcoming years..

Article: Get a Whiff of This
Written by: Kerry Grens
http://the-scientist.com/2012/09/01/get-a-whiff-of-this/

There's Room for Tigers

A new field study conducted in Nepal suggests that humans and tigers may be able to live together in peace by "timesharing" their shared territories.

Chitwan National Park. Google Images

Neil Carter, a conservation scientist at Michigan State University conducted the study in Nepal's Chitwan National Park to analyze how humans and tigers coexist. Chitwan is only one of twenty-eight reserves in the world that has the capacity to support more than twenty-five breeding tigresses, which according to Carter, is the smallest number of females needed to maintain genetic diversity. Human activity in Chitwan is widespread and the population is nearly double the size of populations of areas in  other countries where tigers live.

In his study, Carter and his team set up more than 75 "camera traps" along roads and other trails from January-May (dry season) of 2010 and 2011. His results showed that the density of tigers inside and outside the park were not much different and were not affected by human presence. They also discovered that 80% of Chitwan tigers inside the park and 95% of Chitwan tigers outside the park were discovered to be more active during nighttime hours. These numbers are far greater than those of tigers living in Malaysia and Indonesia, where more than half of tigers are spotted during daytime hours.

Photo taken by Carter's camera traps in Chitwan. Google Images

Based on his study, Carter concludes that the shift in activity of the Chitwan tigers has been a positive effect for the existence of tigers in this area. However, this coexistence is also largely influenced by the economic incentives the people of Nepal have to get along with their surrounding wildlife. He concludes that this "timesharing" of territory should be included (when it makes sense) in future conservation plans. This kind of a unspoken compromise between humans and wildlife could help to potentially extend the existence of endangered species throughout the world.

Being students at Clemson University, our class know how important it is to have tiger pride. The number of actual tigers left in this world has decreased in alarming rates over the past few decades. This article is relevant in that it shows we can live in harmony with these creatures if we can learn to compromise with Mother Nature. If we don't, they could soon be gone forever.

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Article: Humans and Tigers Can Timeshare Territory

Written by: Sid Perkins

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/09/humans-and-tigers-can-timeshare-.html?ref=hp