January 17, 2017 • 9 mins
Research indicates that gun violence is contagious like a disease. Pregnancy causes measurable changes in the brain. Plus, science tells us how frequently we should wash our bath towels.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to How Stuff Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,
a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works eight
every week, I'm bringing you three stories from our team
about the weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology,
and culture. This week, pregnancy brain is real and researchers
think they know how and why it works. Unrelated science
(00:25):
has an answer for that ever burning question how long
should I go before I wash my bath towel? But first,
a more serious story from our own writer and editor,
Eve's Jeff Cope. A study into the connections among users
and victims of guns has demonstrated the gun violence is
contagious like a disease. Learning more about how this violence
(00:45):
spreads could lead to innovations in preventing it. There were
nearly fifty eight thousand incidents of gun violence in the
United States. The US ranks high list comparing countries rates
of gun deaths, and many of the most deadly mass
shootings in the States occurred in the last several years.
(01:06):
But despite the alarming stats, scientists claim gun violence research
is under published and underfunded compared with other leading causes
of death. That's partially due to n r A backed
legislative restrictions that discourage agencies like the CDC and National
Institutes of Health from using public funds on gun violence research.
A new study makes the case for more research by
(01:28):
showing that gun violence is a public health issue. In
the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from Yale
and Harvard Universities found that gun violence spreads like a
contagious disease through social interactions. They examine the pool of
people arrested from two thousand and six to two thousand
and fourteen in Chicago, a city whose gun violence rates
(01:49):
are above the national average. From that population, researchers identified
cases of death and injury by gunshot. By linking people
who co offended or were arrested together for the same um,
the study authors created a social network of over eleven
thousand episodes of gun violence that affected nearly ten thousand people.
Think of co offending as a vehicle for the disease,
(02:10):
like sex are sharing needles in other epidemics. The researchers
acknowledged that because they use only co offending as a
social tie without considering relationships like friendship or employment, the
study is limited. Based on the social contagion model the
researchers created, sixty three point one percent of the gun
violence incidents in the network were influenced by infectors, who
(02:32):
expose others to the risk of being shot. This suggests
that people are more likely to be shot after associating
with the shooting victim, especially when the interaction involves an offense,
and in true contagion fashion, gun violence even has an
incubation period. On average, the infective subjects of gun violence
were shot one hundred twenty five days after the infector
(02:53):
was shot. The authors ruled out homophily the tendency to
hang out with similar people, as an explanation for the
close social ties of people affected by gun violence. In
other words, these shooting patterns didn't occur because the peers
were already alike, but because one person's behavior rubbed off
on the other. It may seem obvious that we influence
(03:13):
the behaviors and opinions of people were close to, but
efforts system gun violence usually focus on demographics like age, sex,
and neighborhood, which puts extra pressure on disadvantaged minority communities.
In the study, a model that combines social contagion and
demographics performed better at predicting gun violence subjects than the
separate social contagion and demographics models. Because of this, the
(03:36):
authors say that law enforcement and health professionals could better
predict and prevent shootings by considering both factors. This isn't
the first time people have recognized firearm violence as an epidemic,
though in the American Medical Association called it a public
health crisis, and prior research has studied how gun violence
spreads through social relationships. But as gun related crimes in
(03:58):
the debay over stricter gun laws continue, any scientific step
for a better violence for woodsmen is invaluable. Next up,
staff editor Christopher Hasiotis and our freelance writer Laurie L.
Dove bring us the story behind pregnancy brain. If you've
ever known or been a pregnant woman who has become
(04:20):
a bit more forgetful than usual, there's a reason for that,
and the effects last longer than we thought. Perhaps you're
familiar with the so called mom nisia that can occur
during a pregnancy, not to mention the sweeping hormonal, emotional, chemical,
and physical changes both external and in But a new
(04:40):
study published in the journal Natural neuroscience contends the pregnancy
alters regions of the brain for up to two years
after a woman gives birth. Why well, the changes serve
an incredibly useful purpose, aiding a mother's ability to bond
with and give undivided attention to a newborn and just
the newborn. So what actually happened to the brain of
a pregnant mother to be the changes involved the purning
(05:03):
of the size and structure of certain areas of the
brain that process social information, such as the feelings and tensions, thoughts,
or even the beliefs of others. This lets the new
mom put other things on the back burner to help
up the odds of the newborn survival. Using magnetic resonance
imaging or m r I scanning, a team out of
the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain analyzed the brains
(05:25):
of twenty first time mothers before and after their pregnancies,
as well as those of nineteen of their male partners.
The team also looked at a control group of twenty
women who had never been pregnant, as well as seventeen
additional male partners. Over a five year period. The researchers
took m R I scans of the study participants at
regular intervals, and these scans revealed changes in the pregnant
(05:46):
women's brains. Specifically, there was a reduction in gray matter
in the prefrontal and temporal cortexes, which are the areas
that correspond with social cognition and self focused processing. Interestingly,
these deficits did not create a cognitive struggle, but actually
enhance certain functions. The changes to pregnant women's brains as
shown in the scans were so prevalent and so consistent
(06:08):
that scientists could tell whether a woman had been pregnant
before just by looking at a brain scan. Scientists also
could predict a mother's level of attachment to her newborn
based on these brain changes and scans. According to the
studies leads scientist, the findings point to an adaptive process
related to the benefits of detecting the needs of the child,
such as identifying the newborn's emotional state. So if a
(06:30):
new mother in your life seems brusque, distracted, or otherwise
scatter brained, you've got the trial and error process of
evolution to think. Finally, this week, senior editor Katherine Whitburn
and our freelance writer Alia Hoyt delve into some bathroom science.
(06:50):
We all know that our bath towels have limited lifespans
between washes. How often is often enough For many people,
a weekly bath towel change is the norm. After all,
you're cleaned from your nice, hot shower, so how bad
could your towel get? Right? Well, although your body is
(07:10):
feeling delightfully fresh, the average towel collects tens of millions
of dead skin cells, as well as any fungi or
bacteria that survived your scrub down. Since your private parts
also come in contact with your towel, urinary and innal
secretions are also transferred to it. You worse, most toilets
aren't all that far away from the shower, and droplets
(07:32):
of toilet water have been known to reach far and
wide when flushed, leaving your damp hanging towel at risk.
Speaking of damp, every moment that a towel is left
out to dry, it allows germs to multiply unchecked. The
humid atmosphere that's so common to bathroom areas is perfect
for encouraging the growth of mildew and other undesirable stuff,
So don't leave your wet towel on the floor or
(07:54):
scrunched up on the towel bar, hang it spread out
so it can dry completely. Speed up the drying cross
us by opening a window or turning on the bathroom fan.
And if the tallest starts to smell fonki, that means
mildew is a thriving and it definitely needs to go
in the laundry. So because of all those germs, back
to your and mildew, the experts say you should go
no more than three uses without washing your bath towel,
(08:18):
and you should wash it in warm or hot water,
dechargent and some colors safe leach three times. That's all.
Who knew that's a show for this week. Thank you
so much for tuning in, especially Caroline, a fellow huffle puff. Caroline,
my patronis is apparently a Bassett Hound. Further thanks to
(08:39):
our audio producer Dylan Fagan and our editorial liaison Alison
luder Milk. Subscribe to now Now for more of the
latest science news and send us links to anything you'd
like to hear his cover plus a comic book, ear
reading or rereading. I just got into The Walking Dead.
You can send us an email at now podcast at
how stuff works dot com, and of course, for lots
more stories like these, head on over to our home
(09:01):
planet now dot how stuff works dot com MHM
Welcome to How Stuff Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum,
a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works eight
every week, I'm bringing you three stories from our team
about the weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology,
and culture. This week, pregnancy brain is real and researchers
think they know how and why it works. Unrelated science
(00:25):
has an answer for that ever burning question how long
should I go before I wash my bath towel? But first,
a more serious story from our own writer and editor,
Eve's Jeff Cope. A study into the connections among users
and victims of guns has demonstrated the gun violence is
contagious like a disease. Learning more about how this violence
(00:45):
spreads could lead to innovations in preventing it. There were
nearly fifty eight thousand incidents of gun violence in the
United States. The US ranks high list comparing countries rates
of gun deaths, and many of the most deadly mass
shootings in the States occurred in the last several years.
(01:06):
But despite the alarming stats, scientists claim gun violence research
is under published and underfunded compared with other leading causes
of death. That's partially due to n r A backed
legislative restrictions that discourage agencies like the CDC and National
Institutes of Health from using public funds on gun violence research.
A new study makes the case for more research by
(01:28):
showing that gun violence is a public health issue. In
the study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers from Yale
and Harvard Universities found that gun violence spreads like a
contagious disease through social interactions. They examine the pool of
people arrested from two thousand and six to two thousand
and fourteen in Chicago, a city whose gun violence rates
(01:49):
are above the national average. From that population, researchers identified
cases of death and injury by gunshot. By linking people
who co offended or were arrested together for the same um,
the study authors created a social network of over eleven
thousand episodes of gun violence that affected nearly ten thousand people.
Think of co offending as a vehicle for the disease,
(02:10):
like sex are sharing needles in other epidemics. The researchers
acknowledged that because they use only co offending as a
social tie without considering relationships like friendship or employment, the
study is limited. Based on the social contagion model the
researchers created, sixty three point one percent of the gun
violence incidents in the network were influenced by infectors, who
(02:32):
expose others to the risk of being shot. This suggests
that people are more likely to be shot after associating
with the shooting victim, especially when the interaction involves an offense,
and in true contagion fashion, gun violence even has an
incubation period. On average, the infective subjects of gun violence
were shot one hundred twenty five days after the infector
(02:53):
was shot. The authors ruled out homophily the tendency to
hang out with similar people, as an explanation for the
close social ties of people affected by gun violence. In
other words, these shooting patterns didn't occur because the peers
were already alike, but because one person's behavior rubbed off
on the other. It may seem obvious that we influence
(03:13):
the behaviors and opinions of people were close to, but
efforts system gun violence usually focus on demographics like age, sex,
and neighborhood, which puts extra pressure on disadvantaged minority communities.
In the study, a model that combines social contagion and
demographics performed better at predicting gun violence subjects than the
separate social contagion and demographics models. Because of this, the
(03:36):
authors say that law enforcement and health professionals could better
predict and prevent shootings by considering both factors. This isn't
the first time people have recognized firearm violence as an epidemic,
though in the American Medical Association called it a public
health crisis, and prior research has studied how gun violence
spreads through social relationships. But as gun related crimes in
(03:58):
the debay over stricter gun laws continue, any scientific step
for a better violence for woodsmen is invaluable. Next up,
staff editor Christopher Hasiotis and our freelance writer Laurie L.
Dove bring us the story behind pregnancy brain. If you've
ever known or been a pregnant woman who has become
(04:20):
a bit more forgetful than usual, there's a reason for that,
and the effects last longer than we thought. Perhaps you're
familiar with the so called mom nisia that can occur
during a pregnancy, not to mention the sweeping hormonal, emotional, chemical,
and physical changes both external and in But a new
(04:40):
study published in the journal Natural neuroscience contends the pregnancy
alters regions of the brain for up to two years
after a woman gives birth. Why well, the changes serve
an incredibly useful purpose, aiding a mother's ability to bond
with and give undivided attention to a newborn and just
the newborn. So what actually happened to the brain of
a pregnant mother to be the changes involved the purning
(05:03):
of the size and structure of certain areas of the
brain that process social information, such as the feelings and tensions, thoughts,
or even the beliefs of others. This lets the new
mom put other things on the back burner to help
up the odds of the newborn survival. Using magnetic resonance
imaging or m r I scanning, a team out of
the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain analyzed the brains
(05:25):
of twenty first time mothers before and after their pregnancies,
as well as those of nineteen of their male partners.
The team also looked at a control group of twenty
women who had never been pregnant, as well as seventeen
additional male partners. Over a five year period. The researchers
took m R I scans of the study participants at
regular intervals, and these scans revealed changes in the pregnant
(05:46):
women's brains. Specifically, there was a reduction in gray matter
in the prefrontal and temporal cortexes, which are the areas
that correspond with social cognition and self focused processing. Interestingly,
these deficits did not create a cognitive struggle, but actually
enhance certain functions. The changes to pregnant women's brains as
shown in the scans were so prevalent and so consistent
(06:08):
that scientists could tell whether a woman had been pregnant
before just by looking at a brain scan. Scientists also
could predict a mother's level of attachment to her newborn
based on these brain changes and scans. According to the
studies leads scientist, the findings point to an adaptive process
related to the benefits of detecting the needs of the child,
such as identifying the newborn's emotional state. So if a
(06:30):
new mother in your life seems brusque, distracted, or otherwise
scatter brained, you've got the trial and error process of
evolution to think. Finally, this week, senior editor Katherine Whitburn
and our freelance writer Alia Hoyt delve into some bathroom science.
(06:50):
We all know that our bath towels have limited lifespans
between washes. How often is often enough For many people,
a weekly bath towel change is the norm. After all,
you're cleaned from your nice, hot shower, so how bad
could your towel get? Right? Well, although your body is
(07:10):
feeling delightfully fresh, the average towel collects tens of millions
of dead skin cells, as well as any fungi or
bacteria that survived your scrub down. Since your private parts
also come in contact with your towel, urinary and innal
secretions are also transferred to it. You worse, most toilets
aren't all that far away from the shower, and droplets
(07:32):
of toilet water have been known to reach far and
wide when flushed, leaving your damp hanging towel at risk.
Speaking of damp, every moment that a towel is left
out to dry, it allows germs to multiply unchecked. The
humid atmosphere that's so common to bathroom areas is perfect
for encouraging the growth of mildew and other undesirable stuff,
So don't leave your wet towel on the floor or
(07:54):
scrunched up on the towel bar, hang it spread out
so it can dry completely. Speed up the drying cross
us by opening a window or turning on the bathroom fan.
And if the tallest starts to smell fonki, that means
mildew is a thriving and it definitely needs to go
in the laundry. So because of all those germs, back
to your and mildew, the experts say you should go
no more than three uses without washing your bath towel,
(08:18):
and you should wash it in warm or hot water,
dechargent and some colors safe leach three times. That's all.
Who knew that's a show for this week. Thank you
so much for tuning in, especially Caroline, a fellow huffle puff. Caroline,
my patronis is apparently a Bassett Hound. Further thanks to
(08:39):
our audio producer Dylan Fagan and our editorial liaison Alison
luder Milk. Subscribe to now Now for more of the
latest science news and send us links to anything you'd
like to hear his cover plus a comic book, ear
reading or rereading. I just got into The Walking Dead.
You can send us an email at now podcast at
how stuff works dot com, and of course, for lots
more stories like these, head on over to our home
(09:01):
planet now dot how stuff works dot com MHM
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