Can Science Explain Public Outbursts?

September 14, 2009

Nothing new about people behaving badly in public – but lately, news headlines seem dominated by sensational stories of outbursts and temper tantrums. 

Tennis star Serena Williams verbally attacking a line judge during the U.S. Open – costing her the match. 

Congressman Joe Wilson shouting “you lie!” at President Obama during President's health care address last week – leaving political decorum on the House floor.

Musician Kanye West climbing on stage to dispute the results of an MTV Video Music Award – humiliating winner Taylor Swift. 

And this was just in the past week! 

I spoke to University of Maryland psychology professor Michael Dougherty to find out if there’s more than just big egos or bad tempers behind these raw moments.

Dougherty says that our brain’s highly developed prefrontal cortex is what helps us control our mental processes… most of the time. But even the occasional outburst is pretty normal human behavior.

The only difference is most of us aren’t pop music stars, pro athletes or politicians. So that little meltdown you had in your car when the driver on your left cut you off? Yeah… that’s not all over YouTube. 

But could this breakdown in social niceties be explained as vestigial behavior carried over from when early man was in constant fight or flight mode?

That’s still probably no excuse for anyone who's ever thrown a chair across a basketball court or yelled at their colleague. But let’s face it, we're emotional creatures, and sometimes they do get the better of us. 

Of course, not every tantrum has to do with stress or fear…

Hmmm... who does that bring to mind?

(Photos: Getty Images)

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Monkey Music and Metallica

September 02, 2009

Check out this article about monkey music by Jennifer Viegas:

Non-human animals usually prefer silence to our music. However, when cotton-top tamarins heard songs based on their own calls, the diminutive, fluffy primates listened with interest to the monkey music, which even altered their moods, according to a new study.

Here are monkey music samples composed by David Teie used in this research:

Monkey Threat Music!

Monkey Soothing Music!

So how does Metallica fit into the mix? Apparently that was the only human music that soothed the Monkey. If we're talking the guitar solo in Master Of Puppets...I can see their point...it starts at 3:55.

Best. Math Trick. Ever.

May 29, 2008

Thanks to listeners Will and Susie from New York for sharing this excellent math trick.  I can’t tell you why I think this is so neat, but I really think this is so neat.

Says them: “You can use your fingers to figure out the nine (9) times tables. Say, for example, you forgot 9x6. With both of your hands open, hold down the sixth finger from the left. You will have five fingers to the left of the folded finger and four fingers to the right; 54!”

By the way, it doesn't work if you include your toes and go for 9 x 11. I tried and the math went horribly wrong.

Greetings Feedbag Devotees and Those Who Otherwise Happened Upon This FeedBlog

December 11, 2007

For Those Who Otherwise Happened Upon This FeedBlog, the Friday News Feedbag is a Discovery Channel podcast that reviews some of the more interesting science news of the week, as explored by James Williams (Discovery News Reporter), Jorge Ribas (Discovery News Reporter) and Will Johnson (Discovery Podcast Master).  You can subscribe to it by visiting the Discovery Channel's section on iTunes or grabbing it from here. It's free and informative and it'll give you things to discuss at cocktail parties when everyone else wants to discuss the weather and you're like "Anyone else seen a beating heart cell?"

So why blog about it?

Every week as Jorge and I (James) research our stories to present to Will on the Friday News Feedbag, we often come across news that might be interesting or otherwise helpful to the Feedbag Nation, but don’t quite cut the mustard in terms of being presentable on the podcast.  We feel we’d be remiss if we didn’t let our listeners in on such important tips such as How Long To Shower In Winter.  Without that bit of knowledge you might end up with really, really, really dry skin, and nobody wants that.  Except these little dudes.

They'd probably love it.

To that end we’ve started up this FeedBlog to keep you up to date on some of the breaking science news that you might otherwise never hear. 

We’ll also use this space to link to video clips mentioned on the podcast as well as video stories we’ve produced at Discovery News that we feel are worth watching.  Like clips of a beating heart cells, for example.