SciTechBits – Interesting Bits of Science & Technoglogy Served For You!

When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford was caught red-handed returning from a tryst with his Argentine mistress last June, he told the Associated Press that he had met his “soul mate.” His choice of words seemed to suggest that having a deep emotional and spiritual connection with Maria Belen Chapur somehow made his sexual infidelity to his wife Jenny Sanford less tawdry.

What the two-timing governor didn’t understand is that most women view emotional infidelity as worse, not better, than sexual betrayal. This may explain why Hillary Clinton stayed with Bill Clinton and seemed unconcerned about his sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky. Research has documented that most men become much more jealous about sexual infidelity than they do about emotional infidelity. Women are the opposite, and this is true all over the world. The prevailing theory is that the difference has evolutionary origins: Men learned over eons to be hyper-vigilant about sex because they can never be absolutely certain they are the father of a child, while women are much more concerned about having a partner who is committed to raising a family.

Ask anyone who suffers from migraine headaches what they do when they’re having an attack, and you’re likely to hear “go into a dark room.” And although it’s long been known that light makes migraines worse, the reason why has been unclear.


Now scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have identified a new visual pathway that underlies sensitivity to light during migraine in both blind individuals and in individuals with normal eyesight. The findings, which appear today in the Advance On-line issue of Nature Neuroscience, help explain the mechanism behind this widespread condition.

A one-sided, throbbing headache associated with a number of symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, and fatigue, migraines are notoriously debilitating and surprisingly widespread, affecting more than 30 million individuals in the U.S. alone. Migraine pain is believed to develop when the meninges, the system of membranes surrounding the brain and central nervous system, becomes irritated, which stimulates pain receptors and triggers a series of events that lead to the prolonged activation of groups of sensory neurons.

What would work best against digital piracy, in a country which is culturally very different from the States? This was the question, researchers wanted to address. To no surprise, just as in US, legal options against the pirates do not help at all, but two other factors seem to significantly help.


In a developing Gulf country filled with moderate and conservative Muslims, piracy is just a very normal affair. Pirated CDs and DVDs could be easily obtained, though not on public display after recent pressure from US through WTO etc. The cultural differences between this country and USA are well documented and are several folds. This raised the question to the researchers, if this cultural change will give a different way to approach the fight against digital piracy.

In a business college in Kuwait, researchers recruited 12 classes of students (319 students). They were then split into four groups with each group consisting of a freshman, a sophomore and a junior level class in it. All groups were given a pre-questionnaire at the beginning of the semester, which evaluated their intention to pirate in the near future. At the ending of the semester, except for one group (control group) every other group got a treatment (a statement being read in the class). The legal/law group was informed about the new laws/regulations/enforcements of new laws related to digital piracy. The religion group was informed about a new edict/fatwa which considers digital piracy to be immoral from a religious point of view. The last group, awareness group was informed about the consequences of piracy. Upon the “treatment”, all of the groups were administered the post-questionnaire, which again evaluated their intention to pirate in the near future.

A group of researchers attempted to see “Are people really aroused physiologically when their mind thinks so”. The answer to this question showed clear difference between the sexes. Men really mean it, while women do not.

Human sexual response is a complex of physiological, emotional and cognitive responses. Researchers identified 134 previous studies which dealt with similar research, to perform a meta-analysis. This included 2,500 women and 1,900 men. The participants were exposed to various sexual stimuli and were asked how aroused they felt. At the same time their physiological reaction (erection for men and genital blood flow for women) was measured.

Statistical analysis showed that men were able to clearly sync their mind with the body ie., when they told they were horny, their penis was really erect, however women often reported of being horny, while the physiological measure did not match it.

However, this measurement was done at different time points. When measured during the participants were receiving the stimuli, there was no significant difference between the sexes. The difference was when the participants were asked to rank their arousal at the end of the stimuli.

The researchers believe that, accurate measurement of arousal will play a significant part in the improvement of sexual science.

So guys, she is not only faking her orgasm, she doesn’t even know if she is horny at all!

Journal Reference: doi:10.1007/s10508-009-9556-9