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

Catnip a member of the mint family popular for getting cats high, much like medical marijuana is often confused with marijuana. Big Cat Rescue, a non profit has recently released a video which shows how Tigers, Lions and the like respond to catnip.



Catnip reaction consists primarily of a unique combination of body rolling and face rubbing and is found to be independent of sex. Cats are usually found to return to the source of catnip about once every two hours to get a new dose. While not every cat reacts, interestingly reacting cats show an increase in attention paid to catnip while showing a decrease to rats. Research has shown that the chemosensory stimulus evoking the catnip reaction is mediated through the main olfactory system. Catnip activates behavioral elements associated with several species-specific behaviors, including sniffing and chewing as associated with oral appetitive behavior, rolling and rubbing characteristic of female sexual behavior, batting the catnip source characteristic of play behavior, and a type of kicking associated with predatory behavior. These behavioral reactions have been said to occur randomly and intermittently.

While it has been documented at several sources that most members of the cat family react to catnip, this is the first time there is a single video (embedded below) which shows the reaction of several members of the cat family reacting to catnip.

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.

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

How different are the dreams of college students today as compared to 40 yrs back? How are men and women’s dreams different? Is there a particular subject dominating the dreams of college students? Who is having more sex in their dreams? Who is shopping more?

This article is based on the research article recently published by Dr. Raymond Rainville and his colleague. Dr.Raymond passed away this October. He was an expert in the study of sleep and dreams, and wrote a volume entitled “Dreams Across the Life Span”. May his soul rest in peace.

Eighty different dream diaries from students attending a course on sleep and dreams where collected from 1997 to 2007, with each diary consisting at least 20 dream reports (2400 dreams). The dreams were then coded. The codes include: food sharing, potential mate, competition, wedding, shopping, pregnancy, male bonding, multiple self-representation, religion/philosophy, and wild vs. pet animal dreams. Also, each dream was categorized as recognizable or anonymous. Wherein, recognizable dreams included either family or friends, while anonymous dreams included strangers.

Using the data collected along with dream data available from 1966 (HVDC), Dr.Raymond and team performed vigorous comparisons in multiple perspectives. We here present you with some of the vital information extracted from these comparisons.

What is the exact influence of genes on mate choices of humans? Does it affect males and females differently? Does the affect change based on whether the mate is for a short term relationship or long term relationship?

It is well known that genes located at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) have a strong influence on human mate choices. The MHC is the densest part of the human genome and plays significant role in the auto immune system of humans. In order to improve the immunity capabilities, the MHC is believed to affect the mate choices, looking out for more a more different/diverse genetic partner, as this brings more new auto immune capabilities to their offspring. However this affect has not been analyzed across different sexes and for different relationship contexts.

Researchers from Australia recruited participants who were told to rate a huge collection of facial photos of the opposite sex for which genetic information was available. The rating was done on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not attractive at all. The rating was done both for a short-term and a long-term relationship. All of the photos were with neutral facial expression and with hair and rest of the body not shown.

Our behavior online is now a primary focus of researchers. One group of researchers believes that, our online behavior is no different to evolutionary behavior, as explained by evolutionary psychology.

Internet behavior is one of the most researched fields in the recent times. However most of the studies have based their research on traditional psychology models, which are good in determining the proximal causes of our online behavior. Researchers from UK are now proposing that our internet behavior is modeled upon evolutionary psychology and suggesting that, such a model would help learn the distal causes of our internet behavior.

Despite the major differences between face to face communication and computer mediated communication, there exist a lot of similarities. To further their claim and motivate fellow researchers, the researchers have made some interesting similarities between typical online behaviors and evolutionary psychology theories. Given below are few of those observations/suggestions. Further research into each of the following, would help us learn, whether we are following our evolutionary psychological behavior, online as well.

Was the spider’s web you found very intricate and shiny? Do you know that this could indicate several things about the spider and it’s apprehension of the environment around it?


Animals are known to use conspicuous visual signals too allure prey or deter predators. Using colors, glossiness, ornaments are some of the well known visual signals. Sometimes the colors are used to advertise to the predators about unpalatability or harmfulness. These signals may have a cost, for example metabolic expenditure and generating the color pigment. Visual signals used to attract prey could also land up attracting predators and thus involves a trade off based on the situation.

Birds spend an average of 9.2% of a day in maintenance behavior and water bathing is an important element of it followed by preening and oiling. Researchers have attempted to decipher if this bathing affects their flight performance and have made some interesting observations.

As a part of their various experiments a group of researchers from UK noticed that, newly caught and handled birds tend to immediately bath in fresh water following the release into a cage. This observation prompted to believe that the bathing followed by preening was done to repair the feathers disrupted by the catching and handling. However proving that would be impossible, as analyzing the feather after the bathing and preening would again disrupt the repaired feathers. So, they tested to see the direct influence of bathing on the flight performance.

Substantiating the quote “The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting”, researchers have concluded to discard an accusation on pornography of a major & undesirable affect.

Kama Sutra – the Indian text dating back to 2nd or 3rd century is one of the most well known oldest “erotic arts”. Pornography – as called today, on becoming popular was banned by various laws until Supreme Court began limiting the censorship only to hard-core pornography (in 1950s and 1960s). Pornography had its first and major win following the release of the film Deep Throat and the controversy after it, resulting in First Amendment protections for porn. Since then pornography has been sky rocketing to become a multi billion dollar industry.

Is it the face or the body which attracts you? Does this attraction change based on whether it is for a long-term relationship or short-term relationship?

Breast size, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), symmetry, volume-to-height ratio, foot size are some of the factors which have been studied for their impact on attractiveness. However very few studies analyzed these factors in relation, as most studies analyzed just one factor at a time. Of the very few studies which analyzed these factors in relationship, a researcher proposed that men could use women’s WHR as a ‘wide first-pass filter,’ screening out those women who may be unhealthy, have low reproductive capability, or be pregnant. However, a different group of researchers found no evidence for such a role. Researchers also found that the minimum acceptable levels for a number of factors increased with the length of relationship sought, but each factor was different in the way it increased and was different for each sex.