Researchers from The University of California, Riverside, measured the testicular tissue mass of young male crickets that had been played cricket song, and found that they grew up to have nearly 10% more testicular mass than the youths without such auditory cues of competition. A big part of the male crickets’ mating strategy involves a long-range call. The song can be ‘parasitized’ by other males, who lurk nearby, taking credit for the masculine calls to impress arriving females. But, the males that grew up surrounded by the songs of other males were less likely to use such underhand tactics. Instead they were generally bigger, noisier and in overall better shape.

It seems mating matters to crickets, in fact so fixated are decorated crickets that they will sacrifice their health to impress the females. As part of the mating process, males offer their mates an adorably named ‘nuptial food gift’, a gummy blobby concoction that they synthesize and transfer to the females along with sperm. Scientists from Illinois State University managed to coerce some decorated crickets into producing larger food packages, which they did, despite it lowering their immune systems.

After all that effort, when the deed has been done, mating mission accomplished, there’s still no guarantee that the sperm that entered the female cricket will be the sperm that fertilises her eggs. Of course some of it will be, but with the promiscuity of female crickets, and the aggressive mating tactics of males, multiple matings with the same female are common. So, who becomes the daddy?

Researchers from Exeter university found that even after mating with up to ten males, promiscuous female field crickets can control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate, regardless of the order they mated in. Although crickets don’t avoid mating with relatives, they do reduce the chances of producing unfit inbred offspring, by using their abdominal muscles to keep hold of more of the sperm from unrelated males. Scientists from Australia and Switerland went further and found that a male’s chances of fathering “increases with its attractiveness and decreases with the size of the female”.

In the harsh world of insect reproduction, once the eggs have been laid, the little ones are on their own. Although the mothers don’t stick around, researchers at the University of South Carolina Upstate, have found that they can leave hidden maternal messages in their unborn babies, to prepare them for the harsh realities of existence. Storm and Lima (researchers, with names like comic superheros), placed pregnant crickets in enclosures with predatory wolf spiders whose fangs were tipped with wax. This meant the spiders could stalk the crickets, make them extremely frightened, but not actually kill them.

The offspring of mothers born to the spider-stalked mothers were faster to react to the danger of predators, than the control offspring from mothers kept more cushy circumstances. These offspring of ‘stalked’ mothers ran for cover more quickly and stayed in hiding for more than twice as long. They would also freeze when coming across signs of their predators, signs such as spider silk or spider faeces. Having this fear, unsurprisingly meant that they ended up with higher survival rates.

We all know that science can be complicated and confusing, but don’t let that get you down – Fake Science is here to straighten everything out. Did you know that the periodic table is actually based on Scrabble, or that wind power uses giant fans to make wind? Science has never been so simple.

Want to lose weight? Keep it off your plate

Simply leaving serving dishes on the kitchen counter rather than bringing them to the dining table reduces the amount of food you eat, say researchers at Cornell University. They found that this simple dieting strategy reduces the temptation of second helpings, cutting the number of calories people consumed by 20%.

Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, said that the same idea can be used to promote healthier foods over sugary snacks – keeping fruit on display makes you more likely to eat it instead of reaching for a piece of cake in the fridge.

Animal privacy? Not in my backyard

Wildlife documentaries infringe an animal’s right to privacy, says Brett Mills, a lecturer in film studies at the University of East Anglia:

“We have an assumption that humans have some right to privacy, so why do we not assume that for other species, particularly when they are engaging in behaviour that suggests they don’t want to be seen?”

I’m a staunch defender of civil liberties, but even I think extending the right to privacy to animals is going a bit too far. Of course, great care should be taken to avoid distributing their natural habits or causing them distress, but I really don’t think animals mind us watching them doing what they do.

Green tax would hurt the poorest

A proposed tax on carbon footprints would hit the poorest households hardest, according to study from the University of Leeds. The carbon tax would cost low earners 6% of their annual income, while the richest households would only pay around 2%.

The difference is the result of poorer households spending more on costs such as heating and electricity – 40% of their income, compared to just 8% for high earners.

Researchers funded by the US military are working on a way of printing new human skin as a treatment for burn victims. What’s more, they’ve using a regular inkjet printer and cartridges filled with human skill cells:

Grow your own font

Typographer Craig Ward has developed a typeface with a difference – each letter was grown from live cells and moulded into the correct shape.

Scientists have genetically engineered mice with a predisposition for depression. The study aims to find out why, when faced with stressful situations, some people’s are genetically more prone to fall to depression. The mice were altered to carry a genetic change that affects serotonin transport in the brain, mimicking a change that occurs in people with the condition.

“There is a clear relationship between a short form of the serotonin transporter and a very high vulnerability to develop clinical depression when people are exposed to increasing levels of stressful life events.” says Dr. Allesandro Bartolomucci of Parma university, Italy.

Brain imaging of people with depression shows that they have greater activity in some brain areas, but the link with genetics is not as well understood. Chemical changes could be seen in these ‘knock’out’ mice in areas of the brain that regulate memory formation, emotional responses to stimuli and social interactions, such as meeting new mice. They showed physical signs of stress with changes in body temperature, body weight gain, higher levels of the ’stress’ hormone corticosterone and lower levels of the ‘feel good’ hormone serotonin.

Depression is the number one cause of ‘disability’ worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation with 120 million people affected globally. The increased risk of hormone imbalances, heart disease, digestive problems and reduced immune response faced by depressed people makes it a formidable foe for the health services. The work from this study will help to find out how this genetic change in people affects serotonin turnover in the brain. The results published in the journal Disease Models and Mechanisms suggest that the genetic mutation causes an exaggerated response to stress.

An international team of scientists lead by the University of California, Los Angeles compared genetic data from more than 900 dogs and 200 wolves to create a “family tree” that shows the connections between the various breeds. Previous research suggested that dogs originated in East Asia, but that was based only on genetic changes in mitochondria, tiny structures found in all animal cells. This new work examines a much larger section of the canine genome, comparing 48,000 different locations across species DNA.

Dogs and wolves are all connected.

The Chinese space programme is known to be stringent in its selection of potential astronauts; even bad breath can shatter your chances. However, this requirement for maternity doesn’t stem from an inferred ability of mothers to better cope with the gruelling conditions of space. Instead China fear for what damage space-based radiation might inflict on a would-be female astronaut’s ability to have children in the first place.

Xu Xianrong, an expert at the air force general hospital, is quoted on the Guardian website as saying of the unique approach,

“It’s out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots. Though there is little evidence on how the space experience will affect the female constitution, we have to be extra cautious. After all, it’s unprecedented in China.”

Such things may be unprecedented in China, but the radiation dangers experienced when leaving the protective cocoon of the Earth have long been considered.

There are two main types of radiation that can cause damage to space travelers, high energy particles from the Sun, and cosmic rays arriving from the galaxy beyond. For those of us on the Earth’s surface our planet’s atmosphere and magnetic field duly shield us from these potential dangers. However, those in space can be hit with their full force, particularly when venturing to places like the Moon, which has neither a magnetic field nor an atmosphere.

In fact, the Apollo astronauts of the late 60’s and early 70’s knew full well the risks that an event like a solar storm could unleash and they travelled to the Moon anyway, albeit keeping mission length to a premium to narrow the risks. Such a storm would rain high energy particles upon the unprotected astronauts, penetrating their skin and ripping apart the DNA in their cells. Cosmic rays, coming from outside the solar system, represent a longer term threat; it is thought they could cause illnesses ranging from cancer to cataracts.

Clearly these doses of radiation harm both men and women alike, what is unclear are the effect such doses would have on female fertility. What is looking increasingly clear, particularly with President Obama’s recent cancellation of NASA’s Constellation programme, is that the next feet to scuff the lunar dust will be Chinese. If such feet happen to be female, then their obligatory offspring would be rightly proud.

Chemical party

Chemical reactions can get pretty wild, but I bet you’ve never seen them like this:

Strength in small numbers

Check out this amazing picture of an ant lifting 100 times its body weight – that’s like me hoisting 5 cars at the same time!

This photo won Dr Thomas Endlein of the University of Cambridge Zoology Department first prize in the Biotechnology And Biological Sciences Research Council science photo competition. You can see the other winners on the BBSRC site.

Well, it works for monkeys…

Did you know that learning to climb trees has much in common with the scientific method? This quaint short film explains it all – love the use of Wikipedia as “a source of reliable information”!

Earlier this week the BBC broadcast the first ever film shot entirely by chimpanzees:

The acting isn’t that great, and the special effects are terrible, but it’s still more interesting than some of the rubbish churned out by Hollywood! The film was part of a scientific study investigating how chimps perceive the world around them.

Mars movies

Although it seems we’re probably not going to step foot Mars any time soon, you can go there virtually today. Doug Ellison, founder of UnmannedSpaceflight.com, has used data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to recreate a faithfully recreated flyby of the Martian surface:

See more on his YouTube page.

Magnets…in space!

Have you ever wondered how magnets work in zero gravity? “Very well,” is the answer, according to video game developer/astronaut Richard Garriot:

Fart FAQ

Everybody does it, even though sometimes we don’t want to admit it, so why not learn some facts about farts with this handy infographic?

Hold your nose and click for a larger image.

Wii tech good enough for physio

A video game accessory designed to help you get fit could also be used to rehabilitate stroke victims, says a physiotherapist. Ross Clark of the University of Melbourne found the accuracy of a Wii balance board compared well to lab-grade “force platforms”, which normally cost more then £11,000.

Both pieces of equipment are designed to measure pressure from a person’s foot. The force platform aids physiotherapists in reteaching a stroke patient how to stand, and Clark found that a balance board could act as a suitable replacement, despite retailing for under £100.

Its not the first report of scientists using Wii controllers as cheap sensors in their work – see this Wired story, complete with a picture of a Wiimote in a lab stand.

Drinking advice, straight from the source

With December 25th inching ever closer you’ve probably already been to a number of booze-fuelled Christmas parties, but have you thought about the long-term risks of drinking alcohol?

If you’re anything like me, probably not, but I did read this interview on the University of Oxford science blog with one of their scientists, Naomi Allen. She talks about the risks and benefits of drinking alcohol, and suggests middle-age women who are most at risk of breast cancer should probably hold back on the booze.

It’s good to hear the risks laid out in a clear and non-headline grabbing manner, but the interview is also an interesting example of institutional journalism. This piece could easily appear in a magazine or Sunday supplement, but Oxford have chosen to cut out the middle-man and publish themselves. We’re seeing more and more of this type of work crop up, as the media continues their struggle to reinvent themselves in a Web 2.0 world.

Micro-gallery

Who says bacteria can’t be beautiful? New Scientist have a gallery of Petri dish art created by microbiologists. My personal favourite, for obvious reasons, is this little guy:

It's-a-me!