Learn about how scientists and animals are benefitting from the “anthropause” during the coronavirus pandemic; why sweat from stress smells worse than regular sweat; and whether men really “see less mess” than women.
Learn about how scientists and animals are benefitting from the “anthropause” during the coronavirus pandemic; why sweat from stress smells worse than regular sweat; and whether men really “see less mess” than women.
We're in the "anthropause," a unique opportunity to study wildlife by Steffie Drucker
Why stress sweat smells worse than regular sweat by Andrea Michelson
Some Say Men Just Don't See Mess, So Researchers Put It to the Test by author
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-stress-sweat-smells-worse-studying-wildlife-during-the-pandemic-and-do-men-just-not-see-messes
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why the pandemic gives scientists a unique opportunity to study wildlife; why sweat from stress smells worse than regular sweat; and whether men really “see less mess” than women.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
If you’ve watched the news or scrolled through social media during the pandemic, you’ve probably seen some surprising animal pictures. From wild boars running amok in Italy and Spain to pumas taking to the streets in Santiago, Chile, and San Francisco, wild animals are showing up where we’ve never seen them before. Researchers say it’s because the pandemic is keeping humans at home. They’ve even coined a phrase for this unprecedented time of human hibernation: The anthropause. And it’s proving to be a silver lining to this dark time, both for animals and for science.
I’m not trying to downplay the terrible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it’s nice to know that it’s at least come with some major benefits for the environment: Less travel has saved tens of thousands of animals from being hit by cars, and it’s significantly improved air quality.
It’s also providing an amazing opportunity for scientists to learn more about how humans and wildlife interact. Because these days, we have the technology to figure out how our presence is cramping their style. For example, we can outfit animals with advanced trackers, to give researchers a trove of data on their movement and behavior. Then they can compare that to data on our own behavior, like traffic patterns, to show whether the animals are acting differently without people around. Tracking and comparing all of this as humans resume regular activities will illustrate how other species adapt to our presence.
It’s not all good news, though: Nature also depends on us to fix the harm we’ve caused. Like, efforts to save an endangered species of bird in the South Atlantic have been put on hold, leaving them vulnerable to the invasive mice that eat their eggs and chicks. Reduced tourism in Africa means there may not be funds to pay armed guards to protect endangered rhinos. Turning attention and resources to COVID-19 has also allowed loggers in Tunisia to plunder forests illegally.
For now, scientists are focused on making the most of this incredible opportunity — and we citizen scientists have helped! There was a competition to document urban biodiversity in California, and forty-thousand people uploaded pictures of backyard wildlife to the iNaturalist app, which resulted in more 815,000 wildlife observations. Another citizen biodiversity project resulted in the discovery of nine new bug species. And in Maine, one citizen science initiative drew a record number of volunteers to escort migrating frogs and salamanders safely across the road.
Nature may be enjoying a break from some human-made problems right around now. But if the pandemic and resulting anthropause have taught us anything, it’s how much we depend on one another, and how wildlife depends on us.
There’s something about a stressful situation that can ruin a perfectly good shirt. The pit stains alone are pretty bad, but you also may have noticed that your sweat has an especially nasty odor when you’re feeling anxious. That’s because the sweat you release under stress actually comes from a different source than your usual sweat.
People typically have 2 to 4 million sweat glands in their bodies, and they’re divided into two different types. Eccrine glands are the most numerous. These glands are located all over your body and help your autonomic nervous system maintain your body temperature. When you overheat from exercise or hot weather, these glands release sweat to cool your skin off. That sweat is mostly water with just a bit of salt and fats mixed in, so it’s pretty much odorless.
Stress sweat comes from an entirely different type of gland. Apocrine glands are larger than eccrine glands and are primarily located around your groin and armpit area. Your armpits actually secrete 30 times more sweat when you’re stressed than when you’re not, and these glands are to blame. They contain receptors that are involved in the sympathetic nervous system response — you know, the “fight or flight” feeling that makes your heart beat fast, your muscles tense, and your armpits, well … sweat.
The sweat that comes from your apocrine glands is thicker than your regular sweat because it contains extra fats and proteins. But that’s actually not the direct cause of the odor. See, your armpits are inhabited by communities of bacteria, and it turns out that they just love the nutrients in your stress sweat. When they chow down, those bacteria release stinky ammonia and fatty acids, and that’s what you might be smelling.
Scientists aren’t completely sure why we developed this smelly response to stress, but it’s not unique in the animal kingdom. Plenty of other creatures, from the skunk to the millipede, release gross and even toxic odors to ward off predators when they’re under stress. Let’s just be grateful that unlike the Southeast Asian “corpse flower,” our body odor doesn’t smell like rotting meat.
When it comes to household chores, there is a huge gender imbalance. On a typical day, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, men spend just a third as much time cleaning as women. And some say the reason for this is that men just don’t see mess. So last year [May 2019], researchers put this idea to the test... and found that it’s totally wrong. Men can see mess just as well as women. They just face fewer penalties for not keeping their spaces neat and tidy.
Here’s how the study went down. First, the researchers asked participants to look at a photo of a small living room and kitchen area and rate its cleanliness. Some saw a clean room, others saw a cluttered room. Sure enough, men and women saw the same mess: They rated the clean room as equally clean and the messy room as equally messy.
So if men see the same mess as women, why do women do more housework? Well, one argument is that social expectations are different for each group. Women might be judged more harshly for having a less-than-spotless home, and women's awareness of these expectations may motivate them to do more.
The researchers tested this idea by randomly telling participants that the photo they were looking at depicted either "John's" or "Jennifer's" living space and asking them to rate that person based on the cleanliness of their home.
This is where things got interesting. Participants rated the photos differently depending on whether they were told that a woman or a man lived there. They actually held higher cleanliness standards for Jennifer than they did for John. John didn’t get off scot free, though: he was judged more negatively than Jennifer, which the researchers say reflects the common stereotype about men being lazy. But the participants didn’t think he’d be judged more harshly by visitors, and they thought that Jennifer had the primary responsibility for the state of her home.
So, while both men and women are judged for having a cluttered home, research suggests that women are penalized more often for clutter than men are.
If we want to change these old-fashioned social expectations, we could start by thinking twice before judging the state of someone's home — and make sure we’re pulling our own weight when it comes to housework.
ASHLEY: Let’s recap today’s takeaways, starting with
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Steffie Drucker and Andrea Michelson, and by Sarah Thébaud [TEE-boo], Leah Ruppanner [LEE-uh rup-PAN-ner], and Sabino Kornrich [awaiting email] writing for The Conversation, with editing by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Curiosity Daily is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!