WEDNESDAY, 17 MAY 2006
If you have any worries (purely of a scientific nature, obviously) that you would like Dr Hypothesis to answer, then please email him at drhypothesis@bluesci.org He will award the author of the most intriguing question a £10 book voucher. Unfortunately, Dr Hypothesis cannot promise to publish an answer to every question, but he will do his very best to see that the most fascinating are discussed in the next edition of BlueSci.
Dear Dr Hypothesis, I have just arrived in 
Dear Dr Hypothesis, I was recently listening to a documentary on a well-known radio station, when I was surprised to hear that Lucy was the first human known to have walked on two legs. Now, I have a very good friend Lucy who has no problem walking upright. I know for a fact that I am older than her and am also perfectly capable on foot. Come to think of it, so are my parents, and hers, and many other people… Who was this Lucy, as she surely can’t be my friend? Bipedal Brian DR HYPOTHESIS SAYSOne of the oldest human skeletons thought to have walked erect, at 3.2 million years old, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and given the name Lucy. On the night of the find, the archaeologists had a party which seems to have involved rather too much alcohol and The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was played several times. No-one knows exactly who nicknamed the skeleton that night, but the name has stuck ever since. I think there is a clear message from this Brian — don’t drink and dig. www.asu.edu/clas/iho/lucy.htmlDear Dr Hypothesis,
I don’t like to think of myself as a sheep that always follows the crowd, but I’ve become aware that I have a tendency to unwillingly copy others when I’m in their company. This is a particular problem with yawning; when one person yawns I always seem to find myself yawning straight after them. I’ve tried a number of things to avoid this, including caffeine binges, but nothing seems to work. Could you tell me what’s wrong with me? Individual IreneDR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you Irene. It is common knowledge that yawning can be contagious. Physicians tell me that there are many possible cues that can set off yawning — including fatigue, boredom or, more seriously, conditions such as anaemia — so a disposition to yawn is present in most of us most of the time. Alternatively, yawns could have been used at one time in our evolutionary history to co-ordinate the social behaviour of the group, so when one person yawned so did everyone else. They seem to be contagious today because we might still have this left-over response which we simply don’t use any more.http://webperso.easyconnect.fr/baillement/texte-yawning-lehmann.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html Sorry Fiona!DR HYPOTHESIS APOLOGISES:In the last issue I answered Flightpath Fiona’s question as to why planes can fly but unfortunately did not explain it correctly. I have since been reliably informed that wings are constructed so that the path of the air travelling underneath a wing is curved more than that of the air travelling over it. This means that there is a greater change in the momentum of the air passing under the wing, causing a greater force to act on the underside of the wing than on the top. This results in a lifting of the aircraft. Many thanks to all those observant readers who noticed my mistake. In the last issue Dr Hypothesis asked you, the reader: Can men park cars better than women, and if so, why?“My experience of car parking is that with practice and studying the theory, the movement of the car is very predictable, and so, with elementary mechanical knowledge, it becomes second nature. However, when parking a woman these rules no longer apply. On the few occasions I have tried, the women refuse to move in the way I expect them to, and more importantly don’t stay there!” At the risk of enraging Dr Hypothesis’ better half, Professor Hypothesis, Dr Hypothesis shares this reaader’s concerns, although it wasn’t quite the answer he was looking for! Another reader commented on a recent study on the relationship between foetal testosterone and finger length: “Spatial skills such as map-reading and parking may be difficult for some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb… Low testosterone levels are also linked to shortened wedding ring fingers. Think you know better than Dr Hypothesis?Is there life ‘out there’? Please email him with answers, the best of which will be printed in the next edition. Dr Hypothesis needs your problems! If you have any worries (purely of a scientific nature, obviously) that you would like Dr Hypothesis to answer, then please email him at drhypothesis@bluesci.org He will award the author of the most intriguing question a £10 book voucher. Unfortunately, Dr Hypothesis cannot promise to publish an answer to every question, but he will do his very best to see that the most fascinating are discussed in the next edition of BlueSci.
Dear Dr Hypothesis, I have just arrived in Dear Dr Hypothesis, I was recently listening to a documentary on a well-known radio station, when I was surprised to hear that Lucy was the first human known to have walked on two legs. Now, I have a very good friend Lucy who has no problem walking upright. I know for a fact that I am older than her and am also perfectly capable on foot. Come to think of it, so are my parents, and hers, and many other people… Who was this Lucy, as she surely can’t be my friend? Bipedal Brian DR HYPOTHESIS SAYSOne of the oldest human skeletons thought to have walked erect, at 3.2 million years old, was discovered in Ethiopia in 1974 and given the name Lucy. On the night of the find, the archaeologists had a party which seems to have involved rather too much alcohol and The Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was played several times. No-one knows exactly who nicknamed the skeleton that night, but the name has stuck ever since. I think there is a clear message from this Brian — don’t drink and dig. www.asu.edu/clas/iho/lucy.htmlDear Dr Hypothesis,
I don’t like to think of myself as a sheep that always follows the crowd, but I’ve become aware that I have a tendency to unwillingly copy others when I’m in their company. This is a particular problem with yawning; when one person yawns I always seem to find myself yawning straight after them. I’ve tried a number of things to avoid this, including caffeine binges, but nothing seems to work. Could you tell me what’s wrong with me? Individual IreneDR HYPOTHESIS SAYS:There’s absolutely nothing wrong with you Irene. It is common knowledge that yawning can be contagious. Physicians tell me that there are many possible cues that can set off yawning — including fatigue, boredom or, more seriously, conditions such as anaemia — so a disposition to yawn is present in most of us most of the time. Alternatively, yawns could have been used at one time in our evolutionary history to co-ordinate the social behaviour of the group, so when one person yawned so did everyone else. They seem to be contagious today because we might still have this left-over response which we simply don’t use any more.http://webperso.easyconnect.fr/baillement/texte-yawning-lehmann.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/yawning.html Sorry Fiona!DR HYPOTHESIS APOLOGISES:In the last issue I answered Flightpath Fiona’s question as to why planes can fly but unfortunately did not explain it correctly. I have since been reliably informed that wings are constructed so that the path of the air travelling underneath a wing is curved more than that of the air travelling over it. This means that there is a greater change in the momentum of the air passing under the wing, causing a greater force to act on the underside of the wing than on the top. This results in a lifting of the aircraft. Many thanks to all those observant readers who noticed my mistake. In the last issue Dr Hypothesis asked you, the reader: Can men park cars better than women, and if so, why?“My experience of car parking is that with practice and studying the theory, the movement of the car is very predictable, and so, with elementary mechanical knowledge, it becomes second nature. However, when parking a woman these rules no longer apply. On the few occasions I have tried, the women refuse to move in the way I expect them to, and more importantly don’t stay there!” At the risk of enraging Dr Hypothesis’ better half, Professor Hypothesis, Dr Hypothesis shares this reaader’s concerns, although it wasn’t quite the answer he was looking for! Another reader commented on a recent study on the relationship between foetal testosterone and finger length: “Spatial skills such as map-reading and parking may be difficult for some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb… Low testosterone levels are also linked to shortened wedding ring fingers. Think you know better than Dr Hypothesis?Is there life ‘out there’? Please email him with answers, the best of which will be printed in the next edition.
