Randomly Entertaining Science Articles

Washing Away Your Sins: Threatened Morality and Physical Cleansing

Chen-Bo Zhong and Katie Liljenquist
Science (2006) 1451-1452

Physical cleansing has been a focal element in religious ceremonies for thousands of years. The prevalence of this practice suggests a psychological association between bodily purity and moral purity. In three studies, we explored what we call the "Macbeth effect"—that is, a threat to one's moral purity induces the need to cleanse oneself...

Lysergic acid diethylamide: its effects on a male Asiatic elephant

by West, L. J., Pierce, C. M. & Thomas, W. D.
Science (1962) 138:1100-1104.

In this article, they found that a single, intramuscular dose of 297 mg of LSD caused sudden death in an elephant tested in Lincoln Park Zoo, Oklahoma City.

Hormone treatment facilitates penile erection in castrated rats after sleep deprivation and cocaine.

Andersen ML, Bignotto M, Tufik S.
J Neuroendocrinol (2004) Feb;16(2):154-9.

...we conducted two experiments to determine whether sleep deprivation and cocaine administration could also induce spontaneous penile erection in castrated rats ...

...these data show that progesterone treatment facilitates penile erection in sleep deprived-cocaine castrated rats."

Will they ever stop?

Does paradoxical sleep deprivation and cocaine induce penile erection and ejaculation in old rats?

Andersen ML, Bignotto M, Machado RB, Tufik S
Addict Biol. 2002 Jul ; 7(3): 285-90

To discover whether the same effects occurred in old animals ..."

...we administered cocaine (15 mg/kg) to young (3-month) and old (22-month) male rats after a 4-day period of PSD [paradoxical sleep deprivation] ...

...we then evaluated erections and ejaculations."

..in conclusion, our results suggest that although genital reflexes usually decrease with age, testosterone levels alone cannot account for these changes..."