Intoxicating babies
New research indicates that newborn human babies emit chemicals from their scalps that affect adult human social behaviors. Courtesy of Rob Henderson’s newsletter of December 21, we learn that babies make us high.
According to the journal Science Advances, babies give off the chemical hexadecanal (HEX) known to serve as a biochemical social signal in mammals. The researchers found that it produces contrary effects in men and women. It tends to make men less aggressive while it makes women more so. Researchers used a combination of psychological test games and brain images to explore the overall effects.
According to the speculative science of evolutionary biology, babies that gave off this pheromone survived by making their fathers less likely to be violent around the family while making their mothers more violently aggressive in protecting them. It makes for a sensible story. It makes good sense. And it can now be considered science. Probably.
After skimming the study, it looks quite plausible to me, although one could argue that the participant numbers were relatively small. But the researchers found that their conclusions allowed them to predict behavior around three times in four—a pretty good predictive rate. Correct me if I’m misreading it. I’ll find an infant scalp to sniff and get over it.
I looked at Mr. Henderson's item about babies. It is "science": science is a set of procedures for learning facts about reality, and the referenced study seems to have followed a set of procedures in order to gain some knowledge about reality. The next step would be to replicate the results, then to conduct larger studies, etc.
I know Mr. Henderson is a popular blogger rather than a science writer, but as a grammar crank, I was unhappy to read in his piece, "Thus, babies evolved a mechanism to enhance their odds of survival by manipulating parental behavior in opposite directions."
"Babies evolved," really? "Babies" is not a species or any other taxonomic sub-category (subspecies, breed, variant, race, etc.). Being a "baby" or a very immature individual is a life stage of every species. The wording is sloppy and philosophically misleading.
It would be interesting to know whether the same chemical is found in other infant mammals and whether it affects the mammal parents.
Happy 9th Day of Christmas!
Today’s special animal friends are Nine Ladies Dancing. More than nine, actually: the flamingos. Three species are typically found together in Argentina: the Andean flamingo, Phoenicoparrus andinus; the Chilean flamingo, Phoenicopterus chilensis; and James’s flamingo, Phoenicoparrus jamesi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLV_K7DVeyU
… and an unspecified number of Cows being a-Milk-ed by Eight Maids. The cows were probably Holstein-Friesians descended from stock imported from the Netherlands in the 17th century. The same breeds were introduced to North America in the early colonial period, 1621-1664.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxiwDXnrzu4
(I realize the cows are an obvious choice, but nothing else came to mind that wasn’t inappropriate.)
… and Seven Swans a-Swimming. They are the Mute Swan, Cygnus olor, which is not actually mute, just less vocal than other species of swans. They are common in Northwestern Europe.
Mute swans are not exactly domesticated, but colonies or “swanneries” were managed as sources of food and feathers. Today, they are mainly ornamental waterfowl. They can be banded to indicate ownership. The Crown of England, in conjunction with London’s Vintners’ and Dyers’ Guilds, owns all unmarked mute swans in England, which is adorably medieval. Swan control is probably not something King Charles gets involved with much, but some royal and/or guild functionaries actively manage the geese in the Thames and around Windsor Castle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGpMSXKE8A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FSJmMGKMUI
Mute swans are very territorial and can be dangerous. They are invasive in the United States.