BO sensitivity predicts politics + Human bats + Brain cells before death

[C C]

Your views are disgusting! Body odour sensitivity predicts political leanings
http://home.bt.com/news/science-news/you...4254735919

EXCERPT: People drawn to authoritarian leaders are more likely to wrinkle their noses at unpleasant body smells, a study has found. The more democratically minded appear to be less bothered by a bit of armpit pong. US president Donald Trump’s supporters fall into the first category, according to the Swedish researchers. The findings are linked to a deep-seated instinct to avoid infectious diseases, which are associated with nasty niffs, the psychologists believe....

MORE: http://home.bt.com/news/science-news/you...4254735919

---

How humans echolocate 'like bats'
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43173613

EXCERPT: A study has revealed secrets that help some blind people navigate their world by "seeing with sound". People who use "echolocation" employ it in a very similar way to bats - producing clicks that bounce off objects and "sonify" them into a picture of the surroundings. A study of experts in the technique has revealed how louder clicks allow "echolocators" to see behind them. The key finding was that - just like bats - expert echolocators instinctively increase the intensity (or loudness) of their clicks, and click more frequently when an object is off to the side or behind them. [...] Recent research has shown that echolocation can provide detail about objects in the environment, including shape, size, distance, and even the material they are made from....

MORE: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43173613

---

What Brain Cells Did in the Last Minutes Before People Died
https://www.livescience.com/61876-dying-...-wave.html

EXCERPT: . . . Neurons work by filling themselves with charged ions, creating electrical imbalances between themselves and their surroundings that let them generate the little shocks that constitute their signals. And maintaining that imbalance [...] is a constant effort [...] To fuel that effort, those hardworking cells drink greedily from the bloodstream, gulping oxygen and chemical energy. When the body dies, and blood flow to the brain stops, oxygen-deprived neurons try to hoard their remaining resources, the researchers wrote. [...] So, as much as possible, the neurons go silent [...] waiting for the return of a blood flow that will never come.

[...] it happens everywhere at once, as neurons all over the brain react to the sudden drought. [...] millions of batteries suddenly lose their charge. This marks, for dying patients, the final moments of brain function, the authors wrote. But they cautioned [...] previous research in animals has shown that if blood and oxygen return [...] the neurons can return to life and recover their chemical charge. Only after sitting in their depolarized chemical soup for a few minutes [...] do neurons reach a somewhat vague "commitment point" beyond which there is no return....

MORE: https://www.livescience.com/61876-dying-...-wave.html

[Syne]

According to Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations, libertarians have the least disgust. But it's biased propaganda to assume specific ideology from it.

Abstract
Moral judgments seem related to the emotion disgust. Evolutionary considerations might illuminate the psychological processes underlying this relation. Several studies have noted that individuals who are more disgust sensitive condemn moral violations more strongly. However, this association could result from both disgust sensitivity and moral judgment being correlated with political ideology. To clarify the relationship between disgust sensitivity and moral judgment, we analyzed data from multiple published and unpublished datasets that included the Three-Domain Disgust Scale, the Moral Foundations Questionnaire, and a measure of ideology (total N = 2,478). Results showed that associations between disgust sensitivity and moral judgment remained when controlling for ideology. Each of the 3 types of disgust sensitivity uniquely predicted at least 1 of the 5 moral foundations. Moral disgust predicted scores for all moral foundations (largest effect for fairness/reciprocity). Sexual disgust predicted scores for all moral foundations except fairness/reciprocity (largest effect for purity/sanctity). Pathogen disgust had small predictive effects for ingroup/loyalty, authority/respect, and purity/sanctity. All effects were positive (i.e., higher levels of disgust sensitivity were associated with greater moral foundation endorsement). These findings suggest specific relations between disgust sensitivity and moral judgment that are not explained by ideology, shedding further light on the functions of disgust and morality.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication...l_Ideology

And it's always telling when articles don't link to studies but instead just quote the author's opinions of the findings.