Science Friday: Prehistoric Tin Whistles, Ten Story Falls, And The Ear You Shouldn't Ever Ask For A Favour

Oldest Musical Instruments Found

The oldest musical instruments are a set of intricate and well preserved 35,000 year old flutes found recently in Germany.  Perhaps most interesting is the notion that social and artistic endeavours may have given modern humans an edge over Neanderthals.  The team of archaeologists wrote:

• "Music could have contributed to the maintenance of larger social
  networks, and thereby perhaps have helped facilitate the demographic
  and territorial expansion of modern humans relative to a culturally
  more conservative and demographically more isolated Neanderthal
  populations."

Or perhaps Neanderthals couldn't stand the sound of Little Homo Sapiens practicing Planxty tunes day and night on their prehistoric tin whistles.  Speaking of teenagers--

Polystyrene Smells Like Teen Spirit... When It's Decomposing

A Student from Taiwan has won top prize at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair for finding a bacteria in beetles that can decompose Expanded Polystyrene (aka, styrofoam). 

Remember when your teacher told you that styrofoam cups wouldn't
decompose for a million billion years?  Luckily it seems teenagers like proving their teachers wrong on this point.  Last year, a Canadian student
isolated a bacteria that can decompose plastic bags in three months.

Now, they may have solved the global problem of unrecyclable waste, but can they borrow the car tonight? So long as they know which side to ask from...

Speak Into My Generous Ear

It's pretty tough
being a researcher in Italy, what with bumming cigarettes off people in
nightclubs, whispering things in strangers' ears, asking them to do you
favours. But hey, all in the name of science right?  And thanks to those
dedicated researchers at University G. d’Annunzio, we now know that people are more generous when asked things in their right ear. 
It may have something to do with how one hemisphere is related more with
positive feelings, but it certainly has everything to do with getting you a
free cig in Pescara.

For the pet lovers who couldn't make it to Doggie DNA: Nine Lives ONLY Above Nine Stories

You've heard about cats falling out of windows, but did you know that a cat's terminal velocity is 60mph while a human's is 120mph?

An excellent, if thorough blog post on the subject over at Brazillion Thoughts was inspired by a recent 26 story injury-free fall by a cat in Manhattan that seems to back up Jared Diamod's ridiculous looking graph.

Lastly, mark 21-26 September in your calendar for TWEAK

For more details on Limerick's second annual interactive art and live electronic music festival, check out TWEAK.ie (via bethgormley).