Sex doesn’t always sell

Advertisers will sell more stuff if their commercials run during innocuous family-fare programmes rather than sexually charged shows, suggests new research into the effects of erotic programming on viewers’ response to ads.

Advertisers will sell more stuff if their commercials run during innocuous family-fare programmes rather than sexually charged shows, suggests new research into the effects of erotic programming on viewers’ response to ads. Programmes with overtly sexual content appeared to interfere with viewers’ ability to remember the commercials, according to a study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology. Researchers Ellie Parker and Adrian Furnham at University College London brought volunteers to a laboratory to watch an episode of the comedy Malcolm in the Middle and an episode of Sex and the City . One contained nudity and sex scenes; the other had neither. Interspersed in the programmes, the researchers had viewers see different advertisements for cellphones, hair products and other items. The volunteers were later asked to recall as many advertisements and brands as they could. “Brand recall for advertisements was ‘hindered’ by sexual content of programmes, suggesting there is something particularly involving or disturbing about sexual programmes,” the paper concluded.

Scientists study huge hole in Atlantic seabed

British scientists have embarked on a mission to study a gigantic hole in the Atlantic seabed—an enigma that defies traditional geophysical theory and will give researchers an unprecedented look into the centre of the Earth. The 12-person team left the Canary Islands on Monday with a new hi-tech vessel and a robotic device named Toby that will dig up rock samples at the bottom of the crater and film what it sees. The hole is about 5,000 meters under the surface of the Atlantic and located half way between Tenerife and Barbados. It has a diameter of 3,000 to 4,000 meters (10,000 to 13,000 feet). The mysterious orifice is in an undersea mountain range, the kind of structure believed to form when Atlantic tectonic plates separate and volcanic lava surges upward to fill the gap in the earth’s crust. – (LAT-WP, Agencies)

Identified: The oldest observatory in the Americas

The mysterious Thirteen Towers of Chankillo—a line of ancient structures built on a small hill in coastal Peru—have been identified as being the oldest solar observatory in the Americas. Constructed 2,300 years ago, they mark the risings and settings of the sun through the year when viewed from two newly excavated observation points nearby. Research by archeologists from the University of Leicester and Yale University has established that the towers were at the centre of a large ceremonial area, apparently used by ancient sun worshippers. At one observation point, excavators found pottery, shells and stone artifacts—suggesting rituals took place on the site. The observatory predates by centuries the Incan and Mayan cultures, which led study author Ivan Ghezzi of Yale to conclude: “Chankillo reflects well-developed astronomical principles, which suggest the original forms of astronomy must be older.” The towers were built in a row at regular intervals. When Ghezzi and co-author Clive Ruggles, an archeoastronomer, found the observation points a short distance to the west, they concluded the towers were designed to help fix the time of sunrise and sunset throughout the year.