There's nothing quite as contagious as a yawn – and it turns out even babies in the womb aren't immune. Experts have discovered foetuses'catch' yawns from their mothers and have been seen slowly opening and closing their mouths. As part of a study, they recorded the facial expressions of pregnant women while an ultrasound machine captured real-time images of their foetuses' faces. By comparing the two records, the researchers found that foetuses were more likely to yawn after their mothers did, with a delay of around 90 seconds. They said yawning may change the mother's breathing, chest pressure and diaphragm movements, which could provide physical cues the foetus detects.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Scientists from City St George's, University of London created a terrifyingly realistic android head to determine whether chimpanzees can "catch" yawns from robots. Remarkably, it turns out they can, but researchers still aren't sure why. The study, detailed this week in the journal Scientific Reports, found that a slight majority (57.1 percent) of adult chimpanzees observed would yawn in response to seeing the android head yawn. Researchers also noted that the same proportion of chimpanzees responded to the yawning robot by either lying down or gathering materials used for bedding--which could be a sign that they interpreted the animatronic head's agape mouth as a "cue" to rest.

Looking at your phone makes other people nearby do the same in less than a minute, a new study reveals. Researchers in Italy investigated human'mimicry' or the'chameleon effect' – subconsciously replicating the physical actions of another human. Out of 184 people, half replicated the action of touching and looking at their phone 30 seconds after a subconscious trigger, researchers found. The experts say copying smartphone use is similar to the well-known'contagious yawning' phenomenon, when an individual yawns in response to someone else doing so. Mammals have evolved to subconsciously mimic each others' behaviour without knowing it.

"Contagious yawning, in which yawning is triggered involuntarily when we observe another person yawn, is a common form of echophenomena -- the automatic imitation of another's words (echolalia) or actions (echopraxia)," the study said. Telling the participants to stifle their yawns only increased their urge to yawn, the researchers found. As the researchers used TMS, it was also possible to increase the "excitability" in the motor cortex and thus even increase people's tendency to contagious yawns. When the researchers applied electrical currents to the motor cortex in their experiments, the urge to yawn among the participants increased.

You may well be yawning just reading this - it's contagious. Now researchers have looked at what happens in our brains to trigger that response. A University of Nottingham team found it occurs in a part of the brain responsible for motor function. The primary motor cortex also plays a part in conditions such as Tourette's syndrome. So the scientists say understanding contagious yawning could also help understand those disorders too.

Yawning is so contagious that one sleepy person in a room can easily set off the rest. But anyone trying to stifle their yawns at a particularly dull work meeting or date is fighting a losing battle, scientists have found. However much you try not to look bored by yawning, you will yawn just the same amount, it has emerged. And trying to stifle a yawn by keeping your mouth tightly shut will only make you want to do it more. Scientists at Nottingham University made the discovery after showing 36 adults video clips of yawning to study the copycat effect. They say yawning, much like coughing and urinating, is something you feel driven to do more when you know you can't or shouldn't.

Next time you try to stifle a yawn, it might be worth discarding polite etiquette by letting your mouth gape for as long as you need because it could help to reveal how smart you are. Biologists have discovered a surprising relationship between the length of time mammals yawn for and how big and complex their brains are. They believe it may also be a sign of greater cognitive ability. Yawning may give an indication of your cognitive abilities, according to a new study. The exact physiological function of yawning is still largely a mystery.