Learn about three mythological creatures that were inspired by real fossils, how people prefer to root for winning individuals over teams, and how scientists have created interactive paper.
Learn about three mythological creatures that were inspired by real fossils, how people prefer to root for winning individuals over teams, and how scientists have created interactive paper.
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Three Mythological Creatures That Were Actually Inspired by Real Fossils by Reuben Westmaas
People love seeing individuals hit winning streaks, but not teams by Kelsey Donk
A new printing process can turn paper into a machine interface by Steffie Drucker
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/3-mythological-creatures-that-were-inspired-by-real-fossils
ASHLEY HAMER: Hi. You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity.com. I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today you'll learn about three mythological creatures that were inspired by real fossils, how people prefer to root for winning individuals over teams, and how scientists have created interactive paper.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
NATALIA REAGAN: So here's a puzzle. Dinosaur fossils have been around for as long as human beings have walked the Earth. So how is it that it took until the 1800s to first discover them? The fact is, it didn't. Ancient people probably found fossils too. We know this because they left clues in their myths and legends. And I'm going to tell you about three of my favorites.
Number one, the Cyclops. According to Greek myth, these one eyed giants lived on the island of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea where they would feast on any humans unlucky enough to get too close.
According to paleontologists, Sicily and its neighboring islands were once inhabited by numerous species of dwarf elephants. Here's the thing about dwarf elephants, their skulls are really oddly human-like. And smack in the middle of them is a massive hole for their trunk. A hole that looks a bit like an eye socket. Ancient Greeks found these even more ancient skulls, and the Cyclops was born.
Number two, giants. In 1443, a massive thigh bone was unearthed in Vienna during the construction of St Stephen's cathedral. People decided this must be the thigh of one of the giants that walked the Earth before the Great Flood. So they hung it above the cathedral's doorway. It would take a couple more centuries before a French anatomist identified the bone's true source, a mammoth.
And mythological creature number three, dragons. Many paleontologists and historians today believe that dragon myths can be chalked up to dinosaur fossils. In China, it may have been a long neck sauropod whose legs had been lost that inspired the classic flying snake-like dragon.
While in England, the teeth of mega allosaurus suggested a ferocious predator. With many of these stories it's not clear whether the bones were the source of the legend, or they provided evidence for the myths that humans already had. But in any case, if I were the first to unearth a massive bone, I might start believing in giants too.
ASHLEY HAMER: Man, the skulls of elephants really do look like Cyclops.
NATALIA REAGAN: Absolutely. There's no other explanation, you know. Because if you think of what an elephant looks like, I mean, honestly, I feel like they're the most imaginative looking creature out there. Why would you assume there's this giant flesh hanging off its face?
ASHLEY HAMER: But it also makes me think about how we might be misinterpreting a lot of dinosaur fossils, right? Like, there's all this soft tissue that we're missing.
NATALIA REAGAN: And feathers.
ASHLEY HAMER: Everyone loves to watch a star rise. When a person wins big in sports or business, it's easy to start rooting them on. Who doesn't want to see Naomi Osaka keep winning tennis matches? But do we get that excited about watching the New England Patriots win yet another Super Bowl? Not so much. Here's why.
When one person experiences a lot of success, it inspires awe. That one person's success gives us a whole new idea of what a single person can accomplish. Team success just isn't as inspiring. When a team succeeds, we attribute that success to collective effort, not a sense of individual human accomplishment.
To get to the bottom of this fascinating way that people see success, researchers from Cornell University performed nine studies with more than 2,000 total participants. In one study the researchers told participants about an obscure Italian sport called Calcio Fiorentino.
Some of the participants read about a fictional player who had won the Calcio Fiorentino championship six times in a row. Others read about a team that had won the championship the same number of times. More people wanted the individual superstar to win, fewer got excited about a team on a winning streak.
The same pattern carried through studies on Olympic events, quizzing competitions, and even solving crimes. People were able to get more excited about an individual with a winning streak than a team's success.
The trend seems to apply in the business world too. In one of the studies people read about an electronics company that was led to success by an individual CEO who made smart business choices. Another group of participants read about the same company, but its success was attributed to a whole team of executives.
No surprise here, people were more excited about the individual CEO. But the participants who read about the individual also rooted on the whole company. Researchers say this has big implications for business.
It could explain why people have such a strong connection with a company like Apple, which has an identifiable CEO and a memorable story. But they have less of a connection with more anonymous companies like IBM or Samsung.
The researchers call the phenomenon The Streaking Star Effect. We want to watch stars keep up their winning streaks, in sports, in business, and in any other competitive atmosphere. That individual success might just inspire us to reach for the stars ourselves.
NATALIA REAGAN: Now this reminds me of just even the heyday of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, we remember the names of the players more than we necessarily remember the teams and what their actual successes were.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, and as someone who doesn't follow sports at all, I know all the names you said. But if you were to say the name of a team, I would have had to have you tell me where they're from because I don't know them.
NATALIA REAGAN: Right?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
NATALIA REAGAN: There are a lot of electronic versions of paper products these days, think e-readers and retail signature pads. But what if paper itself could be electronic? You could click on words in an actual book, and sign for packages on the package itself.
Scientists have been hard at work on this idea. And now researchers at Purdue University have developed one of the most promising versions yet. They've turned a regular piece of paper into an interactive wireless device.
Paper electronics are exciting since they're a greener, cheaper alternative to traditional electronics. But they've got some growing pains. For one thing, human fingers are moist. And moisture and electronics, well, they don't mix. And they're also tricky to power. I mean, electronic paper isn't very useful if it's saddled with a bulky battery. That's why this new development is so exciting.
The researchers have created a way to print electronic paper that's moisture resistant and friction powered. This is what the Purdue engineers started out with, a piece of paper printed with numbers, like a calculator.
Next they coated the paper with a special substance that repels dust, water, and oil. The coating enabled the team to print several layers of circuits onto the paper without smudging the ink below. Each layer dries clear, so the whole thing still looks like an ordinary piece of paper.
And like I said, the circuits generate electricity when they experience some sort of friction. This means the paper-based keypad doesn't need an external source of power since any time you touch it you generate an electric current.
The scientists shared another video to prove that this special electric paper was capable of transmitting information to a computer just like a wireless keyboard. In this video, the paper keypad is positioned next to a laptop with a disabled keyboard. It's connected to the laptop via Bluetooth.
As a person's finger touches each number printed on the paper, the numbers from the keypad appear on the computer screen like magic. You can click on the links in the show notes if you want to see the action yourself. It's pretty darn cool.
The team used this technique to engineer even more complicated paper-based devices, like a music player that you can adjust the volume with the swipe of a finger. They envisioned the technology making packages interactive, allowing you to check a food's expiration date by just touching the box or signing for a package on the parcel itself. The future is now, and it's combustible.
ASHLEY HAMER: Compostable. [LAUGHING]
NATALIA REAGAN: Sorry. Once I said it I was like, man. Hey, the future is now, and it's compostable.
ASHLEY HAMER: It is combustible.
NATALIA REAGAN: It is combustible and compostable, Ashley.
ASHLEY HAMER: I have wanted to set electronics on fire before, so.
[LAUGHING]
NATALIA REAGAN: Possibly today?
ASHLEY HAMER: Possibly today.
NATALIA REAGAN: Ashley and I had some technical difficulties. Perhaps if our electronics were made out of sheets of friction powered paper we'd be fine.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Before we recap what we learned today, I want to ask you to do us a quick favor. Nominations are open for the 2020 Discover Pods Awards. We actually won last year for Best Technology and Science Podcast. And we need your help to help us keep our title.
So just visit awards.discoverpods.com, and click on Nominate Now, then nominate your favorite show. We'll also put a link in today's show notes. And, hey, you can always encourage a friend or two to help. It's free to vote, and it should only take a minute. We all really appreciate it.
And now let's recap what we learned today. Starting with the fact that fossils might have fueled the notion of mythical creatures. Dwarf elephant skulls looked like Cyclops skulls, mammoths were mistaken for giants, and lots of different dinosaurs skeletons gave rise to dragons. [ROARING]
NATALIA REAGAN: I don't know why dragons sound like pirates but-- This reminds me, do you know about the Elasmotherium?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, tell me about it.
NATALIA REAGAN: So, I love the Elasmotherium. It is related to the rhinoceros, and it looks like a giant unicorn. It has this honking horn coming right out of its forehead. And it looks like a real life unicorn.
So I remember there was a story that came out a few years ago saying real life unicorn discovered in Asia, the Elasmotherium. Which is just a fun word to say as well, but I just think it's fascinating that we can find bones that repurpose them based on our imagination.
ASHLEY HAMER: I find that all of the real life unicorn, the real life mermaid, which is the manatee, the real life version it's got more curves than we put in storybooks. And I think we should represent them that way.
NATALIA REAGAN: Absolutely. Yeah, the Elasmotherium was a chunky creature. It was very large. It was not this felt horse. And I do love the fact that sailors might have mistaken manatees for mermaids. I wonder how many jars of whiskey had they been drinking. Arh, she's a beauty.
[LAUGHING]
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
NATALIA REAGAN: Well, we also learned that humans prefer cheering on winning streaks of individuals over teams in a phenomenon called the Streaking Star Effect. This not only applies to sports teams, but also those in business, quiz shows, and other assorted competitive platforms. It makes me think of Ken from Jeopardy!
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, totally. Yeah, we all love Ken. When I was editing this segment I had to look up how to say Calcio Fiorentino, and I learned about what the sport was. And it is ridiculous.
NATALIA REAGAN: Tell me more.
ASHLEY HAMER: So some people have described it as a cross between rugby and MMA.
NATALIA REAGAN: What?
ASHLEY HAMER: The idea is to get the ball into the other team's goal, but there are no fouls so everybody is just like punching and kicking each other.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh my God.
ASHLEY HAMER: Like, a lot of times people don't even get the ball into the goal because they're too afraid because once you do, you're just going to get tackled by everybody.
NATALIA REAGAN: That is an amazing sport. It does sound terrifying.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's Italian, man. I guess that's how they do it over there.
NATALIA REAGAN: Do you know how it got its name?
ASHLEY HAMER: So Florentine kick game, that's how it got its name.
[LAUGHING]
You kick things in more than one way.
NATALIA REAGAN: I was going to say, kick balls, kick people, kick people with balls. Wow, that's fascinating. Just 27 men against 27 men in an all out brawl.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're not good at fighting. It's not like watching a professional match. Like, these are just neighborhood dudes, so it's like ugly.
NATALIA REAGAN: I just see a bunch of slap fighting. Like, a slap, a slap, I slapa you here, I slapa you-- oh my goodness. Oh, wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: That sounds pretty much it. You got it.
NATALIA REAGAN: Hey, want to go to Italy, Ashley, and go catch a game?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, I'd love to. And lastly, we discovered that scientists have now engineered interactive paper. Essentially we could print up a calculator or a music player. And it's moisture resistant, and it runs on friction instead of needing a battery. And maybe if we can recycle it too, it'll be a lot easier on the environment in the long run. Which, given all the e-waste that is accumulating in the world, I think we really need that.
NATALIA REAGAN: I don't know. Would you play an interactive paper saxophone, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: I mean, I have strong feelings against electronic saxophones in general, but maybe I'd play an interactive paper keyboard, a little mini keyboard.
NATALIA REAGAN: That's very cool. Today's stories were written by Ruben West Smith, Kelsey Donk, and Steffi Drucker. And edited by Ashley Hamer who is the Managing Editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonia Hodgen. Today's episode was edited by Natalia Reagan. And our producer is Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.
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