Learn about a quantum physics quirk that might mean you can change the past; how a bite from a lone star tick could make you allergic to red meat; and a fear researcher’s three-step RIA method you can use to control your fears. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: A Quirk of Quantum Physics Might Mean You Can Change the Past The Bite of a Lone Star Tick Can Make You Allergic to Red Meat Use the RIA Method to Control Your Fears Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn about a quantum physics quirk that might mean you can change the past; how a bite from a lone star tick could make you allergic to red meat; and a fear researcher’s three-step RIA method you can use to control your fears.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/3-step-fear-control-method-quantum-physics-changing-the-past-and-red-meat-allergies-from-tick-bites
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiositydotcom to help you get smarter in just a few. Minutes I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about a quantum physics quirk that might mean you can change the past, how a bite from a lone star tick could make you allergic to red meat, and a three-step method you can use to control your fears.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: According to some physicists, our choices in the present might influence events in the past. Oh, yes. Quantum mechanics-- where objects can exist as two things at once, transmit information faster than the speed of light, and teleport through barriers like it's no big thing. Today, we're going to explore why a quirk of quantum mechanics might mean you can change the past.
CODY GOUGH: What better way to wrap up the week than with a little bit of quantum physics? Is it quantum physics or quantum mechanics?
ASHLEY HAMER: So quantum physics is the umbrella term for all of the quantum phenomena. Quantum mechanics describe something a little bit more specific.
CODY GOUGH: Got it. As long as either way, everything we're talking about is really trippy.
ASHLEY HAMER: Super trippy. It's one of my favorite parts of science. So this idea is based on one of the most mind-bending scientific experiments ever known as the double slit experiment. Scientists know that light isn't just a wave and it isn't just a particle. It's both. Particles of light are called photons, but light also exists as waves.
You can demonstrate this by sending a beam of light through a sheet with two parallel slits onto a screen. When you do that, it creates an interference pattern-- a series of bands of differing brightness. That happens when two waves interfere with each other like what happens with the wakes behind two boats.
If the light were behaving like a particle, you just get too bright bands to match the two slits. But here's the thing. If you send photons through a double slit one by one, it still creates an interference pattern. It's as if all the possible paths the photons can take interfere with one another. That's weird. But even weirder, if you place a detector at each slit to keep track of which one each photon passes through, everything changes.
You get two vertical bands, not an interference pattern. It's like each photon follows all possible paths until it's observed. At which point, it collapses into a single path. Got that? OK. Here's where changing the past comes in. So you might figure that a given photon has three possibilities-- particle through right slit, particle through left slit, or wave through both.
What if you place the right and left detectors behind the screen and lift it after the photons have gone through the slits. So the detectors catch the photons after they've chosen which slit to go through. Pretty sneaky, right? Well, researchers have done that. Here's what happens. If you decide to leave the screen down after the photon passes through the double slit, you get an interference pattern showing that it took multiple paths.
But if you decide to remove the screen after the photon passes, it hits either the right or the left detector-- showing that it took one path. It's as if the decision to leave or remove the screen actually reaches back in time to change the particles' behavior. Now, a lot of physicists take issue with this interpretation. In fact, the whole premise of the experiment isn't quite right. It's not that a single photon only has one of three possibilities, it's that a single photon embodies all possibilities until it's detected.
You see all of those possibilities when the screen is down because nothing was detected. When the screen is removed, the detectors make the photon collapse into a state that's detected by one detector or the other, not the eerier interpretation suggests, go back in time to choose a path. But either way, it is super trippy.
CODY GOUGH: There is a tick that could make you allergic to red meat. We're not trying to freak you out, but this is a real thing. Just keep an eye out for a lone star tick the next time you're hiking in the woods East of New Mexico in South of Wisconsin.
ASHLEY HAMER: This was so weird to me. I couldn't believe that a tick could do this.
CODY GOUGH: I just picture a really hardcore vegetarian bringing their best friend into the forest. Ha, ha. I'm going to make you one of me.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally. I know a few.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GOUGH: I'm very good friends with lots of vegetarians and vegans. So I'm just joking.
ASHLEY HAMER: And very good sisters with a vegan, so--
CODY GOUGH: There you go. It would be sneaky, though. Anyway, this phenomenon was first noticed by Allergist Scott Cummins about 10 years ago. And in 2014, he published one of the first scholarly papers on red meat allergies caused by tick bites. There are more than 5,000 cases in the US and more starting to happen in Sweden, Germany, and Australia. And you can blame it all on a sugar known as alpha-gal.
That's a sugar that forms naturally in lots of different mammals, including cows, sheeps, pigs, and dogs, but not in humans. It's not necessarily harmful on its own, but our immune system still naturally respond to it by deploying aggressive antibodies. The ticks don't create alpha-gal, but they can pick it up from other animals they've bitten out in the wild. When ticks inject their alpha-gal laden saliva into your bloodstream, our immune systems go into overdrive.
The results, even people who have never experienced a red meat allergy before can suddenly be stricken by severe symptoms brought on by T-bones. There is some good news though. The allergy probably won't be permanent. Stick to chicken, seafood, or a vegetarian diet for two or three years, and you should be fine. Even better, researchers think they've identified a protein in the tick saliva that might be the cause of the extreme reaction, meaning we might be able to create a vaccine in the near future.
But for now, the best way to cope will be to avoid tick bites to begin with. Use bug spray, stay out of tall grass, cover as much skin as possible, and stay away from tick-infested areas.
ASHLEY HAMER: I like to think that I am an alpha-gal.
CODY GOUGH: Wow. You have been hanging out with me way too much.
ASHLEY HAMER: A researcher has come up with a three-step process to control your fears. Are you ready to learn how to be fearless?
CODY GOUGH: I'm already fearless, though.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, I mean, to be fair, you don't want to be fearless. Fear is great for protecting you. You just don't want to be fearful of things that aren't going to hurt you.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, no. I'm afraid I don't have enough fears.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, good. Now, you have fears.
CODY GOUGH: This seems like a slippery slope.
ASHLEY HAMER: It really is. So Mary Poffenroth is a fear researcher. And according to her, there are two major types of fears-- factual and fictional. Factual fear comes from an actual threat to your life. A burglar breaks into your home, a car is hurtling toward you, or a mountain lion approaches you in the woods, for example.
Fictional fear, on the other hand, is based in truth but mostly made up in your head. You're afraid you'll stumble on your words during the big wedding toast and everyone will laugh at you. You won't be able to get the project done in time and you'll be fired. Or your partner will find someone else and leave you.
You can break down fictional fear into two categories. The fear that you're not enough or the fear that you don't have control. Feeling insecure, overwhelmed, stressed, inadequate, those are all just words for fear. The problem is that your brain's emotion center, known as the amygdala, reacts the same way to those fictional fears as it does to factual fears.
But if you spend every day stressed or insecure, you're putting your body in a constant fear response. And that's really unhealthy. Poffenroth suggests a three-step method called the RIA method that stands for recognize, identify, address. As in, recognize that you're afraid, identify the fear, and then find a way to cope.
To recognize, listen to your body. If your heart's racing or if you've got a dry mouth or cold sweats, then you need to understand that you're afraid. Then when you identify the fear, figure out if it's factual or fictional. Even just naming your fear can sometimes help. We all fear of the unknown. So just knowing what's freaking you out can accomplish a lot. And you can address the fear in lots of different ways. From slow breathing techniques to thinking, what's the worst that could happen.
Chances are you'll survive whatever it is you're afraid of. Although if it's a factual fear, then make sure you do what you've got to do to protect yourself. No matter what you do, don't ignore your fear. If you pretend it doesn't exist, your body will keep fighting it. And that could cause more problems down the line.
CODY GOUGH: That's all for today, but here's a sneak peek at what you can learn about in curiositydotcom this weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: This weekend, you'll learn about why nuclear pasta might be the strongest material in the universe, a new blood test that can read your internal clock, diet fads from history, why you should never work in a dark room, disturbing fairy tale origins, and more.
CODY GOUGH: And if there's something you're curious about, then email your question to podcast@curiositydotcom. We might answer it on Sunday or some other day.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's podcast@curiositydotcom. We invite you to join us again Sunday on the award-winning Curiosity Daily to learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough. Have a great weekend.
ASHLEY HAMER: And stay curious.
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