Learn about how babies' random choices become their preferences, why modern agriculture requires “migratory beekeeping” — basically, taking honeybees on road trips, and four of the world’s weirdest weather phenomena.
Learn about how babies' random choices become their preferences, why modern agriculture requires “migratory beekeeping” — basically, taking honeybees on road trips, and four of the world’s weirdest weather phenomena.
Just like adults, babies' random choices become their preferences by Kelsey Donk
Why modern agriculture relies on driving honeybees around the country by Ashley Hamer
4 of the world's weirdest weather phenomena by Reuben Westmaas
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/4-of-the-worlds-weirdest-weather-phenomena
[MUSIC PLAYING] ASHLEY HAMER: Hi. You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity.com. I am Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today, you'll learn how babies random choices become their preferences, why modern agriculture requires migratory beekeeping, basically, taking honey bees on road trips, and four of the world's weirdest weather phenomena.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
[SWOOSH]
There's new research about babies that might tell you something you didn't know about yourself. It turns out that when babies make a random choice, it becomes a lasting preference. When a baby chooses a red ball instead of a green one, the act of deciding makes them like red more than green. And here's what you might not realize. Scientists already know that adults do this constantly.
Basically, adults tend to justify their choices after the fact by forming preferences. When a person orders a turkey sandwich instead of ham, they start to think afterward, I must like turkey more than ham. Same goes for all the other tiny choices we make between two things that are basically the same. We choose between styles of pants, colors of pens, and modes of transportation every day. And the act of making a choice makes us feel a certain way about the other options.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University wanted to know whether babies do the same thing. If they do, using arbitrary choices to form preferences might be fundamental to the experience of being human. So the team brought a group of 10- to 20-month-old babies into the lab/playroom. The babies were old enough to crawl and make actual choices. So this probably won't work with Cody's two-month-old.
One by one, the researchers put each baby in the middle of the room between two bright and colorful play blocks. After the babies chose a block, the researchers took it away. They put the baby back in the middle of the room with the block they rejected, and another new block. Babies chose the new block almost every time. One researcher said it was like they were thinking to themselves, I didn't choose that one last time. So I must not like it very much.
And that's exactly how it works for adults. They choose one thing, and then look at what they rejected, and think, must not be for me. Here's the interesting thing. When researchers chose the toys for the babies, the preference effect went away. It seems that without an element of choice, the babies didn't develop a bias against the leftover toys.
The same is true for adults. When someone chooses for us, it's just not the same as getting to make a choice ourselves. But when we make that choice, watch out. It's bad news for the choices we left on the shelf.
[SWOOSH]
NATALIA REAGAN: To say that fruits and vegetables come from nature is a bit of an overstatement. The organic apple you bought in the supermarket was grown with human intervention at every step, from the planting to the pollinating to the harvesting. That's right, the pollinating. Farmers don't leave pollination of their crops up to the whims of whatever bees are around. Instead, the agriculture industry practices what's known as migratory beekeeping. Basically, taking honey bees on road trips.
So why would you need to drive bees across the country? Don't bees exist everywhere? Yes, but not in large enough numbers. For example, when all 90 million almond trees start to bloom over the 800,000 acres of Southern California, they require more pollination than the local bees can handle. Especially, since the window in which the mature flowers can be pollinated is just five days long. The fix, teams of buzzy and fuzzy foreign contractors trucked in from all over the country. It's a beautiful sight.
As you may imagine, loading a honey bee colony onto a tractor trailer isn't easy. Beekeepers first have to ensure the bees build their hives in boxes, which are easier to stack in trucks. Workers have to load the hives in the dead of night when the bees are inside sleeping. They drape nets over the boxes to keep the bees from escaping and getting lost on the journey. Load up the hives with car snacks in the forms of sugar syrup and pollen patties. Then start up the engine and begin the drive.
Once they reach their destination, workers open the boxes where, if all goes well, tens of thousands of bees per hive fly out to stretch their legs and take in their surroundings. Almonds are just one stop on the honeybees road trip, which takes them across the country to Apple orchards in Washington, sunflower fields in North Dakota, cranberry fields in Wisconsin, and many more. The fruits and nuts you buy in the store are almost guaranteed to have been pollinated by a cross-country honeybee.
Unfortunately, the road trip can take a toll on the bee colony. And some experts point to migratory beekeeping as a reason that bees are dying off. Some are trying to revive native bee species to give the travelers a rest. But for now, pollinators drive in from out of state. And you have them to thank for your fresh produce.
[SWOOSH]
ASHLEY HAMER: As unpredictable as the weather can be, we generally expect it to fall within a certain range of events. But sometimes, things get downright biblical. Here are four of the weirdest weather phenomena we've seen so far.
Number one, blood rain. Blood rain is common enough that it has its own Wikipedia entry. But the most recent high profile example of it came in 2001 when a red shower fell over the Indian state of Kerala. Initial reports were pretty sure that it was an alien invasion. But eventually, experts figured out that a red algae bloom was responsible for the crimson precipitation.
Number two, fish rain. Raining fish are predictable enough in Honduras that they get their own annual festival called lluvia de peces. Every year, the city of Yoro celebrates an annual storm that leaves thousands of fish flopping in the streets. Scientists aren't totally sure what causes this phenomenon. But one theory that seems likely says tornadoes and other storms whip up the unlucky animals and deposit them, dead or alive, miles from home.
Number three, bugnadoes. A bugnado is unfortunately exactly what it sounds like, a whirling column of buzzing midges reaching high into the sky. They don't reach dangerous speeds. And they won't cause any lasting damage. But they're still pretty freaky. They're basically the same thing as dust devils, which are caused by hot spots on the ground pushing the air upward in a vortex. It's just that these devils are full of living creatures.
Finally, blob rain and star jelly. In 1994, a storm passed over a little town in Washington. But instead of raindrops, it left little gelatinous blobs of something. On examining the blobs, the Department of Ecology found that they were teeming with cells. But what kind of cells? They couldn't say.
One theory was, that they were bits of an unlucky jellyfish blown up by bombing drills over the ocean, or maybe they were the mysterious substance known as Star jelly, which was once believed to be the strange goo that meteor showers left behind. Which isn't true, but is fun to think about. Either way, just get your umbrella ready. Judging from 2020, so far, we've got to be ready for anything.
[SWOOSH]
NATALIA REAGAN: Let's recap what we learned today to wrap up. Starting with, we learned that babies actually choose their preferences a lot like adults. Once they've decided not to choose an item, they continue to not choose that same item when it's presented with even more options. But this only happens when the babies and adults are actually making the decision. If others are making the decisions for them, they no longer have that same bias.
ASHLEY HAMER: Really makes you think about all of the minor things that you just don't like for no reason. It's like, do I really not like that thing, or was it just something that I didn't choose once, and now it's just become this ingrained preference, right?
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, I was a picky eater as a kid. I was not picky about a lot of things. But when it came to food-- And there was a lot of vegetables I didn't like. And I decided to become vegetarian, Oh my goodness, like 26 years ago or something like that. And I didn't eat any vegetables. And I'm pretty sure they're not vegetarian.
But I ate a lot of McDonald's French fries. Because I was 16. And I had to teach myself to learn to like vegetables. And I realized, most of the time when I would try it, I actually liked them. And there was nothing wrong with them. But I think I just was programmed, or I kept choosing not to eat them and just eating peanut butter.
ASHLEY HAMER: I definitely have one of those food preferences programmed from when I was really young. Like in my head, I know I don't like coconut. Except, I'll eat a Samoa Girl Scout cookie and really enjoy it. I'll eat a coconut curry. There are a lot of coconut desserts that I really enjoy. It's like, do you really not like coconut? You actually enjoy coconut. Stop saying you don't like coconut.
[LAUGHS]
NATALIA REAGAN: But yeah, these babies with their option paralysis. There's just too many options. Let's give them two options. Just go with that.
ASHLEY HAMER: And we learned that modern agriculture is keeping bees busy. Because they are just too many dang plants to pollinate. So they're actually taking bees on road trips to help make sure that all of the crops across the nation get the beautiful love they need to grow. But the bees are a little overworked. And they often don't make it after their holiday on the road is over. So we're trying to strengthen the native bee populations, and finding other ways to pollinate our crops.
NATALIA REAGAN: I like this story. But I also am sad that it's not good for the bees, long term. But I do think this is an excellent career choice. I want to just road trip with bees.
ASHLEY HAMER: Do you? It sounds very difficult.
NATALIA REAGAN: I feel like, yes. I guess you have to be a little bit of a risk taker or a thrill seeker.
ASHLEY HAMER: Definitely. I guess you just really have to love bees, which I think you probably check that box.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, I remember when I was a little girl, my mom grew up in Kentucky. And I would go there for Summers. And there was a man at the end of her block named Azro. And Azro was big. And he was oftentimes, not the nicest guy. But he was a beekeeper. And he would give me big chunks of honeycomb, as a kid.
And that was my first introduction to beekeeping. And what that was. And what that looked like. And he was-- I don't know if Azro was so mean, he didn't have to wear the beekeeping outfit. But they never bothered him. Yeah, he had no fear.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow!
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. He also drove until he was 93 years old. I think just people stayed out of his way. Oh, get out of the way, Azro was coming.
Well, we also learned about some pretty cool weather phenomena. I'm a big fan of the blood rain, honestly, very biblical. If any of you are fans of slayer, it made me think of rain and blood. But this is basically rain that fell in India that was red. And they discovered it was actually this red algae that was making it look that way.
And then there's my personal favorite, fish rain, which was happening in Honduras. And it reminds me of one of my favorite things in the world, the Muppets and Lew Zealand, who used to have that boomerang fish show. So I just imagine he, holidays in Honduras every year, does secret little fish shows. And that's what is causing the fish rain. But it's probably not what it is. It's probably just wishful feeling.
ASHLEY HAMER: And then there is bugnadoes, which sound just as terrifying as they are. Well, I mean, it depends on how you feel about bugs. I actually like bugs. But I don't know if I'd want to be in the middle of one of these. It's basically a swirling vortex of gnats just whipping around you. Keep your mouth and your nose closed, unless you want to get a nice little bug sammy.
NATALIA REAGAN: Would you rather have a sharknado or a bugnado, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: I think I would prefer the bugnado. It's just protein, right? It's just protein.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, right.
[SWOOSH]
Today's stories were written by Kelsey Donk, Ashley Hamer, and Reuben [? Wesmist. ?] And edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonja Hodgen. Today's episode was edited by Jonathan McMichael. And our producer is Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Be sure to avoid the flying fish. And join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]