In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes: Is the Universe Conscious of Itself? These Baroque Portuguese Libraries Employ Bats for a Very Important Purpose Coffee Could Help You Tolerate the People You Work With Why You Should Leave Your Phone Out of the Bedroom Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/a-conscious-universe-bats-working-at-libraries-and-coffee-with-co-workers
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi, we've got three stories from curiosity 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 why Portuguese libraries employ bats, how coffee might help you tolerate your coworkers, and a theory that the universe is conscious of itself.
CODY GOUGH: Plus we'll get an update on Ashley's phone habits. Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, what if the universe is a giant brain, and we're all just neurons in it?
CODY GOUGH: Wow, I feel like I'm back in college.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well scientists think that that actually might be a thing. To explain, we're going to have to wade into some quantum physics. You ready?
CODY GOUGH: I've never been more ready.
ASHLEY HAMER: OK. So quantum mechanics is basically the physics of the very, very smallest particles in the universe, and they don't behave like the stuff you see every day. They can actually exist in many different states at once, and some theories say that they don't choose a final state until you measure them or observe them. It's kind of like if you dealt a playing card face down, and it existed as all 52 cards at once, until you turn it over. At that point, the card would choose to be, say, the queen of hearts just because you're observing it.
So there's a wild theory that maybe those tiny particles are conscious, and their choices aren't just a metaphor. This theory is called "panpsychism," and it says that there's some sort of proto-consciousness that permeates the universe. It wouldn't be a brain or a mind like ours, but more like a set of physical laws that set the ground rules for brains to become conscious. Remember when we talked about the Dyson sphere the other day?
Well, the guy who came up with that, Freeman Dyson, calls panpsychism his personal theology and argues for it this way, quote, "The universe shows evidence of the operations of mind on three levels. The first level is elementary physical processes as we see them when we study atoms in the laboratory.
The second level is our direct human experience of our own consciousness. The third level is the universe as a whole," unquote.
CODY GOUGH: OK, so that sounds fun, but you can't actually prove this kind of thing, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: Well here's the crazy thing. Greg Matloff is a physics professor at New York City College of Technology, and he says panpsychism can be proven with observable data.
CODY GOUGH: What?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. He recently published a paper in the Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, which sounds like an awesome journal.
CODY GOUGH: I'm so glad that's a journal.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. And he suggested one way to test for this is by measuring the speed of cool young stars as they travel around their galaxies. These stars move faster than their older, hotter counterparts, and we're not sure why. Most people say it's dark matter. But Matloff points out that young stars sometimes shoot plasma in one direction, and that could give them a little boost.
And these stars are cool enough to contain molecules, not just solo atoms. And he thinks molecules are where these higher levels of consciousness could live. So he thinks it's possible that the stars are actually shooting these jets on purpose.
We think most of the dark matter exist at the center of galaxies. So if we see these fast-moving stars elsewhere, he might be on to something. Might. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, as they say.
CODY GOUGH: Wow. Is this more or less far-fetched than the theory that we're all in a giant computer simulation?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh it is way more far-fetched than that. That's probably true.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, well, all right, then. Well, there you go. Heard it here first on curiosity.com. So, Ashley, libraries are pretty cool. Do you have any idea how libraries keep books safe from bookworms and moths?
ASHLEY HAMER: Probably just insecticide? I don't know.
CODY GOUGH: Well, critters like that can be bad for books, but some baroque libraries in Portugal have a really interesting way of handling pest control. They employ bats.
ASHLEY HAMER: Bats?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. The libraries at the University of Coimbra and the Palace of Mafra were built in the 18th century in a heavily adorned baroque-style with elaborate ornamentation. Experts don't really know where the bats came from originally, but they all agree that they play a vital role in keeping the books safe. The library's high ceilings and elaborate adornments are pretty much the perfect place for bats to nest during the day, and at night, they come out to satisfy their diet of about 500 bugs a day.
Both libraries do have to clean the bat droppings every morning.
ASHLEY HAMER: Gross.
CODY GOUGH: But that seems like a small price to pay for pest control. The director of the library said, quote, "Bats have been living in the library since ever. The library tables are protected with animal hide every night because they are also antiques, and the bats fly freely, eating the bugs," unquote. There are records dating back 200 years showing orders for those exact same cuts of animal hide, so those bats have been around for quite a while.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's brilliant. If they're there anyway, why not just put them to work?
CODY GOUGH: Yes. That is sustainable pest control, if I ever heard of it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, are you a "don't talk to me before I've had my coffee" type of person?
CODY GOUGH: I'm a "don't look at me before I've had my coffee" type of person.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, for sure. Well, we love coffee at Curiosity, and we found research showing that drinking coffee can help you get along with your coworkers better. A new study published last month in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that when people drank a cup of coffee before a group discussion, they stayed focused and felt better about themselves and the other people in the conversation.
CODY GOUGH: And most workers feel that way. A recent survey showed that 71% of city dwellers in the US agree that coffee is integral to a successful meeting.
ASHLEY HAMER: Sure. But now there's science. This new study was conducted using people who drink coffee regularly, and for them, it looks like coffee does make them feel more alert, focus their thinking on the task at hand, and helps them participate in group tasks. There's a big caveat, though. The study's authors said that the coffee drinkers came to the study after staying away from coffee for a few hours, so they don't know if the coffee they drank in the study increased their alertness or if it was decreased alertness from drinking decaf before the study that caused the effects.
If you aren't drinking coffee and you're in a bad mood, and then you get to drink your coffee, suddenly you're going to be a bright, shiny, happy person.
CODY GOUGH: Sure.
ASHLEY HAMER: The study also used a topic that participants generally agreed on, so further research is needed to see the effects when there's disagreement. And they only measured group discussion, so there's plenty more research to be done with group problem-solving or group physical work. But we'll keep the coffee coming, just to be on the safe side. Definitely.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, I'm not going to cut back on that anytime soon. Last week, we mentioned a study that found that people who keep their smartphones out of the bedroom for one week showed improvement in their happiness and quality of life. Ashley said she keeps her phone next to the bed, but she would try to keep it out. How's that going for you?
ASHLEY HAMER: So, yeah, it's been about one week. I put my phone charger in my bathroom, which is right next to my bedroom. Still close, but not by my bed.
CODY GOUGH: Sure.
ASHLEY HAMER: And, yeah, it's really changed my life.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I thought that I would be bored getting ready for bed, sitting in bed awake. Right? And I would have to read a book. Honestly, I just go straight to sleep.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: I get more sleep now because I'm not looking around on Facebook and Twitter and checking all the stuff that I need to check and feeling FOMO all the time. And the other thing is that because I still have my alarm on my phone, when my alarm goes off, I have to get out of bed to turn it off, and then I don't go back to sleep. So it's completely improved my sleep habits.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: In one week?
ASHLEY HAMER: In one week.
CODY GOUGH: Do you think you'll keep doing it?
ASHLEY HAMER: I think I will. I think I will.
CODY GOUGH: There you go. Science proven.
ASHLEY HAMER: Proven.
CODY GOUGH: Validated. Love it. You can read about all of these stories and a lot more today on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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