Learn about nose and throat bacteria that might make you less likely to get the flu; the red juice in your steak dinner, which is actually not blood; and how encryption works, as well as why quantum computing could break it. 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: Some Nose and Throat Bacteria Make It Less Likely You'll Get the Flu — https://curiosity.im/2MrnJqO (Republished) What's That Red Juice in Your Steak? (Hint: It Isn't Blood) — https://curiosity.im/2MpFw1m Quantum Computers Pose a Big Threat to Internet Security — https://curiosity.im/2MpFd6I 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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about nose and throat bacteria that might make you less likely to get the flu; the red juice in your steak dinner, which is actually not blood; and how encryption works, as well as why quantum computing could break it.
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:
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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/bacteria-may-save-you-from-the-flu-red-steak-juice-isnt-blood-and-the-future-of-encryption
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about nose and throat bacteria that might make you LESS likely to get the flu; the red juice in your steak dinner, which is actually NOT blood; and how encryption works, as well as why quantum computing could break it.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Some Nose and Throat Bacteria Make It Less Likely You'll Get the Flu — https://curiosity.im/2MrnJqO (Republished) (Ashley)
ASHLEY: According to new research, certain nose and throat bacteria make you less likely to get the flu. And this could be big news for doctors trying to prevent the flu and secondary infections like pneumonia.
CODY: This is cool because it’s not just a random new study about bacteria; the researchers found a kind of thing that hasn’t really been seen before.
ASHLEY: CORRECT. As reported by Futurity, researchers from the University of Michigan looked at samples of nose and throat bacteria from people who’d had confirmed influenza, and they used DNA sequencing to figure out exactly which bacteria were present. The researchers found five clusters, and then checked to see if participants with a given cluster were more likely to get influenza. They factored in other risk factors like age, tobacco use, flu vaccination — stuff like that. What was surprising was that who had which cluster made a difference on whether they got influenza. Basically, it showed that if you have a certain bacterial community, you have a lower risk for getting the flu. And this has never been shown before, according to the study’s lead author Betsy Foxman. She says there’s a lot of potential on where to go from here, but there’s still a lot of work to do. One approach is working WITH microbes instead of treating them like an enemy that needs to be wiped out. This could be the start of a long road towards pushing a person’s microbiome in a way that makes a difference. Could you just take a microbiome pill in the future? The study doesn’t answer that question, but the results are exciting. And even if a magic pill isn’t the answer, the results are one part of figuring out why some people get sick with influenza when they’re exposed to the virus, and others don’t. You can read more about the details of this study on curiosity-dot-com and on our free Curiosity app for Android and iOS, including lots of other exciting quotes from the authors of the study.
What's That Red Juice in Your Steak? (Hint: It Isn't Blood) — https://curiosity.im/2MpFw1m (Cody)
Did you know that the red juice in a steak dinner is NOT blood? Get ready, because fellow carnivores, it’s time to sink our teeth into the science of steaks. [ASHLEY: You’re not a carnivore / ad lib]
CODY: I’ll admit in full disclosure that the liquid you see oozing out of raw red meat does resemble blood. But it’s actually just a mixture of water and a protein called myoglobin. And it's totally safe to eat. Myoglobin’s job is to help carry oxygen to muscle cells. It’s naturally colored red, but it does get darker when it’s exposed to heat. That’s basically why a more well-done steak looks less red, even though it still contains myoglobin. The misconception that the steak is "bloody" may be why 38 percent of Americans SAY they order their steaks medium rare — although when it comes to actually ordering, only 25.8 percent of us follow through with that medium-rare order.
The most popular order is medium, with 37-and-a-half percent of us making that our prime choice. While some people are put off by the idea of quote-unquote "blood" in their cooked food, a lot of commercial meat packers treat raw steaks with carbon monoxide to keep the red color. That’s because a lot of grocery shoppers associate the color red in raw beef with freshness. It’s also worth noting that the more myoglobin a meat has, the darker or redder it’ll be. This is why some animals have red meat while others have white meat. Animals with red meat use more of their muscles for extensive activity and, therefore, have more myoglobin. Other animals like chickens have both white and dark meat, and you find most of the dark meat in their legs and wings, since they’re used for more physical activity. MOST fish are considered white meat, because floating and moving around in the water doesn't exactly require a lot of muscle use. But some fish like tuna swim quickly for longer periods of time, so that’s why they have darker meat. Who knew there was so much to learn about meat? And now my mouth is officially watering.
Quantum Computers Pose a Big Threat to Internet Security — https://curiosity.im/2MpFd6I (Ashley)
ASHLEY: If you spend a lot of time online like we do, then you’re probably at least a little familiar with encryption. Encryption is a way of encoding a message so that only authorized parties can read it and nobody can eavesdrop on the transmission. It’s a great way to safeguard your privacy, so you should probably know how it works. I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is, I’m going to help you understand how encryption works. The bad news is, I’m going to tell you about how quantum computers could blow the security of encryption wide open.
CODY: Although, the other good news is that nobody will probably be able to actually make a working quantum computer until at least 2025. [ad lib]
ASHLEY: First, let’s talk about how encryption actually works. If you want to encrypt something, you need a cipher. That’s an algorithm that turns your message into a scrambled mess of characters that can only be turned back into the original message using a special key. The internet these days uses two types of encryption. Symmetric-key cryptography is the oldest; it uses a single key to both encrypt and decrypt the message. Say Beyoncé and Jay-Z wanted to exchange secret messages. With a symmetric-key system, Beyoncé and Jay-Z would meet beforehand and agree on a secret key they can use later to send messages back and forth without anyone else being able to read them.
But if they can’t meet up to talk about that key, or if someone wanted to eavesdrop on their secret meeting, then you might use what’s called public-key cryptography. It's a type of asymmetric-key algorithm since it uses more than one key, and it's the bread and butter of modern online commerce. In this case, Beyoncé might tell Jay-Z publicly how to encode a message to her, but only she would know how to decode it. This works because some mathematical processes are easy to do, but hard to undo. For example, Jay-Z could multiply two large whole numbers and send the result to Beyoncé, but an eavesdropper would have a hard time figuring out the original numbers from that final result. In the real world, the difficult math problems that public-key systems rely on are called hidden subgroup problems.
That brings me to that bad news: Experts predict that once quantum computers are up and running, they'll be able to solve hidden subgroup problems in no time. That's because quantum computers will be millions of times more powerful than the computers that created those encryption algorithms. Essentially, a quantum computer will be able to bust wide open every secret we’ve encrypted before quantum computers existed. But there's hope. There’s a research consortium on Post-Quantum Cryptography called PQCrypto. It’s a group that combines the intellectual prowess of 11 different universities and companies to come up with new ways of encrypting data — hopefully without the use of hidden subgroup problems. It only started in 2015, and it can take up to 20 years after development for a new cryptographic technique to reach the end user. But they may have no other choice. Quantum computing is coming, and we have to be ready when it does.
CODY: But hey! I’ll be able to edit podcasts REALLY QUICKLY
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ASHLEY: To learn more about how you can support Curiosity Daily, AND how to get access to our Patreon-exclusive podcasts — including the January episode we’re releasing this week — please visit patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!