Curiosity Daily

Beat Stress with Laughter Yoga (w/ Madan Kataria, MD)

Episode Summary

Learn about the benefits of laughter yoga with the founder of the laughter club movement, Dr. Madan Kataria. You’ll also learn about a major breakthrough in the way scientists are searching for dark matter.

Episode Notes

Learn about the benefits of laughter yoga with the founder of the laughter club movement, Dr. Madan Kataria. You’ll also learn about a major breakthrough in the way scientists are searching for dark matter.

This new dark-matter detection method is 10x more precise by Grant Currin

Additional resources from Madan Kataria, M.D.

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/beat-stress-with-laughter-yoga-w-madan-kataria-md

Episode Transcription

CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.

ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about the benefits of laughter yoga, with the founder of the laughter club movement, Dr. Madan Kataria [MUD-dun Kuh-TAH-ree-ah]. But first, you’ll learn about a major breakthrough in the way scientists are searching for dark matter.

CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.

This new dark-matter detection method is 10x more precise (Ashley)

Astrophysicists have made a huge leap forward in the study of dark matter. A small team of researchers working in Australia have figured out a new way to detect the stuff with ten times the precision offered by the next-best method. 

There’s a ton of dark matter out there. It actually outweighs normal matter by about 6 to 1. But scientists don’t know much about it because dark matter doesn’t emit or reflect light — hence its name. That means we can’t see it with our eyes, or even with instruments that detect electromagnetic waves.

The good news is that dark matter does have a gravitational effect. That means that researchers can indirectly observe that which can’t be seen — by using telescopes, astrophysical calculations, and insight from Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

Here’s how it works. Astrophysicists have made a lot of progress in understanding the physics that drives the movement of stars, dust, and gases as they orbit the center of a galaxy. They understand the mechanics so well that researchers can combine that theoretical knowledge with direct observations of a particular galaxy to calculate what that galaxy “should” look like at a certain point in time. 

But here’s the thing: when scientists peer through a telescope, the galaxies they see don’t look like they’re quote-unquote “supposed” to. The stars, dust, and gases don’t move the way they should according to gravity. It might sound like the scientists made a mistake, but they didn’t: the real culprit is dark matter. 

Light passes through dark matter like it’s not even there, but there’s another way to “see” the stuff. Einstein’s insights from more than a century ago tell us that mass creates distortions in spacetime, the way a bowling ball distorts the fabric of a trampoline. So if there’s some mass between an observer and a visible object, that mass will slightly distort the image of the object. In this case, the objects are galaxies, the mass is dark matter, and the observer is a telescope in Australia.  

Researchers are able to measure the mass of the dark matter between themselves and a faraway galaxy by comparing what the galaxy “should” look like to what it actually looks like through a telescope. It’s like a spot-the-difference puzzle but with very subtle differences and a lot more math. 

This isn’t a completely new idea, but these researchers added a twist that boosted the precision of their measurements. They added in their knowledge of how a galaxy’s stars, dust, and gases should move according to gravity and compared that to how they actually move. Taking the speed and direction of objects into account made a huge difference in helping researchers understand our universe. 

Madan Kataria - How to "trick" your body into laughing [4:07] (Cody)

They say laughter is the best medicine. They ALSO say that yoga is good for you. So imagine the benefits you could reap from practicing laughter YOGA! You’re about to learn what it is and how it can make your life better, with help from the founder of the laughter club movement: Dr. Madan Kataria [MUD-dun Kuh-TAH-ree-ah]. 

[CLIP 4:07]

Again, that was Dr. Madan Kataria [MUD-dun Kuh-TAH-ree-ah], founder of the laughter yoga club movement. You can learn more at laughter-yoga-dot-org.

RECAP

Let’s recap today’s takeaways

  1. CODY: Scientists think they can measure dark matter 10 times more precisely by taking into account the way galaxies look versus the way they “should” look. They already measure dark matter through its distortions in spacetime, but dark matter also changes the movement of galaxies. So if something looks “off” in a galaxy’s movement, it could be because there’s mass there that we can’t see — as in, dark matter.
  2. ASHLEY: Your body can’t tell the difference between real and fake laughter. That’s why laughter yoga can help reduce stress and give you a more positive outlook. Laughter yoga’s philosophy is basically learn to play like a child. It’s a way of playing. 
  3. CODY: And practicing laughter is like exercising a muscle: the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.

[ad lib optional] 

CODY: Today’s first story was written by Grant Currin, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.

ASHLEY: Today’s episode was scripted and edited by Cody Gough.

CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.

ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!