Learn about how we could use self-replicating machines to explore the universe; when and why your liver shrinks and grows dramatically; and what science says about how much your birth order really matters. 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: Could We Use Self-Replicating Machines to Explore the Universe? — https://curiosity.im/2Yg4Pb2 From Day to Night, Your Liver Grows and Shrinks Dramatically — https://curiosity.im/2GAcoDe Does Your Birth Order Really Matter? Science Says Probably Not — https://curiosity.im/2GOZyjw 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 how we could use self-replicating machines to explore the universe; when and why your liver shrinks and grows dramatically; and what science says about how much your birth order really matters.
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/birth-order-doesnt-matter-your-liver-grows-and-shrinks-overnight-and-von-neumann-probes
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 how we could use self-replicating machines to explore the universe; when and why your liver shrinks and grows dramatically; and what science says about how much your birth order really matters.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Could We Use Self-Replicating Machines to Explore the Universe? — https://curiosity.im/2Yg4Pb2 (from Saturday) (Ashley)
Self-replicating machines could help us explore the universe. They were theoretical for a long time, but scientists are still exploring the possibilities — and the technology is starting to seem a lot less far-fetched than it used to be. So let’s talk about these machines. A self-replicating robot is often referred to as a Von Neumann [NOY-man] machine after the Hungarian-born American mathematician John von Neumann. He was the first to mathematically model a machine that could replicate itself. In today's world of 3D printers, that might sound like a simple task, but this was the 1940s. Von Neumann had this idea when computers barely existed, and he certainly never thought about using it for spacecraft. That idea came decades later in a 1979 book by Chris Boyce. Here’s how he put it: You'd launch a Von Neumann probe equipped with an interstellar propulsion system, and send it to a neighboring star system. Once it got there, it could mine asteroids and planets to gather the raw materials it would need to replicate itself. It would make several copies of itself, which would themselves launch toward neighboring star systems. Each of those Von Neumann probes would repeat the process, and after, say, a few million years, you'd have probes exploring every corner of the galaxy. And these probes wouldn't just make more of themselves — they'd also do important scientific research and transmit their findings back to their homeworld. You could even hypothetically have a probe designed to colonize the galaxy with life, if the technology was advanced enough to terraform planets and synthesize human embryos. Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, in a 1981 paper, a cosmologist named Frank Tipler pointed to the fact that if advanced civilizations are out there, then self-replicating probes would be everywhere, too — including our own backyard. He wrote that since they’re not here, extraterrestrial civilizations must not exist. But back on the bright side, scientists are still looking into the possibilities for our own exploration of the galaxy. In 2017, for example, Canadian scientists announced they’d been developing 3D printers that could replicate themselves from lunar material, and researchers at North Dakota State University have been working on something similar. There's still a long way to go, but this is one technology that doesn't seem so far-fetched.
From Day to Night, Your Liver Grows and Shrinks Dramatically — https://curiosity.im/2GAcoDe (Cody)
From day to night, your liver grows and shrinks dramatically. And the reason why it does this should give you a pretty compelling reason to get a full night of sleep. We’ve briefly mentioned this fun fact on the podcast before, but today I’m gonna dive into the details. As a quick reminder, your live keeps your sugar levels constant, it stores and releases vitamins and minerals into your body as needed, it detoxifies your blood, and it has a remarkable ability to regenerate. The growing and shrinking part is pretty important, too. See, Scientists have known for a while that animals follow a kind of "body clock" that triggers regular cycles of function in their brains and organs, and even their cells. Your liver also follows this internal clock, but its function may also depend on when you eat and when you exercise. In May 2017, researchers published a study in the journal Cell that found that the livers of mice grew by nearly half during waking hours (which, for mice, is night time). And their livers shrunk back down to "normal" size at mousey bedtime. While the mice were active, the researchers saw the main kind of liver cell, hepatocytes [HEPpet-o-sites], growing. That growth was linked with how many ribosomes they had, ribosomes being the specialized structures inside living cells that produce the proteins needed for a bunch of different liver functions. Ribosomes also fluctuate with the size of the cells, and the more ribosomes, the better the liver can process food into protein and help your body get rid of toxins. As you get close to bedtime, the liver cells start tagging and bagging those excess ribosomes, and that helps the liver shrink down to its resting size again. The study found that the livers of mice that were active and feeding during their usual times (meaning, nighttime) reached peak efficiency and size. The bottom line here was that the liver seems to be synced up with the body’s circadian rhythm, and we have reason to believe the same liver size shifting happens in humans, too — not just mice. And the takeaway from THAT is to remember that the longer your liver operates poorly, the more likely it is you'll experience unpleasant symptoms like fatigue, swelling, a tendency to bruise, and even jaundice. Add this to the list of why regular, full nights of sleep are so very important.
[FIRST ALERT]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is sponsored by First Alert.
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Does Your Birth Order Really Matter? Science Says Probably Not — https://curiosity.im/2GOZyjw (from Sunday) (Ashley)
New research suggests that your birth order doesn’t really matter. It might be time to let go of the idea that oldest children are the responsible achievers, middle children are the peacemakers, and youngest siblings are the attention-seeking rebels. [ad lib]
ASHLEY: A study by European researchers in March 2019 looked at data on more than 11-thousand German households, and it found that being born last doesn’t make you more likely to take risks. There was a massive study in 2015 looking at 370-thousand high school students in Houston, and that study didn’t find any correlation between the relative age of a person's siblings and their personality. A third study that same year looked at an international group of 20-thousand participants and came to the same conclusion. So there’s a pretty good deal of evidence that birth order has no effect on personality. But hold on: there IS concrete data that shows oldest children have an advantage intellectually. It’s a pretty small advantage, though. A careful recent examination of all the evidence on the matter showed that on average, the IQ of first-borns was a point-and-a-half higher than second-born siblings, who in turn had a point-and-a-half higher IQ than third-borns, and so on. Like I said, that’s a truly tiny difference, and these findings are averages that mask a lot of diversity among families. The findings are significant and robust, but they do only suggest that the older sibling will have a higher IQ than the next youngest sibling in 6 out of 10 cases. So maybe delete that message challenging your younger brother to dueling IQ tests after all. And forget about crowning yourself family diplomat or adventurer just because you were second or third born. Instead, the best of today's science suggests we should see our siblings as individuals, evaluating them based on who they are. Birth order isn't going to offer you any insights. [ad lib]
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