Today you’ll learn about the history of the ever controversial daylight saving time, how a mother’s level of education impacts children, and how researchers built a 3D tongue to study how chocolate melts.
Today you’ll learn about the history of the ever controversial daylight saving time, how a mother’s level of education impacts children, and how researchers built a 3D tongue to study how chocolate melts.
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/chocolate-mouthfeel-teaching-moms-daylight-saving
Chocolate Mouthfeel
Teaching Moms
Daylight Saving
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[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today you’ll learn about the history of the ever controversial daylight saving time, how a mother’s level of education impacts children, and how researchers built a 3D tongue to study how chocolate melts.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: An interdisciplinary research team has released a study that could lead to better chocolate.
CALLI: Okayyy…what’s wrong with chocolate? File this under “things that do not need to be fixed.”
NATE: I thought you might say that. But what if I told you there could be a chocolate that was just as good as regular chocolate, but that was healthier with far less fat?
CALLI: Sure, alright. I’m skeptical, but I’m listening.
NATE: The study is called “Insights into the Multiscale Lubrication Mechanism of Edible Phase Change Materials.”
CALLI: That’s a mouthful. I’m sorry did you say lubrication???
NATE: Right? Researchers looked at the changes that take place to the chocolate when it goes from a chocolate lover’s hand to their mouth.
CALLI: You mean, they did a whole study to learn that it melts in your mouth, not in your hand?
NATE: Not just the fact that it melts, but how it melts. And it turns out that makes a huge difference. Can I get a little technical?
CALLI: If it leads to guilt-free chocolate, be my guest.
NATE: So chocolate starts out as a solid, but turns into a smooth emulsion when it’s eaten.
CALLI: You can just say it melts.
NATE: To put it simply. Yes. And researchers found that it’s this melting sensation that drives so many chocolate fans wild with delight. And if you think about it, the way chocolate feels in your mouth is one of its defining features.
CALLI: True. I’ve had crumbly chocolate that didn’t melt right and it was…still chocolate. But not great. I mean…it was better than not having chocolate.
NATE: All of that melting happens because of the lubrication that takes place from either the ingredients of the chocolate or from the saliva - or a combination of both. But here’s the key: the melting begins to happen almost immediately after it’s put in the mouth, and it has everything to do with fat.
CALLI: Aha. The unhealthy part.
NATE: That melting sensation is actually the chocolate releasing fat that coats the tongue and the inside of the mouth. So it would follow that the higher the fat content, the more it melts, and the more satisfying the chocolate, right?
CALLI: So far I’m still not sure a study was needed to prove this.
NATE: Just wait. Anwesha Sarkar, who was one of the leads of this study and a Professor of Colloids and Surfaces of Food Science and Nutrition at Leeds, used techniques from a field of engineering called tribology that studies how surfaces and fluids interact. And - get this - they actually built a 3D tongue-like surface for this study.
CALLI: They could have just called me. I would have gladly been a guinea pig in this study.
NATE: I’m afraid you wouldn’t have helped much. The 3D tongue allowed them to observe and record the mechanisms at work when the chocolate melted. And what they found was that it was the initial melting that mattered. In other words, the satisfaction you feel when eating chocolate doesn’t depend on how much fat is in the chocolate, but where the fat is located.
CALLI: Okay. But how do you control where the fat is in a piece of chocolate? Is that even possible?
NATE: It turns out, yes. Professor Sarkar calls it a “gradient-layered architecture with fat covering the surfaces.” And the result of that is a chocolate that feels indulgent and silky-smooth and luxurious, but with far less fat on the inside.
CALLI: Okay, I’m sold. But how does it taste?
NATE: Well…they didn’t actually study the taste.
CALLI: They built a 3D chocolate tongue and didn’t do taste tests?
NATE: Maybe there’ll be another study and you’ll actually be able to participate in that one.
CALLI: I think I’m going to do my research when I get home later.
NATE: Good call. Maybe I’ll join you.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: A new study suggests that if you want to know how far a kid will go in this world, you should look at the mother and not the father. Specifically, the education level of the mother.
NATE: But what do you mean when you say “how far a kid will go”?
CALLI: I’m talking about social and educational mobility. And… I exaggerated a little to draw you in. I’m actually talking about both. Both parents will offer clues as to the future success of the child, but it turns out that we’ve been focusing mostly on the father for as long as these studies have existed, and that is problematic. According to some estimates, 96% of kids live in a home with either a single mother or a mother and father. That means that only 4% of children live in a father-only home.
NATE: That’s an astonishing stat.
CALLI: So by that measure alone, it would make sense to look at the mother when studying outcomes of kids.
NATE: Let’s back up a second. How have studies like this been conducted in the past?
CALLI: Great question. Professor Yang Hu of Lancaster University, and Professor Yue Quan of the University of British Columbia in Canada published this study, called “Gender, education expansion and intergenerational educational mobility around the world,” in the journal “Nature Human Behaviour.” They knew that for years the father’s educational level was among the most powerful indicators of the kid’s future educational mobility. In other words, if the father was highly educated, then his child would have a better chance of reaching that level of education.
NATE: That makes sense, doesn’t it?
CALLI: I mean it does. But there’s a catch. Once you decide to focus on the father in studies like these, you kinda get stuck focusing on the father. But what happens when women start becoming more and more educated? And what happens if women’s educational levels become equal with men’s? Or even, in some places, surpasses them?
NATE: Aha. The world has changed, and so should the studies.
CALLI: Not to put too fine a point on it, but on college campuses across the United States, there are about 3 women for every 2 men.
NATE: Wow.
CALLI: And that could have a huge impact on outcomes for kids, but we won’t know unless we put more focus on mothers.
NATE: So…we should be studying moms more?
CALLI: Yep. Professors Hu and Quan suggest more gender-sensitive studies to get more accurate results. And when we better understand how a mother’s educational level affects her child’s future, we can create more targeted programs and legislation to give these moms - and kids - a better chance at success.
NATE: Got it. So if we find that when a mom graduates from college, her children are more likely to go to college and have a higher level of success, we can make sure moms have more opportunities to go to college?
CALLI: And that’s a huge deal, because previous studies have shown that there is a real link here. One found that there was a 52% poverty rate for kids whose moms didn’t graduate from high school, compared to a 4% poverty rate for kids whose moms had a college bachelors. There could be all kinds of reasons for this, but that is one of the rare studies that focused on moms. There just needs to be more.
NATE: No argument from me. I’m all for it.
CALLI: Good response.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Congress has reintroduced a bill to make daylight saving time permanent. If it passes, that means no more setting back the clock!
CALLI: Ok, I can’t actually tell if this is going to be a good thing or a bad thing. And I can’t remember if daylight savings is one hour ahead or one hour back. Is that summer or…fall? How can I be so confused about something I’ve lived through my whole life?
NATE: Funny you should feel that way, because that’s sorta why this legislation is being put forward. In its current form, it would make summer hours - when we set the clocks ahead one hour - the permanent time. That would mean those longer summer nights would continue into the winter - although the days do get shorter in the winter.
CALLI: So goodbye to Daylight Savings Time…
NATE: It’s actually Daylight Saving Time - no ‘S’ on the “saving” - I got that wrong my entire life before I started doing research for this story, and like everyone, just called it daylight savings time…
CALLI: So just proof that we switched timelines, it’s fine, it’s fine. So Daylight Saving Time. So…why does it exist? I’ve heard a bunch of different things - like it’s a remnant from when we were mainly agrarian so farmers could work later, or that it was intended to save energy, but…what’s it actually for?
NATE: I heard the farmer one a lot too growing up but then someone was like, no farmers don’t care about what time it is, they just get up when the rooster crows. And I was just like, oh, that’s fair. They’re gonna care the least. I think it’s to uh save daylight, obviously.
CALLI: Okay, smarty.
NATE: Too easy. Sorry. There are all kinds of stories. Some say that Benjamin Franklin recommended it because he was shocked to see the sunrise in Paris at 6 a.m. - hours before most Parisians rolled out of bed. He said that either they should wake up with the sunrise, or change the sunrise time so they could maximize the daylight, and save all the wasted candle wax.
CALLI: But I take it that’s not true?
NATE: Not exactly. He did publish that in a letter in the Journal de Paris, but it was satire. Nonetheless, he had the right idea. If you think about it, Daylight Saving Time is just taking an hour of daylight in the morning, and moving it to the evening. And there are all kinds of reasons that this is a good thing…and all kinds of reasons why it’s a bad thing.
CALLI: Let’s start with the good.
NATE: Right. So the first Daylight Saving Time happened in Germany in 1916, during World War I as a way to get the most out of their resources during daylight hours. Workers could operate into the night. The United States made the shift in 1918, although it was wildly unpopular at first.
CALLI: Why did everyone hate it? I mean, I feel like I’ve got some ideas.
NATE: Because people woke up earlier in those days and also went to bed earlier. That meant waking up in the dark and possibly trying to go to sleep when it’s still light out. But it persisted in some form throughout the years, and as our sleeping patterns began to shift, people started to actually like the later sunset time. It meant that they could get out and play after work. Or mow the lawn. Or bbq.
CALLI: Sure, all of this for a bbq, makes sense.
NATE: Plus, some research has shown that the extra sunlight actually saves energy, because you don’t have to turn on the lights until later.
CALLI: So that’s why they want to make it permanent?
NATE: Partly. However, there’s also research out there that refutes the energy savings theory and finds that later hours actually increase energy usage - people tend to drive more when it gets dark later. They do more activities, use more air conditioning, and so on. But because of the way the Earth tilts, the effects become more pronounced the further you get from the equator, where light and dark are pretty well balanced. So energy savings will be different depending on where you are.
CALLI: That makes sense. In the wintertime, it gets darker earlier the further north you go.
NATE: Right. But that’s not all. It turns out there’s also a dark side to this shift in daylight.
CALLI: I see what you did there.
NATE: That’s the kind of pun you can make when you’ve had enough sleep - which is something you don’t get when the clocks are always changing. The shifts in the spring and fall have been associated with all kinds of health problems. Studies have linked the time change with increased numbers of heart attacks, fatal car accidents, and even with suppressed immune systems due to a sudden lack of sleep.
CALLI: But that’s not due to Daylight Saving Time - it’s due to the sudden change, right?
NATE: Exactly. Which is why this is getting some attention in Congress.
CALLI: Will the pending legislation actually pass?
NATE: It’s not totally clear yet. In a surprise, the Senate passed this legislation during the last session, but it got hung up in the House. It’s called the Sunshine Protection Act, and it’s working its way through the legislative process once again.
CALLI: So…will resetting our clocks every March and November soon be a thing of the past?
NATE: Only time will tell…
CALLI: Oh, why are we like this.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. Congress is debating whether or not to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. While switching from Standard to Daylight Saving Time was intended to save energy and maximize daylight hours, research shows that the time shifts in the spring and fall are associated with increased heart attacks, immune disorders, and even a possible increase in fatal car accidents.
CALLI: A new study has found that a mother's education level is likely a more important factor in determining their child’s future success than the father’s education level. This was not always the case, but now that more women than ever have access to educational opportunities, researchers say that their impact on the children in their lives cannot be overlooked.
NATE: Scientists created a 3D tongue to study the mechanisms that cause chocolate to melt so deliciously in the mouth. They hope to develop low fat, healthier chocolates with the same luxurious mouthfeel as the fattier stuff.