Learn about whether hurricanes with female names are deadlier than those with male names; research into why so many different cultures see the same things in constellations; and, animals besides lab rats that are essential to science. Please support this episode’s sponsor! Get your first month of KiwiCo FREE by visiting https://www.kiwico.com/curiosity 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: Are Hurricanes with Female Names Deadlier than Those with Male Names? — https://curiosity.im/2Ls3I4y Why Do So Many Cultures See the Same Things in the Constellations? — https://curiosity.im/2Lt9eUn Beyond Lab Rats: These 5 Animals Are Essential to Science — https://curiosity.im/32Fd9Dk 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 whether hurricanes with female names are deadlier than those with male names; research into why so many different cultures see the same things in constellations; and, animals besides lab rats that are essential to science.
Please support this episode’s sponsor! Get your first month of KiwiCo FREE by visiting https://www.kiwico.com/curiosity
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:
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/constellations-across-cultures-female-vs-male-hurricanes-and-animals-scientists-study
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 whether hurricanes with female names are deadlier than those with male names; research into why so many different cultures see the same things in constellations; and, animals besides lab rats that are essential to science.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Are Hurricanes with Female Names Deadlier than Those with Male Names? — https://curiosity.im/2Ls3I4y (Ashley)
Hurricanes with female names are not deadlier than those with male names. Yes, you heard me right. This flies in the face of a study that went viral in 2014, which concluded that female-named hurricanes killed more people than those with male names. The study said people didn’t take those storms as seriously, and that hurricane names lead to gender-based expectations about how severe or dangerous they might be — which, in turn, meant that people might prepare less thoroughly for hurricanes named Sandy than ones named Dorian. The researchers said Dorian sounds stronger thanks to gender bias. And that study was an instant sensation. But it turns out that the research methods were questionable at best. In the study, scientists used data from hurricanes that have struck since the United States started naming storms in 1950. The had independent coders rank the names from "very masculine" to "very feminine" and "very man-like" to "very woman-like," then analyzed the damage and deaths caused by the hurricanes. The researchers found that for severe storms where taking protective action would have the greatest potential to save lives, the masculinity-femininity of a hurricane's name predicted its death toll. But here’s the thing: until the year 1979, all hurricanes were given traditionally feminine names. That means for nearly 30 years of hurricane data used in the study, there just weren't any masculine names to look at at all. And until very recently, hurricanes have been getting less and less deadly over time. So it could be that more people died in "female-named" hurricanes just because more hurricane deaths occurred before the storms started getting male names. In fact, if you only look at storms that struck since 1979, the effect vanishes. Now, to be fair, the researchers dispute this and have also noted that the data doesn't show higher death tolls for storms that happened further in the past. And the study probably got some parts right; for example, the researchers asked participants in a controlled lab setting to rate the intensity of a storm based on its name alone, and there, they confirmed that people rated feminine-sounding storms as less dangerous than masculine sounding ones. But the takeaway is that you shouldn’t judge a hurricane by its name. Instead, listen to safety officials and watch for alerts next time a hurricane strikes. Names don't mean much, but forecasts and warnings do. [ad lib]
CODY: What do you think would be stronger, hurricane Cody or hurricane Ashley?
Why Do So Many Cultures See the Same Things in the Constellations? — https://curiosity.im/2Lt9eUn (Republish) (Cody)
What do you see when you look up at the stars? Probably a lot, if you love constellations. And Around the world and throughout history, we’ve found that a lot of different cultures have found the same meaning in constellations. Weird, right? Well as reported by The Conversation, upcoming research from a team at Melbourne University will explore the genesis of these different names and groupings to try to answer why.
Let’s look at Orion for an example of the similarities. Orion is described by the Ancient Greeks as a man pursuing the seven sisters of the Pleiades star cluster. Across the world in Australia, the Aboriginal group known as the Wiradjuri know Orion as Baiame [BUY-ah-me]. And there, it depicts a man pursuing the seven sisters of the Mulayndynang — which is, you guessed it, the Pleiades star cluster. In the traditions of the Great Victoria Desert, Orion is Nyeeruna, a man chasing the seven Yugarilya sisters.
There are significant differences between these cultures, but the meaning of these constellations share fundamental roots. And there’s not a lot of documented history behind how particular constellations were identified by certain cultures.
So in collaboration with Museums Victoria, a research team will be exploring how cultural differences in our traditions and stories can come about as a result of very small variations in the nature of perception and understanding in different people, and how this is influenced by both personal belief and geographical location.
In the preliminary data-collection phase in this study, more than 200 people submitted their own constellation and story in response to a star field projected onto the ceiling of Victoria’s Parliament House.
These days, humanity's fascination with the stars has the extra fuel of the fact that we might be able to actually visit them some day. But more fundamentally, they’re a reflection and a framework for our life on this planet. So I’ll ask you again: what do you see when you look up there?
[KIWICO]
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Beyond Lab Rats: These 5 Animals Are Essential to Science — https://curiosity.im/32Fd9Dk (from Wednesday 9/25) (Ashley)
[ad lib]
OPTIONAL: Mice and rats are used for the vast majority of biomedical research, but they're not the only animals you'll find in the laboratory. Today we want to shed a spotlight on a few creatures that have helped scientists solve mysteries about human biology.
[ad lib maybe here]
Before mice and rats, we used guinea pigs. Which is why the word "guinea pig" is synonymous with scientific experimentation. In 1882, German scientist Robert Koch realized guinea pigs were susceptible to infectious disease and used them to identify the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis. Guinea pigs were also crucial to the discovery of Vitamin C because, like humans, they can't produce the nutrient and need it supplied in their diet. These days, we don’t use guinea pigs as often in labs, but we are using them to study hearing disorders, because the structure of their ears is similar to ours. We’re also using them to study allergies, because their airways are so sensitive to allergens. Another animal we’ve been using in studies since the 1960s is zebrafish, which we actually share about 70 percent of our genes with. zebrafish embryos are transparent and develop outside of their mothers’ body, so they offer much more information about early development than a lab mammal like a mouse or rat — and they can be easily manipulated. By implanting mutations for genetic diseases in zebrafish embryos, scientists can learn more about the progression of conditions like muscular dystrophy as early as three days post-fertilization. Another animal is a relative of the common lab mouse: prairie voles. We’ve been studying voles since the 1970s to understand why these rodents mate for life, unlike 97 percent of mammals. We found that the monogamous voles have receptors for oxytocin, the “cuddle hormone” that’s usually released during childbirth, and vasopressin, which is associated with territoriality and mate guarding. This discovery led scientists to study these receptors in humans to better understand our own bonding behaviors, as well as the role of oxytocin in social disorders like autism. And the final two animals? Pigs and bats. Humans and pigs actually have similar skin in terms of thickness, elasticity, hair follicle placement, and general structure, which makes pigs the perfect candidates for skin research. And scientists have been studying how bats age to try to uncover a potential fountain of youth, because bats have an exceptionally long lifespan. Some species of bats can live as long as 40 years — which translates to an ancient 240 years for humans when adjusted for body size. We can learn a lot from our animal friends. [ad lib]
CODY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today. Today we learned that hurricanes with female names are NOT necessariliy more dangerous than those with male names.
ASHLEY: And that cultures around the world see the same things in some constellations — and researchers are trying to figure out why.
CODY: And that we can learn a lot from scientists studying guinea pigs, zebrafish, prairie voles, pigs, and bats.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!