Learn about a robotic “third thumb”; how measuring time increases entropy; and how to distinguish friends from foes. People's brains adapted to having a robotic "third thumb" by Steffie Drucker UCL. (2021, May 19). Robotic “Third Thumb” use can alter brain representation of the hand. UCL News. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/may/robotic-third-thumb-use-can-alter-brain-representation-hand Kieliba, P., Clode, D., Maimon-Mor, R. O., & Makin, T. R. (2021). Robotic hand augmentation drives changes in neural body representation. Science Robotics, 6(54), eabd7935. https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abd7935 Video: https://vimeo.com/551468278 Teen turns prosthetic arm into glitter-shooting unicorn horn [VIDEO] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf91U06GII8 Measuring time increases the entropy in the universe by Briana Brownell Pearson, A. N., Guryanova, Y., Erker, P., Laird, E. A., Briggs, G. A. D., Huber, M., & Ares, N. (2021). Measuring the Thermodynamic Cost of Timekeeping. Physical Review X, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevx.11.021029 O’Callaghan, J. (2021, May 20). How does time work? Livescience.com; Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/how-does-time-work.html Schirber, M. (2021). Keeping Time on Entropy’s Dime. Physics, 14. https://physics.aps.org/articles/v14/s54 Crane, L. (2020). Measuring time accurately increases the entropy in the universe. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2277050-measuring-time-accurately-increases-the-entropy-in-the-universe/ A clock’s accuracy may be tied to the disorder it creates. (2021, April 28). Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/clock-time-accuracy-entropy-disorder To Scope Someone Out, See How They Judge Others by Anna Todd What you say about others says a lot about you, research shows. (2021). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100802165441.htm Wood, D., Harms, P., & Vazire, S. (2010). Perceiver effects as projective tests: What your perceptions of others say about you. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(1), 174–190. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019390 Schwantes, M. (2017, March 27). Asking This 1 Question Will Instantly Reveal Someone’s Personality. Inc.com; Inc. https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/how-to-read-people-instantly-by-asking-1-simple-question.html Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn about a robotic “third thumb”; how measuring time increases entropy; and how to distinguish friends from foes.
People's brains adapted to having a robotic "third thumb" by Steffie Drucker
Measuring time increases the entropy in the universe by Briana Brownell
To Scope Someone Out, See How They Judge Others by Anna Todd
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/could-you-adapt-to-having-an-extra-thumb
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 how quickly people’s brains adapted to having a robotic “third thumb”; how measuring time increases the entropy in the universe; and how to scope someone out by seeing how they judge others.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Usually, people use prosthetics to replace a body part they’ve lost. But what if you could use prosthetics to gain extra abilities? Would that even work? According to a team of researchers at University College London, the answer is yes. People trained to use a prosthetic “third thumb” not only learned to use it, but could do more than they could before.
This was a venture where art met science. Designer Dani Clode designed the robotic thumb for her graduate project, which aimed to reframe how we think about prosthetics: as an extension, rather than a replacement. A group of neuroscientists at University College London happened to be investigating how the brain adapts to bodily augmentation, so they teamed up.
Here’s how the thumb works. It’s 3D printed, and designed to be worn on the opposite side of the hand from the real thumb. You control it by pressing on wireless pressure sensors under your big toes, kind of like the way you’d press a pedal on a sewing machine. Twenty right-handed people put on the thumb and learned to use it over five days. In their practice sessions, they performed tasks that required using their natural hand together with the third thumb: stuff like picking up several wine glasses in one hand. Between their practice in the lab and at home, each participant ended up using the thumb for an average of three hours per day.
The volunteers quickly advanced to tasks that required more control and coordination, like holding a teacup while stirring it with the same hand. Using the device became so seamless that they could build a block tower while blindfolded! We’ll link to a video in the show notes where you can watch the thumb in action.
Brain scans afterward were even more surprising. Typically, each individual finger corresponds to its own distinct pattern of activity in the sensory and motor areas of the brain. But after training, the participants’ brain activity patterns all became more alike on the hand where they wore the thumb. Participants themselves echoed that: they said the robo-thumb had truly become a part of them and that they felt like something was missing after it was gone. But the brain changes faded within a week.
This could mean that the hands-on tasks of the future, from factory work to brain surgery, could get a little help from prosthetics. It really gives being “all thumbs” a whole new meaning.
What makes clocks tick? It seems like a weird question. But if you ask a physicist, they’ll give you a weird answer. That answer is entropy.
Entropy is a physical property that describes the orderliness of a system. And entropy always increases through time. In other words, an ordered system becomes more disordered. Like, take your morning cup of coffee: It’s easy to mix coffee and cream together, but it’s basically impossible to unmix them. That’s thanks to entropy. Because entropy can never go backward, neither can time. That gives us the so-called “arrow of time”: time flowing in one direction.
You can think of a clock like an engine. To create ticks, scientists have to use some kind of an energy source to power it. More energy means better accuracy, but it also means more entropy.
That means that all clocks generate entropy to tell time. Wild, right? But a new paper from a team at the University of Oxford tells us that there’s a peculiar tradeoff when you try to make the clock more accurate. Increasing the clock’s accuracy increases entropy even more.
To measure this trade-off, the team created a tiny clock made from a 50-nanometer silicon nitride membrane integrated into an electric circuit. (Why so small? Well, because it’s easier to measure entropy the smaller and simpler you get.) The clock “ticked” by moving the membrane up and down. They then measured how regular the resulting ticks were. That’s how they figured out the clock’s accuracy: the more regular the ticks, the more accurate the clock is. And it turned out that they needed to increase the input energy to make it more accurate. What did that mean? It meant more heat energy was dissipated…. And therefore, more entropy was generated.
Scientists aren’t yet sure whether this is a fundamental aspect of how any clock might function, but if so, it would deepen our understanding of time.
Even if the result holds just for this kind of clock, the results are useful. Exploring the thermodynamics of nanoscale systems like this one is relatively new, and might pave the way for tinier clocks that could be used in many electronic devices. And understanding the accuracy/entropy tradeoff is an important component of these designs.
But remember that the next time you’re procrastinating. With every tick of the clock, there’s more disorder in the universe.
You've recently started a new job, and you're attempting to suss out the new coworkers. After all, having work friends is crucial to both your happiness and productivity. But how do you stealthily find a way to distinguish friend from foe? According to a 2010 study, you should ask them what they think of their own coworkers.
Research from psychologist Dustin Wood and his colleagues shows that how someone sees the people around them reveals loads about their own personality. People tend to see their own traits in other people. If someone generally has positive things to say about others, chances are they’re pretty satisfied with their own life and they’re well-liked by the people around them. The study also found strong links between a person’s positive judgment of others and that person’s level of enthusiasm, happiness, kind-heartedness, emotional stability, and capability — both as judged by them and by other people.
So, if your new cubicle mate has only nice things to say about your team, then they're likely best work friend material. Definitely keep them around!
On the flip side, seeing people negatively indicates a greater likelihood of depression and various personality disorders, like narcissism. Ouch. Even if your boss is an actual psychopath, a coworker who regularly speaks ill of them makes them more likely to harbor antisocial personality traits. The good news, according to the researchers, is that finding a way to get people to see others in a better light could be one way to treat these personality problems.
So, let's get back to being stealthy. How should you frame this personality-revealing question for your coworker? It’s as simple as asking how they like working with a specific coworker. If their answer is positive, you just made a new friend. You can thank me later.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Steffie Drucker, Briana Brownell, and Anna Todd.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer.
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: Scope us out tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. And if you don’t? That’s fine, I know you’re busy. You’ve got a lot going on. You know where to find us when you can. No judgment.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!