In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes: True or False? The Daddy Longlegs is Poisonous, But Its Fangs Are Too Small to Bite You Advanced Alien Civilizations May Get Their Energy From a Dyson Sphere “Star Maker” by Olaf Stapledon You'll Have a Better Workout If You Exercise With a Partner 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.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you learn something new in just a few minutes:
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.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/daddy-longlegs-myths-dyson-spheres-and-benefits-of-exercising-with-a-partner
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi, we've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn the truth about a famous myth about daddy longlegs, how advanced alien civilizations might get their energy, and why you'll have a better workout if you exercise with a partner.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. Ashley, what's the most poisonous insect?
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, I've heard that daddy longlegs is the most poisonous insect, but they have such tiny, little fangs that they can't actually hurt you. Is that true?
CODY GOUGH: Well, Curiosity did research this, and everything you just said is a myth.
ASHLEY HAMER: What?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. So first of all, a daddy longlegs, is it a spider or is it an insect?
ASHLEY HAMER: It's an insect. It's not a spider.
CODY GOUGH: It's actually both.
ASHLEY HAMER: What?
CODY GOUGH: Daddy longlegs is an informal term for a couple of different groups of animals. The most common type, which some people also call harvestmen are in the order Opiliones. And they're insects. But the other type, which some people call cellar spiders are officially called Pholcidae, and that's actually a spider.
Fun fact, you can tell which is which because spiders have segmented bodies, while harvestmen are all in one piece. Anyway, about the venom, harvestmen don't even have venom glands or fangs. They generally eat decomposing plants and animals. They're about as dangerous as a ladybug.
Cellar spiders do have venom and fangs, but there's no evidence their venom is toxic to humans. And there's also no evidence their fangs can't penetrate human skin. That's because no studies have tested how lethal their venom is to mammals, not even lab mice. But their fangs work the same way as the brown recluse spider, which definitely can bite humans. So a cellar spider probably could bite you. Either way, there's no reason to be afraid of daddy longlegs. Playground myth busted.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow! This is one of the things that I feel like I've known for my entire life, and it's not true.
CODY GOUGH: And now, you must unknow it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, have you ever heard of a Dyson sphere?
CODY GOUGH: Yes, they encounter one in an episode of Star Trek, The Next Generation.
ASHLEY HAMER: I haven't seen that one, but--
CODY GOUGH: Great episode.
ASHLEY HAMER: --I should. Well, a Dyson sphere is essentially an unbelievably gigantic hollow sphere that could be constructed around a star.
CODY GOUGH: Wait, around a star?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, it's basically one big solar panel, but it harnesses all of the energy of that star so that any population living within it could have a virtually inexhaustible source of power. That sounds super futuristic, right?
CODY GOUGH: Yes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, the idea actually came from a 1937 sci-fi novel called Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon. This is my latest obsession, by the way. This book is incredible.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. But in 1960, theoretical physicist, Freeman Dyson, published a paper laying out why and how an advanced alien civilization might actually make a Dyson sphere. And he cited Olaf Stapledon in this paper.
CODY GOUGH: Nice.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. So first, let's look at us. As of right now, even our best solar panels can only collect a small fraction of the energy the sun produces since most of it radiates out into space. But if we could collect all of that energy, we could increase our resources by a ridiculous margin.
Dyson figured that over a few thousand years, we might be able to mine the solar system for supplies roughly equivalent to the massive Jupiter. With those supplies, we could build a spherical shell, sitting at twice the Earth's distance from the sun.
Actually, he wrote that and then people were like, making a solid sphere that big in space is physically impossible. So then he was like, LOL, I met a loose collection or swarm of objects traveling on independent orbits.
CODY GOUGH: Wow!
ASHLEY HAMER: Whatever it looked like. It would sit between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and completely surround our sun. And that shell or Dyson sphere, as it's now called, could theoretically collect every last bit of energy from our home star. But we're not really worried about making one right now because that would take thousands and thousands of years.
More importantly, Dyson also explained how we might find one since you could assume that any sufficiently advanced civilization would have their own. He said, we'd likely see a dark object with a size comparable to Earth's orbit and a surface temperature of 200 to 300 degrees Kelvin.
It would be radiating as much as the star hidden inside it, but the radiation would be infrared. So it'd be dark in terms of visible wavelengths of light, but bright in far infrared wavelengths. And we thought we might have found one a few years ago.
CODY GOUGH: What?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. In 2015, Tabetha Boyajian spotted a mysterious object that was dubbed Tabby's star, and it had weird fluctuations in its brightness. She and her team actually raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter to help them study it. And this year, they concluded their study.
Unfortunately, they concluded that those light fluctuations were probably due to dust. The brightness levels changed, depending on the color of the light the team was measuring. And if they were looking at an alien megastructure, like a Dyson sphere, you'd expect all the colors to be blocked at once. So for now, we'll just have to keep looking for dark, hot objects.
CODY GOUGH: Sad.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, but it's still pretty awesome, just the idea of it. Cody, do you work out with a partner or alone?
CODY GOUGH: Pretty much never with another person.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, me too. I mean, it's more convenient that way. But actually, Curiosity researched how much having a workout buddy matters, and we found out that, yeah, it actually matters a lot. You might want to get one.
For example, there's a 2017 study from the UK that had weightlifters' bench press, first, with spotters then without spotters. Participants could lift about 11% more when they had spotters standing by. And they also reported that they thought they had worked harder when they didn't see spotters there for backup. Of course, that could just mean that you're willing to risk lifting more weight when you have someone who can catch it.
But another study from Oxford University had athletes work on stationary rowing machines either alone or in teams. The athletes in the team workout showed a higher pain tolerance than those exercising alone. There's some psychology involved here too.
There's a concept called the cooler effect that makes people in a group work a little bit harder to avoid being the weak link that brings the whole group down. I think we've all had that feeling before. This plays a big role in exercise. So like when people are asked to hold a plank position or ride a stationary bike for as long as they can, they can last a lot longer if they're paired with a partner who's fitter than them. And even just hanging out with people who are fitter and more active than you are can make a big difference.
A recent study published in the Journal Obesity found that people with a weight loss goal shed more pounds if they spent more time with thin people. And another study found that seeing a friend post their successful workouts online can lead you to up your workout game too. So the science is pretty clear. Whether it's your super fit best friend or just an acquaintance from work, it's worth it to exercise in the company of others.
CODY GOUGH: I'm going to have to stop giving a hard time to those people that are always sharing their workout results because really they're just trying to help me.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're just trying to help you.
CODY GOUGH: You can read more about this and all of the stories we talked about today, plus a lot more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.