Learn how newborn mammals “dream” about the world before entering it; and what goes into prepping dinosaurs for research. Newborn mammals "dream" about the world they're about to experience before they open their eyes by Grant Currin Eyes wide shut: How newborn mammals dream the world they’re entering. (2021, July 22). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/561171 Ge, X., Zhang, K., Gribizis, A., Hamodi, A. S., Sabino, A. M., & Crair, M. C. (2021). Retinal waves prime visual motion detection by simulating future optic flow. Science, 373(6553), eabd0830. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd0830 Hathaway-Yale, B. (2021, July 28). Mice “dream” about the world just before they’re born - Futurity. Futurity. https://www.futurity.org/newborn-mice-dream-2603692/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=newborn-mice-dream-2603692 Cassella, C. (2021). Mice Could Be “Dreaming” About Moving in The World Even Before They Open Their Eyes. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/mammals-could-be-dreaming-about-the-world-even-before-they-open-their-eyes Additional information about fossil preparators and other resources from Caitlyn Wylie: Pick up the open-access book "Preparing Dinosaurs: The Work Behind the Scenes": https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/5180/Preparing-DinosaursThe-Work-behind-the-Scenes Faculty page https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/caitlin-donahue-wylie Follow @CaitlinDWylie on Twitter https://twitter.com/CaitlinDWylie 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 how newborn mammals “dream” about the world before entering it; and what goes into prepping dinosaurs for research.
Newborn mammals "dream" about the world they're about to experience before they open their eyes by Grant Currin
Additional information about fossil preparators and other resources from Caitlyn Wylie:
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/dino-fossil-preparation-and-newborns-dream-about-the-world
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 newborn mammals “dream” about the world before they enter it. Then, you’ll learn about the stunning amount of work it takes to prepare fossils for research, with help from author Caitlin Wylie.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Baby mice are able to move around and take in what they see as they open their eyes for the first time. But how? It turns out that newborn mice have a special kind of dream. And it helps them jump straight into life as soon as their baby mouse eyes open up for the first time.
Human babies don’t do all that much during their first day or... year. But most mammals don’t have that luxury. Baby giraffes have to be up and running just an hour after they’re born! Researchers have been puzzled by this ability. How do babies manage to understand what they’re seeing when they’ve hardly ever seen anything?
The researchers behind this discovery started by using imaging technology to watch the brains of newborn mice that hadn’t opened their eyes yet. What they saw was spectacular. It turns out there’s a ton of activity happening in their little baby brains. Some of that activity starts near the retina and flows into other parts of the brain. That’s a little counterintuitive because retinas detect light, and the retinas belonging to these baby mice hadn’t ever been exposed to light before. The researchers said the specific patterns they saw looked a lot like the brain activity that happens when a mouse is moving forward through its environment.
The finding led the researchers to think the mice are doing something very similar to dreaming — and those dreams are of something they’ve never experienced before. It probably helps the baby mice get ready for what life is about to turn into. After all, there are a lot of predators that would love nothing more than a baby mouse that can’t really see or run away.
Of course, this was just a hunch. Those brain waves might not actually help the mice survive at all. That’s why the researchers didn’t stop there. They decided to see what would happen if these brain waves were disrupted. They used drugs to block two different kinds of cells in the retinas of some baby mice. Neural imaging revealed that these mice didn’t have the same brain waves as normal mice. And sure enough, once they opened their eyes, they weren’t nearly as good at detecting motion or responding to threats.
So do human babies do this too? The answer might be yes. The researchers note that human babies can detect objects and motion immediately after birth, which suggests that their visual systems are also being primed before they see the world.
This really puts “dreaming about the future” in a whole new light.
Seeing a dinosaur skeleton towering over you in a museum is a pretty breathtaking sight. But have you ever wondered how the bones get to that point? Because as today's guest will tell you, that dino did not come out of the ground looking that way. Taking a fossil from excavation to exhibition is a long, laborious, and surprisingly creative process. Caitlin Wylie is Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia and author of the new book "Preparing Dinosaurs: The Work Behind the Scenes." Here's what she said when we asked her what a fossil preparator even is.
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The human eye still has a few things going for it. That was Caitlin Wylie, Assistant Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at the University of Virginia and author of the new book "Preparing Dinosaurs: The Work Behind the Scenes." You can find a link to check out this open-access book FOR FREE in the show notes. Caitlin will be back tomorrow to talk about just how accurate fossil preparators have to be — and what happens if they mess up.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: The writer for today’s first story was Grant Currin.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer, who was also an audio editor on today’s episode.
ASHLEY: Our producer and lead audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!