Learn why fish never quit wiggling; how a donut-shaped planet is technically possible; what researchers have learned from “S.M.,” the woman who can’t feel fear; and why you can touch aluminum foil in a hot oven. 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: There's a Good Reason Fish Never Quit Wiggling — https://curiosity.im/2EnkpvA Yes, A Donut-Shaped Planet Is Technically Possible — https://curiosity.im/2Eekhym "S.M." Is the Woman Who Can't Feel Fear — https://curiosity.im/2EcPRwx If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn why fish never quit wiggling; how a donut-shaped planet is technically possible; what researchers have learned from “S.M.,” the woman who can’t feel fear; and why you can touch aluminum foil in a hot oven.
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:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/donut-shaped-planets-hot-aluminum-foil-why-fish-wiggle-and-a-woman-who-cant-feel-fear
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got the latest and greatest 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 why fish never quit wiggling, how a donut-shaped planet is technically possible, and what researchers have learned from a woman who can't feel fear. We'll also answer a listener question about why you can touch aluminum foil in a hot oven. Stay tuned for the answer.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. New research shows a pretty good reason why fish never quit wiggling. And here's a connection you might not have thought about. This discovery demonstrates how robots built with better sensors could interact with their environment more effectively.
ASHLEY HAMER: Who knew that wiggly fish would help us figure out how to make better robots?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. As reported by Futurity, a new report published in current biology enhances our understanding of what's called active sensing behaviors. So like for humans, you're using active sensing when you feel around in the dark for the bathroom light, or you bobble an object up and down in your hands to figure out how much it weighs. We do this kind of thing almost unconsciously, and scientists haven't known much about how and why we adjust our movements to respond to the sensory feedback we get.
To answer this question, researchers studied fish that generate a weak electric field around their bodies to help them with communication and navigation. The team created an augmented reality for the fish so they could see how fish movements changed as feedback from the environment changed. Inside the tank, the weakly electric fish hovered inside a tube where they wiggled back and forth constantly to maintain a steady level of sensory input about their surroundings. That's right. Those seemingly random constant movements of fish are actually precisely calculated to give them the sensory feedback they need to navigate their world.
Researchers changed the environment by moving the tube so it would change the way it was synchronized with the fish's movement. And every time they made an adjustment, the fish immediately increased or decreased their swimming to make sure they were getting the same amount of information. This is an important discovery because engineers don't usually design systems to work this way. The lead author of the study said, quote, "Knowing more about how these tiny movements work might offer new design strategies for our smart devices to sense the world," unquote.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm just looking forward to when pet stores start carrying augmented reality systems for goldfish.
CODY GOUGH: You're going to teach it some tricks?
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
CODY GOUGH: Put them in Fortnite.
ASHLEY HAMER: [LAUGHS] Have you ever wondered why every planet we know about is shaped like a sphere? Why not a cube or an hourglass? Well, those would definitely break the laws of physics.
There's one odd planet form that wouldn't, a donut. Yes, a donut-shaped planet is technically possible. Let's learn how.
CODY GOUGH: All I know is that if we ever discover one of these, then the human race will be a failure if we don't name it Homer Simpson, Planet Homer Simpson.
ASHLEY HAMER: You are certainly within your rights to suggest that to the people who discover it.
CODY GOUGH: Nope, I'm definitely right. International Astronomical Union, hire me.
ASHLEY HAMER: We can't just call it the ring planet, like halo-- what's the halo planet?
CODY GOUGH: Halo.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, my god.
CODY GOUGH: [LAUGHS]
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] All right. Well, I'm going to talk about something I'm better at talking about, astronomy. By the way, the mathematical term for a donut is a toroid. But I'm just going to call it a donut because that's easier and more delicious.
So anyway, a planet in the shape of a donut could technically exist, but it would have to jump some steep physics hurdles to get there. Planets are round because gravity pulls inward. To keep the hole or hub at the center of a donut planet from collapsing, you'd need an equal outward force. Centrifugal force could do the trick. That's the force you feel when a spinning merry-go-round nearly sends you flying.
But to do that, the planet would have to rotate at an extremely high rate. That would probably make a day on a donut-shaped planet lasts just a few hours. Its shape would also do funny things to gravity. That centrifugal force would make gravity the weakest at the equator, or equators since they'd be on the inner and outer edge of the planet.
By the way, the equator is where gravity is weakest on Earth too. Gravity on the donut planet would be strongest just inward from the poles. The poles in this case being the circle furthest North and South from those equatorial circles.
But while there are minor differences in gravity here on Earth, these differences would be massive-- more than twice as much near the poles as at the equators. That means a vacation to the tropics would come with instant weight loss. Not a bad deal.
But don't pack your bags just yet. Remember that high rotation rate? It would make for harsh weather. We're talking intense winds, zoned climates with massive temperature differences, and small super strong storm systems.
The point of this story is to show you that knowing about a theoretical planet could tell you a lot about your own planet. Now you know that Earth's spherical shape is why gravity is mostly the same all over. And our 24-hour rotation is why the weather is relatively pleasant. Of course, there's another reason imagining a donut-shaped world is worthwhile. It's just plain cool.
CODY GOUGH: Today's episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
ASHLEY HAMER: Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash. People could get hurt or killed. But let's take a moment to look at some surprising statistics.
CODY GOUGH: Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That's one person every 50 minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Even though drunk-driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades, drunk-driving crashes still claim more than 10,000 lives each year.
CODY GOUGH: Drunk driving can have a big impact on your wallet too. You could get arrested and incur huge legal expenses, for example. You could possibly even lose your job.
ASHLEY HAMER: So what can you do to prevent drunk driving? Plan a safe ride home before you start drinking. Designate a sober driver, or call a taxi. If someone you know has been drinking, take their keys and arrange for them to get a sober ride home.
CODY GOUGH: We all know the consequences of driving drunk, but one thing is for sure. You're wrong if you think it's no big deal.
ASHLEY HAMER: Drive sober or get pulled over.
CODY GOUGH: Researchers are always looking for ways to manage fear in people with anxiety and panic disorders, and today we've got a story about a woman who may be able to help. She goes by the initials SM, and her real name is a tightly guarded secret because she can't feel fear.
ASHLEY HAMER: This totally sounds like a superpower, but actually, I think, would be really bad for you.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Not so good. This fearlessness comes from a really rare genetic condition known as Urbach-Wiethe disease, which causes parts of the brain to calcify and waste away. In SM's case, the disease took root in the amygdala. That's a pair of almond-shaped structures deep inside the brain that's central to the way emotions are experienced.
SM has a normal IQ. And her memory, language, and perception function just fine. She even seems to be able to feel and recognize other emotions with no problem. But fear? She basically hasn't felt it since she was 10 years old.
Fortunately, SM has kids and family members and doctors who can keep her from getting into too much danger, and researchers have learned some things thanks to her too. In 2013, researchers were able to make SM and two other participants with Urbach-Wiethe disease feel fear. When they inhaled air that was carbon dioxide rich instead of oxygen rich, their brains went into full-on panic mode.
SM described the feeling as the worst she had ever experienced. I mean, imagine that you've never felt fear in your life and then you feel it. Not fun. And yet when she faced the same test the next day, she showed no fear despite knowing what the test would entail.
This research suggests the damage to the amygdala doesn't necessarily damage the actual ability to feel fear. It just hampers the ability to connect external experiences to a fear response. And that revelation could help researchers find ways to reduce fear in people with anxiety and panic disorders.
ASHLEY HAMER: We got a listener question from Sarah who asked, why can you touch aluminum foil in a hot oven? So the reason you can touch aluminum foil in a hot oven without getting burned comes down to three characteristics. The first is thermal mass. That's a measure of a material's ability to absorb and store heat energy. Bricks and cast iron pans have high thermal mass. There's a lot of stuff there to absorb heat. But tin foil is thin and flimsy. And as a result, it has low thermal mass and can't absorb much heat.
The second characteristic is surface area to volume ratio. In the same way a tortilla cools faster than a dinner roll, any substance spread over a large-enough surface area, like aluminum foil, cools faster than if it was in a more compact shape. The third characteristic is the rate of heat transfer. When you touch aluminum foil, it transfers heat to your fingers through conduction. That's the type of heat transfer that happens when two objects are physically touching.
The rate of heat transfer depends on four things-- the thermal conductivity of the objects, which is how easily they absorb and radiate heat, the difference in temperature between the two objects, the thickness of the material, and here's the big one, the size of the contact area. Aluminum foil is usually pretty wrinkly, so you end up touching bumps and ridges rather than the whole sheet full on.
A small surface area means a lower rate of heat transfer. So to recap, aluminum foil in a hot oven usually won't burn your fingers because it doesn't hold much heat in the first place. It starts cooling the minute you open the oven, and you touch less of its surface area than you think. Thanks for your question, Sarah.
CODY GOUGH: Before we wrap up, we want to give a special shout-out to one of our patrons for supporting our show. Today's episode is brought to you by Dr. Mary Yancey who gets an executive producer credit today for her support on Patreon. We cannot thank you enough for your support.
ASHLEY HAMER: If you're listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out.
CODY GOUGH: Join us again tomorrow with the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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