Learn about how some plants may have a sense of sight. Then, learn about how emoji reflect cultural differences around the world, in the final edition of our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how some plants may have a sense of sight: https://curiosity.im/2KMMgHw Additional resources from Gretchen McCullough: “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language” — https://amazon.com Follow @GretchenAMcC on Twitter — https://twitter.com/GretchenAMcC Official website — https://gretchenmcculloch.com/ Lingthusiasm, Gretchen’s podcast — https://lingthusiasm.com/ 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 how some plants may have a sense of sight. Then, learn about how emoji reflect cultural differences around the world, in the final edition of our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how some plants may have a sense of sight: https://curiosity.im/2KMMgHw
Additional resources from Gretchen McCullough:
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/emoji-around-the-world-w-gretchen-mcculloch-and-plants-may-have-a-sense-of-sight
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 how some plants may have a sense of sight. You’ll also learn about how emoji reflect cultural differences around the world, in the final edition of our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series with internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Some Plants May Have a Sense of Sight — https://curiosity.im/2KMMgHw (from Saturday 9/14) (Ashley)
Recent scientific research has shown that plants are way more complex than we give them credit for. Plants communicate through the air and their root structures and even show a plant version of cognition. And evidence is suggesting plants may have the gift of sight.
Before we share the mind-bending evidence, we should back up: This isn't really anything new. Way back in 1907, Francis Darwin — the son of the one and only Charles Darwin — argued the same thing. He theorized that plant leaves have organs made up of lens-like cells and light-sensitive cells, organs now called ocelli. You can see ocelli, sometimes called simple eyes, in some arthropods, and in jellyfish and sea stars.
Darwin's theory was all but forgotten until recently, when a new wave of something called plant neurobiology started gaining steam. In a November 2016 issue of Trends in Plant Science, scientists laid out the case for plants having something akin to an eye. Exhibit A: Earlier in 2016, researchers discovered that an ancient species of cyanobacteria actually act like tiny lenses in what is "probably the world's smallest and oldest example of a camera eye." It's reasonable to assume that other organisms like plants probably do too.
Exhibit B, according to Scientific American, is that "some plants, such as the cabbage and mustard relative Arabidopsis, make proteins that are involved in the development and functioning of eyespots — the ultrabasic eyes found in some single-celled organisms such as green algae." And then there's the mind-bending fact that the climbing vine Boquila trifoliolata can change its leaves to look like those of the plant it's climbing. We don't know that it uses vision to achieve this, but it's a possibility.
Looks like talking to plants is just the beginning. There's definitely a lot more going on in those leaves and roots than we previously thought.
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Gretchen McCulloch #4 — Japan and Emoji [3:42] - 9/10 (Cody)
CODY: There’s a component of online language that plays a uniquely massive role in how we communicate. And that thing is: emoji, or emoticons. Would you believe there are major cultural differences that shape how different emoji are used and interpreted around the world? Well we’re about to get into the details, in the final edition of our “Hashtag Tuesdays” mini-series. Our guest is internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch, author of the new book “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.” Specifically, she’s going to get into the difference in emoticons and emoji between America and Japan. But first maybe we should talk about the difference between emoticons and emoji, which I did not know.
ASHLEY: [explain difference between emoticons and emoji / ad lib]
CODY: There’s actually a popular Japanese emoji style with its own name, called Kaomoji. It comes from the the combination of two words in Japanese Kanji: “kao” as in “face” and “moji” as in “character”). So why are E-moji and KAO-moji so different? Here’s Gretchen.
[CLIP 2:11]
CODY: You might think it’s a small details to focus on a mouth or focus on eyes, but a scientific study actually showed how deep this cultural difference goes.
[CLIP 1:31]
CODY: So you can use emoticons to essentilaly “gesture” online. But how do you avoid being misinterpreted when you talk to someone from a different culture? Gretchen told us that when in doubt, use a “full body” emoji, like a shrug, or one of my personal favorites: the table flip emoji. You can learn even more tips and fun facts in Gretchen McCulloch’s new book, “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language.” If you enjoyed our Hashtag Tuesdays mini-series, then you will DEFINITELY enjoy the book, and you can find links to that and more from Gretchen in today’s show notes.
ASHLEY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
CODY: Today we learned that some plants may have a sense of sight, because [reasons]
ASHLEY: And that Western emoji focus on the mouth, while Japanese emoji, or “kaomoji,” focus on the eyes.
[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!