Learn about the strange history of the word “genome” and other -omes; where you can taste the legendary tonka bean, and why it’s illegal in some places; and new research that says exercising at night won’t mess with your sleep. 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: You've Heard of Your Genome — Now Meet Your Other -Omes — https://curiosity.im/2LCVogA Neuroprosthetics and the Future of Artificial Touch — https://curiosity.im/2sei8e9 (Curiosity Podcast Episode) The Tonka Bean Is Revered For Its Superb Flavor, But It's Illegal And Might Kill You — https://curiosity.im/2rK5QKj New Research Says Exercising at Night Won't Mess With Your Sleep — https://curiosity.im/2LQtPAN 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 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 the strange history of the word “genome” and other -omes; where you can taste the legendary tonka bean, and why it’s illegal in some places; and new research that says exercising at night won’t mess with your sleep.
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
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/exercising-at-night-wont-mess-with-your-sleep-tonka-beans-and-non-genome-omes
CODY: Hi! We’ve got three stories 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 the strange history of the word “genome” and lots of other “omes”; where you can taste the legendary tonka bean, and why it’s illegal in some places; and new research that says exercising at night won’t mess with your sleep.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
You've Heard of Your Genome — Now Meet Your Other -Omes — https://curiosity.im/2LCVogA (Ashley)
I’m super pumped about our first story today, because [ad lib about the rabbithole this took you down and why you want to talk about it]
ASHLEY: “Ome” isn’t like most scientific suffixes, because it doesn’t come from ancient Greek or Latin. The word chromosome comes from Greek, with chroma meaning color and soma meaning body. But when the German botanist Hans Winkler coined the word genome in 1920, it was just a nod to the word chromosome. The suffix “omics” didn’t come around until 1986 with the word genomics. Researchers came up with that name over a beer while they were making plans to map every bit of human DNA for the Human Genome Project. Since then, the suffixes “ome” and “omics” have skyrocketed in popularity, with nearly 150 “omes” listed on the Cambridge Health Institute’s “omics” glossary. In 2001, a pair of researchers wrote, quote, “most of these terms, old and new, have been contrived as slogans to attract attention,” unquote. “Omes” have less graciously been called a “language parasite” because of how popular they’ve become. You can read about lots of “omes” in our full write-up on curiosity-dot-com and on our free Curiosity app for Android and iOS, but here are some of my favorites. The glycome is the entire collection of sugars in the human body. I don’t mean stuff rushing through your veins when you eat ice cream — I mean a building block of life. Studying these long chains of sugars could give us a brand new way to diagnose and treat disease. The lipidome refers to all of the lipids, or fats, in your body’s cells, and that study could also help scientists tackle diseases, especially metabolic ones. And the connectome is the network of neurons in your brain, and connectomics studies how they interact. We talked about the Human Connectome Project in our 2017 podcast interview with neuroscientist Sliman Bensmaia, which we’ll link to in today’s show notes. There are other omes too, but don’t forget omeomics. That’s the omics study of all the omes.
CODY: I’ve got one more for you: Elliott-omics. That’s when E.T. phones ome.
The Tonka Bean Is Revered For Its Superb Flavor, But It's Illegal And Might Kill You — https://curiosity.im/2rK5QKj (Cody)
The most delicious ingredient you’ve never heard of might be illegal where you live. I’m talking about the tonka bean. It’s the golden goose of sweet culinary creations, but it’s banned by the FDA. Why? One tiny little detail: the bean may kill you. The tonka bean is a wrinkly, raisin-like legume from South America. Its aroma is huge in the perfume world, and its flavor has been described as having notes of vanilla, cherry, almond, spicy cinnamon, cloves, and probably the dust of unicorn horns. It’s so strong that the shavings from one bean are enough to top 80 plates. Unfortunately, tonka beans contain a chemical called coumarin [KOO-mer-in], which the FDA banned in 1954. So tonka beans and tonka extract are illegal here in the states. It IS legal in Canada, though, so have at it! And actually, you CAN get tonka here in the U.S., in fancy-shmancy restaurants. In fact, the U.S. is the biggest importer of tonka on the planet. It’s apparently so good that top chefs are willing to smuggle it in. A chef at Chicago’s world-class restaurant Alinea told The Atlantic that he had his own supplier. The big claim is that tonka beans, or coumarin, more specifically, is highly toxic. But the head pastry chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York told the BBC that you’re fine as long as you don’t consume too much of it. To be fair, there’s coumarin in the common type of cinnamon that’s sitting in your spice cabinet. Coumarin has also been added to tobacco, e-cigarettes, cosmetics, deodorants, hand soap, shower gels, and detergents. To date, there have been no reported cases of human deaths caused by coumarin, and people have even called to lift the ban. Now, we’re not saying the stuff isn't dangerous. The problem is pinpointing just HOW dangerous it is. So if you come across a dish with tonka beans, eat at your own risk. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you. Would you try one of these, Ashley? [ad lib]
New Research Says Exercising at Night Won't Mess With Your Sleep — https://curiosity.im/2LQtPAN (Republished) (Ashley)
According to a new study, exercising at night does NOT have a negative impact on sleep quality. Here’s a story that’ll really get you in the mood to hit the gym. As reported by Futurity, researchers analyzed 23 studies and concluded that exercising in the four hours before going to bed does not have a negative effect on sleep. The researchers showed that in the night after study participants had done some sport in the evening, they spent 21.2 percent of their sleeping time in deep sleep. That’s a bit more deep sleep than they got after an evening without exercise, where the average figure was 19.9 percent. The major exception to this rule was vigorous training within an hour before bedtime. According to this analysis, it’s the only type of evening exercise that may have a negative effect on sleep. But that was a preliminary observation based on just one study. And vigorous trainning was defined as training where a person is unable to talk. Moderate training is physical activity that leaves a person unable to SING, but they could still speak. So vigorous training would include stuff like high-intensity interval training, and moderate training would include stuff like a longer endurance run or a longer ride on a racing bike. The analysis showed that the problem people had with intense training was that when they went to bed, their hearts were still beating more than 20 beats per minute faster than their resting heart rate. Gotta take some time to calm down. And one more thing: not everyone reacts to exercise in the same way. So the advice from the authors of this study, AND from me, is this: listen to your body. If you notice you’re having a hard time falling asleep, then try to work out a little earlier. At the very least, when you DO fall asleep, all that exercise should improve your sleep quality.
[ad lib Cody on pre-workout supplements]
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