Learn about the truth behind Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to science; a mental model called “forcing functions” you can use to be more thoughtful and produce better results; and, whether dogs can smell fear. Please support today’s sponsor, Skura! Visit https://skurastyle.com to get sponges delivered right to your door, and enter promo code CURIOSITY to get your first month FREE! 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: Rosalind Franklin Is Known for DNA, But She Did a Lot More Than That — https://curiosity.im/30ru3nK Can Dogs Smell Fear? — https://curiosity.im/2xzeNZK Additional resources from Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann: Pick up “Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Gabriel Weinberg official website — https://ye.gg/ About DuckDuckGo — https://duckduckgo.com/about Follow Gabriel Weinberg @yegg on Twitter — https://twitter.com/yegg Follow Lauren McCann @LilBunnyFuted on Twitter — https://twitter.com/LilBunnyFuted Want to support our show?Register for the 2019 Podcast Awards and nominate Curiosity Daily to win for People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. After you register, simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (voting in other categories optional): https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019 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 truth behind Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to science; a mental model called “forcing functions” you can use to be more thoughtful and produce better results; and, whether dogs can smell fear.
Please support today’s sponsor, Skura! Visit https://skurastyle.com to get sponges delivered right to your door, and enter promo code CURIOSITY to get your first month FREE!
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:
Additional resources from Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann:
Want to support our show? Register for the 2019 Podcast Awards and nominate Curiosity Daily to win for People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. After you register, simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (voting in other categories optional): https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019
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/forcing-functions-and-super-thinking-rosalind-franklins-story-and-dogs-smelling-fear
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 the truth behind Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to science; and, whether dogs can smell fear. You’ll also learn about a mental model you can use to be more thoughtful and produce better results, with special guests Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Rosalind Franklin Is Known for DNA, But She Did a Lot More Than That — https://curiosity.im/30ru3nK (Ashley) [FREELANCER]
Rosalind Franklin was a scientist whose momentous contribution to our understanding the structure of DNA was only recognized after her death. [insert from end] But there are some misconceptions around her story. We’re releasing today’s podcast on what would be her 99th birthday, so let’s celebrate by revisiting history — and reminding you why you should care about this pioneering scientist.
Rosalind Franklin was born in London in 1920, and received a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1945. After World War II, she worked in the lab of Jacques Mering, a French engineer who was well known in the field of X-ray crystallography. That’s a technique that determines the atomic structure of substances by shooting them with beams of X-rays, then using their diffraction pattern to see the arrangements of their atoms.
This technique became a powerful weapon in Franklin's arsenal, and she used her impressive skills while later working at the biophysics lab at King’s College in London. Here, she captured impressive photographs of DNA, and was incredibly close to identifying the structure of DNA. And that’s when her research was famously “stolen”; in 1953, a colleague named Maurice Wilkins showed her photographs and unpublished research to scientists Francis Crick and James Watson, who were working on a theoretical model of DNA. Her worked helped them understand that DNA had double-helix structure, and they published a few months later with no acknowledgement of Franklin’s contribution to their breakthrough.
The story of the double-helix makes for tempting drama, but it muddies Franklin's contributions to science as a whole.
She made other ground-breaking discoveries, including the development of carbon fibers that are used to build modern planes. Her later work on the tobacco mosaic virus led to important steps forward in our understanding of viruses. She may have been part of a research-stealing scandal, but she was also a brilliant scientist and a shrewd collaborator who made some amazing contributions to science. Happy birthday, Rosalind Franklin!
Interview Clip #1 — Forcing Functions and meetings [3:00] (Cody)
CODY: If you want to make changes at work or at home, then a good way to do it might be to try a concept called forcing functions. That’s just one trick from the new book “Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models,” and today the book’s authors are joining us to talk about it. Gabriel Weinberg is the CEO and Founder of DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company and private search engine. And Lauren McCann is a statistician and researcher who’s published articles in medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. Their book a fun, illustrated guide to every mental model you could possibly need. And when I asked which mental model really stood out, here’s what Gabriel said.
[CLIP 3:00]
CODY: The bottom line is that if you might want to set up Forcing Functions, like standing meeting or deadlines, to help grease the wheels for changes you want to occur. Again, that was Gabriel Weinberg and Lauren McCann, authors of the new book “Super Thinking: The Big Book of Mental Models.” You can find links to the book and more in today’s show notes.
[SKURA] - CHECK BRANDING
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Can Dogs Smell Fear? — https://curiosity.im/2xzeNZK (Ashley) [FREELANCER]
If you've ever been near a growling dog, you've probably remembered that you should stay calm, since dogs can smell fear. Is that really true, though? I mean, CAN dogs actually smell fear? That’s the real question, and to help you stay safe around animals, we’ve done the research. So let’s get into whether this idea’s bark is worse than its bite.
Dogs have a proven ability to detect all sorts of biological cues – even the telltale smells of cancer - so seems likely they can smell the chemicals your body produces when you’re afraid. Chemicals like sweat, adrenaline, and the stress hormone cortisol. Surprisingly, though, researchers have never actually conducted a study to confirm this.
Of course, dogs could know you’re afraid in other ways too. Studies HAVE shown that they interpret human cues better than chimps, and they can also read our facial expressions to know if we’re happy or angry. So it’s likely they’d be able to interpret fear too.
But news flash: It doesn't really matter whether they know if we’re afraid. That’s because studies have shown that fear doesn't make dogs any more likely to attack — but PAIN does. A 2007 study in the journal Injury Prevention found that dogs were most likely to bite children when they perceived a threat to their food, territory, or belongings — OR when they were in pain or suffering from a painful medical condition. So fear might make them attack, but it’s their fear, not yours.
So what should you do when you think a dog might attack? Well, you should not run. Dogs are likely to attack rapidly departing people, but they are responding with predatory aggression, not recognition of fear in the victim.
Don't be too confident, either. Dogs can sometimes interpret eye contact as a sign of aggression, and that can also make them attack. Your best bet is to stand still, arms at your sides, and direct your gaze near, but not at the dog.
ASHLEY: Before we recap what we learned today, we want to quickly remind you to please nominate Curiosity Daily to be a finalist in the 2019 Podcast Awards! Find a link in today’s show notes, or visit podcast-awards-dot-com, to register. Then find Curiosity Daily in the drop-down menus for the categories of People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. It only takes a dog-gone minute! And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that Rosalind Franklin did a lot besides just have her DNA research stolen
CODY: And that forcing functions [need to listen to clip]
ASHLEY: And that dogs attack because they’re in pain, not because you’re afraid
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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!