Today we discuss the benefits of taking breaks during work, how milk led to death, and a new configuration of lights that might lead to a massive decrease in the amount of motorcycle accidents that happen at night.
Today we discuss the benefits of taking breaks during work, how milk led to death, and a new configuration of lights that might lead to a massive decrease in the amount of motorcycle accidents that happen at night.
Healthy Breaks
Diarrhea Gene
Motorcycle Light
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Find episode transcripts here:https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/healthy-breaks-diarrhea-gene-motorcycle-light
[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today you’ll learn about the benefit of work breaks, how milk led to death, and a new configuration of lights that might lead to a massive decrease in the amount of motorcycle accidents that happen at night!
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Calli, did you know that not working can actually improve your personal well being?
CALLI: Is this your subtle way of telling me to quit?
NATE: No, no, that's not what I mean. I just mean you shouldn't be afraid to take a break. A recent study found that even ten minute micro breaks can help you avoid burnout, feel more recharged and recovered, and help you get through tasks all day long without feeling exhausted. Importantly, though, the type of break you take really matters.
CALLI: How did they convince a workplace that they were going to walk in and study how well their workers…didn’t work?
NATE: Well this wasn’t just one study, it was actually a meta-analysis of 22 studies from the past twenty years that all looked at how short breaks affected workers, and how different activities have different effects during those breaks.
CALLI: Okay, I see. Did the participants get to choose what they did on their break? Could I do my sudoku or something?
NATE: Well, there were different kinds of work, and breaks, across all these studies. To start, some of them had participants doing work simulations, others had work-related tasks, and some replaced actual work with cognitive tests.
During their break, there were a bunch of different things workers could do: they could go for a walk, stretch, watch a video, just space out and try to relax, whatever they liked really. But in some of the studies, participants' breaks involved work-related tasks, like helping a colleague, or doing different work, like answering emails.
CALLI: Answering emails? That hardly sounds like a break, that’s like my least favorite part of the day!
NATE: Well you’re on to something because the researchers found that what you did during your break really mattered, and if your break included work-related things, it wasn’t much of a break at all. Participants who did work-related tasks felt worse overall, and they got worse sleep than those who took breaks without work.
CALLI: Worse sleep! Were there things to do during breaks that actually helped?
NATE: Yes! If the task was unrelated to your work, and you liked what you were doing, you could see a real big up in your emotions, you’d get happier! In particular, physical breaks worked really well, things like going for a walk or doing exercise were found to improve your mood and make you less tired.
CALLI: Oh I love my mid-afternoon walks. I’m not surprised they make a big difference. Ok, but here is another question, does it matter what kind of work you are taking a break from?
NATE: Excellent question, because yes! Apparently breaks made a huge difference for people doing repetitive, routine work, or creative work. For those doing routine work, breaks helped them make fewer mistakes, and for those doing creative work, breaks kept the creative juices flowing. Interestingly, people doing more intellectual work, going through spreadsheets or the like, didn’t have the same response to breaks and their moods did not improve as much.
CALLI: Well I’m glad we are doing creative work then, I love a nice little break. Which leads me to the obvious question, how many should I take a day?
NATE: I knew you’d ask! But it really depends on you and your work. They say you should take as many as you need and think of them as protecting your well-being in the same way you think of drinking water as fending off dehydration.
CALLI: Well if that’s the case, let’s go for a walk right after this episode.
NATE: A fantastic idea. I’m right behind you. But no work talk, or this walk won’t do us any good!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Nate, I have a bit of a riddle for you. What do ancient Europeans, milk, and poop have in common?
NATE: Uh, well good afternoon to you too, Calli. I seriously have no idea how to answer your question.
CALLI: Well, it turns out that it was recently discovered that the only reason that we today are able to drink milk without severe diarrhea is because of a gene passed down by the ancient Europeans.
NATE: But how does that make any sense? Doesn’t milk still give a ton of people diarrhea?
CALLI: Yeah, it does. Let’s go back in time a bit. Europeans, according to recent research, are less likely to experience these kinds of problems with their bowels caused by milk because way back in the day diarrhea actually helped some of them develop and pass on the ability to drink milk. It all comes down to dairy, famine, and diarrhea.
NATE: Ah yes, the three musketeers of gastrointestinal discomfort. But how does getting sick make you MORE able to drink milk?
CALLI: Scientists have wondered for a long time how Europeans developed the ability to drink milk, and until recently, most researchers thought Europeans got better at digesting milk simply because they were drinking more of it. But a recent study shows that is not the case!
NATE: So for a while no Europeans could drink milk? What about babies?
CALLI: Sure, sure. When we are babies, we have an enzyme called lactase that breaks down lactose, the sugar in milk. But for most of history, that enzyme faded away as Europeans approached adolescence.
NATE: Well what happens if you drink milk without that enzyme? Do you…die?
CALLI: No! You probably know some people without the enzyme. They don’t die, they’re just lactose intolerant! That means if they do drink milk, they get diarrhea, gas, bloating and cramps. And if your friends are anything like mine, they’ll suffer through those symptoms for a good piece of cheese pizza.
NATE: But that doesn’t happen to me…does that mean I kept my lactase enzyme?
CALLI: Yes! About 6,000 years ago, some Europeans developed the gene variant to make lactase, and by 3,000 years ago, it was common among Europeans, meaning that they had no issues with dairy. Scientists looked at pottery fragments from more than 550 archeological sites to figure out how much milk Europeans were drinking from 9,000 years ago, all the way to 500 years ago. They also looked at ancient DNA to see when that lactose-processing gene became more common. Importantly, they also looked at…famine.
NATE: Famine? But why would less food change your ability to drink milk?
CALLI: Well think about this. If you were lactose intolerant, had a good crop year, and you drank some milk, it might give you diarrhea, or make you gassy, but it wouldn’t kill you. You’d be happy and healthy and a pooping problem would just be a bad day. But in a famine year? Or when there is an infectious disease outbreak? When you’re already malnourished and fighting for your life, a simple bout of diarrhea could be fatal.
NATE: So they’re desperate for food, they drink milk for some calories…get diarrhea…and that kills them?
CALLI: Yes, diarrhea still kills people all over the world today, it can dehydrate you and keep you from getting necessary nutrients. And when people who couldn't process milk died….those people with the lactose-processing gene variant had a genetic advantage!
NATE: And therefore they’d be able to reproduce. So every time we had a famine, the more resilient milk-drinkers survived and continued to spread the gene?
CALLI: Exactly. We pooped our way to cheese pizza.
NATE: Do we have to phrase it like that?
CALLI: I kind of do! We ate dairy til it killed us, then the ones who could handle it just kept eating it.
NATE: I’d say you ruined my appetite, but I guess feeling unwell is also what gave me my appetite.
CALLI: Yeah, I’m gonna order a pizza.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: I don't know about you, Calli, but motorcycles kind of freak me out a little bit. Did you know that motorcycle drivers are 27 times more likely to die in an accident than anybody in any other passenger vehicle? 27 And it only gets worse for night drivers. Nearly half of all fatal crashes at night globally are motorcycle accidents.
CALLI: That’s a ton.
NATE: Yeah, it's absolutely a problem. You know that phrase? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
CALLI: Yeah, something’s broke here.
NATE: Yeah, this doesn’t apply to that. Something is broken. Someone needs to fix it. Fortunately, there’s a new study that has figured out a way to possibly change the motorcycle game forever and it could potentially save thousands of lives in the process.
CALLI: I absolutely agree. Motorcycles are pretty scary and that's coming from somebody who has one. I actually ride a motorcycle and I know that there are a lot more dangerous at night because of poor lighting. They're hard to see. So what are they doing to fix this?
NATE: Well, it turns out the solution might just be enhancing the lighting. A few engineers were trying to do exactly what you're saying, improve the quality of life on a motorcycle, but without trying to change anything major. And what they came up with was a new lighting configuration. This configuration uses six lights running from the bottom to the top of a motorcycle's front. Instead of using just the one single headlight. In theory, with something like this, you'd never miss a motorcycle on the road again.
CALLI: I mean, that makes sense. You'd be able to see them better with more lighting. It's going to make it easier to see obstacles in the road in general. What do they look like?
NATE: The study worked on a few different designs that weren't all available to the public, but there's a similar design for auxiliary lights that's been common in the U.K. since around 2011. That one is only for lights, and they're arranged in a triangle that start with two lights where one would normally be and an additional two lights on the sides of the front wheel. One thing to keep in mind is that currently this is an optional but legal addition to the motorcycle. What this study is doing is making the point of making this a requirement rather than an option.
CALLI: See, that's actually kind of fascinating because it was my understanding that usually you can't do a lot of modifications to your bike when it comes to lighting. So I actually really like that they're doing this now. Like I actually would absolutely get behind this. I would mod my bike for this.
NATE: Yeah, I feel like there are definitely some people who would be opposed to being told they have to do modifications for their bike. But I also feel like the study kind of speaks for itself. They recruited 35 people between the ages of 19 and 70 to take part in a lab driving simulation. And while they were driving, they were measured on how quickly they saw motorcycles coming toward them with normal lights versus with enhanced lights. And they used four different designs to test out what were the best possible lighting configurations on the bikes. Some of them had two lights, some had four, and some used alternate types of bulbs.
CALLI: And from what I've read, something happened that the researchers didn't actually expect. Every single enhanced lighting fixture improved response time by almost half a second. However, this configuration with the six bulbs came closest at 4/5 of a second, which led them to the conclusion that that was the best configuration.
NATE: Now I know that just under a second might not seem like a lot of time until you remember that we're talking about life or death situations here. 1/2 could easily be enough time for a driver to respond or move out of the way and possibly save a life. So if this lighting can help motorists see someone almost a full second sooner than they would have otherwise, and I think it's a good idea and should probably be put into place.
CALLI: I absolutely agree. I mean, I would have a Tron light cycle. I'm totally down. When when will this be implemented, do you think?
NATE: As always, more research is needed to figure out the next step. And they also figured out one unfortunate side effect. The lighting seemed to make no difference on figuring out how close the motorcycles were to the cars. So a lighting rig would need to find a way to integrate optical expansion from multiple dimensions, which is a complicated way of saying that the lights need to be more discernible as being closer to the driver. That being said, this may seem like a baby step, but it's actually a giant leap forward for motorcycle safety.
CALLI: I mean, I'm down. This is one step closer to me having a light cycle. So I'm here for it.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. A recent meta-analysis found that taking short 10 minute breaks during your work day can increase your well being and decrease your fatigue. What you do with your break matters though, so don’t even think about answering those emails.
CALLI: Researchers have long wondered how Europeans got their lactose tolerance, and the answer is surprising: diarrhea. Being able to process dairy gave some early Europeans a genetic advantage when avoiding diarrhea helped them live through famines.
NATE: Motorcycles! Vroom vroom. One of the most fascinating and deceptively simple feats of engineering we know - unfortunately, it’s also one of the most dangerous, with nearly half of all auto accidents at night involving a motorcycle. Thankfully, a team of researchers have developed a new six-light set-up for motorcycles that increases driver responsiveness by nearly a full second - and as we all know, one second is usually the thing that really separates life from death.