Learn about how and why we study fruit flies with some help from Stephanie Mohr, author of the new book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” You’ll also learn why we still make pennies here in the U.S., and why science says your personality completely changes over time. Get your copy of “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” on Amazon: https://amazon.com 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: The U.S. Penny Costs More Than 1 Cent to Produce — https://curiosity.im/2GoTkYQ Science Says You're A Totally Different Person At 14 And 77 — https://curiosity.im/2IloIZD Additional resources from Stephanie Mohr: “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” — https://amazon.com Follow Stephanie Mohr on Twitter @smohrfly — https://twitter.com/smohrfly Harvard bio — https://scholar.harvard.edu/smohr 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 how and why we study fruit flies with some help from Stephanie Mohr, author of the new book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” You’ll also learn why we still make pennies here in the U.S., and why science says your personality completely changes over time.
Get your copy of “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery” on Amazon: https://amazon.com
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 Stephanie Mohr:
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/how-fruit-flies-are-like-humans-w-stephanie-mohr-your-changing-personality-and-pennies
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 why we still make pennies here in the U.S., and why science says your personality completely changes over time. You’ll also hear from Stephanie Mohr, author of the book “First in Fly,” who’ll teach you how similar fruit flies are to humans.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
The U.S. Penny Costs More Than 1 Cent to Produce — https://curiosity.im/2GoTkYQ (from Sunday) (Ashley)
Today we’re going to take a look at the U.S. penny, which is worth one cent, but costs about one and a half cents to produce. Why do we make a coin that costs more than it’s worth, especially when — let’s face it — how often do you really use pennies anyway? Well, the United States started producing pennies in 1787. They’ve always been worth one cent, but the composition of the coin has changed. Pennies used to be made completely from copper, but as the value of copper went up, the value of the penny went down. That’s why the U.S. Mint changed the composition to what it is today: 2-and-a-half percent copper and 97-and-a-half percent zinc. But that value imbalance is still there: like I mentioned before, as of 2016, the penny still cost 1.5 cents to make. Although we shouldn’t be too hard on it: after all, the nickel, which is worth 5 cents, actually costs 8 cents to make. But let’s put costs aside for a second. There are other pretty compelling reasons why we should just get rid of it. Think about this: in 1915, the penny was worth about 25 cents in today’s money. Since the penny was the smallest form of currency, that meant that Americans didn’t have today’s buying equivalent of a penny — or a nickel or dime, for that matter. And they got along just fine. Then again, there are some people who say we should keep the penny around. One of those people is professor Brian Domitrovic. In a piece he wrote for Forbes, he basically says that coins were first adopted based on the value of the metal they were made of. If coins were made of something that was worth less than they were traded for, a government could overproduce money and tank the economy. But with the rise of legal tender laws and the Federal Reserve, the U.S. government can now make its citizens use the money it mints, and control how much of it flows out into the economy at any time. Domitrovic says this led to the Great Recession, which he describes as, quote, "the era of the most gargantuan episode of state-sponsored monetary creation in the history of the world,” unquote.” He says it could remind the country how to properly conduct monetary policy. The fact that it costs something to make a penny is actually an argument in favor of keeping it. [ad lib]
Fruit Fly Friday Interview Clip 2 - How similar we are to fruit flies (Both)
CODY: It’s time for the second installment in our “Fruit Fly Friday” mini-series. Last week we learned that researchers study fruit flies. So what? Well, we have more in common with the little buggers than just a few genes here or there. And that’s according to Stephanie Mohr, who’s a lecturer on genetics at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” Here’s her exchange with Ashley that might change the way you look at fruit flies.
[CLIP 2:48]
ASHLEY: Again, Stephanie Mohr is a lecturer on genetics at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book “First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery.” You can find links to the book and more in today’s show notes, and next Friday, she’ll be back with more on what we know thanks to fruit fly research.
[NHTSA]
CODY: Today’s episode is paid for by NIT-suh.
ASHLEY: It can be a little frustrating, especially if you’re in a hurry or running late, to find yourself at a railway crossing, waiting for a train. And if the signals are going and the train’s not even there yet, you can feel a bit tempted to try and sneak across the tracks. Well, don’t. Ever. CODY: Yeah, trains are often going a lot faster than you expect them to be. And they can’t stop. Even if the engineer hits the brakes right away, it can take a train over a mile to stop. By that time, what used to be your car is just a crushed hunk of metal and what used to be you… well, better not to think about that. The point is, you can’t know how quickly the train will arrive.
ASHLEY: The train can’t stop even if it sees you. The result is disaster. If the signals are on, the train is on its way. And you... just need to remember one thing… Stop. Trains can’t.
Science Says You're A Totally Different Person At 14 And 77 — https://curiosity.im/2IloIZD (Cody)
The longest-running personality study EVER suggests that your personality completely transforms over time. As in, you’re a totally different person when you’re 14 then you are when you’re, say, 77. So don’t worry if you feel like you’re like you used to be! And this is according to a study spanning 63 years. It comes from Matthew Harris and his colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, who started the study in 1950 and wrapped it up in 2012. The study started out with a thousand, two-hundred-nine Scottish 14-year-olds. And back in 1950, those teenagers rated the following 6 personality traits: self-confidence, perseverance, stability of moods, conscientiousness, originality, and desire to learn. Fast forward to 2012, and these teenagers were around 77 years old. And 174 of them agreed to be re-examined. The subjects rated themselves on the original six criteria, and they had a close friend or relative rate them, too. As it turns out, the subjects had developed more than just wrinkles — they'd also formed brand new personalities. The researchers found no significant correlation between their ratings at age 14 and age 77. The study notes that the longer the time interval, the weaker the relationship between the two selves tends to be. Meaning, you’re a lot more different between the ages of 12 and 77 than you are between the ages of, say, 12 and 42. The study notes that after 63 years, there’s hardly any relationship at all. It might be strange to think of yourself as an entirely new human at 77, but look on the bright side: at least by then, you’ll probably have outgrown your teenage angst. Or, so we hope.
ASHLEY: That’s all for today, but you can keep learning all weekend on curiosity-dot-com. This weekend, you’ll learn about how to overcome your brain’s tendency to fight weight loss;
Unexpected things libraries offer other than books;
Why the largest natural sand dune on the East coast is such a big deal;
How you can develop a better sense of direction;
And more!
CODY: If there’s something ELSE you’re curious about, send us your question! You can find our contact info and links to everything we do on our podcast website, curiosity-daily-dot-com.
ASHLEY: Come hang out with us again Sunday on the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Ashley Hamer.
CODY: And I’m Cody Gough. Have a great weekend!
ASHLEY: And stay curious!