Learn how superstitions can actually reduce anxiety, why rebooting can often fix computer problems, and why the first full dinosaur skeleton ever found is finally being studied 160 years later.
Learn how superstitions can actually reduce anxiety, why rebooting can often fix computer problems, and why the first full dinosaur skeleton ever found is finally being studied 160 years later.
How Superstitions Can Actually Reduce Anxiety by Reuben Westmaas
Why Does Rebooting Fix Computer Problems? By Sonja Hodgen
The First Complete Dinosaur Skeleton Ever Found has Finally Been Studied After 160 Years by Grant Currin
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-superstitions-can-reduce-anxiety
[MUSIC PLAYING] ASHLEY HAMER: Hi You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity. com. I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today, you'll learn how superstitions can actually reduce anxiety, why rebooting can often fix computer problems, and why the first full dinosaur skeleton ever found is finally being studied 160 years later.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's study some curiosity.
NATALIA REAGAN: It's October, which means it's a season of black cats and other spooky superstitions. While you might think a science podcast would turn its nose up at silly beliefs and good luck charms and bad luck numbers, you'd be wrong. Turns out that superstitions can be good for your mental health. They've even been shown to reduce anxiety.
All sorts of people have been known to engage in superstitious behavior. According to probably an apocryphal story about legendary physicist Niels Bohr, a visitor was once astonished to see a horseshoe hanging on his wall. When questioned, Niels said, of course, I don't believe in it. But I understand that it works whether you believe in it or not, kind of like science.
That story might be surprising. What's even more surprising is that superstitions might actually work. In 2016, researchers from Harvard and Berkeley looked into the role rituals can play in how we deal with stress. They put participants through a series of anxiety-inducing tasks that included singing Don't Stop Believing, and doing difficult math problems. I'm getting stressed just thinking about that.
Before the tasks, the researchers made up a ritual where participants had to draw a picture of how they were feeling, sprinkle salt on it, crumple it up, and throw it in the trash. Some participants performed their stressful task without completing the ritual first. Others were asked to complete the ritual for good luck. And a third group performed the exact same ritual but were told that it was meaningless.
What they found was that the people who performed the ritual as a ritual and not just as random instructions, showed the least signs of physiological stress. When they had to sing, they sang better. They had lower heart rates, and they reported feeling less anxiety.
Another study found that when people were told their golf ball was lucky, they were better at putting the ball. And people who held a lucky charm during a memory test, performed better than those given a lucky charm they weren't allowed to hold during the test.
So if you feel the pull of superstition during the Halloween season, lean into it. Even if luck may not exist, belief is powerful. And in the end, it could make you lucky anyway.
ASHLEY HAMER: Your computer is not working. So what do you do? Simple, just turn it off and on again. Restarting, also known as rebooting, is always the first bit of IT advice to fix any computer problem.
But why does rebooting work exactly? Well, most of the processes on your computer come from software aside from one, the bootloader. It's the only program physically built into the computer hardware. When the computer starts up, this program loads the operating system into the computer's memory and gets the computer going.
The operating system handles the day-to-day basics, accepting input from the keyboard, displaying things on the screen, keeping track of files, and serving as a home base for applications to run on. That's a lot of jobs to do. And if the computer gets too many or if a set of events happens in a weird order, then tasks can get stuck in memory.
For example, if two processes need the same resources, they can get stuck in a deadlock. Say I'm hungry, and I want an apple and an orange, in that order. But you want an orange and an apple, in that order. But we only have one apple and one orange. If I get my apple and you get your orange, we'll both be stuck fighting over resources that are already claimed. Something similar happens in computers. And often, the only fix is to reboot and start over.
The computer can also get cluttered. Computer tasks use resources like computer memory as they run. And over time, the arrangement of these resources will become fragmented and harder to manage. A reboot puts everything back in its rightful place.
Modern operating systems are usually great at spotting and removing stuck processes and keeping things tidy. But sometimes a computer can reach a state where the best thing to do is to start again from scratch. A reboot removes every task and then restarts with a clean slate. So if your computer is acting funny, I've got one question for you. Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
[LAUGHTER]
NATALIA REAGAN: God, given our last couple of weeks of just computer and technical glitches, I feel like Ashley and I have some thoughts on this matter.
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: It's an annoying question because it's so obvious. But you know what? A lot of times it's not a step you've taken. You know what I mean? Sometimes you just haven't thought about it.
NATALIA REAGAN: I agree. I think it also works for human brains as well.
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Just turn it off. Turn it back on again in the morning, see how you do.
[LAUGHTER]
NATALIA REAGAN: Take a nap. Come back with a clean slate.
Here's a story for the procrastinators out there. Paleontologists have finally gotten around to describing the first complete dinosaur skeleton identified by modern science, 162 years after it was found. But now, thanks to a series of new papers, researchers can finally tell us who Scelidosaurus was and how it might fit into the dinosaur family tree.
The first complete Scelidosaurus was found at the foot of a cliff on the UK's southern shore in 1858. People at the time had already found a few dinosaur fossils here and there, but no one really knew how the bones fit together. That's why it was a big deal when a fossil hunter found a complete dinosaur skeleton.
The first expert to take a look at it was Richard Owen, the guy who coined the word dinosaur. But Owen didn't do very much with the find. He published a couple of short papers, but didn't say, try to figure out what the creature had looked like. You think that would be the first order of business. Sheesh.
So the fossilized skeleton sat around, and sat around some more. The staff at the Natural History Museum of London maintained the bones for decades, in case the scientist wanted to do more research. But that wouldn't happen for a long time.
Lucky for us, the wait is finally over. Researchers have recently published four papers on Scelidosaurus, which include everything from descriptions of its anatomy to informed speculation about its place in the dinosaur family tree.
It turns out that Scelidosaurus was one tough cookie. The dino had horns coming out of its skull. And its skin was covered with hard plates and bony spikes. Scelidosaurus also had all kinds of bones that most dinosaurs don't. That, combined with the fact that Scelidosaurus lived at the beginning of the age of dinosaurs, has led paleontologists to think the species was an ancestor of some better known dinos.
It was probably a very early member of a genus called the Ankylosaurus. While they aren't the most famous dinosaurs, Ankylosaurus are still pretty cool. They had tons of armor and probably spent a lot of time fighting each other for access to resources.
Even though we know a lot more about Scelidosaurus now than ever before, the research is just beginning to scratch the surface. Paleontologists are still trying to figure out the best system for classifying dinosaurs. With any luck, future research into Scelidosaurus may help answer some of those bigger questions. In the meantime, maybe Scelidosaurus's story can inspire you to knock out that task that's been gathering dust on your to do list. At least it won't take 162 years.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, let's recap the main things we learned today, starting with the fact that those silly superstitions might actually perform some sort of benefit. A recent study showed that people who are asked to do a task, along with a good luck ritual, performed better than those who did the same ritual but weren't told that it was lucky.
I feel like I've come 180 degrees on superstitions because I used to poo poo them. But the placebo effect is so powerful. People use the term placebo effect like, oh, that just means it doesn't work. But no, it means that your brain is doing something.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Your brain does something in the placebo effect that has a real effect. It's not just fake.
NATALIA REAGAN: Right. Like knocking on that wood might not make you run faster, per se, but maybe it gives you the confidence, the motivation. Whatever it is, take it. Do you have any superstitions when you race. I was curious because you're a runner. And I wasn't sure if maybe you had any like race-day superstitions.
ASHLEY HAMER: I know a lot of people do. And yeah, I feel like I'm actually strange that I don't. I don't have a special meal that I have the night before. I don't have a special playlist that I listen to. I think I feel more relaxed when less can go wrong. Like, oh no, I didn't bring my lucky socks. Or oh no, my playlist isn't loading. Those things can make you more nervous. So I just go the opposite route, and I just don't have anything like that.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, it limits the amount of, like you said, things that could go potentially wrong, even in the placebo way. We also learned that rebooting a computer can help fix a problem because sometimes the computer is just overwhelmed and needs a reset. They also can get cluttered. And it helps them just sort things out. And honestly, actually, I don't think I've ever related to a computer more than this.
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, same.
[LAUGHTER]
Sometimes your head just feels cluttered and too many processes are going on at once. They're all competing for the same resources, and you just got to go to sleep.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yep. No, just take a nap. Do something completely different for an hour and then come back to it.
ASHLEY HAMER: And lastly, we learned that good things really do come to those who wait. Since the first complete dinosaur skeleton ever found, which was found more than 160 years ago, has finally been put together. Hooray for procrastination. This early dinosaur is covered in armored plates and horns. And a lot of its characteristics are pretty unique. And because of that, scientists think it's an early member of the genus Ankylosaur.
NATALIA REAGAN: It's funny because in science, especially in paleoanthropology, the study of human origins, to discover a species is such a big deal. And one of the things that often happens is sometimes they rush to publish because usually, there's accolades and money involved, and grants and things. And so it's just interesting that this giant find, the first complete dinosaur skeleton, has sat untouched for 162 years.
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. I can't imagine what kind of stuff must have been going on that they were just too busy to describe it, put it together.
NATALIA REAGAN: Typhoid, cholera, I don't know.
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
NATALIA REAGAN: They did it during the year of the plague. So what's your excuse, 1858?
ASHLEY HAMER: True.
NATALIA REAGAN: Today's stories were written by Grant Currin, Reuben Westmaas, and Sonja Hodgen, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting and editing by Natalia Reagan. And our producer is Cody Gough. Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. And until then, stay curious.
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