In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer talk to Dr. Gwen Pearson, the education and outreach coordinator for Purdue University’s department of entomology, and discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: You're Wired to Talk Louder with Headphones On 4 Useless Human Traits That Once Had a Purpose How to Cope After a Breakup, According to Science More from Dr. Gwen Pearson: Dr. Gwen Pearson on Twitter @bug_gwen Dr. Gwen Pearson’s website Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer talk to Dr. Gwen Pearson, the education and outreach coordinator for Purdue University’s department of entomology, and discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
More from Dr. Gwen Pearson:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/how-to-get-over-a-breakup-why-cockroaches-exist-vestigial-traits-and-the-lombard-effect
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com plus a special guest to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn why you're wired to talk louder when you're wearing headphones, how to cope with a breakup according to science, and four useless human traits that used to have a purpose.
CODY GOUGH: We'll top off today's episode with a sprinkle of curiosity where Ashley digs into a question from an awesome listener like you.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right. Today's question comes from Dave who asks, do cockroaches even have a contribution to the ecosystem? If yes, how? Thanks for your question, Dave. We got in touch with a Purdue University entomologist for the answer, so stay tuned to hear her explain.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. Have you ever been in one of those situations where you've got headphones on, and you say something and everybody looks at you like, why are you shouting?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes. Always.
CODY GOUGH: Have you really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Of course. Yeah. [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES] So this story is actually from our Saturday digest, but you can still find it on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But there is a scientific reason why you get louder when you're listening to loud music in your headphones. And it's the same reason you get louder when you're in a loud place, like a bar or a rock concert. It's called the Lombard effect or the Lombard reflex.
And it sounds kind of obvious, right? Of course, I get louder when it's noisy, so people can hear me. But there's actually a lot of science to it. And humans aren't the only ones that do it either.
Dr. Lombard was a French scientist who discovered the symptom of the raised voice in 1909. And he found that your conversational speech changes in a bunch of different ways when your ears are picking up loud noises. So in Lombard speech, you use more lung power. You elongate your vowels. And you raise the fundamental frequency, or the pitch, of your voice.
You also put more emphasis on content words. So like, I'm going to go get a drink, versus I'm going to go get a drink. Male voices changed more dramatically, but researchers say female Lombard speech is more intelligible. So at least people can understand what you're shouting, Ashley.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: Researchers say there are two main reasons for the Lombard reflex. One is so other people can understand you, which is pretty obvious. But the other is actually so you can hear your own vocal output. It's like if you go to a local concert venue, sometimes you'll see the band complain that they can't hear themselves because the stage monitors are too low. Have you heard that happen?
ASHLEY HAMER: Absolutely. It's really hard to play when you can't hear your monitor.
CODY GOUGH: Right. And I've seen indie bands complain about it on stage. They get on the mic and yell at the sound guy, we can't hear ourselves.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's not right.
CODY GOUGH: No, it's not good. So people want to hear themselves. And even though the Lombard effect is more than 100 years old, it's still used in hearing tests, audio vocal integration studies, and speech therapy-- and now in animal vocal behavior. Birds, bats, and even fish have been shown to get louder to be heard in loud environments. And Lombard speech research has also been used to support architectural acoustic designs and in developing automatic speech and speaker recognition software. Add Curiosity Daily to your Amazon Alexa flash briefing, and you can even listen to this story on your smart speaker. How's that as meta?
ASHLEY HAMER: That's very meta.
[CHUCKLES]
Cody, do you still have your wisdom teeth?
CODY GOUGH: No. I got them removed in high school.
ASHLEY HAMER: I still have mine.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Mine came in straight. I'm one of the lucky ones.
CODY GOUGH: I don't know a lot about wisdom teeth.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, today we've got a story about them, and specifically about vestigial traits, which a lot of people think that wisdom teeth are. Those are your body parts that are basically useless today but used to have a purpose. So wisdom teeth, like I said, they're kind of a gray area. They were definitely more useful for our primate ancestors than they are for us. But sometimes they work for us just fine, like me.
But one thing that's not useful anymore for sure is your tailbone. We only have a tailbone because our evolutionary ancestors had tails. And here's a fun fact. The human embryo actually has a tail. Usually, the body absorbs it. But in some rare cases, babies can be born with the tail still intact.
On a related note, you get goose bumps because they're a leftover from when our ancestors had fur. When all their hair stood up and stuck out, it could keep them warm or make them bigger and more scary to enemies.
But the most surprising vestigial trait I think is probably your ears. Sure, hearing is useful, obviously. But ears are weird. Some biologists think parts of our ears are leftovers from when our ancestors had gills. You have a little hole in the part of your ear closest to your head. And there are other parts of our ears, like the muscles, that help them wiggle that only some people have. Maybe they're leftovers from evolution. Visit Curiosity today for more on these and other outdated body features.
CODY GOUGH: I can actually wiggle my ears on command. Does that mean I'm less evolved?
ASHLEY HAMER: No.
CODY GOUGH: [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: No. I mean, that just means-- that just means you're more entertaining.
CODY GOUGH: Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: That was smooth. Ashley, what do you do to get over a breakup?
ASHLEY HAMER: Sharon Van Etten is a big one actually. I have a special breakup playlist.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. It's a lot of good music. I listen to a lot of sad music. That's a big thing for me.
CODY GOUGH: I'm a Linkin Park guy.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, yeah.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: We talked about this.
CODY GOUGH: Popping in the end, some of their newer albums. Man, they will just boom.
ASHLEY HAMER: Nice.
CODY GOUGH: Well, new research may have found the best way to get over a breakup. A new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, General looked at 24 young adults and had them try a few different coping strategies. The first was negative reappraisal of the ex-partner. That's like when you focus on your ex's annoying habits or the things you don't like about them. A lot of people do this automatically. I mean, who hasn't gone to the bar with their buddies and just been like, oh, man. I hate it when she did this, or he did this, or whatever.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yup.
CODY GOUGH: The second strategy was reappraisal of love feelings. That's when participants accepted their unrequited love in a non-judgmental way. So they would read statements like, it's OK to love someone I'm no longer with. Think motivational quotes.
And the third strategy was distraction. And that's like when all your friends tell you to stay busy after a breakup to keep your mind off your ex. In this case, the participants were told to think positive thoughts about things that had nothing to do with their ex, like favorite foods, or I don't know, Star Wars, if you're into that.
So what worked best? Well, all three options actually help them decrease the emotional responses to photos of their exes, and that's pretty important because there's photos of your exes everywhere if you're on any social media site. But there were differences in feelings of love towards the ex and in overall happiness.
That first option, negative reappraisal, decreased feelings for the ex, but it also decreased overall happiness. The second option, love reappraisal, resulted in no change of feelings for the ex or in overall happiness. And the final option, distraction, also left feelings for the ex unchanged, but it did make participants feel more pleasant. So your best bet is probably a mix of all three. But hey, if you're a super happy person, then maybe go with a negative one, and you'll zero out.
ASHLEY HAMER: When I went through my last very big breakup, I did the distraction thing the whole way. I just started getting tons and tons of music gigs and just working all the time. But then my music career took off, so that was good.
CODY GOUGH: Hey, turn a negative into a positive.
ASHLEY HAMER: Absolutely.
CODY GOUGH: You can dig into the full study today on curiosity.com. We'll put the link in the show notes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Dave asked about cockroaches, so we found an expert to talk about them. Dr. Gwen Pearson is the education and outreach coordinator for Purdue University's Department of Entomology, she generously lent us a few minutes of her time to answer Dave's question. Do cockroaches even have a contribution to the ecosystem? If yes, how? Here is what she had to say.
GWEN PEARSON: They have a huge contribution. They're actually really important. I mean, it's pretty understandable that people do not like cockroaches because the ones that get in our houses are gross. They're associated with things that are dirty, disease.
But the reality is, there's really only about five species of roaches that are pests for humans and that get in our houses. But in the entire world, there are at least possibly more than 5,000 different kinds of roaches. And they are recyclers. They are key recyclers in a lot of forests and other ecosystems.
And they're relatives of termites. And like termites, they're really good at eating just about anything and digesting it. And they're eating all of our trash. They're eating trees, especially they're very commonly found in the forest. They'll eat anything that drops on the fourth floor, and they turn that into beautiful soil so that trees can grow again. Cycle of life. I can sing the Lion King song, but I don't think anybody wants that.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
GWEN PEARSON: And they're also pretty fascinating. I mean, again, the ones that live in our houses, there's a lot of roaches that live in caves. One of the theories is that roaches have been associated with humans since we were in caves, and they just kind of came along when we upgraded our caves into houses.
But most of them, if you went out in the forest, you would be amazed at how many roach species are out there-- very quietly munching away down on the forest floor. And you never would even see them.
ASHLEY HAMER: But the ones that are in our houses, those are just kind of a side effect of that happening?
GWEN PEARSON: Yeah. So many of them are species that are now distributed globally because people are distributed globally. And so as our trade moved people and goods around the world, we also moved roaches, and rats as well, all around the world. So the ones in your house, kill them. You are under no obligation to maintain their habitat. [CHUCKLES] It's the ones outside, live and let live because actually they really are important to ecosystem functioning.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thanks again for your question, Dave. And thanks, Dr. Pearson, for helping us out with the answer. You can follow Dr. Pearson on Twitter @bug_gwen or find links to her work in the show notes.
CODY GOUGH: And visit curiosity.com or check out the Curiosity app for Android and iOS to learn more about everything we talked about today. You can also subscribe to our email newsletter at curiosity.com/email and get all of our updates every day in your inbox. Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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