Learn about how studying the eye microbiome can improve human health, with help from Dr. Anthony St. Leger; why old-timey penny-farthing bicycles had one giant wheel; and, how to avoid the dangers of dating-app addiction. 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: Why Did Old-Timey Bikes Have One Giant Wheel? — https://curiosity.im/31klTOG Dating-App Addiction Is a Thing, and Researchers Determined Who's Most at Risk — https://curiosity.im/31GJaKO Additional resources from Dr. Anthony St. Leger: Bacteria live on our eyeballs – and understanding their role could help treat common eye diseases | The Conversation — https://theconversation.com/bacteria-live-on-our-eyeballs-and-understanding-their-role-could-help-treat-common-eye-diseases-116126 Anthony St. Leger, PhD | University of Pittsburgh Department of Opthalmology — http://ophthalmology.pitt.edu/people/anthony-st-leger-phd 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 studying the eye microbiome can improve human health, with help from Dr. Anthony St. Leger; why old-timey penny-farthing bicycles had one giant wheel; and, how to avoid the dangers of dating-app addiction.
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 Dr. Anthony St. Leger:
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/inside-the-human-eye-w-dr-anthony-st-leger-dating-app-addiction-and-old-timey-bicycles
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 how studying the eye microbiome can improve human health, with help from Dr. Tony St. Leger. You’ll also learn why old-timey bikes had one giant wheel; and, how to avoid the dangers of dating-app addiction.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Interview Clip 2 - Future treatments for the eye microbiome [2:30] - Friday 8/23 (Both)
ASHLEY: Researchers can do some pretty amazing things by learning more about the eye microbiome. And we’ve got an expert to help you learn about those things. Tony St. Leger [ledger] is an assistant professor of opthalmology and immunology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and he recently published a piece in The Conversation to help you learn about the eye microbiome. You already know that studying it can help us find treatments for pink eye and other conditions. And now, here’s what Tony told us when we asked why he thinks studying the eye microbiome is so important.
[CLIP 2:29]
CODY: That’s right: some bacteria grow better by feeding off human tears. Pretty interesting stuff, and research into the eye microbiome has only just begun. Again, that was Tony St. Leger, assistant professor of opthalmology and immunology at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. We’ll put a link to learn more about Tony, including the full article he wrote on this for The Conversation, in today’s show notes.
Why Did Old-Timey Bikes Have One Giant Wheel? — https://curiosity.im/31klTOG (Ashley)
ASHLEY: What’s more important to you when choosing a bicycle: speed or safety? Striking the right balance between the need for speed versus surviving the ride is the eternal engineering dilemma. And it’s also the reason behind both the design and the demise of the penny-farthing bicycle. [quick conversational description of what a penny-farthing is / ad lib]
You probably look at the penny-farthing bicycle with its strange shape and consider it quaint or quirky. After all, who could take a bike nick-named after a small coin rolling after a large coin seriously? Yes, it really is named after the largest and the smallest coins minted in England in the 1880s — the penny and the farthing, respectively. But as silly as its name and appearance were, it was very serious about one thing: speed!
Unlike modern bikes, the “high-wheeler,” as it was nicknamed, didn't have any gears or chains. So, the only way to make it go faster was to make the front wheel bigger, which meant you’d travel farther on a single rotation of the pedals.
Unfortunately, the design also sent riders flying over the handlebars at the slightest provocation. And while attempts were made to improve on the design, ultimately, an entirely new type of bicycle emerged, named the safety; basically, the same bike that we've got today.
The penny-farthing was popular in the 1880s and 90s, but it wasn’t the first attempt at a bicycle by engineers. In 1418, an Italian engineer named Giovanni Fontana built a four wheel machine that used gears connected via rope, but it never caught on.
400 years later, another version of the bike emerged. While it looked similar to modern bikes, Karl Drais' draisine [dry-ZEEN] had no pedals. The concept took off, and other designs soon followed. But it was the penny-farthing that really caught on and led to our modern bicycles. Which goes to show that speed almost always leads in designs — but luckily for us, safety soon follows.
[NHTSA]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Now, everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash. Or people could get hurt — or killed. But let’s take a moment to look at some surprising statistics.
ASHLEY: Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That’s one person every 50 minutes. Even though drunk-driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades, drunk driving crashes still claim more than 10,000 lives each year.
CODY: And you may be surprised to learn that driving while high can be just as dangerous. In 2015, 42% of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs. Not so harmless after all, is it? And get this, from 2007 to 2015, marijuana use among drivers killed in crashes doubled.
ASHLEY: The truth is driving while high is deadly. So, stop kidding yourself. If you’re impaired from alcohol or drugs, don’t get behind the wheel.
CODY: If you feel different you drive different. Drive high get a DUI.
ASHLEY: Drive sober or get pulled over.
Dating-App Addiction Is a Thing, and Researchers Determined Who's Most at Risk — https://curiosity.im/31GJaKO (Cody)
Have you ever found yourself swiping on Tinder until it felt like your thumbs were gonna fall off? Or checking your OkCupid messages during inappropriate times, like meetings at work or first dates with other people? Well it turns out that dating-app addiction is a real thing, and according to a new study, it's especially likely for people with certain personality traits. [ad lib if we’ve used dating apps before]
CODY: This comes from a July 2019 study in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Researchers from The Ohio State University found that people with a particular combination of loneliness and social anxiety were more prone to becoming addicted to dating apps. They looked at past studies looking at problematic internet use, which linked social anxiety with a tendency to prefer interacting with people online rather than face to face. Scientists actually came up with a term for this, called POSI, which stands for "preference for online social interaction." That generally comes with the belief that you're safer and more confident chatting online than face-to-face. Research has also linked loneliness to impaired self-regulation — basically, you use less self-control when you’re lonely. And one effect of that could be compulsive app use. With all this data in mind, the team surveyed a group of 269 undergraduate students — the prime generation of dating app users. The students were asked to rate how much they agreed or disagreed with statements about how much they preferred online interactions, and how compulsively they used the apps. They were also asked to report any consequences they experienced as a result of using dating apps, like getting busted for browsing and swiping on profiles while in class or at work. And socially anxious people — meaning, the students who said they feel more confident socializing on dating apps rather than in person — showed a preference for meeting partners digitally instead of face-to-face. No surprise there, though that preference alone didn't cause them to use dating apps compulsively. It’s when you added loneliness that people became impulsive users. If you think you have a problem with dating apps, then the first step is the same one you’d take with any other type of addiction: become aware and acknowledge the problem. If you have trouble setting or abiding by your own rules, there are apps that can set a limit on how long or often you use dating apps each day. And if you're feeling lonely and socially anxious, you can also try some low-tech loneliness fixes like spending time with a pet, reading a novel, or doing something creative.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you can catch this weekend on curiosity-dot-com.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about weird things that happen to your brain when you binge-watch a show;
A new analysis says the moon is 100 million years older than we thought;
Which language has the most words;
How getting more vitamin A [how getting more of a certain vitamin] could reduce your risk of skin cancer;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
CODY: Today we learned that some bacteria use human tears as a fuel source — although, even just knowing that fact is helping researchers come up with new ways to keep our eyes healthy.
ASHLEY: And that old-timey bikes looked silly but were super fast… and super DANGEROUS [DON’T USE THE PART ABOUT THEM HAVING NO BRAKES]
CODY: And that dating-app addiction is a thing, so be careful if you’ve been feeling lonely lately — swiping too much might get you into trouble
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. And have a great weekend! I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!