Learn about how researchers are manufacturing robots that are half the width of a human hair, in the second edition of our Microscale Mondays mini-series. You’ll also learn about a science-backed way to stop the hiccups. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about one science-backed way to stop the hiccups: https://curiosity.im/2xAAF75 Additional resources from Cornell University: Physicists take first step toward cell-sized robots — https://as.cornell.edu/news/physicists-take-first-step-toward-cell-sized-robots Graphene Origami [VIDEO] — https://research.cornell.edu/video/graphene-origami Nanobots That Can Do Just about Anything — https://research.cornell.edu/news-features/nanobots-can-do-just-about-anything Itai Cohen | Department of Physics Cornell Arts & Sciences — https://physics.cornell.edu/itai-cohen Paul McEuen | Department of Physics Cornell Arts & Sciences — https://physics.cornell.edu/paul-mceuen Want to support our show?Register for the 2019 Podcast Awards and nominate Curiosity Daily to win for People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. After you register, simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (no need to pick nominees in every category): https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019 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 researchers are manufacturing robots that are half the width of a human hair, in the second edition of our Microscale Mondays mini-series. You’ll also learn about a science-backed way to stop the hiccups.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about one science-backed way to stop the hiccups: https://curiosity.im/2xAAF75
Additional resources from Cornell University:
Want to support our show? Register for the 2019 Podcast Awards and nominate Curiosity Daily to win for People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. After you register, simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (no need to pick nominees in every category): https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019
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/microscale-machine-manufacturing-w-cornell-university-and-stopping-hiccups-with-science
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 researchers are manufacturing robots that are half the width of a human hair, in the second edition of our Microscale Mondays mini-series. You’ll also learn about a science-backed way to stop the hiccups.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Microscale Mondays #2 — How the robots are manufactured [2:49] (7/22) (Cody)
How do you produce robots that are half the width of a human hair? You’re about to learn how, in the second edition of our Microscale Mondays mini-series. Our guests for this series are Itai Cohen, Professor of Physics at Cornell University, and Paul McEuen, Director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science. They agree that the robots we’re talking about are pretty small, but here’s Paul McEuen on what makes their tiny production possible.
[CLIP 2:49]
Algorithms are great, but how do these machines actually move around? Don’t worry — we’ll get into that next Monday. You just heard from Itai Cohen, and before that you heard from Paul McEuen. They’re both physicists at Cornell University, and you can learn more about them and their research in today’s show notes.
One Science-Backed Way to Stop Hiccups Involves, Um, Your Butt — https://curiosity.im/2xAAF75 (Ashley)
There’s a science-backed way to stop the hiccups, and fair warning: it’s a weird one. We’ve all heard of holding your breath, or having someone scare you or [ad lib]. This is not one of those things, though. But before we get into the cure, let’s back up a sec. First, what is a hiccup? Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm. Your vocal cords close every time it contracts. The result? HIC! And here’s something weird: we don’t really know why hiccups happen. We do know some things that cause them: Eating too much or too fast; eating dry bread; eating spicy food; drinking fizzy drinks or booze; a sudden change in temperature; gas in your stomach… yeah, it’s a pretty long list. And lll those things tickle your phrenic nerve. That’s a nerve that starts in your neck and goes right between your lungs and your heart, all the way to your diaphragm. Boom, right where the hiccups happen. But you’ve gotta hit a different nerve if you want to get rid of the hiccups. That’s called the vagus nerve. This nerve is like a superhighway inside your body. It goes from your brain down through your face and down your torso alllll the way to the bottom of… well, your bottom. The vagus nerve controls the stuff you don’t have to think about, like your breathing and your heart rate. You know… the stuff that keeps you alive. No big deal.
This nerve can also help relax your muscles. Muscles… like… your diaphragm…? See where this is going? You’ve heard about hiccup cures that are meant to stimulate the vagus nerve, which in turn gets your diaphragm to chill out. You know: stuff like gargling or yanking on your tongue. But there’s no guarantee these methods will work every time. And sometimes, desperate times call for desperate measures. So here’s something else you can try if your hiccups just won’t stop. Digital rectal massage. That’s digital, as in your fingers, and rectal, as in your butt. No. I’m not kidding.
So back in the eighties, this guy couldn’t stop hiccupping after 72 hours. Like, 30 times a minute for three straight days. This guy tried every cure in the book, but nothing worked. Enter: Dr. Francis Fesmire. He’d read a study where digital rectal massage lowered a patient’s rapid heartbeat by stimulating the vagus nerve. So Fesmire quit using all those classic vagus nerve tricks from “up front.” And he opted for a less traditional approach. From behind. [Pause] And it worked! In 2006, the study earned him an Ig Nobel Prize. That’s the Nobel Prize parody for silly and unusual — but very real! — scientific research. Aren’t you glad we got to the bottom of that one? (…sorry.)
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, we want to quickly remind you to please nominate Curiosity Daily to be a finalist in the 2019 Podcast Awards! Visit podcast-awards-dot-com and find Curiosity Daily in the categories of People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. If our show makes you happy, then this is a great way to return the favor to Ashley and me. And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that researchers can build robots that are half the width of a human hair, at a cost of less than a penny apiece.
CODY: And that you can cure the hiccups by, um… stimulating your butt.
[ad lib]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!