You’re going to learn about how our body’s pH is helping us fight cancer, how memories aren’t stored where we thought they were, and how drinking coffee could have you spending a lot more at the store.
You’re going to learn about how our body’s pH is helping us fight cancer, how memories aren’t stored where we thought they were, and how drinking coffee could have you spending a lot more at the store.
Ph power.
Memory box.
Don’t drink before you shop.
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/nano-cancer-fight-memory-structure-coffee-buzz-days
NATE: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery. Time flies when you’re learnin’ super cool stuff. I’m Nate.
CALLI: And I’m Calli. If you’re dropping in for the first time, welcome to Curiosity, where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to grow your mind. If you’re a loyal listener, welcome back!
NATE: Today, you’ll learn about how our body’s pH is helping us fight cancer, how memories aren’t stored where we thought they were, and how drinking coffee could have you spending a lot more at the store.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Nate, do you know what disease will affect roughly forty percent of men and women at some point in their lifetime?
NATE: That’s a high percentage of people, arthritis?
CALLI: That's a good guess, one in four adults has arthritis, but I’m talking about Cancer.
NATE: Oh wow, that's way higher than I thought…
CALLI: Agreed, but I’m only bringing it up because I have good news! Researchers have found a new treatment for cancer that uses the difference between the pH of our body and that of tumor cells to strengthen the effects of immunotherapy.
NATE: The pH scale? You’re talking about acids and bases?
CALLI: Exactly. As you might know, the pH scale runs from zero to fourteen. Things below a 7 are acids, and things above 7 are bases. In the simplest terms, acidic molecules will give away protons from their hydrogen atoms, and basic molecules will steal protons from other molecule’s hydrogen atoms. The better something is at giving away protons, the more acidic it is, and the lower its number on the pH scale. The better something is at stealing protons, the more basic it is and the higher its number on the pH scale. The scale is logarithmic, so a 3 is ten times as acidic as a 4, and an 11 is ten times as basic as a 10!
NATE: Sure, and pure water sits exactly at 7. Neither acidic or basic.
CALLI: Right. What’s neat is that while a lot of things can fluctuate up and down the scale, our body’s internal pH doesn’t fluctuate all that much when it works properly, usually tissues are around 7.40, slightly basic.
NATE: The whole body?
CALLI: Well your body contains acids in spots like your stomach, but the tissues themselves are all the same pH. If you have cancer though, there is a notable exception.
NATE: Cancer changes your body’s pH?
CALLI: No. Rather, tumor cells have their own microenvironment that is outside the body’s normal range. Tissues in tumors are slightly acidic, usually around 6.4-7.0
NATE: Is this new treatment able to target that difference?
CALLI: That’s exactly what it does. But let's take a step back. One of our newer methods for fighting cancer is immunotherapy, it helps our immune systems to activate and fight off cancer cells. It fights cancer but is far less damaging to the rest of our body than other treatments like chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
NATE: That’s cool, unleashing our immune system as the best weapon against cancer.
CALLI: Totally, but sometimes it could use a little help. This new treatment helps our immune cells by getting them reinforcements in the form of nanoparticles.
NATE: So what do these nanoparticles actually do?
CALLI: Their greatest strength is carrying different drug treatments. Doctors inject the nanoparticles into the body and they can release doses of medicine at specific times. With this new breakthrough though, the nanoparticles can be programmed to sense pH levels. They can look for the more acidic cancer cells and release medicine directly at them like sharpshooters.
NATE: So you get the benefit of immune system-based cancer fighting, and the power of drug treatments, without spreading those harsh drugs throughout our entire body?
CALLI: Exactly. It helps us avoid a lot of tough side effects that come with accidentally targeting healthy cells. But we get other benefits from this accuracy. The precision helps avoid one of the most common issues with drug treatments, the drugs can weaken as they move through the body. Now, they don’t have to.
NATE: Would this more targeted approach be able to clear out all of the cancer cells completely?
CALLI: There are some tumors that cannot be destroyed fully with just immunotherapy, but nanoparticles may help fix that issue as well through fluorescence.
NATE: Fluorescence? We’ve talked about this in medical imaging before, helping a part of the body glow under scans. Is that what they’re doing?
CALLI: Exactly, we put fluorescent dye inside the nanoparticles. As the particles respond to cancer cells, the dye releases to visually highlight them so they can more easily be seen with an infrared camera. This would not only make surgery to remove cancer cells much more efficient and accurate, but it could also help identify whether or not certain growths are cancerous, all thanks to their pH.
NATE: Almost like an exploding dye pack for the cancer cells, but instead of stealing money they’re stealing your body’s resources.
CALLI: That's not far off. Trials of the fluorescent dye have already helped surgeons identify post-op residual tumors in a whopping thirty percent of patients!
NATE: I have to imagine completely clearing out those residual tumors is crucial. It sounds like there’s some revolutionary breakthroughs taking place.
CALLI: At its most basic, any new form of cancer treatment is a phenomenal development, but this treatment shows real promise at helping us find and fight tumorous cells while protecting our own well being.
NATE: Nanoparticles, big impacts. Our immune systems thank you guys.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Calli, you’re well known for having a pretty sharp memory right?
CALLI: I’m usually pretty good. But sometimes I get this feeling like there are so many memories taking up space in my brain, I’m afraid I am running out of unused corners to store them.
NATE: I hear that. But did you know new research is showing that memories might actually be stored across a whole bunch of different sections in your brain, not just a single corner?
CALLI: You might need to jog my memory on what actually makes up our memories...
NATE: Our memories are basically clusters of neurons that are connected by synapses. When we initially form a new memory new connections form and strengthen.
CALLI: Oh man, you know how I love learning, which means those synapses must be getting a workout!
NATE: If you’re using your memory often then they definitely are. Our synaptic connections grow stronger or weaker depending on how much we use them. But what’s most important is our engrams.
CALLI: Okay I’ve heard of synapses but this one is new to me, what are those?
NATE: Engrams are thought to be the constructs of our memories, the things that support those neurons and synapses that build memories.
CALLI: So what exactly are they?
NATE: Engrams help hold the memory together. Imagine a memory as a tree. The apples are neurons. The branches spreading out that connect the apples are synapses. But these don’t float in the air, they’re held up by, and sprout from, the trunk. The trunk is the engram that allows one apple to connect to another and make new branches to create new apples.
CALLI: So the engram is the place where all these branches can sprout out, where memories can be built?
NATE: Exactly. Understanding these engrams may be the key to understanding how expansive our memory storage is. A researcher named Richard Semon first proposed a “unified engram theory” of memory more than a hundred years ago.
CALLI: Unified engrams? Sounds like a lot of connections.
NATE: Right on the money! His theory proposed that our brains stored single memories across a vast, interconnected complex that spanned multiple regions of the brain instead of staying in one area. Like trunks of the memory tree crisscrossing the brain.
CALLI: If he was alive over a hundred years ago - how would he test that theory?
NATE: Unfortunately he was never able to because technology wasn’t advanced enough. But researchers at MIT recently conducted a study that not only supported his theory, but also revealed dozens of new memory storage areas.
CALLI: So I don’t have to worry about any corner of my brain filling up?
NATE: Not at all! Memories are spread out across the brain!
CALLI: How did they actually see the multiple brain areas?
NATE: The team at MIT analyzed 247 brain regions in a group of mice.
CALLI: Mice have two hundred and forty seven brain regions!?
NATE: Makes for a whole lot of memory storage. Which is exactly what the researchers found during the study. The team gave the mice small electrical zaps that they would surely remember, and then watched their brains to see what would happen. To get a better view they altered neurons in the mice’s brains to glow when the mice used a gene that is required for memory making.
CALLI: There is that fluorescence again! It must have looked like a lightbulb turning on.
NATE: Just like a good idea! In another group they had neurons turn fluorescent when they recalled that zap. The data collected showed which regions of the brain are used in memory.
CALLI: Oh that's so cool! But what do you do with all those flashes lighting up?
NATE: The team created a map of the neurons at work across the brain. These maps showed plenty of regions where you would expect to see memory, like in the hippocampus which helps us learn, but it also turned up quite a few unexpected regions as well, like in the thalamus which helps us relay motor signals.
CALLI: I wonder where the most important memories end up?
NATE: It might not be just one place. Further study showed that memories that activated multiple parts of the brain at the same time were better recalled than those stored in just one section of the brain.
CALLI: This sounds super useful for the future study of memory loss.
NATE: The researchers are hopeful that they can further apply this multi-storage data into possible memory repair practices. Both in those who’ve long had memory issues, and those suffering from diseases, like dementia, that create memory loss.
CALLI: The better we understand something, the better we can protect it. That’s great news for those patients and their families fighting memory loss.
Nate: Absolutely. It's something worth protecting.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Nate, I’ve got a pretty interesting story today about how what we put into our body, can really affect how we act as shoppers.
NATE: Is it like how you shouldn’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry because you’ll end up buying more food and snacks than you need?
CALLI: This time, it's actually about what you do or don’t drink. Specifically? Coffee. A new study revealed that people who drink a caffeinated beverage before shopping are far more likely to make impulsive purchases. They will not only spend more money, but they’ll buy more expensive, and unnecessary, individual items.
NATE: I wonder if that is why so many stores now have coffee shops in the front of them, to encourage you to spend more. Did researchers figure out what the mechanism was that makes coffee have this effect on us?
CALLI: Well first, it’s important to know that caffeine is a stimulant. It’s kind of like giving your body and your brain a bit of a spark. Caffeine will make you more alert, aware, and even hyper. But it also releases the hormone dopamine in your brain. Dopamine plays a few roles in your body but it is crucial for pleasure, reward, and motivation, plus it makes your mind more easily excitable, increases your impulsiveness, and decreases your self-control.
NATE: Oh that combination sounds dangerous if you’re in your favorite store.
CALLI: Exactly. And researchers wanted to know just how dangerous. So, they tested 300 participants across several retail stores. At the front of each store, they set up a table with a coffee maker and jug of water. Half of the participants who walked into the store were handed a free cup of coffee containing 100 milligrams of caffeine. The other half got a glass of regular ol’ water.
NATE: Ok so we have our caffeinated shoppers, and our control shoppers.
CALLI: Right. The shoppers were then let into the store to do their shopping as they pleased. They could buy whatever they liked, but on the way out, all shoppers, from both groups, handed over their receipts to the researchers.
NATE: Ahh, so then researchers could see exactly what they bought, how many items they bought, and how much it all cost, without having to track all 300 participants as they moved through the store. So what did they find?
CALLI: Caffeinated shoppers didn’t just spend more money. On average, they spent fifty percent more than the water drinkers, and bought items that were an average of thirty percent more expensive. Not only that, but the caffeine drinkers were far more likely to buy non-essential items.
NATE: What would fall into that category?
CALLI: Things like candles or fragrances. Interestingly, though, when it came to more utilitarian buys, like kitchen utensils or storage bins, the caffeine didn't seem to make any difference, both groups shopped about the same. Even with that though, the results were clear that caffeinated shoppers spend money more impulsively.
NATE: Ok but I feel like I, like many people, do most of my shopping online now. Did they do anything to see how caffeine affects home shopping?
CALLI: Yes! But the experiment was slightly different in a few ways. To start, they gathered a group of 200 business students to a computer lab. This time, all 200 participants were given coffee, but half of the participants got decaf coffee. Of course, researchers didn’t tell the students what kind of coffee they got. Then, the researchers showed these students a list of 66 items available at online retailers like Amazon. Once again, researchers found that the caffeinated shoppers were far more impulsive. This time, there was a huge emphasis on buying non-essentials like massagers.
NATE: I’m surprised the results were so staggering. I’m not a coffee drinker myself, but should I start telling all my friends to give up coffee to protect their wallets?
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. New technology that combines immunotherapy and pH-sensing nanoparticles could revolutionize cancer treatments. Not only is it a more efficient and effective method to fight cancer with fewer side effects, it can also help doctors spot tumorous cells that they missed in surgery.
CALLI: New research shows that memories might not be holed away in one spot in the brain, but rather spread across multiple regions, including some surprising places. Not only that, but the study suggests memories that are stored in multiple regions have stronger recall.
NATE: If you find yourself spending more impulsively at the store, check your caffeine levels for the day. New research shows that drinking coffee before shopping will make you more impulsive, and therefore more likely to spend money on things you don’t actually need!