In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: For a Closer Parent-Child Bond, Listen to Music Together Noise-Canceling Windows Could Work Even When They're Open A Doctor Cracked His Knuckles for 50 Years to See If It Was Harmful 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 discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
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/noise-canceling-windows-knuckle-cracking-and-closer-parent-child-bonding
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I am Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn a secret for closer parent-child bonding, the science behind noise-canceling windows, and what happened when a doctor cracked his knuckles for 50 years, to see if it was harmful.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, do you remember what music you listened to growing up?
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. My parents always had the oldies station on in the car.
ASHLEY HAMER: Nice. I know my dad listens to this podcast, and we listen to a lot of The Doors, Divo, I think, The B-52's. Those all remind me of childhood.
CODY GOUGH: It's a lot of '70s and '80s.
ASHLEY HAMER: Mm-hmm.
CODY GOUGH: Late '70s, early '80s.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, form his college years.
CODY GOUGH: OK, got you. Yeah. We did like Beatles and stuff.
ASHLEY HAMER: I did not grow up on the Beatles, and it's a weird thing.
[LAUGHS]
Feel like everyone grew up on the Beatles. We were a Rolling Stones family. Well, I think both of us have really fond memories of listening to music with our family.
CODY GOUGH: Yes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And a new study published last month shows that listening to music together really can strengthen those relationships between parents and their children while they're growing up. Researchers from the University of Arizona asked adult participants about specific memories they had of musical activities with their parents, that includes things like singing along to the radio, going out to a concert or dancing in the kitchen. Then they were asked about their relationship with their parents.
Across the board, people who remember jamming out with Mom or Dad reported a much closer relationship with their parents, and the effect was strongest when those musical activities ran through their adolescent years. The researchers think this could be for a few reasons. First, music might have a greater impact on teenagers because that shared experience of music happens more often when kids are really little. So if you have those experiences when you're a teenager, then it has an even bigger impact.
CODY GOUGH: Right, because they're not used to it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Exactly. Second, dancing in sync has been shown to draw people closer together. In some schools, dance classes are used specifically to foster empathy between kids. And another ongoing study looking at parents singing nursery rhymes to their babies has shown that sharing a musical moment is great for parents too, at least, so far. We'll have to wait for the published article to really find out. You can read more about these studies in detail on curiosity.com or on the curiosity app for Android and iOS.
CODY GOUGH: Just another reason to support the arts.
ASHLEY HAMER: Absolutely.
CODY GOUGH: Ashley, have you ever used active noise-canceling headphones?
ASHLEY HAMER: I've tried them. Out they're pretty wild.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. You know how they work? You probably do.
ASHLEY HAMER: I do.
CODY GOUGH: Of course, you do.
[LAUGHTER]
In your own words, how do they work?
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, they record the sounds around your ears. And then they create an opposite sound that they pump into your ears so that the two waves cancel each other out, and then you hear silence.
CODY GOUGH: Right. So ironically, they're actually making noise. They have microphones that pick up that external noise, and they're broadcasting the opposite of that. So when they hit your eardrum, it cancels out, like you said.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Exactly.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Pretty crazy. Well, a team of researchers in Singapore have developed noise-canceling windows.
ASHLEY HAMER: Whoa.
CODY GOUGH: And they could work even when they're open. This is a big deal because noise pollution is actually really bad for your health. And that's according to lots of research from places, including the World Health Organization and of the CDC. Too much noise can increase your blood pressure and heart rate, disturb your sleep, and reduce your quality of life, not to mention that it's super annoying.
So Deem at NTU, Singapore have built a prototype system that includes a grid of gadgets that cover a window. Each gadget includes a microphone, a speaker, and a processing unit. And again, it needs the microphone because that's how active noise-canceling works. It processes the sound in real time, and your noise-canceling device plays an inverted version of that sound.
When the two sounds converge, by the way, and the sound waves cancel each other out, that's called destructive interference. The team tested these noise-canceling windows, and they say the system can reduce up to 50% of noise pollution that enters buildings. Right now, the major drawback is how it looks. The prototype requires around 24 devices to be mounted on the window grill to control the noise in a large area efficiently.
So the team's next step is to achieve the same results using fewer devices, and make it more cost-effective, and make sure the system works really well even when the windows are wide open. They're using machine learning technology to differentiate quote unquote "bad sounds" from good ones and eliminate the worst offenders.
ASHLEY HAMER: So like, let in the bird song, keep out the construction noise.
CODY GOUGH: And the motorcyclist is driving his engine really loudly outside of your house.
ASHLEY HAMER: It sounds like you're speaking from experience.
CODY GOUGH: I don't know you're talking about.
[LAUGHS]
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, do you crack your knuckles? Ooh. Ooh.
CODY GOUGH: Does it bother you?
ASHLEY HAMER: Kind of. But I didn't realize that it did. But yeah, I don't really crack my knuckles.
CODY GOUGH: I do sometimes. It's not like-- I don't know. Just occasionally.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Well, you've always heard, probably, that cracking your knuckles can cause arthritis, and you shouldn't do it.
CODY GOUGH: I've never known if that's a myth or not.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, neither did this doctor.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: And he wanted to put it to the test. It's actually a really cute story. He wrote this adorable tongue-in-cheek letter to the editor of arthritis and rheumatism, basically talking about how testing the things that your mother told you is really important for science, and that thinks that, also, we should test whether spinach is good for you and things like that. It's pretty great.
CODY GOUGH: Hmm.
ASHLEY HAMER: But anyway, this is what he did. When Dr. Donald L. Unger was a child, his mom and other family members told him that cracking his knuckles would cause arthritis, like many of us have probably heard. And instead of listening to them, Unger decided to take their hypothesis into his own hands. He spent 50 years cracking the knuckles on only his left hand at least twice a day.
CODY GOUGH: What?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. That is a dedication to science right there. And he left his right hand alone as a control. He estimated that he cracked the knuckles of his left hand at least 36,500 times while the knuckles of his right were cracked quote "rarely or spontaneously." The result, no arthritis. This weird experiment won him an Ig Nobel Prize. That's an appropriately, also, tongue-in-cheek award given to scientists or quote "achievements that first make people laugh then think" end quote.
The experiment only had a sample size of one person, so it wasn't really a game changer. But it is in line with a couple of different studies from over the past decade. All of these studies have shown that there's no significant difference in the risk of hand osteoarthritis for people who crack their knuckles versus people who don't. You can find links to those studies and to the doctor's letter to the editor in our write-up on curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: It's a very funny letter to the editor.
ASHLEY HAMER: So what else can you learn about this weekend? Coming up over the next couple of days, here's a sample of what you can read about.
CODY GOUGH: New research that shows you're in your prime for learning language a lot longer than we originally thought, the surprising ancient origins of Chutes and Ladders as a teaching tool for morality, and the one thing you should do to make people like you and make a great first impression.
ASHLEY HAMER: Plus, the habits of highly empathetic people, why you can, and maybe should eat an apple core, the ocean path that will take you on the longest straight line journey on Earth and so much more.
CODY GOUGH: Visit curiosity.com or check out the curiosity app for Android and iOS for the full scoop on all these stories. And join us again Monday for the Curiosity Daily to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And yes, we will be releasing a new episode on Memorial Day. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Have a great weekend and stay curious.
SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.