We discuss how digital media affects parents and caregivers, how friends often have similar body odor, and the cancer-sniffing abilities of locusts.
We discuss how digital media affects parents and caregivers, how friends often have similar body odor, and the cancer-sniffing abilities of locusts.
Parents & Screens
BFFs Smell the Same
Locusts Find Cancer
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/parents-screens-bffs-smell-the-same-locusts-find-cancer
[SFX: INTRO MUSIC/WHOOSH]
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 digital media affects parents and caregivers, how friends often have similar body odor, and the cancer-sniffing abilities of locusts!
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Calli, sometimes I think about how glad I am that we didn’t have as many screens in our lives when we were growing up. It was nice to watch some TV, but also work on experiments, and play outside.
CALLI: Oh absolutely, it must be so hard to be a kid now with all of these screens trying to distract you.
NATE: I mean, I’m distracted enough as an adult. But I found an interesting new study that tackles how digital media affects family dynamics. It really emphasized the need to consider just how much screen time caregivers are experiencing as it can have an enormous impact on parenting methods!
CALLI: So it’s not just kids that have to get away from the screens? It's all of us!? As in, anyone trying to maintain a healthy family relationship?
NATE: That’s sure what it seems like. Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada wanted to know what the relationship was between caregiver digital media consumption, mental health, and parenting practices. They were particularly interested because, as you know, the COVID-19 pandemic began and so many of us were spending more time with our families, and more time on our screens.
CALLI: Oh I know my screen time went up a lot! And if kids using screens can affect how they grow up, it only makes sense that a caregivers screen time would affect the family. So what did the study look like?
NATE: Researchers looked at 549 participants. All of these participants were parents of at least two children between the ages of 5 and 18. These parents self-submitted their digital use to the study.
CALLI: Did they track individual apps or websites? Anything like that?
NATE: The study simply focused on time in front of a screen, so they didn't really look into what exact apps caregivers used. They did have the parents report on the state of the family, though. They submitted data on their own mental health, the mental health of the children, how the family functioned, and what kind of parenting practices they used.
CALLI: So what did they find?
NATE: Well, on average, the caregivers reported 3-4 hours of digital media consumption a day! When researchers looked at caregivers who reported higher levels of distress, they found that they did more screen-based activities. As in: the subjects often turned to their screens when they felt they needed to relax. Higher levels of digital media consumption led to more negative parenting behaviors, like nagging or yelling.
CALLI: That doesn’t sound good at all. Were there moments where these screen interactions were worse? Like over the dinner table or something?
NATE: Exactly! These negative interactions were more likely when the technology was getting in the middle of family time, like at the dinner table. What it looks like to researchers is that screen time makes you retreat from being present and this can cause more of these negative practices.
CALLI: Oh wow. That really is too bad. I need to keep in mind how much I use my phone now, especially around my family. Wait, were there any positives to screen time when it came to maintaining a good family dynamic?
NATE: Actually yes! While researchers didn’t track specific apps, they did find that those who used their screen time to maintain social connections had lower levels of stress and depression. Not only that, but they had more positive parenting practices, they were more likely to talk about the good things their kids did, and listen to their ideas!
CALLI: Ah! So if we use our screens as a tool, rather than an escape, they can add some value! So what is next for us then? What do researchers say we should do?
NATE: Well they say we need to be more considerate of the nuances of digital media and really think about what is relieving stress, and what is causing more. They also say they’re hoping to make a guide soon based on what they learn from this, and future, studies.
CALLI: Well now I’ll make sure there are no phones at the dinner table, for anyone!
NATE: That’s a great place to start!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Hey Nate, this might sound weird but… do you ever recognize people’s smells?
NATE: Um, I don’t know if I’m really following? Sometimes I can recognize a friend or family member but I’d never be able to describe it.
CALLI: Okay, so… a recent study came from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who found that people may have a tendency to make friends with people who have a similar body odor.
NATE: That’s… well, that’s something. I thought friendships were more about shared interests in things like movies and music than, well, body odor.
CALLI: I mean, they are, but this study found that it’s not something we do consciously. It’s an evolutionary thing that’s very much in line with how other animals use their noses, just in a subtle way.
NATE: Oh, so you mean like how dogs will go up and sniff each other’s butts to see if they’re going to be friends or enemies?
CALLI: Right [laugh], except instead of consciously sniffing somebody, we detect their pheromones subconsciously.
NATE: Okay, this is interesting. Tell me about the study.
CALLI: A graduate student named Inbal Ravreby hypothesized this theory. She relied on two previous observations. First, evidence suggests that humans are constantly, subconsciously sniffing ourselves as we breathe. And second, humans subconsciously sniff other people, which is an evolutionary trait that we’ve developed in order to sense danger. On top of that, it's known that people usually become friends with people similar in appearance, background, values and even brain activity. Inbal hypothesized that when we subconsciously sniff ourselves or others, we might be making subliminal comparisons, and then gravitate toward people whose smell is similar to our own.
NATE: So how did she put this to the test?
CALLI: Inbal recruited same-sex, non-romantic pairs of friends whose friendships came together rapidly but organically. She had a theory that since most of these friendships came about because of an acquaintance or other friend, they HAD to be subconsciously influenced by body odor. Then, she collected body odor samples from each friend and conducted two sets of experiments to compare the samples with those from random individuals.
NATE: Body odor samples? Calli, you don’t mean…
CALLI: That’s right: body hair, baby! Underarm hair, foot hair, even pubic hair - the most common places we develop body odor.
NATE: She didn’t sniff these herself… did she?
CALLI: Look - I’m in no way passing judgment if she did. But I don’t know. What I DO know is that IF she did, it wasn’t for the experiment, which began with something called an eNose, a device that assessed the chemical signatures of the odors. She followed this up by asking volunteers to smell the two groups of body odor samples in order to measure the similarities through human perception. In both types of experiments, the friend groups were found to smell way more like each other than the individuals in random pairs.
NATE: Calli, you’re telling me she made people sniff random people’s body odor tainted hair?
CALLI: Yes, Nate, for SCIENCE. Anyway, she wanted to rule out the possibility that body odor similarity was a CONSEQUENCE of the friendships, rather than a contributing cause. Like, what if the friends had a similar smell because they ate the same types of food or shared other life experiences? To figure that out, she performed an additional set of experiments.
NATE: Like what?
CALLI: For starters, she used an eNose to "smell" a number of volunteers that were complete strangers, then asked them to interact in pairs without speaking. They did this to filter out more obvious social cues that we would have when chatting with someone so that they really didn’t know the person they were connecting with. After each interaction, the participants would rate their partner in terms of how much they liked that person and how likely they were to become friends.
NATE: That must be pretty tough to tell if you can’t speak to each other.
CALLI: Exactly. Those who had more positive interactions did in fact smell more like each other. In fact, when she entered the data into a computer model, she was able to predict, with 71 percent accuracy I might add, which two individuals would have a positive social interaction, based on eNose data alone.
NATE: So what does that mean?
CALLI: To put it simply: body odor appears to have information that can PREDICT the quality of social interaction between strangers. Inbal even says, "These results imply that, as the saying goes, there is chemistry in social chemistry."
NATE: Well, that’s pretty compelling evidence. But that’s not all there is to friendship, right? Like I don’t love hanging out with you because you smell like me. I love hanging out with you because you’re a good friend!
CALLI: Awww, thanks Nate. And although you’re right that there is 100% more to a friendship than a shared smell, I like to think that all of my friendships are a little narcissistic in nature and I really do just like smelling myself everywhere I go.
NATE: You know what, nevermind, I really do not know why we’re friends.
CALLI: Because we smell alike!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: You know, speaking of smelling - there have been news stories for a few decades now about cancer sniffing dogs.
CALLI: Yeah, whenever I hear about that I always wonder what cancer even smells like.
NATE: Well that’s the focus of a recent study, because to humans… NOTHING! But you know who CAN smell cancer other than dogs? Locusts.
CALLI: Locusts? As in “plague of locusts” biblical end times locusts and not the 2000s noisecore band The Locust, right?
NATE: You’ve got it, Calli, though it would be really weird if The Locust could smell cancer. The study isn’t even as focused on THAT bombshell as the more important distinction that they can ALSO distinguish between different cancer cell lines using our BREATH, which is pretty incredible. This work could provide information for instruments to eventually use similar sensory neurons, which are nerve cells that are activated from the environment, from insects to detect cancer early.
CALLI: This is a lot, Nate. Break it down for me and start with how a device like this could even work.
NATE: Right. So even if this seems like a lot, the people at Bio Archive, who are behind the research, say that it works the same as any other kind of “augmented sensory machine.” Like how a telescope enhances sight, or hearing aids enhance hearing. This would be an “enhanced smell.” These kinds of devices do exist, as you just told me about with the eNose, they’re just too expensive to mass produce. With this discovery, we could mass produce an enhanced eNose within just a few years.
CALLI: And so how would breathing into it work?
NATE: Well, cancer cells work differently than healthy cells, right? They create different chemical compounds as they grow. So, if these chemicals made it to someone’s lungs, they would be detected in an exhaled breath. In this case you could breathe into some kind of device that would detect AND differentiate multiple cancer types and maybe even which stage the disease is in.
CALLI: Interesting. So a locust can already do this, right? How do scientists take their abilities and convert it into technology?
NATE: Great question. They call it “hacking the insect brain for disease diagnosis.” Due to locusts being able to detect disease, and their larger size, the researchers are able to easily attach electrodes to their brains. Then, they record the locusts’ responses to gas samples produced by both healthy cells and cancer cells, then use those signals to create chemical profiles of the different cells.
CALLI: Wow! So then, how do locusts differentiate different types of cancer?
NATE: So this discovery came from something that seemed unrelated at first. A different study entirely was being performed on why cells from mouth cancers looked different than other cancers. The locust sensor experiment was a good way to figure that out, so they combined studies to investigate how well the locusts could differentiate healthy cells from cancer cells. What they expected was that the cancer cells would appear different from the normal cells. What they actually found was that the bugs could distinguish three different cancers from each other.
CALLI: How do they do that?
NATE: We’re not sure, but they discovered, with 100 percent accuracy, that the locusts easily noticed differences in cancer types through changes in their brain activity picked up by electrodes. This detection was shown to be reliable, sensitive, and fast – happening in just a few milliseconds.
CALLI: So wait. Does this mean… what I think it means?
NATE: If you think it means that all cancer can be treatable early and affordably, yes. Yes. Yes. 100 percent. Once the new eNose is created that fully matches what nature can do, there is a chance that all cancer can be treatable because of how early it could be detected. Unfortunately, we’re years away from this becoming a reality - but once created, this is gonna be huge, Calli.
CALLI: You didn’t answer the biggest question I asked at the top… what does cancer smell like, Nate?
NATE: Gosh Calli, I don’t know, ask the locusts.
CALLI: The insect or the noisecore band?
NATE: *sigh* whoever you prefer.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. Screen time can be damaging for children, even if they aren’t the ones viewing the screen! A new study found that caregivers who use digital media more to relax are more likely to have negative parenting practices and stress.
CALLI: If you have a best friend, science suggests the two of you might not need to have a lot in common… that is, other than your smell! A recent study has discovered that there is a chance that if you smell like somebody, you might be able to be the best of friends with them! Disclaimer: we do not recommend going up to strangers, sniffing them, and asking if they want to be friends.
NATE: A breakthrough study has revealed that not only can locusts SMELL cancer, they can differentiate every different kind of cancer through scent. Now, scientists are trying to “hack” the brain of a locust to recreate this phenomena, and if successful, could one day soon invent a device to detect cancer early, making all cancers treatable much more quickly and cheaply.