Today, you’ll learn about a new study that gives us a hint at who we might be attracted to, scientists growing new trees from the genes up, and how aggressive people might actually have more self-control than you’d think.
Today, you’ll learn about a new study that gives us a hint at who we might be attracted to, scientists growing new trees from the genes up, and how aggressive people might actually have more self-control than you’d think.
Find episode transcripts here:https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/partner-look-alikes-crispr-wood-aggressive-self-control
Partner Look-alikes
CRISPR Wood
Aggressive Self-Control
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[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 a new study that gives us a hint at who we might be attracted to, scientists growing new trees from the genes up, and how aggressive people might actually have more self-control than you’d think.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Have you ever noticed that some couples kinda look alike?
NATE: Uh, Yeah actually! I’ve got a friend, Jason, brought his new girlfriend to a party-we all thought it was his sister at first! Which is definitely a little disturbing to say the least. But honestly they make a great couple, so you know.
CALLI: Well… I mean your friend Jason isn’t all that weird, because according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia, most people are more attracted to people who look like them.
NATE: So we’re all little narcissists, looking for our beloved mirror-image?
CALLI: I mean, that’s one way to look at it, I guess. The study, led by PhD student Amy Zhao, observed 682 volunteers as they undertook a whopping 2,285 speed dates. In case you aren’t a big player on the speed-dating scene, that’s where a whole bunch of singles meet up in one spot and spend a few minutes one-on-one with each other. You could have three minute dates with a few dozen people by the time you’re done.
NATE: That’s been around for years, right?
CALLI: Oh, yeah it has and it’s apparently making a comeback.
NATE: So how were they able to get good data for their study in a three-minute interaction with potentially dozens of people?
CALLI: That’s the interesting thing, because researchers have done studies before that tried to figure out if people are attracted to others who look like them, but those studies generally used digital images or photographs. So this is reportedly the first study to actually draw from face-to-face interactions.
NATE: That actually makes a lot of sense. It really does seem like that would have a more positive impact on the results, right?
CALLI: That’s the thinking anyway. So after each interaction, participants were asked to rate their partners on facial attractiveness, kindness, and understanding. Zhao found that people who looked alike found each other more attractive and even more kind.
NATE: Alright, so what’s going on here? Why is that?
CALLI: The study didn’t look at any underlying cause, but Zhao believes that faces that look like our own spark up a sense of familiarity that probably makes us feel more comfortable or relaxed.
NATE: So how did they measure similarity? Like…what does it mean to look alike?
CALLI: That’s a great question. They measured symmetry and geometry. They calculated masculinity in each face and something they called averageness. Interestingly, they found that people received higher attractiveness ratings from partners of the same ethnicity. But when it came to judging kindness, ethnicity didn’t matter at all.
NATE: So what are the next steps for a study like this? Like what do we do with this information?
CALLI: Zhao thinks that having a better understanding of what makes us attracted to someone could help us make better choices when dating and forming romantic relationships. They’re also quick to note that this study consisted exclusively of heterosexual couples. So, clearly, there’s more work to be done.
NATE: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?
CALLI: Turns out it’s probably the one in the mirror staring right back atcha.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Researchers think they might have a way to make paper production cleaner and cheaper.
CALLI: That is great news! But…what is wrong with paper production? I mean, paper is made out of trees that can be replanted and you can recycle it. And I mean - it’s even biodegradable so you can compost most of it at home if you want to. It seems pretty clean to begin with, right?
NATE: You would think. And you know we’ve been making paper for over 2,000 years and the recipe is pretty much the same now as it was then. Basically, you turn cellulose fibers into flat sheets of paper. Before we had machines that could do it, paper makers spent a ton of time and energy separating all those cellulose fibers from the other parts of the plant they were using to make paper. And that’s the part that still gives paper makers the most grief.
CALLI: Interesting. If you asked me to explain how paper was made from trees, I’d probably just say they ground down the tree into pulp and just smushed it flat. But…I’m guessing I’m wrong.
NATE: Well, it’s not entirely wrong. That is how the process starts. First they cut the wood into little chips, well and then…they run into a problem.
CALLI: Well that didn’t take long.
NATE: All the cellulose fibers are bound up with something called lignin, which is a natural part of the tree that helps keep it rigid and strong. But it really gums up the works for paper making. So they have to separate the lignin from the cellulose fibers to make the pulp. They do that by adding water and a bunch of chemicals. Guess what that causes?
CALLI: Uhh…pollution?
NATE: Millions upon millions of tons of chemical waste every year comes out of the paper production process. And not just that, but the energy it takes to separate out the lignin and make the paper produces more than 150 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
CALLI: Holy cow! Okay yeah that’s not sounding so eco-friendly anymore.
NATE: That is why scientists have been trying to grow trees with less lignin for decades. And a recent paper published in Science claims they might have finally done it using CRISPR.
CALLI: I’m sorry, did you say they made the paper crisper? Does that actually help?
NATE: It helps with paper airlines but that’s not it. No! They used the gene editing technique called CRISPR.
CALLI: OK. That makes A LOT more sense. So CRISPR is that technology that allows scientists to basically edit genes, right? So I’m going to take a wild swing and say that they figured out how to edit the genes of trees so they grew with less lignin.
NATE: Always one step ahead of me. Yes! But it’s not quite that simple. They had to build a massive computer model to see what combinations of gene edits would do the trick. They had to look at 70,000 combinations! 99.5% of them made the trees worse off. But around 350 of them did seem like they’d work. And when they tried it in the lab with poplar trees…it did.
CALLI: Oh ok! So they were able to grow poplar trees with less lignin?
NATE: Yeah. They reduced the lignin by almost half. They say that could mean a 40% increase in paper production and, at the same time, a 20% drop in greenhouse emissions.
CALLI: More paper, and less pollution. Ok, I’m in!
NATE: Not so fast. They still need to test it out in the field. Lignin makes the trees stronger, so they have to be sure that these poplars can stay put in a windstorm, for example. Plus, they need approval from regulators. But they’re already working on edits to pine trees and eucalyptus trees, both of which are used a lot for paper making.
CALLI: Well I mean guess I wouldn’t be going out on a limb here to say it’s going to be better for all of us!
NATE: Oh boy.
CALLI: You’re welcome!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: You know that movie the Silence of the Lambs?
NATE: Yeah. Sure. The classic. Clarise Starling, newbie agent tracking down a serial killer. And of course, who can forget Dr. Hannibal Lecter?
CALLI: Right? One of the greatest characters from any movie. So let’s talk about old Hannibal for a minute. He was defined by aggression, right?
NATE: I mean…I guess? He was a serial killer, after all. But he was different because he was always totally under control.
CALLI: Exactly. And you don’t usually think of aggressive people as being under control, right?
NATE: Not really. No.
CALLI: Well…a new paper published in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass is making the case that some aggressive behavior might be the result of great self-control.
NATE: So…like…an aggressive person is actually someone who has a lot of self-control? That…doesn’t feel like it makes sense. I’ve seen fights on the playground, and they certainly looked totally and wildly out of control.
CALLI: Well see that’s the thing - behavioral researchers have always just assumed that aggressive acts are the result of a total loss of control, but this paper is suggesting it’s a little more complicated than that, and the author, Dr. David Chester, who’s an associate professor of social psychology in the Department of Psych at VCU, has some evidence to back it up.
NATE: Alright, so give me an example of how this works.
CALLI: Sure. Let’s say I go to the fridge in the studio and find that you’ve eaten my yogurt. I feel rage, because you know how much I love my yogurt. But instead of just hitting you upside the head like my rage is guiding me to do, I decide to plot my revenge.
NATE: Hmm yes. So your desire for revenge is causing you to control your immediate overwhelming rage.
CALLI: That’s a part of it. But let’s say I’m really, really mad about this. Dr. Chester says that vengeful people are actually better capable of delaying gratification in order to inflict the absolute most damage to the people who ate their yogurt.
NATE: First of all, I didn’t eat your yogurt, so whatever you’re planning you can just stop…
CALLI: …you better watch your back, my friend…
NATE: K… well second of all, what about people with, like, psychopathic disorders?
CALLI: Dr. Chester says this extends to psychopathic people, who often show really well developed inhibitory self-control over their teenage years. To make the case even tighter, aggressive behavior is linked to increased activity in the prefrontal cortex.
NATE: Lemme guess. The prefrontal cortex is associated with self-control.
CALLI: You got it..
NATE: Okay. So all of that makes sense. But what do we do with this information? Does it help solve aggression?
CALLI: It could help. Because for the most part, therapy to treat aggressive behavior has involved trying to increase self-control.
NATE: Oh man. And if self-control is a part of the problem, then you’re just increasing the thing that helps people be aggressive.
CALLI: Exactly. Current treatment might not just be not helping, they could be doing harm. If we want to help aggressive people be less so, we need to shift our thinking about what causes aggression in the first place.
NATE: Compassion for aggressive people does seem like it would help.
CALLI: Absolutely some aggressive acts are just fits of rage. They want to be calm - it would be in their best interest to avoid aggression - but they just lose control. The bigger point with this study is that aggression is much more complicated than anyone thought, and scientists need to approach it that way to get better outcomes.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: A new study has found that people tend to be more attracted to people who look like them. They also find similar-looking people to be kinder and more understanding.
NATE: Scientists using the gene editing technology CRISPR were able to grow poplar trees with less lignin, a material in trees that makes it harder to produce paper. If approved, the new trees could increase paper production while actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions in paper making.
CALLI: A new paper makes the case that not all aggression is the result of out-of-control rage, but that many people who act aggressively exhibit lots of self-control. The findings could change the way aggression is treated for some people.