Learn about how an algorithm made new scientific discoveries by reading old studies; how your pets can be allergic to you; and, how the psychological theory of symbolic self-completion explains why insecure people brag so much. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: An Algorithm Made New Scientific Discoveries by Reading Old Studies — https://curiosity.im/31QOY4z Your Pets Can Be Allergic to You — https://curiosity.im/2KouslL This Psychological Theory Explains Why Insecure People Brag So Much — https://curiosity.im/31H6jgm 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 an algorithm made new scientific discoveries by reading old studies; how your pets can be allergic to you; and, how the psychological theory of symbolic self-completion explains why insecure people brag so much.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
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/pets-can-be-allergic-to-you-why-insecure-people-brag-and-an-algorithms-science-discovery
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 an algorithm made new scientific discoveries by reading old studies; how your pets can be allergic to you; and, a psychological theory that explains why insecure people brag so much.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
An Algorithm Made New Scientific Discoveries by Reading Old Studies — https://curiosity.im/31QOY4z (Ashley)
An algorithm made new scientific discoveries by reading old studies. And researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown how doing this could help us further scientific research in the future. Think about it: in pretty much any research field you can think of, there’s at least a hundred years of past literature, and every week dozens more studies come out. Remember when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin? His paper about that sat around mostly unread for a whole decade, until another scientist found it and started working on making penicillin the life-saving breakthrough we know today. How many other papers do you think might be just sitting around, waiting to be fully explored? It might be impossible for your average team of scientists to read through millions of research papers, but a machine learning algorithm is another story. For a July 2019 study published in the journal Nature, Berkeley Lab scientists turned to a technology known as natural language processing, or NLP. Every time you use Google Translate or ask Siri for directions, you're taking advantage of NLP, which helps computers read, decipher, and make sense of human language. One of the biggest breakthroughs in NLP has been in word embeddings, which is basically where a machine learns the usage or meaning of a word based on context. People do this all the time, including you. If you hear someone say a word you don’t know enough times, you’ll eventually figure out what that word means.
Researchers used a machine-learning algorithm called Word2Vec, and they fed it a whopping 3.3 MILLION scientific abstracts that were published between 1922 and 2018. Since the team was made up of materials scientists, all of the research came from journals that centered on or included studies on materials science. And the algorithm immediately demonstrated a deep understanding of the research — with no extra human intervention or even science training. It learned concepts like the periodic table and the crystal structure of metals, even though it hadn’t been told anything about materials science. But the most impressive part was that the algorithm was able to identify new thermoelectric materials — JUST by analyzing the similarity between various words and the word “thermoelectric.” A thermoelectric material is a material that can efficiently convert heat to electricity. And out of all the materials that the algorithm predicted to be good thermoelectric candidates, the top 10 had an above-average ability to generate energy, and the top three were at or above the 95th percentile when it came to the energy-generating ability of known thermoelectric materials. So, yeah, a machine learning algorithm actually discovered new thermoelectric materials we didn’t even know about, without any science training! Next, the team wants to create a search engine that can make it easier to search scientific abstracts for these novel relationships. It doesn't happen every day, but sometimes when machines and humans work together, truly great things can result.
Your Pets Can Be Allergic to You — https://curiosity.im/2KouslL (Cody)
We all know someone who, sadly, is allergic to pets. Humans aren’t the only ones who have to deal with allergies, though; in fact, it turns out that our pets can also be allergic to us! Fortunately, there are solutions in the event that your furry friend is allergic to you — or to one of your other furry friends.
Yes, that’s right: pretty much any animal is susceptible to allergies from other animals. Cats can be allergic to dogs, dogs can be allergic to birds — and yes, humans are animals, which means we can cause our animal companions to start sneezing and scratching.
It all makes sense if you know how allergies work. The itchy, dry sneeze-fest starts when your overzealous immune system mistakes harmless substances for dangerous invaders. In the case of animal allergies, that substance is something called dander. Dander is a mix of dead skin and hair cells, and it’s produced by every animal with hair, fur, or feathers.
When you inhale that dander, your immune system can get on edge to defend you against it. In other words, your allergies are a result of your immune system training itself to go on high alert for nothing.
Luckily for your furry friend, like humans, it can be relieved by medicine, like Benadryl or Claritin. Talk to your vet first, especially to get an idea of the dosage.
Though there is another, more permanent solution. Most animals that are allergic to human dander are allergic to other types of dander as well, and that's a good thing. It means that your vet can start exposing the cat or dog to minuscule amounts of allergens, which can retrain their immune cells to quit overreacting.
[NHTSA - DRUGS]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Everyone knows about the risks of driving drunk. You could get in a crash. People could get hurt or killed.
CODY: But let’s take a moment to look at some surprising statistics. Almost 29 people in the United States die every day in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes. That’s one person every 50 minutes. Even though drunk-driving fatalities have fallen by a third in the last three decades, drunk driving crashes still claim more than 10,000 lives each year.
ASHLEY: Many people are unaware that driving while high can be just as dangerous. In 2015, 42% of drivers killed in crashes tested positive for drugs. Not so harmless after all, is it? And get this, from 2007 to 2015, marijuana use among drivers killed in crashes doubled. The truth is driving while high is deadly.
CODY: So, stop kidding yourself. If you’re impaired from alcohol or drugs, don’t get behind the wheel.
ASHLEY: If you feel different you drive different. Drive high get a DUI.
CODY: Drive sober or get pulled over.
This Psychological Theory Explains Why Insecure People Brag So Much — https://curiosity.im/31H6jgm (from Saturday 8/31) (Ashley)
There’s a psychological theory that could explain why insecure people brag so much. It comes from studies from the 1980’s, and it’s pretty incredible how relevant the research is to our social media-obsessed world of today.
The studies were led by psychology researchers Robert A. Wicklund and Peter M. Gollwitzer at the University of Austin. And they aimed to confirm a theory called symbolic self-completion. That’s the idea that when you feel like some part of your identity is lacking, you make up for it in symbolic ways. Basically, you look for social symbols of achievement when you have a goal that’s important to your self-identity.
For example, a medical degree is one symbol of being a doctor, and getting a high score in a video game means you’re good at that game. When a person has lots of of symbols related to a particular self-defining goal, that person doesn’t need to look for more symbols of “completeness.” But if that person thinks they don’t have enough symbols of success, then they’ll make efforts to display symbols that restore completeness.
In 1981, researchers asked participants to write an essay about an activity or topic where they had “special competence” — basically, something they were good at, whether it be music, football, or an academic subject. The students were told their essays would be shown to various groups of students. And they were also asked how many students they thought should read their essays. It turned out that the participants with the least amount of experience wanted the most students to read their essay. The people with the least "complete" identities had the biggest desire to influence others.
Another experiment in the same study showed that those with more experience were also more willing to be self-deprecating — meaning, they felt comfortable saying negative things about themselves as a musician or athlete. Another paper the following year showed similar results, and suggested that people who didn’t feel "complete" in their identity weren’t comfortable admitting anything negative about that identity.
Nowadays, everyone's lives are out in public for us to see. According to the symbolic self-completion theory, sometimes, a person who regularly announces how awesome they are in a certain part of their life means they’re really showing off a deeper insecurity. So, before you post, consider what your bragging might be saying about you.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you can catch this weekend on curiosity-dot-com.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about why wormholes might cast a visible shadow;
Why social media may not be as bad for mental health as we thought;
What would happen to our planet if a solar storm ever hit us;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
CODY: Today we learned that computer algorithms that use NLP, or natural language processing, could help us make new scientific breakthroughs by feeding them old studies
ASHLEY: And that pretty much all animals can be allergic to each other thanks to dander, but sometimes you can permanently treat those allergies by exposing pets to miniscule traces of allergens
CODY: And that people who brag on social media (or in real life) might just be insecure, because they’re trying to show off symbols to make them seem more complete
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes. And have a great weekend! I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!