Today you’ll learn about how squirrels are parkour experts and can be used to teach robots to move in a similar way, how artificial intelligence can help expectant mothers predict childbirth risks, and the gangs of dolphins that are roaming our oceans.
Today you’ll learn about how squirrels are parkour experts and can be used to teach robots to move in a similar way, how artificial intelligence can help expectant mothers predict childbirth risks, and the gangs of dolphins that are roaming our oceans.
Robot Squirrels
AI Labor Prediction
Dolphin Gangs
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/robot-squirrels-ai-labor-prediction-dolphin-gangs
[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 squirrels are parkour experts and can be used to teach robots to move in a similar way, how artificial intelligence can help expectant mothers predict childbirth risks, and the gangs of dolphins that are roaming our oceans.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Calli, I’m gonna cut straight to the chase here: today, I’m going to tell you about how scientists are using squirrels to teach robots how to parkour.
CALLI: Well hello to you too, Nate. I have so many questions. I guess first off… what?
NATE: A recent study has found that parkour athletes use similar techniques to squirrels when they’re leaping and climbing. For anyone who doesn’t know, parkour is a form of freerunning where people jump over and duck under obstacles at great speeds, while leaping long distances.
CALLI: Okay, but why would we even want to teach robots to move around like a squirrel?
NATE: Well, a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley studied the biomechanics of squirrels bounding around eucalyptus trees and flinging themselves from one branch to another. When they saw this, they thought that this was an interesting opportunity to try and improve artificial intelligence systems in robotics so that robots can more easily navigate different types of terrain.
CALLI: But why do robots need to better navigate difficult terrain? Like, what is the benefit of a robot that can leap around trees and rooftops?
NATE: Right now, there is no robot as agile as a squirrel, and none that can learn or make decisions about dynamic tasks in complex environments – but the researchers say that squirrels have the kinds of abilities that robots would need. In the long term, it will help us create new, more agile, and intelligent robots that would be able to access difficult terrain and can assist in search-and-rescue efforts. This research can also help create technology to better aid humans who have physical impairments.
CALLI: Ahh that makes way more sense. So tell me more about the study. How did they research the squirrels to program the robots?
NATE: What the researchers did was entice wild squirrels with peanuts and then used high-speed cameras to capture every movement, every contortion, every THING the squirrels were doing while navigating the trees. Now, ahead of time, the team fortified the branches to make them stronger, and also of a measured distance between the tree and the ground. That way they could control not only the gap between take-off and landing, but the position of where the squirrels landed.
CALLI: Interesting. So, when they leaped, what happened?
NATE: Well, normally they have to decide where to take off based on a trade-off between how flexible the branch is and how big the gap they have to jump is. Since the scientists altered the trees to be stronger, their jumps became more consistent. And even if something changed, like a branch started to bend or break, the squirrels were still able to figure out the best route in less than five attempts.
CALLI: Where do the robots come in?
NATE: The study has already attracted a number of roboticists, neuroscientists, material scientists and mathematicians to create design principles based on squirrel leaps and landings. They’re also looking for insights into brain function by studying leap planning in lab rats, so the goal is to one day create a robot inspired by squirrel motion. The researchers even say that the future vision for their efforts is “First-responder robotic squirrels, equipped with the physical and cognitive toughness and flexibility of a squirrel at a bird feeder.”
CALLI: They want the parkour robots to look like squirrels too?!?
NATE: I know, we are truly living in the future if one day we’re in a scary situation and our only first responder is a robot squirrel.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Nate, there is nothing more human than…well….being born, but our newest tool in child birth is coming from a not-so-human place, artificial intelligence.
NATE: Are we going to have to do a Verify You’re Not a Robot Captcha to be born now?
CALLI: Not quite. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic used artificial intelligence algorithms to create a prediction model that can let mothers in labor know how likely they are to have an issue during birth. This new system can help doctors make decisions for an individual mother’s situation to help keep her and the baby safe.
NATE: Oh that’s great! But, how much of an issue is childbirth these days? You hear about some scary situations, like Serena Williams a few years ago, but isn’t childbirth getting safer and safer every year?
CALLI: I know I was surprised to hear this, but no. It’s not. In fact it's getting more dangerous! Even though the rate of childbirth is declining, complications during birth are on the rise! Between 2014 and 2018 they went up 14%. And these complications can be dangerous for the mother and cause injury, or even end her ability to have children!
NATE: Oh that’s awful, aren’t there things doctors can do to lessen the risks?
CALLI: Well childbirth is a complicated process, no surprise there. Doctors usually examine the cervix to see how far into labor a mother is, or if they need a C section. But this system is far from perfect. The issue is that while examining the cervix helps, there are other harder to see factors that often influence whether the pregnancy will go well or not. And these differ for everyone. Right now, doctors have charts based on the cervix that help them know if a pregnancy is going well, but they’re more general, and aren’t made for each individual mother.
NATE: And that's where the more powerful AI comes in to save the day?
CALLI: Exactly. Researchers took data from a huge database of individual births that included a bunch of clinical factors, like cervical dilation and complications, starting from when the mothers arrive at the hospital to when they deliver. The database has data on more than 700 different factors for more than 66,000 pregnancies. They fed these to the AI, and used it to create a prediction model to help doctors know how likely a mother is to have what they call an “unfavorable labor outcome”
NATE: What would be the most common symptoms of an unfavorable labor outcome?
CALLI: Things like excessive blood loss, a baby needing a ventilator, trauma to the mother. All things you really want to avoid.
NATE: Well they made the prediction model, that’s cool, but how do they put it in use? Do you need to connect the AI and mother…together in some way?
CALLI: Nope! You just have to give it more of what it loves, data. Things like a patient's baseline vitals, stats from their most recent doctor’s visit, what their vitals are like when they arrive, and how those change as the labor progresses.
NATE: Oh wow, I mean that is a lot more than just examining a single organ!
CALLI: Absolutely, it takes a lot of the guesswork out of tracking a pregnancy. It's super individual to each mother, and can help doctors make individualized choices, and know when to do a C-section rather than a vaginal birth. It can also help doctors treat mothers in rural areas remotely and help them know when it's time to get to a doctor or more appropriate care.
NATE: That’s incredible. It has to give so many mothers just a bit of relief, and help them feel safer!
CALLI: I sure hope so, and reverse that trend of complications! Thankfully, the program is already being tested in labor units, so hopefully we will see it in more places soon!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Calli, I came across a study that says dolphins can be compared to gangs. You know, like in West side story!
CALLI: I’m imagining a bunch of dolphins play-acting the knife fight in a New York City street!
NATE: [laughs] It’s not quite musical theater, Calli. A recent study has revealed that this species is capable of creating, “multi-level alliances.” The study was conducted by scientists in association with the University of Zurich and University of Massachusetts, who analyzed data to model how alliances worked between 121 adult male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins at Shark Bay in Western Australia.
CALLI: And what did those alliances look like, Nate? Were the dolphins more Jets… or SHARKS?
NATE: Very funny, Calli. Well, as you know, dolphins are insanely intelligent so they are capable of a ton of stuff, some of which we still don’t even know. How it broke down was that male dolphins in the area would gang up with a few other males to try and pursue relationships with the female dolphins without any other males getting in their way. And then that pattern keeps going and going and going. Then these alliances that can consist of anywhere from four to fourteen males would allllllll compete against each others’ gangs to try and mate with the female dolphins.
CALLI: You’re not really making this sound less like West Side Story, Nate. But how does this even work? How do the dolphins communicate?
NATE: The communication is the same as always: echolocation, clicking, whistling, and even body language signals like tail and flipper slapping, leaping out of the water, bumping each other, and so on. In the building of these alliances, one of the authors of the study says that this is super common among humans. We like to build strategic and cooperative relationships across different social levels to succeed in things like trade or military alliances. We THOUGHT this was unique to just humans. But this study shows that’s not the case.
CALLI: How is it that dolphins can do this?
NATE: Good question. Researchers still aren’t sure. It’s not clear why the dolphins developed this system but it seems just as complicated as human hierarchies. Since dolphins are so smart, they have the ability to learn things very quickly and problem solve. It’s not surprising to me that they can create social hierarchies too.
#CALLI: Well, alliances aren’t ENTIRELY unique to humans and dolphins, right?
NATE: Correct, but this is the closest a species has come to mimicking a human alliance that researchers have ever seen. There are a few animals that form alliances or “team up” and it's usually to compete over rank within a group. Lions and primates tend to ally with each other in order to better compete for mates and resources. But the male dolphins in Shark Bay have a way more open and complex network. So, that’s the largest social organization outside of humans that we’ve seen.
CALLI: What does this ultimately mean?
NATE: According to researchers, watching another species interact in a similar way to humans provides us with a lot of information. Especially since the dolphins aren’t necessarily aware that they’re being watched. This research might lead to a better understanding of human social and cognitive evolution.
CALLI: So if I wanted to start my own West Side Story gang with a bunch of dolphins… I could?
NATE: Sorry, Calli. Dolphins only in this Sharks gang.
CALLI: I still think the dolphins would be Jets.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. Squirrels doing parkour equals the recipe for the perfect robot? You betcha. A recent study has been observing the flexibility of squirrels to inspire changes in the field of robotics to make a better, stronger, faster kind of robot that can help with everything from search and rescue efforts to mobility assistance. And the best part - they’ll LOOK LIKE SQUIRRELS, TOO.
CALLI: The newest tool for keeping mothers safe during pregnancy isn’t human, it's AI. The new prediction model from the Mayo Clinic can help doctors know the chances of success for labor, and will help keep mothers safe.
NATE: A new study has discovered that dolphins are capable of creating complex multi-level alliances with one another, very similar to a business hierarchy or even a gang. No other animal on Earth is capable of creating an alliance like this except humans, which means that dolphins are capable of banding together in ways only you or I could.