Learn about whether it’s a good idea to rub dirt on your wounds; how funny memes can help save endangered species like the proboscis monkey; and how space travel changes the shape of astronauts’ hearts.
Learn about whether it’s a good idea to rub dirt on your wounds; how funny memes can help save endangered species like the proboscis monkey; and how space travel changes the shape of astronauts’ hearts.
When it comes to wounds, science says "rub some dirt on it" might be good advice by Cameron Duke
Funny memes can help people care about unpopular and unappealing species by Kelsey Donk
Space Travel Changes The Shape of Astronauts' Hearts by Haley Otman
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/rub-some-dirt-on-it-to-heal-wounds-funny-memes-can-save-endangered-species-and-space-changes-the-shape-of-astronauts-hearts
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about whether it’s a good idea to rub dirt on your wounds; how funny memes can help save endangered species; and how space travel changes the shape of astronauts’ hearts.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
If you ever scraped your knees playing sports as a child, you probably remember a coach or a parent telling you to “rub some dirt on it!” While they might not have meant it literally, it turns out that suggesting you rub dirt in a wound isn’t actually the worst advice. Dirt has been used medicinally for thousands of years, and recent scientific evidence is beginning to show us why. While it shouldn’t be your first choice for wound care, dirt does have properties that kill bacteria and clot blood.
Evidence suggests that as early as 5,000 years ago, people were using clays — which are really just a special type of dirt — to heal wounds and stop “fluxes from the body” (bleeding, basically). The 3600-year-old Ebers papyrus, which is the earliest known medical text, says something similar.
That’s because dry clay tends to act like a sponge, for one thing. So it’s great at absorbing blood and protecting wounds. But it also turns out that certain types of clay have antibacterial properties. That’s thanks to a particular group of metallic ions that bond themselves to the surfaces of clay particles. One study found that clays high in ions of copper, zinc, cobalt, nickel, and iron are effective at killing both E. coli and MRSA. Fair warning, though: Not all clays have this perfect concentration of antimicrobial ions, and some contain toxic metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium. So some clays can hurt more than they help.
But clay isn’t the only healing ingredient in dirt. Soil also contains a ton of minerals called silicates. There’s recent evidence that these compounds can help stop bleeding. See, blood contains a protein called coagulation factor seven. This protein doesn’t do much when a wound is clean, but when it’s exposed to silicates, it sets off a chain reaction that speeds up blood clotting. The researchers behind that study think that because animals have a long history with dirt, they evolved to use its ingredients as a biological trigger to stop wounds from bleeding.
The researchers stress that rubbing unsterilized soil into a bleeding wound carries a risk of infection, so you really shouldn’t do it. So much for your coach’s advice! But they do say that sterilized soil could be a valuable tool in remote places where medical supplies are hard to come by. So go ahead and rub some dirt in it! As long as it’s sterilized.
If you saw a list of endangered species, how would you choose which ones to save? I won’t actually make you do it, but I probably know how you’d choose. There’s a lot of research showing that the animals that get the most conservation funding and public support are the big, beautiful, charismatic creatures — think P-22 the mountain lion out in Los Angeles, who we talked about in early April. That leaves the, shall we say, less conventionally attractive species out in the cold. But a new study suggests a weird new way to save these animals. One word: Memes. Yes, funny memes can help people care about species that would otherwise be left behind.
This study focused on the best ways to encourage people to invest in unpopular and unappealing endangered species. What kind of animal could be ‘unappealing,’ you ask? Take, for instance, the proboscis [pro-BOSS-kiss] monkey.
Real talk: the proboscis monkey is pretty ugly. Look for it on your favorite search engine, in case you haven’t seen one in its native habitat, on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. The monkey gets its name from its nose, which National Geographic calls “fleshy and pendulous.” Think Squidward from Spongebob. Its eyes are positioned way up high on its head, and its mouth opens into a tiny little ‘o.’ It basically looks like an elderly man who’s thinking really hard about his next chess move.
Researchers in Poland had noticed that funny memes about this nosy primate had really taken off in Polish social media circles. It’s hard to translate memes from one culture to another, much less through audio, but I’ll give it a try. There’s one with 4 creatures on it: a cute baby monkey, a buff gorilla, a scary-looking mandrill, and an ugly proboscis monkey. And there’s a caption that reads, “The girl you like, her boyfriend, her father, you.” Funny, right? The researchers wondered how this rise in proboscis monkey memes related to people’s interest in saving the animal.
The researchers did some analysis of proboscis monkey memes, crowdfunding campaigns for the benefit of the species, and more traditional conservation efforts. They found that the more people created funny memes about the monkey, the more its popularity increased. In some cases, the silly proboscis monkey memes got the same amount of interest as cute memes posted by the World Wildlife Fund of other endangered animals. After about a year of internet popularity, traditional media started reporting on conservation efforts for the species.
Researchers say the popularity of the proboscis monkey comes down in part to the “mere exposure effect,” where repeated exposure to something ends up making that thing more attractive. But the results also show the power of storytelling and humor.
In the future, the researchers say conservation programs should focus on making high-quality photos and animations of unappealing species more available online so they can be more easily ‘meme-d.’ Overall, it’s important to not underestimate the impact of social media. What this study shows is that memes are powerful.
Here’s something you should know if you’re hoping to go to space some day: space travel changes the shape of astronauts’ hearts. Yes, a NASA study found that time in space makes astronauts' hearts more spherical. Don’t tune out if you plan on spending your life here on Earth, though; this research has some benefits for the hearts of those of us back here on earth.
Now obviously, being an astronaut still comes with plenty of perks: there’s the weightlessness, those awesome views, and never having to worry about tripping over your shoelaces. But it has its downsides, including the fact that microgravity is really bad for the human body.
This NASA study found that microgravity makes our hearts lazier. Gym buffs know you lose muscle mass when you don't work out regularly. Same goes for a heart in microgravity. When your blood isn’t being pulled down by Earth’s gravity, the heart doesn’t have to work as hard, and it loses muscle mass.
For the study, 12 astronauts learned how to do ultrasounds so they could take images of their hearts — before, during, and after space travel. The researchers found that in as little as two weeks in microgravity, their hearts became 9.4 percent more spherical. Luckily, their hearts returned to their normal shapes once they were back on Earth, but the effects that a longer spaceflight could have are anyone's guess.
There's a silver lining in all of this. The study not only tested what microgravity does to hearts in space — it also tested sophisticated mathematical models that the researchers had developed to predict what the hearts might do. The final results matched what their models had predicted, which might mean that they could predict what other, more earthly elements like stress might do to the hearts of regular people.
That means the astronauts' heart images could eventually help scientists learn more about cardiac conditions that affect people on this planet. Not so out-of-this-world after all!
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Cameron Duke, Kelsey Donk, and Haley Otman, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Curiosity Daily is produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!