Today, you’ll learn about a new program that sort of gives sharks smartphones, the oldest known neanderthal engravings, and houses made of diapers.
Today, you’ll learn about a new program that sort of gives sharks smartphones, the oldest known neanderthal engravings, and houses made of diapers.
Shark Week continues all week long on Discovery. For the latest, head to SharkWeek.com.
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/sharkphones-cave-engravings-diaper-houses
Shark Sensors
Cave Engravings
Diaper Houses
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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 program that sort of gives sharks smartphones, the oldest known neanderthal cave engravings, and houses made from diapers.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: So, as you know, it’s our favorite time of year, or at least my favourite time of year, it is Shark week! So I want to talk to you about the fact that researchers have begun giving smartphones to sharks off the coast of Cape Cod.
NATE: Smartphones? Are sharks the new selfie-queens? Are they hailing rideshares? Tuning into Shark Week on the Discovery plus or Max apps?
CALLI: Okay okay okay. They aren’t smart phones exactly. But they are attaching new and improved sensors that include cameras to white sharks in the area.
NATE: Cameras on sharks!? That’s both awesome and kinda terrifying. Why are they doing that?
CALLI: So Cape Cod is so dependent on tourism. And as the beaches fill up with out of towners, the waters begin filling up with apex predators. While interactions are actually really rare - only five in Massachusetts since 2012 - researchers want to both track shark activity and let the folks on the beach know that they’re safe.
NATE: You said new and improved sensors - so have they been tracking the sharks already?
CALLI: Yep. For about a decade, they’ve tagged around 300 sharks with these acoustic sensors that send out a high-frequency ping. When the tagged sharks swim close to a receiver, the ping alerts lifeguards and public safety officers on the shore that a shark is nearby. But these new sensors are on a whole other level.
NATE: Cameras on sharks - I’m in.
CALLI: But they capture more than video. Researchers can now see the sharks’ depth, the direction they’re swimming, water temperature and even if they’re speeding up or slowing down. They basically give a second-by-second picture of where the shark is and what it’s doing.
NATE: That seems like it would be not only a good way to warn beachgoers, but also give researchers great data.
CALLI: Exactly. It’s already delivered a look behind the curtains of sharks’ lives. One video got a shark swimming into really shallow water to go after a seal.
NATE: Did it capture the look on the poor seal’s face?
CALLI: Fortunately, the seal got away. But the trackers are showing researchers that these sharks are actually really curious, just like everyone who listens to this podcast! They’ve surfaced to check out lobster buoys and look at birds. They see something floating in the water and they come up to investigate.
NATE: Actually sounds kinda like a curious puppy. Like it’s kinda…cute?
CALLI: Yeah - if they weren’t the world’s most efficient killing machines, I’d say they were downright adorable.
NATE: So how many sharks have these new camera sensors?
CALLI: More and more as time goes on. And they’re starting to use them in other parts of the world like Australia. These new shark smartphones not only give swimmers a renewed sense of safety, they’re giving researchers a new glimpse into the incredible lives of the ocean’s apex predators.
NATE: I’m super ready for Shark Week.
CALLI: Oh my gosh I’m so excited.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let me set the scene. France’s Loire River Valley, 1848. Workers digging a quarry to support the construction of a railroad line uncover a cave, but think nothing of it. Years go by.
CALLI: What is going on?
NATE: I was just trying to add a little flavor. It’s France! Alright, nevermind. 1912. French archeologists decide to excavate the old cave, and they find prehistoric stone tools, cooked up bones of bison, horses, and deer, and they realize this place is really, REALLY old. More years pass. In the 1970s, archeologists noticed something really odd on the walls - lines.
CALLI: They found lines?
NATE: Deep ridges - almost like scratches.
CALLI: Maybe bear claw marks?
NATE: They found bear claw marks in another chamber. But these scratches looked to be from human fingers, and they fit what looked to be a thoughtful pattern. Somebody intentionally put them there.
CALLI: Ahh! Cave art!
NATE: Exactly. But there was a problem. The archeologists weren’t totally sure when these marks were made, but they were pretty sure they were made before we humans made it to this part of the world.
CALLI: Uh…is it aliens?
NATE: No, but it’s just about as cool. A new study of the markings and of the cave itself suggest that these markings are the oldest known neanderthal cave engravings. Get this - a neanderthal stood at the cave wall and created this work at least 57,000 years ago - and maybe as long as 75,000 years ago.
CALLI: To be honest, I didn’t realize neanderthals did stuff like that.
NATE: It’s a really common misconception. We tend to think of the neanderthal as a head-scratching beast, when really they were humans, and our closest ancient human relatives. They used tools - in fact, scientists knew this cave was used by them because the tools they found were associated with the neanderthal.
CALLI: But did these old guys create art like this before?
NATE: Yep. They’ve found cave engravings like this in Gibraltar that are around 39,000 years old, and homo erectus even carved zigzags into shells more than half a million years ago. Neanderthals might even be the artists who created the world’s oldest known cave paintings about 65,000 years ago.
CALLI: It’s really hard to get my head around how long ago that was! So how did they figure out how old this site was?
NATE: That’s a pretty cool part of this story. They used optically stimulated luminescence dating, which can tell scientists how long it’s been since certain sediments like quartz have seen the sunshine.
CALLI: That’s really cool.
NATE: They believe that the Loire River was much closer to this site back in those days, and repeated flooding eventually caused the cave to close up about 57,000 years ago, probably thousands of years before we made it to France.
CALLI: Okay. So…what do these cave engravings mean? Like…what were those neanderthals trying to communicate?
NATE: That, unfortunately, is impossible to know. But the fact that they were intentional, thoughtful, and probably had meaning to the neanderthals who created it is, well…remarkable.
CALLI: Re-MARK-able because of the marks.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Researchers have built a house using disposable diapers.
CALLI: Ahhh…but is it load bearing?
NATE: Oh boy.
CALLI: Does it get really heavy when it rains?
NATE: Alright, I get the jokes but we should continue the story..
CALLI: By all means, relax and let her rip.
NATE: You might think it’s funny - and I would agree - but it’s also a pretty big deal. They think that because diapers are made of materials that could be used for building, such as cotton, plastic, wood pulp and rayon, recycled diapers could take the place of up to 27 percent of the usual material that goes into the concrete portions of the house - the columns, the beams, and so on. In other words… yeah actually, the load bearing parts.
CALLI: Hahaha! I knew it!
NATE: And diapers could replace up to 40 percent of non-structural parts, like paving blocks or wall boards.
CALLI: Okay. All of that sounds pretty cool. But…why?
NATE: Diapers are a huge problem. In the US alone, 20 billion diapers hit landfills every year by some estimates. That’s about 3 and a half million tons of waste.
CALLI: All those diapers would sure make for an enormous dump.
NATE: I walked into that one.
CALLI: Sure did. That all sounds pretty “green,” but why would someone want a house made of diapers?
NATE: So, in Indonesia, where the population is exploding and where people are flooding into the cities, they have a massive problem with both the demand for affordable housing and waste management. So they built this little house made of recycled diapers.
CALLI: Okay. That makes perfect sense. You have too much trash and not enough houses, so you make houses out of trash. I totally get why this all makes sense. You can start to solve two problems with one solution. But…are these little houses…?
NATE: … Are they clean? Absolutely. The recycled diapers are washed, dried, sterilized, and shredded. They then mix it with cement, sand, gravel, and water in a specific ratio to make it strong enough to bear weight.
CALLI: What if they want to build bigger structures? You’re not gonna fit too many people into a 400sq ft house.
NATE: Great question - the ratios of diapers to other materials can change to increase the strength of the finished product. So, for example, if you want to build a three-story diaper house, the diapers will only take the place of about 10 percent of the other materials. But that can still have a huge impact.
CALLI: Okay. I’m sold. Where can I buy a diaper house?
NATE: Well…there are a few wrinkles in this diaper story. First - it’s not totally easy to recycle the diapers. Separating the plastic from the organic fibers can be done, but that process isn’t readily available in developing countries where these materials are most needed. Plus, in Indonesia where the prototype was built, there are pretty strict regulations that limit construction materials to concrete, brick, wood, and ceramics.
CALLI: So hurdles remain, but it still sounds like a good idea.
NATE: Unless the world’s moms and dads decide to start using reusable diapers, we all might soon be living in diapers.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: Researchers in Cape Cod have started attaching new camera sensors to sharks. The sensors can track their depth, speed, location, and direction, and can even send video of them in action! Shark Week continues all week long on Discovery. For the latest, head to SharkWeek.com!
NATE: In a very exciting update to our understanding of Neanderthal culture, researchers have dated cave art in the Loire Valley of France to be created between 57 and 75,000 years ago.
CALLI: Scientists have constructed a house using traditional building materials mixed with shredded disposable diapers. The new building blocks promise to limit waste headed to landfills, and provide sorely needed housing at the same time.