We discuss how scientists have developed a cancer-detecting contact lens, the behaviors of inebriated dolphins, and how listening to birds singing can help our mental health!
We discuss how scientists have developed a cancer-detecting contact lens, the behaviors of inebriated dolphins, and how listening to birds singing can help our mental health!
Smart Contacts
Stoned Dolphins
Birdsongs vs Traffic
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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/smart-contacts-stoned-dolphins-birdsongs-vs-traffic
[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 scientists have developed a cancer-detecting contact lens, the behaviors of potentially, ahem, inebriated dolphins, and how listening to birds singing can help our mental health!
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Science fiction stories often deal with the idea of x-ray goggles that can see through solid matter which seems super unrealistic, right? BuT, what if I told you that not only does something like this exist, but it can even look into a body to see specific kinds of cancer?
NATE: I’d say it’s the 21st century and I’m self conscious about wearing glasses. Do they sell these as contact lenses?
CALLI: I know you’re just being a smart alec, but yes. A recent experiment has, in fact, invented cancer detecting contact lenses.
NATE: Okay so first of all, apologies for the sarcasm. But second of all, oooooh. How does that even work?
CALLI: Well, let me say up front that you have to put the lenses on yourself when you’re being screened. The contact lens captures and detects something called exosomes. Exosomes are these tiny sacs in the body that help with cell to cell communication. These are about a nanometer big and are present in physiological fluids, but what’s most important is that they have the potential to see cancer. This would actually be an effective way to pre-screen cancer in a non-invasive, quick, easy, cost-effective, and ACCURATE way.
NATE: Pretty wild, but I’m still not clear on how it works.
CALLI: I gotcha. So most of the cells in our body produce exosomes. These are then discharged into fluids like plasma, saliva, urine, and tears. Scientists used to believe they contained unwanted materials from whatever cells they were born from… but what we know now is that they are actually full of helpful surface proteins.
NATE: And those surface proteins help us see cancer?
CALLI: Mmm, not quite. It’s more like those proteins are created in way larger numbers in response TO cancer. So you put on a pair of contact lenses, and they start grabbing all of these exosomes. A higher level of exosomes equals a higher chance of cancer.
NATE: Oh, so it’s not like I put the lenses on, look at you, and if I see a red shape or whatever, it means you have cancer. It means I put the lenses on, then you take those lenses and put them under a microscope to find the exosomes?
CALLI: Yes. Exactly.
NATE: What makes this a better way than our current pre-screenings for cancer, though?
CALLI: Well, first of all, it’s way more simple AND cheap. This might get a bit complicated, so bare with me for a second. Current pre-screening methods require a lot of labor on the physicians’ end with massive and expensive equipment, which can also be invasive to the patient… and it takes at least ten hours to do. These contacts, on the other hand, only take MINUTES.
NATE: But isn’t it the same thing? An extraction of exosomes?
CALLI: Not quite. The exosome approach is actually relatively new, and the team developing the contact lenses are at the forefront of using it for their method. Specifically, they realized that even though exosomes are in all bodily fluids, it’s a much cleaner and, let’s face it, more preferable means of extraction than having to sift through blood and urine.
NATE: Well, that’s just like, your opinion, man.
CALLI: No, no that’s also the opinion of the researchers, Nate. Once they settled on extracting from tears, they decided the best extractor would be a contact lens. They used a laser cutting and engraving method to create a contact lens containing microchambers that extract and store exosomes.
NATE: Seems complicated. How did they do that?
CALLI: They made a technique that chemically activated the microchamber surfaces once they mixed with tears. These tears containing exosomes would then stick to the microchamber walls, and once the contacts are taken off, boom - exosome-rich contact lenses.
NATE: And so the doctors would collect the lenses, examine them, and… cancer?
CALLI: Yeah. They tested ten different tissue and cancer cell lines and found that in each case, exosomes were in fact captured AND detected.
NATE: So when will I be able to get some of these cancer-detecting bad boys for myself?
CALLI: Well, the research is still really early in development, Nate. Unlike most of these other experiments we talk about, I couldn’t even find any information on what the next step is. I’d assume there’s more in store for these miracle contacts, but for now, all we have is a cool story about cancer-detecting contact lenses.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Sometimes I think about how smart dolphins are compared to humans and it blows my mind, like that story we did on how they have their own gangs. But within the last few years, it’s been discovered that dolphins are even MORE like humans than we thought - because they too partake in recreational drug use.
CALLI: Hold on, Nate. Are you saying there’s some kind of cottage industry of little dolphin drug dealers floating around out there?
NATE: Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying! Nooo, kidding, not exactly. Back in 2013, the BBC was producing a documentary series called Dolphins: Spy in the Pod. What they witnessed wasn’t sketchy little dolphins setting up on corners selling drugs - instead, they saw young dolphins messing around with a certain breed of puffer fish. And when this breed is provoked, it releases a nerve toxin that’s toxic in large doses… BUT, it’s also known to produce a narcotic effect in small doses.
CALLI: I… wow. So they mess with the puffer fish and it just shoots out some kind of spray? And then the dolphins huff it up like a bunch of degenerates?
NATE: Well, it’s a bit more involved than that. One of the dolphins starts by chewing on the puffer fish; gently, but just enough to make it mad. It sprays the toxins into their mouths before the dolphin passes it off to one of its friends. Have you ever heard the phrase “puff puff pass?”
CALLI: I’ve been in a college dorm room before, yes, so this sounds very familiar to me. How does the toxin work? Is it more of an upper or a downer, or…?
NATE: Full disclosure, the documentarians didn’t try the toxin themselves. But what they described was all of the dolphins entering something of a “trance-like” state. Specifically, they started slowly making their way to the surface of the water, stuck their noses out, and… stayed there. Just zoning out, staring at their own reflections.
CALLI: I guess that explains why the dolphins would willingly put themselves at risk. If I were a dolphin, and I saw my friends just zoning out and laughing at my own reflection, I’d be like “hello friends, I too would like to have fun.”
NATE: Exactly. It’s really similar to that trend from the 90’s and 2000’s where people started licking toads. You remember that, Calli? They’d lick the back of a certain kind of toad and it would put them in a daze.
CALLI: Okay okay. So let’s sober up for a second here. Does this toxin have the same effect on humans?
NATE: I’m so glad you asked, because NO. For so many reasons, no human should try this at home. For starters, the toxin of a puffer fish can paralyze and kill a human. Dolphins metabolize toxins differently than we do, so even a small fraction of what these dolphins allegedly partake in would destroy our bodies. Did I mention what the puffer fish’s body does when it’s provoked?
CALLI: No, only the toxin cocktail it releases.
NATE: True to its name, it PUFFS out… and releases a bunch of spikes on its body. So to even try this toxin, humans would have to stab themselves repeatedly in the mouth, and risk paralysis and death. This is a vice for the dolphins, but not for humans. But that’s not all, because there’s another reason humans shouldn’t try it.
CALLI: Oh no. What can be worse than paralysis and death?
NATE: I’ll tell you what’s worse than death… a hoax.
CALLI: K, wait what?
NATE: This documentary was filmed back in 2013. When news hit that dolphins got high recreationally, it was a bit of a meme for a bit. Everybody was talking about it. All that talk pulled out some experts, though, who claim that the dolphins aren’t getting high - they’re just playing with each other.
CALLI: Ok no really… what.
NATE: According to Diana Reiss, a dolphin cognition researcher at Hunter College, it’s very normal for dolphins to lightly nibble on a fish and pass it back and forth to each other. Think of it like throwing a ball back and forth with a friend.
CALLI: That’s really boring though. What about the reflections!? I’ve, um, “seen” people do that when they get high.
NATE: First of all, that’s just us applying “personification” to dolphins, which is the act of applying human traits to nonhuman things. I know dolphins are smart… but they’re dolphins, not humans. Which leads me to my second point… dolphins have blowholes on the tops of their heads that they use to breathe in oxygen. Many researchers believe they weren’t staring at their reflections… they were just coming up for air.
CALLI: Ah man. So this was all fake?
NATE: Not necessarily. Many researchers admit that just because there’s no clear evidence of the puffer fish toxin’s narcotic qualities, that doesn't mean that evidence doesn’t exist. Some animals have indeed developed an immunity to the paralyzing quality of the toxin. That being said: I think it’s safe to say that the BBC documentarians jumped the gun a bit by definitively saying dolphins get recreationally high.
CALLI: Well, should it ever be confirmed, just let me know, Nate. I have a, uh, friend, who’d really like to hang out with some dolphins.
NATE: Riiiiight. A “friend.”
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Sometimes in the morning, I like to sit down with a nice cup of coffee or, let’s be realistic, a red bull at my window. And every morning, without fail, I hear two things at once: the delightful sounds of birds chirping and… traffic. I’ve always thought the coffee or my caffeine was balancing me out in the morning, but it turns out it might be the combination of birds and traffic.
NATE: Could also be the caffeine, and I’ll choose to believe it is until you prove otherwise.
CALLI: Well, here’s your “proof otherwise,” Nate. Word on the street is that there’s a new experiment that measures how birds and traffic sounds affect our moods. The researchers’ hypothesis was simple: if even mentally healthy people can experience something like anxiety, or even temporary paranoid delusions, there has to be something provoking those feelings. And the most likely culprit? The sounds of traffic.
NATE: If you’ve ever been to a major city, that’s the least surprising hypothesis of all time. How did they even measure this?
CALLI: K, first off, I totally agree with you, lived in a city for a while, couldn’t handle it. The noise level is out of this world. But this experiment consisted of 295 participants who were given a randomized online experiment. When they opened it, they would either hear six minutes of birdsong chirping through their speakers… or six minutes of typical traffic noise digging into their brains. Before and after the sound clips, the participants had to fill out a questionnaire assessing their mental health and take a few cognitive tests to make sure they could fully immerse themselves in the noise.
NATE: Let me guess… people who listened to traffic performed worse overall.
CALLI: No, they were fine. I’m lying. You are 100% right. Any participants who listened to six minutes of traffic experienced generally worsened depressive states. These recordings were randomized too, by the way. So some traffic sounds were more intense than others. And for anybody who heard the louder, more ear-piercing traffic patterns, they were most likely to experience deep depression.
NATE: That doesn’t surprise me at all.
CALLI: Right, but what IS surprising is what the study found about paranoia. You see, an earlier study showed that nearly every urban bicyclist in New York had experienced paranoia more often on their bikes than on foot, because of something called an “interpersonal threat situation,” which is the presence of something potentially dangerous in traffic like an erratic driver. This study was a huge factor in why THIS study was even taking place, so they expected traffic sounds to be the trigger for increased paranoia.
NATE: They expected it but you’re saying that maybe traffic sounds don’t increase paranoia?
CALLI: Nope! When introducing traffic sounds to the participants, the results were static. No increase in paranoia whatsoever.
NATE: That’s weird. Any idea why?
CALLI: Well, yes and no, like a lot of our answers sometimes. Based on that past study, the researchers concluded that urban soundscapes SHOULD trigger something called “socio-evaluative concerns,” which is a very fancy way of referring to when our minds expect other people to do their worst to us. This usually leads to an increased lack of control as well as an increase in - you guessed it - paranoia. But here’s the problem: the researchers admitted that their results don’t quite match up with that conclusion. The only way they believe that the sounds of traffic would actually increase paranoia is by adding human voices into the audio file, since that would emphasize the fear of “humans doing their worst” into the mix.
NATE: Fascinating. So in order to feel more paranoid, we need something more human to be paranoid about?
CALLI: You could put it that way. But I think it’s because humans make noises more similar to birds than cars. Take a look at how the birdsong participants turned out: they all had reduced anxiety and - get this - next to no paranoia. No surprise on the anxiety, but HUGE surprise on the paranoia, because of the traffic experiment results. That leads me to believe that if people are bombarded with more “artificial noises,” it won’t be as bad as when they’re bombarded with more familiar noises, like from a human or animal. Because also - it didn’t even matter how intense the birdsong was, or what species it came from. It was always calming, and it always reduced negative feelings overall.
NATE: Even though it seems obvious to me why traffic would increase anxiety or depression, why is it that birdsong affects our moods so much? And why would it decrease paranoia?
CALLI: This is a bit abstract, but the researchers believe it’s evolution. The sound of birds chirping taps into something deep inside our psyches that represent an “intact natural environment.” These sounds take attention away from any potential stressors that could signal a threat to our wellbeing. Basically, this sound is telling us the world is safe and we have nothing to worry about. Which, maybe don’t play if you’re in a dangerous place because you’re going to be killing your fight or flight reflex, just saying.
NATE: I like that idea. The world could literally be falling apart around me, but play me six minutes of birds chirping and it’s easy, affordable medicine for the soul. What are the researchers planning to do with this discovery?
CALLI: That’s actually the coolest part: it’s now believed that we might be able to manipulate background noise in different situations to help reduce discomfort in patients with diagnosed anxiety disorders. Like maybe a carefully curated audio playlist of birdsong might be able to actively reduce paranoia overall. That being said, there’s still a lot more research to go before this becomes commonplace. It’s not even clear if it’s just the birdsong that causes this. Some researchers believe the birdsong is just a trigger for memories of the smells, color, sounds, or combination of those things within nature. The only thing we know for sure: nature is soothing for your mental health!
NATE: That sounds like as good an excuse as any to get out of here for the day!
CALLI: Do you think I could mix birdsong into my lo-fi playlist?
NATE: Tweet.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up.
CALLI: If you’ve ever thought that cancer pre-screening is extensive and costly, rest assured that recent research has found a way to detect cancer in an easier and cheaper way - and all it takes is putting on a pair of contact lenses that detect cancer cells in your tears!
NATE: Humans might not be the only creatures that partake in recreational drug use. A 2013 documentary from the BBC purports to have filmed evidence of dolphins getting high on puffer fish toxins with their friends for fun. Although many experts dispute the documentary’s findings, this would be a huge discovery for just how intelligent dolphins are… or, just how similar dumb dolphins are to humans.
CALLI: It’s been known for a while that the sound of birds chipping positively affects our mental states, but did you know that it can directly combat feelings of paranoia? Researchers are still wrapping their heads around the soothing sounds of birdsong, but a new study has revealed that birdsong can adequately diminish anxiety and paranoia - while the sound of traffic can have the exact opposite effect. Regardless of the reason, it’s a good excuse to go outside and listen to some birds!