In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: The Coldest Volcano in the World Erupts Black Lava There Are 6 Types of Disgust A Space Elevator Could Make Space Travel Easier — If It Were Possible Learn the "HALT" Method to Control Your Impulses Science Confirmed What You Already Knew: Being Hangry Is Real Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/space-elevator-science-halt-impulse-control-method-and-the-6-types-of-disgust
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about the science behind a space elevator and how it could make space travel easier, a method to control your impulses, and the six types of disgust and what they're for.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. I actually want to follow up on a story we did last week about black lava and how black lava moves really, really fast. Well, we had a question from @psychomouse on Twitter, and the question is, heard this on the podcast. It was compared to red or hot lava, which moves around 6 miles per hour. However, today, it was reported that Kilauea has lava moving at 16 miles an hour. So what makes the Kilauea lava so fast? Great question. And Ashley, look into this.
ASHLEY HAMER: It turns out that there are a bunch of different types of magma. Actually, they divide it into three types. So there's basaltic magma, and acidic magma, and rhyolitic magma. They're all defined by their chemical composition. Kilauea volcano has basaltic magma that has a lower silica content, which gives it a lower viscosity, meaning that it's runnier, and it can move faster.
If it had more silica, then it would be thicker, and it would move more slowly. That actually affects the shape of the volcano too. Because the magma is so thin, each time it erupts, the lava spreads out, leaving a broad, low mound. At another volcano, like Fuego, the magma is much thicker, so it spreads less rapidly, leaving a higher mound. Thanks for your question.
CODY GOUGH: And this question did come through via Twitter, but you can always email us at podcast@curiosity.com if you have any questions. All right. So what do you find disgusting that other people think is totally normal?
ASHLEY HAMER: Chewing ice. But that's not disgusting to me. It's just like, oh.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, it freaks you out?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. CODY GOUGH: Like nails on a chalkboard kind of /
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. It's different, I guess.
CODY GOUGH: Well, some scientists are saying that every different type of disgust is a separate emotion, and there's evolutionary reason for each one. So not all disgusts are created equal.
ASHLEY HAMER: Sure.
CODY GOUGH: I guess. 2,500 participants were exposed to disgusting scenarios and ranked them each by awfulness. This sounds like the worst study to be a part of.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I hope you're not eating breakfast right now.
[LAUGHS]
CODY GOUGH: I won't be too graphic. Here are the six categories they found. First, bad hygiene. We'll just say gross bodily functions and leave it at that. Some, you can smell. Some, you can see.
[LAUGHS]
Second, creepy crawlies, like insects and rats.
ASHLEY HAMER: That make sense.
CODY GOUGH: Third, scandalous sex. It's hard to say if this one is more social or physiological. But sexual behavior in inappropriate settings was another high-ranking source of disgust. Number 4 was skin diseases, like visible lesions, 5 was rotten food because somebody likes that, and 6 was people with an atypical appearance. That ranged from people who might look homeless to people who have a marginalized body type.
According to the study's authors, a lot of these sources of disgust can be tied to a clear source of life-threatening disease and other hazards, like how rats and mosquitoes can carry deadly diseases, and signs of bad hygiene can be the first signs of an epidemic. But that last category of atypical appearance, that might come from a social stereotype or another upbringing. It's healthy to listen to your sense of disgust, but it's also good to understand where it's coming from. So re-examine why you're disgusted sometimes before you act on that disgust. And read more about all of this today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: Cody, do you remember Willy Wonka's glass elevator?
CODY GOUGH: How could I forget?
ASHLEY HAMER: Wasn't that cool? Just the idea that you could just go way, way, way up into the sky with this glass elevator and go anywhere you wanted.
CODY GOUGH: It was magic. They never made-- I never saw the movie, if they ever made one.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, I don't know if they did. If they did, I don't think many people watched it. I think they did.
CODY GOUGH: Well, it was just like that.
ASHLEY HAMER: OK.
CODY GOUGH: Charlie and the Glass-- no. The original book has been filmed twice, but the great glass elevator has never been adapted.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, hear that, Hollywood?
[LAUGHS]
You got another movie idea, another adaptation.
CODY GOUGH: They love adaptations.
ASHLEY HAMER: They really do. What if we could actually build one and not like a glass elevator but a space elevator? An elevator that goes to space. People are actually thinking about this. Because here's the thing, it's really expensive to fly to outer space. A space elevator could cut those costs significantly.
So here's the idea. A space elevator would extend a very long cable from Earth's surface into space. You'd find it center of mass, a geostationary orbit or geo, which is more than 22,000 miles up. That's high enough for satellites to match Earth's rotation. Vehicles could travel along the cable to transport people and cargo between Earth and space. We'd anchor the cable somewhere on the equator since hurricanes don't happen there, and it lines up with geo.
But how do we keep the cable from falling back down to Earth? We'd need a counterbalance higher than geo. One idea is for us to capture an asteroid to do the job. Below that, we'd have transfer stations and maybe have a habitation structure. And above that, the cable would keep going up, and that would help slingshot spacecraft out of orbit with just a fraction of the energy required on the planet's surface.
So what's stopping us? Well, lots of things. I think you can imagine. We don't know what we'd use to make the cables. Or what happens if it needs to be repaired? NASA actually ran a workshop in 1999 to try to figure that out. And Google was working on a space elevator project as recently as 2014, but that was abandoned.
There's a new paper out of Johns Hopkins University that hasn't been peer-reviewed yet, but it says that the key is in biology. The researchers say that if the material could heal itself, like a bone or a tendon can, then you could use weaker materials that could stand up to wind and weather conditions. And that's important because well, carbon nanotubes would be a great option. We haven't been able to make any that are more than a half meter long, which you're going to have to really stretch that out to make an entire space elevator. Space elevators might not be here quite yet. But maybe someday, we'll ride to the skies in a great glass elevator. You never know.
CODY GOUGH: Ashley, are you an impulsive person?
ASHLEY HAMER: No. Not at all. The opposite. Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: Really?
ASHLEY HAMER: Uh-huh.
CODY GOUGH: Well, in case you are an impulsive person, today, we've got a method for helping you control your impulses, and it's called the HALT method as in H-A-L-T, HALT. It's easy to remember, and it's easy to use. You've never probably had to use this.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've used it.
CODY GOUGH: Have you?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, yeah, for sure. All sorts of things. Everyone has times that they do something that's based on emotion rather than rational thought.
CODY GOUGH: Yes. and this is a way to combat that.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
CODY GOUGH: So just ask yourself if you're one of the four things the acronym stands for. H is for hungry. A is for angry. L is for lonely. And T is for tired as in, am I hungry? Am I angry? Am I lonely? Or am I tired right now? The HALT method is a really useful tool in the world of addiction and recovery. So you may have heard of it there, but you can use it no matter who you are. After all, everyone has let their emotions influence their decisions as we just talked about.
You can put it in the context of shopping. If you feel like you really need to buy something you don't need, then check in on yourself. HALT will help you stop and think about whether you're about to buy something that'll actually make you feel better. Every purchase has a purpose, right? So maybe you'll feel more confident in that new outfit, or maybe you'll feel happier when you've got the best new video game. But those are usually temporary pick-me-ups that don't last. So by using the HALT method, you're the one in charge. Try it out and let us know if you find it helpful.
ASHLEY HAMER: You know when I use it the most? Is in relationships. When you start to argue and you realize like, oh, we haven't had dinner, or it's 12:00 at night, and we're both really sleepy.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Usually, hungry and angry is enough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: 90% of the time, when I make a poor choice, it's because I'm hungry or angry.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right.
CODY GOUGH: Or hangry, which is a thing.
ASHLEY HAMER: Hangry is a thing.
CODY GOUGH: It's a thing. We've written about it. And you can read about that and everything else you talked about today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few. Minutes I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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