Learn about why you open your mouth when you apply mascara or put in contacts; how to educate people if you want them to trust GMOs; and why sweat really is not detoxifying. Please support today’s sponsor, ButcherBox! To get FREE bacon in EVERY box for the life of your subscription, PLUS $20 off your first box, visit https://www.butcherbox.com/curiosity In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Why Do You Open Your Mouth When Applying Mascara? — https://curiosity.im/2KhEkPB Learning the Science of GMO Food Makes People Trust It More — https://curiosity.im/2Klb3Dv Sweat Is Not Detoxifying — https://curiosity.im/2XxSQJn Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing
Learn about why you open your mouth when you apply mascara or put in contacts; how to educate people if you want them to trust GMOs; and why sweat really is not detoxifying.
Please support today’s sponsor, ButcherBox! To get FREE bacon in EVERY box for the life of your subscription, PLUS $20 off your first box, visit https://www.butcherbox.com/curiosity
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/sweat-is-not-detoxifying-how-to-educate-people-about-gmos-and-mascara-mouth
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about why you open your mouth when you do certain things with your eyes; what to teach people if you want them to trust GMOs more; and why sweat really is not detoxifying.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Why Do You Open Your Mouth When Applying Mascara? — https://curiosity.im/2KhEkPB (Ashley)
ASHLEY: You know that face you make when you’re putting in your contacts, or applying eyeliner or mascara? It’s not just you: it seems like pretty much all of us open our mouths when we’re messing with our eyes. And while researchers haven’t found one definitive reason why we do this, there is a leading theory that is pretty compelling.
To understand so-called “mascara mouth,” you need to understand a few things about the anatomy of your head. The muscle mainly responsible for opening and closing your mouth is called the lateral pterygoid [TARE-ih-goyd], and that's controlled by the central sensation highway known as the trigeminal nerve. The muscle that lifts and lowers your upper eyelids, on the other hand, has the Harry Potter-esque name of levator superioris, and that's controlled by the oculomotor nerve.
The trigeminal nerve and the oculomotor nerve originate really close together in the brainstem. The leading theory behind mascara mouth is simply a case of crossed wires. When you activate the oculomotor nerve to keep your eyes open to apply mascara or contacts, the trigeminal also gets activated, which results in you opening your jaw. Occam’s razor, am I right?
There are other theories too, though: for example, some say that opening your mouth stretches your facial skin to make a sturdier surface for makeup. That would certainly make sense. But there's one scientific phenomenon that lends some credence to the nerve theory: In some children, a condition called Marcus Gunn Jaw-winking syndrome makes them wink one or both eyelids every time they move their jaw. Mascara mouth is no syndrome, but it could be a mild version of this neurological fluke. [ad lib]
Learning the Science of GMO Food Makes People Trust It More — https://curiosity.im/2Klb3Dv (from Tuesday) (Cody)
I have some GREAT news for people who believe in education. Seems like a pretty appropriate topic for Curiosity fans, not gonna lie. A new study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology suggests that when you educate people about the science of genetically modified foods, or GMOs, it turns out that they're more likely to trust that science! And this matters, because GMOs are one of those things that scientists and the general public just can’t seem to stop butting heads over. Scientific evidence says GMOs are safe both for human health and for the environment. And yet, a 2016 survey from the Pew Research Center found that when it comes to people’s views on the safety of genetically modified foods, there’s a whopping 51-point gap between the public and scientists. That’s even wider than the 37-point difference on climate change. A 2018 study found something interesting about the differences, though: climate denial can line up with a person’s politics, and anti-vaccine views can line up with religious views, but views on GMOs don’t seem to have much to do at all with a person’s values. Instead, the best predictors were “faith in science and scientific literacy.” Which is weird, because most research has found a negligible relationship between a person's general science knowledge and positive views of GMOs. Educating people on the risks and benefits has backfired in previous research, so the researchers behind this study set out to see if educating people about the technology behind genetic modification might make a bigger impact. They recruited a group of 231 undergraduate students for a five-week online course, where half learned about genetics, DNA, and the scientific procedures involved in genetically modifying food. The other half acted as the control group, so they learned about the science and nutrition of healthy eating. And that first group had more positive attitudes toward GMOs by the end of the experiment, including their willingness to actually eat GMOs. If you'd like to learn more about the science of GMO foods, we recommend The Science of GMOs from the Purdue University College of Agriculture. There are links to that and other educational resources, plus many other details about this research, in our full write-up on curiosity-dot-com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. There’s also a link to that in today’s show notes.
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ASHLEY: Yeah, [ad lib personal experience]
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Sweat Is Not Detoxifying — https://curiosity.im/2XxSQJn (Ashley)
ASHLEY: Doesn't it feel good to sweat? To feel your muscles warm up, to feel your heart pump, to feel the toxins escape through your pores...well, everything except that last part. It turns out that, contrary to popular belief, sweat really isn't detoxifying. The real detox happens in completely different organs. You’re absolutely allowed to LOVE to sweat. But here’s the science of what’s actually happening. First off, sweat is about 99 percent water, plus a certain concentration of sodium, chloride, and potassium, and sometimes proteins and fatty acids. It only contains traces of toxins, which are a lot less than the amount your liver and kidneys constantly flush out of your body. Your sweat doesn’t stink because of toxins; it comes from the chemistry of your own skin. You actually have two types of sweat glands: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. You have eccrine glands all over your body, and they produce sweat to cool you down when you're hot. That sweat is usually odorless, but it CAN take on a funky smell when it's broken down by bacteria on your skin, or if you've been eating particularly pungent foods like garlic or cabbage. Sweating after a night of drinking can also douse your eccrine-gland sweat with diacetic acid, which smells like vinegar — though again, you're just sweating out the smell, not the alcohol or any other "toxins." Your apocrine glands can lead to even funkier sweat. These glands are located in the spots known for stinky smells, like the groin and armpits, and they're responsible for the telltale scent of stress sweat. The sweat they produce is milky and odorless until, again, the bacteria on your skin start chowing down and producing a bouquet of B.O. So to reiterate: both types of sweat start out odorless, for the most part. They only get smelly when they interact with the bacteria on your skin, and any smell they do start out with is due to compounds your body has already broken down and was getting rid of anyway. Sweat is almost entirely water, and that water contains hardly anything you could consider a toxin. So go ahead and sweat, and love it as much as you want! Just make sure you drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.
ASHLEY: You can read about today’s stories and more on curiosity-dot-com!
CODY: Today’s episode was brought to you by in part by our Patrons. A very special thank you to Lynn Smith, Maksmillian Dikarev, Gautam and Priyanka Ankam, Eddy Yeung, Julian Gomez, and Emily for supporting our show.
ASHLEY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!