Learn about a trick for conquering sadness by thinking of it as a person; how Neanderthals may have releived their pain with a familiar drug; and the surprising science of how cows each use a unique “voice” to talk to each other. Think of Sadness as a Person by Kelsey Donk How can you conquer ordinary, everyday sadness? Think of it as a person | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/08/how-can-you-conquer-ordinary-everyday-sadness-think-of-it-as-a-person Chen, F., Chen, R.P. and Yang, L. (2020), When Sadness Comes Alive, Will It Be Less Painful? The Effects of Anthropomorphic Thinking on Sadness Regulation and Consumption. J Consum Psychol. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcpy.1137 Neanderthals Treated Pain With A Form Of Aspirin by Ashley Hamer https://curiosity.com/topics/neanderthals-treated-pain-with-a-form-of-aspirin-curiosity Cow Voices by Kelsey Donk Stand out from the herd: How cows commoonicate through their lives | EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/uos-sof121719.php Green, A., Clark, C., Favaro, L. et al. Vocal individuality of Holstein-Friesian cattle is maintained across putatively positive and negative farming contexts. Sci Rep 9, 18468 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54968-4 Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing
Learn about a trick for conquering sadness by thinking of it as a person; how Neanderthals may have releived their pain with a familiar drug; and the surprising science of how cows each use a unique “voice” to talk to each other.
Think of Sadness as a Person by Kelsey Donk
Neanderthals Treated Pain With A Form Of Aspirin by Ashley Hamer https://curiosity.com/topics/neanderthals-treated-pain-with-a-form-of-aspirin-curiosity
Cow Voices by Kelsey Donk
Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/think-of-sadness-as-a-person-neanderthals-using-aspirin-and-cow-voices
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 a trick for conquering sadness; how Neanderthals may have releived their pain with a familiar drug; and the surprising science of how cows talk to each other.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Next time you feel sad, give that sadness a name. Then give your sadness a personality, physical appearance, conversational style, and desire. Seriously. According to recent research in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, thinking of your sadness as a person may help you feel less sad.
This is basically an extension of what psychologists have known for a while: when faced with something challenging, it’s good to think about what you would tell a friend to do. You’re likely to be more gentle with yourself, since you’re observing the problem at a distance. Likewise, the study found that individuals asked to think of their sadness as a person reported feeling less sad afterward, probably because these people were able to increase the distance between themselves and their challenging emotions.
So let’s pretend you’re feeling sad because you came across an ex on Facebook. You say to yourself, “The Sadness, named [AD LIB] is jealous that this person has moved on. Why has [AD LIB] shown up? Maybe because (s)he’s worried (s)he’ll be alone forever.” Then you might be able to respond to your sadness thoughtfully and compassionately instead of criticizing yourself for feeling it or doing something impulsive.
But, a word of warning: this strategy is specifically for sadness, and could backfire if used on positive feelings. The researchers found that imagining your happiness as a person will dilute its effects in the same way, which you don’t want. So watch out — you could become too powerful for your own good.
The researchers also say they just don’t know if the same strategy will work for other feelings like guilt or embarrassment. Those feelings are more involved with the self, and detaching might not work. Likewise, depression is a much more complex experience, and this strategy might be too simple to tackle it.
But the bottom line seems to be that distancing your feelings from yourself can help you process challenging emotions. So take a step back, give your Sadness a name, and move through it.
When you've got a toothache, you probably reach for pain medication. According to scientists, Neanderthals did too. Samples from their dental plaque show evidence that sick Neanderthals reached for plants that contained the active ingredient in aspirin.
In 2017, an international team performed DNA tests on fossils of Neanderthal teeth. The four fossils they tested were between 42,000 and 50,000 years old and came from two different areas: two were from Spy cave in Belgium, and two were from El Sidrón cave in Spain.
In tests of their dental calculus—the hardened result of plaque buildup—they found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the Neanderthals from Belgium ate a different diet than those from Spain, the first subsisting on wooly rhinoceros, wild sheep, and wild mushrooms, with the latter relying on a meat-free diet of pine nuts, moss, mushrooms, and tree bark.
One of the Spanish Neanderthals was not in good shape: the DNA evidence showed he suffered from a dental abscess and the intestinal parasite known as microsporidia, which causes severe diarrhea. He, but not his Spanish companion, had been eating a steady diet of poplar. Poplar contains salicylic acid, which is the active ingredient in—you guessed it—aspirin. Even more surprising, the fossil also showed signs that he had been eating plants covered in Penicillium mold, the source of the antibiotic penicillin. That's right: this neanderthal may have been using a form of an antibiotic that wasn't developed until 40,000 years later.
A self-medicating neanderthal with knowledge of medicinal plants and their various anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties is certainly in stark contrast to the rather simplistic popular view of our ancient relatives in popular imagination.
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Who says cows can’t talk? According to new research from the University of Sydney, every “moo” has meaning. Cows have unique “voices” they use to communicate feelings to each other. Are they excited, aroused, or distressed? We just have to listen to them to find out.
PhD student Alexandra Green from Sydney’s School of Life and Environmental Sciences is the person behind this moo-ving discovery. Over the course of five months, Green listened to a herd of 18 Holstein-Friesian [HOLE-steen/stine FREE-zhin] heifers. She recorded 333 samples of cow sounds in different contexts. What sounds do cows make when they’re interested in mating or about to eat? And what do they say when they’re denied access to food or isolated from their cow friends?
According to Alexandra Green, the sounds the cows make are special and convey feeling. And the sounds were relatively consistent across positive and negative situations. This kind of variation in “moos” helps the cows to stay connected to their herd, but also to express excitement, arousal, engagement, or distress.
Green traveled to Saint-Etienne [SANT-eht-YEN], France, to analyze her cow recordings with some of the world’s leading bioacousticians. Together, they listened to the clips and found clear individual cow “voices.”
Before Green’s research, scientists knew that cow mothers and their babies could communicate through lowing. But this is the first time we’ve been able to find that cows use individual voices to communicate throughout their lives.
The hope is that farmers around the world will be able to use this research to get closer to their cows and improve their welfare. By listening to their cows, farmers may be able to figure out who needs more individual attention.
As Green’s academic supervisor says, "It’s like she is building a Google translate for cows.” [Joke: That means we may need to update that Old MacDonald song, huh. On that farm he had a cow, and the cow was like, “Excuse me, I would like to order some grain and a trough of water, thank you.” Doesn’t really have the same ring to it.]
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Ashley Hamer and Kelsey Donk, 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!