Today, you’ll learn about a new study on our perception of time, a breakthrough in the tech behind heart transplants, and about the crazy way ticks fly.
Today, you’ll learn about a new study on our perception of time, a breakthrough in the tech behind heart transplants, and about the crazy way ticks fly.
Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/time-perception-heart-in-a-box-flying-ticks
Time Perception
Heart in a Box
Flying Ticks
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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 study on our perception of time, a breakthrough in the tech behind heart transplants, and about the crazy way ticks fly.
CALLI: Without further ado, let’s satisfy some curiosity!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Have you ever been doing something, like going to the dentist for example, that took just a few minutes but seemed like it took hours?
CALLI: Yeah! It’s like there’s a bend in space-time. I know getting a cavity filled only takes like 20 minutes but it feels like I’ve aged forty years by the time I’m finally spitting into that little suction tube.
NATE: Very true. Then I assume on the other side you’ve probably also done something for hours that felt just like minutes, right?
CALLI: Sure! Every time we record a podcast it’s like time flies!
NATE: Aww. Well…what you’re experiencing in those situations is called time dilation. Our smartphones can perfectly keep track of every second as it beats past. But our minds experience time differently. Sometimes it races by, and other times it just kinda sits there.
CALLI: We’ve all experienced that, but I’ll say I’ve never actually thought about why that happened.
NATE: Maybe you haven’t, but scientists and philosophers have been thinking about our relationship with time for centuries. So researchers at Champalimaud Research’s Learning Lab in Portugal published a new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience that gives a pretty tantalizing glimpse at what happens in our minds when we perceive time. They even found some interesting results that can affect how we deal with certain medical conditions.
CALLI: I guess when you think about it, time pretty much dominates our entire lives. From the circadian rhythms that tell us when to get sleepy, to our stomachs telling us when to eat. Time is kinda, like, everything.
NATE: Absolutely. We evolved so many of our natural biological processes based on the passage of the day, right? But these researchers weren’t looking at those kinds of clocks. They really just wanted to know how we actually experience time. And they found out by…warming and cooling rats’ brains.
CALLI: Did you say what I think you just said?
NATE: Yeah. So they knew that in previous studies, temperature had been used to control certain behaviors in animals. There was one experiment, for example, that found that when you cooled a bird’s brain, the tempo of its song sped up. And when you warmed it, the song slowed down.
CALLI: Wait what?
NATE: I know. So before they changed the temperature of the rats’ brains, they trained the rats to tell time.
CALLI: No! Okay. Are you making this story up? This is like a crazy science Mad Libs.
NATE: I know. I know! And It’s not like they gave the rats little watches, even though it would’ve been super cute. But they basically taught the rats to judge whether something was longer or shorter than a given amount of time. So if a noise lasted longer than, say a second and a half, the rats would report that it lasted longer.
CALLI: Okay. I see. So if it lasted less than a second and a half, the rat would somehow let them know it felt shorter?
NATE: Exactly. They really needed to figure out how rats perceived time without any manipulation for this to work, right? So next they warmed up a part of their brain called the striatum.
CALLI: Why that part of the brain?
NATE: Great question. They found that activity in the striatum matched up with patterns of time perception in rats. So the thinking was…if you can manipulate that part of the brain with temperature, you should be able to change the rats’ perception of time.
CALLI: That is pretty deep for a little rat. Did it work?
NATE: It did. When they warmed up the rats’ striatum, their perception of time slowed down. And when they cooled it, time sped up.
CALLI: Wow. Okay so…what are the applications here? Like could you maybe cool down my striatum next time I’m at the dentist?
NATE: Uhh…no. So the thing is, the striatum is also the part of our brain that tells us what to do and when to do it.
CALLI: You mean, like, when to sell all your crypto?
NATE: No…more like when to step onto an escalator. Like that’s a matter of timing, right? The striatum tells you that you should step down and tells you the right time to do it. And then it coordinates with other parts of the brain like the cerebellum, which tells your body exactly how to step on the escalator.
CALLI: That is pretty complicated.
NATE: Every move we make goes through that process. And get this…Parkinson’s Disease and Huntington’s disease both affect the striatum.
CALLI: So a study like this could probably help?
NATE: That’s the idea. The more we know about how this part of our brain functions, the better. They think this could help zero in on new treatments for those debilitating diseases, and also - in a wild twist - help with the future of robotics.
CALLI: Okay! So what’s the next step?
NATE: It’s more research. The only thing they really need…more time.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
CALLI: Doctors and researchers’ pulses have been racing because of the excitement over something called “Heart in a Box,” which they think has the potential to save thousands of lives.
NATE: Is this some kind of weird science-y Valentine’s Day gift they’re giving each other?
CALLI: Kinda. It’s an incredibly special kind of Valentine. Because this Heart in a Box is literally a human heart in a box.
NATE: I have more questions now. Like…who put this heart in the box? And…just generally why is there a heart in a box? I think you get the idea.
CALLI: Good news! I’m here with answers.
NATE: Oh good.
CALLI: But to explain what’s really going on here, we need to talk about organ transplants in general. There are a few different pathways to getting lifesaving organs from donors. There’s the living donation - that’s where someone who’s still alive becomes a kind of superhero, and donates an organ to someone who needs it.
NATE: Okay so. Sure if you’ve got two kidneys and you can live with just one… it’s possible to donate one of them.
CALLI: Exactly. But that only works if you can get by without part of your organs, right? But for organs like the heart, it’s another story.
NATE: Hmm. Only have one. Can’t exactly live without that, I guess.
CALLI: Yeah, not exactly. Okay. For a heart to be donated, the person who is giving it has to have already died. And for decades, doctors assumed that the only way to find a viable heart was from a donor who suffered brain death and not circulatory death.
NATE: Hang on. I know there’s a difference because you know you’ll hear about it all the time on doctor shows on TV. But it has always confused me. Isn’t death just…death?
CALLI: That’s a good question. Yes and no. The thing is, whether someone has suffered brain death or circulatory death, they’re still, essentially dead. Your heart needs to pump for you to be alive, but your brain also needs to be alive and active. But there are times - especially after traumatic injuries - when a potential donor is declared brain dead, but their heart keeps pumping, usually with some outside help. The heart is said to still be alive, even though the patient is sadly not.
NATE: Okay. That makes sense. And you said that doctors have only used hearts for transplant from donors who were declared brain dead? And that would make sense that you would only transplant a heart that was still living, right?
CALLI: Well that’s what they thought. But that’s where the Heart in a Box comes in. It’s essentially a box where you can put a heart that has very recently suffered circulatory death, and pump blood in and out of it to keep it saturated.
NATE: Even though it had stopped beating?
CALLI: Yep. And a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that there is almost no difference in outcomes - between a heart that had stopped beating but was transported in this box, and a living heart that was kept on ice, as they’ve done for decades.
NATE: Okay. So if I’m getting this right, that would mean that there could be more hearts available for those who need them?
CALLI: It’s actually even bigger than that. In 2022, over 7,000 Americans were waiting for heart transplants, but only a little over 4,000 of those transplants took place. But it’s not just because there aren’t enough donor hearts - in fact, by some estimates up to 70 percent of donor hearts go unused.
NATE: Whoa. Wait, why aren’t they using them?
CALLI: Time. Once that heart goes on ice, you only have a few hours to operate before it becomes unusable.
NATE: Aw Ok! So the heart in a box system keeps the heart fresh and viable for longer?
CALLI: Exactly. Not only does it give doctors lots more time to find the right recipient, it also allows them to study the heart that they’re wanting to implant, to make sure it’s healthy and is, in fact, a good match.
NATE: I do feel like this could be the kind of thing that could change the lives of thousands of people.
CALLI: And that, my friend, is the very heart of the matter…
NATE: I’m not sure this is… like a joke-pun type story?
CALLI: I’m sorry. I can’t help it!
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Ticks are becoming a massive problem in this country.
CALLI: Ok. No! I don’t wanna…Oh, they disgust me! I hate those little freaking blood suckers! I actually have a friend out East who has been treated for Lyme Disease.
NATE: Well… They are not alone. According to the CDC, there could be nearly half a million diagnosed cases of Lyme each year. And for anyone who’s had it, you know that’s not great. Rashes. Fever. Mysterious joint pain. Aches. Vomiting. All that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
CALLI: Yeah! I get the picture and it’s not great.
NATE: Well, sorry to do this but it does get worse. If it’s not treated, it can turn chronic and even cause neurological disorders. And wait! There’s even more!
CALLI: No!.
NATE: Lyme isn’t the only disease spread by ticks. There’s also Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Anaplasmosis. The list goes on.
CALLI: So what happens once they get on you? Like do I even want to know?
NATE: They penetrate the skin with their tiny heads and start sucking blood. If they are loaded up with the bacterium that causes disease, well, then as your blood goes out, the bacteria goes in.
CALLI: Yeah, I’m not sleeping tonight…
NATE: Well here’s the thing: these guys aren’t just little. They’re teensy tiny, and they aren’t able to jump. So…how are they so good at catching a ride on us?
CALLI: Okay that’s fair! I always like compared them to fleas but they’re not! They can’t jump and so never really thought about it that much. So being so small, they can’t be the fastest creatures on the block, right?
NATE: I mean it’s a head scratcher that researchers have been puzzling over for years. But a new study might have cracked the code. Evidence shows that ticks actually ride the waves of the electricity we generate to fly through the air and hit their mark.
CALLI: They use electricity? K. This is some kina Matrix horror!
NATE: Right. So the findings, published in Current Biology, show that ticks are actually attracted to the electrostatic charge that animals and humans just naturally produce, and can use it to sorta leap over to us.
CALLI: So, How’s that for animal magnetism?
NATE: That’s actually not a bad way to look at it. When a bunny or a dog or some rodent passes by, they generate static electricity -
CALLI: …the stuff that makes our hair stand up…
NATE: …yep. And if they get close enough to the tick, that electric field pulls it across a distance that can be several times the size of the tick to hit its mark.
CALLI: And I guess if it’s on a dog, it’s just one little cuddle away from the dog’s human.
NATE: Totally. Pets bring in ticks all the time. But riding the electricity is a surprisingly effective way to spread around the world, especially for such a tiny parasite. And by some estimates, Lyme and other tick borne diseases could cost Americans nearly a billion dollars every year. So studies like this one are key to understanding how they spread, and even uncovering new and novel ways to treat and prevent them.
CALLI: Yep, story made me itchy.
[SFX: WHOOSH]
NATE: Let’s recap what we learned today to wrap up. Researchers have proven that our perception of time is not only flexible, but is controlled by a part of the brain called the striatum, which is the part of the brain affected by diseases like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. Understanding the mechanisms behind our perception of time could lead to novel treatments for those horrible diseases.
CALLI: Researchers have found that using hearts that have suffered circulatory death can be just as effective in transplants as hearts from donors who have suffered brain death. The hearts are kept viable outside of the body in a new tech they nickname Heart in a Box, and could help save the lives of thousands.
NATE: A new study has found that ticks use electrical fields generated by animals and humans to fly through the air and land on their unsuspecting prey. It’s a surprising finding that could lead to a better understanding of how they spread diseases, and new ways to treat them.