Learn about whether conspiracy theories are really on the rise; why there may be tens of thousands of black holes in the center of the Milky Way; and, the 3 versions of teen popularity, according to research. 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: The 3 Versions of Teen Popularity, According to Research — https://curiosity.im/2ntYPic There May Be Tens of Thousands of Black Holes in the Center of the Milky Way — https://curiosity.im/2llb7Zh Are Conspiracy Theories on the Rise? Here's the Truth — https://curiosity.im/2njl6yw Please nominate Curiosity Daily for Best Technology & Science Podcast in the 2019 Discover Pods Awards! It's free and only takes a minute. Thanks so much! https://awards.discoverpods.com/nominations/
Learn about whether conspiracy theories are really on the rise; why there may be tens of thousands of black holes in the center of the Milky Way; and, the 3 versions of teen popularity, according to research.
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:
Please nominate Curiosity Daily for Best Technology & Science Podcast in the 2019 Discover Pods Awards! It's free and only takes a minute. Thanks so much! https://awards.discoverpods.com/nominations/
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/types-of-teen-popularity-milky-ways-black-holes-and-are-conspiracy-theories-on-the-rise
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 whether conspiracy theories are really on the rise; why there may be tens of thousands of black holes in the center of the Milky Way; and, the 3 versions of teen popularity, according to research.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Are Conspiracy Theories on the Rise? Here's the Truth — https://curiosity.im/2njl6yw (Republish) (Cody)
Are conspiracy theories on the rise? Has social media really created a place where Americans believe anything is possible? Well, as reported by The Conversation, you can probably relax, because the answer — in short — is no.
According to a new study, the rise of the internet has not actually increased the number of Americans who believe in conspiracies. Although, obviously, it’s helping conspiracy theorists communicate a lot better.
Polling shows that right now, at least 50 percent of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory. We’ve only been measuring how much people believe in conpiracy theories for the last 10 to 20 years, though. So in order to understand if this phenomenon has changed over time, researchers looked at more than a hundred years of letters to the editor, which readers had written into the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Political scientists Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent reviewed more than a hundred-thousand letters, written between 1890 and 2010.
And their review showed absolutely no change in the amount of conspiracy theory belief over time. In fact, the percent of letters about conspiracy theories actually declined from the late 1800s to the 1960s, and remained steady since then. While these researchers looked at data only up until 2010, current polling has not shown any uptick in conspiracy theory belief since then.
So why does it feel like everything is a conspiracy? Well, here I like to quote the famous radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, who said: the more things change, the more they stay the same. As Uscinski and Parent pointed out, this isn't the first time Americans have felt surrounded by conspiracies. In 2004, the Boston Globe stated that we are in the "golden age of conspiracy theory." In 1994, the Washington Post declared it's the "dawn of a new age of conspiracy theory."
So trust us when we tell you there’s no increase in conspiracies. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s backed by data.
There May Be Tens of Thousands of Black Holes in the Center of the Milky Way — https://curiosity.im/2llb7Zh (Ashley)
At the center of our galaxy there’s a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. For decades, scientists believed that it — and every supermassive black hole at the center of every galaxy — conjured a particular type of gravitational pull that formed a "cusp" of stars and black holes around its perimeter. Of course, while we’ve spotted the clusters of stars, black holes are infamously difficult to see. So, this was all theoretical until last year when researchers finally found solid evidence to support this black-hole party — and what they found was awe-inspiring.
To put the find in perspective, Chuck Hailey, a co-director of the Columbia Astrophysics Lab and lead author on the study noted there are only about five dozen known black holes in the entire galaxy — 100,000 light-years wide — and there are supposed to be 10,000 to 20,000 black holes in a region in the middle of our galaxy just six light-years wide. But up until last year, no one had been able to find these theoretical black holes.
In the past, researchers have tried to find these black holes by searching for what are known as black-hole binaries, that is, a black hole paired with a high-mass star. Those stars tend to blow off their outer layers to form an accretion disk around the black hole, which heats up and releases a powerful emission of X-rays, which scientists can detect. But this study didn’t use that method. Instead, Hailey and his team looked for the weak, but consistent, X-rays emitted by the marriage of a black hole and a low-mass star. If they could find these and they know what fraction of black holes will mate with low mass stars, they could scientifically infer the population of isolated black holes out there. The team searched through data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory and found 12 of these binaries within 3 light-years of Sagittarius A*.
Based on this, they extrapolated that there must be anywhere from 300 to 500 of the same kinds of black-hole binaries in the area surrounding the supermassive black hole — and roughly 10,000 isolated black holes.
This is huge, according to Hailey. It's especially important for the new but growing area of gravitational wave detection, since knowing how many black holes there are makes it easier to predict how many gravitational waves might result from them. "All the information astrophysicists need is at the center of the galaxy," he says.
The 3 Versions of Teen Popularity, According to Research — https://curiosity.im/2ntYPic (Cody)
Let’s talk teen popularity. According to new research, not all teen popularity is created equal. I mean, think about it: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were both popular, but wildly different in pretty much every way. Same with Zach Morris and AC Slater at Bayside High, right? Yeah well, that’s because it turns out that being popular is not the same as being LIKED. Mind. Blown. Right? [ad lib]
Researchers from Florida Atlantic University conducted a study that determined that there are at least 3 versions of teen popularity. This study took place over two years, and researchers followed more than 500 middle-schoolers during that time, with an average age of 12 and a half years old at the beginning of the study. The researchers took a page out of the “Mean Girls” Burn Book by asking those teenagers to rank their peers. For science, of course. Yes, they filled out questionnaires on stuff like who they thought was the most aggressive, who was the most rejected, who got laughed at, who got angry… stuff like that. And in the end, the researchers found that the teens formed three distinct categories of popularity. They are: Prosocial popular, aggressive popular, and bistrategic popular. The prosocial popular teens are the ones you’d want your kid to be. Class president, prom planners, the ones who want to get along and have fun with everyone. This was the most common form of popularity in the study, at about 20 percent of the teens. Then there’s aggressive popular teens, and they read more like bullies. They’re antagonistic and they stay on top with coercion and anger. These are the teens who’ll make up horrible nicknames for other kids that everyone laughs at. They’re not particularly well-liked or emotionally well-adjusted. Fortunately, this is the least kind of popularity, accounting for just under 5 percent of teens. And the third category is bistrategic popularity. This is the “Mean Girls” variety of popular, and it covered about 12 percent of teens. These teens score high on aggression, but also on that prosocial, friendly behavior, Basically, they can be mean when they need to and then play nice right after. There’s no correlation with how emotionally well-adjusted these kids are, and these teens’ tendency to break the rules could be good or bad depending on the situation. The takeaway from this study is that teen popularity is more than just dictionary definitions; sometimes it comes with a helping of fear, with admiration optional. And remember, kids: popularity isn’t everything.
ASHLEY: And now, let’s recap what we learned today. Today we learned that conspiracy theories are NOT on the rise, despite what it feels like.
CODY: And that
ASHLEY: And that just because you’re popular doesn’t mean people like you. There are 3 versions of teen popularity, and it’s up to you to make sure you or your kids are the well-adjusted kind.
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!