Learn about why engineers tested a temporary “smart tattoo” that emits light via OLEDs; a female vampire bat that adopted her best friend’s baby after the friend’s death; and how you can sharpen your mind with device-free quiet time.
Learn about why engineers tested a temporary “smart tattoo” that emits light via OLEDs; a female vampire bat that adopted her best friend’s baby after the friend’s death; and how you can sharpen your mind with device-free quiet time.
Engineers tested a temporary "smart tattoo" that emits light by Steffie Drucker
A female vampire bat adopted her best friend's baby after the friend's death by Kelsey Donk
To Sharpen Your Mind, Try Taking Some Device-Free Quiet Time originally aired August 5, 2018 https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/the-healthiest-diet-w-michael-greger-space-volcano
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/vampire-bats-adopt-babies-too
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 why engineers tested a temporary “smart tattoo” that emits light; a female vampire bat that adopted her best friend’s baby; and how you can sharpen your mind with device-free quiet time.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Scientists at University College London and the Italian Institute of Technology have taken wearable tech to a whole new level. They’ve created a temporary tattoo that glows — and it’s good for more than your next rave.
The techy tattoo relies on the same components that create the display on your TV or smartphone. They’re called organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. The temporary tattoo sandwiches the OLED between two insulating layers that have electrodes inside. The electrodes create the circuit that makes the OLED light up. Those three layers are stuck to the same kind of adhesive paper used with regular temporary tattoos. You stick it on the same way, with water and a little bit of pressure. And the whole thing’s incredibly thin — thinner than a red blood cell.
But this tattoo isn’t just a fashion statement. The team was able to stick the device on paper, plastic, glass, and even an orange. Their hope is that electric tattoos could help keep your fridge fresh by lighting up when, say, your milk or bananas are about to expire. They could also help keep athletes safe by hooking up to sweat sensors and illuminating when an individual is dehydrated.
The possibilities in the medical field are gigantic. The device can combine with other sensors to let diabetics know when their blood sugar is off-kilter, or alert doctors to a change in a patient’s condition. It could help with cancer treatment too. There’s a treatment called photodynamic therapy that uses special drugs called photosensitizing agents to kill cancer cells. These types of drugs need light to “turn on” and go to work. Once they’re absorbed by cancer cells, they create a chemical reaction that either kills the cancer cells outright or destroys the blood vessels that feed them. The problem is that photodynamic therapy only works where light can reach. It’s possible that physicians could turn this light-up tattoo inward to help treat some more hard-to-reach places.
Or you could simply use it to give yourself light-up fingernails, which is pretty cool on its own!
This next story is so sweet, and so sad: Scientists recently saw a female vampire bat adopt her best friend's baby after her death. But this isn’t just a tear-jerker — it’s teaching scientists more about why animals adopt babies that aren’t related to them.
Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute have been studying vampire bats in an effort to figure out how they form social bonds. For this study, they captured bats from three different areas in Panama and brought them to the lab. The three habitats were far apart, so the bats had never met each other before they arrived. Once the bats were settled into their new home, the researchers recorded them on camera for about six hours a day for four months. The researchers watched the bats form social bonds as they shared food and groomed each other.
One vampire bat named Lilith had recently given birth, and she got sick during the study. During her captivity, Lilith had bonded with another female bat, BD. When Lilith was sick, BD groomed and shared food with her, and she’d allow Lilith’s baby climb on top of her. On the day Lilith died, the researchers noticed that BD was lactating — even though she hadn’t been pregnant or had a baby of her own. She was ready to care for her friend’s baby, and that’s what she did. BD groomed, fed, and nursed Lilith’s pup.
Why did BD adopt a baby that wasn’t hers? One theory is that because BD and Lilith were friends, BD felt extra responsibility for Lilith’s baby. BD shared food with Lilith more than any other bat, and BD and Lilith were each other’s primary grooming partners. Another possibility is that all that contact with the baby while Lillith was sick triggered a neuroendocrine response that made BD start lactating to prepare for adoption.
This adds to our knowledge about why this kind of adoption — known as “non-kin adoption” — happens in the wild. Previous research has offered reasons ranging from it being a side-effect of regular parenting instincts to it just being personally rewarding to the adopter. Adoption because of a preexisting relationship is a fairly new idea, and thanks to this selfless vampire bat, we better understand how and why these adoptions happen.
CODY: Technology has helped a lot of us stay better connected during the pandemic. But you can have too much of a good thing. Here’s a story we did back in 2018 that we hope will make you think twice the next time you think about reaching for your phone.
Let’s recap today’s takeaways
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Steffie Drucker and Kelsey Donk, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Turn off your phone. Shut your laptop. Unplug your TV. Go enjoy a little quiet time. Just remember to turn everything back on so you can join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!