Learn about what to do when someone gets upset with you, from author Lee Hartley Carter. Then, learn about how tardigrades survive deadly radiation and why the Bermuda Triangle isn’t actually a mystery. Please support our sponsors! Visit skillshare.com/curiosity for two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. Start your two months now! 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: We Finally Know How Tardigrades Survive Deadly Radiation — https://curiosity.im/2qL7NsE The Bermuda Triangle Isn't Actually a Mystery — https://curiosity.im/32evGqd Additional resources from Lee Hartley Carter: “Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Follow @lh_carter on Twitter — https://twitter.com/lh_carter 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 what to do when someone gets upset with you, from author Lee Hartley Carter. Then, learn about how tardigrades survive deadly radiation and why the Bermuda Triangle isn’t actually a mystery.
Please support our sponsors! Visit skillshare.com/curiosity for two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. Start your two months now!
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:
Additional resources from Lee Hartley Carter:
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/what-to-say-when-someones-upset-with-you-bermuda-triangle-myths-tardigrade-superpowers
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 what to do when someone gets upset with you, from author Lee Hartley Carter. You’ll also learn about how tardigrades survive deadly radiation; and, why the Bermuda Triangle isn’t actually a mystery.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Lee Hartley Carter #2 — Crisis Communications (1:44) (Cody)
If you ever get in a fight with your parents or your spouse, you need to be careful how you communicate. And our guest today will teach you the dos and don’ts of communicating during a crisis, so you don’t end up worse off than when you started. Lee Hartley Carter is the author of the new book “Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter,” and she’s been spent nearly 15 years helping clients communicate better. Here’s Lee with some pro tips on crisis communications.
[CLIP 1:44]
It turns out we live in a world where facts DO matter — it’s just that we have to make sure they come at the right time, and in the right order. You can find more great tips like this in Lee Hartley Carter’s new book, “Persuasion: Convincing Others When Facts Don't Seem to Matter.” We’ll put a link to pick that up in today’s show notes.
We Finally Know How Tardigrades Survive Deadly Radiation — https://curiosity.im/2qL7NsE (freelancer 10/25) (Ashley)
Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are adorable, microscopic animals that can survive pretty much anything, including deadly radiation. And researchers have figured out how tardigrades deadly radiation. Researchers from UC San Diego published their research in October 2019 in the journal eLife, and their findings could have huge implications for the future of biotechnology.
To understand how they do it, we have to look at the way cells work. Cells manage to store an incredibly long set of instructions in an incredibly small space. To manage all that information, they wrap strands of DNA around special proteins to make a stringy, information-rich material called chromatin. Chromatin is a great way to store the code of life, but it has a drawback. It leaves its chemically encoded information vulnerable to the environment, including things like radiation. Radiation can react with water in the cells of living things to make dangerous molecules called hydroxyl radicals. Those want to react with — as in, change — the first molecule they come across. If a hydroxyl radical interacts with the DNA in chromatin, it can corrupt the genetic message and indirectly cause certain types of cancer.
But tardigrades have found a way to protect their chromatin from radiation damage: a protein called Dsup, or Damage suppression protein.
DSup protects the tiny animals' genomes by binding to the chromatin and creating a protective shield that stops hydroxyl radicals from ever making contact with the DNA.
Did tardigrades develop Dsup in evolutionary preparation for a microscopic lunar mission? Definitely not. According to James T Kadonaga, a professor at UC San Diego, some tardigrade ancestors probably first developed a version of Dsup by random chance. The mutation stuck around because the protein protected the tiny animals from DNA damage during dry periods when they went into a dormant state of dehydration.
Now that we better understand how Dsup works, we may be able to use the protein as source material or inspiration for new biotechnologies that protect other kinds of cells from certain types of radiation damage.
[SKILLSHARE]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Skillshare, an online learning community for creators.
ASHLEY: Skillshare offers more than 25,000 classes in design, business, and more, to help YOU find new ways to fuel your curiosity, creativity, and career. You can take classes in everything from photography and creative writing to design, productivity and more!
CODY: If you liked our guest’s pro tips for crisis communication earlier, then you’ll love the Skillshare class called “Storytelling for Leaders: How to Craft Stories that Matter.” It’s taught by Keith Yamashita, an author and speaker who’s published in the Harvard Business Review and several journals, been an on-air commentator on CNBC, and lectured at elite institutions including Yale School of Management and Stanford Business School. Talk about a real pro!
ASHLEY: You and I both know that lifelong learning is important. And I love that Skillshare’s classes are taught by experts who really know what they’re talking about. So join the millions of students like Cody and me who are already learning on Skillshare — today! — with a special offer just for Curiosity Daily listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for free.
CODY: That’s right, Skillshare is offering Curiosity Daily listeners two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. To sign up, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY.
ASHLEY: Again, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY to start your two months now. One more time, that’s Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY.
The Bermuda Triangle Isn't Actually a Mystery — https://curiosity.im/32evGqd (Cody)
Today in mythbusting, the Bermuda Triangle isn’t actually a mystery. I’m talking about that part of the ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda, where you hear about ships and planes vanishing, theories of underwater alien bases… lots of “mysteries.” But those mysteries aren’t really mysteries at all.
Here’s the deal: in in 1974, author Charles Berlitz published a book called “The Bermuda Triangle.” The book gets into several stories about ships and airplanes that have disappeared in the area, along with theories about what might have caused them. Those theories are both natural AND supernatural, like the one that says the Bermuda Triangle was a by-product of the destruction of Atlantis. That book sold nearly 20 million copies in 30 languages, and it was adapted into a theatrical film in 1978. This guy is the reason why the Bermuda Triangle has the reputation that it does.
So the year after the book came out, journalist Larry Kusche published the book "The Bermuda Triangle Mystery — Solved." In it, he reexamined as many Bermuda Triangle incidents from 1840 to 1973 as possible, including those in publications by other writers such as Berlitz.
So, what did Kusche find? In some cases, there's no record of the ship in question ever existing. In others, the ships and planes were real, but their "mysterious disappearances" were either during bad storms, not mentioned by the author, or took place far away from the area. This isn't to say there are no disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, but do more crafts really disappear there than in any other similarly trafficked area? The answer is actually no.
If the Bermuda Triangle really is the danger zone— and again, the evidence suggests it's not — there are plenty of rational reasons why aircraft and seaborne vessels would disappear over certain parts of the ocean. One explanation could be that the ocean floor is relatively rich in methane, which can form a gas-ice-sediment mix under high pressure. If an underwater landslide occurs, this noxious mixture can burst out from the seafloor, entering the atmosphere and either intoxicating pilots or changing the density of the surrounding air and interfering with normal piloting.
It's not likely that scientists will be able to tell with much certainty until the ocean floor is mapped in greater detail. Currently it still only has a resolution of 3 miles, too low to pinpoint geographical features or individual shipwrecks or even an Alien or Atlantian underwater base.
Okay, so why was today’s episode cool?
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Today’s stories were written by Grant Currin and Austin Jesse Mitchell, and edited by our managing editor, Ashley Hamer.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. This episode was 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!