Learn about a newly discovered way to cut down on intrusive thoughts; why wombats poop cubes; and why UPS trucks almost never make left turns.
Learn about a newly discovered way to cut down on intrusive thoughts; why wombats poop cubes; and why UPS trucks almost never make left turns.
Cut down on intrusive thoughts by getting more sleep by Kelsey Donk
Why do wombats poop cubes? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Emmaline)
UPS Trucks Almost Never Make Left Turns — and Maybe You Shouldn't Either by Joanie Faletto
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-do-wombats-poop-cubes
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 newly discovered way to cut down on intrusive thoughts. Then, we’ll answer a listener question about why wombats poop cubes. You’ll also learn why UPS trucks almost never make left turns.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
There’s now yet another reason to get a good night’s sleep. A new study uncovered the relationship between sleep deprivation and those unwanted thoughts that pop up from time to time. As it turns out, when we’re sleep deprived, we have a much harder time stopping unpleasant thoughts from entering our minds.
Say, for instance, if your dog lunges away from you at the park, you might be struck by some unpleasant memories of a childhood pet’s untimely death. Those memories are awful, right? But for most people, they pass pretty quickly. But for people with psychiatric conditions like PTSD, depression, schizophrenia, or OCD, those thoughts come with disturbing frequency and can last for a long time.
Scientists don’t know why this happens, but one idea is that it’s linked to a breakdown in the brain’s ability to block out unwanted thoughts. Sleep deprivation can mess with brain function, so the researchers behind this study wondered if something as simple as sleep could help to limit these thoughts.
To find out, researchers recruited sixty healthy participants and taught them to associate different faces with different scenes. The scenes were either emotionally distressing, like war zones, or neutral, like pictures of cityscapes.
Before leaving for the day, some of the participants were told to get a full night’s rest, while others were totally sleep deprived. The next day, researchers showed them the faces again and told them not to think about war zones or cityscapes.
The people who’d had a full night’s sleep had a much better experience. They were better able to ward off intrusive thoughts of war and violence. But the sleep-deprived people had a very hard time keeping the scenes from their minds.
The well-rested people also viewed the negative scenes as less distressing after they’d had some practice suppressing them. And as an added bonus, their bodies responded differently, too. The people who got enough sleep actually got less sweaty and anxious when they saw the negative scenes.
Now, it might seem a little trite to suggest that people struggling with mental health get a full night’s sleep to feel better. But this study points to a concrete reason why getting enough sleep actually matters. It also suggests that intrusive thoughts and poor sleep can become a vicious cycle: if someone sleeps poorly, they might start to have emotional disturbances that keep them from sleeping the next night, and so on.
Either way, one thing’s for sure. I’m definitely going to go to bed early tonight.
We got a voicemail from Emmaline [Emma-LINE] with a pretty great listener question. Take a listen.
[voicemail]
In case you didn’t catch that, Emmaline heard that wombats poop squares and wanted to know if it’s true. And if it is true, why? Great question, Emmaline! You’re not the only one who’s asked this question, and I think it’s about time we get to the bottom of it. The wombat bottom.
First of all, yes! Wombats poop squares. Cubes, to be more precise. While other animals poop little round pellets, tubular coils, or just messy piles, these adorable Australian marsupials produce poop in little cubes. They’re the only animals in the world that do this.
Scientists have known about this peculiar pooping predilection for a long time, but they haven’t known exactly how wombats do it. But in 2018, they got a huge lead. Dr. Patricia Yang at the Georgia Institute of Technology and her team got their hands on the intestines of two wombats that had been hit by cars in Australia, and they opened the organs up to peer inside. That’s where they found their big clue.
See, when food moves through your body’s digestive system, pressure from the intestines helps to sculpt it into shape. Scientists thought that maybe that pressure is what sculpts wombat poop into its telltale cubes. So to test that idea, they inflated the wombat intestines with a long skinny balloon, the kind you’d use to make balloon animals. They did the same thing with a pig intestine for comparison. There was a big difference! While the pig intestine stretched the same way all around, the last few meters of the wombat intestine was lined with two grooves that were much stretchier than the surrounding tissue. The team thinks it’s that uneven stretchiness that molds the poop into cubes.
That brings me to your second question: why??? Why the heck would an animal want to poop cubes? That’s still a mystery. Many people say it’s because wombats use their poop to mark their territory, and the cube shape keeps it from rolling away. But lots of animals do that to mark their territory, and wombats are the only ones that use this shape. Plus, it’s not always cube shaped: it’s rounder when they’re well-hydrated. Maybe someday we’ll learn why wombats poop the way they do. But at least we have a good idea about how they do it. Thanks for your question Emmaline! If you have a question, send it in to curiosity@dicovery dot com, or leave us a voicemail like Emmaline did at 312-596-5208.
This next story might be a little confusing if you live in a place that drives on the left side of the road. But if you live somewhere where you drive on the right, I’ve got a question for you: Could you drive to your grocery store without ever turning left? I’d guess probably. But why would you want to? Turns out, avoiding left turns is standard practice for UPS truck drivers — they almost NEVER make them. And once you discover the reasons they have for this rule, you'll be flashing your right-hand turn signal a lot more too.
The first reason is the most obvious: danger. Left-turning vehicles usually have to go against the flow of traffic. So it makes sense that left turns cause significantly more crashes than right turns. Left turns are also three times more likely to kill a pedestrian.
But it’s not all about safety. Turns out that avoiding left turns saves an incredible amount of fuel, too. Since enacting this policy in 2004, UPS has saved millions of gallons of fuel every year. Plus, the annual emissions it avoids is roughly equivalent to taking 20,000 cars off the road. It's all due to the fact that left turns usually cause a driver to sit in that turn lane idling until their chance to go.
So should the rest of us follow suit? Obviously, banning left turns outright just isn't feasible. We’d all end up driving in circles the whole day. And to be fair, even UPS drivers need to turn left sometimes. The company uses tools to analyze the number of left hand turns required for each route and work out the ones that are unavoidable. Their proprietary software directs drivers away from unnecessary left turns.
Unfortunately for the rest of us, it’s not really an option. GPS directions will only show the most direct way to reach your destination. But if you know where you’re going, try getting there without left turns! It’ll save you some money, help the environment, and make your drive a little safer.
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Next week, you’ll learn about the safest way to ride in a car with someone during the pandemic;
Why February only has 28 days;
And a smart ring that may detect a fever before you feel it.
You’ll also learn about the shocking science of how we breathe with author James Nestor.
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
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CODY: Today’s stories were written by Kelsey Donk, Ashley Hamer, and Joanie Faletto, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who’s the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY: Scriptwriting was by Cody Gough and Sonja Hodgen. Today’s episode was produced and edited by Cody Gough.
CODY: Have a great weekend, and join us again Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!