Learn how swapping bodies with our pals can alter the way we view ourselves, why California’s redwoods have been able to survive relentless wildfires, and the real reason there are colorful bumps on the sidewalk.
Learn how swapping bodies with our pals can alter the way we view ourselves, why California’s redwoods have been able to survive relentless wildfires, and the real reason there are colorful bumps on the sidewalk. (If this episode sounds familiar, congratulations! You got the episode that escaped a week ago. Oops! This one is cleaned up and ready for prime-time.)
A study had friends "swap bodies" and it totally changed their sense of self by Grant Currin
How did California's giant redwoods survive the raging wildfires? By Cameron Duke
Those Bumps On The Sidewalk Are There For A Good Reason by Anna Todd
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-friends-swapped-bodies-for-science-again
[MUSIC PLAYING] ASHLEY HAMER: Hi. You're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity.com. I'm Ashley Hamer.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I'm Natalia Reagan. Today we'll learn about how swapping our bodies with our pals can alter the way we view ourselves, why California's redwoods have been able to survive relentless wildfires, and the real reason there are colorful bumps on the sidewalk.
ASHLEY HAMER: And if all of that sounds familiar, well, congratulations. You found the episode that escaped last week.
NATALIA REAGAN: I don't know how that happened, Ashley.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, I got a little overzealous, Ashley, and I may have accidentally uploaded it a few weeks early. So we cleaned it up and made it more presentable for today, which is when it was supposed to go out.
ASHLEY HAMER: Happens to the best of us.
NATALIA REAGAN: These unruly podcasts, man. Just rearing and ready to go.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] And with that, let's satisfy some curiosity. If you switched bodies with someone, would you still be you? I know, it's a trippy question. Well, researchers in Sweden have just shed some light on the answer.
Their new study suggests that being in another body can change everything, from a person's self-concept to their ability to form reliable memories. Clearly, this is not your everyday psychology experiment. The researchers recruited 33 pairs of same-sex friends. They started out by completing surveys that measured several aspects of the friendship, the friend, and themselves.
Then things got a little weird. Each pair of friends laid down on separate beds with their heads propped up so they could see their own bodies. Then they put on VR headsets equipped with digital cameras. The cameras took real-time footage of each friend's view of their body, which was piped into the VR headset the other friend was wearing.
Basically, the participants were looking at their friend's body as if it were their own. To add to the illusion, research assistants used styrofoam balls to touch both participants in the exact same place at the exact same time. That way, they both felt the touch on their own body and saw the touch on their friend's body.
After a few minutes of this, each participant filled out the same surveys for a second time. It's not hard to believe that this experiment messed with the participants' heads. But how it messed with them sheds light on the surprisingly strong connection between body and mind.
Simply put, it seems to have led the participants to think of themselves as more similar to their friend. Before the experiment, they had rated themselves and their friend on traits like talkativeness, cheerfulness, independence, and confidence. After it was over, the participants new ratings of themselves were more similar to their original ratings of their friend. They also did poorly on memory tests of the things they experience during the body swap.
But get this. The participants whose new personality ratings most matched their friends, they actually did better on the memory test than everyone else. The researchers say this line of research could have a surprising number of real-world applications. For instance, people with depression tend to have unyielding negative beliefs about themselves, and experiments like this show that our self-perception may be a little more flexible than it seems.
Once we learn a little more about the mechanisms behind the very strange experience of swapping bodies, researchers might be able to develop better therapies. If not, they can at least stage a very realistic remake of Freaky Friday.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. I can't imagine swapping bodies with somebody I don't know.
ASHLEY HAMER: I've definitely had some really, really good friends where I totally would have wanted to wake up as them and just experience a day as them.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, I like that.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. [CHUCKLES]
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. There's family members that I would like to do that with. You know what I mean? I always-- that's my Freaky Friday as a kid. I love that, the idea of switching places with your mom and seeing what she goes through because I think it would have made me appreciate what she does way more had I just gone a day in her shoes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
NATALIA REAGAN: When wildfires swept through California's Big Basin State Park recently, many people were concerned about the survival of the park's 2000-year-old redwood trees. This concern is valid. As our climate warms, wildfires are becoming more intense. But these redwoods have been standing since the time of the Roman Empire. And the good news is that it'll take a bit more than a fire to bring them down.
First, it's important to mention that fire is crucial for many forest ecosystems. A healthy diverse and productive environment needs a disturbance every once in a while to open up gaps in the canopy so new plants have a chance to grow. Fire is a common way for this to happen. Some species have even evolved to need it.
For example, some pine trees, such as lodgepole pines, produce cones that grow glued shut so their seeds can't escape. They can keep these little seed vaults locked up tight for years until fire melts the glue. Those seeds can then be the first to germinate under the new openings in the canopy.
The forest these redwoods live in also rely on fire maintenance. Because of this, redwoods have evolved specific coping mechanisms to ride out the flames. Hey, just because they're rooted in the ground doesn't mean they haven't been around the block a few times. We know that because when a redwood does die, evidence of past fires is preserved in the tree rings like arboreal badges of honor. Say that 10 times fast.
The redwood's main defense is its bark. This is a layer of dead tissue the redwood wears like armor. If a tree can survive its vulnerable youth into maturity, it often grows a layer of bark that's up to 2 feet, or 60 centimeters, thick.
But occasionally, flames can climb the tree and burn the canopy. This is a bigger danger, but it's rare. That's because these trees are, well, tall. They can grow as high as 300 feet, or 90 meters, which keeps their crowns at a safe distance from the flames.
But even when the crown is damaged by fire or even lightning or wind, the redwood is still OK. Redwoods can reproduce vegetatively, meaning they can regrow lost parts. And those lost parts can propagate into new trees.
This trait gets better with age too. The older the tree, the more rooting hormone the tree puts in its wood, which increases the likelihood of propagation. See? Wildfires are scary. But thankfully, these giants, they've been expecting them.
ASHLEY HAMER: Man, everything I learned about redwoods just makes me love them more.
NATALIA REAGAN: They are fantastic organisms. I can't get over that we get to live with them sometimes. I don't know about you, but when I go into a redwood forest, I feel like, yeah, you're with old, old old souls.
ASHLEY HAMER: We exist for like five minutes in their lifespan. It's amazing.
NATALIA REAGAN: Right? A drop in the geological time bucket compared to those big guys and gals.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] If you're listening to this podcast while walking on the sidewalk, then look down at your feet when you reach the next crosswalk. Chances are, you'll see a brightly colored rectangle textured with raised bumps. Cool, right? This is called tactile paving. And while it's certainly nice for a pop of color or some traction after an ice storm, that's not actually its purpose.
If you want to know why those bumps are there, there's a 100-page manual on the use of tactile paving surfaces from the UK's Department of Transport that you can read. We'll link to it in the show notes. Onto the next story. Just kidding. I'll tell you all about them.
Turns out, those bumps on the sidewalk near intersections help to warn people with visual impairments when they're about to reach a dropped curb or a sloped ramp. Different types of raised or engraved shapes have different meanings, and they're all designed to be easy to feel with canes, guide dogs, or a pedestrian's feet. And those bright contrasting colors? Not everyone with impaired vision is completely blind, and bright colors can help guide partially sighted people. When the tactile pavement is red, for example, that typically means it's facing a crosswalk with traffic lights.
You can find tactile paving in cities all over the world, but it got its start in Japan. Thanks to inventor Seiichi Miyake. He had a friend who was losing his vision. So in 1965, Miyake designed and built special mats with raised shapes like the ones we use today.
They were originally called Tenji blocks, after the word for the Japanese rail system. And they spread like wildfire. Within 10 years, they were mandatory in all Japanese rail stations. The next time you're crossing at a crosswalk or waiting on a train platform, look down. It really is incredible to think about all the design that happens right beneath our feet.
NATALIA REAGAN: Wow. That's-- see, I had no idea. [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
NATALIA REAGAN: I thought it was to keep us from falling asleep while we walk, personally.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] Oh, yeah. Like those-- what are those called? Those buzz things on the sides of the highway.
NATALIA REAGAN: [CHUCKLES] Oh, god. Yeah. I do a lot of road trips. And yeah, I'm thankful for those. And actually, you know what that might be good for, Ashley, are those people that are texting and walking.
ASHLEY HAMER: There you go. I'm sure in the future, we're going to start having tactile paving for texters, for sure. [CHUCKLES]
NATALIA REAGAN: [CHUCKLES] OK. Let's recap what we learned today, starting with, well, we discovered that being able to see ourselves from a different perspective might actually improve our own opinion of who we are. This may come in handy when finding new therapies to deal with depression or low self-esteem. And by golly, Ashley, I feel like maybe I could benefit from this. [CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] Yeah. Just spend a day in your friend's body and wake up a whole new person. And we learned that California's redwoods are not only giant trees. They're big time survivors, thanks to their seriously-thick bark and their ability to regenerate lost vegetation. This is all rooted in some seriously cool science.
NATALIA REAGAN: Leave it to scientists to figure it out. They would. Oh. I don't know if you noticed, Ashley, but that was three puns, back to back to back.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, leap-- oh, wow. I'm just catching them all now. Whoa.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah, sorry. Got to branch out sometimes. I know. It's awful. They're kind of like the starfish of trees, if you think about it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Yeah. They just regenerate. It's wild.
NATALIA REAGAN: Keep on going.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I should mention my family is safe. The family members that are closer to the fires are using air purifiers, and I think that's working OK. And my mom just keeps sending me amazing pictures of the sky being orange. It's just-- it's incredible.
NATALIA REAGAN: We also learned that those colorful raised bumps on the sidewalk are there to help alert those who are vision impaired that they're coming up on a sidewalk or a curb, and they actually originated in Japan and have pretty much spread all around the world, which is pretty darn cool.
ASHLEY HAMER: The inventor Seiichi Miyake actually had a Google Doodle of himself a couple of years ago. So he got to have his day of fame. That's great.
NATALIA REAGAN: That's very neat. Absolutely. I love those sorts of inventions that have a great place in the world but you don't really know much about it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I feel like the best design is the kind of stuff that you don't notice.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. Exactly. It sort of blends in.
ASHLEY HAMER: It doesn't intrude.
NATALIA REAGAN: Exactly. Very, very stealthy, stealthy designs.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
NATALIA REAGAN: Today's stories were written by Grant Curran, Cameron Duke, and Anna Todd and edited by Ashley Hamer who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonia Hodgin. Today's episode was edited by Natalia Reagan, and our producer is Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]