Learn how quickly you’d age if you could move at the speed of light; how scientists discovered that Neanderthals actually walked upright; and why hangovers seem to get worse with age. 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: New Research Says Neanderthals Had Great Posture, Thank You Very Much — https://curiosity.im/2EGaezR Why Do Hangovers Seem to Get Worse With Age? — https://curiosity.im/2EEdD22 If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom 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 how quickly you’d age if you could move at the speed of light; how scientists discovered that Neanderthals actually walked upright; and why hangovers seem to get worse with age.
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:
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
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/why-hangovers-get-worse-how-quickly-youd-age-at-light-speed-and-upright-neanderthals
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 how scientists discovered that Neanderthals actually walked upright; and, why hangovers seem to get worse with age.
But first, we’ll answer a listener question about how quickly you’d age if you could move at the speed of light.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Listener question - Ayman in Bangladesh, If I move at the speed of light and rotate 15 times more around the sun then what will be my Age? and will I look old? (Ashley)
We got a listener question from Ayman in Bangladesh, who says “I am 15 years old and I have rotated around the sun 15 times now. If i move at the speed of light and rotate 15 more times around the sun then what will be my age? And will I look old?”
This is such a fun question, Ayman! To know the answer, you first have to know the distance the sun travels in its revolution around the sun each year. That distance is roughly 940 million kilometers, or about 580 million miles. In that case, over your 15 years on this planet, you’ve already traveled 14 billion kilometers! And that’s not counting road trips! Ok, so the speed of light is about 300,000 kilometers per second, or about 186,000 miles per second. That’s really fast. It’s so fast that to cover the distance Earth travels around the sun in one year, it would only take you 52 minutes — less than an hour! If you did 15 times in a row, at the speed of light, it would take you a measly 13 hours. Isn’t that wild? The entire distance you’ve traveled in 15 years at the Earth’s regular speed would take about half a day at the speed of light.
Obviously, if this whole trip took you 13 hours, you wouldn’t look old. But it’s even weirder than that, because the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time goes. If you went just a little bit slower, at say, 95 percent the speed of light, time would slow for you by about a third. If you were able to travel at the speed of light, time would completely stop. In reality, it’s physically impossible for anything to travel that fast, so time never actually stops, but in this case, we’ll pretend. If you traveled around the sun 15 times at the speed of light, when you came back, everyone else would have aged by 13 hours but you wouldn’t have aged a single second. Light-speed travel is the fountain of youth! If we could only, you know, figure out how to do it. Thanks for your question, Ayman!
New Research Says Neanderthals Had Great Posture, Thank You Very Much — https://curiosity.im/2EGaezR (Cody)
New research says neanderthals had great posture, thank you very much. Yes, it looks like you’re gonna have to update that T-shirt you have where cavemen go from hunched over to walking upright. Here’s the thing: we’re able to stand up straight because our spines are curved like a soft “S” shape. They go inward at the lower back, slightly outward at the upper back, and then inward again at the neck. Scientists originally thought that Neanderthals, or what you might know as “cavemen,” had a very different spinal structure. Before now, we thought they had a straight lower back and a heavily curved upper back. And scientists figured that "unbalanced" structure would mean they walked with a hunched-over posture, with constantly bent knees and flexed hips — a kind of eternal, slumping crouch. This whole hunched-caveman theory was mostly based on reconstructions of a single Neanderthal skeleton that was discovered in France in 1908. The skeleton was mostly intact, and it was about 60-thousand years old, earning it the nickname “The Old Man of La Chapelle.” As technology advanced, so did the way we interpreted The Old Man’s posture. By the 1950s, scientists knew that the idea Neanderthals couldn't walk upright wasn’t based so much on fossil evidence, but was more based on an idea that cavemen were subhuman. And a new study led by a University of Zurich specialist in evolutionary medicine re-examined The Old Man with new technology. The team took high-resolution, 3D surface scans of the skeleton’s spine and pelvis, to make a computer-generated model of the body. And the result was that he looked just like us. This new imaging technology found an inner curve in the lower back of The Old Man, just like we have. And the scans let the researchers see wear and tear on the joints, which gave them insight into how the Old Man stood and distributed his weight. Their findings seem to apply to other Neanderthan skeletons, too. Looks like the GEICO cavemen may have gotten it right. Who knew?
Why Do Hangovers Seem to Get Worse With Age? — https://curiosity.im/2EEdD22 (Ashley)
Some things get better with age, but one of those things that does NOT get better is hangovers. We encourage you to always drink responsibly, but facts are facts: in your early 20s, you might’ve been able to wake up fresh as a daisy after a hard night of partying. But as a fun-loving adult, just a bar night with friends can be enough to make you feel lousy. Not ALL studies agree that hangovers are worse as you get older, by the way. For example, a 2015 study out of Brown University found that young people actually reported worse and more frequent hangovers than older people. But the researchers noted that older and more experienced drinkers might just have more experience managing their drinking habits to avoid hangovers. Several rounds of cinnamon-whiskey shots may very well make the morning worse for a 40-year-old than a 21-year-old, but the 40-year-old probably has the sense not to drink them in the first place — or at least spread them out over time. But other studies have found that hangovers are relatively rare among young people — and many of us definitely feel like hangovers are worse later in life. So then the question becomes, why can't you drink like you did when you were younger? Well, that’s pretty simple: it’s the same reason you can't recover from exercise or injuries the way you did when you were younger. Little by little, your body's processes are becoming less efficient. Sorry! Though scientists don't actually know why we get hangovers, it’s probably because of byproducts that your body creates when you metabolize alcohol — stuff like acetaldehyde and acetate. Acetaldehyde is between 10 and 30 times more toxic than alcohol itself, and it can cause a number of familiar effects like sweating, nausea, and vomiting. Studies in rats suggest that the older you are, the less your body can produce the enzymes you need to break down the toxin. To avoid the dreaded pounding headache, clammy skin, and waves of nausea after a night out, use age to your advantage. You're wiser than your frat kid counterparts, and you have the self-control to space out your drinks, chug plenty of water, and make sure you're drinking on a full stomach. Again, always drink responsibly!
CODY: Before we wrap up, we want to give a special shout-out to two extra-special contributors for their generous support on Patreon. Thank you so much to this episode’s executive producers, Muhammad Shifaz and Dr. Mary Yancy. We couldn’t have made this show without you!
ASHLEY: If you’re listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com, all spelled out. We’re producing special podcast episodes and offering other exclusive perks to show our appreciation for your support. One more time, you can learn more at Patreon-dot-com-slash-curiosity-dot-com.
CODY: Join us again tomorrow for the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m [NAME] and I’m [NAME]. Stay curious!