Learn about why life is based on carbon and not silicon, whether you should be using plastic or wood cutting boards, and how jealous feelings can help maintain friendships.
Learn about why life is based on carbon and not silicon, whether you should be using plastic or wood cutting boards, and how jealous feelings can help maintain friendships.
Why is life based on carbon and not silicon? by Cameron Duke
Should you be using plastic or wood cutting boards? by Joanie Faletto
Jealous feelings can help maintain friendships by Kelsey Duke
Episode referenced in recap:
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-is-life-based-on-carbon-and-not-silicon
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, you'll learn why life is based on carbon and not silicon, whether you should be using plastic or wood cutting boards, and how jealous feelings can help maintain friendships.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
When we look for life on other planets, we tend to look for the telltale signs of carbon-based life. But what is that exactly? And how did carbon get such a sweet gig in the first place? Well when, scientists say that life on Earth is carbon-based, they mean that the molecules that make up DNA, proteins, fats, and sugars, all use carbon liberally.
Everything I just mentioned has massive molecules. And carbon forms the backbone for all of them. That's no accident carbon has a valence of four, which means it can bond with four other atoms at the same time. It's the classic two-by-two LEGO brick. That versatility gives it the ability to form the skeletons of complex molecules. Most other atoms can't do that.
That is except silicon. Silicon also has a valence of four. So it should be able to form many of the same types of molecules that carbon can. Plus, silicon is 135 times more common on Earth than carbon. What does carbon have that silicon doesn't? Well, the problem with silicon is its size. If carbon is a LEGO brick, silicon is one of those oversized Duplo bricks. It's more massive than carbon, which makes it form slightly longer and slightly weaker chemical bonds than carbon.
That tiny difference gives silicon an entirely different set of chemical properties than carbon. And none of them really make sense for life. For example, when a carbon atom bonds with two oxygen atoms, it forms carbon dioxide or CO2. CO2 can dissolve in water, and it's a gas at room temperature, which makes it easy for life to use. Replace that carbon atom with a silicon atom, and you get far less useful but significantly more common silicon dioxide, otherwise known as sand. So instead of a gas, you get a dense solid.
But what about on other planets? Silicon-based alien life has been seen in science fiction, but scientists seem convinced it'll stay there. Any environment that is rich with oxygen or water will cause small silicon-based molecules to solidify and large chains of silicon to break apart. But metabolic chemical reactions happen in liquids, so you'll need a liquid other than water to make it work.
Research suggests that an oxygen-free world, where ammonia or methane is as common as water, would enable the widest range of silicon-based molecules. But even that range falls tragically short of the complexity needed for life. And that all just serves to highlight how special carbon-based life really is.
NATALIA REAGAN: It's Thursday also known as Throwback Cody Thursday-- oh, we're still workshopping the name. Anyway, since it's nearly Thanksgiving in the United States, we thought we'd play you Cody's answer to the age-old question, is it better to use plastic or wood cutting boards? Bon appetit.
CODY GOUGH: Do you use plastic or wood cutting boards?
ASHLEY HAMER: This is a constant challenge because wood's so nice, but I feel like plastic is less germy.
CODY GOUGH: Well, you're about to find out if plastic is less germy.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, boy, I can't wait.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, if you cook anything on a cutting board, you've probably worried about cross-contamination with your food, which is like spreading around pathogens you don't want to eat. And raw or undercooked chicken especially comes to mind since it can transmit salmonella, which is an infectious bacteria that can do really bad stuff to you. But today, we're here to answer the age-old cutting board question, plastic or wood?
Researchers from UW Madison dug into the question, and they said it doesn't really make a difference. But that's not the whole story. So first, let's talk differences. Studies have shown that cuts on plastic boards cause deeper grooves than cuts on wooden boards. So while plastic is easier to sanitize like in the dishwasher, like you said, the plastic also has deeper scratches for the bacteria to hide in.
For wood boards, there's hardwoods and there are soft woods. Hardwoods like maple are fine-grained. And the capillary action of those screens pulls down fluid, which traps the bacteria and those are killed off as the board dries after cleaning. So hardwood, good. Soft words like cypress have larger grains, which means the wood can split apart and cause bacteria friendly grooves more easily. And so that's bad because then the bacteria have more places to live. So hardwood wins they're technically.
But at the end of the day, either cutting board safe as long as you know how to clean it. Because of the way different boards are cleaned, North Carolina State University food safety extension specialist Dr. Benjamin Chapman recommends plastic for meat and wood for fruit veggies and ready-to-eat foods. Throw that plastic cutting board into the dishwasher, and you're good to go. Research that's absolutely cutting-edge.
NATALIA REAGAN: Jealousy is never pleasant, but it doesn't always have to be a bad thing. In fact, jealous feelings can actually help maintain friendships, especially in the middle of a pandemic. Specifically, I'm talking about jealousy in friendships, not romantic relationships, the kind of jealous feelings you get when your best friend starts spending more time with a new crush or gets a new friend group at work.
In the past, most scientific studies have looked at these jealous feelings as a bad thing. And sure, some friendship jealousy can lead people to act controlling and try to monopolize their friend's time. Those kind of nasty behaviors are called friendguarding. And they happen across cultures and even across species. Horses, for instance, often end up biting or kicking other horses when they're jealous. But new research shows that some jealousy can actually be a helpful tool for maintaining friendships.
In one study, researchers asked participants, who their best friends were and what they like to do together? Then they asked, what it would feel like to lose the friendships or be replaced by another friend? They ask questions like, if your best friend started doing your favorite activity with another person instead of you, how would you feel? It's the kind of question that puts a lump in your throat just thinking about it, right?
As you might expect, people felt sadness and anger at the thought of losing a friend. But the thought of being replaced led to something else. That didn't make people as sad and angry, but it did make them feel incredibly jealous. In a follow-up experiment, the researchers focused on what people do in response to feeling friendship jealousy. And it wasn't all bad. They found that jealousy could actually make people commit to being better friends. Getting jealous can be a signal that your friendship is threatened. And a positive response is to jump into action and pay more attention to the friend you might have been ignoring. That's a good thing, especially as we continue to suffer from loneliness during COVID.
If you feel a pang of jealousy over your friends getting closer with others, it could be time to reach out and talk on the phone, set up a video chat, or take a socially distanced walk in the park. Reinvest in the friendship and thank the jealousy for the reminder.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right, well, let's do a quick recap of what we learned today.
NATALIA REAGAN: Well, we learned that even though silicon has the same basic ability to be the cornerstone of life on some planets, it's not perfect for life on Earth. It's a lot heftier than carbon and it makes well weaker bonds. Carbon is better suited for our oxygen-rich environment. And we know that silicon would potentially thrive on a planet where ammonia or methane are common elements. So I don't know. I mean, I guess people in Silicon Valley are not made of silicon, Ashley. I didn't-- I didn't realize. I feel pretty stupid. No.
ASHLEY HAMER: No. No, they're not. Several years ago, we actually had Seth Shostak on the show from SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, to answer a listener question about something very similar to this. And he had a great metaphor for why we look for life that's like ours. And it's basically like, if you're looking for your car, you're going to look in the parking lot. It's very possible that it's in the forest, but the most likely place is that you know cars are in parking lots.
And just like when we're looking for life on other planets, we know what a certain kind of life looks like. So we might as well look for that kind and not the kind that we don't really know exists.
NATALIA REAGAN: That make sense. Yeah, it's kind of like the Goldilocks planet idea. It works for us, so let's look for something like us.
ASHLEY HAMER: Exactly. I mean, it's totally possible that other things exist out there, but the most efficient way to search is for the things that we know about. And we learned that when it comes to making the cut, as in cutting boards, both plastic and wood are great options. Although, it's probably best to use plastic for meat and wood for fruit, veggies, and other ready-to-eat food. And you should also figure out how to clean each type of board.
I have a big beautiful wood carving board that I just got during lockdown. I'll use that for-- it's a carving board, so I use it for meat. But I also have a little one that's used for cheese boards and things like that. And then everything else that I have is plastic, which is honestly the thing I use the most because I think it's the easiest to clean.
NATALIA REAGAN: It is pretty easy to clean. And I've lived in New York for under four years. And I've moved 12 times because I'm a chronic subletter. I use whatever is in the place I'm living in.
ASHLEY HAMER: That is perfectly fine.
NATALIA REAGAN: So it's more about, I'm trying to not get more are things because if I don't know where-- I don't have roots yet. So we'll see. But I do love, I actually really do like big wooden carving boards. I don't eat meat, but I like plating food. It's almost like a giant plate. And you just salad over here.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
NATALIA REAGAN: Your little main meal here, and a little side dish there.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: And we all learned that jealousy can actually be healthy for relationships since it can inspire friends to be more attentive and reinvest in waning friendships. I really love this story. I love it when science takes a negative emotion and shows how it benefits us because I think a lot of times it's easy to get caught up in trying to prevent negative emotions, like you shouldn't feel jealous, you shouldn't feel angry. And they're all natural feelings. And they're there for a reason. If you just don't let them control you, they can actually be pretty good for you.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. I mean, it's a signal that something is wrong. It's almost like when you have pain in the body, when something hurts, you need to pay attention to it. And so if something's paining you in a friendship, maybe then you need to be a bit more attentive. And I see this could also work for romantic relationships, too. I mean, although, that gets a little stickier, but still it can maybe inspire you to, oh, let's spend more time together, let's try to do more-- sort of find activities where both of us get something out of it. I don't know. It's--
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah, or express yourself to your partner and say what you're missing. I mean, if you're getting jealous of other people maybe you're not getting enough compliments, maybe you don't feel appreciated enough. There are a lot of reasons for that. But it's just good to talk about.
NATALIA REAGAN: Today stories were written by Kelsey Donk, Cameron Duke, and Joanie Faletto, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonia Hodgson. Today's episode was edited by Jonathan McMichael, 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.