Learn about how your schedule might be hurting your health, why the mantis shrimp is able to punch so hard without hurting itself, and who invented the aluminum can.
Learn about how your schedule might be hurting your health, why the mantis shrimp is able to punch so hard without hurting itself, and who invented the aluminum can.
Your Schedule Might be Hurting Your Health — Here's What to Do About It by Reuben Westmaas
The Mantis Shrimp Can Punch at 50 MPH Without Damage, and Now We Know Why by Grant Currin
Who invented the aluminum can? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Melissa)
Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-the-mantis-shrimp-can-punch-so-hard-without-damage
[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 you'll learn how your schedule might be hurting your health, why the mantis shrimp is able to punch crazy fast and hard without hurting itself, and who invented the aluminum can.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's satisfy some curiosity.
Happy Friday. What are you up to this weekend? If you plan to party all night and sleep past noon, great. I'm not the boss of you. But I am about to tell you why changing up your sleep schedule that drastically could do bad things to your health.
Womp, womp. Whether you're pulling an all-nighter at work or the party ain't leaving till 6:00 in the morning, you probably figure you know how to cope. A nap during the day and a couple of days of good sleep and you'll be back on track, right? Uh, no. A single night without sleep can affect you for a whole week. It can affect your memory, make it hard to focus, and boost your anxiety levels. These are particularly big problems for night shift workers.
A disproportionate number of industrial accidents occur before dawn, which could be related to that drop in cognitive ability. Night shift workers are also at higher risk of obesity, diabetes, and even cancer.
A study of mice highlighted exactly how crucial a reliable sleep schedule is to our health. Researchers programmed the lights in a mouse cage to sync with dawn and dusk for six days. But on the seventh day, they were turned on a full six hours early. The six days of normal light did nothing to offset the shock of that seventh day. The younger mice did OK, but the older mice definitely suffered.
After eight weeks of this schedule, 53% of the mice had died. The problem, in this case, is the lack of a reliable sleep schedule. Although night shifts are definitely worse for your health than day shifts, the real danger is trying to switch back and forth. And it's obviously not just shift work. Sleeping in over the weekend and then getting up at dawn on Monday can also be rough on your health.
So what can you do about it? Well, tip number one is to try to maintain a consistent bedtime and wake-up time. Yes, even on the weekends. And if you've got a schedule shake-up coming that you just can't avoid, try easing yourself into it by gradually shifting your sleep schedule and mealtimes. Finally, try to minimize your exposure to electronic light a few hours before you go to bed.
You can do this. I believe in you.
NATALIA REAGAN: Ashley, you're asking a lot.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] I'm sorry. I think this probably hit close to home for you, Natalia
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, man. Yeah. I don't like to go to sleep early at all. I definitely don't like waking up early. But man, I feel like every time I go to Burning Man this is why it takes three months for me to recover.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Remind me how many times you've been to Burning Man.
NATALIA REAGAN: I've been to Burning Man eight times now.
ASHLEY HAMER: Wow.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yeah. And they were consecutive. And I love it. But like you said, it really does throw your schedule off. Generally, you like to sleep when you get home at whatever, 7:00 AM.
That's when it's kind of cool hours. You take a nap then, then you're up a little bit in the afternoon. Then dusk, you take another nap. And then you burn the midnight oil. And yeah, it's something to get used to but--
ASHLEY HAMER: It does sound pretty awesome, though.
NATALIA REAGAN: So I call these guys swift and effective death machines, the mantis shrimp. The mantis shrimp are the featherweight champions of the sea floor. Their super tough claws can punch so fast that they vaporize water. Recently, researchers slid their claws under the microscope to figure out how the mantis shrimp can pack such a punch without hurting themselves. And the answer may benefit everything from aerospace engineering to football helmets.
Oh, yeah. So mantis shrimp are pretty tiny, but they're fearsome predators. They have two arms called dactyl clubs that they use to bludgeon their prey to death before they eat it. That's important because they usually go for prey with hard to crack shells like crabs, snails, or other mollusks. These appendages are incredible feats of evolutionary engineering.
During a strike, a mantis shrimp can move its dactyl club at 50 miles per hour or 80 kilometers per hour and land a punch that delivers 1,500 newtons of force without sustaining any apparent damage to itself. Wow. The researchers wanted to know how mantis shrimp do it, so they used high tech microscopes to take a nanoscale look at what the dactyl clubs are made of and how they're put together.
It turns out there are two intertwined materials, one organic, and one inorganic, that work together to protect the creature from its own strength. Such a little Hulk. The inorganic component is a series of calcium phosphate nanocrystals. They fit together sort of like messy LEGOs. And they're designed to break apart upon impact.
That might sound bad, but it actually strengthens the material by letting the energy dissipate. It's kind of like the way a car crumbles on impact to protect the passengers inside. Organic materials make up the other half of the equation, specifically proteins and polysaccharides. These are soft materials that help dampen the force of the blow. All of these materials are intertwined to create a pattern of tiny 3D shapes called bicontinuous spheres.
This incredible natural material outperforms most metals and advanced ceramics. Now that they figured out why the dactyl clubs are so durable, the team has turned its attention to creating their own protective coatings. Maybe in the future this research could make products like cars, airplanes, and football helmets a little tougher, all thanks to that swift and effective death machine called the mantis shrimp.
ASHLEY HAMER: We got a listener question, from Melissa, who writes, "My question is about aluminum cans. Why, when, and by whom were they invented? Who chose that material and design on the top of the can?" Let's crack open this question.
The aluminum can is actually a newcomer to the canned beverage game. The first beverage cans were made of tin, and they weren't for soda. They were for beer. Metal cans were lighter and easier to ship than glass, so there was a lot of appeal in making a metal beer can.
The first company to experiment with putting beer in cans was the American Can Company. Makes sense? But that first experiment in 1909 had pretty disastrous results. Ordinary tin cans just couldn't stand up to the pressure. Plus, beer reacts with metal, which gives the brew a metallic taste.
Eventually, the company built a sturdier steel can and gave its insides a protective coating. Finally, it was ready. The first canned beer to be sold in the US came from New Jersey's Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company in 1935. By the end of the year, 18 breweries were canning beer. But as you might imagine, steel cans were heavy and expensive, so breweries began to set their sights on a lighter, cheaper material.
In 1959, Coors created the first aluminum beverage container. Five years later, Royal Crown Cola, aka RC Cola, became the first to release a soft drink in aluminum. Most of these cans had flat tops that were sort of similar to the drink cans of today with one major difference, you had to punch your own hole to drink out of it using a tool known as a church key.
In 1959, an engineer named Ermal Cleon Fraze forgot his church key on a picnic and tried opening a can of beer on his car bumper. It didn't go so well. Cue the infomercial. "There has to be a better way." The story goes that he stayed up all night until he came up with the pull tab.
It was basically an aluminum ring attached to a [? prescored ?] tab in the can's lid that you could pull completely off to open the can. But because the tabs were removable, they posed a choking hazard. It wasn't until 1975 that we got Engr. Daniel Cudzik's stay tab, a tab that stays on the can after you pop open the top. And the rest is history, cold, carbonated delicious history. Thanks for your question. Melissa.
If you have a question, send It in to podcast@curiosity.com or leave us a voice mail at 312-596-5208.
NATALIA REAGAN: Before we recap what we learned today, here's a sneak peek at what you'll hear next week on Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Next week, you'll learn about three mythological creatures that were actually inspired by real fossils, how scientists teleported the real-time behavior of a real fish onto a robot fish, how to stop a jack-o'-lantern from spoiling, how cold the last Ice Age was, and more.
NATALIA REAGAN: You had me at robot fish, Ashley.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, yes. It's a very cool story. All right. So now let's recap what we learned today.
NATALIA REAGAN: Well, we learned that your schedule could be running you down. I know it's the weekend, and it's easy to burn the midnight oil tonight and sleep in tomorrow. But getting up at the crack of dawn on Monday is going to be hard on your old body. So perhaps consider keeping a more consistent sleep schedule so you can be nicer to your immune system. I'm not going to take this advice.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's fine. I'm going to be clear right now. I am a morning person. I am biased. I have an easier time with this.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, God. Yes, I remember you tweeted about the person that had the party that was going till 7:00 AM or 9:00 AM.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes.
NATALIA REAGAN: And I remember reading that and going, I'm that jerk. That's me. I'm the one at those parties. And--
ASHLEY HAMER: You're one of the people that left my apartment at 9:30 AM.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yes, Ashley. Yes, I am. I'm sorry.
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, I forgive you.
NATALIA REAGAN: Thank you.
ASHLEY HAMER: And we learned that scientists have discovered the secret to how the mantis shrimp doesn't sustain any injuries when it throws its wicked fast death punch. It's because of organic material, proteins and polysaccharides, and inorganic materials, calcium phosphate nanocrystals, that work in tandem to ensure this wee but mighty death machine can kill prey without getting hurt. And scientists can use what they've learned about the mantis shrimp's super strong dactyl clubs to improve helmets, cars, airplanes, all sorts of stuff.
NATALIA REAGAN: I love this. Mantis shrimp are some of my favorite animals out there.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're so cool. I feel like we're slowly doing the tour of all of Ashley's favorite animals because we did the anglerfish a few weeks ago.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, cool.
ASHLEY HAMER: And that was pretty cool, too. But the mantis shrimp can see a gazillion colors. And like we said, they can punch fast enough to vaporize water. They actually create light.
NATALIA REAGAN: Yes.
ASHLEY HAMER: --with their punch. It's wild.
NATALIA REAGAN: They punch so fast that if the punch doesn't kill the animal, the actual cavitation bubbles that they produce can kill it because they're so hot. And then also I think they have 16 cones in their eyes. I mean, they can see infrared light and UV. I mean, they are aliens. And oh. And they're also called thumb splitters.
ASHLEY HAMER: Thumb splitters?
NATALIA REAGAN: Because they will split your thumb if you get punched. And they actually cannot keep them in glass tanks because they will break the glass. So they keep them in super strong plastic tanks. I mean, that's how cool these shrimp are.
ASHLEY HAMER: And then on top of all of that, they are very fashionable dressers.
NATALIA REAGAN: Oh, they're gorgeous. The peacock mantis shrimp get out of dodge, so hot. I mean, that shrimp would do well at Burning Man.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES] Perfect. We get Otzi the Iceman, a mantis shrimp. It's a party.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, it's a party.
NATALIA REAGAN: And we learned that aluminum cans came after beer companies, use two other varieties of metal cans, tin and steel. But it was Coors who finally came up with a lightweight aluminum can, and we can thank them for it. The first soda to use an aluminum can, RC Cola. And I don't know about you, Ashley, but I really want to know who was the first person to crush an aluminum can on their forehead.
ASHLEY HAMER: I mean, I think this is just evidence that younger generations are getting weaker because smashing a steel can on your forehead-- now that is strength.
NATALIA REAGAN: [LAUGHS] Yeah. That's not your millennial's White Claw right there. Uh-uh. Wow.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, it is not.
NATALIA REAGAN: Ow. Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, actually, I went antiquing this weekend. Not a big antiquer but I live in a neighborhood with tons of antique stores. And I decided to finally see what they were all about. And I went into the store that had tons and tons and tons of bins of antique beer cans. After I'd written this story--
NATALIA REAGAN: That's so cool.
ASHLEY HAMER: --I got to look at all these beer cans. And they all have their little church key openings. And yeah, it's so cool to just see the history of this container. It's really neat.
NATALIA REAGAN: Aw, it's really-- oh, I love that. Look at you-- [SIGHS] full circle.
Today's stories were written by Ashley Hamer, Grant Currin, Reuben Westmaas, and edited by Ashley Hamer, who's the managing editor for Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Scriptwriting was by Natalia Reagan and Sonja Hodgen. Today's episode was edited by me, Ashley Hamer. And our producer is Cody Gough.
NATALIA REAGAN: Have a great weekend, get some sleep, and join us again on Monday to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY HAMER: And until then, stay curious.
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