Learn about why blinking communicates a lot more than you probably thought; why astronomers think Uranus is tipped over; and the story of "The Blood Countess," a female murderer who may have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Please support our sponsors! Visit skillshare.com/curiosity for two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. Start your two months now! 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: Your Blinks Communicate More Than You Think — https://curiosity.im/2swQXeP Astronomers May Have Discovered Why Uranus Is Tipped Over — https://curiosity.im/2sy9Fmk The Female Murderer Known as "The Blood Countess" May Have Inspired "Dracula" — https://curiosity.im/2swQrgL 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 about why blinking communicates a lot more than you probably thought; why astronomers think Uranus is tipped over; and the story of "The Blood Countess," a female murderer who may have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Please support our sponsors! Visit skillshare.com/curiosity for two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. Start your two months now!
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-uranus-is-sideways-what-blinking-means-and-the-blood-countess
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 about why blinking communicates a lot more than you probably thought; why astronomers think Uranus is tipped over; and the story of a female murderer who may have inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Your Blinks Communicate More Than You Think — https://curiosity.im/2swQXeP (Cody)
A recent study found that blinking is important when it comes to non-verbal communication. And when we're talking to someone, we subtly and subconsciously respond to the length of their blinks. Now, we’ve known for a while that humans blink the most during face-to-face conversation, and previous research has found that that blinking isn’t completely random. You blink subconsciously, sure, but you tend to do it toward the end of a conversation partner's "turn" in a chat. Researchers think it's part of lots of gestures, like nodding, that you use to signal you understand what someone is telling you. Blinking is like nonverbal shorthand for "Got it!".
But researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics had an idea: maybe not all blinks are created equal. As in, maybe short blinks and long blinks signal something different. So to test this theory, they had 35 people have a conversation with a digital avatar projected on a screen. The female figure would ask open-ended questions like “how was your weekend” and then she’d signal her listening by nodding and by blinking. Both of the avatar’s blinks lasted for less than a second; the short blink was 208 milliseconds, and the long blink was 607 milliseconds. That’s a VERY slight difference, which participants said they didn’t notice. But the length of the blinks actually had a measurable effect on the conversations. Short blinks led to longer, more detailed answers; long blinks prompted subjects to respond much more briefly. The researchers think this is because long blinks may signify understanding more strongly than short blinks. So if a short blink means "I'm following what you're saying," a long blink means, "I totally get it." This might be because long blinks read as more intentional; conscious blinking takes longer than instinctive blinking. More broadly, this study shows that we're always subconsciously interpreting each other's body language. And when a friend tells you someone "seemed to understand" or "seemed to be losing interest," but can't put their finger on exactly why, they may be talking about blinking without even knowing it. It’s one of those little details where you blink, and you miss it.
Astronomers May Have Discovered Why Uranus Is Tipped Over — https://curiosity.im/2sy9Fmk (Republished) (Ashley)
ASHLEY: Astronomers think they’ve figured out how Uranus got flipped on its side.
CODY: Wait, how can a planet be sideways if it’s in space? There’s no up or down in space.
ASHLEY: Well, most of the planets and moons in our solar system are more or less oriented in the same way. But Uranus is tilted on its side relative to the other planets, by about 98 degrees. And so are five of its moons. AND its magnetic field is lopsidedand doesn’t go out the poles.
CODY: Gotcha. Uranus is the black sheep of our solar system. WHO KNEW?
ASHLEY: Basically, yeah. Our solar system formed as this massive cloud of gas and dust that kept swirling around, until the sun formed in the center and everything swirling around it formed into the planets we know today. And the way the gas clouds rotated was passed onto the planets, so that’s why they’re mostly in the same orientation. EXCEPT Uranus. And as reported by The Conversation, researchers ran detailed computer simulations and may have an answer for why this is. The short answer is that something about twice the size of Earth slammed into the planet between 3 and 4 billion years ago. And researchers at Durham University came up with this number by running a bunch of smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations. That’s a computational method developed about 40 years ago, and it’s used in astrophysics, ballistics, oceanography, and volcanology. The researchers ran more than 50 different scenarios on a super computer, and that collision idea they came up with might explain some of the other weird properties of Uranus I mentioned, like the rotation of its moons and the sideways magnetic field. It might also explain another quirk of Uranus: it’s the only planet where heat from the interior doesn’t escape from its core. This study suggests that that thing twice the size of Earth that slammed into the planet was made of rock and ice. Because of the way it landed and how some of the material fell into Uranus’ core, it could have impacted the planet’s heat flow, alter its magnatic field, and even formed some of its moons that follow that sideways orientation. There’s never been a dedicated mission to Uranus — or Neptune, by the way — but maybe some day, we’ll get even more insights into what our mysterious neighbor has been up to.
[SKILLSHARE]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning community for creators. They offer more than 25,000 classes in design, business, and more, to help you discover countless ways to fuel your curiosity, creativity, and career. You can take classes in social media marketing, mobile photography, creative writing, or even illustration.
ASHLEY: Skillshare is there to keep you learning, thriving, and reaching your goals for the new year — whether you’re looking to discover a new passion, start a side hustle, or gain new professional skills. I’m always looking for ways to make my science writing sharper and more engaging, so I was overjoyed to see that Skillshare has a class called “Creative Nonfiction: Write Truth with Style” that’s taught by none other than Susan Orlean of The New Yorker. I’m learning from a true master of the craft, and I can do it in the comfort of my pajamas!
CODY: Skillshare’s classes are ALL taught by real experts in their field or public motivational speakers. And today, YOU can join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare with a special offer just for Curiosity Daily listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for free.
ASHLEY: That’s right, Skillshare is offering Curiosity Daily listeners two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. To sign up, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY. Again, go to Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY to start your two months now.
CODY: One more time, that’s Skillshare dot com slash CURIOSITY.
The Female Murderer Known as "The Blood Countess" May Have Inspired "Dracula" — https://curiosity.im/2swQrgL (Cody)
A female murderer may have been one of the main inspirations for Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Look, I know we’re not a true crime podcast, but this is an interesting little bit of history. So if you’re a fan of the genre, because buckle up, because you’re about to go on a wild ride. And we won’t get too graphic, but if you’ve got a weak stomach, then now’s your chance to tune out and join us again Sunday!
If not, then let’s talk about Elizabeth Bathory. She was born in 1560 in Transylvania to a family of Hungarian/Transylvanian nobility. Her uncle had been the King of Hungary, and her cousin Stephen Bathory was the Duke of Transylvania. When she was 15 years old, Bathory married Count Ferencz Nadasdy, a man affectionately known as the "Black Knight of Hungary." He was often off on business trips (a.k.a. war), and Bathory would ask for details of his gory adventures in letters. Allegedly, Bathory spent her downtime torturing and murdering peasants around her while he was away, sometimes with the help of elderly female accomplices. Some of her twisted habits included putting them outside up to their necks in ice water until they died, and beating them to the point where it was really hard to clean up because there was so much blood. I know I said I wouldn’t get too graphic, but this is like, the most mild stuff I can even mention without making my own skin crawl. Now, in Bathory’s defense, some of the ways she allegedly tortured and killed her victims were somewhat commonplace for this brutal time period. And there’s a chance she was kinda framed for all this. The Palatine of Hungary was George Thurzo, and historical evidence suggests he might’ve whipped up these tall tales to get Bathory in hot water with local church leaders — which happened. Thurzo produced evidence of some of this bad stuff, but Bathory never got to speak in her defense, and her family records were destroyed. So maybe she was framed, or maybe she was just a really bad person. But either way, I’m never gonna look at the Dracula story the same way again.
CODY: That’s all for today, but you can keep learning all weekend on curiosity-dot-com.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about…
The U.S. city with the most writers per capita in the nation;
Why supernovae sometimes result in zombie stars;
A recent study that suggests you may be able to change your personality;
The history of the original inhabitants of Japan;
And more!
CODY: If there’s something ELSE you’re curious about, then email your question to podcast-at-curiosity-dot-com. We might answer your question on a future episode!
ASHLEY: That’s podcast-at-curiosity-dot-com. Come hang out with us again Sunday on the award-winning Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Ashley Hamer.
CODY: And I’m Cody Gough. Have a great weekend!
ASHLEY: And stay curious!