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: More Than a Quadrillion Tons of Diamonds Might Be Hiding Deep Underground There's a Biological Reason It's Hard to Hit the Gym After a Long Day at Work 6 Questions You've Always Had About Air Travel, Answered There are a ton of fascinating mechanisms at play between the body and the brain, and you can learn about many of them in our interview with Alex Hutchinson on The Curiosity Podcast or in his book "Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance." We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase, Curiosity will get a share of the sale. Learn about these topics and more onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
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:
There are a ton of fascinating mechanisms at play between the body and the brain, and you can learn about many of them in our interview with Alex Hutchinson on The Curiosity Podcast or in his book "Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance." We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-youre-tired-after-work-air-travel-question-answers-and-a-quadrillion-tons-of-diamonds
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you'll learn about the biological reason why it's hard to hit the gym after work, where you might be able to find a quadrillion tons of diamonds, and we'll answer your burning questions about air travel.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. Ashley, are you a diamond person?
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm not. You know what I think is really cool? It's meteorites. Like meteorite jewelry? That's so cool, and it's also really rare.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. That makes sense.
ASHLEY HAMER: More rare than diamonds, I think.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Because diamonds are kind of artificially rare, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Exactly.
CODY GOUGH: It's all a marketing ploy in the diamond industry.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's all about meteorites.
CODY GOUGH: We won't get into conspiracy theories though. But today we do have a quirky story about diamonds. If you are a diamond person, you want to listen to this. There might be more than a quadrillion tons of diamonds deep under the Earth's surface. That's a 1 followed by 15 zeros.
Geological scientists noticed something strange in their seismic data when they were measuring cratons. These are the foundations of the foundations under your feet. Cratons are giant masses of heat-resistant stone that carry the continental plates on top.
Well, geologists noticed that whenever a major vibrational wave passed through the roots of a craton, it seemed to move faster than it should be able to. So researchers built a 3D map of seismic events and the velocities of the waves they pushed through the cratonic roots. They developed computer models to figure out how sound waves would interact with different types of rock, and they realized only one type of stone produced the same types of velocities, diamonds.
According to the team's calculations, the roots of the cratons would only have to be about 1% to 2% diamond to produce the sound-boosting effect. There's also a thing called kimberlite pipes. These are channels of stone, and they've been known to erupt diamonds from time to time. They're also known to connect directly to the roots of the cratons far, far underground. And in that case, it just makes sense to think that there might be a reliable source of diamond creating pressure down at the very bottom of the bottom of the Earth. So if you're looking for diamonds, start digging?
ASHLEY HAMER: No one has ever dug that far. That's for sure.
CODY GOUGH: But hey, there's a first time for everything, right?
ASHLEY HAMER: It really is. Cody, when do you like to work out?
CODY GOUGH: When do I like to work out?
ASHLEY HAMER: When do you usually work out during the day?
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GOUGH: When I work out, I work out after work.
ASHLEY HAMER: I just can't, man. I can't.
CODY GOUGH: Really hard to go sometimes. Some days I get home, and I'm just like, I can't even imagine doing anything active right right.
ASHLEY HAMER: You just want to zone out. And I actually found out that there is a biological reason for that. It's not just that you're wiped and you don't feel like doing anything. Research shows that mental fatigue really actually leads to physical fatigue.
So here's the science. Back in 2009, researchers at Bangor University in Wales put participants on a stationary bike after either spending 90 minutes doing a mentally demanding computer exercise or watching a documentary. Those who did the computer exercise reported feeling like they had to work harder and weren't able to pedal as long as those who had watched the film. The team concluded that mental fatigue reduces physical endurance because it increases your perception of effort. But why?
Well, according to a new study, there may be a chemical to blame, a metabolite called adenosine. When you do something mentally taxing, your brain burns through glucose, which is the sugary chemical it uses for fuel. As glucose levels drop, levels of adenosine rise. And that blocks the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
You might know dopamine is a feel-good brain chemical, and it is. But it also plays a big role in goal-seeking behavior. When dopamine can't do its thing, you end up feeling not only worse overall, but also less motivated to complete a task. So when you have a hard work day, you burn through glucose, which leads to a rise in adenosine, which blocks dopamine and makes every physical task feel more difficult.
The good news is, caffeine can help. Researchers say caffeine can not only boost your alertness, but it can block your brain's receptors for adenosine to keep that chemical at bay. Combine caffeine with carbs, and you just might make it through a trip to the gym after a tough work day.
CODY GOUGH: Or you can work out in the morning like you do.
ASHLEY HAMER: Like I do.
CODY GOUGH: That I'm incapable of doing.
ASHLEY HAMER: Hey, not everyone's a morning person.
CODY GOUGH: That's definitely not me.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: Ashley and I have not done a ton of air traveling this summer. Oh, you flew to New York.
ASHLEY HAMER: I did. I went to New York, and I went to Barbados earlier in the year. I got a little bit.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah. Actually a lot more than me. Miss, I haven't been to that many foreign countries.
ASHLEY HAMER: I know.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GOUGH: Well, for those of you who have been in and out of airports this year, we've got some answers for you to some of the most common air travel questions. First up, why do planes still have ashtrays? If you've noticed, most planes still do have ashtrays in the lavatory doors or near the galley even though it's illegal to smoke cigarettes on most, if not all, airplanes.
Well, the answer is pretty simple. They're there in case someone lights up a cigarette even by mistake. This provides a safe place to extinguish the flame because throwing a lit cigarette into a trash can, that could pose a bit of a fire hazard.
ASHLEY HAMER: Here's another common question. What are the colored lights on airplane wings mean? You'll find a red light on the left wing tip and a green light on the right wing tip. White lights are usually located on or near the tail. These lights are known as navigation or position lights, and they let others know where the plane is and which direction it's flying. Aircraft can also have something called logo lights on the tail, which show off an airline's logo and are used for identification on the ground and in the air. These standardized lighting systems make it easy for a pilot to know the location and direction of any plane he or she encounters.
CODY GOUGH: So if you really like the color green, you should sit on the right side of the plane.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yes. [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: We've got more questions and answers in our full write-up today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But here's one more. What are the white trails planes leave in the sky? It's normal, and it's not pollution.
The white contrails, is what they're called, happen when humid air coming from the engines mixes with cold, dry air at altitude. And that creates ice crystals. The reason water vapor comes from some planes but not others is dependent on the moisture content of the air the plane is flying through. A massive 2016 study found no evidence that these trails are anything more than water vapor. So you can breathe easy.
ASHLEY HAMER: They're not chem trails.
CODY GOUGH: There are conspiracy theories out there that we won't get into. But no. They are not mind-control trails.
ASHLEY HAMER: Not population control? Not anything like that?
CODY GOUGH: Nope. You can find links to everything we talked about today in the show notes of today's episode, or get all of our latest and greatest stories delivered straight to your inbox every day by subscribing to our email newsletter. Visit curiosity.com/email to sign up. We highly encourage it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Read about these stories and more today on curiosity.com.
CODY GOUGH: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Stay curious.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.