Learn about the truth behind harmful myths about sharks to help you celebrate Shark Week; the surprising purpose of the spiral on airplane engines; and how you can supercharge your relationships with research that shows you really do have a “type.” Please support this episode’s sponsor! Get your first month of KiwiCo FREE by visiting https://www.kiwico.com/curiosity 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: 5 Harmful Myths About Sharks — https://curiosity.im/2SD2W6F The Spiral on Airplane Engines Serves an Important Purpose — https://curiosity.im/2LsyHyG A New Study Suggests You Really Do Have a Type — https://curiosity.im/2JwwJed Today’s your last day to nominate Curiosity Daily for the 2019 Podcast Awards! Please vote for us in the categories of People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. Simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (voting in other categories optional) here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019 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 the truth behind harmful myths about sharks to help you celebrate Shark Week; the surprising purpose of the spiral on airplane engines; and how you can supercharge your relationships with research that shows you really do have a “type.”
Please support this episode’s sponsor! Get your first month of KiwiCo FREE by visiting https://www.kiwico.com/curiosity
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:
Today’s your last day to nominate Curiosity Daily for the 2019 Podcast Awards! Please vote for us in the categories of People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. Simply select Curiosity Daily from the drop-down menus (voting in other categories optional) here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-awards-2019
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/you-have-a-type-harmful-shark-myths-and-why-airplane-engines-have-spirals
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 the truth behind harmful myths about sharks; the surprising purpose of the spiral on airplane engines; and how you can supercharge your dating life with research that shows you really do have a “type.”
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
5 Harmful Myths About Sharks — https://curiosity.im/2SD2W6F (Cody)
Shark week is here! And while sharks are pretty cool predators, they fall prey to a few myths that don’t really do them any favors. So let’s reveal some shark truths. First off: sharks don’t have to swim nonstop to stay alive. Some fish breathe using what’s called ram ventilation. That’s where a fish needs to constantly swim to keep water ramming down its throat and out through its gills, and that’s one way most sharks breathe. But only a couple dozen species use that form of breathing alone. In addition to ram ventilation, sharks also can breathe using a thing called buccal [buckle] pumping. When they breathe with buccal pumping, muscles in their cheeks pull water into their mouths and out over their gills. With that method, some sharks can lie motionless on the seafloor. They may great at breathing, but smelling? Not so much. It’s a myth that sharks can smell blood from miles away. This was tested in 2010 by Dr. Tricia Meredith, who was an assistant research professor at Florida Atlantic University. She found that sharks couldn’t smell any better than a salmon could. When it comes to smell: they’re just fish. And speaking of smelling blood, it’s a myth that sharks hunt humans. Shark attacks are incredibly rare. There was an average of only about 77 attacks per year over the last decade, and less than 10 percent of those were fatal — and that’s worldwide. Your chances of being attacked by a shark while you’re in the water are 1 in 3.7 million. Yes, recorded shark attacks have been on the rise since the 1960s, but that’s because we have more people swimming in the ocean more often, and scientists are better at gathering data now. That’s all. Another shark myth is they don’t get cancer, which you may have read in the 1992 book literally titled “Sharks Don’t Get Cancer.” They do. And eating shark cartilage cannot fight cancer, either. That’s the more sinister part of this myth: shark populations are declining when the animals are hunted for their supposedly cancer-curing cartilage. Not to mention it’s dangerous for cancer patients who pass up effective treatment in favor of shark cartilage. Don’t do that. And if you want to combat overfishing, maybe pass on that next bowl of sharkfin soup, too. In 2012, researchers found that some shark-fin soup served here in the United States contained the fins from endangered species like scalloped hammerheads, smooth hammerheads, school sharks, and spiny dogfish. Americans who eat shark’s fin soup may be eating an endangered species without knowing it. So to celebrate sharks, maybe just watch Jaws again. Or, we hear there are some pretty good specials on the Discovery Channel this week. Plenty for you to sink your teeth into.
The Spiral on Airplane Engines Serves an Important Purpose — https://curiosity.im/2LsyHyG (runs Fri. 8/2) (Ashley) [FREELANCER]
If you've travelled on a commercial plane, you’ve probably noticed the spiral shape on the nose cone of the airplane engines. No, they’re not there for decoration — but you might be surprised to know what they ARE for. Some claim they also fend off birds, but there seems to be little clear evidence to suggest whether that’s effective at all. No, the real reason the spiral is there is to alert the ground crew as to when the engines are spinning.
Think about a ceiling fan; even though its blades are perfectly visible at rest, when you turn it on, they become a seemingly motionless blur. The same thing happens to engine turbines. Even at low rotation rates, it can be hard to tell whether they’re moving or not. At higher speeds, all visible movement stops and they turn into a dark and dangerous black hole. But that spiral turns into a bright white flicker that's easy to spot.
You'd think crews could just, you know… HEAR the engines, and use their ears to tell whether the engines are running. It’s not like airplane engines purr like a low-powered box fan. But there are a few reasons this option doesn’t really pan out. According to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, there could be several engines running at once near ground crew, plus they wear hearing protection, so it’s not always obvious which airplane is running, and which isn't. Knowing one from the other is literally a matter of life and death. For example, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner has a "hazard area" of 15 feet around its engine. That's because if you get any closer to the engine when it’s running, you could be sucked into the deadly blades, which has actually happened in the past. So that fun little spiral? It’s literally saving lives. Think about that next time you’re staring out the airport window waiting to board your plane.
[KIWICO]
CODY: Today’s episode is sponsored by KiwiCo. Our kids are the future, and it’s our job to prepare them for that.
ASHLEY: KiwiCo (KEY-WEE-COH) creates super cool hands-on projects for kids to make it fun to learn about science, technology, engineering, art, and math. You can choose from 7 lines of subscription boxes, like their Koala Crate for kids aged 3 to 4, or their Atlas Crate for kids aged 6 to 11. The contents are designed by experts and tested by kids.
CODY: And their Eureka Crate is designed for kids aged 14 to 104, so there’s fun (and learning) for the WHOLE family, no matter your age. Each box comes with all the supplies you need for that month’s project, along with detailed, easy-to-follow instructions, written for kids!
ASHLEY: You’ll also get an educational magazine to learn even more about that crate’s theme. This isn’t your average monthly subscription box. These are hands-on projects! [optional short one-liner / personal experience]
CODY: KiwiCo is a convenient, affordable way to encourage your children to be anything they want to be. There’s no commitment, you can cancel anytime. Monthly options start at $19.95 a month, including shipping. And as a Curiosity Daily listener, you can go to kiwico-dot-com-slash-CURIOSITY to get YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE.
ASHLEY: Every day counts when it comes to making a difference, so don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity! Again, go to kiwico-dot-com-slash-CURIOSITY and get YOUR FIRST MONTH FREE. That’s kiwico-dot-com-slash-CURIOSITY.
A New Study Suggests You Really Do Have a Type — https://curiosity.im/2JwwJed (Cody) [FREELANCER]
A new study suggests you really do really have a type. — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You’re definitely not alone in this, and you might even be able to use it to your advantage.
The study was published last month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and it used data from the German Family Panel Study. That’s a nine-year exploration of couple and family dynamics, involving thousands of teenagers, young adults, and middle-aged participants. The data included personality assessments ranking participants’ “Big Five” personality traits: as in, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
The study found significant consistency between the participant's current partners and their past partners. It also found that a participants’ current significant other often described him or herself in the same way as the participant's previous partners.
Past research has shown that it’s common for people to date partners who are similar to themselves, though it’s been a little unclear whether people consciously pair themselves with romantic partners who are similar to them, or whether these pairings are a result of shared environments like work or church.
In fact, some people are more likely to date people who are similar to themselves than others. The researchers found that a more neurotic person, for example, was more likely to date someone different from him or herself, while people who were high in agreeableness, extroversion, and openness to experience were more likely to date someone similar to themselves.
At the same time, the romantic partners of those high in extroversion and openness to experience were less similar to each other, meaning that people with these personality traits were less likely to "have a type."
So, if you find that you're having the same problems in a series of romantic relationships, it might be time to date someone who is not your type. On the flip side, what you learn from past relationships can be helpful when dating a similar partner in the future, for a more successful outcome. [ad lib]
ASHLEY: Before we recap what we learned today, we want to let you know that today is THE LAST DAY you can vote for Curiosity Daily in the 2019 Podcast Awards.
CODY: Yes, that’s right: after today, we will finally stop asking you to cast your vote. In case you’ve missed our instructions in the past, all you have to do is visit podcast-awards-dot-com, register to vote, and then find us in the categories of People’s Choice, Education, and Science & Medicine. Please vote if our podcast is your “type.” And now, let’s recap what we learned today.
ASHLEY: Today we learned that humans are the ones hunting sharks, not the other way around. And that sharkfin soup suddenly sounds a little less appealing.
CODY: And that airplane engines have spirals so ground crew can tell when a plane is turned on.
ASHLEY: And that you really do have a “type,” and that’s okay! It just means your past relationships were all a learning experience.
[ad lib]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!