Learn about why scientists measured how hard babies kick in the womb; the difference in brain scans between people when they were reading a book versus listening to a podcast; and how long humans have thought farts were funny. 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: Scientists Have Measured How Hard Babies Kick in the Womb — https://curiosity.im/34wHJRA Brain Scans of People Reading and Listening to Podcasts Look the Same — https://curiosity.im/2ZKeFCt 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 scientists measured how hard babies kick in the womb; the difference in brain scans between people when they were reading a book versus listening to a podcast; and how long humans have thought farts were funny.
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:
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/your-brain-on-books-vs-podcasts-how-hard-babies-kick-in-the-womb-and-fart-humor-history
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 scientists measured how hard babies kick in the womb; and, the difference in brain scans between people when they were reading a book versus listening to a podcast. We’ll also answer a listener question about the history of fart humor.
CODY: Let’s clear the air on some curiosity.
Scientists Have Measured How Hard Babies Kick in the Womb — https://curiosity.im/34wHJRA (Ashley)
In a study that’s the first of its kind, scientists have published a study measuring how hard babies kick when they’re in the womb. And the force of a fetal kick is more than a fun fact — it’s also a way to figure out if a fetus is developing properly. Scientists have known for a while that those little kicks are important for well-formed bones and joints, because pregnancies with too little movement tend to be associated with skeletal abnormalities like scoliosis. Which is why researchers set out to answer the question: how much movement is the right amount? For a January 2018 study, a team of scientists gathered hundreds of fetal scans performed with a technology known as cine-MRI (that’s c-i-n-e), which records both internal features AND movement. From those scans, they chose 20 that depicted a full-blown kick. They also collected a half-dozen traditional MRI scans captured during different periods of gestation (20 weeks, 30 weeks, and 35 weeks) to help them analyze bone development. They used a computer program to track the movement of the leg joints as each fetus gave Mom a boot to the belly. Then, they created a model that simulated the forces involved when they took those movements and the strength of the uterine wall into account. From there, they were able to calculate the forces generated by the leg muscles and the stress and strain experienced by the bones and joints. And the team found that the brunt of a fetal kick topped out at 47 Newtons, or about 10 pounds of force. That's comparable to being punted by a small tangerine traveling at 60 miles an hour (or roughly 100 kilometers per hour). They also found that with every kick, the average displacement of the uterine wall was an impressive 0.4 inches (11 millimeters). These numbers changed throughout the pregnancy, and the strongest kicks happened between 20 and 30 weeks. The kicks got weaker later, probably because the fetus’ living space gets more cramped during later weeks, but the strain on the joints and muscles didn’t decrease — since, after all, the fetus has to use more muscle power to kick in that small space. And that means movement in later pregnancy is just as important to skeletal development as it is in earlier weeks — which has implications for babies born prematurely. But if you’re expecting, there’s no need to overanalyze it: physicians don’t generally recommend monitoring your baby's movement until around the 28th week. At that point, parents should just get a feel for what's normal and call a doctor if that changes. But otherwise, enjoy every kick! They're just the baby's way of getting in some exercise to strengthen those growing bones.
Brain Scans of People Reading and Listening to Podcasts Look the Same — https://curiosity.im/2ZKeFCt (from Sunday 9/22) (Cody)
STOP THE PRESSES. Brain scans of people reading and listening to podcasts look the same. Yes, new research shows that listening to something likely stimulates the same cognitive and emotional parts of the brain as reading it. Your entire podcast-listening existence has been justified. [ad lib]
CODY: As reported by Futurity, these findings open up new possibilities for understand our inner thoughts and narratives. And they also have practical implications for learning and speech disorders, like dyslexia. The findings were published in the Journal of Neuroscience in August 2019, and researchers used functional MRI machines to scan the brains of both listeners and readers. 9 volunteers each spent a couple of hours inside fMRI scanners; first they listened to, and then they read, stories from “The Moth Radio Hour,” while researchers measured their cerebral blood flow. Then the researchers matched the brain activity data against time-coded transcriptions of the stories, and fed the results to a computer. Then, they used statistical modeling to arrange thousands of words on maps according to their semantic relationships. So under the animals category, for example, you’d hear words like “bear,” “fish,” and “cat.” These maps covered at least a third of the cerebral cortex, and they helped the researchers accurately predict which words would activate which parts of the brain. The researchers were surprised with just how strong the similarities were in brain activity between the two different sensory modalities of hearing and reading. The maps created from those datasets were virtually identical. And you can actually see the results in an interactive, 3D color-coded map, which shows those word groupings like “animals” that I mentioned. We’ve got a link to that in our full write-up on this on curiosity-dot-com. And these maps could be used in clinical applications, like by comparing language processing in healthy people with those in people with injuries from a stroke, epilepsy, or brain injuries that impair speech. The semantic maps could also inform interventions for dyslexia, the neurodevelopmental language-processing disorder that impairs reading, and auditory processing disorders where people can’t distinguish the sounds or “phonemes” that make up words. Future mapping will include experiments with people who speak languages other than English, as well as with people who have languaged-based learning disorders.
[ARM & HAMMER]
ASHLEY: Today’s episode is sponsored by Arm & Hammer, and their new Cloud Control litter. You know what I love? My cat Aglet. I love [insert what you love most about a cat in your life: can be something in their personality, something you do together, some physical feature, anything!].
[ad lib literally all of this]
ASHLEY: You know what I don’t love? Cleaning up her litter box. Which is why Arm & Hammer created new Cloud Control litter. There's no cloud of nasties when I scoop ... it is 100% dust-free, free of heavy perfumes, and helps reduce airborne dander from scooping: So what happens in the litter box STAYS in the litter box.
CODY: New Cloud Control Cat Litter by Arm & Hammer. More Power to You.
Listener Question TBD (Ashley) (under ~300 words possible?)
ASHLEY: We got a listener question from Liz from Indianapolis, who starts out by saying “My question is weird, but it may help to know that I have twin three year olds at home, hence why this was on my mind. My question is, at what point did farts become funny to humans? Was it a part of human evolution, or is it cultural? It seems like other mammals simply treat gas as a normal bodily function, so I am curious if this shift happened when we evolved to become more human than animal. But my husband believes it may be due to cultural differences throughout the world - can you help us get to the bottom of this? It sure would be a relief. My puns aren’t as good as yours, but I wanted to give it a try!”
Your puns are a gas, Liz. And so is your question! To start with, let’s talk about a few scientific theories about what makes things funny. Two big ones are incongruity theory, which says that we find it funny when there’s a mismatch between our expectations and reality, and benign violation theory, which says humor arises from some harmless violation of a cultural norm. Theories like these explain why farts are funny: they’re a violation of proper manners, and they’re this noisy, smelly thing that you don’t expect to happen. But by that logic, farts would have to be a norm violation in every culture for every culture to find them funny — and that’s why in some places where people aren’t as offended by farts, like, say, China, people also aren’t as amused by them. So your husband wins this one: it’s cultural. But that being said, people have been finding farts funny in many cultures for a very, very long time. In fact, the oldest recorded joke, from Sumeria way back in 1900 BC, is a fart joke: quote, “Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.” Sure, it kind of stinks, but hey, we hadn’t had much practice writing jokes back then. Thanks for your question, Liz!
CODY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you can catch this weekend on curiosity-dot-com.
ASHLEY: This weekend, you’ll learn about a fake news detector you can use to test the authenticity of a news story;
Whether dark matter is hot or cold;
An insect bite that can make you allergic to red meat;
How blockchain could make digital interactions trustworthy again;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
CODY: Today we learned that being kicked by a fetus could be about as strong as getting hit by a tangerine flying at 60 miles per hour. But don’t blame the baby: those kicks help the development of bone and muscle joints.
ASHLEY: And that your brain might look the same whether you’re reading a book or listening to a podcast.
CODY: And that [listener question takeaway]
[ad lib optional]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. And have a great weekend! I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!