Curiosity Weekly

Learn about why deadhead logs so rare and valuable, people actually risk their lives looking for them, from author and TV host Kevin O’Connor. Then, we’ll answer a listener question about why you feel tired after you take a long trip.

Additional resources from This Old House host Kevin O’Connor:

• From This Old House, Clearstory is a podcast that sheds light on the surprising stories behind our homes — https://www.thisoldhouse.com/clearstory
• More about This Old House — https://www.thisoldhouse.com/
• Follow @KevinOConnorTOH on Twitter — https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorTOH
• Follow @ThisOldHouse on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ThisOldHouse
• This Old House on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/user/thisoldhouse

Why Traveling Makes You Tired by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Samuel in London)

• University of Tsukuba. "Why do we fall asleep when bored?." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 September 2017. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170929093400.htm
• Snooze mobiles: how vibrations in cars make drivers sleepy | RMIT University https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2018/jul/vibrations-cars-drivers-sleepy
• Lawrence E. Armstrong, Matthew S. Ganio, Douglas J. Casa, Elaine C. Lee, Brendon P. McDermott, Jennifer F. Klau, Liliana Jimenez, Laurent Le Bellego, Emmanuel Chevillotte, Harris R. Lieberman, Mild Dehydration Affects Mood in Healthy Young Women, The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 142, Issue 2, February 2012, Pages 382–388, https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.111.142000

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-deadhead-logs-are-so-rare-and-valuable-w-kevin-oconnor-and-why-traveling-makes-you-tired

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Learn about common mistakes people make in the shower. Then, learn about the history and science of the two-by-four from author Kevin O’Connor, host of the home renovation television series This Old House.

5 Common Mistakes People Make In The Shower by Anna Todd

http://www.curiosity.com/topics/5-common-mistakes-people-make-in-the-shower-curiosity

Additional resources from This Old House host Kevin O’Connor:

• From This Old House, Clearstory is a podcast that sheds light on the surprising stories behind our homes — https://www.thisoldhouse.com/clearstory
• More about This Old House — https://www.thisoldhouse.com/
• Follow @KevinOConnorTOH on Twitter — https://twitter.com/KevinOConnorTOH
• Follow @ThisOldHouse on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ThisOldHouse
• This Old House on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/user/thisoldhouse

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-invention-of-the-two-by-four-w-kevin-oconnor-and-common-mistakes-you-make-in-the-shower

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Learn about why an overheard phone conversation is so distracting; how big or small a black hole can get; and why you should definitely tell your anesthesiologist if you smoke marijuana.

Why an Overheard Phone Conversation Is so Incredibly Distracting by Anna Todd

https://curiosity.com/topics/why-an-overheard-phone-conversation-is-so-incredibly-distracting-curiosity

How Big (or Small) Can a Black Hole Get? by Matthew Francis

https://curiosity.com/topics/how-big-or-small-can-a-black-hole-get-curiosity

Why You Should Definitely Tell Your Anesthesiologist If You Smoke Marijuana by Ashley Hamer

https://curiosity.com/topics/why-you-should-definitely-tell-your-anesthesiologist-if-you-smoke-marijuana-curiosity

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-overheard-phone-conversations-are-so-distracting-how-big-black-holes-get-and-why-anesthesia-is-risky-on-marijuana

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Learn about why we actually learn better from success than failure; why ravens are so smart, they’re making us re-think the way brains work; and why reaching a temperature of absolute zero is absolutely impossible.

You Learn Better from Success than Failure by Kelsey Donk

• Do We Really Learn From Our Mistakes? | Association for Psychological Science — https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/do-we-really-learn-from-our-mistakes.html
• Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2019). Not Learning From Failure—the Greatest Failure of All. Psychological Science, 30(12), 1733–1744. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619881133

Ravens Can Plan Ahead Just As Well As Apes Can by Ashley Hamer

https://curiosity.com/topics/ravens-can-plan-ahead-just-as-well-as-apes-can-curiosity

It's Finally Settled: Absolute Zero Is Impossible by Joanie Faletto

https://curiosity.com/topics/its-finally-settled-absolute-zero-is-impossible-curiosity

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/you-learn-better-from-success-than-failure-ravens-plan-ahead-and-absolute-zero-is-impossible

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Learn about a trick for conquering sadness by thinking of it as a person; how Neanderthals may have releived their pain with a familiar drug; and the surprising science of how cows each use a unique “voice” to talk to each other.

Think of Sadness as a Person by Kelsey Donk

• How can you conquer ordinary, everyday sadness? Think of it as a person | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/08/how-can-you-conquer-ordinary-everyday-sadness-think-of-it-as-a-person
• Chen, F., Chen, R.P. and Yang, L. (2020), When Sadness Comes Alive, Will It Be Less Painful? The Effects of Anthropomorphic Thinking on Sadness Regulation and Consumption. J Consum Psychol. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jcpy.1137

Neanderthals Treated Pain With A Form Of Aspirin by Ashley Hamer https://curiosity.com/topics/neanderthals-treated-pain-with-a-form-of-aspirin-curiosity

Cow Voices by Kelsey Donk

• Stand out from the herd: How cows commoonicate through their lives | EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/uos-sof121719.php
• Green, A., Clark, C., Favaro, L. et al. Vocal individuality of Holstein-Friesian cattle is maintained across putatively positive and negative farming contexts. Sci Rep 9, 18468 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54968-4

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/think-of-sadness-as-a-person-neanderthals-using-aspirin-and-cow-voices

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Learn about how AI and Twitter could help you find the perfect job, and how the world is actually a greener place than it was 20 years ago. We’ll also answer a listener question about why we use the color “blue” to say we’re sad.

Job-Matching with Your Tweets by Kelsey Donk

Sources:

• Robot career advisor: AI may soon be able to analyse your tweets to match you to a job | The Conversation — https://theconversation.com/robot-career-advisor-ai-may-soon-be-able-to-analyse-your-tweets-to-match-you-to-a-job-128777
• The Vocation Map (interactive) | Marian-Andrei Rizoiu — http://www.rizoiu.eu/documents/research/resources/Vocation_Map_Interactive.html
• Social media-predicted personality traits and values can help match people to their ideal jobs | PNAS December 26, 2019 116 (52) 26459-26464; first published December 16, 2019 — https://www.pnas.org/content/116/52/26459

Earth Is Greener Than Before by Kelsey Donk

Sources:

• Human Activity in China and India Dominates the Greening of Earth, NASA Study Shows | NASA — https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/human-activity-in-china-and-india-dominates-the-greening-of-earth-nasa-study-shows
• China and India lead in greening of the world through land-use management | Chen, C., Park, T., Wang, X. et al. China and India lead in greening of the world through land-use management. Nat Sustain 2, 122–129 (2019) doi:10.1038/s41893-019-0220-7 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-019-0220-7

Story 3 by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Becky and Britni)

Sources:

• Chaucer and the Country of the Stars: Poetic Uses of Astrological Imagery — https://curiosity.im/2NOyLIB
• blue (adj.1) | Online Etymology Dictionary — https://www.etymonline.com/word/blue?ref=etymonline_crossreference#etymonline_v_13636
• Drunk and dirty | BBC — http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/lost_for_words/german/drunk_and_dirty.shtml
• Philip, Gill. (2006). Connotative Meaning in English and Italian Colour-Word Metaphors. Metaphorik. 10. — https://www.researchgate.net/publication/44707159_Connotative_Meaning_in_English_and_Italian_Colour-Word_Metaphors

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com to learn something new every day! You can also hear Discovery’s Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/earth-is-greener-than-before-job-matching-with-your-tweets-and-why-blue-means-sad

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Learn about how most of the world’s lying comes from a small group of people; an invisible dye that stores vaccine history in the skin; and how language shows us that the ways we feel emotions are not universal.

Most Lying Is Done by a Few People by Steffie Drucker

Sources:

• Men think they're better liars | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/uop-mtt122019.php
• Lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liars | PLOS — https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0225566

Storing Vaccine History with Invisible Dye by Mae Rice

Sources:

• Storing medical information below the skin's surface | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/miot-smi121619.php
• Medical history that’s skin deep | Cosmos — https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/medical-history-that-s-skin-deep
• Biocompatible near-infrared quantum dots delivered to the skin by microneedle patches record vaccination | Science Translational Medicine Vol. 11, Issue 523, eaay7162 — https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/11/523/eaay7162

Emotion Words Vary Across Cultures by Kelsey Donk

Sources:

• Words to express emotion vary greatly in their meanings across languages | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/aaft-wte121619.php
• Mapping words reveals emotional diversity | Science, 20 Dec 2019: Vol. 366, Issue 6472, pp. 1444-1445 — https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6472/1444
• Emotion semantics show both cultural variation and universal structure | Science, 20 Dec 2019: Vol. 366, Issue 6472, pp. 1517-1522 — https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/366/6472/1517.full.pdf

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com to learn something new every day! You can also hear Discovery’s Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/most-lying-is-done-by-a-few-people-storing-vaccine-history-with-invisible-dye-and-emotion-words-vary-across-cultures

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Learn about how being a patron of the arts could help you live longer; an upcoming supernova we may be able to see with the naked eye; and the superhuman speed of bird vision.

Live Longer by Appreciating Art by Kelsey Donk

Sources:

• Engaging with the arts linked to longer life | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/b-ewt121619.php
• The art of life and death: 14 year follow-up analyses of associations between arts engagement and mortality in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing | BMJ 2019;367:l6377 — https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6377

Betelgeuse Might Go Supernova by Steffie Drucker

Sources:

• Just a Fainting Spell? Or Is Betelgeuse About to Blow? | The New York Times — https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/science/astronomy-supernova-betelgeuse.html
• Might there soon be a supernova near Earth? | The Economist — https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2020/01/09/might-there-soon-be-a-supernova-near-earth
• The Last Supernova: 400-Year-Old Explosion Imaged | Space.com — https://www.space.com/412-supernova-400-year-explosion-imaged.html

The Freaky-Fast Vision of Birds of Prey by Kelsey Donk

Sources:

• Falcons see prey at speed of Formula 1 car | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/lu-fsp122019.php
• Flicker fusion threshold | Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold
• How fast can raptors see? | Journal of Experimental Biology — https://jeb.biologists.org/content/early/2019/12/06/jeb.209031

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com to learn something new every day! You can also hear Discovery’s Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/live-longer-by-appreciating-art-betelgeuse-might-go-supernova-and-birds-freaky-fast-vision

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Learn about how the 1987 Montreal Protocol inadvertently slowed global warming; where you can find giant Sequoias, the biggest lifeforms on the planet; and some pro tips from the Harvard Business Review on how to avoid distractions at work.

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following story from Curiosity.com about how giant sequoias are the biggest lifeforms on the planet: https://curiosity.com/topics/giant-sequoias-are-the-biggest-lifeforms-on-the-planet-curiosity

Additional sources:

• How saving the ozone layer in 1987 slowed global warming | EurekAlert! — https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-12/uons-hst120519.php
• Reduction in surface climate change achieved by the 1987 Montreal Protocol | Environmental Research Letters — https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4874
• 10 Quick Tips for Avoiding Distractions at Work | Harvard Business Review — https://hbr.org/2019/12/10-quick-tips-for-avoiding-distractions-at-work
• Have Dovico Timesheet Bring Me to the Last View I Was In | Dovico — http://www.dovico.com/article_time_management_facts_figures.aspx

Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/saving-the-ozone-layer-slowed-climate-change-the-largest-lifeforms-on-earth-and-tips-for-avoiding-distractions-at-work

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Learn about why paying it forward has very real effects; musical animals that could help us understand how speech evolved in humans; and newly announced names for exoplanets that were crowdsourced from people just like you.

Sources:

• Small acts of kindness at work benefit the giver, the receiver and the whole organisation | The British Psychological Society — https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/07/04/small-acts-of-kindness-at-work-benefit-the-giver-the-receiver-and-the-whole-organisation/
• Everyday prosociality in the workplace: The reinforcing benefits of giving, getting, and glimpsing. | APA PsycNET — https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-24716-001
• Wild gorillas compose happy songs that they hum during meals | New Scientist — https://www.newscientist.com/article/2078781-wild-gorillas-compose-happy-songs-that-they-hum-during-meals/
• Food-Associated Calling in Gorillas (Gorilla g. gorilla) in the Wild | PLOS ONE — https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0144197
• 100 000s of People from 112 Countries Select Names for Exoplanet Systems In Celebration of IAU’s 100th Anniversary | International Astronomical Union — https://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1912/
• Approved names | IAU100 — http://www.nameexoworlds.iau.org/final-results
• Dillingham woman chosen to name star and exoplanet | Anchorage Daily News — https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/science/2019/12/18/woman-from-dillingham-names-intergalactic-star-and-planet-after-alaska-rivers/
• Proposers | IAU100 — http://www.nameexoworlds.iau.org/proposers

Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing! Just click or tap “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/real-effects-of-paying-it-forward-gorillas-humming-food-songs-and-new-crowdsourced-exoplanet-names

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