Curiosity Weekly

Today, we’re hearing from an explorer's explorer, Victor Vescovo. His Five Deeps Expedition made him the first person to reach the deepest point of the Atlantic, Southern Ocean, and set a depth record in the Mariana Trench at 35,853 ft. He was the first person to reach the Mollow Deep in the Arctic Ocean, and thus has been to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd deepest points in the ocean.

• Victor Vescovo Interview from 4/23/22

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with  Calli and  Nate  — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-explorers-club-an-interview-with-victor-vescovo

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Today, you’ll learn about how a drug that helps in human organ transplants might be able to extend the lives of man’s best friend, the airline industry's potential but difficult switch to hydrogen fuel, and how a high school student is transforming prosthetics with brain waves.

All dogs go to heaven.

• “New Drug May Help Dogs Live Longer” by Naomi Ruchim
  • https://www.krtv.com/news/u-s-and-the-world/new-drug-may-help-dogs-live-longer
• “A Drug Discovered on Easter Island May Help Dogs Live up to Three Years Longer” by Tod Perry
  • https://www.upworthy.com/a-drug-discovered-on-easter-island-may-help-dogs-live-up-to-three-years-longer?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2
• “Rapamycin’s Secrets Unearthed” by Bethany Halford
  • https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i29/Rapamycins-Secrets-Unearthed.html

Planes, planes, planes.

• “The epic attempts to power planes with hydrogen” by Mark Piesing
  • bbc.com/future/article/20220316-the-epic-attempts-to-power-planes-with-hydrogen
• “How close are hydrogen planes, really?” By Sabri Ben-Achour
  • https://www.marketplace.org/2021/10/28/how-close-are-hydrogen-planes-really/
• “Hydrogen Explained” By US Energy Information Administration
  • https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydrogen/use-of-hydrogen.php

Mind over matter.

• “This High Schooler Invented a Low-Cost, Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm” by Margaret Osborne
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-high-schooler-invented-a-low-cost-mind-controlled-prosthetic-arm-180979984/
• “High Schooler Invents Affordable, Mind-Controlled Prosthetic Arm” by Adrianna Nine
  • https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/335384-high-schooler-invents-affordable-mind-controlled-prosthetic-arm
• “Creating a Working Brain-Controlled Transhumeral Prosthetic Arm (Make It Move)” by Benjamin Choi
  • https://www.instructables.com/Creating-a-Working-Brain-Controlled-Transhumeral-P/

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/rapamycin-for-rover-h-fueled-flight-mind-controlled-arms

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Today, you’ll learn about whether the cyanide in apple seeds could do you any real harm, how working out in the morning and at night are both beneficial but in different ways, and how researchers have found evidence that patients with long Covid may often have fragments of the virus lingering in their gut.

Snow White wasn’t far off with the poisonous apple.

• “Can Apple Seeds Cause Cyanide Poisoning? A Toxicologist Digs Into The Details” by Elana Spivack
  • https://www.inverse.com/science/stone-fruits-poisonous-seeds
• “Here’s How Many Apple Cores It Would Take to Poison You” by Jennifer Chaussee
  • https://www.wired.com/2016/09/heres-many-apple-cores-take-poison

What time should I work out?

“Is It Better to Exercise in the Morning or Evening?" by Gretchen Reynolds

●  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/well/exercise-timing.html

“This is the Best Time of Day to Work Out, According to Science" by Jamie Ducharme

●  https://time.com/5533388/best-time-to-exercise/

An even scarier kind of ghost?

• “Coronavirus ‘ghosts’ found lingering in the gut” by Heidi Ledford
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01280-3
• “‘Ghosts’ In The Gut May Be Behind Long COVID” by Dr. Katie Spalding
  • https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/ghosts-in-the-gut-may-be-behind-long-covid/
• “How the coronavirus infects cells — and why Delta is so dangerous” by Megan Scudellari
  • https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02039-y

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/cyanide-seeds-workout-when-covid-but-ghosts

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Today, we are lucky enough to hear from a highly accomplished explorer who has some incredible experiences to share with us. Dr. Sian Proctor was the mission pilot for the Inspiration4, which is the all-civilian orbital mission to space and she’s the first African American woman to pilot a spacecraft. She also lived in a Mars analog environment to simulate what it might be like to live on the red planet.

• Sian Proctor Interview from 4/23/22
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sian_Proctor
• https://www.drsianproctor.com/

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-explorers-club-an-interview-with-sian-proctor

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Today, you’ll learn about how high blood pressure can reduce the gray matter in your brain, why scientists think the surface of Mercury is covered in diamonds, and how while we have gene pairs from both parents, our bodies will use one parent’s gene over the other’s depending on the circumstances.

50 Shades of Gray Matter

• “Study: An Early Spike in Blood Pressure Can Pummel Your Brain” by Nick Keppler
  • https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/high-blood-pressure-brain-health
• “10 Ways to Control High Blood Pressure Without Medication” by Mayo Clinic Staff
  • https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/in-depth/high-blood-pressure/art-20046974

Diamonds a Plenty

• “Diamonds may stud Mercury’s crust” by Nikk Ogasa
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mercury-diamond-surface-crust-meteorite-impact-graphite
• “Mercury Could Be Littered With Diamonds” by Ramin Skibba
  • https://www.wired.com/story/mercury-could-be-littered-with-diamonds/
• “Diamonds Unearthed” by Cate Lineberry
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/diamonds-unearthed-141629226/

Mom and dad genes aren’t just at the mall.

• “Parental Control: How Genes From Mom Or Dad Shape Behavior” by Jennifer Michalowski
  • https://healthcare.utah.edu/publicaffairs/news/2022/03/genes-behavior.php
• “Researchers uncover how parent’s genes shape behavior, parental controls”
  • https://theprint.in/features/researchers-uncover-how-parents-genes-shape-behavior-parental-controls/941227/
• “Brain Basics: Genes At Work In The Brain” by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/patient-caregiver-education/brain-basics-genes-work-brain

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/blood-pressures-mercurys-crusty-diamonds-dad-or-mom-genes

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Today, you’ll learn about how orangutans use slang a lot like we do, what causes and can alleviate everyday motion sickness, and how one black hole kicked another across the galaxy.

Orangutans are dope.

• “Orangutans use Slang to Show off Their “Coolness”, Study Suggests" by Nicola Davis
  • https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/21/orangutans-use-slang-to-show-off-their-coolness-study-suggests
• “Orangutan Squeaks Reveal Language Evolution Says Study" by Victoria Gill
  • https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38907681
• “What did Language Grow From? Ape Hands, Mouths, or Both? – Kristen Marie Gillespie-Lynch, Emily Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, Heidi Lyn, and Patricia Greenfield
  • https://kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frym.2019.00061
• “Apes Communicate, Humans Have Language" by Max Planck Institute
  • https://www.cbs.mpg.de/research-topics/language-interview

A solution beyond not looking at your phone.

• “How To Fight Motion Sickness — And The Scientific Reason Some People Suffer More” By Saima Rajasingam
  • https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/motion-sickness-treatment
• “A study of cybersickness and sensory conflict theory using a motion-coupled virtual reality system” by Adrian K.T. Ng, Leith K.Y. Chan, Henry Y.K. Lau
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141938218300301

Soccer but with black holes.

• “Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’” By Emily Conover
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-gravitational-waves-kick-ligo-merger-spacetime
• “A black hole formed by a lopsided merger may have gone rogue” By Robert Lea
  • https://www.space.com/black-hole-escaping-galaxy-from-collision
• “Ripples in spacetime: Science's 2016 Breakthrough of the Year” by Adrian Cho
  • https://www.science.org/content/article/ripples-spacetime-sciences-2016-breakthrough-year
• “How Scientists Captured the First Image of a Black Hole” by Ota Lutz
  • https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2019/4/19/how-scientists-captured-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/
• “What is an Interferometer?” by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory
  • https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/what-is-interferometer

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/orangu-slang-easing-car-queasing-kicked-across-space

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Today, we’re hearing from an explorer and filmmaker named Steve Elkins. Steve spent decades searching for a legendary lost city deep in the jungles of Honduras. His search for the city was documented in the New York Times best selling book, “The Lost City of the Monkey God,” by Douglas Preston.

• Steve Elkins Interview from 4/23/22

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-explorers-club-an-interview-with-steve-elkins

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, you’ll learn about how a single drink a day can add years to the age of your brain, how scientists figured out that thousands of tree species are yet to be discovered, and how the world’s biggest and best particle accelerator is powering up for its third run.

A drink away does not keep the doctor away.

• “Just One Beer or Glass of Wine a Day may Cause Your Brain to Shrink, Study Suggests” by Mike Snider
  • https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/03/09/beer-glass-wine-daily-brain-shrink/9425508002/
• “Just One Extra Drink a Day may Change the Brain” by Tara Haelle
  • https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20220310/one-extra-drink-a-day-changes-brain
• “It’s Time to Rethink How Much Booze May be too Much” by Julia Belluz
  • https://www.vox.com/2018/4/24/17242720/alcohol-health-risks-facts
• “The ‘French Paradox’ Turned out to be an Illusion, but it led to some Interesting research” by Emma Wightman
  • https://theconversation.com/the-french-paradox-turned-out-to-be-an-illusion-but-it-led-to-some-interesting-research-78196

No, that tree is not the same as that other one.

• “Earth May Have 9,200 More Tree Species Than Previously Thought” by Jude Coleman
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/tree-species-earth-biodiversity
• “How Much Space Does Nature Need? 30 Percent of the Planet May Not be Enough” by Jonathan Lambert
  • https://www.sciencenews.org/article/nature-will-protecting-30-percent-earth-prevent-extinction-crisis
• “Thousands of Tree Species Remain Undiscovered, Say Scientists” by Lucy Sherriff
  • https://www.discovery.com/nature/unknown-trees

Imagine two needles smashing into each other.

• “Large Hadron Collider is waking up after a 3-year nap, and it could help explain why the universe exists.” by Mara Johnson-Groh
  • https://www.livescience.com/large-hadron-collider-third-run
• “CERN’s particle accelerator starts up after a three-year hiatus” by Nicole Wetsman
  • https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/22/23037077/cern-particle-accelerator-restarts-upgrades-dark-matter”
• “The Large Hadron Collider is about to turn back on after a 3-year hiatus” by Chelsea Gohd
  • https://www.space.com/cern-large-hadron-collider-turn-on-run-3
• “The Large Hadron Collider” by CERN
  • https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider
• AT&T’s Internet Data Calculator
  • https://www.att.com/support/pages/data-calculator/
• “Standard Model” by Wikipedia
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Model

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/drink-brain-shrink-secret-tree-species-lhc-round-3

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today, you’ll learn about how that light coming in through your window at night is in fact ruining your sleep, how some diseases—including cancer—can be smelled by dogs and we’re on the verge of being able to smell them with modern technology, and how algae may one day provide the power for our smallest devices.

Close your blinds.

• “Light exposure during sleep impairs cardiometabolic function” by Ivy C. Mason, Kathryn J. Reid, Chloe D. Warlick, Roneil G. Malkani, Sabra M. Abbott, and Phyllis C. Zee
  • https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2113290119
• “Sleeping with a light on may be bad for your heart and blood sugar” by Nicoletta Lanese
  • https://www.livescience.com/sleep-in-lit-room-worse-heart-metabolic-health
• “Sleeping with the light on may be harmful to you” by Erin Blakemore
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/20/sleep-lights-health/
• “What is the difference between lux and lumens?” by Waveform Lighting
  • https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/what-is-the-difference-between-lux-and-lumens
• “Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes” by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
  • https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/prediabetes-insulin-resistance

What’s that smell?

• “Cancer has a smell. Someday your phone may detect it.” by Noam Hassenfeld
  • https://www.vox.com/unexplainable/22323113/unexplainable-smell-mystery-nanonose
• “Dogs Are Teaching Machines to Sniff Out Cancer” by Asher Jones
  • https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/dogs-are-teaching-machines-to-sniff-out-cancer-68469
• “The Quest to Make a Bot That Can Smell as Well as a Dog” by Sara Harrison
  • https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-make-robot-smell-cancer-dog/
• “What DARPA Does” by DARPA
  • https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/what-darpa-does

Get used to algae-power.

• “Algae-powered computing: Scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell” by Eureka Alert
  • https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/952203
• “Algae-powered computing: scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell” by University of Cambridge
  • https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/scientists-create-reliable-biological-photovoltaic-cell-using-algae
• “Scientists create algae computer powered by photosynthesis” by James Vincent
  • https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/16/23074715/algae-computer-chip-photosynthesis-arm-cortext-iot-biophotovoltaics
• “A Potato Battery Can Light Up a Room For Over a Month” by Tuan C. Nguyen
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/a-potato-battery-can-light-up-a-room-for-over-a-month-180948260/

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/nightlight-plight-cancer-stinks-literal-green-energy

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Today we are speaking to another member of the Explorers Club, Peter Tattersfield. Peter has an awesome story for us today about his work finding the shipwreck of the Steamship Independence, which sank off the coast of Baja, Mexico in 1853.

• Peter Tattersfield Interview from 4/23/22

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-explorers-club-an-interview-with-peter-tattersfield

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.