27 June 2019: Callused feet, and protein-based archaeology
Nature Podcast
podcast@nature.com
4.5 • 893 Ratings
🗓️ 26 June 2019
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, how going barefoot affects what your feet can feel, and uncovering history with ancient proteins.
In this episode:
00:44 A sole sensation
A study of people who do and don't wear shoes looks into whether calluses make feet less sensitive. Research article: Holowka et al.; News and Views: Your sensitive sole
08:50 Research Highlights
Magma moving quickly, and twice-transforming 4D materials. Research Highlight: Volcano’s magma hit top speed; Research Article: Wang et al.
11:09 Dating fossils with proteins
Archaeologists turn to proteins to answer questions DNA cannot. News Feature: Move over, DNA: ancient proteins are starting to reveal humanity’s history
19:38 News Chat
A special report from the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the ongoing Ebola crisis. News: The doctor who beat Ebola — and inspires other survivors to care for the sick; News: Meet the Ebola workers battling a virus in a war zone; News: World Health Organization resists declaring Ebola emergency — for third time
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | nature in a |
| 0:04.5 | experiment i really know yet why is blight so far like it sounds so simple they had no idea |
| 0:10.7 | but now the data's i find this not only refreshing but but at some level astounding nature |
| 0:20.3 | welcome back to the Nature. |
| 0:25.6 | Welcome back to the nature podcast. This week we'll be learning about ancient proteins |
| 0:28.6 | and hearing about the feelings in your feet. |
| 0:31.6 | I'm Benjamin Thompson and I'm Charmany Bandelle. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm Chamonany Bandelle. |
| 0:49.9 | First up, reporter Nick Howell has been looking into how being shoeless may affect our souls. |
| 1:02.0 | Many years ago, on a podcast, the name of which I've long forgotten, I heard that wearing shoes may be bad for you, which at the time made a kind of sense to me. |
| 1:06.3 | After all, humans haven't really been wearing shoes for that long. |
| 1:12.1 | Humans and their direct ancestors have been walking on two feet for about six, maybe seven million years. |
| 1:20.1 | Anatomically modern humans, they've been around for maybe 100,000 to 200,000 years. |
| 1:26.6 | So in the grand scheme of things we have developed into who we are today without shoes at all, |
| 1:28.7 | it's only much later that we decided for whatever reason we wanted to wear shoes. That was Krista Ute, a researcher who studies the |
| 1:35.9 | evolution of how humans move. In fact, according to the archaeological evidence, humans may have |
| 1:42.4 | only been wearing shoes for about 40,000 years. |
| 1:46.3 | And even then, these were simple foot wrappings, not the cushioned shoes we're so used to today. |
| 1:52.8 | So, if these ancient humans could go without shoes, why couldn't I? |
| 1:58.1 | Being the science-interested and suggestible person that I am, |
| 2:02.7 | I decided to do an experiment with a sample size of one, myself, and shunned my shoes. |
| 2:11.2 | After several months, I had discovered a couple of things. |
... |
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