Air Conditioning, Face Recognition Neurons. Oct 8, 2021, Part 2
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios
4.4 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2021
⏱️ 56 minutes
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Summary
In the Northeast, the leaves have started changing colors, heralding the season of pumpkins, sweaters, and the smell of woodsmoke. But in some parts of the country, the heat hasn’t let up. In cities like Dallas, Phoenix, and Miami, temperatures were up in the high 80s and low 90s this week—and with climate change, the U.S. is only getting hotter.
But humans have come up with an ingenious way to keep the heat at bay: air conditioning. Widely considered one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century, the technology has transformed how and where people live—and it’s prevented countless deaths. But it comes at a cost, and if we’re going to keep up with a warming climate, we’re going to need some other tricks to stay cool.
Like what you hear? Dive deeper with some of the sources we turned to while reporting.
See A Familiar Face? Thank These Brain Cells
What happens when you see a familiar face? Light reflected from the face enters your eye, is focused onto the retina, and a signal travels up your optic nerve. But what exactly goes on in your brain after that is still somewhat mysterious.
Recently, researchers reported in the journal Science that they had identified a group of brain cells that seem tuned to respond only to familiar faces. The theory is that the specificity of those neurons helps to speed up processing of potentially important visual information. The work was done in monkeys, but the researchers are currently trying to identify similar brain structures in people.
Sofia Landi and Winrich Freiwald, two of the authors of the report, join Ira to talk about the research, and what it may tell us about how the brain and memory are organized.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Science Friday, I'm my Rob Flato. Later in the hour, finding brain cells that seem |
| 0:05.3 | tuned to recognize familiar faces. But first, here in the Northeast, the leaves are turning, |
| 0:11.7 | and we can look forward to pumpkins, sweaters, and the smell of wood smoke. But in some parts of |
| 0:18.2 | the country, a full week into October, the heat just hasn't let up. In Graham County, we're |
| 0:24.0 | calling for highs in the mid-80s, upper 80s in the old Pueblo. We'll be around 86 today, |
| 0:28.3 | but then we turn even warmer for Thursday, Friday. And 90s to the south and west from |
| 0:32.3 | Hila Bend to Yuma. Craig, it seems like summer is trying to hang around a little bit. |
| 0:35.9 | Yeah, it's trying to hang on just a little bit there. It'll give up eventually, right? |
| 0:41.2 | With climate change, this country is going to keep getting hotter. And often, the only way to survive |
| 0:47.1 | is with air conditioning, named one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century |
| 0:52.4 | by the National Academy of Sciences, air conditioning has completely transformed how and where people live. |
| 1:00.5 | And so, in collaboration with St. Louis Public Radio, we bring you a look back at more than a |
| 1:06.1 | century of AC. And what it means to live without it. Here's Science Friday's Ella Fetter with that |
| 1:12.2 | story. In the summer of 1904, visitors to the world's fair in St. Louis were in for a rare treat. |
| 1:18.6 | And it wasn't the giant Ferris wheel or the elephant made of almonds. Those were both fantastic. |
| 1:25.2 | It wasn't the obvious kind of fun, really. Or anything you could see or touch. It was something that you felt. |
| 1:32.2 | So imagine this. It's August and you've come all the way to St. Louis to see the absolute cutting edge |
| 1:39.8 | in human achievement. Maybe you checked out the aeronautics competition or the X-ray machine |
| 1:45.3 | that could look right inside you. But by late afternoon, you've been wandering for hours. |
| 1:52.8 | You're milling through these crowds and it's hot and it's humid. You're just melting. |
| 1:59.5 | When you step into this one building, the Missouri State Building. |
| 2:06.9 | And inside, it feels so good. |
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