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Curiosity Weekly

Are Facial Expressions Universal?

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about common ancestors shared by every human; evolution’s multiple directions; and universal facial expressions.

There's a point in the past when every person on Earth was an ancestor to every person alive today by Grant Currin

Evolution Doesn’t Have Just One Direction by Ashley Hamer

Are facial expressions universal? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Jared in Vancouver)

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!

 

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/are-facial-expressions-universal


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.

0:06.0

I'm Cody Gough.

0:07.0

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:08.0

Today you learn about that time when every person on Earth was an ancestor to every person alive today, and why evolution doesn't

0:15.8

have just one direction.

0:17.8

We'll also answer a listener question about whether facial expressions are universal.

0:22.0

Let's satisfy some curiosity.

0:24.0

Lots of people can trace their ancestry many generations back.

0:28.0

But how far back would you have to go

0:31.0

before you found one ancestor who was related to everyone alive today.

0:36.2

A million years? A billion? Try 3,500 years ago. How can that be? Well the math gets a little tricky but the basic

0:46.7

idea is simple. You are one person. You have two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, take that same pattern back 33 generations,

0:58.0

and you'd expect to be the direct descendant of more than 8 billion people.

1:03.0

That's the power of exponential growth, baby.

1:06.0

But that theoretical calculation has a big problem.

1:10.0

There have never been 8 billion people on earth at the same time.

1:14.0

The entire global population 33 generations back was about 300 million.

1:19.0

That's a measly 4% of the ancestors you supposedly had alive at the time.

1:25.0

So what's the deal?

1:27.0

It turns out that you have a bunch of ancestors who you're related to in multiple ways.

1:32.0

Maybe your great, great, great, great, grandmother on your grandfather's side was also your great, great, great aunt,

1:38.0

and was also your great, great, great, grandmother on your great-grandmother's side.

...

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