Hamster Microwave, Are Humans Still Evolving?, Art Is Better in a Museum
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 963 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about a microwave to revive hamsters; whether humans are still evolving; and why art is more moving in a museum.
One of the earliest microwaves wasn’t for food… it was for reanimating frozen hamsters. by Cameron Duke
- Andjus, R. K., & Lovelock, J. E. (1955). Reanimation of rats from body temperatures between 0 and 1° C by microwave diathermy. The Journal of Physiology, 128(3), 541–546. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1955.sp005323
- Felton, J. (2021, May 18). YouTuber Discovers The Bizarre Early Use Of Microwave Ovens. IFLScience; IFLScience. https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/early-microwaves-hamsters/
- Scott, T. (2021). I promise this story about microwaves is interesting. [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tdiKTSdE9Y
Are humans still evolving? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Jonathan)
- Milk episode: https://www.curiositydaily.com/our-ability-to-drink-milk-evolved-way-faster-than-scientists-thought/
- An Evolutionary Whodunit: How Did Humans Develop Lactose Tolerance? (2012, December 28). NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/12/27/168144785/an-evolutionary-whodunit-how-did-humans-develop-lactose-tolerance
- Hoole, J. (2018). These “Sea Nomads” Are The First Known Humans to Have a Genetic Adaptation to Diving. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/indonesian-bajau-genetic-changes-adapt-them-to-aquatic-lifestyle-2
- Winter. (2013, January 29). How to Survive a Siberian Winter. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/01/how-survive-siberian-winter
- Hsu, J. (2010, July). Tibetans Underwent Fastest Evolution Seen in Humans. Livescience.com; Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/6663-tibetans-underwent-fastest-evolution-humans.html
- TED-Ed. (2020). Is human evolution speeding up or slowing down? - Laurence Hurst [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTeOhj6dxsU
- SciShow. (2020). 4 Ways Humans Are Still Evolving [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCjAAVk7Uis
Art is more moving when you see it in a museum by Cameron Duke
- Art affects you more powerfully when you view it in a museum. (2015, February 5). Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/02/05/art-affects-you-more-powerfully-when-you-view-it-in-a-museum/
- Brieber, D., Nadal, M., & Leder, H. (2015). In the white cube: Museum context enhances the valuation and memory of art. Acta Psychologica, 154, 36–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.11.004
- Situated Cognition: Theory & Definition | Study.com. (2021). Study.com. https://study.com/academy/lesson/situated-cognition-theory-definition.html
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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 how one of the earliest microwaves was for bringing hamsters back to life and why art is more moving when you see it in a museum. |
| 0:17.0 | We'll also answer a listener question about whether humans are still evolving. |
| 0:21.0 | Would satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:23.0 | If you have a microwave, you probably use it to heat up your food. |
| 0:28.0 | So it might surprise you to learn that one of the first microwaves was not built for that purpose. |
| 0:33.4 | Instead, its job was to reanimate frozen hamsters. |
| 0:38.4 | This might sound cruel, but scientists in the 1940s were doing this for a really good reason. |
| 0:44.6 | They wanted to know if there was a practical way to freeze and reanimate living tissue. |
| 0:50.4 | If this technology were achievable, it would have huge implications for procedures like organ transplants. |
| 0:58.0 | The scientists started with hamsters. They would take hamsters, freeze them, and then experiment with ways to bring them back to life. |
| 1:06.0 | The problem was that all the ways the scientists were heating the hamster sickles were either too slow or too burned. |
| 1:15.0 | Needless to say, the original experiments fell short of what the researchers were hoping |
| 1:19.9 | they would achieve. |
| 1:21.8 | Enter James Lovelock, a fascinating British scientist who was instrumental |
| 1:27.6 | in multiple non- microwave-related discoveries and innovations. It was the early 1950s when Lovelock saw his colleagues struggling, |
| 1:36.0 | and he suggested they use a process called diathermy. |
| 1:40.0 | Diathermy is the process of using an electric current to generate heat. |
| 1:46.0 | It had been used as a form of muscle therapy since the 1800s, |
| 1:50.0 | and it was old technology at this point. |
... |
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