New Science on How We Learn (w/ Stanislas Dehaene), Why Stores Use Air Curtains, and Desert Microbes that Dissolve Rocks with Acid
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 24 June 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about why air curtains blast you with air when you walk into certain stores; microbes that survive in the desert by dissolving rocks with acid; and the latest research into how we learn, with help from renowned cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene.
That blast of air when you walk into a business has a name: an air curtain by Grant Currin
- Ashish. (2018, March 21). Air Curtain Door At Entrance: Why There Is A Blast Of Air At Mall’s Entrance? Science ABC. https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/why-is-there-a-blast-of-coldhot-air-at-the-entrances-of-shopping-malls.html
- Air Curtains 101 | What is an Air Curtain? | Berner. (2020, May 28). Berner. https://berner.com/air-curtains-101/
- L. Wang, Investigation of the Impact of Building Entrance Air Curtain on
- Whole Building Energy Use, Air Movement and Control Association, 2013,
- p. 57. https://www.amca.org/assets/resources/public/userfiles/file/Energy%20Initiative%20Web%20Pages/Air%20Curtain%20Study(1).pdf
Scientists discover microbes that survive in the desert by dissolving rocks with acid by Grant Currin
- Levy, M. G. (2020, May 8). Extreme microbes survive the desert by dissolving rocks with acid. Massive Science. https://massivesci.com/articles/microbes-desert-extremophiles-atacama-rocks-gypsum-mars/
- ARADS Project Designs Tools for Finding Signs of Life. (2018). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/ames/arads
- Huang, W., Ertekin, E., Wang, T., Cruz, L., Dailey, M., DiRuggiero, J., & Kisailus, D. (2020). Mechanism of water extraction from gypsum rock by desert colonizing microorganisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(20), 10681–10687. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001613117
- Govert Schilling. (2015, July 22). An Astronomer’s Paradise, Chile May Be the Best Place on Earth to Enjoy a Starry Sky. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/star-trekking-chile-astronomy-180955798/
Additional resources from Stanislas Dehaene:
- Pick up “How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine...for Now” on Amazon https://amazon.com
- uniad. (2016). LAB. UNICOG - Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab. http://www.unicog.org/
- Collège de France faculty bio https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-stanislas-dehaene/presentation.htm
- Follow @StanDehaene on Twitter https://twitter.com/StanDehaene
- Stanislas Dehaene on Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2Dd5uoIAAAAJ&hl=en
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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/new-science-on-how-we-learn-w-stanislas-dehaene-why-stores-use-air-curtains-and-desert-microbes-that-dissolve-rocks-with-acid
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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. |
| 0:05.9 | I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:08.0 | Today you learn about what that blast of air you feel when you walk into certain stores is, |
| 0:12.4 | microbes that survive in the desert by |
| 0:14.3 | dissolving rocks with acid, and the latest science about how we learn, with help from |
| 0:19.4 | renowned cognitive neuroscientist |
| 0:23.0 | Stanislaus de Hahn. Let's satisfy some curiosity. |
| 0:25.5 | You know how sometimes you'll walk into a mall or a big box store |
| 0:28.8 | and you get hit with a big gust of wind? |
| 0:31.3 | And your hair gets all wind swept like you're on Baywatch? So |
| 0:34.3 | glamorous. Well I always thought that was the air conditioning or heat vents but |
| 0:40.1 | it's not what you're feeling is called an air curtain, |
| 0:44.1 | and it actually serves a very specific purpose. |
| 0:47.5 | Yes, that wind-swept supermodel moment exists |
| 0:50.2 | to save energy and yes money. |
| 0:53.4 | Actually I was so excited when I found this out. |
| 0:56.7 | I remember it's great I didn't know it either it's super cool. |
| 1:00.0 | Right? |
| 1:01.0 | So air curtains are really simple devices. A fan pulls air into a unit mounted above an entrance |
| 1:06.8 | and blades shaped like airplane wings directed down like a waterfall of air across the width of the door. |
| 1:13.0 | That forms a jet stream that keeps cool air in and warm air out during the summer and vice versa in the winter. |
| 1:20.0 | An air curtain also keeps things from outside from getting inside, like pollen, insects, vehicle exhaust, and other pollutants. |
... |
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