Pure Chance of Political Positions, Why Earth Has Oxygen, Infrared and Ultraviolet in Rainbows

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2019

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about why political parties may arrive at their positions by pure chance, with some help from opinion cascades; why the Great Oxygenation Event led to a bigger die-off than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs; and, whether infrared and ultraviolet light show up in rainbows.

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:

What If Political Parties Arrive at Their Positions by Pure Chance? — https://curiosity.im/32U0blu
Earth's Biggest Die-Off Happened Long Before the Dinosaurs — https://curiosity.im/2OeeM76

Additional resources discussed:

An Example of the Herschel Infrared Experiment — http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/herschel_example.html
Ritter Discovers Ultraviolet Light — http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/ritter_bio.html

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/pure-chance-of-political-positions-why-earth-has-oxygen-infrared-and-ultraviolet-in-rainbows

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.
0:04.8	I'm Cody Gough.
0:05.6	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:06.7	Today you learn about why political parties may arrive at their positions by pure chance
0:11.3	and an extinction event that was more deadly than the asteroid that
0:14.7	killed the dinosaurs. We'll also answer a listener question about whether infrared
0:18.7	and ultraviolet light show up in rainbows. Let's shed some light on some curiosity.
0:24.0	New research suggests that political parties may arrive at their positions by pure chance,
0:29.1	and that means that a lot of people's political views could be less deeply rooted than we tend to think.
0:34.6	And quick note that we are not going to get into politics here.
0:38.0	This is just a high-level scientific study published in the journal Science Advances from August. This podcast is still your little oasis from politics, I promise.
0:46.7	This study comes from researchers at Cornell University's Social Dynamics Laboratory,
0:51.2	and they wanted to figure out why the major political parties here in the US
0:54.8	have shifted positions on major policies like free trade and marijuana
0:59.5	legalization. Their findings were a bit surprising.
1:03.0	It seems that the political parties come to their positions on a variety of issues,
1:08.0	not because of deeply held ideals, but because of luck.
1:11.0	And the reason for this is opinion cascades.
1:16.0	Opinion cascades are when prominent folks are the first to choose their opinions
1:21.2	and do it sort of randomly and the rest of the population follows.
1:26.2	Here's the experiment that backs this up.
1:28.7	Researchers rounded up more than 2,000 participants and asked them which major political party they were into.
	...

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