The Best Way to Phrase Words of Comfort, According to Science
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 26 April 2021
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about how researchers built a “soft robot” that reached the depths of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean; why musicians with brain tumors serenade their surgeons; and the best way to phrase words of comfort.
A "soft robot" reached the deepest part of the ocean by Grant Currin
- Li, G., Chen, et al. (2021). Self-powered soft robot in the Mariana Trench. Nature, 591(7848), 66–71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-03153-z
- Laschi, C., & Calisti, M. (2021). Soft robot reaches the deepest part of the ocean. Nature, 591(7848), 35–36. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00489-y
Musicians with Brain Tumors Serenade Their Surgeons by Ashley Hamer
- Haun, S. (2011, June 9). Roger Frisch Follow-Up Talk. String Visions | from Ovation Press. http://stringvisions.ovationpress.com/2011/06/roger-frisch-follow-up-talk/
- Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). (2019). Cleveland Clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21088-deep-brain-stimulation
- Patient plays saxophone while surgeons remove brain tumor. (2017, August 30). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-08/uorm-pps083017.php
- Garcea, F. E., Chernoff, B. L., Diamond, B., Lewis, W., Sims, M. H., Tomlinson, S. B., Teghipco, A., Belkhir, R., Gannon, S. B., Erickson, S., Smith, S. O., Stone, J., Liu, L., Tollefson, T., Langfitt, J., Marvin, E., Pilcher, W. H., & Mahon, B. Z. (2017). Direct Electrical Stimulation in the Human Brain Disrupts Melody Processing. Current Biology, 27(17), 2684-2691.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.07.051
Here's the best way to phrase words of comfort by Kelsey Donk
- Validation may be best way to support stressed out friends and family | Penn State University. (2020). Psu.edu. https://news.psu.edu/story/612979/2020/03/25/research/validation-may-be-best-way-support-stressed-out-friends-and-family
- Tian, X., Solomon, D. H., & Brisini, K. St. Cyr. (2020). How the Comforting Process Fails: Psychological Reactance to Support Messages. Journal of Communication, 70(1), 13–34. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz040
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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 |
| 0:04.9 | Curiosity.com. I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today you learn about how |
| 0:09.2 | researchers built a soft robot that reached the deepest part of the ocean, why musicians with brain tumors |
| 0:15.1 | serenade their surgeons, and the best way to phrase words of comfort. |
| 0:20.3 | Let's satisfy some curiosity. A soft-bodied robot recently went for an impressive swim in the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana |
| 0:31.3 | Trench. |
| 0:32.3 | This is the latest in a long series of engineering achievements |
| 0:36.4 | that take inspiration from living things. The researchers behind this snazzy new invention were inspired by the Hattle snailfish, |
| 0:46.0 | which is a small translucent fish that thrives beneath the immense pressures of the Mariana |
| 0:52.4 | Trench. |
| 0:53.7 | Now, like its inspiration, the robot is soft and colorless |
| 0:58.0 | with two wing-like fins that create thrust |
| 1:01.7 | by flapping up and down, |
| 1:03.3 | plus a long tail fin that steers by moving left and right. |
| 1:07.6 | But the fins aren't powered by the kind of motors that drive most robots. Instead, they're driven by a material that |
| 1:15.0 | contracts when electrical energy flows through it. And if that sounds familiar, |
| 1:20.0 | it's because muscles work basically the same way. |
| 1:23.5 | Yeah, you heard that right? |
| 1:25.5 | This artificial fish swims using artificial muscles. |
| 1:29.5 | It's a very cool invention, |
| 1:32.0 | but why go to all this trouble when we have perfectly good robots already? |
| 1:36.5 | Well, it's because regular old robots aren't very well suited to the deep. |
... |
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