The Invisible Harm of Thirdhand Smoke, Why Whales Get Lost During Solar Storms, and A Massive Virus That Blurs the Line Between Life and Non-Life

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2020

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

Learn about the invisible harms of thirdhand smoke; massive viruses that blur the line between the living and non-living; and why whales get lost during solar storms.

Moviegoers contaminate nonsmoking movie theater with 'thirdhand' cigarette smoke by Kelsey Donk

Moviegoers contaminate nonsmoking movie theater with “thirdhand” cigarette smoke. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/aaft-mcn030220.php
Thirdhand smoke wafting off moviegoers hurts air quality in theaters. (2020, March 5). Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/thirdhand-smoke-fumes-air-quality-movie-theaters
Sheu, R., Stönner, C., Ditto, J. C., Klüpfel, T., Williams, J., & Gentner, D. R. (2020). Human transport of thirdhand tobacco smoke: A prominent source of hazardous air pollutants into indoor nonsmoking environments. Science Advances, 6(10), eaay4109. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay4109

Massive viruses that blur the line between living and non-living by Cameron Duke

Al-Shayeb, B., Sachdeva, R., Chen, L.-X., Ward, F., Munk, P., Devoto, A., Castelle, C. J., Olm, M. R., Bouma-Gregson, K., Amano, Y., He, C., Méheust, R., Brooks, B., Thomas, A., Lavy, A., Matheus-Carnevali, P., Sun, C., Goltsman, D. S. A., Borton, M. A., … Banfield, J. F. (2020). Clades of huge phages from across Earth’s ecosystems. Nature, 578(7795), 425–431. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2007-4
Huge bacteria-eating viruses close gap between life and non-life: Large bacteriophages carry bacterial genes, including CRISPR and ribosomal proteins. (2020, February 12). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212131458.htm

Solar storms blind whales because they mess with magnetoreception by Cameron Duke

Solar storms may leave gray whales “blind” and stranded. (2020). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200224111356.htm
Granger, J., Walkowicz, L., Fitak, R., & Johnsen, S. (2020). Gray whales strand more often on days with increased levels of atmospheric radio-frequency noise. Current Biology, 30(4), R155–R156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.028
Johnsen, S., & Lohmann, K. J. (2008). Magnetoreception in animals. Physics Today, 61(3), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2897947

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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.
0:06.5	I'm Cody Goff.
0:07.5	And I'm Ashley Hamer.
0:08.8	Today you learn about the invisible harms of third-hand smoke, massive viruses that blur the line between living and non-living,
0:16.2	and why whales get lost during solar storms.
0:18.9	Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:21.3	A new study suggests that third-hand cigarette smoke can contaminate spaces that nobody has ever smoked in.
0:29.0	That's right, third-hand smoke.
0:31.0	For the first time, we have some evidence that smokers and even people who have just been around cigarette smoke bring those contaminants with them to other locations.
0:41.0	So even when a place is labeled non-smoking, it might not be smoke-free.
0:47.2	The study took place in a large well-ventilated movie theater, a Mind Germany, that strictly enforced the country's indoor smoking bans.
0:56.4	Over four days, researchers measured the pollutants in the theater's ceiling vents using a device
1:01.4	called a mass spectrometer, which can identify specific particles based on their
1:06.2	mass and electric charge. The ceiling vent measurements showed that the presence of nicotine
1:11.7	and other smoking-related compounds spiked when people entered
1:16.3	the theater. Just by sitting together in a room, moviegoers exposed themselves to the equivalent
1:21.6	of between one and ten cigarettes of secondhand cigarette smoke.
1:26.0	The researchers think those chemicals entered the theater on smokers clothing and bodies.
1:32.0	They found especially high concentrations of toxic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde during late night and rated our films.
1:41.0	The researchers think that's because even though attendance was lower at these
1:44.7	viewings, the proportion of adults who might smoke was higher. This study is the
1:49.5	first to look at smoking pollution in a non-smoking environment.
	...

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