Drones Sample Whale Breath; Swearing Boosts Performance; Birds Adapt Rapidly
TL;DR
- Drones equipped with petri dishes enable non-invasive collection of whale breath samples, detecting pathogens like cetacean morbillivirus and herpes virus in previously unmonitored Arctic regions.
- Studying whale breath provides insights into ocean health and potential zoonotic disease transmission risks to humans, informing public health warnings and conservation efforts.
- Swearing can enhance physical performance by activating a disinhibited state that silences behavioral inhibition systems, allowing individuals to push past perceived physical limits.
- Rapid beak shape changes observed in dark-eyed juncos during COVID-19 lockdowns suggest that human activity significantly influences avian evolution over short timescales.
- The study of whale breath dynamics over several years is crucial for understanding pathogen spread and the impact of stressors like pollutants and climate change on whale populations.
Deep Dive
Scientists are using drones to collect whale breath samples, offering a non-invasive method to monitor whale health and detect diseases like cetacean morbillivirus. This innovation allows for early detection of pathogens in previously unmonituted Arctic regions, which can inform public health measures against zoonotic disease transmission and provide insights into ocean health impacted by stressors like pollution and climate change. While direct treatment of wild whales is not feasible, understanding infection rates and dynamics over time will reveal how environmental factors influence disease spread within whale populations.
The act of swearing can enhance physical performance by temporarily reducing behavioral inhibition. Researchers found that participants who repeated a swear word while performing a physical task, such as holding a body weight, lasted significantly longer than those who repeated a neutral word. This suggests that swearing can silence internal inhibitory thoughts, allowing individuals to push their physical limits and experience increased confidence and psychological flow. This effect could be leveraged in situations requiring a temporary boost in strength or confidence, though its use in formal or public settings remains inappropriate.
Evolutionary changes in bird beaks can occur rapidly, observable even within a two-year period. Dark-eyed juncos in urban environments, specifically on the UCLA campus, exhibited shorter, stubbier beaks compared to their wildland counterparts. This shift is believed to be a response to changes in food availability during COVID-19 lockdowns, when campus waste, a common food source for urban birds, decreased. As campus activity resumed, the beaks of newly hatched juncos again became shorter and stubs, indicating a rapid adaptation to prevailing environmental conditions and human activity.
Action Items
- Audit drone deployment: For 3-5 whale observation missions, document drone proximity, duration, and whale reaction to refine non-invasive sampling protocols.
- Track pathogen prevalence: For 2-3 whale populations, monitor cetacean morbillivirus and herpes virus detection rates over 2-3 years to understand long-term dynamics.
- Evaluate swearing intervention: For 5-10 participants, measure physical performance changes (e.g., chair push-ups) when repeating a swear word versus a neutral word.
- Measure beak morphology shifts: For dark-eyed juncos, track beak length and stubbiness in 3-5 urban and wildland populations over 2-3 years to correlate with human activity levels.
Key Quotes
"By studying the microbes in exhaled whale breaths, scientists are piecing together how deadly diseases spread in whale populations. How? Drones. Whales breathe through their blowholes, which are the equivalent of nostrils on their heads."
Host Emily Kwong explains that scientists are using drones to collect whale breaths, which contain microbial clues about whale health and disease transmission. This method allows for the study of respiratory diseases in whale populations.
"Researchers say that using drones is a non invasive way to study whale infection rates which have usually only been collected once a whale has died."
Juana Summers highlights that drone-based sampling is a less invasive method for studying whale infections compared to traditional approaches that often require a whale to be deceased. This non-invasive technique allows for the collection of data from live animals.
"The scientists we spoke with said drones collecting blow samples are much less invasive than taking a skin sample for example."
Host Emily Kwong emphasizes the minimal impact of drone sampling, noting that it is significantly less invasive than obtaining a skin sample from a whale. This distinction underscores the ethical and practical advantages of using drones for biological data collection.
"Swearing is a cheap readily available calorie neutral drug free means of self help. This is Richard Stevens a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in the UK and he told us scientists have long known that swearing is linked to improved physical performance but weren't totally sure why."
Richard Stevens explains that swearing is presented as an accessible and natural method for self-improvement, particularly in enhancing physical performance. Stevens notes that while the link between swearing and physical capability has been observed, the underlying psychological mechanism was not fully understood until recent research.
"Well what theorizing swearing does is it it silences our behavioral inhibition system which just means those stopping thoughts voices just get a little bit quieter so we're a bit freer to listen to the go voices and push ourselves."
Host Emily Kwong relays the psychological theory that swearing can reduce the influence of inhibitory thoughts, often referred to as the "behavioral inhibition system." This reduction in internal restraint, according to the theory, allows individuals to act more freely and push their limits.
"Juncos in the wildlands outside LA have longer more slender beaks whereas the juncos within Los Angeles including the birds on the UCLA campus have shorter stubbier beaks but the shapes of the city bird beaks changed during covid."
Host Emily Kwong describes a notable difference in beak shape between dark-eyed juncos found in wildlands versus those in urban environments like the UCLA campus. Kwong points out that these beak shapes, specifically the shorter, stubbier beaks in city birds, underwent changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Resources
External Resources
Research & Studies
- BMC Veterinary Research - Published the work on drones collecting whale blowhole samples.
- American Psychologist - Published the results of the study on swearing and physical performance.
People
- Elena Koshta - Lead author of the study on whale breath samples at Nord University.
- Richard Stevens - Senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University, UK, who studies swearing.
- Pam Ye - Evolutionary biologist at UCLA who studies dark-eyed juncos.
- Ellie Diamant - Author on the study about dark-eyed junco beak changes during COVID-19.
- Alejandro Rico Givara - Evolutionary biologist who commented on the junco beak study.
Organizations & Institutions
- Nord University - Institution where Elena Koshta is affiliated.
- Keele University - Institution where Richard Stevens is affiliated.
- University of Alabama in Huntsville - Institution involved in the study on swearing.
- University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) - Institution where Pam Ye studies dark-eyed juncos.
- NPR - The public media organization producing the podcast.
Websites & Online Resources
- plus.npr.org/shortwave - Website to sign up for Short Wave+ for ad-free listening and to support NPR.
- podcastchoices.com/adchoices - Website for information on sponsor message choices.
- npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy - NPR Privacy Policy.
- viam.com - Website to learn more about Viam and security AI.
- superhuman.com/podcast - Website to learn more about Superhuman, the AI productivity suite.
- givewell.org - Website to make a tax-deductible donation to high-impact charities.
- mintmobile.com/switch - Website to make the switch to Mint Mobile.
Podcasts & Audio
- Short Wave - The science podcast from NPR.
- All Things Considered - A podcast hosted by Juana Summers.
Other Resources
- Cetacean morbillivirus - A respiratory virus that can cause mass die-offs in whales and dolphins.
- Herpes virus - Detected in whale groups in the study.
- Avian influenza - Not detected in the whale blowhole samples.
- Brucella - A bacteria that animals can pass to humans, not detected in the whale samples.
- Behavioral inhibition system - A psychological system that swearing may silence, leading to disinhibition.
- Disinhibition - A state where behavioral inhibition is reduced, allowing for greater action.
- Dark-eyed juncos - A species of sparrow studied for beak evolution.