What’s the weirdest factor you discovered this week? Well, no matter it’s, we promise you’ll have a fair weirder reply for those who hearken to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all over the place else you hearken to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favourite supply for the strangest science-adjacent info, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you just like the tales on this put up, we assure you’ll love the present.
Fact: Jellyfish can learn from their mistakes though they don’t have any brains
By Rachel Feltman
Before we are able to discuss how jellyfish learn, we have now to speak about the truth that they don’t have any brains. That most likely doesn’t shock you for those who’re pondering of the human mind because the archetype of the organ.
But a mind is basically only a cluster of nerve cells that management the physique they’re in. Exactly what that cluster appears like can fluctuate loads, particularly amongst invertebrates, the place they’re usually quite simple buildings known as ganglia. But most of them have some form of centralized nerve middle. Jellyfish are a few of the solely animals that lack this construction completely. Others embrace sea cucumbers, sea urchins, coral, and different marine creatures recognized for their deep mental pursuits.
In a brand new examine, researchers confirmed that the Caribbean field jellyfish can truly learn from expertise, no mind required. Some scientists say this might imply that particular person neurons are able to studying. To learn extra in regards to the experiment—and its implications for our personal cognitive talents—take a look at this week’s episode.
Fact: Hollywood quicksand peaked in reputation again within the Sixties—however how does the actual stuff work?
By Jess Boddy
Quicksand was all over the place in motion pictures. It was each 10-year-old’s worst concern within the ’90s. One day you’re simply livin life, walkin round, after which BAM!!!!!! Sucked into quicksand, typically as much as your waist, typically ALL THE WAY IN. and everyone knows the basic directions: DO NOT MOVE! The extra you progress, the quicker you sink.
And though we might keep in mind quicksand finest from motion pictures like The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story, it was truly hottest as a narrative machine again within the Sixties. And as one Slate author posits, it doesn’t appear to be a coincidence that ’60s tradition exterior of movie was steeped in quicksand, too—from the Vietnam battle to insurance policies nicknamed “the quicksand model.” And as a long time progressed, quicksand fell out of style with bell bottoms and tie-dye, although it did persist to scare us all as children within the ’80s and ’90s.
But does quicksand behave in actual life prefer it does within the motion pictures, making you disappear into the bottom in lower than a second? If you wrestle, do you actually sink quicker? Listen to this week’s episode to listen to the decision, corroborated by each real-life expertise, a Nature examine, and the MythBusters.