Science Update Podcast - Daily Edition

TRANSCRIPT BOB HIRSHON (host): Dreaming up answers. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Many creative thinkers, including artists, musicians and scientists, report getting new insights through dreams. Harvard clinical psychologist Deirdre Barrett studies creative dreaming, and has found that t he dreaming brain specializes in visual-spatial solutions. BARRETT: Problems that start off as visual always get solved in a straightforward visual way in the dream, but things that are more of a word problem or math problem often get represented in images, because that seems to be the part of the mind that’s most active during dreaming. HIRSHON: She says dreams also excel at solving problems requiring outside the box thinking, probably because our prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that filters out ideas that are silly or inappropriate—is quiet during sleep, allowing unusual ideas to surface. She says visualizing a problem before going to sleep, and having paper, pen and a flashlight on a bedside table frequently yields valuable new insights. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society. MORE INFO If you want to hear Dr. Barrett discuss sleep in detail, check out this podcast on the Science of Dreaming from the American Psychological Association. Also, check out this video, Dream Hacking, from NOVA. A study titled Increased Creative Thinking in Narcolepsy looks at creativity in patients with narcolepsy, a condition characterized by a sudden onset of REM-stage sleep. Since creativity has been associated with this stage of sleep, the authors wanted to see if narcolepsy patients were more creative than a control group. Researchers are also looking at the effects of daytime napping on different types of creativity. And this study looks at our ability to enhance the creativity-boosting qualities of our sleep. The post Creative Dreaming appeared first on Science Update.

BOB HIRSHON (host): Refining robot social skills. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Making eye contact is an important social skill, but so is occasionally breaking eye contact. That’s true for robots as well. Bilge Mutlu is a professor of computer science, psychology, and engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His team found that humans were most comfortable talking to robots that glanced away in typical human patterns: to signal the other person’s turn to speak, for example. BILGE MUTLU (University of Wisconsin, Madison): People don’t interrupt the robot when it’s averting its gaze. And both when no aversion, or, sort of badly timed aversions happen, people are more likely to interrupt the robot, they think the robot’s not as thoughtful, and they don’t think that the robot’s behaviors are intentional. HIRSHON: Next, Mutlu says he’d like to teach robots more sophisticated gaze aversion habits: for example, making them respond to changes in eye contact from their human partners. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society. —————————— This research was a project of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, co-led by Professors Bilge Mutlu and Michael Gleicher, and carried out by graduate student Sean Andrist and undergraduate student Zhi Tan. The post Robot Gaze Aversion appeared first on Science Update.

Multispecies aggregation. (Schaller et al., 2018 CC-BY) BOB HIRSHON (Host): Bombardier beetle buddies. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Bombardier beetles are bright blue and red, which helps to advertise their fierce defensive arsenal: burning hot toxic chemicals they can spray from nozzles on their butts. In the journal PLOS ONE, University of Arizona entomologist Wendy Moore and her colleagues report that while the nocturnal beetles are solitary at night, many different species shelter together during the day, under rocks.   WENDY MOORE (University of Arizona, Tucson): It’s actually a fairly unusual phenomenon for different species to regularly associate with one another. HIRSHON: One reason could be that the different species bring different toxic weapons. MOORE: –that probably contribute to a big chemical cocktail for a vertebrate predator that might find them during the day. HIRSHON: And the huge mass of brightly colored beetles could warn would-be predators to back off. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the science society. Story by Bob Hirshon The post Bombardier Beetle Buddies appeared first on Science Update.

Jim Pennucci/CC BY 2.0, via flickr) BOB HIRSHON (host): Enjoyable fear.  I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Fear and anxiety are negative sensations that people tend to avoid. In fact, they exist to help us avoid threatening situations. So why do we sometimes seek out fear-inducing experiences for fun— especially around Halloween? New York University neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux explains that being thrilled and excited and being terrified share many of the same physiological reponses. JOSEPH LEDOUX (New York University): You’ve got adrenaline and noradrenaline being released, and cortisol and all these things are impacting your brain. But in the situation that you’re in, you’re interpreting that in terms of elation or excitement, rather than in terms of something awful happening to you. HIRSHON: Of course, adrenaline feels more pleasurable to some people than others; for some, no matter how safe the environment, the negative sensations from viewing a horror movie or riding a roller coaster will outweigh any thrills. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society. Story by Bob Hirshon The post Seeking Out Fear appeared first on Science Update.

A male superb lyrebird performs his courtship dance and song. (Alex Maisey) BOB HIRSHON (host): Dancing with the lyrebirds. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. (Lyrebird song) This might sound like a shoot-’em up arcade game, but it’s really an Australian bird serenading a female. Superb lyrebirds are known for their prodigious vocal talents. But now, scientists have discovered that the males also impress females by pairing each of their courting songs with a particular dance. Australian National University behavioral ecologist Anastasia Dalziell led the study. ANASTASIA DALZIELL (Australian National University): When they’re dancing they have just four different songs, and with each of those four songs, the lyrebirds have a unique set of dance movements. So depending on what songs they sing, you can predict what kind of dance moves they’re going to perform. HIRSHON: She says as in humans, coordinating dance moves with songs is hard work. So it’s possible that females pick their mates based on their ability to groove. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society. Watch a video about superb lyrebird song and dance For more information about this study, visit: https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.05.018 The post The Lyrebird’s Dance appeared first on Science Update.