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at asana.com. That's

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asana.com. Welcome

0:36

to Curiosity Daily from Discovery, the very best

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place to get smarter in just a few

0:40

minutes. My name is Nate. And

0:42

I'm Callie. We are so excited to have you

0:44

here with us today at Curiosity. And if you

0:46

are one of our loyal listeners, welcome back. Today

0:49

you'll learn about a new way to turn certain

0:51

blood types into universal blood types that could save

0:53

countless lives. How exercise

0:55

makes time slow down. And

0:58

the new plastic made of eggshells that could

1:00

clean up our water and stop plastic pollution.

1:03

Okay, I really agree with that working out

1:05

one, so let's find out. Around

1:07

the year 1900, a physician named Carl

1:10

Landsteiner noticed that red blood cells would

1:12

kind of clump together when mixed with

1:14

the blood serum of different people. It

1:17

was a pretty curious observation and not long after,

1:19

he noticed that the blood serum of one person

1:21

would clump only with blood serum

1:23

of certain other people, but not with

1:26

all blood. Okay, so this must be the

1:28

discovery of blood types. Bingo. Dr.

1:30

Landsteiner made three categories and eventually a

1:32

fourth would be added. Those

1:35

would become the blood types we've all known of today. A, B, A, B,

1:37

and O. Right.

1:42

So I know if you need a blood transfusion, you need to

1:44

be given your own blood type, but I

1:46

don't actually understand why. I'm glad you brought it

1:49

up, because yeah, it's crucial that any blood you receive

1:51

is compatible with your own blood. I'll

1:53

dig into the weeds of that premise in a second, but first, it

1:56

goes without saying that any potential blood shortage

1:58

doctor's face is often due... to incompatibility.

2:00

Sometimes it's not that they don't have enough

2:02

blood, it's that they don't have enough of

2:05

the right blood. I would guess

2:07

it would also mean that some blood goes to waste, right?

2:09

Like if you have a ton of type A, but nobody

2:11

needs it, then I mean, what do you do with it?

2:14

Well, a team of researchers may have

2:16

developed a breakthrough method to create universal

2:18

donor blood from other blood types. And

2:21

that would solve a lot of problems, I'd imagine. So I

2:24

think I need a primer on blood types. What

2:26

are they and how do we make them compatible?

2:28

Okay, so first of all, the basics. Blood

2:30

types are determined by the presence of a

2:33

certain type of antigen on the surface of

2:35

red blood cells. And antigen is basically any

2:37

substance that can evoke an immune response in

2:39

our bodies. So type A blood

2:41

has an A antigen, type

2:43

B has a B antigen, type AB

2:46

has both. Okay, I

2:48

see. So if your system is set up

2:50

with the A antigen and the B antigen

2:52

makes it in there somehow, you're going to

2:54

get an immune response. Precisely. To oversimplify just

2:56

a tad, your body will reject it. But

2:59

type O is the universal blood type, right? And

3:01

that means anyone can receive it. So

3:03

why do our bodies accept the O antigen?

3:06

Because there is no O antigen. Type

3:08

O blood doesn't have an antigen, which

3:11

is what makes it universal. And

3:13

that brings us to this breakthrough.

3:15

A research team from the Technical

3:17

University of Denmark and Lund University

3:19

identified a bacteria called Acromancia mucinophila

3:22

that thrives in the human gut

3:24

by breaking down mucins. It

3:26

turns out mucins have similar sugar structures

3:29

to blood antigens. Wait, so

3:31

the idea would be that this bacteria could

3:33

break down antigens. That's right. The

3:35

team used it to basically remove the

3:37

antigens from type A and type B

3:39

blood. Oh, and without an

3:41

antigen, the blood becomes universal. Precisely. So they

3:44

had more luck with type B blood and

3:46

say that they still need a little time

3:48

and effort to break down the more complicated

3:50

type A. But this could

3:52

be a huge boost to blood supply

3:54

and reduce all the red tape and

3:56

logistical challenges in blood transfusion services. Okay,

3:59

that's amazing. So is this process ready to roll out?

4:02

Not quite. More research is needed, but they

4:04

think they could start controlled patient trials within

4:06

the next three or four years. Over

4:09

a hundred years ago, Albert Einstein said, and

4:11

I quote, When a man sits with a

4:14

pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute, but let

4:16

him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer

4:18

than any hour. Now, notwithstanding Einstein's

4:20

gender norms, he was referring to the

4:22

relative nature of time. Sure,

4:24

there seems to be a difference between actual

4:26

time, like the physical, literal ticking of the

4:29

clock, and psychological time. That

4:31

is how we perceive that ticking of the

4:33

clock. Well, according to a new study, it

4:35

turns out that exercise is a bit like

4:37

sitting on a hot stove, at

4:40

least as far as our perception of time is

4:42

concerned. Are you saying when we

4:44

exercise, time slows down? That

4:46

is exactly what the study suggests, but it goes a

4:48

little further than that too. So interestingly enough, this has

4:50

been the focus on past studies as well. But

4:53

why do we need to know how exercise

4:55

affects our perception of time? I'm not following

4:58

exactly. So that's a great question. And our

5:00

perception of time during exercise is actually kind

5:02

of a big deal, especially for athletes. Imagine

5:05

you are a competitive long distance runner and you need

5:08

to be able to set your pace. Accuracy

5:10

is important for something like that. If

5:13

your perception of time is constantly shifting one

5:15

way or another, your pacing could be off

5:17

and you'd lose a competitive advantage. Not

5:20

only that, but if you feel like you've been running

5:22

or doing any exercise for, say, like, a half hour,

5:25

when you look at your watch, it's only been 10 minutes,

5:28

that can be demoralizing and demotivating. I see.

5:31

So understanding how exercise changes our perception

5:33

of time is actually pretty important for

5:35

training and motivation. That actually

5:37

makes a lot of sense. So how do

5:39

you measure someone's perception of time? There

5:42

were 33 participants, all of them highly

5:44

active, but none of them were professional. Okay,

5:46

so they were in good health, probably used

5:49

to exercising. Yeah, so each participant was given

5:51

an assessment of their time perception. So basically,

5:53

they were told to estimate durations of 30

5:55

and 60 seconds. Okay,

5:57

so 30 seconds go by and... You

6:00

raise your hand or something like that? Right,

6:02

and no feedback was given so as to avoid

6:04

bias. Once the baseline was

6:06

established, they were put on stationary bikes in

6:09

order to ride a simulated four kilometer race.

6:11

While they raced, they were told to, again,

6:13

estimate the 30 and 60 second intervals. I

6:16

see. So if their perception changed, then

6:18

those intervals would seem either shorter or

6:20

longer to them, right? Exactly, and

6:22

the result was pretty conclusive. Participants consistently

6:25

perceived time as moving slower when they

6:27

were exercising compared to times when they

6:29

weren't exercising. They tried other variables too,

6:32

like pitting them against avatar competitors or

6:34

giving them an avatar buddy to ride

6:36

alongside. And none of that actually changed

6:39

the fact that time seemed to slow down. So whether

6:41

you're competing or not, it's the exercise that makes

6:43

time slow down, okay. And it

6:45

doesn't matter if you're working with someone else either. Like

6:47

what if you were told to work out extra hard?

6:50

Does that make time slow down even more? No,

6:52

and they actually thought it would, but there

6:54

was no correlation found between the rate of

6:56

perceived exertion and how time was perceived. In

6:59

other words, a harder workout doesn't seem like it

7:01

lasts any longer than an easy workout. Okay,

7:04

so how do we use this information? Like

7:06

does it have real practical applications

7:08

for us? I mean, sure, simply understanding

7:11

that exercise affects time perception can help

7:13

us craft strategies to boost our performance

7:15

and keep us motivated. I guess if

7:17

you know time is going to slow down, you can

7:20

build that into your expectations. Could make for a

7:22

more enjoyable workout, I guess. Exactly, and

7:24

we might not be able to beat the clock, but

7:27

understanding its quirks could give us a leg up. I

7:29

mean, quite literally in the case of my bar

7:32

class, so I'm just gonna have to remember that.

7:38

Ready for a smarter way to work? With

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impact by automating workflows across

7:54

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7:57

a smarter way to work. free

8:00

today at asana.com. That's

8:03

asana.com. We've

8:11

all probably heard of phosphates, but

8:14

most of us probably aren't exactly sure what they are. If

8:17

I remember correctly, they're a kind of chemical

8:19

compound that they use in things like fertilizer,

8:21

right? Right. Phosphates come in all

8:23

shapes and sizes and are used for all kinds

8:25

of things. Everything from laundry

8:27

detergent to processing food to water

8:30

treatment, even pharmaceuticals. And they

8:32

come from phosphorus, which plants eat up

8:34

so they can grow. And thus they're

8:36

used in fertilizers. Exactly. And that's also

8:39

one reason phosphates are becoming a problem.

8:41

There can be too much of a

8:43

good thing. Phosphates can go from our

8:46

agricultural soil, where it makes crops super

8:48

happy, to our rivers and waterways, where

8:50

it makes aquatic plants also super happy.

8:53

Not always a good thing. I'm talking about algal

8:55

blooms, of course. Yeah. And

8:57

those aren't exactly a good thing. And we

8:59

talk a lot about water systems on the

9:01

show, especially because of those algal blooms. They

9:04

have a tendency to change the water

9:06

composition, sucking out oxygen and shielding the

9:08

water from sunlight, right? That's right. But

9:10

a research team at the University of

9:13

Saskatchewan has developed a pretty amazing bioplastic

9:15

that absorbs phosphate from water, which could

9:17

be a potential game changer. Yeah.

9:20

But don't plastics kind of

9:22

come with their own set of problems? Good

9:25

catch. Yes. It would seem like putting plastics

9:27

into our waterways to remove the phosphates leaves

9:29

us with plastics in our

9:31

waterways. But this is not

9:33

just your normal plastic. It's a bioplastic.

9:36

OK. So bio, it

9:38

means it's like from an organic matter somehow. Yes.

9:41

Namely eggshells, something called marine

9:44

kyterson and wheat

9:46

straw. And it has the

9:48

potential to not only help with phosphates, but

9:50

also to fertilize crops and remove actual plastic

9:52

from the environment. Yeah, that sounds

9:54

a little too good to be true. I had the

9:56

same thought when I first heard about it. Let's

9:59

dig a bit deeper. because it's actually pretty simple. So

10:01

these materials, the eggshells, the kydosan,

10:04

which is basically composed of the

10:06

exoskeletons of crustaceans and wheat

10:08

straw, are turned into

10:10

bioplastic pellets. Think

10:12

kitty litter. Okay, got

10:14

it. But instead of absorbing like

10:17

kittypoo, it absorbs phosphates. It

10:19

sucks it right out of the water. But

10:21

here's the thing, this bioplastic is designed to

10:23

decompose. If you take them out

10:25

of the water and spread them across cropland, they'll

10:28

eventually just melt away. I see.

10:30

And as they decompose, they release the phosphates

10:32

back into the soil, fertilizing it. That's

10:34

actually really clever. It's actually even more

10:36

clever than you think because phosphates are

10:38

mined and they are a finite resource.

10:41

If you can continue reusing them, you cut

10:43

out the need to tear up the earth

10:45

from mining and suddenly have a more eco-friendly

10:47

resource. So that would make phosphates

10:49

a closed loop. I mean, at least where it

10:52

comes to fertilizers. Exactly. The

10:54

phosphates that are already in the environment

10:56

can just be reused over and over,

10:58

thanks to this bioplastic. But there's actually

11:00

one more bonus benefit of this stuff.

11:03

It can be used in place of actual

11:05

plastic in everyday products like plastic bags or

11:07

bottles. If you can replace,

11:09

say, 90% of the non-biodegradable plastic in

11:11

a bottle with this stuff, then

11:14

you have 90% less plastic entering our

11:16

landfills and oceans. Yeah, that really

11:18

does seem like a big deal. Sure could be. It

11:21

represents a solution to several global

11:23

environmental problems. Water quality,

11:25

mining, plastic pollution, and

11:27

all by repurposing eggshells. Let's

11:30

recap what we learned today to wrap up. Enzymes

11:33

from a common gut bacterium have been

11:35

used to transform types A and B

11:37

blood into universal donor blood. Physical

11:40

exercise has been found to slow our perception

11:42

of time regardless of how hard we work

11:44

out. A new bioplastic

11:46

not only purifies water by absorbing

11:48

harmful phosphates, but also transforms into

11:51

an eco-friendly fertilizer. Curiosity

11:54

Daily is produced by Wheelhouse DNA

11:57

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