tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/curiosity-3518/articlesCuriosity – The Conversation2023-10-25T12:32:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2078962023-10-25T12:32:22Z2023-10-25T12:32:22ZBeing humble about what you know is just one part of what makes you a good thinker<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555385/original/file-20231023-19-wf4nlp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=171%2C311%2C6508%2C4154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Good thinking is built from many ingredients.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/back-view-of-college-student-wants-to-ask-something-royalty-free-image/1396209957">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What does it mean to be a good thinker? Recent research suggests that acknowledging you can be wrong plays a vital role. </p>
<p>I had these studies in mind a few months ago when I was chatting with a history professor about a class she was teaching to first-year students here at Wake Forest University. As part of my job as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cKCKO2UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">psychology professor who researches character</a> – basically, what it means to be a good person – I often talk to my colleagues about how our teaching can develop the character of our students. </p>
<p>In this case, my colleague saw her class as an opportunity to cultivate character traits that would allow students to respectfully engage with and learn from others when discussing contentious topics. Wanting to learn about and understand the world is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/14040-005">distinctive human motivation</a>. As teachers, we want our students to leave college with the ability and motivation to understand and learn more about themselves, others and their world. She wondered: Was there one characteristic or trait that was most important to cultivate in her students?</p>
<p>I suggested she should focus on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby016">intellectual humility</a>. Being intellectually humble means being open to the possibility you could be wrong about your beliefs. </p>
<p>But is being humble about what you know or don’t know enough? </p>
<p>I now think my recommendation was incorrect. It turns out good thinking requires more than intellectual humility – and, yes, I see the irony that admitting this means I had to draw on my own intellectual humility.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="view from behind of students walking on campus in fall" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555387/original/file-20231023-23-fvsqmq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To be ready to learn, you need to acknowledge that what you currently believe could be wrong.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/rear-view-of-sudents-walking-through-the-park-royalty-free-image/690169722">vm/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Acknowledging you might not be right</h2>
<p>One reason for my focus on intellectual humility was that without acknowledging the possibility that your current beliefs may be mistaken, you literally can’t learn anything new. While being open to being wrong is generally quite challenging – especially for first-year university students confronting the limits of their understanding – it is arguably the key first step in learning. </p>
<p>But another reason for my response is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2021.1975725">research on intellectual humility has exploded</a> in the past 10 years. Psychologists now have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s44159-022-00081-9">many different ways</a> to assess intellectual humility. Social scientists know that possessing a high level of intellectual humility is associated with multiple positive outcomes, like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1167938">having more empathy</a>, more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1738536">prosocial behavior</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620988242">reduced susceptibility to misinformation</a> and an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217697695">increased inclination to seek compromise</a> in challenging interpersonal disagreements.</p>
<p>If you want to focus on one trait to promote good thinking, it seems that intellectual humility is hard to beat. Indeed, researchers, <a href="https://jayawide.sites.wfu.edu">including those in my own lab</a>, are now testing interventions to promote it among different populations.</p>
<h2>A single trait won’t make you a good thinker</h2>
<p>However, was I right in recommending just a single trait? Is intellectual humility by itself enough to promote good thinking? When you zoom out to consider what is really involved in being a good thinker, it becomes clear that simply acknowledging that one could be wrong is not enough.</p>
<p>To provide an example, perhaps someone is willing to acknowledge that they could be wrong because “whatever, man.” They didn’t have particularly strong convictions to begin with. In other words, it’s not enough to say you’re mistaken about your beliefs. You also need to care about having the right beliefs.</p>
<p>While part of being a good thinker involves recognizing one’s possible ignorance, it also requires an eagerness to learn, curiosity about the world, and a commitment to getting it right. </p>
<p>What other traits, then, should people strive to cultivate? The philosopher Nate King writes that being a good thinker <a href="https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/the-excellent-mind-9780190096267">involves possessing multiple traits</a>, including intellectual humility, but also intellectual firmness, love of knowledge, curiosity, carefulness and open-mindedness.</p>
<p>Being a good thinker involves confronting multiple challenges beyond being humble about what you know. You also need to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Be sufficiently motivated to figure out what’s true.</li>
<li>Focus on the pertinent information and carefully seek it out.</li>
<li>Be open-minded when considering information that you may disagree with.</li>
<li>Confront information or questions that are novel or different from what you’re generally used to engaging with.</li>
<li>Be willing to put in the effort to figure it all out.</li>
</ul>
<p>This is a lot, but philosopher Jason Baehr writes that possessing good intellectual character <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-inquiring-mind-9780199604074">requires successfully addressing all these challenges</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three students looking at textbooks in library" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555389/original/file-20231023-21-dkjjde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Good intellectual character depends on more than one key trait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multi-ethnic-students-studying-in-a-library-royalty-free-image/876865594">Tashi-Delek/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Additional ingredients for good thinking</h2>
<p>So, I was wrong to say that intellectual humility was the silver bullet that can teach students how to think well. Indeed, being intellectually humble – in a way that promotes good thinking – likely involves being both curious and open-minded about new information.</p>
<p>Focusing on a single characteristic such as intellectual humility rather than the totality of intellectual character ends up promoting lopsided character development, similar to that of a bodybuilder focusing their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-005-3651-y">efforts on one bicep rather than their whole body</a>. </p>
<p>My lab’s current work is now attempting to address this issue by defining the good thinker in terms of multiple intellectual traits. This approach is similar to work in personality science that has identified key traits of people who are psychologically healthy as well as those whose patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving cause enduring distress or problems. We hope to further understand <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2022.2154701">how good thinkers function in daily life</a> – for example, their personality, the quality of their relationships and their well-being – as well as how their intellectual character <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785221113985">influences their thinking, behavior and sense of identity</a>.</p>
<p>I think <a href="https://www.templeton.org/grant/clarifying-the-virtue-profile-of-the-excellent-thinker">this work</a> is vital in order to understand the key characteristics of good thinking and to learn more about how to build these habits in ourselves and others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eranda Jayawickreme receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation (grant 62669).
This article was produced with support from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and the John Templeton Foundation as part of the GGSC's initiative on Expanding Awareness of the Science of Intellectual Humility.</span></em></p>Being open to the possibility you could be wrong about your beliefs is an important part of learning about the world. But this trait is not enough on its own.Eranda Jayawickreme, Professor of Psychology & Senior Research Fellow, Program for Leadership and Character, Wake Forest UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990472023-02-07T19:34:30Z2023-02-07T19:34:30ZDebate: ChatGPT reminds us why good questions matter<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508626/original/file-20230207-21-k6uwib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Over 100 million people used ChatGPT in January alone, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/chatgpt-sets-record-fastest-growing-user-base-analyst-note-2023-02-01/">one estimate</a>, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. By producing resumes, essays, jokes and even poetry in response to prompts, the software brings into focus not just language models’ arresting power, but the importance of framing our questions correctly.</p>
<p>To that end, a few years ago I initiated the <a href="https://the100questions.org/">100 Questions Initiative</a>, which seeks to catalyse a cultural shift in the way we leverage data and develop scientific insights. The project aims not only to generate new questions, but also reimagine the process of asking them.</p>
<h2>A hard-wired hunger for answers</h2>
<p>As a species and a society, we tend to look for answers. Answers appear to provide a sense of clarity and certainty, and can help guide our actions and policy decisions. Yet any answer represents a provisional end-stage of a process that begins with questions – and often can generate more questions. Einstein drew attention to the critical importance of how questions are framed, which can often determine (or at least play a significant role in determining) the answers we ultimately reach. Frame a question differently and one might reach a different answer. Yet as a society we undervalue the act of questioning – who formulates questions, how they do so, the impact they have on what we investigate, and on the decisions we make. Nor do we pay sufficient attention to whether the answers are in fact addressing the questions initially posed.</p>
<p>Questions play a key role in many aspects of our lives. The right questions are critical, for instance, to the scientific process, driving inquiry and exploration across a wide range of topics and issues and shaping public policy. Consider a government-authorised list of recommended vaccines for school kids. This list represents an endpoint (an answer) in a long process. Yet what questions did scientists and policymakers begin with to arrive at this list? What were the public health goals they set themselves, how did they determine efficacy and what cutoff points did they select in the balance between benefit and risk? Such questions have a crucial role to play in the ultimate selection of vaccines placed on the list, as well as in public health.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A screen displaying a ChatGPT logo stands at the front of a room packed with teachers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508634/original/file-20230207-31-ed2xy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teachers are seen behind a laptop during a workshop on ChatGPT bot in the Swiss canton of Geneva.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.afp.com/#/c/main/search/photos?id=newsml.afp.com.20230206T020004Z.doc-338h767&type=photo">Fabrice Coffrini</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Science reporting tends to focus on outcomes and insights. These represent end-stage or top-level information. As the above example illustrates, more attention to the questions and the way they are framed would help contextualise end-stage information, allowing policymakers and citizens alike to make better, more responsible decisions.</p>
<p>Questions also give value to data. Much of the reporting and commentary today focuses on the amount of data generated and the need to open them for scientific and public consumption – i.e., the supply of raw data. But questions are what transform raw data into information: the questions we ask frame the problems we seek to solve, allowing us to leverage data for the public good.</p>
<h2>Why AI makes a science of questioning ever more pressing</h2>
<p>The rise of <a href="https://docs.cohere.ai/docs/introduction-to-large-language-models">large language models</a> (LLMs) and the field of <a href="https://docs.cohere.ai/docs/prompt-engineering">prompt engineering</a> has exposed us to the importance of framing questions correctly, to get an LLM to provide answers (the correctness and truthfulness of these answers remain an issue, though). But before prompt engineering becomes relevant, it’s important to point out that when AI engineers develop a machine learning model that learns from data, what it learns – meaning the model itself – is dependent on the question one seeks to answer of the data.</p>
<p>It is also important to keep in mind that the answers provided by AI systems might reflect <a href="https://www.questionmachines.net/">biases or lacunae in the underlying data</a>. <a href="https://www.questionmachines.net/">This problem has been highlighted</a>, for instance, in the context of automated Q&A systems such as Alexa and Siri, which provide answers to a large number of households for a variety of daily tasks and questions. Discovering and developing ways to formulate questions so that they overcome some of the inherent biases of data should therefore be an important part of the practice and theory of prompt engineering – and, more generally, of an emerging science of questions in the age of data.</p>
<p>The role of questions may be heightened in a digital environment, but their importance actually extends far deeper. There is a long tradition, dating at least back to Socrates and many schools of Eastern thought, of using questions to further pedagogy and various forms of human and social learning. Others have written of the need for <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Pedagogy_of_Questioning/TlfkngEACAAJ?hl=en">“a pedagogy of questioning”</a>. And more recently, scientists and scholars have been exploring the use of the <a href="https://www.dell.com/en-us/blog/how-data-analytics-and-the-socratic-method-can-help-take-your-business-to-the-next-level/">Socratic Method in data analytics</a> and <a href="https://www.kdnuggets.com/2019/06/data-literacy-socratic-method.html">promoting data literacy</a>.</p>
<h2>Questions to combat information overload</h2>
<p>Ultimately, by helping us understand what really matters, questions are drivers of societal change and improvement. They help establish priorities, and they allow us to imagine alternatives. As such, questions are political. And, as Perry Zurn explained in <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/curiosity-and-power"><em>The Politics of Curiosity</em></a> our political commitments often inform the questions we think are worth asking.</p>
<p>As society becomes overloaded with data and data-derived findings, we have increasingly strayed away from questions. This post represents an initial justification for what we might think of as a new science of questions.</p>
<p>To define and create such a science, we need to begin, in fact, by asking ourselves a series of questions. How can we make science reporting more focused on the questions being asked in science? What are good questions (and bad questions)? How can we complement data science with a new science of questions? How can we enable learners to become questioners? How do we ensure questioning is inclusive and free of bias? How do we fulfill the potential of machine learning and AI with good questions?</p>
<p>Confronting and answering such questions requires a new interdisciplinary effort that would bring together scientists, data scientists, science writers, social change actors, artists, and educational experts. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/collections/research-directions">Glimpses of such efforts</a> are already underway. But we need much more interaction across information and disciplinary silos, and we need to foster conversations that shift our society’s focus away from answers and toward context and purpose – toward, in effect, asking the right questions.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The article was co-written with <a href="http://anilananthaswamy.com/">Anil Ananthaswamy</a>, a science writer and former writer for the New Scientist magazine.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stefaan G. Verhulst ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Answers are all the rage in the information age. However, to become wise we will need to learn to formulate better questions.Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (GovLab), New York UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955352022-11-29T13:42:39Z2022-11-29T13:42:39ZA sampler of our most popular articles of 2022<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497971/original/file-20221129-7082-4rvz7x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Download this collection of articles, or read them here</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve created a special downloadable e-book of some of our most popular stories of the year – stories that sparked the curiosity of readers like you, covering topics ranging from super-earths to mosquito magnets, and from why we need to file tax returns to why we can’t just throw all our trash into volcanoes. </p>
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A selection of fact-based journalism from 2022, covering topics ranging from super-earths to mosquito magnets, and from why we need to file tax returns to why we can’t just throw all our trash into volcanoes.Katrina Aman, Journalism Evangelist, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895122022-09-15T12:22:54Z2022-09-15T12:22:54ZHow to keep kids curious – 5 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484447/original/file-20220913-4351-sof8u4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C15%2C5073%2C3387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Could schools be putting a damper on children's curiosity?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mixed-race-girl-looking-in-curiously-royalty-free-image/88751977?adppopup=true">Jose Luis Pelaez Inc via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Kids are naturally curious. But various forces in the environment can dampen their curiosity over time. Can anything be done to keep kids’ curiosity alive? For answers to this question, The Conversation U.S. turned to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1fr7ljcAAAAJ&hl=en">Perry Zurn</a>, a philosophy professor at American University and author of three books on curiosity, including “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/curious-minds/">Curious Minds: The Power of Connection</a>,” which was released in September 2022.</em></p>
<h2>1. Is curiosity abundant at birth?</h2>
<p>Curiosity is a natural capacity, present in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhab080">nonhuman animals</a> as well as in humans from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12629">very young age</a>. Beings of all sorts seek information, explore their environments and innovate new ways of solving problems. Creatures big and small, from elephants to bees, engage in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2017.108">exploratory foraging</a> as they discover new territory and resources, while <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620739114">monkeys</a> – and even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2016.0414">cells and viruses</a> – innovate new behaviors.</p>
<p>Among human beings, most people – scholars and nonscholars alike – have a sense that children are especially curious. Psychologist <a href="https://psychology.williams.edu/profile/sengel/">Susan Engel</a> validates this sense in her book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">The Hungry Mind</a>.” Engel observes children’s curiosity at work in different environments, from preschool nature walks and middle school science labs to asking questions around the dinner table. Her research confirms that children are bursting with curiosity, expressed in the things they touch, the way they talk and how they interact with others. But what happens to that curiosity as we age?</p>
<p>Some people I meet bemoan the loss of their childlike wonder, while others are proud to have maintained or expanded it. What might explain the difference?</p>
<h2>2. What kills kids’ curiosity?</h2>
<p>While research clearly shows children have a high interest in <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781442217331/The-Philosophical-Child">asking questions</a>, that interest may dull over time, particularly in school settings. One study found that preschoolers ask an average of 26 questions an hour at home, but <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/young-children-learning/oclc/11114218">less than two per hour at school</a>. Another study showed that fifth grade students, on average, expressed curiosity – via question asking, directed gazing or object manipulation – <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736757">less than once every two hours</a>. Why? </p>
<p>Many things can dampen curiosity. Internet search engines and smartphones that give immediate answers limit children’s ability to sit with their questions and stew over their <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Experience-And-Education/John-Dewey/9780684838281">problems</a>. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/">Parenting styles</a> that emphasize the value of questions only as a means to an end – such as correct <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed-9781501314162/">answers</a> – limit children’s capacity to cultivate questions for their own sake. Lastly, when schools train children to ask only specific kinds of questions in specific sorts of ways, it can limit their opportunities to <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262515108/insatiable-curiosity/">innovate</a> by constraining their interest and inquiry into narrow channels.</p>
<h2>3. How good are K-12 schools at fostering curiosity?</h2>
<p>Since teacher training focuses on conveying content and cultivating basic skills, teachers <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/672957b4-788b-40c5-a747-f66544b641fe#conc">may not know how</a> to facilitate curiosity.</p>
<p>To make matters more complicated, educators are often up against <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2022/08/26/are-we-at-a-crisis-point-with-the-public-teacher-workforce-education-scholars-share-their-perspectives/">impossible odds</a> of growing class sizes, reduced resources and increased pressure to achieve generalized, measurable outcomes. As a result, many teachers teach “compliance” more than “curiosity,” as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a> puts it, reflecting on his time as a student in Baltimore schools. In his experience, it was more important for students to behave and learn the assigned material than for them to explore their interests and go out on a limb. This is especially harmful for students whose creative intelligence is already less likely to be encouraged, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.0.0120">students of color</a> and students with <a href="https://manifold.umn.edu/read/curiosity-studies/section/09913fb6-4df2-4607-9192-cf745c919426#ch08/">learning differences</a>, including autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or dyslexia.</p>
<p>As astrophysicist and Black feminist author <a href="https://ceps.unh.edu/person/chanda-prescod-weinstein">Chanda Prescod-Weinstein</a> emphasizes in her recent book, “<a href="https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/chanda-prescod-weinstein/the-disordered-cosmos/9781541724709/">The Disordered Cosmos</a>,” not everyone is encouraged to reach for – or understand – the stars. She sees Black women as being especially discouraged from their academic and scientific aspirations. </p>
<h2>4. How can parents protect their children’s curiosity?</h2>
<p>Paying attention to each child’s own style of curiosity, and instilling in them a sense of pride in that style, will do much to equip kids to maintain curiosity. While children are naturally curious, they may express and pursue their curiosity in different ways. Research indicates there are multiple <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/curious/201801/what-are-the-five-dimensions-curiosity">dimensions</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/04/busybody-hunter-dancer-curiosity-curious-minds-bassett-zurn">styles</a> of curiosity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl looks at a caterpillar on a shiny floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484446/original/file-20220913-4351-43kc30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kids have different learning styles, and so do different creatures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/surface-level-of-curious-girl-looking-at-royalty-free-image/1187823750?adppopup=true">Cavan Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-00985-7">study I was involved in</a>, for example, led by communications scientist <a href="https://www.asc.upenn.edu/people/faculty/david-lydon-staley-phd">David Lydon-Staley</a>, showed that people who browse Wikipedia have a tendency either to be busybodies – clicking on radically different pages; or hunters – clicking on closely connected pages. Does your child like to know everything about a few things? Or a few things about everything?</p>
<p>For the ancient Greeks, these two styles were best characterized by <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/08/739502013/the-fox-and-the-hedgehog-a-story-of-triumphs-and-tragedy">the hedgehog and the fox</a>. According to Archilochus, the hedgehog “knows one thing,” but the fox “knows many things.” Following that instinct, in my book “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047036/">Curious Minds</a>,” written with neuroscientist <a href="https://directory.seas.upenn.edu/danielle-s-bassett/">Dani S. Bassett</a>, we analyze 18 different creatures, from animals to insects, and characterize their unique curiosity styles. Perhaps your child is more like an octopus, with inquisitive arms stretched out in every direction, or an inchworm, slow and steady. </p>
<h2>5. What role can colleges play?</h2>
<p>If people are to have the curiosity and creative imagination necessary to address pressing problems the world over, we will have to rethink what happens in the college classroom, and what happens <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/beyond-education">beyond it</a>. </p>
<p>Fellow philosopher of curiosity Lani Watson argues that however much colleges and universities tout a central commitment to curiosity, they continue to rely primarily on “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-16-5277-6">answers-oriented education</a>.” Over and over again, the written exam, the multiple choice test or the position paper are the gold standard by which students demonstrate that they have learned and what they have learned.</p>
<p>Asking better, more insightful and more creative questions is rarely prized in educational settings except as a means to other ends – higher grades, more published papers, more discoveries or innovations. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025115622777">rising</a> social pressures to work longer hours on classes, jobs and internships, and a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/the-liberal-arts-may-not-survive-the-21st-century/577876/">declining</a> investment in a liberal arts education, make questioning itself an endangered art. Few students have the time or encouragement to get curious for curiosity’s sake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189512/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Perry Zurn receives funding from The Center for Curiosity. </span></em></p>A philosophy professor looks at the learning styles of different creatures to gain insight into curiosity among human beings.Perry Zurn, Associate Professor of Philosophy, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889982022-08-28T08:06:19Z2022-08-28T08:06:19ZWant to get more women to start their own businesses? Here’s what it takes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479887/original/file-20220818-486-36qtmg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Globally, men are <a href="https://www.gemconsortium.org/file/open?fileId=50671">twice</a> as likely as women to start a business. Most research into how to start a business has been focused on men. Not much has looked at why women are not fully represented among entrepreneurs or how to change this.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/APJIE-06-2019-0041/full/pdf?title=worldwide-role-of-women-entrepreneurs-in-economic-development">it’s known</a> that women entrepreneurs play an important role as leaders of entrepreneurial teams who contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gemconsortium.org/file/open?fileId=50671">Research</a> shows that women in South Africa are less likely to consider starting a business than men. They are also significantly less likely to act on their entrepreneurial intentions. One reason could be the lack of entrepreneurial competencies and the extent to which women have “prior exposure to business”. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00922/full">research</a> set out to investigate the relationship between prior entrepreneurial exposure and entrepreneurial action. In other words, whether women who came from a business environment where they were exposed to prior entrepreneurial experience were more likely to start their own business. This included “shadowing” an entrepreneur, having entrepreneurial parents, working in an entrepreneurial business before starting your own or having entrepreneurial role models. </p>
<p>My approach towards the question was a new one. I divided entrepreneurial action into three phases of a process – before a decision is taken, before action, and action itself.</p>
<p>As I expected, context is key. This is also true for women and their entrepreneurial endeavours.</p>
<p>Being exposed to role models or having entrepreneurial parents encouraged women to start businesses. This prior exposure had a stronger effect on action when women have certain entrepreneurial competencies. The relevant ones were: self-efficacy, leadership, curiosity, innovativeness, and need for achievement (motivation). </p>
<p>My findings have important implications for women entrepreneurs, educators and entrepreneurship models, which have been traditionally male dominated. For example, to get more women to start businesses educators and policy makers can develop women’s self-efficacy, leadership, curiosity, innovativeness and motivation entrepreneurial competencies based on their entrepreneurial exposure.</p>
<h2>Exposure, intentions and action</h2>
<p>My research sample consisted of South African entrepreneurs: 346 women and 804 men. The men were included so as to test whether the relationship between prior entrepreneurial exposure and action was stronger for women entrepreneurs than for men. I found that it was indeed stronger for women.</p>
<p>The average age of the women was 50, ranging from 26 to 78. Just over half (51.1%) had at least an undergraduate degree. Most of the businesses (56.6%) were service based, mainly in the Gauteng or Western Cape provinces (70.3%). They were mostly in the financial, manufacturing and business services industries (31.7%). On average, the businesses were five years old.</p>
<p>The women were asked which entrepreneurial exposure they were exposed to before starting their businesses. The study showed that prior entrepreneurial exposure made a noticeable difference in a woman’s likelihood of pursuing her entrepreneurial goals.</p>
<p>The reason for this is simple. Women typically face conflicting identity roles. They find themselves caught between traditional “feminine” roles and their desire to start businesses, an activity that is generally understood to be more “masculine”. But if women see other women pursuing and being successful in an entrepreneurial environment, they are more likely to follow that path themselves.</p>
<p>Women need to hone their entrepreneurial competencies if they want to commit to
being self-employed. These competencies include the knowledge, skills and abilities that contribute towards entrepreneurial action. Therefore, together with prior exposure, it can enhance the aspiring entrepreneur’s likelihood of starting a business because of the learning that it provides.</p>
<h2>Entrepreneurial competencies</h2>
<p>The research showed that leadership, innovativeness, curiosity, self-efficacy and motivation are some of the competencies that women entrepreneurs need to start their own businesses.</p>
<p><strong>1. Leadership</strong> means developing a vision, sharing it, and encouraging others to follow it. Entrepreneurship conveys an entirely new vision for an emerging venture.</p>
<p><strong>2. Innovativeness</strong> is the ability to develop new products, services and business models that generate profits. </p>
<p><strong>3. Curiosity</strong> is the key ingredient that leads entrepreneurs to find new solutions to customers’ problems. The link between entrepreneurial curiosity and entrepreneurial action is strong. A curious woman entrepreneur with prior entrepreneurial exposure is more likely to take action because their interest allows them to identify and exploit opportunities based on their experience.</p>
<p><strong>4. Self-efficacy</strong> is the perceived capability to perform certain tasks. It influences an individual’s choice of activities, goal levels, persistence and performance. For women entrepreneurs it has been proved that self-efficacy can be strengthened through prior experience, having role models, receiving words of encouragement, and enjoying positive well-being.</p>
<p><strong>5. Motivation</strong> refers to an individual’s desire for significant accomplishment or mastering of skills. So, the more motivated a woman entrepreneur is, the more vigorously she will pursue her entrepreneurial endeavours. When women have the opportunity to watch each other grow and succeed in business, they are encouraged to do the same.</p>
<p>Policy makers must design interventions that make use of women’s prior entrepreneurial exposure, and boosts the right set of competencies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melodi Botha receives funding from Allan Gray Orbis Foundation. </span></em></p>If women see other women pursuing and being successful in an entrepreneurial environment, they are more likely to follow that path themselves.Melodi Botha, Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1713612021-12-03T13:42:51Z2021-12-03T13:42:51ZWhy do couples use baby talk with one another?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435400/original/file-20211202-21915-13y6ut5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C8%2C2872%2C2239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Baby talk is cute when used with babies. But when adults converse with each other? Not so much.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/montage-picture-of-baby-boy-with-pacifier-and-royalty-free-image/sb10063184n-001?adppopup=true">Justin Case/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine you’re strolling through a park and you overhear a middle-aged couple cooing over each other, doting over their “wittle sugar pwum” and “baby doll.” </p>
<p>“Ewwww,” you might reflexively think.</p>
<p>Baby talk is cute when grown-ups dote on babies. But when adults converse with each other? Not so much.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QzFEjNwAAAAJ&hl=en">Yet in my work as a communication sciences and disorders researcher</a>, I’ve come across studies showing that <a href="http://archive.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2012/02/06/looking_for_love/">as many as two-thirds of couples use romantic baby talk</a>. </p>
<p>It may sound strange and elicit cringes, but it’s no disorder.</p>
<p>So why do couples do it? </p>
<p>First, it’s important to understand what, exactly, I mean by “baby talk.” It’s not how babies talk to one another. It’s the exaggerated pitch, tempo and intonation that parents use when talking to their little ones – <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/news/2017/10/12/uncovering-sound-motherese-baby-talk-across-languages">what linguists call</a> “motherese” or “parentese.”</p>
<p>According to speech and hearing expert <a href="http://ilabs.uw.edu/institute-faculty/bio/i-labs-patricia-k-kuhl-phd">Patricia Kuhl</a>, this special style of speaking facilitates social interactions with babies, helping them learn how to communicate. And it isn’t a phenomenon just in English. Speakers in every culture and every language will change their pitch and exaggerate their intonation when communicating with babies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26046469.pdf">Research has shown</a> that this style of speaking actually triggers the release of neurotransmitters that motivate infants to learn.</p>
<p>However, in the case of romance, this style of speech is less about learning and more about affection.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10570310309374758">affection exchange theory</a>, which was proposed by the communication researcher Kory Floyd, specific vocal behaviors signal affection. These include the use of a high pitch, exaggerated intonation and a soft voice – traits that just so happen to overlap with the way most people talk to babies. </p>
<p>But there’s another side to the phenomenon: the formation of a special linguistic landscape that’s walled off from the rest of the world, a space for couples to express themselves that’s free from the complexities and customs of routine adult conversations.</p>
<p>The use of “idiosyncratic,” or personalized, communication <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407593104009">is an important aspect of close friendships and romantic relationships</a>. A bystander listening in might be flummoxed. But to the couple, it’s a sign of their bond – a boundary that sets them apart from everyone else. Pet names like “sweet pie” and “nugget” are a part of this, and they’ve been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407593104009">signal greater relationship satisfaction among couples</a>.</p>
<p>So while adults literally going gaga for each other might sound peculiar, it’s a hallmark of humanity.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ramesh Kaipa receives funding from the Oklahoma Center for Advancement of Science & Technology. He is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.</span></em></p>As many as two-thirds of couples do it.Ramesh Kaipa, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1691272021-10-18T12:11:42Z2021-10-18T12:11:42ZHow to nurture creativity in your kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426475/original/file-20211014-7324-1u31syx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4998%2C3344&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creativity has many academic, professional and personal benefits.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/four-children-drawing-with-chalk-on-pavement-royalty-free-image/AB15713">Stephen Simpson/Stone Collection via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Parents who want their kids to be more creative may be tempted to enroll them in arts classes or splurge on STEM-themed toys. Those things certainly can help, but as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OzW_dWUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">professor of educational psychology</a> who has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316979839">written</a> <a href="https://www.springerpub.com/creativity-101-9780826129529.html">extensively</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013688">about creativity</a>, I can draw on more than <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/h0063487">70 years of creativity research</a> to make additional suggestions that are more likely to be effective – and won’t break your budget. </p>
<h2>1. Be cautious with rewards</h2>
<p>Some parents may be tempted to reward their children for being creative, which is traditionally defined as producing something that is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3902_1">both new and useful</a>. However, rewards and praise may actually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.50.1.14">dissuade your child’s intrinsic interest</a> in being creative. That’s because the activity may become <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780306420221">associated with the reward and not the fun</a> the child naturally has doing it. </p>
<p>Of course, I am not saying you should not place your child’s artwork on your fridge. But avoid being too general – “I love every bit of it!” – or too focused on their innate traits – “You are so creative!” Instead, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316832134.028">praise specific aspects</a> that you like in your child’s artwork – “I love the way you made such a cute tail on that dog!” or “The way you combined colors here is pretty!” </p>
<p>Some rewards can be helpful. For example, for a child who loves to draw, giving them materials that they might use in their artwork is an example of a reward that will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316979839.020">help them stay creative</a>. </p>
<p>It is also important to note that there are many activities – creative or otherwise – for which a child may not have a particular interest. There is no harm – and much potential benefit – in using rewards in these cases. If a child has an assignment for a creative school activity and hates doing it, there may not be any inherent passion to be dampened in the first place.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy draws at table partially covered with art supplies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426576/original/file-20211014-7324-vetody.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">If a child already enjoys a creative activity, offering rewards or nonspecific praise for it may actually dampen their enthusiasm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-boy-at-home-drawing-at-the-table-royalty-free-image/1257515701">Noel Hendrickson/DigitalVision Collection via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Encourage curiosity and new experiences</h2>
<p>Research shows that people who are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316228036">open to new experiences and ideas</a> are more creative than those who are more closed off. Many parents have children who naturally <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2014.07.004">seek new things</a>, such as food, activities, games or playmates. In these cases, simply continue to offer opportunities and encouragement. </p>
<p>For those whose children may be more reticent, there are options. Although personality is theoretically stable, it is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.694157">possible to change</a> it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000088">in subtle ways</a>. For example, a study – although it was on older adults – found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025918">crossword or sudoku puzzles</a> can help increase openness. Childhood and adolescence is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.1.1">natural period for openness to grow</a>. Encouraging curiosity and intellectual engagement is one way. Other ways might include encouraging sensible risk-taking – such as trying a new sport for a less athletic child or a new instrument for one less musically inclined – or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022110361707">interest in other cultures</a>. Even very simple variations on an evening routine, whether trying a new craft or board game or helping cook dinner, can help normalize novelty. </p>
<h2>3. Help them evaluate their best ideas</h2>
<p>What about when children are actually being creative? Most people have heard of brainstorming or other activities where <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/divergent-thinking">many different ideas are generated</a>. Yet it is equally important to be able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1803_13">evaluate and select one’s best idea</a>. </p>
<p>Your child might think of 30 possible solutions to a problem, but their creativity will not be expressed if they select the one that’s least interesting – or least actionable. If giving praise can be tricky, feedback can be even tougher. If you are too harsh, you risk <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1037/a0036618">squashing your child’s passion</a> for being creative. Yet if you are too soft, your child may not develop their creativity <a href="https://doi.org/10.2190/EM.28.1.b">to the fullest extent possible</a>.</p>
<p>If your child seeks out your input – which in adults can be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.64870144">good indicator of creativity</a> – make sure to give feedback <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10400410802391827">after they have already brainstormed</a> many possible ideas. Ideally, you can ensure your child still feels competent and focus on <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487">feedback that connects to their past efforts</a>: “I like the imagery you used in your poem; you are getting better! What other metaphors might you use in this last line?”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl walks over an aerial bridge made of rope and planks surrounded by trees" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426574/original/file-20211014-28-ysbysf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More guarded kids may need to be encouraged to try new foods or activities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/girl-walks-through-one-of-the-circuits-of-the-aventura-news-photo/1335426205">Rafael Bastante/Europa Press via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Teach them when not to be creative</h2>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2013.799413">creativity isn’t always the best option</a>. Sometimes, straightforward solutions simply work best. If the toilet is clogged and you have a plunger, you don’t need to make your own from a coat hanger and bisected rubber duck. </p>
<p>More notably, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj0801_1">some people</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.2005.tb01247.x">including teachers</a>, say they like creative people but actually have negative views of creative kids without even realizing it. </p>
<p>If your child is in a class where their creativity is causing some blowback, such as discipline issues or lowered grades, you may want to work with your child to help them understand the best course of action. For example, if your child is prone to blurt out their ideas regardless of whether they are related to the discussion at hand, emphasize that they should <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13598139.2014.905247">share thoughts that are directly relevant</a> to the class topic. </p>
<p>If, however, you get the feeling that the teacher simply does not appreciate or like your child’s creativity, you may want to suggest that your child keep an “idea parking lot” where they <a href="https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789462091498/BP000003.xml">write down their creative thoughts</a> and share them with you – or a different teacher – later in the day.</p>
<p>Creativity has a host of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000433">academic</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2001.tb00234.x">professional</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618771981">personal</a> benefits. With some gentle nudges, you can help your child grow and use their imagination to their heart’s content.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 110,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James C. Kaufman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Art classes and STEM toys are nice, but there are simple and free ways parents can encourage their child’s creativity – or keep it from getting squashed.James C. Kaufman, Professor of Educational Psychology, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565862021-05-26T18:09:24Z2021-05-26T18:09:24ZCOVID-19 budget pressures threaten curiosity-driven science. That’s a bad thing<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/401830/original/file-20210520-19-1xxbb8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some of the dishes that make up the Square Kilometre Array's radio telescope system. This kind of "blue skies" research can have great real-world value. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MUJAHID SAFODIEN/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Management of the COVID-19 pandemic has governments around the world walking a delicate tightrope between containing the spread of the virus and the interactions required to sustain daily living. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/global-economic-prospects">Economies</a> and <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/08/03/na080320-south-africa-looks-toward-inclusive-recovery-to-stabilize-debt-boost-growth">national budgets</a> have been placed under tremendous pressure.</p>
<p>This means that budgets are being cut. And one area that’s affected is research. In South Africa, for instance, in 2020 the national science budget was <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2020-7-this-is-the-butcher-s-bill-for-south-africa-s-science-cuts/">reduced by 15%</a> – a direct result, the <a href="https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2020-7-this-is-the-butcher-s-bill-for-south-africa-s-science-cuts/">government confirmed</a>, of the pandemic’s effects. In May 2021 it <a href="https://researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-africa-south-2021-5-parliament-rallies-behind-south-africa-s-cash-strapped-science-department/">was increased</a>, but only by 1.4% – below inflation.</p>
<p>A shift in government spending is likely to continue in the coming months and years. So, where does this leave blue skies science? Will it also be a casualty of COVID-19?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.labmate-online.com/news/news-and-views/5/breaking-news/what-is-lsquoblue-sky-sciencersquo/30187">Blue skies science</a> is the kind of research that’s driven by curiosity. Its real world applications – or its relevance to society – aren’t always immediately apparent; it begins because scientists ask one simple question: “why?” For example, <a href="http://aappsbulletin.org/myboard/read.php?Board=apctp&id=111">wifi grew out of a technique</a> that was developed by radio astronomers in the late 1970s to analyse radio waves from black holes, and the <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200705/physicshistory.cfm#:%7E:text=By%201920%2C%20physicists%20knew%20that,born%20in1891%20in%20Manchester%2C%20England.">discovery of the neutron in 1932</a> has led to new fields in applied science, including energy production and materials diagnostics.</p>
<p>The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science – which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking – perhaps more important than ever. But this will require a long-term view from governments and funders, particularly by providing decades of funding and freedom to allow scientists to ask the “why?” questions. </p>
<p>I have been fortunate to spend almost two decades working in astronomy research, which is just about as “blue skies” as one can get. It was the support and vision of South Africa’s commitment to blue skies science, especially astronomy, that drew me and many other researchers back home from a position abroad. In my role at the <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/">Office of Astronomy for Development</a>, I’ve seen firsthand how blue skies science acts as a gateway into science, technology and data science fields and how a combination of skills in applied and blue-skies science can contribute to pressing socio-economic questions.</p>
<p>Now budget pressures are intensifying. But, I would argue, unless there is increased support for researchers in exploratory fields and in forays into cross disciplinary projects, the expertise, momentum and benefits that have accumulated over the last decades will be lost. There may be short-term successes, but they will likely be at the expense of longer term, potentially bigger impact science.</p>
<p>Continued funding for both blue skies and applied science is necessary as boundaries between the two become more porous. This is important because it would mean that scientists could increasingly contribute to immediate societal impact, while following avenues out of pure curiosity. </p>
<h2>Scientific agility</h2>
<p>In the year since COVID-19 first emerged as global pandemic, my colleagues and I have watched scientific agility in action in South Africa on a number of fronts.</p>
<p>One example has been the role that the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory took to help lead the country’s <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-07-07-from-telescopes-to-ventilators-how-the-countrys-engineers-and-designers-have-retooled-for-the-covid-19-crisis/">national ventilator project</a>. Ventilators are crucial for those with severe COVID-19, but there were limited numbers available worldwide. The national ventilator project aimed to manufacture simple non-invasive ventilators using locally available materials and processes. </p>
<p>The Office of Astronomy for Development, the African Planetarium Society and African Astronomical Society <a href="http://www.astro4dev.org/call-for-covid-19-related-proposals/">collectively redirected funding</a> to assuage the effects of the pandemic. With some organisational agility, the funding could be redirected to causes slightly outside the key mission of these organisations.</p>
<p>We’ve also seen scientific agility at an individual level. Statisticians and simulation scientists from numerous fields have <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/ames/covid-19">responded to the call</a> to work with epidemiologists in modelling the pandemic.</p>
<p>Similarly, many blue skies science projects, like the <a href="https://icecube.wisc.edu/">IceCube Neutrino Observatory</a> and the <a href="https://www.bsu.edu/news/press-center/archives/2020/4/planetarium-computers-used-to-battle-covid19">Charles W. Brown Planetarium</a>, have made computing power available to model the virus protein properties of SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<h2>In it for the long haul</h2>
<p>Building solid research capabilities is a long-term endeavour. It is often internationally funded and operated, and can last several decades. One example is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-ska-telescope-is-boosting-south-africas-knowledge-economy-96228">Square Kilometre Array (SKA)</a>. A multinational endeavour, it is <a href="https://www.peralex.com/radio-astronomy/">spurring</a> technological breakthroughs and industrial spin-offs.</p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-big-moment-for-africa-why-the-meerkat-and-astronomy-matter-99714">A big moment for Africa: why the MeerKAT -- and astronomy -- matter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Projects like this have significant momentum. Due to high sunk costs as well as cross-national mutual accountability, they’re unlikely to be halted, even if they are subjected to delays or de-scoping. </p>
<p>They are even likely to survive the immediate impact of budget cuts. These, however, have an immediate effect on a range of shorter term research projects. They also affect students and training. Most students and early career researchers are funded by “soft money”, allocated to a particular project over a short timescale, usually two or three years.</p>
<p>Having less soft money to go around means fewer graduate students to train, and fewer early career researchers to be employed. For those students who are funded, it may also mean reduced opportunities to receive training that will help them exploit the available research infrastructure. This funding pressure mounts up, and the impacts become visible over the medium term: reduced numbers of publications and projects are undertaken on these facilities, and there’s less opportunity to build and develop skills.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>The value in blue skies science requires us to look beyond the obvious. It also requires us to consider timescales longer than the political. </p>
<p>The question is not so much about redirecting funding, but about designing a research environment that can accommodate integration of ideas across traditional research “silos”; an environment where there are avenues for experts to apply their skills outside their domains of expertise. As a collective, society would stand to gain so much more from blue skies research.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vanessa McBride works for the Office of Astronomy for Development and the South African Astronomical Observatory. She receives funding from the National Research Foundation.</span></em></p>The pandemic has underscored that the world requires agility for survival. That makes blue skies science, which encourages curiosity and nimble thinking, perhaps more important than ever.Vanessa McBride, Astronomer, International Astronomical Union's Office of Astronomy for DevelopmentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1583762021-05-17T12:26:53Z2021-05-17T12:26:53ZWhy do we hate the sound of our own voices?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/400587/original/file-20210513-13-4ejtyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C71%2C2476%2C1804&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your voice, when played back to you, can sound unrecognizable.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/engraving-of-scary-woman-monster-with-three-royalty-free-illustration/988105126?adppopup=true">GeorgePeters/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zZY5ezsAAAAJ&hl=en">As a surgeon who specializes in treating patients with voice problems</a>, I routinely record my patients speaking. For me, these recordings are incredibly valuable. They allow me to track slight changes in their voices from visit to visit, and it helps confirm whether surgery or voice therapy led to improvements.</p>
<p>Yet I’m surprised by how difficult these sessions can be for my patients. Many become visibly uncomfortable upon hearing their voice played back to them. </p>
<p>“Do I really sound like that?” they wonder, wincing. </p>
<p>(Yes, you do.) </p>
<p>Some become so unsettled they refuse outright to listen to the recording – much less go over the subtle changes I want to highlight. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2273.2005.01022.x">The discomfort we have over hearing our voices in audio recordings</a> is probably due to a mix of physiology and psychology.</p>
<p>For one, the sound from an audio recording is transmitted differently to your brain than the sound generated when you speak. </p>
<p>When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travels through the air and into your ears – what’s referred to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-385157-4.00121-4">air conduction</a>.” The sound energy vibrates the ear drum and small ear bones. These bones then transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea, which stimulates nerve axons that send the auditory signal to the brain.</p>
<p>However, when you speak, the sound from your voice reaches the inner ear in a different way. While some of the sound is transmitted through air conduction, much of the sound is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000266070">internally conducted directly through your skull bones</a>. When you hear your own voice when you speak, it’s due to a blend of both external and internal conduction, and internal bone conduction appears to boost the lower frequencies. </p>
<p>For this reason, people generally perceive their voice as deeper and richer when they speak. The recorded voice, in comparison, can sound thinner and higher pitched, which many find cringeworthy.</p>
<p>There’s a second reason hearing a recording of your voice can be so disconcerting. It really is a new voice – one that exposes a difference between your self-perception and reality. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/741827437/finding-your-voice-how-the-way-we-sound-shapes-our-identities">Because your voice is unique and an important component of self-identity</a>, this mismatch can be jarring. Suddenly you realize other people have been hearing something else all along.</p>
<p>Even though we may actually sound more like our recorded voice to others, I think the reason so many of us squirm upon hearing it is not that the recorded voice is necessarily worse than our perceived voice. Instead, we’re simply more used to hearing ourselves sound a certain way. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2273.2005.01022.x">A study published in 2005</a> had patients with voice problems rate their own voices when presented with recordings of them. They also had clinicians rate the voices. The researchers found that patients, across the board, tended to more negatively rate the quality of their recorded voice compared with the objective assessments of clinicians. </p>
<p>So if the voice in your head castigates the voice coming out of a recording device, it’s probably your inner critic overreacting – and you’re judging yourself a bit too harshly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158376/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neel Bhatt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you’ve ever cringed after hearing a recording of yourself, you’re not alone.Neel Bhatt, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology, UW Medicine, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1586042021-04-28T19:05:08Z2021-04-28T19:05:08ZGoing back to the office? The colder temperature could lead to weight gain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396858/original/file-20210423-21-wrlubj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=89%2C71%2C2395%2C1399&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A person's resting metabolism is very sensitive to temperature, and offices are often too cold for people.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Office_design_around_Covid-19.jpg">Steelcase/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With millions of Americans vaccinated against COVID-19, many who have worked from home over the past year will be heading back into the office. Adjusting to new routines is challenging and can <a href="https://www.digitalnomadsoul.com/remote-work-effects-on-health/">affect our health and fitness</a>. We’ve been more sedentary or more active, gained weight or dropped pounds. </p>
<p>As part of my work as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=umII_qINUAMC&hl=en">biomedical engineer</a>, I study <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306456509000837">how physical factors influence human metabolism</a>. This includes height and weight, gravity – and air temperature. My research colleagues and I have found that living or working in a cool environment for extended periods can lower core body temperature. That decreases metabolic rate – how fast we burn calories – and commonly causes <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/oby.20546">weight gain</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396854/original/file-20210423-15-puhjmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">/</span>
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</figure>
<h2>Maintaining core body temperature</h2>
<p>Humans are homeotherms – that is, we maintain a relatively constant core body temperature. Specifically, we <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306456505001452">keep our body temperature</a> in the range of 97 F to 101 F even in cool environments. Three different types of metabolic activity keep our body warm.</p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.infrafrontier.eu/sites/infrafrontier.eu/files/upload/public/pdf/Resources%20and%20Services/2016-10-13_keppner_human-respirometry.pdf">basal metabolism</a>. About two-thirds of the calories we burn each day fuel basic bodily functions, all of which generate heat: breathing, blood circulation, cell growth, brain function and food digestion. Any kind of <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/cuny-csi-ap-1/chapter/muscular-homeostasis/">physical movement also generates heat</a> through chemical reactions that make muscles contract. </p>
<p>A third heat-generating process happens within specialized tissue called “<a href="https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/how-brown-fat-improves-metabolism">brown fat</a>.” It’s a leftover evolutionary adaptation that kept us from freezing during the ice ages. It kicks in when our core temperature drops to very low levels, but <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6354082/">most people lose their brown fat as they age</a>.</p>
<p>With increasing body temperature, our metabolic rate rises and we burn more calories. This generates more heat and further raises our body temperature, creating a <a href="https://biologydictionary.net/positive-feedback/">positive feedback process</a> which usually keeps our body temperature in the healthy range. </p>
<p>But this process is remarkably sensitive to temperature. For every 1-degree drop in body temperature, our metabolic rate can decrease <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4580850/">by more than 7%</a>. This means that the resting metabolic rate for someone at a body temperature of 101 F (the high end of normal) is up to 30% higher than if their temperature were 97 F (the low end). Increasing body temperature by four degrees can burn more calories during the course of the day than the average person burns as a result of all of their daily physical activity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396855/original/file-20210423-13-1dzj2sl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=628&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Working in a chilly office lowers core body temperature, pushing body temperature below the normal range, as shown in this chart plotting women’s body temperature and age for a typically cooled office at 70 degrees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Schwetana Sunkari</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Body temperature versus physical exercise</h2>
<p>This is why changing your physical environment can substantially alter the way your body works – and impacts both health and fitness. If you’re gaining weight and aren’t sure why, check the thermostat where you live or work. </p>
<p>Most offices tend to be kept near 70 F. That’s why so many of your co-workers are complaining of being cold, wearing sweaters or jackets, or using a space heater. This tends to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/04/science/chilly-at-work-a-decades-old-formula-may-be-to-blame.html">too cold</a> for <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/26/727108363/how-office-temperature-affects-cognitive-performance">most women</a> – and many men – who sit at a desk all day. But it’s more than uncomfortable; it’s not healthy. </p>
<p>The “correct” room temperature is where you are comfortable: not too hot, not too cold. That’s generally between <a href="https://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/app_gallery/pdf/Condition_Air_into_the_Human_Comfort_Zone.pdf">72 F and 81 F</a> at moderate humidity, but may range <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/68019.pdf">as low as 65 F or up to 85 F</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Working in a cold office slows your metabolism. In addition to making weight management challenging, sluggish metabolic rates are linked to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180521095606.htm">lowered immune response</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23858000/">heart damage</a> and increased <a href="https://drc.bmj.com/content/8/1/e001381">risk of developing Type 2 diabetes</a>. </p>
<p>If you don’t have control over the thermostat, you still have a few options besides wearing a coat all day. New technologies include a <a href="https://www.wired.com/review/embr-wave/">wearable personal device which changes your perception of warmth and cold</a>; a passive exercise device that <a href="https://www.sonostics.com/how-it-works">increases your metabolic rate by increasing cardiac output</a> (I have an equity stake in this company); and a <a href="https://koleda.co/">“smart” version of the traditional space heater</a>. However you achieve it, do your best to stay comfortably warm in your future workplace. </p>
<p><em>This article was updated to indicate the author has an equity stake in Sonostics, one of the companies linked to in the article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenneth McLeod has an equity stake in Sonostics. The article links to the company's web site. </span></em></p>Going back to work at an office? An expert explains how the relatively cool temperature many offices are kept at may affect your body – and your health.Kenneth McLeod, Professor of Systems Science and Director, Clinical Science and Engineering Research Laboratory, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1581772021-04-06T12:27:48Z2021-04-06T12:27:48ZThe 17th-century cloth merchant who discovered the vast realm of tiny microbes – an appreciation of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392870/original/file-20210331-13-1k3l5mc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C7%2C5068%2C3396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leeuwenhoek refined the magnifying glass, creating the world's first microscope.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/model-of-leeuwenhoek-microscope-on-book-royalty-free-image/75650913">Tetra Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine trying to cope with a pandemic like COVID-19 in a world where microscopic life was unknown. Prior to the 17th century, people were limited by what they could see with their own two eyes. But then a Dutch cloth merchant changed everything. </p>
<p>His name was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, and he lived from 1632 to 1723. Although untrained in science, van Leeuwenhoek became the greatest lens-maker of his day, discovered microscopic life forms and is <a href="https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/s/rs/people/fst00039851">known today as the “father of microbiology.”</a></p>
<h2>Visualizing ‘animalcules’ with a ‘small see-er’</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An oil painting of man with long curly hair holding a pair of tweezers posed next to a globe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392877/original/file-20210331-19-kncz3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Van Leeuwenhoek opened the door to a vast, previously unseen world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/ft6mf62b">J. Verolje/Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Van Leeuwenhoek didn’t set out to identify microbes. Instead, he was trying to assess the quality of thread. He developed <a href="https://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/museum/leeuwenhoek.html">a method for making lenses</a> by heating thin filaments of glass to make tiny spheres. His lenses were of such high quality he saw things no one else could.</p>
<p>This enabled him to train his microscope – literally, “small see-er” – on a new and largely unexpected realm: objects, including organisms, far too small to be seen by the naked eye. He was the <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html">first to visualize red blood cells, blood flow in capillaries and sperm</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Pen and ink drawings of four different rod shaped bacteria." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392848/original/file-20210331-21-1gy6f72.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=677&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Drawings from a van Leeuwenhoek letter in 1683 illustrating human mouth bacteria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leuwenhoek_picture_of_animacules.png">Huydang2910</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Van Leeuwenhoek was also the <a href="https://www.aaas.org/discovery-bacteria">first human being to see a bacterium</a> – and the importance of this discovery for microbiology and medicine can hardly be overstated. Yet he was reluctant to publish his findings, due to his lack of formal education. Eventually, friends prevailed upon him to do so.</p>
<p>He wrote, “Whenever I found out anything remarkable, I thought it <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html">my duty to put down my discovery on paper</a>, so that all ingenious people might be informed thereof.” He was guided by his curiosity and joy in discovery, asserting “I’ve taken no notice of those who have said <a href="https://laurieximenez.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/2-microbe-hunters-paul-de-kruif.pdf">why take so much trouble and what good is it</a>?”</p>
<p>When he reported visualizing “animalcules” (tiny animals) swimming in a drop of pond water, members of the scientific community questioned his reliability. After his findings were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2004.0055">corroborated by reliable religious and scientific authorities</a>, they were published, and in 1680 he was invited to join the Royal Society in London, then the world’s premier scientific body.</p>
<p>Van Leeuwenhoek was not the world’s only microscopist. In England, his contemporary <a href="https://theconversation.com/robert-hooke-the-english-leonardo-who-was-a-17th-century-scientific-superstar-119497">Robert Hooke coined the term “cell”</a> to describe the basic unit of life and published his “Micrographia,” featuring incredibly detailed images of insects and the like, which became the first scientific best-seller. Hooke, however, did not identify bacteria.</p>
<p>Despite van Leuwenhoek’s prowess as a lens-maker, even he could not see viruses. They are about 1/100th the size of bacteria, much too small to be visualized by light microscopes, which because of the physics of light <a href="http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/biol/4101/estridge2/tutorial1a.pdf">can magnify only thousands of times</a>. Viruses weren’t visualized until 1931 with the <a href="http://www.auburn.edu/academic/classes/biol/4101/estridge2/tutorial1a.pdf">invention of electron microscopes</a>, which could magnify by the millions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Black and white microscopic image showing a cluster of dots." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393164/original/file-20210401-17-bvjvvo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=622&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of the hepatitis virus courtesy of the electron microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Hepatitis/20c83d41c4ef41a593761c96f6565697">E.H. Cook, Jr./CDC via Associated Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A vast, previously unseen world</h2>
<p>Van Leeuwenhoek and his successors opened up, by far, the largest realm of life. For example, all the bacteria on Earth <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/5/29/17386112/all-life-on-earth-chart-weight-plants-animals-pnas">outweigh humans by more than 1,100 times</a> and outnumber us by an unimaginable margin. There is fossil evidence that <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/bacteriafr.html">bacteria were among the first life forms on Earth</a>, dating back over 3 billion years, and today it is thought the planet houses about <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/158203.stm">5 nonillion (1 followed by 30 zeroes) bacteria</a>.</p>
<p>Some species of <a href="https://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/mph-modules/ph/ph709_infectiousagents/PH709_InfectiousAgents4.html">bacteria cause diseases</a>, such as cholera, syphilis and strep throat; while <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.00780">others, known as extremophiles</a>, can survive at temperatures beyond the boiling and freezing points of water, from the upper reaches of the atmosphere to the deepest points of the oceans. Also, the number of harmless bacterial cells on and in our bodies <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/scientists-bust-myth-that-our-bodies-have-more-bacteria-than-human-cells-1.19136">likely outnumber the human ones</a>.</p>
<p>Viruses, which include the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19, outnumber bacteria by a factor of 100, meaning there are <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/factors-allow-viruses-infect-humans-coronavirus">more of them on Earth than stars in the universe</a>. They, too, are found everywhere, from the upper atmosphere to the ocean depths.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white image showing a segmented sphere shaped item." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=580&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392874/original/file-20210331-21-1jfdfea.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=728&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A visualization of the human rhinovirus 14, one of many viruses that cause the common cold. Protein spikes are colored white for clarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhinovirus_isosurface.png">Thomas Splettstoesser</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Strangely, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-viruses-alive-2004/">viruses probably do not qualify as living organisms</a>. They can replicate only by infecting other organisms’ cells, where they hijack cellular systems to make copies of themselves, sometimes causing the death of the infected cell.</p>
<p>It is important to remember that microbes such as bacteria and viruses do far more than cause disease, and many are vital to life. For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1535370217746612">bacteria synthesize vitamin B12</a>, without which most living organisms would not be able to make DNA.</p>
<p>Likewise, viruses cause diseases such as the common cold, influenza and COVID-19, but they also play a vital role in transferring genes between species, which <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713100911.htm">helps to increase genetic diversity and propel evolution</a>. Today <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2018/oncolytic-viruses-to-treat-cancer">researchers use viruses to treat diseases such as cancer</a>.</p>
<p>Scientists’ understanding of microbes has progressed a long way since van Leeuwenhoek, including the development of antibiotics against bacteria and vaccines against viruses including SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<p>But it was van Leeuwenhoek who first opened people’s eyes to life’s vast microscopic realm, a discovery that continues to transform the world.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158177/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Gunderman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Van Leeuwenhoek, who discovered bacteria, is one of the most important figures in the history of medicine, laying the groundwork for today’s understanding of infectious disease.Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1481562021-01-12T13:19:48Z2021-01-12T13:19:48ZHow does Wi-Fi work? An electrical engineer explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375990/original/file-20201218-17-1tmdcia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4985%2C3735&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Wi-Fi symbol, like the technology it represents, has become ubiquitous.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/close-up-of-an-outdoor-wifi-antenna-integrated-into-a-news-photo/1090961462?adppopup=true">Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Though you can’t see them, radio waves are all around you all the time, carrying information. For most people, some of those radio waves are Wi-Fi signals. Wi-Fi is the catchy name an <a href="https://boingboing.net/2005/11/08/wifi-isnt-short-for.html">industry alliance came up</a> with to market devices that transmit large amounts of data over short distances using radio waves. The letters don’t stand for anything.</p>
<p>Wi-Fi, like broadcast radio and cellular telephone signals, is based on scientific discoveries dating back to the late 19th century. When electrons moving through a wire are made to alternate directions periodically, something magical happens. Electrons in another wire, located at a distance, start to move up and down in sync, as though they were telepathically connected.</p>
<p>This phenomenon was first observed by <a href="https://www.aaas.org/heinrich-hertz-and-electromagnetic-radiation">Heinrich Hertz</a> in 1887, confirming a mathematical theory proposed by <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/james-clerk-maxwell-a-force-for-physics/">James Clerk Maxwell</a> in 1864. Maxwell’s elegant theory explains how the alternating current in the first wire causes a “radio wave” of alternating electrical and magnetic fields to radiate out in all directions at the speed of light. The wave, in turn, causes an alternating current in the second wire. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/ems/01_intro">electromagnetic spectrum</a> includes visible light, which alternates at a much higher frequency than radio waves. There is a mystery to ponder here: Human bodies have evolved to see light but not radio waves. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Back of a small home internet router with Wi-Fi antenna, ethernet ports and ethernet cables" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375991/original/file-20201218-21-1jr10q3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This little antenna transmits radio waves throughout an apartment-size area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/internet-connection-with-wlan-router-in-home-office-royalty-free-image/184999273?adppopup=true">deepblue4you/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wireless 0’s and 1’s</h2>
<p>Traditional AM/FM radio and TV broadcasts communicate information through analog, or continuous, signals. Wi-Fi communicates information digitally, as discrete values – the 0’s and 1’s of binary data. This lets mobile devices easily send a wide range of data types, including video, image, speech and text. Digitally formatted data is also easier to compress for faster download, to encode for preventing errors and to encrypt for ensuring confidentiality.</p>
<p>When you search for something online, data from your Wi-Fi device is first communicated over radio waves to a Wi-Fi access point, which could be the antenna on the back of your home internet router or a Wi-Fi antenna in a café. It then travels over wired cables to a gateway device operated by your broadband internet provider. From there, the query finds its way across multiple wired links to Google’s server. The response comes back through a similar path in reverse. </p>
<p>Wi-Fi devices made by different companies can talk to each other. This is because they follow a common set of rules called the <a href="https://www.networkworld.com/article/3238664/80211x-wi-fi-standards-and-speeds-explained.html">802.11 standards</a>, published by the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the IEEE. These rules specify how 0’s and 1’s are represented using radio waves and how devices identify themselves. They also specify an algorithm for how and when to talk, called <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/carrier-sense-multiple-access-csma/">carrier-sense multiple access</a>, or CSMA. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View from a balcony down into a busy café where most people are looking at their phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375821/original/file-20201217-13-1xacvqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The key to making Wi-Fi practical is in how it juggles multiple people using it at once.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/d1ngW7SNehM">The Creative Exchange/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>CSMA makes Wi-Fi devices both polite and smart. They always listen before they talk, to check that no other nearby devices are transmitting. To further minimize talking at the same time, they roll dice to pick random times to transmit. And when there are more devices around, they speak less often. All of this happens too quickly to notice.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>Fast, but not always strong</h2>
<p>You may sometimes have trouble connecting to a Wi-Fi access point. Here is why: Radio signals get weaker with distance. Thick walls, metal shelves and even an aquarium can weaken and obstruct radio waves. If the signal gets too weak, there is poor or no communication. If there are too many Wi-Fi networks nearby, they may also interfere with your link. </p>
<p>Several improved versions of Wi-Fi have emerged since it first appeared in the mid-1990s. Its <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/how-fast-is-a-wifi-network-816543">maximum data rate</a> – several billion bits per second – is now more than a thousand times higher than the earliest version. This is why we can have video conference calls over Wi-Fi today.</p>
<p>Emerging applications like virtual reality gaming demand ever-higher download speeds. They are likely to drive even further improvements in Wi-Fi.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhaskar Krishnamachari receives funding from NSF and DARPA. </span></em></p>Wi-Fi has become a fundamental part of modern digital life, but its foundation is the same as the technology that allowed your great-grandparents to listen to their favorite radio programs.Bhaskar Krishnamachari, Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern CaliforniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1366722021-01-10T13:47:58Z2021-01-10T13:47:58ZFrom the Cold War to COVID-19: The 8 common ways people behave in a crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377435/original/file-20210106-13-1v7prk3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C115%2C2323%2C1587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the most common reactions during a crisis is the urge to help others. Here a health-care worker watches as the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are delivered to a long-term care facility in Montréal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A year ago, the world was just starting to learn about a mysterious virus that was killing people in the Chinese city of Wuhan. While the ensuing coronavirus pandemic was unprecedented in current times, human experience with disasters and crises is obviously not new.</p>
<p>As an academic who teaches disaster management programs, I’ve studied how people react during different types of disasters. There are common patterns in the ways people come together to respond to these kinds of events — regardless of whether the trigger was a <a href="https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/disaster-management/about-disasters/definition-of-hazard/">natural hazard, technologically based or human-caused</a>. </p>
<p>During the Cold War, fears in the U.S. about the breakdown of social order and widespread panic in the event of an atomic bomb attack led to the <a href="https://www.drc.udel.edu/content-sub-site/Documents/DRC%20Early%20History.pdf">study of human behaviours in situations of collective stress</a>. </p>
<h2>Myths about social breakdowns</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S0196-1152(03)11004-6/full/html">Myths about social breakdown</a> during disasters still prevail and continue to be <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002716205285589?journalCode=anna">used by media to frame</a> societal response to certain types of crises, but the way that people actually respond is primarily <a href="https://items.ssrc.org/covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/disaster-studies/pandemic-and-disaster-insights-from-seventy-years-of-social-science-disaster-research/">pro-social</a>.</p>
<p>When communities are impacted by events that threaten life and safety, the response is typified by the <a href="https://udspace.udel.edu/bitstream/handle/19716/737/PP342A.pdf?sequence">convergence of people, information and materials</a>.</p>
<p>Each of the following eight common types of behaviours associated with <a href="http://www.amandaleehughes.com/OnlineConvergenceISCRAM08.pdf">citizen response to past crises and disasters</a> have also been seen during the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. The behaviours are not mutually exclusive, but do reflect different motivations. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three travellers in masks, face shields and white haz-mat suits give the peace sign to a photographer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377454/original/file-20210106-23-1j11qwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People from Colombia wearing protective gear wait for a car rental company shuttle after arriving at Vancouver International Airport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Helping</strong>: In response to the suffering of others, people reach out to help in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/women-men-pandemic-disasters-help.html">myriad ways</a>. Altruistic actions during the pandemic have included the establishment of “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/24/canada-an-inspiring-movement-emerges-response-coronavirus/">caremongering</a>” and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/05/18/what-mutual-aid-can-do-during-a-pandemic">mutual aid groups</a> to help meet a range of basic needs, including creative initiatives to make <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/coronavirus-3d-printing-face-masks_ca_5eac890ac5b6402ade22122b?ncid=tweetlnkcahpmg00000002">personal protective equipment</a>, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/distilleries-across-canada-fight-covid-19-by-making-hand-sanitizer-1.4867110">hand sanitizer</a> and <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/15/21222219/general-motors-ventec-ventilators-ford-tesla-coronavirus-covid-19">ventilators</a>. With the pandemic, we all are facing the same threat, and so people have also <a href="https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-policy/public-compliance-covid-19-precautions-soars-survey-shows">taken action</a> to help reduce the spread of the virus by <a href="https://www.cebm.net/2020/10/face-coverings-self-surveillance-and-social-conformity-in-a-time-of-covid-19/">wearing masks</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7479499.1/">social distancing</a> and <a href="https://www.conferenceboard.ca/focus-areas/human-resources/2020/working-through-covid-19/remote-work-support">working from home where possible</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Being anxious</strong>: Anxiety has been <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html">heightened during the pandemic</a> for different reasons. <a href="https://healthydebate.ca/2020/04/topic/covid-19-visitor-restrictions-isolating-seniors">Visitor restrictions</a> that keep family members from seeing loved ones in hospitals or residential or long-term care homes, as well as worry about the conditions in care homes, has created anxiety for many. The <a href="http://www.vch.ca/about-us/news/technology-helping-to-improve-care-for-seniors">use of technology</a> has been critical in helping to re-establish face-to-face or verbal contact between those who have been separated. To address uncertainty and risk, tools were developed to help people decide <a href="https://covidvisitrisk.com/">if it is safe to visit</a> someone during the pandemic, or if a family member should be taken out of a <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c2fa7b03917eed9b5a436d8/t/5e9e4714a9f391603dffe93c/1587431192922/During+the+COVID-19+pandemic%2C+should+I+go+to+live+elsewhere+or.pdf">retirement</a> or <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5c2fa7b03917eed9b5a436d8/t/5e9e479d00ac2a433dc22a14/1587431327742/During+the+COVID-19+pandemic%2C+should+I+or+my+family+member+go.pdf">long-term care home</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Evacuating/Returning</strong>: Events that cause physical destruction often result in the evacuation of people from the affected area. While the pandemic did not destroy physical infrastructure in communities, it did <a href="https://www.mymove.com/moving/covid-19/coronavirus-moving-trends/">trigger migration</a>. People moved to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/06/about-a-fifth-of-u-s-adults-moved-due-to-covid-19-or-know-someone-who-did/">reduce their risk of exposure</a> to the virus or because of indirect impacts of the pandemic, including university closure and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52086274">job or income loss</a>. Many of the moves were to be with family in other communities. It is too early to tell how many of those who moved will eventually return. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Supporting</strong>: People often express support and gratitude to those who were part of the formal response effort. <a href="https://www.crossroadshospice.com/hospice-palliative-care-blog/2020/march/31/how-to-thank-essential-workers-during-covid-19/">Expressions of support</a> for health care and other essential workers were evident, particularly in the early months of the pandemic. Forms of support included <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-51997699">banging on pots and pans</a> at a set time each day, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/26/world/window-hope-messages-trnd/index.html">putting signs in windows</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/coronavirus/lightitblue-landmarks-lit-in-support-of-essential-workers-during-coronavirus-pandemic/2105693/">lighting landmarks</a> and <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/meet-the-covid-19-frontline-heroes/">highlighting their stories</a>. Special thanks were also given to groups such <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/thank-a-trucker-starting-to-roll-during-pandemic-1.5505744">as truckers</a> who continued to ensure movement of goods across borders.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Being curious</strong>: People are curious about threats to personal safety that are outside the realm of their lived experience, with interest being sparked by the novelty of an event and a desire to make sense of the situation. Curiosity about a threat and potential impacts leads to <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/hcta4/">information-seeking behaviours</a>, with the method of getting information being influenced by the proximity to an impact zone. During the early months of the spread of COVID-19, people turned to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971220302496">the internet</a>, as well as traditional and social media, to learn about what was happening in Wuhan — and then Italy and other countries. As the global spread of the virus brought the threat closer to home, people <a href="https://www.jmir.org/2020/11/e22407">sought information</a> about what was known about transmission of COVID-19 and preventative actions that could be taken. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Witnessing</strong>: People who witness an event bear testimony to what took place. Sharing of these <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-019-03604-5">kinds of first-hand experiences</a> has been enabled by the ubiquitous use of cell phones and social media. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=c6Bt0wyuwYkC&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&ots=rUhBZxg8Tz&sig=Td7ZeuRKMj49BstZbETwRi0xiTE#v=onepage&q&f=false">Citizen witnesses</a> play a unique role when they provide access to sites where traditional media is not present. Citizen journalists <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/28/wuhan-citizen-journalist-jailed-for-four-years-in-chinas-christmas-crackdown">in China</a> took significant risks to share images of the impacts of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me8gDVjQ-oc&ab_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29">via YouTube</a>. Stories from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddNwM9L6fBM&ab_channel=CBCNews">doctors</a> and <a href="https://www.wamc.org/post/our-grief-nurses-experience-during-covid-19-pandemic">nurses</a> on the front lines of the response in Italy and other countries provided warnings to others about the impacts of the virus on people and those caring for them. These first-hand accounts allow us to become a second-hand witness to an event, with the rawness of witness testimonies generating an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10304312.2013.772109?casa_token=C9CUrHvtDroAAAAA%3AE1_4fTv2xHCGtiGMm5xOZJ1POsBH-MO0S6FJGy7xZUPXXc4xN1qjYflx3vOlS5sFzkpstqt7Hw">affective response</a>, which then becomes a motive for other actions.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Mourning</strong>: The pandemic has caused a significant loss of life. Restrictions have <a href="https://www.actamedicaportuguesa.com/revista/index.php/amp/article/viewFile/14345/6014">limited how people can gather to mourn</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/prehospital-and-disaster-medicine/article/covid19-and-unfinished-mourning/F8E0B9C5B396C75C92FF49D2E8F78734">affected the grieving process</a>. Attention has been given to finding other ways to mourn. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/08/940802688/hardly-any-1918-flu-memorials-exist-will-we-remember-covid-19-differently">Public forms of memorialization</a> have included events such as <a href="https://keyt.com/news/national-world/2020/12/25/memorial-for-those-who-died-from-covid-19-happening-on-christmas-eve/">drive-through candlelight ceremonies</a>, as well as place based memorials created using <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-long-term-care-cases-accounted-for-80-of-canadas-covid-19-deaths/#c-image-0">crosses</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFemrciokN4&ab_channel=NBCNews">flags</a>, photos and flowers to represent and honour those who have died. Virtual memorials have also been created to recognize <a href="https://nursesunions.ca/covid-memoriam/">health-care workers</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/24/coronavirus-dead-victims-stories/?arc404=true">and citizens</a> who died from COVID-19.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Exploiting</strong>: While most behaviours in disasters and crises are pro-social, there are people who take advantage of a crisis situation for personal gain. Examples of exploiting behaviours early in the pandemic included <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-man-accused-hoarding-covid-19-materials-price/story?id=70333494">hoarding personal protective equipment</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/14/technology/coronavirus-purell-wipes-amazon-sellers.html">hand sanitizer</a>, with the intent of reselling for substantial gain. During the early months of the pandemic, high demand and limited stock or disrupted supply chains led to <a href="https://www.oecd.org/competition/Exploitative-pricing-in-the-time-of-COVID-19.pdf">exploitive pricing</a> for some products. </p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki by the United States in 1945." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377456/original/file-20210106-23-1qsx5g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Concern about how people would react to an atomic bomb attack led to the study of how people respond in disasters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jean Slick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the world is dealing with the biggest health emergency in more than a century, the way people have reacted to the crisis is familiar and predictable.Jean Slick, Associate Professor, Disaster and Emergency Management, Royal Roads UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1525262021-01-08T13:28:51Z2021-01-08T13:28:51ZWhy do smoke alarms keep going off even when there’s no smoke?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377271/original/file-20210105-17-nwnsk0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C40%2C6720%2C4426&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sensors in smoke detectors monitor how particles in the air affect a flow of current to the battery</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/smoke-carbon-monoxide-detector-royalty-free-image/1023858188">Garrett Aitken/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: MVS Chandrashekhar is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of South Carolina. In this interview, he explains how smoke detectors work and why they sometimes sound an alarm for what seems like no reason.</em></p>
<h2>Why do smoke detector alarms go off even when there’s no smoke?</h2>
<p>The most likely reason smoke detectors go off unexpectedly is that people aren’t changing the batteries in them often enough. In most <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sensors-monitor-and-measure-our-bodies-and-the-world-around-us-150050">sensors</a> you might think of, the strength of the signal goes up when they detect what they’re supposed to. But most smoke detectors are instead designed to go off when their electrical current goes down. That’s because smoke in the air will reduce the current. If your battery is dying, the current that’s flowing through your sensor also goes down. And so you can get a false positive.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="infographic showing that low battery, being too close to the bathroom, and volatile organic compounds in paints and other household treatments are common causes of smoke detector false positives." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377414/original/file-20210106-19-1y7j623.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Common causes of smoke detector false positives around the house.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People often change the battery when they move into the house and then never touch it after that. The battery is supposed to be changed at least once every six months or so, but most of us don’t. It’s only when the smoke alarm goes off, you check it, you make sure you’re not dead, and maybe then change it.</p>
<p>The second most common cause of false positives is having your smoke detector too close to your bathroom. If you take a hot shower, the steam from the hot shower can, in some cases, cause false positives. The steam from the shower can block the flow of the current, just as smoke does. Anything that’s sort of heavy in air can cause that to happen. You want the smoke detector to be near the kitchen, because often when you cook, smoke happens. So, open the window if you don’t want it to just go off randomly. </p>
<p>Another common cause is the volatile organic compounds in paints or other chemical treatments in the house. It’s the stuff that keeps your paint wet but also lets it dry once it’s on the wall. Some of them can set off these alarms as well. It just depends on how the sensor is tuned.</p>
<p>Most new sensors are pretty well tuned. They weren’t nearly as good in terms of the sensitivity even 10 years ago. </p>
<h2>How do smoke detectors work?</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="an image showing the components inside a smoke detector, namely the electrodes, and the location of the 0.29 micrograms of radiation source. it is equal to one one thousandth of the wight of a grain of salt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377415/original/file-20210106-23-fxsobz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inside a smoke detector.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inside your smoke detector, there’s a small <a href="https://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclide-basics-americium-241">Americium-241</a> radiation source that’s a byproduct of nuclear fuel. It emits alpha particles, which you can think of as little bullets. These little bullets come out of the source and hit air molecules to break them apart. </p>
<p>When that happens, some broken pieces will be positively charged, and others will be negatively charged. And those two oppositely charged ones will be attracted to the negative and positive battery terminals in the smoke detector’s battery. This movement of charged particles is what we call electrical current.</p>
<figure>
<img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1416/Master.gif?1610053116">
<figcaption><span class="caption">Alpha particles from the radiation source strike air molecules, which causes them to eject ions, creating a current.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If smoke is coming into the area where this breaking apart is happening, it will block the charged particles from moving, reducing the current. So, that lowered current is what your sensor interprets as, hey, there’s smoke here.</p>
<figure>
<img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1416/Master.gif?1610053116">
<figcaption><span class="caption">Smoke particles block the ions, stopping or reducing the flow of current, which sets off the alarm.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Is there a better smoke detector?</h2>
<p>A newer kind of smoke detector is based on the photoelectric effect. It’s what Albert Einstein got the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1921/einstein/facts/">Nobel Prize</a> for. When light hits something, it generates electric current – it’s very much like a mini solar cell. Engineers figured out how to tune a light source in a way that is sensitive to smoke.</p>
<p>The light can be shining and you get current. But when smoke goes in, it will make the light scatter a different way, or block the light in a certain way, and that will change the amount of current that’s flowing. </p>
<p>If it is tuned correctly, you can interpret that change in current as the presence of smoke. And again, you can get false positives because organic compounds often absorb infrared light really well. It’s similar to the Americium-241 smoke detectors in some ways. The photoelectric ones probably are more power intensive. So your battery life span may not be as good. But, hey, you should be changing it every six months anyway.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span><a href="mailto:chandra@cec.sc.edu">chandra@cec.sc.edu</a> receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Defense.</span></em></p>An electrical engineer explains how smoke detectors work, and how to reduce the chances of a false positive.MVS Chandrashekhar, Assistant professor of electrical engineering, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1518332021-01-06T13:10:55Z2021-01-06T13:10:55ZWhat is a margin of error? This statistical tool can help you understand vaccine trials and political polling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377225/original/file-20210105-21-1a370vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=457%2C147%2C4718%2C3298&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All predictions, whether scientific or political, include uncertainty.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/monitoring-the-power-of-high-frequency-laser-used-royalty-free-image/1007669174?adppopup=true"> CasarsaGuru/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the last year, statistics have been unusually important in the news. How <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-tests-are-pretty-accurate-but-far-from-perfect-136671">accurate is the COVID-19 test</a> you or others are using? How do researchers know the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-is-taking-the-latest-in-covid-19-treatments-heres-what-doctors-know-works-against-the-virus-147398">effectiveness of new therapeutics</a> for COVID-19 patients? How can television networks <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21535103/when-will-we-get-election-results-calls-networks">predict the election results</a> long before all the ballots have been counted? </p>
<p>Each of these questions involves some uncertainty, but it is still possible to make accurate predictions as long as that uncertainty is understood. One tool statisticians use to quantify uncertainty is called the margin of error.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic of people separated into a pie chart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376295/original/file-20201221-19-q2d6lo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the real world, it is impossible to test or sample every relevant person, so statisticians rely on smaller samples drawn from a population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/pie-chart-with-people-on-white-background-royalty-free-illustration/826228744?adppopup=true">Guzaliia Filimonova/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Limited data</h2>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=T1RlT7gAAAAJ">I am a statistician</a>, and part of my job is to make inferences and predictions. With unlimited time and money, I could simply test or survey the entire group of people I am interested in to evaluate the question in mind and find the exact answer. For example, to find out the COVID-19 infection rate in the U.S., I could simply test the entire U.S. population. However, in the real world, you can never access 100% of a population. </p>
<p>Instead, statisticians sample a small portion of the population and build a model to make a prediction. Using statistical theory, that result from the sample is extrapolated to represent the whole population.</p>
<p>Ideally, a good sample should be representative of the total population, including gender, racial diversity, socioeconomic diversity, lifestyle patterns and other demographic measures. The larger the sample, the more similar it would be to the true population, and with a larger sample, the more confident statisticians become in their predictions. But there will always be some uncertainty.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing margins of error for different sample sizes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376293/original/file-20201221-15-1xre90f.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The larger the sample size, the more accurate the prediction and the smaller the margin of error.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margin_of_error#/media/File:Marginoferror95.PNG">Fadethree via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Quantifying uncertainty</h2>
<p>Take drug development, for example. It is always true to predict that a new medication will be somewhere between 0% and 100% effective for everyone on Earth. But that isn’t a very useful prediction. It is a statistician’s job to narrow that range to something more useful. Statisticians usually call this range a confidence interval, and it is the range of predictions within which statisticians are very confident the true number will be found.</p>
<p>If a medication was tested on 10 individuals and seven of them found it effective, the estimated drug efficacy is 70%. But since the goal is to predict the efficacy in the whole population, statisticians need to account for the uncertainty of testing only 10 people. </p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>Confidence intervals are calculated using a mathematical formula that encompasses the sample size, the range of responses and the laws of probability. In this example, the confidence interval would be between 42% and 98% – a range of 56 percentage points. After testing only 10 people, you could say with high confidence that the drug is effective for between 42% and 98% of people in the whole population.</p>
<p>If you divide the confidence interval in half, you get the margin of error – in this case, 28%. The larger the margin of error, the less accurate the prediction. The smaller the margin of error, the more accurate the prediction. A margin of error that is almost 30% is still quite a wide range. </p>
<p>However, imagine that the researchers tested this new drug on 1,000 people instead of 10 and it was effective in 700 of them. The estimated drug efficacy is still going to be around 70%, yet this prediction is much more accurate. The confidence interval for the larger sample will be between 67% and 73% with a margin of error of 3%. You could say this drug is expected to be 70% effective, plus or minus 3%, for the entire population.</p>
<p>Statisticians would love to be able to predict with 100% accuracy the success or failure of a new medication or the exact outcomes of an election. However, this is not possible. There is always some uncertainty, and the margin of error is what quantifies that uncertainty; it must be considered when looking at results. In particular, the margin of error defines the range of predictions within which statisticians are very confident the true number will be found. An acceptable margin of error is a matter of judgment based on the degree of accuracy required in the conclusions to be drawn.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151833/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ofer Harel receives funding from The National Science Foundation, US Food and Drug Administration and The National Institute of Health. He is also sits on the Bureau of Labor Statistics Technical Advisory Committee.</span></em></p>Whether you are predicting the outcome of an election or studying how effective a new drug is, there will always be some uncertainty. A margin of error is how statisticians measure that uncertainty.Ofer Harel, Professor of Statistics, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1490612020-12-29T14:20:18Z2020-12-29T14:20:18ZWhen working out makes you sick to your stomach: What to know about exercise-induced nausea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375994/original/file-20201218-19-1i1lszk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=278%2C0%2C4841%2C3317&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's no fun to exercise if you wind up doubled over with gastrointestinal problems.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/fit-woman-having-stomachache-royalty-free-image/1179185150">Goads Agency/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’re doing it! You’re working out, reaping all those <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.htm">benefits of exercise</a> that have been drilled into your head.</p>
<p>So you’re pedaling your heart out or running like you’re escaping a zombie horde. You’re feeling accomplished, on cloud nine, until … your stomach starts to churn. You may even feel dizzy. Your feelings of accomplishment have turned to agony as you deal with a bout of nausea.</p>
<p>Exercise-induced nausea is quite common, as are exercise-induced <a href="https://ispyphysiology.com/2020/01/16/spotlight-on-the-digestive-system/">gastrointestinal</a> (GI) problems in general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2016-0305">affecting perhaps up to 90% of endurance athletes</a>.</p>
<p>So why does this happen and, more important, how can you prevent it?</p>
<h2>The cause: Competing demands</h2>
<p>When you exercise, skeletal muscles in your legs and arms contract. To work most efficiently, they need oxygen. So your heart muscle contracts, too, increasing blood flow through your body. The hemoglobin molecules within your red blood cells carry oxygen to your working muscles.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="illustration of human cardiovascular system" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375995/original/file-20201218-15-1j5n9ed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Your body directs oxygen where it’s most needed by sending blood to the most active tissues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/human-cardiovascular-system-artwork-royalty-free-illustration/478187833">PIXOLOGICSTUDIO/Science Photo Library via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To maximize the amount of blood being delivered to the active muscles, your body diverts blood away from inactive areas – such as your gut. This diversion is overseen by the “fight or flight” branch of your nervous system. Known as the sympathetic nervous system, it causes some blood vessels to narrow, limiting blood flow. You don’t have conscious control over this process, known as vasoconstriction.</p>
<p>But your contracting skeletal muscles have a special power to preserve blood flow. They’re able to resist the call for vasoconstriction that helps divert blood away from inactive areas. This resistance to the effect of the sympathetic nervous system is called “<a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/hss_fac_pub/12">functional sympatholysis</a>.” <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uXcM0scAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Physiologists like me</a> continue to work to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1113/JP274532">understand the specific mechanisms</a> by which this can occur.</p>
<p>So why does limiting blood flow to the gut cause distress?</p>
<p>The relative ischemia, or lack of blood flow, can have different effects. It can change how cells are able to absorb what has been digested and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0153-2">how broken-down food moves through the gut</a>. Taken together, the changes result in an unpleasant feeling you may know all too well. </p>
<p>The lack of blood flow is particularly challenging if the digestive system is actively trying to break down and absorb food, a main reason exercise-induced nausea <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/appe.2000.0391">can be worse right after you’ve eaten</a>, especially if the pre-workout meal had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0153-2">a lot of fat or concentrated carbohydrates</a>.</p>
<h2>The cure: Moderation and modification</h2>
<p>It’s no fun to exercise if you’re doubled over with stomach cramps or running for the bathroom. So what can you do to limit symptoms or get rid of them when they crop up?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Moderate your exercise intensity. Nausea is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/MCO.0b013e32832e6776">more common with high-intensity exercise</a>, where the competing demands for blood flow are highest. Especially if you’re newer to working out, gradually increasing exercise intensity should help to minimize the likelihood of GI distress.</p></li>
<li><p>Modify your exercise. Some evidence suggests that certain exercises, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-014-0153-2">like cycling</a>, can put the body in a position that’s more likely to cause gut problems. Try different forms of exercise, or combinations of different modes to meet your fitness goals while minimizing discomfort. Be sure to properly warm up and cool down to prevent rapid changes in your body’s metabolism.</p></li>
<li><p>Modify what and when you eat and drink. Stay hydrated! You’ve probably heard it before, but drinking enough is one of the best ways to prevent GI issues during and after exercise, particularly in hot or humid environments. It is possible to overhydrate, though. Aim for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1550-2783-8-12">about half a liter per hour of fluids</a>, including some low-carbohydrate and low-sodium sports drinks for high-intensity exercise. It may take some experimentation with different foods and the timing of ingestion to figure out what works best for you and your training goals. You can also incorporate foods like <a href="https://www.runnersworld.com/nutrition-weight-loss/g20865839/foods-to-prevent-exercise-nausea/">ginger, crackers and coconut water</a> that might help settle your stomach.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman in hijab drinks water after sport" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375996/original/file-20201218-23-147yq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Be sure to drink up during and after your workout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/proud-and-confident-muslim-woman-with-hijab-royalty-free-image/1062308638">Deby Suchaeri/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The caveat: When to seek help</h2>
<p>While exercise-induced nausea is unpleasant to deal with, in general it isn’t a major health concern. Most symptoms should resolve within an hour of finishing exercise. If problems persist either for long periods after exercise or each time you work out, it’s worth having a conversation with your doctor.</p>
<p>Sometimes the GI distress during or after exercise can actually lead to vomiting. If you unfortunately do throw up, you’ll likely feel better but will also need to rehydrate and replenish the nutrition you lost.</p>
<p>[<em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>If you’re looking to start an exercise regimen or up the intensity of your current workouts, seeking the advice of trained professionals who can tailor a plan to your needs is often a smart approach. <a href="https://www.acsm.org/get-stay-certified/find-a-pro">Exercise physiologists</a> or <a href="https://www.nsca.com/professional-development/professional-areas/personal-trainers/">certified personal trainers</a> can provide exercise programming of appropriate intensity, and <a href="https://www.eatright.org/find-an-expert">registered dietitian nutritionists</a> can discuss individual nutritional needs and strategies. Your <a href="https://www.exerciseismedicine.org/">primary care provider</a> can help to screen for more serious medical issues and should be informed of your exercise routine as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anne R. Crecelius does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You’re working out, feeling great – until your stomach starts to churn and you’re sidelined with a bout of nausea. Here’s what’s happening in your body and how to avoid this common effect of exercise.Anne R. Crecelius, Associate Professor of Health and Sport Science, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1504962020-12-15T13:20:28Z2020-12-15T13:20:28ZVirgin births from parthenogenesis: How females from some species can reproduce without males<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374837/original/file-20201214-17-2nde3j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5463%2C3006&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting the job done. A female Asian water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus) produced a daughter (left) without the assistance of a male. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/scientists-confirm-facultative-parthenogenesis-smithsonians-national-zoos-asian-water-dragon">Skip Brown/Smithsonian’s National Zoo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An Asian water dragon hatched from an egg at the Smithsonian National Zoo, and her keepers were shocked. Why? Her mother had never been with a male water dragon. Through genetic testing, zoo scientists discovered the newly hatched female, born on Aug. 24, 2016, had been produced through a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217489">reproductive mode called parthenogenesis</a>.</p>
<p>Parthenogenesis is a Greek word meaning “virgin creation,” but specifically refers to female asexual reproduction. While many people may assume this behavior is the domain of science fiction or religious texts, parthenogenesis is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2014.15">surprisingly common throughout the tree of life</a> and is found in a variety of organisms, including plants, insects, fish, reptiles and even birds. Because mammals, including human beings, require certain genes to come from sperm, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000090812">mammals are incapable of parthenogenesis</a>.</p>
<h2>Creating offspring without sperm</h2>
<p>Sexual reproduction involves a female and a male, each contributing genetic material in the form of eggs or sperm, to create a unique offspring. The vast majority of animal species reproduce sexually, but females of some species are able to produce eggs <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/parthenogenesis">containing all the genetic material required for reproduction</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A microscopic view of a translucent water flea show four round eggs inside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373966/original/file-20201209-19-1x4523.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A female freshwater water flea (<em>Daphnia magna</em>) carrying parthenogenetic eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/microscopic-view-of-freshwater-water-flea-royalty-free-image/841300586">buccaneership/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Females of these species, which include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.30">some wasps</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/283761">crustaceans</a> and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexual-lizards/">lizards</a>, reproduce only through parthenogenesis and are called obligate parthenogens.</p>
<p>A larger number of species experience spontaneous parthenogenesis, best documented in animals kept in zoo settings, like the Asian water dragon at the National Zoo or a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2008.02018.x">blacktip shark at the Virginia Aquarium</a>. Spontaneous parthenogens typically reproduce sexually, but may have occasional cycles that produce developmentally ready eggs.</p>
<p>Scientists have learned <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2009.2113">spontaneous parthenogenesis may be a heritable trait</a>, meaning females that suddenly experience parthenogenesis might be more likely to have daughters that can do the same.</p>
<h2>How can females fertilize their own eggs?</h2>
<p>For parthenogenesis to happen, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.112.005421">a chain of cellular events must successfully unfold</a>. First, females must be able to create egg cells (oogenesis) without stimulation from sperm or mating. Second, the eggs produced by females need to begin to develop on their own, forming an early stage embryo. Finally, the eggs must successfully hatch. </p>
<p>Each step of this process can easily fail, particularly step two, which requires the chromosomes of DNA inside the egg to double, ensuring a full complement of genes for the developing offspring. Alternatively, the egg can be “faux fertilized” by leftover cells from the egg production process known as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mrd.21266">polar bodies</a>. Whichever method kicks off the development of the embryo <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2009.59.7.3">will ultimately determine the level of genetic similarity</a> between the mother and her offspring.</p>
<p>The events that trigger parthenogenesis are not fully understood, but appear to include environmental change. In species that are capable of both sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115099">aphids</a>, stressors like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12080">crowding and predation</a> may cause females to switch from parthenogenesis to sexual reproduction, but not the other way around. In at least one <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2770-2_15">type of freshwater plankton</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5762/KAIS.2016.17.4.692">high salinity</a> appears to cause the switch.</p>
<h2>Advantages of self-reproduction</h2>
<p>Though spontaneous parthenogenesis appears to be rare, it does provide some benefits to the female who can achieve it. In some cases, it can allow females to generate their own mating partners. </p>
<p>The sex of parthenogenetic offspring is determined by the same method sex is determined in the species itself. For organisms where sex is determined by chromosomes, like the XX female and XY male chromosomes in some insects, fish and reptiles, a parthenogenetic female can produce offspring only with the sex chromosomes she has at hand – which means she will always produce XX female offspring. But for organisms where females have ZW sex chromosomes (such as in snakes and birds), all living offspring produced will either be ZZ, and therefore male, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0793">much more rarely, WW, and female</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"976632933531316224"}"></div></p>
<p>Between 1997 and 1999, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2012.01954.x">a checkered gartersnake kept at the Phoenix Zoo</a> gave birth to two male offspring that ultimately survived to adulthood. If a female mated with her parthenogenetically produced son, it would constitute inbreeding. While inbreeding can result in a host of genetic problems, from an evolutionary perspective it’s better than having no offspring at all. The ability of females to produce male offspring through parthenogenesis also suggests that asexual reproduction in nature may be more common than scientists ever realized before. </p>
<p>Biologists have observed, over long periods of time, that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-5193(71)90058-0">species that are obligate parthenogens frequently die out</a> from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41514-018-0025-3">disease</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.87.9.3566">parasitism</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evl3.30">changes in habitat</a>. The inbreeding inherent in parthenogenetic species appears to contribute to their short evolutionary timelines. </p>
<p>Current research on parthenogenesis seeks to understand why some species are capable of both sex and parthenogenesis, and whether occasional sexual reproduction might be enough for a species to survive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mercedes Burns has previously received funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an egg develops into an embryo without being fertilized by sperm, might be more common than you realized.Mercedes Burns, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1500502020-12-07T13:12:29Z2020-12-07T13:12:29ZHow sensors monitor and measure our bodies and the world around us<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372919/original/file-20201203-15-1mo985t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3413%2C1880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infrared sensors make it possible to measure a person's body temperature without touching the person's body.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NotRealNews/5aa5b825758e40839e86bb21d97685c4/photo?Query=Infrared%20temperature%20thermometer&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=6&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/LM Otero</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sensors are all around. They are in automatic doors, at cash registers, in doctors’ offices and hospitals. They are used inside the body and outside.</p>
<p>Sensors detect aspects of the physical world – matter, energy, force – similarly to a person’s or animal’s senses. But instead of translating the information into nerve impulses, sensors translate them into electrical signals. The signals can be stored, processed on a computer or displayed on a screen. They can be a current or voltage that is constant or varying with time. </p>
<p>Sensors answer many important questions such as <a href="https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/safety-regulatory-devices/tire-pressure-monitoring-systems.htm">how well-inflated</a> are a car’s tires, whether ice is building up on an airplane’s wings, whether carbon monoxide is in the air and <a href="https://www.howequipmentworks.com/pulse_oximeter/">how much oxygen</a> is in your blood.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JimDEDgAAAAJ&hl=en">electrical engineer</a>, I work with sensors all the time to monitor biological and environmental indicators such as glucose, heart rate and function, temperature and pH.</p>
<p>In the past few decades, sensors have moved from being relatively large, bulky instruments to small, inexpensive devices that are easy to carry around, build into things like phones, scatter around the environment or place on or inside someone.</p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>How sensors work</h2>
<p>The “thing” to be sensed can be anything in the physical environment that you can think of. It can be light, temperature, moisture, radiation, chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide or lead, biochemical substances such as glucose or DNA, or radio waves. </p>
<p>Light sensors use a device known as a <a href="https://www.electronicshub.org/photodiode-working-characteristics-applications/">photodiode</a> to turn light into an electrical current. Certain materials and molecules give off light when they interact with other substances or particles. For example, invisible radiation is absorbed by materials known as <a href="https://tickle.utk.edu/smrc/">scintillators to produce visible light</a>, which is then detected by a light sensor. This is how X-rays are used in today’s medical imaging.</p>
<p>Chemical reactions can produce a current, which can be used to make a sensor for <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/chemical-sensing-devices.htm">detecting one or more of the chemicals</a> involved in a reaction. Changes in material shape or vibration <a href="https://www.explainthatstuff.com/piezoelectricity.html">can also produce a current or voltage</a>, which can be used to sense pressure or acceleration. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a hand holds a small electronic device" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/373172/original/file-20201205-13-1ddkj6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The black square on the right side of this device is a sensor for high-energy waves like X-rays.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tickle College of Engineering/University of Tennessee</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes a good sensor</h2>
<p>A good sensor must be able to, for example, tell the difference in voltage when measuring light of one intensity against light of another intensity. A good sensor also needs to ensure that vibrations, temperature changes and extremes and other environmental factors don’t affect its output. </p>
<p>A sensor’s output must increase by the same amount as an increase in the concentration of the thing being sensed. That is, if I double the concentration of glucose, for example, does my sensor output always double? Finally, the sensor output must give the same value over and over for the same input and have a fast response time. </p>
<p>Cost is also a concern, because if a sensor is expensive only a few people or corporations can use it. If a sensor is low cost, then it can be made available to everyone.</p>
<p>So a sensor is anything that can detect an aspect of the physical environment and turn it into useful information. This information can help make your everyday life easier or solve some of today’s most pressing health issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole McFarlane has received funding from NSF, DOE, and N5 Sensors/ARPA-E. She is a member ASEE and a senior member of IEEE.</span></em></p>Sensors are everywhere, from your phone to your medicine cabinet. Here’s how they turn events in the physical world into words and numbers.Nicole McFarlane, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1471762020-12-04T13:29:27Z2020-12-04T13:29:27ZHow do archaeologists know where to dig?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372833/original/file-20201203-15-1dnrry6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=43%2C229%2C3604%2C2479&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A variety of clues can tip off archaeologists about a promising spot for excavation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Wrobel </span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>National Geographic magazines and Indiana Jones movies might have you picturing archaeologists excavating near Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and Machu Picchu. And some of us do work at these famous places. </p>
<p>But archaeologists <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HtKKK9AAAAAJ&hl=en">like</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=7JZmEuwAAAAJ">us</a> want to learn about how people from the past lived all over the planet. We rely on left-behind artifacts to help fill out that picture. We need to excavate in places where there’s evidence of human activity – those clues from the past aren’t always as obvious as a giant pyramid, though.</p>
<p>Finding that evidence can be as simple as strolling past clearly distinguishable ruins – ah, there are some broken pots or carved stones right over there. It can be as complex as using lasers, satellite imagery and other new geophysical techniques to reveal long-lost structures. The right skills and tools are helping researchers locate traces from the past that would have been overlooked even a few decades ago.</p>
<h2>Open eyes, open ears, open minds</h2>
<p>The simplest and oldest identification method is a pedestrian survey: looking for evidence of human activity, either on unstructured strolls or when walking in a grid. Unless the evidence is crystal clear – like those broken pots – such surveys usually need a trained eye to read the clues.</p>
<p>In Belize, where one of us (Gabe) works, remains of houses and even large temple pyramids that were abandoned over 1,000 years ago are usually covered in trees and plants; exposed sections look like stone piles.</p>
<p>I brought my father to a site where workers had removed the thick foliage so archaeologists could thoroughly map the site. Another archaeologist and I excitedly discussed the visible architectural features – patios, terraces, the stubs of walls. Finally, my dad threw his hands up in the air and said “All I see are rocks!”</p>
<p>But our trained eyes recognized that the piles of stones or earthen mounds we saw were suspiciously aligned. Stare at archaeological sites long enough and you’ll notice them too.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man beside a rocky mound" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/371991/original/file-20201130-23-5sy8x4.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeologist Josue Ramos from the Belize Institute of Archaeology stands beside a mound of rocks newly revealed in cleared jungle. Its size and shape show that this site is part of an ancient building.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Wrobel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Understanding what you see also can require familiarity with local geology and flora. And who is more familiar than the people who live in a region? It pays for archaeologists to make friends with the locals and to be very respectful of their knowledge. In my work in Belize, most of the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/maya-mortuary-landscapes-central-belize/3250676C4186537A4E605EDE921F0F57/core-reader">settlement and ritual cave sites</a> where my students and I work were initially identified by local hunters who know the forest and its landmarks intimately.</p>
<p>One time, I was walking through the jungle in Belize when a local friend of mine stopped suddenly in what appeared to me as a random cluster of trees. He said “This must have been someone’s farm.” He’d seen specific domestic plants that are commonly found in gardens in his village. Not being as familiar with local flora, I never would have noticed this subtle difference. So, even living plants can be considered part of human-modified archaeological sites. </p>
<h2>High-tech remote sensing</h2>
<p>In recent years, archaeologists have begun to <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-tools-that-are-revolutionising-archaeology-by-helping-us-find-sites-without-digging-51826">use new methods</a> to find archaeological sites that had previously been overlooked. These techniques, broadly referred to as remote sensing, allow us to peer through dense forests without clearing them, digitally removing jungle growth and centuries of soil to reveal long-lost structures hidden beneath. High-resolution scans using lasers or <a href="https://www.academia.edu/23392059/Using_Drones_in_a_Threatened_Archaeological_Landscape_Rapid_Survey_Salvage_and_Mapping_of_the_Maya_Site_of_Saturday_Creek_Belize">3D photographs</a> can even detect subtle undulations of ground surfaces that are not visible to the human eye.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Digital Elevation Model" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372056/original/file-20201130-17-1jufy2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The view of fields around the Maya site of Saturday Creek, Belize. The image on left stitched together thousands of photographs into a single 3D surface. The image on the right used virtual illumination to highlight small changes in elevation to identify ancient house mounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Models created by Mark Willis, used with permission of Eleanor Harrison-Buck</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/what-is-lidar-technology-and-how-does-it-work/">LiDAR</a> – light detection and ranging – fires pulsed lasers to determine distance based on what reflects back and how quickly. When used from a plane, millions of points are collected, resulting in a detailed topographic map of the landscape. Specialists working with these data can remove trees and other objects to digitally expose ground surfaces.</p>
<p>A recent example at the ancient Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/02/maya-laser-lidar-guatemala-pacunam/">revealed around 61,000 structures in the jungles</a> surrounding the city’s center. The density of settlement came as a shock because, despite extensive pedestrian survey in the past, even experienced archaeologists failed to recognize most of these ephemeral remains.</p>
<p>Increasingly, archaeologists find sites by searching satellite imagery, including Google Earth. For instance, during a recent drought in England, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/opinion/britain-drought-cropmarks-summer.html">remains of ancient features</a> began to appear across the landscape and were visible from above.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=939&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360667/original/file-20200930-20-1gbp6pg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1180&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image presents magnetic data from the Hollywood Mounds site, a Mississippian mound center in Tunica County, Miss. Excavation verified that the rectangular shapes are the remains of wattle-and-daub structures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bryan Haley</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Remote sensing can also focus on smaller areas. <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-do-archaeologists-discover-forgotten-ancient-monuments-47317">Geophysical techniques</a> are commonly used before excavating to scan the ground where researchers know archaeological remains are buried. These nondestructive methods help pick out buried anomalies from surrounding soils by distinguishing their density, magnetic properties or conduction of electrical currents.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>The shape and alignment of these features can often provide clues about what they are. For instance, the dense walls of a building will show up as distinct from the surrounding soil.</p>
<h2>What will archaeologists of the future find?</h2>
<p>As you look around for evidence of human activity in the past, remember you’re actively involved in making the archaeological sites of the future. Since archaeology is the study of anything material left behind by human beings, that definition also fits what remains after Nevada’s annual <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/burning-man-archaeology-may-give-us-window-into-past">Burning Man festival</a>, for example, or as <a href="https://www.undocumentedmigrationproject.org/about">migrants journey across the U.S.-Mexico border</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="tailgaters in a parking lot with litter visible" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372182/original/file-20201201-17-1t52yth.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tailgating (and associated trash) in the University of Idaho’s Kibbie Dome parking lot in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Curtis Cawley, Kaitlin Frederickson, Allison Neterer and Wendy Willis.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, there are archaeological sites nearly everywhere you look. One of us (Stacey) once studied trash left behind during tailgating parties. My students and I wanted to understand if alumni and students were drinking different types of alcohol. Using archaeological methodologies, we discovered that alumni partied with expensive alcohol, such as wine and microbrews, while students drank what they could afford: cheap, corporate beers, with Coors Light and Bud Light being the most common beers of choice.</p>
<p>We made this archaeological “discovery” by carefully <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2010.497397">mapping and identifying trash</a> prior to and during the game. While most of it was picked up, smaller pieces undoubtedly found their way into the soil, perhaps to be discovered by a future <a href="http://campusarch.msu.edu">Campus Archaeology Program</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microplastics on a beach in Vietnam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372001/original/file-20201130-21-lce239.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Future archaeologists will find a lot of plastic – like these microplastics on a Vietnamese beach – in layers of the Earth dating to the current era.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gabriel Wrobel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We archaeologists used to dig primarily at sites that were easy to find. Technology is changing that. In fact, applications like Google Earth are making possible a new era of citizen science, with researchers sometimes enlisting the help of members of the public to comb through data. Through efforts by archaeologists to engage and educate the public, including <a href="http://www.passportintime.com">incorporating volunteers into lab and field work</a>, giving <a href="https://www.goafar.org/about-maya-at-the-playa">public lectures</a> and <a href="https://www.miplace.org/historic-preservation/archaeology/archaeology-day/">workshops</a>, and creating accessible <a href="https://www.instagram.com/capmsu/">web resources</a>, we hope to show that the story of our past is often hidden in plain sight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stacey Camp receives funding from the National Park Service.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriel D. Wrobel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Archaeologists used to dig primarily at sites that were easy to find thanks to obvious visual clues. But technology – and listening to local people – plays a much bigger role now.Gabriel D. Wrobel, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State UniversityStacey Camp, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1506002020-12-03T13:32:18Z2020-12-03T13:32:18ZWhat makes the world’s biggest surfable waves?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372324/original/file-20201201-19-dqsty5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C54%2C4482%2C2952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some places, like Nazaré Canyon in Portugal, produce freakishly huge waves.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PortugalBigWaveSurf/829564e6d6db420694b27898150d22c2/photo?Query=nazare%20surf%20maya&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=9&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Armando Franca</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Feb. 11, 2020, Brazilian <a href="https://youtu.be/fTuqJE03aH4">Maya Gabeira surfed a wave off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal,</a> that was 73.5 feet tall. Not only was this the biggest wave ever surfed by a woman, but it also turned out to be the biggest wave surfed by anyone in the 2019-2020 winter surfing season – the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/sports/biggest-wave-surfed-nazare-maya-gabeira.html">first time a woman has ridden the biggest wave of the year</a>.</p>
<p>As a female surfer myself – though of dubious abilities – this news made me really excited. I love it when female athletes accomplish things that typically garner headlines for men. But I am also a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=kAGkuGgAAAAJ">physical oceanographer and climate scientist</a> at Brandeis University. Gabeira’s feat got me thinking about the waves themselves in addition to the surfers who ride them. </p>
<p>What makes some waves so big? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A satellite image of Hurricane Epsilon in the North Atlantic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372331/original/file-20201201-21-y63erf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=895&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After Hurricane Epsilon moved into the North Atlantic in late October, it sent a huge swell to Europe, including at Nazaré.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Atlantic_hurricane_season#/media/File:Epsilon_2020-10-21_2000Z.png">NOAA via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Waves start with a storm</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pond with circular ripples against a mountain backdrop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372326/original/file-20201201-13-ywe1bc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just like ripples in a pond, waves in the ocean propagate outward from the storm that generated them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/rXVFCA3fQ4I">Garrett Sears via Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Think for a few seconds about what happens when you throw a stone into a serene pond. It creates a ring of waves – depressions and elevations of the water’s surface – that spread out from the center.</p>
<p>Waves in the ocean act similarly. On rare occasions earthquakes and landslides can generate waves, but usually waves are created by wind. Generally, the biggest and most powerful wind-generated waves are produced by <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00361">strong storms</a> that blow for a sustained period over a large area.</p>
<p>The waves that surfers ride originate in distant storms far across the ocean. For instance, the wave that Gabeira surfed at Nazaré was likely generated by a storm somewhere between Greenland and Newfoundland a few days earlier. The waves within a storm are usually messy and chaotic, but they grow more organized as they propagate away from the storm and faster waves outrun slower waves.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.1948.0005">organization of the waves</a> creates “swell,” or regularly spaced lines of waves. When describing a swell, oceanographers and surfers generally care about three attributes. First, the height – how tall a wave is from the bottom to the top. Then the wavelength – the distance between the top of one wave and the top of the wave behind it. And finally the period – the time it takes for two consecutive waves to reach a fixed location.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing waves getting closer together and taller as seafloor gets shallow." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372335/original/file-20201201-13-14sjc3q.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As the seafloor gets shallow, it starts to affect waves moving toward shore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_shoaling#/media/File:Propagation_du_tsunami_en_profondeur_variable.gif">Régis Lachaume via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seafloors control the waves</h2>
<p>Waves are not just sitting on top of the ocean. Their energy extends far below the surface, sometimes as deep as 500 feet. When waves move into shallower water close to shore, they start to “feel” the ocean’s bottom. When the bottom pulls and drags on the waves, they slow down, get closer together and grow taller.</p>
<p>As the waves move toward shore, the water gets ever more shallow and the waves keep growing until, eventually, they <a href="https://youtu.be/5nCcE-jABSo">become unstable and the wave “breaks”</a> as the crest spills over toward shore.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the a large canyon extending off Nazaré." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/372337/original/file-20201201-19-amvsbd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Nazaré Canyon, the dark winding depression extending horizontally across this aerial map, funnels and focuses wave energy toward one spot on the Portuguese coast, producing some of the biggest waves on Earth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canh%C3%A3o_da_Nazar%C3%A9_mapa_batim%C3%A9trico.png">Rúdisicyon via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a swell is traveling through the ocean, the waves are all more or less the same size. But when swells run into a coastline, waves at one beach can be many times bigger than waves at another beach a mere mile away. So why don’t we find large waves breaking on all shores? Why are there some spots like Nazaré in Portugal, Mavericks in California and Jaws in Maui that are notorious for having big waves? </p>
<p>It comes down to what’s at the bottom of the ocean. </p>
<p>Most coasts do not have a smooth, evenly sloping bottom extending from the deep ocean to shore. There are reefs, sand banks and canyons that shape the underwater terrain. The shape and depth of the ocean floor is called the bathymetry.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p>
<p>Just as light waves and sound waves will bend when they hit something or change speed – a process called refraction – so do ocean waves. When shallow bathymetry slows down a part of a wave, this causes the waves to refract. Similar to the way a magnifying glass can bend light to focus it into one bright spot, reefs, sand banks and canyons can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apor.2011.08.004">focus wave energy toward a single point of the coast</a>.</p>
<p>This is what <a href="https://www.surfline.com/surf-news/mechanics-nazare-portugual-biggest-waves-xl-surf/38658">happens at Nazaré to create giant waves</a>. Extending out to sea from the shore is an underwater canyon that was etched out by an ancient river when past sea level was much lower than it is today. As waves propagate toward shore over this canyon, it acts like a magnifying glass and refracts the waves toward the center of the canyon. This focusing of waves by the Nazaré Canyon helps make the largest surfable waves on the planet. </p>
<p>The next time you hear about someone like Maya Gabeira surfing a record-breaking wave at Nazaré, think about the faraway storms and the unique underwater bathymetry that are essential for generating such big waves. The wave she rode had been on a long journey, and at its crashing end, it was memorialized as she took off from its crest and rode down its huge, steep face.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150600/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Warner has received funding from National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, and the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.</span></em></p>Some beaches in the world tend to consistently produce huge waves. Places like Nazaré Canyon in Portugal and Mavericks in California are famous for their waves because of the shape of the seafloor.Sally Warner, Assistant Professor of Climate Science, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1461822020-11-24T13:08:38Z2020-11-24T13:08:38ZWhy do older people heal more slowly?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370451/original/file-20201119-17-1fna52z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5664%2C3780&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The older you get, the more slowly you heal, and there are a number of reasons why.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/graze-at-knees-of-a-girl-royalty-free-image/476877169?adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I recently visited an 83-year-old patient in the hospital after EMTs rushed her to the ER with an infected leg wound. Her ordeal started inconspicuously when she bumped into the sharp edge of a table and developed a small cut. The patient’s wound didn’t close, but she ignored it until she woke up in pain one morning two weeks after first injuring her leg. Her daughter called 911 after noticing angry, red skin discoloration and pus – both signs of an infection. Our medical team treated her with IV antibiotics and cleared up the infection, but the wound did not fully close until at least a month later, well after she was discharged from the hospital. </p>
<p>How different the story is when children get a cut. They may scream initially, but within days, the scab falls off, revealing new skin. Why was healing so delayed in my 83-year-old patient compared to a healthy child? </p>
<p>The answer is age. Decades of life slow down healing for most tissues, and wounds in skin can offer a window into why this slowdown occurs.</p>
<h2>Three stages of wound healing</h2>
<p>I am physician who <a href="https://www.steinhauserlab.com/">studies how aging predisposes patients to diseases</a> like diabetes and whether behavioral changes such as intermittent fasting may slow down aging. In order to understand why the skin wound in my older patient healed so slowly, it is important to first understand how wounds heal under the ideal conditions of youth.</p>
<p>The wound healing process is classically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07039">categorized into three stages</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A fresh scrape on a palm right after it occured." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370454/original/file-20201119-16-188en5m.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Right after a wound occurs, the inflammatory response begins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_healing">Jpbarrass via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first stage is inflammation, essentially the body’s attempt to clean the wound. During the inflammatory phase, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/phagocytes">immune cells called phagocytes</a> move into the wound, kill any contaminating bacteria, and ingest and dispose of dead cells and debris.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An image of a hand with a partially healed scrape." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370456/original/file-20201119-19-uyv7ld.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After a few days, the regenerative phase will be well at work closing the wound.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_healing">Jpbarrass via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Inflammation sets the stage for the regenerative phase, where several processes work in concert to regrow damaged skin. Replacement skin cells are born when cells at the edge of the wound divide, while <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/fibroblast">fibroblast cells</a> lay down a supportive scaffolding called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/extracellular-matrix">the extracellular matrix</a>. This holds the new cells together. Any damaged supporting structures of the skin, such as the blood vessels that supply critical oxygen and nutrients, also need to regrow. The second stage effectively closes the wound and restores a protective barrier against bacteria.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A cut on someones hand mostly healed over and scarring." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370457/original/file-20201119-14-1sjnond.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Once the wound is fully closed, the remodeling phase will rebuild the tissue in a stronger way.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wound_healing">Jpbarrass via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The regenerative phase is a relatively quick, but tenuous fix – new skin is fragile. The final remodeling phase plays out over a couple of years as the new skin is progressively strengthened by several parallel processes. The extracellular matrix, which was initially laid down in a haphazard fashion, is broken down and replaced in a more durable way. Any residual cells from prior phases that are no longer needed – such as immune cells or fibroblasts – become inactive or die. In addition to strengthening the new skin, these collective actions also account for the tendency of scars to visibly fade with time. </p>
<h2>Diseases disrupt the healing process</h2>
<p>One major way aging can derail the orderly and efficient progression through the stages of healing is through the health problems that stem from diseases of old age.</p>
<p>Diabetes is one example of a disease that is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1159/000501745">strongly associated with older age</a>. One of the many ways that diabetes negatively affects healing is by causing blood vessels to narrow. As a consequence of inadequate circulation, crucial nutrients and oxygen do not reach the wound in sufficient quantities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.suc.2020.05.002">to fuel the second regenerative phase</a>.</p>
<p>Diabetes is just one of many age-related diseases that disrupts normal processes in the body such as wound healing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing a cell dividing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370459/original/file-20201119-21-8r8bym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cell division is a critical part of healing, and when cells lose that ability, healing suffers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/cell-division-illustration-royalty-free-illustration/562878301?adppopup=true">Andrezj Wojcicki/Science Photo Library</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Cells age too</h2>
<p>Aside from the negative impacts of age-associated diseases, cells themselves age. In an extreme sign of aging called cellular senescence, cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4827(61)90192-6">permanently lose the ability to divide</a>. Senescent cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.92.20.9363">accumulate in skin</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1122446">many other organs</a> as people age and cause a host of problems. </p>
<p>When cells divide more slowly – or when they stop dividing altogether due to senescence – skin becomes thinner. The replacement of fat cells, which form a cushioning layer under the skin, also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.90349">declines with age</a>. The skin of older patients is therefore more prone to injury in the first place. </p>
<p>Once an older person’s skin is injured, the skin has a harder time healing properly as well. Aging and senescent immune cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-017-0006-x">cannot defend against bacteria</a>, and the risk of serious skin infection rises. Then in the regenerative stage, slow rates of cell division translate into slow skin regrowth. My patient exhibited all of these negative effects of age – her thin, almost translucent skin ruptured from a minor bump, became infected and took nearly two months to fully regrow. </p>
<p>But senescent cells are more than just dysfunctional bystanders. For reasons that are not yet fully understood, senescent cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb1909">release toxic byproducts</a> that damage surrounding tissue and drive inflammation – even when there’s no bacterial threat present. Some of these byproducts can even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncb2784">accelerate senescence in neighboring cells</a>. This suggests that intrinsic aging of cells is in essence contagious and senescent cells actively fuel an uncontrolled cycle of inflammation and tissue damage that further impedes successful regeneration and healing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black woman doctor speaking with an older white man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/370606/original/file-20201120-23-16jbtxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not just skin that ages; tissues throughout the body lose their healing abilities as people get older.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/black-woman-doctor-talking-to-patient-in-hospital-royalty-free-image/104117233?adppopup=true">David Sacks/TheImageBank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A whole body problem</h2>
<p>As the most outwardly visible tissue of the body, the skin provides a window into why people heal more slowly with age, but all tissues can be injured and are susceptible to the effects of aging. Injuries may be small, repetitive and build up over time – like the effect of smoking on the lungs. Or they may be discrete and dramatic – such as the death of heart cells with a heart attack. Different tissues may heal in different ways. Yet all tissues share a sensitivity to the repercussions of an aging immune system and a decline in the ability to regrow dead or damaged cells. </p>
<p>[<em>Get our best science, health and technology stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-best">Sign up for The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Understanding why healing slows down with age is important, but my patient asked a very practical question that physicians often face in one form or another: “Doctor, what can you do for me?” </p>
<p>Unfortunately, current treatment of wounds is fairly old-fashioned and often ineffective. Some of the options available include wound dressing changes, antibiotics when the wound is infected or treatment in a high oxygen chamber when circulation is bad due to diabetes. </p>
<p>There is hope, though, that medicine can do better and that progress in understanding the aging process will lead to new therapies. Neutralizing senescent cells in mice, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16932">improves a variety</a> of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2403-9">age-associated diseases</a>. While it is way too early to say that researchers have discovered the fountain of youth, I am optimistic for a future when physicians will bend the aging curve and make skin and other organs heal faster and better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146182/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Steinhauser receives funding from the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the American Diabetes Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Heart Association. In the past five years, he has served as a consultant for Regeneron and Amgen. </span></em></p>Healing is a complicated process. As people age, higher rates of disease and the fact that old cells lose the ability to divide slow this process down.Matthew Steinhauser, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1503522020-11-20T13:17:40Z2020-11-20T13:17:40ZWhat’s cellular about a cellphone?<p><em>Editor’s note: Daniel Bliss is a professor of electrical engineering at Arizona State University and the director of the Center for Wireless Information Systems and Computational Architecture. In this <a href="https://youtu.be/JnsyG-_YIZ0">interview</a>, he explains the ideas behind the original cellular networks and how they evolved over the years into today’s 5G (fifth generation) and even 6G (sixth generation) networks.</em></p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JnsyG-_YIZ0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Daniel Bliss provides a brief history of cellular networks.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How did wireless phones work before cellular technology?</h2>
<p>The idea of wireless communications is quite old. Famously, the Marconi system could talk all the way across the <a href="https://ewh.ieee.org/reg/7/millennium/radio/radio_differences.html">Atlantic Ocean</a>. It would have one system, which was the size of a building, talking to another system, which was the size of a building. But in essence, it just made a radio link between the two. Eventually people realized that’s a really useful capability. So they put up a radio system, say at a high point in the city, and then everybody – well, those few who had the right kind of radio system – talked to that high point. So if you like, there was only one cell – it wasn’t cellular in any sense. But because the amount of data you can send over time is a <a href="https://web.mit.edu/6.933/www/Fall2001/Shannon2.pdf">function of how far away you are</a>, you want to get these things closer together. And so that’s the the invention of the cellular system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The CenturyLink Building in Minneapolis with a microwave antenna on the top. It looks like a black spiky crown on the top of the building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=968&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369929/original/file-20201118-17-e867v5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The CenturyLink building in Minneapolis has a microwave antenna on the top which was used in early wireless phone networks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CenturyLink_Building">Mulad via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How are cellular systems different?</h2>
<p>The farther your phone and the base station are from each other, the harder it is to send a signal across. If you just have one base station and you’re too far away from it, it just doesn’t work. So you want to have many base stations and talk to the one that’s closest to you. </p>
<p>If you draw a boundary between those base stations and look down on it on a map, you see these different little cell towers which your phone is supposed to talk to. That’s where the technology gets its name. The amazing thing that happened during the development of cellular systems is that it automatically switched which base station the phone talks to as its location changed, such as while driving. It’s really remarkable that this system works as well as it does, because it’s pretty complicated and you don’t even notice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A diagram of a cellular network" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369922/original/file-20201117-17-gmsqf4.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cellular technology gets its name from the diagrams of the networks which are divided into cells. This diagram shows cellular phone towers at corners of each haxagon cell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CellTowersAtCorners.gif">Greensburger via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the major improvements to cellular networks that have enabled faster data rates?</h2>
<p>If you go back to the first-generation cellular systems, those were primarily analog systems. It was just a way of converting your voice to an analog signal.</p>
<p>The second-generation systems focused on taking your voice, digitizing it and then sending it as a data link to improve stability and security. As an accident, it could also send data across. People found that it’s really useful to send a photo or send some other information as well. So they started using the same link to send data, but then complained that it’s not fast enough.</p>
<p>Subsequent generations of cellular networks allocated increasingly wider bandwidths using different techniques and were powered by a denser network of base stations. We tend to notice the big tall towers. But if you start looking around, particularly in a city, you’ll notice these boxes sitting on the sides of buildings all over the place. They are actually cellular base stations that are much lower down. They’re intended to reach people within just a kilometer or a half-kilometer. </p>
<p>The easiest way to achieve much higher data rates is for your phone to be close to a signal source. The other way is to have antenna systems that are pointing radio waves at your phone, which is one of the things that’s <a href="https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/wireless/5g-beamsteering-antennas-more-accurate-less-power-hungry">happening in 5G</a>.</p>
<h2>5G networks are still being rolled out around the country, but work on 6G technologies is already underway. What can we expect from that?</h2>
<p>We don’t really know which technologies that are being developed right now will be used in 6G networks, but I can talk about what I think what’s going to happen. </p>
<p>6G networks will allow a much broader set of user types. What do I mean by that? Cellular systems, from the very start, were designed for humans to communicate. So it had certain constraints on what you needed. But now, humans are now a minority of users, because we have so many machines talking to each other too, such as smart appliances, for example. These machines have varying needs. Some want to send lots of data, and some need to send almost no data and maybe send nothing for months at a time. So 6G technologies need to work well for humans as well as a broad range of devices.</p>
<p>Another piece of this is that we often think about communication systems as being the only users of the radio frequency spectrum, but it’s very much not true. Radars use spectrum too, and pretty soon you won’t be able to buy a car that doesn’t have a suite of radars on it for safety or autonomous driving. There’s also position navigation and timing, which are necessary for, say, cars to know the distance between each other. So with 6G, you’ll have these multi-function systems.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>And then there is a push to go to yet higher frequencies. These frequencies work for only very, very short links. But a lot of our problems are over very short links. You can potentially send really huge amounts of data over short distances. If we can get the prices down, then it can potentially replace your Wi-Fi. </p>
<p>We can also expect a refinement of the technologies currently used in 5G – such as improving the pointing of the antenna to your phone, as I mentioned earlier.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150352/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Bliss receives funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Airbus, US Air Force, and Metawave Corporation. </span></em></p>A professor of wireless communications explains the origins of cellular networks and how they evolved into today’s 5G networks.Daniel Bliss, Professor of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1488972020-11-09T13:07:32Z2020-11-09T13:07:32ZThe complicated origin of the expression ‘peanut gallery’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367393/original/file-20201104-13-126bk9i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children in the live audience of 'Howdy Doody' were seated in what was known as the peanut gallery.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Howdy_Doody_peanut_gallery_circa_1940_1950s.JPG">NBC Television via wikimedia.org</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“No comments from the peanut gallery!” For many Americans who were born in the 1940s or 1950s, this phrase conjures up <a href="https://misterboomer.com/2016/03/boomers-were-the-peanut-gallery/">fond memories</a> of the <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165594/">“Howdy Doody” show</a>. It launched in 1947 as one of the first children’s television programs.</p>
<p>On that show, Buffalo Bob Smith – the host – his marionette sidekick, Howdy Doody, and Clarabell the clown entertained children who sat in bleachers onstage. Each episode opened with the kids <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnUGAe0yqz4">singing</a> the “It’s Howdy Doody Time” theme song and were then filmed reacting to the performers’ antics. Buffalo Bob referred to them as the “peanut gallery,” but the term didn’t originate with his show.</p>
<p>In fact, “peanut gallery” predates Howdy Doody by <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peanut%20gallery">at least 80 years</a>. Its first reference dates to an <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/26666596/">1867 review of a vaudeville show</a> published in the New Orleans Times-Picayune – and the term has a <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/racist-phrases-origins-language-20200610.html">surprisingly controversial</a> history. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=174&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367125/original/file-20201102-28194-1aygi1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=219&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1867 review of a vaudeville show published in The New Orleans Times Picayune.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=34112165&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI2NjY2NTk2LCJpYXQiOjE2MDQzNDYxNDMsImV4cCI6MTYwNDQzMjU0M30.JAQX8YL43XgArdaVAuL7PyI_MrLGp7SPLa88_NByNnA">Credit: The New Orleans Times Picayune</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Vaudeville came to North America from France. You could find almost <a href="http://www.bernardoni.com/vaudeville-era-paramount-theatre-and-american-theatre/">any kind of act</a> at a vaudeville show. On a given evening, spectators might be entertained by a comedian, acrobat, juggler, ventriloquist, magician or trained animal acts. Music and song-and-dance acts were mainstays. The lineup sometimes included burlesque acts, one-act plays or movies.</p>
<p>These traveling shows toured cities and towns from the early 1880s through the early 1930s. They were especially popular among the working class and recent immigrants who sometimes made up a majority of the audience. </p>
<p>Just like Broadway shows or concerts today, ticket prices varied, according to the location of the seats, with the most expensive up front. Those who sat in the most inexpensive seats in the back had a habit of throwing concession snacks at any performers who displeased them.</p>
<p>Since peanuts were the cheapest snack, they were the projectiles of choice for hecklers. Untalented – or unlucky – entertainers were pelted from the back of the theater – a section that became known as the “peanut gallery.”</p>
<p>Vaudeville <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwK1VR50drk">fell into decline</a> with the rise of motion pictures and lower-priced entertainment. But the phrase “peanut gallery” was given a new lease on life – and was cemented into the lexicon – with its use on “Howdy Doody.” </p>
<p>The term lives on, with a few meanings. One refers to any <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=bbcBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1674&dq=%22peanut+gallery%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi19uLG3NLsAhWKLc0KHRMkA7EQ6AEwA3oECAIQAg#v=onepage&q=%22peanut%20gallery%22&f=false">noisy or disorderly group of spectators</a>. Another is a racial slur. During vaudeville’s heyday, the cheapest seats were usually high up in a balcony, a section often reserved for Black patrons. As a result, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=HJlHDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=teaching+racial+literacy&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKiuvnstXsAhXQLc0KHTjoCnAQ6AEwAHoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=peanut%20gallery&f=false">“peanut gallery”</a> is now among a long list of terms becoming socially unacceptable because of apparently racist origins.</p>
<p>But since those seats were also occupied by poorer people and immigrants, <a href="http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2015/03/origin-phrase-peanut-gallery/">there is some debate</a> over whether the expression was racially motivated or was a more general derogatory term for less affluent people.</p>
<p>“Peanut gallery” is just one of many phrases whose problematic origins have become obscured, in this case by smiling, excited children laughing at a cowboy puppet. It’s more common for terms to acquire an unsavory connotation over time. </p>
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<p>Many terms fall out of fashion as cultural sensitivities shift. For example, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/moron-idiot-imbecile-offensive-history">just a century ago</a>, “imbecile” and “moron” were considered scientific terms describing mental development – and are now considered offensive. </p>
<p>The passage of time can obscure a term’s problematic origins or illuminate facts about a widely used and seemingly innocent term. As with “the peanut gallery,” an awareness of a term’s history can be essential to avoid giving offense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148897/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger J. Kreuz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Remember the ‘peanut gallery’ from the ‘Howdy Doody’ show? That term, like many others we commonly use, has surprisingly controversial origins.Roger J. Kreuz, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1470832020-11-04T17:02:21Z2020-11-04T17:02:21ZWho invented the Electoral College?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362025/original/file-20201006-20-1h3yu8c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=309%2C9%2C2812%2C1601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A transcript from the Constitutional Convention records the official report creating the Electoral College.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347105/172/public?contributionType=transcription">U.S. National Archives</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The delegates in Philadelphia agreed, in the summer of 1787, that the new country they were creating would not have a king but rather an elected executive. But they did not agree on how to choose that president.</p>
<p>Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson called the problem of picking a president “<a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_904.asp">in truth, one of the most difficult of all we have to decide</a>.” Other delegates, when they later recounted the group’s effort, said “this very subject embarrassed them more than any other – that <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/electoral-college/oclc/254528316">various systems were proposed, discussed, and rejected</a>.” </p>
<p>They were at risk of concluding their meetings without finding a way to pick a leader. In fact, this was the very last thing written into the final draft. Had no agreement been reached, the delegates would not have approved the Constitution.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iY8zMlcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">civics educator</a> who has also run Purdue University’s Constitution Day celebration for 15 years, and one lesson I always return to is the degree to which the founders had to compromise in order to ensure ratification. Selecting the president was one of those compromises. </p>
<p>Three approaches were debated during the Constitutional Convention: election by Congress, selection by state legislatures and a popular election – though the right to vote was generally restricted to white, landowning men.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=991%2C437%2C1358%2C1014&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/312901/original/file-20200130-41507-4rurv8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Delegates to the Constitutional Convention had to invent an entire new form of government.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-paintings-and-murals/signing-constitution">Howard Chandler Christy/Architect of the Capitol</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Should Congress pick the president?</h2>
<p>Some delegates at the Constitutional Convention thought that letting Congress pick the president would provide a buffer from what Thomas Jefferson referred to as the “<a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-06-02-0174">well-meaning, but uninformed people</a>” who, in a nation the size of the United States, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/electoral-college/oclc/254528316">could have no knowledge of eminent characters</a> and qualifications and the actual selection decision.”</p>
<p>Others were concerned that this approach threatened the separation of powers created in the first three articles of the Constitution: Congress might choose a weak executive to prevent the president from wielding veto power, reducing the effectiveness of one of the system’s checks and balances. In addition, the president might feel indebted to Congress and yield some power back to the legislative branch.</p>
<p>Virginia delegate James Madison was concerned that giving Congress the power to select the president “<a href="https://www.consource.org/document/james-madisons-notes-of-the-constitutional-convention-1787-7-17/">would render it the executor as well as the maker of laws</a>; and then … tyrannical laws may be made that they may be executed in a tyrannical manner.” </p>
<p>That view persuaded his fellow Virginian George Mason to reverse his previous support for congressional election of the president and to then conclude that he saw “<a href="https://www.consource.org/document/james-madisons-notes-of-the-constitutional-convention-1787-6-2/">making the Executive the mere creature of the Legislature</a> as a violation of the fundamental principle of good Government.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Committee on Postponed Questions" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362035/original/file-20201006-20-xt8f36.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These 11 men agreed on a compromise that created the Electoral College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation, from Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Letting state lawmakers choose</h2>
<p>Some delegates thought getting states directly involved in picking the leader of the national government was a good approach for the new federal system.</p>
<p>But others, including Alexander Hamilton, worried that states would select a weak executive, to increase their own power. Hamilton also observed that legislators are often slower to move than top leaders might be expected to: “<a href="https://billofrightsinstitute.org/founding-documents/primary-source-documents/the-federalist-papers/federalist-papers-no-70/">In the legislature, promptitude of decision is oftener an evil than a benefit</a>.”</p>
<p>It’s not as pithy as the musical, perhaps, but the point is clear: Don’t trust the state legislatures.</p>
<h2>Power to the people?</h2>
<p>The final approach debated was that of popular election. Some delegates, like New York delegate Gouverneur Morris, viewed the president as the “<a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_719.asp">guardian of the people</a>,” whom the public should elect directly.</p>
<p>The Southern states objected, arguing that they would be disadvantaged in a popular election <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1952171">in proportion to their actual populations</a> because of the large numbers of enslaved people in those states who could not vote. This was eventually resolved – in one of those many compromises – by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/three-fifths-compromise">counting each enslaved person as three-fifths of a free person</a> for the purposes of representation. </p>
<p>George Mason, a delegate from Virginia, shared Jefferson’s skepticism about regular Americans, saying it would be “<a href="https://www.consource.org/document/james-madisons-notes-of-the-constitutional-convention-1787-7-17/">unnatural to refer the choice of a proper character</a> for chief Magistrate to the people, as it would, to refer a trial of colours to a blind man. The extent of the Country renders it impossible that the people can have the requisite capacity to judge of the respective pretensions of the Candidates.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The manuscript records first discussing the proposed Electoral College" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362026/original/file-20201006-18-18b1l75.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1217&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Journal of the Federal Convention records the formal proposal to create the Electoral College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347105/172/public?contributionType=transcription">U.S. National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="The manuscript records first discussing the proposed Electoral College" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/362027/original/file-20201006-22-1r9kgcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Journal of the Federal Convention records the formal proposal to create the Electoral College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7347105/173/public?contributionType=transcription">U.S. National Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>11 left to make the decision</h2>
<p>The delegates appointed a committee of 11 members – one from each state at the Constitutional Convention – to solve this and other knotty problems, which they called the “Grand Committee on Postponed Questions,” and charged with resolving “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27550162">unfinished business, including how to elect the President</a>.”</p>
<p>At the beginning, six of the 11 members preferred national popular elections. But they realized they could not get the Constitution ratified with that provision: The Southern states simply would not agree to it.</p>
<p>Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 4, 1787, the committee wrestled with producing an acceptable compromise. The committee’s third report to the Convention <a href="https://www.quillproject.net/session_visualize/3420">proposed the adoption of a system of electors</a>, through which both the people and the states would help choose the president. It’s not clear which delegate came up with the idea, which was a partly national and partly federal solution, and which <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed39.asp">mirrored other structures in the Constitution</a>.</p>
<h2>Popularity and protection</h2>
<p>Hamilton and the other founders were reassured that with this compromise system, neither public ignorance nor outside influence would affect the choice of a nation’s leader. They believed that the electors would <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp">ensure that only a qualified person became president</a>. And they thought the Electoral College would serve as a check on a public who might be easily misled, <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed68.asp">especially by foreign governments</a>. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But the original system – in which the winner of the Electoral College would become president and the runner-up became vice president – fell apart almost immediately. By the election of 1800, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/founding-fathers-political-parties-opinion">political parties had arisen</a>. Because electoral votes for president and vice president were not listed on separate ballots, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1800">Democratic-Republican running mates Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied</a> in the Electoral College, sending the contest to the House of Representatives. The House ultimately chose Jefferson as the third president, leaving Burr as vice president – not John Adams, who had led the opposing Federalist party ticket.</p>
<p>The problem was resolved in 1804 when the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxii">12th Amendment</a> was ratified, allowing the electors to cast separate ballots for president and vice president. It has been that way ever since.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip J VanFossen's Distinguished Professorship and the Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship are funded by an endowment to Purdue University established by the Ackerman Family Foundation.</span></em></p>Three approaches were debated during the Constitutional Convention – election by Congress, selection by state legislatures and a popular election, though that was restricted to white landowning men.Phillip J VanFossen, J.F. Ackerman Professor of Social Studies Education; Director, Ackerman Center; Associate Director, Purdue Center for Economic Education, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1466652020-10-16T11:00:34Z2020-10-16T11:00:34ZWhat is an algorithm? How computers know what to do with data<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363557/original/file-20201014-19-5omy27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C5209%2C3459&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Computer algorithms can involve complicated math, but the concept of an algorithm is simple.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/caucasian-college-student-reading-whiteboard-royalty-free-image/643999299?adppopup=true">Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world of computing is full of buzzwords: AI, supercomputers, machine learning, the cloud, quantum computing and more. One word in particular is used throughout computing – algorithm. </p>
<p>In the most general sense, an algorithm is a series of instructions telling a computer how to transform a set of facts about the world into useful information. The facts are data, and the useful information is knowledge for people, instructions for machines or input for yet another algorithm. There are many common examples of algorithms, from sorting sets of numbers to finding routes through maps to displaying information on a screen. </p>
<p>To get a feel for the concept of algorithms, think about getting dressed in the morning. Few people give it a second thought. But how would you write down your process or tell a 5-year-old your approach? Answering these questions in a detailed way yields an algorithm.</p>
<h2>Input</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Close-up of shirts of different colors hanging in a closet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363549/original/file-20201014-23-znb2am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are many variables to consider when choosing what to wear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/neoproton/3198853683/">Chris/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To a computer, input is the information needed to make decisions.</p>
<p>When you get dressed in the morning, what information do you need? First and foremost, you need to know what clothes are available to you in your closet. Then you might consider what the temperature is, what the weather forecast is for the day, what season it is and maybe some personal preferences. </p>
<p>All of this can be represented in data, which is essentially simple collections of numbers or words. For example, temperature is a number, and a weather forecast might be “rainy” or “sunshine.”</p>
<h2>Transformation</h2>
<p>Next comes the heart of an algorithm – computation. Computations involve arithmetic, decision-making and repetition. </p>
<p>So, how does this apply to getting dressed? You make decisions by doing some math on those input quantities. Whether you put on a jacket might depend on the temperature, and which jacket you choose might depend on the forecast. To a computer, part of our getting-dressed algorithm would look like “if it is below 50 degrees and it is raining, then pick the rain jacket and a long-sleeved shirt to wear underneath it.” </p>
<p>After picking your clothes, you then need to put them on. This is a key part of our algorithm. To a computer a repetition can be expressed like “for each piece of clothing, put it on.”</p>
<h2>Output</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Young woman with pink hair taking a selfie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/363756/original/file-20201015-17-p6731t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The last step of an algorithm is presenting the output.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-with-pink-hair-taking-a-selfie-royalty-free-image/866415620?adppopup=true">Eternity in an Instant/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, the last step of an algorithm is output – expressing the answer. To a computer, output is usually more data, just like input. It allows computers to string algorithms together in complex fashions to produce more algorithms. However, output can also involve presenting information, for example putting words on a screen, producing auditory cues or some other form of communication. </p>
<p>So after getting dressed you step out into the world, ready for the elements and the gazes of the people around you. Maybe you even take a selfie and put it on Instagram to strut your stuff.</p>
<h2>Machine learning</h2>
<p>Sometimes it’s too complicated to spell out a decision-making process. A special category of algorithms, machine learning algorithms, try to “learn” based on a set of past decision-making examples. Machine learning is commonplace for things like recommendations, predictions and looking up information.</p>
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<p>For our getting-dressed example, a machine learning algorithm would be the equivalent of your remembering past decisions about what to wear, knowing how comfortable you feel wearing each item, and maybe which selfies got the most likes, and using that information to make better choices. </p>
<p>So, an algorithm is the process a computer uses to transform input data into output data. A simple concept, and yet every piece of technology that you touch involves many algorithms. Maybe the next time you grab your phone, see a Hollywood movie or check your email, you can ponder what sort of complex set of algorithms is behind the scenes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jory Denny is a member of two professional societies: the Association of Computing Machinery and IEEE. He is associated with Waymo LLC.</span></em></p>A close look at how you decide what clothes to put on in the morning can help you understand how computers work.Jory Denny, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.