RecSciPod S01E08 full transcript
Timestamps:
- 0:00 Intro
- 1:59 Tirth’s run-in with the TSA
- 8:41 Dog magnetism study
- 20:54 Elephant yawning study
- 32:45 What did you learn today, outro
Intro
Lu: Welcome everybody to another episode of Recreational Science, the podcast where we explore creativity in science by examining some of the funniest, wackiest, and most provocative studies ever done. I’m Lu.
Tirth: And I’m Tirth.
Lu: Listeners, come explore with us the things that are so amazing and keeps us stargazing and whatever we think we might see. Because someday we’ll find it, the Rainbow Connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and us.
Tirth: Who are the lovers?
Lu: You must know what that’s from, right?
Tirth: I have no idea. I thought this was one of those limericks, man. Like the man from Nantucket, you know?
Lu: Basically, it’s a classic. It’s sung by a frog. Does that ring a bell?
Tirth: Frog? Kermit?
Lu: Yes.
Tirth: Oh my God.
Lu: Rainbow connection.
Tirth: Kermit’s a goober, man.
Lu: You gotta know that song.
Tirth: How would I know it? Where is it from?
Lu: How could you not know? It’s from the Muppets, man.
Tirth: I never saw the show.
Lu: Kermit sings it.
Tirth: Or the movie. Actually, you know, I did see the movie. You and I went to that movie with our classmates.
Lu: Oh, we did. That’s right.
Tirth: Our first year of med school, a long time ago. That’s right. Yeah.
Lu: I’m 99% sure that song was in it.
Tirth: Well, maybe I’ve blocked it out of my memory.
Lu: Okay, you’re gonna have to go listen to it after this.
Tirth: Okay, just for you, though.
Lu: It’s an American classic, man.
Tirth: I believe you.
Tirth: Kermit is an American classic. It’s a dubious distinction. Charles Manson is an American classic too, but…
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: I feel like this conversation is going off track pretty quickly…
Lu: I don’t know how that’s gonna edit together, man…
TSA agent becomes the latest subscriber (maybe)
Lu: Okay, well, Tirth, we’re recording this on a Wednesday.
Tirth: Yes.
Lu: Because you were busy the last two weekends.
Tirth: I was very busy, man.
Lu: Care to explain yourself?
Tirth: I’ll explain myself partially.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: One was I was at a scientific meeting, you know, which you as a scientist yourself, you understand the supreme importance of attending these meetings.
Lu: Very important.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Gotta communicate your data, gotta meet people, network with other scientists.
Tirth: That’s right. You gotta see what other people are up to.
Lu: How was it?
Tirth: It was great. It was right here in north of Los Angeles, about an hour’s drive. And then right after that, I went to our old stomping grounds, St. Louis.
Lu: Oh.
Tirth: My fiance, who will probably listen to this episode at some point, I was helping her move there.
Lu: Nice. Okay. Good.
Tirth: You know what they say? Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Lu: Is that what they say?
Tirth: Yeah. I think so. I think so.
Lu: I say, out of sight, out of mind. That’s what I say. Never heard of the thing you said.
Tirth: That’s another way to look at it. So anyway, we’re trying that. We’re giving that a shot.
Lu: Out of sight, out of mind?
Tirth: No.
Lu: I’m sure that will work very well for you guys.
Tirth: We’re just trying to see if absence will make our hearts grow fonder.
Lu: I see. Okay. So she moved away on purpose to test his theory. I see. It makes a lot of sense, given what I know about you.
Tirth: Please, please. I’m the kindest, gentlest, most generous man out there. But I have a story for you, Lu. So I took my microphone with me both to the conference and to St. Louis.
Lu: Yes.
Tirth: We had grand plans that we were going to record.
Lu: Yes. The pretense.
Tirth: For a variety of reasons that didn’t happen. So anyway, on my way back from St. Louis, I was at the airport, and I’ve got TSA precheck, so I don’t have to…
Lu: Lambert Airport?
Tirth: Yes. Lambert International Airport.
Lu: Did you take the train there?
Tirth: I did not. My fiancee dropped me off.
Lu: Oh, it’s very nice of her. See you off one last time.
Tirth: Yes. One last time. Make sure I don’t come back. Turn around and come right back.
Lu: Yes. Exactly.
Tirth: With the train, she can’t do that. Anyway, of course, a man of my stature, I’ve got a precheck, so I don’t have to mingle with the riffraff.
Lu: Very good. You don’t have Clear though.
Tirth: Huh? No, no, no. Please, please. No. Precheck.
Lu: No, no, no.
Tirth: Please. It has nothing to do with being rich. I want the official government version, okay?
Lu: I see.
Tirth: I don’t want a private company having my retinal scan and God knows what other information.
Lu: You prefer the government has that stuff.
Tirth: Well, the government already has that stuff. So anyway, I’m going through the line. I breeze past it like always. They’re like, come right this way, sir. You know, it’s like they’re ushering me at a concert. You know, that’s how nice they were.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: This is the other thing about Midwest is, you know, everyone’s very nice…But but unfortunately, my back got flagged…
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: They pulled it aside and I’m waiting there twiddling my thumbs. They pull it over. The guy brings it over. He’s like, “Whose bag is it?” And I raised my hand. He’s like, “come on over here”. And then he starts looking at it. Then he’s like, “Is there anything sharp or fragile in here?” I’m like, “No, but there is a microphone in here.” And then he pulls it open and he holds the microphone and he pulls it out. He’s like, “This microphone?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “Why is it here? What do you do?” I’m like, “Well, you know, I’m normally a doctor, but I have a podcast with my friend.” He’s like, “What’s the name of your podcast? What do you guys talk about? So I told him, it’s called Recreational Science.” He’s like, hold on. And then he gets a paper towel and he starts writing it down. He says, “How do you spell Recreational Science? Do you have an Instagram? Do you have Spotify?” So I pull out my phone, I go to Spotify and I’m like, “Look, this is what it looks like.” We’ve recorded seven episodes.” And then he starts reading their descriptions.
Lu: Wow.
Tirth: He’s like, “So what do you guys talk about?” So I give him an example. I used the beer goggles as an example. And then he’s like, “Okay, is it only on Spotify?” I’m like, “No, you can listen to wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.”
Lu: Exactly.
Tirth: And then I showed him our Instagram page too. He’s like, “Oh, good. You guys also do video recording.” So I’m like, “Yeah, my friend does all the editing and everything.”
Lu: Now, was he actually interested or was he just suspicious? He just didn’t believe you that you were a podcaster.
Tirth: Listen, I want to believe in the good of all the people. And in case this TSA agent from the Lambert International Airport is listening right now, shout out to you, man. I choose to believe you were genuinely interested in this. He also took my name down.
Lu: What?
Tirth: He said, “What’s your name?”
Lu: Why?
Tirth: I don’t know. He wrote my name down.
Lu: Oh, man, I would be concerned about this. I would be very…Now, is the microphone was what set off the alarm?
Tirth: It actually, actually, it set off the alarm on the way to St. Louis also.
Lu: Interesting.
Tirth: I think it’s the shape.
Lu: Can’t carry…Oh, yeah. Well, it’s, it’s certain. It does have a certain shape, but not a dangerous shape.
Tirth: Depends on how you use it, I guess.
Lu: I guess. Yeah, I guess so. Let’s not go there.
Tirth: And then this guy says, “I’m going to listen to it.” I’m like, “Oh, are you?” He’s like, “Well, you don’t know who, you know, what kind of people are going to listen to this. I’m going to give it a shot.”
Lu: Wow, okay.
Tirth: So shout out to you, TSA agent.
Lu: Thank you for not arresting Tirth. It does sound like he put your name on a list, though. I’d be a little concerned about that.
Tirth: He also complimented my shoes.
Lu: Oh, OK. Yeah, good. You know what I wish I did?
Tirth: What?
Lu: To help you out, Tirth, through this process? I should have texted you a meme of JD Vance.
Tirth: That would have been dangerous stuff. Speaking of dangerous things, that’s a dangerous item right there, man.
Lu: Yeah. Having a meme of JD Vance in your phone, going through airport security.
Tirth: That guy from Norway or Sweden or whatever.
Lu: Denied.
Tirth: Yeah, go back home. Denied, man.
Lu: You can’t carry stuff like that into the US. Did you get his name, by the way, the TSA agent?
Tirth: I did not get his name. No, no, no.
Lu: Let’s call him Ricky. Ricky, if you’re listening, please tell all your TSA friends.
Tirth: Yes.
Lu: Recreational Science. Give us a five-star review.
Tirth: We actually mean it.
Lu: That’ll help us out.
Tirth: Yes. Tell a friend, please.
Lu: All right, Tirth. Well, you want to just get right to the science?
Tirth: Let’s get to the meat, baby.
Lu: Because I got something really good for you.
Tirth: Okay. Hit it.
Dogs are amazing compasses
Lu: Really good. This is something you’re going to love. We mentioned a few episodes ago that animals, in particular birds perhaps, can sort of sense the magnetic field of the Earth. That’s maybe why they’re able to detect earthquakes before they happen.
Tirth: Yeah. Migratory birds are famous for being able to detect the Earth’s magnetic field.
Lu: That’s correct. They use it to navigate. So do you know how this works?
Tirth: The magnetic field?
Lu: Yeah.
Tirth: In the Earth?
Lu: No. Well, how do animals sense it?
Tirth: They have specific cells actually. I mean, the actual encoding I think happens in the hippocampus.
Lu: Well, it’s not 100% clear exactly how it works, but supposedly there are these proteins called cryptochromes, which normally detect blue light. When they detect blue light, they form two radicals, so basically two extra electrons. Electrons have spins, and the spins of those two electrons can be aligned in the same direction or opposite directions. And supposedly the magnetic field of the earth alters the coordination of the two spins of the electrons. And that affects how long the cryptochrome stays activated in response to light. So these animals can sense the magnetic field based on light.
Tirth: That’s really cool, but it also means that they have to keep moving for it to matter because it’s the change across the magnetic field lines that I assume probably makes the switch back and forth, right?
Lu: Yeah, I think that’s a good thought. The magnetic field also just has variations all the time, so maybe that affects things. That’s not really what the paper I’m presenting today is about, the mechanistic side of things. Rather, the question the authors of this study are interested in is, can dogs sense magnetic fields? You’re a man of the dogs, right? We established that last episode.
Tirth: Absolutely. It’s better than being a man of the people.
Lu: What do you think the answer is? Can dogs sense the Earth’s magnetic field?
Tirth: No.
Lu: You don’t think so?
Tirth: No.
Lu: Well, the authors pointed out that dogs are very good at finding their way home.
Tirth: Yeah, it’s the sense of smell though.
Lu: Is it? Okay. Well, Tirth, this paper that I’m gonna present proves you wrong. Because the title is “Dogs are Sensitive to Small Variations of the Earth’s Magnetic Field”.
Tirth: Okay.
Lu: It was published in 2013 in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.
Tirth: Great, great journal.
Lu: It’s a good journal. Yeah, good journal. This is from a group in Germany. They want to know whether dogs can sense the Earth’s magnetic field. So Tirth, if you were them, how would you do this experiment? How would you figure this out?
Tirth: Actually, I don’t know. Could you put him in like a… You know, in Russia, there’s a city called Magnitogorsk.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: There’s this giant mountain there full of iron ore. So it has like natural magnetic fields.
Lu: Interesting.
Tirth: Maybe we can send dogs on a field trip to Russia.
Lu: Okay. And see what they do in the mountain.
Tirth: If they, you know, if their heads get stuck to it.
Lu: Ah, I see. I see. I see.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Well, Tirth, this is ridiculous. The experiment you just proposed is preposterous. Let me tell you how you actually test…
Tirth: All right.
Lu: …whether dogs can sense the earth’s magnetic field, okay? This is serious science. You examine dogs while they defecate. And then check to see if their body is aligned with the earth’s magnetic field while they’re defecating. This is the way. This is what you do. This is real science, Tirth.
Tirth: I could never.
Lu: None of your Russian mountain crap, okay?
Tirth: I could never work at this level.
Lu: And look, yes, one of the figures of the paper is just a picture of a dog pooping.
Tirth: Actual picture or a cartoon?
Lu: Actual picture. So this group, this German group, they tested 70 different dogs, 37 breeds, and examined 1,893 defecation events.
Tirth: Wow.
Lu: Over a period of 2 years. They actually also examined 5,582 urination events.
Tirth: 5 to 1 ratio of urinating to pooping.
Lu: Yeah, just about, yeah. So they actually found – get this – that dogs prefer to poop with their body aligned along the north-south axis of the earth, suggesting that they can sense the earth’s magnetic field.
Tirth: That’s a bit of a stretch though, huh?
Lu: Is it? They found that dogs were very likely, almost certain, under certain conditions, – and I’ll get to that in a second – to have their body aligned along the north-south axis. That’s pretty compelling.
Tirth: Well, it’s pretty compelling. I mean, it’s compelling that they align the north-south axis. It’s compelling that they’re actually following the magnetic field and not some other north-south metric.
Lu: What other north-south metrics are there?
Tirth: Well, at night, there’s a north star.
Lu: Okay, let’s say this is out during the day.
Tirth: Maybe something to do with the sun.
Lu: Wait a minute, you think dogs can recognize the north star? Wait, look, maybe you’re right. Maybe you’re right. You should test that, man.
Tirth: We should.
Lu: That could be a Nobel Prize-winning idea, man.
Tirth: Stuff like this is getting in. Come on, we could do this. This guy just spent two years watching dogs poop.
Lu: …dogs recognized the North Star.
Tirth: It’s groundbreaking stuff, man.
Lu: That would break…Oh my God.
Tirth: Well, no, no. Okay. So let me propose a semi-serious alternate explanation of this, okay?
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Maybe it’s got something to do with the layout of the houses in Germany. Maybe the way the yards or the outdoors are oriented that they happen to be more so oriented North-South axis. Maybe a lot of towns, you know?
Lu: Well, that’s an interesting thought, but get this.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: I said earlier that dogs only align their bodies North-South under certain conditions.
Tirth: Right, right.
Lu: And those conditions are when the Earth’s magnetic field is stable. When the magnetic field is unstable, they don’t necessarily align North-South, suggesting that they are actually detecting the magnetic field, and it’s not some other variable.
Tirth: And they’re measuring the stability by like, magnetometers or something?
Lu: This is a little bit detailed, but it’s very interesting.
Tirth: Yeah, go ahead.
Lu: So the magnetic North, the direction a compass will point to, is not necessarily aligned with the actual North, like the North Pole.
Tirth: That’s correct.
Lu: There is a difference, and that difference is called the magnetic declination.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: And that actually itself changes over time due to the dynamic nature of the Earth’s magnetic field, which is just constantly shifting a little bit.
Tirth: Yeah, they think that it’s actually going to flip over in like a thousand years or something…
Lu: Yeah, I’ve heard about that. But the key point here is, sometimes the Earth’s magnetic field is stable, so the declination remains unchanged. When that happens, the dogs almost always align their bodies north-south when they’re pooping. When there is as little as 1% change in the declination, meaning a tiny bit of instability in the Earth’s magnetic field, the dogs don’t align, which is very impressive. 1%, a very tiny, tiny difference in the variability of the Earth’s magnetic field. So, you’re wrong, Tirth, you’re a man of the dogs, but you underestimated the dogs.
Tirth: I’m a man of the dogs. I was just giving their sense of smell greater credit. Hey, do they speculate why dogs have this sense?
Lu: Beautiful question.
Tirth: Thank you.
Lu: The study started with a question of why are dogs so good at being able to find their way home?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: So, that’s sort of the idea. But maybe a better question is why do dogs align their bodies when they’re pooping?
Tirth: Yeah, that’s true, I didn’t even think of that.
Lu: Why don’t you ask me that?
Tirth: Why do they align their bodies to the north-south axis while they’re pooping, specifically when they’re pooping?
Lu: Brilliant question, Tirth.
Tirth: Thank you.
Lu: Once again, brilliant question.
Tirth: Thank you.
Lu: Brilliant. So, Tirth, you’re a man of the dogs, do you have a guess?
Tirth: No. This time, no.
Lu: They don’t have an answer per se, but they have a hypothesis. I think it’s a very compelling hypothesis. They think that maybe dogs need to calibrate themselves once in a while to the magnetic field.
Tirth: What, like robots? Like they’re androids?
Lu: Well, so it’s like if you’re going on a hike, maybe you want to read the map once in a while so you don’t get lost. Sort of the same analogy. And the reason they only align their bodies when the Earth’s magnetic field is stable is because that’s only when they can get good, accurate information. If they were to align their bodies when the Earth’s magnetic field is unstable, that would be akin to reading like a blurred map. Wouldn’t be that helpful.
Tirth: No.
Lu: Pretty compelling, right?
Tirth: Yeah, but then why don’t they do this inside the house?
Lu: Because they don’t poop inside the house, Tirth. How do you train your dogs?
Tirth: Why does it always have to be when they’re pooping though? I guess that’s what I’m asking.
Lu: Great question.
Tirth: Oh, thank you.
Lu: Beautiful question.
Tirth: Oh, thank you.
Lu: Just one after another. Oh, brilliant questions, man. You’re really on it today. Tirth, as you know, dogs are very economical creatures.
Tirth: Is that right?
Lu: There’s nothing dogs hate more than wasting time, is that right?
Tirth: I don’t know what kind of dogs you’re hanging around, man.
Lu: You’re a man of the dogs.
Tirth: I am a man of the dogs.
Lu: Dogs love three things: Manspreading on couches, we talked about last week.
Tirth: Yeah, they love it.
Lu: Chasing squirrels.
Tirth: Yes.
Lu: And spending time wisely.
Tirth: Wisely, yes, I will tell you.
Lu: They love those three things.
Tirth: Yes.
Lu: They don’t waste time. We all know this. They want to kill two birds with one stone.
Tirth: Literally, sometimes, yeah.
Lu: When you’re pooping, you don’t want to waste that time, okay? You want to be doing something productive with your time.
Tirth: Oh, wait, this is like when you’re on your phone. When you’re pooping, you’re on your phone. It’s like that.
Lu: Well, it depends on what you’re doing on your phone.
Tirth: I see.
Lu: If you’re doing math problems, good.
Tirth: If you’re scrolling Instagram, no.
Lu: No, no, no. Dogs don’t mess around, all right? They don’t waste that time. They calibrate themselves to the Earth’s magnetic field.
Tirth: For a second, I thought you were going to say, they calibrate themselves to learn how to poop every so often. Every so often, they’re like, you know what? I forgot how to poop. Let me calibrate myself.
Lu: That’s also possible. There are many hypotheses.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: But let me ask you Tirth, again, you’re a man of the dogs. In what direction is your body aligned when you’re on the toilet?
Tirth: I don’t know. It’s facing upright.
Lu: Upright.
Tirth: I mean, I’m seated.
Lu: Okay. But your face is tilted up?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: I see.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: So you can orient yourself to the sky.
Tirth: Yeah, sky and the ground.
Lu: Okay. Make sure your vestibular system is working correctly. Calibrating your vestibular…Okay. I see. I see. You’re a true man of the dogs then.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: In that sense. Okay, Tirth. Well, I have some homework for you. Next time you see a dog pooping out in the streets, please pull out a compass.
Tirth: Okay.
Lu: If the dog’s body is aligned north-south, you’ll know that the magnetic field is very stable.
Tirth: All right. I will try it and I’ll send you a picture.
Lu: Perfect. Any more questions?
Tirth: No, this was actually a pretty fun study.
Lu: It’s a good study. Great study.
Tirth: Hey, actually, I do have a question: who do you think they assigned to watch the dogs poop for two years?
Lu: Actually, they just recruited the owners of the dogs.
Tirth: Okay, that’s smarter.
Lu: Yeah.
Tirth: Which is again why these people published a study and I haven’t.
Lu: You do have the North Star study.
Tirth: I do. Well, you and I both do.
Lu: Yeah, you have that in your pocket.
Tirth: Don’t worry. You and I are both going to be on that. Don’t worry.
Lu: I wish to withdraw my name from that paper, please.
Tirth: You’re missing out. You’re missing out, man.
Lu: Yeah, I’m missing out…
Tirth: Yeah, got a major FOMO.
Lu: All right. I turn it over to you, Tirth.
Elephant yawns are contagious (maybe)
Tirth: Okay. Actually, it’s funny, we both picked animal theme papers today.
Lu: Oh, very good.
Tirth: So on that note, I’m going to ask you to guess which animal I picked. And because there’s potentially limitless animals, I am going to give you a hint.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: This animal is larger than five centimeters.
Lu: That’s about all the animals I can name, if I’m going to be honest. Is that the only clue?
Tirth: I’ll give you one more, okay? It has quite an impressive appendage of sorts.
Lu: Okay. Is it the barnacle?
Tirth: Nice. Very nice. It is not the barnacle. Yes, I know exactly what you mean, but it’s not the barnacle.
Lu: It’s not the barnacle. It’s longer than five centimeters? That’s very specific. It sounds to me like it’s close to five centimeters, but maybe a little bit longer. Is that the actual hint?
Tirth: No, that was just a joke hint.
Lu: You’re not going to give me an upper bound?
Tirth: Okay. I’ll give you an upper bound. Upper bound is, I don’t know, 500 centimeters.
Lu: 500 centimeters?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Is it the elephant?
Tirth: Yeah, it is.
Lu: It is?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Are you referring to their trunk?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Okay. Very good.
Tirth: This study is about elephants.
Lu: I like this.
Tirth: Okay. Here’s the title: “When yawning occurs in elephants.”
Lu: Okay. Wait, that’s it?
Tirth: Yeah, that’s it. A very simple title.
Lu: That doesn’t say anything.
Tirth: No, which is why I think this is a very intriguing title. I think they titled it this way so people would have to read, you know.
Lu: Is there a question mark at the end?
Tirth: No, it’s just this.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Yeah, this was published in 2017 in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Veterinary Science, not Zoology.
Lu: Good. Good journal.
Tirth: Good journal. The authors are, most of them are based out of University of California, Davis.
Lu: Ah, yeah. Makes sense. Very big on animal sciences.
Tirth: And somewhat unusually – I haven’t seen this – author #2 is listed as the corresponding author.
Lu: I see.
Tirth: I’ve never seen that before.
Lu: Well, you know, they don’t have email access up there in Davis. It’s very rural. So maybe he’s the only guy with email access…They probably do a lot of fieldwork, you know.
Tirth: If there are any listeners at UC Davis, please..
Lu: …or internet connection.
Tirth: Yeah, please. Please let us know if this is correct or not. I have no idea.
Lu: It is. It is.
Tirth: Okay, I’ll take your word for it. So let me set the stage. Before I do that, let me ask you, Lu, how many times a day do you think you yawn?
Lu: Hmm. I want to say probably two or three.
Tirth: That’s it?
Lu: Depends on how sleepy I am, I guess.
Tirth: Okay.
Lu: On an average day. Yeah, probably no more than two or three times.
Tirth: Okay. And let me ask you this. Let’s say the day starts in the morning, you know, around what time in the day do you think you yawn for the first time?
Lu: You know very well that my day does not start in the morning.
Tirth: Good point. Good point. Your day starts at 1 p.m.
Lu: Yes. I would guess probably like 1 or 2 a.m. Like very late, like close to bedtime.
Tirth: So closer to bedtime for you.
Lu: Or potentially when I first wake up.
Tirth: Okay, good.
Lu: Hard to keep track of that.
Tirth: Those are two potential times, right? And that’s all spot on. That’s what they talk about. They set the stage. They say that yawning is widely recognized behavior in mammals. The other thing about yawning that’s very interesting, I think even kids know this and they find it very funny is that it’s contagious of sorts. You see someone yawning, it makes you, induces yawning in you. Nobody can seem to explain this, why this happens, but it seems to happen, right? So these intrepid authors, they went on to ask two questions. Question #1: do elephants yawn?
Lu: Okay, good question.
Tirth: Question #2 is, if so, is yawning contagious in elephants?
Lu: I see.
Tirth: Let me ask you this. If you were doing this study, how would you do it? How would you set it up? What methods would you use?
Lu: I would get a video camera.
Tirth: Good.
Lu: And then just record elephants 24/7.
Tirth: 24/7.
Lu: And then get a bunch of undergrads.
Tirth: Uh-huh.
Lu: UC Davis has some very good undergrads. Get them to record the number of times the elephants yawn. And also record the nearby elephants and see if they yawn. And if the yawns are correlated amongst the different elephants.
Tirth: Beautiful. You too can be an elephant yawnologist. This is basically what they did. They used this national park in South Africa. And they actually recorded elephants mostly at night because during the day, the elephants are busy interacting with humans.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: And because, as you pointed out…
Lu: Wait, are these circus elephants?
Tirth: No.
Lu: Why are they busy interacting with humans?
Tirth: They’re at a national park. People come to see them.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: They’re not doing tricks for them, man. They’re not riding unicycles or whatever.
Lu: Instead of interacting with each other, they…
Tirth: Well, they’re also doing that. They’re like in a large enclosure, okay? And like you pointed out, they correctly theorized that if there was yawning happening, it’s more likely to happen either right as they go to bed or right as they’re waking up in the morning. So they put video cameras, but of course, they’re recording at night, so they had to use infrared cameras, okay? Fancy stuff, fancy stuff. And they recorded a number of animals. They actually listed them out too, so I’m going to read their names to you, okay?
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Okay, there’s Sally.
Lu: Ah, yeah.
Tirth: There’s Nandi.
Lu: Good name.
Tirth: There’s Tandi.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Keisha.
Lu: Oh.
Tirth: Shungu. Mashudu.
Lu: I see.
Tirth: Tatto.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Shaka. Clyde.
Lu: Oh.
Tirth: And Mean. Oh, sorry. That’s just the mean. So that’s how many? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine elephants that they recorded.
Lu: These elephants all know each other? They’re friends, they belong to the same social group…
Tirth: Uh, yeah. Quite a few of them are adult females. And then two of them, they call them sub-adult males. So they’re basically youth. So they recorded them for 47 nights over two seasons.
Lu: 47 nights. Over two seasons?
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Like, like fall and winter?
Tirth: Uh, June to September. And then I think December through a few months after that.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: Yeah. So fall and winterish. The other thing that’s interesting about elephants is that they sleep in short bouts, okay? They call them bouts. So they’ll sleep for one to three hours. Then they’ll kind of wake up, move around, and then they’ll go back to sleep.
Lu: That’s like the, what is it? The Ubermensch sleep schedule? That’s what it’s called? You sleep five minutes every hour or whatever.
Tirth: Napoleon used to do something similar to this…
Lu: Yeah.
Tirth: I think Kramer tries this too, but then he starts falling asleep.
Lu: And then, yeah, it didn’t work for him.
Tirth: No, not at all. So they noticed that the mean recumbent bouts per animal per night were between 14 and 24. So, on average, each elephant is sleeping in about 14 to 20 periods per night. Each period is lasting anywhere from an hour to about two hours. And then, in all their observations, they recorded several thousand events of them doing this combined over their 47 days.
Lu: High sample size. Very good. It’s nothing to the close to 8,000 urination and defecation observations from my study, but pretty good.
Tirth: Pretty good. Yes. Unfortunately, across the few thousand events they saw, they only recorded 133 yawns.
Lu: Wow.
Tirth: Over 47 days, nine elephants, thousands of these bouts, only 133 yawns.
Lu: Wow. And how do they define an elephant yawn? Is that well defined?
Tirth: No, but they kind of came up with a way. They said you have to see them open their mouth. There’s some change in vocalizations. They have video clips in the supplemental material that shows what an elephant looks like when it yawns.
Lu: Okay. How confident are they that these are actual yawns?
Tirth: They sound pretty confident.
Lu: And they were missing like real yawns?
Tirth: They’re confident these are real yawns, but they acknowledge that they could be missing yawns when the elephant’s face is not facing the camera, for example. They say that too, though.
Lu: Okay. They only had one camera. Anyways, continue.
Tirth: And then they noticed that most of the yawns were actually happening in their final bout of the night. So they would finish their very last period of sleeping, then they would wake up, they would yawn, and then they would start their day.
Lu: Okay. So that would suggest that these are probably real yawns.
Tirth: Exactly. So that’s another reason that they’re confident. And then they said, when elephants did yawn, the number of yawns ranged from one to four per night. So pretty close to what you do in a given day, what you told me. So you, you know, you and elephants, not all that different.
Lu: Man of the Elephants.
Tirth: Man of the Elephants.
Lu: That’s what they call me.
Tirth: Yeah. There’s worse things to be. And you know, just for shoots and giggles, they actually ranked the elephants in terms of who yawned the most to who yawned the least.
Lu: Let me guess, Sally.
Tirth: Sally was what?
Lu: Number one.
Tirth: No, she was one of the less likely.
Lu: Clyde. He sounds like a yawner.
Tirth: He’s not even listed.
Lu: Wow. Nandi.
Tirth: Nope. It’s actually Mashudu, one of the youngins.
Lu: Okay. Good for him.
Tirth: He was significantly more likely to yawn overall than others. And then, you know, as I told you at the beginning of this study, their second question was, is yawning contagious in elephants? What do you think the answer is?
Lu: I’m going to say yes, but although, how many yawns do they observe again?
Tirth: 133 yawns. So that was going to be my follow up question to you.
Lu: I feel like it would be difficult to correlate that few yawns.
Tirth: Once again, you were an elephant yawnologist, my friend. Good job.
Lu: Man of the Elephants.
Tirth: Actually, in fact, you’re on such a roll, I’m going to ask you a follow up question. How many yawns do you think they observed that they classified as contagious yawns?
Lu: Two.
Tirth: Ye of little faith, Mr. Elephant Man. It was only six, so close.
Lu: Very good. Okay.
Tirth: So 6 out of 133 yawns spread out over 47 days across 9 elephants.
Lu: Contagious meaning one elephant yawn, one other elephant yawn?
Tirth: Yes. Right after that.
Lu: How do they know this isn’t just a coincidence?
Tirth: Well, they don’t because they have so few observations, so they don’t.
Lu: So they didn’t even do statistics to see if this was statistically likely. So it could have just been a coincidence.
Tirth: Yes. They have a video clip.
Lu: Could have just been rolling two sixes in a row.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: Okay. Good.
Tirth: Which happens not that infrequently.
Lu: Very frequently.
Tirth: Yeah. Okay. There’s actually a video of this too. It’s actually pretty cute. There’s a little elephant in the background. He yawns and the big elephant in the foreground. She looks at him as she yawns too.
Lu: Oh, that’s pretty cute.
Tirth: Yeah, that’s very cute. So that’s the study, man.
Lu: So what do they conclude?
Tirth: They conclude that, yes, elephants yawn, maybe not as much as they would have guessed, that they’re most likely to yawn immediately after the final bout of the night, so just as they’re waking up. And then maybe it’s contagious in elephants as it is in humans.
Lu: Maybe.
Tirth: Maybe.
Lu: They don’t really have the data to support that.
Tirth: Correct. Yes.
Lu: Okay.
Tirth: And they also say they now represent the first megafauna species.
Lu: Oh, what does that mean? MAGAfauna?
Tirth: It just means..
Lu: Do they wear red hats?
Tirth: No, no. Mega. M-E-G-A.
Lu: Oh, megafauna. Okay. Okay. I was getting concerned there.
Tirth: Settle down. Yeah.
Lu: Is that all Tirth?
Tirth: That’s all for my end.
What did you learn today?
Lu: Well, that brings us to the end of another episode. Tirth, what did you learn today?
Tirth: Lu, I learned today that if you’re a dog and you want to mess with your owner, just like pick some random times where you’re just pooping north-south, and then other times you’re not really aligned.
Lu: Yeah.
Tirth: Yeah. What did you learn today?
Lu: I learned that if you’re flying a team of researchers all the way to South Africa from California to record some elephants, bring more than one camera. Get a few different angles.
Tirth: Yeah.
Lu: All right, guys. Well, thank you for listening to this episode of Recreational Science.
Tirth: Thank you, folks. And as always, please give us a like, five star review and tell your friends.
Lu: Yeah, that would really help us out. All right, guys, until next time. Bye. You’re not going to say bye? This is an audio medium.
Tirth: Bye.
