This message comes from NPR sponsor, Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning for 30 years.Right now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different languages for 50% off.Learn more at rosettastone.com slash NPR.
Hey, it's Emily Kwong.Real quick before the show, it has been a wild, exciting, exhausting election season.
And if you want to follow what's going on now and make sure you don't miss the development, we want you to know there are three things you can listen to every day.NPR's morning news podcast, Up First, is recorded before dawn and out by 7 a.m.
each weekday.It's the only morning podcast anywhere that captures the news overnight.Up First, 7 a.m.Later in the day, you can find a new episode of the NPR Politics Podcast. with context and analysis on the big stories, whenever they happen.
So like, you get an alert, big breaking news, you don't know what to think, look for the NPR Politics podcast a few hours later.And finally, consider this as the podcast where NPR considers one big story in-depth every weekday evening.
They will be all over this election and its aftermath, too. So, that's the plan.Up first in the morning, consider this in the evening, and the NPR Politics Podcast anytime big stuff happens.
It's your around-the-clock election news survival kit from NPR Podcasts.All right, thanks for listening.Here's Shortwave.You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
Hey Short Wavers, Regina Barber here.And Emily Kwong.With our bi-weekly Science News Roundup featuring the host of All Things Considered, one of our favorites, Elsa Chang.Hello!Hey!
The squad's back together.
Yes, the squad.Okay, so there are three science stories that really caught our attention this week and we're really excited to share them with you. Alright, what are they?
We have two students that developed new mathematics for the Pythagorean theorem, another one about how overripe fruit in the wild may have affected animal evolution, and finally the discovery of a fossil that sheds new light on the life cycle of frogs.
So cool.This sounds like a very happy episode.It is.It is.We're here to be a mood booster.All of these stories on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
Support for NPR and the following message come from Edward Jones.What does it mean to be rich?Maybe it's less about reaching a magic number and more about discovering the magic in life.
Edward Jones financial advisors are people you can count on for financial strategies that help support a life you love.Because the key to being rich is knowing what counts.
Learn about this comprehensive approach to planning at edwardjones.com slash findyourrich.Edward Jones, member SIPC.
This message comes from Charles Schwab.When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices like full service wealth management and advice when you need it.You can also invest on your own and trade on thinkorswim.
Visit schwab.com to learn more. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Solventum.3M Healthcare is now Solventum.They're a new company with a long legacy of creating breakthrough solutions for their customers and are ushering in a new era of care.
Learn more at solventum.com.
Alright, let's start with the students tackling the Pythagorean theorem.
What's their story? Okay, so in 2022, two high school students shocked the math world by solving the Pythagorean theorem using trigonometry.And for doing this, Kelsey Johnson and Nakia Jackson earned keys to the city of New Orleans.
And now they are published mathematicians.This week, Kelsey and Nakia published their work five proofs and a method for finding at least five more in the journal American Mathematical Monthly.
It's super prestigious and seeing the paper online, Kelsey started jumping up and down.
It's really great to see it not just on my own laptop because that's where it's been for a very long time.
Wait, how old are they now?They're sophomores in college.
That's incredible. Okay, can we just back up a little bit, though?Because the Pythagorean theorem, in case anyone needs a refresher course, it's about the three sides of a triangle that has one right angle, right?
Yeah, so over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras figured out the equation a squared plus b squared equals c squared, right?To calculate the length of a right triangle.
I mean, I still chant it in my sleep.It was drilled deep into my soul 35 years ago.Was that a math cheer?
Amazing. Yes.Yeah.That theorem has been proven again and again with geometry and algebra, but it was once thought impossible to do with trigonometry.Like only two other mathematicians had done it before Calci and Nakaya.
And that's because trigonometry is like based on the Pythagorean theorem.So it's tricky to use trigonometry to prove it.
Ah, I mean this is kind of circular reasoning, right?
Right, but Kelsey and Nakaya proved it could be done.They actually developed five proofs in total.Wow, little overachievers.
Yep, Kelsey's particularly proud of the proof that involves this infinite series of little triangles, which looks like a waffle cone.
Ooh, yummy, yummy.So wait, what's next for these two math superstars?
They're in college.Kelsey is studying environmental engineering at Louisiana State University, while Nakia is studying pharmacy at Xavier University.And Nakia had some advice for today's high schoolers.Finish what you start.
I know there's moments where you're like, I don't want to do this for real.But in the long run, it might be something that could have mattered if you had just tried or kept with it.
And that's certainly true for her and Kelsey, who both wanted to thank their parents for all their support.
Aww, what good kids.I know, good kids.Alright, so let's move on.We're going to talk about overripe fruit.Animals eat this.I mean, I do.
I mean, I do too.Elsa, have you heard of something called the drunken monkey hypothesis?
No, but this makes me want to hang out with some drunk monkeys.
Same.LOL.Okay, the drunken monkey hypothesis suggests that our human interest in alcohol Maybe due to the abundance of alcohol, especially ethanol, from all that rotting, naturally fermenting fruit in the wild.No way!
Which animals have eaten throughout history.
Huh.Yeah, but there was no consensus for this hypothesis among scientists who studied primates when the theory was proposed decades ago.
There was like 90 percent of primatologists who thought fermented fruit was very rare.And then there's 10 percent, a handful of primatologists who thought it was so common to be uninteresting.And that was kind of like the divide.
That's Matthew Kerrigan, who's an author of a review paper, which is an article that looks at a lot of studies that came out in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
OK, so did they figure out how common it is for animals to eat fermented fruit?
So this review paper claims that many animals consume large amounts of fruit to survive, and they are bound to encounter fermented fruit with low levels of ethanol, so consuming this specific kind of alcohol is most likely very common.
Also, if you eat a lot of these fruits, that alcohol is gonna make you tipsy.
Yeah, and intoxication is dangerous out in the wild.Like, animals would be too vulnerable to predators or falling out of a tree.
So Matthew says that our primate ancestors likely had to adapt to alcohol consumption and more or less become functional drinkers.They probably didn't have a choice.
And so it kind of flips the story in the head.
Rather than being, you know, humans consuming alcohol to get drunk, to now, perhaps it's the other way around, that animals are either intentionally or can't avoid consuming ethanol that they're going to be exposed to on a perhaps very routine basis.
Okay, so I have these monkeys to thank for how we evolved to be able to drink and break down alcohol because our ancestors apparently could not avoid it.
Yeah, yeah.Matthew says we still don't know for sure if animals actually prefer fermented fruit, like sometimes seek it out.There needs to be more studies on that.
But scientists are seeing more and more evidence that this was an evolutionary advantage to have enzymes break down alcohol, which may have led to many human civilizations enjoying it.
So interesting.Okay, well we have to move on now to another story about the animal world.I hear a new fossil of a frog has been found.
You heard that right.Though it is technically the fossil of a tadpole, the oldest known fossil of a tadpole.Tadpole, that's the larval stage of a frog's life, you know, when they're just little swimming pollywogs with a tail.
Right, because frogs are like butterflies or salamanders in that they go through metamorphosis from their larval to their adult stage, yeah?
Yeah, we call this the biphasic life cycle.Back to this really cool fossil.This tadpole fossil is 161 million years old. from the middle to late Jurassic period.And it's incredibly intact, which is shocking because tadpoles are really delicate.
They're made mostly of cartilage.And also, the tadpole stage only lasts a few months before the tadpole transforms into that adult frog.So it's been very hard for scientists to find tadpole fossils that are this well-preserved.
Mariana Chuliver is the lead author of a new paper about this out this week in the journal Nature.She said when she saw the fossil, she knew immediately what it was.
I said, OK, it's a tadpole, there is no doubt.But then when I saw it under the binocular microscope, I said, OK, this is the best tadpole ever, because Up to now, there wasn't any other fossil tadpole with the gill skeleton preserved.
The best tadpole ever with a preserved gill skeleton!Okay, does this amazingly preserved specimen teach us anything about, you know, frogs or how they evolved?
Yes, they think so.I mean, one of the interesting things about this specimen is its size.It's almost two times as big as the tadpoles we see today. And it is the oldest tadpole ever found by 20 million years.
Yeah, this discovery proves that the tadpole phase goes way further back in evolutionary time than we knew.So like any kid who stared into a puddle knows how awesome tadpoles are.
It turns out they're even more awesome than we thought if you ask evolution. Wow.
I have an even more robust love for tadpoles now.Definitely.
We share the earth with so many other species but us, so I'm comforted by this.Elsa, thank you so much for coming to talk to us.We always have a good time.Truly.Come back anytime.
You're so welcome.I love it here.
You can hear more of Elsa Chang on Consider This, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. This episode was produced by Jordan Marie Smith and Jessica Young.It was edited by Brett Bachman and Christopher Intagliata.
Tyler Jones checked the facts.Becky Brown was the audio engineer.I'm Emily Kwong.And I'm Regina Barber.Thank you for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
This message comes from NPR sponsor Merrill.Whatever your financial goals are, you want a straightforward path there.But the real world doesn't usually work that way.Merrill understands that.
That's why, with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward.Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more.Merrill, a Bank of America company.What would you like the power to do?Investing involves risk.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC.
This message comes from NPR sponsor, Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning for 30 years.Right now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different languages for 50% off.Learn more at rosettastone.com slash NPR.
This message comes from NPR sponsor, Viore, a new perspective on performance apparel.Check out the latest dream knit collection by visiting viore.com slash NPR for 20% off your first purchase.Exclusions apply.
Visit the website for full terms and conditions.
Sign in
