An Interstellar Object’s Origin Revealed, Why Superstitions Evolved, and How the Sense of Smell Is More Complicated Than We Thought

Learn about why natural selection favors superstitions; why the way our noses smell is way more complicated than we thought; and where scientists think 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object, came from.

How natural selection favors superstitions by Cameron Duke

• Foster, K. R., & Kokko, H. (2008). The evolution of superstitious and superstition-like behaviour. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1654), 31–37. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2008.0981
• Hájek, A. (2018). Pascal’s Wager (E. N. Zalta (Ed.)). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/index.htmlpascal-wager/index.html
• Johnson, D. D. P., Blumstein, D. T., Fowler, J. H., & Haselton, M. G. (2013). The evolution of error: error management, cognitive constraints, and adaptive decision-making biases. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 28(8), 474–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.014

The way our noses smell is way more complicated than we thought by Cameron Duke

• Making sense of scents: 3-D videos reveal how the nose detects odor combinations. (2020, April 9). Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-scents-d-videos-reveal-nose.html
• Xu, L., Li, W., Voleti, V., Zou, D.-J., Hillman, E. M. C., & Firestein, S. (2020). Widespread receptor-driven modulation in peripheral olfactory coding. Science, 368(6487). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5390
• Chess, A., Simon, I., Cedar, H., & Axel, R. (1994). Allelic inactivation regulates olfactory receptor gene expression. Cell, 78(5), 823–834. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-8674(94)90562-2
• Morrison, J. (2014). Human nose can detect 1 trillion odours. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2014.14904
• The Scent of a Molecule. (2017, November 17). Science History Institute. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-scent-of-a-molecule

We might finally know the origin of the first known interstellar object 'Oumuamua by Grant Currin

• Origin of the first known interstellar object ’Oumuamua. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/caos-oot041220.php
• In Depth | Oumuamua – NASA Solar System Exploration. (2019, December 19). NASA Solar System Exploration. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/oumuamua/in-depth
• Davis, N. (2020, April 13). Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua believed to be ‘active asteroid.’ The Guardian; The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/apr/13/interstellar-object-oumuamua-believed-to-be-active-asteroid
• PSRD: Active Asteroids. (2019). Hawaii.edu. http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/May19/active-asteroids.html

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/an-interstellar-objects-origin-revealed-why-superstitions-evolved-and-how-the-sense-of-smell-is-more-complicated-than-we-thought

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