Using Lava Lamps to Generate Randomness (w/ Matt Parker), How Ritalin Makes You Focus, and What Bacteria Beneath the Sea Floor Means for Life on Mars

Learn about how drugs like Ritalin and Adderall actually make you “focus,” how tech companies are using lava lamps to make computers more secure, and why new life discovered at the bottom of the ocean opens up new possibilities for finding life on Mars.

Scientists figured out how Ritalin actually makes you focus by Grant Currin

• Ritalin and similar medications cause brain to focus on benefits of work, not costs. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/bu-ras031820.php
• Westbrook, A., van den Bosch, R., Määttä, J. I., Hofmans, L., Papadopetraki, D., Cools, R., & Frank, M. J. (2020). Dopamine promotes cognitive effort by biasing the benefits versus costs of cognitive work. Science, 367(6484), 1362–1366. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5891

Additional resources from Matt Parker, stand-up mathematician:

• Pick up “Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World” on Amazon https://amazon.com
• Matt Parker’s official website http://standupmaths.com/
• Subscribe to Matt Parker’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths
• Follow @standupmaths on Twitter https://twitter.com/standupmaths
• Liebow-Feeser, J. (2017, November 6). LavaRand in Production: The Nitty-Gritty Technical Details. The Cloudflare Blog; The Cloudflare Blog. https://blog.cloudflare.com/lavarand-in-production-the-nitty-gritty-technical-details/
• Scott, T. (2020). The Lava Lamps That Help Keep The Internet Secure [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cUUfMeOijg
• US5732138A - Method for seeding a pseudo-random number generator with a cryptographic hash of a digitization of a chaotic system - Google Patents. (1996, January 29). Google.com. https://patents.google.com/patent/US5732138

Researchers discover bacteria living in rock beneath the sea floor (which is good news for life on Mars) by Cameron Duke

• Discovery of life in solid rock deep beneath sea may inspire new search for life on Mars. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/uot-dol033020.php
• Suzuki, Y., Yamashita, S., Kouduka, M., Ao, Y., Mukai, H., Mitsunobu, S., Kagi, H., D’Hondt, S., Inagaki, F., Morono, Y., Hoshino, T., Tomioka, N., & Ito, M. (2020). Deep microbial proliferation at the basalt interface in 33.5–104 million-year-old oceanic crust. Communications Biology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0860-1

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/using-lava-lamps-to-generate-randomness-w-matt-parker-how-ritalin-makes-you-focus-and-what-bacteria-beneath-the-sea-floor-means-for-life-on-mars

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