Mimetic Desires, Testing Witness Memories, Fermilab’s Ferret

Learn about why you want things just because others do too; a way to reduce wrongful convictions; and Fermilab’s ferret.

February 09, 2022

“Mimetic desires” are things you want because others want them — here’s how to spot them by Steffie Drucker

To reduce wrongful convictions, test a witness’s memory only once by Grant Currin

In the 1970s, one of Fermilab’s particle accelerator techs was a ferret named Felicia by Cameron Duke

Follow host Cody Gough on Giveo and at https://academicpodcasts.com. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Next Up

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Hacking Device, Designer Seaweed, Accent Exposure

We discuss the latest in phone hacking technology, how aquaculture may be able to help the global food crisis, and how engaging with people who speak in a foreign accent may help us retain language.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Quitting Smoking Doesn’t Lead to Food Cravings, Narcissism Over Time, and Seeing Photons

Learn about how people become less narcissistic as they get older; how it’s possible that we can see a single photon with the naked eye; and, new research that says cigarette smokers won’t crave more food if they quit smoking.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Bats Map the World By Time, Not Distance

Learn about whether you should fear AI; the science of a good selfie; and how bats map the world by time, not distance.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: A Mutation That Makes You Need Less Sleep, Why “Like” Isn’t Lazy Language, and Zealandia

Learn about a genetic mutation that makes people need less sleep; a lost, sunken continent at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean called Zealandia; and why the word “like” is not just a lazy language filler.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: An Outsider’s Guide to Humans (w/ Scientist Camilla Pang)

Scientist and award-winning author Camilla Pang explains why she wanted to write a manual for humans. You’ll also learn about the planetary chaos that resulted when the Earth’s magnetic poles reversed.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: It’s Always Safer to Vaccinate (w/ Virologist Paul Duprex) and How to Use Facts to Beat Beliefs

Learn about the risks of being vaccinated with virologist Paul Duprex. Then, learn about how to overcome the backfire effect, a cognitive bias that pits your beliefs against facts.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why We Always Forget that Less Is More (w/ Leidy Klotz)

Learn how human hair can improve solar panels and why people tend to add, not subtract, when trying to improve something.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Why New Habits Have to Be Tiny (w/ Dr. BJ Fogg) and Why Human Infants Are Late Bloomers

Stanford behavior scientist Dr. BJ Fogg, author of “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything,” explains why the best new habits are tiny ones. Then, learn why human infants are late bloomers compared to other baby animals.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Coronavirus Vaccine Development: Scientific Challenges and Timelines with Dr. Julia Schaletzky (COVID-19 Bonus Episode)

Dr. Julia Schaletzky explains what it takes to develop vaccines for viruses like COVID-19. Dr. Schaletzky is the Executive Director of the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases, the Drug Discovery Center, and the Immunotherapy and Vaccine Research Institute at UC Berkeley.

Curiosity Daily Podcast: Speed Listening’s Effects on Emotion, Surprising Differences Between White and Brown Rice, and Pi Almost Legally Changed to 3.2

Learn about how speed listening to podcasts (or "podfasting") affects our emotions; the health differences between white and brown rice; and the time pi was once almost legally changed to 3.2.