What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show.
FACT: Vintage anti-vaxxers thought medicine would turn kids into demon cows
By Rachel Feltman
In this week’s episode of The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week, I explore the origins of the first anti-vaccine movement. Edward Jenner was able to formulate a makeshift smallpox vaccine all the way back in 1798, but even back then, people weren’t very normal about it. Skeptics spread alarming propaganda, claiming the medicine (which did protect many people from falling dangerously ill) would turn children into cow-like demon creatures and make them very sick.
It’s quite a heartening parallel to the anti-vaxxers we see even still today. Tune in to hear the full story, which includes some hilarious political cartoons and the complex legacy of vaccine skepticism.
FACT: This bat ate a meal on the go
By Sara Kiley Watson
Bats are some of the strangest and most interesting creatures that fly and roost across the planet. Most of them spend a decent chunk of time nibbling on beetles, moths, mosquitoes, and the like. In the past, scientists thought this was the case for the greater noctule bat, a rare tree-dwelling creature with a wingspan of 16–18 inches that lives all across the European continent from the Iberian Peninsula to the Bosporus region of Turkey. But recently, scientists in Spain got a gruesome reminder that nature doesn’t play by our rules. In this case, our understanding of an on-the-go meal is pretty tame compared to what one greater noctule bat got up to while flying at some 4,000 feet up in the air. This hungry little creature snagged a snack in the form of a small robin, chewed on it for a whopping 23 minutes while still moving through the night sky, and thanks to a tiny backpack of sound equipment, scientists (and you, if you dare) can listen to the whole thing.
FACT: Horror movie fans are actually some of the most empathetic people you’ll meet
By Coltan Scrivner
If you had to take a guess, would you think horror enthusiasts would be more or less empathetic? The research might surprise you.
While early studies and meta analyses pointed to a link between horror fandom and low empathy, a deeper look shows that horror enthusiasts actually score higher in cognitive empathy and compassion. Horror movies, at their core, explore vulnerability and fear. If viewers can empathize with characters facing terrifying situations, they’re bound to find the films more scary, and ultimately enjoy them more. Additionally, many horror fans experience higher anxiety levels but seek out these films to confront and overcome their fears in a safe environment. Check out this week’s full episode to get the full deep dive into the brain of the horror genre enthusiast!
The post Vintage vaccine skeptics thought medicine would turn kids into demon cows appeared first on Popular Science.
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