Crows Count Like Toddlers
Plus: What's the world's hottest pepper?
Welcome to the first edition of the Aha! science newsletter. Each week, I curate for you a batch of amazing stories packed with easily digestible, science-based Aha! moments, to get you gushing “Wow! I never knew!” These stories originate mostly on the Medium version of Aha!, a publication I launched earlier this year to make science fun again (learn more about the newsletter and me here). The links below are “friend links,” so even if you’re not a Medium member, you can read the full stories. If you like what you see, I hope you’ll share this newsletter with anyone you know who might be interested in well-researched, expertly written and thoroughly entertaining science news and features.
My Ancestors Survived the Bubonic Plague, And All I Got Was This Lousy Autoimmune Disease
A gene mutation among survivors of the plague offers protection against lethal infectious diseases among many people today. Unfortunately, this same gene mutation is found in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Crohn’s.
Many believed the plague was God’s wrath, while others blamed foreigners (mostly Jews) or anyone with the wrong religion. But while people fretted and pointed fingers at illogical scapegoats, the real culprit was a microscopic tormentor, Yersinia pestis (Y. pestis) — the plague bacterium that lived inside the gut of fleas.
—Carlyn Beccia
Counting Crows: These Birds Tally Like Toddlers
Long ago, I had an epic battle with a certain crow. I knew him. He knew me. I was sure of it. And I suspected he was no bird brain. Sure enough, it turns out crows can recognize human faces. And a new study finds they can not only count, but vocalize their enumerations. Amazing!
“The findings suggest that the birds are capable of using a non-symbolic approximate number system, showing a level of vocal control that mirrors the early counting skills of human toddlers,” the researchers explained in a statement. “This competency in crows also mirrors toddlers’ enumeration skills before they learn to understand cardinal number words and may therefore constitute an evolutionary precursor of true counting where numbers are part of a combinatorial symbol system.” —Robert Roy Britt
What’s the World’s Hottest Pepper?
The level of “heat” in peppers varies greatly, from the relatively mild pimento and poblano peppers to two of the hottest: Dragon’s Breath and Pepper X are currently the two hottest reported peppers.
The amount of heat is expressed in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which represent the number of times the concentration of capsaicinoids needs to be diluted before it’s no longer detectable. For example, the jalapeño pepper is measured at 2,000–8,000 SHUs, which means it took 2,000–8,000 dilutions for that to happen. The scale starts at 0 SHUs with the bell pepper, which has no capsaicin compounds, to 3.2 million SHUs with Pepper X.
—Alex Boss
Humans vs. Wolves: A History of Man’s Best Frenemy
Humans feared wolves, then domesticated them and created dogs, then nearly wiped the wild wolves off the planet. And now the wolf is back, and so is the tension. Here's a fascinating tale of the relationship between two apex predators who learned to cooperate yet never seem to fully reconcile their differences.
In recent millennia, grey wolves were the second most widely distributed mammal on Earth, rivaled only by humans. It’s difficult to say how many wolves were alive at their peak, but there would have been many millions dispersed across the globe. Before European settlers arrived to the New World, it is believed there were at least over 250,000 wolves in North America (perhaps a lot more). Today, 250,000 roughly represents the entire global abundance.
—Richard Gordon
Confused by Kilowatt-Hours? Horse-Empires to the Rescue!
If the meaning of kWh eludes you, as it does me, this tongue-in-cheek proposal for a new measurement gives our electricity consumption some much-needed context. You’re at least somewhat familiar with horsepower. And science tells us that… well, you’ll just have to read this one:
A kWh is a measure of energy. Some of us learned in high school physics (and quickly forgot) that potential energy is mass x gravity x distance. Therefore, we can equate any energy to the amount it takes to lift a given mass to a certain height. In this case, a kWh is equivalent to lifting a 1-ton object more than 1,250 feet (381 meters) off the ground. In other words, each kWh can lift a Clydesdale stallion (plus rider) to the top of the Empire State Building. —Matt Traverso
From the Aha! Archives
Skin Tags are Yucky but Usually Harmless, Unless You…
Why Do Batteries Have So Many Shapes and Sizes?
Aha! will be back next week with more amazing science stories. Join us, won’t you?
Cheers,
Rob