This Week In Science: Spiders, TV Pixels And Storytelling

Happy Halloween, Short Wavers! In today’s news round-up, we’ve got only treats. Hosts Regina Barber https://www.npr.org/people/1082526815/regina-g-barber and Emily Kwong https://www.npr.org/people/767284140/emily-kwong fill in NPR’s Ailsa Chang https://www.npr.org/people/186026737/ailsa-chang on a debate in spider web architecture, how the details shared in storytelling affect how you form memories and why more pixels may not translate to a better TV viewing experience. Have a science question? Email us your question at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave http://plus.npr.org/shortwave. See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from Doppel. Social engineering attacks come in disguise, but Doppel sees through them. The Agentic platform shuts down threats, turns employees into first line defenders, and more. Learn more at D-O-P-P-E-L dot com.

• 0:16Emily Kwong?

  Hey, shortwavers. I have a free and quick favor to ask. Right now, on the app or platform where you're listening, could you leave us a rating or a review? Because it really helps new listeners find our show. And by the way, we do read every review. Like this one from Mr. Chu. Monday, he wrote, quote, "I've listened to this show since a little before COVID-19 happened, and I am amazed at the quality of the show, its consistency, how informative it is, and how fun it is." Oh, that's so nice. Mr. Chu, thank you. I've been making this show since 2019, and our whole team really loves this work. So take a sec to tell us what you think. Leave us a review and share Short Wave with your friends. All right, on to the show.

• 1:01Speaker 02

  You're listening to Short Wave.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  From NPR.

• 1:11Emily Kwong?

  Happy Halloween, shortwavers. Regina Barber here. And Emily Kwong. It's our favorite holiday and one of our favorite segments, our biweekly Science News Roundup, featuring the hosts of All Things Considered. And today, we have the stylish, the funny Elsa Chang. What are you going to be for Halloween this year, Elsa?

• 1:28Speaker 03

  I don't know, a sexy witch? I have no idea.

• 1:33Emily Kwong?

  So what stories did you bring for us this week? Like, I hope at least one of them is spooky for Halloween. We would not fail you, queen. We do have a story about why spiders decorate their webs. It's not just us that's decorating this time of year. Plus, how more pixels on your HGTV might not make a difference. Yeah, buyer's remorse. And lastly, how your brain forms memories of different kinds of stories. Very cool. We've got tricks, we've got treats. We've got TV, my favorite thing. Yeah. You're listening to Short Wave, the science podcast from NPR.

• 2:13Speaker 04

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from LinkedIn Ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype? For marketers, that's impressions. When ads don't create revenue, that's a tough conversation with the CFO. Instead, invest in results your CFO will love. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. So advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Just go to LinkedIn.com/NPRPod. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Capella University. You know that feeling when there's a spark building inside you? That you were meant for more?

• 2:58Speaker 04

  That's your own drive, pushing you towards what's next. Capella University gets that. With their FlexPath learning format, you can set the pace and earn your degree without putting life on pause. You've built experience and know what you're capable of. Now, this is your time to turn that momentum into more. The only real question is, what can't you do? Learn more at Capella.edu.

• 3:24Speaker 00

  This message comes from LexisNexis. Meet LexisNexis Protege, AI built for how legal teams and professionals work. Research, analyze, draft, and verify work you can defend. Protege is AI held to the standard of law.

• 3:40Emily Kwong?

  Okay, Elsa, where do you want to start?

• 3:42Speaker 03

  Let's take spider webs first, just in time for Halloween.

• 3:46Emily Kwong?

  Yes, I want to talk about orb webs. That's the spider web that looks like a wheel with concentric circles of silk on the spokes.

• 3:54Speaker 03

  Yes, I've seen these. They're so pretty.

• 3:57Emily Kwong?

  Yeah, and sometimes orb webs have these additional bits of silk called stabili menta, which look like a zigzag of threads or a flattened disc decoration.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Oh, I think I have seen these right before I walked into a spider web with my face. Why are spiders decorating like that?

• 4:14Emily Kwong?

  Yet, no one knows for sure. The stabili menta do reflect a wide range of lights. So there's an idea that they might help attract prey or deter predators. But it's a big debate among silk scientists.

• 4:26Speaker 05

  Talking, discussing about stabulamenta for silk scientists is like picking up an easy fight.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  Even that word stabulamenta sounds so beautiful.

• 4:35Emily Kwong?

  This is Gabriele Greco. He wanted to throw another idea into the debate ring. He's a physicist and lead author of a new paper in the journal Plus One. And he wondered if the stabulamenta actually helps spiders locate their prey.

• 4:47Speaker 03

  I mean, that would be ingenious. Why would they need help, though?

• 4:50Emily Kwong?

  Well, spiders, many of them have low vision. They can't look across the web and see their prey. Instead, they rely on the web's vibrations to sense dinner.

• 4:58Emily Kwong?

  So when a fly hits the web, the impact sends out waves in all directions, like a string of a guitar being strummed. And that lets the spider know where their dinner has landed. And Gabriele wanted to know if the decorations helped in any way with wave propagation.

• 5:13Speaker 03

  That is fascinating. And how did he go about testing that?

• 5:16Emily Kwong?

  His team ran simulations, like modeled web vibrations with a computer, and found that when vibrations moved perpendicular to the spokes of the simulated web, the stabulamenta didn't make a difference. But when the vibrations moved parallel to the spiral threads of the web, the decorations did help. So the presence of the stabulamenta allowed the wave to travel farther.

• 5:35Speaker 03

  So they finally settled the debate.

• 5:38Emily Kwong?

  No, they actually complicated the debate. Gabriele recognizes his study has limits. It's just a simulation, and real webs are much more complex. Outside researchers, including Shi-Tang Zhang, an ecologist at Hubei University, noted the study lacks behavioral data from real spiders. So to figure out if there's some kind of mechanical purpose for the stabulamenta, Gabriele plans to do more research, both in the lab and in the field.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  So cool. Okay, next up, tell me about the study about pixels on my TV.

• 6:09Emily Kwong?

  Yeah, so a team from the University-

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Did I buy the wrong TV?

• 6:12Emily Kwong?

  We'll get there, don't worry. So a team from the University of Cambridge in the UK decided to ask the question, like, how many pixels on your high-definition TV, or really, any display, is too many? So pixels being that smallest unit of a digital image, that tiny colorful square.

• 6:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 6:28Emily Kwong?

  So researchers had 18 people look at images on an adjustable display to see if they could distinguish between different resolutions or level of detail. And what they determined is that there is a limit.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  A limit? Wait, what does that mean? Like, are certain fancy TVs with a ton of pixels just not worth it?

• 6:44Emily Kwong?

  So it depends. So keep in mind, there are so many factors that matter here. So we talked to Malihah Ashraf about it, and she's a human vision researcher and lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Communications.

• 6:56Speaker 07

  The number of pixels by itself doesn't mean a lot, but rather when you put it into context with the viewing distance and also how large the screen is. So what matters is pixel density.

• 7:07Emily Kwong?

  Pixel density. That's pixels per square inch. So a 4K TV has 4,000 pixels in a line across the screen, but screens come in different sizes. 4,000 pixels could be packed into a 55-inch TV or a 70-inch TV, and that will affect your viewing experience. So Elsa, like, say your dad just bought a new 80-inch TV that is 8K, that's 8,000 pixels across the screen, but he watches it from 10 feet away in a big room. That means he paid too much. He does not need something that powerful.

• 7:37Speaker 03

  My dad never wants to pay too much for anything, so he would be mad at this. I wonder if my TV, though, at my house in Los Angeles, has too many pixels for me to notice.

• 7:47Emily Kwong?

  Yeah, so this is what I was worried about. I just bought a 65-inch TV, and it's the most I've ever spent on a TV, and I was dying to know, did I waste money? I brought it up to Malihah and Rafael Montuc, one of the other co-authors. They ran my TV specs through their calculator. I sit about seven feet away.

• 8:04Speaker 05

  And I would say that you are exactly where you should be in terms of viewing distance. So I think that was the perfect fit for your viewing environment.

• 8:14Emily Kwong?

  Nice.

• 8:14Speaker 03

  Validated.

• 8:15Emily Kwong?

  Good job, Gina. So lesson here, don't just buy a super megapixel TV because it's the newest model or highest resolution yet. Talk to the people at the store. Tell them the viewing distance in your TV room, and buy something that actually fits your needs.

• 8:28Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 8:29Emily Kwong?

  And Elsa, if you're wondering, like, why computer scientists are so interested in TVs, we should note that this study was funded by Meta, because those sorts of insights are also, like, really important for people who make, like, VR goggles, 3D images, this new generation of technology for our eyes.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Yeah. Okay. Well, for our third topic, storytelling and the brain. I feel like NPR would be very interested in this. Gina?

• 8:53Emily Kwong?

  Yeah, so there's a new study out this month in the Journal of Neuroscience that suggests the way a story is told changes how the memory of that story forms in the human brain.

• 9:03Speaker 03

  Okay, so explain this a little bit to me. You're saying that different versions of the same story might activate my brain in different ways?

• 9:11Emily Kwong?

  Yes, exactly. And to figure that out, researchers put participants in MRI machines and told them stories while looking at their brains. So all the participants heard a story about going out to eat with a line that read,

• 9:22Speaker 05

  Once I was ready to go, I took an Uber to meet my friend at the restaurant.

• 9:26Emily Kwong?

  That's Charles Ferris, a cognitive neuroscientist and one of the study authors. And he says from there, researchers changed the details. In some cases, they also told the stories with extra sensory details like,

• 9:37Speaker 05

  I saw my phone light up on the desk in my room many times. My friend kept texting me to ask where I was. I noticed a scuff mark on my blue shoes as I walked down my staircase towards the front door.

• 9:47Emily Kwong?

  Yeah, you can almost picture the story, right? Hearing those details.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  Right.

• 9:51Emily Kwong?

  And with this version of the story, researchers saw more connections between the hippocampus, that's an area important for memory, and the area of the brain related to sensory integration and language processing.

• 10:01Speaker 03

  Okay, so that was the first version of this story. What was the second version?

• 10:06Emily Kwong?

  The second version had more conceptual details instead. So like how the person was thinking or what they felt.

• 10:13Speaker 05

  I wanted to take my time getting ready because it was important to me to look nice for my friend.

• 10:18Emily Kwong?

  So these details are more related to the emotional context, right? And in this telling of the story, researchers then saw more connections between the hippocampus and areas of the brain related to emotion and conceptual processing.

• 10:32Speaker 03

  And what does it mean if memories are forming in different areas of the brain?

• 10:37Emily Kwong?

  So we asked Charan Ranganath, a neuroscientist at the University of California Davis. And he didn't work on this paper, but he does study memory. And he says the study offers two big takeaways. First, how interconnected the human brain actually is.

• 10:51Speaker 05

  The standard narrative in neuroscience has always been focused on single brain areas. And something that these authors are showing is that in fact, memory is this kind of richly orchestrated set of interactions across these brain regions. And I wouldn't say this is the first to do this, but I think they do it really nicely here.

• 11:12Emily Kwong?

  And secondly, he says this study emphasized that even if the key details of a story are the same, different ways of presenting that information could change the way a person processes it and possibly remembers it.

• 11:23Speaker 03

  All right. Note to self, storytellers.

• 11:26Emily Kwong?

  Mm hmm.

• 11:29Emily Kwong?

  Also, thank you so much for being here. We, we hope you have the most fun Halloween.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  Oh, you too.

• 11:34Emily Kwong?

  And we also love having you on the pod.

• 11:36Speaker 03

  I love being on your pod, guys.

• 11:41Emily Kwong?

  You can hear more of Elsa Chang on Consider This, NPR's afternoon podcast about what the news means for you. This episode was produced by Brianna Scott and Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and Christopher Intagliata.

• 11:53Emily Kwong?

  Tyler Jones checked the facts. Hannah Glavna and co-Takasugi Chernivan were the audio engineers. I'm Emily Kwong.

• 11:59Emily Kwong?

  And I'm Regina Barber. Thank you for listening to Short Wave, the science podcast from NPR.

• 12:13Speaker 04

  Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors.