September 12, 2016 • 10 mins
It seems that cuttlefish have the number sense to rival human babies. Some catfish have added small land mammals to their diets. Plus, China is looking to build a laboratory on the ocean floor – but why?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Chuck and I'm Josh and we're the host
of Stuff You should know, the podcast that's right And
if you're into understanding cool and unusual and seemingly ordinary
and even boring things that are made interesting, you should
check us out. Please and thank you. We're on iTunes, Spotify,
Google Play Music, anywhere you get podcasts. Welcome to House
(00:21):
to Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum, a researcher
and writer. Here at House to Works. Every week I'm
bringing you three stories from our team about the weird
and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology, and culture.
This week, we've got a trio of watery wonders for you.
(00:41):
Some catfish seem to be hunting land mammals and hopefully unrelated. Uh.
Cuttlefish have been shown to have a number sense similar
to human infants. But First Senior writer Jonathan Strickland explores
why China is set to build a state of the
art laboratory on the ocean floor. Bloomberg reports that Chinese
(01:04):
officials are fast tracking a plan to build a large
underwater platform in the South China Sea. It would be
similar to a space station, only this one would be
at the bottom of the ocean floor, some three thousand
meters or about ten thousand feet beneath the waves. Why
build a sea lab, Well, it's not because they think
it's better downward, it's wetter. According to Chinese officials, the
(01:25):
plan is to build a large, movable facility in an
effort to search for valuable minerals and rare earth metals.
For the last several years, rare earth metals have played
an important part in China's economic growth. Our computers and
electronics require these materials, and demand is high, but not
everyone is sure that the proposed sea lab would have
much luck mining more of them. According to the American
(01:49):
Security Project, estimates of rare earth metals in the region
are unreliable. They may be plentiful under the ocean floor,
or it might be a bust. It may turn out
that the sea lab focus is more on harvesting oil
and natural gas instead. Another possibility is that the facility
will serve in some military capacity. Chinese officials deny that
(02:09):
a military application is the primary purpose for the c lab,
but have said that it could perform some military functions
in addition to mining operations, and since the South China
Sea is a disputed area that numerous countries wish to access,
and underwater lab might be just the thing China needs
to secure a claim. It's unlikely such a lab would
(02:29):
be able to move about undetected. Instead, it might serve
as a terrant, a threat that says back off, this
is mine. Supporting this idea is the fact that China
revised passports in two thousand twelve to show a map
of China's borders, which included areas that are internationally disputed,
and there have been incidents in the region that point
to China interfering with the activities of other nations, though
(02:52):
the Chinese government denies this was done intentionally. Whatever the motivation,
if China builds an underwater lab, it won't be the first.
The famous scientist Jacques Cousto oversaw the construction and deployment
of three underwater habitats in the nineteen sixties. Then there's Aquarius,
a lab off the Florida Keys that concentrates on marine
biology research. You can even book a night's stay at
(03:16):
a former sea lab. What used to be the La
Cholupa Research Laboratory is now the Jewels Undersea Lodge. In
Key Largo, Florida. Whether China will actually build a large
underwater lab remains to be seen. If it does, you
can bet the international community will keep a close watch
on what happens next. Next up, my fellow writer and
(03:39):
researcher Christian Sager has the story of how catfish are
expanding their gastronomic interests. We already knew that they eat
pigeons when the opportunity arises, and now they've added mice
to their diets. But why remember that scene in the
shark Tack classic Deep Blue Sea when Samuel Jackson's making
(04:01):
a big speech next to a pool and then a
shark leaps out and swallows them whole. I don't know
if sharks can really do that, but catfish sure can.
According to a recent study in the Journal of Arid Environments,
catfish in Australia have been consuming mice, a lot of mice,
and no one knows how. We're specifically talking about the
(04:22):
lesser salmon catfish here in the Ashburton River in Northern Australia.
When researchers cut open eighteen of these bad boys, half
of them had spin effects hopping mice in their bellies.
This is the first report of Australian catfish eating land
based mammals at this higher rate, though previous studies had
found similar mammals to be about four percent of the
(04:44):
catfish's diet. These lesser salmon catfish are common in northwestern
Australia and can weigh just over three pounds and measure
more than one and a half feet. They're big enough
to qualify as the one that got away, especially if
they're full of you see, juicy mice. Of the eighteen
fish sampled here had mice in them, and of those
(05:07):
mice made up of what was in their tummies, two
of them had three mice each inside of them. But
they usually eat insects, crustaceans, and plants. Fish eating terrestrial
mammals is possible, but usually infrequent. The hopping mice getting
eaten don't usually hang out by the water, and they're
(05:28):
good at jumping, So how are they getting eaten by catfish? Well,
one possibility is the catfish are actively hunting mice on
a river bank. It sounds crazy, but a studies showed
that a larger catfish species was beaching itself so it
could attack and eat pigeons. Even though the stunt wrist
(05:49):
bit being trapped on land. Similarly, African tigerfish will jump
up and pull other birds underwater for a meal. In
the case of the pigeons, researchers thought it resulted from
the catfish adapting to a new environment to survive. Maybe
the same things happening here. Another possibility, and the researcher's
best guess, is that last year's extreme summer rainfall flooded
(06:12):
the burrows of these mice, pushing them out into the river.
Since these floods could be throwing the local ecosystem off balance,
the team wants to investigate further to find out exactly
what is happening. I know what you're wondering. First, pigeons
than mice. Are catfish coming for humans next? Well, The
findings suggests that lesser salmon catfish will consume large quantities
(06:35):
of land mammals whenever available, But thankfully we can't fit
down their mouths. But still, I'd recommend that you avoid
noodling or catfishing with just your hands in Australia. Finally,
this week, senior writer Robert Lamb explains how a team
(06:57):
of researchers sussed out that cuttlefish us number sense. It's
the same basic concept the powers the humanity's grasp of mathematics. Yes,
scuttlefisher science headline superstars, so you've probably read about their
amazing chromatic communication systems, their shape shifting prowess, and their
(07:20):
hypnotic powers. Of course, all of these biological gifts are
useless if you don't have the brains to back them up,
which is why cuttlefish boast one of the largest brain
to body size ratios of any invertebrate. These amazing little
creatures have to be able to react, quickly, learn and
adapt if they wish to score that next meal or
secure themselves a mate. That's where our latest study comes
(07:40):
into play, pondering just how much number since they employ
in deciding which prey to pursue. Number Since it is
essentially how the brain naturally extracts numbers from the surrounding environment,
I mean, similar to how it identifies colors. It's not
math or a number system, but rather the primal thing
beneath those systems. To test the number sense of old fish,
researchers at Taiwan's Singwah University introduced a cuttle fish into
(08:04):
a tank along with a transparent two chamber box, so
that the cuttle fish might choose between two encapsulated meals
in order to assess number. Since they played with varying
ratios between the two boxes, one shrimp and box A,
five shrimp and box B, and just about every possible
variation on that one to four, two to three, four
to five. They even played around with a larger shrimp
(08:25):
and dead shrimp to see how those conditions factored into
their decision making. They tested fifty four different Faraoh cuttle
fish and found that the creatures had no problem picking
larger quantities of shrimp over smaller quantities. This entails logarithmic counting,
or counting based on integral increases in physical quantity. A
human infant uses this when he or she picks five
(08:46):
teddy bears over one teddy bear. But the one month
old cephalopods here beat that by excelling when the ratios
grew harder to discern, such as five shrimp to four shrimp,
a feat that larval humans tend to fail at. In fact,
the searchers theorized that given the longer computation times in
these incidents, the cuttlefish are not only using logarithmic counting,
(09:07):
but are actively engaged in counting the shrimp zipping about
in each box. The cuttlefish factored in additional preferences live
shrimp for better than dead shrimp. Bigger shrimp are great
but are riskier to catch. But the creatures can at
least count to five and maybe higher, even if their
un language minds lack words for the quantities. We can
scarcely fathom the mind of the cuttlefish. I mean, just
(09:28):
try to imagine a number comprehension without knowledge or the
names and symbols we use. Their intelligence is alien to us,
yet quite comparable in number sins to human infants and
other primates. So think about back the next time you
see a cuttlefish of the aquarium, perhaps counting the number
of hairless apes cuddling up to the class. That's our
(09:52):
show for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Subscribe now for more the latest and strangest science news,
and send us links to anything you'd like to Here's
cover plus your favorite fact about cephalopods. You can send
us an email at now podcast at how stuff works
dot com, and for lots more stories like these, head
on over to our home planet now dot how Stuff
(10:12):
Works dot com,
Hey, I'm Chuck and I'm Josh and we're the host
of Stuff You should know, the podcast that's right And
if you're into understanding cool and unusual and seemingly ordinary
and even boring things that are made interesting, you should
check us out. Please and thank you. We're on iTunes, Spotify,
Google Play Music, anywhere you get podcasts. Welcome to House
(00:21):
to Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren Vogelbaum, a researcher
and writer. Here at House to Works. Every week I'm
bringing you three stories from our team about the weird
and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology, and culture.
This week, we've got a trio of watery wonders for you.
(00:41):
Some catfish seem to be hunting land mammals and hopefully unrelated. Uh.
Cuttlefish have been shown to have a number sense similar
to human infants. But First Senior writer Jonathan Strickland explores
why China is set to build a state of the
art laboratory on the ocean floor. Bloomberg reports that Chinese
(01:04):
officials are fast tracking a plan to build a large
underwater platform in the South China Sea. It would be
similar to a space station, only this one would be
at the bottom of the ocean floor, some three thousand
meters or about ten thousand feet beneath the waves. Why
build a sea lab, Well, it's not because they think
it's better downward, it's wetter. According to Chinese officials, the
(01:25):
plan is to build a large, movable facility in an
effort to search for valuable minerals and rare earth metals.
For the last several years, rare earth metals have played
an important part in China's economic growth. Our computers and
electronics require these materials, and demand is high, but not
everyone is sure that the proposed sea lab would have
much luck mining more of them. According to the American
(01:49):
Security Project, estimates of rare earth metals in the region
are unreliable. They may be plentiful under the ocean floor,
or it might be a bust. It may turn out
that the sea lab focus is more on harvesting oil
and natural gas instead. Another possibility is that the facility
will serve in some military capacity. Chinese officials deny that
(02:09):
a military application is the primary purpose for the c lab,
but have said that it could perform some military functions
in addition to mining operations, and since the South China
Sea is a disputed area that numerous countries wish to access,
and underwater lab might be just the thing China needs
to secure a claim. It's unlikely such a lab would
(02:29):
be able to move about undetected. Instead, it might serve
as a terrant, a threat that says back off, this
is mine. Supporting this idea is the fact that China
revised passports in two thousand twelve to show a map
of China's borders, which included areas that are internationally disputed,
and there have been incidents in the region that point
to China interfering with the activities of other nations, though
(02:52):
the Chinese government denies this was done intentionally. Whatever the motivation,
if China builds an underwater lab, it won't be the first.
The famous scientist Jacques Cousto oversaw the construction and deployment
of three underwater habitats in the nineteen sixties. Then there's Aquarius,
a lab off the Florida Keys that concentrates on marine
biology research. You can even book a night's stay at
(03:16):
a former sea lab. What used to be the La
Cholupa Research Laboratory is now the Jewels Undersea Lodge. In
Key Largo, Florida. Whether China will actually build a large
underwater lab remains to be seen. If it does, you
can bet the international community will keep a close watch
on what happens next. Next up, my fellow writer and
(03:39):
researcher Christian Sager has the story of how catfish are
expanding their gastronomic interests. We already knew that they eat
pigeons when the opportunity arises, and now they've added mice
to their diets. But why remember that scene in the
shark Tack classic Deep Blue Sea when Samuel Jackson's making
(04:01):
a big speech next to a pool and then a
shark leaps out and swallows them whole. I don't know
if sharks can really do that, but catfish sure can.
According to a recent study in the Journal of Arid Environments,
catfish in Australia have been consuming mice, a lot of mice,
and no one knows how. We're specifically talking about the
(04:22):
lesser salmon catfish here in the Ashburton River in Northern Australia.
When researchers cut open eighteen of these bad boys, half
of them had spin effects hopping mice in their bellies.
This is the first report of Australian catfish eating land
based mammals at this higher rate, though previous studies had
found similar mammals to be about four percent of the
(04:44):
catfish's diet. These lesser salmon catfish are common in northwestern
Australia and can weigh just over three pounds and measure
more than one and a half feet. They're big enough
to qualify as the one that got away, especially if
they're full of you see, juicy mice. Of the eighteen
fish sampled here had mice in them, and of those
(05:07):
mice made up of what was in their tummies, two
of them had three mice each inside of them. But
they usually eat insects, crustaceans, and plants. Fish eating terrestrial
mammals is possible, but usually infrequent. The hopping mice getting
eaten don't usually hang out by the water, and they're
(05:28):
good at jumping, So how are they getting eaten by catfish? Well,
one possibility is the catfish are actively hunting mice on
a river bank. It sounds crazy, but a studies showed
that a larger catfish species was beaching itself so it
could attack and eat pigeons. Even though the stunt wrist
(05:49):
bit being trapped on land. Similarly, African tigerfish will jump
up and pull other birds underwater for a meal. In
the case of the pigeons, researchers thought it resulted from
the catfish adapting to a new environment to survive. Maybe
the same things happening here. Another possibility, and the researcher's
best guess, is that last year's extreme summer rainfall flooded
(06:12):
the burrows of these mice, pushing them out into the river.
Since these floods could be throwing the local ecosystem off balance,
the team wants to investigate further to find out exactly
what is happening. I know what you're wondering. First, pigeons
than mice. Are catfish coming for humans next? Well, The
findings suggests that lesser salmon catfish will consume large quantities
(06:35):
of land mammals whenever available, But thankfully we can't fit
down their mouths. But still, I'd recommend that you avoid
noodling or catfishing with just your hands in Australia. Finally,
this week, senior writer Robert Lamb explains how a team
(06:57):
of researchers sussed out that cuttlefish us number sense. It's
the same basic concept the powers the humanity's grasp of mathematics. Yes,
scuttlefisher science headline superstars, so you've probably read about their
amazing chromatic communication systems, their shape shifting prowess, and their
(07:20):
hypnotic powers. Of course, all of these biological gifts are
useless if you don't have the brains to back them up,
which is why cuttlefish boast one of the largest brain
to body size ratios of any invertebrate. These amazing little
creatures have to be able to react, quickly, learn and
adapt if they wish to score that next meal or
secure themselves a mate. That's where our latest study comes
(07:40):
into play, pondering just how much number since they employ
in deciding which prey to pursue. Number Since it is
essentially how the brain naturally extracts numbers from the surrounding environment,
I mean, similar to how it identifies colors. It's not
math or a number system, but rather the primal thing
beneath those systems. To test the number sense of old fish,
researchers at Taiwan's Singwah University introduced a cuttle fish into
(08:04):
a tank along with a transparent two chamber box, so
that the cuttle fish might choose between two encapsulated meals
in order to assess number. Since they played with varying
ratios between the two boxes, one shrimp and box A,
five shrimp and box B, and just about every possible
variation on that one to four, two to three, four
to five. They even played around with a larger shrimp
(08:25):
and dead shrimp to see how those conditions factored into
their decision making. They tested fifty four different Faraoh cuttle
fish and found that the creatures had no problem picking
larger quantities of shrimp over smaller quantities. This entails logarithmic counting,
or counting based on integral increases in physical quantity. A
human infant uses this when he or she picks five
(08:46):
teddy bears over one teddy bear. But the one month
old cephalopods here beat that by excelling when the ratios
grew harder to discern, such as five shrimp to four shrimp,
a feat that larval humans tend to fail at. In fact,
the searchers theorized that given the longer computation times in
these incidents, the cuttlefish are not only using logarithmic counting,
(09:07):
but are actively engaged in counting the shrimp zipping about
in each box. The cuttlefish factored in additional preferences live
shrimp for better than dead shrimp. Bigger shrimp are great
but are riskier to catch. But the creatures can at
least count to five and maybe higher, even if their
un language minds lack words for the quantities. We can
scarcely fathom the mind of the cuttlefish. I mean, just
(09:28):
try to imagine a number comprehension without knowledge or the
names and symbols we use. Their intelligence is alien to us,
yet quite comparable in number sins to human infants and
other primates. So think about back the next time you
see a cuttlefish of the aquarium, perhaps counting the number
of hairless apes cuddling up to the class. That's our
(09:52):
show for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in.
Subscribe now for more the latest and strangest science news,
and send us links to anything you'd like to Here's
cover plus your favorite fact about cephalopods. You can send
us an email at now podcast at how stuff works
dot com, and for lots more stories like these, head
on over to our home planet now dot how Stuff
(10:12):
Works dot com,
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