1
00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,000
Speaker 1: Hi. I am Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry.

2
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,360
Speaker 1: We are the co hosts of the Stuff You Missed

3
00:00:05,360 --> 00:00:08,240
Speaker 1: in History Class podcast from how Stuff Work dot com.

4
00:00:08,280 --> 00:00:10,240
Speaker 1: And as you might suspect from the name, what we

5
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:12,400
Speaker 1: like to talk about are the things that are of

6
00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:15,920
Speaker 1: historical significance but maybe you didn't hear about in your

7
00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:19,360
Speaker 1: standard history class. So sometimes they are famous figures and

8
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,800
Speaker 1: we're talking about the lesser known parts of their lives.

9
00:00:21,920 --> 00:00:24,800
Speaker 1: Sometimes they are people in groups and places that are

10
00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:28,800
Speaker 1: often overlooked in history class. Lots of cool stuff, So

11
00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:32,880
Speaker 1: come and join us. Welcome to House to Works Now.

12
00:00:33,080 --> 00:00:35,600
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Lauren voc Obam, a researcher and writer

13
00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:45,320
Speaker 1: here at How Stuff Works. Every week I'm bringing you

14
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,320
Speaker 1: three stories from our team about the weird and wondrous

15
00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:52,480
Speaker 1: advances we've seen in science, technology, and culture. This week.

16
00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:56,920
Speaker 1: Some spiders live in colonies with tens of thousands of individuals,

17
00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:02,360
Speaker 1: and sometimes they share themselves to death. Yep. Unrelated. Some

18
00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:05,360
Speaker 1: scientists are saying that Earth has officially entered a new

19
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:08,640
Speaker 1: geological epoch and that it's one of our own making.

20
00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:13,119
Speaker 1: But first, my fellow writer, researcher and wig fan Christian

21
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:17,640
Speaker 1: Conger explains how women with autism are being systemically underdiagnosed.

22
00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,399
Speaker 1: Guardian columnist Nicola Clark started the Twitter hashtag she Can't

23
00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:28,399
Speaker 1: be Autistic to spotlight the problem and spur solutions. The

24
00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,880
Speaker 1: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports an autism spectrum

25
00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,120
Speaker 1: disorder prevalence rate of one in sixty eight American children.

26
00:01:36,480 --> 00:01:40,040
Speaker 1: But obtaining that diagnosis and the life changing therapies and

27
00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,920
Speaker 1: resources that can come with it is particularly challenging for

28
00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 1: adult women like Nicola Clark, because the combination of gender

29
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:52,560
Speaker 1: and age can make them doubly invisible to the clinical community.

30
00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:55,800
Speaker 1: As with a d h D, researchers are only now

31
00:01:55,960 --> 00:02:00,240
Speaker 1: paying closer attention to how autism functions and presents in girls,

32
00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:04,240
Speaker 1: since historically it's been described as a neurodevelopmental disorder that

33
00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:08,200
Speaker 1: creates extreme male brains or brains that are sort of

34
00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:13,160
Speaker 1: masculine superlatives. In fact, many diagnostic tools have been developed

35
00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:17,920
Speaker 1: based exclusively on how autism functions and presents an adolescent boys,

36
00:02:18,680 --> 00:02:21,359
Speaker 1: and that means being a woman going to the doctor

37
00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,760
Speaker 1: to find out if she might be autistic is somewhat

38
00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:28,120
Speaker 1: like going to a proctologist for a pap smear, it's

39
00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,360
Speaker 1: just not going to happen. To get a better sense

40
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:32,639
Speaker 1: of why that is, it's helpful to know that the

41
00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:37,440
Speaker 1: three primary symptoms of autism spectrum disorder are social impairments,

42
00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:43,480
Speaker 1: communication difficulties, and repetitive or restrictive behaviors. Based on older research,

43
00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,919
Speaker 1: boys are about four to five times likely or an average,

44
00:02:46,919 --> 00:02:50,800
Speaker 1: to be diagnosed and therefore receive appropriate treatment than girls,

45
00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,720
Speaker 1: at least for now. More recent studies are paying closer

46
00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:59,320
Speaker 1: attention to both how girls brain structures and socialization patterns

47
00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,640
Speaker 1: differ from boys. Among both autistic and non autistic populations.

48
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:08,440
Speaker 1: They suggest the gender gap may be narrower, especially among

49
00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,720
Speaker 1: high functioning kids. So when it comes to those three

50
00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,400
Speaker 1: autism hallmarks, girls tend to be more social and verbally

51
00:03:15,480 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 1: fluent than boys, and repetitive behaviors are often less outstanding.

52
00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:25,000
Speaker 1: And whereas autistic boys might exhibit aggression and hyperactivity, autistic

53
00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:29,480
Speaker 1: girls are more adept at masking outward manifestations of the disorder.

54
00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:34,000
Speaker 1: Fast forward these patterns to adulthood, and women like Nicola Clark,

55
00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:38,960
Speaker 1: who have friends, families, kids, and stereotypically feminine interests may

56
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,120
Speaker 1: be deterred from receiving autistic assessments, As one woman tweeted

57
00:03:44,400 --> 00:03:49,760
Speaker 1: hashtag she can't be autistic because she's an extrovert. Cynthia Kim,

58
00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:53,160
Speaker 1: a writer at Autism Women's Network, says autistic women are

59
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:57,840
Speaker 1: instead likelier to be diagnosed solely for eating disorders and anxiety,

60
00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:00,720
Speaker 1: which commonly co occur with autism and women men, as

61
00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:04,800
Speaker 1: well as obsessive compulsive disorder, by polar disorder and borderline

62
00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:09,400
Speaker 1: personality disorder. But I can't tell you precisely how often

63
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:14,000
Speaker 1: this happens because it simply hasn't been thoroughly researched. What

64
00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:16,080
Speaker 1: I do know, for a fact is that a lot

65
00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,480
Speaker 1: remains to be explored and clarified and how autism functions

66
00:04:19,520 --> 00:04:23,680
Speaker 1: and presents and girls and women across their lifespans, including

67
00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:26,880
Speaker 1: its effect on relationships and employment, as well as optimal

68
00:04:26,920 --> 00:04:30,360
Speaker 1: treatments and resources for aging women with autism, a cohort

69
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:36,160
Speaker 1: that's virtually undetectable in existing studies. Also, correct diagnoses can

70
00:04:36,160 --> 00:04:39,360
Speaker 1: make a world of difference. Just take it from Nicola Clark,

71
00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,480
Speaker 1: who wrote in The Guardian quote when the diagnosis came,

72
00:04:42,720 --> 00:04:46,200
Speaker 1: I cried with relief. I felt it was almost a

73
00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:49,240
Speaker 1: battle that I'd had to prove to myself that I

74
00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:56,640
Speaker 1: wasn't mad. Next up, senior writer Jonathan Strickland explores the

75
00:04:56,680 --> 00:05:00,400
Speaker 1: proposal that Earth has entered a new epoch, the anth scene,

76
00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:07,720
Speaker 1: and why we shouldn't pop the champagne just yet. Scientists

77
00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:10,919
Speaker 1: representing the Working Group on the Anthropocene announced at the

78
00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:15,080
Speaker 1: thirty five International Geological Congress that we've entered a new

79
00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,320
Speaker 1: epoch in Earth's geological time scale, and this one is

80
00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:24,039
Speaker 1: all about you. Okay, not you specifically, but all you

81
00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:28,599
Speaker 1: humans out there and the ones in here too. Essentially,

82
00:05:28,640 --> 00:05:32,000
Speaker 1: the Anthropocene is an epoch in which human influences are

83
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,119
Speaker 1: shaping the Earth in a geologically significant way. So let's

84
00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,280
Speaker 1: back up and brush up on our geology. The geological

85
00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:43,599
Speaker 1: time scale consists of eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages.

86
00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:47,159
Speaker 1: Geologists define these chunks of time by looking at layers

87
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,719
Speaker 1: of rock. Changes in the strata mark transitions from one

88
00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:53,839
Speaker 1: chunk of time to another, so these chunks aren't defined

89
00:05:53,880 --> 00:05:56,720
Speaker 1: by a specific number of years, but instead by changes

90
00:05:56,800 --> 00:06:00,719
Speaker 1: to the Earth itself. Eons are the largest time chunks,

91
00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:04,520
Speaker 1: and ages are the smallest. The Anthropocene is an epoch

92
00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:08,120
Speaker 1: and a subdivision of the Quatinary period. We map these

93
00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:11,760
Speaker 1: chunks of time on the geological time scale, more officially

94
00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,480
Speaker 1: known as the International Chrono Strato Graphic Chart. That's hard

95
00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,720
Speaker 1: to say. According to the Working Group, we were in

96
00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,400
Speaker 1: the post ice Age Holocene epoch from about eleven five

97
00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:28,839
Speaker 1: years ago until nine on a Tuesday. So what happened

98
00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:32,480
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty to justify updating all of our geology textbooks,

99
00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,720
Speaker 1: Actually a lot of stuff happened. The human population was booming.

100
00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:40,640
Speaker 1: We began consuming more fossil fuels, producing tons of plastic,

101
00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:45,560
Speaker 1: increasing our use of fertilizers, and testing nuclear weapons. You

102
00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,480
Speaker 1: can see this activity recorded in transitions to the rock

103
00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:53,520
Speaker 1: strata themselves. Those changes are also global in scale, and yeah,

104
00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,960
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily fit into the yea US category. Changes

105
00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,720
Speaker 1: in the carbon cycle areas of mass erosion, increases in

106
00:07:01,839 --> 00:07:06,240
Speaker 1: nitrogen and phosphorus levels from fertilizers, and radioactive deposits are

107
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,960
Speaker 1: all the markers of the Anthropocene epoch. While the Working

108
00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,680
Speaker 1: Group recommends we acknowledge that we're in the Anthropocene, it's

109
00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:17,320
Speaker 1: not yet official. Some geologists might argue that we should

110
00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:20,640
Speaker 1: bump down Anthropocene to the status of an age rather

111
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:24,200
Speaker 1: than an epoch. Others might say that's thinking too small

112
00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,560
Speaker 1: and that we've entered a new geological period. The decision

113
00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,480
Speaker 1: will move to an international committee of scientists who will

114
00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:35,000
Speaker 1: consider the Working Group's proposal. If approved, Bang, we boldly

115
00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:39,080
Speaker 1: enter a new epoch we've been in since nineteen and

116
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,960
Speaker 1: outside of geology, maybe we can take time to consider

117
00:07:42,040 --> 00:07:45,520
Speaker 1: we're the major influence on this epoch. Our choices are

118
00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:49,080
Speaker 1: the ones recorded in Earth itself, so maybe this will

119
00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:55,960
Speaker 1: help guide us into making good decisions. Finally, this week,

120
00:07:56,080 --> 00:07:58,960
Speaker 1: I've got the story of how some social spiders share

121
00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,560
Speaker 1: food with each other so fairly that about a fifth

122
00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,720
Speaker 1: of them die out in every generation. Those of you

123
00:08:04,840 --> 00:08:07,280
Speaker 1: with the problem with spiders will be really glad that

124
00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:12,920
Speaker 1: this podcast doesn't come with video. Spiders don't usually hang

125
00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:16,720
Speaker 1: out with each other because they're highly territorial and sometimes cannibals,

126
00:08:17,080 --> 00:08:20,480
Speaker 1: But of the forty plus identified species of spiders, we

127
00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,040
Speaker 1: know twenty five to be social. One such species, the

128
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:28,040
Speaker 1: South American Analysimus egs aimis, has been observed in colonies

129
00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:32,439
Speaker 1: of fifty thousand individual spiders living in communal three dimensional

130
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,360
Speaker 1: webs that can span ft by five feet, arching through

131
00:08:36,520 --> 00:08:41,760
Speaker 1: several rainforest trees. These critters cooperate on web upkeep, prey capture,

132
00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:46,439
Speaker 1: and childcare brood care. It involves female spiders, which comprise

133
00:08:46,520 --> 00:08:50,880
Speaker 1: between seventy eight and of any given colony, regurgitating food

134
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,200
Speaker 1: for the youngsters, including youngsters that aren't their own. They

135
00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,880
Speaker 1: self select tasks based on what each unique spider is

136
00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,960
Speaker 1: personally suited for. Beyond that, the entire neighborhood shares their

137
00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,400
Speaker 1: food supply when the hunting is good, ensuring that no

138
00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: spider goes hungry. Or that's how it usually works. In

139
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:12,520
Speaker 1: every generation, about twenty one percent of healthy established as

140
00:09:12,559 --> 00:09:16,000
Speaker 1: a I MISS colonies suddenly collapse and die off, as

141
00:09:16,000 --> 00:09:19,040
Speaker 1: in no survivors. It's like the end of the thing,

142
00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,680
Speaker 1: except infinitely worse because there's no Kurt Russell and the

143
00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:25,920
Speaker 1: entire cast is spiders. So a team of entomologists out

144
00:09:25,920 --> 00:09:28,559
Speaker 1: of the University of British Columbia tried to figure out

145
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,160
Speaker 1: why this happens. They experimented with spider populations in the lab,

146
00:09:32,400 --> 00:09:35,760
Speaker 1: but they also used math. They were looking at prey

147
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:40,000
Speaker 1: size and individual's behavior in growing colonies. Their mathematical model

148
00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,160
Speaker 1: and experiments showed that the spiders tend to hog smaller

149
00:09:43,200 --> 00:09:47,120
Speaker 1: prey and share larger ones around, meaning there's probably a

150
00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:51,000
Speaker 1: limit to what a spider considers worth defending. Smaller colonies

151
00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:54,720
Speaker 1: have smaller webs that catch smaller prey. In those cases,

152
00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:59,040
Speaker 1: the spiders are mostly competing for food. Some individuals may starve,

153
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:02,640
Speaker 1: but the overall colony persists, and studies of animal behavior,

154
00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,640
Speaker 1: that's called contest competition. However, when a web gets big

155
00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:09,680
Speaker 1: enough to catch all large prey all the time, it

156
00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,400
Speaker 1: seems that the spiders start sharing. They even give preferential

157
00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,760
Speaker 1: food access to the hungriest spiders. That's called scramble competition,

158
00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:22,600
Speaker 1: but they're bringing in less overall food per spider capita.

159
00:10:22,840 --> 00:10:25,280
Speaker 1: They wind up sharing it so fairly that no one

160
00:10:25,320 --> 00:10:29,640
Speaker 1: has enough, and boom colony extinction. Not with a bang,

161
00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:33,760
Speaker 1: but a whimper. But don't worry. Agamist populations remain pretty

162
00:10:33,760 --> 00:10:36,960
Speaker 1: healthy overall, which is great because studying them has led

163
00:10:36,960 --> 00:10:39,440
Speaker 1: to lots of hypotheses about the evolution of a rag

164
00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:42,760
Speaker 1: and social behavior. Further research could help scientists get a

165
00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:46,240
Speaker 1: better handle on how competitive animal behavior is influenced by

166
00:10:46,320 --> 00:10:51,280
Speaker 1: environmental factors and how populations are influenced by competitive animal behavior.

167
00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:57,040
Speaker 1: That's our show for this week. Thank you so much

168
00:10:57,080 --> 00:10:59,560
Speaker 1: for tuning in. Subscribe now for more of the latest

169
00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:01,960
Speaker 1: and range just science news, and send us a links

170
00:11:01,960 --> 00:11:04,040
Speaker 1: to anything you'd like to hear us cover, plus your

171
00:11:04,080 --> 00:11:06,480
Speaker 1: favorite food in New York City. We're going to be

172
00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:08,719
Speaker 1: there this week. By the way, if you're in New York,

173
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:11,120
Speaker 1: watch the house stuff Works social media pages for info

174
00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:12,880
Speaker 1: on meetups because we're going to be doing a few

175
00:11:12,920 --> 00:11:14,960
Speaker 1: of those and uh and definitely try to come out

176
00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:17,760
Speaker 1: toward Trivia Night on Thursday the eighth. The information for

177
00:11:17,800 --> 00:11:20,240
Speaker 1: all of that is on the facebooks. As always, you

178
00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:22,720
Speaker 1: can send us an email at now podcast at how

179
00:11:22,800 --> 00:11:25,920
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com as well, and for lots more

180
00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,679
Speaker 1: stories like these, head on over to our home planet

181
00:11:28,840 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 1: Now dot how stuff Works dot com