Social media addiction, and the famous honeybee dance
3/27/202631 min
This week: social media's role in user harm and the plausibility of app addiction, a sunken Soviet sub revealing how nuclear materials behave deep underwater, a hidden "magnetic shadow" on the Moon that could improve space travel safety, and the science behind the famous "waggle dance" performed by honeybees.... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
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First 90 secondsChris Smith· Host0:00
[on-hold music] All engine running. [laughing] Absolute genius. Get this. Welcome. Welcome. [laughing] This is the show where we bring you- Science What that essentially means is- Discovery is- Answers Questions. Research. Technology. Unbelievable. Without further ado... This is The Naked Scientists. Hello. Welcome to The Naked Scientists podcast, the program that brings you the biggest breakthroughs and talks to the major movers and shakers in the worlds of science, technology and medicine. With me, Chris Smith. And coming up this week, Instagram and YouTube were designed to be addictive to young users without concern for their mental health, a landmark trial finds. But can an algorithm really be addictive? Also, scientists return to the Soviet-era nuclear-armed sub that sank off Norway decades ago to assess the radiation risk and why honeybees perform a 10 out of 10 waggle dance, but only in front of the right audience. [upbeat music] Up first this week, a US jury has found that social media giants Meta and YouTube were partly responsible for harm to a young user caused by addictive features in their platforms, including infinite scroll and algorithmic recommendations. The verdict has been heralded as a landmark, potentially changing how big tech can be held accountable for mental health impacts in future. Lukas Gunschera is from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences