Chief among my worries as a kid was what I considered the high probability that at some point in my life I would be trapped in quicksand. It felt extremely important that I remember all the tricks and techniques for getting out — just in case! A close second would have to be getting lost in the desert and dying of dehydration. You absolutely had to watch out for those deadly mirages, where the light on the horizon bends in such a way that you’re certain you can see water up ahead.
At least one of those fears was fairly well-founded. All jokes aside, the desert is an incredibly dangerous place. It turns out that thousands of people get lost and go missing in deserts across the world every year. The Sahara Desert, the largest hot desert in the world, claimed a staggering 8,000 lives alone in 2023. These aren’t overly flippant explorers, for the most part. Many migrants fleeing conflict zones across the desert become lost and suffer a tragic fate while trying to navigate the 3.6 million square mile area. There are many things that make the desert deadly, but dehydration with no access to water is at the top.
A team in Saudi Arabia has been testing a new technology that could drastically reduce dehydration-related deaths in the country’s Al-Nafud Desert, and it looks like something straight out of a video game.
Though the Al-Nafud desert is quite a bit smaller than the Sahara standing at about 25,000 square miles, it can still be daunting to cross. Most years, hundreds of people go missing with several dozen of them perishing in the process.
An explorer named Mohammad Fohaid Al-Sohaiman had a brilliant idea to help lost travelers find water. Having been rescued in the desert himself, even as an experienced survivalist and outdoorsman, he knew there had to be a better way.
“Many people lost their lives in the desert near water resources because they did not know that water resources were close to them,” he told Arab News.
The idea: Beacons made of laser light, shot directly into the sky near water sources such as water wells. These powerful lights could be seen from miles away and would be powered by solar panels, ensuring they never go dark.
The plan is to eventually install 100 of the beacons throughout the Saudi Arabian desert.
In Saudi Arabia’s Nafud Desert, solar-powered laser beacons guide lost travelers to wells, using night signals designed by explorer Mohammad Fohaid Al-Sohaiman—combining renewable tech with survival aid.
The program to install the life-saving beacons began in 2021. It’s still getting attention and inspiring awe all over the world.
A recent viral Reddit thread highlighted the innovative laser lights, and users were impressed:
“Absolutely brilliant! The rest of the world should immediately begin to implement this system in their desert areas as well as open oceans where water, food and communication devices could be stored for boaters in distress.”
“This is such an amazing idea.”
Others joked to the beams look like “save points” or “checkpoints” in a video game. They’re not wrong!
Some have criticized the beacons, however, claiming that the light pollution may harm the desert’s natural environment and residents like nocturnal animals and insects.
Solar-powered lasers in the Saudi Arabian desert serve as beacons, guiding the lost to sources of water. pic.twitter.com/8xYxk4EZyy— Science girl (@sciencegirl) April 28, 2025
The desert holds vast potential for solar power due to its massive open spaces and plentiful sunlight. In fact, solar farms are common in deserts all over the world.
However, there are a couple of limitations that stop us from covering all the world’s deserts in solar panels and completely converting to solar energy.
First, people underestimate how destructive and harsh the desert environment really is. Sand is incredibly corrosive, especially when whipped around in high-powered sandstorms. Maintaining solar equipment in the desert is incredibly challenging and costly.
Second, we think of deserts as open wasteland, but that’s a misnomer. They’re actually incredibly biodiverse natural habitats, home to many different forms of plant, animal, bird, and insect life. The desert habitat is no less important to preserve than rainforests or oceans.
Third, while solar energy is generally considered incredibly eco-friendly, massive solar farms can actually put off quite a bit of heat. A desert-sized solar farm would emit so much heat that it could negatively contribute to global warming and have devastating effects.
Saudi Arabian gov installed laser beacons in desert to indicate water source.
In any case, the life-saving beacons are a genius idea and a fantastic use of solar technology. Once the program is fully rolled out, it could save dozens or even hundreds of lives every year.
Just imagine a similar operation conducted in the massive Sahara Desert, or even in remote stretches of the American southwest.
As one commenter stated perfectly, “Now this is the type of innovation for the future I can get behind.”
In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin.
It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest.
The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn?
Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.
MEDEA Screening Audience in Tanzania. Captured by James Roh for Pura
Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world.
Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends.
Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.
A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission
Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education.
But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities.
The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere.
You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.
Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil
Julia with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country.
“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says.
But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.
Ayomidês with Odara in Brazil. Captured by Luisa Dorr for Pura
Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model.
“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.”
Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria
Centre for Girls' Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms.
“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?”
When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.
Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.
Centre for Girls’ Education, Nigeria. Captured by James Roh for Pura
To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”
“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”
From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.
Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.
Julian de Medeiros, a philosophy expert who’s popular on TikTok and Substack, has built a reputation for sharing some of the world’s most important philosophical ideas about life, love, ethics, and intelligence. Recently, he shared wisdom from Bertrand Russell on the character trait that highly intelligent people tend to have: they see the world as it really is, not as they want it to be.
Russell, a British philosopher and founding figure of the analytic movement in philosophy, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. His work in logic, epistemology, and mathematics made him one of the most important minds of the 20th century. As they say, it takes one to know one, and if Russell says someone is intelligent, chances are he’s right.
“Here’s how you know that someone is intelligent, and this goes back to the philosopher Bertrand Russell, who wrote, ‘You see the world as it is, not as you would like it to be, is the beginning of all wisdom,’” de Medeiros shared on TikTok.
To put it simply, an intelligent person wants to get things right, while an unintelligent person wants to be right. Smart people look at the facts and form their opinions based on reality. Those who aren’t as bright tend to be more dogmatic, trying to see the world in ways that align with their beliefs.
“What [Russell] meant is that an intelligent person tries to be a realist,” de Medeiros continued. “Like, they try to measure, examine, and test their own belief systems against reality. But an unintelligent person tends to be dogmatic. Like they don’t change their mind when confronted with the facts. In fact, you could show them the evidence, and they would simply double down.”
What is the “backfire effect”?
What de Medeiros is referring to is what’s known as the “backfire effect.” It’s a psychological phenomenon in which, when people are presented with credible facts that challenge their beliefs, they may hold on to those beliefs even more strongly than before.
“Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm,” author David McRaney wrote in You Are Not So Smart. “You do this instinctively and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information. Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you.”
It can sting to change your mind, because it can feel like you’ve invalidated a big part of your sense of self. However, it becomes much easier if you begin to change how you see yourself. Instead of identifying with a specific worldview, you can think of yourself as someone who embraces the truth, no matter how difficult that may be.
“Bertrand Russell believed that true intelligence was when you were open to the possibility that you might be wrong,” de Medeiros said. “When you sought to test your own belief systems and when you had a rational and inquisitive mindset, that is true intelligence. When the facts change, you change.”
James Prigioni makes popular gardening videos on YouTube. In one, he wanted to see if he could grow a whole tomato plant by planting the seeds from a tomato on a McDonald’s burger. He picked up a Deluxe Quarter Pounder with cheese, pulled out a tomato slice, and removed two seeds. After rubbing the seeds on a paper towel to remove the protective coating, which can inhibit sprouting, they were ready to plant.
Trying out different seed-planting methods
But like any good scientist, Prigioni wanted to try a different method for testing McDonald’s tomato seeds. So he pulled a slice of tomato from a second Quarter Pounder and, instead of extracting the seeds, planted the entire slice.
With the help of a heat mat and a grow lamp, both sets of seedlings germinated and sprouted in soil-filled red Solo cups in about a week. After they were fully established, Prigioni separated the plants so they could thrive individually before being planted outside.
He planted one of the plants in the ground outside and another in a 5-gallon bucket. He then showed how he culled the lower leaves as they developed blight and used a tomato cage to support the plants as they produced fruit and grew heavier. He also added extra fertilized soil and mulch to the bucket plant.
After three months, the plants were producing abundant fruit. The bucket plant didn’t perform as well as the in-ground plant, which Prigioni said was due to insufficient watering during very hot days. The bucket plant also ripened faster, likely due to the stress it had been under. Still, it was an impressive harvest, especially for a plant that started on a McDonald’s burger.
The in-ground McDonald’s plant was even more incredible, with dozens of tomatoes dripping from it.
“I expected this tomato to grow,” Prigioni said, “but I did not expect this.”
The fruit from both plants tasted good and sweet, he said. By the fourth month, the in-ground plant was starting to struggle with its health, but not with its fruit production.
“The plant had so many tomatoes on it that it seemed like it was having a little difficulty ripening that much fruit at one time,” Prigioni said. “I mean, I have had some plants with a lot of tomatoes on them, but never in my life have I seen a single tomato plant with this much fruit on it. I was completely blown away.”
How the McDonald’s tomatoes compared
He said one of his favorite parts of the experiment was seeing what kind of tomatoes would grow from the seeds. He thought it might be a beefsteak variety, but it turned out to be a Roma type. However, he surmised that the McDonald’s tomato was likely a hybrid, based on its ripening characteristics.
Prigioni also shared how the McDonald’s tomato plants compared with his other tomato plants.
“In another area of the garden, I grew Roma tomatoes that I got from Lowe’s, and I planted them at the same time as the McDonald’s tomatoes,” he said. “The harvest from them wasn’t quite as large, but the fruit ripened way more evenly, and I was able to harvest a lot more fresh fruit right off the vine that was ripe.”
“Overall, I was shocked with the level of production,” he continued. “And this is probably my favorite experiment that I’ve ever done. I mean, to be able to take a cheeseburger, grab a tomato from it, then grow a tomato plant, and then harvest pounds and pounds of tomatoes from it is just such a unique and refreshing experience.”
Perhaps an unexpected result, but a great way to challenge our assumptions and demonstrate the power of nature, even in the context of fast food.
Some people have quirky hobbies and interests that others might find odd, so when we asked our Upworthy audience on Facebook, “What’s something that you really enjoy that other people can’t seem to understand?” and over 1,700 people weighed in, it wasn’t too surprising. Some people shared things like housework, cleaning and laundry, which a lot of people see as chores. Others shared different puzzles or forms of art they like doing, and still others shared things like long car rides or grocery shopping.
But what was surprising was the one answer that dominated the list of responses. It came in various wordings, but by far the most common answer to the question was “silent solitude.”
A woman relaxes alone on the couch. Photo credit: Canva
Here are a few examples:
“Feeling perfectly content, when I’m all alone.”
“Being home. Alone. In silence.”
“That I enjoy being alone and my soul is at peace in the silence. I don’t need to be around others to feel content, and it takes me days to recharge from being overstimulated after having an eventful day surrounded by others.”
“Enjoying your own company. Being alone isn’t isolating oneself. It’s intentional peace and healthy… especially for deep feelers/thinkers.”
Spending time by ourselves is something some of us relish, while some of us hate being alone. Naturally, this points to the common theory of introversion vs. extraversion, but in some ways, that’s overly simplistic. Even the most peopley people among us can enjoy some quality alone time, and not all introverts see time alone as truly enjoyable. (It might be necessary for an introvert’s well-being, but not necessarily something they truly revel in.)
A man sits quietly by the water. Photo credit: Canva
Interestingly, studies have found that people who enjoy being alone are not any more or less extraverted than those who don’t, though they do tend to be less “sociable.” They are also less likely to be neurotic (tense, moody, worrying types) than the general population and more likely to be open-minded. Those characteristics are the opposite of what social norms often tell us about people who want to be alone.
“If our stereotypes about people who like being alone were true, then we should find that they are neurotic and closed-minded. In fact, just the opposite is true,” writes Bella DePaulo, PhD.
A woman lost in thought with a cup of coffee. Photo credit: Canva
There may be lots of reasons some people like to spend time by themselves while others don’t. We are naturally social creatures and need social interaction, but some of us find ourselves overstimulated by being around other people all the time. On the flip side, some people find being alone not just unenjoyable, but extremely uncomfortable, which can be a problem.
“Ideally, we should be comfortable with ourselves, alone or with others,” writes psychologist Tara Well Ph.D.. “If you are uncomfortable being alone, it means you are uncomfortable being with yourself without distraction, engagement, or affirmation from others. This can be a liability in life. If you cannot be alone, you may stay in situations or make life choices that aren’t good for you in the long run, like staying in a job or a relationship, mainly because you can’t tolerate being alone while transitioning to a better situation.”
An older woman dances alone while listening to headphones. Photo credit: Canva
Dr. Well also points out that people can make the most of their alone time, even if it’s not something they naturally enjoy. One way is to make it purposeful, setting aside a little time daily to write in a journal, meditate, go for a walk or otherwise engage your mind and body in some form of reflection. Another is to pay attention to self-judgments that might make alone time uncomfortable and challenge them with some compassionate confrontation and counteraction with positive thoughts about yourself.
Alone time can be refreshing and rewarding, especially if it’s something you naturally crave. Some people even like to take themselves out on dates or enjoy traveling by themselves. That kind of self-care can be just as important as connecting with others for our overall health and well-being. Being alone doesn’t mean being a loner and it doesn’t mean being lonely. Some of us genuinely like having quality time with ourselves, whether it makes sense to other people or not.
A number of years ago, people started to suspect their phones were listening to them. They’d “magically” see ads on Facebook or news websites for products they had barely mentioned in passing. Because our phones are always listening for “wake words” (like “OK Google” or “Hey Siri”), it was natural to grow suspicious that they were monitoring conversations and auctioning off that data to advertisers.
The truth is, your phone is not always listening and scanning your conversations for ad triggers. However, countless people have reported seeing ads for things they’ve merely thought about.
The reason this predictive advertising happens is fascinating, a little scary, and just a tad reassuring.
“I can’t be the only one noticing this”
Aakash Gupta writes about AI, tech, product growth, and more. He recently took on the challenge of explaining this freaky concept to a concerned Internet citizen.
“I get how the phone can target ads by hearing and seeing me, but how is it showing me ads based on my thoughts? I can’t be the only one noticing this,” an X user wrote.
Here’s Gupta’s explanation: It starts with a real-time auction every time you open an app or website that serves ads.
“Every time you open a website or app, a real-time bidding auction fires in under 100 milliseconds,” Gupta wrote on X. “Your GPS coordinates, browsing history, device fingerprint, age, gender, income bracket, and hundreds of inferred interest categories get packaged into a ‘bid request’ and broadcast to hundreds of companies simultaneously. One company wins the ad slot. All of them keep the data.”
Some estimates put the number of ads the average person sees in a given day between 4,000 and 10,000. In fact, most are almost invisible to us now. That’s why ad companies have to make them hyper-targeted.
Gupta explained that your data isn’t only collected when you use a website. Some apps on your phone may pull your location data thousands of times per day, creating a detailed map of pretty much everywhere you go.
So how does that lead to “telepathic” advertising? By figuring out what people who are almost exactly like you are interested in buying.
“The algorithm doesn’t hear your thoughts. It compares your behavioral fingerprint against millions of similar profiles and predicts your next interest before you’re consciously aware of it,” Gupta wrote. “It makes hundreds of predictions per day. You ignore the misses. The five hits feel like telepathy.”
Let me explain exactly why your phone seems to read your thoughts, because the real answer is more invasive than telepathy.
Every time you open a website or app, a real-time bidding auction fires in under 100 milliseconds. Your GPS coordinates, browsing history, device… https://t.co/J2YLZkE60Vpic.twitter.com/mtL8AQCAlY
Akash Muni, a software developer, explained it even more simply:
“You are not unique. There are 10,000 people with your exact age, location, income bracket, browsing history, purchase pattern and social graph. When those 10,000 people started searching for running shoes, you hadn’t yet. But you will.”
He said it’s called “predictive behavior modeling,” and that it has become eerily accurate.
Famous case
One famous case of this kind of modeling in advertising involved Target sending coupons for baby items to a pregnant teenager’s home. The only problem was that they identified her pregnancy so quickly that her parents didn’t even know yet.
The New York Times wrote, “[A Target statistician was] able to identify about 25 products that, when analyzed together, allowed him to assign each shopper a ‘pregnancy prediction’ score. More important, he could also estimate her due date to within a small window, so Target could send coupons timed to very specific stages of her pregnancy.”
Similar modeling is used in many ways, not just advertising. Some companies combine data on their employees with known trends and events (like layoffs or changes in HR policies) to predict when someone might quit or leave—even before they do.
When it happens on your phone in a fraction of a second, it can be pretty shocking. In fact, the accuracy can be so spooky that some people refuse to believe the modeling is “predictive” at all.
“Everyone is saying it just predicts.. now explain if I just happen to think about a random product which doesn’t basically interest me in any shape or form.. for example a conversation I just happened to have like 5 years ago.. and boom!.. here you go, ads flying in right after,” one X user wrote.
“Yes, yesterday I was thinking of the cafe I once hoped for, and in the morning the first ad I saw was that cafe’s ad. How is it possible?” wrote another.
As Gupta said, predictive modeling is wrong hundreds or thousands of times a day. But we don’t notice those ads for things we’re not interested in because we’re too focused on the ones that are frighteningly accurate.
It’s hard to accept that our thoughts and choices aren’t as unique as we’d like to think they are
Some people have trouble believing that phones aren’t psychic. Photo credit: Canva
It turns out humans are actually pretty predictable. Much of what we do and think is driven by our environment and the systems we live in. Those environments and systems can be tracked and measured with incredible efficiency.
If there’s any solace to take in this relentless mining of our data, it’s that the whole system works because there are people out there just like us. There are countless others the same age, with similar family structures, interests, income brackets, and more. In another world, maybe we would all be friends!
In the meantime, we can thank them for turning us on to that awesome pair of running shoes we didn’t even know we needed.
Our bodies are miraculous, and much of the time, we don’t even know why. As we age, without any surgical help, our face shapes can change, shoulders can hunch, and teeth can shift. But one of the most obvious (and perhaps odd) differences is the size of our ears and noses.
In a recent post from the Instagram page Historic Moments, two profile photos of actor Robert De Niro are shown. In the earlier image—likely from his role as Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver—his features appear proportionate. The other photo shows a more recent De Niro, where his ear (and possibly his nose) appears noticeably larger.
The caption reads, “Robert De Niro is living proof that our ears grow roughly 0.22 millimeters per year.” In the description, they write:
“Recent side-by-side comparisons of Robert De Niro vividly illustrate the physiological reality that human ears continue to grow throughout our lives. While many believe this is merely sagging skin, studies confirm that ear circumference increases by roughly 0.22 millimeters per year. This phenomenon is primarily due to the continuous growth of cartilage and the relentless effects of gravity over decades. De Niro’s evolving profile is a high-profile example of this unique aspect of the human aging process.”
The post has gone viral, suggesting that many people have wondered why this change happens. Fortunately, we have answers.
Doctors weigh in
Upworthy spoke with Dr. Ari Hoschander, the head plastic surgeon at the Rhinoplasty Center of Long Island, who shared:
“There are actually two things happening at once, and people conflate them. The nose and ears do genuinely grow, but they also appear larger because the face around them is losing volume. Volume decreases in the cheeks and temples, and the fat pads that used to provide roundness to the face start to descend or just disappear altogether. Suddenly your nose looks disproportionately larger compared to the rest of your face.”
Hoschander also discussed the cartilage issue:
“Cartilage also doesn’t behave the way bone does as you age. While bone mostly stops changing once you’re done growing, cartilage continues to slowly deform and lose its structural resilience over your entire life. The ears and nose are mostly cartilage, so the actual structure of your nose and ears continues to change over the course of your life.”
As for noses and ears?
“The nasal tip is where I see it most dramatically in practice. Gravity pulls the tip down, the supporting ligaments stretch out, and the skin loses its elasticity. So the tip droops and the nose looks longer and heavier than it did a few decades earlier. For the ears, the lobes are mostly fat and skin, so they elongate just from years of gravity, sometimes accelerated by heavy earrings. The upper ear cartilage is also slowly expanding, which is why older men in particular can end up with ears that look really big.”
A plastic surgeon explains the change
Dr. Jeffrey Lisiecki, a board-certified plastic surgeon, also shared similar insight with Upworthy. As for noses, he said they appear to grow for a couple of reasons:
“The cartilage of your nose essentially stops growing by adulthood, but the ligaments that hold those cartilages together can stretch with age, which can make your nose appear longer and more drooping with age. We also lose fat in our faces as we age, which makes our cheeks appear flatter and our nasolabial folds appear deeper, which can make the nose seem relatively larger.”
“Ears age in a similar way—the cartilage reaches its mature size before adulthood. The earlobe stretches out and becomes longer with age, which makes the ear appear larger. The earlobe also loses volume with age, and the thinning of it accelerates the process of lengthening.”
Every parent has seen that magical moment when a toddler, barely able to stand, starts bouncing perfectly in time to a catchy beat. It turns out that those rhythmic wobbles are not just cute accidents. According to a report from Neuroscience News, humans are actually born with a “music blueprint” that is hardwired into our biology.
The evidence suggests that our musicality is an ancient capacity that might even predate the development of human language. As Brighter Side reported, music cognition professor Henkjan Honing has spent two decades researching how our brains process sound. His findings indicate that we do not just learn to like music through culture or upbringing. Instead, we are born with a dedicated capacity for it.
Professor Honing explained that these abilities emerge spontaneously in infants. Babies respond to melody and rhythm without any formal instruction, which suggests that we come into the world with a biological predisposition for musical structures.
To test how deep this goes, researchers even looked at other species. In one experiment, macaque monkeys were able to synchronize with complex rhythms, suggesting that the building blocks of music are shared across different branches of the evolutionary tree.
While we often think of music as a hobby, for many it is a lifeline. According to data from Edison Research, the average member of Gen Z spends over four hours a day listening to music. About 86 percent of those young listeners told researchers that music is a primary tool for boosting their mood, and 61 percent said it helps support their mental health.
This deep connection makes sense if music is a fundamental part of our species. Professor Honing noted that musicality is a combination of many traits, including our understanding of pitch, timing, and intervals. While songbirds and marine animals show some of these traits, humans have a unique and integrated system for it.
The next time a certain song touches your heart or makes you want to dance, you can thank your own biology. It is not just a vibe. It is a part of what makes us human. As Professor Honing concluded, we are simply musical beings by nature.
This article originally appeared earlier this year.
“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative” is a quote often attributed to author and raconteur Oscar Wilde. Whether he said it or not, he’d probably wince at the idea of yammering on about the English rain or whether the autumn almanac was correct. However, he may have been missing the point of why we make small talk about the weather.
Dr. Thomas Smithyman, a clinical psychologist who helps people beef up their social skills, says we should view small talk about mundane topics, such as the weather, as a platform to show off our social competence and deepen relationships.
“Talking about the weather is this cliché, right?” he says in a YouTube video. “It’s everyone’s most dreaded, boring topic, but it works because it’s a commonality. We all have it in common. We’re all experiencing it.”
What does it really mean when you make small talk?
According to Smithyman, conversing about the weather isn’t about having keen insights into meteorology or comparing how much you’ve sweated; it’s to show that you are socially competent.
“Small talk can also signal to people that you understand how social interactions work,” he says. “If you can handle small talk, people trust you and can probably get into a bit of a deeper conversation without things getting terribly awkward. It’s just a little communication that says, ‘I know how to do this. I’m safe.’”
People usually think that being good at small talk means being entertaining, witty, or full of great stories. In reality, though, the key is to be a good listener and ask great questions. People tend to like those who appear to be interested in them. In fact, a Harvard University study found that when you ask a question and then two follow-ups, people like you more than if you quickly turn the conversation back to yourself.
Being good at small talk is about listening
“If you want to master small talk, it is luckily not about being the funniest or the most entertaining person,” Smithyman says. “If you look at good conversationalists, they don’t dominate, right? They actually are really good at making it easy for the other person to engage, because that’s what really helps a conversation flow.”
Think of it as a little test. The other person is thinking, “If this person can’t talk about the fact that it was slightly cloudy today, they’re not going to be able to help me with my existential crisis.” Or, “If they come off as awkward, or even sketchy, I’m not going to interact with them any further.”
The good news is that if you’re able to move beyond the usual introductory topics—such as the weather, sports, or traffic on the way to the party—and into more personal territory, you’ve likely been deemed a capable conversation partner and, possibly, even a friend.
Glenda Bridges had none of the usual warning signs. The 83-year-old Naples, Florida, woman wasn’t obese, didn’t have diabetes, didn’t have high blood pressure. But in the span of just a few days, she had three strokes. She said that one morning she woke up and “had no balance, and my vision was blurry,” according to the Gulf Coast News.
With each stroke, her brain was sustaining more damage, and doctors at NCH (the only Joint Commission-certified comprehensive stroke center in southwest Florida) needed answers fast.
Dr. Viktoria Totoraitis, a vascular neurologist at NCH, noticed something that other doctors might have missed: all three strokes had occurred in exactly the same location in Bridges’ brain. That wasn’t typical. “Blood vessels are like highways,” Dr. Totoraitis explained, “meaning they each go to a specific territory. So when a patient has a stroke, I know what blood vessel supplies that territory.” The fact that every stroke hit the same spot pointed to a single, consistent cause rather than random clotting events.
The strokes were what neurologists call wake-up strokes, meaning Bridges had gone to sleep without symptoms and woken up with them. Research suggests that roughly one in five acute ischemic strokes falls into this category, and they’re notoriously difficult to treat because the exact time of onset is unknown, complicating eligibility for clot-busting medications.
What Dr. Totoraitis needed to know next was exactly how Bridges slept. When she asked, Bridges answered: “On my side, kind of all curled up in a fetal position.” That detail, combined with something else in Bridges’ medical history, several prior neck surgeries and significant cervical spinal arthritis, led to an imaging test with Bridges positioned the same way she slept every night. The results were clear. “When she’s sleeping and curled up like that, because she does have a lot of cervical spinal arthritis, some narrowing, she was pinching off one of her vessels.”
The fix required no surgery. Dr. Totoraitis recommended Bridges change her sleeping position and wear a soft cervical collar at night. She also clarified that the fetal position is not dangerous for people without prior neck surgeries. For Bridges, though, the combination of arthritis, surgical history, and a habitual curl was cutting off blood flow to her brain every night.
Since making that small change, Bridges has not had another stroke.
Her case is an unusual one, but it carries a useful reminder: strokes don’t always look the way we expect. The fastest way to identify one remains the F.A.S.T. method: Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, Time to call 911. The sooner someone gets to a hospital, the more brain tissue can be saved.
