Berry-Picking and Burning Clothes

The most recent issue of Discover magazine had a couple of articles I flagged to share.

One story reported on a 2024-published study about the possible adaptive benefits of ADHD. Modern humans were hunter-gatherers for about 300,000 years, with agriculture developing only about 12,000 years ago. Before that,

While once our days were filled with exploration and ever-changing means of survival, we were suddenly consumed by the need to home and perform a single job.

We lived and evolved as hunter-gatherers for at least 288,000 years, but we're a lot less experienced with sedentary living.

The study had participants simulate berry-picking in a game. The longer you pick from a single bush, the fewer berries you get as the bush gets picked out, but going to a new bush takes time. Which strategy would maximize the berry harvest — staying at bushes longer, or switching more frequently?

After picking the virtual berries, participants did questions to allow the researchers to assess their level of ADHD:

[The researchers] expected the ADHD-prone subjects to move between bushes too quickly to gather many berries. But, as it turned out, the subjects who self-reported ADHD symptoms actually did better than their counterparts.

So that's some evidence for the ADHD as adaptive behavior in a hunter-gatherer way of living. (The HBO show The Pitt, about an emergency room, had one of its characters say ER doctors all have ADHD, and in some ways that seems a bit like a modern, very technical hunter-gatherer situation.)

The other story was about the design of clothing for space travel. As readers may have noticed, I've recently been rereading Mary Robinette Kowal's Lady Astronaut novels, so space suits were top-of-mind for me when I saw that story.

I recognized a lot of details Kowal described, like the need for flexibility in the gloves (which makes the more vulnerable to damage) compared to the rest of the space suits. One thing I didn't know about the reality of the current clothing was this:

[At the International Space Station, they wear] T-shirts, shorts, and cargo pants. The priority...is comfort and practicality, with a heavy emphasis on materials that are easy to care for in a zero-gravity environment. After all, astronauts are only able to bring a set amount of clothing to the ISS, depending on the duration of their stay.

Donning the same outfit for several days in a row, ISS astronauts change only when necessary. This isn't due to poor hygiene but rather a result of limited storage and lacking laundry capabilities. Clothes are worn until they are visibly dirty or start to smell, after which they are packed away to be jettisoned from the ISS so they can burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

That made me wonder what clothes the two astronauts who were recently stuck aboard the ISS for nine months wore, if they had not intention of staying there. Are there backup clothes on board?