WEBVTT - Caffeinated Concrete and a Song About Particle Physics! 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.120 Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.720 are taking a little break, but we will be back 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.600 with brand new episodes starting September ninth, and we have 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.760 been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.400 I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.560 the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.600 twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.439 This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.639 did all this extra research for it. We pulled in 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.800 contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.639 the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:42.200 fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.880 it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:51.440 dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:59.520 of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess What Will? What's that? Mango? 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.760 I can't believe it, but we are already halfway through 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:05.600 our countdown to the twenty five best science ideas from 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:08.400 the past twenty five years. It's crazy. So twelve and 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:11.840 a half in exactly twelve and a half in and 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:13.720 I don't know about you, but I feel like these 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.039 stories keep getting better and better. I mean that's kind 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:17.200 of how a countdown. 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:19.039 Works, but I feel like you should tell people what 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:21.280 is coming up next, preview it. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.959 Well, today's episode has five stories, including what Nascar does 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.640 to our brains, a clock that changed the way we 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.960 think about time, and our attempt to explain particle physics 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.759 through music. Is that even possible? There's only one way 0:01:36.800 --> 0:02:01.080 to find out, so let's dive in. Hey, the podcast listeners, 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.880 welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm mungkish Heatikur, and as 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:07.520 always I'm joined by my good friend Will Pearson and 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.640 our palam producer Dylan is over there in the booth 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.040 wearing his lucky sunglasses. So I have a good feeling 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:15.400 about today's episode. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:18.560 So in case you're wondering, yes, he does have unlucky 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.040 sunglasses and we had to ask him to stop wearing 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:23.519 them during the show. Only the lucky sunglasses. 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:26.880 That's right, it was a whole thing. It was anyway. 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:28.919 Before we get into the countdown, I just want to 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.400 remind you to subscribe to Part Time Genius on your 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:35.160 favorite podcast app, which should be iHeart the iHeart app 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:37.640 and if you enjoy the show, which I hope you do, 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.200 please give us a nice rating and review. It really 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.360 helps us out. And also we actually read the comments. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.560 Someone has to do a show on three D printing 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.960 and we're planning one in the works. And this week 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.880 someone named Elliott wrote the best podcast My name is Elliott, 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:56.560 Oh I like that, which is the greatest narrative. 0:02:56.840 --> 0:02:59.600 You know, went from how he felt about the podcast 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.000 to his you know it was good, good stuff. 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.320 Well, Elliott, if you're listening messages on our Instagram, so 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.040 we can send you something fun. But let's get into 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:08.520 the show. 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.560 Actually, it just hit me Dylan is probably wearing those 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.200 glasses because you know what's next on our countdown Mango. 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.960 That Dylan is so clever. Okay, so the first thing 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:23.639 we're covering today is NASCAR. Now, over the years, there 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.360 have been lots of studies on NASCAR to improve the 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.040 safety for drivers. There have been research papers on how 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.200 the car's bodies and safety measures affect injuries. NASCAR also 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.840 a worded a grant to Michigan State University to study 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.320 everything from heat exhaustion and drivers to figure out better 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.200 exercises and diet regimen for the athletes, and there have 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.800 been studies on why fatherhood affects drivers because NASCAR drivers 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.280 often drop one point six places on average the year 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:52.400 after having a kid. 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:54.240 Wow, it does kind of make you wonder like if 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:56.720 it's at all related to the fact that they're probably 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:57.480 sleeping less. 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.320 I think that's probably part of it. But scientists also 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:02.920 hypothesized that when you have a kid, you think about 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:06.440 your mortality money, and so you might be less prone 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.520 to make risky moves on the course. That makes sense anyway. 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:11.920 The most interesting study I read about was done by 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:18.440 this psychologist, Guy Vidioloni from West Virginia University Institute of Technology, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.200 and it's a four year study called quote Driving under 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.520 the Influence of Nascar. It isn't so much about what 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.080 happens on the track as it is how the races 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.640 influence people watching at home. So according to NPR, Vidilioni 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.640 looked at all the traffic accidents that took place in 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:38.760 West Virginia and then whittled it down to accidents that 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.359 mimicked what happened on a racetrack. So these were things 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.080 like pile ups of multiple cars or accidents where there 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:50.240 was aggressive driving and His conclusion was that five days 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:55.680 after major NASCAR races, there's a big spike in traffic accidents. Now, 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.719 VIDILIONI actually put in a whole bunch of controls to 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:01.360 make sure he wasn't just saying something wild. He wanted 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.039 to be really conservative about his conclusions, but he counted 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:07.840 about six hundred and fifty extra accidents on West Virginia 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:11.279 roads in the days after the races, essentially because people 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:15.960 were quote acting out NASCAR in their own driving this wild. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.159 Although the thing that stands out to me Mango is like, 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:21.719 why is this on the fifth day after a race 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:23.239 instead of like immediately after. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.640 I don't think he figured that part out exactly. Like 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:28.360 he theorized that maybe it's because races tend to take 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.600 place on weekends, and so a Thursday or Friday after 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:33.640 tends to be the days that you let loose after 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.279 a rough week. But his study is really pointing to 0:05:36.320 --> 0:05:40.559 the subtle ways that media affects behavior in the real world. Now, 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.640 NASCAR is just one example of this. Another famous case 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.000 is of the MTV show sixteen and Pregnant, where the 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.440 reality show actually captured the difficulties for high school students 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.920 trying to raise kids, and people were really affected by it. 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:56.960 The show led to a five point seven percent reduction 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.640 in teen births, which apparently was a third of the 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:03.400 overall decline in teen births in the country. 0:06:03.440 --> 0:06:03.960 Oh wow. 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:04.479 Yeah. 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.240 Academics actually sometimes refer to it as the you are 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:09.960 what you watch phenomenon, And it's pretty interesting to see, 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:12.719 sort of like how MLK talked about the interracial kiss 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.200 on the original Star Trek being one of the most 0:06:15.200 --> 0:06:19.160 important moments on television, or how President Joe Biden credited 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.120 Will and Grace with changing America's perception of gays more 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:23.400 than just about anything else. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.520 Yeah, that's right. So anyway, this whole NASCAR thing won't 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.680 be a problem ten to fifteen years from now when 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:31.320 we're all taking way mos everywhere and getting the chauffeured 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.880 around and robotic cars. But until then, all you NASCAR 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:39.160 watchers out there, he doctor Villlioni's advice, and be a 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.640 little mindful of how you're driving the week after a 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:43.880 big race. We want to keep you safe. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:48.240 Absolutely, all right, Mango, let's say you are a clockmaker. 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:50.280 I'm just going to say that. Okay, Now, you've built 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.400 a beautiful time piece that counts hours and minutes. But 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.680 now you've got a problem. You want your clock to 0:06:55.720 --> 0:06:58.279 count each second with pinpoint accuracy. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:06:59.520 So how do you do it? 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.799 It turns out you need to crack open the periodic table, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.360 because according to the International System of Units, this is 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:07.760 how you measure a second. 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:08.680 Quote. 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:12.120 The second is defined by taking the fixed numerical value 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.240 of the caesium frequency the unperturbed ground state high perfine 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:20.120 transition frequency of the cesium one thirty three atom to 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:22.800 be nine billion, one hundred and ninety two million, six 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.240 hundred and thirty one thousand, seven hundred and seventy when 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.280 expressed in the unit hurtz, which is equal to s 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:30.600 the power of negative one. 0:07:30.680 --> 0:07:34.720 You got it. So that is the definition of a second. Yeah, 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.680 it's the definition of a second. I got lost in 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:37.480 the reading of it. 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.240 But as you may have noticed, it's a little bit complicated. 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.240 So the only way to measure it is with an 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.040 atomic clock. And the way this work sounds completely made up, 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.640 but I promise it's actually real. Basically, an atomic clock 0:07:49.760 --> 0:07:52.880 is a machine that shoots laser beams at caesium ions, 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.800 measures frequency at which their electrons jump to different energy levels, 0:07:57.040 --> 0:07:59.160 and then sends the readings to a place called the 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:01.680 International buz Ro of Weights and Measures. 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:04.320 So this is a real place. 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:08.200 It's a real inner governmental organization. Yeah, and it's actually 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:09.080 based in France. 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:13.200 So we've got laser clock sending data to friends. I 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:14.440 guess I'm with you that far. 0:08:14.560 --> 0:08:16.880 Okay, I'm glad you're keeping up. So there are around 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.160 four hundred and fifty atomic clocks in the world, all 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.440 sending these readings. So timekeepers at the International Bureau of 0:08:23.440 --> 0:08:26.600 Weights and Measures they crunch these numbers from the clocks 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:30.320 and then vote on the quote official time, which they 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:34.720 publish in a monthly publication that comes out monthly called 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:36.280 Circular Tea. 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:40.000 I never thought I'd say this about anything that involves caesium, 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.160 but uh, that is pretty adorably whimsical. 0:08:43.400 --> 0:08:46.920 It is in a way, but it's also pretty serious. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.679 Stuff like this process is how we determine what's called 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.000 international atomic time. And a standard atomic clock made with 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:57.080 caesium is so accurate it can keep time for about 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:00.280 one hundred million years without skipping a beat. 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:00.680 Wow. 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:03.640 But starting in the mid adds, researchers at the National 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.680 Institute of Standards and Technology or in IST, a federal 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:10.800 lab in Colorado, they began developing a new generation of 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:15.240 atomic clocks that could make caesium seem outdated. Actually, so 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.120 what makes these atomic clocks so special? Well, they use 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.200 aluminum instead of caesium, so basically a positive aluminum twenty 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:27.120 seven ion. In two thousand and eight, NST scientists built 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.360 something they call the quantum logic clock. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:29.880 Now. 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:33.960 It contains a single aluminum ion cool to nearly absolute zero, 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:38.440 shot with an ultraviolet laser, and the aluminum ion acts 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.240 like the second hand on a clock, so it ticks 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.320 by jumping up and down between energy levels. But instead 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.720 of ticking once for every second, it ticks a quadrillion 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:48.920 times per second. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:50.600 That is a big number, make note. 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.160 And it's so accurate it won't lose a second for 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.440 thirty three billion years. That's almost triple the age of 0:09:58.480 --> 0:09:59.840 the observable universe. 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:02.920 That is really hard to imagine. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:04.600 Yeah, or hard to put to the test, I think. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.640 And this aluminum clock does more than just tell time. 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:12.120 It's even changing our understanding of space time because researchers 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.480 have used it to test Einstein's theory of relativity. According 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.880 to Einstein's theory, gravity affects the passage of time so 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.600 the stronger the pull of gravity, the slower the time. 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:23.880 And as a result of this, somebody who lives in 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:27.360 the mountains of Colorado, where gravity's pull is slightly lower, 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:31.319 they'll age faster than somebody who lives at sea level. Now, 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.640 the quantum logic clock is so sensitive it actually proved 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:37.000 that a person standing at the top of a staircase 0:10:37.480 --> 0:10:41.280 or someone standing on a stool experienced a faster passage 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.400 of time. It showed that each additional foot of height 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.280 adds about ninety billions of a second to your lifetime. 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:55.640 So NBA players would live longer than jockeys. I have 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.960 a dumb question to ask, why do we need clocks 0:10:58.960 --> 0:10:59.800 to be this accurate. 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.760 It's a fair question, but take GPS for example. GPS 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.000 isn't just a location tracking technology, it's also a type 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.319 of clock. So if you're driving down the highway and 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.959 the GPS is five seconds late telling you to take 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:14.800 an exit, you'd be pretty mad about this. Right, for 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.280 the GPS to be useful, it needs to show both 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.840 an accurate location and an accurate time. It needs that 0:11:20.920 --> 0:11:24.200 time to be precise down to the second. And it 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.800 turns out that's true for a lot of other technologies 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:32.280 as well. Take telecommunications, satellite networks, radio signals, lots more 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:35.199 things like this. Anyway, it's hard to overstate the importance 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.080 of this quantum logic clock in the nerdy and wonderful 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.120 world of time keeping. Those caesium clocks that impressed you 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:43.560 at the start of this segment will eventually end up 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:47.559 being obsolete. And while experiments with other elements are ongoing 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.360 right now, aluminum is the leading contender to become the 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.079 ticking heart of what we call a second. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:56.199 Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:58.600 for a quick break. But there is so much weird 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:16.880 science right after Welcome back to part time Genius. When 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:19.280 we're talking the twenty five greatest science ideas of the 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:24.280 last twenty five years, and we're up to number so 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.600 it probably won't surprise you to learn that water is 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:29.680 the most consumed material on Earth. But can you guess 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.760 what comes in second? Mm? I'm gonna go with coffee. 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.040 You know I might have guessed that too, but know 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:39.360 the answer is concrete. Oh really? Since the Industrial Revolution, 0:12:39.520 --> 0:12:43.520 humans have poured nearly nine hundred billion tons of concrete, 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.000 and nowadays we're pouring the stuff at a breakneck speed, 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.240 especially in the developing world. For example, in the time 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:55.440 period between twenty eleven and twenty thirteen, China poured more 0:12:55.520 --> 0:12:59.760 cement than the US did during the entire twentieth century. 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.640 Isn't that incredible? But all that concrete has a big downside. 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.160 It's responsible for eight to nine percent of global carbon 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:08.240 dioxide emissions. 0:13:09.120 --> 0:13:11.280 I never thought of concrete as being such a big 0:13:11.360 --> 0:13:13.280 pollution problem. I know, it's not a great thing. I 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.880 think of, you know, the sidewalks and things that cars 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:17.640 drive on, But I didn't think of it in that way. 0:13:18.160 --> 0:13:21.400 Yeah, I didn't realize it either. But apparently making concrete 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.800 is an energy intensive process. So it starts by taking 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.120 limestone and baking it to temperatures over twenty six hundred 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:32.480 degrees fahrenheit. That kind of heat requires powerful kilns fired 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.120 by fossil fuels, and that's just to make cement. To 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.000 turn cement into concrete, you have to add aggregates like sand, 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.360 and really lots of it. As a result, sand mining 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.560 is a big business around the world. We've actually talked 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.480 about this before. There's even a burgeoning black market for sand, 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.960 backed by so called sand mafias. Anyway, this dangerous mix 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.600 of pollution, mining and mafia's got scientists wondering how to 0:13:56.640 --> 0:14:00.000 make concrete production more green, Like, what if we supple 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.720 minute sand with something else, something more sustainable, something that 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.880 could reduce concrete's carbon footprint. And it's something that you 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.679 mentioned just a few minutes ago. Wait, coffee. Yeah, so coffee. 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.160 Every day, humans drink two billion cups of coffee and 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:17.720 most of the coffee grinds just end up in a landfill. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:22.400 But in twenty twenty three, Australian engineering researchers had an idea, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.200 what if we used those ground up beans to make concrete. 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.720 So that's what they did. They scorched coffee grounds to 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.800 about six hundred degrees, which made the grounds break down 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:37.320 into a substance called biochar, which is basically charcoal. And 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.120 when they began testing, they discovered that if you replaced 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.240 just fifteen percent of the sand in concrete with coffee 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:48.560 fueled biochar, the concrete becomes thirty percent stronger. And how 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.560 does that actually work. It turns out the biochar retains 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.480 water better than sand, and as a result, the concrete 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.320 cries slower than usual, which reduces the risk of shrinking 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:01.920 and cracking, helping it maintain its strength. There are actually 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:05.720 two benefits to this discovery. One, by using spent coffee, 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:09.160 it reduces the demand for sand, and two, by making 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.520 concrete stronger, it reduces the amount of cement required for 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:16.000 each bag, and with less cement and sand required, the 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.720 total carbon footprint of each bag of concrete could drop significantly. 0:15:20.200 --> 0:15:23.120 As it happens, a major industry group called the Global 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.760 Cement and Concrete Association has pledged to go carbon neutral 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.320 by twenty fifty and thanks to those coffee loving Aussies, 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.360 they've got a really strong foundation to work with. It's 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.680 an incredible discovery and asso pun mego. I'll take it 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:41.440 all right now, mego. 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:43.000 We happen to be living through one of the most 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.920 polarizing moments in recent history. IM sure if you've noticed this, 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:49.280 But I think one thing we can all agree on 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.000 is that dinosaurs are really, really cool. That should be 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.240 the thing that brings us together. In fact, that might 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.680 be some of the firmest common ground we have left 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:58.880 at this point. What do you think? 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:01.480 Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think a little more 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:04.840 positively than that, but in general, yeah, I mean, everyone 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:06.240 loves dinosaurs. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.320 Exactly, and it's always struck me that even though we're 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.600 dealing with creatures that are over one hundred million years 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.400 old in some cases, to this day, we are still 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.200 finding new things out about them. And the last quarter 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:20.640 century has been particularly generous. We've on earthed so many 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:24.120 new fossils and developed so many breakthrough research techniques that 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:28.320 some scientists are now calling this the Golden Age of paleontology. 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:28.840 Huh. 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.400 There are way too many of these dino revelations for 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.680 us to cover today, but singling out just one didn't 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.360 seem right either, So instead, I thought I would walk 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:39.640 us through some of my favorite highlights and they can 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:41.320 kind of all share this spot together. 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.440 What do you think, I love it like a big 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.720 heap of dino discoveries is exactly what this science series needs. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:52.040 Absolutely, I thought you'd approve of this. So what stuck 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.000 out to me most is all this research that sort 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.040 of challenges what we thought we knew about dinosaurs, which 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:58.840 for most of us is just what we saw in 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:00.000 the Jurassic Park movie. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:00.280 Sure. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.440 For instance, in one of the most famous scenes of 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:05.679 the original movie, we see a t rex chasing after 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:07.919 a speed jeep and nearly catching up to it. 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.159 So that didn't happen in real life. That was just 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:11.240 a movie, Yeah, exactly. 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:14.000 In fact, she was even closer than she appeared to 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:15.440 remember because of that whole mirror. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:17.480 Yeah, I think we all remember that. 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.920 That scene was considered plausible for nearly a decade after 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.880 the film's release, with many paleontologists speculating that a real 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.600 t rex could run as fast as forty five miles 0:17:27.600 --> 0:17:31.040 an hour. But in two thousand and two, researchers John 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.760 Hutchinson and Mariano Garcia used some clever math to show 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:37.800 that the rex likely had a much slower role than 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:42.200 we previously thought. So, using biomechanical data from the dinosaur's 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.920 closest living relatives those would be birds, now, the pair 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.840 was able to extrapolate just how much muscle mass it 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.760 would take for an animal the size of a t 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:54.520 rex to actually be able to run. As a general rule, 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.080 no more than fifty percent of an animal's body mass 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.800 is composed of muscle in only a fraction of that 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.879 muscle is allocated to the legs. But for a t 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.920 rex to run forty five miles an hour, its leg 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.679 muscles would need to account for eighty six percent of 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.040 its total body. Right, some real masks. 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.760 Those are monster legs. It feels like the leg muscles 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.600 would be up to its eyeballs. But uh, you know, 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:19.320 in that case, there's no room for anything else. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.080 Yeah, it doesn't add up there. So even though the 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:24.760 researchers had poked a giant hole in one of Jurassic 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:28.320 Park's best scenes, the filmmakers didn't hold it against them. 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.000 In fact, Hutchinson was even hired to consult on one 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.439 of the Jurassic Park sequels based on the strength of 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:34.120 this breakthrough. 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.320 That's pretty awesome. But I'm curious, do we know what 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:39.040 a t rex's top speed would be? 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.879 Well, the two thousand and two study concluded that t 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:44.600 rex would have had a hard time topping twenty five 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.679 miles an hour, and according to a twenty seventeen study 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:50.800 from the University of Manchester, they probably can only reach 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.119 speeds of around twelve miles a mile, so any faster 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:57.480 and the seven ton predators would risk shattering their bones. 0:18:57.520 --> 0:19:00.280 Actually. Wow, so it's almost like at speed that a 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:02.000 human could outrun. At this pace. 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:04.879 Yeah, and remember that's the top speed. The t Rex 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.600 was even slower when walking exactly how slow remained a 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:12.480 mystery until twenty twenty one, when Dutch researchers built on 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:16.000 those earlier findings and used computer modeling to prove that 0:19:16.080 --> 0:19:18.720 Rex walked at a leisurely pace of between two and 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.800 three miles an hour. Now, another point of departure from 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.520 the Jurassic movies is that the predatory dinosaurs, including t Rex, 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.800 did not have permanently exposed teeth. Researchers and artists have 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.800 long believed that bipedal carnivores have lipless mouths where their 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.719 upper teeth would hang over their lower jaws, not unlike 0:19:37.040 --> 0:19:38.959 you know, maybe like a crocodile or something like that. 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:41.440 But according to a twenty twenty three study from the 0:19:41.520 --> 0:19:46.240 University of Portsmouth, the dinos actually kept their choppers discreetly 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:49.879 covered with a pair of thick lizard lips. Isn't that 0:19:49.960 --> 0:19:52.720 kind of funny to imagine? So the researchers found that 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:56.679 toothwaar and lipless reptile groups was much different from that 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.560 of carnivorous dinosaurs, and based on computer modeling, it would 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.320 have been impossible for a lipless t rex to close 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.720 its mouth without the lower jaw actually crushing the very 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:08.000 bones that supported it. 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:12.000 That is really interesting, And you know, I feel like 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:16.360 with all these breakthroughs, they've kind of defanged this idea 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.320 of a really frightening t rex, right, but like suddenly 0:20:20.400 --> 0:20:23.520 they're like only strolling around at two miles per hour. 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.359 Like they don't have those goofy grins anymore, right, you know, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.400 bearing their teeth and a dinosaurs supposed to have feathers, 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:34.720 right like on top of everything else, they're fluffy. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:37.320 Actually, I've got some good news on that front because 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:40.480 while many dinosaurs are now believed to have sported feathers, 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.640 including raptors and a few of the t rex's cousins, 0:20:44.040 --> 0:20:46.560 the rex itself is thought to have had this smooth, 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.560 more scaly skin. The exception would have been juvenile t rexes, 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.920 whose small bodies may have needed feathers for thermal insulation 0:20:54.680 --> 0:20:57.080 by the time they reach adulthood, though their forty foot 0:20:57.119 --> 0:20:59.760 long bodies were so good at retaining heat that they 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:02.800 know or needed those downy coats. So if anything, an 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:05.200 adult t rex may have had a stripe of bristles 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:07.560 on its back and shoulders, but those would have been 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:09.920