WEBVTT - Have all the good ideas already been discovered? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.920 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know? 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:16.439 From House Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.120 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:22.360 Charles W. Chuck Bryant. And that makes the stuff you 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:27.080 should know. That's right, Yes, it is not other imitators. 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:29.360 I wonder how many times I've said that that makes 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:31.960 the stuff you should know. No, the just the whole spiel, 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:34.520 the whole opening. Hey, you welcome to the podcast. Well 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.640 you've said it about two hundred and seventy. Sometimes I think, 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.520 luckily we have them all saved and we could count 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.240 we do. I don't know if it's lucky, though, Chuck, 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:44.880 that's a lot of shows, dude, we should do something 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.320 special for three hundred. That's like, that's a lot of shows. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.040 It is that makes me probably Okay, Well, do you 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.320 think maybe we could get some cake around here or something? 0:00:54.760 --> 0:00:58.080 Shrimp cocktail the love of Pete. No, I'm allergic to 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.320 shrimp now, I remember, I know, But to let a 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:04.480 throat out there. Actually, I had a shrimp wanton the 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.119 other day and nothing happened. I had a wanton with 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.200 shrimp and nothing happened. So it was just like tiny 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:12.840 little bits of shrimp. And I don't know either that 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:16.600 or I'm getting stronger. Maybe so superhuman, you might say 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:22.240 trans human speaking of human um, chuck. There is a 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:26.440 recent study that came out in part from one of 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.760 our universities here in the city, Emory, right down the street, 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.880 Great School. There's been this problem that's been plaguing researchers 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.679 for a really long time, and that is at the 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.240 beginning of the Lower Paleolithic period, which is about two 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:47.200 points seven million years ago, we started using sharp rocks 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:52.880 as bashing and cutting tools. So we figured that out. Okay, 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.040 you can take a rock, that's technology. That's not horse, 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:59.080 that's technology. Yes, okay, you can take this rock and 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:01.400 you can use it to when a coconut or the 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:04.120 head of someone who's wrong. Do you using an implement 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:09.920 to complete attack? Well, specifically sharp rocks? Okay? It took 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.840 two million years the end of the Lower Paleolithic period 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.400 before we figured out that we could actually attach handles 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.280 to these things. And tournament how long it took? Yes, 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.359 And this is baffled scientists, like, how could it possibly 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.119 have taken two million years to go from using your 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:33.680 hand to attaching a stick. You know, this doesn't make 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:36.880 any sense. So, um, well they were dumb back then. 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.359 Well a dumb is close to it. They would literally 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.960 were lacking the region of the brain needed. Apparently, according 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:51.280 to this new study, Um, they they basically we developed 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:55.600 a region in the right hemisphere, specifically the supra marginal gyrus, 0:02:56.520 --> 0:02:59.919 which allowed us to go, hey, let's put a hand 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.799 on this. And after we did that, we moved out 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:04.920 of Africa and started colonizing the rest of the world. 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:07.840 So that's they've been pointed the region of the brain 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:13.120 that is specific to innovation, too specific to um stone toolmaking. Okay, 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.520 I thought you meant innovation in general. No, like that's 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:17.800 where your ideas come from. No, give me a second, 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.320 old ramp all shoot, did every rue it? It's okay? Um. 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:23.440 So we go from I can't figure out how to 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.600 attach a handle to a sharp rocky two million years 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:29.680 we figured that out, We leave Africa, and we start 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:31.280 colonizing the rest of the world, and all of a 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.880 sudden things start entering light speed, right, And it seems 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.600 like over the last couple hundred years, you know, especially 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:43.640 since the Industrial Revolution, our ability to innovate, to grasp 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:47.160 new ideas, to understand the world around us has just 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.920 been hitting this hyper speed, and a lot of people 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:55.200 wonder if we've reached a point where all the ideas, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.640 all the good ones at least, have already been discovered, 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:02.800 all the we under stand how everything works, and there's 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.840 really just figuring out how to dot the eyes and 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.080 cross the teas right right. There was actually a guy 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.440 who famously said in guy named Charles Buell. I love 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.880 this quote. He was, He was the commissioner of the 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.039 Patents Office. That's attributed to him, I should say, but 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.520 he said something like everything that can be invented has 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:25.160 already been invented. And he said this in a memo, 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.400 basically saying like you should go ahead and shut down 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:31.440 the patent office. He clearly had never considered the Snuggie 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:39.120 Josh or anything that's been invented since. So here's what 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:40.880 I'm gonna say. I'm gonna go ahead and give you 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.400 my summation early on, Okay, is that I think people 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:49.160 think at various times in history that they've plateaued, and 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:52.919 then I think things happen. People come along innovators and 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.560 then they reached new heights and they go, oh, well, 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:59.320 we didn't know that, and we there are new ideas, right. 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.240 It's it's on most umb. It almost displays a shameful 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.560 lack of historic awareness to say we've reached the end 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.480 of all of our good ideas. It's just it's just 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:14.440 asking to be made a fool of, yeah, or for 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:16.800 people to maybe people do that on purpose, to go 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.880 the innovators and say, oh, yeah, right, using reverse psychology, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.400 you know that's how innovation works. Yeah, you might as 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:28.320 well just give up. Reverse psychology drives innovation. There are 0:05:28.360 --> 0:05:32.880 people though, that say that technological that real technological innovation 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:37.240 has been stalled for quite a while. Yes, after the 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.719 nineties computer revolution, everything else since then has kind of 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:46.680 been like, uh, packaging it and better looking cases and 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.120 sleeker designs, and it's all like design oriented it is, 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:56.360 or marketing oriented. These these guys Cedric Lagare and Eric Virdo, 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:02.000 we're both with scheme of business school. Um basically say, smartphones, Yes, 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.520 they seem incredibly new and cutting in, but really they're 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:10.279 just the packaging of several already extant technologies into a 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.360 really sharp looking handheld device, but there's still a new idea. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.719 I would argue it is still a new idea. But 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:19.400 I think what their point is is saying, like, but 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:23.000 before the late nineties and before the eighties, let's say, 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.080 with computers, but especially the tech boom of the telecom 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.719 boom of the late nineties, Like this stuff wasn't around, Like, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:34.000 it's not true innovation rights, it's kind of repurposing and 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:38.080 what you were saying, like the cosmetic changes to a computer. Um. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.600 One of the reasons why they they believe that this 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:44.520 is going on is because we've come to a point 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:50.080 in the computer revolution. I think, chuck, where, Um, it's 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:54.160 not you can still make tons of cash just by 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.520 changing the casing of a CPU. Yeah, there's like no 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.919 money in innovation basically, is what I got from this 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.240 one article is that innovation costs more than it's worth 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:07.160 when you can just repackage what you've got in a 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.840 sleeker design and people buy it up. Exactly. Um, these 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.520 two authors of this article, UM predict that we're gonna 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:19.040 have two trends that will drive innovation. I guess currently right, yes, 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.720 that consolidation where basically like especially with I think they're 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.400 talking just about computers. Yeah, because they're saying the big 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:30.000 hardware firms are going to all consolidate all of the 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.520 smaller hardware firms to where they'll just basically be like 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:37.120 the Big three or five, and that will leave it 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.920 to the software firms to compete and innovate, so we'll 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.000 see more innovation in the software side rather than the 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:45.800 hardware side. And they're also saying that, um, the green 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.560 boom is going to drive innovation that makes sense, like 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:54.160 coming up with sustainable packages or sustainable solutions. Yeah, totally. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:56.640 One of the other things I pointed out thought was 0:07:56.680 --> 0:08:00.880 interesting was the they said they said the tes uh 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.200 they call it the tech refresh cycle is too small 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.880 right now. So what's happening is they'll say, Um, you 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:11.000 like your CD, well you're gonna love the the Super 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:13.840 Audio CD or Blu Ray. Do you like your DVD. 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.160 You're gonna love Blu Ray. But guess what's coming up 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:18.800 after Blu Ray. It's gonna be like Super Blue Ray. 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:23.280 It's happening so fast. People aren't abandoning their current systems. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:24.440 They're just like, you know what, I'm gonna hold on 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:25.800 because I don't want to be the guy stuck with 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.640 the laser disc player in a couple of years, so 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:31.720 all of a sudden, the same thing happens. No one's 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.040 buying it, so it's not worth a much money, which 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:36.600 means that nobody's putting any effort into it and money 0:08:36.640 --> 0:08:39.400 into it. So innovation sees right. And there's a guy, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.960 um named Edmund Phelps who's a professor of political economy 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.280 at Columbia University, right, and he's basically kind of saying 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.400 the same thing. He's saying that, Um, there's not enough 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.920 money going toward innovation. But rather than the the onus 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:00.800 being put on consumers not buying blue rays of fear 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:05.960 of looking like laser disc jerks, Um, it's actually government 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:10.839 and big business that's not pouring money into small innovators. Yeah, 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:12.680 he said, that's the innovation is the only thing not 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:15.439 subsidized by the United States government, which he says is 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:20.240 actually attacks in a way because it's not being subsidized. Reach. 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.920 You could definitely, Yeah, I think a lot of these 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:26.640 guy's points are reached. But um, what he's suggesting is 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:31.600 if the government isn't pouring money into big business so 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:37.760 that they can pour money into I guess small venture firms. Um, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.640 these people who are in their garages aren't going to 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.880 take you know, risks, They're not going to innovate. There's 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.760 no incentive. Right. I disagree with this. I dispute this 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:50.840 because he's saying, like the people who do work in 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:53.800 their garages and you know, are the Steve Jobs and 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.400 Bill Gates in the seventies, that they were driven by 0:09:57.520 --> 0:10:00.600 this lust for money exactly. And I think that's wrong. 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:04.080 I think that people innovate first and foremost to get 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.880 this idea out of their head and birth into reality. Right. 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:10.160 I'm glad you said this because I completely agreed. Regardless 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:12.760 of what you think of the Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg didn't 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.720 invent Facebook to make gobs of money. He invented to 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.520 make real friends. Yeah, to to innovate. And that's what 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.000 that's my point that you made is that these people 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.720 in the garage, the true innovators. They don't care if 0:10:24.720 --> 0:10:27.000 they have two pennies to rub together. They're still gonna 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:29.719 be trying to innovate and make a name for themselves 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:31.800 and come up with something awesome. Right. And now there 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.880 are people out there who are trying to innovate for 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.120 you know, the riches sure. The guy who invented the 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:41.000 snugg he wasn't in his garage and just wanted to 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:43.560 kind of get this out or else I'm never gonna sleep. Yeah, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:45.760 that's the people that are looking for the next get 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.720 rich quick thing. But I think you can also make 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:53.400 a point that, um, when you introduce money to innovation, 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:58.559 it leads to actual stagnation. Um, because when you introduce money, 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:03.040 there's now uh something to lose, and people are less 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.280 willing to take risks, and risk is one of the 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.719 driving the willingness to take risk is one of the 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.520 driving forces of innovation. You know. Yeah, well, I Phelps 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:12.960 had a good idea, uh and this will never happen, 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.600 of course, because it's a good idea to create the 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:20.120 first national Bank of innovation all capitalized capitalized not all caps, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.480 but each word is capitalized. He should do it all 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.560 in all caps with exclamation points. But basically, it would 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:31.280 be a bank that you could go and partner, you know, 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:33.360 as a startup company and partner with his bank for 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:37.040 financing and you know, get I would guess some sort 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.199 of low interest loans to spur innovation. Right. That was 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:42.280 a great idea, So it is. It is a good 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.720 idea and this does happen in the real world, and 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:49.239 the government does pour money into innovation. He's not exactly 0:11:49.280 --> 0:11:52.240 correct in that sense. And I also kind of resented 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:57.840 that he placed big business in between you know, people 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:02.120 in their garage innovating and you know, government subsidies that 0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:04.800 we have to have big business give them the money 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:06.520 and then skim a little off the top and give 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:08.520 it to this guy in the garage. He's drawing broad 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.600 strokes here. For sure. There are government programs, and we'll 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.560 talk about one from the National Institutes of Health where 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.760 the government says, hey, you have a really good idea, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:21.640 Mr or MS research scientists, and we're gonna give you 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:25.200 enough money to survive for three years. Yeah, because the 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:27.600 deal is you can always get grants if you know, 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:30.640 you put together a nice package. But this program with 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.360 the n i H what's it called the New Innovator Award, 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:38.439 Director's New Innovator Award. This is uh intended for people 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:42.120 who have such a good idea, but it's so new 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.800 that they don't have the data to write a grant 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:46.720 where people would say, like, it looks like you're onto 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:49.120 something here, So they're sort of throwing money at stuff. 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:51.920 That's like, you know, you're the dude in the garage 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.000 and we believe in this idea. Go see what you 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.520 can find out, right, and we're keeping big business out 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.920 of the way. Yes, but now that and I h 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.520 owns you for the rest of your career. Yeah, So 0:13:02.600 --> 0:13:05.000 let's talk about UM. There's three people at U c 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:08.520 l A That got these grants recently and they're up 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.920 to some kind of some interesting one could say innovative stuff, right. 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:15.640 They have some good ideas, hugely innovative about how to 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:21.160 UM approach problems, like the professor Dino di Carlo. All 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.400 these I think these people are younger than us. By 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:27.880 the way, UM Dino de Carlo is working on ways 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:32.520 to basically apply heat or pressure or chemicals to very 0:13:32.640 --> 0:13:39.000 specific sites in cells using nanoparticles and magnets, which is tough, 0:13:39.080 --> 0:13:42.400 sounds like a winning idea to me. Is basically one 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.200 of the big problems we have with UM getting cells, 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:49.840 engineering cells to do specific things, like UM, I don't know, 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.719 attack other cells for fun. Like if tell me that 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:57.240 wouldn't be like a big Christmas gift this year, if 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.760 you could like make cells fight with one another under 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:05.440 the microscope, UM then what you have to basically try 0:14:05.480 --> 0:14:08.640 to engineer the cell, you know, time after time after time, 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.760 and basically program it to do what you want it 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.600 to do. What Di Carlo is coming up with is 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.160 a way to use very tiny magnets and even tinier 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:24.520 nano particles that can basically you, my brain is so small. 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:29.680 When you move the magnet with a joystick, it attracts 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:31.920 the nano particles in a certain direction or whatever, and 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.880 you can have the nano particles apply heat or pressure 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.360 or a specific chemical to a specific site on a 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.800 cell and direct it to go attack another cell for 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:44.160 your pleasure. That's awesome, your amusement. So one point five 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:47.800 mill goes to uh de Carlo and for a good reason. 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:49.680 And for a good reason. The other winner, one of 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.880 the other winners, was Hugh Wang, and you came up 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:58.840 with basically, I'm gonna break this down easy. Instead of saying, 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.880 let me come up with cure for cancer, hu Wang said, 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:05.760 let me come up with a way to detect cancer 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.240 so early, like way earlier than we've ever detected it before, 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:13.200 that we can stop in his track essentially curing cancer. 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.760 And he's doing this, actually I don't know, she's doing 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:22.560 this um through uh nano material called graphine that is 0:15:22.640 --> 0:15:27.520 just one atom thick. Yes, graphine is like the super 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.400 clearly not of this world material. It's literally a carbon 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:36.320 atom thick. That's it. So, but it is a biological 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.040 sensor to tell you when cells aren't doing the things 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:40.960 that should be doing. So did you know a graham 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:46.600 of this stuff? It's flattened covers a football field. Wow, 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.720 it's ultra light. That is thin, my friend, it's one 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.560 atom thin. So one point five mail to hu Wang, Right, well, 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.640 did you explain how? Let me let me try my 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.240 hand at this. So basically what you do is you um, 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:08.160 you put a graphine conductor transistor UM in a cell 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:12.120 and when these biological markers right say his stones or 0:16:12.160 --> 0:16:16.400 something like that, start to accumulate, they're attracted to the graphing. 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:18.880 And these, by the way these biological markers are, we 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.720 found are correlated with the growth of cancer, the origin 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.080 of cancer. That's where they're starting. UM. And when some 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.320 of these markers like are attracted to the graphing, they 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:31.280 create an electrical charge that we can sense. And the 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.360 graphine is so thin but so highly conductive that um 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.160 with just a couple of these molecules attaching to the graphing. 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.040 We would be able to detect it and be like, 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:46.960 oh right, we'd be like, oh crap, you have cancer 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:50.320 and we'd cure it right then. Wow, Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:51.960 and it's a good way to approach a cure for cancer. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:53.720 If you asked me, did I explain that? Well? I 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.120 think so. I think the last winner this year was 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:00.960 Jen Hill Lee and Jin is trying to debug the 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:03.680 brain circuit using you know, we have the Wonder Machine, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.600 which is our favorite thing in the world fm R I, 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.680 which measures uh measures. It measures blood and oxygen levels 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.480 in the brain, so it tells you these areas light 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:16.840 up there called bold signals blood and oxygen level dependent. 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.600 They light up to correspond a certain brain right, And 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:22.680 we've talked about this before, like you're seeing that there's 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:25.880 more oxygen that's going to that part of the brain. 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:27.960 So we've assumed this is the basis of the f 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.520 m R I. If it has more oxygen being delivered 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:33.199 to it, that must mean that that region of the 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:36.040 brain is active. When you show somebody a picture of 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:39.800 you know, their kid, like being carried away into a 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:44.080 van that you know that's the fear region right there. Um. 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.200 That doesn't really say anything though, and it doesn't. It 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:51.480 doesn't also implicate well it's it's not it's showing. Okay, 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.120 well there's more oxygen in this region, right? What this is, um? 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:59.960 What what genuine Lee is looking at is um how 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:05.400 or what specifically on the neuronal level is being activated? Right? 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:08.159 And he's using opt to genetics, So it's going to 0:18:08.160 --> 0:18:11.400 be called the O F M R I. And that's 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:14.480 beyond even what we thought was the wonder machine. So 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.320 this is the super duper wonder machine. Basically, he's using 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:22.520 light to allow genetically specified neurons to be activated. Right. 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:25.119 Do you know, um, are one of our listeners that 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:27.960 Emory has been harping on us doing one on opt 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:31.359 to genetics for a while. We should get this person 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:33.520 in here. This is probably his closest forever gonna come 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.640 out and it uh, well it's a great idea though 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:42.200 obviously because Jin Young Lee won one of the Innovator 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.960 Awards as well. Yes, and they give these out every year, 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:47.800 so they clearly believe that we're not out of good ideas. 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:52.680 No excellent point choke h no, and we're not out 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:56.520 of good ideas. So yes, Chuck, we we you pick 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.919 those out. You found those guys all right, Well I 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:01.720 didn't personally find them. You're like, these guys should get 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:06.440 the UM. There are very good ideas out there, right, 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:15.200 But there is a debate that's raging in science UM 0:19:15.240 --> 0:19:20.919 about whether these ideas like optogenetics or um, you know, 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:27.360 using graphine or nanoparticles to cure detect cancer. UM, are 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:32.000 these variations on a theme? Are they applying cosmetic changes 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:37.320 to a computer rather than really creating new parts to it? Right? 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:43.080 And basically the question is, um, are are are there 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.200 any more major discoveries for us to make or are 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:50.000 these really just basically at Remember I've always said like 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:51.879 we we have the pieces on the table, now we 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:53.880 just have to put it together. Is that the point 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:57.679 that we're at? UM said we were, I did, and 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.000 then we started researching this, and I'm like, I wonder, 0:20:00.600 --> 0:20:03.680 I think I still do believe that. UM. But within 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:06.320 that though, there's so much that it's to me a 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:10.600 little bit like splitting hair. Well, but you're absolutely right, 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.040 especially when you throw in the word discovered, right, Discovery 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.040 indicates something that's already out there. We just figure it 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:21.360 out or stumble upon it and an idea necessarily kind 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.880 of UM invention leads, Yeah, it leads to an invention. 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.720 It's something we we've created, like technology. So let's talk 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:34.280 about discovery, right. We have a lot of UM problems 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:37.400 that are still facing us and how we understand the universe, 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:43.360 like human consciousness. How do brain cells create our understanding 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:46.160 of the world, like what we see as reality? How 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.720 is that possible? And can we figure everything out? Well, 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.080 that's the big question. Is there there's a UM there's 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:54.960 Like I said, there's a lot of debate about whether 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:58.200 or not we will ever be able to figure everything out, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:03.080 or if the human brain just simply isn't UM programmed 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:09.040 to understand the world? Uh fully, you know, will will. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:11.479 There's a guy who's a physicist. His name is um 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.719 Russell Standard, and he's written this book called The End 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:17.720 of Discovery, and basically he's saying he says that we're 0:21:17.720 --> 0:21:21.959 in quote a transient age of human development, right where 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:24.760 we're past the point where we figured out you can 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.000 put a handle on a rock and make it an ax. 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:33.600 But we're right before the point where we can no 0:21:33.680 --> 0:21:37.680 longer make discoveries. Not because we've understood everything or figured 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.000 everything out. But because we've reached the limits of what 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:44.040 is noble for the human brain. But even that, look 0:21:44.080 --> 0:21:48.000 at that, that part of the the right hemisphere that 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.840 developed and allowed us to put the axe handle on, right, 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:55.000 who's to say that our brain won't that we won't 0:21:55.040 --> 0:21:58.359 reach that point where we can't know anything any longer, 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.600 or I can't know everything? And in uh, we evolve 0:22:01.640 --> 0:22:04.160 even further and all of a sudden we're even better 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:09.040 at um understanding our world. Right, But will we end 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:14.200 up eventually coming to a point where humans understand everything 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.520 and there is no more discovery to make I say no, 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.600 because he he points out in here and this is 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.119 I think very valid from the Midnight century, the nineteenth century. 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.159 I'm sorry they said that. A lot of people in 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:27.520 science said, you know, we've kind of debunked religion and 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:31.080 philosophy and all these things with scientific discovery. But he 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:33.439 points out, and I agree that even if you figure 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.200 out all the problems of science, which will never happen, 0:22:36.800 --> 0:22:41.520 there's still human life and consciousness in the subjectivity of 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:45.920 what goes on inside a person's head. You're never gonna 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:52.480 solve that's not solvable, right, that's what I argue. That's subjectivism. Yeah, 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:54.640 before I think I believe in that there, well, they're 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.480 the whole the I guess I I agree with you. Um, 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.200 there's this aspect of the universe that Kant called the 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:07.440 new Amenon, new amenon that was specifically tailored from my 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.040 thick time. But basically the new aminon is the thing 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:16.600 itself right where um it has. It's just the objective. 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:22.240 It's the objective universe, and we don't interact with that. 0:23:22.400 --> 0:23:26.119 Everything we know and understand is subjective, and this is 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:29.240 where subjectivism is is based that basically we can never 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.520 fully know anything or and we certainly won't ever know 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.400 everything because one thing that will always be elusive is 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.040 what you see. My reality is different than your reality exactly, 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:43.160 and there's different. There's an extreme version of it called 0:23:43.240 --> 0:23:49.680 so solipsism, right, yes, and solipsism is the the um 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:55.800 this extreme version of subjectivism that basically says, um, we 0:23:56.480 --> 0:24:00.239