WEBVTT - 25 Greatest Science Ideas Countdown: Day 3 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.559 You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:14.560 and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? What's that? Mango? I can't 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:17.520 believe it, but we are already halfway through our countdown 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:20.439 to the twenty five best science ideas from the past 0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:21.400 twenty five years. 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:22.080 It's crazy. 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:25.079 So twelve and a half in exactly twelve and a 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.400 half in, and I don't know about you, but I 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:29.240 feel like these stories keep getting better and better. 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:31.400 I mean, that's kind of how it countdown works, but 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:33.960 I feel like you should tell people what is coming 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:35.960 up next, preview it well. 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.280 Today's episode has five stories, including what NASCAR does to 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:43.000 our brains, a clock that changed the way we think 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:48.120 about time, and our attempt to explain particle physics through music. 0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:49.919 Is that even possible? 0:00:50.080 --> 0:01:14.280 There's only one way to find out, so let's dive in. Hey, 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.520 their podcast listener is welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.959 mungkish Heatikaur and as always I'm joined by my good 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.160 friend Will Pearson and our palam producer Dylan is over 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:27.080 there in the booth wearing his lucky sunglasses. So I 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.280 have a good feeling about today's episode. So in case 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.760 you're wondering. Yes, he does have unlucky sunglasses. We had 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.199 to ask him to stop wearing them during the show. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.720 Only the lucky sunglasses. That's right, it was a whole thing. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:40.400 It was. 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:43.040 Anyway, Before we get into the countdown, I just want 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:45.360 to remind you to subscribe to Part Time Genius on 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.320 your favorite podcast app, which should be iHeart the iHeart app. 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:51.840 And if you enjoy the show, which I hope you do, 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:54.360 please give us a nice rating and review. It really 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:58.560 helps us out. And also we actually read the comments. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.720 Someone has to do a show on three D printing 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.160 and we're planning one in the works. And this week 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.080 someone named Elliott wrote the best podcast My name is Elliot? 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.240 Oh I like that, which is the greatest narrative. You know, 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:14.400 went from how he felt about the podcast to his name. 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:16.120 You know, it was good, good stuff. 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:19.480 Well, Elliott, if you're listening messages on our Instagram so 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.280 we can send you something fun. But let's get into 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:22.680 the show. 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.720 Actually, it just hit me Dylan is probably wearing those 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:29.320 glasses because you know what's next on our countown mango. 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.160 That Dylan is so clever. Okay, so the first thing 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.799 we're covering today is NASCAR now. Over the years, there 0:02:37.840 --> 0:02:40.520 have been lots of studies on NASCAR to improve the 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.239 safety for drivers. There have been research papers on how 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.400 the car's bodies and safety measures affect injuries. NASCAR also 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.400 awarded a grant to Michigan State University to study everything 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:54.280 from heat exhaustion and drivers to figure out better exercises 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:57.600 and diet regimen for the athletes. And there have been 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:02.000 studies on why fatherhood affects driver is because NASCAR drivers 0:03:02.040 --> 0:03:05.480 often drop one point six places on average the year 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:06.640 after having a kid. 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:08.440 Wow, it does kind of make you wonder like if 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.880 it's at all related to the fact that they're probably 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:11.640 sleeping less. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.480 I think that's probably part of it. But scientists also 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.080 hypothesize that when you have a kid, you think about 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.240 your mortality. Mon Yeah, and so you might be less 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:22.760 prone to make risky moves on the course. That makes 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.640 sense anyway. The most interesting study I read about was 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:30.880 done by this psychologist, Guy Vidioloni from West Virginia University 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:35.000 Institute of Technology, and it's a four year study called 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.080 quote Driving under the Influence of Nascar. It isn't so 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.400 much about what happens on the track as it is 0:03:41.520 --> 0:03:45.240 how the races influence people watching at home. So, according 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:49.240 to NPR, Vidilioni looked at all the traffic accidents that 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.040 took place in West Virginia and then whittled it down 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.280 to accidents that mimicked what happened on a racetrack. So 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.760 these were things like pile ups of multiple cars or 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.320 accidents where there was aggressive driving. And his conclusion was 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.320 that five days after major NASCAR races, there's a big 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:11.680 spike in traffic accidents. Now Villelioni actually put in a 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:13.720 whole bunch of controls to make sure he wasn't just 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.760 saying something wild. He wanted to be really conservative about 0:04:16.760 --> 0:04:20.040 his conclusions. But he counted about six hundred and fifty 0:04:20.200 --> 0:04:23.400 extra accidents on West Virginia roads in the days after 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.760 the races, essentially because people were quote acting out NASCAR 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.560 in their own driving this wild. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:33.359 Although the thing that stands out to me, Mango is like, 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:35.920 why is this on the fifth day after a race 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.440 instead of like immediately after. I don't think he figured 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:39.680 that part out exactly. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.360 Like he theorized that maybe it's because races tend to 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:45.440 take place on weekends and so a Thursday or Friday 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:47.320 after it tends to be the days that you let 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.000 loose after a rough week. But his study is really 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.200 pointing to the subtle ways that media affects behavior in 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.720 the real world. Now, NASCAR is just one example of this. 0:04:56.800 --> 0:05:00.520 Another famous case is of the MTV show sixteen Pregnant, 0:05:00.760 --> 0:05:03.960 where the reality show actually captured the difficulties for high 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.200 school students trying to raise kids, and people were really 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.760 affected by it. The show led to a five point 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:14.240 seven percent reduction in teen births, which apparently was a 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.560 third of the overall decline in teen berths in the country. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:18.680 Oh wow. Yeah. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.400 Academics actually sometimes refer to it as the you are 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.159 what you watch phenomenon, and it's pretty interesting to see, 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.920 sort of like how MLK talked about the interracial kiss 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.400 on the original Star Trek being one of the most 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:33.320 important moments on television, or how President Joe Biden credited 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.320 Will and Grace with changing America's perception of gays more 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:37.599 than just about anything else. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.680 Yeah, that's right. So anyway, this whole NASCAR thing won't 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:42.840 be a problem ten to fifteen years from now, when 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.400 we're all taking way Mos everywhere and getting chow for 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:49.080 around and robotic cars. But until then, all you NASCAR 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.320 watchers out there, he doctor Vilioni's advice, and be a 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:55.800 little mindful of how you're driving the week after a 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.680 big race. We want to keep you safe. 0:05:57.800 --> 0:05:58.480 Absolutely. 0:05:58.920 --> 0:05:59.520 Wow. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.600 All right, Mago. Let's say you are a clockmaker. I'm 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:04.560 just going to say that. Okay, Now you've built a 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.800 beautiful time piece that counts hours and minutes. But now 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:10.159 you've got a problem. You want your clock to count 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:14.120 each second with pinpoint accuracy. So how do you do it. 0:06:14.120 --> 0:06:16.440 It turns out you need to crack open the periodic 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.240 table because according to the International System of Units, this 0:06:20.440 --> 0:06:23.800 is how you measure a second. Quote. The second is 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:27.839 defined by taking the fixed numerical value of the cesium frequency, 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.800 the unperturbed ground state high per fine transition frequency of 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:35.279 the cesium one thirty three atom to be nine billion, 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:37.640 one hundred and ninety two million, six hundred and thirty 0:06:37.680 --> 0:06:41.160 one thousand, seven hundred and seventy when expressed in the 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:44.120 unit hurts, which is equal to s the power of 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:45.320 negative one. You got it. 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.600 So that is the definition of a second. 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:50.680 Yeah, it's the definition of a second. I got lost 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.040 in the reading of it, but as you may have noticed, 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.560 it's a little bit complicated. So the only way to 0:06:55.600 --> 0:06:58.320 measure it is with an atomic clock. And the way 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.080 this work sounds completely made out, but I promise it's 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.760 actually real. Basically, an atomic clock is a machine that 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.599 shoots laser beams at caesium ions, measures frequency at which 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:11.920 their electrons jump to different energy levels, and then sends 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.640 the readings to a place called the International Bureau of 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.040 Weights and Measures. So this is a real place. It's 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.760 a real inner governmental organization. Yeah, and it's actually based 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:23.280 in France. 0:07:23.840 --> 0:07:27.360 So we've got laser clock sending data to friends. I 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:28.600 guess I'm with you that far. 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.080 Okay, I'm glad you're keeping up. So there are around 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.320 four hundred and fifty atomic clocks in the world, all 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:37.600 sending these readings. So timekeepers at the International Bureau of 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.760 Weights and Measures they crunch these numbers from the clocks 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.440 and then vote on the quote official time, which they 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.920 publish in a monthly publication that comes out monthly called 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:50.480 Circular Tea. 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.200 I never thought i'd say this about anything that involves caesium, 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.360 but uh, that is pretty adorably whimsical. 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.640 It is in a way, but it's all so pretty 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:03.559 serious stuff like this process is how we determine what's 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.080 called international atomic time. And a standard atomic clock made 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.960 with caesium is so accurate it can keep time for 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.480 about one hundred million years without skipping a beat. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:14.840 Wow. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.840 But starting in the mid ads, researchers at the National 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.880 Institute of Standards and Technology, or in IST, a federal 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.000 lab in Colorado, they began developing a new generation of 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:28.240 atomic clocks that could make caesium seem outdated. 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.360 Actually, so what makes these atomic clocks so special? 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.880 Well, they use aluminum instead of caesium, so basically a 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:39.679 positive aluminum twenty seven ion. In two thousand and eight, 0:08:39.800 --> 0:08:43.520 NIST scientists built something they call the quantum logic clock. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:44.040 Now. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:48.120 It contains a single aluminum ion cooled to nearly absolute zero, 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.600 shot with an ultraviolet laser, and the aluminum ion acts 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.439 like the second hand on a clock, so it ticks 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.520 by jumping up and down between energy levels. But instead 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:01.920 of ticking once for every secondecond, it takes a quadrillion 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.120 times per second. That is a big number, man, And 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:09.119 it's so accurate it won't lose a second for thirty 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:12.720 three billion years. That's almost triple the age of the 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.040 observable universe. 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.600 That is really hard to imagine, yeah, or hard to 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:18.760 put to the test, I think. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:22.839 And this aluminum clock does more than just tell time. 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.319 It's even changing our understanding of space time because researchers 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:29.680 have used it to test Einstein's theory of relativity. According 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.040 to Einstein's theory, gravity affects the passage of time, So 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.760 the stronger the pull of gravity, the slower the time. 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:38.040 And as a result of this, somebody who lives in 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.520 the mountains of Colorado, where gravity's pull is slightly lower, 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.440 they'll age faster than somebody who lives at sea level. Now, 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.800 the quantum logic clock is so sensitive it actually proved 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.199 that a person's standing at the top of a staircase 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:55.440 or someone standing on a stool experienced a faster passage 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.560 of time. It showed that each additional foot of height 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.439 adds about ninety bills adience of a second to your lifetime. 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.400 So NBA players would live longer than jockeys as well. 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.320 I have a dumb question to ask, why do we 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:14.000 need clocks to be this accurate. 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.960 It's a fair question, but take GPS for example. GPS 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.160 isn't just a location tracking technology. It's also a type 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:23.520 of clock. So if you're driving down the highway and 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.120 the GPS is five seconds late telling you to take 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:27.960 an exit, you'd be pretty mad about this. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:28.280 Right. 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:31.240 For the GPS to be useful, it needs to show 0:10:31.280 --> 0:10:34.880 both an accurate location and an accurate time. It needs 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.240 that time to be precise down to the second. And 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:40.240 it turns out that's true for a lot of other 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:46.240 technologies as well. Take telecommunications, satellite networks, radio signals, lots 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.840 more things like this. Anyway, it's hard to overstate the 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:51.640 importance of this quantum logic clock in the nerdy and 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.360 wonderful world of timekeeping. Those caesium clocks that impressed you 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:57.720 at the start of this segment will eventually end up 0:10:57.760 --> 0:11:01.720 being obsolete. And while experiments with other elements are ongoing 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.520 right now, aluminum is the leading contender to become the 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.840 ticking heart of what we call a second. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:10.360 Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:12.800 for a quick break. But there is so much weird 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:31.079 science right after Welcome back to part time Genius. When 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:33.480 we're talking the twenty five greatest science ideas of the 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:38.480 last twenty five years, and we're up to number. So 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:40.800 it probably won't surprise you to learn that water is 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:43.880 the most consumed material on Earth. But can you guess 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:46.960 what comes in second m I'm gonna go with coffee. 0:11:47.240 --> 0:11:49.200 You know, I might have guessed that too, but know 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:51.359 the answer is concrete. 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:52.160 Oh really? 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.959 Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have poured nearly nine hundred 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.640 billion tons of concrete, and nowadays we're pouring the stuff 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:03.880 at a breakneck speed, especially in the developing world. For example, 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:07.920 in the time period between twenty eleven and twenty thirteen, 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.200 China poured more cement than the US did during the 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:16.079 entire twentieth century. Oh wow, isn't that incredible? But all 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.280 that concrete has a big downside. It's responsible for eight 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.400 to nine percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:25.480 I never thought of concrete as being such a big 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.440 pollution problem. I know, it's not a great thing. I 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.040 think of, you know, the sidewalks and things that cars 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:31.840 drive on, but I didn't think of it in that way. 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.520 Yeah, I didn't realize it either. But apparently making concrete 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.960 is an energy intensive process. So it starts by taking 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.320 limestone and baking it to temperatures over twenty six hundred 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:46.640 degrees fahrenheit. That kind of heat requires powerful kilns fired 0:12:46.640 --> 0:12:49.320 by fossil fuels, and that's just to make cement. To 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:53.160 turn cement into concrete, you have to add aggregates like sand, 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.560 and really lots of it. As a result, sand mining 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:58.760 is a big business around the world. We've actually talked 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.640 about this before. There's even a burgeoning black market for sand, 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:06.880 backed by a so called sand mafias. Anyway, this dangerous 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.680 mix of pollution, mining and mafias got scientists wondering how 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.880 to make concrete production more green, Like what if we 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.880 supplemented sand with something else, something more sustainable, something that 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:22.080 could reduce concrete carbon footprint. And it's something that you 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.600 mentioned just a few minutes ago. Wait, coffee, Yeah, I 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:28.480 so coffee nic Every day humans drank two billion cups 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:30.960 of coffee and most of the coffee grinds just end 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.600 up in a landfill. But in twenty twenty three, Australian 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:38.160 engineering researchers had an idea, what if we used those 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:42.080 ground up beans to make concrete. So that's what they did. 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:45.880 They scorched coffee grounds to about six hundred degrees, which 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.120 made the grounds break down into a substance called biochar, 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.920 which is basically charcoal, and when they began testing, they 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.720 discovered that if you replaced just fifteen percent of the 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.920 sand in concrete with coffee fueled biochar, the concrete becomes 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:01.760 thirty percent stronger. 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:03.720 And how does that actually work. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:06.960 It turns out the biochart retains water better than sand, 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:10.160 and as a result, the concrete dries slower than usual, 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:14.160 which reduces the risk of shrinking and cracking, helping it 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.280 maintain its strength. There are actually two benefits to this discovery. One, 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.480 by using spent coffee, it reduces the demand for sand, 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.520 and two, by making concrete stronger, it reduces the amount 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.800 of cement required for each bag, and with less cement 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:32.000 and sand required, the total carbon footprint of each bag 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.600 of concrete could drop significantly. As it happens, a major 0:14:35.720 --> 0:14:39.280 industry group called the Global Cement and Concrete Association has 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:43.080 pledged to go carbon neutral by twenty fifty and thanks 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:47.000 to those coffee loving Aussies, they've got a really strong 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:48.240 foundation to work with. 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:53.160 It's an incredible discovery and asoso pun mego, I'll take 0:14:53.200 --> 0:14:56.440 it all right now, mego. We happen to be living 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.520 through one of the most polarizing moments in recent history 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.680 if you've noticed this, But I think one thing we 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.040 can all agree on is that dinosaurs are really really cool. 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:07.960 It feels like this should be the thing that brings 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.000 us together. In fact, that might be some of the 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:12.560 firmest common ground we have left at this point. What 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:13.040 do you think. 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:15.640 Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think a little more 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:19.000 positively than that, but in general, yeah, I mean, everyone 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:20.560 loves dinosaurs exactly. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.120 And it's always struck me that, even though we're dealing 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:26.000 with creatures that are over one hundred million years old 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:29.160 in some cases, to this day, we are still finding 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.680 new things out about them. In the last quarter century 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.600 has been particularly generous. We've onearthed so many new fossils 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:39.200 and developed so many breakthrough research techniques that some scientists 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.480 are now calling this the Golden Age of paleontology. 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:42.680 Huh. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:45.560 There are way too many of these dino revelations for 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:48.880 us to cover today, but singling out just one didn't 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:51.520 seem right either, So instead I thought I would walk 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:53.800 us through some of my favorite highlights and they can 0:15:53.920 --> 0:15:56.040 kind of all share this spot together. What do you think. 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.239 I love it like a big heap of Dino discoveries 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:01.880 is exactly what this science series needs. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.840 I'd absolutely I thought you'd approve of this. So what 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:07.960 stuck out to me most is all this research that 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:10.920 sort of challenges what we thought we knew about dinosaurs, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:12.960 which for most of us is just what we saw 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.440 in the Jurassic Park movie. For instance, in one of 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.240 the most famous scenes of the original movie, we see 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:21.240 a t rex chasing after a speed jeep and nearly 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.440 catching up to it. So that didn't happen in real life. 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.360 That was the movie, Yeah, exactly. In fact, she was 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.880 even closer than she appeared to remember because of that 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:29.600 whole mirror. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:31.640 Yeah, I think we all remember that. 0:16:31.640 --> 0:16:35.080 That scene was considered plausible for nearly a decade after 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:39.040 the film's release, with many paleontologists speculating that a real 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.760 t rex could run as fast as forty five miles 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:45.200 an hour. But in two thousand and two, researchers John 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.920 Hutchinson and Mariano Garcia used some clever math to show 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.960 that the res likely had a much slower role than 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.440 we previously thought, so, using biomechanical data from the dinosaur's 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.600 closest living relatives, those would be birds, Now was able 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.440 to extrapolate just how much muscle mass it would take 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:05.840 for an animal the size of a t rex to 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.840 actually be able to run. As a general rule, no 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:11.399 more than fifty percent of an animal's body mass is 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.480 composed of muscle, and only a fraction of that muscle 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.480 is allocated to the legs. But for a t rex 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.480 to run forty five miles an hour, its leg muscles 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.080 would need to account for eighty six percent of its 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.080 total body Some real. 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:28.560 Masks, those are monster legs. It feels like the leg 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.760 muscles would be up to its eyeballs. But uh, you know, 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:33.480 in that case, there's no room for anything else. 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.240 Yeah, it doesn't add up there. So even though the 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:38.960 researchers had poked a giant hole in one of Jurassic 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:42.480 Park's best scenes, the filmmakers didn't hold it against them. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:45.159 In fact, Hutchinson was even hired to consult on one 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:47.600 of the Jurassic Parks sequels based on the strength of 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:48.320 this breakthrough. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.520 That's pretty awesome, But I'm curious, do we know what 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.239 a t rex's top speed would be? 0:17:53.920 --> 0:17:56.040 Well, the two thousand and two study concluded that t 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:58.760 rex would have had a hard time topping twenty five 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.040 miles an hour. According to a twenty seventeen study from 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.320 the University of Manchester, they probably can only reach speeds 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.440 of around twelve miles a mile, so any faster and 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.640 the seven ton predators would risk shattering their bones. 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.440 Actually wow, so it's almost like at speeds that a 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.160 human could outrun. At this pace. 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.040 Yeah, and remember that's the top speed. The t Rex 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:22.760 was even slower when walking. Exactly how slow remained a 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.639 mystery until twenty twenty one, when Dutch researchers built on 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.159 those earlier findings and used computer modeling to prove that 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.879 Rex walked at a leisurely pace of between two and 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.959 three miles an hour. Now, another point of departure from 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.680 the Jurassic movies is that the predatory dinosaurs, including t Rex, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.000 did not have permanently exposed teeth. Researchers and artists have 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:47.959 long believed that bipedal carnivores have lipless mouths where their 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.879 upper teeth would hang over their lower jaws, not unlike 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:53.160 you know, maybe like a crocodile or something like that. 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.639 But according to a twenty twenty three study from the 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:59.760 University of Portsmouth, the dinos actually kept their choppers, this 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.000 greatly covered with a pair of thick lizard lips. Isn't 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.760 that kind of funny to imagine? So the researchers found 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:10.760 that toothwaar and lipless reptile groups was much different from 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.480 that of carnivorous dinosaurs, and based on computer modeling, it 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:17.080 would have been impossible for a lipless t rex to 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.560 close its mouth without the lower jaw actually crushing the 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.159 very bones that supported it. 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:26.199 That is really interesting, and you know, I feel like 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.560 with all these breakthroughs, they've kind of defanged this idea 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:34.840 of a really frightening t rex right like suddenly they're 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.640 like only strolling around at two miles per hour. They're 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.520 like they don't have those goofy grins anymore, right, you know, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:46.600 bearing their teeth and a dinosaurs supposed to have feathers, 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:48.880 right like on top of everything else, they're fluffy. 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:51.520 Actually, I've got some good news on that front because 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.640 while many dinosaurs are now believed to have sported feathers, 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:57.800 including raptors and a few of the t rex's cousins, 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.160 the rex itself is thought to have had smooth, more 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.760 scaly skin. The exception would have been juvenile t rexes, 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:08.080 whose small bodies may have needed feathers for thermal insulation. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.280 By the time they reach adulthood, though their forty foot 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:13.960 long bodies were so good at retaining heat that they 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.960 no longer needed those downy coats. So, if anything, an 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.400 adult t rex may have had a stripe of bristles 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.719 on its back and shoulders, but those would have been 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:24.080 used to attract a mate rather than to keep warm. 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.560 All right, so that's at least one thing the movies 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:27.600 seem to have gotten right. 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:30.359 Yeah, and there's still room for improvement on that front too, 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.960 because while the t rex was scally, they likely weren't 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:36.840 the drab uniform color they're often depicted as. You know, 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:40.720 you always picture that exact same colors. Recent analysis of 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.600 t rex fossils have turned up evidence of melanin, the 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.919 same pigment found in human skin and bird feathers, and 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.800 that suggests that the rex's skin may have had patches 0:20:49.800 --> 0:20:53.679 of several different colors, possibly even like a camouflage pattern, 0:20:53.720 --> 0:20:56.280 which makes sense you think about the stripes and spots 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:57.440