WEBVTT - Scientists in Love 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:14.080 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.840 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. And 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.880 unless the calendar is lying to us, this is the 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:23.840 week of Valentine's Day, that's right, Yeah, which probably means 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.080 different things to different people. Some may For some people, 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.760 it may mean a celebration of the love that I 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.479 am now in. For others, it is perhaps a reminder 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.000 of a past love and uh and brings with a 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:40.080 certain negative connotations or love that is not yet fully 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:43.360 manifested in one's life, and then it can be equally problematic. 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.440 Or maybe it's just how in the world am I 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:49.680 gonna get reservations at a restaurant tonight to uh, to 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.199 satisfy the uh, the significant other in my life? That's right? 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:57.240 And I think that we've got a podcast that's that's 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:59.760 gonna cater to some of this, right, But we're not 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:02.680 talking about it. Well, I don't know. I don't know, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.880 because we're not talking like, uh, you know, roses and 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.440 kitten farts here, are we? No, we're not. We're talking 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:12.800 hardcore science and love, right though it is conceivable that 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:17.600 a scientists could study either um, kitten farts or certainly 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:20.760 they study flowers. But but yeah, we're we're dealing with 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.080 scientists in love. And it's it's a it's an interesting concept. 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:26.560 I mean, it's not out of everyone knows. Scientists are 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:28.880 of course human beings, and they fall in love and 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:31.760 no matter how nailed down there, they're one part of 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.440 their life. Maybe with with the strict you know, realities 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.959 of science. Uh, they're still subject to this weird human 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:45.720 emotion that entangles all of us. That's right. And we've 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:49.320 talked about scientists being that the obsessive kind before, right, 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:53.279 so it would make sense that scientists and love would 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:57.760 be super obsessed and too scientists and love doubly so, 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.160 and might even their love might be so crazy and 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.880 strong that it could eventually lead to maybe like the 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.960 a bomb. Yeah, it's like, uh, you know, it's like 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:10.800 the like love is an alcohol and uh in zeal 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:13.799 for science is a caffeinated beverage. And then when when 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:16.760 those two things mix, when they are in the same container, 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.720 as we'll see in two cases, when when scientists are 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.960 in love with each other and share that scientific zeal 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:27.320 and and a and and this love, it becomes something 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.920 that can potentially give you a heart attack. It's true. 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:35.800 Right in the club were so specifically we are talking 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.000 about well, first let's talk about the Sagans, that's right. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.240 The second Carl Sagan and Andrewin. Yes, yes, and they 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.359 had they had a groovy kind of love, Yes, a 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:49.560 cosmic kind of love. I guess you could say, um 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:51.880 to uh. To set this in time, we are going 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.760 back to the summer of ninety seven, and that's when 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.120 Carl and a lot of you probably know Carl Sagan 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.880 of course, the host of Cosmos, which you can get 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.919 on you can get it on like Netflix streaming and stuff. 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.959 It's it's still wonderful today. Most of the science still 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.480 holds up. But you know, astronomer, astrophysicist, um, you know, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.280 cosmologists generally generally was just on the forefront of popularizing 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:20.760 science and just being a a mascot for for scientific inquiry, right, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.840 particularly space, particularly space. Yes, and uh. He was involved 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.480 in a little something called the Voyager project, and the 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:33.240 creative director on this was one and Drew In. Now Voyager. 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.960 You may remember this mostly from the Star Trek movie 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:41.880 in which a a a fictional Voyager craft comes back superintelligent. 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:44.600 But of course Voyager we were sending them out and 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.880 they're still sailing out to the limits of of of 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:53.640 man's discovery and space and uh aboard this particularly two 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.360 particular crafts, Voyager one and Voyiger two, was a Golden Record, which, 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.640 interestingly enough, jad Aban Rod and Robert Korich of Radio 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.520 Lab referred to as quote the ultimate mixtape that's right 0:04:05.760 --> 0:04:08.640 of their love because they collaborated on this school record. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:10.520 I mean, it's also like a mix tape, like hey, 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:13.560 aliens out there, here you go, and maybe we made 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.760 a mixtape for you. But it's also it really represent 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.880 this this bond that was growing between these two and 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:23.240 this love that was growing between the two between these 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.080 two in the summer of Yeah, I mean, it's literally 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.880 documenting them falling in love and the moment that they 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:31.440 fell in love in which they chose a specific piece 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:35.120 of music for it, which is amazing, and it's just 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:40.320 out there flinging itself into outer space. Yeah. And currently 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:46.240 Voyager one is one hundred and sixteen point five astronomical 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:50.600 units from Earth. Just to rewind, an astronomical unit is 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.680 the distance between the Earth and the Sun. So it's 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:55.880 that distance spread out a hundred and sixteen and a 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.520 half times Voyager two is point two astronomic units from 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:04.760 the Earth, and these distances continue to increase. And we 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.600 talked about this a little bit in our previous podcast 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.680 about alien etiquette, and the idea, of course of this 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.000 Golden Record is that it would be intercepted and it 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:18.400 might tell an extraterrestrial life form what life was like. 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.839 I suppose you used to say it was um during 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.919 that time period, because it's going to be out there 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.719 for a while. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And I think that 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:29.159 was the sort of the joke to us as well. 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.240 Maybe they intercept this in fo years and then they'll 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.520 be like, I don't even know what this chicken scratches. Yeah, 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:36.600 and it's kind of a you know, it's it's kind 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.960 of a time capsule as well. But but it it 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.359 contained the just the record contained spoken greetings in fifty 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:48.600 nine different languages, ranging from ancient Acadian to Wu, a 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:53.160 modern Chinese dialect that's not to be confused with anything 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.800 Wu Tang clan or but sadly with the record was 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:01.480 was pressed and sent out before their genesis, but also 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.760 Sounds of Earth ninety minutes of of selected music from 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.039 both both Eastern and Western classics. Again no Wu tang, 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.640 sadly and uh. Also the sound of a kiss, mother's 0:06:11.680 --> 0:06:15.840 first words to a newborn child, Yeah, baby crying right. Yeah. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.320 So a vast collection of our human experience, and most 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.840 impressive of all, for the purposes of discussing the love 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:26.640 between these two scientists of the sound of a heartbeat, 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:31.000 that's right. What was the idea? Andrew And said, I'd 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.479 like to have my heartbeat recorded, right, and then sort 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:39.680 of data scrambled later to to sort of map this out. 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.120 Take me down that road, Robert, Yeah, and it's it's 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.280 it's fascinating because because the Sagan and and basically went 0:06:46.320 --> 0:06:49.320 down and had this recording done, like just just shortly 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.560 after they had actually come because they've been professionally aligned 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:54.360 for a while and they knew each other, they were 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:56.039 working each other, but this was after they actually reached 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:57.280 the point where they realized they were in love with 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:00.520 each other, and and and and and just shortly after 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.240 they had actually spoken about it with each other, and 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:05.400 then they went and recorded her heartbeat. And now it's 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.040 out there on the plate, and it's it's it's it's beautiful. 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.120 It's the love and the science um intermingling with each other. 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.880 And uh, and you know, maybe it's a little sappy 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:16.200 if you're if you're not in the mood for it 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.160 this week. But yeah, but there, I mean, there you go. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:23.560 You've got this, this incredible collaboration between two people. And 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.280 we should also note to that Carl Sagon was married 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:30.200 at the time that um he met Andrew and and 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:34.640 as far as I know, nothing nuts or scandalous went on, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.080 so to speak. I think he actually declared his love 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:39.880 for her over the phone after she had talked to 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.120 him about a particular piece of music that they had 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.160 been obsessing over. So it was sort of one of 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:46.920 those things that I think that he was like, oh 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:48.840 my god, I'm in love with this person. And then 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.280 of course he dissolved his marriage, his first marriage, So 0:07:52.440 --> 0:07:54.000 I just want to point that out. I think that 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.640 Carl Singgon was a perfect gentleman. I'd like to think that, 0:07:56.680 --> 0:07:58.840 but but I don't know that for sure. And of 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:02.559 course Sagan died uh sadly in ninety six. But Anne 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:06.120 continues on continued writing, and she believe currently resides in 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.360 New York, YEP and she actually made a comment to 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.880 for that radio piece saying something about how sometimes when 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:15.920 she gets a little depressed or you know, nostalgic, thinks 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.840 about the Golden Record and this, this document of their 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.119 love just flung out into outer space can still traveling. Yeah, 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.400 it's kind of a beautiful thought. I think so as well. Yeah, so, 0:08:28.560 --> 0:08:30.360 and and it's one of those like grand I mean, 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:32.440 he didn't do it for Valentine's Day, but you know 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.199 it's it pretty much trumps anything that any of us 0:08:36.280 --> 0:08:39.040 might have us might be scheming for that week. Yeah, 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:43.240 all right, helicopter ride. Sorry, Carl's got you beat. Yeah. Yeah. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:48.240 But there's another pair, pretty famous pair that has come 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.160 to white recently because of a book that's been written 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:53.920 about them. Right though they've of course they've been you know, 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:56.760 people have been studying the for want that this latest 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.840 book has been really really fascinating, sort of re examining 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:04.840 their relationship and their contribution to science. Yeah. The book 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:10.959 is called Radioactive Marie and Pierre Curie by Lauren Redness. Uh. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:13.400 And then this just came out I think in December 0:09:13.480 --> 0:09:17.880 two ten. Yeah, followers, and we picked up our copies 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:21.920 in the last week or two. Yeah, and uh, I 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:23.480 was I this is a book. I was really not 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.319 sure exactly what to expect um. And we're going to 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:28.600 come back to the curies, but just to briefe, we're 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.880 gonna talk about this book because I basically heard from 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.080 my wife had heard something about it on the radio 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:35.800 and she's like, hey, this sounds like there's a really 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.800 cool book about the curious coming out. And the cover 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.839 glows in the dark. There was you. Yeah, I'm like, 0:09:41.880 --> 0:09:43.840 all right, I'm there, you know, I mean I left 0:09:43.840 --> 0:09:47.400 things ago. I'm wearing glow in the dark shirt right now. Yeah. Uh, 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:51.040 and we always record the podcast in complete darkness. Yeah, well, 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.679 which sometimes the candle well yeah, we have to see 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.320 the notes and we only use extremely flammable paper, right, yeah, 0:09:57.360 --> 0:10:00.520 it makes sense. But but but anyway, this book, so 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:02.000 I get it in right and it's you know, it's 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.120 a large, hard bound book, and sure enough, the cover 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.240 glows in the dark, but it is it's it's kind 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.199 of hard to describe because it's not really one might 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:11.840 be tempted to talk about it as a graphic novel, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.560 but it was that was my initial impression. But generally speaking, 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.400 graphic graphic novels are more a case of sequential art, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:21.760 where you're having a little little boxes or large boxes 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.880 of of images that tell a story. Um, and this 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:28.720 is more I guess I would tend to think of 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:31.679 this as an like an illuminated manuscript or a or 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:34.920 just an illustrated biography. But it's not even even calling 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:37.560 it a biography. It's not really accurate. No. In fact, 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:41.160 I heard an interview on MPR with the author of 0:10:41.240 --> 0:10:46.439 Laura read Nous, and uh, the the interviewer has had 0:10:46.480 --> 0:10:49.520 actually made this um observation that he thought that it 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:55.000 was more like sort of eliminated manuscript or journal like this, 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:59.240 this imagined journal. Yeah, there of what might be Marie 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.640 and pre curious experiences. It's kind of scrap bookie. And 0:11:02.720 --> 0:11:05.360 I say that in like the absolute best connotation, Like 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:09.440 we're not talking Etsy here, We're talking science scrap bookie, 0:11:09.480 --> 0:11:13.720 if it makes any sense. But the reason that we're 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.720 getting so excited about this is because Laura Redness really 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:20.520 put a tremendous amount of research into this book. So 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.599 she's looking at the trajectory of Marie and Pierre curious relationship, 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:27.560 which is really the heart of this book and is 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:30.840 interesting in and of itself, but she's also looking at 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:35.800 UM what their discoveries UH bore out for us as 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:40.040 humanity and UM. And she's also looking at the future 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:42.680 generations of the curious and what they contribute or what 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.640 their contributions were as well. So I mean she she 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:48.520 went to great lengths really to mind a lot of 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.199 information of this book. I think we should stop for 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.200 a second, just for anybody listening out there is not 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:58.040 really familiar with the curious or refresher UM. Marie Cury 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:03.840 was born Marie Scouldwowski sculd Bwoska sounds good in warsaw 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:08.360 poland um back in, I believe. And she went on 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:13.240 to marry physics professor Purre Cury in uh Pierre Curry, 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:17.480 sorry inn and the two dove into research together like 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.280 this is again it's like the the the deal with 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:22.760 with with Carl and Ann. They were they were both 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.199 just really under their work, and suddenly they had they 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.400 had the chance to be together too, and they fell 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:32.719 in love and they threw themselves at the same research, right, 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:34.840 And actually, let's just go with that, because I think 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.800 it's interesting to point out that Marie Curie, who was 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.040 really Maria, she changed her name to Marie Um when 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.200 she was in Paris. But she was one of very 0:12:44.240 --> 0:12:48.360 few obviously women students at Sorbonne, and she was the 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.880 first to get her PhD in science and I believe 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.760 the first to become a professor there. Yes, and she 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.280 was appointed after her husband's death. And she won not one, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.240 but two Nobel Prizes. Yeah, so first woman to win 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.920 a Nobel prize, first person to win two alongside Pierre. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:06.240 So what I'm the reason why I think that's important 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:09.160 is because these are incredible circumstances for this woman to 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:11.520 be in. And the fact of the matter is she 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.680 meant Pierre because she just needed some extra lab space. 0:13:14.920 --> 0:13:16.760 So someone was like, oh, you should check out the sky. 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.720 He's got some extra space. You know, you could probably 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.480 use it. So what happens, obviously, is they come together 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:27.520 and they find that they are both the most hardcore 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.880 science researchers that they know that exists, and that really 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.640 bonds them. So they have this I don't know that 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.680 I would call it a passionate sort of love. I 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.120 don't know that we know that, but we know that 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.719 they're passionate about their research and this really bonds them together. Right, Yeah, 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:47.520 they become like a just just a team of effort, 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.240 you know, and and uh and and what did they accomplish? Well, Okay, 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.760 at the first Nobel prize I had to do with 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:57.320 her with their isolation of polonium, which is a radio 0:13:57.320 --> 0:14:02.120 active elopment named Bymary for hooland her home contry. And 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:05.920 uh and also radium, another radioactive element, and the one 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:08.920 that was far more noteworthy, and we discussed a little 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.240 more and she named that one that has the Latin 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:15.400 for light, I believe. And then the second one was 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:20.360 for actually her her inquiry into radioactivity and the fact 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.840 that she even discovered that their elements could be radioactive. Right, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.680 So this book is about these two people coming together 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.800 about the the thoroughly non scientific things in their lives 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.400 that led them to each other. Like she fell in 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.480 love with a with a noble um and son, as 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.360 I remember, and he was too good for her according 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.440 to the family, so it was heartbreak. And then he 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:45.600 had another situation with where he was in love with 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.800 someone and it just was not meant to be, you know, right, 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.720 So they had both experienced heartache and when they found 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.200 each other, um, I think that I obviously drawn to 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.840 each other because of their love of science. But Marie 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.960 also says, in the as told by Laura Redness in 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.280 the book, he caught the habit of speaking to me 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.120 in his dream of an existence consecrated entirely to scientific research, 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.680 and asked me to share that life. So that, again, 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:17.320 is unusual to have this pair of people, um at 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.520 that time period saying okay, let's just throw all caution 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.360 to the wind. We'll get married or research like we've 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.920 never researched in our life. Maybe we'll have kids. The 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.400 kids don't matter in the sense that you'll still research, 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:32.240 and then they'll research too. That's right, create the little researchers. 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.560 And so again that's that the was a not something 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.560 that was commonly thought. Then it was you get married, 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.360 you raised the children. Um, you know, I'll come home 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.160 and you make me some you know, roast beef. Right. 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.080 And she was still doing that, and she was doing 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:46.520 the science. I mean she was she was going to 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.640 the lab with him and working, but but also raising kids, cooking. Um. 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.640 So the great thing about Redness is book. I mean, 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.560 aside from just being beautiful to look through, I mean, 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.600 the illustrations are magnificent, is that she weaves this the 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:05.360 emerging love of the curious with the emergence of this science, 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.480 of this fascinating science of radioactivity, right because radium and 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.960 plonium by themselves is kind of like okay, yeah, all right, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.480 so there's the elements, but what what's what does that 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:20.680 mean to our society today? Well, tremendous amount. And at 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.400 the time that you really had this, especially with radium, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.680 there was just radium zeal. They really took off and 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:29.640 uh and Redness discusses this at length in the book. 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:32.320 And because it was a time, it's like, I think 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.960 back to any time where we've developed a new technology, um, 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.280 like when electricity was first becoming a thing and in 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.600 the utilization of electricity in our lives, like people were 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.520 tremendously excited about it, and you know, like you know, 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:46.600 Tesla and Edison are doing all this stuff. It's like, 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:48.960 let's let's show it off. Let's do it. Let's electrocute 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.840 an elephant's electricating himself. Yeah, like electurting himself. And there 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.240 was there was some fascinating talk in the time where 0:16:55.240 --> 0:16:58.880 people were discussing using electricity to execute criminals and some 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:01.400 people were actually speaking up and saying this is just 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.920 this is blasphemous because electricity is this holy, blameless creature 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.000 and and you you you can't use that to kill 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.480 a criminal. That's just that's what. That's horrible. How could 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.639 it light up my life and allow me to to 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:18.120 stay up late and kill a criminal or Yeah, that's 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:25.879 just completely ridiculous. This presentation is brought to you by 0:17:25.920 --> 0:17:34.240 Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow. So you see, and you we 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.480 end up seeing the same thing with radium today. You 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:38.399 continue to to see. Anytime there's like any kind of 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.679 new science, you can guarantee somebody out there is going 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:43.000 to try and market something to make a buck off 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.679 of it. And with radium at the time, it was 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:48.200 it was really kind of crazy. Um. And we should 0:17:48.240 --> 0:17:51.119 also point out that the reason that this happened that 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.320 radium sort of went nuts is that Marie and pre 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.639 Cure decided not to patent radium because they thought, well, no, 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:59.439 I mean, you know, it's only gonna be a handful 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.640 of scientist that really need to use it. We don't 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:02.879 need to patent u. Yeah, and they were like and 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:04.560 then they were like, this is a totally beneficial thing. 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:05.919 A lot of great stuff is going to come out 0:18:05.920 --> 0:18:07.840 of this, and it just wouldn't be in the spirit 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.960 of what we're doing. So along come the all these 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:15.600 radioactive quack cures. Um. Just to just to run through. 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:18.359 I feel like there were a lot of radium water 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:20.000 jars where you just filled up with water and then 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.760 you could have radium in your drinking water. Radioactive drinking water. 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.600 It seems like a good idea at the time, right, Um, 0:18:26.880 --> 0:18:29.320 And it would there were there were rather far more 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:34.280 questionable items such as suppositories. Again we're talking about real 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:39.480 radium in this pository. Yeah, actual radioactive elements, uh, in 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:45.280 a person's rectum for medicinal purposes. You can get radioactive toothpaste. Um. Again, 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.240 it's just you could get these these radioactive plates to 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.760 put in your cigarette package cigarette. At the at the time, 0:18:52.800 --> 0:18:54.719 it's like if you thought, oh, the cigarettes aren't good 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.920 enough for me, now that let me add some radioactivity 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.000 to that, just to just to boost the health actor 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:05.719 or a little. Um. There were a refrigerator, freezer deodorizers. Uh. 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:08.160 There you could get a flask you could radiate all 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:10.360 your food in the freezer. Is that when I'm here? Right? Yeah? 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:12.479 And and I mean it just went on and on 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:15.760 and and and then on top of that, at the time, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:20.680 again everybody's willing to rate radium was a expensive and 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.359 and and all this hope was wrapped up in it. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:25.640 The stuff is going to change the world, um. And 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:29.480 and so for a brief time before the dark attributes 0:19:29.520 --> 0:19:33.440 of radium became fully known, it uh, it became like 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:35.639 like like if you had had a if you had 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:39.440 like a credit card back in the early nineteen hundreds, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:41.880 platinum or a gold, neither of those would have been 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:45.040 your higher in card. No, you would want a radium 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.960 card because you had it. Yeah, you had a number 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.520 of these different radium branded products that were not in 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:55.119 them in and of themselves radioactive. But you had like 0:19:55.240 --> 0:20:00.199 radium beer, you had radium nut x condoms, um, you 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.000 had radium playing cards, radium cigarettes. Uh, you know, the 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:06.399 list just goes on. So this is like when I 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.520 see products in the store and that says all natural 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:11.159 organic and they actually that's sort of like the greenwashing, 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:16.480 they may not be radium washing. Yeah. Wow. So that's 0:20:16.720 --> 0:20:21.280 that was a crazy um amount of fervor around something 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.240 like that. Yeah, And of course it was not meant 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.480 to last. And that's one of against something that's beautifully 0:20:27.480 --> 0:20:31.960 woven into this text because it kind of I mean, 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:36.200 it does parallel so often our stories of love where 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.760 where love blooms and is awesome, but then they're either 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.000 love faulters or it is complicated by other things, and 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.239 it maybe it's maybe it doesn't fail, but it is 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.960 forced to become a more realistic beast, you know, the 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:56.280 half life it is stabilizes exactly nice. So what I 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.040 think is interesting about this too is that you know, 0:20:59.119 --> 0:21:03.880 obviously Pierre and Marie didn't really understand how um dangerous 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:05.760 it was to be handling this in the first place anyway. 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:07.880 And the boy were they handling it? Yeah, I mean 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.800 they were. They were tossing it around at dinner parties, right. Uh. 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:14.520 Marie had a little bar in a jar next to 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:17.640 her bed that would you know, illuminate blue at night, 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.720 which I'm sure was quite pretty. And and then there's 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:23.720 also this uh, this case to where um it was, 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:29.280 And Pierre goes into the United Kingdom's Royal Institution and 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:31.880 there are all these guys, they're scientists from all over 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.760 and he rolls up his sleeve to show a burn 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.200 on his arm, or what looks like a burn off 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.440 to everybody. And this is a wound that had been 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.560 caused by radium salts which he had taped to the 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:47.320 skin um for just ten hours fifty days earlier. The 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.439 wound was still there. And while he's doing this, he 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:52.520 ends up spilling some of the salts that he's showing 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:57.440 off the table and the the the resulting contamination of 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.080 the table was still detectable and in need of cleaning 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.919 up like fifty years later. So and and you know, 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:06.960 when we're saying it the way we're presenting it, it it 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.800 probably it comes off a little weird and a little 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.600 bizarre and maybe a little funny. But the way Redness 0:22:12.680 --> 0:22:15.160 presents it, I mean you really, she presents these two 0:22:15.200 --> 0:22:18.040