1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:40,159 Speaker 1: Science and the military share an uneasy alliance in the 7 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:43,400 Speaker 1: course of human history. Some of the most remarkable inventions 8 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,320 Speaker 1: only came about because of a war effort, the latter 9 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: providing the impetus and infrastructure for a country to outstrip 10 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: its enemy, not just in weapons, but in development. William 11 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:57,760 Speaker 1: Lawrence Bragg was already an acclaimed scientist by the time 12 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,640 Speaker 1: he was drafted into the army, the youngest man ever 13 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:03,240 Speaker 1: to be honored with a Nobel Prize for Physics, an 14 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: award he shared with his father. By the way, he 15 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:08,360 Speaker 1: had to put his promising career on hold when all 16 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: of Europe descended into the First World War, and so 17 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: the twenty five year old Nobel laureate found himself in 18 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:17,800 Speaker 1: a cavalry unit in France. In the war years, Bragg 19 00:01:17,840 --> 00:01:21,040 Speaker 1: eventually shifted into a more technical position and he was 20 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:24,880 Speaker 1: given a very specific assignment. His commanding officers wanted to 21 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,280 Speaker 1: know how to determine the position of the German artillery 22 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: based entirely on the sound that their cannons made. The 23 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: cannons were loud enough for the average person to hear, 24 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: but with no real accuracy and not from a great distance. 25 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: The main system for pinpointing cannon fire was based on 26 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:44,680 Speaker 1: a series of microphones lined up along front line trenches. 27 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,840 Speaker 1: Army technicians could see the flare of a distant cannon 28 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: shot and measure how long it was before their microphones 29 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: picked up the boom, since sound travels slower than light, 30 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: But the system was based on guesswork, and it was 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: imprecise when it came to actually locating the cannons. After all, 32 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: a cannon makes three enormous booms when fired. There's the 33 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: initial blast of the gun, the sound of the shell 34 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:09,560 Speaker 1: breaking the sound barrier, and then the eventual impact when 35 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 1: it strikes the target. And on top of all of this, 36 00:02:12,040 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: the microphones at the time were not able to detect 37 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:18,399 Speaker 1: lower frequency sounds. Bragg would be stumped by this conundrum 38 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:21,280 Speaker 1: for a very long time, until one fateful day in 39 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:24,600 Speaker 1: a latrine in Flanders. As the story goes, the army 40 00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:27,079 Speaker 1: toilet had a door and no window, so that when 41 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:29,639 Speaker 1: a soldier was using it, he was completely cut off 42 00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: from the outside world. Bragg was sitting on the toilet 43 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,720 Speaker 1: one day when his rear end lifted fully off the 44 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: toilet seat, and this was caused by infrasound generated by 45 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:42,880 Speaker 1: a nearby piece of British artillery on their side. And 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: around the same time, a member of Bragg's team, a 47 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,799 Speaker 1: guy named William Sansom Tucker, noticed that his quarters would 48 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: shiver every time a gun went off, even if he 49 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:54,720 Speaker 1: cannot hear the blast. Brag, Tucker, and the rest of 50 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: their team set to work trying to develop a sensor 51 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:01,000 Speaker 1: that could properly detect not the audible sounds of cannon itself, 52 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: but the infrasound generated by the initial cannon fire. It 53 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,280 Speaker 1: took them many months of frustrating work, but eventually they 54 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: developed a system based on Tucker's observations of how infrasound 55 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:16,960 Speaker 1: affected his sleeping quarters. Their wave detector was an ammunition 56 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: box with a hot wire running through it. They drilled 57 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: a hole near the wire, and when a cannon went off, 58 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:26,120 Speaker 1: the infrasound pressure would force a puff of air through 59 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 1: the hole and onto the heated wire. The changing current 60 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: in the wire would give them data that they could measure. 61 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 1: This device was named the Tucker microphone after William Tucker, 62 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:39,400 Speaker 1: the man who had designed the specific wire mechanism, and 63 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: this was the first piece in a far more effective 64 00:03:41,800 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: method of detecting the location of enemy guns. Unlike those older, 65 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: imprecise microphones of the early war, the Tucker microphone could 66 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: place German guns within twenty five to fifty meters mere 67 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: minutes after the gun had been fired. By September of 68 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen, all sound ranging stations were using Tucker microphones. 69 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: It was an instrument developed in the war effort, leading 70 00:04:03,120 --> 00:04:07,000 Speaker 1: to several key victories. Not to every scientific breakthrough has 71 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: a true Eureka moment, most come through steady, unglamorous hard work. 72 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 1: But none of these sound ranging developments would have happened 73 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:17,719 Speaker 1: if not for the observation that William Lawrence Bragg made 74 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:21,239 Speaker 1: while sitting on an army toilet somewhere in Belgium. Even 75 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:23,960 Speaker 1: if it's not audible to the naked ear, there's no 76 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 1: sound like inspiration. Our health is an ever changing concept. 77 00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: One hundred years ago, what we may have considered healthy 78 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: looked very different from today. Back then, dangerous narcotics were 79 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:52,760 Speaker 1: marketed as cold medicine and used in soft drinks. Doctors 80 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,080 Speaker 1: would actually recommend smoking to help with asthma, and many 81 00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,839 Speaker 1: people believed that radioactivity was the hot new thing in health. 82 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:02,960 Speaker 1: So it's no surprise that the guidelines for living well 83 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,000 Speaker 1: can change pretty quickly. We sometimes find out something we 84 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: thought was healthy was based actually on faulty science or 85 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: bad data, or, in one case, even fraud. In two 86 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,679 Speaker 1: thousand and four, researchers published a study in the journal 87 00:05:16,839 --> 00:05:20,680 Speaker 1: Experimental Gerontology about the areas in the world where people 88 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,040 Speaker 1: live the longest. The authors speculated that people live longer 89 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: in certain regions because of traditional diets, lifestyles, or genetics. 90 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,560 Speaker 1: On the map published with these studies, the regions were 91 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,240 Speaker 1: shaded in blue, leading to the term blue zones. The 92 00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:38,599 Speaker 1: next year, in two thousand and five, National geographic reporter 93 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:42,159 Speaker 1: Dan Buttner published an exhaustive story on these blue zones 94 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,600 Speaker 1: and launched them into fame. According to Dan, in places 95 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: like Okinawa, Japan, Sardinia, Italy, Nicoya, Costa Rica, Ekaria, Greece, 96 00:05:50,880 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 1: and Loma Linda, California, people simply live longer, and those 97 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,920 Speaker 1: who do live longer live better, healthier lives. Dan set 98 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:01,160 Speaker 1: out to find the keys to these Blue zones and 99 00:06:01,200 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: found the original researchers speculations rang true. Visiting each place 100 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: and performing exhaustive in person research, he discovered that Blue 101 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: Zone dwellers were more likely to live the following lifestyle. 102 00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: They ate nutritiously with lots of fruits and vegetables. They 103 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:19,920 Speaker 1: were physically active and active in their community. They abstained 104 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:24,159 Speaker 1: from smoking, drink only occasionally, managed their stress, and of 105 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,200 Speaker 1: course felt that they had a purpose in life. Basically, 106 00:06:27,279 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 1: Dan concluded that living well led to a longer life. 107 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,280 Speaker 1: Over the next twenty years, the Blue Zones became a 108 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:37,840 Speaker 1: brand in themselves. Dan's Blue Zones Llc. Published books, launched 109 00:06:37,839 --> 00:06:40,440 Speaker 1: a line of soups and iced tea, and even created 110 00:06:40,440 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: a program for cities to become Blue Zones certified. But 111 00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:45,919 Speaker 1: if you've heard of the Blue Zones, it's likely because 112 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:48,480 Speaker 1: of the Netflix documentary series from just a couple of 113 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,080 Speaker 1: years ago. Basically, blue zones weren't just a big deal, 114 00:06:52,279 --> 00:06:54,760 Speaker 1: they were also big business, which is why it came 115 00:06:54,800 --> 00:06:57,880 Speaker 1: as a shock In twenty nineteen, when one researcher made 116 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,960 Speaker 1: a new claim the blue zonesring to him were actually bunk. 117 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: That year, researcher Saul Newman of University College London first 118 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:09,680 Speaker 1: released his study on long lived populations. In it, he 119 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,560 Speaker 1: found that areas with the highest concentration of centenarians have 120 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:18,520 Speaker 1: another unifying feature, poor record keeping. What Saul argued was 121 00:07:18,560 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: that it all came down to poverty. Many places that 122 00:07:21,480 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: on paper have exceedingly long lived populations are also often 123 00:07:25,320 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: poor or have been poor in the past few decades. 124 00:07:28,440 --> 00:07:31,640 Speaker 1: As a result, it's often the case that birth, baptism, 125 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:35,160 Speaker 1: and other records that could prove age went missing or 126 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:38,200 Speaker 1: were never recorded at all, meaning many of the folks 127 00:07:38,240 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 1: who believed that they were over one hundred maybe younger 128 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:44,480 Speaker 1: than they think. According to an interview with Minnesota Public 129 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: Radio in twenty twenty four, Saul gave this example after 130 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:51,560 Speaker 1: traveling through Japan and going back through birth records, he 131 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 1: found that eighty two percent of Japanese centenarians were either 132 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 1: missing or had died without the death being recorded, which 133 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: is another reason why the number might be lying. In 134 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: impoverished areas, it's much more likely for an elderly person's 135 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:08,880 Speaker 1: relatives to simply not report their death to the government. 136 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,720 Speaker 1: That way they can keep collecting pension or social welfare checks, 137 00:08:13,040 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: meaning that a good chunk of the Blue Zone dwellers 138 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,520 Speaker 1: may have also been frauds. So who's right. Are the 139 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: people in Sardinia or Costa Rica just healthier than average 140 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: or is their life expectancy just a case of shoddy 141 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: record keeping. For his part, Dan Butuener and Blue Zone 142 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,760 Speaker 1: supporters have refuted Saul Newman's claims. They assert that they've 143 00:08:32,800 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: done exhaustive research to confirm ages and birth dates of 144 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: the people they've studied, and that their points about diet 145 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:43,040 Speaker 1: and lifestyle hold up. And of course Saul has his detractors, 146 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,200 Speaker 1: but he also managed to win a cleverly named Ignobel 147 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:49,480 Speaker 1: Prize for his work, meant as the colorful counterpart to 148 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:53,040 Speaker 1: the Nobel Prize. Ignobles are supposed to honor achievements that 149 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:56,600 Speaker 1: make people laugh and then think. It's hard to tell 150 00:08:56,640 --> 00:08:59,040 Speaker 1: who's really in the right here. After all, the Blue 151 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:01,840 Speaker 1: Zone lifestyle does sound like a great way to live, 152 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:05,880 Speaker 1: but data is sometimes difficult to correctly interpret, and that 153 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:09,800 Speaker 1: difficulty curve gets deeper the deeper a project goes because 154 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:12,880 Speaker 1: the blue Zone concept is aiming for highly specific signs 155 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:16,560 Speaker 1: and markers. Getting it all perfectly right is a lofty goal, 156 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:23,400 Speaker 1: but then again, so is living to one hundred. I 157 00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 1: hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. 158 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about 159 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:34,959 Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show 160 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,440 Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how 161 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:42,120 Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, 162 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,960 Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and 163 00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:48,640 Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore 164 00:09:48,920 --> 00:09:54,280 Speaker 1: dot com. And until next time, stay curious.