WEBVTT - Bring Your Own Oxygen 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.280 Works dot com. Hey, you're welcome to stuff to Blow 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:16.520 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Buchlas. Julie, 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:21.520 what what is in this room with us right now? Pure? Sweeten? 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.360 It's not pure? A little oxygen in there. There's oxygen 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:28.080 in there because we are breathing and we are alive 0:00:28.200 --> 0:00:30.639 right now, and we're not concerned about running out because 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:33.839 the room is relatively well ventilated. I mean they had 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:36.560 to cover up most of the ventilation with soundproofing, but 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.760 I think there's a little air is getting in just enough. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:40.760 As long as we don't go three or four hours 0:00:40.760 --> 0:00:45.000 in here, will probably not die, which is a good thing, right, Um. 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.159 And typically we don't go three or four hours in 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:49.879 here anyway, No one podcast followed by a second like 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.080 two hours max. Yeah, you go over. Maybe we could 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.080 punch in a little bit towards that three hour point, 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.360 but there's still plenty of oxygen. That's my point. And yeah, 0:00:57.400 --> 0:00:59.040 that's the main concern here, and that's what we're talking 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:05.120 about today. Oxygen. How did it get here and into us? Um? 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.080 How can we manipulate it? Because that's always a question, right, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.600 like this is so cool, how can we use it 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.120 for our own gain? And um, of course we're going 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:17.119 to explore as you already sort of alluded to one 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:20.280 of those tropes and films like oh there's not enough 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:23.959 oxygen in thirty seconds, we're going to run out. Oh yeah, 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:25.840 I mean, especially in your space your space movies, you're 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.679 underwater movies. That's always an important trope. I mean, because 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:33.640 the core idea here is that humans have evolved to 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.600 live in a very particular portion of our atmosphere. And 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:39.680 if you start going too high, you start going too low. 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.120 If you move outside of that atmosphere and into an 0:01:43.160 --> 0:01:46.679 underwater environment or out into the into orbit, then you 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.440 have to bring a portion of your actual atmosphere with 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:51.720 you in some sort of pressurized compain or at least 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:56.160 an air mask. UM. I was recently looking into Winston 0:01:56.240 --> 0:02:01.000 Churchill and uh during the Second World War. UM, they 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:06.280 they developed this egg for him to recline in and 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.639 smoke in and read in. UM. Egg egg a big 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.440 pressurized egg because the planes that they were depending on 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.400 they were not pressurized, so you would have to wear 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:16.079 an air mask to go at a high altitude and 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.040 you would need to be at a high altitude, uh, 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:22.639 you know, to be safe in in a war torn world. Um, 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.320 the sadly than ever actually used this egg. But it's 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:28.800 just another example, like you want Winston Churchill up there 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:32.400 out of a comfortable area of the atmosphere, Well, then 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:34.400 you have to have an egg of atmosphere for Winston 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.000 Churchill to take with him. So this was this idea 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.639 like if everything went to crap with the war, how 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.320 do we say Winston Churchill? When it was just more like, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:44.720 how do we fly him around at a high altitude 0:02:44.760 --> 0:02:47.800 and keep him comfortable and stay And it just turned 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:49.120 out that it was too large to fit in the 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:51.120 airplane and then it was too heavy to fit in 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:53.320 the airplane. After that, I have a blog post on 0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:57.320 it you can go check. Oh yeah, and he was 0:02:57.360 --> 0:02:58.800 going to smoke in it too, And that was that 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.680 was a core design principle there. Well, we have been 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.200 trying to uh you know, take oxygen into our own 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.120 hands for a long time, and I would say this 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.480 is this is something that was pretty popular. I don't know, 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:13.799 maybe in the early two thousand's oxygen bars. I I've 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:15.600 heard a lot about these and now I've I've read 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.600 a little bit, but I've I've never seen one. I've 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.919 never visited one. Um, I just heard. I'd remember hearing 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.680 stuff about how Michael Jackson. Jackson supposedly slept in an 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.320 oxygen tent, and I guess that's that's partially really like 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.280 a hyperbaric one. I think so. But again, this may 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.800 be a complete hearsay, and I don't want to tarnish 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.040 man's good name. Sure, Um, all right, So there's this 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.520 idea that there's a purity in this oxygen, right, if 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:40.600 you just get more of it, then maybe you could 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.320 think clear. And so that's what these oxygen bars were 0:03:44.320 --> 0:03:46.720 trying to sell to people, Like, sit down and have 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:51.280 a twenty minute huff of some of this oxygen. Like, 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.480 I don't see. I think the concentration was compared to 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.280 that we normally get. Yes, but the thing is you're 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:00.840 not really getting anything out of it. Yeah. It kind 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.560 of reminds me of the there's certain vitamins, of course 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:05.880 that you can mean some vitamins you can you can 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.120 have a toxic reaction to, but other vitamins, if you 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.560 take over the recommended amount, you're just gonna pee it out. Anyway. 0:04:11.600 --> 0:04:14.720 I mean, your body has evolved to deal with certain 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.840 levels of intake, and if you exceed some of those levels, uh, 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.120 if it doesn't hurt you, then it it's not really 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.160 going to do you any good, right, because, as you said, 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:26.719 that's what we're sort of molded for, that's what we 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.680 crawled out of the muck and UH and evolved to 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.440 deal with. So yeah, if you if you have something 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:36.000 tremendously stronger than you start, it's not gonna really pay off, 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:39.159 right because at that level, the blood is almost completely 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:43.000 and we're talking about saturated, So that means there's really 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.680 no need for more oxygen. Now. Of course in UH, 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:51.000 in hospital environments, you'll sometimes see a hundred percent oxygen 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:54.760 administered for a very short amount of time. But but 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:56.719 they still they have to be careful with that because 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.960 it can result in various health problems in some individuals 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.680 if it's if there's prolonged use. So again, it underlines 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.480 the fact that we've we've developed, we've evolved to deal 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.039 with and going higher doesn't help and it could conceivably 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:14.040 hurt in some situations. Yeah, and if you're wondering, like, well, 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.440 why is oxygen really important in the first place. We 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:19.440 we should celebrate it at all times, really, because it's 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.600 one of the reasons why life here on Earth exists 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:24.960 in the first place. That's right, If you travel back 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:27.760 far enough in time, you will encounter a very different 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.120 world than we have now. Yeah, because if you think 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.479 about it, for the first two billion years of earth existence, 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.120 we're talking about this modeled volcano popped planet, it had 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:42.880 little oxygen about point zero zero zero one percent of 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:46.880 current levels. But then about two point three billion years 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:50.520 ago there was a really big change when This change 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.160 had a lot to do with photosynthesizing bacteria, which began 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.119 to create oxygen. And Elizabeth Barber, writing for the Christian 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.560 Science Monitor, had this great disc ccryption. She says, it was, 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:04.840 so far as we know, a moment unlike any other 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.559 in the universe. While Mars, just sixty million years older 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.720 than Earth browned and reddened, Earth was furnished in greens 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.120 and blues, and later in all the brilliant colors that 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.560 decorate its planet and animals and all the protests in between. 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.839 The modern Earth owes about eighty five of its oxygen 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:27.719 to phytoplankton, beginning with the cinobacteria blue green algae that 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.320 first quilted the planet those billions of years ago. I 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:36.080 love that quilted the planet with his blue green algae. Yeah, 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.279 I love that description. Um, it's it's interesting. I was 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:42.800 reading around different accounts of the Great Oxidation event and uh, 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:46.359 Phil Plate of Bad Astronomy and his right up on this. 0:06:46.480 --> 0:06:49.320 He actually framed it more as this is really a 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.159 mass extinction event of one uh species, like really kicking 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.919 into high gear to the detriment of most of the 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:01.640 other life forms. Because before before this guy hit the scene, Um, 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:06.039 we're talking about the the Santo bacteria. Not late Um, 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.240 you had you had a world of simple bacteria, mostly 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.400 in the ocean and uh, and you know, these these 0:07:12.440 --> 0:07:15.200 bacteria just doing their thing and then the one superstar 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.880 kicks it up and begins to to change the environment, 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:23.320 to change the atmosphere ultimately change the climate as well. Yeah, 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.520 and um, I mean what I think is so interesting 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.120 about Santo bacteria is not only did it contribute to 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.880 the creation of diurnal and nocturnal patterns, which we talked 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:36.600 about in our last episode. I believe it's called the 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:40.000 dark um. But yeah, as you say, it completely changed 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:45.119 the profile of life and the oxygen profile, and in turn, 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:49.160 in doing that it helped to create multicellular life which 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:52.360 then would turn around and munch on the sino bacteria. 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.680 And so thanks a lot for all the oxygen and 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:56.880 creating us. I think we're going to feast upon you. 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:58.560 I mean, it's kind of kind of like a horse race, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.360 right where everything everything is kind of running neck and neck, 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:04.440 and then one of the horses just really starts running 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:06.760 ahead of the pack and it's clear that this, this 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.080 is going to be the winner. And in this case, 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.120 the winner is going to be the kind of the 0:08:11.160 --> 0:08:13.640 initial model for everything that comes afterwards. Yeah, so you have, 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.280 I mean, photosynthetic life forms are dominating here. And the 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:19.200 interesting thing about this is that you look, you're kind 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.800 of travel back in deep time and you think about this, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.480 and the interesting question becomes, well, did it happen just 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.960 in little pockets around the Earth or did it just 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:31.720 sort of spread willy nilly, And we can't answer that, 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.400 of course right now, but it's interesting to even think 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:38.439 that this huge sea change was happening. Yeah, there was 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:40.800 a two thousand and thirteen paper post in Nature that 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:45.800 actually suggested that the Earth's atmosphere was already somewhat oxygenated. Um, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:48.520 you know, not oxygen rich or anything, but but there 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:51.040 was already a certain amount of oxygenation going on about 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.080 three billion years ago, and so that that would revise 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:56.520 the timeline some some what kind of in sort of 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.520 a six hundred million year transition point. Yeah, And I 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.000 think trans action is key, right, because that's not when 0:09:02.000 --> 0:09:03.800 the sea change happened. It just sort of like it 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:07.880 was round in pockets. And if you look at that study, 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.720 its researchers at the University of Southern Denmark, they actually 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:14.680 analyze a pair of two point nine two to two 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.400 point nine six billion year old rocks for evidence of 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:20.280 oxidation and lo and behold they found it. So that's 0:09:20.280 --> 0:09:23.040 how we know that it was it was lurking, shall 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.240 we say. So fast forward to the present. We live 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.320 in this world that has a plenty of oxygen and 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:31.360 uh and and we all have sort of the grade 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.920 school science understanding of how it happens. I think we 0:09:33.920 --> 0:09:37.839 can all picture that a diagram of administration. It always 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:39.640 looks like it's all going down, like just at your 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.360 local neighborhood park. Sure, and then you see that, you know, 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:46.160 you see the human breathing out the CEO two and 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.400 then the human breathing in the oxygen that plants and 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.880 trees create. And so this idea is that if we 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:56.480 lived in this treeless world, this shrub less world, we 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:59.920 wouldn't have any oxygen. And that's partly true, but it's 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.280 not the whole story indeed, because we can really lay 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.000 most of the credit at the feet if they had 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.720 feet of the phytoplankton. These are single cell plants that 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:11.000 live at the ocean surface. They only need two things 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.960 for photostints of this, and that is energy from the sun, 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:18.120 new troots from the water, and uh, they're actually responsible 0:10:18.120 --> 0:10:21.600 for producing half the world's oxygen half of it. Yeah, 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:26.360 so it really recasts your idea of I think, how 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.760 the atmosphere is formed, because we tend to think more 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.320 land base. But of course, the more and more we 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.800 learn about the ocean, the more we understand how much 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:38.199 it is informing our atmosphere and how that changeability of 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:42.640 the ocean can really cause some some very drastic changes. Yeah. 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:43.960 I mean, when you look at this and when you 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:47.560 look at just models for global climate in general, we 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:50.000 really live on a water world and the way that 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.360 water behaves um is tremendously important in our various systems. 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.920 The the the be the creation of oxygen, or be 0:10:57.960 --> 0:11:00.800 at our weather, weather patterns. Yeah, and we could dive 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.840 deep into the ocean and have an entire episode on this, 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:06.160 and we perhaps will later. Um. I know that we 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.480 have covered it before, and we've talked about this idea 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:13.000 of dragging the ocean really disturbing the life forms. There 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.439 is completely sort of a stab in the dark by 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:19.720 humans not realizing that our entire ecosystems that were disturbing 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.920 that that actually affect us land lovers. Um. So all right, 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:26.040 you guys, put that in your pipe and smoke it, 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.000 because we're gonna take a quick break and we get back. 0:11:28.000 --> 0:11:31.720 We're going to talk about binding and storing oxygen like 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:42.240 oxygen ninjas. All right, we're back. We've been talking about 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.360 the the origins of oxygen, the importance of oxygen, where 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.120 oxygen is coming from in the world that we, uh, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.439 we experience every day. But now we're gonna get a 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:54.760 little high tech, because you know how humans are. We 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.680 can't help but but hack into everything. We we we 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.240 hack into our bodies, we hack into the world around us, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:04.679 and of course we also hack into digital infrastructures of 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.520 our own creation. But but we can't help a tinker 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.800 and try to figure out how to manipulate things a 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.840 little more in our favor. And of course we've done 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.200 that with oxygen as well. Its particularly in this case 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.000 with the binding and storing of oxygen. Yeah. I like 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.960 to think about this is a couple of scientists sitting around, 0:12:21.160 --> 0:12:24.959 perhaps on the rooftop of their building one night, saying, 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:28.319 wouldn't it be cool we could just like suck all 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.480 the oxygen out of the room. And then they're like, yeah, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:33.559 we could do that. I could literally do that. We 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.920 could literally do that. And it turns out the researchers 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.200 at the University of Southern Denmark had that kind of 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:43.199 stoner moment. They synthesized a crystalline material that absorbs and 0:12:43.240 --> 0:12:46.600 stores oxygen in large quantities. As you say, it can 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:49.679 be used to bind, store, and transport oxygen like a 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:54.280 dense artificial hemoglobin. I love that, that idea that you 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.679 just have your own portable hemoglobin. Yeah, I mean the 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.120 idea that you have this material that works like like 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.679 a biological system, that's it's capable of just sucking all 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.720 this oxygen out of the room. And and I have 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:09.120 a feeling that a lot of you have probably caught 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.520 some of at least the headlines that have made their 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.400 way regarding this, because people really latched onto that sucks 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.960 all the oxygen out of the room, because it's it's 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:18.880 an amazing stat but of course it can't help but 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.800 stir our imaginations. But we can't help but imagine somebody, say, 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.160 pulling this out at a dinner party, and then all 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.160 the air in the room just rushes into this material. Thanksgiving, 0:13:28.480 --> 0:13:32.559 I don't think so. Yeah, conversation starts getting a little uncomfortable, 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.120 you just whip it out and uh takes the breath 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.200 literally out of everyone's face. Yeah. And I think this 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.640 was exacerbated because when it was first put out the media, 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:41.560 it was something like, oh, a spoonful of this stuff 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.200 was like out of all the oxygen in the room. 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:46.840 In fact, a ten liter bucket of this solid material 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.440 would be enough to store all the oxygen in a room. 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.920 And we're talking about a few grains could contain enough 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:57.960 oxygen in a single breath. Now, once trapped, this oxygen 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.320 can be stored until the material is heated gently to 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:04.320 release the oxygen and the cool thing about this is 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:07.439 that it can absorb and release oxygen a whole lot, 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:11.719 like many different times without losing its ability. And this 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.920 is according to Christine Mackenzie. She's a physics professor at 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.880 the University of Seven Denmark. She said, it's like dipping 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:20.640 a sponge in water, squeezing the water out of it 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:24.000 and repeating the process over and over again. Yes, she 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:25.920 pointed out, the material is both a sensor and a 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:27.840 container for the oxygen. It can be used to bind, 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.760 to store, to transport. So I mean you can really 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:33.920 the mind can run wild with the various potential uses 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:35.800 for this that was obvious. One of course, would be 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:38.360 for any kind of environment where you needed to take 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.320 oxygen with you, be it diving, traveling into space. But 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.840 I mean also it would have tremendous potential for use 0:14:45.840 --> 0:14:49.240 in automobiles that use fuel cells and need a regulated 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:52.920 oxygen supply. So and it's again when you think about 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:54.760 the fact that we live in such an oxygen dependent 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.400 world and we have oxygen dependent lives. Uh, there from 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:02.120 this tremendous application for this technology. Yeah. Now, the key 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:05.600 component of the material is cobalt because it's bound in 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:11.119 a specifically designed organic molecule, and again this is from mackenzie. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:14.600 She says that cobalt gives the material precisely the molecular 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:19.040 electronic structure that enables it to absorb oxygen from its surroundings, 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.480 and she said the mechanism is well known from all 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.240 breathing creatures on Earth. Humans and many other species use iron, 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:29.640 while other animals like craps and spiders use copper. She said, 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.200 small amounts of metals are essential for the absorption of oxygen. 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.080 So actually, it's not entirely surprising to see this effect 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:38.840 in our new material. So here again is another example 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.680 of biomimicry, right right, Yeah, And indeed, that's one of 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.360 the tremendous things about this material is that it's it's 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:46.920 it's just a it's a material that when we manipulate 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.160 it a little bit, it can it can actually replicate 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:52.880 some of the processes that they go on inside the 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.600 human body. Yeah. No, McKenzie and her team are researching 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.480 whether light can trigger oxygen's released from the material, which 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:05.520 would be halfway too artificial photosynthesis. Again, the implication of 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.280 this is is pretty widespread, and especially when you're thinking 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:19.400 about terror forming. Yes, so in this we get into 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.280 the quest to create a material that is essentially an 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.040 artificial leaf. Um not in the it looks like a 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:28.560 leaf necessarily, but then it can carry out photosynthus and 0:16:28.640 --> 0:16:31.720 so in this we turn to the Royal College of 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:36.360 Art where Julian Melakori has developed a photosynthetic material. It 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.800 allegedly lives and breathes just like a leaf. It sorbs 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.280 carbon dioxide and water and releases oxygen, and it works 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:46.920 by suspending chloroplast. These are the part of the plant 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:51.680 where photosynsus actually happens in a material made from silk protein. Yeah, 0:16:51.760 --> 0:16:57.760 Melchiori envisions the facades of buildings and lampshades covered in 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:02.280 this photosynthetic material, and it would essentially exhale fresh air 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:05.280 for us. I love. I love these sort of utopian 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.960 futuristic technologies. Yeah, yeah, you can imagine somebody's kind of 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:12.800 waxing poetic about it. In the future of the lamp 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.879 will not only illuminate the room, but if we'll breathe, 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.280 the lamp is a living thing and deserving of our respect. 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:23.000 It is a is a cohabitative that's your utopian voice. Yeah, 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.119 I like it, of course. The the other implication of 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.080 this again is, hey, you know, we know that we 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.520 can grow plants in zero gravity, but a material like 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:38.080 this could produce oxygen with less management and in time 0:17:38.119 --> 0:17:42.200 and effort required for growing plants. So again terraforming off planet, 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.679 you know. And it's I have to say though, it's 0:17:45.720 --> 0:17:47.359 kind of it's kind of scary in a way because 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.159 it's like saying, oh, but we don't necessarily need the 0:17:49.160 --> 0:17:51.320 plants to get what we need, right. Maybe it just 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.159 ends up with a situation like in uh, like in 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:56.399 Silent Running, where they decided to just blow up all 0:17:56.400 --> 0:17:57.919 the gardens that they have in space. They don't need 0:17:57.960 --> 0:17:59.800 them anymore. Maybe that's why they didn't need them need 0:17:59.840 --> 0:18:02.119 them anymore, because they had it. They developed a technology 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:03.959 like this that they could run on Earth and just 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:06.359 build all the plants they wanted it plastic trees, if 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.639 you will. It's funny how technology like this makes the 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:12.399 movie Wally even more relevant, this idea that what we 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:17.880 will be on this generation ship or generational ship and 0:18:17.960 --> 0:18:21.439 looking back at like this specimen of a plant and 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.520 all this footage of growing things. Now it's worth noting 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.400 that both of these examples of these types we've talked about. 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.880 I mean, these are early goings with these materials. They're 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:33.800 they're not being manufactured yet. You're not gonna be buying 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.080 them even it's sharper image in the next a few months. 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:39.960 But they show tremendous potential and it really helps us 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:43.199 um get a better idea of where we're headed in 0:18:43.200 --> 0:18:45.960 the future. Well, and you know, you can sit here 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:48.119 and think about all it could you know, maybe it 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.280 could even help with our atmosphere. Things got out of whack, right, 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:54.119 You could create some sort of balance there. Yeah, not 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.000 a replacement by any means. I was being a bit 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.399 hyperbolic with all that, but but in terms of just 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.160 sort of tweaking things a little bit more in our favor. Yeah, 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:05.439 and then you know, emergency room medicine and space exploration. 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:09.639 It has really some some great ideas tagging along with it. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.160 And then of course you have more of the dystopian 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.360 negative view, and this is where things get probably much 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.840 more fictional and dark, and you start thinking, oh, but 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.919 then perhaps the world takes a turn and there is 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:26.040 no ability to restore balance, and you know, the oxygen 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:30.000 is is poorly saturated throughout and it becomes a question 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:32.879 of the oxygen haves and the oxygen have not. I 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.679 love that. That's that's a tremendous vision of the future 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:38.080 where we're just the oxygen you breathe that we take 0:19:38.119 --> 0:19:42.280 for granted. Now he's no longer free. Um. And of 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.639 course I can't help but think of like a potential 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:48.080 like cinematic layout where a uh you know, a guy 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:50.679 walks into a bank, puts on a gas mask and 0:19:50.720 --> 0:19:54.320 whips out his his bucket of material and sucks all 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:55.960 the oxygen and then he runs off with the money 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:59.440 or uh you know. It's easy to to to run 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:02.240 loud with those today as well. But where where I 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.760 see the real potential for possible weaponization of this kind 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:11.120 of thing is not so much like an oxygen sucking device. 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.640 But it makes me think, Um, you know, what else 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.359 is possible with meta materials in the future. Could we 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:20.480 create one that generates a toxic chemical compound instead of 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:22.800 just creating oxygen? I don't know, but it makes me 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:26.639 wonder what is possible? Yeah, this is the interesting dark territory. 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.040 So does it enter into bioterrorism? I think it's what 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:31.199 you're saying. Yeah, yeah, could if we can create a 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.639 material that that traps oxygen. If we can create a 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.840 material that acts like a leaf, you know, what's what's 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:37.960 to say that in the future we can't create materials 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:43.280 capable of other chemical transitions. Good good questions here? Um, 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:46.200 you know what I'm gonna throw in here, just because 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.480 that's a bit depressing that. Um, the question about how 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.000 baby birds breathe inside and egg. I came across this 0:20:53.240 --> 0:20:54.960 during our research, because you know how you can kind 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.360 of go down that sort of research vortex and you're like, oh, 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.080 I don't it's not really relevant, But that's quite interesting. 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:05.000 I don't think i'd ever thought about that. Well, what's 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.360 the answer. Well, the folks that mental plust did um, 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.720 and they have an article on it, and it says like, 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.320 you know, obviously we know that when we're babies, we 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.880 we have the luxury of an umbilical cord to give 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:19.880 us oxygen. But baby birds, well they have to sit 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:21.879