1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:17,840 Speaker 3: My name is Robert Land, and I am Joe McCormick, 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,439 Speaker 3: and today we're going to be kicking off a series 5 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 3: about the topic of dust. I came to this one 6 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 3: along a quite literal route. I was recently cleaning out 7 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:31,960 Speaker 3: some boxes that I had stored in a closet for years, 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,000 Speaker 3: and in the process stirred up a bunch of dust 9 00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,239 Speaker 3: and then I just sat there breathing it while I 10 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:40,160 Speaker 3: was going through all my old stuff trying to figure 11 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 3: out what to get rid of and all that. And 12 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 3: this process greatly irritated my airways. But through the irritation, 13 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 3: I ended up thinking a lot about dust and about 14 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 3: what dust means to us. So we're surrounded by dust 15 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 3: all the time. You know, it's in all of our homes, 16 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:01,320 Speaker 3: and it's a major concern of simple cleanliness and hygiene 17 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 3: in the house. But it's also of huge significance to 18 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:08,720 Speaker 3: the natural environment, to cycles of weather and water, and 19 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,759 Speaker 3: it is of great significance to our health. Dust has 20 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,280 Speaker 3: so much influence on our lives. And yet it's interesting 21 00:01:16,360 --> 00:01:19,920 Speaker 3: that when you think about the way dust imagery is 22 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 3: used in like, you know, metaphors and poetry and mythology 23 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,759 Speaker 3: and all that. It seems to me that what dust 24 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:34,120 Speaker 3: is most often used to symbolize is uselessness, worthlessness, meaninglessness, 25 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 3: things of no lasting significance. 26 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, I was. I picked up a Brewer's Dictionary of 27 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:42,840 Speaker 2: Phrase and fable, just looking up dust and seeing what 28 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,360 Speaker 2: kind of like maybe old antiquated terminology and sayings might 29 00:01:46,400 --> 00:01:49,600 Speaker 2: be invoked there. And sure enough there was one for 30 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:53,200 Speaker 2: referring to money as dust, which I had not run 31 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:55,559 Speaker 2: across before. Like the idea of being like it's money, 32 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:59,040 Speaker 2: it's ultimately worthless, and therefore you call it dust. 33 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 3: Vocabulary in that way is like a talisman against the 34 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:03,520 Speaker 3: power of money. 35 00:02:03,800 --> 00:02:04,360 Speaker 2: Yeah. 36 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,919 Speaker 3: Yeah. Examples of this kind of usage of dust meaning 37 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:13,600 Speaker 3: that which is worthless, meaningless, you know, of no lasting significance. 38 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 3: These go back to ancient myths and religious literature. But 39 00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:19,520 Speaker 3: one of the most famous examples that came to my 40 00:02:19,600 --> 00:02:24,880 Speaker 3: mind is in Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's the Quintessence of Dust 41 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:29,040 Speaker 3: monologue in Act Too Seen To where Hamlet is talking 42 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 3: to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and he says famously what a 43 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 3: piece of work is a man? How noble in reason, 44 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:40,799 Speaker 3: how infinite in faculty, in form and moving, how express 45 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:44,959 Speaker 3: and admirable in action, How like an angel in apprehension, 46 00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 3: how like a god? The beauty of the world, the 47 00:02:48,160 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 3: paragon of animals? And yet to me, what is this 48 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 3: quintessence of dust? So the final thought there is kind 49 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 3: of the negation of everything he said beforehand, all of 50 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 3: the amazing powers of humankind or beauty, or the way 51 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:06,760 Speaker 3: in which we are made in the image of God. 52 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:11,960 Speaker 3: According to Hamlet, ultimately mankind is as worthless and meaningless 53 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:14,799 Speaker 3: as the dust from which it was made. And this 54 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 3: betrays a kind of running theme of obsession with physical death, 55 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,799 Speaker 3: which sort of neutralizes all meaning and renders everything pointless. 56 00:03:23,240 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 3: I guess when Hamlet is in his depressive moods. 57 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:29,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's of course the line in the Bible, 58 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 2: the King James version being for dust thou art, and 59 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:36,560 Speaker 2: unto dust, thou shalt thou return, which you know, is 60 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,080 Speaker 2: pretty on point, but I think it also misses all 61 00:03:39,080 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 2: of the dust in between, because it will be discussing 62 00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,680 Speaker 2: like dust is just so ubiquitous. It's not just like 63 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 2: that thing at the beginning of the end, like it's 64 00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 2: everywhere in between two, Like it's in the living body, 65 00:03:49,680 --> 00:03:52,960 Speaker 2: it's brought into the living body, it's in the living world, 66 00:03:53,600 --> 00:03:55,320 Speaker 2: and it's out there in the cosmos. 67 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,440 Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well that's kind of a beautiful observation. I 68 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 3: like that counterpoint that, of course life in many ways 69 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 3: is dust. There is a dust of life in the 70 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 3: same way that there is a dust of death. But 71 00:04:06,400 --> 00:04:09,960 Speaker 3: I also still think that it's intriguing and curious that 72 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,520 Speaker 3: there's so much literature and poetry and stuff where the 73 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:19,480 Speaker 3: image of dust seems to emphasize almost cosmic horror, you know, 74 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,719 Speaker 3: the great vast emptiness and negation of all of life's 75 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:27,760 Speaker 3: grandiose illusions of worth, Like why is that? What is 76 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 3: it about if you look at a pile of dust? 77 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 3: What is it about a pile of fine, granular particles 78 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:39,480 Speaker 3: of matter that takes on such a powerfully depressing symbolic heft. 79 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, fear and a handful of dust. 80 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:43,919 Speaker 3: Right, So, I guess a good place to start for 81 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,159 Speaker 3: the series is to tackle the question quite literally, what 82 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 3: is dust in a physical sense? And I found that 83 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,800 Speaker 3: in scientific usage, the stuff that we call dust is 84 00:04:54,839 --> 00:04:59,640 Speaker 3: often broken down with more specific terminology depending on the field. 85 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 3: But I did find a book actually that gave what 86 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:05,560 Speaker 3: I thought was a really good definition of dust generally. 87 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 3: So I came across this because I was reading an 88 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 3: interview in Wired magazine with an author named Jay Owens. 89 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,200 Speaker 3: She's the author of a twenty twenty three book called 90 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 3: Dust The Modern World in a Trillion Particles, and I 91 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:21,560 Speaker 3: like the author's thoughts, so I ended up buying the 92 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,920 Speaker 3: book to explore the topic more. And by the way, 93 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,520 Speaker 3: this book isn't purely about like the science of dust. 94 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 3: It delves into politics and religion and philosophy and so forth. 95 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:35,040 Speaker 3: But in terms of a physical definition, the definition of 96 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 3: dust the author uses is tiny flying particles. This is 97 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:44,720 Speaker 3: sort of a compromise that works across multiple domains, and personally, 98 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:47,320 Speaker 3: I think it works quite well because it captures the 99 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:52,159 Speaker 3: three main properties common to all the things we call dust, 100 00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 3: so tiny flying particles. First, we look at particles, meaning 101 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:02,080 Speaker 3: pieces of solid matter. In the atmospheric sciences, people often 102 00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:06,719 Speaker 3: talk about the idea of aerosols, meaning particles or droplets 103 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:10,680 Speaker 3: that are suspended in the air, like suspended within a gas. 104 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,400 Speaker 3: But this includes things that obviously aren't what people mean 105 00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:18,599 Speaker 3: by dust, such as floating liquid droplets like mist or fog, 106 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 3: and many types of air pollution contain a mix of 107 00:06:22,960 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 3: liquids and solid particulates. But in common usage, I think 108 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 3: dust means a substance made mostly of solid particles. Right. 109 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,479 Speaker 3: Second element of tiny flying particles we can look at tiny. 110 00:06:36,279 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 3: There is no universally agreed upon size for dust particles, 111 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:44,000 Speaker 3: but based on reading Owens and other sources, it seems 112 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 3: that what we call dust is always made of particles 113 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,560 Speaker 3: less than a millimeter in diameter, and usually on a 114 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 3: scale of one hundred to one thousand times smaller than 115 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,240 Speaker 3: a millimeter, which means between one and ten micrometers or 116 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:02,560 Speaker 3: microns in size. So again, a micrometer is one one 117 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:06,600 Speaker 3: thousandth of a millimeter. And for comparison, Owen's notes that 118 00:07:06,760 --> 00:07:10,400 Speaker 3: human hair is on average somewhere between seventy and ninety 119 00:07:10,520 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 3: micrometers in width. So if I did the math on this, right, 120 00:07:14,480 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 3: what we call dust is usually somewhere between one percent 121 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:20,920 Speaker 3: to about fifteen percent the width of a human hair. 122 00:07:21,600 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 2: Right, So very often the particles of dust we're talking about, 123 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,240 Speaker 2: they're not even really visible to the human eye. Though 124 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:30,840 Speaker 2: again you're going to have some particles that are larger than. 125 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,840 Speaker 3: Others exactly, and they're things that are often not visible 126 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 3: on their own but are visible in aggregate. 127 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 2: Right. So like when you walk in and you decide 128 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:41,240 Speaker 2: to sit down at your hobby table, I don't know, 129 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 2: your typewriter, whatever air of your house is beloved but 130 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 2: perhaps neglected, and you say, who put all this dust here? 131 00:07:48,640 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 2: You know you I can think of it in terms 132 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 2: of who put all of these dust particles here on 133 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,080 Speaker 2: my hobby table? You know it's you see it again 134 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 2: in aggregate, like you said, and how did they get there? Well, 135 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 2: that goes right into your next point, right, So. 136 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,760 Speaker 3: The third part of Owen's definition tiny flying particles is flying. 137 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:08,600 Speaker 3: So a core element of dust is that dust particles 138 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,760 Speaker 3: can easily be stirred up by airflow and other types 139 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,600 Speaker 3: of physical agitation, and then they float in the atmosphere 140 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:19,760 Speaker 3: for a significant time before settling down. So you might 141 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,200 Speaker 3: think of, say, grains of sand on the beach as 142 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,320 Speaker 3: tiny particles, but a lot of those grains are large 143 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 3: enough that if you grab a fistful of sand off 144 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:30,800 Speaker 3: of beach and you throw it up in the air, 145 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 3: those grains of sand will plummet straight back down to 146 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:37,520 Speaker 3: the ground. However, some of the mass of that fistful 147 00:08:37,559 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 3: of sand will probably be made up of dust sized 148 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 3: particles which will remain in the air as a cloud 149 00:08:43,640 --> 00:08:46,000 Speaker 3: for some time, while the larger grains just fall to 150 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:49,520 Speaker 3: the earth. So a characteristic feature of dust is its 151 00:08:49,559 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 3: ability to float in the air but also to travel 152 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 3: on the air. So this made me think about how 153 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:58,680 Speaker 3: when you see a surface in your house, so maybe 154 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:03,679 Speaker 3: a bookshelf in dust, you don't look directly above it 155 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 3: to see where the dust was falling from. Maybe you 156 00:09:06,520 --> 00:09:09,640 Speaker 3: do if you see larger pieces of something on top 157 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,000 Speaker 3: of it. But if it's just dust, we understand that 158 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 3: dust migrates on currents of air and it settles somewhere 159 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 3: potentially very far from its origin. So it doesn't just fall, 160 00:09:20,200 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 3: but it travels. So that's the rundown of Owen's definition, 161 00:09:24,440 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 3: and I think it's a good one. Dust is made 162 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,439 Speaker 3: of tiny flying particles. But there's another sense of the 163 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 3: question what is dust? And that sense is what is 164 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:37,959 Speaker 3: it made of? And this is another interesting point that 165 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 3: Owen's race is. In the introduction of her book, she 166 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:44,880 Speaker 3: argues that dust is also defined by quote A certain 167 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:49,680 Speaker 3: loss of context, an inherent formlessness. And that might sound 168 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 3: maybe overly poetic, but I think that's actually a quite 169 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 3: good specific point. It's the fact that dust is made 170 00:09:56,800 --> 00:10:01,080 Speaker 3: of many different substances and we don't know what they are, 171 00:10:01,480 --> 00:10:04,040 Speaker 3: and that is what makes it dust. Because if we 172 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:06,959 Speaker 3: did know exactly what it was made of, and we 173 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 3: saw it, say, pouring in fine floating grains from its 174 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:13,720 Speaker 3: original source, we probably wouldn't call it dust. We would 175 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,520 Speaker 3: call it whatever it was. We might say, look, that 176 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:19,760 Speaker 3: is oak pollen, or that is pet dand or floating 177 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 3: off of my dog, or that is silica powder coming 178 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:25,800 Speaker 3: out of a container, or it's you know, concrete dust 179 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:29,360 Speaker 3: coming up off of a concrete being mixed in a bucket. 180 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:33,520 Speaker 3: It is the loss of its original context and the 181 00:10:33,600 --> 00:10:38,800 Speaker 3: mixing together with other such substances lost from their original context, 182 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:44,440 Speaker 3: to that blending together that makes these unknown particles simply dust. 183 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,000 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's only in the Hollywood context that you have 184 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:51,200 Speaker 2: a definite source of dust. I was looking around at 185 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:55,000 Speaker 2: some of these gadgets earlier. You can pick up like 186 00:10:55,040 --> 00:10:58,280 Speaker 2: a handcrake dust gun for pretty cheap, and then you 187 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:02,560 Speaker 2: have you know, far more advanced models as well. Where 188 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,559 Speaker 2: you would actually have the dust particles inside of a 189 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:11,040 Speaker 2: reservoir and then you are spraying them out onto a surface. 190 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:13,240 Speaker 2: So you know, you can get that like nice haunted 191 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,679 Speaker 2: manner layer of dust so that your lead actor can 192 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 2: come in, you know, perhaps drag their finger over the 193 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,560 Speaker 2: surface of a piano and then look around at the 194 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,600 Speaker 2: haunted surroundings. But then you have to do another take 195 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 2: and spend several minutes like removing all the dust and 196 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:32,880 Speaker 2: then apply reapplying the dust. I've heard accounts of that 197 00:11:32,920 --> 00:11:34,760 Speaker 2: sort of thing in movie production before. 198 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:39,520 Speaker 3: Now, what about when the actor who's like been through 199 00:11:39,559 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 3: a lot, like you know, they're coming in out of 200 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:43,360 Speaker 3: the desert or something and they pat themselves and the 201 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:45,360 Speaker 3: dust comes off of them in a cloud. I wonder 202 00:11:45,640 --> 00:11:47,720 Speaker 3: do they have to get redusted again each take? 203 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,559 Speaker 2: I bet so. I mean there's all sorts of I mean, 204 00:11:50,559 --> 00:11:53,760 Speaker 2: it's kind of the reverse of the whole like having 205 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:57,959 Speaker 2: to polish Darth Vader's helmet, you know, constantly to make 206 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,520 Speaker 2: sure sure that you're not getting any smudges on there 207 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,640 Speaker 2: or anything. But yeah, you're interested in the cinematic dusting. Yeah, 208 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,200 Speaker 2: you can go to various websites and you can look 209 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:10,000 Speaker 2: up the movie dust. You can buy it in various sizes, 210 00:12:10,600 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 2: various instruments to to spray the movie dust around. 211 00:12:14,960 --> 00:12:26,640 Speaker 4: It's kind of fun, okay. 212 00:12:26,679 --> 00:12:30,319 Speaker 3: So dust is the name for tiny flying particles from 213 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:34,000 Speaker 3: an unknown source. But when we actually get in there 214 00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:37,160 Speaker 3: with the microscope and the lab equipment, we of course 215 00:12:37,200 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 3: can study dust and figure out where it comes from 216 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:44,040 Speaker 3: and what it's made of. So what is dust most 217 00:12:44,240 --> 00:12:47,440 Speaker 3: often made of when we encounter it? Of course, it 218 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:51,240 Speaker 3: depends where you're taking the sample from. Worldwide, Owen says 219 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 3: the most prevalent type of dust is mineral in origin, 220 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,439 Speaker 3: so tiny grains of rock broken apart by natural processes 221 00:12:58,559 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 3: or worn down by erosion, and you know they come 222 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 3: from the rocks, the rock layers of earth, and these 223 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:10,120 Speaker 3: minerals are born aloft by winds and other primarily by winds, 224 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:14,600 Speaker 3: but by whatever source agitates them. Inside a home, a 225 00:13:14,640 --> 00:13:16,679 Speaker 3: lot of the dust you will find still does come 226 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:19,880 Speaker 3: from soil tracked in or blown in from the outside, 227 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 3: but there are also non soil particles carried in from outside, 228 00:13:23,920 --> 00:13:28,400 Speaker 3: including pollen and particulates in the air that come from combustion, 229 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:32,560 Speaker 3: such as soot. Soot can be a big constituent of dust. 230 00:13:33,240 --> 00:13:37,080 Speaker 3: Also soot from any combustion happening inside the house. Cooking 231 00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:41,600 Speaker 3: in the house is a large source of particles inside 232 00:13:41,640 --> 00:13:44,439 Speaker 3: the air of a home. But also there are, I 233 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:46,920 Speaker 3: don't know, depending on your point of view, perhaps grosser 234 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:51,280 Speaker 3: sources of dust, but hair from humans and pets, dead 235 00:13:51,400 --> 00:13:54,679 Speaker 3: skin cells from humans, as well as pet dander, you know, 236 00:13:54,679 --> 00:13:57,679 Speaker 3: stuff coming off of the skin of pets. There are 237 00:13:57,840 --> 00:14:03,040 Speaker 3: fibers from inorganic sources in the home, fibers from carpets, furniture, 238 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:08,120 Speaker 3: and clothing, other organic particles like pieces of dead insects, 239 00:14:08,480 --> 00:14:12,559 Speaker 3: wonderful little cockroach crumbs all over the house. And then 240 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:16,080 Speaker 3: just you know, random stuff, tiny bits of random garbage 241 00:14:16,120 --> 00:14:18,920 Speaker 3: like pieces of paper, waste, and plastic. 242 00:14:19,440 --> 00:14:21,720 Speaker 2: This episode is brought to you by dusting. Have you 243 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:23,880 Speaker 2: dusted today? Don't you want to? Now? 244 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:27,000 Speaker 3: Oh, let me give you another reason, because among all that, 245 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:31,320 Speaker 3: there is something else, some part of the dust itself 246 00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:35,920 Speaker 3: which is alive and feeding and growing and living amongst 247 00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:41,720 Speaker 3: us always, and that is dust mites. I got really 248 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 3: interested in dust mites for this episode, so I wanted 249 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:49,320 Speaker 3: to do a little sidebar here on dust mites. So 250 00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:53,280 Speaker 3: there are many types of mites. House dust mites are 251 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:57,600 Speaker 3: one particular branch of them, belonging to the family pyro glyffidy. 252 00:14:58,280 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 3: And I was trying to parse the name. That name 253 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:04,440 Speaker 3: through its Greek roots pyro is fire and glyphid would 254 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:07,120 Speaker 3: seem to mean like carving. But then I found a 255 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,120 Speaker 3: source saying exactly what it means. And the name of 256 00:15:10,160 --> 00:15:14,120 Speaker 3: the pyroglyphid mites comes from the fact that these dust 257 00:15:14,160 --> 00:15:17,600 Speaker 3: mites can cause irritation on the skin, rashes and irritation 258 00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:21,480 Speaker 3: on human skin, like burns from fires, like fire carvings 259 00:15:21,520 --> 00:15:25,400 Speaker 3: on the skin. So house dust mites are microscopic bugs 260 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 3: that can be found all throughout human dwellings. They are 261 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:32,800 Speaker 3: They're not insects. Instead, they are eight legged arachnids, more 262 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,520 Speaker 3: closely related to spiders than to insects. They are microscopic 263 00:15:37,680 --> 00:15:42,520 Speaker 3: and can possibly be seen without the aid of a microscope, 264 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:47,440 Speaker 3: but would rarely be noticed without visual magnification. Their body 265 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 3: lengths are on the order of a few hundred micrometers. 266 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:55,440 Speaker 3: So these dust mites are in many human homes, living 267 00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:59,320 Speaker 3: all around us. How do these dust mites make a living? 268 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:02,280 Speaker 3: What are they doing in our homes? You might be 269 00:16:02,320 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 3: able to guess that by knowing the genus name of 270 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,720 Speaker 3: a couple of the most common varieties of house dustmites. 271 00:16:08,000 --> 00:16:14,200 Speaker 3: That genus name is Dermatophagoides skin eaters. They are skin 272 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,200 Speaker 3: eaters generally dead skin that is already flaked off of 273 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:21,160 Speaker 3: your body, so fortunately you know, usually they can they 274 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 3: can find something that's not still attached to you. 275 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:26,080 Speaker 2: Polite skin eaters they. 276 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:29,960 Speaker 3: Hunt for these discarded rafts of mammal skin in the 277 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 3: microforests of our homes, in carpets, mattresses, in the soft 278 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,160 Speaker 3: weave of furniture. But despite their tiny size and the 279 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 3: fact that they're usually looking for stuff that has already 280 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:46,600 Speaker 3: fallen off of you, house duestomites and their feces are 281 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,080 Speaker 3: a major problem for humans. They are a major source 282 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:53,520 Speaker 3: of allergens within the home. In fact, according to one 283 00:16:53,520 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 3: paper that I'm going to get to in just a second, 284 00:16:56,080 --> 00:17:01,440 Speaker 3: pyroglyphid mites are the single greatest source of allergic symptoms 285 00:17:01,480 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 3: in human beings. 286 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 2: Total. 287 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,000 Speaker 3: The authors of the paper estimate that they cause allergies 288 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 3: in somewhere between sixty five million and one point two 289 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:11,719 Speaker 3: billion people. 290 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:14,960 Speaker 2: This episode is also brought to you by washing your sheets. 291 00:17:15,359 --> 00:17:18,320 Speaker 2: Have you washed your sheets lately, don't you want to? 292 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:21,080 Speaker 3: Now, I want to clarify that these are these are 293 00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:24,320 Speaker 3: different than bedbugs, by the way, Yes, yeah, dust mites. 294 00:17:24,359 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 3: I mean they'll they'll find them all over the place. 295 00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:29,800 Speaker 3: They're not the same as bedbugs. You know, bed bugs 296 00:17:29,800 --> 00:17:33,040 Speaker 3: are looking for a blood meal. The dustimites are looking 297 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:36,040 Speaker 3: for the skin flakes. Now here's maybe a good point 298 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 3: to describe what they look like, Rob. I've attached some 299 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:45,000 Speaker 3: pictures of dustimites for you. These are several micrographs of pyroglyphids. 300 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 3: So what do you see here? 301 00:17:46,840 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 2: I mean they basically look like the head crabs from 302 00:17:49,040 --> 00:17:50,959 Speaker 2: the old Half Live video games. 303 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:55,320 Speaker 3: That's perfect, That's exactly it. Yeah, one of these. So 304 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:58,480 Speaker 3: some of these are like scanning electron micrographs. I guess that. 305 00:17:58,760 --> 00:18:02,000 Speaker 3: You know, they're a lot of texture. It's false color, 306 00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:05,359 Speaker 3: I guess. But in the one shown from right above, 307 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,040 Speaker 3: I mean they've got a bit of a spidery appearance 308 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:10,960 Speaker 3: because they have eight legs and these you know, the 309 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:13,480 Speaker 3: these mouth parts up in the front, the kind of 310 00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 3: finger fangs sort of. But also one of these big 311 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:19,520 Speaker 3: pictures we have to look at, the skin just looks 312 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:22,280 Speaker 3: kind of like wrinkly and deflated. It's like a half 313 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:23,600 Speaker 3: inflated basketball. 314 00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,439 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah. I'd also like how the wrinkle on this 315 00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:29,040 Speaker 2: particular image looks kind of like a mouth, So it 316 00:18:29,119 --> 00:18:31,600 Speaker 2: kind of looks like some sort of a whiskery Muppet creature, 317 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:36,240 Speaker 2: like from like a nineties Muppet creature, not a classic Muppet. 318 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:41,160 Speaker 3: Oh, it looks exactly like either the Nightmare Before Christmas, 319 00:18:41,240 --> 00:18:44,440 Speaker 3: the Oogie Boogieman, or looks like the sorting hat from 320 00:18:44,480 --> 00:18:45,560 Speaker 3: the Harry Potter movies. 321 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:45,960 Speaker 2: Yeah. 322 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 3: Yeah. The really magnified images I have for you are 323 00:18:49,119 --> 00:18:52,440 Speaker 3: the the false color images, but the ones in true 324 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:55,800 Speaker 3: color you can see that they're generally kind of white 325 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,520 Speaker 3: in appearance. Again, they're very very small, so hard to 326 00:18:58,520 --> 00:19:01,480 Speaker 3: see with the naked eye, but kind of white and 327 00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:05,280 Speaker 3: a little bit grub like in appearance, with the limbs 328 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:07,679 Speaker 3: coming out in the front in a larger sort of 329 00:19:08,320 --> 00:19:12,160 Speaker 3: white bulb of a body extending behind. Now, I wanted 330 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:14,439 Speaker 3: to come back and take a brief look at a 331 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 3: dust mite paper that I just brought up a minute ago. 332 00:19:18,200 --> 00:19:23,000 Speaker 3: This is a paper called is Permanent Parasitism Reversible Critical 333 00:19:23,040 --> 00:19:26,679 Speaker 3: Evidence from early evolution of house dust mites. This is 334 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:31,199 Speaker 3: by Pavel B. Klimov and Barry O'Connor published in Systematic 335 00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,680 Speaker 3: Biology in twenty thirteen, and there are a couple of 336 00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:36,480 Speaker 3: things I wanted to talk about here. First is just 337 00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:42,879 Speaker 3: a passage directly about the allergenic quality of these mites, 338 00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:46,520 Speaker 3: about why the feces of pyroglyphid mites are so prone 339 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:50,360 Speaker 3: to cause irritation and allergic reaction in humans the author's 340 00:19:50,440 --> 00:19:54,960 Speaker 3: right quote. Dust mites feed on organic debris such as 341 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:00,000 Speaker 3: shed skin and flourish in nests of vertebrates, including human dwellings. 342 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 3: The mites severe allergenic properties are linked to their powerful 343 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 3: digestive and molting enzymes, salivary secretions, and other water soluble molecules. 344 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:17,240 Speaker 3: For example, large quantities of digestive enzymes accumulate in mite's 345 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:22,800 Speaker 3: fecal material, minute particles that can easily become airborne when 346 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:27,639 Speaker 3: inhaled or in contact with skin. The residual mite enzymes 347 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:31,959 Speaker 3: may break up tight junctions between epithelial cells and trigger 348 00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:37,000 Speaker 3: allergic reactions. So these mites they make tiny poops, and 349 00:20:37,040 --> 00:20:40,560 Speaker 3: their tiny poops are full of the digestive enzymes that 350 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:43,560 Speaker 3: they use to break down their food, and their food 351 00:20:43,840 --> 00:20:48,359 Speaker 3: is human skin flakes and in the broader context, things 352 00:20:48,359 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 3: that contain keratin, like of course skin cells, but also 353 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:57,080 Speaker 3: like bird feathers, which these animals also eat. So it 354 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 3: is like they have evolved a digestive enzyme that makes 355 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:05,679 Speaker 3: it possible for them to eat difficult to digest things 356 00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:08,679 Speaker 3: that fall off of us and get nutrition out of that. 357 00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 3: And then they poop, and their poop contains the enzymes 358 00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:14,720 Speaker 3: that allow them to break that stuff down. And then 359 00:21:14,720 --> 00:21:16,960 Speaker 3: that poop gets stirred up in the air and becomes 360 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:19,240 Speaker 3: part of the dust in our homes and gets on 361 00:21:19,280 --> 00:21:23,240 Speaker 3: people's skin and in their airways and so forth. But anyway, 362 00:21:23,480 --> 00:21:26,080 Speaker 3: to come to a bigger picture issue, the real point 363 00:21:26,119 --> 00:21:29,560 Speaker 3: of this paper is related to the evolutionary history of 364 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:34,480 Speaker 3: the house dust might how did these microscopic animals end 365 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,359 Speaker 3: up living this way, crawling through the jungles of the 366 00:21:37,359 --> 00:21:40,399 Speaker 3: couch cushions, you know, getting into the area rug to 367 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:44,119 Speaker 3: munch on our dead skin flakes. How did they end 368 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:47,760 Speaker 3: up that way? Well, the authors of this paper used 369 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:52,640 Speaker 3: genomic evidence cross comparing different lineages of mites of these 370 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 3: pyroglyphids and related organisms to show that these free living 371 00:21:58,119 --> 00:22:01,360 Speaker 3: mites within our homes. It used to be even closer 372 00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:07,119 Speaker 3: companions than they are now. They evolved from fully obligate 373 00:22:07,320 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 3: permanent parasites of warm blooded vertebrates like birds and mammals 374 00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:16,439 Speaker 3: the author's right quote. We propose that parasitic ancestors of 375 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:22,439 Speaker 3: pyroglyphids shifted to nests of vertebrates. Later, the nest inhabiting 376 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,879 Speaker 3: pyroglyphids expanded into human dwellings to become a major source 377 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,760 Speaker 3: of allergens. So these evolved from creatures that were once 378 00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:37,640 Speaker 3: free living organisms and then evolved a tight specialized parasite 379 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 3: relationship with warm blooded vertebrates like mammals and birds and 380 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 3: would live directly on the host, and then shifted away 381 00:22:46,280 --> 00:22:50,159 Speaker 3: from that tight specific parasitic relationship to be to have 382 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,200 Speaker 3: a more loose relationship, to be free living into somewhat, 383 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,359 Speaker 3: you know, to sort of scavenge what falls off of 384 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,640 Speaker 3: the host animal or the former host animal. And that's 385 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:05,760 Speaker 3: interesting because this kind of despecialization from a tight parasite 386 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 3: host relationship to a more generalized free living dust no 387 00:23:10,880 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 3: mad lifestyle was considered quite unusual, something that is rarely 388 00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:19,399 Speaker 3: observed in evolution, and at some times in the past 389 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:23,040 Speaker 3: was thought impossible. But it's clearly not impossible. It's just 390 00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:27,280 Speaker 3: evolutionarily difficult to do to get out of that sort 391 00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:30,879 Speaker 3: of tight, tight adaptive dead end where you are stuck 392 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,800 Speaker 3: in a relationship with this host animal to become a 393 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 3: little more of a generalist and get a little bit 394 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,000 Speaker 3: more distance and still be able to survive. 395 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,960 Speaker 2: What's like, it's almost like evolutionarily they survive the passage 396 00:23:41,960 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 2: to the promised land, the promised land being the augmented 397 00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:48,240 Speaker 2: environment that is the human home. 398 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:51,640 Speaker 3: Oh that's interesting. Yeah, I mean they have to they 399 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,720 Speaker 3: still have to be very specialized to survive within the 400 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,040 Speaker 3: human home. They have to be able to tolerate different 401 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,840 Speaker 3: kinds of environmental conditions than they would if they were 402 00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,879 Speaker 3: living directly on the on the mammal or the bird body. Like, 403 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,280 Speaker 3: they have to be able to tolerate less reliability. And 404 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:10,280 Speaker 3: I think I think one of the things is they 405 00:24:10,280 --> 00:24:13,679 Speaker 3: have to be more resistant to dehydration, you know, because 406 00:24:13,760 --> 00:24:15,920 Speaker 3: like it's harder to get water when you're just living 407 00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:16,520 Speaker 3: in the dust. 408 00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:17,280 Speaker 2: Uh. 409 00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,479 Speaker 3: They have to have these digestive enzymes that allow them 410 00:24:20,520 --> 00:24:23,520 Speaker 3: to break down difficult foods like the keratin and skin 411 00:24:23,720 --> 00:24:26,920 Speaker 3: skin cells and stuff like that. But apparently they got 412 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,400 Speaker 3: all the right adaptations, and now they're here. Now they're 413 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:30,959 Speaker 3: living in the in the couch cushion. 414 00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:35,600 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's my understanding that humidity is key. You look 415 00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 2: around and you see various advice about dust mites in 416 00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:43,600 Speaker 2: the home, and like some some people advise having a dehumidifier, 417 00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:47,199 Speaker 2: for example, trying things out a bit, and then on 418 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:51,160 Speaker 2: top of that, of course washing sheets and so forth 419 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:55,159 Speaker 2: to appropriate temperatures, and some people advocate like putting I 420 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,280 Speaker 2: guess in cases where you don't have time to do 421 00:24:57,320 --> 00:24:59,280 Speaker 2: this and you're dealing perhaps with you know, some sort 422 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:04,080 Speaker 2: of a more severe allergy to them, putting bedding in 423 00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 2: the freezer for a certain amount of time and then 424 00:25:06,119 --> 00:25:06,760 Speaker 2: removing them. 425 00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 3: Oh interesting, I guess that would really dry it out. 426 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:12,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then I guess then you've got both sides 427 00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:13,520 Speaker 2: of the pillow or the cold side of the pillow, 428 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 2: so wind win. 429 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:17,560 Speaker 3: Okay, that's all I've got on dust mites for now, 430 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:19,240 Speaker 3: but we may come back to them later in the 431 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:19,920 Speaker 3: series and. 432 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:33,280 Speaker 2: They may re emerge for sure. Now, for the rest 433 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:35,480 Speaker 2: of this episode, I wanted to talk a little bit 434 00:25:35,480 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 2: more about atmospheric dust, which we've already touched on. We've 435 00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:42,440 Speaker 2: talked about the ways that the dust is floating around. 436 00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:46,280 Speaker 2: It's stirred up easily by just movement and through the 437 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 2: atmosphere that we all live in, or of course by 438 00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:53,119 Speaker 2: by weather patterns and so forth. We've talked about how 439 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,760 Speaker 2: you know, an individual particle of dust is often invisible 440 00:25:56,800 --> 00:26:00,679 Speaker 2: to the naked eye, but in great volumes it's different. 441 00:26:00,760 --> 00:26:02,639 Speaker 2: And that great volume may be the great volume of 442 00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:04,960 Speaker 2: dust on your dining room table when after you come 443 00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:08,040 Speaker 2: back from traveling, or it could indeed be the great 444 00:26:08,119 --> 00:26:11,920 Speaker 2: volumes of dust seen in a dust devil or seen 445 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:16,440 Speaker 2: in a dust storm. Because again, dust is everywhere suspended 446 00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:21,000 Speaker 2: in the air, It's steadily accumulating on surfaces, and we 447 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:23,359 Speaker 2: often don't notice it until it builds up to a 448 00:26:23,359 --> 00:26:24,280 Speaker 2: certain threshold. 449 00:26:24,560 --> 00:26:26,679 Speaker 3: This is why it never seems like you need to 450 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 3: dust until it's already too dusty. 451 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:31,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and at that point you realize you live 452 00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 2: in foul and you've got to fix things now. Atmospheric 453 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 2: dust is important because, of course it impacts both human 454 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:43,080 Speaker 2: health and climate, though of course these two topics overlap. Dust, 455 00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:46,760 Speaker 2: according to the NAA, is the single largest component of 456 00:26:46,800 --> 00:26:50,320 Speaker 2: the aerosols in Earth's atmosphere. It likely has a huge 457 00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:54,520 Speaker 2: impact on Earth's climate and affects everything from oceanic temperatures 458 00:26:54,720 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 2: to snow melt rates. There also seems to be a 459 00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:00,439 Speaker 2: connection between dust and hurricanes, with data points to an 460 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 2: inverse relationship between dust in the North Atlantic tropics and 461 00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:08,480 Speaker 2: various Atlantic hurricanes. I was looking at a few different 462 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,399 Speaker 2: sources on all of this. One in particular, there's a 463 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:16,800 Speaker 2: NAA article from twenty sixteen titled the Dirt on Atmospheric Dust, 464 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,440 Speaker 2: and that twenty sixteen stat is key because a little 465 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:22,760 Speaker 2: later I'm going to touch on some research that raises 466 00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:24,639 Speaker 2: the question about like where we are in terms of 467 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,879 Speaker 2: our modeling of atmospheric dust and so forth. But based 468 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 2: on this source, it says that we're looking at somewhere 469 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:38,280 Speaker 2: between two hundred and five thousand terograms of dust entering 470 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,880 Speaker 2: the atmosphere each year, with one teogram equaling one trillion grams. 471 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,400 Speaker 3: My kitchen scale does not go up to a terogram. 472 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,520 Speaker 2: There's also an estimated twenty terograms of dust suspended in 473 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:55,080 Speaker 2: the atmosphere at any given time, with seasonal variations. Now, 474 00:27:55,119 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 2: the amount of time that an individual dust particle remains 475 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:00,720 Speaker 2: in the air that depends on particle size. Apparently, larger 476 00:28:00,760 --> 00:28:03,399 Speaker 2: particles may remain suspended for no more than like twenty 477 00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:06,879 Speaker 2: four hours, but much smaller particles, they can say, aloft 478 00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:11,600 Speaker 2: much longer than the period of time that the NAA 479 00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,359 Speaker 2: mentions in this article is twenty days or even more. 480 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,119 Speaker 2: Now another figure I ran across. This is from Robert 481 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 2: Monroe's Increased atmospheric dust has masked power of greenhouse gases 482 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:24,960 Speaker 2: to warm planet from January twenty twenty three. This was 483 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 2: published on the website of the Script's Institution of Ocean Oceanography, 484 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,439 Speaker 2: and it puts it like this quote, twenty six million 485 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,119 Speaker 2: tons of such particles globally equivalent to the weight of 486 00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:38,800 Speaker 2: about five million African elephants floating in the sky. 487 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:42,440 Speaker 3: I came across some numbers within the same range offered 488 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,720 Speaker 3: in the introduction to Jay Owen's book. So in the 489 00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:50,920 Speaker 3: Dust Book, she includes estimates that somewhere between and this 490 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 3: is a big range, but no matter what, this is 491 00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:57,720 Speaker 3: a huge number. Somewhere between eight and thirty six million 492 00:28:58,000 --> 00:29:01,760 Speaker 3: metric tons of mineral dust are floating in the atmosphere 493 00:29:01,800 --> 00:29:03,760 Speaker 3: at any given time, And I was trying to come 494 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 3: up with a comparison for that number. Looking for figures 495 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:09,240 Speaker 3: in that range. One I found was kind of interesting, 496 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 3: not that it's all that easy to picture this, but 497 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:15,640 Speaker 3: just as a conceptual comparison, I found a paper published 498 00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:19,240 Speaker 3: in PNAS from twenty twenty three by Greenspoon. It all 499 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 3: called the Global Biomass of Wild Animals, And so the 500 00:29:23,560 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 3: authors of this paper were just estimating for certain categories 501 00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 3: of animals and organisms on Earth how much total biomass 502 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:34,479 Speaker 3: is there if you were to weigh them all at 503 00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,600 Speaker 3: the same time. And the authors, based on their methodology, 504 00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 3: estimated that if you were to put together all of 505 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 3: the wild land mammals on Earth, so all the mammals 506 00:29:44,400 --> 00:29:47,480 Speaker 3: that are not domesticated live out in the wild on land, 507 00:29:47,880 --> 00:29:51,800 Speaker 3: there would be about twenty two million metric tons worth, 508 00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 3: and a lot of those animals are going to be 509 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:58,400 Speaker 3: things like deer, wild pigs, elephants, and so forth. There 510 00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:01,560 Speaker 3: would be about twenty two million metric tons worth. And 511 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,960 Speaker 3: by the way, that number is quite small compared to 512 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 3: the total biomass of humans. There would be three hundred 513 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 3: and ninety million metric tons of humans and six hundred 514 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 3: and thirty million worth of domestic and city dwelling animals. 515 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,440 Speaker 3: But all of the wild land animals are about twenty 516 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,120 Speaker 3: two million metric tons, which is sort of in the 517 00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,600 Speaker 3: middle of Owens's eight to thirty six million metric tons 518 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,720 Speaker 3: of dust range. So that's a lot of dust in 519 00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:28,719 Speaker 3: the air. It's kind of hard to imagine. 520 00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And again part of it is because it 521 00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:35,040 Speaker 2: is just mostly invisible to us, and even when it's visible, 522 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,760 Speaker 2: it's hard to think in terms of, oh, that dust devil, 523 00:30:37,800 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 2: that dust cloud, even if you're looking at satellite Maybe 524 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 2: when you're looking at satellite imagery you can sort of 525 00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:46,440 Speaker 2: think in terms of millions and millions of elephants. Now, 526 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 2: the next question you may ask in a number if 527 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:50,800 Speaker 2: you already know the answer to this, I'm sure, is 528 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 2: where does the dust come from? On the whole, it 529 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 2: comes from the deserts. So according to again the NOAA 530 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,920 Speaker 2: and twenty sixteen, more than half of the world's atmospheric 531 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:05,920 Speaker 2: dust originates in North Africa. This is the Saharan connection 532 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,320 Speaker 2: that you've probably heard of, with the greater Saharan desert 533 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,760 Speaker 2: dust transport across the Atlantic having been linked to things 534 00:31:13,840 --> 00:31:17,640 Speaker 2: like El Nino and other weather phenomena. So that's like 535 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 2: half the dust more or less based on these measurements 536 00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,880 Speaker 2: and estimations and models. The rest is thought to originate 537 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,080 Speaker 2: from other major desert regions around the world that share 538 00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:29,760 Speaker 2: the right characteristics. 539 00:31:30,160 --> 00:31:31,640 Speaker 3: Well, what are those characteristics? 540 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 2: All right? So these are areas that sit in low 541 00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:39,120 Speaker 2: elevation basins near or surrounded by mountains, and the mountains 542 00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:42,840 Speaker 2: are key because these feed rivers, which deposit vast amounts 543 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 2: of sediment into low lying regions. So that makes these 544 00:31:46,560 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 2: regions dust collecting and distribution engines for the atmosphere. Okay, 545 00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 2: now we should also point out that there are other 546 00:31:55,360 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 2: major dust engines, certainly if you have wildfires we mentioned 547 00:31:59,800 --> 00:32:05,200 Speaker 2: so earlier, but also volcanoes. Right when a volcano erupts, 548 00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:06,920 Speaker 2: we've talked about this on the show before you know, 549 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 2: injects injects of vast amounts of volcanic dust into the atmosphere, 550 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:14,200 Speaker 2: and these injections are often large enough to impact human 551 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:17,400 Speaker 2: health and human activity to varying degrees, and these are 552 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,640 Speaker 2: often visible from space. 553 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,880 Speaker 3: So we've seen how the creation of atmospheric dust in 554 00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:27,600 Speaker 3: some way depends on the complex interactions of other cycles 555 00:32:27,600 --> 00:32:29,560 Speaker 3: and processes on the surface of the Earth, like the 556 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 3: interaction of the water cycle and of water coming down 557 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,920 Speaker 3: from mountains and mixing correctly with the with the desert environments, 558 00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,600 Speaker 3: and then of course that being affected by wind which 559 00:32:40,720 --> 00:32:44,560 Speaker 3: raises dust up into the air. So but it also 560 00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:46,920 Speaker 3: works on the other end too, right, like dust in 561 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:50,920 Speaker 3: turn affects complicated processes all around the globe. 562 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:53,480 Speaker 2: That's right again. You think of like the various you know, 563 00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:58,080 Speaker 2: convection and system of movement of air throughout our atmosphere, 564 00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:00,160 Speaker 2: and just imagine dust getting caught up in all all 565 00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:04,720 Speaker 2: of that, you know. So, yeah, atmospheric dust has a 566 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:08,320 Speaker 2: few properties worth stressing in relation to climate and weather. Here. 567 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:11,680 Speaker 2: On one hand, there's the role played by dust particles 568 00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:15,040 Speaker 2: in the formulation of water droplets. So these form when 569 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 2: water vapor shifts to liquid form around a condensation nucleus 570 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:23,640 Speaker 2: such as a particle of dust, and then these particles 571 00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:27,800 Speaker 2: of dust with water condensing around it, these coalesce into clouds. 572 00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,160 Speaker 2: And then all of these particles with water around these 573 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,280 Speaker 2: water droplets, they fallows rain, and this whole cycle continues. 574 00:33:34,360 --> 00:33:38,040 Speaker 2: And if you've ever absorbed any material about how rain 575 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,000 Speaker 2: drops work and so forth, you've probably heard about this. 576 00:33:41,320 --> 00:33:44,200 Speaker 3: So to some extent, dust quite literally makes it rain. 577 00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then there's the fact that atmospheric dust can 578 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,080 Speaker 2: have both a apparently both a cooling and warming effect 579 00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,960 Speaker 2: on the planet, and temperature of course plays a vital 580 00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:56,960 Speaker 2: role in climate and weather as well. But the exact 581 00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 2: net effect of dust warming or cooling this seems to 582 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:05,440 Speaker 2: remain a complex topic of discussion. But one of the 583 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:09,880 Speaker 2: people that has been studying this as looking at stuff 584 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 2: that this person has said and written and also articles 585 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:15,880 Speaker 2: about their work. This is Jasper Cock, a UCLA Assistant 586 00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:20,439 Speaker 2: Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic sciences, and according to Cock, 587 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:23,279 Speaker 2: here dust can have either a net cooling or net 588 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,799 Speaker 2: heating effect on the atmosphere, depending on the size of 589 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 2: the particles. Ah okay, so in the cooling scenario in 590 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 2: recent studies may point it seems and coxingstandicate this as 591 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:38,440 Speaker 2: well to a slight overall cooling effect. You have dust 592 00:34:38,480 --> 00:34:43,120 Speaker 2: particles reflecting sunlight back into space and also dissipating high 593 00:34:43,160 --> 00:34:46,359 Speaker 2: clouds that warm the planet. Now on the warming side 594 00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,560 Speaker 2: of the whole scenario, dust landing on the surface of 595 00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,319 Speaker 2: the planet again, it can coat your car, it can 596 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:57,000 Speaker 2: coat your dinner table, and so forth. But it also 597 00:34:57,120 --> 00:35:01,040 Speaker 2: can coat snow and ice with dark particles that increases 598 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:02,120 Speaker 2: the absorption of heat. 599 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 3: Ah Okay, that's right. So if it was just pure 600 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:09,600 Speaker 3: snow or ice, it would reflect more of the Sun's 601 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:12,360 Speaker 3: energy back out into space. But if you cover it 602 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,600 Speaker 3: with something darker in color, it will just warm it up, right. 603 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:18,719 Speaker 2: And Cok has also pointed out that dust can also 604 00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 2: cool the planet by depositing key nutrients like iron and 605 00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,319 Speaker 2: phosphorus into the ocean to support the growth of CO 606 00:35:25,480 --> 00:35:28,839 Speaker 2: two absorbing phytoplank Then, so you know, there are all 607 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:34,920 Speaker 2: these different ways that dust interacts with climate, and it 608 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,719 Speaker 2: seems like they're warming properties that can go on, they're 609 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:42,400 Speaker 2: cooling properties, and it may be that it's a little 610 00:35:42,440 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 2: more in the cooling category at least right now. 611 00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:47,920 Speaker 3: But if I understand you right, you're saying that that's 612 00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,959 Speaker 3: there's enough uncertainty there that that's sort of a low 613 00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:52,160 Speaker 3: confidence conclusion. 614 00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:55,560 Speaker 2: There's the more that I look at it, the more 615 00:35:55,560 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 2: that it seems like we're still learning a lot more 616 00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:02,319 Speaker 2: about how dust were in the atmosphere and exactly like 617 00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:05,120 Speaker 2: what our data sets are and what the modeling looks like. 618 00:36:06,920 --> 00:36:10,000 Speaker 2: But coxmin point here, and this is reflected in the 619 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:13,480 Speaker 2: Monroe article. I referenced earlier, is that this is not 620 00:36:13,560 --> 00:36:15,400 Speaker 2: an argument for Okay, this is what we need to 621 00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:19,920 Speaker 2: do to combat climate change or reverse it or the 622 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:22,680 Speaker 2: reverse of this. You know, It's not some sort of 623 00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,760 Speaker 2: like weird biohacking geo hacking scheme or whatever. But rather 624 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,440 Speaker 2: it's about identifying because we we've probably discussed some of 625 00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:32,040 Speaker 2: these before and you run across these where it's like, 626 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:33,120 Speaker 2: all right, what we need to do. We need to 627 00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:36,320 Speaker 2: pump x number of particles how many tons of particles 628 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,480 Speaker 2: into the atmosphere to carry out some sort of cooling 629 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,040 Speaker 2: effect to counteract global warming. 630 00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:43,919 Speaker 3: That is not being advocated here right. 631 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:48,120 Speaker 2: Rather, the point here is that we need to identify 632 00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:52,120 Speaker 2: to what degree atmospheric dust levels may impact and even 633 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:56,719 Speaker 2: mask the effects of global warming. And its key since 634 00:36:56,880 --> 00:37:01,640 Speaker 2: microscopic airborne particles created by burning fossil fuel or of 635 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:07,319 Speaker 2: course a huge aspect of human caused climate change, but 636 00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:12,240 Speaker 2: those very particles could also temporarily be contributing to cooling. 637 00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:15,000 Speaker 2: So we need to be aware of all this so 638 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:17,120 Speaker 2: that first of all, we know the degree to which 639 00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:21,880 Speaker 2: you know to which climate change is occurring and isn't 640 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,640 Speaker 2: masked by the effects of the dust in the atmosphere, 641 00:37:25,719 --> 00:37:27,560 Speaker 2: and then also we need to be aware of this. 642 00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:31,800 Speaker 2: If we do hopefully ratchet down on our fossil fuel consumption, 643 00:37:32,640 --> 00:37:35,239 Speaker 2: you know we're likely going to see some sort of 644 00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:39,319 Speaker 2: dip in the cooling effect. There that there were the 645 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:42,680 Speaker 2: specific cooling effect caused by the dust particles that are 646 00:37:42,680 --> 00:37:47,160 Speaker 2: created via the burning of fossil fuels. Now, satellites can 647 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,640 Speaker 2: detect dust in the atmosphere, but I was reading about 648 00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:52,680 Speaker 2: how this doesn't mean it's necessarily always easy to detect. 649 00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:55,520 Speaker 2: It can apparently be quite challenging, but the results can 650 00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,960 Speaker 2: also be very impressive, very informative. Apparently there's still a 651 00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 2: lot of discussion over how how much dust there is 652 00:38:01,200 --> 00:38:04,360 Speaker 2: and how it impacts everything. I was looking at a 653 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,640 Speaker 2: twenty twenty four article in The Washington Post by Aaron Blakemore. 654 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:11,280 Speaker 2: This is not a pair of recent studies that challenge 655 00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,080 Speaker 2: the North African dust emission dominance view that we referenced earlier, 656 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:19,040 Speaker 2: and instead argue that dust emissions may vary by season 657 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 2: and across hemispheres, and that the total worldwide dust emission 658 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:26,920 Speaker 2: level might actually be much lower than previously thought. So 659 00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,480 Speaker 2: that would mean our older models may be in need 660 00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:33,960 Speaker 2: of some update, and I believe the issues we've just 661 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:36,440 Speaker 2: discussed your concerning climate and fossil fuel usage. I mean, 662 00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 2: these are still extremely valid. But this is another example 663 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:43,240 Speaker 2: of how we need more research. We need better data sets, 664 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:46,160 Speaker 2: better tracking. All this is probably needed to get a 665 00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:50,880 Speaker 2: handle on the exact impact and variance of Earth's atmospheric dust. 666 00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:55,280 Speaker 3: So, despite common symbolic themes, on a global scale, dust 667 00:38:55,360 --> 00:39:00,520 Speaker 3: is the opposite of insignificant. It has large scale ramifications 668 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:02,719 Speaker 3: and we need to understand them better. In how dust 669 00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:06,480 Speaker 3: affects climate, weather, water, all of that. 670 00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,799 Speaker 2: Yeah, human health, and then you know, to get into 671 00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:12,879 Speaker 2: the dust mites as well, allergens and so forth. Yeah, 672 00:39:12,880 --> 00:39:15,319 Speaker 2: so it's like dust at the beginning, dust at the end, 673 00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,560 Speaker 2: and then just dust all in between as well, you know, 674 00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:22,680 Speaker 2: making it rain, making it hot or cold, making us sick, 675 00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,920 Speaker 2: making us feel like our house is a bit foul 676 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:28,600 Speaker 2: and needs to be cleaned up, all of these things. 677 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,520 Speaker 3: All right, Well, maybe we should call part one there, 678 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:33,800 Speaker 3: but we will be back with more to say about 679 00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:35,200 Speaker 3: dust next time. 680 00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,120 Speaker 2: That's right, there's a lot to discuss regarding dust. We 681 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:40,160 Speaker 2: didn't get into cosmic dust at all. I'm sure we'll 682 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:44,080 Speaker 2: get into that We already have some topics lined up involving, 683 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:49,000 Speaker 2: you know, philosophical and mythological treatments of dust, so expect 684 00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,080 Speaker 2: more of that as well. In the meantime, I'll remind 685 00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:54,560 Speaker 2: everyone that Stuffed Blow Your Mind is primarily a science 686 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:59,279 Speaker 2: and culture podcast, with core episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 687 00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:01,840 Speaker 2: On my days, we do listener mail. On Wednesdays, we 688 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 2: do a short form episode on Fridays. We set aside 689 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:07,280 Speaker 2: most serious concerns to just talk about a weird movie 690 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:11,160 Speaker 2: on Weird House Cinema. And indeed, more than one movie 691 00:40:11,239 --> 00:40:15,440 Speaker 2: we've watched quite a few movies have involved evil creatures 692 00:40:15,440 --> 00:40:17,840 Speaker 2: turning to dust. I think we just watched one a 693 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:20,919 Speaker 2: couple of weeks ago where this happened at the end. 694 00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:25,480 Speaker 2: Which one was this was this Wolf Woman where the 695 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,880 Speaker 2: villain turns to dust and then a wind suddenly blows 696 00:40:28,920 --> 00:40:29,680 Speaker 2: all the dust away. 697 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, Wolf Devil Woman. Yeah, the evil demon at the 698 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 3: end turns into soot. 699 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:38,920 Speaker 2: Yeah. So there's plenty of dust on Weird House as well. 700 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,200 Speaker 3: And then it doesn't tell you if the main character 701 00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:43,880 Speaker 3: lives or not. She just like is getting kind of woozy, 702 00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:46,759 Speaker 3: and then the cuts to the end the end. 703 00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:51,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, so yeah, that's the Stuff to Blow Your Mind 704 00:40:51,239 --> 00:40:55,440 Speaker 2: podcast feet and hey, just remind everyone out there if 705 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:57,839 Speaker 2: you like what we're doing here. One thing you can 706 00:40:57,880 --> 00:40:59,960 Speaker 2: do to help us out is rate and review us 707 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,600 Speaker 2: wherever you get the you have the power to do so. 708 00:41:01,680 --> 00:41:04,120 Speaker 2: Give us a nice array of stars, a little sprinkling 709 00:41:04,120 --> 00:41:06,920 Speaker 2: at dust there if you will, it helps us out. 710 00:41:07,080 --> 00:41:09,200 Speaker 2: And if you know, if you have any thoughts on 711 00:41:09,200 --> 00:41:13,799 Speaker 2: this topic about past topics, future topic possibilities, ride in 712 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:15,640 Speaker 2: and let us know. We would love to hear from you, 713 00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:17,200 Speaker 2: and email is the best way to get in touch 714 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:17,840 Speaker 2: with us directly. 715 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:21,960 Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer JJ Posway. 716 00:41:22,280 --> 00:41:23,920 Speaker 3: If you would like to get in touch with us 717 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,480 Speaker 3: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 718 00:41:26,480 --> 00:41:28,600 Speaker 3: a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 719 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,520 Speaker 3: you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow 720 00:41:31,520 --> 00:41:39,920 Speaker 3: your Mind dot com. 721 00:41:40,440 --> 00:41:43,360 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 722 00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:46,240 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 723 00:41:46,400 --> 00:42:05,720 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.