1 00:00:01,720 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from House Stop 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:16,400 Speaker 1: Work dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb, I'm showing performant, and I'm 4 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: Christian Sager. Hey. So we have been doing periscope for 5 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,720 Speaker 1: two weeks now. We've had a bunch of our listeners 6 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: sign in and ask us questions and hang out with 7 00:00:28,960 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: us on Friday afternoons. So we wanted to remind you 8 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 1: that we're going to keep doing that as long as 9 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,640 Speaker 1: you are interested. So every Friday at noon we will 10 00:00:37,680 --> 00:00:40,720 Speaker 1: be on the periscope, and if you want to find 11 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:42,960 Speaker 1: out more about that, you can of course visit us 12 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,880 Speaker 1: on all of our social media channels, which is Facebook, Twitter, 13 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: or Tumbler, all of those. We are blow the mind. 14 00:00:49,159 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: Don't forget that website Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Wait, 15 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:54,760 Speaker 1: what's that? What's on that website? All the stuff, all 16 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,600 Speaker 1: of it? Yeah, is that where the videos are. That's 17 00:00:57,640 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: where the videos are, and that's where the blog posts are, 18 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: That's where all the podcasts. Like some of you listen 19 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: to this and think all we do is the podcast, 20 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: but we've got a lot going on blogging. There's Robert 21 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: does some amazing content about butts. Yeaheah, there's a there's 22 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:14,960 Speaker 1: some science on that galories and there's a monster science 23 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,479 Speaker 1: both in video form and blog form. The latest one 24 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: I liked a lot, the cat Bus one. Oh yeah, yeah, 25 00:01:20,920 --> 00:01:22,639 Speaker 1: I just did one on the cat Bus from Totoro. 26 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: Just rewatched that film with my family and uh, yeah, 27 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,240 Speaker 1: there's some cool science behind cat Bus. I've actually never 28 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:31,959 Speaker 1: seen it. You've got to get on there. Well, you 29 00:01:31,959 --> 00:01:33,800 Speaker 1: know the other new thing that we've got going on, 30 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:36,920 Speaker 1: new music at the top of the show, guys, Yeah, 31 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:40,759 Speaker 1: how about that welcome a welcome change that was created 32 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: by our fabulous producer Noel Brown. Bravo to you, sir. 33 00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,720 Speaker 1: But also I didn't notice this until I had heard 34 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:49,880 Speaker 1: it a few times. It reminds me of the Doctor 35 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: Who theme, you know, it's with the with the lead part. Well, 36 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: I like to think of us as that that. You 37 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:00,280 Speaker 1: know what the Three Doctors is. It's when three friend 38 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: doctors from different time periods. I'll meet up together with 39 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: their tartises and hang out and and stop bad things 40 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:10,040 Speaker 1: from happening. So we're like the three Doctors, but just 41 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: obviously the angry doctor. Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm Yeah, I'm 42 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:17,600 Speaker 1: the curmudgeon doctor. That would be I guess I'm most 43 00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: like Peter Capaldi. Yeah, that would be the angry doctor. Yeah. 44 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:25,320 Speaker 1: So we've all met up and here we are to 45 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: talk about, of course what doctor the doctor would talk 46 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 1: about the ig Nobel Prizes, that's right. Yeah, So that 47 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:35,440 Speaker 1: we all three decided to come together on this one 48 00:02:35,480 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: because there are a lot of studies we want to 49 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:39,639 Speaker 1: We want to roll through them in two episodes, each 50 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:41,959 Speaker 1: of us taking the head on a different study and 51 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:44,799 Speaker 1: not doing a super deep dive, but giving you a 52 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:49,000 Speaker 1: nice overview about what this particular study is, why it's ridiculous, 53 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: why in many cases it's actually important, because that's one 54 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:55,560 Speaker 1: of the keys here. The Ignailed Bell Prizes have been around, 55 00:02:55,680 --> 00:03:01,079 Speaker 1: uh since I believe, and each year they award ten 56 00:03:01,200 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: prizes to various bits of research, pure viewed studies that 57 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:08,360 Speaker 1: you know, it's not the kind of stuff you're gonna 58 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: see capturing the headlines necessarily any scientists do, blind of 59 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 1: American not winning an actual Nobel prize. Right here at 60 00:03:16,200 --> 00:03:19,200 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works. We've sort of developed a like sub 61 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,720 Speaker 1: theme for studies like this, which is sometimes we publish 62 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,720 Speaker 1: these on our Now how stuff works channel, which is 63 00:03:26,960 --> 00:03:29,200 Speaker 1: there's a study for that, which is the kind of 64 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: like can you believe somebody did this? But at the 65 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:34,840 Speaker 1: same time, I think the thing about the ignobles is 66 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: that there's always some value and importance to the research. 67 00:03:37,640 --> 00:03:40,160 Speaker 1: So yeah, like I always think of in cases like this, 68 00:03:40,280 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 1: I think of science as a slime mold amaze. Right now, 69 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: the slime mold is expanding outward, exploring its terrain, trying 70 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:49,720 Speaker 1: to find food, and so it's going down all the 71 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: hallways to explore. And that's what science does. And just 72 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: because a particular area of study seems kind of pointless 73 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: at first glance, or it seems just very very specific, 74 00:04:00,120 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: or it's trying to prove something that we already kind 75 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: of know in our gut, it's still important that science 76 00:04:05,920 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: go there because science is is mapping the universe. Yeah, 77 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: and some of the corners of that map are watching 78 00:04:11,920 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: elephants p exactly. Well, Okay, I mean I slime mold. 79 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,839 Speaker 1: Can we stick with the gelatinous cube here? Can we 80 00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:22,039 Speaker 1: use a gelatinous cube or is a slim mold like 81 00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: a very specific metaphor for ignoble science. Um, I like 82 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: the slime because slime old this swarm intelligence. Oh okay, 83 00:04:29,960 --> 00:04:33,360 Speaker 1: I see what you're saying. Okay, I'll allow it. Uh. So, 84 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:36,920 Speaker 1: let's af familiarize the audience with what these things are, 85 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 1: because the first time I heard about it was in 86 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:41,480 Speaker 1: one of our episodes when we were talking about necrophilia, 87 00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,120 Speaker 1: and we uh, there was a study that had previously 88 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: won the Ignoble, which was about a guy watching a 89 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,720 Speaker 1: duck try to have sex with a dead duck. Some 90 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:54,520 Speaker 1: of the big ones. It was like seventy minutes of 91 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: of him watching that with a notebook. If you really 92 00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 1: want to hear the whole full story, go back and 93 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:04,560 Speaker 1: sense that necrophilia episode. But uh, it's weird, but it 94 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:08,240 Speaker 1: also had value to it, and so uh, let's kind 95 00:05:08,240 --> 00:05:11,040 Speaker 1: of encapsulate what these things are for our audience and 96 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:13,480 Speaker 1: then we can dive into the tent studies. Well, the 97 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:17,400 Speaker 1: principal individual here is Mark abrams Um. He's the editor 98 00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:21,360 Speaker 1: and co founder of Improbable Research magazine, which you can 99 00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,000 Speaker 1: find at their website. Let a link to that on 100 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,800 Speaker 1: the landing page for this episode. And they regularly cover 101 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: research of this nature stuff. It's weird stuff that's a 102 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,200 Speaker 1: little wacky, but it's still science and it's always covered 103 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:38,799 Speaker 1: in essentially a loving way. Yeah. They say that it's 104 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,480 Speaker 1: supposed to make you laugh but also make you think. Yeah. 105 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: I found this was true about a lot of the 106 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,279 Speaker 1: studies we looked at this time. I I like the 107 00:05:46,360 --> 00:05:50,520 Speaker 1: sense that, um, it is certainly not stroking the ego 108 00:05:50,680 --> 00:05:53,320 Speaker 1: of the scientists who perform these studies, but it's not 109 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:56,840 Speaker 1: really making fun of them either, or maybe sort of 110 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: making fun of them, but at least not denigrating their work. 111 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:01,880 Speaker 1: I think there have only been a couple of cases 112 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:04,400 Speaker 1: where because for one thing, you can nominate your own work, 113 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: and they get about five thousand nominations each year. But 114 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 1: I can only think of two cases offhand where the 115 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: individuals did not receive it warmly, one of which was 116 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,960 Speaker 1: the U. S. Air Force over their gay bomb, which 117 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 1: they won a prize four two thousand seven. They did 118 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: not remember hearing about this. Yeah, they did not see 119 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:25,240 Speaker 1: the humor in it. No, hold on what were the 120 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:29,000 Speaker 1: details of the gay bomb. The gay bomb, as I recall, 121 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:35,680 Speaker 1: was that proposed weaponized afrodisiac that you would be able 122 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:39,400 Speaker 1: to throw into the enemy trenches and harmonomy morale by 123 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: making them, Yeah, get friendly, amorous and confused. It was 124 00:06:44,440 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: referenced nicely on an episode of thirty Rocks several years back. 125 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,919 Speaker 1: But but yeah, the the the Air Force did not 126 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:51,680 Speaker 1: see the humor in that. And there there have been 127 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,039 Speaker 1: a couple of curmudgeons along you know, over the years 128 00:06:55,040 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: that have have come out and said, oh, well, this 129 00:06:56,839 --> 00:06:58,960 Speaker 1: is just you know, waste of time. For instance, the 130 00:06:59,600 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: ve Robert May, the British government's chief scientific advisor at 131 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,360 Speaker 1: the time, it was a big was a big critic 132 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 1: of the Nobel Prizes and he was saying that it 133 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: should only be used to, you know, to ridicule anti 134 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:14,680 Speaker 1: science and pseudo science, and he should leave the the 135 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:19,400 Speaker 1: real scientists alone. Uh again, totally missing the point that 136 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,720 Speaker 1: the scientists are the are the ones who enjoy this 137 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: the most. Don't you love people who hate humor? So 138 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:29,320 Speaker 1: I let's address that for a second though, because right 139 00:07:29,360 --> 00:07:32,720 Speaker 1: before we came in here, I watched the almost all 140 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: of the ceremony for awards, which we just which is 141 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: what we're going to cover today. I watched a lot 142 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: of this too, and and I feel like you definitely 143 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: get the tone that they're going for if you watch 144 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:48,520 Speaker 1: the ceremony. They did a great job filming it. It's 145 00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:51,280 Speaker 1: got multiple camera angles. It's filmed in this beautiful theater 146 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:54,760 Speaker 1: at Harvard University. Um that I saw Spalding Gray at 147 00:07:54,800 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: that same theater, like god fifteen years ago or something 148 00:07:58,080 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: like that, So it was it was neat to see that. 149 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: But uh, the humor is very oh wacky. Yeah, it's 150 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 1: it's that kind of like academic like we don't want 151 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: to offend anybody humor that's just a little zany and 152 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: goofy and so at this at one on one hand, 153 00:08:18,320 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and I totally understand. Uh, I understand 154 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:28,120 Speaker 1: that this guy who was it? Who? Who Robert may 155 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,400 Speaker 1: who was so like against it in the first place. Yeah, 156 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,680 Speaker 1: I don't understand where he's coming from. But I'm also 157 00:08:35,720 --> 00:08:39,079 Speaker 1: somewhat sympathetic because it's just like whacketty schmackt he do 158 00:08:39,559 --> 00:08:44,600 Speaker 1: zany like, you know, like jokes and stuff. Even if 159 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,280 Speaker 1: you're not laughing with the jokes, you're still like, oh, well, 160 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,880 Speaker 1: that's kind of adorable. Watch the old old scientists get 161 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,600 Speaker 1: up there and kind of you know, hap uh, you know, 162 00:08:53,679 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 1: yuck it out. But I will confess though that it 163 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,280 Speaker 1: was unbearable for me to a point that I had to. 164 00:09:00,559 --> 00:09:02,400 Speaker 1: I watched it on YouTube, and I had to watch 165 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: it on double speed, so everybody was talking really fast 166 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,280 Speaker 1: like chipmunks. But I got the gist of everything, and 167 00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:12,280 Speaker 1: I paid a special Please stop, Christian, I'm bored. Yeah, yeah, 168 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,240 Speaker 1: but please please stop. Joe tell them about what's her name, 169 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: Pootie Pie or I think it's called Sweetie poop child. 170 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: Pot Pie is the guy on YouTube. Oh, I don't 171 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:29,920 Speaker 1: know anyway. Yeah, they have a little character who is 172 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:32,640 Speaker 1: a child who comes up. It's like the Oscar music 173 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:34,840 Speaker 1: that starts to play when people get a little too 174 00:09:34,920 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: much gratitude in their speech at the Oscars. Uh. And 175 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:40,679 Speaker 1: they want to get you off the stage at this ceremony. 176 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: They've got a child who runs up to you and 177 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,440 Speaker 1: proclaims boredom and tells you to stop talking. And she's precocious. 178 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:49,120 Speaker 1: And then on top of that, then they bring back 179 00:09:49,160 --> 00:09:52,960 Speaker 1: all the former Sweetie poos. Did you watch that part? Didn't? 180 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:57,439 Speaker 1: Every former Sweetie pooh is a part of the procession. Uh. 181 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,640 Speaker 1: And they are like the van Ol White that kind 182 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: of like escort out the winners of the awards and 183 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:06,160 Speaker 1: then escort them back in. And they do this whole 184 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,720 Speaker 1: cute see poo thing where they have the sweetie poo's 185 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:12,560 Speaker 1: a'll tease one another in front of the audience. It's 186 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:17,880 Speaker 1: a little much. Um. Also, I grew up you have 187 00:10:17,920 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: a you have a very dark heart that has no 188 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:22,880 Speaker 1: room for for cuteness. Well I do, and I'll allow 189 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:27,080 Speaker 1: this as well. I'm from Boston and I'm very familiar 190 00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:29,680 Speaker 1: with Harvard University. I lived right near there for a 191 00:10:29,720 --> 00:10:32,000 Speaker 1: long time, and I'm very familiar with this kind of 192 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:37,120 Speaker 1: humor that is, you know, it's very um yeah, twee, 193 00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: I guess is one way to put it. So um. 194 00:10:39,880 --> 00:10:42,360 Speaker 1: I will warn I will warn our listeners ahead of 195 00:10:42,400 --> 00:10:45,040 Speaker 1: time that maybe I'm the dark heart here, but I 196 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:49,199 Speaker 1: was a little put off by the zany humor. However, 197 00:10:49,559 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 1: the studies themselves are amazing. Well, let's launch into them here, Um, Joe, 198 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: I believe you're up first, tell us about the chemistry 199 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,520 Speaker 1: prize winner, the Ignobil Chemistry Prize winner for two thousand. Okay, 200 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:05,320 Speaker 1: so the Chemistry prize went to I'm gonna say their names, 201 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:07,400 Speaker 1: and there's a lot of them, so bear with me 202 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:12,160 Speaker 1: for a second. Here, Callum Ormond, Colin Raston, Tom Yuan, 203 00:11:12,679 --> 00:11:17,720 Speaker 1: Stephen Kudla check Samir and couldn't cha Joshua In Smith, 204 00:11:18,120 --> 00:11:23,680 Speaker 1: William A. Brown, Caitlin Pouglisi, Tivoli, Olson, Mariam eft Car, 205 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:28,560 Speaker 1: Greg Weiss. Oh, And that's it them for demonstrating a 206 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:34,199 Speaker 1: mechanical process to unboil an egg. So yes, these scientists 207 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,480 Speaker 1: all work together. Now, I think the main scientist who 208 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: has involved in this process, the one at least who 209 00:11:39,280 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: has spoken to the media the most about it, was 210 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:45,960 Speaker 1: Greg Weiss. But they came up with this mechanical process 211 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: to unboil an egg. Well, hold on part of an egg, 212 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:54,400 Speaker 1: the egg white, and note that this is not uncooking 213 00:11:54,440 --> 00:11:57,000 Speaker 1: an egg, and that you can't unfry an egg or 214 00:11:57,080 --> 00:11:59,959 Speaker 1: unscramble an egg or on. I wonder if you could 215 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: unpoach and egg maybe, but at least what you can 216 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:06,240 Speaker 1: do is unboiled an egg white. So the paper is 217 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:11,160 Speaker 1: called and I love the academic alienation of this title 218 00:12:11,880 --> 00:12:17,880 Speaker 1: sheer stress mediated refolding of proteins from aggregates and inclusion bus. Yes, 219 00:12:18,640 --> 00:12:22,000 Speaker 1: I can call the paper is a colon and then 220 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:24,360 Speaker 1: another long sentence after that. And that's one of the 221 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:27,200 Speaker 1: beautiful things about the Ignabel Prizes is this is a 222 00:12:27,200 --> 00:12:29,440 Speaker 1: great example of where they really got to the heart 223 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:31,280 Speaker 1: of what this study is in the way that the 224 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:33,560 Speaker 1: rest of us can enjoy. Yeah, and so it was 225 00:12:33,559 --> 00:12:38,319 Speaker 1: published in January in Kim Bio Kim And here's what happened. 226 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:42,320 Speaker 1: The researchers took an egg and then they divided the 227 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,480 Speaker 1: whites from the yolk, and then they boiled the egg 228 00:12:45,480 --> 00:12:48,120 Speaker 1: whites for twenty minutes at about a hundred ninety four 229 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,680 Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit or ninety degrees c. And if you have 230 00:12:51,720 --> 00:12:54,080 Speaker 1: ever seen the white part of a hard boiled egg, 231 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,559 Speaker 1: you know what we're dealing with is the final product here. 232 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:00,200 Speaker 1: And so egg whites in their natural state are a 233 00:13:00,320 --> 00:13:05,480 Speaker 1: mixture of water and proteins, including the protein lysozyme, which 234 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:08,680 Speaker 1: is a protein associated with immune function and more on 235 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,440 Speaker 1: that in a minute. When you boil egg whites, the 236 00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,400 Speaker 1: folded proteins that are in the egg whites get d natured, 237 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: meaning that they sort of lose their precisely folded structure. 238 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: And that folded structure is what makes a protein do 239 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 1: the things that it does, sort of like what determines 240 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,960 Speaker 1: its role in the in the tiny bio world that 241 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:34,320 Speaker 1: it inhabits. And they also get all tangled together, and 242 00:13:34,360 --> 00:13:37,560 Speaker 1: they end up forming this solid block of bio jello 243 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:41,800 Speaker 1: that we recognize as cooked egg white. Um, so that's 244 00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:44,360 Speaker 1: what normally happens when you when you boil an egg white. 245 00:13:44,360 --> 00:13:46,640 Speaker 1: It of course happened in this case as it always does. 246 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:50,479 Speaker 1: And how do you fix this problem? So the researchers 247 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,760 Speaker 1: took the boiled egg whites and dissolved them in a 248 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: urea solution to turn basically all of it into an 249 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: untangled up liquid of of unfolded proteins. So that's pretty gross. 250 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:06,960 Speaker 1: It's a cooked egg white slurry. Then the solution was 251 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:11,040 Speaker 1: placed into what they called a vortex fluid device. And 252 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:13,400 Speaker 1: what this does is it's kind of like a centerfuge 253 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,160 Speaker 1: but different. It spins a test tube a really high intensity. 254 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:19,120 Speaker 1: I read one source saying it was about five thou 255 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: rpm s, so very very fast for a short time, 256 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:28,120 Speaker 1: introducing an amazing amount of sheer stress to the film 257 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,040 Speaker 1: of fluid, which is about one micron thick that built 258 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,160 Speaker 1: up on the walls of the tube. And in a 259 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:36,080 Speaker 1: quote given to the Washington Post, Greg Wise said about 260 00:14:36,160 --> 00:14:40,640 Speaker 1: the proteins in this process, they're like little elastic bands. 261 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:44,880 Speaker 1: This stretches and unstretches them and gives them their shape back. 262 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:46,840 Speaker 1: So it's kind of like if you, you know, stretch 263 00:14:46,880 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: out a tangled up slinky and then get it to 264 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,160 Speaker 1: reform back into its original shape. But help me out 265 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:54,800 Speaker 1: here for a second. So my understanding of the I 266 00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 1: didn't read this study, but my understanding of what how 267 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: you're presenting it here is the dn turing process. By 268 00:15:01,800 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: zipping around at this high speed, are they they're renaturing. 269 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:10,640 Speaker 1: They're refolding back into the original shape that the proteins 270 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,440 Speaker 1: were before they were denatured by the heat. So it's 271 00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,480 Speaker 1: not just that they're moving something at such a high 272 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 1: speed that it like liquefies. No, it's it's actually re 273 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:24,040 Speaker 1: applying the process. Yeah, they're they're undoing the work of 274 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:29,520 Speaker 1: cooking by applying this mechanical stress. And so at the 275 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,720 Speaker 1: end they were able to refold some of the proteins 276 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:36,160 Speaker 1: back into their original shapes without it becoming tangled up 277 00:15:36,200 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 1: with one another in the process. That's another problem that 278 00:15:38,560 --> 00:15:41,120 Speaker 1: can happen, and it worked at the end. The solution 279 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:45,000 Speaker 1: contained proteins comparable to uncooked egg whites, and that immune 280 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:49,440 Speaker 1: related protein I mentioned lycenseyme that was also found to 281 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:54,360 Speaker 1: be present in the final product and functional. Okay, So 282 00:15:54,480 --> 00:15:56,440 Speaker 1: what I want to know though, is did they make 283 00:15:56,480 --> 00:15:58,920 Speaker 1: a quiche with this afterwards? And how did it take? 284 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: You know, you couldn't because it's just the egg whites 285 00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:04,000 Speaker 1: and you really need some miolks for keysh We could 286 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,680 Speaker 1: otherwise that would be pretty gross and you could make 287 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:09,520 Speaker 1: a few different mixed drinks though, right, Oh, you probably could. 288 00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: The New Orleans was sour fizz. What's it? What's it 289 00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:16,000 Speaker 1: called when you put an egg white in there? Something 290 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:21,760 Speaker 1: jim fizz something something fizz. Gross. That's like when people 291 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: drink like oyster shots and stuff like that. It's nasty. 292 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:29,520 Speaker 1: I have no idea what an oyster? You add oysters, 293 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,760 Speaker 1: like raw oysters to it, like like a real oyster. Yeah, 294 00:16:33,040 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 1: that's about like having an oyster though. I mean, you 295 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 1: need to stop talking. You just mix it with like 296 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:39,880 Speaker 1: booze and I think like tomato juice or something like that. 297 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 1: Disgusting study. Okay, So so they did it. They managed 298 00:16:45,640 --> 00:16:48,600 Speaker 1: to unboil egg whites and get them back to the 299 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:52,400 Speaker 1: original state. A couple of things we I guess, in 300 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,360 Speaker 1: case it needs stating, Why is this ridiculous? Well, I 301 00:16:55,400 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: guess it just sort of seems to contradict the folk 302 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,880 Speaker 1: understanding of entropy that you can't fix what's broken. You 303 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,840 Speaker 1: can't unscramble an egg, I think is an actual expression. 304 00:17:05,920 --> 00:17:07,879 Speaker 1: You might not be able to unscramble an egg, but 305 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:10,120 Speaker 1: you can unboil an egg. Well, there's so many fun 306 00:17:10,160 --> 00:17:13,720 Speaker 1: metaphors that you can reverse with this, right. I think 307 00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 1: it's also funny because it involves eggs, which apparently some 308 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:21,720 Speaker 1: people just think are inherently funny objects, and slightly more 309 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:25,920 Speaker 1: when they're boiled, especially because it's life. But but this 310 00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 1: process actually does have real, very important and interesting applications, 311 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 1: not just for fun. It can make a big difference 312 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: in many kinds of research involving proteins. For example, cancer 313 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 1: research in the lab often deals with proteins that have 314 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,199 Speaker 1: exactly the same problem that cooked egg whites do. They 315 00:17:44,240 --> 00:17:48,000 Speaker 1: can become tangled in misshape, and so the proteins get 316 00:17:48,119 --> 00:17:51,520 Speaker 1: d natured, or they're they're folding gets messed up, or 317 00:17:51,560 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: they get tangled together or both, and then scientists have 318 00:17:54,800 --> 00:17:57,200 Speaker 1: to waste a lot of time trying to restore them 319 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,200 Speaker 1: to to the original folded shape and structure, to get 320 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,520 Speaker 1: them to be useful and by conventional means, this is 321 00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: a really time consuming and wasteful process. So this sheer 322 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: stress method that they introduced with this the vortex fluid device, 323 00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: could actually make cancer research much more efficient in terms 324 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:19,280 Speaker 1: of time and cost. So it was reported in their 325 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:22,040 Speaker 1: study that the refolding of protein by sheer stress was 326 00:18:22,119 --> 00:18:26,720 Speaker 1: faster than the conventional method of quote, overnight dialysis by 327 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,119 Speaker 1: a factor of more than a hundred times, more than 328 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,280 Speaker 1: a hundred times faster. So that's why it took eleven 329 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: people to to write this paper. There were different people 330 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,399 Speaker 1: involved with different aspects of it. Like I know, some 331 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,280 Speaker 1: of the people cited in the paper were people who 332 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:45,320 Speaker 1: were working with the vortex fluid device itself. Like the 333 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,080 Speaker 1: stories like ten more times. I want to just see 334 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,399 Speaker 1: how many times we can say vortex fluid device throughout 335 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:55,160 Speaker 1: the sentence, right, So there's some people working with that, 336 00:18:55,320 --> 00:18:57,919 Speaker 1: some people who are presumably working with the science of 337 00:18:57,960 --> 00:19:02,080 Speaker 1: the proteins. Yeah, yeah, routine labs. So probably some I'm 338 00:19:02,119 --> 00:19:05,200 Speaker 1: guessing like graduate students in there who did like the 339 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: scut work. Possibly, I don't know what every single name 340 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,200 Speaker 1: corresponds to. It's one of those, uh, one of those 341 00:19:12,200 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: features of Modern Sciences. That you get a lot of 342 00:19:14,560 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: names listed. Yeah, let's see if we can find which 343 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:20,600 Speaker 1: one of these has the most people applied to it. Okay, okay, 344 00:19:20,760 --> 00:19:23,119 Speaker 1: so I'm keeping track. We got eleven on this one. Well, 345 00:19:23,200 --> 00:19:26,640 Speaker 1: let's check out the next prize awarded in the physical science. 346 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,320 Speaker 1: And this one was a lot of fun. I actually 347 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,000 Speaker 1: read about this before this episode, but Robert, it was 348 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:36,040 Speaker 1: about urine, right, oh, yes, And you're definitely uh, you're 349 00:19:36,080 --> 00:19:38,359 Speaker 1: in for a treat on this one because this is 350 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,600 Speaker 1: the Physics Prize for bladder speed. And noticed I said 351 00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:44,480 Speaker 1: physics and not biology here. That's gonna be a key 352 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:47,440 Speaker 1: as we move forward. The paper in particular is a 353 00:19:47,600 --> 00:19:52,040 Speaker 1: duration of urine does not change with body size by 354 00:19:52,119 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: Georgia Institute of Technology researchers Patricia ja Yanga, Jonathan Fama, 355 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,919 Speaker 1: Jerome Choah, Dave and Dave at l Q. And this 356 00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:05,240 Speaker 1: was published in the summer two thousand fourteen edition of 357 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 1: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And they're just 358 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:13,359 Speaker 1: right down the street these Yeah. I have read several 359 00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,600 Speaker 1: times about the research involving David who in one way 360 00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: or another. Yeah, I mean we were talking before the 361 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,439 Speaker 1: episode of the field of fluid dynamics. You see some 362 00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:25,119 Speaker 1: of the most amazing papers coming up and and this 363 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:28,399 Speaker 1: one definitely uh fits the bill. Did they use a 364 00:20:28,480 --> 00:20:34,320 Speaker 1: vortex fluid device? Not as such. No. So basically, in 365 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:38,040 Speaker 1: a nutshell, the study investigated how quickly thirty two different 366 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:40,959 Speaker 1: animals you're inate now? Sixteen of these are live viewing 367 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:45,520 Speaker 1: the rest or YouTube videos. Um, because they were they 368 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:48,879 Speaker 1: were interesting to animals of varying size. It's YouTube research. Yeah. 369 00:20:48,920 --> 00:20:52,840 Speaker 1: So the interesting initial finding here though, is that it 370 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 1: turns out that it's all about the same at least 371 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:58,479 Speaker 1: for animals that weigh at least six point six pounds 372 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 1: or three kilograms. They found all animals that weigh more 373 00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:06,800 Speaker 1: than that urinate in the same space of time. Um. 374 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,000 Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter if it's an elephants bladder that 375 00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:13,440 Speaker 1: is thirty undred times larger than a cat's. Both animals 376 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:16,480 Speaker 1: are going to get their being over with and about 377 00:21:16,840 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: uh twenty seconds. Okay. And the reason here is, the 378 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,560 Speaker 1: paper explores, is that as diverse as all these different 379 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:27,159 Speaker 1: bladder systems are, um and and all the plumbing, they 380 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:31,399 Speaker 1: all rely on the fundamental principles of fluid mechanics. The 381 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: researchers found that quote the urethra is a flow enhancing device, 382 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:38,959 Speaker 1: enabling the urinary system to be scaled up by a 383 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,960 Speaker 1: factor of thirty six in volume without compromising its function. 384 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:45,440 Speaker 1: One of the idea here is that it's possible that 385 00:21:45,520 --> 00:21:48,960 Speaker 1: larger animals have a longer urethras, and since the weight 386 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:51,640 Speaker 1: of the fluid in the urethra is pushing the fluid out, 387 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:55,040 Speaker 1: the long urethra increases the flow rate. So this is 388 00:21:55,080 --> 00:21:58,240 Speaker 1: why if you've ever gone online like our researchers and 389 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 1: watched a whole bunch of animals uh urinate, you might 390 00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:04,520 Speaker 1: see the larger animals just really pushing it out there 391 00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:09,719 Speaker 1: like a sheet of urine hose. Yeah, whereas the smaller creatures, 392 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,000 Speaker 1: definitely the ones under that six point six pound limit. Uh, 393 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,320 Speaker 1: they're just throwing out some droplets. Uh. For instance, mice 394 00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:20,359 Speaker 1: and rats less than two seconds spent urinating bats just 395 00:22:20,400 --> 00:22:24,240 Speaker 1: a fraction of the speed. So this would be important, 396 00:22:24,240 --> 00:22:26,639 Speaker 1: of course, keeping your your p speed up for an 397 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:29,680 Speaker 1: elephant because uh, if if an elephant had a shorter 398 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: ure threat, it would take longer to urinate, and during 399 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:38,240 Speaker 1: that time, of course, it would be more susceptible interpretation. Wow, 400 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,960 Speaker 1: so okay, never, I've never really thought about the evolutionary 401 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: pressures on urination speed. That just doesn't really occur to 402 00:22:46,040 --> 00:22:49,560 Speaker 1: me as a thing having a big having a big 403 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,080 Speaker 1: impact on your survival or reproduction. Well, it's how much 404 00:22:53,119 --> 00:22:55,960 Speaker 1: time that you're you're you have to remain stationary and 405 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:58,719 Speaker 1: you're somewhere not paying attention to your surrounding. You have 406 00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:03,919 Speaker 1: to remain stationary and pooping on the move. I haven't tried. 407 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,080 Speaker 1: I don't know. You've seen you've both seen Burdenmic, I have, 408 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: so you know what happened. It can't happen when their 409 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,640 Speaker 1: predators about and you need to go potty. And I'm 410 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:17,080 Speaker 1: thinking about my dog, who definitely breaks the twenty second rule. 411 00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:20,119 Speaker 1: I mean, he pees for a long time when we 412 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,119 Speaker 1: go out first thing in the morning, and that's probably 413 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:24,199 Speaker 1: because he's got a cushy life and he doesn't have 414 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:28,520 Speaker 1: to worry about the pressures of survival. That's a good point. 415 00:23:28,560 --> 00:23:31,399 Speaker 1: That's a good point. So I probably don't have didn't 416 00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:34,919 Speaker 1: measure humans as well. I'm not sure if humans were 417 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:36,560 Speaker 1: in the in the study. To be honest, you know, 418 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:40,000 Speaker 1: I wonder one thing that could be affecting the different 419 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:43,640 Speaker 1: times of domesticated animals versus whatever they used in the study. 420 00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: I'm sure some of those were domesticated, would be whether 421 00:23:48,080 --> 00:23:51,119 Speaker 1: they are being prompted the urinate or whether they're just 422 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: urinating whenever they feel like it, because it could be 423 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:59,000 Speaker 1: that in under natural circumstances, you will naturally let the 424 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 1: amount of urine and build up in your bladder that 425 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,200 Speaker 1: it will take to evacuate in twenty or twenty one second. 426 00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:07,400 Speaker 1: But if you're a dog who's inside and can't pee 427 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 1: until it's time to go out, you might go beyond 428 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:14,080 Speaker 1: that threshold when and accumulate a lot. You're thinking, okay, 429 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,440 Speaker 1: so I probably don't have to tell anybody why this 430 00:24:16,760 --> 00:24:19,439 Speaker 1: study is ridiculous, because of course it involves urine, and 431 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: urine like eggs, is inherently funny. Um. But as to 432 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: why it's important for starters, it's an understudied topic. Not 433 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,160 Speaker 1: a lot of people are putting a lot of time 434 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:35,240 Speaker 1: and effort into the question of urination times for animals, 435 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,720 Speaker 1: And additionally, the study may help to diagnose urine a 436 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:41,080 Speaker 1: problems and animals as well as inspired of the design 437 00:24:41,119 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: of quote scalable hydro dynamic systems based on those in nature, 438 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:49,640 Speaker 1: So there's a biomimicry potential here. Um, you don't need 439 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:53,400 Speaker 1: to necessarily use external pressure to get rid of fluids 440 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:56,080 Speaker 1: in a system quickly. Rather, you can let gravity do 441 00:24:56,119 --> 00:24:59,920 Speaker 1: the trick with the right bio mimicry. So possible applications 442 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: include water tanks, UM, backpacks that are used to you know, uh, 443 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:11,199 Speaker 1: fire hoses, and UM. A couple of examples here in 444 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:15,200 Speaker 1: which the team actually engaged with some additional experimentation. Uh. 445 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:19,320 Speaker 1: They actually created a demonstration that empties a teacup, court 446 00:25:19,560 --> 00:25:22,240 Speaker 1: and gallon of water in the same duration for each 447 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:26,000 Speaker 1: using varying links of connected tubes, thus standing in for 448 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:31,080 Speaker 1: the varying urethra links UM links among these animals. And 449 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:33,680 Speaker 1: then they connected a second experiment in which the team 450 00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: filled three cups with the same amount of water then 451 00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,760 Speaker 1: empty them at varying rates by using different lengths of tube. 452 00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:43,960 Speaker 1: So again you don't have to use you know, varying 453 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,560 Speaker 1: amounts of external pressure to move water through a system. 454 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: You can use to use gravity and tube length. This 455 00:25:49,520 --> 00:25:52,560 Speaker 1: is uh, they're like modern day Da Vincis like this 456 00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:54,320 Speaker 1: is this is the kind of stuff that Da Vinci 457 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,320 Speaker 1: used to sit around and ponder about and work on 458 00:25:56,359 --> 00:25:59,199 Speaker 1: in his sketch books like how to move water more Efficiently. 459 00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:03,160 Speaker 1: They're just looking to nature's way of doing it. Yeah, yeah, 460 00:26:03,200 --> 00:26:06,400 Speaker 1: it's it's basically a bio on the medic exercise. Now, 461 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,200 Speaker 1: so that makes me wonder if the next thing we're 462 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,480 Speaker 1: going to hear about associated with David who is an ornithopter. 463 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,000 Speaker 1: That would be great. Well wait, let's define that for 464 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,480 Speaker 1: our audience for a second. Oh, if you've listened to 465 00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: the Dune episode, you know all about ornithopters. No, didn't 466 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:26,880 Speaker 1: da Vinci designed some mornithopters flapping flapping wing aircraft. Now, 467 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: I'm afraid that's wrong. That did he design propeller driven 468 00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:33,320 Speaker 1: or I can't remember other than from playing an Assassin's 469 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:35,520 Speaker 1: Creed game where Da Vinci was the guy who made 470 00:26:35,560 --> 00:26:37,720 Speaker 1: He was like your que to your to your James 471 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:39,800 Speaker 1: Bond and he made one of those things for you 472 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,720 Speaker 1: to fly around in. Oh nice. Yeah. I don't think 473 00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,160 Speaker 1: there's any evidence that da Vinci made a working flying machine. 474 00:26:46,440 --> 00:26:49,000 Speaker 1: I think he just yeah, I don't think right, Yeah, 475 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:50,840 Speaker 1: I don't think it was. And we'll have to ask 476 00:26:50,920 --> 00:26:55,080 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. He would probably know. Uh So The next 477 00:26:55,119 --> 00:26:58,720 Speaker 1: one here, and this is a short one, is the 478 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,399 Speaker 1: Literature Prize, and it specifically goes to a paper called 479 00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:08,679 Speaker 1: is Huh a Universal Word? Conversational Infrastructure and the Convergent 480 00:27:08,720 --> 00:27:16,160 Speaker 1: Evolution of Linguistic Items? By Mark Dinge Manze, Francisco Torrieira, 481 00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,520 Speaker 1: and Nick j Enfield Uh. And this was in p 482 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:25,520 Speaker 1: l OS one published. Okay, so the basics of this 483 00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:30,600 Speaker 1: study are essentially that the writers involved take a look 484 00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:35,840 Speaker 1: at the the word sound huh. Specifically throughout the piece 485 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:40,159 Speaker 1: they spell it h u h question mark. Yeah, I 486 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:42,919 Speaker 1: asked to have the question mark. They used a phrase 487 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,439 Speaker 1: to describe it that I thought was very appropriate and 488 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,640 Speaker 1: very interesting. They called it a repair initiator. Yeah. I'll 489 00:27:50,680 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: get to that in a second. But that's essentially the 490 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,120 Speaker 1: gist of their argument and and why it's important. So 491 00:27:57,080 --> 00:28:03,440 Speaker 1: they argue, one that is universal, regardless of language, all 492 00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:08,280 Speaker 1: human beings use a version of huh. And then the 493 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,439 Speaker 1: second thing they argue is that it is a word. 494 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:13,960 Speaker 1: It's not just a grunt. Yeah. Apparently there was some 495 00:28:14,200 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: uh people, some conflict apparently about whether or not it 496 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,800 Speaker 1: was a word or not. And they defined it because 497 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:24,040 Speaker 1: they said it's used similarly across cultures, and it's also 498 00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,720 Speaker 1: a learned, conventional form. And like you said, it's not grunting, 499 00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:31,200 Speaker 1: it's not crying, it's not just a noise. It's a 500 00:28:31,240 --> 00:28:33,359 Speaker 1: word that we use that has purpose to it, right, 501 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,360 Speaker 1: It has a it has a semantic definition. It it 502 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,800 Speaker 1: means something in conversation. It means I didn't understand what 503 00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,760 Speaker 1: you just said exactly so. And that's where the other 504 00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: initiated repair thing comes in, right, So huh is used 505 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 1: for us to express to someone else, whether they speak 506 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 1: the same language or not, that there is something going 507 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,600 Speaker 1: on where we're having trouble understanding, right, whether it's like 508 00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:03,200 Speaker 1: some all understanding or actual problem with the noise in 509 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,240 Speaker 1: your ears, you know the problem hearing it now. They 510 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,120 Speaker 1: found that across different languages it wasn't always pronounced exactly 511 00:29:10,160 --> 00:29:12,880 Speaker 1: the same. That it's sort of the essence of the 512 00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:15,520 Speaker 1: word hah that comes through yeah. And it has the 513 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:17,920 Speaker 1: same variation in form as you would find in any 514 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,920 Speaker 1: other regular words. So as words kind of spread across 515 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:26,200 Speaker 1: cultures and they change slightly, uh, Like they use dog 516 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,480 Speaker 1: as an example, and how dog changes across different cultures, 517 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,600 Speaker 1: huh is similar. Well, I mean even in our own 518 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:33,920 Speaker 1: usage of it. You have huh, but then you also 519 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:37,000 Speaker 1: have yeah. Yeah, so I mean we have I think 520 00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:39,760 Speaker 1: multiple versions in English exactly. Yeah. And the way that 521 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:43,040 Speaker 1: they conducted the study is and I feel bad for 522 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:46,160 Speaker 1: whoever had to sit down and go through all this data. Uh. 523 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:49,960 Speaker 1: They compiled data from published literature and thirty one languages 524 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: to see how it was used in written form, And 525 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,400 Speaker 1: then they collected data from recordings of naturally occurring conversations 526 00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:01,320 Speaker 1: from ten languages across five different continents, and basically, you know, 527 00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: looked for usage of huh uh and and how it 528 00:30:06,080 --> 00:30:08,840 Speaker 1: was understood. And there's the you know, I won't go 529 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:10,320 Speaker 1: through it here too because I think it would be 530 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:14,160 Speaker 1: kind of boring, but there's this really interesting uh cable 531 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,120 Speaker 1: visual table that they applied to the study itself. It 532 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:19,479 Speaker 1: wouldn't work well on a podcast to talk about it, 533 00:30:19,760 --> 00:30:22,640 Speaker 1: basically showing all the different languages and all their locations 534 00:30:22,640 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 1: across the world and how huh is used throughout them. 535 00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,280 Speaker 1: So of course, why is it ridiculous? Well, it's we're 536 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:34,520 Speaker 1: studying such a basic part of human existence that seems 537 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: like it doesn't really require that deep of an analysis, 538 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:40,240 Speaker 1: right uh. And and it's also, you know, just kind 539 00:30:40,240 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: of a silly The term itself means I don't understand, 540 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,920 Speaker 1: and here we are speaking to understand. Yeah, but they 541 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,080 Speaker 1: make a good case. I think that this is an 542 00:30:49,120 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: interesting thing to study, especially because they point out how 543 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 1: huh is such a useful and powerful tool in conversation 544 00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:02,240 Speaker 1: because it has this uh. It has this complex sort 545 00:31:02,280 --> 00:31:06,040 Speaker 1: of conversation management role that happens in such a short 546 00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 1: time span and really helps keep conversations on track and 547 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,920 Speaker 1: moving quickly because you don't have to stop every time 548 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: and say I don't understand what you just said. Right. Yeah, 549 00:31:17,440 --> 00:31:21,200 Speaker 1: It's It's interesting though, because it's easy to dismiss hunt 550 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:25,200 Speaker 1: as um, it's just a needless break in a conversation. 551 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,320 Speaker 1: But but I guess the the the the idea here 552 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: is that it's as small a break as is necessary. 553 00:31:31,240 --> 00:31:34,040 Speaker 1: It's not a verbal pause because it has meaning to it. 554 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,600 Speaker 1: But yeah, it's a very short, quick, efficient way to 555 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,680 Speaker 1: say I don't get it. Uh. It's feedback essentially, it 556 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:45,080 Speaker 1: with within conversation. Just let the other person you're speaking 557 00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: with no that you need more. Though, this also made 558 00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:50,920 Speaker 1: me think about how I feel like the word huh 559 00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:55,160 Speaker 1: has multiple different meanings in English. It certainly is what 560 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:59,640 Speaker 1: they're talking about the repair initiators. So you're in the 561 00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,720 Speaker 1: middle of saying something I miss here part of it, 562 00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:05,840 Speaker 1: say huh and you repeat. But there's also I noticed 563 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:11,360 Speaker 1: I often use huh as a punctuation that essentially means 564 00:32:11,400 --> 00:32:13,880 Speaker 1: that's curious. Yeah, that's I feel like that's my primary 565 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,400 Speaker 1: usage of it is someone will say something interesting, especially 566 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: if it's like an audio interview over the phone, and 567 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:22,560 Speaker 1: you feel like you need to give some feedback that 568 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:27,760 Speaker 1: you are interested, and still on the line, you go, yeah. 569 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:30,960 Speaker 1: It can also mean now I'm waiting for the listeners 570 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 1: to send us in like a super cut of all 571 00:32:33,560 --> 00:32:36,920 Speaker 1: the times we've all gone to each other. Can do that? 572 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:41,280 Speaker 1: You know that Nolan makes electronic music out of our 573 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:44,800 Speaker 1: verbal pauses and weird mouth noises. Right, No, but I'm 574 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: not surprised. Yeah, he keeps a folder and one day 575 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:51,520 Speaker 1: he's going to get rich and famous by using all 576 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,280 Speaker 1: of ours. Well, there's there's one other thing that I 577 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,440 Speaker 1: just want to add about this study, and this is 578 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,040 Speaker 1: they do a little kind of naval gazing dive here 579 00:33:01,040 --> 00:33:04,120 Speaker 1: in linguistic studies. But it's important because we've actually talked 580 00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:06,080 Speaker 1: about stuff like this before, especially when we did that 581 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 1: Feral Children episode on the Unlanguaged Mind. They have a 582 00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:16,320 Speaker 1: kind of universal grammar post structuralist argument going on, or 583 00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,720 Speaker 1: at least they get into that stuff by saying, huh, 584 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 1: isn't part of our genetic makeup? They're not. Just because 585 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,040 Speaker 1: we all use it doesn't mean it's like built into 586 00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 1: the human code, right, It's not like screaming in pain, Yeah, exactly. 587 00:33:31,720 --> 00:33:35,000 Speaker 1: And that Rather, what they're saying is that it's the 588 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:39,240 Speaker 1: result of convergent cultural evolution, that as we as humans 589 00:33:39,320 --> 00:33:42,840 Speaker 1: have evolved together and built up our societies together, this 590 00:33:42,960 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 1: word has been it's it's like this one. I mean, 591 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,680 Speaker 1: I'm sure there's many other constants, but it is one 592 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:54,680 Speaker 1: constant that is between all of these cultures. Mhm. Hey, 593 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: so I think it's time to take a quick break 594 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,120 Speaker 1: to hear about our sponsor for this episode. But after out, 595 00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 1: we're gonna come right back and talk about more weird science. 596 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:10,799 Speaker 1: All right. Well, well, let's move on to another prize here. 597 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:14,520 Speaker 1: What do we have in terms of management? The Ignobile 598 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,360 Speaker 1: Management Prize? I got a good one for you guys. 599 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:21,040 Speaker 1: This is this is especially Oh, this is gonna hit 600 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:22,799 Speaker 1: a little close to home for for those of us 601 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:26,160 Speaker 1: who work in the digital media field. Uh. So this 602 00:34:26,239 --> 00:34:29,600 Speaker 1: is a paper uh that is called what Doesn't Kill 603 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:34,240 Speaker 1: You Will Only make You More? Risk Loving colin Early 604 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:38,719 Speaker 1: Life Disasters and CEO Behavior. It was written in September 605 00:34:39,680 --> 00:34:42,400 Speaker 1: published rather Uh and let me see if I can 606 00:34:42,400 --> 00:34:45,200 Speaker 1: pronounce these names. So I'm gonna butcher these but sorry, 607 00:34:45,239 --> 00:34:50,680 Speaker 1: guys if you're listening. Jennaro Berneil Vanite bag Wat and 608 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:55,359 Speaker 1: p Rugga Vendra raw I believe are their names. So 609 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:59,200 Speaker 1: this study finds that CEOs who have experienced fatal disasters 610 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:03,960 Speaker 1: without stream negative consequences are more likely to be risky 611 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:08,640 Speaker 1: and aggressive businessmen. So I'm assuming by extremely fatal disasters here, 612 00:35:08,680 --> 00:35:12,080 Speaker 1: that's an extremely fatal to people that are not him, 613 00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,040 Speaker 1: and they can they're still alive. Yeah, they have to be. 614 00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:18,160 Speaker 1: They're not undead sea. But then also they haven't lost 615 00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,359 Speaker 1: loved ones exactly. Yeah, that's that's the gist of it, 616 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,160 Speaker 1: is that they whether the event had fatal consequences or not, 617 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:29,399 Speaker 1: or they all do, but it didn't affect them directly. Now, 618 00:35:29,440 --> 00:35:32,400 Speaker 1: by your use of the term businessmen, does this indicate 619 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:34,600 Speaker 1: that all of the people studied in this were male. 620 00:35:35,320 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: You know, I'm pretty sure that they were. Yeah. I 621 00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,200 Speaker 1: can't say definitively, but I want to say throughout the 622 00:35:42,239 --> 00:35:47,120 Speaker 1: paper that they used the pronoun him a lot. But 623 00:35:47,440 --> 00:35:49,640 Speaker 1: you know, there wasn't any discussion of gender as far 624 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,560 Speaker 1: as I can remember, So yeah, but it's safe to 625 00:35:52,600 --> 00:35:57,520 Speaker 1: assume that they were mostly male. Uh. There is also 626 00:35:57,600 --> 00:36:01,920 Speaker 1: another part of this argument, which is that, uh. There 627 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:07,240 Speaker 1: they also found that similarly, CEOs who witnessed extreme negative 628 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 1: consequences during a natural disaster, so like probably seeing their 629 00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:14,200 Speaker 1: loved ones die in front of them, are more conservative 630 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:18,400 Speaker 1: in business. This includes how they deal with cash holdings, leverage, 631 00:36:18,400 --> 00:36:22,719 Speaker 1: and acquisitions, whereas the other guys are more likely to 632 00:36:22,800 --> 00:36:25,840 Speaker 1: create debt rather than equity, and they're more likely to 633 00:36:25,880 --> 00:36:28,879 Speaker 1: make their companies go through bankruptcy. Hold on, how many 634 00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,319 Speaker 1: ceo s did they find who had been through a 635 00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:34,920 Speaker 1: natural disaster? Well, let me tell you about their methodology, 636 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:39,760 Speaker 1: which I think is a little although okay, I should 637 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:42,279 Speaker 1: back up with that. The way the way that they 638 00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:45,240 Speaker 1: gathered their information is a little weird to me. However, 639 00:36:45,280 --> 00:36:49,520 Speaker 1: they put it through rigorous, rigorous testing to make sure 640 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,799 Speaker 1: that they their data was I guess accurate. Okay, but well, 641 00:36:54,000 --> 00:36:55,680 Speaker 1: why don't you guys judge by the time we get 642 00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:57,160 Speaker 1: to the end of this and tell me what you think. 643 00:36:57,680 --> 00:36:59,960 Speaker 1: So the first thing that they do is they look 644 00:37:00,480 --> 00:37:04,480 Speaker 1: at a sample of firms from to two thousand and 645 00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:07,520 Speaker 1: twelve and they identified the CEOs of all these companies 646 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,720 Speaker 1: and found their basic demographic information, you know, their age, 647 00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,560 Speaker 1: where they grew up, where they were born, YadA, YadA. Right. 648 00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:17,879 Speaker 1: Then they cross reference that with a database of all 649 00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,719 Speaker 1: the natural disasters that happened in the United States during 650 00:37:20,719 --> 00:37:26,960 Speaker 1: those times, and these include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, 651 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:33,560 Speaker 1: severe storms, floods, landslides, and wildfires. And they specifically focused 652 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:36,400 Speaker 1: on the period of time when these CEOs would be 653 00:37:36,400 --> 00:37:40,200 Speaker 1: between the ages of five and fifteen, because they say 654 00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:43,759 Speaker 1: that medical research shows that this is when our most 655 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:49,720 Speaker 1: lasting childhood memories tend to start and then stop. So, okay, 656 00:37:51,120 --> 00:37:53,440 Speaker 1: the I want to pause for a second here and 657 00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:56,160 Speaker 1: say that the research itself, it's very easy to like 658 00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 1: read and abstract and say, well, these CEOs are more 659 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,560 Speaker 1: likely to do this thing, and these CEOs are less 660 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:04,440 Speaker 1: likely to do this thing. Right, So the actual numbers 661 00:38:04,480 --> 00:38:08,360 Speaker 1: here what they call leverage ratios. They seem pretty small 662 00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,919 Speaker 1: to me. So the first group is three point four 663 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:15,200 Speaker 1: percent higher than the norm, and then the second group 664 00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:19,680 Speaker 1: is negative three point seven percent lower. So to me, 665 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:21,440 Speaker 1: this seems like it would fall into the margin of 666 00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:23,960 Speaker 1: error for many other studies that we would look at, 667 00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:26,680 Speaker 1: So you know, keep that in mind. Uh, it just 668 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,560 Speaker 1: it's it seems a little low. I I was expecting 669 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:31,400 Speaker 1: based on the conclusion that they had, it would be 670 00:38:31,440 --> 00:38:35,480 Speaker 1: a much higher percentage. To be fair, though, like I said, 671 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:38,160 Speaker 1: they built in a lot of safeguards into this to 672 00:38:38,239 --> 00:38:41,080 Speaker 1: keep data bias and variables out of the studies results. 673 00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:45,480 Speaker 1: They even tested the robustness of their own methodology afterwards 674 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:48,279 Speaker 1: by applying it in various forms over and over and 675 00:38:48,320 --> 00:38:52,120 Speaker 1: over again. Uh. And so they argue that this supports 676 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:56,560 Speaker 1: the idea that CEOs who have not experienced extreme consequences 677 00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:01,759 Speaker 1: are desensitized to the negative consequences of risk. Subsequently, those 678 00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:06,040 Speaker 1: who are are more likely to be cautious. Okay, so 679 00:39:06,080 --> 00:39:09,200 Speaker 1: what do you think do you think? Like this methodology 680 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:15,480 Speaker 1: sounds valid? You know, in the face of it, it's 681 00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:19,880 Speaker 1: weird because the study definitely matches up with the stereotype 682 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,160 Speaker 1: that we a lot of us carry around for the 683 00:39:22,239 --> 00:39:25,799 Speaker 1: sort of inhuman CEOs that we that we ultimately have 684 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,799 Speaker 1: very little personal interaction with. And they they're just this, 685 00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:32,640 Speaker 1: they seem to be this individual has no connection with 686 00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:35,279 Speaker 1: the suffering of others, right, And it seems like we, 687 00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:38,399 Speaker 1: I don't know, we should always be especially careful about 688 00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:42,879 Speaker 1: scientific results that seem to confirm our intuitions because we're 689 00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:46,200 Speaker 1: I don't know, we're just susceptible to being lenient with them. 690 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,160 Speaker 1: That's why I thought that there was a sort of 691 00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,759 Speaker 1: inherent ridiculousness to this for the Ignoble prizes rights, it 692 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:56,400 Speaker 1: seems like it's looking for causality between two seemingly unrelated 693 00:39:56,440 --> 00:40:00,120 Speaker 1: experiences just to confirm our pre existing bias. But uh, 694 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:02,319 Speaker 1: like I said, I mean, I didn't go into it 695 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:06,560 Speaker 1: here because again, like it's very dense uh and math 696 00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,080 Speaker 1: essentially that they that they went through here. I don't. 697 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:14,120 Speaker 1: I have to respect them for the diligence that they 698 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,239 Speaker 1: did in the study, but I don't know necessarily that 699 00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:20,839 Speaker 1: all that diligence adds up to being able to say 700 00:40:20,880 --> 00:40:24,880 Speaker 1: that this is accurate. What I would rather see is 701 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:29,799 Speaker 1: a study that correlates CEO risk taking behavior with how 702 00:40:29,840 --> 00:40:34,040 Speaker 1: they play the board game risk. Well, are they a 703 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,479 Speaker 1: table flipper? Oh nice? Yeah, well, you know, suggest that 704 00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:41,040 Speaker 1: to the board and maybe they can do that for 705 00:40:41,080 --> 00:40:43,640 Speaker 1: the next for next year's I Nobel Prizes, although those 706 00:40:43,640 --> 00:40:47,560 Speaker 1: are probably getting published already. Uh, but there is all right, 707 00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:52,040 Speaker 1: So all that aside is an important study though, in 708 00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:54,880 Speaker 1: the sense that they found a link between CEOs and 709 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:59,120 Speaker 1: disaster experience and their corporate policies, and subsequently this has 710 00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:01,920 Speaker 1: real economic consequences. Right, So basically what they're trying to 711 00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:04,000 Speaker 1: do is say, like, all right, this is a predictor 712 00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:07,880 Speaker 1: I assume for hiring or you know, in in some 713 00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:11,719 Speaker 1: sense a predictor of how well this person is going 714 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,239 Speaker 1: to run a company. Yeah. I do think one thing 715 00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:17,279 Speaker 1: that's useful here is it's just one more thing that 716 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:20,759 Speaker 1: helps us remember that ceo s and the people who 717 00:41:20,800 --> 00:41:25,200 Speaker 1: make top level business decisions are human, and they're very 718 00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:30,560 Speaker 1: much subject to human biases prejudices towards certain types of actions. 719 00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:34,520 Speaker 1: They're not. I think there's sometimes this, uh, at least 720 00:41:34,520 --> 00:41:36,840 Speaker 1: in the pro business mindset, there is this type of 721 00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:42,400 Speaker 1: thinking that these people are efficiency optimizing machines who just 722 00:41:42,600 --> 00:41:45,160 Speaker 1: you know, they make the decision that makes the most 723 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:47,960 Speaker 1: money all the time. But I mean there are people there. 724 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,680 Speaker 1: They make emotion driven the decisions they they are informed 725 00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,160 Speaker 1: by their experiences and their feelings about the world based 726 00:41:56,200 --> 00:41:59,160 Speaker 1: on the things that have happened to them. It's good 727 00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:00,919 Speaker 1: to keep that in mind. Then this is one more 728 00:42:01,480 --> 00:42:05,160 Speaker 1: tally in that corner. Yeah, and plus it also it's 729 00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:08,360 Speaker 1: another study that looks at how Evan shape who we 730 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: are um and in this in this case, it reminds 731 00:42:11,440 --> 00:42:14,799 Speaker 1: me a lot of discussions I've had with people about comedians, 732 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:19,040 Speaker 1: like you have a comedian who didn't who is Jimmy 733 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:21,920 Speaker 1: Fallon comes to mind. I remember hearing an interview with 734 00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:25,320 Speaker 1: Jimmy Fallon where he basically, you know, he wasn't picked 735 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,279 Speaker 1: on as a kid. He had pretty much had a 736 00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,400 Speaker 1: nice rhyn of things. And maybe that explains why I 737 00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:33,960 Speaker 1: don't find Jimmy Fallon all that funny, because he's not 738 00:42:34,040 --> 00:42:38,719 Speaker 1: coming from this place of bankst or suffering like comedians 739 00:42:38,760 --> 00:42:43,000 Speaker 1: that you identify with. Yeah, he's not. He's not Schopenhauer's comedian. 740 00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,600 Speaker 1: So maybe he's the CEO of of comedy, you know. 741 00:42:47,280 --> 00:42:50,000 Speaker 1: As it lines up with this study, Wow, Oh man, 742 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:52,759 Speaker 1: you just really blew my mind with that Robert like 743 00:42:52,880 --> 00:42:56,279 Speaker 1: I am. That gives me pause because I really don't 744 00:42:56,320 --> 00:42:59,560 Speaker 1: like Jimmy Fallon's humor. Um, I'm gonna have to think 745 00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:01,440 Speaker 1: further on this and come back on another episode. And 746 00:43:01,520 --> 00:43:04,320 Speaker 1: I'm not saying I dislike Jimmy Fallone. Seems like a 747 00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,360 Speaker 1: nice guy, but like Comedy has never spoken to just 748 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:09,560 Speaker 1: this comedy. Yeah, I don't know him as an individual. 749 00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:12,480 Speaker 1: He's like a CEO. I don't know those guys in 750 00:43:14,160 --> 00:43:18,480 Speaker 1: he stole my car once. Really well, here's what I 751 00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:21,640 Speaker 1: think that I got from this study is that what 752 00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:24,320 Speaker 1: we need to do is make sure that all people 753 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:27,880 Speaker 1: who become CEOs of companies saw their parents murdered in 754 00:43:27,920 --> 00:43:30,080 Speaker 1: front of them when they were children, because then they'll 755 00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,400 Speaker 1: be like Batman Bruce Wayne, and they will run the 756 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:34,920 Speaker 1: company really well and clean up all the crime in 757 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:37,720 Speaker 1: their city. Is there any evidence of support the idea 758 00:43:37,760 --> 00:43:40,919 Speaker 1: that Bruce Wayne was was Slashy is a good CEO? Though, 759 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,400 Speaker 1: We're gonna have to do some contextual analysis to figure 760 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,440 Speaker 1: that one out. In fact, I would I would be 761 00:43:46,480 --> 00:43:50,560 Speaker 1: interested as anyone looked into the various CEOs in the 762 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:52,840 Speaker 1: comic book world. He's a better CEO, is it like 763 00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,600 Speaker 1: or is it Wayne? Yeah? Just in terms of a 764 00:43:56,680 --> 00:43:59,800 Speaker 1: business perspective, Yeah, you know Tony Star, which is a 765 00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,200 Speaker 1: bad or industry go to working like, who is it like? 766 00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,439 Speaker 1: Sometimes having an evil corporation over your shoulder if they're 767 00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:08,239 Speaker 1: if they have could benefit. I was gonna say that 768 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:12,200 Speaker 1: the benefits at lex Corp Are great, Great, They've got 769 00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:16,560 Speaker 1: fantastic four O one K, nice hs A package. I mean, 770 00:44:16,640 --> 00:44:21,960 Speaker 1: business is good when you just manufacture toxic chemicals. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, okay, 771 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:25,000 Speaker 1: getting back to the seriousness of this though. Um, the 772 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:29,520 Speaker 1: researchers were specifically interested in the strength of the dosage of, 773 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,880 Speaker 1: you know, experiencing these natural disasters and what their effects 774 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:34,840 Speaker 1: would be. And this is a quote from the study. 775 00:44:34,840 --> 00:44:38,239 Speaker 1: They say the intensity of life experiences can result in 776 00:44:38,360 --> 00:44:41,799 Speaker 1: nonlinear effects on subsequent risk taking. All right, we have 777 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:43,759 Speaker 1: one more study to look at in this episode, and 778 00:44:43,800 --> 00:44:46,160 Speaker 1: I believe this one to you again, Christian, the two 779 00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:50,160 Speaker 1: thousand fifteen Ignobile Prize for Economics. Yeah, so this actually 780 00:44:50,239 --> 00:44:56,560 Speaker 1: doesn't go to an academic paper. This Uh, this is 781 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:58,360 Speaker 1: a pretty funny one. But also I can I can 782 00:44:58,400 --> 00:45:01,880 Speaker 1: see why they picked it. Uh, the organizers awarded the 783 00:45:02,000 --> 00:45:07,960 Speaker 1: Thai Land the Thailand Metro Police directly for their efforts 784 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:13,000 Speaker 1: to combat rampant bribe taking among traffic police. So apparently 785 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:16,880 Speaker 1: in Thailand it's not all that uncommon for you know, 786 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:20,640 Speaker 1: if you break the traffic rules, police pulls you over 787 00:45:20,680 --> 00:45:22,640 Speaker 1: and you just throw them like three or four bucks 788 00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:24,680 Speaker 1: or whatever and say, hey, let's why do you forget 789 00:45:24,719 --> 00:45:28,080 Speaker 1: about this? Okay, So to combat the rampant bribe taking 790 00:45:28,120 --> 00:45:31,120 Speaker 1: that's going on among these traffic police, the officers in 791 00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:34,239 Speaker 1: charge said, okay, if you refuse these bribes, you will 792 00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:38,919 Speaker 1: receive a cash reward of up to ten thousand bot. So, 793 00:45:39,080 --> 00:45:41,200 Speaker 1: just for our listeners out there, ten thousand as of 794 00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:46,960 Speaker 1: today converts roughly into two eighty one dollars or comparison, 795 00:45:47,400 --> 00:45:50,759 Speaker 1: a police salary in Thailand right now is is on 796 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:55,920 Speaker 1: average six thousand bought a month as of data, so 797 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:59,520 Speaker 1: they make about a hundred and sixty nine dollars a month. 798 00:45:59,800 --> 00:46:02,439 Speaker 1: So you know, if they would refuse these bribes, they'd 799 00:46:02,440 --> 00:46:05,560 Speaker 1: be getting more than a month's paycheck. This raises so 800 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:10,520 Speaker 1: many questions about it makes you wonder how much they're 801 00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:15,279 Speaker 1: making off bribes in the first place. Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Um, 802 00:46:15,320 --> 00:46:17,120 Speaker 1: I guess I can preface this by saying that my 803 00:46:17,200 --> 00:46:19,759 Speaker 1: family lived in Thailand for a couple of years. I 804 00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:22,200 Speaker 1: didn't live there with them, but I went and visited 805 00:46:22,280 --> 00:46:25,880 Speaker 1: and stayed with them. Um, so I'm I visited Thailand. 806 00:46:25,880 --> 00:46:28,040 Speaker 1: I'm somewhat familiar with Thailand, but I can't really speak 807 00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:30,880 Speaker 1: to its you know, overall culture and the corruption and 808 00:46:30,960 --> 00:46:34,040 Speaker 1: the government. I do know, as many people do that 809 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:39,560 Speaker 1: you know, Bangkok is infamous for uh, drugs, prostitution, you 810 00:46:39,680 --> 00:46:41,759 Speaker 1: name it, you know, and so I think that that 811 00:46:41,800 --> 00:46:44,000 Speaker 1: was kind of part of the impetus here for this 812 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:48,160 Speaker 1: kind of weird policy that they enacted, was to clean 813 00:46:48,239 --> 00:46:53,319 Speaker 1: up the reputation of Bangkok. But of course, so it's 814 00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:56,520 Speaker 1: it's sort of ridiculous, so ridiculous that after two weeks 815 00:46:56,560 --> 00:47:00,439 Speaker 1: the police canceled this policy. Uh. There were so there's 816 00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:03,720 Speaker 1: so much back to your bribe social media criticism about 817 00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:07,719 Speaker 1: this that they thought it was damaging the forces reputation. Uh, 818 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:13,359 Speaker 1: and two cops received the maximum award based on them 819 00:47:13,360 --> 00:47:16,600 Speaker 1: taking three dollar bribes. Yeah, well it's not rather not 820 00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:18,839 Speaker 1: taking those bribes. It's it's kind of like the whole 821 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:23,160 Speaker 1: scenario where somebody unloads the dishwasher and then expects praise 822 00:47:23,239 --> 00:47:26,239 Speaker 1: for it, like you're supposed to unload the dishwasher. You 823 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:30,040 Speaker 1: did your job. Yeah, you did your job. Congratulations. Yeah, 824 00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:33,480 Speaker 1: there shouldn't be a monetary reward for not taking the bribe, 825 00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:38,080 Speaker 1: which is what you're supposed to do to Kenwin. Unsurprisingly, 826 00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:41,200 Speaker 1: the Metropolitan Police Bureau did not send any representatives to 827 00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:44,480 Speaker 1: Harvard to receive the award at the ceremony. I wish 828 00:47:44,480 --> 00:47:47,080 Speaker 1: they did because that would have probably made it quite 829 00:47:47,080 --> 00:47:50,680 Speaker 1: a bit funnier. Did they not even send a video acceptance? Well, 830 00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:52,759 Speaker 1: you know what, I didn't catch that they might have, 831 00:47:53,120 --> 00:47:55,640 Speaker 1: but they didn't get to have what's her name sit 832 00:47:55,680 --> 00:47:59,440 Speaker 1: there and tell them that they're boring. Oh yeah, it's sweetie. Pooh. 833 00:47:59,680 --> 00:48:04,600 Speaker 1: I g I forgot, I forgot to Okay. Uh So, 834 00:48:04,880 --> 00:48:09,799 Speaker 1: just another thing is that Thailand also received the Ignoble 835 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:13,680 Speaker 1: Award for Public Health because they had research that was 836 00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:19,280 Speaker 1: published about surgical solutions to involuntary penis amputation. I remember 837 00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,759 Speaker 1: this one. Yeah, so you know, they're racking up the 838 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:26,440 Speaker 1: points in the Ignoble category. But let's get serious for 839 00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:29,560 Speaker 1: a second here. Okay, here's why this is important. So 840 00:48:29,600 --> 00:48:32,520 Speaker 1: the state officials and the police in Thailand are supposed 841 00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:35,400 Speaker 1: to face life in jail if they're convicted of taking 842 00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:40,240 Speaker 1: a bride. Life in jail. Yeah, but it's pretty common, 843 00:48:40,400 --> 00:48:45,560 Speaker 1: it's extremely common. Uh. Though. The Thai army took power 844 00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:50,879 Speaker 1: after ousting the first female prime minister uh and they 845 00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:53,600 Speaker 1: claimed that they had to restore order to the nation 846 00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:58,400 Speaker 1: because nearly thirty people were killed in political protests against 847 00:48:58,440 --> 00:49:01,520 Speaker 1: her being elected. Okay, so that's where this all came from. 848 00:49:02,200 --> 00:49:05,640 Speaker 1: Uh And after they took power, that's when they launched 849 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:09,480 Speaker 1: this campaign to clean up Thailand's image. So this measure, 850 00:49:10,040 --> 00:49:14,600 Speaker 1: the traffic bribe measure, was part of that campaign. Uh 851 00:49:14,600 --> 00:49:19,640 Speaker 1: And specifically because that prime minister's brother is an ousted 852 00:49:19,719 --> 00:49:23,960 Speaker 1: and influential politician who is also a former police officer, 853 00:49:24,320 --> 00:49:26,800 Speaker 1: and he's known to have allies in the police force 854 00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:29,359 Speaker 1: and he's got some you know, political influence with them. 855 00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:31,680 Speaker 1: He fled the country in two thousand and eight. But 856 00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:34,800 Speaker 1: really the speculation is that, like, if you look deeper 857 00:49:34,840 --> 00:49:37,200 Speaker 1: at this, this is more about the military trying to 858 00:49:37,239 --> 00:49:41,239 Speaker 1: take back control of the police from this you know, 859 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:46,040 Speaker 1: allegedly corrupt politician. All right, Well, there you have it. 860 00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:48,520 Speaker 1: We're gonna cut off right there, and we're gonna pick 861 00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:51,440 Speaker 1: up in the next episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 862 00:49:51,440 --> 00:49:54,160 Speaker 1: where will roll through five more of the winners from 863 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:57,719 Speaker 1: the two thousand fifteen Ignoble Prizes. Uh, there's some gonna 864 00:49:57,719 --> 00:49:59,840 Speaker 1: be some fun stuff in there, So give you joined 865 00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:02,160 Speaker 1: this come back from what we're gonna talk about kissing 866 00:50:02,640 --> 00:50:05,600 Speaker 1: and how many babies you can have in a lifetime. Yeah, 867 00:50:05,680 --> 00:50:09,520 Speaker 1: we're talking about sticking essentially plungers on the butts of chickens. 868 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:11,960 Speaker 1: It's it's gonna be. It's gonna be a golden bees 869 00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:17,200 Speaker 1: to your genitals. Science. Hey, So in the meantime, be 870 00:50:17,200 --> 00:50:18,759 Speaker 1: sure to check out stuff to bow your Mind dot com. 871 00:50:18,800 --> 00:50:20,960 Speaker 1: That's we'll find all the podcasts. You'll find videos, you'll 872 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:23,040 Speaker 1: find blog posts, you'll find links out that those social 873 00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:26,600 Speaker 1: media accounts such as tumbler, Facebook, and Twitter. Yeah, and 874 00:50:26,840 --> 00:50:30,719 Speaker 1: that is where you can also find the address to 875 00:50:30,840 --> 00:50:34,120 Speaker 1: write into us if you were, you know, particularly inspired 876 00:50:34,160 --> 00:50:37,040 Speaker 1: by one of these papers that we discussed, or maybe 877 00:50:37,040 --> 00:50:38,600 Speaker 1: you're one of the authors of one of them and 878 00:50:38,680 --> 00:50:41,040 Speaker 1: want to communicate to us what was actually going on 879 00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:44,720 Speaker 1: with your research, or perhaps you're involved in the Ignoble Prizes. 880 00:50:44,920 --> 00:50:47,080 Speaker 1: If you want to contact us directly, Joe, what's the 881 00:50:47,080 --> 00:51:00,000 Speaker 1: address below the mind at how stuff works dot com 882 00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:02,480 Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics. Is 883 00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:22,880 Speaker 1: a house stuff works dot com U