Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we
Speaker 1: are taking a little break, but we will be back
Speaker 1: with brand new episodes starting September ninth. And we have
Speaker 1: been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer.
Speaker 1: I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the
Speaker 1: twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years.
Speaker 1: This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe
Speaker 1: did all this extra research for it. We pulled in
Speaker 1: contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for
Speaker 1: the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and
Speaker 1: fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's
Speaker 1: dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production
Speaker 1: of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess what, well, what's that Mango?
Speaker 1: So welcome back to day two of our countdown of
Speaker 1: the twenty five greatest science ideas in the past twenty
Speaker 1: five years. And you know what's funny is when I
Speaker 1: was driving around last night, I saw a car with
Speaker 1: a bumper sticker, and this is true. It said science
Speaker 1: is like magic, but it's real. Okay, that's a real
Speaker 1: bumper sticker.
Speaker 2: I like that, you know. And considering we've already covered
Speaker 2: how to get catch up to flow smoothly out of
Speaker 2: a bottle and a scientist who capture the actual smell
Speaker 2: of space in a perfume, also a cure for hamster
Speaker 2: jet lag, I'd say we're off to a pretty magical star.
Speaker 2: It's also weird, but it's a pretty magical start. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But as soon as I saw that sticker, I had
Speaker 1: to roll down my window to yel Hey, science fans,
Speaker 1: subscribe to Part Time Genius on your favorite podcast.
Speaker 2: You are not telling the jos that is not a
Speaker 2: mango move, But I feel like they might like the
Speaker 2: show well, and actually I feel like you forgot to
Speaker 2: tell them to leave a rating and review. That's your
Speaker 2: other go to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm sure they'll figure it out in the meantime.
Speaker 1: When do you say we get started with day two
Speaker 1: of our incredible countdown?
Speaker 2: Can't wait? Let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome
Speaker 2: to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson, and as always
Speaker 2: I'm here with my good friend mangesh hot ticket there
Speaker 2: and over there in the booth knows deep in a
Speaker 2: book of magic tricks. It's our pal and producer, Dylan Fake.
Speaker 1: I think I might have inspired him to take up
Speaker 1: this new hobby with that little story.
Speaker 2: As long as he doesn't run off to Vegas without us,
Speaker 2: I think that's okay. So Mango, I'm really excited to
Speaker 2: continue this countdown because today we're talking about bike helmets,
Speaker 2: we're talking about virtual dolphins, lobsters, and strangely a help
Speaker 2: the diet that doesn't involve lobsters unfortunately. So let's get started.
Speaker 1: With Okay, Well, so how about we kick this off
Speaker 1: with a little pop quiz. What would you describe as
Speaker 1: sort of a modern healthy diet? You know, obviously, I
Speaker 1: think it involve a lot of fruits and veggies, good fats.
Speaker 1: You hear about olive, oil, fish, nuts.
Speaker 2: Maybe some eggs, beans, poultry for protein, red meat, and alcohol,
Speaker 2: and moderation of course, and not too much candy, which
Speaker 2: is a bummer. Like those atomic fireballs we've been sending out,
Speaker 2: so just those in moderation as well. Those are the
Speaker 2: things that come to mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you just described the classic Mediterranean diet right,
Speaker 1: And it's how people in the blue zones eat right,
Speaker 1: like people who live along time in places like Sardinia, Italy,
Speaker 1: Italian Islands, Ikorea, and Greece, and people tend to eat
Speaker 1: really healthy lives there. But what if I told you
Speaker 1: there might be an even healthier diet and instead of
Speaker 1: tomatoes and all oil, we should be eating cassava and
Speaker 1: howler monkeys.
Speaker 2: Oh, I didn't see that went coming. I think you'd
Speaker 2: have to give me some pretty convincing evidence. I don't
Speaker 2: think I'm up for this. I don't know what you
Speaker 2: might call it, like the Temple of Doom diet.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it's a good derivative from the
Speaker 1: Indiana Jones franchise. But let me tell you a little
Speaker 1: bit about it. So, over the past decade, there have
Speaker 1: been a number of studies involving the Chimene people and
Speaker 1: indigenous people native to the lowlands of the Bolivian Amazon,
Speaker 1: and the Chimyne live off the land, far from modern conveniences,
Speaker 1: and they basically have like little to no access to healthcare,
Speaker 1: at least the kind you and I are familiar with,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, they are freakishly healthy. Really, So
Speaker 1: if you take heart disease right, Like here in the US,
Speaker 1: about one in four people over the age of forty
Speaker 1: five shows signs of a clogged heart. But the Chimene zero.
Speaker 2: Really.
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, Lancet reported that quote, the Chimmyne have
Speaker 1: the lowest prevalence of coronary atherosclerosis of any population known
Speaker 1: to science.
Speaker 2: Isn't that incredible? Yeah? So no heart problems.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they also don't get high blood pressure or type
Speaker 1: two diabetes. They show little evidence of asthma or autoimmune diseases.
Speaker 1: Even their brains appear to be special. Like as we
Speaker 1: age are brains typically atrophy, but for some reason, the
Speaker 1: brains of older chi Mayne people deteriorate at a rate
Speaker 1: that's slower than seventy percent.
Speaker 2: Wow, so they just never get sick.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the weird thing. They do get sick
Speaker 1: like a lot. They are outdoorsy. Their lifestyle exposes them
Speaker 1: to like an insane bacterial load, viral and parasitic infections.
Speaker 1: Seventy percent of their population has parasitic roundworm infections, And
Speaker 1: because they get sick so often, they show high levels
Speaker 1: of inflammation. Now, the strange part is that for most
Speaker 1: of us. Inflammation would increase our chance of heart disease
Speaker 1: and other chronic ailments, but not for the chime Mayne.
Speaker 1: Their good health is so puzzling that scientists actually gave
Speaker 1: in a name, the Chimeyene inflammation paradox. Now, in recent years,
Speaker 1: researchers have descended on the population to learn their secrets,
Speaker 1: and so far the insights have gone against the grain
Speaker 1: of what we know about healthy living. So take those
Speaker 1: roundworm infections right, Like, on the face of it, it
Speaker 1: sounds pretty unhealthy, but researchers have actually discovered that this
Speaker 1: particular roundworm alters the immune system in a way that
Speaker 1: might actually improve female fertility.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, isn't crazy?
Speaker 1: And most chimyne only got six or seven hours of sleep,
Speaker 1: and that's below the eight or nine hours that doctors
Speaker 1: typically recommend. Here, right, it's accepted wisdom that inadequate sleep
Speaker 1: can make you age faster, and yet tests that measure
Speaker 1: aging was called intrinsic age acceleration, show that the chimene
Speaker 1: age slower than just about everybody.
Speaker 2: That is incredible. But back to the idea of the diet,
Speaker 2: What does their diet have to do with any of this?
Speaker 1: So Historically, obesity is rare among the Chimene, even though
Speaker 1: they eat a lot more than we do. The typical
Speaker 1: Chimeine women eat six hundred more calories than the average
Speaker 1: American women in a given day. Okay, but there are
Speaker 1: two big differences here, right, So, first of all, their
Speaker 1: diet is composed completely differently than ours. They eat only
Speaker 1: four to fifty grams of fat a day Americans eat
Speaker 1: twice that. They also get more protein than we do,
Speaker 1: as much as fifty grams more per day than the
Speaker 1: average American, and they consume twice as much potassium, but
Speaker 1: just one eighth the amount of sodium. The other difference
Speaker 1: is activity level. The Chimyne actually average about sixteen thousand
Speaker 1: steps every single while, and they maintain this level of
Speaker 1: physical activity late into their lives.
Speaker 2: Their Apple watches and garments must just be giving them
Speaker 2: so many awards for all that activity. Right, So we've
Speaker 2: got low fat, high protein tons of activity. Obviously, what
Speaker 2: kinds of foods are they actually eating? Like, what's on
Speaker 2: the menu for the average Chimmeyne home.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so for starches and veggies, they tend to eat
Speaker 1: like plantains, cassava, rice, and that's about it. Their primary
Speaker 1: seafood is a fish called the trahira, also known as
Speaker 1: the wolffish because of its dog like teeth. Then, for protein,
Speaker 1: they eat a lineup of local mammals, including capabera the pecari,
Speaker 1: which is basically a small wild pig. They also eat pakas,
Speaker 1: which are these giant rodents with markings kind of like deer,
Speaker 1: and cootamundi's, which well, it's kind of like a cross
Speaker 1: between a lemur, a raccoon, and a small bear. And
Speaker 1: that's about it. They don't eat that much else. Most
Speaker 1: of their calories come from just nine different foods, which
Speaker 1: is pretty counterintuitive. Like here in the US, we're always
Speaker 1: told we should be eating the rainbow of vegetables and
Speaker 1: a wide variety of foods, but that's not what they do.
Speaker 2: That's super interesting. I want to say that I'm sold
Speaker 2: here because it does feel like they've figured out the
Speaker 2: perfect diet. But I don't know how you can achieve
Speaker 2: that here. It's not like you're able to go to
Speaker 2: the store and pick up a coda mundi, which, by
Speaker 2: the way, i'd never heard of that before. You said
Speaker 2: it's a cross between a lemur, a raccoon, and a
Speaker 2: small bear looks like a small I got it. I
Speaker 2: got it. But anyway, that sort of food isn't exactly
Speaker 2: accessible here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're not finding out a barbecue. This dietary advice
Speaker 1: isn't realistic for people like you and me, And lately
Speaker 1: even the Chimene have been having a hard time following
Speaker 1: this diet, and that's because modern life has started intruding
Speaker 1: on their space, right on their villages. Kids are now
Speaker 1: eating pasta there and processed foods and sugars. After generations
Speaker 1: of this diet that's like helped them defy the odds,
Speaker 1: their health's actually getting worse, it's kind of sad to see.
Speaker 1: And they're gaining weight. So it's possible that the world's
Speaker 1: healthiest diet might actually be on the verge of extinction.
Speaker 2: That's rough. This has become a universal problem of trying
Speaker 2: to pry the sugary snacks away from our kids, you know,
Speaker 2: so they don't ruin their appetites before they eat a
Speaker 2: good dinner. It's just it's still different. Like here we're
Speaker 2: eating chicken. There they're eating capybara, which I actually didn't
Speaker 2: know that was something people late.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So now if you don't want to eat a capybara.
Speaker 1: I certainly don't blame you, but maybe you'd like to
Speaker 1: hug one. So today on our Instagram actually having a
Speaker 1: little contest, we're giving one lucky listener a wonderful and
Speaker 1: ridiculous plushy capabera for them to not eat. So get
Speaker 1: the details and enter to win at part time genius.
Speaker 2: All right, So for number eighteen, I gotta admit that
Speaker 2: last story did make me a little bit hungry, so
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stick with that theme. Here's a question for you, mego,
Speaker 2: do you like lobster?
Speaker 1: I'm kind of like so so on it. Okay, I
Speaker 1: like lobster rolls, but I don't love lobster meat that much.
Speaker 1: I'm also not into working for my food other than
Speaker 1: pistachios and bananas, maybe boiled peanuts. I don't really like
Speaker 1: cracking foods open with my fingers and pulling chunks of
Speaker 1: meat out.
Speaker 2: Of the bread. You put it that way. Well, I
Speaker 2: actually do like lobster, although it's not that I get
Speaker 2: to have it that often. But anyone who's ever dined
Speaker 2: on whole lobster nose it is not the easiest thing
Speaker 2: to eat. So, like you said, you have to break
Speaker 2: it apart with mallets and crackers and stick little forks
Speaker 2: in there to retrieve every last little bit of meat.
Speaker 2: And if you don't know what you're doing, it is
Speaker 2: a daunting task.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's really intimidating, especially for you know, I was
Speaker 1: a vegetarian for a large part of my life, and
Speaker 1: so I think that's part of why I'm not as attracted.
Speaker 2: To it right. Right, it's sort of intimidating, and you know,
Speaker 2: even if you do know what you're doing, it's messy,
Speaker 2: like it's one of the only foods that served with
Speaker 2: a bib and wet wipes. But I've actually got a
Speaker 2: pretty big solve for you here. This goes back to
Speaker 2: two thousand and six. A man named Johnny Hathaway was
Speaker 2: thinking about this problem. He's a Native manor and he
Speaker 2: and his family had opened a seafood restaurant and a
Speaker 2: touristy part of the state. So every summer the place
Speaker 2: was flooded with people who craved lobster. But as he
Speaker 2: told us in an interview, customers were turned off by
Speaker 2: the mess.
Speaker 3: Well, I soon found out that people really wanted the food,
Speaker 3: not the animal.
Speaker 2: He thought there has to be an easier way to
Speaker 2: cook and serve lobster. And it turned out there was
Speaker 2: I've got three words for you, mango, high pressure processing,
Speaker 2: you get it.
Speaker 1: I like that you're saying these things expecting me to
Speaker 1: have a reaction. I have no idea what any of
Speaker 1: that means.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, in the simplest terms, it's kind of
Speaker 2: like pasteurization, except it uses cold water and pressure instead
Speaker 2: of high heat. So the process is really useful because
Speaker 2: it kills the pathogens and the microorganisms that can actually
Speaker 2: make food spoil. Now, one day, Johnny happened to be
Speaker 2: chatting with someone from the main lobster Promotion Council, is
Speaker 2: sort of a collective for the state's prize industry, and
Speaker 2: she told him she'd heard about some guy in New
Speaker 2: Orleans who were using high pressure processing to kill bacteria
Speaker 2: and oysters. That's a big problem, by the way, a
Speaker 2: lot of people enjoy eating oysters raw, so having the
Speaker 2: ability to eliminate that bacteria without cooking was a pretty
Speaker 2: big deal. And it gets better. So the folks in
Speaker 2: Louisiana were finding that putting oysters in a high pressure
Speaker 2: machine didn't just make them safe to eat, it actually
Speaker 2: also shucked them. That's pretty magical. Now, just completely detached
Speaker 2: the meat from the shell. And what is lobster if
Speaker 2: not a larger and more complicated oyster. Right.
Speaker 1: I feel like some Breene biologists out there might disagree
Speaker 1: with that. No simple assessment continues, just.
Speaker 2: Facts, manu. So when Johnny heard this, he knew he
Speaker 2: had to see this for himself. So he got in
Speaker 2: touch with the oyster guys and they were like, we
Speaker 2: don't know anything about lobsters, but we're up for trying
Speaker 2: an experiment. So here's Johnny again.
Speaker 3: So I brought some lobster down in New Orleans and
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe what it did.
Speaker 3: We put it in the machine, we take it out,
Speaker 3: and it's a very simple process. But what it does
Speaker 3: is it breaks the membrane between the shell and the meat,
Speaker 3: and it allows you to take out the meat raw.
Speaker 3: The meat slides right out.
Speaker 2: So I just want to take a second to acknowledge
Speaker 2: the historic nature of that moment, right like it was
Speaker 2: the first time in human history that anyone had shucked
Speaker 2: a raw lobster. It's just not possible otherwise. So until
Speaker 2: that fateful day, the only way to break meat from
Speaker 2: the membrane was by cooking it. So Johnny heads home.
Speaker 2: He tracks down a high pressure processor online. He calls
Speaker 2: it the big mother shucker because this thing is huge.
Speaker 3: The first machine I bought was sixteen feet high and
Speaker 3: weigh to eighty thousand pounds, and all it is is
Speaker 3: a cylinder that should fill with water, no heat, no chemicals.
Speaker 3: It's just water and you turn on the pressure and
Speaker 3: find the right pressure. The cycle last maybe three minutes.
Speaker 2: So once he had it up and running and got
Speaker 2: the settings dialed in, Johnny and his employees were able
Speaker 2: to process four to six million lobsters every single week.
Speaker 2: I didn't know there were that many lobsters out there.
Speaker 2: And you have to understand there's a lot of tradition
Speaker 2: in the main lobster industry, and that's part of the
Speaker 2: cultural importance here. But that also meant that Johnny had
Speaker 2: to sell the idea of this pressure shucked raw lobsters
Speaker 2: to people who'd been doing things the old way for
Speaker 2: a long time. You could see a lot of people
Speaker 2: might just take joy in that process, right, because it's
Speaker 2: like an art in itself. But luckily, his raw Lobster
Speaker 2: Meet won two Awards at the two thousand and seven
Speaker 2: Brussels International Seafood Show Best New Food Service Product, Most
Speaker 2: Convenient New seafood Product. Now, that was a pretty definitive
Speaker 2: seal of approval, and it helped Manor see the commercial
Speaker 2: potential of what he was.
Speaker 3: Up to Other processors and fishermen alike. They saw, okay,
Speaker 3: this opens up another way for us to market our product. Right,
Speaker 3: we don't have to just sell live anymore. We can
Speaker 3: sell it to processes, and processes can do more value
Speaker 3: added products. It opened up new markets now.
Speaker 2: According to Johnny Chef's love the convenience of raw lobster,
Speaker 2: it gives them more options for cooking. Before, if you
Speaker 2: wanted a suv lobster, it had to be parboiled first,
Speaker 2: and as Johnny says, nobody buys a cook steak and
Speaker 2: then cooks it again. But there's one other benefit to
Speaker 2: this process that's worth mentioning.
Speaker 3: The pressure actually kills the lobster within six seconds, So
Speaker 3: you know, that's pretty good when you think about the
Speaker 3: animals in the world, how they're treated. I think that
Speaker 3: was very important.
Speaker 2: If you're going to eat lobster, that is a pretty
Speaker 2: humane way to do it. Anyway, since Johnny's big new discovery,
Speaker 2: a few other high pressure processors have actually opened up
Speaker 2: in Maine, and Johnny's thinking about new ways to put
Speaker 2: the technology to use. For example, he's working with the
Speaker 2: University of Maine and research involving crab and lobster shells,
Speaker 2: which contain a polymer called kitan. Now it's already being
Speaker 2: used in agriculture as fertilizer, but apparently may have other
Speaker 2: applications including helping with skin problems and wound healing. And
Speaker 2: when you can separate a bunch of crustaceans from their
Speaker 2: shells in a matter of minutes, it makes all the
Speaker 2: testing and advances a whole lot more possible.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. You know, I wonder if it's going
Speaker 1: to affect the all you can eat crab shats and
Speaker 1: like Maryland, in places like that where you know you've
Speaker 1: got all this old bay and you're often drinking beer
Speaker 1: because like it takes such a long time and like
Speaker 1: it's hard to get the meat out. It's going to
Speaker 1: be a very different process area.
Speaker 2: It's it's gonna have it comes straight down a shoot
Speaker 2: into your mouth.
Speaker 1: Do not touch that dial. We will be right back
Speaker 1: with more great science ideas right after the break, Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about the
Speaker 1: twenty five greatest science ideas of the last twenty five years.
Speaker 1: So this one is close to my heart. Will Were
Speaker 1: you a bike rider as a kid?
Speaker 2: Definitely. I rode my bike every day to school from
Speaker 2: really second grade on all the way yeah, all the
Speaker 2: way through elementary school. I loved riding my bike.
Speaker 1: And did you have to wear a helmet?
Speaker 2: Well, I was actually talking about this just the other
Speaker 2: day to somebody that this was on the front end
Speaker 2: of kids wearing helmets, right, And of course my parents
Speaker 2: maybe wear a helmet. I'm thankful for that, But I
Speaker 2: was one of the few in our group of friends
Speaker 2: that would ride to school that were wearing helmets. Of course,
Speaker 2: I'm glad that there's no weirdness around that today, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I was one of the few wearing them at that point.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I feel like it is so normalized
Speaker 1: today and the helmets are so much less clunky.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: In seventh grade, with no warning, my dad went out
Speaker 1: and did two things. First, he bought us helmets and
Speaker 1: insisted we wear them, which you know makes sense, And
Speaker 1: i'd of course two with my kids now. But he
Speaker 1: also found these white poles that he put on our
Speaker 1: like very thin bubbles they put on with orange flags,
Speaker 1: and so they were riding above us. It was partially
Speaker 1: because like we lived on a hill and so like
Speaker 1: if you went up the hill, you want cars to
Speaker 1: be able.
Speaker 2: To see what was coming.
Speaker 1: But it was kind of the equivalent of wearing headgear
Speaker 1: to like a middle school dance, right, So like I
Speaker 1: used to bike everywhere to the local convenience store to
Speaker 1: like cull to sack, you know, it was just transportation
Speaker 1: for us, and and then immediately I started walking. For me,
Speaker 1: helmets were really a deterrent. And one thing that I
Speaker 1: think is really fascinating is there's a company called Holding
Speaker 1: which has created something that's basically a scarf like technology
Speaker 1: that inflates on impact like an airbag.
Speaker 2: So is this like an invisible airbag helmet or like
Speaker 2: I'm not picturing.
Speaker 1: This, yeah, exactly. This thing is amazing and middle school
Speaker 1: me would have been so psychedic seen one of these
Speaker 1: or had one of these. But I've been watching videos
Speaker 1: online of people crashing and one second it looks like
Speaker 1: they're wearing nothing on their head and next it looks
Speaker 1: like someone like pulled over like an airbag hoodie. The
Speaker 1: whole thing is the invention of two brilliant Swedish women
Speaker 1: named Anna Hoppt and Teres Alston. They designed the helmet
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five as part of a master's
Speaker 1: thesis in industrial design at Lund University, and they tricked
Speaker 1: it out with some really interesting features. You do have
Speaker 1: to keep the helmet charge and you have to switch
Speaker 1: it on when you're riding, but you can change out
Speaker 1: the colors so like you can have the scarf like
Speaker 1: thing match your outfit. It comes with a black box
Speaker 1: and it records the last ten seconds before a crash,
Speaker 1: which can actually be helpful if you're trying to determine
Speaker 1: fall in like an accident or something like that. And
Speaker 1: according to tests done by engineers at Stanford, the whole
Speaker 1: thing actually protected people from concussions eight times better than
Speaker 1: traditional bike helmets. Unfortunately, however, the cost ended up being
Speaker 1: a factor. In a twenty fifteen review from the Guardian,
Speaker 1: they said a new helmet cost about two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty pounds and if you get in a crash you
Speaker 1: kind of have to replace it. Pulving did replace the
Speaker 1: helmets for about one hundred pounds once you bought your
Speaker 1: first one, but it really wasn't cheap.
Speaker 2: And you know that this goes back over a decade now,
Speaker 2: so I'm curious, like, can I get a hold of
Speaker 2: a whole thing now?
Speaker 1: Not easily. So the founders left the company in twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen and the company went bankrupt in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: But what Anna Andrees did actually opened people up to
Speaker 1: new ways of thinking about bike helmets. There's an incredible
Speaker 1: company out of Germany called in Flabby that actually has
Speaker 1: an ultra thin geometric helmet. You fill it with a
Speaker 1: bike pump and it fills these air pockets to protect
Speaker 1: your head. And the best part is you can actually
Speaker 1: fold it up and scrunch it up, so you're not
Speaker 1: carrying this clunky helmet around. It just kind of like
Speaker 1: sticks in a bag or a pocket. That said, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to improve on the
Speaker 1: last released version of the whole thing and then comes
Speaker 1: out with a better inflatable helmet. Also, just for the record,
Speaker 1: I want to make clear that I do wear a
Speaker 1: helmet these days. I'm little less worried about what kids
Speaker 1: in my neighborhood think about me. But I do wear
Speaker 1: when I bike around New York on city bikes with
Speaker 1: my family, so you really don't have to worry.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'll check that one off the list, all right. Well,
Speaker 2: I think it's safe to say that VR hasn't quite
Speaker 2: taken off in the way we might have expected it to,
Speaker 2: at least not yet. But one use of it that's
Speaker 2: really interesting is in pain management, so more specifically having
Speaker 2: patients virtually swim with dolphins that's actually helped patients manage
Speaker 2: their chronic pain better. Have you heard about this, No,
Speaker 2: that's incredible. According to a piece on the radio station, Wabe,
Speaker 2: a seventy year old military vet, told reporters, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2: I really feel like I'm there. I get a strong
Speaker 2: feeling of pleasure, relaxation and peace. Just nice to think about.
Speaker 2: So basically he swims three times a day for ten
Speaker 2: minutes secession and it's had a remarkable effect on his
Speaker 2: ability to manage his pain.
Speaker 1: That is really cool and it's really that effective.
Speaker 2: Apparently so. And the truth is, doctors like Brennan Spiegel
Speaker 2: at Cedar Sinai in Los Angeles. They've been looking for
Speaker 2: alternative ways to help patients manage their pain and reduce
Speaker 2: their reliance on heavy prescription pills for a long time now,
Speaker 2: and VR actually seems to have an impact, at least
Speaker 2: according to the paper he published in the journal plus
Speaker 2: one Now. In his study, Spiegel took patients who were
Speaker 2: either experiencing pain from cancer or maybe had severe orthopedic pain,
Speaker 2: and he divided these patients into two different groups. So
Speaker 2: one group got VR headsets and was told they could
Speaker 2: use as much VR as they wanted, but they were
Speaker 2: asked to do it at least three times a day
Speaker 2: for ten minutes a session. Meanwhile, the other group got
Speaker 2: to watch a wellness channel on TV. So, as Spiegel
Speaker 2: put it, VR is thought to create an immersive distraction
Speaker 2: that restricts the brain from processing pain. And what they
Speaker 2: found was that when they used a zero to ten
Speaker 2: pain scale, the group that used VR three times a
Speaker 2: day actually saw a drop in their pain levels by
Speaker 2: two full points. That is pretty remarkable, and I'd actually
Speaker 2: heard of VR being used for immersion therapy, like people
Speaker 2: have a tough time with heights, having the VR stimulate
Speaker 2: like you're looking out of a tall building or people
Speaker 2: who are afraid of public speaking. You get to talk
Speaker 2: to a virtual crowd and build up a stamina or
Speaker 2: muscle skill. But the idea of swimming with dolphins is
Speaker 2: just so beautiful. It's so different from like facing your fears. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it really is. And scientists are looking for how VR
Speaker 2: might be useful in other painful conditions, you know, from
Speaker 2: managing labor pains to distracting patients when they get painful
Speaker 2: infusions for cancer treatments. It's pretty remarkable what can happen here.
Speaker 2: It's awesome.
Speaker 1: So here's a quick one that gives me a lot
Speaker 1: of empathy for that character. Pig Pen in PNUS.
Speaker 2: Is the one with the dirty cloud around it all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: I love pig Pen, But it turns out he is
Speaker 1: not alone. Apparently, we all have a swarm of bacteria
Speaker 1: that we're constantly shedding in the space around us. It's
Speaker 1: known as a microbial cloud, and according to a team
Speaker 1: of scientists at the University of Oregon, everyone is surrounded
Speaker 1: by a unique cloud. It's about ninety centimeters wide, made
Speaker 1: up of millions of bacteria, and when we walk through
Speaker 1: each other's clouds, our clouds mingle and we actually change
Speaker 1: each other's microbiomes just.
Speaker 2: A little wow.
Speaker 1: The way a BBC article put it was a little
Speaker 1: grosser than that. They're right, quote walk through someone else's
Speaker 1: cloud and it'll rain bacteria on your skin and be
Speaker 1: breathed into your life.
Speaker 2: Saw that is really gross. And I think the thing
Speaker 2: that stuck out to me is ninety centimeters. Like that's
Speaker 2: not tiny, you know, like that's actually a meaningful But yeah,
Speaker 2: that's a really gross description.
Speaker 1: I mean, the article quotes one microbiologist as saying the
Speaker 1: findings were quote simply gross. Microbiologists are disturbed. It's pretty
Speaker 1: gress Yeah, but I think it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things that you live with forever, you don't really think
Speaker 1: about it, and then when you happen to like peer
Speaker 1: under a microscope, it's more complicated than you can ever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm guessing a shower doesn't help the situation.
Speaker 1: No, you cannot scrub this away. But the way the
Speaker 1: scientists rand the experiment was pretty fascinating. So they basically
Speaker 1: had people hang out in a room where petri dishes
Speaker 1: and suspended air filters inside the room collected the floating microbes,
Speaker 1: and then they analyze these personal clouds, and what they
Speaker 1: found was that every cloud is really like a fingerprint.
Speaker 1: But also, I do think there's something poetic about the
Speaker 1: fact that, like, when you hang out in someone else's cloud,
Speaker 1: you take back a bacterial souvenir. Like there's almost this
Speaker 1: record of your life and how you spent your time
Speaker 1: that you're constantly carrying around with you, and the idea
Speaker 1: that you're changed a little by everyone you meet or
Speaker 1: interact with. It's just kind of human and wonderful.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 1: Okay, listeners, we've got to pause for a quick break,
Speaker 1: but we'll be back with more Part Time Genius very soon.
Speaker 1: And welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're continuing
Speaker 1: with our crazy countdown.
Speaker 2: All right, semengo, what would you say if I told
Speaker 2: you I could fix the cracks in your phone screen
Speaker 2: just by covering it with a damp paper towel.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd probably think you were lying or it
Speaker 1: was a prank.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, it's actually an innovation that is just around
Speaker 2: the corner. Once this new quote self healing glass hits
Speaker 2: the market, we really will be able to repair cracks
Speaker 2: by just adding water.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So how exactly does this work? Because I mean,
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong, But like glass needs heat
Speaker 1: to repair, not moisture.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, that's definitely true of traditional glass. But what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about is something called peptide glass. And in
Speaker 2: case your chemistry is a little rusty, here it is.
Speaker 2: I knew it would be. A peptide in short, is
Speaker 2: a chain of amino acids, which are chemical building blocks
Speaker 2: of proteins. So peptides can self assemble into all kinds
Speaker 2: of useful structures, including endorphins and insulin. But because they're
Speaker 2: crystalline in nature, they aren't typically associated with glass because
Speaker 2: glass isn't crystalline, right, And in crystalline structures, the atoms
Speaker 2: are arranged in a rigid repeating pattern, so when the
Speaker 2: crystal is subjected to stress, it tends to fracture really easily. Glass,
Speaker 2: on the other hand, is what's known as an amorphous solid.
Speaker 2: That means its atoms are arranged at random, which allows
Speaker 2: it to absorb stress more evenly, making it harder to
Speaker 2: actually break.
Speaker 1: I love how they are like different types of solids,
Speaker 1: different types of liquids. Ketchup is a certain type of
Speaker 1: liquid that doesn't move or flow right right, And then
Speaker 1: you have this type of glass. But how is there
Speaker 1: something called peptide glass. It seems like a bit of
Speaker 1: a contradiction.
Speaker 2: Well it is exactly that, and that's why researchers at
Speaker 2: Tel Aviv University were so surprised. Last year. They found
Speaker 2: when a certain peptide is mixed with water, it can
Speaker 2: self assemble into this rigid, transparent glass like material. Now
Speaker 2: this wasn't something that they set out to find either,
Speaker 2: and that's always the fun in science of these acts
Speaker 2: of discoveries. But in fact, they were actually studying entirely
Speaker 2: different properties of peptides when they made this discovery. But
Speaker 2: that wasn't even the best part, because it turned out
Speaker 2: this new kind of glass also had the ability to
Speaker 2: heal itself when it was remoistened.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: So according to one of the studies authors quote, we
Speaker 2: found that although the peptide glass cracks under dry conditions,
Speaker 2: it can easily repair these cracks. All that needs to
Speaker 2: be done is transfer the glass to a more humid environment.
Speaker 2: As soon as you do that, water molecules re enter
Speaker 2: the material, repair the cracks and allow the glass to reform.
Speaker 1: That is so amazing, And I know you said this
Speaker 1: was just discovered. But what are the commercial prospects or
Speaker 1: something like this? Does it seem like a viable product?
Speaker 2: It definitely does so far. So. Conventional glass requires a
Speaker 2: ton of energy to produce because you have to gather
Speaker 2: all the different raw materials and you melt them together
Speaker 2: at extremely high temperatures. But with this, you actually just
Speaker 2: take some peptide powder, mix it with water, and voila
Speaker 2: Like it's instant glass. It's pretty amazing. It's as strong
Speaker 2: as silicate glas two. So it could be used to
Speaker 2: make just about anything windows, doors, optical lenses, and of
Speaker 2: course the thing we're all thinking about phone screens.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really does sound like it could revolutionize
Speaker 1: like a bunch of different industries and also save you
Speaker 1: so much money on repairs. Imagine like getting a crack
Speaker 1: in your windshield and just like waiting for the rain
Speaker 1: to repair it. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you wouldn't necessarily have to replace your existing
Speaker 2: glass either. You could just add a thin coating of
Speaker 2: peptide glass over the top to sort of act as
Speaker 2: a barrier.
Speaker 1: You know who's going to really benefit from this as
Speaker 1: anyone with a class bottom boat.
Speaker 2: Yes, those are the people that we really want to
Speaker 2: look out for. You know, it's like how people say
Speaker 2: we should make an entire plane out of the same
Speaker 2: material as the black Box, Like just make the whole
Speaker 2: boat out of peptide glass and it can never spring
Speaker 2: a leak.
Speaker 1: I think you just came up with the best science
Speaker 1: idea of the year.
Speaker 2: Nailed it all right, Well, that does it for today.
Speaker 2: Be sure to tune in tomorrow as the countdown continues.
Speaker 2: I don't want to give too much away, but tomorrow's
Speaker 2: episode involves NASCAR dinosaurs. It sounds like, really this is
Speaker 2: a tough guy episode and a very special musical number.
Speaker 2: That's right, That's right, And of course don't forget the
Speaker 2: Head over to our instagram at part Time Genius to
Speaker 2: enter our copy bar contest. We're from Gabe Dylan, Mary
Speaker 2: Mangush and Me. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 4: Oh and Lucas Riley, Thank you, Lucas.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me, Mongashtikler,
Speaker 1: and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
Speaker 1: for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social
Speaker 1: media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shoory.
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