WEBVTT - Shark Week Special 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in test with technology was tex Stuff from How 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:15.120 Stuff Work, stat com Eiser and welcome to text Stuff. 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.000 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren bob Obama, and today 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:22.400 we're going to celebrate and the glory that is Shark Week. 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:25.799 This is this is completely our own decision that we 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.560 wanted to do a Shark Week episode because Text Stuff 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.680 has not done a Shark Week episode since July two 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:37.800 thousand nine, two thousand nine, shortly after podcasting was invented. 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:41.000 That was that was how were you even alive then? 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.440 I know? And the fact there was so little shark 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:45.960 tech back in two thousand nine that the subject we 0:00:46.120 --> 0:00:50.599 chose to cover was Bruce, also known as the mechanical 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.080 shark that was used during the filming of Jaws, which 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.160 which now now that you say that, I kind of 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.040 I kind of wish that we could go back in 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:00.040 time and make you not do that episode, because I 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.880 really want to do that, especially since Chris had revealed 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.040 that he had never seen the film Jaws. He could 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:10.800 not quote any of the movie with me. That when 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.400 you put it that way, it's not necessarily a bad thing, um, 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:17.200 but but I was I was about as speechless as 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.320 you are right now, Lauren. That's how I was. I was. 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.520 I could not believe it. I couldn't fathom it. I mean, 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.480 that's an amazing movie. Jaws, by the way, is easily 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:28.720 in my top ten films favorite films. I mean it 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:32.240 just I think that movie is almost perfect, and part 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.360 of it is because the Shark didn't work so well. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.119 But if you want to hear all about Bruce and 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:41.000 the trials and travails of the Jaws shooting schedule and 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.560 how that machine that didn't work so well actually made 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.160 the movie better, go back and listen to that podcast. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:49.920 Go to the Tech Stuff rss feed, search for that 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:54.600 old file and listen to That's the only one that 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:59.480 pops up so until today. So today today we wanted 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.240 to talk a little bit about, um, the biotechnology that 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:08.560 sharks have inside of them right now, cyborg sharks when well, 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.240 actually some sharks, if you really wanted to, you know, 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.160 have a little bit of robotic components that humans have 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.040 put in them. But naturally, sharks senses are really cool 0:02:17.120 --> 0:02:19.760 and you can't really call it technology, but some people 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.000 have been developing technology to counteract it in order to 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.359 help prevent shark attacks, which is pretty grad and some 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:29.440 people have started working on technology that would give us 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.440 a similar set of senses that sharks have. I'll talk 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:35.680 a little bit about that, but it's it's something we're 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:38.079 gonna cover in greater detail in the future episode of 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:40.360 tech Stuff, so we won't go too far in there. 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:42.839 But yeah, when you look at what sharks are able 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:46.560 to do and and how their senses work, it's almost 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.400 like they are super natural creatures. I mean, it's because 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.680 they are able to sense stuff that we pathetic little 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.799 humans are incapable of sensing without some sort of augmentation. Right. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:00.720 This is why they are on the top of their 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:05.399 food chain without having fancy things like guns to help 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.280 them hunt. When when you hear I'm going to quote 0:03:08.320 --> 0:03:11.880 Jaws again, when you hear them described as eating machines, 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:16.360 which they are called in Jaws, that's very, very true. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.280 And they are really well I hesitate to use the 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.320 word designed, right because that that's just one sort of thing, 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.960 but they're really well suited. How about that for eating? 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.320 I mean, they're just great at hunting down and eating stuff, 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:33.200 and all of their senses kind of pretty much tie 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:36.720 into that. You know, find food and eat it, or 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.040 if you see something that is bigger than you that 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:43.119 will eat you, go the other way. Those are essentially 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.800 the two things that guide to sharks life, you know, 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:50.480 and occasionally find another shark to make little sharks. That's 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.200 also that's important too. But let's start with let's start 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.840 with talking about their ability to smell things, because this 0:03:57.920 --> 0:03:59.760 is one of those things that everyone has heard, right, 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:04.960 that have an incredible and very sensitive sense of smell. Right. Yeah, 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.920 The statistic that gets are not statistic, but that little 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:09.640 factoid that gets tossed around a lot is that a 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.880 great white can detect a single drop of blood in 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:16.400 an Olympic sized pool. Now, rule number one, do not 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.600 put great whites in your Olympic size swimming pool. Do not. 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.480 And rule too don't bleed in it. Bad plan. Yeah, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.000 don't do that. Um. I love that, that's the idea 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.440 that that within an Olympic size swimming pool. Because of course, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.240 the first thing I think of is like, something, did 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:34.200 you put that shark there? It does raise James Bond? 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:36.000 Why did you hang out with that James Bond villain? 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:38.080 Don't don't hang out with the James Bond villain. It 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:41.320 does make you think of some potential amazing updates to 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:45.000 the Olympics. But yeah, I think that's I think that's 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:48.400 the Hunger Games, not the Olympics. Could be separate, separate categories. 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.440 Certainly be the Hunger Games for the shark anyway. But 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:54.000 so so, the way that sharks shark's sense of smell 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.520 works is that as as they're swimming through the water, 0:04:56.600 --> 0:05:03.360 they've got two forward facing nostrils um provide for bidirectional smell. 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.960 This is what really blows my mind. They can actually 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:09.120 detect where a smell is coming from, right because they're 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.680 the nerves and their noses are so sensitive that they 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:17.680 can um calculate in their brains how how quickly a 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.320 smell reached one nostril versus the other, and used that 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:22.440 to decide which direction it's coming from. So it's kind 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.880 of like our sense of hearing, even though and and 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:28.120 our hearing is not that great either. You know, it's 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.839 very easy to fool a human being into thinking that 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:33.240 a sound is coming from a particular direction when it's 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.640 really coming from another one. But in general, if you're 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:39.240 in a situation where you allow noises coming from one side, 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.120 that sound hits one side of your your you know, 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:44.000 hits one year before it hits the other, and you 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:48.680 can think, oh, that sounds coming from this direction. It's subconscious. 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:50.839 It's not you know, it's not something that you're thinking 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.080 about the shark is. The shark isn't floating in the 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.440 water thinking, ah, yards away to my left is a 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.720 tasty morsel and I shall now go and snap up. 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.760 It just things turned this way. Um, so yeah, it's 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.440 it's these cells are incredibly sensitive and the fact that 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:10.840 it can take that information into account that it has 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.719 hit one side before it hit the other and know 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:15.800 that this is the direction it needs to move in 0:06:16.000 --> 0:06:20.760 is pretty phenomenal. Uh. Yeah, So so that's smell right, yeah, 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.880 smell um. Sound They hear incredibly well. To be fair, 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:28.480 sound travels faster and further underwater than it doesn't end right, 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.040 sound always you know, we talked about the speed of sound, 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.920 but the speed of sound depends upon the medium through 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:37.400 which it travels. So sound travels at a different speed 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.520 through solids than it does through uh the atmosphere or 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.400 through water, as it turns out. So yes, sharks are 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:48.000 pretty good at hearing stuff, huh, especially things in the 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:52.160 in the low pitched sound range. Which helps with that um, 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:55.000 that kind of flopping motion that anything that's going to 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:57.080 be easy to catch, it's gonna make right. Yeah. So 0:06:57.200 --> 0:07:00.520 if it's an injured fish or a say fish or 0:07:00.560 --> 0:07:03.520 something that that's not able to swim very effectively, it's 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.840 going to be making noises through its its motions through 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.000 the water that the shark can detect, even from pretty 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:13.000 far away. Uh. And in fact, sharks are able to 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:18.120 hear at a range that's I believe below human hearing levels, right. Um. 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:20.960 They can hear sounds with frequencies ranging from ten hurts 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:24.520 to eight hundred hurts, and are particularly responsive to sounds 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.840 lower than three hurts. UM. For comparison, UH, ten hurts 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:31.160 is one point five octaves below the lowest note on 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:36.160 a piano. So so sharks could appreciate some really groovy 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:38.080 music that we just wouldn't even be able to hear, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.480 would not no no register at all. We might feel it, Yeah, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.000 we can. We We can only hear uh sounds ranging 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:52.240 from about twenty five hurts to a sixteen thousand, so 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:53.800 so starting at twenty so, I mean, you know, we 0:07:53.840 --> 0:07:56.320 have a good scale too, but it's just way up 0:07:56.320 --> 0:07:59.400 in the other direction. I see, so our scales overlap somewhat, 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.440 but the extremes on either end one of us is 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:04.280 able to hear when the other one is not capable 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.200 of hearing them. So, if you're going to be swimming 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.400 in the ocean that's filled with lots of sharks, swim 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:12.480 in a high pitched way. Yeah, if you were playing 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.880 some sweet Mariah Carey for the shark, that shark would 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.200 not even notice. First of all, I take a shoe 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.960 with the term sweet Mariah Carey. But fair enough. Um, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.560 you know, of course we're joking, and we should also say, 0:08:23.720 --> 0:08:25.320 you know, we're talking a lot about sharks, and we'll 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.960 be talking more in the second half about the technology 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:30.960 we've developed to kind of foil the senses that sharks have. 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.839 But in general, remember, shark attacks very rare. These are 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.240 not animals that are out to get you. They actually 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:40.800 have a lot more to worry about from us than 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:43.120 we do from them, statistically speaking, right now, there of 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:45.400 course can be situations that a person is in where 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:48.200 they are more danger of a shark attack than others, 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:51.600 but it's still a rare thing. I just think it's 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:54.240 responsible to say that now all the time. Let's talk 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.360 about other ways that sharks can find you and kill you. 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.560 What's another sense site they've got? Um? Okay, so you 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.800 know how cats eyes reflect light in photographs or or 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.640 or in the dark, if alligators or alligators. Yeah, this 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:14.600 is caused by I didn't look up the pronunciation there 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.560 you go, which I think is Harry Potter speak for 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.920 open the door. I don't. I don't think that's correct. Yeah, 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:24.120 I think that's a little more on now you mention 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.520 it all right? At any rate, this is a this 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.120 is an organ that's located behind the retina um and 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.600 it's made up of reflective crystals and when so so 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.319 when light travels through the retina and hits them, um, 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.640 it's reflected back out onto the retina. So you know, 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.360 this is fascinating. This is the same sort of approach, 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:43.600 by the way that we are trying to mimic when 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.880 we create solar panels. So solar panels, you know, it's 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.400 not just create something that's dark that absorbs a lot 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.480 of light. We actually are trying to create solar panels 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.800 using nanostructures that reflect light back down in so it 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.880 absorbs as much as possible and reflects as little as possible. 0:09:59.880 --> 0:10:02.240 To make the solar panel very efficient. It's the same 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.000 kind of concept of um, you know, having, for example, 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:07.559 a candle holder that has mirrored sides, like a lantern 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.520 that has mirrored sides, so that it will end up 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:13.640 producing more light for the viewer. Now, in the case 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.080 of sharks, what this means is the shark is able 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.840 to see even in really dark situations, which makes sense. 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:21.720 I mean, if a shark is swimming towards the bottom 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.440 of the ocean, depending upon how deep that is, there's 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.760 very little light there to take advantage of, and from 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:31.760 what I understand, they're able to see well I guess 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:35.600 ten times better in dim situations than a typical human 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.400 being would be able to, which which means that yeah, 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.120 never never be alone in a dark room with the sharks. 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.240 So alright, so dark Olympic sized swimming pools filled with 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:46.319 blood or bad places to be if there happens to 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:48.240 be a great wet shark in there. And also don't 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:54.600 make any like low booming noises tips good tipsy. Next 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.000 next we come to um they're superpowers, right that the 0:10:58.160 --> 0:11:00.480 really cool superpowers. I'm going to save my favorite one 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.400 for last um and and go to the lateral line 0:11:03.480 --> 0:11:06.800 and okay, this is a system of tubes that run 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.199 up and down a shark's body just under the skin. 0:11:09.600 --> 0:11:13.440 They're lined with these little um hair like protrusions that 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:16.640 are connected to sensory cells, and so when something comes 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.760 near the shark, it causes the water to stir through 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:24.120 these tubes, moves the hairs, and alerts sensory cells that 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.000 something's going on. So this is almost like hearing. It's 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.280 very similar to the way we hear, only this time 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.400 you're kind of feeling motion. So it's very similar to 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.600 to hearing. I mean, if you look at the human ear, 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.960 then you'll see that when when we the way we 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.839 perceive sound is that we have these molecules that are 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.520 banging together. I mean, sound is a very physical thing. 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.240 Molecules bang together and it ends up impacting our ear drum, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.960 which in turn moves some tiny little bones inside our 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.920 ear that then end up making this uh, this kind 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.800 of a sack of fluid. Uh. Move within that are 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.040 these little bitty hair like structures, and when they they vibrate, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.199 that sense the electrical signal that we then interpret as sound. 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:11.280 This is similar except they're not necessarily hearing it they're 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.720 kind of feeling like it's it might be it might 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:16.520 be a little bit like a like a cat's whiskers 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.360 and in the way that yeah, you get that motion 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.600 or that contact, and and it's a big clue off 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:25.920 that's something something is nearby. You see. This is really 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:29.320 tricky for us to to translate into something that we 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:32.199 can identify with because this is outside of our ability. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.520 It's like skin plus one. Yeah, you know, I don't know. 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:36.240 I don't know how to Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'd be 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.640 like if I'm sitting at my cubicle and Josh Creepy 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:40.959 hands Clark is walking up behind me, and I sense 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:43.480 his presence before he's able to lean over me and 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.600 then inhale deeply, which, by the way, she has not 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:48.920 done that for a very long time. He has not 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.520 done that for a very long time. Fans behind you 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:56.560 in a Gremlin mask a couple of weeks ago. That's right, Yeah, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.200 chum got a Gramlin mask. I'm not sure. I'll not 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:02.840 sure why. I have a feeling. One of their listeners 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:05.040 sent it in that they get lots of stuff from 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:08.280 their listeners, you know, not that none of them so listening. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:10.280 I don't I don't need you guys sending us stuff 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:13.600 unless you want to. But it's just that it's amazing 0:13:13.800 --> 0:13:16.480 because you know, Josh and Chuck, they're busy, so they 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.440 leave the office for a while and just started up 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.640 like they start to peek up over the cubicle walls. Anyway. Anyway, 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:28.000 um so, my favorite shark sense is um is they 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:32.199 can they can sense electrical signals. They've got electro reception. Yes, 0:13:32.320 --> 0:13:37.960 this is the apula of Lorenzini. Yeah, Ampula of Lorenzini. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.959 I at first thought that was the actor who was 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:44.480 in Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, but it turns out 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.679 that's Lorenzo Lamas and it's not the ambula of Lorenzo Lamas. 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:52.880 So Lorenzini was an Italian scientist a few hundred years 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:58.200 back who who found this this organ um or or series, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.679 I would call it an organ. It's a good Okay, Yeah, 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:05.679 it's a it's a series of small clusters of um 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.040 electrically sensitive receptor cells that are positioned under the skin 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:11.640 in a shark's head kind of actually wear the whiskers 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:14.880 on a dog or cat would be um uh, they're 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.240 they're connected to pores on the skin surface. These pores 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:20.920 are filled with this kind of gel jelly like stuffy, 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:24.000 it's really stiff stuff, but it it is. Yeah, because 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:28.200 I read about a scientist who specializes in extracting this 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.760 stuff from sharks that have died. Like they captive sharks 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:34.240 and if a shark dies part of the processes, they 0:14:34.280 --> 0:14:36.840 try to pull the stuff out so they can experiment 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.280 on it as quickly as possible to far in more 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.040 about it, because we're going to talk about this stuff, 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:47.119 but still largely mysterious to us. Anyway, This this particular 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.440 organ is pretty cool. It doesn't sense movement, it doesn't 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.960 sense sight or sound. It senses electrical fields, which is 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:58.440 crazy and like and like electrical fields of that are 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:02.000 created by a fish's heart. Eat. Yeah, all living things 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:05.600 have an electrical field. It's what penetrates us and binds 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.840 the universe together. It's not the force, but it is 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:11.960 something that living things produce. It's just a natural byproduct 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.080 of being a living thing. You have this electric field 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.440 around you as as your heart and other muscles contract, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:21.720 they give up very small electromagnetic impulses. These are very 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:26.680 very faint, and so these incredibly sensitive organs that sharks 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.360 have can detect the presence of those electrical fields. And 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:34.200 in fact, I read about a really cool um experiment 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.960 where this was first kind of verified and or at 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.680 least it was one of the ones that verified, and 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:43.040 it happened back in nine And here's how they did 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:47.240 the experiment. They got some flatfish, which sharks would like 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.800 to eat. And flat fish often will be at the 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.480 very bottom of the ocean floor and bury themselves into 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.360 the sand, hid right, so they are out of sight. 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:57.520 So what they did was they put these flat fish 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.960 in a little chamber that was essentially hidden from the sharks. 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:04.960 The shark can't see the flat fish, and the chamber 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:08.320 was supposed to also mask the smell of the flat fish, 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.600 so the shark couldn't get the scent. But the sharks 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.480 still could sense the presence of the flatfish and would 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.520 try and eat the chamber. So then they decided they'd 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.000 have to repeat the experiment, because you know, just doing 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.200 that alone does not verify that there's anything going on, right, 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:26.000 we have to do good science here. So what they 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.880 did next was they took those same types of chambers 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.400 and they filled it with chopped up whitefish, and white 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.960 fish oil is something that will really attract a shark. 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.120 So they put it in this chamber, and again the 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:41.320 chamber sealed, so the scent isn't getting out, and it's 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:43.400 still concealed so the shark can't see it. And the 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.680 sharks did not react. They did not go after it 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.040 as if it were a fish. So this suggested that 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.040 perhaps they think about the fish being alive was what 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:54.400 they could sense. And so then they did a third test. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:57.520 In this third test, they put tiny little electrodes under 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:00.560 the sand and then they ran a very weak electrical 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:04.639 current through those electrodes, creating a faint electric field, and 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.399 the sharks reacted as they did when they could sense 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.359 the flat fish. And this seemed to be the proof 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:13.800 here that sharks have spidy sense science, I guess it's 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:17.680 sharky sense. That's beautiful. So, yeah, they can detect these 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:22.280 electric fields and hunt out prey or predators. It's only 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.399 a few feet away from the sharks knows that this 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.200 that this is sensible, right, Yeah, it's not like it's 0:17:27.200 --> 0:17:32.480 not like it's ability to to smell something from you know, whatever, 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.040 But but it does mean that once they get closer 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.000 to their intended prey, that they are able to zone 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.280 in on it pretty quickly, even if it's hiding. Um. 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.280 They scientists also think that they may possibly help eat 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:52.520 us this for navigation by sensing the magnetic pull of 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:54.879 the earth. Wow, so they're able to actually detect them 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.040 maybe field possibly possibly um and doesn't And definitely they 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.080 have found that baby sharks use this while they are 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:08.440 still in uh, in their eggs to uh if a 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:11.280 predator is coming, the baby shark can sense it through 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:16.080 this uh, through this organ and stay still enough so 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.200 it'll pass the predator will not get them. Nice. Yeah, 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.439 this is uh, this is interesting stuff. And you know, 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:24.960 we've also heard all about sharks going on these long 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.120 migrations and then showing up like like whale sharks tend 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:33.200 to show up, I believe off the coast of Central America. Um. 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:35.960 And I have a friend actually who went and got 0:18:36.000 --> 0:18:39.240 to see this in person. Actually you know him too. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.200 Uh it's a friend of both of ours who went 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.320 and saw this in person. And from his his account, 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:47.439 it sounds like it was toy spectacular to see all 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:51.560 these whale sharks an enormous number. But yeah, so it 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.240 may be that they're using this this ability as part 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.720 of that navigational um, you know, aid so that they 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.880 know which way to go where they're going. And I 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.440 feel like that about wraps up our first section here 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.760 on on shark inner technology. Right, So now we're going 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.439 to talk about in the second half all about the 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:15.119 ways we kind of mess with sharks really in an 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.919 attempt to not be eaten by them or to study 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.600 them further. Before we get into that, though, let's take 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.840 a quick moment to thank our sponsored All Right, we're back. 0:19:24.000 --> 0:19:27.240 So we've talked about the sharks senses. Let's talk about 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:29.280 some of the things we do with sharks and how 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.400 we study them. Yeah, well, okay, we were just talking 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.760 about shark migration habits, and this is one of those things. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.439 This applies to any kind of marine life. You know, 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:41.159 the sea is kind of deep and a little bit 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.960 dark and easily accessible, right, not super you know, the 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:46.800 fact that we can't breathe or walk on it is 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.160 problematic for us. So so in order to find out 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:52.960 more about things like sharks, we tend to tag them 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:57.760 these This is done um in sharks cases, by acoustic trackers. Now, 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.840 this was really cool. I did not realize this, and 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.800 Hill I saw the research that you sent about the 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:04.960 fact that these are all acoustic based. That means their 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.040 sound based and in fact the sensors and the receptors 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:12.920 only work when they get pretty close to one another. Yeah, 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:16.919 there's there's huge arrays of these under various oceans. The 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:20.840 most extensive one is off the kind of Halifax spanning 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:25.440 KOs which is about hundred and fifteen miles. So these 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:28.560 are for Canadian sharks. Yes, I bet they're extra polite. 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.640 I'm I'm not sure if that's a true fact, but 0:20:33.040 --> 0:20:36.000 I'm willing to roll with it. Okay. But yeah, so 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.000 there and if you if you're working with someone who 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:41.879 has done this quite a bit. I mean, this is 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:45.960 a process that actually doesn't take very long. Uh. The 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:48.720 the way it works is they have to, uh first 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.320 they have to entice sharks to come close to whatever 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:55.520 boat they are on. Research usually not difficult. Food is 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.480 a pretty pretty strong attractor. Yeah, they just put some 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:02.640 bait chum. Yeah, anyone who's watched Jaws again, that big 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.800 old bucket of chum, same sort of things. So they 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.199 usually end up putting like a perforated bucket into the 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:09.400 water and shake it around a bit and then within 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:11.680 you know, half an hour, to an hour, they start 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.920 attracting sharks. They catch the sharks, often using rotten real approach, 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:19.920 but they'll catch the sharks bring them aboard the boat. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:22.360 As it turns out, if you turn a shark upside 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.560 down with some species of shark anyway, it kind of 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:29.000 paralyzes them, a similar effect to to you know, picking 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:30.760 a cat up by the scrap or something like. Yeah, 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:34.000 it's it's called tonic immobility. Actually know a lot of 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:35.560 I've got a lot of friends who suffer from gen 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.080 and tonic a mobility where you put it, like at 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:39.960 least four or five drinks them and they just they 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:45.160