1
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,400
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My

2
00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:14,880
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind.

3
00:00:15,040 --> 00:00:19,160
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Today

4
00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:21,760
Speaker 1: we're gonna be in a way we're continuing on past

5
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:27,520
Speaker 1: discussions concerning the Wheel. Um, also past discussions concerning uh

6
00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:32,000
Speaker 1: like rolling creatures. But we're gonna be getting more specifically

7
00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:37,120
Speaker 1: into the realm of the gear in this episode. Now,

8
00:00:37,400 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 1: I have to say I'm anytime we get into one

9
00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:43,960
Speaker 1: of these discussions, I'm always reminded of a few lines

10
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:49,920
Speaker 1: from The Omega Man. Uh. In part because it's in

11
00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:53,840
Speaker 1: its own way, it's a weirdly interesting film. Also, I

12
00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:56,800
Speaker 1: probably listened to a bit too much Wide Zombie back

13
00:00:56,800 --> 00:01:00,880
Speaker 1: in high school, uh because there's some or maybe it's

14
00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,319
Speaker 1: a Rob Zombie song that that samples this movie. But

15
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:08,800
Speaker 1: there's this one wonderful line from Anthony zerve Is character says,

16
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,920
Speaker 1: the creature of the Wheel, the lord of the infernal engines. Um.

17
00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:15,039
Speaker 1: What is he talking about the vampires or is he

18
00:01:15,080 --> 00:01:18,880
Speaker 1: talking about about Charlton Heston. He's talking about old Chuck Heston. There,

19
00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:23,640
Speaker 1: he's the This man represents the Wheel and the technology

20
00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,759
Speaker 1: of the wheel and all the terrible things that we're

21
00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:30,600
Speaker 1: done with it. Um but wait, I recall the vampires

22
00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:33,120
Speaker 1: using wheeled vehicles. Do they not? Don't they have like

23
00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,959
Speaker 1: a sort of zombie mobile. Yeah. I'm not saying it

24
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:38,360
Speaker 1: makes sense. I'm not saying it's a fair criticism. I'm

25
00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:42,640
Speaker 1: just saying that Anthony Zerva had a really cool voice.

26
00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:45,319
Speaker 1: And uh and when he said these lines, it was like, yeah,

27
00:01:45,319 --> 00:01:47,039
Speaker 1: that sounds cool. I don't know what it means exactly,

28
00:01:47,040 --> 00:01:49,000
Speaker 1: but it sounds pretty cool. You know, it would be

29
00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:51,800
Speaker 1: a really good movie Monster Bug Fight and and both

30
00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,560
Speaker 1: are Charlton Heston movies. If you pick the vampires from

31
00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:59,320
Speaker 1: the Omega Man versus the Adam Bomb Cult from the

32
00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:02,040
Speaker 1: Second Plan into the Apes movie, you know, they're they're

33
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:06,720
Speaker 1: pretty similar. I think, pretty similar morbid humanoids. But I

34
00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:09,120
Speaker 1: would like to see them duke it out, and Charlton

35
00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:11,600
Speaker 1: has to I guess can just watch this time? Yeah?

36
00:02:11,639 --> 00:02:13,480
Speaker 1: What was that beneath the Planet of the Apes? I

37
00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,080
Speaker 1: always like that one. As far as any eight movies

38
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,920
Speaker 1: that came after Planet of the Apes, that one, that

39
00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:23,680
Speaker 1: one always appealed to me. I'm not sure why. Uh.

40
00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:26,919
Speaker 1: I remember there's a part where they sing a hymn

41
00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,280
Speaker 1: to the atom bomb. Remember yep, they have just a

42
00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,959
Speaker 1: big old atom bomb in there that they worship. I

43
00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,519
Speaker 1: think it's like a minor key version of all things

44
00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:39,520
Speaker 1: bright and beautiful. But it's interesting all these things are

45
00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:42,920
Speaker 1: connected because we're dealing with with a human technology and

46
00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:47,079
Speaker 1: the idea of worshiping the technology being bound to the technology,

47
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,400
Speaker 1: and and the wheel, and by virtue of the wheel,

48
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,880
Speaker 1: gears and machines being this thing that is particular to

49
00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,440
Speaker 1: human beings, something that that that we have created. It's

50
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,359
Speaker 1: a part of our various civilizations. And I think it's

51
00:03:01,400 --> 00:03:04,720
Speaker 1: interesting to think about humans as creatures of the Wheel Empire,

52
00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:06,440
Speaker 1: because of course there have been plenty of cultures and

53
00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:11,880
Speaker 1: civilizations where the wheel, at least in terms of of vehicles,

54
00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:14,560
Speaker 1: has played no practical role. Perhaps that you know that

55
00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:16,400
Speaker 1: you had the wheel as a toy, Perhaps it was

56
00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:18,720
Speaker 1: used as a spiritual aid or device that could serve

57
00:03:18,760 --> 00:03:21,359
Speaker 1: as a metaphor. But then certainly, by the time we

58
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:23,480
Speaker 1: get to the you know, the age of roads and engines,

59
00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:28,639
Speaker 1: humanity very visibly becomes a people of the wheel. But then,

60
00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,280
Speaker 1: as we'll discussed in this episode a little bit, you

61
00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,760
Speaker 1: also get into this domain of wheels and gears of

62
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,600
Speaker 1: of wheels doing things that they don't have have anything

63
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:41,560
Speaker 1: directly to do with vehicles, but it's all about using

64
00:03:41,600 --> 00:03:44,240
Speaker 1: the energy of the wheel to do other things. And

65
00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,440
Speaker 1: yet at the same time, and this also makes me

66
00:03:46,440 --> 00:03:49,480
Speaker 1: think of the field of bio memetics bioble metics, of course,

67
00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,680
Speaker 1: as when we we say, okay, I have an engineering problem.

68
00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,560
Speaker 1: I need to turn to the realm of nature for

69
00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:57,960
Speaker 1: a possible solution, because I've only been working on this

70
00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,240
Speaker 1: engineering problem for you know, X amount of time. But

71
00:04:01,400 --> 00:04:06,800
Speaker 1: evolution has been working around similar engineering problems just for

72
00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:10,360
Speaker 1: for millions of years. So perhaps we can we can

73
00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,680
Speaker 1: cheat off of nature in that regard. But of course,

74
00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:16,920
Speaker 1: one of the problems is that the wheel almost never

75
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,600
Speaker 1: comes up in nature itself. Gears almost never come up

76
00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:25,479
Speaker 1: in nature. So biomometically, you're not going to turn to

77
00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:28,359
Speaker 1: nature and say, oh, well, well there's a there's a

78
00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:31,040
Speaker 1: solution involving the wheel that I might use. Oh, let's

79
00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:35,359
Speaker 1: look and see how this particular creature uses rotary blades

80
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,080
Speaker 1: to fly that sort of thing. Yeah, you know, I

81
00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:43,400
Speaker 1: actually really enjoy thinking about this in terms of comparing

82
00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:49,120
Speaker 1: animal bodies to different types of machines, machine components, simple machines.

83
00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:51,520
Speaker 1: You know the stuff you learn about in those first

84
00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:54,200
Speaker 1: physics lessons when you're a kid. So you know, you

85
00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:56,680
Speaker 1: know the lever and the inclined plane, and the and

86
00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,200
Speaker 1: the pulley and the screw and all that. And I

87
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,560
Speaker 1: feel like when you do this exercise, there is one

88
00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:07,000
Speaker 1: type of simple machine that absolutely dominates the landscape of biology,

89
00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:10,400
Speaker 1: and that is the lever. Biology is full of levers.

90
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:14,120
Speaker 1: I think you could make an argument that almost all

91
00:05:14,160 --> 00:05:17,200
Speaker 1: of the skeletal muscle in our bodies is designed by

92
00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,520
Speaker 1: evolution for the operation of levers. Maybe there are some

93
00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,360
Speaker 1: exceptions that aren't occurring to me, but I would say,

94
00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:25,840
Speaker 1: if not all of them, almost all of them. So,

95
00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:28,800
Speaker 1: for example, when you use your bicep to do an

96
00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:32,040
Speaker 1: arm curl, you're curling a dumbbell. You know, the muscle

97
00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:34,600
Speaker 1: primarily the bicep. I think also somewhat the muscle in

98
00:05:34,640 --> 00:05:37,719
Speaker 1: your forearm is exerting the effort. The load is what's

99
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,159
Speaker 1: in your hand, it's your your fist, and the full

100
00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:42,960
Speaker 1: crum is the elbow joint, and of course the bone

101
00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:45,840
Speaker 1: is the lever. So I think most of the body's

102
00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,000
Speaker 1: gross motor activity is based on the action of levers

103
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:52,480
Speaker 1: with joints as the fulcrum uh. And then, but then

104
00:05:52,480 --> 00:05:55,840
Speaker 1: when you start looking for other simple machines and animal bodies,

105
00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,240
Speaker 1: you can turn up some examples, but it suddenly gets

106
00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:02,120
Speaker 1: a lot more difficult to scope things out. Like you

107
00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,080
Speaker 1: can maybe make the argument that sharp teeth and fangs

108
00:06:05,200 --> 00:06:07,640
Speaker 1: or a type of wedge which is technically a form

109
00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:12,560
Speaker 1: of the simple machine known as the inclined plane. But

110
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:15,720
Speaker 1: then there are other types of of machines and machine

111
00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:19,839
Speaker 1: parts that are pretty rare or even nonexistent in nature,

112
00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,000
Speaker 1: and the wheel is a good one of these. There

113
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,000
Speaker 1: there are really only a few examples that people can

114
00:06:25,040 --> 00:06:28,640
Speaker 1: point to of things that might be considered freely rotating

115
00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:33,159
Speaker 1: wheels and axles. In biology, sometimes people bring up versions

116
00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:36,520
Speaker 1: of the of bacterial flagella as something that sort of

117
00:06:36,520 --> 00:06:39,480
Speaker 1: operates like a wheel, kind of spinning like a propeller

118
00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,560
Speaker 1: to move the bacterium uh through through a liquid medium

119
00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:45,920
Speaker 1: and uh. And then there are also I think some

120
00:06:46,040 --> 00:06:50,480
Speaker 1: possible parts of animal digestive systems that may function kind

121
00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:54,080
Speaker 1: of like a wheel. But animal body plans clearly favored

122
00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:58,400
Speaker 1: the versatility of legs based on levers instead of wheels,

123
00:06:58,480 --> 00:07:01,200
Speaker 1: And you can make a few different arguments about like

124
00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,440
Speaker 1: why evolution overwhelmingly goes that route. You could you could

125
00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,240
Speaker 1: say maybe it has something to do with just morphological precedence,

126
00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:13,040
Speaker 1: like that levers are easier to evolve from the pre

127
00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,600
Speaker 1: existing forms that were available for animal bodies to work

128
00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:19,680
Speaker 1: on when in you know, adapting through small mutations. But

129
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:23,560
Speaker 1: you could also argue that there are natural uh, terrain

130
00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:26,840
Speaker 1: negotiation advantages to levers. You know, if you're not in

131
00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:31,360
Speaker 1: a world of clean paved surfaces, wheels can actually pretty

132
00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:33,440
Speaker 1: easily get hung up on things, and you need the

133
00:07:33,560 --> 00:07:37,640
Speaker 1: articulation of levers and limbs in order to say, uh,

134
00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,520
Speaker 1: you know, get over rugged terrain, or to flip yourself

135
00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:42,880
Speaker 1: back over if you fall on your back. I think

136
00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:45,680
Speaker 1: it's also telling that when we look to the world

137
00:07:45,800 --> 00:07:50,440
Speaker 1: of mythological creatures than beings, we don't see a lot

138
00:07:50,480 --> 00:07:52,240
Speaker 1: of wheels, or at least we don't see a lot

139
00:07:52,280 --> 00:07:56,280
Speaker 1: of wheels that are innately organic, and then if we do,

140
00:07:56,720 --> 00:07:59,640
Speaker 1: we tend not to see a creature or a being

141
00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:04,480
Speaker 1: that is supposed to be of this world. Um and uh.

142
00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,760
Speaker 1: And perhaps there's some exception to this rule. That I'm overlooking,

143
00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:11,560
Speaker 1: but I thought I might bring up a couple of examples. One,

144
00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,360
Speaker 1: and I know I've mentioned this this critter on the

145
00:08:14,800 --> 00:08:19,640
Speaker 1: show before. There is a demon by the name of Bure.

146
00:08:19,840 --> 00:08:23,160
Speaker 1: I believe it is b u e R described in

147
00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:30,360
Speaker 1: Johann of Vierst sixty three Grimore pseudo Monarchia demonium Um.

148
00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:35,679
Speaker 1: This covers a number of different of supposed demons, and

149
00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,000
Speaker 1: this demon Buer is the Great President of Hell. Kind

150
00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,319
Speaker 1: of a goblin faced lion with kind of a wheel

151
00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:47,000
Speaker 1: of five legs going around it, which I find reminiscent

152
00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:50,640
Speaker 1: of the pet rail wheel which I mentioned in a

153
00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:54,720
Speaker 1: previous Artifact episode, an experimental tank wheel that had legs

154
00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:57,880
Speaker 1: on it um. So as the wheel turns, the legs

155
00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:01,280
Speaker 1: are are placed down onto the ount uh. In this

156
00:09:01,360 --> 00:09:04,599
Speaker 1: case they are goat legs, and I've I've read that

157
00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:07,400
Speaker 1: they're supposed to symbolize the demon's ability to move in

158
00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:10,360
Speaker 1: any direction. So I'm not entirely sure that we're even

159
00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:13,400
Speaker 1: supposed to imagine this creature turning like a wheel or

160
00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,199
Speaker 1: like a clock or something. But when I look at him,

161
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:19,320
Speaker 1: that's all I can see, Like he basically moves on

162
00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:21,719
Speaker 1: the page or on the screen when I stare at him,

163
00:09:21,720 --> 00:09:23,880
Speaker 1: and I can imagine I'm kind of lumping around along.

164
00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,600
Speaker 1: You know. Well, I tend to think about um. When

165
00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:31,760
Speaker 1: wheels are imagined in the imagery of mythology and religion,

166
00:09:32,640 --> 00:09:35,160
Speaker 1: it's often to say something about the fact that the

167
00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:38,400
Speaker 1: vision is boggling the mind it. You know, that it's

168
00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:43,280
Speaker 1: transcending familiar forms and just completely awing you and humbling

169
00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,920
Speaker 1: you with confusion. Uh So I think, for example, about

170
00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,720
Speaker 1: Ezekiel's vision of the wheels in in in the Hebrew Bible,

171
00:09:51,280 --> 00:09:54,440
Speaker 1: and and how the wheels there, Uh, it seems to

172
00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:56,360
Speaker 1: me at least, I mean, I'm you know, no professional

173
00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:58,880
Speaker 1: legsagy eat on that, but it seems like that they

174
00:09:58,880 --> 00:10:02,840
Speaker 1: symbolize something about, uh, a concept that sort of like

175
00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:06,360
Speaker 1: surpasses human understanding. You're looking at something that your mind

176
00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:09,560
Speaker 1: can't even fit around. Yeah, I mean, we can easily

177
00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:12,680
Speaker 1: imagine the various connotations that are being drawn in there.

178
00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:15,240
Speaker 1: When you have a wheel like appearing in the sky,

179
00:10:15,440 --> 00:10:18,880
Speaker 1: because you have the idea of technology, something created by

180
00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,560
Speaker 1: rational beings, you have the idea of sort of cosmic

181
00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:25,880
Speaker 1: wheels and circular forms related to the movements of the

182
00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:29,319
Speaker 1: stars and the planets and so forth. Uh. And then

183
00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,920
Speaker 1: the idea too that if if this is mixed with

184
00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:37,320
Speaker 1: some sort of biological or faintly biological or hybrid form,

185
00:10:37,360 --> 00:10:40,040
Speaker 1: that that is again something that is not reflected in nature.

186
00:10:40,160 --> 00:10:44,120
Speaker 1: It is something there is something inherently unnatural about this,

187
00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,800
Speaker 1: this hybrid being that is not even just part animal

188
00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:49,160
Speaker 1: and part human. Are part of this animal and part

189
00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:53,800
Speaker 1: that animal, but part flesh being and part cosmic or

190
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,360
Speaker 1: technological entity. Now then again, in nature and biology, you

191
00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:02,440
Speaker 1: do find all kinds of round mechanisms and round bodies

192
00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:05,000
Speaker 1: and even rolling forms. You know, lots of animals can

193
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,680
Speaker 1: roll up into a round shape and then roll their

194
00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,280
Speaker 1: whole body. What you what really seems to be unusual

195
00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:13,720
Speaker 1: in nature, And again maybe you can only find a

196
00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:16,080
Speaker 1: few examples here and there that would seem to fit.

197
00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,480
Speaker 1: This is a freely rotating wheel that somehow transfers energy

198
00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:23,840
Speaker 1: within a broader context. So like the wheel and axle

199
00:11:23,960 --> 00:11:26,240
Speaker 1: on a car that moves the car body the car,

200
00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:29,200
Speaker 1: you know, the chassis stationary, and then the wheel turns

201
00:11:29,240 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 1: to propel it forward. That's what you really don't find

202
00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:34,640
Speaker 1: much of in nature. But if you're content with just

203
00:11:34,720 --> 00:11:37,720
Speaker 1: like something round, that rolls. You can have a wheel

204
00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:40,160
Speaker 1: spider rolling down a dune. You can have bugs that

205
00:11:40,280 --> 00:11:42,760
Speaker 1: roll up into round shapes and roll all over the place.

206
00:11:42,840 --> 00:11:45,840
Speaker 1: Even some mammals do that. Yeah, there are some examples

207
00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:52,280
Speaker 1: of creatures that that form rolling shapes, granted, if the

208
00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,600
Speaker 1: topography is correct. Uh. There's also, of course that the

209
00:11:55,679 --> 00:11:59,280
Speaker 1: example of goat poop I've seen brought up. Granted, goat

210
00:11:59,320 --> 00:12:01,600
Speaker 1: poop is not a self alive, but it is the

211
00:12:01,640 --> 00:12:05,480
Speaker 1: product of of a biological organism. And the idea here

212
00:12:05,640 --> 00:12:07,440
Speaker 1: is that the goat poop is nice and rounds so

213
00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,160
Speaker 1: that it can roll away and hide itself. Uh in

214
00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:16,559
Speaker 1: these kind of environments. But I advocate for goat poop personhood. Okay, Um.

215
00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:18,920
Speaker 1: But but of course, one of the things about any

216
00:12:18,960 --> 00:12:20,640
Speaker 1: of these rolling creatures is, of course, if it's going

217
00:12:20,679 --> 00:12:23,079
Speaker 1: to roll, it's everything's gonna roll. There's not gonna be

218
00:12:23,120 --> 00:12:26,800
Speaker 1: a stationary part all of the rolling creature, as in

219
00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:29,560
Speaker 1: the same way that say, there would be the cart

220
00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:32,760
Speaker 1: portion of an ox cart would remain the same. Uh.

221
00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:36,320
Speaker 1: But when we look to some of our supernatural models,

222
00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:38,520
Speaker 1: we do see things that work like this, of course

223
00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:42,800
Speaker 1: in a very supernatural form. Uh. There's a wonderful wheel

224
00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:47,120
Speaker 1: creature in um In Japanese traditions, there's a yokai known

225
00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,319
Speaker 1: as one you know, the fire wheel, and he's a

226
00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,439
Speaker 1: he's a pretty famous yokai. You've you've probably seen images

227
00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,280
Speaker 1: of him, especially if you partake of various like anime

228
00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:02,080
Speaker 1: um products, because he pops up in a lot of things,

229
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:04,120
Speaker 1: and think he pops up in some video games as well.

230
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,880
Speaker 1: He looks like a grumpy, giant human head sort of

231
00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:11,079
Speaker 1: haloed by a burning, smoking ghost wheel, and we get

232
00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,600
Speaker 1: the impression that the wheel is moving in the head

233
00:13:13,679 --> 00:13:17,240
Speaker 1: is remaining stationary. He said to guard the gates of hell,

234
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,400
Speaker 1: and I've also read that in life he said to

235
00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:23,080
Speaker 1: have been a cruel ruler who burned people on the wheel,

236
00:13:23,120 --> 00:13:25,760
Speaker 1: so this is kind of his punishment. He haunts them

237
00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,120
Speaker 1: the roads at night he made drag souls back to hell.

238
00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:34,720
Speaker 1: And there's also a female variation called Catawaga. Okay, so

239
00:13:34,760 --> 00:13:37,440
Speaker 1: this would seem to be more like that mechanism you

240
00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,640
Speaker 1: don't really find in nature, if the head stays stationary

241
00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:43,560
Speaker 1: while the wheel turns around it right, And of course

242
00:13:43,559 --> 00:13:45,600
Speaker 1: in this too, we have just a it's not even

243
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:48,079
Speaker 1: pretending to be an entirely organic creature. It is this

244
00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:54,160
Speaker 1: supernatural um combination of two or three different things. UM.

245
00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:57,199
Speaker 1: But yeah, this is a pretty popular figure. The Power

246
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,840
Speaker 1: Rangers have even fought him on occasion. UM shows up

247
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,800
Speaker 1: in various anime titles, and I have to say, sometimes

248
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:06,320
Speaker 1: he looks a little bit like Dr robot Nick from

249
00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:10,040
Speaker 1: the Sonic Games. So I wonder if Dr Robotnick was

250
00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,400
Speaker 1: at all inspired by this yokai you know, a grumpy

251
00:14:13,480 --> 00:14:16,880
Speaker 1: faced man machine with kind of a spherical design. Because

252
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:19,640
Speaker 1: Dr Robotnick is he's the Eggman, you know, so he's

253
00:14:19,680 --> 00:14:22,240
Speaker 1: often in some kind of little like little circular pod.

254
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,600
Speaker 1: Why do I want to say that the the Dr

255
00:14:25,720 --> 00:14:28,200
Speaker 1: Robotnick was supposed to be based on the appearance of

256
00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:30,920
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt. Do you know what I'm talking about? He

257
00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,400
Speaker 1: does look like Theodore Roosevelt. Yeah, so that might be

258
00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:36,360
Speaker 1: it instead. I don't know. I couldn't. I briefly looked around.

259
00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,440
Speaker 1: I couldn't find anything that connected at Dr Robotnick. There's

260
00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:42,480
Speaker 1: not a lot of scholarship on Dr Robotnick, it seems,

261
00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:44,840
Speaker 1: unless I'm missing it. And if I am missing it,

262
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,800
Speaker 1: please send it to me. I want to read your

263
00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:51,520
Speaker 1: your thesis. Okay, our new podcast is an oral history

264
00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:56,760
Speaker 1: of Dr Robotnick. Um. Now there's a there's another throw

265
00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,080
Speaker 1: some I am the Walrus, and some Teddy Roosevelt and

266
00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:01,440
Speaker 1: your blender, and then there you go, oh yeah, there's

267
00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:03,680
Speaker 1: definitely a It seems like there's definitely a Beatles connection

268
00:15:03,720 --> 00:15:07,160
Speaker 1: there as well. Now, um, I was I was reading

269
00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:09,560
Speaker 1: about this two particularly Yokai, and there's one more little

270
00:15:09,560 --> 00:15:11,520
Speaker 1: story I ran across it. I have to share this was.

271
00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,480
Speaker 1: I found this on Matthew Myers. Yokai dot Com has

272
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:18,920
Speaker 1: a profile of when Udo and shares a brief story

273
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,040
Speaker 1: that I haven't found anywhere else but it's it's too

274
00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:23,400
Speaker 1: good not to share, and I'm probably just missing accounts

275
00:15:23,400 --> 00:15:27,520
Speaker 1: of it elsewhere, but quoting this website, one famous story

276
00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:30,720
Speaker 1: from Kyoto tells a woman who peeked out her window

277
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,920
Speaker 1: at one Udo as he passed through town. The demon

278
00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:36,760
Speaker 1: snarled at her, saying, instead of looking at me, have

279
00:15:36,800 --> 00:15:39,200
Speaker 1: a look at your own child. She looked back at

280
00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:41,200
Speaker 1: her baby, who was screaming on the floor in a

281
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:43,720
Speaker 1: pool of blood. Both of its legs had been completely

282
00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:46,400
Speaker 1: torn from its body. When she looked back out at

283
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:49,200
Speaker 1: one Udo, that child's legs were in its mouth being

284
00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,920
Speaker 1: eaten by the mad grinning monster. What so it did

285
00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:59,040
Speaker 1: he teleport that I don't Okay, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

286
00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:02,200
Speaker 1: He's eating those babies eggs. He's a bad dude. That

287
00:16:02,200 --> 00:16:10,640
Speaker 1: that's a bad dude. So anyway, I'll stop there with

288
00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:13,320
Speaker 1: my wheel creatures. But this is suffice to say, just

289
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:15,760
Speaker 1: just bringing these up to drive home the fact that

290
00:16:15,760 --> 00:16:18,840
Speaker 1: that I think we we have long not expected to

291
00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:22,320
Speaker 1: find wheels and gears in the natural world. They are

292
00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:26,320
Speaker 1: things of our creation. We are the people of the wheel, well,

293
00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,280
Speaker 1: especially the gear. So that that was my original idea

294
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:31,280
Speaker 1: for the episode, was to focus on the idea of

295
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:36,200
Speaker 1: artificial gears versus possible examples of gears in nature. And

296
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,320
Speaker 1: while you can make arguments for a few examples of

297
00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:41,560
Speaker 1: wheels in nature, the gear is really a different kind

298
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:44,400
Speaker 1: of story, except for this one really cool example that

299
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,840
Speaker 1: we're gonna be looking at today. So what is a gear? Well,

300
00:16:48,160 --> 00:16:51,240
Speaker 1: you've seen gears before, but to actually define the concept

301
00:16:51,280 --> 00:16:54,080
Speaker 1: what counts as a gear? I think I think you

302
00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:58,000
Speaker 1: could say a gear is a set of rotating machine

303
00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:01,800
Speaker 1: parts with interlocking teeth. So these can often take the

304
00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,600
Speaker 1: form of a kind of flat circular plate, but they

305
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:07,960
Speaker 1: can also take the form of say like a long

306
00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:10,639
Speaker 1: shaft that has teeth on the shaft, or they can

307
00:17:10,680 --> 00:17:13,760
Speaker 1: even be non circular. There are more kind of square

308
00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:16,840
Speaker 1: shaped gears and gears of all different kinds of shapes

309
00:17:16,880 --> 00:17:20,240
Speaker 1: and sizes, but what's common to all of them is

310
00:17:20,359 --> 00:17:23,720
Speaker 1: that they have teeth that interlock with each other and

311
00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:28,760
Speaker 1: they use those teeth and rotation to transfer force rotational

312
00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,000
Speaker 1: force known as torque. So they can transfer torque from

313
00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:35,360
Speaker 1: one place to another, and they can also sometimes transform

314
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:38,639
Speaker 1: that force in some way as it is transferred. So

315
00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:42,320
Speaker 1: gears can change the direction of rotational force. Like if

316
00:17:42,359 --> 00:17:46,800
Speaker 1: you picture two interlocking wheel shaped gears, you rotate one

317
00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:50,520
Speaker 1: of them clockwise, it'll actually rotate the other one counterclockwise,

318
00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:54,199
Speaker 1: so that'll that'll perform one kind of change, or you

319
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,439
Speaker 1: can change the orientation of the torque by having the

320
00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,280
Speaker 1: gears interlock at an angle. So think of, for example,

321
00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,560
Speaker 1: how if you imagine a car that has the engine

322
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:09,840
Speaker 1: sending its rotational force its torque through a drive shaft

323
00:18:09,920 --> 00:18:12,399
Speaker 1: that runs along the length of the car, then that

324
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,520
Speaker 1: energy has to be transferred to the wheels to get

325
00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,560
Speaker 1: them rotating. In the direction that's parallel to the car's motion.

326
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,639
Speaker 1: So there are gears that interlock at angles there to

327
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:25,919
Speaker 1: transfer that force eventually to the wheels. But gears can

328
00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:29,400
Speaker 1: also be used to gain mechanical advantage or change the

329
00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:34,359
Speaker 1: speed of a rotational force in a mathematically predictable way. So,

330
00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:36,880
Speaker 1: for example, if you use a bigger gear with more

331
00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:40,320
Speaker 1: teeth to spin a smaller gear with fewer teeth, the

332
00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:44,000
Speaker 1: smaller gear will spin faster than the larger one, and

333
00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:47,080
Speaker 1: the change in speed will be proportional to the ratio

334
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:50,320
Speaker 1: of the tooth counts between the two differently sized gears.

335
00:18:50,359 --> 00:18:53,360
Speaker 1: In other words, if you use a gear to drive

336
00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:55,760
Speaker 1: a second gear with half as many teeth as the

337
00:18:55,800 --> 00:18:59,440
Speaker 1: first gear, it will spin exactly twice as fast. To

338
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,800
Speaker 1: a certain stand. It almost feels like like wheel wizardry,

339
00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,919
Speaker 1: because the wheel is doing its thing and and and

340
00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:08,760
Speaker 1: if you're not going to do anything else, you can Okay,

341
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,119
Speaker 1: you can do various tasks and carry out various acts

342
00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:17,000
Speaker 1: by interacting with that wheel on its terms. But by

343
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,960
Speaker 1: the use of gears, you can transform it. You can

344
00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:24,359
Speaker 1: you can make the gear work in other ways. Um,

345
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:27,000
Speaker 1: And I think that's that's one of the fascinating things.

346
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:28,720
Speaker 1: So when we're when we're talking about sort of that

347
00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:31,560
Speaker 1: lead from from wheel to gear. And of course, and

348
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:33,360
Speaker 1: this could be just as simple as why I don't

349
00:19:33,359 --> 00:19:37,800
Speaker 1: want horizontal rotation, I want vertical rotation, that sort of thing, right,

350
00:19:37,880 --> 00:19:40,760
Speaker 1: But it can also this last thing I mentioned about

351
00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:45,359
Speaker 1: the predictable mathematical relationships between the intervals of rotation of

352
00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 1: tooth to gears. The fact that toothed gears are quantized, right,

353
00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:52,480
Speaker 1: that you can like put a number to the number

354
00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:54,879
Speaker 1: of teeth on a rotation that allows you to tightly

355
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:58,560
Speaker 1: control the ratios you know, how fast one spins in

356
00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:02,920
Speaker 1: relationship to another one. That actually has made gears useful

357
00:20:03,040 --> 00:20:06,480
Speaker 1: not just for say, applying force to things like you know,

358
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:11,200
Speaker 1: powering a machine or something, but also for tasks related

359
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:14,560
Speaker 1: to more abstract types of work, like measurements such as

360
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:18,879
Speaker 1: measuring intervals of time UM and not just in straightforward

361
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,360
Speaker 1: timekeeping devices like clocks. Of course, gears are very important

362
00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:27,199
Speaker 1: in in um analog clocks, but even more complex applications

363
00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,159
Speaker 1: like we see in one of the most intriguing artifacts

364
00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:34,159
Speaker 1: from the ancient world, known as the Antiko theorem mechanism,

365
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:39,520
Speaker 1: which is widely considered the first known computer not a

366
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:43,760
Speaker 1: digital computer, but an analog computer, a computer that uses

367
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:49,640
Speaker 1: gears instead of semiconductors for information processing. UH. The antikothera

368
00:20:49,720 --> 00:20:53,199
Speaker 1: mechanism was discovered in a Roman era shipwreck in the

369
00:20:53,280 --> 00:20:57,360
Speaker 1: Mediterranean around the r nineteen hundred UH and this shipwreck

370
00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:00,320
Speaker 1: traced back to a ship that sank probably in the

371
00:21:00,440 --> 00:21:03,679
Speaker 1: first century CE. ROB. I've got an image for you

372
00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,439
Speaker 1: to look at here that shows the actual remains of

373
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:10,560
Speaker 1: the mechanism alongside a modern reconstruction that was sort of

374
00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:14,160
Speaker 1: reverse engineered and built by some experts who had studied

375
00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 1: this machine. The mechanism is now understood to have been

376
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,919
Speaker 1: an ancient mechanical or ory. An oorory is a is

377
00:21:21,960 --> 00:21:26,520
Speaker 1: a working model of the movement of heavenly bodies, and

378
00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:29,320
Speaker 1: this one would have been powered by a hand crank

379
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:33,520
Speaker 1: that operated gears. And this or ory would allow you

380
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:37,679
Speaker 1: to calculate the relative positions of heavenly bodies like the

381
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,160
Speaker 1: Moon and the Sun as they traveled through the zodiac

382
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:44,480
Speaker 1: out to specific future dates. UH. And I think it

383
00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:47,639
Speaker 1: may it may also have tracked planetary motion as well,

384
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 1: but that's less certain. I think that's a hypothetical mechanism

385
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:52,879
Speaker 1: that may have been present but may have been lost.

386
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:56,359
Speaker 1: When I look at it, I'm instantly reminded of those uh,

387
00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:00,760
Speaker 1: those gear devices you find at museums and zoos where

388
00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:02,639
Speaker 1: you can squash a penny and make it into a

389
00:22:02,640 --> 00:22:06,600
Speaker 1: collector's token, which which I have to say, as as

390
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 1: a parent, I have I have long realized that children

391
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:14,520
Speaker 1: are drawn to these like like flies to meet they

392
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 1: they have to turn the crank, they have to watch

393
00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:22,679
Speaker 1: those gears operate. Um and uh and And now that

394
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:24,520
Speaker 1: we've actually discussed gears a bit on the show, I

395
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:26,440
Speaker 1: used to be I was. I've long been very annoyed

396
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:28,119
Speaker 1: by it, like, oh, come on, don't mess with that.

397
00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:29,879
Speaker 1: We're here to look at something else, and you're just

398
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:31,840
Speaker 1: gonna turn this gear on this machine that I'm not

399
00:22:31,880 --> 00:22:34,000
Speaker 1: going to give you fifty cents and a penny for

400
00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,560
Speaker 1: because it's it's a dumb invention. But at the same

401
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,760
Speaker 1: time they're interacting with the gears, they're getting to see

402
00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:41,879
Speaker 1: the gears in motion and see some of that energy

403
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,360
Speaker 1: transference that we're talking about. Oh well, I mean yeah,

404
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:47,080
Speaker 1: it's a beautiful way. Actually, I think to educate kids

405
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:51,080
Speaker 1: about mechanical advantage, about like what machines can do. Because

406
00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:54,520
Speaker 1: the kid, they know that they wouldn't have enough strength

407
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,760
Speaker 1: to smash a penny flat with their hands alone, but

408
00:22:57,920 --> 00:23:02,280
Speaker 1: with their hands by operating a crank in a machine

409
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:04,760
Speaker 1: that has no external power source. It's just the power

410
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: of their arm. But through the mechanical advantage created by

411
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:10,600
Speaker 1: this crank, the lever of the gears, they can smash

412
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:13,800
Speaker 1: a penny. That that's kind of that's that's empowering knowledge

413
00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 1: that there's a wizardry to that too. Behold the power

414
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 1: of the gear. But anyway back to the antikotheram mechanism.

415
00:23:20,800 --> 00:23:25,439
Speaker 1: So it was able to predict the future movements of

416
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 1: heavenly bodies like the Sun and the moon, and also

417
00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:31,679
Speaker 1: I think predict eclipses. And it managed the different time

418
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:36,320
Speaker 1: ratios between these these moving objects in the heavens by

419
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:40,119
Speaker 1: the use of gear ratios, gear ratios to calculate the

420
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 1: intervals of these movements. So in a way, this was

421
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 1: a calculator the different ratios between the number of teeth

422
00:23:47,160 --> 00:23:50,600
Speaker 1: on the gears. We're doing math for you now. We

423
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: know in the modern world, gears are useful in all

424
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,320
Speaker 1: kinds of machines. You find them everywhere they're in clocks,

425
00:23:56,359 --> 00:23:59,640
Speaker 1: they're in cars, they're in fluid pumps, they're in mills

426
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: and factory machines. But but you might wonder, okay, well,

427
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: where did they first appear in the technological space, because

428
00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,879
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily expect to have found a computer for

429
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:15,439
Speaker 1: astronomical phenomena in the first century CE. But here it is.

430
00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,680
Speaker 1: And probably actually it's even older than that. I think

431
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,359
Speaker 1: it's believed to have been. Uh. I don't know, maybe

432
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 1: at least a hundred years old at the time it

433
00:24:22,760 --> 00:24:26,800
Speaker 1: was lost in this shipwreck, so so clearly that that's

434
00:24:26,840 --> 00:24:30,720
Speaker 1: taking gear math way way back. Uh. And I was

435
00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,240
Speaker 1: trying to find some good sources on the ancient history

436
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,399
Speaker 1: of gears. I didn't come across anything that was super recent,

437
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 1: so there may be discoveries since these sources I turned up.

438
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:43,440
Speaker 1: But um one that was interesting to me because it

439
00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:46,719
Speaker 1: was by Derek John Desola Price, who was a British

440
00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:49,760
Speaker 1: physicist and historian of science who was one of the

441
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,960
Speaker 1: investigators who worked on the antiko theorem mechanism. UH. He

442
00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,080
Speaker 1: did a chapter that was in a book put out

443
00:24:57,119 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 1: by the U. S National Museum Bulletin in nineteen five.

444
00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:03,720
Speaker 1: De nine, called on the origin of clockwork perpetual motion

445
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: devices in the compass, and in a short section on

446
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:11,399
Speaker 1: the earliest known examples of gears and geared mechanisms, he

447
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:14,080
Speaker 1: writes that the earliest evidence for the knowledge of tooth

448
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,520
Speaker 1: to gears um probably it goes back at least as

449
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:21,720
Speaker 1: far as the Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes, who showed

450
00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:24,879
Speaker 1: clear knowledge of of toothed gears, and he lived in

451
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:29,600
Speaker 1: the third century BC. But he also cites artifacts from

452
00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,920
Speaker 1: ancient China that may indicate knowledge of of gears even

453
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,960
Speaker 1: farther back than that. He writes, quote, in China, actual

454
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:40,320
Speaker 1: examples of wheels and molds for wheels dating back from

455
00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:43,760
Speaker 1: the fourth century BC have been preserved. One of the

456
00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:46,880
Speaker 1: interesting things he mentions about some of these earliest examples

457
00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:50,920
Speaker 1: of gears in the archaeological record, uh, He says, quote,

458
00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,800
Speaker 1: A remarkable feature in these early gears is the use

459
00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:58,919
Speaker 1: of ratchet shaped teeth, sometimes even twisted heliically so that

460
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:04,640
Speaker 1: the gears resemble worms intermeshing on parallel axles. But then

461
00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:06,960
Speaker 1: he also calls attention to the fact that throughout much

462
00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 1: of history, UH, you know, definitely before the Industrial Revolution,

463
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 1: a big use of a lot of a major use

464
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:18,760
Speaker 1: for gears in the technological space was in mills, in

465
00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:22,120
Speaker 1: windmills and water mills, using large gears as a way

466
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:25,640
Speaker 1: of transferring force, often at a right angle to how

467
00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:27,800
Speaker 1: these natural forces like the flow of water or the

468
00:26:27,800 --> 00:26:31,960
Speaker 1: flow of wind, we're we're moving the primary turban. Yeah,

469
00:26:32,040 --> 00:26:35,480
Speaker 1: or likewise to transition from say a horizontal paddle wheel

470
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: into a vertical millstone, that sort of thing. Yeah. Yeah.

471
00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: Now another paper that you you turned up on. This

472
00:26:42,680 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: comes to us from M. J. T. Lewis Gearing in

473
00:26:45,640 --> 00:26:49,840
Speaker 1: the Ancient World, published in Endeavor seventy seventeen, number three

474
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,639
Speaker 1: from UM and I was reading through this one. This

475
00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,959
Speaker 1: was pretty interesting. I'm gonna be some slight retreading of

476
00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 1: what we're very discussed. But basically, according to this this paper,

477
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,440
Speaker 1: we can trace the technology of of the gear to

478
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 1: ancient Greeks of the third century b c. Which also

479
00:27:09,680 --> 00:27:13,960
Speaker 1: according to um uh to Fagan at all in uh

480
00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,199
Speaker 1: the seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World. Uh. You

481
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,840
Speaker 1: know this is this is also the time and place

482
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 1: where we see, at least according to ancient Greek and

483
00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:26,480
Speaker 1: Latin technical authors, the birth of water powered milling UH,

484
00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:29,600
Speaker 1: a technology that of course would be highly effective. But

485
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,560
Speaker 1: according to to uh To Lewis, here in Alexandria, the

486
00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:36,560
Speaker 1: Greek kings of Egypt at the time the Ptolemy's they

487
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,800
Speaker 1: set up a research center called the Museum. I think

488
00:27:39,800 --> 00:27:42,080
Speaker 1: we've talked about the museum in the past, right, perhaps

489
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:45,359
Speaker 1: even in our episode the Invention of the Museum, about

490
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,679
Speaker 1: the sort of the original usage of this word that

491
00:27:47,720 --> 00:27:52,399
Speaker 1: sounds familiar, Yeah, yeah, So basically, various technological innovations were

492
00:27:52,440 --> 00:27:54,720
Speaker 1: said to have emerged from this this sort of lab

493
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:59,399
Speaker 1: this kind of technological think tank and laboratory. Uh And

494
00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:04,720
Speaker 1: according to such writers as hero Vitruvius and Phillow of Byzantium,

495
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:08,359
Speaker 1: they all point to the work of Tiscibius, who would

496
00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,679
Speaker 1: have lived to eight five through to twenty two b

497
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,640
Speaker 1: c e. None of his actual writings survived, but he's

498
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,919
Speaker 1: said to have written various works on compressed air and hydraulics,

499
00:28:20,560 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: and hero Vitrucius and Philo would all go on to

500
00:28:25,280 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 1: write at length on these various machines and UH and

501
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:33,679
Speaker 1: and devices, various gear arrangements. Other great minds of that

502
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:38,120
Speaker 1: age and region, such as Archimedes, would also expand on

503
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:41,840
Speaker 1: these ideas as well. Now Lewis explains that we ultimately

504
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: don't know where and when the earliest gears pop up

505
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:49,360
Speaker 1: in human history. Uh Tooth gears, he writes, already existed

506
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: in the form of ratchet wheels that were used to

507
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,680
Speaker 1: hold a windlass against a load, and these might date

508
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,240
Speaker 1: back to Greek crane innovations from around five b c.

509
00:28:58,480 --> 00:29:02,320
Speaker 1: E um he. He also points out that a bronze

510
00:29:02,360 --> 00:29:05,480
Speaker 1: example of this has been found from about a century later,

511
00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: and this might have been used for hauling ships up

512
00:29:08,280 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 1: a slipway. After this point, ratchets were widely used on

513
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,640
Speaker 1: catapults as a way of holding back all that potential

514
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:19,160
Speaker 1: firing energy. Um but, he writes, quote but the first

515
00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:23,160
Speaker 1: toothed wheel for transmitting motion may have been a sprocket

516
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 1: wheel driving a chain. This is attested by two machines

517
00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:30,960
Speaker 1: described by Philo. One is a chain of buckets powered

518
00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:33,800
Speaker 1: by a water wheel. The other is a repeater catapult

519
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:38,480
Speaker 1: built in roads by certain Dionysius of Alexandria, who cannot

520
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:42,520
Speaker 1: be precisely identified, but may have well worked before to

521
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:46,440
Speaker 1: eight two b c. E. So, the Greeks and the

522
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 1: Romans obviously applied the subsequent technology to a number of tasks.

523
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 1: But but Lewis raises the question did they invent all

524
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 1: of this themselves or did they borrow or pick up

525
00:29:56,240 --> 00:29:58,560
Speaker 1: on the ideas of others, And he writes that one

526
00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:04,000
Speaker 1: possibility would be that they somehow got these ideas from China.

527
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:07,160
Speaker 1: In fact, he writes, this would be seemingly the only

528
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: other alternative UM. However, one of the limiting factors here

529
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:16,320
Speaker 1: is that accounts of the gear in China largely come later,

530
00:30:16,440 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: from the first century CE. But he writes, quote the

531
00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 1: only earlier examples in China so far recorded, and I

532
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:27,160
Speaker 1: do want to stress this was like UM are a

533
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,080
Speaker 1: number of very small bronze gears and ratchets found in

534
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,640
Speaker 1: tombs and dating from around two b c E to

535
00:30:33,800 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: fifty C. They include extraordinarily what looked like chevron or

536
00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:42,640
Speaker 1: double helical gear wheels of tiny size. All seemed too

537
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:46,160
Speaker 1: small and too early to belong as has been suggested

538
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:50,120
Speaker 1: to windlasses for drawing crossbows, and we have no idea

539
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 1: what they were for gear mystery, And I include a

540
00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: uh images of these uh, these mysterious gears below, So yeah,

541
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:00,920
Speaker 1: I haven't haven't had a lot of time to to

542
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:04,400
Speaker 1: investigate further to see if any additional scholarship has emerged

543
00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:06,520
Speaker 1: on these little gears and what they might have been

544
00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,920
Speaker 1: used for. Um. And I don't know if if, ultimately

545
00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: there are stronger arguments that have been put put forth

546
00:31:13,080 --> 00:31:17,400
Speaker 1: regarding their use or possible use and crossbow technology. But

547
00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,479
Speaker 1: it's fascinating. Oh, one of these pictures you attached. I

548
00:31:20,560 --> 00:31:24,040
Speaker 1: wonder if this is what Derek J. To sell a

549
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 1: Price was referring to when talking about ratchet shaped teeth

550
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: that are twisted helickally so that they look like worms

551
00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:35,520
Speaker 1: intermeshing on parallel axles. That I can see at least

552
00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: one of the images you include from the Chinese example

553
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: could could be what he's talking about there. Yeah, that's

554
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:43,120
Speaker 1: where my mind went when you read that that debt.

555
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,479
Speaker 1: Having having looked at these examples, Yeah, it has kind

556
00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,720
Speaker 1: of a worm like quality to it. Um. Now, ultimately,

557
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:53,320
Speaker 1: Lewis and his writing, he contends that gearing was either

558
00:31:53,400 --> 00:31:56,960
Speaker 1: invented independently in China and in the Greek world, or

559
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:59,520
Speaker 1: that it was actually transmitted from the West to the

560
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:04,480
Speaker 1: East rather than vice versa. But but, but, like I said,

561
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: that there may be additional scholarship that we just haven't

562
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,320
Speaker 1: come across yet regarding this, But it does raise the

563
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 1: question what kind of gears would one be entombed with.

564
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 1: You know, what what bit of technology would it make

565
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: sense to to to go to the grave with. I mean,

566
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:23,520
Speaker 1: certainly a very nice crossbow seems like the sort of

567
00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: thing you might bring with you. Um, I don't know

568
00:32:26,160 --> 00:32:27,680
Speaker 1: if it would make sense for there to be some

569
00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:31,479
Speaker 1: sort of like purely novelty gear device, like something that

570
00:32:31,600 --> 00:32:35,720
Speaker 1: was more of a curio that maybe wasn't fully utilized,

571
00:32:35,920 --> 00:32:39,840
Speaker 1: or you know, an analog computer. Yeah, it could be.

572
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:42,280
Speaker 1: I guess if your journey in the afterlife really depends

573
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 1: on knowing when an eclipse is coming, yeah, I wonder yeah, yeah,

574
00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 1: And then of course, but then of course, just interlocking

575
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 1: gears and turning things are just are interesting. They they

576
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:57,560
Speaker 1: they make us think about about motion and uh, interlocking energy.

577
00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:00,040
Speaker 1: So I don't know, it seems like they're they're a

578
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,680
Speaker 1: few different directions it could go in that I could

579
00:33:02,720 --> 00:33:05,640
Speaker 1: I could imagine somebody saying, uh, that is something I

580
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: want to be buried than now. I want to come

581
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 1: back to the concept of gears in biology because for

582
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:24,240
Speaker 1: a long time. While there was probably no known example

583
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,600
Speaker 1: of a working gear in the in the biological world,

584
00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:34,080
Speaker 1: there have been observations before of animals having appendages certainly

585
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: look like toothed gears. And my favorite, uh instance I

586
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,600
Speaker 1: came across here is a creature called the wheel bug

587
00:33:41,720 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 1: or Aeralists cristatus. This is a type of predatory assassin

588
00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:51,840
Speaker 1: bug that preys on all kinds of insects, including a fids, caterpillars, beetles,

589
00:33:51,880 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: and bees. I found some very gnarly looking images of

590
00:33:54,760 --> 00:34:00,680
Speaker 1: of caterpillar mutilation. Yeah, I don't think i'd really seen

591
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:05,400
Speaker 1: this species before, these creatures before, but yeah, they're quite

592
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:07,840
Speaker 1: cool looking. It kind of looks like it has some

593
00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:10,960
Speaker 1: sort of a gear emerging from its back. Also, it

594
00:34:11,280 --> 00:34:14,440
Speaker 1: reminds me of a buzz saw or perhaps to some

595
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:19,360
Speaker 1: degree of something like a stegasuris or or or demetrodon

596
00:34:19,520 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah. So it's called the wheelbug, but I

597
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,280
Speaker 1: think maybe a better name would be the gear bug,

598
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:26,200
Speaker 1: because it really does look like it's it's got this

599
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:29,799
Speaker 1: toothed gear poking up out of the back of its

600
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:32,160
Speaker 1: carapace right sort of behind where the head is up

601
00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:35,359
Speaker 1: on the thorax and so I was reading about this

602
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 1: insect on the University of Florida Department of in Toropology's website.

603
00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:42,480
Speaker 1: They've got a good profile on it there, and they

604
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:46,200
Speaker 1: say in adulthood, this insect tends to measure about one

605
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,400
Speaker 1: to one and a quarter inches long, and then quote,

606
00:34:49,760 --> 00:34:53,280
Speaker 1: this assassin bug is a dark, robust creature with long

607
00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:56,759
Speaker 1: legs and antinnie, a stout beak, large eyes on, a

608
00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:01,240
Speaker 1: slim head, and a prominent thoracic semi a circular crest

609
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:05,319
Speaker 1: that resembles a cog wheel or a chicken's comb. This

610
00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,319
Speaker 1: is the only insects species in the United States with

611
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,600
Speaker 1: such a crest. The number of teeth or tubercles in

612
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:16,719
Speaker 1: the crest varies from eight to twelve. Now immediately you're

613
00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:18,920
Speaker 1: you're probably wondering, as I was, what does it do?

614
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,920
Speaker 1: What what is the gear on its back do? I

615
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: could not find any solid research alluding to a purpose

616
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:28,840
Speaker 1: of this cog wheel crest. That there may be something

617
00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:31,120
Speaker 1: out there that I couldn't come across, or it may

618
00:35:31,200 --> 00:35:33,640
Speaker 1: just be unknown. I think it's more likely unknown at

619
00:35:33,719 --> 00:35:38,200
Speaker 1: this point what this gear crest is for, in which case,

620
00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 1: barring other knowledge, I guess you might assume that this

621
00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,920
Speaker 1: purpose might have something to do with appearance rather than

622
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:47,960
Speaker 1: any mechanical function. Maybe it plays a visual role in

623
00:35:47,960 --> 00:35:51,399
Speaker 1: interactions with predators or prey or mates, or maybe it's

624
00:35:51,440 --> 00:35:55,759
Speaker 1: a defensive somehow. It's hard to tell um but apparently.

625
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,920
Speaker 1: Another interesting fact is that the wheel is absent in

626
00:35:59,040 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 1: juvenile so if you look at nymphs of this assassin bug,

627
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: they don't have it. It only appears in adults after

628
00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:09,320
Speaker 1: the insects final molting, so once it reaches its ultimate form,

629
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:12,719
Speaker 1: then it's got the gear. But whatever it's for, it

630
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:15,759
Speaker 1: does not appear to be a functional gear. It just

631
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,480
Speaker 1: looks like one. I mean, for one thing, it can't rotate,

632
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,960
Speaker 1: and there's nothing really that it could clearly be rotating

633
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:25,520
Speaker 1: against locking its teeth with. It's just a crest that

634
00:36:25,640 --> 00:36:28,040
Speaker 1: kind of looks like a gear or like a like

635
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:31,359
Speaker 1: a chicken's comb. Now, as amazing as these insects look,

636
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,879
Speaker 1: one thing I should probably note is that you don't

637
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,839
Speaker 1: want to try to handle it, because apparently wheelbugs can

638
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:41,040
Speaker 1: produce an extremely painful bite that that lingers for days.

639
00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:44,080
Speaker 1: But but anyway, this animal is worth looking up. There

640
00:36:44,080 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: are actually a few other interesting things about them. For

641
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:49,080
Speaker 1: one thing, they do appear to practice some amount of

642
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:55,360
Speaker 1: sexual cannibalism. Also they there is another mystery about them

643
00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:58,360
Speaker 1: where they produce a vocalization. I think they create a

644
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:01,719
Speaker 1: chirping sound by a certain type of a friction mechanism

645
00:37:01,719 --> 00:37:04,440
Speaker 1: where they rub one part of their body on another.

646
00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,520
Speaker 1: I think maybe they're rubbing some uh they're either their

647
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 1: beak or four legs. I think it was the beak

648
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:11,560
Speaker 1: on an on a part on the underside of their

649
00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:15,480
Speaker 1: carapacet and it creates this chirping And scientists, as far

650
00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:17,520
Speaker 1: as I could tell, don't know what this is for yet.

651
00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,279
Speaker 1: But coming back to the idea of an actual mechanically

652
00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:26,120
Speaker 1: functional gear in biology, as of a study published in

653
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:30,120
Speaker 1: the year in the journal Science, there actually is at

654
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: least one known animal that does contain working toothed gears

655
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:37,359
Speaker 1: within its body, and as far as I could tell,

656
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,000
Speaker 1: this is also still the only animal that has this

657
00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:43,720
Speaker 1: feature that that's known, and this animal is a type

658
00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: of plant hopper insect known as S. S. Colliup tratis.

659
00:37:48,880 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 1: The paper that reported the discovery of this animal gear was,

660
00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 1: like I said, published in Science in by authors Malcolm

661
00:37:56,760 --> 00:38:00,200
Speaker 1: Burrows and Gregory Sutton, who both at the time worked

662
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:03,600
Speaker 1: in the biological sciences at Cambridge University, and it was

663
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:10,040
Speaker 1: called interacting gears synchronized propulsive leg movements in a jumping insect. Now, Rob,

664
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,440
Speaker 1: I've got some images that you can that you can

665
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,239
Speaker 1: look at here while I'm talking about this, there's some

666
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:20,440
Speaker 1: really interesting electron micrographs of of these these gear pieces.

667
00:38:20,440 --> 00:38:23,680
Speaker 1: They truly don't really look animal, right, you know, they

668
00:38:23,920 --> 00:38:26,239
Speaker 1: do look like a machine. And I always love that

669
00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,560
Speaker 1: when you like zoom way in on the parts of

670
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:30,920
Speaker 1: an insect or something and you get that hr Geeger

671
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,120
Speaker 1: space where you can't tell if what you're looking at

672
00:38:33,200 --> 00:38:36,600
Speaker 1: is is natural or artificial. Yeah, because there's one image

673
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: here of believe a nymph um of of this uh,

674
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: of this species, and you know it's it's cute, but

675
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:46,759
Speaker 1: it doesn't really look like anything other than some sort

676
00:38:46,800 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: of a fly or insect um. But yeah, when you

677
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:53,520
Speaker 1: start looking at these these electron microscope images, yeah, then

678
00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: then it takes on this bio mechanical kind of reality

679
00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,719
Speaker 1: and it's yeah, it's quite unlike anything else. It's so,

680
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:03,919
Speaker 1: what is this animal, the the s s. Coleopterus, Well,

681
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:06,960
Speaker 1: this is an insect that is again known as a

682
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: plant hopper. I think you'll normally find them crawling around

683
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:14,279
Speaker 1: on bits of ivy in Europe and North Africa, and

684
00:39:14,320 --> 00:39:16,720
Speaker 1: so they're they're very very small. They're usually just about

685
00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:20,880
Speaker 1: three millimeters long at maturity um, and so they'll go

686
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:25,120
Speaker 1: around grazing on ivy leaves. And the discovery that's announced

687
00:39:25,120 --> 00:39:28,840
Speaker 1: in this report is that the juveniles of this species,

688
00:39:28,880 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: so not the adults, but the nymphs. The juveniles, they

689
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:37,920
Speaker 1: have these interlocking gear teeth on their back legs which

690
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:42,799
Speaker 1: allow them to rotate their legs in perfect synchronization when

691
00:39:42,840 --> 00:39:47,080
Speaker 1: they are setting up a jump. So these tiny insects

692
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:51,520
Speaker 1: have have their main defense against predators. And it's not

693
00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 1: clear exactly what predator this is most adapted against, So

694
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,000
Speaker 1: I don't know if this would be you know, against

695
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: the possibility of being eaten by a large man hold

696
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:03,719
Speaker 1: that's grazing on foliage, or being pounced on by a

697
00:40:03,719 --> 00:40:07,720
Speaker 1: parasitic wasp or some other kind of smaller insect predator

698
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:10,640
Speaker 1: or spider or something that's not quite known for sure,

699
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: but but there it is probably some kind of survival

700
00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:17,920
Speaker 1: defensive adaptation that this creature needs to be able to

701
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: jump far and jump fast, and they are one of

702
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:25,920
Speaker 1: the most amazing jumpers in all of nature. I was

703
00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: watching an interview with one of the authors of the study,

704
00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:31,719
Speaker 1: Malcolm Burrows, in which he talks about the jumping mechanism,

705
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,200
Speaker 1: and so the s S insect will take off at

706
00:40:35,239 --> 00:40:37,960
Speaker 1: a at a jump of about five meters per second

707
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:40,840
Speaker 1: or more than eight miles per hour, which for a

708
00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:44,840
Speaker 1: tiny insect like this is pretty fast. It accelerates to

709
00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:49,120
Speaker 1: its jumping speed in less than a millisecond. And so

710
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:54,400
Speaker 1: the way Burrows explain this is that this insect experiences

711
00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:59,239
Speaker 1: absolutely unfathomable G forces as it takes off because it's

712
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: acceleration is so fast. He puts it at five hundred

713
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,680
Speaker 1: or even seven hundred g s, which if you look

714
00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:09,680
Speaker 1: at the amount of g's that humans are able to tolerate,

715
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: it's like the amount you can tolerate is a factor

716
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:17,239
Speaker 1: of how long you are subjected to them. But you know,

717
00:41:17,840 --> 00:41:21,440
Speaker 1: usually for humans, the the the acceleration we can tolerate

718
00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:24,560
Speaker 1: in gs, the maximum is like a factor of a

719
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,759
Speaker 1: few tens, you know, but this would be hundreds. Yeah,

720
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:32,440
Speaker 1: this is impressive. So this insect has this amazingly fast,

721
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 1: amazingly powerful jump that can just catapult. It's like it's

722
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,759
Speaker 1: shooting itself out of a cannon using the power of

723
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,719
Speaker 1: its two hind legs. And what was documented in this

724
00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:47,520
Speaker 1: paper by by Burrows and Sutton is that they they

725
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:52,440
Speaker 1: captured imagery of gear mechanisms on the hind legs interlocking

726
00:41:52,560 --> 00:41:57,879
Speaker 1: using electron microscopy and high speed video recording UH and

727
00:41:57,880 --> 00:42:00,960
Speaker 1: and again the purpose that they found is that these

728
00:42:01,080 --> 00:42:05,080
Speaker 1: UH interlocking gear teeth are useful for synchronizing the motion

729
00:42:05,200 --> 00:42:09,279
Speaker 1: of the legs. Now, why would synchronization of the leg

730
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:12,120
Speaker 1: movement be so important that it would have its own

731
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,360
Speaker 1: evolved mechanism, which is, as far as we know, unique

732
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:19,440
Speaker 1: in the animal kingdom. Well, apparently it's because coordination of

733
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:23,680
Speaker 1: the timing on the two legs is necessary for this

734
00:42:23,760 --> 00:42:28,000
Speaker 1: incredibly powerful sort of cannon shot jump to be effective.

735
00:42:28,760 --> 00:42:31,000
Speaker 1: So I was reading about this in one of the

736
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:35,080
Speaker 1: press releases about the about the study, and what the

737
00:42:35,120 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: author's here found is that a lack of synchronization between

738
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:43,080
Speaker 1: the legs at launch could cause an uncontrolled what they

739
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:46,719
Speaker 1: call yaw rotation. So if you if you picture an airplane,

740
00:42:47,200 --> 00:42:49,760
Speaker 1: you know you've got the different uh, the different ways

741
00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:51,759
Speaker 1: that you can change the motion of the airplane. You've

742
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 1: got pitch role and yaw, So pitch would be tipping

743
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,239
Speaker 1: the nose of the airplane up or down. Role would

744
00:42:58,280 --> 00:43:00,880
Speaker 1: be raising, that would be roll ling the airplane, you know,

745
00:43:00,960 --> 00:43:04,320
Speaker 1: raising the wings relative to each other, and then yaw

746
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:08,040
Speaker 1: is twisting side to side. If you can imagine an

747
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:11,920
Speaker 1: insect that's sort of catapulting itself in this spectacular jump

748
00:43:11,960 --> 00:43:14,520
Speaker 1: with two with pushing off with the two hind legs

749
00:43:14,520 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: at the same time, if one leg pushes off faster

750
00:43:18,280 --> 00:43:20,640
Speaker 1: than the other one, you can imagine that it's going

751
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:23,640
Speaker 1: to send the insects sort of twisting out of control

752
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:27,520
Speaker 1: in its path, which obviously interferes with landing where it's

753
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:30,880
Speaker 1: trying to land now, one question would be why the

754
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:34,799
Speaker 1: need for a mechanical gear for synchronization? What why does

755
00:43:34,800 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: this need to be on the insects exoskeleton. Why wouldn't

756
00:43:38,640 --> 00:43:41,719
Speaker 1: the insect just synchronize the action of its legs through

757
00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: the nervous system like pretty much any other animal would, right,

758
00:43:45,480 --> 00:43:49,600
Speaker 1: Like if you are jumping, you are able to synchronize

759
00:43:49,640 --> 00:43:53,080
Speaker 1: the motion of your legs through neural mechanisms with your

760
00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 1: brain and your nervous system sort of trying to control

761
00:43:56,640 --> 00:43:59,799
Speaker 1: them through normal motor function, and then getting feedback from

762
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:02,480
Speaker 1: the feelings of your legs from like your appropriate reception

763
00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:07,440
Speaker 1: and stuff and tactle sensations to to try to time

764
00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:12,520
Speaker 1: the jump together and correct for any imbalances in real time. Well,

765
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,640
Speaker 1: apparently the insect can't do that because the problem is

766
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:20,160
Speaker 1: it's jump is too fast to synchronize through the nervous system.

767
00:44:20,239 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 1: The acceleration leading into the jump happens so quickly that

768
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:28,640
Speaker 1: the nervous system cannot do real time feedback to coordinate it.

769
00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,719
Speaker 1: So it needs this mechanical lock on the legs themselves

770
00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:36,360
Speaker 1: to make sure synchronization is happening, because the insects nervous

771
00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 1: system can't talk to itself fast enough to make sure

772
00:44:40,200 --> 00:44:42,759
Speaker 1: that the that the jump is on target. In their

773
00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:45,759
Speaker 1: In their press release, author Malcolm Burrows summarized it like

774
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:50,120
Speaker 1: this quote. The precise synchronization would be impossible to achieve

775
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:52,879
Speaker 1: through a nervous system, as neural impulses would take far

776
00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:57,839
Speaker 1: too long for the extraordinarily tight coordination required by developing

777
00:44:57,920 --> 00:45:02,240
Speaker 1: mechanical gears. The s s can just send nerve signals

778
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: to its muscles to produce roughly the same amount of force.

779
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: Then if one leg starts to propel the jump, the

780
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:13,960
Speaker 1: gears will interlock, creating absolute synchronicity and ss. The skeleton

781
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:16,600
Speaker 1: is used to solve a complex problem that the brain

782
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:20,960
Speaker 1: and nervous system can't This emphasizes the importance of considering

783
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:25,120
Speaker 1: the properties of the skeleton in how movement is produced.

784
00:45:25,840 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: And this was really interesting to me because it also

785
00:45:28,200 --> 00:45:31,880
Speaker 1: comes back to you could maybe even consider this a

786
00:45:32,400 --> 00:45:37,279
Speaker 1: case of sort of supplementing the cognitive abilities of the

787
00:45:37,320 --> 00:45:41,400
Speaker 1: nervous system, sort of embodied cognition, allowing the body to

788
00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: do math for you that your brain and nervous system

789
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:49,200
Speaker 1: can't handle. Yeah, because essentially it's a it's it's a

790
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:55,080
Speaker 1: physical way of solving a problem that is beyond cognitive ability,

791
00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,879
Speaker 1: um and and and and really when we're talking about

792
00:45:57,880 --> 00:45:59,800
Speaker 1: the g forces pulled here and think this is beyond

793
00:46:00,000 --> 00:46:02,319
Speaker 1: base flights. So when we talk about like humans have

794
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 1: not evolved to travel in space or to deal with

795
00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:08,360
Speaker 1: certain speeds or or physical realities, like this is a

796
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,160
Speaker 1: case here where I mean this this creature is is

797
00:46:11,280 --> 00:46:15,120
Speaker 1: essentially engaging in those kinds of speeds, those kinds of

798
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:19,359
Speaker 1: rapid accelerations. Uh So, it's yeah, it's fascinating to think

799
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 1: about here. Yeah, the body moves too fast for the

800
00:46:22,160 --> 00:46:26,560
Speaker 1: nervous system to make sense of, so it just offloads that.

801
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:29,640
Speaker 1: That computation that the motor parts of the nervous system

802
00:46:29,719 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 1: might do naturally, offloads that onto the skeleton. Now, the

803
00:46:34,040 --> 00:46:37,080
Speaker 1: exoskeleton of the insect is doing the math for you,

804
00:46:37,160 --> 00:46:40,240
Speaker 1: kind of like an analog computer would like the antiqua

805
00:46:40,320 --> 00:46:44,560
Speaker 1: theorem mechanism. Wow. Wow. So to take a slightly closer

806
00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:47,280
Speaker 1: look at these teeth, at the gears on the hind legs.

807
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,960
Speaker 1: They're located on the backs of the strong hind legs

808
00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:54,200
Speaker 1: that the s s insect uses to jump um there

809
00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:57,800
Speaker 1: on the parts of the legs known as the trocantera

810
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,120
Speaker 1: and it's actually a human skeleton has rocantera to they're

811
00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:03,280
Speaker 1: they're sort of on the upper part of the femur,

812
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:07,320
Speaker 1: near where the femur would would connect to the pelvis.

813
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:11,359
Speaker 1: And these these insects tend to have somewhere between ten

814
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:15,200
Speaker 1: to twelve teeth on their gears. But while it seems

815
00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:18,040
Speaker 1: to vary between the insects, the insect always has the

816
00:47:18,120 --> 00:47:21,879
Speaker 1: same amount of teeth on each side within itself. Each

817
00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:26,160
Speaker 1: tooth is about eighty micrometers wide, so eighty millionths of

818
00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:30,400
Speaker 1: a meter. And there are some interesting engineered features of

819
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,120
Speaker 1: of these gear teeth within the body that have been

820
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:36,000
Speaker 1: created by the evolutionary process that gives rise to them. Here,

821
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,879
Speaker 1: the teeth have rounded corners at the point of contact,

822
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:42,680
Speaker 1: and this is useful apparently because it would help prevent

823
00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:46,080
Speaker 1: the gears from being sheared off or broken off if

824
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:49,439
Speaker 1: there is a slight misalignment during a jump. And then

825
00:47:49,680 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 1: another interesting thing about them is that they are differently

826
00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:56,760
Speaker 1: shaped than most gears we use in the technological world,

827
00:47:56,800 --> 00:48:02,719
Speaker 1: because usually gears made by humans tend to have symmetrical teeth, right,

828
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,560
Speaker 1: you know, there's sort of curved straight out from the

829
00:48:06,239 --> 00:48:10,520
Speaker 1: gear strip surface, but in these the teeth are not

830
00:48:10,600 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 1: quite symmetrical. They're sort of angled out. And it's because

831
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:17,120
Speaker 1: this gear only needs to work one way, so like

832
00:48:17,200 --> 00:48:19,400
Speaker 1: after the launch is done, the gear teeth can just

833
00:48:19,480 --> 00:48:21,759
Speaker 1: separate from each other and they don't need to roll

834
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 1: backwards in in the direction opposite from which they came.

835
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:28,000
Speaker 1: It's a one way gear. Yeah, and you definitely get

836
00:48:28,040 --> 00:48:30,520
Speaker 1: that from looking at the image. It feels like some

837
00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:34,920
Speaker 1: sort of a biomechanical um, you know, firing mechanism, right,

838
00:48:34,920 --> 00:48:37,360
Speaker 1: A firing mechanism is a is a good way to

839
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 1: compare it, because again, it doesn't go both ways and

840
00:48:39,680 --> 00:48:41,480
Speaker 1: it doesn't need to roll all the way around. It's

841
00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:44,280
Speaker 1: just sort of a strip of interlocking teeth that doesn't

842
00:48:44,320 --> 00:48:46,799
Speaker 1: complete a full circle. And it only and it only

843
00:48:46,920 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 1: rolls one way only on launch. Yeah, Like it kind

844
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: of looks like if hr gear designed a flint lock.

845
00:48:53,000 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, or maybe if David Cronenberg did you know, yeah, oh,

846
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:00,520
Speaker 1: but so there was a really interesting thing about the research,

847
00:49:00,600 --> 00:49:03,799
Speaker 1: the question of how did they figure out that these

848
00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:07,560
Speaker 1: gear teeth locked for synchronization while launching the jump? Right? Like,

849
00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:11,360
Speaker 1: how how did they observe that? Well, apparently the authors

850
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 1: here used a dead insect. They used an insect corpse.

851
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: And what they did was they they took the dead

852
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:22,960
Speaker 1: insects legs and rotated them back into the jump launching position.

853
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:27,439
Speaker 1: And then the researchers used an electrical stimulus to cause

854
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,680
Speaker 1: a contraction in the jumping muscle of only one of

855
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:34,319
Speaker 1: the legs. Okay, so they they stimulate only one leg

856
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:36,920
Speaker 1: as if it has been told by the brain to jump.

857
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 1: But because the gear teeth were locked. When the legs

858
00:49:40,719 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 1: were in jump readying position, the insects legs both performed

859
00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 1: the launching motion, even the dead leg on the other

860
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:52,120
Speaker 1: side that had not been electrically stimulated, and the insect

861
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 1: leapt straightforward, so you could stimulate only one of the

862
00:49:55,440 --> 00:49:58,080
Speaker 1: two legs, kind of like how an airplane can fly

863
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,799
Speaker 1: with only one engine. You know, you only need to

864
00:50:00,880 --> 00:50:03,680
Speaker 1: stimulate one of the legs, and the gears keep both

865
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:07,640
Speaker 1: legs locked in sync. Now there's another interesting question here,

866
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:10,759
Speaker 1: why only the juveniles I think I already mentioned that

867
00:50:10,840 --> 00:50:16,400
Speaker 1: the adult insects don't have these interlocking gear teeth. They've

868
00:50:16,440 --> 00:50:19,520
Speaker 1: got a feature that's more common, more like what you'd

869
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:21,840
Speaker 1: see in a lot of other jumping insects, which is

870
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: not gear teeth, but just sort of um bumps or

871
00:50:25,520 --> 00:50:29,160
Speaker 1: friction pads, so their back legs might touch each other

872
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:33,920
Speaker 1: and and the touching their helps keep the jump synchronized.

873
00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,600
Speaker 1: But they don't actually have interlocking teeth. It's more just

874
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:40,359
Speaker 1: kind of like pushing to surfaces together that grip each

875
00:50:40,360 --> 00:50:44,720
Speaker 1: other pretty well. In another study by Burrows, he noted

876
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:48,800
Speaker 1: that this is achieved by quote mechanical actions between small

877
00:50:48,920 --> 00:50:53,759
Speaker 1: protrusions from each trochantera, which fluoresce bright blue under specific

878
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:57,440
Speaker 1: wavelengths of ultraviolet light and which touch at the midline

879
00:50:57,440 --> 00:50:59,920
Speaker 1: when the legs are cocked before a jump. So they

880
00:51:00,000 --> 00:51:02,680
Speaker 1: adults are touching parts of their back legs together to

881
00:51:02,760 --> 00:51:05,320
Speaker 1: help synchronize a jump, but they don't have gear teeth.

882
00:51:05,960 --> 00:51:10,319
Speaker 1: And the hypothesized explanation for the difference here is that

883
00:51:10,840 --> 00:51:14,879
Speaker 1: is this Insects go through periods of molting as they grow. Right,

884
00:51:14,920 --> 00:51:17,600
Speaker 1: So an insect, as it gets bigger and bigger, it

885
00:51:17,640 --> 00:51:21,520
Speaker 1: will shed its old hard exoskeleton and then it will

886
00:51:21,560 --> 00:51:25,160
Speaker 1: grow bigger and allow a new exoskeleton to harden. But

887
00:51:25,239 --> 00:51:29,120
Speaker 1: the adult exoskeleton at full maturity, it lacks these interlocking

888
00:51:29,200 --> 00:51:32,759
Speaker 1: gear teeth. And the idea is maybe the adults don't

889
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:36,120
Speaker 1: have the teeth because if the teeth on the jumping

890
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 1: mechanism were to break or get sheared off but by error,

891
00:51:40,200 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 1: this would sort of break their ability to jump. And

892
00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:46,239
Speaker 1: so once the adult is in full molted form and

893
00:51:46,280 --> 00:51:49,640
Speaker 1: it's not going to shed its exoskeleton again, it needs

894
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:53,400
Speaker 1: to have a less fragile mechanism. But the younger's, the

895
00:51:53,680 --> 00:51:56,800
Speaker 1: younger ones the juveniles, because they will go through multiple

896
00:51:56,840 --> 00:51:59,719
Speaker 1: moltings and can grow new gear teeth if they're old

897
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:02,879
Speaker 1: gear teeth break, they pay less of a price for

898
00:52:02,960 --> 00:52:07,399
Speaker 1: having this somewhat fragile mechanism. Okay, so here we see

899
00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,719
Speaker 1: sort of in in their early stages the advantages of

900
00:52:10,800 --> 00:52:15,120
Speaker 1: having an an exoskeleton, and then in in later life

901
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:18,479
Speaker 1: the disadvantages of having an exo skeleton, and that you're

902
00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:20,640
Speaker 1: not going to get another one, right, And so when

903
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:22,359
Speaker 1: you're not going to get another one, it makes more

904
00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 1: sense for evolution to supply you with more durable mechanisms

905
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:28,759
Speaker 1: that aren't going to possibly like kill you if if

906
00:52:28,800 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 1: they break, right, there would be a survival advantage in

907
00:52:32,360 --> 00:52:35,560
Speaker 1: having a jumping mechanism that's not going to it's not

908
00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:39,120
Speaker 1: going to be like a Boba Fett's uh jet pack

909
00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:41,439
Speaker 1: firing off at a weird angle and sending you into

910
00:52:41,640 --> 00:52:46,200
Speaker 1: the sarlac. Right, But that's just a hypothesized explanation for

911
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:49,040
Speaker 1: the difference between the juveniles and adults. Ultimately, we don't

912
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:51,920
Speaker 1: know for sure there and as far as I can tell,

913
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:55,080
Speaker 1: this is still the only known tooth to gear in

914
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:57,959
Speaker 1: the animal kingdom. That there may have been something since

915
00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,239
Speaker 1: then that I wasn't able to track down, but looks

916
00:53:00,239 --> 00:53:02,799
Speaker 1: like this is still the only one. Yeah, well, this

917
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:05,040
Speaker 1: is fascinating. It kind of brings me back to the

918
00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:10,240
Speaker 1: biobmetics question earlier. You know, um in evolution solving particular

919
00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:14,080
Speaker 1: engineering problems over time, and this is an example where

920
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:18,319
Speaker 1: the the engineering problem is extreme enough that and the

921
00:53:18,480 --> 00:53:22,719
Speaker 1: and the circumstances of its its lifespan enable the sort

922
00:53:22,719 --> 00:53:26,560
Speaker 1: of answer to evolve and take place. Yeah. Yeah, can

923
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:28,600
Speaker 1: you imagine if you had gear teeth on your inner

924
00:53:28,640 --> 00:53:33,439
Speaker 1: thighs that helps you jump? It seems uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah,

925
00:53:33,920 --> 00:53:36,720
Speaker 1: I'd have to have an exoskeleton too for this place.

926
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:38,279
Speaker 1: Or yeah, I'd have to have some other kind of

927
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:41,800
Speaker 1: weird arrangement, like you would have to be bone spurs

928
00:53:42,040 --> 00:53:44,640
Speaker 1: or keith that grow back, I guess, because that would

929
00:53:44,640 --> 00:53:46,640
Speaker 1: again you'd have to have the situation of what what

930
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:48,160
Speaker 1: do you do about the wear and tear of this

931
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:51,680
Speaker 1: the physical mechanics here, I mean, it doesn't really make

932
00:53:51,719 --> 00:53:54,040
Speaker 1: sense for our bodies because that wouldn't that wouldn't be

933
00:53:54,080 --> 00:53:56,239
Speaker 1: how we jump anyway, or like I need to work

934
00:53:56,280 --> 00:53:59,239
Speaker 1: differently for that to make sense. Yeah. Yeah, So again

935
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:03,120
Speaker 1: we come down to a very specific evolved answer to

936
00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:05,600
Speaker 1: a specific problem that yeah, you're just not going to

937
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 1: see in in in other organisms. But I am still

938
00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:12,040
Speaker 1: in memorative the idea that in a way, these these

939
00:54:12,080 --> 00:54:15,640
Speaker 1: gear teeth on the insects legs are a kind of computer.

940
00:54:16,120 --> 00:54:19,520
Speaker 1: They're doing a kind of mathematical processing for the animal.

941
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:23,600
Speaker 1: This is the this is the computer of the thighs. Yeah.

942
00:54:23,840 --> 00:54:26,600
Speaker 1: And and also it's interesting too that no matter how

943
00:54:27,440 --> 00:54:30,200
Speaker 1: no matter how much you know, humanity clung to the

944
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:32,319
Speaker 1: wheel and to gears and and saw this as their

945
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:37,000
Speaker 1: technological achievement. Here we have an example of evolution once more,

946
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: beating humanity to the punch. Uh. So, well, before the

947
00:54:41,160 --> 00:54:45,160
Speaker 1: Greeks of Alexandria were devising their uh their gear you

948
00:54:45,160 --> 00:54:49,640
Speaker 1: know complexities. Uh, this creature already had the gears right

949
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:54,439
Speaker 1: there in its thighs. These gears are hopping. Yeah. Well

950
00:54:54,440 --> 00:54:58,480
Speaker 1: this was fun. I enjoyed talking about everything from we

951
00:54:58,480 --> 00:55:00,920
Speaker 1: had a little bit of an invention episode owed uh

952
00:55:00,960 --> 00:55:03,000
Speaker 1: in here we had some biology, we had a little

953
00:55:03,000 --> 00:55:07,160
Speaker 1: bit of mythology and folklore, so it would be interesting

954
00:55:07,200 --> 00:55:08,480
Speaker 1: to come back to this and and we talked about

955
00:55:08,520 --> 00:55:13,000
Speaker 1: potentially covering screws and screws in nature in this episode,

956
00:55:13,000 --> 00:55:15,719
Speaker 1: but perhaps that would make for its own future episode.

957
00:55:15,960 --> 00:55:18,120
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there are actually a few things in nature

958
00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:21,200
Speaker 1: that you could argue or screws. Yeah, and then and

959
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:23,799
Speaker 1: and of course the invention of the screw and uh

960
00:55:23,800 --> 00:55:27,040
Speaker 1: and so forth is also quite interesting. All Right, we're

961
00:55:27,040 --> 00:55:28,759
Speaker 1: gonna go and close it up then, but we'd love

962
00:55:28,800 --> 00:55:32,120
Speaker 1: to hear from everyone out there. Um certainly reach out

963
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:34,280
Speaker 1: to us, get in touch with us. In the meantime,

964
00:55:34,320 --> 00:55:35,840
Speaker 1: if you want to check out other episodes of Stuff

965
00:55:35,840 --> 00:55:37,960
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind Core episodes publishing the Stuff to

966
00:55:37,960 --> 00:55:41,760
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind podcast feed on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sandwich

967
00:55:41,800 --> 00:55:44,840
Speaker 1: between them, we have an Artifact episode or for the

968
00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:47,080
Speaker 1: months of September and October. Anyway, it's going to be

969
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:50,120
Speaker 1: the Monster Fact. It's gonna we're gonna take on more

970
00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:53,960
Speaker 1: of a monstrous form for the holidays here and then

971
00:55:53,960 --> 00:55:56,840
Speaker 1: it will likely revert back to the Artifact. We have

972
00:55:57,239 --> 00:55:59,960
Speaker 1: listener mail on Mondays. We have a little Weird House

973
00:56:00,000 --> 00:56:01,520
Speaker 1: in them on Friday, so that's our time just to

974
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:03,640
Speaker 1: discuss a weird film, and then we have a rerun

975
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: over the weekend. Huge thanks as always to our excellent

976
00:56:07,120 --> 00:56:10,440
Speaker 1: audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson. If you would like to

977
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:12,760
Speaker 1: get in touch with us with feedback on this episode

978
00:56:12,840 --> 00:56:15,200
Speaker 1: or any other suggest topic for the future, just to

979
00:56:15,280 --> 00:56:17,960
Speaker 1: say hello, you can email us at contact that Stuff

980
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:28,160
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is

981
00:56:28,200 --> 00:56:30,880
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for My

982
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:34,000
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or

983
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:48,280
Speaker 1: wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.