1 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:04,080 Speaker 1: Dear, let you know USA listener. Before we start, you 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:06,480 Speaker 1: should know that if you want to listen to this 3 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: episode ad free, just join Plus and you can join 4 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: for as little as seven dollars a month. Joining also 5 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: gets you behind the scenes access and yes, some cheese 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:23,120 Speaker 1: may so click the link in the episode description and 7 00:00:23,480 --> 00:00:26,159 Speaker 1: after you do that, then click play. Let's go to 8 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:38,879 Speaker 1: the show. Oh my god, no, mom, it's been like 9 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:39,800 Speaker 1: a while. 10 00:00:40,440 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 2: It's been a long time. 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,400 Speaker 1: You were at Fuduo what like a decade ago? It's 12 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: been I want to say, like eight years. 13 00:00:49,080 --> 00:00:49,559 Speaker 2: Wow. 14 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:52,280 Speaker 1: I just want to say you started with us and 15 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:54,480 Speaker 1: then you went on to work at you know, a 16 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:58,520 Speaker 1: tiny little company named Vox. You're the host of a 17 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:01,560 Speaker 1: show now, so tell us a little bit about it 18 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: and congratulations. 19 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 2: Sure. Yeah, it's called Unexplainable. It's a science show from Vox. 20 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:11,080 Speaker 2: It comes out twice a week. It's about unanswered scientific 21 00:01:11,160 --> 00:01:14,880 Speaker 2: questions like what is dark matter? Or why do we yawn? 22 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 2: Or one of my favorites was what did dinosaurs sound like? 23 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 2: Things that we don't have great answers to, but things 24 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,320 Speaker 2: that we get to dive into with scientists doing active 25 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:31,720 Speaker 2: research and asking sometimes weird and wild questions, and. 26 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:34,199 Speaker 1: So you had an episode and you were like, wait 27 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: a second, this song is like a perfect one for 28 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: my friends over at Futuro Media and Latino USA, and 29 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, let me just ring Maria up. 30 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean I did this episode talking to 31 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:51,640 Speaker 2: this incredible astronomer. Wanda Diesmer said she's Puerto Rican, she's blind, 32 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:56,559 Speaker 2: and she studies space by listening to it, and she's 33 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 2: just got this incredible energy and personality. And I thought 34 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:03,880 Speaker 2: you and your audience would love it. 35 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:08,240 Speaker 1: Oh my god, I love this so much. And I 36 00:02:08,280 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: think you and I talked a lot about like my 37 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:15,040 Speaker 1: fascination with sound and listening because of my dad, who 38 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,360 Speaker 1: helped to create the cochlear implant. So the whole use 39 00:02:18,400 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: of sound is like essentially in my life. So Noah, 40 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: I'm really happy that you brought this to us, that 41 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: you thought of it. Here is a version of the 42 00:02:26,880 --> 00:02:32,200 Speaker 1: episode just for us. It's titled The Sound Barrier Listen 43 00:02:32,520 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: to the Universe, and the very first voice you're gonna 44 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,000 Speaker 1: hear is gnoems. 45 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 2: Hello, can you hear me? I? 46 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:45,160 Speaker 3: Gottam ba. 47 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:51,000 Speaker 2: Wwanda Dsmuch said, can make pretty much anything seems special. 48 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,000 Speaker 3: Can you say one two three. 49 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 2: Like when I first called her up and we were 50 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 2: working through some connection issues one two three. 51 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 3: Oh, this is very good, you say one two three beautifully? 52 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 2: Ah, thanks so much. Or the way she talks about 53 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:03,640 Speaker 2: Star Trek. 54 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 3: Is awesome, right, It's the best thing that has ever happened. 55 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:11,000 Speaker 2: See, she really loves Star Trek. 56 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:12,919 Speaker 3: You cannot miss that. 57 00:03:13,639 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 2: And Wanda's always been like this ever since she was 58 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:16,800 Speaker 2: a kid. 59 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:21,480 Speaker 3: I do remember that my sister was bedbound for a 60 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 3: very long time, and at that time the moveable bed 61 00:03:27,639 --> 00:03:32,200 Speaker 3: that she had it had some steel tubes on the side, 62 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:36,320 Speaker 3: and she had a cast that would go from below 63 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 3: her neck to covering the two legs. So to me, 64 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 3: she was an astronaut in a spacecraft and we would 65 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:50,560 Speaker 3: play many, many many times like being astronauts. 66 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 2: Wanda didn't have an easy childhood. She grew up in grab, 67 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 2: the small city just outside of Caaguas and Puerto Rico. 68 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 2: Her family didn't have a lot of money or education. 69 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 2: Her sister was chronically ill. Wanda was diagnosed with diabetes 70 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 2: when she was just ten, and even though she played astronaut, 71 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 2: she never considered studying space until one day she was 72 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:22,280 Speaker 2: up fishing with her dad and she looked up. 73 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 3: I remember clearly three beams of a meteor. One was reddish, 74 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 3: the other ones who were more towards the bluish side. 75 00:04:36,680 --> 00:04:40,440 Speaker 3: And I remember that it lasted like less than a second. 76 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 3: And I made this expression like, you know, like to me, 77 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:48,680 Speaker 3: that was like it has been like the greatest thing. 78 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 3: And my father he turned it toward me and he said, 79 00:04:55,120 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 3: those are rocks falling from the sky. And what was 80 00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:04,040 Speaker 3: telling me is that's not a spiritual thing. There is 81 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:08,479 Speaker 3: science behind it. Those are rocks falling from this guy. 82 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,200 Speaker 3: So at that moment, it's like I need to learn 83 00:05:13,240 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 3: more about those rocks. Where are they coming from. 84 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,720 Speaker 2: Wanda eventually went to college to study science, but by 85 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:27,320 Speaker 2: this point her diabetes had gotten worse and she was 86 00:05:27,360 --> 00:05:28,679 Speaker 2: starting to lose her vision. 87 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 3: No, I'm there is a problem, and he said, if 88 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 3: you cannot read, your grades will be very, very very bad, right, 89 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 3: and if you have no one reading to you, your 90 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:46,880 Speaker 3: grades will be worse. So I would intuitively guest answers. 91 00:05:47,279 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 2: She thought about trying to study something else, but. 92 00:05:49,920 --> 00:05:55,360 Speaker 3: I didn't have the minimum GPA to transfer to another faculty, 93 00:05:55,839 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 3: so I had to stay in science, and thinking what 94 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:00,839 Speaker 3: am I going to do in the field of science. 95 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:05,960 Speaker 3: I cannot see and I cannot change, and then i'm 96 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 3: I'm blind and I have a disability. But also I'm 97 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:13,360 Speaker 3: the only one that can work. In my family. 98 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,200 Speaker 2: Her father had lost his job, her sister was still sick. 99 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:19,640 Speaker 2: It was a lot of pressure for a twenty two 100 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:20,359 Speaker 2: year old. 101 00:06:20,560 --> 00:06:24,680 Speaker 3: I cannot leave the university because it's going to be 102 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:27,839 Speaker 3: a major family situation. 103 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 2: Wanda hadn't really come to terms with the fact that 104 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:35,120 Speaker 2: she was going blind. She kept hoping that one day 105 00:06:35,160 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 2: she'd just wake up and suddenly be able to see again, 106 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:41,360 Speaker 2: so she didn't really talk about it, and she only 107 00:06:41,400 --> 00:06:42,960 Speaker 2: had one friend who noticed. 108 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 3: He was the only one who knew something was happening 109 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 3: to me because I would see it and would not 110 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:53,479 Speaker 3: move unless I would perceive that no one else was 111 00:06:53,520 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 3: in the hallway. 112 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:57,599 Speaker 2: Her friend, Amelia, happened to be the president of the 113 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 2: astronomy club, and when he saw how much Wanda was struggling, 114 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:02,919 Speaker 2: he had an idea. 115 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 3: He said, Wandita, I want you to come with me, 116 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 3: and I want you to listen to what I have 117 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:09,239 Speaker 3: in my house. 118 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,600 Speaker 2: Amelio showed her this small antenna he had in the 119 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 2: back of his house, basically just two hanging metal wires. 120 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 2: He handed her a pair of headphones and she listened. 121 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 3: It was a noise, white noise right, and then increases 122 00:07:28,800 --> 00:07:36,520 Speaker 3: right and then and then it diminishes. It may have 123 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 3: lasted about thirty seconds. And I said, Amelia, turns that off. 124 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:41,960 Speaker 3: It's horrible. 125 00:07:43,080 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 2: But Amelio didn't turn it off. He kept playing it. 126 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 2: This is a recording of the actual sound they were 127 00:07:49,520 --> 00:07:54,000 Speaker 2: listening to, by the way, And finally he told her 128 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:54,480 Speaker 2: what it was. 129 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 3: He said, Wanda, I think that it's a song burst. 130 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,480 Speaker 3: It was a real time detection of a solar emission. 131 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:09,120 Speaker 2: Wanda was literally hearing the sun, and as luck would 132 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 2: have it, she was tuning into one of the most 133 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 2: powerful solar storms ever recorded. She was hearing the Sun's 134 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 2: outer atmosphere being blown off into space. 135 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 3: And at that moment everything transformed from me perceiving that 136 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:35,560 Speaker 3: those sounds were bothersome and augly it transformed into beauty 137 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:41,760 Speaker 3: even more, the sense of possibility, right, my word was 138 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:47,240 Speaker 3: closing up bit by bit. Honestly speaking, at that very moment, 139 00:08:47,840 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 3: I was dying, and that death sentence begun to lift up. 140 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:00,480 Speaker 3: You have no idea. For the first time, I felt 141 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:02,600 Speaker 3: I felt happiness in my life. 142 00:09:04,480 --> 00:09:07,120 Speaker 2: It was like she was a kid again, coming face 143 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:11,160 Speaker 2: to face with the sky, and she realized she wouldn't 144 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:13,920 Speaker 2: have to give up on her dream. She could still 145 00:09:14,040 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 2: study space. She'd just have to listen to it instead. 146 00:09:19,360 --> 00:09:23,559 Speaker 3: When you listen to it, it's not a cold, not 147 00:09:23,760 --> 00:09:27,400 Speaker 3: moving space. It is very, very active. It's full of 148 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:38,559 Speaker 3: Dynamism's full of it's full of life. 149 00:09:44,559 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 2: If you've only ever heard one thing about space and sound, 150 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:50,000 Speaker 2: it might be from the movie Alien. 151 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 4: There's gotta be a way of killing it. How do 152 00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:53,440 Speaker 4: we do it? 153 00:09:53,679 --> 00:09:55,600 Speaker 2: It was on the poster, it was in the trailers 154 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:03,920 Speaker 2: in space, no one can hear you scream. It's a 155 00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 2: pretty great tagline, but it's also scientifically accurate sound as. 156 00:10:09,920 --> 00:10:12,600 Speaker 3: We know it here on Earth. It needs air, It 157 00:10:12,679 --> 00:10:16,320 Speaker 3: needs a means of propagation to be detected by an ear. 158 00:10:17,679 --> 00:10:20,880 Speaker 2: Sound is a pressure wave. It's basically just a vibration, 159 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 2: which means it needs something to move through. It could 160 00:10:24,760 --> 00:10:27,120 Speaker 2: be air, it could be water, it could be the ground. 161 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 2: So when someone is talking to you in a room, 162 00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,240 Speaker 2: they're literally making the air vibrate, which makes your ear 163 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 2: drum vibrate, which your brain hears as sound. It's space 164 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:45,480 Speaker 2: is almost a complete vacuum, which is why it's pretty 165 00:10:45,559 --> 00:10:51,200 Speaker 2: much silent. But there are other kinds of waves that 166 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:54,800 Speaker 2: can move through space, visible light, X rays, gamma rays, 167 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:58,960 Speaker 2: and some of them, like radio waves and microwaves, can 168 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:02,200 Speaker 2: be picked up by intens and shifted down into our 169 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:03,000 Speaker 2: hearing range. 170 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 3: You have an electronic device in the receiver that brings 171 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 3: it into the frequency of human hearing. 172 00:11:12,800 --> 00:11:16,080 Speaker 2: That's what Wanda was hearing in her friend's backyard, radio 173 00:11:16,080 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 2: waves shooting out from the sun, picked up by the antenna, 174 00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:29,800 Speaker 2: shifted down so she could listen. Wanda was so blown 175 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:32,640 Speaker 2: away by what she heard out there that she wanted 176 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 2: to learn everything she could about listening to space, but 177 00:11:36,080 --> 00:11:38,240 Speaker 2: she still had to deal with all the limitations of 178 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:39,600 Speaker 2: her life on Earth. 179 00:11:40,160 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 3: Remember, I couldn't read the books. Screen readers were not available, 180 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:47,160 Speaker 3: so I was asking people sitting in the library, can 181 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:51,359 Speaker 3: you find on the computer this or that or whatsoever? 182 00:11:51,679 --> 00:11:55,600 Speaker 3: And whatever search engine that was available would bring this 183 00:11:55,760 --> 00:11:57,120 Speaker 3: information to us. 184 00:11:57,640 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 2: But she learned that scientists had been listening to space 185 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,240 Speaker 2: for decades, like the engineer who was able to listen 186 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:05,720 Speaker 2: to the center of the Milky Way, or the physicist 187 00:12:05,760 --> 00:12:09,559 Speaker 2: who listened to plasma waves, these ripples through charged particles 188 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:12,800 Speaker 2: in space. Or the scientist who used sound to help 189 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:16,040 Speaker 2: him make one of the biggest scientific discoveries of the 190 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 2: twentieth century. 191 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:19,520 Speaker 4: I didn't realize it's the time, how big it was, 192 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:21,680 Speaker 4: but I do now. 193 00:12:22,080 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 2: That's Robert Wilson, usually known as Bob. You spoke to him, 194 00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 2: Wanda was pretty pumped. A Bob is extremely chill about 195 00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:33,160 Speaker 2: the whole thing. 196 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,199 Speaker 4: We weren't even so impressed with cosmology. 197 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:41,839 Speaker 2: Bob's almost ninety now and he hasn't stopped. He's a 198 00:12:41,880 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 2: senior scientist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and 199 00:12:46,280 --> 00:12:48,439 Speaker 2: he's one of the first names Wanda came across when 200 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:50,840 Speaker 2: she was diving into the history of listening to space, 201 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,600 Speaker 2: because Bob and his partner used sound to help them 202 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:58,480 Speaker 2: find the first direct evidence of the Big Bang, and 203 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 2: it happened by accident back in the sixties. Bob was 204 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 2: pretty different. 205 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,199 Speaker 4: Well, I had hair still. 206 00:13:07,120 --> 00:13:11,080 Speaker 2: Just as understated, and he was a young physicist working 207 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 2: with his partner on a new antenna trying to measure 208 00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:16,600 Speaker 2: microwaves from outside the Milky Way. But when they went 209 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,040 Speaker 2: to make their first measurement, they noticed this problem. 210 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:24,959 Speaker 4: There was this booming signal. The antella was twice as 211 00:13:24,960 --> 00:13:26,320 Speaker 4: hot as it was supposed to be. 212 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,720 Speaker 2: When Bob put on his headphones, it sounded like some 213 00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:30,960 Speaker 2: kind of static. 214 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 4: If you had a television and you turned to an 215 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:37,440 Speaker 4: all of channel, you would get a hiss yeah like 216 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,679 Speaker 4: the snow Yeah, same effect. We were very disappointed at 217 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:44,000 Speaker 4: that point and started thinking about what could be wrong. 218 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:47,880 Speaker 2: They kept listening to the sound to make sure it 219 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:51,720 Speaker 2: wasn't just noise from somewhere nearby, like the city. But 220 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:54,760 Speaker 2: no matter which direction they pointed the antenna, they still. 221 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:56,680 Speaker 4: Heard the hiss, so that couldn't be it. 222 00:13:57,280 --> 00:13:59,880 Speaker 2: They thought it might be radiation from a nuclear weapons test. 223 00:14:00,240 --> 00:14:03,880 Speaker 2: So they waited a few months, measured again, still had 224 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:04,400 Speaker 2: that hiss. 225 00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:05,640 Speaker 4: Nothing had changed. 226 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,800 Speaker 2: They even thought it might be something let's just say 227 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:10,560 Speaker 2: closer to home. 228 00:14:11,840 --> 00:14:14,680 Speaker 4: There was a pair of pigeons that lived in the antenna. 229 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:17,920 Speaker 2: There are pigeons that lived in the antenna. 230 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:21,480 Speaker 4: Yes, okay, we see him flying in and out, so 231 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:24,440 Speaker 4: we put a little daita in there, caught the pigeons, 232 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 4: but none of that made any difference. 233 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 2: So even after the pigeons were gone, you still heard 234 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:29,840 Speaker 2: the hiss. 235 00:14:30,040 --> 00:14:31,240 Speaker 4: Right. 236 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:35,120 Speaker 2: Bob still wasn't anywhere close to thinking about the Big Bang. 237 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:38,200 Speaker 2: He was still thinking about those freaking pigeons. 238 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 4: They had deposited, pigeon dropping and the antenna. 239 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:44,080 Speaker 2: There was poop in the antenna. 240 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:46,440 Speaker 4: Well, they've been living in there. What do you expect. 241 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:49,240 Speaker 4: We just scrubbed it out. It wasn't a big deal. 242 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 2: Bob didn't really spend too much time pondering the origins 243 00:14:55,400 --> 00:14:58,800 Speaker 2: of the universe. He figured it had just always been there. 244 00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 4: The idea that it's the same now as it was 245 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 4: before and will be the same in the future. 246 00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:08,200 Speaker 2: That's what most people thought at that point. But there 247 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:10,400 Speaker 2: was this other idea that was starting to gain some traction, 248 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:15,880 Speaker 2: the Big Bang, that the universe started in this gigantic explosion. 249 00:15:16,920 --> 00:15:20,200 Speaker 2: But Big Bang believers were still looking for their smoking gun. 250 00:15:20,640 --> 00:15:25,520 Speaker 4: The expectation was for the universe started out very hot 251 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 4: and full of radiation. It would still be full of radiation. 252 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 4: There would be something left over from the initial explosion 253 00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 4: which one could detect. 254 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:40,240 Speaker 2: Bob started telling other scientists about the Hiss, and when 255 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 2: the Big Bang brigade finally heard about it, they were like, Bob, 256 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 2: you found it. That hiss, which is all over the 257 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,720 Speaker 2: place all the time, and it's definitely not pigeons. That's 258 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:55,280 Speaker 2: the leftover radiation from the Big Bang. When you found 259 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:59,760 Speaker 2: out that what you had been noticing for nine months 260 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:03,600 Speaker 2: could I don't even know how to say it, this 261 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 2: like could be the answer to the origin of the universe, Like, 262 00:16:09,080 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 2: what did you feel? 263 00:16:11,160 --> 00:16:16,440 Speaker 4: I think we felt that, yes, that's a possibility. Maybe 264 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 4: there's some other explanation. 265 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,440 Speaker 2: You just weren't that You weren't that excited, uh, not 266 00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 2: terribly excited. 267 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:28,360 Speaker 4: We weren't quite ready to say that that's the only possibility. 268 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,520 Speaker 2: About a year later, after a bunch of follow up research, 269 00:16:34,160 --> 00:16:35,760 Speaker 2: Bob got a call from a reporter at the New 270 00:16:35,840 --> 00:16:39,880 Speaker 2: York Times, and finally he started to buy into the hype. 271 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,400 Speaker 4: The next morning, my father walked down to the local 272 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:48,080 Speaker 4: pharmacy and bought in New York Times, and there on 273 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:50,480 Speaker 4: the front page of the New York Times was a 274 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 4: picture of the anti and an article about this discovery. 275 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,280 Speaker 2: Written on top of that picture was the headline signals 276 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:05,960 Speaker 2: imply a Big Bang Universe. By the time Wanda was 277 00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,359 Speaker 2: learning about Bob's story, the Big Bang had become something 278 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:13,919 Speaker 2: astronomers and really lots of people just took for granted. 279 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 2: Of course, the universe had a beginning. Of course it 280 00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:21,439 Speaker 2: was this really big explosion. But every fact that seems 281 00:17:21,440 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 2: like bedrock truth once had a beginning where it shifted 282 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,960 Speaker 2: from a wacky idea to something we all just accept 283 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,520 Speaker 2: And for the Big Bang, that moment was when Bob 284 00:17:33,520 --> 00:17:39,360 Speaker 2: and his partner noticed this signal. This is the actual 285 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:42,960 Speaker 2: sound they heard when they put on their headphones. A 286 00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:46,000 Speaker 2: lot of it's just static from the instruments, but a 287 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:49,160 Speaker 2: good amount of it, like ten percent, is the leftover 288 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,000 Speaker 2: radiation from the Big Bang. It's the sound of the 289 00:17:53,000 --> 00:18:00,680 Speaker 2: creation of the universe. Bob and his partner eventually won 290 00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:03,879 Speaker 2: a Nobel Prize for their work, and they created a 291 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:07,320 Speaker 2: precedent for Wanda to follow. That sound can play an 292 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:10,840 Speaker 2: essential role in some of the biggest scientific discoveries in history. 293 00:18:11,720 --> 00:18:14,200 Speaker 2: So you can see why Wanda would kind of freak 294 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,320 Speaker 2: out when I brought up Bob. 295 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 3: No, I'm so moved that you spoke to Wilson. 296 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:23,680 Speaker 2: Well, don't, but Bob was only listening to a small 297 00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 2: slice of the universe microwaves that were shifted into our 298 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:31,560 Speaker 2: hearing range. In a minute, Wanda learns how to listen 299 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 2: to everything else. 300 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:44,080 Speaker 1: You're listening to a special episode from our friends over 301 00:18:44,240 --> 00:18:48,440 Speaker 1: at the Box. The podcast is called Unexplainable, and we'll 302 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:49,840 Speaker 1: continue right after the break. 303 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 2: Hey, we're back. 304 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:10,159 Speaker 1: Let's continue with this episode from our friends at Vox. 305 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: The show is Unexplainable. Here's the host, Noah Hasenheld. 306 00:19:15,040 --> 00:19:17,959 Speaker 2: A few years after Wanda started learning about listening to space, 307 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,720 Speaker 2: she found herself at NASA. She couldn't believe how she 308 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:24,119 Speaker 2: pulled it off, but she got an internship. 309 00:19:24,480 --> 00:19:29,080 Speaker 3: That was a huge blessing because my grades were very 310 00:19:29,200 --> 00:19:31,480 Speaker 3: very very very very very very bad. 311 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:34,359 Speaker 2: And she wasn't just planning to listen to that tiny 312 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,040 Speaker 2: slice of the universe, the radio waves, the microwaves. She 313 00:19:38,080 --> 00:19:40,320 Speaker 2: wanted to hear the meteors she saw as a kid, 314 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,400 Speaker 2: so she started working on something called soonification. 315 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:50,040 Speaker 3: Sonification is bringing information into the audible domain in order 316 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:51,840 Speaker 3: to augment your perception. 317 00:19:52,600 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 2: Soonification isn't what Wanda was doing when she heard that 318 00:19:55,440 --> 00:19:58,440 Speaker 2: sunburst in her friend's backyard, or what Bob was doing 319 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:00,840 Speaker 2: when he heard that hiss left over from the Big Bang. 320 00:20:01,640 --> 00:20:04,760 Speaker 2: They were directly listening to things like radio waves or 321 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:07,840 Speaker 2: microwaves that were shifted into the range of human hearing, 322 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,480 Speaker 2: but sonification is a way to translate any kind of 323 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:15,479 Speaker 2: data into sound. You can take things we can see, 324 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:19,119 Speaker 2: like stars or galaxies, things we can't see, like X 325 00:20:19,240 --> 00:20:22,400 Speaker 2: rays or infrared light, and you can translate them into 326 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 2: something we can hear. It's kind of like a Geiger counter, 327 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:29,919 Speaker 2: those little handheld gadgets that tell you about radiation levels 328 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 2: by playing a bunch of clicks. Those clicks aren't what 329 00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:36,960 Speaker 2: radiation sounds like. They're just a translation of the data. 330 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,920 Speaker 2: They're a way for scientists to hear where the radiation 331 00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:41,760 Speaker 2: is and how strong it is. 332 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,679 Speaker 3: Audio will increase perception to things that are blind to 333 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:47,480 Speaker 3: the human eye. 334 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 2: Sonifications don't need to sound like the Big Bang, background 335 00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 2: fuzz or bushing sunbursts. They can sound like anything as 336 00:20:58,040 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 2: long as they're clearly communicating the day and it's often 337 00:21:01,680 --> 00:21:03,840 Speaker 2: a lot easier to hear things than it is to 338 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:08,919 Speaker 2: see them. This is a sonification of a mouse walking. 339 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:12,600 Speaker 2: I love this example. Every sound you're hearing is a 340 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:16,720 Speaker 2: pair of paws hitting the ground. And now here's a 341 00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:20,240 Speaker 2: mouse that has a genetic mutation which makes it wobble 342 00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 2: when it walks. If you wanted to find out exactly 343 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:26,639 Speaker 2: when its paws hit the ground. It would be pretty 344 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,240 Speaker 2: hard to tell just by looking at it, but it's 345 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:34,760 Speaker 2: obvious when you listen. So Wanda was curious if she 346 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:39,800 Speaker 2: could harness this potential for astronomers, and she set up 347 00:21:39,800 --> 00:21:40,200 Speaker 2: a test. 348 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:45,439 Speaker 3: I simulated a task that astronomers used for the detection 349 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:46,159 Speaker 3: of black holes. 350 00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:50,240 Speaker 2: She gave scientists simulated data that looked like what happens 351 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 2: when gas swirls around a black hole. There were graphs 352 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:55,920 Speaker 2: that showed where the radiation was strongest, and there were 353 00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:59,359 Speaker 2: sounds that showed the same thing. Some examples were clear, 354 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:03,240 Speaker 2: other one were trickier, and when astronomers used both the 355 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:06,040 Speaker 2: graphs and the sounds, they did better than when they 356 00:22:06,080 --> 00:22:09,119 Speaker 2: just used one or the other. But audio was just 357 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 2: about as good as a graph on its own, sometimes 358 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,520 Speaker 2: even better, which gave Wanda confidence that she could make 359 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:19,159 Speaker 2: new discoveries by listening to different parts of space, like 360 00:22:19,280 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 2: the merger of two neutron stars. These ultra dense remnants 361 00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:29,479 Speaker 2: of exploded supernovas. Each hit you're listening to is a 362 00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:32,200 Speaker 2: measurement of the energy given off by these two stars 363 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:36,680 Speaker 2: as they're orbiting each other. Louder hits more energy, softer 364 00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,800 Speaker 2: hits less energy, and Wanda chose to use these high 365 00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:44,520 Speaker 2: pitched timpany hits for this sonification so she could hear 366 00:22:44,560 --> 00:22:46,720 Speaker 2: the tempo changes really clearly. 367 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,520 Speaker 3: If you hear the changes, the ups and downs are 368 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:54,479 Speaker 3: quite uniform. But then at the end there is an 369 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:58,760 Speaker 3: area where it seems the temple is changing. It feels 370 00:22:58,840 --> 00:22:59,760 Speaker 3: a little bit faster. 371 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:05,520 Speaker 2: Right there. There's a little hiccup in the tempo. 372 00:23:05,520 --> 00:23:09,560 Speaker 3: And he's telling me about how the system is rotating 373 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:12,760 Speaker 3: is not as uniform as we think. 374 00:23:14,520 --> 00:23:17,480 Speaker 2: She's even used sonification to find things no one had 375 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,040 Speaker 2: noticed before, like in a gamma ray burst, this huge 376 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,000 Speaker 2: explosion that happens when a star dies. 377 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,760 Speaker 3: The interior of the star collapses under its own weight 378 00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 3: and it starts rotating ever faster, like an ice skater 379 00:23:30,920 --> 00:23:33,399 Speaker 3: when pulling their arms in close to their body. 380 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:37,000 Speaker 2: Wanda actually gave a ted talk about this gamma ray burst. 381 00:23:37,920 --> 00:23:39,840 Speaker 2: She decided to zoom into a part of it that 382 00:23:39,960 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 2: other people might have missed, this part that might have 383 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,200 Speaker 2: just been confused for noise in the data. 384 00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:47,960 Speaker 3: And I want you to hear what I heard. You 385 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:55,800 Speaker 3: will hear it as a very fast decreasing volume is 386 00:23:55,880 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 3: Frogs at home, don't pay attention to that. 387 00:24:03,600 --> 00:24:06,600 Speaker 2: That's the fast decrease in volume she's talking about right there. 388 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:11,199 Speaker 2: It's really subtle. It's also kind of masked by a frog. 389 00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,679 Speaker 2: But there's a moment where it gets softer. Here it 390 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:21,639 Speaker 2: is again. Wanda says she's the first person to notice it. 391 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,480 Speaker 3: These resonances had not been identified by anyone, They had 392 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 3: not been discovered before. 393 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:31,640 Speaker 2: It's still kind of mysterious, and Wanda says there needs 394 00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,800 Speaker 2: to be more research, but she thinks that tiny decrease 395 00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:37,920 Speaker 2: in volume might offer new ways to understand these dying 396 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,919 Speaker 2: stars and the way they give birth to matter. 397 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 3: The elements that form the molecules that form the chemical 398 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:53,240 Speaker 3: building blocks of life are produced at the final stages 399 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 3: of a star. 400 00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:00,840 Speaker 2: Carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, the stuff that makes us us. 401 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:02,680 Speaker 3: They're building blocks of life. 402 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:06,880 Speaker 2: They're made by stars and blown into space when they die. 403 00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:12,000 Speaker 2: It was almost like Wanda was following in Bob's footsteps. 404 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,880 Speaker 2: Bob had heard evidence of the creation of the universe, 405 00:25:16,960 --> 00:25:20,240 Speaker 2: and Wanda was hearing the first step in the creation 406 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,200 Speaker 2: of life. 407 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,080 Speaker 1: You're listening to a special episode from our friends at Vox. 408 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:34,879 Speaker 1: The weekly podcast is called Unexplainable. We'll continue after the 409 00:25:34,880 --> 00:25:49,320 Speaker 1: break Hey, we're back. Let's finish this episode from our 410 00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 1: friends at the Vox Weekly show Unexplainable. Here's host Noah 411 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:58,480 Speaker 1: Hasenfeld bringing us back to our Puerto Rican blind astronomer 412 00:25:58,960 --> 00:26:00,120 Speaker 1: Wanda dis Miss. 413 00:26:01,400 --> 00:26:04,480 Speaker 2: These days. Wanda is an award winning astronomer who's worked 414 00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:08,359 Speaker 2: at places like the RCBO Observatory, the Smithsonian Harvard Center 415 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,440 Speaker 2: for Astrophysics, and she's been traveling around the world trying 416 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 2: to tell everyone she knows about soonification. 417 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,840 Speaker 5: I actually had met Wanda at a couple events and 418 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:22,200 Speaker 5: was just fascinated by her work and the idea of 419 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,639 Speaker 5: translating information to sound, and that just set off an 420 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:27,160 Speaker 5: inspirational light. 421 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:27,520 Speaker 3: Bulb for me. 422 00:26:28,200 --> 00:26:32,720 Speaker 2: That's kim arkand she's a visualization scientist at NASA's Chandra Observatory, 423 00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:35,479 Speaker 2: the biggest X ray telescope in the world. 424 00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:40,720 Speaker 5: X ray data is inherently out of the human realm 425 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,640 Speaker 5: of vision, right we cannot see anything besides visible light, 426 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:49,280 Speaker 5: and so having X ray images only just seemed like 427 00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:50,800 Speaker 5: it didn't really make much sense. 428 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,040 Speaker 2: Why not listen instead? 429 00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:57,119 Speaker 5: Why are we not prioritizing other methods of experiencing the 430 00:26:57,240 --> 00:26:58,240 Speaker 5: universe around us? 431 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,280 Speaker 3: And so moving into sonifica just made sense. 432 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:06,159 Speaker 2: Kim decided to take some of her data and convert 433 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:07,040 Speaker 2: it into sound. 434 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,480 Speaker 5: So this is the inner milk Ya and the supermassive 435 00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,800 Speaker 5: black hole that's lurking at the core. 436 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:18,399 Speaker 2: Here's a sionification Kim made of the galactic center. She 437 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,920 Speaker 2: combined images from three different telescopes taken in three types 438 00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:24,959 Speaker 2: of light. There's an image in infrared light, which is 439 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 2: below what we can see, there's visible light from the hubble, 440 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 2: and there's an image in X ray light, which is 441 00:27:30,760 --> 00:27:33,760 Speaker 2: above what we can see. And Kim decided to use 442 00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:37,480 Speaker 2: different instruments to clearly differentiate between the three kinds of light. 443 00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:41,080 Speaker 5: So in this case, the sounds that we assigned was 444 00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:50,439 Speaker 5: the piano to the lowest energy from infrared light, Fucky 445 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:58,600 Speaker 5: Violin for the mid range from hubble, and then the 446 00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,840 Speaker 5: highest energy is the Glockenspiel. 447 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 2: And the Glockenspiel was the X ray that is the 448 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 2: X ray light, so. 449 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 5: You could hopefully hear that little crescendo at the end 450 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:18,880 Speaker 5: that is our super massive black hole. So it's really 451 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,840 Speaker 5: singing in X ray light, which is again very useful. Right. 452 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:25,040 Speaker 5: This is an image that I had created with some 453 00:28:25,080 --> 00:28:29,680 Speaker 5: colleagues and I was so familiar with it, right, so familiar. 454 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,320 Speaker 5: But the first time I ever heard this piece all 455 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,600 Speaker 5: the way through, like, I really had to take a 456 00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 5: moment because it changed how I thought of this data set. 457 00:28:40,440 --> 00:28:42,240 Speaker 5: I was like, what is happening over there? 458 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,440 Speaker 2: Like? What is that over there? I never noticed this. 459 00:28:45,360 --> 00:28:47,600 Speaker 5: Is so strong there? How did I not notice that? 460 00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,720 Speaker 2: Listening to data like this, it allows you to hear 461 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:56,880 Speaker 2: changes in everything from pitch to volume, to tambur to rhythm, 462 00:28:57,880 --> 00:28:59,760 Speaker 2: and you can hear them all at the same time. 463 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:03,520 Speaker 2: Listening allows you to pick out one sound to focus 464 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,640 Speaker 2: on over background noise, like listening to someone you're talking 465 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:11,760 Speaker 2: to in a noisy room. And maybe most importantly, it 466 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:13,040 Speaker 2: forces you to slow down. 467 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:16,080 Speaker 5: When I'm looking at a data set that's an image, 468 00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,800 Speaker 5: I'm looking at all of the data at one time. 469 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:22,080 Speaker 5: There's a lot of information for your eye to parse 470 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 5: at any particular moment. But if I am listening to 471 00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 5: data of one of those same objects that I'm used 472 00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:32,160 Speaker 5: to looking at, I'm getting the information over time, and 473 00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,040 Speaker 5: it just for me at least, allows me to think 474 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,680 Speaker 5: through what it is I'm listening to in a very 475 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:46,480 Speaker 5: different way. I've had multiple people who are blind or 476 00:29:46,560 --> 00:29:51,080 Speaker 5: low vision approach us and say, I didn't think I 477 00:29:51,120 --> 00:29:56,040 Speaker 5: could even do astronomy because it's so visual. Sonification of 478 00:29:56,080 --> 00:29:58,720 Speaker 5: these types of objects has shown me that I might 479 00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:02,800 Speaker 5: be welcomed working for NASA, working at observatory. 480 00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 3: I had a group of thirteen students this summer and 481 00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,800 Speaker 3: I remember they said, I never thought I would be 482 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,960 Speaker 3: able to do it. It was by listening to the 483 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,760 Speaker 3: data that I realized that I can continue forward. 484 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 2: Wanda is still pushing sionification even further. She's working with 485 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 2: the Royal Academy of Science International Trust to launch an 486 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,520 Speaker 2: Institute for Multisensory Science in Lisbon this January. And she 487 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 2: isn't just excited about accessibility. She's excited about how scientists 488 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,840 Speaker 2: want to signify twenty thousand galaxies in order to look 489 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:40,960 Speaker 2: for patterns they might have missed, how they're analyzing gravitational 490 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:45,000 Speaker 2: waves from merging black holes. Have they even proposed using 491 00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:48,200 Speaker 2: sionification as a new way to search for dark matter. 492 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 3: It's exciting to have more people with different skills contributing 493 00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:59,040 Speaker 3: to the mainstream studying things that we never thought existed before. 494 00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:08,320 Speaker 2: As I was talking to Wanda, I started thinking back 495 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,440 Speaker 2: to the very first episode we did on this show 496 00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 2: about Vera Rubin, the scientists who discovered dark matter. How 497 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 2: people ignored her because she was a woman, How she 498 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,200 Speaker 2: was kept out of scientific institutions, How somehow she never 499 00:31:22,280 --> 00:31:26,719 Speaker 2: received a Nobel prize. There were so many moments when 500 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:31,480 Speaker 2: she could have just stopped. And if that had happened, 501 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:35,920 Speaker 2: who knows, maybe we'd still have no idea that most 502 00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:40,360 Speaker 2: of the universe is missing. How many other scientific ideas 503 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:43,960 Speaker 2: are we leaving undiscovered because we're making it too hard 504 00:31:43,960 --> 00:31:47,080 Speaker 2: for different kinds of people with all kinds of perspectives 505 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:52,120 Speaker 2: and sensory biases to do science. What might happen if 506 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:53,400 Speaker 2: we made it easier. 507 00:31:54,360 --> 00:32:00,480 Speaker 3: People that are not like the current workforce in physics, astronomy, matthias, 508 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:06,200 Speaker 3: the sciences. They would be transformed from beneficiaries to benefactors 509 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:13,680 Speaker 3: into ages of change. If we bring more skills to science, Oh, 510 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:18,720 Speaker 3: we will have to delete the word limit. The emergence 511 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:21,920 Speaker 3: of science would be INCREDI born. 512 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:38,600 Speaker 1: That was a special version of the podcast Unexplainable. 513 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:40,160 Speaker 4: It's on the Vox network. 514 00:32:40,680 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: Then I'm going to. 515 00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:42,360 Speaker 4: Share their credits now. 516 00:32:42,680 --> 00:32:46,200 Speaker 1: It was reported and produced by host Noah Hassenfeld. He 517 00:32:46,280 --> 00:32:49,720 Speaker 1: also wrote the music. It was edited by Johanna Salatarov. 518 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,320 Speaker 1: It was mixed by Christian Ayala and fact checking from 519 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:57,040 Speaker 1: Melissa Hirsh. You can listen to more episodes of Unexplainable 520 00:32:57,080 --> 00:33:11,440 Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Pastella Proxie a Bye h