WEBVTT - X-Files Science Part II: Bugs, Hybrids and Hypnosis 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from housetop works 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:15.000 dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to the Mind. My 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:18.920 name is Joe mccornet and I'm Christian Sager. Hey. Robert 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:22.000 lamb Our host of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, isn't 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.680 with us this week. This is our first solo flight. 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:27.040 But if you listen to the episode that we released 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:29.479 earlier this week, you will know that we are doing 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:32.200 a two parter on the science behind the X Files 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:34.720 right right right, And if you didn't catch our last 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.680 episode on the science of the X Files that was 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.800 part one, you should probably go back and listen to 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.519 that one first. It came out earlier this week because 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.159 our our first one, we're the we introduced the concept 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.600 of the X Files for people who aren't fans of 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.440 the show, who haven't seen it themselves, so you can 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.000 sort of follow along. In fact, we just got done 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.640 being on periscope and somebody asked us who they wanted 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.760 to know. I've never seen the show before? Can I 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.400 still listen to these episodes? And the answer is absolutely yeah. 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.320 We really hope they will be interesting anyway, but especially 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:03.880 so if you're a fan of the show. Even if 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:05.920 you're not a fan of the show. We hope there 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.319 are enough interesting ideas to to keep you on the 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:12.119 hook through this whole discussion. So, uh, if you want 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.240 to go back and check out that first episode first, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.399 we recommend that. If not, and you're here and you 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.119 just want to listen, feel free to continue because we're 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:22.280 gonna roll on in. We've got We're gonna talk about 0:01:22.480 --> 0:01:24.880 bugs and insects and the X Files. We're gonna talk 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.600 about how hypnosis, which I know is one of Joe's 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.840 favorite topics, and the X Files, and we're gonna talk 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.880 about the possibility of alien hybrids. Right. Yeah, So just 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.000 to revisit the impetus for doing this episode. We're doing 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.840 it because the X Files are coming back, and I 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:44.080 believe it's Sunday, January. They're coming back to television and 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:46.160 we're going to get a new X Files mini series 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.600 with Jillian Anderson, with David Duchovny, all the gangs, getting 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.320 all that together. Mitch Pleggy, I hope so playing Skinner. 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.400 Oh he's there. He's got a big old beard. I 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.800 can't wait. Is he bringing his muscles? He's probably been 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:00.840 working out for the last six month. I love Mitch 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:04.400 peleggy Um. And we want to mention also the top 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.000 one more thing about how we brought in a bunch 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:10.040 of sources on our research this time. But but our 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:12.959 primary resource over this past couple of episodes has been 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.440 a cool book called The Science of the X Files 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:20.120 by Gene Cavelos, who is an astrophysicist and mathematician now 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.000 a science and science fiction writer. So this is a 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:24.840 really fun book. It's been a lot of help to us. 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:27.280 It was written in so we we've had to check 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:29.200 on a bunch of things and and and see what 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.560 needs a little bit of updating. But but that's been 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.040 a big help, And I think we should get right 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.560 into it because I am just jones in to talk 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:41.920 about bugs. Yeah, I mean, insects are clearly a big 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:43.919 theme in the X Files. They show up all over 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.520 the place. We've got classics from the first season with 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:50.600 Darkness Falls were the copper Phages, which is one of 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.680 my favorite episodes, which is all about cockroaches invading us 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.680 well Town and uh. And then of course the general 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.400 myth arc of the show has been easy galore. These 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.240 feature pretty prominently in the movie too, write So I 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.600 really wanted to talk about darkness falls. But unfortunately, I 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.000 don't know if there's all that much great to say 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:13.880 about the science behind it. So the basic idea of 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.239 the episode is that Mulder Scully and some tag alongs 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:21.679 go into the woods where there have been some people disappearing, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.840 and they get assaulted by photophobic wood mites that kill 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.640 people by cocoon ing them in the forest. I believe 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:31.560 Tightus Wellover, the actor Titus Wellover is one of the 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.000 one of the tag along's. I don't know who that is. Oh, 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:35.839 he was in like dead Wood. He's in a bunch 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.320 of stuff. He was in Transformers Age of Extinction. Oh, well, 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:41.040 I remember that one. Who did he play in that? 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.480 He was like the bad FBI agent who wanted to 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.720 be mean to Optimus Prime. I don't remember. If you 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:49.320 saw him, you'd know him in a minute. He's a 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.280 character actor that's been a ton of stuff. Did he 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:54.560 get killed by the wood mites? Yeah? Okay, so yeah, Well, 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.160 we eventually find out that these that these attackers are 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:01.160 some sort of might or something grows in the trees 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:04.720 and they are allergic to light. So you can protect 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.040 yourself by surrounding yourself in light. But of course a 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.320 lot of the plot of the episode hinges on the 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.040 fact that Molder and Scully have a generator that's running out, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.040 and can they keep the lights on long enough to 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:19.320 survive through the night. But these things kill their victims. 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:21.760 I don't know if they kill them by cocoon ing 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:24.440 them or just they kill them and then cocoon them. 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.000 But there's there's I think there's a part where live 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:29.320 people are pulled out of a cocoon, so it seems 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:33.000 a cocooning process that kills. I got the impression that like, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.440 once they're cocoon to, their bodies get desiccated somehow by 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.360 these by these bugs. So I wanted to find out 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.640 if there were any really cool, real science facts about 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.000 bugs that kill by cocoon ing. And there are no 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.880 real killer wood mites that I know of. But one 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.440 interesting thing I did find was not about an insect, 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:57.080 but about a spider that kills insects with cocoons. So 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.280 this was This was a July two blog post found 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.559 by a science writer named Ed Young, who's a writer 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.000 I like. I follow him, and he he talks about 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.720 this group of spiders called the ellbrids, which use their 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.480 silk line and these are his words, as a murderous 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:17.400 garbage compactor. Okay, alright, so I'm kind of imagining that 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.400 does this. Does the silk from their their web kind 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:23.279 of cut through the enemies as its as it constricts, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.680 it crushes, crushes them to death. So most spiders kill 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.280 with venom, and those that spin webs they use their 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:33.880 webs for like locomotion dropping down from something, or for 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.760 traps to catch insects in. But a scientist named William 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:41.160 Epperhard from the University of Costa Rica noticed that the 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.359 librids spend more than an hour wrapping their prey in 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.480 more than eighty meters of silk. So they catch an 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.720 insect and then they just started wrapping and they just 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.560 keep going and wrapping it, Yeah, wrapping it and wrapping it. 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:02.080 One species in particular, called philippin Ella vicina, uses so 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.720 much silk at such great compression that it crushes the 0:06:05.760 --> 0:06:10.320 insect inside, making quote its legs break and its eyes 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:12.520 buckle inwards. So this sounds like some kind of like 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.520 medieval torture device like that that would be used to 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.680 get people to talk somehow. Yeah, it's the spider version 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.800 of the scavengers daughter. Yeah, exactly Scavenger's daughter was what 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.880 I was thinking of. So okay, so darkness falls. Maybe 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:27.880 these are like we never I don't think see what 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.560 these insects actually look like other than just like a 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:32.839 haze of green. Yeah, they just kind of show up 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:36.839 as dots and a lot. But but maybe they're tiny, 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:42.760 tiny green spiders that we've very strong cocoons that squeeze 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:44.920 the life out of their victims. I don't think it's 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.840 very plausible, but but imagine if I mean, one thing 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:51.200 that's certainly true is that spider webbing is spider silk 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:54.280 is incredibly strong for its size, you know, it's it's 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.920 very fine. But for for how fine it is, it 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:02.160 has amazing tentsile drength. And so maybe if you've got 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:05.719 a whole whole bunch of arachnids working in tandem to 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.279 cocoon a person like this with super high compression, I 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.880 don't know, could that cause injury? Maybe I'd like to 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:14.560 I'd like to imagine it could. Yeah, maybe that's where 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.280 they're going to the episode. But they just didn't have 0:07:16.320 --> 0:07:20.560 the budget to quite show the incredible eighty meters silk 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.360 per victim. Then again, I don't know if if the 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.080 cocoon ing in the episode really compresses the victim all 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:29.000 that hard, it seems like that. I think you're right, 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.640 they get dried out or something like that. Yeah. But 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:35.680 another episode that has some really really great bug science 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:38.320 in it is War of the copper Phages. Yeah, where 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.880 the copper Phages is written by one of our favorite 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:43.560 X Files writers, Darren Morgan. He only wrote like four 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.880 or five episodes, but they're like all my favorite episode. Yeah. Yeah. 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.080 And in this one, you know, general premises, Molder goes 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.680 to a small town in which cockroaches are swarming all 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.000 over people and killing them, and he's coming up with 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:59.680 all these various ways that he thinks that the cockroaches 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.280 are doing, usually supernatural or or or fantastics in some way. 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:05.000 So one of the things we should mention in the 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.720 title is, well, what is the term copper phage means? Well, 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:11.520 a copper phage it means one who feeds on excrement, 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:16.160 because cockroaches eat their own and other species. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.760 it's it's a lovely term. So cockroaches aren't the only 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.120 copper phages, but they are. They are a type of 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.600 copper fage. I've I've heard that some of our coworkers 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.720 here at How Stuff Works are copper phages. That is inappropriate. 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.000 I've got a great insult for somebody next next time. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.480 Somebody's got a got a really obnoxious grin that this 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:37.520 will get past the sensors. So you could you tell 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:44.400 them they have a copper phaging grin. That's great? So okay, 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.080 So this episode basically, you know, they run around trying 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:50.319 to come up with all these ways, and it's everything 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.600 from like the copper phages that cockroaches are aliens to 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.880 their tiny little robots, right, and and Scully basically debunks 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.280 every single thing he comes up with over the over 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.280 the phone. It's great. Yeah, Scully in the episode, molders 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.280 exploring this town and doing all chasing down all the leads, 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:10.839 and I think scullies at home eating ice cream quick, right, 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.440 she just she talks to Molder on the phone and 0:09:13.520 --> 0:09:17.000 debunks all of his theories over the over the lines. Yeah. 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.040 So here's what we do know about cockroaches though, in 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.319 the possibility of them swarming all over us and killing us, right, 0:09:23.400 --> 0:09:26.480 cockroaches breed very quickly. We know that we know anybody 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.280 who's encountered a cockroach in their home is going to 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.560 be aware of this stuff. They run very fast, especially 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.120 for their their size. And we know that they carry 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:39.480 bacteria easily because the bacteria in their feces, which let's 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:44.680 remember they eat, remains viable for a long period of time. Uh. 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:49.400 And yes, some people like myself are allergic to cockroaches. Yeah, 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:52.720 especially if they're exposed more often to them. So now 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.920 is that allergy like allergic to their bites, are allergic 0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.480 to I don't know, some kind of particle dispersed in 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.000 the air. Yeah. I believe that it's remnants of their exoskeleton. 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.200 So how do I expand this? I had an allergy 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:08.840 test done last year where they basically do that thing 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.679 where they line up your arm and they shoot little 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:15.920 uh injections of particles into your your skin to find 0:10:15.960 --> 0:10:20.800 out what you're what's your allergic little allergens exactly? Skin 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:23.640 wheel responses, Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. And they do it 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.160 on my well, at least in my case, they did 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:27.439 it on my arm and on my back, and cockroaches 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.800 were one of the like forty things. Uh and it 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.640 and it welled up. So I don't know, I haven't 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:35.679 been exposed to that many cockroaches. So I don't know 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:38.800 where this particular trait came from, But what what use 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.760 are you supposed to make of that information? It's like, well, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:44.600 don't get in the bathtub full of cockroaches. I think 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.120 it's like more along the lines of this is an 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:50.079 allergen that if you if you live in a place 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:52.319 where there are known to be a lot of cockroaches 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:53.679 and there's just no way that you're going to get 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:56.959 rid of them, should move you, should or take medicine 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.319 or you know, um, one of the things they pitched 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.480 me there with that therapy. I don't know if you've 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.960 heard of this, the allergen therapy where they slowly expose 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.040 you more and more to the thing that you're allergic to. 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:13.040 Way they like inject you with it with injections with cockroaches. Well, 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:17.800 I mean it's particulate matter. Yeah, yeah, I don't know that. 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.600 They have like a bag of cockroaches in the back 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.520 and they're just like grinding them up with a mortar 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.040 past they put them in there and put a little 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.439 in the syringe. Oh man, well, I can only imagine, 0:11:29.440 --> 0:11:30.920 given all the things that I was found to be 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:36.640 allergic to, how disgusting that that mixed bag. But anyways, yeah, 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:38.880 so people are allergic to them. But here's the thing. 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:43.760 Cockroaches don't usually swarm, right. We don't find like hundreds 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.839 of cockroaches swarming on a live person and just devouring 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:49.480 them like they seems like. They don't usually move towards 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.640 you either. You flip the lights on and they almost 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.720 a yeah. Usually what it is if you see a 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.160 large group of them moving at one time, Usually what 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.080 that is is that they've found a suitable home, like 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:05.520 let's say a sewage plant, right, Uh. And the cockroaches, 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:09.080 an individual cockroach can release a pheromone that will alert 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:13.720 other roaches to its location and to say like, hey, 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.559 look we've got this whole hotel we can move into now, right. Um. 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.040 So there's that. And I also want to mention something 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:24.200 else that we've talked about. Uh. I know you've talked 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.800 about on Forward Thinking, one of our other shows here. 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.120 It's a show that Joe does with Jonathan Strickland and 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.160 Lauren Vogel Bomb about future science. Um. And I talked 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.000 about it on a on another one of our shows 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.160 called Stuff of Genius, which is that you can actually 0:12:39.280 --> 0:12:44.520 control cockroaches by putting backpacks on them, these little tiny 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:49.160 backpacks that have electrodes that connect to their brain. And uh, 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:52.719 there's a there. There actually was a kickstarter uh two 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.960 years ago that would allow you to use your phone 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.120 once you've hooked up a cockroach in such a way 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:02.160 in order to basically drive the cock roach around right right. Uh. 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:05.240 And this technology was actually developed by a guy named 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:09.160 Dr Isao Shimu Yama at the University of Tokyo. But 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.400 the kickstarter was basically coming up with a way to 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.600 to make this sort of a do it yourself science 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.360 kit for kids, I guess, although I'd be terrified at 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.040 the idea of kids just like trying to stick electrical 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:26.400 probes into a cockroach's head. Uh. Anyways, it's totally possible 0:13:26.440 --> 0:13:29.560 to do this. And one of the reasons why is 0:13:29.679 --> 0:13:34.560 because we're theorizing that cockroach bodies are actually one of 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.120 the best ways that we might have to explore space. 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.160 So a robot cockroach or a cockroach that you're controlling 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:46.800 with a little iPhone backpack might be an ideal way. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.080 And Molder even in this episode says something like he 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:52.200 thinks the cockroaches have been sent from some alien civilization 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:58.520 to to explore Earth, right right, Um, so we've already 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:04.319 built cockroach esque robots to explore volcanoes. Uh. They dispose 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:06.680 of minds and clean them up, and they also clean 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.480 out nuclear power plants. Yeah. I've actually heard about the 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:13.200 idea of using roach like robots to uh to search 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.719 in rubble after earthquakes for surviving. That seems like a 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.920 good idea as well, right yeah, yeah, So well, the 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.040 reason why is because there are multiple legs in the 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.880 way that they're you know, nervous system is set up, 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.680 they offer both stability and mobility. Uh. And they also 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:35.400 have centralized and decentralized control systems. So the central controls 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:38.440 of their legs, you know, it governs all their legs, 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.080 their whole body's movement, but they also have de central 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.560 control on each leg, allowing it to act independently. So 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:46.800 I can see now why like malder you know, if 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.440 malder knew this, I don't know if he was familiar 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.720 with the that doctor's research at the time, but that 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:54.720 he would think, oh, yeah, maybe this is like a 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.720 little uh probe for an alien civilization or something like that. 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.360 Maybe that's how will probe other civilizations in the future 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:06.680 will send spaceships full of robot cockroaches. That makes a 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.320 good point, and that actually ties into something I know 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.800 I've said on this show before, and it's an opinion 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:14.840 I've held for a while now that when we encounter 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.400 an alien civilization, I don't think we're going to meet them. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:21.480 I think we're going to meet their technology. Right, whatever 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:25.360 they send, they're much more likely, I mean much more likely, 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:29.200 like I actually know. But my my gut feeling is 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.120 that what would be more probable is that they would 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.760 send feelers out throughout the galaxy, that there would be 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:40.720 sort of unmanned probes, so weaponized bees I think is 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.200 our best transition next, right, Yeah, this has been a 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.520 recurring theme in the show. That's a lot of fun. Actually, 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.640 it's it's in the movie. It's in some classic myth 0:15:49.760 --> 0:15:54.360 Arc episodes like Herren Vulcan, Zero Sum, and Uh. The 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:58.600 bees appear sometimes as vectors for the intentional spread of 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.360 a disease like smallpoxox is a big theme in the 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.320 X Files. Yeah, but they also sometimes appear as what 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.520 appears to be just a direct attack weapons, stinging people 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:11.480 to death. So they you know, they float into town 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:13.800 and sting the enemies of the conspiracy to death like 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:18.640 this mobile cloud assassin, which is a decent idea. They're multifunctional, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:21.840 and I wanted to look into the possibility of using 0:16:22.200 --> 0:16:26.000 bees like this as a weapon in the ways envisioned 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:28.040 in the X file. And this has actually come up. 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.360 You reminded me before we came in here. This has 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:32.400 come up on stuff to blow your mind before. When 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:36.040 we were talking about wolfsbane and aconite. I guess I 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.240 theorized that you could have a bee pollinate an aconite 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.720 flower and and then potentially sting to somebody and spread 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.920 the aconite. And we actually had a listener right in 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:47.960 and say that that is absolutely not possible, with a 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.320 good explanation of why they did, and we addressed it 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.280 in a listener mail episode. But yeah, so, yeah, there 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.440 there are many diseases that are spread by insects. That's 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.560 fairly obvious. Virus is spread by arthur pods or often 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.399 known as arbor viruses, and these they tend to be 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:08.600 spread by blood sucking insects that bite or puncture the 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:15.160 host animals skin like mosquito or fleas or lice or ticks. Yeah, uh, 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.960 and not by stinging insects like bees. So I would 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.200 say that in principle, it doesn't seem impossible to engineer 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:24.879 bees that deliver a virus via their sting. But I 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.399 couldn't find any examples of anything like this in the 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:33.320 real world. And uh, and I couldn't really imagine also 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.000 why this would be done, because just let me back 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:38.760 up and get into it a little bit here, Okay, 0:17:38.960 --> 0:17:41.920 I'm with you. So spreading smallpox is a good way 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:44.280 to kill lots of people if that's your goal, as 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.479 as the cigarette smoking man or some other conspiracy commanding figure, 0:17:48.760 --> 0:17:51.480 if you want to cause terror havoc can kill millions, 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.160 you could You could use a bioweapon. You could spread 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.280 a very deadly germ like small box, the small boxes, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:18:01.359 the very ola virus. It's highly contagious and and it 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.600 and it kills lots of people. I remember reading a 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:06.080 stat that it kills like one in four people who 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.720 get it. So what does Cavelos have to say about 0:18:09.960 --> 0:18:13.240 bees and smallpox in her book, Well, she says, you know, 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.359 she's thinking about the question, could be be engineered to 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:20.359 inject a virus like smallpox in its sting? And she 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.040 speaks to a doctor w K y'all click and y'all 0:18:24.040 --> 0:18:28.800 click says, basically, scientists can never rule out anything. It's 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:32.160 kind of a vague answer just through the whole thousands 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.600 of years worth of research right out the window. But 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.040 I guess that's that's an appropriate point with this topic, 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:42.000 because there's nothing. There's nothing that says it would be 0:18:42.040 --> 0:18:46.879 impossible to get a virus into the venom gland be 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:50.000 But it just doesn't seem like it doesn't seem probable. Yeah, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.359 it doesn't seem like the best way to go about 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.840 it either. So Cavela speculates the bees and the X 0:18:55.880 --> 0:18:59.720 Files are the species APIs smell of Fera scuta lata, 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.800 which is the African honey bee, often sometimes known in 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.440 the alarmist press as the killer bees. Yeah, and this 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.679 was right at the height of the X Files. This 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.920 was I think when the hysteria about killer bees man 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.320 America was really can you remember this in the at 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:17.200 least the news stories killer bees. Yeah, they're gonna they're 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:19.679 gonna come and they're gonna I believe they were supposed 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.760 to come up from the South, right, and they're gonna 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.040 kill everybody in Texas first or something. Yeah, I think 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:26.400 the the idea is that they were introduced to South 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.600 America from Africa, they became an invasive species when they 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.040 got loose and they spread up from the south over 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.680 the continent, and that they were they were super dangerous. 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.560 I think that was overstated. They can be dangerous in 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.959 that situation. Uh, what I've read is that their venom 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.480 isn't any more dangerous than that of other bees, but 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:50.040 they are reportedly more aggressive in their swarming and stinging behavior. 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.000 So they're just more likely to get really worked up 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:55.680 and keep chasing you in attacking. And that that lines 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:57.600 up with what we see of like the be attacks 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.359 in X files pretty much like like I think I remember, 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.520 like somebody walks into a room full of them and 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:07.679 they just all immediately attack with this person, right, And 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.520 so what happens when a bee stings you, Well, there's 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.439 one particular type of bee in the colony that stings you. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.800 It's it's not going to be the male drone or 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:19.800 the queen that's usually stinging you, but the female worker 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:24.080 bee and her stinger is a modified ovipositor. So it's 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:26.800 the same organ that in a queen becomes the the 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.679 egg laying organ. But in these in these sterile sisters, 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:33.240 in the in the sterile worker bees, it turns into 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:37.080 these barbed needles that stab you as the bee furiously 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.159 pumps in venom. And then usually the worker bee dies 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.920 after this within a couple of hours, So it's literally 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:46.920 the tiny death. So yeah, you can you can imagine 0:20:46.960 --> 0:20:49.359 why it would seem appealing as a as a sort 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:53.959 of infectious agent delivery system because it's literally injecting you 0:20:54.040 --> 0:20:56.439 kind of like a hypodermic needle if somebody wanted to 0:20:56.480 --> 0:21:02.000 inject you with smallpox. Yeah, but bees don't get smallpox, 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:04.960 and even if they did, it probably wouldn't infect you 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.080 for a sting because it's not delivering. It's not just 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.720 designed to do that. It delivers the venom. I believe 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.359 this was what the our listener who wrote in about 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.000 the aconite. It's just along the same lines of reasoning 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.159 that even if it digested it, it's it's not the 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.840 like organ isn't even connected to the rest of its 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.080 uh system. Yeah, so bees are not a good candidate 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:30.359 for delivering smallpox. But that does not mean you can't 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:34.920 use bees as weapons. In fact, there is a fascinating 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.600 history of humans doing this very thing. I checked out 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:42.600