WEBVTT - Jetlagged Hamsters and the Smell of Space! 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.120 Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.720 are taking a little break, but we will be back 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:09.600 with brand new episodes starting September ninth, and we have 0:00:09.680 --> 0:00:12.760 been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer. 0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.400 I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.560 the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:21.600 twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:26.439 This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.639 did all this extra research for it. We pulled in 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.800 contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.639 the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:42.200 fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:44.880 it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:52.080 dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:58.520 of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will? 0:00:58.560 --> 0:00:59.280 What's that? Mango? 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:00.680 So what's funny? 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.319 You know what's funny? Your headband is funny? But sorry 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:06.240 it interrupt Go ahead. 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:09.920 Well, we've been friends for a little over twenty five 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:10.440 years now. 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.839 I think we actually known each other for twenty seven years. 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.959 Now if I'm not mistake, Ye, but I said friend, right, gotcha, gotcha. 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:20.679 But think of all the fun things that have happened 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.280 in the last twenty five years, right like this, the 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:26.280 launch of the iPod, thousands of songs in your pocket. 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:31.120 Social media exploded with Facebook, people started dancing Gungnam style, 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.680 and we're taught how to duggy for some reason. There's 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.400 planking and photos that became a fad, and Lady Gaga 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.920 wore a meat dress to the MTV video War. 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:42.679 I think that summed it up. I think you actually 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:43.319 covered everything. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.160 Yeah, yeah, I mean we also had a black president, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:50.120 our first black president, gay marriage became legal, and people 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:54.400 challenge each other with ice buckets. But for me, everything 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:55.640 really starts with that meat dress. 0:01:55.720 --> 0:01:57.920 Yeah, and don't forget we launched a little magazine from 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:00.640 our DRM room called Mental Flaws back in the year 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:01.360 two thousand. 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.680 Yeah. I can't believe it's been almost twenty five years 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.160 since that first issue hit newsstands. But this week's super 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:10.919 special edition of Part Time Genius is all about celebrating 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.320 this last quarter century. Every day this week, we're gonna 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.120 be counting down the twenty five greatest science ideas of 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:20.200 the past twenty five years, and we are sending out 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.440 lots of fun prizes to our listeners too. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:24.840 But I've just got one question for you, mego, why 0:02:24.880 --> 0:02:29.280 are you wearing a Valor tracksuit and a homemade headband? Again, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.480 I don't really understand what's happening. 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.800 Here because I am pomp Oh got it? Okay, so 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:35.480 let's dive in. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.480 Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to part time genius Pearson. 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:02.639 And of course I'm here with my friend Mangush hot 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.320 ticketter and over there tending to what I thought was 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.600 a Bob Ross chia pet but is actually a vintage, 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:13.239 discontinued Albert Einstein chia pet is our pal and producer 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.400 Dylan Fagan and Mango. I think Einstein with sprouts for 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:18.880 his hair is exactly the energy we're trying to pull 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:20.560 for this week's twenty five list. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:23.560 Yeah, that's right. Well, so I kind of want to 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.000 start by having you tell our listeners about how we 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.400 became friends, because I was definitely trivia obsessed as a kid. 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.519 I think I've mentioned that when cable came to my 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.280 neighborhood in third grade, my friends and I were obsessed 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.400 with doubledare and every day in the summer, we would 0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:41.200 practice drilling each other with trivia questions and setting up 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.000 these challenges all over our houses and the creek in 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:47.040 the backyard, and you know, we're just trying to get 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.320 ourselves physically prepped for this thing. We want to be 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.640 ready in case a producer just called us up to 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.320 be on the show. But you were obviously obsessed with lists. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:57.600 I was very much obsessed with liss. I think this 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:01.320 started when I was probably eleven or twelve years old. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.120 I just love making lists. They all started as pretty basic. 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.560 It's like, here's my list of presidents, here's my list 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:10.600 of state capitals, and then it got a little weirder 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.520 over the years. It was like, here's a list of 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.919 my favorite left handed artists and favorite you know books 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.560 with more than four hundred pages or whatever it might 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:21.599 have been. It was just fun to keep lists, and 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:24.159 people would ask like, why do you do this, And 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:27.200 I didn't really know the answer, other than it just 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.919 felt good to collect this information, you know, and to 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.000 just know this information, so anyway was what I did. 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.719 I love it, and so when we started Mental Fluss, 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.800 we were definitely list obsessed. And one of my favorite 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.240 annual things that we do was we would declare the 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:44.680 most important books of the last twenty five years for 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:46.680 the most important music of the last twenty five years 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:49.719 of TV shows, and the lists were always so fun 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:53.400 and totally unexpected. You came away just appreciating all these 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:56.360 other amazing things. I don't know about you, but I 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:57.839 think for me, part of the reason I wanted to 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.040 do a big science list this week was because right now, 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.560 you know, there's so much talk about AI and gene 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.920 therapies and those kind of dominate the headlines. Yeah, but 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.720 I also love the weird, fun inventions and kind of 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.839 the joy of Obama at the Science Fair shooting rockets 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.880 and things, And you know, science is obviously nerdy, but 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.960 it's also cool and weird and fun, and I thought 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:24.800 it would be just really fun to celebrate it. 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:27.000 That sounds good, But I feel like before we dive in, 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.920 we really have to talk about the process and everything 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.719 that goes into how we choose a list like this. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.159 So before we jump in, do you want to start 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.600 by giving a little rationale of how we chose all 0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:39.279 of these things? 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.040 Yeah, totally so, Gabe, Mary, our friend Lucas Riley, They 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:45.640 helped us look up a whole bunch of ideas and 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.880 then we pare them down to things that truly delighted 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.680 or impressed us ideally both of those things. And then 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:55.040 you and I picked a bunch and researched some more. 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:56.880 And now's the fun part where we get to like 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.920 take turns presenting the ideas. Plus we are sending part 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.840 time genius certificates to all of the winners, which they 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:06.320 can put on their refrigerators. 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:06.640 All of the winners. 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:10.760 Yeah, and also atomic fireballs, the most sciencey candy we 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:13.240 could find in honor of this week's Signs special. 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:16.600 You know, it's funny that we're choosing fireballs because, as 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:18.960 my kids know, I love fireballs. So we have this 0:06:19.040 --> 0:06:22.640 special cabinet at our house just outside the kitchen called 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:26.400 the Center of Excellence, and it's basically where all of 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.599 my candy obsessions get to be stored because I'll fall 0:06:29.640 --> 0:06:31.000 in love with the candy. We were at a great 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.479 sushi restaurant and I love the little treats they bring 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:35.680 you at the end of it, and I decided I 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.279 needed to order those in bulk. I ordered some atomic 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.240 fireballs in bulk, and then I move on to the 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.320 next thing, but we just keep them in that collection. 0:06:42.480 --> 0:06:45.480 So it's a big prize, and we're giving out prizes 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:47.360 on our insta all week as well. 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.520 Right, yeah, so Mary is running contest for us all 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:53.240 week and has a bunch of ridiculous swag to send out. 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.160 She and the first who manages are social media our 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.480 friend Calypso, so after you listen, head over to our 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.200 Instagram at part time Genius and go win some stuff. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:06.040 Wet to send it out. But that is way too 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:07.719 much set up. Let's just get into. 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:11.680 It all right, Okay, So don't let the number fool you. 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:14.360 Our list is kicking off with an innovation that happens 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.480 to tackle one of the biggest problems in all of society, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.000 and that is how to get ketchup out of a bottle. Now, 0:07:21.040 --> 0:07:23.160 as we all know, there is nothing more frustrating than 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.400 holding a ketchup bottle at a forty five degree angle 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.560 over your food, shaking it vigorously and having absolutely nothing 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.560 come out. And for years there were only two solutions. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:34.680 People would jam a knife in a bottle. I feel 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:36.320 like you don't see that as much anymore. You remember 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.440 chaing as a kid. I feel like people just would 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.360 put that knife in there and then give it a stir, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.480 and they hope the ketchup would start flowing. Also, there's 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.960 the smack the number trick, where people figured out that 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:47.960 if you give the number fifty seven on the side 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.240 of a glass bottle of hinds a nice wallap, it 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.560 would get the ketchup moving. But of course the problem 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:55.680 with both of those is that you could end up 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:57.880 with way too much ketchup on your fries. 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.520 Yeah, it's kind of a ketchup canon that we've all experienced. 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.119 It's exactly right, and one of the biggest leaps forward 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:06.600 for all of humanity and our quest board an appropriate 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:09.960 amount of ketchup was the upside down ketchup bottle. 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.520 Right, so you are obviously talking about the ketchup bottles 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.119 where the dispenser is on the bottom and it's sitting 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:17.920 on there and the gravity is just kind of pulling 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:18.240 it down. 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.720 Right, That's exactly right. That bottle, or rather the valve 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.640 in it, was invented by a gentleman named Paul Brown. Now, 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.280 his idea wasn't specifically for ketchup. He just thought a 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:31.520 better valve would work for most liquids from dish detergent, 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:34.559 to hand sanitizers, to whatever it may be. This is 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.240 in the nineteen nineties, So Paul Brown had this dream, 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:40.080 but he really struggled to make it a reality. He 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.920 made one hundred and eleven different prototypes, Wow, maxed out 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.760 a bunch of credit cards, borrowed money from his folks 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.079 to you know, make a better valve for dispensing liquid. 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:53.240 And while trying to make this valve, like, what was 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:55.920 he trying to solve for exactly, well, he realized. 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:57.920 That to make a better squeeze bottle, you wanted the 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.720 nozzle to open when you place pressure on it, but 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.120 then you need it to completely close up when the 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:07.080 pressure is removed, so there's no accidental leaking from this anyway. 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:11.319 After years of failures, his one hundred and twelfth prototype work, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:16.040 and once he'd perfected his valve, everyone came calling, including NASA, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:17.960 who saw I use for the valve in space and 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.679 was trying to make leak proof cups for astronauts. 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:21.000 Wow. 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:23.920 Shampoo bottlers who wanted a more convenient bottle for their 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.880 soaps and shampoos also came calling on him as well, 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:30.200 and eventually, after he pitched it to Hines. They saw 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:34.080 his innovation as part of a ketchup revolution. They started 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.360 this ad campaign about the quote waiting Man, where a 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.240 guy is just sitting and holding a glass Ketchup bottle 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:43.840 vertically over his meal and nothing is moving or happening 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.760 for like twenty seconds, and then his wife comes over 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.080 squeezes the perfect amount of ketchup onto his food and 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.160 solves the problem in a second. And the ad slogan 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.400 was quote, no weight, no mess, no anticipation. 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.760 It is so funny that as a society we are 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.840 so impatient that we need our ketchup immediately. Yeah, it's 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:04.800 just a condiment. 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.480 I don't know why you're you really don't get it. 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.080 It's super important that we get it quickly. But I 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:12.040 was actually thinking this too, to be honest, until I 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:14.760 read this Malcolm Gladwell piece on ketchup. And this was 0:10:15.040 --> 0:10:16.800 a piece that he wrote for The New Yorker, and 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.520 in it he quotes a food professor who calls ketchup 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:23.079 the Esperanto of cuisine because it's one of the few 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:27.480 foods that satisfies your cravings for salty, sweet, sour, bitter, 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:30.120 and dow mommy all at once. If you think about it. 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.760 That's actually true, and that's part of the reason the 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.080 world loves ketchup so much. But back to Brown. According 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.599 to the patent professor, this is a website on inventors 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.120 and patents. Today, about seventy five percent of Hinz bottles 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.200 that are sold are upside down squeeze bottles. Now, it 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:47.679 wasn't long before Brown paid off his credit cards and 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:48.920 paid his parents back. 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.199 Of course, I mean, I do love this, but this 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.559 invention is from the nineteen nineties, right, so like it 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.280 doesn't quite make the twenty five year cut off list. 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:58.880 I thought you were going to call me out for that, 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:01.600 but I'm actually not done yet. So all of those 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.920 lay the groundwork for the quote problem of ketchup. 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:06.360 Look at me being impatient. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:09.840 Yeah, you're doing that. But even though Paul Brown squeeze 0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.760 bottle valve helped us get much more ketchup out of bottles, 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.600 the truth is it's hard to get the last bits 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.200 of ketchup out of there, and that means there's a 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.960 lot of food waste. But that's where some grad students 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.320 from MIT came in in twenty twelve, that is, within 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:27.520 the last twenty five years. Here a PhD candidate named 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.400 Dave Smith and a team of mechanical engineers and nanotechnologists 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:36.040 at MIT's Varnacy Research Group had been working on various 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.160 lubricants and coatings to solve various issues. So they were 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.160 tackling things like how to coat an oil or gas 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.800 line so that there's no clogs, or how to cote 0:11:44.800 --> 0:11:47.160 a windshield so that the water doesn't collect on it 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:50.080 and is more easily pushed off by your wipers. But 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.520 then they started wondering what would happen if they applied 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.760 some of their technology to consumer packaging. I think the 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.440 idea started with the frustration of getting honey out of 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.240 a bottle, you know, because there's still so much much 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:01.240 in there at that point. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.079 Yeah, I mean it's obviously annoying. But why were they 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.199 putting all this technology towards food bottles? 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.600 Well, according to Fast Company, that's one of the questions 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.240 they got asked the most, and the answer is that 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.240 the market for bottles, and I'm just talking sauce bottles 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.880 here is a seventeen billion dollar market, and if you 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.560 could solve food waste there, you could basically save a 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.360 million tons of food from being thrown out every single year. 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:25.320 That's pretty incredible. 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:28.760 Yeah, so they created this coating called liquid glide, and 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.400 it's really miraculous. Like if you watch the videos, the 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.120 Ketchup flows out of the bottle almost like a liquid 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:37.880 with nothing left in the bottle. As Professor Krippavaranasi puts it, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:41.720 there's this fundamental friction constraint called the no slip boundary 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:44.640 condition between a liquid and a solid. And so because 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:47.280 they basically created a new surface for the liquid to 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.920 move on, you can get the product to slide across 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:53.439 the surface. And so he continues describing this. He says that, Aha, 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:56.160 moment meant we could get around a fundamental constraint of 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:57.239 fluid dynamics. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.400 That's really cool that they can take the like uncooperative 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.160 fluid like ketchup and just make a glide out. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.240 Yeah, and all the applications for this are actually pretty crazy. 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:09.880 It is it just ketchup or honey that it affects suddenly, 0:13:09.960 --> 0:13:12.360 Like you can get toothpaste out of a tube more effectively, 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.760 which makes that recyclable. You can use variations on medical 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.600 devices to get essential fluids out of bags. Like, it's 0:13:18.640 --> 0:13:19.520 really remarkable. 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.480 I love that. So of course, congratulations doctor Varnossi and 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.880 team will be sending you a part time genius certificate 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.360 for your achievement and a handful of atomic fireballs for 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:35.800 your important work, and such a great price. So sitting 0:13:35.800 --> 0:13:38.560 at number twenty four is a pretty whimsical invention that 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.559 maybe means more to me than it means to you. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:44.679 It is a floating hot tub boat invented in Finland 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.120 called the hot tug, which sounds a little dirty, but 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:50.840 this floating tub is actually really wonderful. 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.960 And there's this story about why you like hot tub 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:53.280 so much. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:55.800 I'm guessing I mean to be clear, I do like 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.200 hot tubs in the appropriate context. My friend Dave is 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.120 a hot tub behind his place in Idaho, and you 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:02.880 can sit out there when it's snowing and look at 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.160 the Grand Tetons behind you, and that is incredible. But 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.360 also there was one time when I was on a 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.480 work trip and I showed up at a hotel room 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.160 in a dicey neighborhood that had been booked for me, 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:15.000 and there was a giant hot tub in the middle 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.440 of the hotel room, and that was less appealing. 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:19.680 Yeah, I could see maybe avoiding. 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.840 That, but as you might know, I hate cold water. 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:24.480 And part of the reason is that when I was 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.400 on my study of broad Trip, and this is so 0:14:26.480 --> 0:14:29.120 many years ago in Tivet, we were hunting for this 0:14:29.280 --> 0:14:34.480 anthropological evidence of a semi nomadic civilization, and there hadn't 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.480 been a lot of study done in this region of Tibet. 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.560 It was pretty pristine and hard for academics to get 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.480 to anyway, my friends and I saw these hots that 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.640 were set up across this little river, and we knew 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.520 we wanted to get to it, and there was a 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:50.120 bridge about two hours up one way and one hour 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:52.600 down the other way, and so my friends were like, 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.680 we should probably just cross this river and be clear. 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.440 There was snow on the ground at the time, and 0:14:57.480 --> 0:15:00.400 the water was ice cold, and we didn't want to 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.080 get our clothes wet. So basically we got naked and 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.240 crossed this thing so we'd have dry clothes on the 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.120 other side. And I just remember getting up to my 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:10.480 ankles and being like, I've never been this cold, oh, 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:12.120 and then getting up to my knees and being like, 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.640 I've never been this cold, and then getting to my waist. 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.000 But the current was also crazy strong, and I almost 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:20.760 slipped out some moss and somehow caught myself with the 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:24.840 stick and it was miserable. But I just remember being 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.280 so cold for so long. And the worst part was 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:30.520 the huts weren't any big discovery, so it was just 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:35.560 like a normal settlement. But I was very angry. And 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:37.760 since then, I don't really go in cold water, but 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:39.720 I will go in hot water. 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:41.520 And that's where the hot tug comes in. 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.920 Wow, I'm with you on the cold water. I don't 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.640 understand people that can do the cold plunge thing. It's 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.800 just I don't get it. But anyway, tell me more 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:49.720 about this invention. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:53.080 So it is the brainchild of a Dutch furniture designer. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.040 His name is Frank de Bruyne. And it's not just 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.600 a barrel with heat under it. So this thing is 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.680 a beautiful tooth liter eight seater jacuzzi boat. And according 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.120 to an interview with the New York Post, Jabrun actually 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:08.400 grew up on a barge where his parents were skippers, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:12.080 and he'd always loved campfires and nature and looking up 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.640 at the stars. And at some point he wondered, like, 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.200 what if you could have a mobile hot tub, Like 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:19.120 not just something that was parked in your backyard, but 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.600 something that would allow you to float out wherever you were, 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:24.720 and that could be on a lake or a fjord, 0:16:25.000 --> 0:16:27.840 And so he created this boat with an electric motor, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.320 so it is entirely quiet for the nature aspect. But 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:35.640 the hot tub contraption is also entirely stable, so you 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.480 can sit in the hot tub and then stand up 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.400 and dive off the side into like a crisp, refreshing 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.960 lake and you won't tip anything over. To me, it 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.160 feels like a really beautiful way to float your way 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:48.960 through a cold landscape. Like imagine being in one of 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.600 these off the coast of Alaska or in the Pacific Northwest. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.880 And that's kind of de Bruyn's dream too. Right now, 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.400 the hot tubs are a cost prohibitive. They run about 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.520 fifteen thousand to twenty thousand dollars. But his hope is 0:17:01.560 --> 0:17:04.360 that national parks and cities will buy fleets of these 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:06.399 things and then rent them out to people like me, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.720 you know, tourists who hate the cold but love nature. 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:14.080 That sounds pretty awesome. I'm on board mango. The next 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.120 one for me is a discovery that deals with one 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:21.520 of my biggest pet peeves, tangled headphones and chords so frustrating, right, 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:24.400 and this comes from a British scientist named Robert Matthews 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:27.240 from Aston University. So over the years people have tried 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:29.439 to deal with knots in tons of ways. You can 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.000 very carefully coil up chords using special reels. There are 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.760 actually a ton of anti nodding gadgets out there, but 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.959 Robert Matthews developed a mathematical theory which has an incredibly 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:43.919 simple answer. According to his loop conjecture, one of the 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.159 easiest things you can do is clip the ends of 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.159 a chord together to form a loop. Based on his 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:53.360 mathematical models, forming a simple loop produces a tenfold reduction 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:55.960 in the risk of knots forming in the headphone court. 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:58.879 That's amazing. Well, what's also sweet about his theory is 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:02.400 that Matthews organized something called the British Not Experiment, where, 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:05.320 according to Science Daily, kids at schools across the country 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:09.240 looked at this phenomena with quote various cord thickness, rigidity 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.320 and other parameters likely to affect nodding risk. 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.479 I mean, tangled chords are definitely one of my biggest 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.639 pet peeves and every year I try so many different 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.840 ways to make sure that my Christmas lights don't get 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.880 tangled or chords don't get tangled. And I'm just kind 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.040 of fascinated by this idea that if you just loop 0:18:28.119 --> 0:18:29.920 the chords, it solves the issue. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.399 Yeah, and Matthews points out that even though it feels 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.439 trivial in nature, quote, the phenomena of spontaneous nodding is 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.959 of great significance in other areas, including polymer chemistry and 0:18:39.960 --> 0:18:43.640 molecular biology. Like if you consider there's over a meter 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.639 of DNA crammed into every one of our cells and 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.080 any knots can dramatically increase the risk of genetic malfunction, 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.000 you can see how there might be some really interesting 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.760 applications there. Like Matthew's points to some anti cancer drugs 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.159 that work by affecting not formation and cancer cells, and 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:02.720 he's hoping that the loop conjecture can lead to new 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:04.280 approaches in drug design. 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.760 That's amazing that you can tackle something that's annoying like 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.400 headphones and it solves genetic. 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.399 Problems something almost as important like cancer. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.320 Right. Yeah, well, that is pretty awesome. I know we've 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:20.280 got lots more to cover, from space perfumes to bird esthetics, 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:21.440 but before we get to. 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:21.800 Any of that. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:33.560 Let's take a quick break. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.040 Welcome back to Part Time Genius, where we're talking about 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:44.119 twenty five great science ideas over the last twenty five years. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.000