WEBVTT - Ig Nobel: Strange Science, Part 1 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.800 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:15.960 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. It 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:18.599 is September two thousand and twelve, which means we have 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.160 just um experienced the world has just experienced another Ignoble 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.560 Prize ceremony. This, of course, is the ceremony that takes 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:29.040 place every year in Harvard, put on by the publication 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.240 UH the Anals of Improbable Research, which is a fabulous publication. 0:00:34.320 --> 0:00:36.640 Do check it out. Do a website. They have a 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:42.360 great website and they focus on the ridiculousness, the the unexpected, 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:48.080 and the often grotesque and hilarious aspects of legitimate scientific research. 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.960 So this isn't like fringe stuff where like some guy 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:53.960 in a in a shed in uh In in rural 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:58.200 Mississippi is trying to to to create an artificial gravity 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:02.120 device or something. We're talking about actual legitimate scientific research 0:01:02.600 --> 0:01:08.440 that often winds its way into strange territory. Yes, it's true, 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:10.520 and one of the things that they are trying to 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:15.360 accomplish with the Ignoble UH ceremonies, they say, is to 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:17.800 make you laugh and then make you think, this is 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:19.720 a really important premise of this and I think that 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.440 you just highlighted that. UM. As you will note, the 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.039 name is ig Noble, which is sort of a spoof 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:29.960 on the Nobel Prizes. And each year the Ignoble Prizes 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:32.399 honor achievements that do make people laugh and then make 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.320 them think, and they are awarded to ten people and 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:38.679 winners do travel from around the world and on their 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.240 own dime, by the way, UM to a gallus ceremony 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:46.760 at Harvard where Nobel laureates then present them with their prize. 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:50.280 And the prize itself is made of really cheap material 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:55.200 that's prone to disintegrate. Yeah, it's a and the reason 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:57.960 that everyone travels here and everyone everyone's in on the joke. 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.920 Everyone loves it because with it with a few small 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.760 exceptions here and there, because it is a celebration of 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.440 the work. It's not a ridiculing of it. And it's 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.600 not using it to uh to push some sort of agenda. 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:11.720 Well like we saw with the whole shrimp on a 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.080 treadmill thing where uh, individuals that wish to cut the 0:02:15.160 --> 0:02:17.720 U S Science budget, we're using it like look at 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.320 this with people are spending money and using time on 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.359 on this experiment where they just put a shrimp on 0:02:22.400 --> 0:02:25.800 a treadmill, ignoring the fact that that particular experiment was 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.440 very interested in in in how bacteria affects these important 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.440 food creatures in a polluted environment. It was just the 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:38.560 catalyst that they were making, belittling it and saying this 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.919 is stupid science that accomplishes nothing. Ignobles Ist is the 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:46.440 entirely different direction, the positive direction, which is saying, here's 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:51.240 the study that illuminates something hilarious, but that also illuminates 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.840 something important about the scientific workings of the universe. Okay, well, 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.639 let's talk about about who this group is that selects 0:02:58.760 --> 0:03:03.280 the the nominate or makes the nominations, and then also 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:06.920 what the process is. Basically, we have a group of 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.880 people and we did we mentioned Mark Abraham's yet, but 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:13.840 he is one of the principals. He is the editor 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.360 and co founder of the Annals of Improbable Research and 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:21.320 the founder and master of ceremonies for the prizes. And he, 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:25.120 along with a few other Nobel laureates, science writers, athletes, 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.840 politicians from time to time to you, right, they make 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.920 up the board that nominates the studies and the inventions. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.000 So basically they are flooded every year with up to 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.280 nine thousand submissions. That's a lot they have to wade 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.880 through all of that. They also seek out nominations as well, 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.360 our nominees, I should say, and Abraham says that they 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.560 will quietly get in touch with them, offer them the prize, 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:50.040 and give them the opportunity to quietly decline the honor 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.839 if they want to, and if they say no, he says, 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:55.200 that's absolutely fine, and that's it. He said that they 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:57.440 don't mention it, and they don't even keep records at 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.000 that point because again, this is something that they want 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.000 to make sure the person is comfortable with and it 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.560 really is an honor. Well, the exception that comes to 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:09.080 mind that was the was when the gay bomb. Yeah yeah, 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:10.760 and we'll talk about that in a moment, but I 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.080 wanted to awesome give you guys a sense of the 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:17.360 ceremony itself. Paper airplanes are launched and then the winners 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:21.360 are confined to a sixty second speech. If if they 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:25.960 go beyond that sixty seconds, they at least in this 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.760 year's awards, they had two girls, not one, but two girls, 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.000 eight year old year olds come up and say please stop, 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.520 you're boring me, Please stop, you're boring me, over and 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:39.920 over again until the recipient stopped, because you got to 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:44.520 keep the point short, and it's a it's not about it. 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.520 It's about celebrating the awesomeness of any of these given products, 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:50.880 not boring usarily with all of the hardcore details. I 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.920 just wish they would do that for the oscars. It 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.640 would be awesome. Okay, so let's give an example of 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:01.480 a past recipient. Uh Dr Elena Bodnar invented that in 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:04.919 an emergency can be quickly converted into a pair of 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.520 protective face masks. So we have one for yourself and 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:10.279 one for a friend, which I think is brilliant. Of course, 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.599 you know again as the catalyst for is that the 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:15.080 part that is so very funny, but it actually has 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:18.920 practical implications here for us. Yeah, and in that one 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.760 they had a lot of fun with because I think 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.200 even the ceremony after that they were still having people 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:26.360 come on with. They brought the brawl back and they 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:28.400 put it on the Nobel Laureates faces, which I thought 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:30.280 was pretty anes because it also brings to mind the 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:33.640 old flick Weird Science, you know, where they had the 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.120 they were doing the crazy Man science experiment. They wore 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:38.680 the braws in their head. Yeah. Some of the some 0:05:38.760 --> 0:05:40.640 of the other winners we've discussed in the past. There 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.960 was the the study that I believe this was a 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:48.200 New Mexico or no, it was Nevada study University of 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:52.480 Las Vegas, where they were looking at how ovulating strippers 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:57.720 received more tips than normal than the other strippers at 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.240 a strip club. That's been brought into question by the 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.560 way it has, But yes, I mean, if that doesn't 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:05.600 deserve an I know, well, I don't know what does, 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.320 because the story, like the the instant picture you get 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:13.080 is a bunch of researchers spending their time at a 0:06:13.120 --> 0:06:16.520 strip club. Uh. Though the question that they're speaking to 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:20.080 answer all the cheeky stuff aside is legitimate because we're 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.440 very interested in human behavior. How does and how does uh? 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.880 How how did these various animal properties of ourselves influenced 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:29.640 the the the culture that we have built on top 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:32.640 of it. Uh. There was of course the gay bomb 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.000 and this was the one where uh, nobody from the 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:39.480 US military actually showed up to accept the prize, but 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:41.600 it was and I feel like we discussed this one 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:43.440 in more detail in the past. But the idea was, 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:46.240 all right, you get some enemies in the trench over there. 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:47.760 I mean they would not now obviously wouldn't be in 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.480 a trench, but I like the simple version of the 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:53.120 of it. You know, we're in this trench there, in 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.640 that trench. We wanna either kill them or make them 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.520 not kill us. Both would be great, preferably both because 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:04.920 you know, we're soldiers, right, So let's fire something into 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.440 their trench that makes them love each other in a 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:11.360 very biblical fashion. So in other words, let's distract them 0:07:11.400 --> 0:07:15.800 from war and it releases chemical that induces them to then, uh, 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.119 cuddle with each other. Yes, at least it's pretty great. Yeah, 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.360 it's and it was. They did a fabulal spit on 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.560 Dirty Rock where they lampoon did as well. Um, I mean, 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:26.960 and and this is a fascinating because on one level, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.760 it's hilarious the idea of forcing a makeout party on 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.800 on your your enemies, but also it's it's very telling, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.200 like the idea that we are we are these creatures 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:42.360 that could potentially be manipulated in this fashion, that that 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:46.360 we ultimately don't have that much control over our our 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.360 violent or passive tendencies. Um. I wanted to point this out. 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:56.560 In an interview with Ira Plateau of Science Friday, Abraham's 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.480 talked about the worth of this sort of thing by 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.880 using an example of a shrew. Um. Now, these anthropologists 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.320 Brian Crandell and Peter Stall, who who did the study 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:10.240 on the shrew, they did not get an ignoble prize 0:08:10.280 --> 0:08:13.360 and they perhaps could um for this, but right now 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.320 they were just covered in the Animals of Improbable research 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:20.360 for this. But they were featured because, uh, they worked 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.520 with the shrew, which is, you know, as a reminder, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:27.800 a small, nearly blind animal. Yes, they boiled it and 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:30.000 then one of them it was never said in the study, 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:35.840 but either Crandell or Stall actually swallowed it whole. Okay, um, 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:37.800 And they wanted to make sure that there was you know, 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.360 no sort of masticating, no chewing going on here. They 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.360 wanted to deliver it to their gut whole. And then 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.160 this is it gets even better. For three days, the 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:52.480 anthropologists examined the resulting feces to discover how the human 0:08:52.480 --> 0:08:56.040 digestive system might break the shrew down. Okay, all that 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:01.440 seems absolutely crazy and ridiculous, right, uh. But the reason 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:03.600 they wanted to do this is because they thought there 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.160 is a gap in the knowledge of how something gets 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:11.040 um digested and the remains, the resulting remains, and what 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:13.920 is actually there. In other words, if you're an anthropologist 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.440 or an archaeologist and you stumble upon remains that were digested, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.760 you don't know how much of those remains are a 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.520 result of the process of digestion or the actual like 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.800 teeth marks in the tearing apart of a jaw, which 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:28.760 would give you a really good idea of how big 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:32.120 or small the animal was. Right, So, what they did 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.280 discover when they went through all the feces is that 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:37.480 a lot of the bones of the shrew, including a 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.240 lot of the big bones, were missing, and one of 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.319 the big jawbones was missing. Four of the teeth the 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.520 shrews teeth were missing, and a big chunk of its 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:49.480 school was missing, just from this digestive process. So this 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.920 tells us something now going forward as an anthropologist of 0:09:54.080 --> 0:09:56.040 what you might be looking at, You're not probably going 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.079 to make the same assumptions if you know that the 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.480 digestive system can play a as much of a part 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:05.800 as let's say, the creatures chief or the humans teeth. Um. 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.240 So I thought that was a good example to share. 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.200 Of course, not everybody really gets in on the humor 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.040 of the thing. Robert May, who at the time was 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:19.640 the British government's Chief Scientific Advisor, UH, he wrote a 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:23.280 letter to both Nature UH, you know, the Science Journal, 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.000 as well as the Annals and Probable Research, and he 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:30.160 took the ignoble Prize agenas to task any UH for 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.640 quote ridiculing serious work um and UH, also arguing that 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:38.400 the awards should only target anti science and pseudoscience and 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.960 leave the real scientists to their labor. So his he 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:42.760 was like, this is horribly youre just making fun of 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:44.880 these I don't think it was a particularly informed opinion. 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:46.360 I think it was more of like a gut reaction 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:48.200 to him hearing about it. It's it's kind of my 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.080 take on it. But but he did. Here was somebody 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:55.360 who did not get the joke. Yeah, And again Abraham said, 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.959 we are not ridiculing, which is shining a light on science, 0:10:58.000 --> 0:10:59.720 and we're doing it in a fun way in which 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:02.640 most people don't necessarily think of sciences is fun, you know, 0:11:02.800 --> 0:11:06.080 lighthearted thing. But here we are talking about things in 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.960 a way that um that again, as he says, makes 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:11.440 you laugh and makes you think, well, I can't help 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:14.880 but be reminded of a little tidbit from Mary Roaches 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.360 packing from Mars, because she was talking about the space program, 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.440 especially in its early days. You kind of had two groups. 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.920 You had the scientists who were very much immersed in 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.320 this world of science and world of scientific research and 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:33.120 hardcore facts and trying to factor out these various equations 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:35.960 to to do amazing things in space. And then you 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.720 had the astronauts who were, hey, you had more of 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.240 a cowboy mentality. You know a lot of these guys 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.920 where they were former experimental jet pilots and all this, 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.360 so there was a big divide between their outlook on life, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:50.960 and occasionally it would clash. And the example that Mary 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:53.120 Roach brought up was be you know, the scientists were 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.880 trying to figure out how to do long distant space 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.360 flights and they were like, well, uh, let's you know, 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:00.679 I'm thinking about ways to make food for there for 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.400 a long flight through space. Um, let's see, there's got it. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.680 There's probably a really good way that we could make 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.520 portions of the spaceship edible and potentially come up with 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:14.040 a way to turn the astronauts poop into food and 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.000 and the astronauts Scott winted this and they're like, no, 0:12:16.080 --> 0:12:19.240 we're not doing that. So you had this clash between 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:24.000 the scientific world in the outside world, and that is 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:25.600 where a lot of the humor tends to come from 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.640 in these experiments because you have you have scientists immersed 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.160 in their studies when then the closed confines of the 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.280 lab and then they bring out these results that that 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.000 may not necessarily even seem all that funny to them, 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:40.440 but when you expose it to the rest of the world, 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.120 that's that's where a lot of the humor comes. Yeah, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.920 when you back up and take some perspective, I think 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:48.400 it's so interesting. Although some of the scientists know that 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.720 if they're having fun with it, but um for for them, 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.600 it's you know, sometimes it's even a thought experiment, which 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:58.200 we've talked about being so um valuable in trying to 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.360 have breakthroughs. All Right, there's a little background on what 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.559 the Ignable prizes are all about. We're gonna take a 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.040 quick break and when we come back, we're going to 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.520 dive into some of the two thousand and twelves more 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:19.080 notable in all right, we're back. So we're not going 0:13:19.160 --> 0:13:21.800 to get through all of them are certainly not in 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:24.600 this podcast, but we're gonna we're gonna highlight some of 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:26.559 the ones that kind of resonated with us and we 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:31.520 thought were particularly um amusing. Yeah. One that I thought 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:33.400 was great both of us that were great is the 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.280 two thousand and twelve Neuroscience Prize. And this is largely 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:41.520 a story about a dead salmon's brain activity and about 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.840 statistical correction methods in F M R. I. Okay, so 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:47.920 first of all, why is this funny? First of all, 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.440 dead fish. There's just a dead fish in and of 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.000 itself is hilarious. I couldn't help but think of the 0:13:54.120 --> 0:13:57.200 character Lose Zealand from the Muppets. You remember him with 0:13:57.280 --> 0:13:59.559 the I had the big frilly collar and the mustache 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.199 and the eyes and just throw fish, boomerang fish. It's 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:04.640 part of his act, or any kind of a skip 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.319 where somebody is slapped with a fish. It's just it's true, 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.439 it's interesting, hilarious, it's it's on par with a rubber chicken. Right, 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.520 And the idea that you could study dead fish, I 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.440 mean it's not it's not hilarious. Factly, because the dead 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.280 fish is still that's it's an animal, it's a it's 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.080 an organism. We can perform a necroxy on that species 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.280 and learn all sorts of things. But there's something just 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.280 hilarious about the idea of a dead fish being anything 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.520 other than something rotting on the bank or or laid 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 out on ice at the grocery store. Well, um, in 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.000 the in the salmon comes to us actually kind of 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.760 by accident, or rather to the researchers Craig Bennett, Abego Baird, 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:47.480 Michael Miller, and George Wolford, we're all looking at a 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:53.720 rather preparing themselves for an upcoming experiment or study with humans, 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.560 and they were I think it was a social stimuli study. 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.640 But anyway, they had to test out fm R I 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.440 machine and get some baseline operations on it. So at 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.560 first they used a pumpkin to try to gather some 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.920 statistical data and do some scanning. Um. And then they thought, well, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.320 that's not, this doesn't quite work out. We can't really 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:17.000 see that too. Well, that's not there's going on inside 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:19.160 of a pumpkin. Yeah, exactly, you could see the seeds. 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:21.240 But then they said, okay, a cornish game hen would 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.160 be great. Did that wasn't quite on par with what 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.800 they needed. Finally they settled on in an Atlantic salmon 0:15:28.000 --> 0:15:30.640 because it had, you know, the sort of definition it needed, 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.280 had the guts um, it was pretty much ideal. So 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.240 they ran all the usual anatomical scans and then they 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:41.560 ran the experimental set of the study as well, and 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.480 then they actually showed the salmon images of people in 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:49.920 social situations, either socially inclusive situations or socially exclusive situations, 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.720 and the salmon was asked to respond saying how it felt. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.440 So of course, they basically just did the baseline of 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.600 the machine testing and then they took the data and 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.520 they stored it away. Well. Two years later, one of 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:06.840 the authors of the study was running a seminar on 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.760 how to properly analyze FMR eyes, and they thought to themselves, 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.600 you know, what, what sort of data can we use 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:16.240 to try to illustrate what we're talking about? And they 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:19.520 came on their sam and data. And the reason why 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:23.040 they were using or looking for data is because what 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.960 they wanted to try to illustrate is that information can 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.400 get so bogged down from these fm R eyes. In 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.760 other words, they create so much data UM, and they're 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:35.920 broken down into sections called voxels, and these voxels can 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.240 have something like a hundred and thirty thousand pieces of 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.760 data and UM, and they're looking at this contrast selection 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:47.800 and they're trying to do these comparisons, and doing all 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.600 the statistics can be a problem because as soon as 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:54.840 you have that much data, you can actually produce false positives, 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.800 all right, So what they wanted to do is they 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.600 wanted to do something called multiple correct comparisons. In other words, 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:06.160 you correct for all these different points of data before 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:11.560 you really run your final fMRI data sets. And they 0:17:11.720 --> 0:17:15.520 used the salmon. They took these scans and they then 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:20.040 ran it against uh what they call their normal multiple comparisons, 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:24.520 and they found that there was actually brain activity it 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.480 looked like in the dead salmon when they ran it 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.199 across these multiple comparisons. And then they ran it across 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:35.080 their multiple corrected comparisons and they saw no brain activity. Right, 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.800 and that's the correct thing. So all of it seems ridiculous, 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:40.720 but the point of it is that uh fm r 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:44.800 I s are widely used and they're widely cited in media, 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:47.040 and they have told us so much about our brain 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:51.480 or mental abilities UM and even certain diseases, but there 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.480 wasn't really a control or a control that was being 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.480 widely used. So Bennett says, Okay, fine, laugh at the 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.920 salmon thing. But in the year before work was released 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:06.840 around something like of fMRI I, papers didn't use the 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.560 proper statistical correction methods. And now that they ran their 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.800 paper and everybody's laughing about the salmon, that number has dropped. 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.680 So it's an important aspect of it. It It seems like 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.800 it's kind of minutia. But if all of us are 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.760 depending on the data that comes out of fMRI I, 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.520 and it is certainly a technology that is so widely used, 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.360 then you want it to be corrected for to get 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.080 the best results. Yeah. I mean the great thing about 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.040 studies like this is that at once they seem to 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:42.600 be both ridiculous and pointless and then also highly important 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:46.439 and illuminating about an important topic. So yeah, so I 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.600 mean this is a perfect example. I think, you know, 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:50.320 of course they were having fun with it as they 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:52.920 were asking the dead salm and questions about how they 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.280 felt about social stimuli. We could also mention the fluid 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:02.240 dynamics UM work is also pretty which on the surfaces 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.280 hilarious because the fluid Dynamics prize went to the paper 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:09.640 walking with coffee, Why does it spill? This study came 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.680 from a team of Russian, Canadian, and US scientists who 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:15.840 were studying the dynamics of liquid slashing to learn what 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.760 happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee, which, 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:23.399 which which this is of course on the surfaces is 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.760 great because there's nothing more every day than a cup 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.840 of coffee, and that's certainly slashing coffee. So the idea 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:33.800 that you would study something so seemingly low steak is 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.080 that is hilarious. Well, and I love that these guys 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:42.440 physicists Ruslan Katchnikov and HC. Meyer, they were at a conference, 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.920 say that they were watching all of their colleagues slashing 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:49.000 their coffee around, and they sat down as we all, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:50.520 you know, most of us wouldn't say, wow, what a 0:19:50.640 --> 0:19:53.200 my coffee, were like really actually, like, what's the physics 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.119 behind coffee slashing around? Well, most of us would probably 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.520 leave it right there, because guys were like, let's actually 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.480 get to the bottom of this, which I thought was fascinating. 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.320 Piece of fluid dynamics papers and fluid dynamics publications and 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.600 conferences that they're always really amazing, Like there's we try 0:20:09.640 --> 0:20:11.400 to keep an eye on the various studies that come out, 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.359 you know, because we're we're looking at Eureka alert in 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.919 all those places in an intent to keep up with 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.359 with current science and cover it. And the fluid dynamic 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:21.440 papers will come out and it's always crazy because it'll 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:23.840 they'll range from stuff like one paper in particular that 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.920 really blew my mind. It was dealing with how nuclear 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:31.360 fallout moves through an urban city. So there's an idea 0:20:31.400 --> 0:20:34.359 of something potentially very high stakes because you use you 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.000 analyze how fluids flow and again flow, how fluids be 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:39.919 it air, you know, airs, gases, waters, The way they 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:42.080 move through an environment is complex. That's why, I mean, 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.239 it's one of the reasons. It's whether prediction is so 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.119 complicated and impossible beyond a certain point. Uh, it's a 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:50.240 it's it's so when we get down to the science 0:20:50.440 --> 0:20:52.960 of how those movements work, it gets really rich and 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.639 complex and uh and if we're looking at how uh 0:20:57.000 --> 0:20:59.160 fall outspreads through the city, that allows us to better 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.720 uh plan out our means of responding to a disaster. 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.080 But then On the other hand, these same papers and 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.840 publications will also analyze things such as this, like how 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.360 does how does coffee slash out of a saucer? And 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:16.760 ultimately they're illuminating that they're adding more data to the 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.560 same equation, how do these how do fluids move? Like? 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.280 What are the physics of these of these fluid interactions? Right? 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.800 Because it's a mental exercise, right, because you can apply 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:30.600 this to rocketry, like shifting weight that could destabilize a 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:34.320 missile or a rocket, so um, if you're interested. They 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.560 did come to the conclusion that the slashing is due 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.359 to a complex motion of a cup and also the 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:48.320 biomechanics of walking and the low viscocity liquid dynamics. And 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:51.280 this is great because all of those things, I mean, 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:52.919 it's a pretty much a no brainer. We pretty much 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.600 knew all of that already. But there's something hilarious but 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:01.160 also really fulfilling about somebody setting out to scientifically answer 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:03.960 a question that we already had an answer to. Like 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:05.679 it always it always kind of blows my mind. It's 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:07.919 like it's just something that we like, here's an example 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:09.439