WEBVTT - Cool Science You May Have Missed in 2012 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.640 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:16.360 My name is Robert Lamb and my name is Julie Douglas. 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.040 And we just recorded an episode about some of the 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:23.480 big stories in science during the last year, during twelve uh, 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:26.079 and now we're doing a second episode where we're just 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:29.400 gonna run through some bits of really fascinating science that 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.600 you might have missed. Uh, A lot of its stuff 0:00:31.600 --> 0:00:35.560 that we could have conceivably maybe have done an episode about. 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:38.199 Or maybe it's like something that's really interesting but just 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.920 not quite enough to do a whole episode on. So 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:43.839 consider this kind of a sampler platter of some of 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:50.159 the stranger chocolates from now I get to say, a 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:55.800 poo poo platter, Yes, poop ladder of odd science from Um, 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:58.360 we're gonna kick off with with my favorite from this 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:02.680 this bunch and this is a worse the Immortal jellyfish 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.559 the quote unquote Benjamin Button of the Animal Kingdom. Uh. 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:08.720 A lot of headlines had some fun with this, I 0:01:08.720 --> 0:01:11.039 mean have to fund with Most of these are the headlines. 0:01:11.400 --> 0:01:14.480 New York Times ran a story titled can a jellyfish Unlocked? 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.720 The Secrets of immortality. So you have a number of 0:01:18.440 --> 0:01:23.000 I mean just pit there. Yeah, they dropped in immortality 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.959 in the headline, which that's gonna that generates some interest 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:28.760 because we all want to live live, not forever, at 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:32.000 least maybe a little more than we have a lotted 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:36.680 to us. So, uh, it's it's instantly fascinating. So the 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:44.320 jellyfish in question is the Tatopsis dorney, which to all 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:48.480 appearances looks like jellyfish. There's there's nothing particularly amazing about 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:51.360 but what what happens here is that, um nothing amazing 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.280 about it in just appearance, but in function it does 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.160 some amazing things. What appears to happen is that it 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.720 quote unquote reverses an in age unil it reaches an 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:04.320 early stage, earlier stage of its development. Now to really 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:07.320 understand what's going on here, you have to picture the 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.760 life cycle of the jellyfish and h So what happens, 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.520 all right, So you having an adult jellyfish, a medusa, 0:02:13.840 --> 0:02:17.880 all right, when it reproduces, it drops off this planny 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.480 little larva. Alright, this larva floats down to the bottom 0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:24.440 of of the sea there and there it grows into 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:27.120 a polyp and then the budding polyp emits this ifira, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.920 this little sort of mini pseudo jellyfish that then floats 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.120 up and becomes the adult jellyfish of it. Right, right, 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.959 So that's the basic life cycle. Now, what happens normally 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.440 is that you have an adult jellyfish that reproduces a 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:45.960 few times, starts getting a little old, it starts to starve, 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:47.639 or the water gets a little too hot, and then 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:50.480 it dies. It shuffles off this mortal coil. You know. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.760 This is basically like any life form right reaches the 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.520 adult stage. The adult stage is about reproducing. Now, it's 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.520 worth noting that, as with many other organisms, um, the 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.720 adult stage is not the only stage that can reproduce. Uh, 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:07.160 there's also some a sexual reproduction that takes place at 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:11.160 the poly up stage. But but generally, in most organisms 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.040 reach it reaches the adult stage, it reproduces, and then 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.600 it either dies immediately or maybe it carries on a 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.920 little longer, but generally its function is done. You've reached 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.400 the adulthood stage. You've reproduced. That's it. You have to 0:03:23.440 --> 0:03:26.359 get off the stage and make room for the other players. 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:30.800 But not so with this particular jellyfish. Now it does 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:35.200 not quite Benjamin Button, Like, that would be a wrong analogy. 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:37.520 What would be a better analogy is that is not 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.000 that like an old man grows young again. But imagine 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:43.040 an old man walking down the street and just collapses 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.920 under the weight of his like old awfulness, and then 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.000 just melts into a pile of goo on the sidewalk, 0:03:50.320 --> 0:03:54.480 and then out of that goo crawls a naked, slime 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:58.160 covered infant, which then grows up into an adult. I 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.360 like that. I like that. Pat Krug marine biologists says 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:04.640 that when they do reach the end of this cycle, uh, 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:06.440 they get really stressed out and they collapse to the 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:11.520 bottom and melt, But instead of dying, they really reorganize 0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:15.520 its tissues and forms a new little polyp, so, as 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.760 you say, sort of climbing from the primordial goo and 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:25.200 reforming itself. Um. And it's interesting because Craig says that 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.520 it it's it's almost like it skips it's having the 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.679 sex part of it and goes straight to the next 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:34.200 bit in the life cycle and becomes this new polyp. 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.640 And I think this is so cool because it reminds 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.680 me of the imaginal cells that we talked about in 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:44.599 the Gremlin's podcast. We were talking about a butterfly sort 0:04:44.600 --> 0:04:48.400 of deconstructing a rather caterpillar deconstructing itself in the cocoon, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:53.560 and that those imaginal cells are much like undifferentiated stem cells, 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:55.080 and that they can do any sort of job that 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.760 they need to while reconstructing this new form, new life form, 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.480 this butterfly um and then those cells becoming specialized when 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.440 it when it actually does become the butterfly itself. This 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:10.599 is very much the same thing with this immortal jellyfish. Yeah, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.520 to put it in the gremlin model now that we 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.479 brought gremlins and magua into it. Uh, the magua the 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.479 furry little dude, the gremlin, the repulsive creature that the 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:22.040 magua turns into. The gremlin is the adult form. The 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.719 magua is the juvenile form, maybe even a larval form. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.120 However you want to look at it um and so 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.120 when you know, the magua eats after midnight, turns into 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:34.240 an adult gremlin. But then imagine if the adult gremlin 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:39.320 melted and then out of the gremlin melt emerged a magua. 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.240 You know, it would be a a reversal, you know. 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:45.640 So it's fascinating to think about about it that way, 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:48.160 but but still taking nothing away from this organism. Like 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.600 I said, it's not quite Benjamin Button, and it's which 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.560 is I think a good thing. Uh, it's also not 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:57.479 quite immortal. We're getting a little carried away with that, right, 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.719 there's a question mark to to what degree the tissues 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.400 can continue to regenerate themselves, right, Yeah, I mean it's 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.159 it's really awesome, it's really fascinating and certainly, um, something 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:10.720 very unique is going up. Well that's also another thing 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:13.320 because there's also the possibly there are other jellyfish species 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:14.840 that do this as well. So it's maybe not as 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:16.599 unique as some of the stories made it out to be. 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.560 But it's still pretty amazing. Uh. And ultimately how long 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.960 can this keep going? Uh? Probably not forever. This is 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.520 probably not a situation where it's like the Highlander of 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:30.039 jellyfish just carrying on and carrying on. Yeah, And let 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.440 me just do a quick quote from Pat Kraig again, 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.599 the marine biologist. Why it is significant? He or she 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.080 says that learning how to take adult cells and get 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.360 them back to the early stage where they can develop 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:44.680 into anything is a significant goal of what we want 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.080 to be able to achieve. Um, and I think in 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.520 this case she's talking about in humans, it's something that 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.160 this humble little jelly has a built in feature of 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.080 its life cycle. Things get gross around it, it melts 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:57.040 and rebuilds itself from scratch. So I think there is 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.640 definitely the potential that we could learn some basic things 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.960 that we could better apply to our own technology for 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.400 human medicine. Now, you know, it would be a dream 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:06.960 is to talk to Aubrey Degree about this, you know, 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.279 and say, like, what you know, to what extent are 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:14.760 things like this? These sort of discoveries um helpful in 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.120 in his own bio gerontology work where he is trying 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.320 to get to disease before it happens in the human 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:24.720 body and basically try to keep the body is finally 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:29.000 tuned as possible so that with drug intervention and good health, 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.960 we could possibly live, you know, upwards to five hundred 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.480 years old. Yeah. I guess one of the things about 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.200 humans is we don't really we never go through a 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.600 cocoon phase. We never go through a drastic of change. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.800 I mean, you know, there's there's a lot of drastic 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.400 changes that go that occur between you know, being an 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:51.560 infinite being an adult, but but like what would be 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.640 the cut off line, you know, if you could? Yeah, 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.240 and to what degree could you re org your your 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.640 cells and your tissues. So I think that's the interesting part, 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:07.800 Like could we take that information and apply to yourselves practically? Yeah, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.920 I mean what makes me think of the fly because 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.440 in a lot of primordial do in that. Yeah, I mean, 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:15.280 that's one of the things that the Jeff gold Blooms, 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.760 the character gets on about when he's you know, quote 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:21.480 unquote gold blooming about the excitement of the science, and 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.960 he's talking about, you know, being broken down in the 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.880 teleportation and then reassembled, reborn, re emerging from the plasma pool. 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.800 And that's pretty much what's happening with this jellyfish, which 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.040 I don't know. I mean, if you can combine that 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:40.319 with um quantum entanglement, which which we'll talk about, maybe 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.680 that could happen. But before we get to that, let's 0:08:42.720 --> 0:08:47.280 talk about junk DNA or as we have discovered this year, 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:50.440 not so junk DNA. Yeah. So this is pretty cool, 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:52.960 And this is just another example of you knows, as 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.959 we any scientific endeavor, you'd you push a little a 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.360 little farther. You you answer one question and three new 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:02.880 ones arive. Um just this when you know you're you're 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.360 traveling across the countryside. Uh, what seems to be a 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.040 very simple array of hills and trees in the distance. 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:10.960 The closer you get you see the details, you see 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.320 the the how how complex the system actually is. And 0:09:14.400 --> 0:09:17.400 so for the longest we've we've thought that there is 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:21.520 this thing called this junk DNA, which you know, sounds 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.280 kind of like a silly idea because why is it there? Right? 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.079 Is there's the the the you know, the quote you 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:28.640 may have seen on a T shirt. God don't make 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.440 no junk, right, So why would God? Because the idea 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:35.800 that the God in his his or her infinite wisdom 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.160 would not make something that was that was wasted, like 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.280 everything has a purpose, something, everything kind of fits in somehow. 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.120 And take the God out of that equation and fit 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.760 it into a more scientific setting, then it still rings 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:50.760 with a certain amount of true like it's there, like 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:53.240 why would why would there be junk DNA? Like would 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.920 it just be like leftover garbage DNA? And uh, you know, 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:58.400 the the take home here is that the more that 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:00.920 we've we've we've looked at with the vename, we realized 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.080 that it is not junk DNA, but it is a 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:09.400 genetic material that informs UM, these various epigenetic changes in 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.240 the genes that determine what genes are turned on or off. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:16.360 And these switches, UM, the simplified way of looking at 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.360 these switches have an impact on various UM manifestations of 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.439 the human body, from various traits to UH diseases. Yeah, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.079 and UM, this is a byproduct of mapping the human genome. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.760 This discovery that junk DNA is not necessarily junking in 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.839 fact of it, they say, is vital and as you say, 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.480 it has UM has a pretty big implication in gene 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:44.480 switches that reside in bits of DNA. So UM, the 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:48.720 discovery is considered a major medical and scientific breakthrough and 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.160 it really does have an effect on our ability to 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:56.960 gain human health here. Um, and again we're talking about UM, 0:10:57.440 --> 0:11:00.760 this material that was largely mysterious for this in some 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.319 ways it is, but there's an ability now to to 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.760 better uh look at it and try to figure out 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.400 what it is. In fact, the term junk DNA is 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:11.520 not being tossed around so much anymore. It has now 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:15.400 been upgraded to dark matter. Yes, something that and just 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.720 a briefly about dark matter in a cosmic sense, a mystery, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:22.760 a thing that that we're we're not sure exactly on 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:24.720 the nature of, but we know it. It must be 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.079 important because there's a lot of it out there. Yeah, 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.480 and um, you know, there are complex diseases that appear 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.120 and they appear to be caused by tiny changes in 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.240 hundreds of genes switches which are controlled by this junk 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.440 or dark matter DNA. UM it really is a game 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.760 changer because it can help us to understand how alterations 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.559 in the non gene parts of DNA contribute to human disease, 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:49.719 which could lead to new drug therapy. UM. It could 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:53.720 also explain how the environment can affect disease risk. So 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.560 in the case of identical twins, small changes in the 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:00.480 environmental exposure can slightly altered genes, which is with the 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.160 result that one twin gets disease and the other does not. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.960 UM and I think this is really going to be 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.959 most important, at least in the short term in cancer. 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.960 UM that this is from the New York Times article 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.880 Bits of Mystery DNA far from junk play crucial role. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.360 It says that as they begin to turning the DNA 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:25.800 sequences of cancer cells. Researchers realize that most of the 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.959 thousands of DNA changes in cancer cells were not in genes. 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:31.640 They were in the dark matter. The challenge is to 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.680 figure out which of those changes are driving the cancer's growth. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.000 All right, So there you go, junk DNA not so 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.880 junk after all. So we're gonna take a quick break 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.640 and when we come back, we're gonna roll through some 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:56.520 other potentially overlooked awesome science from the from including solar tornadoes. Okay, 0:12:56.600 --> 0:12:59.640 we're back, and we are talking sellar tornadoes, which I'm 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:04.280 really excited about because this year they were confirmed. They've 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.679 been spotted or hints of them have been spotted in 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.040 two thousand and eight, but they were confirmed this year. 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:12.000 And it's thought that up to eleven thousand of them 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.600 twist over the Sun's surface every day, and they're made 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.280 of hot plasma and they are capable of reaching heights 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.120 of eighteen hundred miles high, with diameters ranging from nine 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:27.600 hundred and thirty to thirty five hundred miles wide. Okay, 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:30.199 so that the stats aren't done there, because think about 0:13:30.200 --> 0:13:33.920 this mammoth um. It can spin upwards to about nine 0:13:33.960 --> 0:13:38.880 thousand miles an hour, lasting only for about thirteen minutes each. Yeah, 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:41.840 and it's a lot of the news stories about this 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.400 really like the focus on these things are gonna be 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:47.480 as big as the United States. Yeah, they're They're enormous 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.760 solar tornadoes. Um, And it's important that I get a 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.840 lot of space related headlines. Don't at me because I 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:59.880 sometimes right for Discovery Space. So anytime Discovery Space does 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:02.640 a story, I end up seeing the headline. And it's 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:04.600 easy to become kind of dull to these after a 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.760 while because you have something happened in space, some new discovery. 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:10.160 You know, it's the nature of science journalism. You have 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.120 to spice it up a bit um. You know, black holes, 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.040 that's great, but no, it's not enough today. It's gotta 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.560 be monster black holes. There have to be cannibal black holes. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:23.480 They've gotta so everything is sexed up to them. Yeah, 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.920 so solar tornadoes on the Sun. It sounds awesome, but 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:28.920 it was actually kind of easy to miss this one 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:31.440 if you're if you're having to process a lot of 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:35.160 space headlines because they kind of overstate everything. Even though 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.640 the core science is always really amazing when you look 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:39.640 at it. In this case, in point, you have the 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.800 solar tornadoes. Now you probably wonder, well, what is why 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:45.400 is it important? Like why does it what does it 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:49.840 matter that there are solar tornadoes aside from the cool factor, Well, 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:52.560 it really does give us a better understanding what's going 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:56.000 on on the Sun. Like one thing that it's important 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:58.360 to realize about the Sun is that the the surface 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.120 of the Sun is the coolest part of the Sun, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.920 which seems to counterintuitive, right, right, especially since the atmosphere, 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:07.280 the weather of the Sun is hotter than the surface. 0:15:07.520 --> 0:15:08.880 So it's like it's hot and then it gets a 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:12.960 little cooler and it gets progressively hotter again. Um and uh, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:14.920 And this gives us little more reason to understand it 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.280 because in the atmosphere of the Sun, the weather of 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:22.240 the Sun, you have all this intense activity. Yeah and um, 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.920 I wanted to point out that then wide amount Boom, 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.760 he's an astrophysicist at the University of Also had said, 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:30.680 you know, we thought something was up. Basically, he said 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.240 that we observed some unusually hot plasma above the Sun's surface, 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:36.200 so we knew something was happening there, but we didn't 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:39.520 know what. And it turns out that this activity, these 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:44.960 solar tornadoes may contribute to that variation in heat. The 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:47.320 reason why there is so much heat in this upper 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:51.240 atmosphere because if you think about a tornado, it's um, 0:15:51.600 --> 0:15:55.080 you know, it's well, there's there's a spiraling effect bringing 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.000 heat up right, But a sort of solar tornado is 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.640 unlike tornadoes on Earth, which of course are powered by 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.760 differences in temperature and humidity. UM. The twisters in the 0:16:03.760 --> 0:16:07.520 Sun are a combination of hot flowing gas entangled magnetic 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:12.400 field lines, ultimately driven by nuclear reactions at the solar core. 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.560 So at the surface for the photosphere, cooled plasma sinks 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.480 towards the interior like water running down the bathtub drain, 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.480 and this creates vortex is that magnetic field lines are 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.840 forced to follow, and then the line stretch upward into 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:30.400 the chromosphere where they continue to spiral up. So it's 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.320 just one big death metal album up there. Big. Yeah. Yeah, 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.640 it's why you It's why the corona, this upper atmosphere 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.760 of the Sun's atmosphere is filled with all of this 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:44.440 heat because you have these massive tornadoes of plasma just 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.920 throwing themselves around. UM. And then as for the eleven 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:51.640 thousand per day statistic um. It has been said that 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:54.520 there may not be as many in the future because 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.360 we've seen a glut of these huge sillar tornadoes because 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.600 the Sun has been ramping up toward max and activity 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:04.000 levels in its current cycle. So you know, still it's 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:08.400 a tremendous amount of activity, and one that people weren't 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.240 necessarily aware of. They suspected, of course that something was 0:17:11.280 --> 0:17:13.520 going on. But you know, I think it recasts the 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.600 whole idea of the Wizard of oz. I think someone 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:20.679 needs to to write with sort of the oz uh 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:23.840 based on the Sun. Really, so so Dorothy would go 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:26.960 to the Sun instead. Yes, there's there are a lot 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:29.680 of logistics to be worked out there. But imagine the 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.000 twister that comes through that cancel. Yes, yeah, of course, 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.679 of course, the solar twister. I like it. I like it, 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:37.600 all right, all right, well, now let's turn our attention 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:41.360 to the quantum world. Now, of course, quantum things happened 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.920 in because quantum, quantum happens. Quantum happens. It looks great 0:17:45.920 --> 0:17:49.359 in the headline um and so there there continues to 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.720 be some interesting headway in the field of quantum teleportation. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.960 Now I know what you're you're you're you're wondering. You're 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.000 either wondering, well, what is quantum teleportation or you're thinking, 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.199 oh God, I hope they don't try and explain it. Uh. 0:18:03.840 --> 0:18:06.160 And we're we're not going to go to in depth 0:18:06.240 --> 0:18:10.280 on quantum teleportation. That's really a subject for another time, 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.080 but but we can sort of speed you through the 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:15.399 simple version of it um because what what we have here, 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.680 what we're dealing with, essentially, is quantum entanglement, in which 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.960 two sub atomic particles thousands of light years of party 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.200 and then can instantly respond um to each other's motions. Uh. 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.000 So we've this started off is something that was you know, 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:33.240 merely theoretical that we figured was possible, and then scientists 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:37.000 observed the phenomenon at at at the particle level and 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:38.960 uh and in two thousand and nine they managed to 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:43.800 produce the effect with linked superconductors and uh. And it's 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.840 an exciting topic because you know, it helps us certainly, 0:18:47.000 --> 0:18:49.080 it involves a greater understanding of what's going on in 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.680 the quantum realm, but also it has enormous possible applications, 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:57.800 uh for faster than light signaling, for as sending data, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.040 for encrypting data, um but particularly and in the in 0:19:01.040 --> 0:19:04.840 the area of quantum computing. It's it's pretty big medicine. Yeah. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.919 In the past year, a team from China and another 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.520 in Austria set new records for quantum teleportation using a 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.720 laser to beam photons through the open air over sixty 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:17.199 and eighty nine excuse me, sixty and eighty nine miles 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.320 respectively for context, just you know, just to let you know. 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.000 The first efforts to do this resulted in sending the 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:28.080 particles mirror inches. So the fact that they're already up 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:32.960 to eighty nine miles is pretty amazing. So the idea 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.359 is that quantum teleportation could be used to transmit particles 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:41.240 and information from an orbiting satellite eventually to relay station 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.800 on Earth. So this information in the process by which 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:49.600 it is transmitted is what is called quantum encryption. So, 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:53.000 according to wire dot COM's article the Race to bring 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:57.760 Quantum Teleportation to your world, quote, if developed, quantum teleportation, 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:02.080 satellites could allow spies to pass large amounts of information 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:06.040 back and forth or create unhackable codes. Should we ever 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:10.760 build quantum computers, they would need quantum teleporters in order 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.160 to be networked together in a quantum version of the Internet. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.480 This is very cool stuff, you know, just from a 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:22.119 sci fi perspective, you can imagine the implications of a 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.199 quantum infrastructure in our world. Yes, to say nothing of 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.920 all those scenarios in which got vaculate might wear address. 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.760 So that's sort of the Pine the Sky idea. And 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:36.720 if you think that's too pine the sky though, just 0:20:36.880 --> 0:20:39.679 consider this. China plans to launch a satellite with a 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:45.640 quantum teleportation experiment payload in two, with a quantum communications 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.240 project being estimated to cost fifty to one million dollars. Okay, 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:54.040 so China obviously thinks that this is an important technology. Uh. 0:20:54.080 --> 0:21:00.760 Europe UM, UH, Japan and Canada are all their space 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.880 agencies are hoping to fund their own quantum teleportation satellite 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.480 projects in the coming years. So the US is a 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:08.439 bit behind in this, and some of this has to 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:13.800 do with bureaucratic shuffling between DARPA and IOPA. UM. But 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.959 it's interesting because it's definitely a race to get as 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:20.800 advanced in this technology as possible. Yeah, if you think 0:21:20.800 --> 0:21:24.480 back to the episode we did on an interseller Internet 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:28.119 the idea and the interplanetary Internet. Uh, because as we 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.359 as we continue to expand out into the cosmos. If 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:33.520 we you know, as we we show up on other worlds, 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:35.840 we're gonna have to deal with communication, and we're going 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:39.640 to face the reality that we're dealing with such distances 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:43.520 that that instantaneous communication just isn't possible. So you end 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.080 up with it with ever growing lag times, and it's 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:48.120 more of a return to an age of instead of 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:51.920 you know, instantly connecting with a loved one or or 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.520 or just employers or mission team members, you would have 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:57.680 to send off missives into the void and then wait 0:21:57.720 --> 0:21:59.680 for one to return and you know, hope that nothing 0:21:59.720 --> 0:22:02.600 went long. One of the big exciting things, here's the 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:08.760 possible possibility of instantaneous communication between planets by use of 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:12.720 this quantum teleportation. And it's because we're talking about data 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.360 being reproduced in one place through quantum entanglement. No, it's 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.800 it's very interesting and I particularly that the spy part 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:22.440 of course, just kind of makes me sit up a 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:26.480 little bit taller and take notice. And there was an interesting, 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:31.040 uh analogy of this of how this might happen with 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.720 quantum teleportation to send this controllable signal, say to a 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.439 satellite and I'm going to take a stab at it, 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:40.040 a game for it. Yeah, let's do it. Okay. This 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:45.000