1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know from house stuff works 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:13,280 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast You've got Josh, 3 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:15,640 Speaker 1: You've got Chuck Here, we're a couple of writers from 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,480 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Right, Chuck, that's right, so Chuck, Yes, 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:25,880 Speaker 1: are you familiar with any Turkish authors? I've heard this one. Um, 6 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,320 Speaker 1: what's the punchline? There's no punch line. Oh, that's a 7 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 1: real question. Now. I don't know if the Turkish authors. 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: I didn't either until I was reading an article to 9 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: Day about a Turkish author who writes in the name 10 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,000 Speaker 1: Haroon Yahiah. Yeah, I believe that's how it's pronounced, and 11 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: maybe butchering. Yet my Turkish is a little rusty. Um, 12 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:52,720 Speaker 1: but Mr Yahia recently offered ten trillion Turkish lira, which 13 00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: is about eight trillion dollars. It's not one of those 14 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: upside down things. It's about point eight um point eight 15 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: Turkish lyric to the dollars last time I checked. Um 16 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:12,479 Speaker 1: to anyone who can provide definitive fossil evidence of evolution. Wow, yes, 17 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:16,080 Speaker 1: that's a lot of money. What's his motive? His motive? 18 00:01:16,240 --> 00:01:22,360 Speaker 1: He's an outspoken creationism creationist crea. He's an outspoken creationism misted. 19 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,800 Speaker 1: That's in the word now um and uh he he 20 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:30,959 Speaker 1: is so vehemently opposed to Have you heard of Richard Dawkins. Okay, 21 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: Dawkins has a website and uh, you know he's a 22 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:39,320 Speaker 1: zoologist who's a huge evolutionary theorist. He actually believes that 23 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,479 Speaker 1: we're nothing more than a vehicle for our genes. That's all. 24 00:01:42,520 --> 00:01:44,759 Speaker 1: We are, just big bags of flesh and our genes 25 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: are really in control. Um So he's a huge, huge evolutionist. 26 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 1: Um and uh mr Yahiah got the um got Dawkins 27 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:56,080 Speaker 1: website band in Turkey, So really if you go to Turkey, 28 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:58,520 Speaker 1: you can't get unto Richard Dawkins dot com or what 29 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: dot ceo dot uk or whatever. Um So, he's he's 30 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: really kind of he thinks evolutionary theory is false and 31 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: it's not correct. So he's sort of ingested throwing out 32 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,240 Speaker 1: this huge sum of money because he claimed he doesn't 33 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,560 Speaker 1: think anyone can actually prove this right. Yeah. I I 34 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: didn't get the impression that he is a trillionaire. I 35 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: don't know how many trillionaires there are. And it sounds 36 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: like a smart alec to me, kind of a smart 37 00:02:22,240 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: Alec sure, but he was pretty specific. He said that 38 00:02:25,240 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: he wanted an intermediate form fossil. And this is like 39 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: an animal that is clearly um a species that is 40 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,720 Speaker 1: the the connecting species between one and another, like UM, 41 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:43,120 Speaker 1: some fossil that that links us humans to frogs. Because 42 00:02:43,160 --> 00:02:45,320 Speaker 1: on the tree of life, we all, if you go 43 00:02:45,400 --> 00:02:49,480 Speaker 1: back far enough, are related. Everything. Every species on Earth 44 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: came from some little strand of RNA in the primordial 45 00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,480 Speaker 1: soup here on Earth billions of years ago. Right, That's 46 00:02:57,480 --> 00:02:59,760 Speaker 1: what I believe. That's that's what a lot of people. 47 00:03:00,320 --> 00:03:05,519 Speaker 1: But the fossil record, which is this UM, this this 48 00:03:05,639 --> 00:03:09,880 Speaker 1: record of all the fossils, all the um sedimentary layers, 49 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:12,400 Speaker 1: all this stuff over the last five and fifty million 50 00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:17,480 Speaker 1: years UM is admittedly spotty. The history of our planet. 51 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: It is. It is. It's a it's a it is. 52 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:22,880 Speaker 1: So you go and take an nice sample, you know, 53 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:24,800 Speaker 1: when you go down far enough and you reach a 54 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:27,040 Speaker 1: point where no one is sampled yet that gets added 55 00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: to the fossil record. It paints this whole picture of 56 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: the evolution of life on Earth. Depending on what you believe, 57 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: everything may have been placed there. That's another theory. Okay, 58 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:41,000 Speaker 1: So UM we're still trying to figure out if evolution 59 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:45,520 Speaker 1: occurs like consistently over a long period of time, which 60 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: is called phyletic gradualism, or it could be in short. 61 00:03:49,200 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: First is the competing theory, which is punctuated equilibrium. So 62 00:03:53,480 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 1: it's still like I said, it's spotty, but it does 63 00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: have its uses. What uses, I'll give you a use 64 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:04,280 Speaker 1: to a chuck uh. Last year, October of two thousand seven, uh, 65 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:07,400 Speaker 1: some British researchers came up or where they published a 66 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,880 Speaker 1: study that where they used the fossil record and compared 67 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:15,200 Speaker 1: it to global climates over a five twenty million year period, 68 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:19,359 Speaker 1: because we have what climate information in the fossil record 69 00:04:19,400 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: as well, And what they found was that in times 70 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:27,400 Speaker 1: of warm global temperatures like we have now, I think 71 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: the mean global temperature, which is land and ocean average 72 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: temperatures put together, it's about fifty four degrees fifty six 73 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:39,279 Speaker 1: degrees ferret height, which is about which historically we're in. 74 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: It's a greenhouse period, which is what we're in now. Traditionally, 75 00:04:43,440 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: when the Earth has seen greenhouse periods, mass extinction has 76 00:04:48,120 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: taken place. So the question we're forced to explore is 77 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,840 Speaker 1: will we soon be extinct, right, which if you look 78 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,640 Speaker 1: at the history of our planet, there's you know, there's 79 00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: a case for that. And if we're not extinct, certain 80 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:06,560 Speaker 1: uh organisms on our planet might become extinct, which could 81 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: lead to the domino effect and eventually we might be 82 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: extinct after all. It is very true. Um, there's one 83 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: case in point a mass extinction, the worst one, apparently 84 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 1: on the fossil record, happened at the end of the 85 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:24,640 Speaker 1: Permian period. I believe two fifty one million years ago 86 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:28,280 Speaker 1: of all the species on Earth died out like all 87 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: at once. I read. When I read that, I was 88 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:31,920 Speaker 1: just blown away. I mean, can you imagine if all 89 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,320 Speaker 1: of a sudden it was like, you know, humans, dogs, cats, 90 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:40,680 Speaker 1: and yeah, mosquitoes and maybe a cockroach something like that, 91 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:43,240 Speaker 1: with all the rest just gone. You know, you didn't 92 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,960 Speaker 1: see anything when you went outside, right with, humans wouldn't 93 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:48,120 Speaker 1: last long if that were the case. No, because we 94 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:52,360 Speaker 1: require biodiversity exactly you want to tell them about biodiversity. Yeah, 95 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:54,599 Speaker 1: I can speak a little bit about that. You know, 96 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:57,840 Speaker 1: the Earth basically, Josh is like just a big machine 97 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,760 Speaker 1: and if you were compared to like a car engine, 98 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,840 Speaker 1: each each little part has its own function. And if 99 00:06:03,920 --> 00:06:06,640 Speaker 1: one you know, nut on the car engine goes off, 100 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: that leads to something else to break and something else 101 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,159 Speaker 1: to break in. And the earth is kind of like 102 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:14,120 Speaker 1: that as well. Um, there are no unnecessary parts. Everything 103 00:06:14,160 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: is important. Even even if looking at a car engine 104 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,720 Speaker 1: you don't really understand, you know, what this does or 105 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 1: what that does, It's still essential. It was put there 106 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: for a reason. If you'll, you know, excuse the comparison, 107 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,280 Speaker 1: excuse thanks. Uh so, I know when one example you 108 00:06:30,400 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: use was a nitrogen in your article if you wanted 109 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,880 Speaker 1: to enlighten some folks, what I love enlightening folks. You're ready, folks, 110 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:39,440 Speaker 1: let's do this. So Um, nitrogen basically is present in 111 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: the soil. It's it's an essential food for crops or crops, right. Um. 112 00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:49,599 Speaker 1: We we've learned to harness wild crops to to be 113 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:54,600 Speaker 1: produced under conditions we like corn um and you know, 114 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,479 Speaker 1: we can control how many grow and how well it 115 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:00,479 Speaker 1: grows in that kind of thing. But really, ultimately, none 116 00:07:00,520 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: of this would work if it wasn't for the nitrogen 117 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: present in the soil. And we can add nitrogen, but 118 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:09,880 Speaker 1: it occurs naturally in the soil through like worms digesting 119 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: you know, all sorts of different microbs that kind of thing. Um, 120 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:16,400 Speaker 1: and the microbs themselves are involved in digesting things, and 121 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,080 Speaker 1: they what they put out is a waste product in 122 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: many cases is nitrogen which feeds the crops which feed us. Yeah, 123 00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:30,400 Speaker 1: so I mean the lowly worm or the even lowlier microbe, bacteria, 124 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: things that just seems so unimportant or even threatening to us. 125 00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:37,480 Speaker 1: We are essential life on Earth. That's that. It kind 126 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:40,320 Speaker 1: of goes with that machine you were talking about, the 127 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,720 Speaker 1: interrelated parts that each one's very important, even if it 128 00:07:43,760 --> 00:07:47,040 Speaker 1: doesn't seem like it. So it with a loss of biodiversity. 129 00:07:47,280 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: So we lose the worms, we lose a lot of 130 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,360 Speaker 1: the nitrogen in the soil. All of a sudden, our 131 00:07:51,400 --> 00:07:54,520 Speaker 1: crops fail. So we will be effective when we're one 132 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,200 Speaker 1: way or another despite our technology. It's pretty amazing when 133 00:07:58,240 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: you think about that. The smallest thing can have the 134 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,040 Speaker 1: the trickle effect and we may actually be able to 135 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,240 Speaker 1: survive some sort of mass extinction. I mean, we're we're 136 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: pretty smart species. Like technically we're subtropical, you know what, right, 137 00:08:11,240 --> 00:08:15,360 Speaker 1: And we've mastered the colder climbs by a technology like 138 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: clothes or you know, um, tankless hot water heaters that 139 00:08:20,080 --> 00:08:22,480 Speaker 1: kind of thing. UM. So we're supposed to be living 140 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:27,480 Speaker 1: kind of near the equator, UM, so we could conceivably 141 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:31,120 Speaker 1: survive a mass extinction we have before. Actually, supposedly about 142 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: seventy thousand years ago, human humanity faced a an evolutionary bottleneck, 143 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:41,880 Speaker 1: which is where there's some a species is brought to 144 00:08:41,920 --> 00:08:44,559 Speaker 1: the brink of extinction. So imagine it like a bottle, 145 00:08:44,760 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 1: and then the bottleneck comes and you lose all that 146 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,920 Speaker 1: all that life and all those genes and UM. Basically 147 00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,199 Speaker 1: the population squeezed down and they estimate that there is 148 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: about fifteen thousand people worldwide on planet on planet Earth 149 00:08:58,880 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 1: at that time because of that bottle from what number 150 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: you know, I don't know the number, but I think 151 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: a lot more than UM. So on the other end 152 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 1: you come out. So really the evolutionary bottleneck, if the 153 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:15,559 Speaker 1: species survives, goes from a bottleneck to an evolutionary hourglass 154 00:09:15,559 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: where it becomes robust again and populated. But at that 155 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:21,800 Speaker 1: if you go back to that bottleneck, it took a 156 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:24,800 Speaker 1: lot of inbreeding to get past that point. Or which 157 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: under a theory that I have, UM explains why a 158 00:09:27,840 --> 00:09:33,439 Speaker 1: lot of people today mouth breathe Wow, yeah, let's hear it. 159 00:09:33,679 --> 00:09:37,000 Speaker 1: That was it. I think I think there's mouth breathers 160 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:39,599 Speaker 1: on planet Earth today because seventy thousand years ago it 161 00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:42,439 Speaker 1: took a lot of inbreeding to get past our evolutionary bottleneck, 162 00:09:42,559 --> 00:09:46,240 Speaker 1: and previously we breathe. I'd probably throw a nose guilt. 163 00:09:46,559 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: There's no no, no, no no. I mean you know, 164 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:52,040 Speaker 1: you know, like you ever watched twenty four Uh I 165 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:55,400 Speaker 1: watched the first day? Okay, Well keep for Sutherland. He's 166 00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:57,640 Speaker 1: a good example of a mouth breather. He breathes through 167 00:09:57,640 --> 00:09:59,760 Speaker 1: his mouth, breathe with his mouth open. It's still a 168 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 1: little slack jaw. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, Okay, 169 00:10:03,280 --> 00:10:07,439 Speaker 1: Mr Sutherland, no offense, he doesn't listen, so um chuck. 170 00:10:07,480 --> 00:10:09,880 Speaker 1: That's pretty much the long and short of whether or 171 00:10:09,880 --> 00:10:13,000 Speaker 1: not we will face a mass extinction. I think it's 172 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:17,320 Speaker 1: entirely possible. Um. I know I've been storing water ever 173 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,640 Speaker 1: since I wrote this. Really, in your basement, do you 174 00:10:19,679 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: have a bomb shelter? Um? I don't know if I 175 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,439 Speaker 1: call it a bomb shelter. It's more like an emergency 176 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:30,280 Speaker 1: bachelor pad. So you've got your Nintendo and your liquor 177 00:10:30,320 --> 00:10:33,160 Speaker 1: and yeah, exactly, and the water well. I got plenty 178 00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:37,520 Speaker 1: of that sleeping bags over. You can learn whether or 179 00:10:37,520 --> 00:10:39,880 Speaker 1: not you're going to die in the next couple of 180 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:43,840 Speaker 1: years by reading will We Soon Be Extinct? On how 181 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:48,640 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands 182 00:10:48,640 --> 00:10:51,920 Speaker 1: of other topics. Because at how stuff works dot com, 183 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,160 Speaker 1: let us know what you think. Send an email to 184 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:58,839 Speaker 1: podcast at how stuff works dot com.