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Speaker 1: Welcome to How Stuff Works. Now. I'm your host, Lauren

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Speaker 1: fog Obam, a researcher and writer. Here at How Stuff Works.

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Speaker 1: Every week, I'm bringing you three stories from our team

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Speaker 1: about the weird and wondrous developments we've seen in science, technology,

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Speaker 1: and culture. This week, the US government reported that its

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Speaker 1: nuclear defense technology still involves eight inch floppy disks, and uh,

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Speaker 1: speaking of rockets, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos thinks

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Speaker 1: that the key to saving the planet is making space

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Speaker 1: accessible to small businesses and also moving all of our

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Speaker 1: heavy industry out there. But first, Holly Fry, co host

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Speaker 1: of a little podcast you might have heard of called

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Speaker 1: stuff Umist in history Class, brings us the definitive evidence

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Speaker 1: that the blade of one of King Tut's ceremonial daggers

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Speaker 1: actually came from outer space, and furthermore that it was

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Speaker 1: made here on Earth, not, in Holly's words, delivered to

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Speaker 1: him intact by some very artistic alien race. The fourteenth

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Speaker 1: century b C. Ruler King Tutankamun or King Tut, as

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Speaker 1: he's often referred to in the West, is the Egyptian

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Speaker 1: royal that people like you and me are most familiar

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Speaker 1: with and that's because his tomb was found mostly intact

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Speaker 1: in n by archaeologist Howard Carter, and it's been a

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Speaker 1: treasure trove of historical discovery ever since. Egyptian royals, as

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Speaker 1: you may know, we're buried with lots of stuff. The

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Speaker 1: latest revelation related to the artifacts in Tut's tomb, which

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Speaker 1: were published recently in Meteoritics and Planetary Science centers around

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Speaker 1: a dagger, and this particular item was found in the

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Speaker 1: wrappings of Tut's mummified body. It was placed over his

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Speaker 1: right thigh. And while the dagger has a really beautifully

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Speaker 1: detailed sheaf of gold, the composition of the blade has

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Speaker 1: been debated for decades and now, thanks to a joint

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Speaker 1: effort from Milan Polytechnic, Pisa University and the Egyptian Museum

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Speaker 1: in Cairo, we know what that blade is made from

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Speaker 1: and it's meteoric iron. That's right, metal from space. The

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Speaker 1: research team, led by the papers lead writer Daniella Comelli,

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Speaker 1: used portable X ray fluorescence spectrometry to analyze the composition

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Speaker 1: of the dagger. The results the metal of the blade

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Speaker 1: is almost eleven percent nickel, a very clear indicator of

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Speaker 1: meteoric iron. For comparison, quarry and iron has a roughly

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Speaker 1: four percent nickel composition. The scientists also found cobalt traces,

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Speaker 1: and that serves as further confirmation of its meteoric origin. Okay,

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Speaker 1: don't get too excited or start worshiping tut as your

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Speaker 1: new alien god just yet. While this data is incredibly

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Speaker 1: cool and it gives us insight into Egypt's scientific and

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Speaker 1: cultural history, it's actually pretty common for ancient ceremonial iron

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Speaker 1: objects to be made from materials that had extraterrestrial pedigrees.

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Speaker 1: The metal workers of ancient Egypt likely selected the meteoric

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Speaker 1: iron because they attributed value just financially or even divine

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Speaker 1: significance to it due to its heavenly origin. Comely and

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Speaker 1: her team actually used the compositional data of the Blades

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Speaker 1: metal to identify the very meteorite that's the most likely

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Speaker 1: source of the Daggers materials, and that meteorite is an

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Speaker 1: octahedrite fragment called cargo and it was found sixteen years

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Speaker 1: ago at the seaport of Mersa. Matra of the known

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Speaker 1: meteorites in a two thousand kilometer radius around the Red

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Speaker 1: Sea that they studied, only that one meteorite fragment has

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Speaker 1: a composition that matches the blade found buried with King

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Speaker 1: tut Next up text up post, Jonathan Strickland explained some

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Speaker 1: odd news from the United States Government Accountability Office. Our

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Speaker 1: entire nuclear arsenal is in the control of computer systems

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Speaker 1: that haven't been updated in half of a century. On sixteen,

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Speaker 1: the US Government Accountability Office released a report about the

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Speaker 1: state of technology in various departments within the US government.

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Speaker 1: The result was pretty shocking. Multiple agencies rely heavily on

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Speaker 1: equipment that is extremely out of date. The line and

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Speaker 1: the report that got the most attention was this one.

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Speaker 1: The Department of Defense uses eight inch floppy discs in

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Speaker 1: a legacy system that coordinates the operational functions of the

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Speaker 1: nation's nuclear forces. For those of you old enough to

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Speaker 1: remember floppy disks, you know this is seriously ancient tech.

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Speaker 1: The d o D uses an IDM Series one computer,

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Speaker 1: which first became available in nineteen seventy six. According to

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Speaker 1: the report, that's not even the oldest tech in the department.

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Speaker 1: The d o D itself says that the age of

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Speaker 1: its system is fifty three years. That dates back to

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Speaker 1: the year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Given that

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Speaker 1: consumers are told to expect that their computers will need

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Speaker 1: replacing every three to five years, this sounds pretty unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: So what gives Why are such critical systems running on

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Speaker 1: unsupported hardware. For one thing, these systems are unique. You

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Speaker 1: can't just pop over to the local computer store and

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Speaker 1: buy a copy of MS nukes. Legacy systems are difficult

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Speaker 1: to update. It often requires creating new programming from scratch

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Speaker 1: on newer computer systems and different computer languages. This is

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Speaker 1: time consuming and expensive. If you can keep your old

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Speaker 1: legacy hardware and software working, it's tempting to do so.

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Speaker 1: But the flip side is that the equipment and software

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Speaker 1: you depend upon may go obsolete Eventually. You may find

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Speaker 1: it impossible to replace a worn out piece of equipment

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Speaker 1: simply because no companies are producing new versions of it,

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Speaker 1: and it's hard to find people who know how to

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Speaker 1: maintain code in computer languages that haven't been used in decades.

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Speaker 1: Department of Defense representatives say that they intend to upgrade

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Speaker 1: many of its computer systems by the end of fiscal

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Speaker 1: year seventeen. That includes portable and desktop terminals, as well

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Speaker 1: as data storage. No more floppy disks. That's good news,

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Speaker 1: but the Government Accountability Office reports stresses that more needs

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Speaker 1: to be done across other agencies such as the Treasury Department,

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Speaker 1: the equipment, software, and even computer languages running many critical

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Speaker 1: systems are obsolete, and there are no rules in place

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Speaker 1: to require agencies to identify outdated systems that need an upgrade. Finally, today,

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Speaker 1: I've got the story of why Jeff Bezos wants to

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Speaker 1: see Earth rezoned as residential and light industrial only, and

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Speaker 1: how he thinks private space companies like his own Blue

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Speaker 1: Origin can help make that happen. Jeff Bezos did an

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Speaker 1: interview at CODE conference. It's a sort of who's who

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Speaker 1: of the tech business sector, and this year featured interviews

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Speaker 1: with industry heavies like Elon Musk and Bill and Melinda

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Speaker 1: Gates and Shale Sandberg on topics ranging from artificial intelligence

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Speaker 1: research to artificial meat startups. Bezos discussed well, lots of things,

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Speaker 1: and we'll put a link to the hour plus long

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Speaker 1: interview in this video's description. But the part that caught

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Speaker 1: our attention being the specific type of nerves that we are,

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Speaker 1: was when he spoke about his rocket manufacturing and space

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Speaker 1: flight company, Blue origin and the future of business in space.

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Speaker 1: Bezo says that he wants the space industry to be

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Speaker 1: open to upcoming entrepreneurs the same way that the Internet

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Speaker 1: industry is open to startups today. Part of the reason

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Speaker 1: is his genuine excitement about space exploration and his frustration

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Speaker 1: that the government run programs like NASA have been, by

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Speaker 1: some measures in productive decline since the heyday of the

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Speaker 1: space race. But the other part of his reasoning he

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Speaker 1: says that space will save the world. Bezos discussed how

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Speaker 1: pollution and energy drained from heavy industry are starting to

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Speaker 1: put limits on our society, how many people our planet

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Speaker 1: can support, and what their quality of life can be.

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Speaker 1: Here's my favorite cheeky quote from the interview. We know

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Speaker 1: about the Source System. Now we have sent robotic probes

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Speaker 1: all over the Source System. Let me assure you this

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Speaker 1: is the best planet. His aunts are to saving the world,

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Speaker 1: moving heavy industry off Earth and powering it with solar energy,

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Speaker 1: which would be more efficient than solar systems here on Earth.

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Speaker 1: That way, he says, we can devote our resources and

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Speaker 1: efforts to bringing the developing world up to the increasing

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Speaker 1: speed of the developed world. It's a lovely and lofty

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Speaker 1: goal because as of right now, as Bezos admits, it's

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Speaker 1: way too expensive to do stuff in space. Although the

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Speaker 1: thriving private space industry has helped over the past decade

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Speaker 1: to drop the cost of sending stuff up there from

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Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars per pound to one thousand dollars or less,

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Speaker 1: there are so many other factors. No one knows how

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Speaker 1: an increased number of rocket launches will impact the energy

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Speaker 1: industry and the environment. We're still researching how to protect squishy,

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Speaker 1: delicate humans from the rigors and dangers of space. Asteroid

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Speaker 1: mining is still in the concept stage, and the infrastructure

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Speaker 1: necessary to make it easy for a person to start

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Speaker 1: a space company is far vaster and more potentially explosive

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Speaker 1: than the infrastructure involved the Internet. But as Bassos said,

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Speaker 1: creating that infrastructure, from reasonable rockets to microgravity safety measures

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Speaker 1: could save us all. That's our show for this week.

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in. Subscribe now for

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Speaker 1: more of the latest and strangest science news, and send

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Speaker 1: us links to anything you'd like to hear is cover

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Speaker 1: plus any suggestions you have for surrealist art that we

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Speaker 1: should check out. Let's get weird. Shoot us an email

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Speaker 1: at now podcast at how stuff works dot com it

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Speaker 1: actually works now, I promise, and to get access to

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Speaker 1: thousands of other stories like these, check out our home

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