WEBVTT - Science and Wine 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.760 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:16.480 works dot com. Hey guys, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:18.919 It's also not don'tolk the science editor how stuff works 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.079 dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, science writer at 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:24.360 how stuff works dot com. And this week we're talking 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:27.920 about wine and uh well, wine and science. So first 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:30.880 of all, we need a stress that kids don't go 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.480 drinking glass of wine while you listen to this podcast. Yeah, 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.280 don't let this inspire you because trust me, you're not 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:38.159 gonna like what it tastes like anyway when you're old 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.080 enough to drink it. So yeah, later it's gonna take 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:44.360 a while, so don't rush it. So yeah, we're there's 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.240 all there are. How stuff works dot com has a 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.080 lot of really cool articles about how wine is made, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.360 about some of the possible health benefits of drinking, like 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.080 a glass of red wine a day, how to make 0:00:54.120 --> 0:00:55.800 your own wine, et cetera. But we're not really going 0:00:55.840 --> 0:00:57.400 to get into all that. If if you want that, 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:02.600 hit the site because we've got it. The guy covered. Um, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.200 what we're going to talk about are a few cases 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:07.880 where science and wine sort of you know, hang out 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.000 together and uh and and conduct some really cool experiments 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:13.920 or if some or and also in some cases some 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.399 really interesting chance encounters between the world of science and 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.319 the world of wine. And a friendly used to live 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:21.680 in Atlanta who was a microbiologist, and he went out 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.680 to California with his wife and wound up working as 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:28.240 a microbiologist out there for one of the vineyards. Yeah, 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.240 I mean there's a real chemistry to it. Um. I 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:33.440 don't know anybody that um it's like that heavy into 0:01:33.520 --> 0:01:36.399 the science of it, that specific area of the science 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:38.560 of it. Um. I have a friend who's a dietitian, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.840 and she when she talks about wine, she definitely has 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.000 a diet dietitian's stance on it. And then I have 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.720 another friend who's who like took courses in like you know, 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:49.640 the Hawaiian is made in the different regions, and and 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.920 she's you know, she advises people on you know, which 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.680 one to to get in, which you know to pair 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:56.720 with which cheese, et cetera. So do you think you 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.559 have a good palate? I really, I like in a lot, 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:05.760 but I'm not like super you know, I don't have 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.480 this amazing po I'm not a super taster or anything. No, No, 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.239 I don't think I'm a super taste either. I think 0:02:10.280 --> 0:02:12.400 as some of my in laws might be super tasters. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.680 They seem to have amazing palettes and they can discern 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.440 all these amazing tones and flavors and all sorts of 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:21.760 things in wine that I can never detect. Yeah, I 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:23.400 tend to like choose bottles based on what kind of 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.440 animals on the label or what price tag they have. 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.200 That also helps a lot. Yeah, but but no, I 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.760 like a good one. But I'd tell you who else 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:37.679 liked a good wine. Frederic Brochet cognitive neuroscientists at the 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:41.359 University of Bordeaux in France. What's what did you do? Well? 0:02:41.840 --> 0:02:46.200 This is this is pretty awesome. Um he uh. He 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:48.400 decided he was going to have some wine specialists he 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:50.919 knew over for a tasting, fifty four of them. In fact, 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.240 that's a lot of wine knowledge in one room. Yeah, 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.959 and Brochet himself is is quite the wine enthusiast as well. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.079 So you know this guy invite you over and for 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:01.959 a tasting, You're like, all right, you know he knows 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:04.840 his stuff, let's do it. So what happens tasting? Well, 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:09.000 he decided that he was going to uh to first 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.440 give them a pair of a pair of wines red 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.799 and white taste, um, which they did, and they all 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.640 they all made their notes on the on the wine 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.320 and everybody. And if you provided them with spittoons, probably yeah, 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.000 they're all about the other. You spit it out and 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:25.320 then you cleanse your palate and all that, and you know, 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:28.519 switch around some some water, um, and then you describe 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:33.880 it in all of this rather elegant language, which I 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.160 imagine a number of people have heard before. Um. We 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:38.360 have a whole list of of these that came from 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.680 the study that Brochet later published. But I mean, I 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.280 love how there are things like you talk about the 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.760 like raspberry tones and uh, you talk about you know, 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:52.480 the distinct lemon, honey straw floral tastes and the wine 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:55.920 those would be whites primarily. Yeah, and then you get 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:58.640 into the reds and I heard one person describe it 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.280 as a leather leather. I thought that was fairly interesting. 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.280 And then they're you know, plumb, final, dark, intense, deep 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.720 in all those sorts of things. My wife has a 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:12.280 theory that the the more um advanced, the the wine 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.800 condoseur or or or wine snob if you want to 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.119 be judgmental, Um, the more advanced your knowledge of wine, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.600 the crazier and kind of disgusting your terminology will be 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:23.760 for even a good wine. So you might be like, hmmm, 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:27.320 I detect the hint of dog some light takeion notes, 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:28.560 you know, it'll be stuff that like that. What does 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:30.720 that even mean? Tachy on that's a sub atomic particle. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.160 How does the wine taste like that? But but yes, 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.039 so everybody knows the kind of language we're talking about, 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:37.920 so they would. They tasted the red and the white, 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.800 and they made all these complicated, uh, you know, descriptions, 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:42.960 and you know, and some of the additives are very 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:47.159 much white wine describers and others are red wine describers. Okay, 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.000 so you know everybody ha ha ha tries the wine, 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:52.919 comments on it, puts down their notes. Then he brings 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:55.520 out a second pair of wine again, a red and 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.000 a white. Everybody does the same thing. You know, they 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.080 taste them, they put down their comments on it, and 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.960 they make their notes. You know that in white language 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:07.920 for the white wine, red language for the red wine. 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.400 But then the big reveal, the second couple of wines 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.280 are both the same white wine. He just put red 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:19.800 food coloring, so flavorless red food coloring into one of 0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:23.400 the whites. Kidding. Yeah. And the thing is nobody figured 0:05:23.440 --> 0:05:26.360 it out, like nobody, not a single person. And these 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.120 are all specialists. Not a single one said, hey, I 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.239 think these are the same. This is the same wine, 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.240 and you just put food coloring in one of them. Like, 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:35.560 no one even said, hey, these are very similar that 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.960 they they used to distinct language to describe the red 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:42.520 and the white. All right, So if apartually wasn't done, 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.760 that's right, he threw another wine party. He must have 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.120 had to invite a whole different set of specialists. I 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.640 can't imagine the same set of specialists would come back 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:53.400 after reveal, it seems, or if they would, they would 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.839 be very suspicious, like, all right, what's this wine? What 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.360 you do is the soda water experiment? Yeah, which actually 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:02.800 he kind of did some things similar to that, because 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.440 he what he did is he told everybody beforehand that 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:08.320 he was going to serve a common table wine and 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:13.160 a premium vintage. Alright, something fancy, you know. Um. So 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:14.960 he he, he starts off, He makes a show of 0:06:15.000 --> 0:06:17.839 tasting each of them, and he responds in a predictable manner. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.320 You know, he you know, he tastes the table wine, 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.280 he's like, oh, you know, it's table wine. Al right, 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:24.039 it was, you know, pretty good. Fits it out, and 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.120 then he, you know, and then he tastes the vintage 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:28.400 and he you know, he sort of waxes poetic about 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.279 how how nice the premium vantage, right, yeah, yeah, the 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:35.599 premium advantage. Um so, And then everybody else tries it 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.080 as well, and of course they have they do the 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:40.080 same thing. You know, Okay, you know that this is 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.839 the premium vantage, is this, this and that and the 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.200 you know, the how the the table wine is oh, 0:06:45.279 --> 0:06:47.360 you know, it's it's it's alright, it's table wine. It's 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:50.560 pretty good. But they don't there's no comparison except they're 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:55.360 the same common like Bordeaux wine. Oh yeah, there is 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.719 no premium vantage. It's just a very basic wine. And again, 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.560 no one picked up on No one picked up on it. Yeah, 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:03.719 so what's the lesson here? It seems that taste is 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.800 more than what's on your tongue. It's a combination of 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:10.440 all the senses, especially what you're seeing and what you're perceiving. 0:07:10.960 --> 0:07:12.760 Is that what Prochet was trying to get at. Yeah, 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:14.480 and you know, he's not just being a jerk, you know, 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.320 because he's very adamant in the paper that he you know, 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:20.960 he he likes wine, and that this is actually the 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.120 benefit of people who are in the tasting wine and 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:27.200 talking about it. It's like, we don't just taste, um, 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.600 you know, a glass of Pinot grigio. You know, we're 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.160 we're looking at it. We're um, we're smelling it, and 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.640 we're bringing in all these preconceptions based on what someone 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:40.880 just told us about it, what the label looks like, Um, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:43.400 you know, how much you paid for it. Uh, you know, 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.960 all these different things end up affecting our experience with 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:51.080 the wine. Didn't Prochet also predict that the more honed 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.480 a palette um the wine specialists have, the more likely 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:57.160 they were to fall for this trick, the red dot 0:07:57.200 --> 0:07:59.440 trick at least. Yeah, yeah, they they're the more the 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.760 more into wine you are, and the more of a 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:03.920 specialist you are, the more likely are to fall for 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.960 the red dye and the white wine. Uh experiment. So 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:10.120 this made me think of have you ever heard of 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:14.160 bartenders using like top shelf liquors, or at least the 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.760 bottles of top shelf flickers and filling them with the 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.240 cheap stuff and then serving them to people. Yeah, yeah, 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.120 I've I've heard about that. Yeah, I don't know if 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:23.680 I would pick up the difference. Do you think you would? 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.360 Probably not? Say, if somebody was giving you pop Off 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.160 versus Kettle one vodka, do you think you would pick 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:32.960 up on it? Probably not, I'm because I mean one thing, 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.120 if you're having like an Opinia colote or something, I mean, 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.040 it's what what You're probably not going to notice. But 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:41.440 what about something like a martini or can I don't 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:43.480 know if I would because I'm just not I don't 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.320 have mixed drinks that often, but I can definitely see 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:48.720 for somebody especially it was like say a sipping like 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:51.719 vodka or a sipping tequila or something, right, I think 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.800 it would be harder and if it were served neat 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.040 as opposed to with ice. Yeah. Now, if you just 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.760 it was like Irish car bombs, I thout anybody's gonna notice. Um. 0:09:00.800 --> 0:09:03.600 But that that actually brings up another point. There's a 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:08.040 friend of mine who's um graphic design person, and she 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.200 has this theory that you could make money selling like 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:14.640 fake fancy labels that that slide over your bottles of 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.840 two buck chuck absolutely, and uh, and so you can 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.880 just you know, you got to the stories, spend two 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:21.319 bucks on a bottle of wine, but then you put 0:09:21.320 --> 0:09:23.679 the fancy label on it and everybody's cool with it, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.640 or you bring it as a gift, to bring a gift, 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.679 and science backs this up as a solid plan. So 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:32.840 let's move on to our next intersection of science and 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.240 wine are more accurately medicine in wine in this case, Yeah, yeah, 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:38.160 we have actually yeah, we have a flight of two 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.680 wines here to present to everyone. And the first one 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.440 is h well, I don't want to spoil anything, so 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:45.320 I guess I'll kind of set it up with the story. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:49.079 Right where are we? Um? So two thousand seven, we're 0:09:49.120 --> 0:09:52.320 in Spain, right, and what starts happening is there are 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.800 wine drinkers and they're winding up in the hospital and 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.640 they're having severe allergic reactions. In fact, I think one 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.839 of the five people that shows at the hospital is anaphylactic. So, uh, 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.880 this person is going to die from constricted airways if 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.040 they don't get medical help. Yeah. So this is not 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:10.280 just oh my face turn red because I had wine. 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:12.480 This is I'm in the hospital and I'm in some 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:16.680 serious pain. Right, So the doctors conducted a couple of 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.400 tests and it eventually ruled out all the likely suspects. 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.360 And these were all wine drinkers. We should mention that's 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.480 a very important detail. Um. So, the doctors conducted tests 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:26.920 and they were trying to figure out what was what. 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.520 So there are a couple of likely suspects, maybe like 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.280 egg way, which is sometimes given to wine to clarify 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:36.400 it and reduced harshness. But when the doctors started scrutinizing 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.160 the patient's blood, they found antibodies that suggested a recent 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.040 beer wasp sting. Except none of these people have been 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:45.840 stung recently by a wasp or b. All they've been 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.800 doing was checking down wine. Yeah, so they you know, 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.760 they started investigating and what they what they came up 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:54.920 with is that everybody, everybody knows the one step in 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.959 the process of wine making, you know, even if you 0:10:57.960 --> 0:10:59.880 don't know all the chemical stuff. You know, like people 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.600 with their bare feet squashing grapes or a machine squashing 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:08.199 grapes up. Well, what if there's something crawling on the grapes, right, 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.920 what if you have yellow jackets which happened to like 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.679 ripe fruit like grapes but you know, I think everybody 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.640 knows these guys from picnics. They love picnics, and apparently 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.600 they love grapes. So what was happening is yellow jackets 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.199 were getting smashed up with the grapes, and you were 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.920 getting wasp venom in the wine. And then when when 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.240 these people drank it, they had an allergic reaction to 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:35.840 that venom. So this would probably be more of a 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.560 problem in a wine that hadn't been allowed to age then, right, Yeah, 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.840 they found that older wines were safe because even if 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:44.800 there's venom in there, the venom will have had time 0:11:44.840 --> 0:11:48.679 to just to grade and lose its potency um. And 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:50.960 they said it's probably would be good with even just 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:53.959 a couple of weeks of aging. So something like a Beaujolais. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:57.000 Aren't those very new? And don't you drink them very 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.000 quickly after they're produced? I think I've heard that. Yeah, 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:02.840 so yeah, that would if you had a wine it 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.920 was really fresh, like made yesterday. Uh, this would not 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:08.880 be a wine to drink if you had, you know, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.439 some sort of like severe allergic reaction to say, wasp stings. 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.079 This is really interesting. My mother in law actually has 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.880 an allergy to um be stings. She always forgets to 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:21.800 carry eppiepen around with her. It makes me a little nervous. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:23.960 So I guess that means that we can only drink 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.439 the really good stuff with her, the really good old 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:31.920 stuff of her nine good stuff. Um. So, our next 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:35.720 wine in our little flight of wines for this tasting 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:39.320 is a Chinese super wine, most excellent. What does it 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.920 do for you? Well, here's the deal, all right. So 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.679 everybody's read like we were talking about earlier, these articles 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.120 about hey, red wine is good for you, all these studies. 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:49.760 You know, red wine is good for you because of this. 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.200 It'll um um, you know, it'll it'll make it'll keep 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:55.280 you younger, it will make you live longer, it'll fight 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.920 cancer or heart disease or you know, you name it. 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.040 There's a lot of It boils down to the antioxidants, 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:02.679 right right, So the anti accidents and red wines are 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:06.560 called polyphenols, and the ideas that they're thought to protect 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.079 the lining of blood vessels in your heart according to 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.280 the MAO Clinic. And then there are these two main 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.080 types of antioxidants, so the flavonoids like flavor flavor and 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.800 non flavonoids and there's one non flavonoid that you guys 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:22.960 have heard a lot about, I'm betting, called raspy tal. Yeah, 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.080 you can butt and supplement front form, right, you can, 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.160 although you can't internationally. I think you can buy it 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:30.480 in the States. I don't know if the FDA is 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:33.040 regulated it yet or what. Yes, some of the stuff 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:35.080 is is weird, like you can get melotone in here 0:13:35.320 --> 0:13:38.400 just over the counter, but I think it's more control 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:41.920 and like the UK. So, raspital is a compound found 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:45.520 naturally in grapeskins, and there have been various studies conducted 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:47.800 on it, and some of them have found that high 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:51.640 doses can improve muscle endurance and mice and also that 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:56.600 the compound keeps them slim. And of course again we'll 0:13:56.600 --> 0:14:01.360 stress that the wine skins, uh, those end up more 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.600 in the process for red wine that's white. Red wine 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.720 is red and white wine is white. Right. So, other 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:10.760 studies have linked respiratual to improving longevity, and then of 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:12.720 course you have the people who say it doesn't but 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.599 it improves your overall health. Yeah, there's just seems like 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.720 for a while there's like a study every week somebody 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.200 else was hitting it and It's understandable because there's a 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:22.280 lot of money to be made and things like staying 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:27.080 young and living forever, indeed immortality. So it's been quite 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.680 the fat Yeah, to say nothing of, um, you know, 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.240 some sort of health reason to drink that glass of 0:14:32.280 --> 0:14:35.400 wine every evening. So as if you needed an excuse, yeah, 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.160 you gotta say, I'm probably staying young. So if for 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:40.840 spiritual is really great for us, then why not make 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:42.480 this super wine that has a lot of it in 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.640 it and make a profit from it? Yeah, exactly. So 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:49.400 what's going on in China? Is that what they're after? Um, 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:53.360 well sort of, it's Um, there's some researchers at China's 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:57.280 Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, and they've been working to 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.760 produced a genetically modified grapevine. Okay, so what they're doing 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:03.080 is they're throwing in a gene variant from a particular 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:08.520 wild Chinese vine that increases rez virtral production. Um, they're 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.440 but they're they're not doing this specifically with the idea of, hey, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.600 we will make some crazy wine that will make people 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.800 think they're gonna live forever. No, because it turns out 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.920 red virtral also works as an effective anti fungal agent 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.080 in the plant, protecting it, you know, from from fungus. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.480 So that's really what they're going after with this. But 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.760 that's that's not what was necessarily picked up on by 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:32.440 by various media outlets, you know, because any fungal wine 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.160 and any fungal grapes and I may not read that, 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.280 but not a sexy but super Chinese wine that could 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:40.920 make me not age, you know. That sounds great, I'll 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.000 click on that. So what about robots and wine? What's 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.440 going on there? Oh? Well? Um, on one level, you 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:49.880 have the I think a number of people may have 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.880 seen this and actually did a blog entry about this 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:54.840 like a year ago. Um, and it's kind of old news. 0:15:54.880 --> 0:16:01.240 But the Samoier robot from Japan's ANYC System Technologies, Um, 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:03.280 this is like, you know, and like all Japanese robots, 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.120 it's this cute little guy that you know, it was 0:16:05.160 --> 0:16:08.200 kind of like a little like pudgy dwarf or something. 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:10.720 But it looks like he just came round of an anime, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.960 you know. And but he can identify wines with an 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:19.120 infrared scanner and give food pairing recommendations. You can also 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.520 taste leftovers and tell you what they are, And can 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.520 we just stop right there? Why why is he tasting leftovers? 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:27.800 Why don't you know what the leftovers are in your fridge? 0:16:28.360 --> 0:16:29.880 I mean, do you need a robot to tell you 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.120 what your leftovers are in your fridge? I thinst so unrecognizable? 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:35.520 And if if they're so unrecognizable in your fridge, then 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.040 perhaps you should just throw them away. Well, if you 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.360 start asking do we need a robot to do this, 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:42.320 that or the other, then I mean you're gonna end up. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:45.080 I mean that crosses out most of the robotic stuff 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:49.400 that's going on in Japan. Well, this particular Summilier robot 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.040 identified human flesh as bacon, So it seems like there 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:53.960 are a few flaws to be worked out. Maybe I 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:56.960 don't know, maybe human flesh taste like bacon. I think 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.160 I've heard that before. Really, yeah, so maybe the robots 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:05.120 correct I suppose. Well, we have another pretty cool story 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.359 about one robots, and this one was detailed and Astrobiology magazine. Yeah, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.760 this one is a pretty cool story. Um. It centers around, uh, basically, 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:15.720 a couple of years ago centers around this. Uh. You 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.879 see Berkeley chemistry professor by the name of Richard Matthews 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:23.879 all right, and uh. During the day, he was working 0:17:23.880 --> 0:17:28.560 on a prototype for the Mars Organic Analyzer or MOA. Uh, 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.680 and this is the most sophisticated life detection instrument ever 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:35.080 to be sent to the Red planet and will be 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:39.399 going to So that's his day job. At night, like 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:40.879 a lot of us, who likes to come home, you know, 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:42.800 we sit on his porch, You have a little dinner, 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.840 have little red wine, and then go to sleep and 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:50.359 then wake up at like three thirty am, like hot, 0:17:50.520 --> 0:17:53.960 flustered with a racing heart and uh, you know, has 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:56.640 to get out of bed and somehow call himself back downs. 0:17:56.680 --> 0:17:59.800 We shouldn't going through menopause. What was going on? Um No, 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:07.639 But what was happening was something called tyramine. Okay, tyramine 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.240 the modified amino acid that sets off a chemical reaction 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:12.399 that causes the body to produce adrenaline. I mean, that 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:13.960 would be it. And it's common in a lot of 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:20.760 foods that are made with bacterial fermentation. So you're pungent cheeses, age, meats, 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:24.359 you know, all the good stuff. Yeah, so you know 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:26.240 he was probably was a little bummed out about this. 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.960 Professor Matthews had this idea. He wanted to know what 0:18:29.000 --> 0:18:31.399 produces it, and then wham, he realized, well, what do 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.520 you know, he can marry his nighttime wine drinking with 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.040 his daytime job because he spent a decade of his 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:41.480 life in fact, building a machine that can analyze organic compounds. Yeah, 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.600 the most advanced one on the planet, you know. Yeah, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:46.440 so that's pretty sweet to have that at your at 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.600 your disposal. Yeah. So what he did is he got 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.160 in touch with the local wine cellar and they started 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.679 running wines through this device. And the the original the 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.640 article which you can you can look up. It's online, um, 0:18:57.720 --> 0:18:59.560 and we'll probably link to it on the blogs when 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:02.960 we sure well yeah, uh, there's a real detailed description 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:06.920 of how this device works. Um, And it's really detailed, 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:10.600 so we'll just trust trust is it works. That involves 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:14.600 lasers and uh and um and like tagging the molecules 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:17.199 and then analyzing them. And it's far more advanced than 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.120 anything that like the Viking. Um, you know Rover's head 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:24.120 on Mars in the past. But anyway, so he goes 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:25.919 the winery, they start running wine through it, and not 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:28.399 just the finished product, but like wine from every step 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.760 of the fermentation process. To figure out, you know, when 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.520 when the tyraman is coming into play, and uh, they 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.320 ended up keying in on the secondary fermentation process, also 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:45.560 known as the malolactic formation, where malik acid converts into 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:50.040 lactic acid um. And this is like malik is typically 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:52.320 in the fruits and it can be a bit bitter, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.720 so lactic acid softens the taste. Right, So this is 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:01.040 the process that fills the wine with not only tira means, 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.320 but also histamines which cause allertic reactions, right, anti histamines. Sure. Yeah, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:08.479 the research is still continuing, um, and they're looking at 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:12.320 like which which wines are more likely to contain tiramine 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.840 and which even which wineries are more likely to produce it. 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.399 But there's actually really even more incredible possible future for 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:22.800 this technology, right. You could see it being deployed on 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.240 a much grander scale. I mean, there's so many food 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:27.560