WEBVTT - Particle Physics and Animals 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:04.360 Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from house 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.480 stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.640 I'm Holly Fry, I'm Tracy Wilson. And recently there's been 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:20.680 a mild trend going on on social media thanks to 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.640 post on boing boing um about Felicia the ferret who 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.840 worked at the National Accelerator Laboratory. And it's a really 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.960 fun story involving some very creative thinking um on the 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.400 part of some people that were trying to solve some problems. 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:38.160 But the more I read about it and that that facility, 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:40.400 the more that I realized that this is one of 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.720 those cool moments where science and animals meet and it's 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.120 not horrible and scary and there aren't icky experiments, uh, 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:52.720 which is hooray. Uh. So Felicia was a kickoff, but 0:00:52.760 --> 0:00:55.960 it's really sort of particle physics and animals meeting and 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:59.920 how that happens. Yes, and very unique scenario. And then 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:05.039 inteen seventies, the Fermy National Accelerator Laboratory, which is referred 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:07.520 to as firm A Lab for short, is a US 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.560 Department of Energy lab that's operated by the university's Research Association, 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:15.520 and it's located in Batavia, Illinois. It's not far from Chicago, 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.080 and it's on a site that's uh six thousand, eight 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:22.120 hundred acres, which if you go by hectares, that's about 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.080 two thousand, eight hundred uh. And the lab opened up 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.920 in the late nineteen sixties to address a nineteen sixty 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:31.840 three Atomic Energy Commission recommendation for the US to develop 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.600 a facility for nuclear physics research. And since that time, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.680 Ferma Lab has built several particle accelerators to conduct that research, 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:42.000 and they've really become a place where people from all 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:46.200 over the world come and study and work. Uh. And 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.320 it you know, continues today. Yes, as of early Fermal 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.360 Lab produces the world's most intense meme of neutrinos. The 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.720 facility employs about two thousand people and the scientists who 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.960 work their research dark matter, dark entered and the as 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:04.920 yet unexplained phenomena of the universe. But in those early 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.760 days they were focusing on getting the lab up and running, 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:11.240 and of course, building a particle accelerator is fairly serious business. 0:02:11.320 --> 0:02:14.040 Is is is that's something you just kind of throw together. Uh. 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.800 There are many challenges and very exacting specifications that have 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:21.240 to be meant for everything to work perfectly. It is 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.720 no good for sub atomic particles traveling through vacuum pipes 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.240 to encounter a whole bunch of dust and debris along 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:30.359 the way. But cleaning out the pipes used to construct 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:33.600 the network that would eventually carry these particles into adam 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:38.480 smashing collisions was a challenge. They were assembling a four 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:41.680 mile course designed to carry a beam of energy around 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:46.760 its seven seventy thousand times in one point six seconds, 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:50.160 and this challenge of cleanliness was one that was met 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.760 with a unique solution thanks to Robert Sheldon, who was 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:54.880 a British scientist that was working at firm A Lab 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:59.840 at the time. Originally a chemist, Robert Sheldon born November 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.480 at three was a man who could innovate and think 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:05.920 out of the box. He was known for all kinds 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.560 of off the wall ideas at firm A Lab, including 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.600 one which involved the construction of panels for a doodesic 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.399 dome that was being built for it in v as 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:19.920 part of the National Etcetera Accelerator Laboratories Bubble Chamber building 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:24.280 and along with Hank Hinterberger, also from the National Accelerator 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.560 lab Um, he worked in the Technical Services Group. Sheldon 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:32.880 pitched this idea of using recycled garbage, specifically aluminum soda 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.360 and beer cans to assemble these panels for the bubble 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.600 chamber building. And once the cans were collected, the tops 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:40.480 and bottoms would be cut off and then they would 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.280 be stood together honeycomb style and then sandwich between layers 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:48.240 of glass reinforced fiber plastic sheets. So this is really 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.920 groundbreaking in terms of like building a scientific structure. Firm 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.440 a Lab collected cans from employees and the community for 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.440 the project, and by late July of nineteen seventy one 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.480 the panels were complete, more than a decade after they 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:04.040 went into place. In nineteen two, they were covered with 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:08.280 copper to address leaking issues that had developed over the years. 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.920 So what does all this have to do with the ferrets. Uh? Well, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:13.920 Robert Sheldon thought out of the box when it came 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.960 to cleaning out those pipes for the construction of the 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.320 particle accelerator as well. So in the second half of 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:23.640 nineteen seventy one, when they had lots of pipes to 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:26.440 clean and no easy way to do so, he had 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:31.040 a bolt of inspiration. Sheldon recalled poachers in Britain running 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.359 ferrets into rabbit burrows on English estates to retrieve bunnies. 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.960 Because ferrets were silent, especially when compared to firearms, estate 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:42.400 owners wouldn't even know that their game was being stolen. First, 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.960 he made contact with the Brookfield Zoo to search for 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.400 a ferret for this project, and then Felicia, as she 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:51.040 came to be known, was acquired from a wild game 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:54.120 and fur farm in gay Lord, Minnesota, for the sum 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.040 of thirty five dollars. Because the spaces that needed cleaning 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:02.040 were sometimes very small, they asked for the smallest ferret possible. 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.480 Felicia was only about fifteen inches long and about four 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.360 inches tall when standing on all fours, as opposed to 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.120 raising up on her back legs as sometimes ferrets new. 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:14.600 In an interview with the Chicago Sun Times in September 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:19.159 of nine, Walter Pelzarski, a firm Alab mechanical designer and 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.120 Felicia's boss, said, quote, Felicia is ideal for the work. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.080 The ferret is an animal filled with curiosity and seeks 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:28.800 out holes and burrows. Its instinct is to find out 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:30.599 what's at the other end of a burrow, or for 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.320 that matter, a tube or a pipe. Felicia's diet was 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.120 similar to what mink would be fed on far farms. 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.240 We won't even get into animals raised for fur. That's 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:44.599 a whole other loaded discussion, but it was mainly made 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.479 up of chicken liver, raw meat, and fish heads. She 0:05:48.560 --> 0:05:51.240 also left hamburger and would get some sometimes as a 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:55.479 special treat. And the scientists trained Felicia to travel through 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:59.120 these pipes while wearing a small leather collar and a harness, 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.120 and this collar and harness assembly was attached to a long, 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.360 lightweight string that would unferral as Felicia made her way 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:07.880 along the lengths of pipe, and she was trained for 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:11.600 progressively longer and longer runs, eventually taking on assignments as 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:14.279 long as three hundred feet because that was the length 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.919 of the sections that were needed for assembly of the 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:22.159 Mason lab. So a brief science aside, a mazon is 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:25.960 any member of a family of subatomic particles composed of 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.359 a quirk and an antiquark. That is, thanks to Mariam Webster, 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:33.640 they are unstable that many of them can last for 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:35.960 a few billions of a second, and that's long enough 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.560 for particle accelerators, or that's long enough for particle detectors 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:44.719 to find them. You can produce them by colliding high 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:49.680 energy subatomic particles together. So that's what this machine that 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.040 they were building was going to do. Uh. So they 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.320 had trained Felicia to goo these distances, and once she 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.880 was through a pipe, workers would attach a swab that 0:07:00.080 --> 0:07:02.560 was soaked with cleaning fluid to one end of the string, 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.760 So she was at this point out of picture she 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:06.800 was done with her part, and then they would pull 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.080 that through the other side and it would remove stray 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.040 steel particles and dust, and only after they were clean 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:14.640 in this way could they be welded together. I think 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.600 as this got kicked around social media, people thought that 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.080 it was a ferret with like a cleaning duster cut 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.280 type thing attached to her behind and she was running 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.880 through and cleaning as she went. But that really wouldn't 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:30.480 be a very feasible for an animal to do because 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.240 of the weight of it, and she was so tiny 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.000 and be uh, it's kind of high enough priority that 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.720 you want human hands involved in it, right, So she 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.200 was basically she was carrying the string that they would 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.920 use to pull the cleaner through. She became very famous 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.080 for a brief period in nineteen seventy one. She was 0:07:49.120 --> 0:07:51.920 even featured in a Time magazine article in October of 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.760 that year, but her time in the spotlight wasn't all 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.880 that long. By December of nineteen seventy one, firm A 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.840 Lab was ready to retire Felicia, and there's actually some 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:06.400 slightly nebulous information regarding this retirement. Some sources say that 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.680 Felicia had always been intended as attempts so that they 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:12.760 could keep construction going on the lab while they worked 0:08:12.760 --> 0:08:16.040 on a long term solution for the need for pristine 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.240 pipe works, but others hint that Felicia didn't work out 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:21.960 as intended and that she stopped being really cooperative and 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:24.280 they were going to need her to go longer distances 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.200 than she was actually able to be trained for. In 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.000 an article in the Aurora Beacon News in September of 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.520 nineteen one, she is said to have made three successful 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:36.640 three hundred foot runs, with nine more scheduled, and that 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:39.160 certainly sounds like a finite number, like a plan that 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.840 they had that was definitely temporary. However, in the very 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:46.880 same article, lab technician Don Richieid is quoted as saying, quote, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.240 Felicia has saved me much time and effort will use 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:51.720 her over and over again, and perhaps in other sections 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:53.920 in the lab as time goes by. So it's a 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:58.400 little contradictory in terms of what was actually uh the 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.199 the catalyst of her retirement. In any case, the engineers 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.440 at firm A Lab developed the robotic rig to do 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.160 the same thing Felicia had been doing, and it ran 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:10.240 on compressed air and control wires instead of liver and 0:09:10.320 --> 0:09:14.400 hamburger meat, and also didn't shed, and so Felicia no 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.240 longer had to fret about staying tiny and she could 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:21.679 lead a life of leisure. Uh. Sadly, however, Felicia's golden 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:26.880 years of retirement were really not to be on ninety two, 0:09:26.960 --> 0:09:31.199 so late late in the following spring, the National Accelerator 0:09:31.280 --> 0:09:33.640 Lab announced in the Village Crier, which was sort of 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:38.400 their internal newsletter, that Felicia had passed away that Sunday, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.079 May seven. Felicia was at the home of Charles Crows, 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.000 who worked in the accelerator section of the Lab, and 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:45.880 he would often care for Felicia in his home from 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.960 time to time, as would Walter Pozarsky that we mentioned earlier. 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.440 UH and Crows noticed that Felicia did not seem well 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:54.320 on Sunday evening, and he took her to a vet 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.000 Monday morning. Under the care of veterinary staff. Felicia really 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.480 rallied and she seemed much improved by the following Tuesday morning. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.200 But that Tuesday afternoon, she was found dead when the 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:07.800 vet staff came back from lunch, and a neck cropsy 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:10.559 that they performed revealed that she had a ruptured abscess 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:14.479 in her intestinal tract, which is not super common for ferrets. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:16.920 Although I could not find anything that suggested that her 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.800 science work contributed to her death. I mean, as anyone 0:10:20.840 --> 0:10:24.120 who has animals nose, sometimes bizarre things just pop up. 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:27.199 So that was felicious passing. But she left a really 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.440 really huge mark on science, and she was at that time, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.280 like v one. She really was in tons of papers 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.120 because it was so novel to have this high grade 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.840 scientific facility being aided by a cute little animal. Yeah. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:43.679 I think people just really glommed onto that story well, 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:48.200 and especially since ferrets don't have the reputation for being 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.400 like the cleanest and nicest animals. I mean they are, 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.120 they can be a little bidy and a little dirty. 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.079 That would make all the ferret people. Man, all the 0:10:58.120 --> 0:10:59.960 faret people who are going to write us nasty letters. 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:01.720 It like, that's one of the things that you hear 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.320 is cautionary tales before people adapt ferrets, is that they 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.720 do tend to take some care and maintenance to have 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:14.560 them be kind and delightfully non melodious in your home. Yeah. 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:16.880 I mean, like any animal, I have met great ones 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.520 and less than great ones, and a lot of that 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:21.840 just has to do with the experience and knowledge of 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.920 the person that raises them. Yes, so I think they're 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.760 awfully cute. They are very cute. I wanted one very 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:29.880 badly when I was a small child. So this is 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:31.920 one of the reasons why I know that that they're 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:35.040 things to keep in mind everything. Keep getting a ferret. 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:37.040 Are you sure that wasn't people warding you off? It 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:42.679 will just bite you. No, it was actual research and 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:44.880 ferrets when I was old enough to do such a thing. 0:11:45.720 --> 0:11:49.640 Um Anyway, So, while Felicia is the most famous animal 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.559 that they ever had on staff at firm A Lad, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.480 she's not the only animal they ever worked with. No. 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:59.160 It turned out particle physicists really love animals, apparently, so, 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.920 and when you have all of that acreage to work with. Yeah, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:06.400 and most of these types of facilities, like those those 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:09.000 pipe works and stuff, a lot of them are underground, 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.000 so they still have all the above ground space to 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.679 work with. UH. So six buffalo were moved into a 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.240 fence theory like a pasture near Laboratory village in nineteen 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.400 sixty nine, and their pr would say that, oh, they 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.960 cut the grass for us uh and that herd was 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:27.280 expanded in nineteen one and then continued to expand as 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.560 new calves were born each year thanks to the ponds 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.640 around the site. And many birds would stop by during migration, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.400 and we're welcomed and often observed by birdwatching enthusiasts on 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:42.160 the staff. Canada geese and numerous duck species were frequent visitors. 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:45.960 Herron's have been seen during summers, as well as sandpipers 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:48.640 and other water birds. In an article in the Village 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:52.560 Crier from October nineteen seventy or reported fifty seven species 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.040 had been identified, No doubt many more have since then. 0:12:56.800 --> 0:13:00.520 In nineteen seventy one, they established a Canada East flock, 0:13:00.679 --> 0:13:04.360 beginning with five males and five females. At the time, 0:13:04.480 --> 0:13:08.480 the species was considered relatively rare yeah, and that's um 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.120 Canada Insis maxima, which is the giant Canada goose, which 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:13.920 is a little bit different. It has since rattied in 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.960 its numbers going by my quick research, so they probably 0:13:18.000 --> 0:13:22.480 helped with that. UH. In v seven, the firm and 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.720 lab group hosted their first national Audubon Bird count and 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:28.319 they did several more after that, where if you don't 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.520 know what that is, birdwatchers and bird experts will come 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.680 and they will listen and visually get identification on birds 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:36.679 and they'll count them all. And it's a way that 0:13:36.720 --> 0:13:40.880 they monitor UH species migration patterns and sort of the 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.680 health and robustness of a species. In late nineteen seventy three, 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:48.120 Mr and Mrs James Banister of St. Charles, Illinois gave 0:13:48.160 --> 0:13:51.400 the National Accelerator Lab the gift of a small herd 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.320 of Scottish Highland cattle. The cattle had been hand raised 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.679 by the Banisters and allegedly even responded to basic commands 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.880 and we're very gentle and loving. The herd was given 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:04.720 a twenty acre pasture to graze on and was retained 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.199 by the Lab as a registered stock herd until ninety seven, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:11.079 when it moved to the Brookfield Zoo. Yeah, that's an 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:13.920 interesting story because kind of like what happened with the banisters. 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:16.840 They started with a few, and they were so careful 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.920 with them and really race them almost like pets. Uh. 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.280 They really flourished, and then so they moved to the 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:28.040 spot at the Accelerator Lab, and then they realized they 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.479 really did not have the ability to care for them 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.040 much away. The banisters had kind of hit their limit 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:36.320 of what they could do. Uh, they did, so they 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.760 moved to the Brookfield Zoo for more specialized care. Uh. 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.920 And swans, barn owls, deer, butterflies, and even coyotes have 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:47.200 found haven on Firmal labs lands throughout the years. They 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:49.440 actually have an entire page on their site that's just 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.720 about like the wildlife that visits them and the various 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:57.160 animals that they've kept through the years. As for Felicia's legacy, 0:14:57.600 --> 0:15:00.600 not only was she very adorable and extreme helpful in 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.120 her brief time at the facility, it's estimated that she 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.800 saved them thousands of dollars with her runs through the tubes. Yeah, 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.560 they could keep construction going and they didn't have that 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:13.480 expense hemorrhage that happens with big construction product projects of 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.640 a specialized nature where waiting actually costs you money while 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.080 you solve problems. So she was really doing even though 0:15:20.080 --> 0:15:22.160 it seems like she didn't do that much. She did 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.800 you know, a finite number of these runs cleaning out 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:29.280 tubes prior to their welding assembly. That was time that 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.200 they would have just sat there on their hands, paying 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:35.440 people to like to do nothing, keep those welters ready 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.760 just in case. So yeah, she really did do a 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:42.880 great deal for science and again a great deal for 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.440 Farret ambassadorship. Yes, obviously it didn't make it all the 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:51.880 way to me. I do like ferrets. I like many animals. 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.160 H me too, I love them all crazy animal lady. 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:57.200 But I thought it was really cool. Initially I was like, oh, 0:15:57.200 --> 0:15:59.320 it would be cool to do an episode on Felicia, 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.160 And then as I read more and more about the facility, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.160 I realized, like, they really have a whole animal connection 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.440 and they do have a mindset of like giving back 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:13.040 to the environment and you know, furthering species that need assistance, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:18.000 and it's kind of awesome. So that's uh, firm a 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.160 lab and their love of animals. Yes, I do like that. 0:16:21.240 --> 0:16:24.680 It's a science story with animals that does not involve like, 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.960 no unsettling experiments or torture at any kind. No dogs 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:33.040 in space to make everyone cry. No, it's good, no crying. 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:37.320 Do you also have some listener mail? I do, uh. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.200 This comes to us from our listener page, and she says, Hi, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:42.560 Tracy and Holly. I was just listening to the podcast 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.360 on the Phoenician alphabet and was surprised to hear towards 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:47.320 the end that it was sometimes written left to right 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:50.320 and then right to left on alternating lines. I'm, by 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.320 no means an expert in this field, but like one 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.080 of you said, I'd often wondered as a kid why 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:55.560 we didn't write that way in English, and that was 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.640 you did said? That was me. That just made more 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.360 sense to you know, save your eyestraam uh. And years later, 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.560 page says, when I went to rob Anui, which is 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.000 of course Easter Island, I read a bit of trivia 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.040 that said that their native language used to be written 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.360 back and forth and was one of the few languages 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.160 in the world that could be written like that. I'm 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.280 much more intelligent to hear of another. Thank you, yes, 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:17.840 Wrongo Wrongo, which is how I think it's pronounced. Is 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:22.080 indeed a boost feedin UH language, as far as I understand, 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:26.320 not really commonly spoken anymore. I think now the people 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.080 that live on Easter Island speak Spanish is their primary language, 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:33.680 and some learn good native language UM later on in life. 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.120 But I don't know if even the native language still 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:38.960 does that when they learn it. I know the old 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.359 version did the back and forth lines. UH and Page 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:45.040 also sent us a picture of her cat who had 0:17:45.080 --> 0:17:48.520 just had some facial surgery done. And she's got this 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.879 awesome partial shaved mohawk situation, and she looks like a 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.360 total punk rock cat and she's very, very cute. We've 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.240 gotten so many great cat pictures. I love it. It's 0:17:57.280 --> 0:17:59.679 like crazy Cat Lady Heaven in my inbox. I love it. 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:01.400 I love it so even if I don't call out 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.320 and mention your cat by name, like I'm enjoying all 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:06.600 of them. I promise you it makes a day so 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.080 fun to start. Yes, looking at everybody's animals. You can 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.200 send us other animals too, are like a mama got faret, 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:14.840 send me pictures. They are so photogenic. Yes, I would 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.560 much rather get to work and have lots of animal pictures. 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:22.720 Than eighteen contradictory pronunciations. For some word that we've pronounced 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:25.000 in an episode, it happens. We do our best, but 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.600 it happens. If you would like to write to us 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.760 and share your animal pictures or your thoughts, you can 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.040 do so at History Podcast at Discovery dot com. You 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.760 can also connect with us on Twitter at misston history 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.320 and on Facebook dot com slash History class stuff. You 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.120 can find our tumbler at missed in history dot tumbler 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:44.240 dot com, and you can look us up on Pinterest 0:18:44.280 --> 0:18:46.680 as well. UH. If you would like to learn more 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.879 about the topic we talked about today, you can go 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.920 to our website and type in the words particle accelerators 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.080 in the search bar, and you will get the article 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.160 how Adam Smashers Work, which does indeed mention firm lab 0:18:57.840 --> 0:18:59.840 uh in the article. If you would like to learn 0:18:59.840 --> 0:19:02.360 about that, or really just about anything else your mind 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:04.639 can conjure, you can visit our website, and that is 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:11.000 how stuff Works dot com. For more on this and 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:24.080 thousands of other topics, visit how staff works dot com. 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.320 Netflix streams TV shows and movies directly to your home, 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:31.119 saving you time, money, and hassle as a Netflix Member, 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.640 You can instantly watch TV episodes and movies streaming directly 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.760 to your PC, Mac, or right to your TV with 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:41.440 your Xbox three, sixty P S three or Nintendo we console, 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:45.080 plus Apple devices, Kindle and Nook. Get a free thirty 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:48.760 day trial membership. Go to www dot Netflix dot com 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:49.760 and sign up now.