1 00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:05,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:14,840 Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 3 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:17,319 Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: we're back with part two of our two part exploration 5 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:23,000 Speaker 1: of the Depths of the Sea, the History of Knowledge 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:25,400 Speaker 1: and Exploration of the Deep Sea. And this this time 7 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: we're really going to be focusing in on William B. B. 8 00:00:29,560 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: That's right. We we alluded to him at the beginning 9 00:00:32,280 --> 00:00:38,800 Speaker 1: of the last episode. So he was an American naturalist, explorer, author. Uh. 10 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:42,040 Speaker 1: He lived from eighteen seventy seven to nineteen sixty two, 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,200 Speaker 1: and uh, he was He was a very interesting fellow, 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,240 Speaker 1: just to put him mildly. Before there was Neil deGrasse 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: Tyson or Carl Sagan or even Jacques Cousteau, there was 14 00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: William Beebe, who some writers have called the first celebrity scientist. 15 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: So he he traveled around and lectured, he wrote books, 16 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 1: he recruited, we received quite a bit of media coverage, 17 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:07,679 Speaker 1: and he was actually in writing books. He was a 18 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: good writers. This thing that helps. Yeah, he was a 19 00:01:10,280 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: good popularizer of science. He was a great science communicator. 20 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,120 Speaker 1: Before this was really that much of a thing. Yeah. 21 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:21,000 Speaker 1: I often think of Darwin as a great science communicator, 22 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: but yeah, Beebe really took it to the next level, 23 00:01:23,560 --> 00:01:26,479 Speaker 1: especially as we'll talk about in a minute, by employing 24 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,839 Speaker 1: all kinds of people to help spread the message of 25 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 1: scientific discoveries in ways that are easily digestible to the public. Yeah. 26 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,679 Speaker 1: So he he was an ornithologist at the New York 27 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:42,679 Speaker 1: Zoological Society and uh he he actually left college before 28 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,960 Speaker 1: completing his degree in order to to to work, uh 29 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:49,040 Speaker 1: for for the society. But he just he's one of 30 00:01:49,080 --> 00:01:52,520 Speaker 1: these guys who just seemed to really just ascend once 31 00:01:52,560 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: he you know, once he hit the ground working he 32 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: was he was have ended up being becoming the founder 33 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,280 Speaker 1: of the Society's Department of Tropical Research. And he conducted 34 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:05,320 Speaker 1: he conducted research, it's worth noting across two world wars 35 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: and the Great Depression, Like that was the time period, 36 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:11,640 Speaker 1: the trying time period, a time when most of the 37 00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: energy in the world seemed to be aimed at either 38 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:21,720 Speaker 1: conducting warfare, surviving warfare, surviving economic depression. Uh. But he 39 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: was able to successfully carry out a great deal of 40 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,720 Speaker 1: research and uh and then communicate the Department of the 41 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,560 Speaker 1: Tropical researches work as well, and to do this he 42 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,919 Speaker 1: enlisted not only scientists but also historians, writers, and artists. 43 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,280 Speaker 1: And by this I mean he took artists with him 44 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: on his expeditions, generating some really captivating artwork, and b 45 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: B himself sketched the creatures that he saw in the depths. 46 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: I mean it's really kind of surprising, however, though, that that, 47 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: given that he was such a celebrity at the time, uh, 48 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: that that we don't see him celebrated as much in 49 00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:59,799 Speaker 1: pop culture today. Like he's certainly again he's remembered. It's 50 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:03,200 Speaker 1: not like he's forgotten and lost to history. But you 51 00:03:03,280 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: would just think that he would have more of a 52 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,400 Speaker 1: like a tesla status today. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I 53 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:13,520 Speaker 1: will say that again. Before we went to this recent 54 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,560 Speaker 1: exhibit at the American Museum and Natural History of New 55 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:19,360 Speaker 1: York about the Unseen Depths of the Ocean, had some 56 00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: stuff about BB before that. I think maybe I was 57 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:25,639 Speaker 1: a little bit aware of him, but didn't really know anything. 58 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:28,880 Speaker 1: And that's crazy because his life and his work was 59 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: so interesting. Yeah. I mean, for starters, he influenced the 60 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: number of notable people, um for instance, EO. Wilson who 61 00:03:37,240 --> 00:03:40,520 Speaker 1: we've discussed on the show before. Uh has has pointed 62 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: to William B. B as someone who inspired his scientific career. Yeah, 63 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:47,840 Speaker 1: there are a lot of interesting things about Bebe's legacy. 64 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: One cool one that does get mentioned sometimes is the 65 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: fact that he was criticized during his life for hiring 66 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: and mentoring female researchers, which a lot of irritable sexist 67 00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:01,800 Speaker 1: establishment scientists of the time thought was an indication that 68 00:04:01,880 --> 00:04:05,560 Speaker 1: his work was not serious or was unprofessional. Uh. But 69 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:07,680 Speaker 1: of course they were wrong, right. Bbe helped give a 70 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: leg up to great scientists like Joscelyn Crane, who studied, 71 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: among other things, invertebrate ethology, so the behavior of invertebrates, 72 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,919 Speaker 1: with a special focus on fiddler crabs, and also the 73 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: explorer and research scientists Gloria Hollister, who pioneered lab techniques 74 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: for preparing marine specimens, and she herself actually performed dives 75 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,320 Speaker 1: in the capsule that we're gonna be talking about more 76 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:33,320 Speaker 1: in this episode of the Bathosphere, the steel ball that 77 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:36,160 Speaker 1: finally took us down into the depths. Some of the 78 00:04:36,200 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: females he employed were also artists as well. There's actually 79 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:43,440 Speaker 1: a wonderful New York Times article that came out, uh, 80 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:47,600 Speaker 1: just last year about an exhibition of various works from 81 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:50,720 Speaker 1: this period that I recommend everyone check out it. If 82 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,040 Speaker 1: you just look for William Bbe Department of Trapical Research illustrations, 83 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: you'll find it. And there's some just some fabulous illustrations 84 00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,880 Speaker 1: that say that the bathosphere descending into the depths with 85 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:03,960 Speaker 1: strange creatures swirling around it. Yeah, if you get a chance, 86 00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:06,520 Speaker 1: you should look up illustrations. Especially I would say of 87 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 1: the artist Elsa Bostelmann, who she was one of the 88 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:13,560 Speaker 1: artists who accompanied his research, and she sketched and painted 89 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:16,760 Speaker 1: what bb And and his companion, notice Bartan saw in 90 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: the deep from the bathosphere, which we're gonna be talking 91 00:05:19,400 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: about more later. But her work is just beautiful and 92 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:26,880 Speaker 1: weird and superb. It's uh, it's excellent science art. Yeah. 93 00:05:26,960 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: For reasons that will become obvious. Uh, as we proceed 94 00:05:30,360 --> 00:05:33,719 Speaker 1: of photography or certainly film was just not an option 95 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: aboard the bathosphere, so they had to depend on sketches, uh. 96 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,719 Speaker 1: And and also just you have to consider the time 97 00:05:40,839 --> 00:05:43,040 Speaker 1: during which all this have taken place. For instance, one 98 00:05:43,080 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: of his dives was actually broadcast on NBC Radio, which 99 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: is a testament to the popularity of his work, but 100 00:05:50,920 --> 00:05:54,960 Speaker 1: also just shows you the limitations of the visual technology 101 00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:58,160 Speaker 1: at the time. Now, of course, another great weird note 102 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:01,840 Speaker 1: in pop culture is that BB's elaborator Otis Barton, who 103 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,600 Speaker 1: was his his co pilot in the Bathosphere and one 104 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: of the people, I think the designer, the main designer 105 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:10,320 Speaker 1: of the Bathosphere, made a movie, made a movie based 106 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: on what they did. Yeah, Titans of the Deep. And 107 00:06:15,080 --> 00:06:17,599 Speaker 1: if you look at the poster art for this film, 108 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:19,440 Speaker 1: and I'll try to include it on the landing page 109 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,000 Speaker 1: for this episode, is stuff to blow your mind. It 110 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:26,240 Speaker 1: creates certain expectations of the content. Yeah, I will say 111 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:28,919 Speaker 1: it's so it's supposed to be like a documentary film, 112 00:06:29,080 --> 00:06:31,640 Speaker 1: right that they made it as a documentary apparently, And 113 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:36,159 Speaker 1: even though it's like BB is mentioned on the on 114 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,120 Speaker 1: the poster, it's really apparently. BB wasn't himself super involved 115 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,640 Speaker 1: in the production. Yeah, I've seen it actually described as 116 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: more of like an action movie or an exploitation horror movie. 117 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:49,960 Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't find this movie, so I don't 118 00:06:50,040 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: I didn't get to watch it, Yeah I would. I 119 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:55,680 Speaker 1: was not able to find, uh, even any footage from 120 00:06:55,680 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: it or a trailer or what would pass for a trailer. 121 00:06:58,200 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: But you can definitely get a say of the vibe 122 00:07:00,760 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: they were going for if you just look at the poster, 123 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: which of course has like a vague whale shaped sea 124 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,840 Speaker 1: monster with this big saw toothed face and then a 125 00:07:08,960 --> 00:07:12,520 Speaker 1: dude with a harpoon poise to hit it. It looks 126 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: in composition like the much later poster for the movie 127 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: Journey to the Seventh Planet, which is this nineteen sixty 128 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:22,880 Speaker 1: two sci fi barbecue about a bunch of astronauts who 129 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 1: fly out to explore Uranus and then get this They 130 00:07:27,240 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: essentially end up with a d intellectualized version of the 131 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 1: plot from Solaris and the movie stars of course, John 132 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: agar Ah, yes a frequent a frequent name for anyone's 133 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: who's ever plunged the depths of of B movies from 134 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: that era. But if you look at this poster for 135 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: Journey to the Seventh Planet, it's I don't know if 136 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:47,960 Speaker 1: it was actually inspired by Titans of the Deep, but 137 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,680 Speaker 1: they look very similar to me. I also found an 138 00:07:51,680 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: image this is an advertisement. But it turns out even 139 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: Otis Barton, who accompanied William BB in the Bathosphere, he 140 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: is famous enough at the time to appear in a 141 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:06,960 Speaker 1: camel advertisement for Camel cigarettes where you see him featured 142 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: there and he's saying, I smoke as many camels as 143 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: I like. They don't give me jittery nerves. Camels have 144 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:15,000 Speaker 1: a have a swell taste, mild and yet with rich, 145 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:19,240 Speaker 1: mellow flavor. I smoked them all in the bathosphere. Yeah, 146 00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,480 Speaker 1: I don't. I do not think the bathosphere is a 147 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:25,720 Speaker 1: good smoking environment. Two packs per dive. Well, we've been 148 00:08:25,720 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: teasing it enough. I think maybe we should take a 149 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 1: quick break and then when we come back, we should 150 00:08:29,400 --> 00:08:35,640 Speaker 1: discuss the bathosphere itself. All right, than alright, we're back, alright, 151 00:08:35,679 --> 00:08:38,840 Speaker 1: So I will refer you to an image like a 152 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,200 Speaker 1: photograph of the bathosphere on the landing page for this 153 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:43,960 Speaker 1: episode is stuff to blow your mind dot com. But 154 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: we're also going to describe it for you here, so 155 00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:48,679 Speaker 1: no need to pull the car over. What happ you 156 00:08:48,760 --> 00:08:51,839 Speaker 1: depending on how you're listening to us. So as you're 157 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:55,120 Speaker 1: trying to imagine the bathosphere, it's probably best to dismiss 158 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:58,200 Speaker 1: some of your more modern and TV friendly notions of 159 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:03,520 Speaker 1: exploratory submarine means, because the bathosphere was less of a 160 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: submarine and more of just a death trap. Right. It's like, 161 00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:09,200 Speaker 1: would you like to get inside a bowling ball and 162 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:11,680 Speaker 1: go to the bottom of the ocean. Yeah, a steel 163 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:15,160 Speaker 1: ball that men climb inside and then it is lowered 164 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:18,480 Speaker 1: into the ocean depths. Let's let's ask some questions. Does 165 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:22,319 Speaker 1: this have a propeller? No? Does it have fins? Does 166 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:26,680 Speaker 1: it have robotic arms? Does it have really anything on 167 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: the outside other than just a steel sphere? I mean, basically, 168 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:33,400 Speaker 1: it is a steel bowling ball that men climb inside 169 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,360 Speaker 1: through what what Bby referred to just as the door, 170 00:09:37,040 --> 00:09:41,120 Speaker 1: and then it has even door is a little misleading, right, Yeah, 171 00:09:41,160 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: I mean it's not really a door. They got in 172 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,920 Speaker 1: through a hole that was then bolted shut, right, See, 173 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 1: its sealed shut like a like an iron casket. And 174 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:53,720 Speaker 1: then it has these three, uh the three portals that 175 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:56,439 Speaker 1: they look out off. It look kind of like stubby 176 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,800 Speaker 1: eyes talks. So, Robert, how big was the bathosphere that 177 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 1: the two people got into? Well, here's a here's a 178 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:06,800 Speaker 1: quick quote from Baby from his biography Half Mile Down, 179 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:09,000 Speaker 1: which which we're gonna refer to a lot. If if 180 00:10:09,120 --> 00:10:10,880 Speaker 1: if we read a quote quote from Baby in this 181 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:14,680 Speaker 1: and we don't fully attribute it. It's from half mile down. 182 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:17,839 Speaker 1: Baby says. It was not as tall as a man, 183 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: measuring only four ft nine inches in diameter, but its 184 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:24,240 Speaker 1: walls were everywhere an inch and a quarter thick, and 185 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:28,200 Speaker 1: it weighed five thousand, four hundred pounds. A first casting 186 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:30,400 Speaker 1: had weighed twice as much, but it would have been 187 00:10:30,440 --> 00:10:33,199 Speaker 1: too heavy for any of the winches available in Bermuda. 188 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: And was jumped. Now about this steel ball. If you 189 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,480 Speaker 1: don't have an intuitive sense of numbers to physical scale, 190 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:41,160 Speaker 1: I want to pause for a second and dwell on 191 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: how tiny this is. You can buy beach balls bigger 192 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:49,160 Speaker 1: than this undersea exploration vessel. That's crazy. You included a 193 00:10:49,160 --> 00:10:51,840 Speaker 1: picture here on our notes showing what a sixty inch 194 00:10:51,880 --> 00:10:56,239 Speaker 1: beach ball looks like next to presumably an average sized individual. 195 00:10:56,559 --> 00:10:58,760 Speaker 1: I guess this is probably a tall guy, but but 196 00:10:58,960 --> 00:11:03,400 Speaker 1: still imagine two of him inside of it. That's unbelievable. 197 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,959 Speaker 1: And that's bigger than the bathosphere was. This was this 198 00:11:07,440 --> 00:11:11,320 Speaker 1: thing was tiny. People like they were crammed inside. But 199 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:14,480 Speaker 1: there was a reason it had to be that small, right, Yeah, Because, 200 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: as William J. Broad points out in his book The 201 00:11:17,080 --> 00:11:20,520 Speaker 1: Universe Below, the smaller the sphere the greater strength of 202 00:11:20,520 --> 00:11:23,000 Speaker 1: its walls. If you had more space in there, you 203 00:11:23,160 --> 00:11:26,560 Speaker 1: need thicker walls, which would of course mean increasing the 204 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:29,240 Speaker 1: weight of the thing. So yeah, we run into the 205 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:33,040 Speaker 1: problem with with with the winches that we've already discussed. 206 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:36,559 Speaker 1: It's almost like a parallel of the problems of shielding 207 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:39,680 Speaker 1: from radiation in space, right, Like, you want to send 208 00:11:39,760 --> 00:11:43,040 Speaker 1: up a spacecraft that will protect the astronauts with really 209 00:11:43,080 --> 00:11:45,400 Speaker 1: thick shielding in the walls, but you've got a problem 210 00:11:45,480 --> 00:11:49,080 Speaker 1: with getting so much mass up into space that you know, 211 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:52,320 Speaker 1: you could have all these really really thick walls. It's 212 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:54,280 Speaker 1: like a parallel to that. You know, you you could 213 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:56,680 Speaker 1: have really really thick walls to make sure you're super 214 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:58,800 Speaker 1: protected from the pressure and you've got enough room to 215 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:01,400 Speaker 1: move around, but it gets harder and harder to get 216 00:12:01,440 --> 00:12:04,120 Speaker 1: you down into the depths and back up safely if 217 00:12:04,160 --> 00:12:06,960 Speaker 1: you do that. Yeah. So this was designed by bb 218 00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: an American engineer Otis Barton, who already mentioned, and it 219 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:13,959 Speaker 1: featured three viewing portals, and these were This was not glass. 220 00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,599 Speaker 1: You couldn't just look out just normal glass because it 221 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:20,120 Speaker 1: needed to withstand the pressure. This was fused quartz eight 222 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: inches in diameter and three inches thick, and the fittings again, 223 00:12:23,920 --> 00:12:26,480 Speaker 1: they looked like stubby eye stalks. It's like a three 224 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,640 Speaker 1: eyed monster. Yeah, and quartz was used because it was 225 00:12:29,679 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: the quote strongest transparent substance known and it transmits all 226 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 1: wavelengths of light. Now, earlier we mentioned the door that 227 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:41,200 Speaker 1: wasn't really a door. What does BB say about the door? 228 00:12:41,240 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 1: He describes it as a quote round four hundred pound 229 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:47,320 Speaker 1: lid that quote had to be lifted on and off 230 00:12:47,360 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 1: by a block and tackle and fitted snugly over ten 231 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:53,840 Speaker 1: large bolts around the manhole. The ladder just big enough 232 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,840 Speaker 1: to permit the passage of a slender human body. Bebe 233 00:12:56,960 --> 00:12:59,000 Speaker 1: was a very slender guy, we should point out. I've 234 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:03,000 Speaker 1: seen pictures of him and he is spind lee. Now, 235 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,600 Speaker 1: on top of that, let's discuss some of the other 236 00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:08,640 Speaker 1: attributes of physical attributes of the bathisphere. It had a 237 00:13:08,679 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: single external light, just one thousand wats and one light, 238 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 1: and you flipped it on or off from inside. And 239 00:13:14,320 --> 00:13:18,400 Speaker 1: the sphere was lowered on a single steel, non twisting 240 00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: cable nearly an inch in diameter with a breaking strain 241 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:26,480 Speaker 1: of twenty nine tons, or a dozen bathispheres Okay, So 242 00:13:26,559 --> 00:13:28,800 Speaker 1: they wanted to be real safe because of course, if 243 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,640 Speaker 1: that cable breaks, you're in a world a hurt. Yeah, 244 00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: you're you're done for, and you have to worry about 245 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,120 Speaker 1: more than just the what happens if the cable breaks, 246 00:13:37,120 --> 00:13:38,719 Speaker 1: So you have to worry about, well, what if they're 247 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:41,040 Speaker 1: stormy weather, et cetera. Now you mentioned there's a light 248 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:42,559 Speaker 1: on the thing, so that means they got to get 249 00:13:42,559 --> 00:13:44,760 Speaker 1: power down there somehow. Yeah, So they had an additional 250 00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:48,800 Speaker 1: cable that carried both the electrical power and the telephone wires. Oh, 251 00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 1: telephone wires. So they had to have some way to 252 00:13:50,559 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: communicate with the service, right, I assume they couldn't just 253 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,120 Speaker 1: tug on the cable. Yeah, I don't think that would work. 254 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:58,680 Speaker 1: But but yeah, this is this is kind of the 255 00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:02,439 Speaker 1: limits of their connection to the surface. They had electricity 256 00:14:02,480 --> 00:14:05,080 Speaker 1: coming down, and they had that telephone wire. They did 257 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: not have an air tube coming down. But of course 258 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:13,679 Speaker 1: they had to breathe. So the bathmosphere included oxygen tanks 259 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: with automatic valves up that provided uh, the atmosphere, and 260 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:20,560 Speaker 1: then they just had trays of chemical setting out. I 261 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:23,280 Speaker 1: believe it was soda, lime, and calcium chloride. Yeah, and 262 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:26,640 Speaker 1: this was to absorb moisture and carbon dioxide because you 263 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:28,400 Speaker 1: don't just need fresh air to breathe in, you need 264 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:31,240 Speaker 1: to scrub the carbon dioxide that you're breathing out. Yeah. 265 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:33,080 Speaker 1: I would, I would just want to drive home. How 266 00:14:33,800 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: I mean, it's an amazing invention, but how dangerously crude 267 00:14:37,560 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: it can it can feel. It reminds me of there 268 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:47,120 Speaker 1: was the Night film? Was it The Voyagers? Explorers? Yes, 269 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 1: where the kids build this kind of spaceship that sets 270 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: inside a like a magic force field sphere. But they 271 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,040 Speaker 1: just build it, right, They just constructed from what they 272 00:14:57,080 --> 00:14:59,760 Speaker 1: have at hand, And there's a there's a similar vibe 273 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,600 Speaker 1: with the bath Isphere like that. There's just it's just 274 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:06,640 Speaker 1: so ballsy to imagine climbing in this thing and to 275 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:09,760 Speaker 1: the death. I mean, it is a large ball. It 276 00:15:09,880 --> 00:15:14,400 Speaker 1: is a it is a steel ball. Yes, and even 277 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:17,120 Speaker 1: though it holds two divers and is essentially a two 278 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: man crew. Uh. BB says that the total crew required 279 00:15:21,640 --> 00:15:24,600 Speaker 1: to support this thing, uh, most of which you're going 280 00:15:24,640 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: to be members on the surface. Uh, it comes to 281 00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: around twenty eight people total, so two under the water, 282 00:15:33,200 --> 00:15:36,120 Speaker 1: above the water. All right, So let's say you're William Beebe, 283 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:39,200 Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, I've got a steel ball to Diane, Um, 284 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:41,160 Speaker 1: where where are we going to put this down in 285 00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:43,520 Speaker 1: the water. Well, they set their side some the deep 286 00:15:43,560 --> 00:15:46,640 Speaker 1: seas off the coast of Bermuda, Uh, specifically a circular 287 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:49,880 Speaker 1: area about eight miles in diameter near non Such Island, 288 00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:53,880 Speaker 1: and here the depth reached about a mile. The first 289 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: dive occurred in nineteen thirty. By June eleven, nineteen thirty, 290 00:15:57,760 --> 00:16:01,360 Speaker 1: they've reached the depth of feet or four ds. In in 291 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:04,240 Speaker 1: in n four they reached three thousand feet or nine 292 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,160 Speaker 1: d and that was, of course, by far the world record. 293 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:10,760 Speaker 1: That they went much lower than anybody had ever been 294 00:16:10,760 --> 00:16:13,600 Speaker 1: able to explore before. Yeah, they were really breaking new 295 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: grounds with this. Now, the bathosphere greatly improved humanity's ability 296 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: to explore the depths UH. But again it was it 297 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:26,120 Speaker 1: was ultimately a risky vessel to use, and it was 298 00:16:26,160 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 1: soon replaced by safer designs, including the bath Escape, which 299 00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:36,040 Speaker 1: positioned a traditional bathosphere beneath a large float, and even 300 00:16:36,080 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 1: the likes of the modern Deep Sea Challenger famously piloted 301 00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:43,200 Speaker 1: by James Cameron that boasts a pilot sphere position beneath 302 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:45,360 Speaker 1: the rest of the vessel. So you can think of 303 00:16:45,440 --> 00:16:50,600 Speaker 1: post bathosphere designs as just basically being the bathosphere attached 304 00:16:50,920 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: to a larger system of flotation submarine submarine. Basically like, 305 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,400 Speaker 1: let's attach this to a submarine that has power, that 306 00:16:59,520 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: has the ability to to to raise and lower itself 307 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:07,920 Speaker 1: within the water. But the bathosphere was was just the sphere, 308 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:12,399 Speaker 1: just the this uh, this steel container for the humans 309 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:15,000 Speaker 1: to descend in. Having your own power really does seem 310 00:17:15,080 --> 00:17:17,240 Speaker 1: to make a difference, right, I mean, there's a huge 311 00:17:17,280 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: difference between being in a submarine that can move and 312 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:22,879 Speaker 1: just hanging in a ball on a thread. Yeah, I 313 00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: mean just the psychological uh notion here, just the idea 314 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:28,920 Speaker 1: that they have something if I if I get tired 315 00:17:28,960 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: of descending into the darkness of the deep sea, then 316 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:34,720 Speaker 1: I can just I can I can raise myself out 317 00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:37,200 Speaker 1: of this. I have some level of control, and I'm 318 00:17:37,240 --> 00:17:40,240 Speaker 1: not just hoping that everything is going okay up there 319 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:42,600 Speaker 1: on the surface. Now. Of course, by virtue of the 320 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:45,280 Speaker 1: fact that bb and his team went deeper than anyone 321 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:48,280 Speaker 1: ever had before, he got to observe far more than 322 00:17:48,320 --> 00:17:50,800 Speaker 1: anyone ever had before. So I think we should go 323 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 1: into his scientific observations, and we'll do that right after 324 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:59,119 Speaker 1: this break. Thank thank alright, we're back. So William bebe 325 00:17:59,240 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: the modern guilt a mesh. He and his co pilot 326 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:05,000 Speaker 1: are in the ball in the steel death trap, sinking down, 327 00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:08,320 Speaker 1: down down into the ocean, deeper than anybody's ever gone before, 328 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,919 Speaker 1: and looking out the portholes to see what they can see. 329 00:18:11,359 --> 00:18:13,600 Speaker 1: So let's talk about what they see. What did they 330 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:17,840 Speaker 1: discover through this research method? Well, BB observed and sketched 331 00:18:17,880 --> 00:18:20,960 Speaker 1: again because cameras of the day were largely useless given 332 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:23,879 Speaker 1: the conditions of the bathosphere in its environment. But he 333 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:28,600 Speaker 1: described a world quote stranger than any imagination could have conceived, 334 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:31,879 Speaker 1: and he writes about it very beautifully. Oh yeah, and 335 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,159 Speaker 1: and he really brought the results between N and n 336 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:38,439 Speaker 1: b B and his team caught more than a hundred 337 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,919 Speaker 1: and fifteen thousand animals from two hundred and twenty species, 338 00:18:42,200 --> 00:18:44,919 Speaker 1: many many of which were new to science, so they 339 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:48,560 Speaker 1: were combining different research methods at the same time. Now, 340 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 1: before we get into some of the specific creatures that 341 00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:54,840 Speaker 1: he saw claim to have seen, uh, we should probably 342 00:18:54,880 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 1: just talk about his experience with darkness and light, because 343 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 1: ultimately that is the how that that's kind of the 344 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:05,600 Speaker 1: defining experience that he describes. Oh exactly, so Bb Rights quote. 345 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:08,600 Speaker 1: In the course of the half mile down, although my 346 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:12,400 Speaker 1: eyes were perfectly dark adapted, I could detect not the 347 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:16,439 Speaker 1: faintest glimmer of light from seventeen hundred feet down. So, 348 00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,040 Speaker 1: as far as the human eye was concerned, conditions of 349 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:23,640 Speaker 1: absolute darkness existed at these deeper levels. And then he says, 350 00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:27,320 Speaker 1: from seventeen hundred feet down, animal light is the only 351 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:30,520 Speaker 1: external source of illumination. So of course they did have 352 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:32,440 Speaker 1: a light they could flip on, but they didn't want 353 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:34,200 Speaker 1: to do that all the time, right, because that would 354 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:37,120 Speaker 1: be affecting and changing the environment, So they didn't do 355 00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,800 Speaker 1: that always. They would try to see, often just what 356 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,640 Speaker 1: they could see in the dark that was self illuminated. 357 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,840 Speaker 1: And when you go that far down, there actually are 358 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:49,199 Speaker 1: very many bioluminescent creatures that will illuminate themselves for you 359 00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:51,200 Speaker 1: to see, but they'll also illuminate the water so that 360 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:55,320 Speaker 1: you can see other animals around them. And bb Rights quote, 361 00:19:55,760 --> 00:19:59,440 Speaker 1: occasionally the head of a fish would appear conspicuously against 362 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: the surround black, illumined by some indirect source of unknown lighting. 363 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,600 Speaker 1: Eyes especially stood out with no definite source of light visible. 364 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:10,719 Speaker 1: When teeth were thus silhouetted, I knew it was from 365 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:14,959 Speaker 1: a luminous mucus which covered them. Cheek lights flashed and 366 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: dimmed or vanished, altogether showing some control other than the 367 00:20:19,119 --> 00:20:23,520 Speaker 1: usual disappearance into an opaque epidermal trench. And I should 368 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,919 Speaker 1: mention those last quotes I provided came from a paper 369 00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:29,720 Speaker 1: he published in Proceedings to the National Academy of Sciences 370 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,359 Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty two or thirty three. Yeah, he was 371 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:37,919 Speaker 1: extremely impressed by the display of bioluminescence as as he descended. 372 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:41,320 Speaker 1: So he noted the lights of fish, jellies and various 373 00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:44,560 Speaker 1: animals that he couldn't really identify in passing, and it 374 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,560 Speaker 1: was something of a revelation to him. About a third 375 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:50,160 Speaker 1: of a mile down he saw something that he described 376 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:54,520 Speaker 1: as a quote pyrotechnic network and was and it was 377 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:58,440 Speaker 1: quote so delicate and evanescent that its abyssal form is 378 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:02,159 Speaker 1: quite lost if we ever take get in our nets. So, 379 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: in other words, if we were just to pull this up, 380 00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:06,960 Speaker 1: you know what, what would we have. We would have 381 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,840 Speaker 1: maybe some shriveled mass, but we certainly would not have 382 00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,600 Speaker 1: this floating bioluminescent thing that I'm witnessing right now. Well, 383 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,320 Speaker 1: in the last episode we talked about the c cucumber 384 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:19,960 Speaker 1: that turns to red kool aid. Here you would guess 385 00:21:20,160 --> 00:21:23,439 Speaker 1: turn into Buyo luminescent kool aid. And then there's this, 386 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:27,680 Speaker 1: there's this, this description of the Abyssle rainbow cars, which 387 00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,919 Speaker 1: will come back to later on. He says, at eleven 388 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,400 Speaker 1: seventeen o'clock, I turned the light on suddenly and saw 389 00:21:34,440 --> 00:21:37,159 Speaker 1: a strange quartet of fish to which I have not 390 00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:41,000 Speaker 1: been able to fit genus or family, shape, size, color, 391 00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,879 Speaker 1: and one fin I saw clearly. But Ourbissle rainbow cars 392 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 1: is as far as I dare go. You other words 393 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:48,639 Speaker 1: these saying that's as far as I dare go, and 394 00:21:48,640 --> 00:21:53,159 Speaker 1: classifying it and naming it quote. And they may be 395 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:56,920 Speaker 1: anything but cars about four inches overall. They were slender 396 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:00,960 Speaker 1: and stiff, with long, sharply pointed jaws. And it's worth 397 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,200 Speaker 1: noting no one has ever captured a specimen quite like this, 398 00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:07,760 Speaker 1: nor seen it uh. And this this is one of 399 00:22:08,080 --> 00:22:13,440 Speaker 1: the mysteries that arises from William Beebe's observations. Specimens that 400 00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:18,520 Speaker 1: have have not been caught or even witnessed again, and 401 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: we're left to wonder what what did he see? Right? 402 00:22:21,320 --> 00:22:24,520 Speaker 1: Did he have access somehow to to seeing things no 403 00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,800 Speaker 1: one has actually seen since then? Or was he mistaken? 404 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:30,200 Speaker 1: Did he think he was seeing something that he actually 405 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: wasn't or was he making it up? I mean, I 406 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:34,320 Speaker 1: don't want to think he was making it up, but 407 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:36,720 Speaker 1: I guess we have to consider that as possibility. Yeah, 408 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: and we'll we'll touch on that some of the thinking 409 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:41,240 Speaker 1: on that a little later. But but one thing we 410 00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:43,200 Speaker 1: should go ahead and drive home here is that again, 411 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:46,879 Speaker 1: the bathosphere did not have an engine on it, It 412 00:22:46,920 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: did not have propellers. It was a very silent affair 413 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:54,600 Speaker 1: in a realm where we're sound truly carries and can 414 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:59,080 Speaker 1: have damaging effects, especially our modern uh our modern state 415 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:03,160 Speaker 1: of affairs with with with ships and sonar. But even 416 00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:08,200 Speaker 1: just a noisy submarine would have potentially scared away various species. 417 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:10,520 Speaker 1: So there is an argument to be made here that 418 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: the bathosphere, as it's descending rather silently and at times 419 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: uh an incomplete darkness, would have attracted or been or 420 00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,520 Speaker 1: at least would not have have frightened away species that 421 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:27,359 Speaker 1: would recoil from a modern exploratory submarine. That's interesting, and 422 00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,040 Speaker 1: that's that's a good point to keep in mind as 423 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:31,920 Speaker 1: we go on and discuss some more of the things 424 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:34,640 Speaker 1: he recorded seeing. I think if you have the ability 425 00:23:34,760 --> 00:23:36,919 Speaker 1: while you're listening, you should look up some of the 426 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:39,720 Speaker 1: artworks of Elsa bo Stelman. She was again one of 427 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,480 Speaker 1: the artists who was doing sketches for for BB's team, 428 00:23:42,680 --> 00:23:44,679 Speaker 1: and so it would be great to have some of 429 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,040 Speaker 1: those in front of your eyes while we're talking here. Now, 430 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:51,280 Speaker 1: another variety of fish that BB reported seeing are the dragonfish. 431 00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: Now these are different than sea dragons, right quote a 432 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,120 Speaker 1: six inch dragonfish or still Maya's past. Lights first visible 433 00:23:59,400 --> 00:24:03,600 Speaker 1: than three seconds of searchlight for identification, then lights alone. 434 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,480 Speaker 1: And there seemed no reason why we should not swing 435 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:09,479 Speaker 1: the door open and swim swim out. Now I can 436 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:12,280 Speaker 1: think of various reasons not to do that, baby, but 437 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:15,200 Speaker 1: I understand that he's trying to capture his excitement here. 438 00:24:15,320 --> 00:24:17,600 Speaker 1: It's the deep sea version of the thing, like you know, 439 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:21,000 Speaker 1: the sudden desire to the call of the void, right yeah, yeah, 440 00:24:21,160 --> 00:24:25,160 Speaker 1: or the desire to like swerve into oncoming traffic. So 441 00:24:25,800 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: he was this was his guess that these were dragonfish. 442 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: And again we have to put ourselves in the bathmosphere 443 00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:36,560 Speaker 1: and imagine peering out through these tiny uh courtz lenses 444 00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:40,880 Speaker 1: at at things just swimming by, sometimes lingering but maybe not, 445 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:46,160 Speaker 1: sometimes wholly visible for a few seconds, sometimes only partially visible. 446 00:24:46,640 --> 00:24:50,560 Speaker 1: But he guessed that these were some variety of dragonfish. Uh, 447 00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,320 Speaker 1: and the particular species that he was describing was unknown 448 00:24:53,400 --> 00:24:55,960 Speaker 1: to science at the time, but he was familiar with 449 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,720 Speaker 1: other species of stomias. Now he apparently reported seeing a 450 00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:03,760 Speaker 1: six foot dragonfish as well as a marine biologist and 451 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,040 Speaker 1: author Richard Ellis discusses in his book Singing Whales and 452 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:10,640 Speaker 1: Flying Squid the Discovery of marine life. So to put 453 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:14,880 Speaker 1: that in perspective, uh, I believe the largest known dragonfish 454 00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,520 Speaker 1: at the time was a mere fifteen inches in length. Wow. 455 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:20,679 Speaker 1: I mean, if you look up what dragonfish look like 456 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: they are, it is terrifying to imagine a six foot 457 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 1: long one. It's kind of like. Uh. In fact, I 458 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,480 Speaker 1: would compare it very much to the discovery of the 459 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:32,640 Speaker 1: six foot long Cambrian predator Anomala carrass right. Uh. The 460 00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:36,200 Speaker 1: the idea that something that creepy could get that big 461 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,280 Speaker 1: is really disturbing. Yeah, So these these creatures were members 462 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:45,000 Speaker 1: of the order stomaformes, which also includes the viperfish, which 463 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:48,879 Speaker 1: Bebe also notes on his dives. Now, in the introduction 464 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,560 Speaker 1: UH to the novel Starfish UH, the author Peter Watts, 465 00:25:53,560 --> 00:25:57,080 Speaker 1: who was also also as a marine biology background, he 466 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:01,679 Speaker 1: mentions bb having reported a seven foot viperfish. Now, I 467 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: don't I don't doubt Wat's in this, but I can't 468 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:08,280 Speaker 1: personally find a reference to this particular sighting. But then again, 469 00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:12,280 Speaker 1: I didn't look at all of the scientific papers that 470 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:15,119 Speaker 1: that baby put out over the years. But but he 471 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: certainly mentions viperfish in his biography and the idea if 472 00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:21,440 Speaker 1: you look up a picture of a viper fish again, 473 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:24,639 Speaker 1: it's very much like like the dragonfish. This uh, this 474 00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:29,719 Speaker 1: sharp tooth, long, fierce, eel like creature. And to imagine 475 00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:32,960 Speaker 1: a seven foot version of this a swimming past you 476 00:26:32,960 --> 00:26:35,479 Speaker 1: as you're cramped in your steel beach ball, it's just 477 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:38,359 Speaker 1: terrifying to imagine. Yeah, well, it swims up to the 478 00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,760 Speaker 1: window to say, hey, I'm here to vash and vipe 479 00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,320 Speaker 1: your windows. What is that from? Oh, you don't remember 480 00:26:44,359 --> 00:26:46,840 Speaker 1: that story the viper No, I think it was in 481 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:48,920 Speaker 1: It was in that book Scary Stories to Tell in 482 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:53,520 Speaker 1: the dark. I remember the book, or at least the illustration. Yeah, well, 483 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,440 Speaker 1: bad joke if it didn't land. Sorry, I mean, no, 484 00:26:56,520 --> 00:26:58,080 Speaker 1: I no, no, I mean there's a story called The 485 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,320 Speaker 1: Viper about a guy who keeps calling on the phone 486 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: who says like, I am the Viper and I'm coming, 487 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,520 Speaker 1: and somebody gets really scared because the viper is coming. 488 00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,560 Speaker 1: And then finally, when the viper gets there, he says 489 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:09,840 Speaker 1: he's there to vash and vipe the window because he's 490 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: really the viper. Okay, now, I think the joke will 491 00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:14,280 Speaker 1: work for people who know the reference that I just 492 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:16,200 Speaker 1: didn't catch it. Jokes are always better when you spend 493 00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:19,159 Speaker 1: a few minutes explaining him, you know. All right, Well, 494 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:23,000 Speaker 1: let's move on to another sighting that BB reported that 495 00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,959 Speaker 1: of the great fish, and I believe we read a 496 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:28,639 Speaker 1: little bit from this one at the top of the 497 00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:32,679 Speaker 1: first episode. Yeah, so what was this great fish? Well, 498 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,880 Speaker 1: he describes it. Essentially, it's just this wall of flesh 499 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,600 Speaker 1: passing him by in the faint light, something that he 500 00:27:38,640 --> 00:27:42,920 Speaker 1: guessed to be about twenty ft long, and it could 501 00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:44,920 Speaker 1: have been a number of things, So he he thinks 502 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,800 Speaker 1: it might have been some manner of whale and it 503 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 1: could have been. It could have been a sperm whale 504 00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:51,880 Speaker 1: for instance, which is as we've discussed on the show 505 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:55,119 Speaker 1: in our Leviathan episode, is a large creature and it 506 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:58,240 Speaker 1: can and it can dive much deeper than the bathosphere 507 00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,119 Speaker 1: and can get my bigger than correct. Yes. Now, however, 508 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,399 Speaker 1: it's also been brought up so that it could have 509 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,800 Speaker 1: been some kind of a deep sea shark, because in 510 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:13,160 Speaker 1: nineteen five marine biologists managed a glimpse and photograph six 511 00:28:13,200 --> 00:28:15,239 Speaker 1: gill sharks at a depth of the two thousand, four 512 00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:18,879 Speaker 1: hundred and sixty ft and and so Ellis suggests that 513 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 1: it's possible that Beebe could have seen this, or perhaps 514 00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:24,160 Speaker 1: a deep sea sharks such as the greenland shark, whose 515 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: range apparently includes Bermudo's waters. Okay, now you know, one 516 00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: of everybody's favorite deep sea creatures is of course the 517 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: Tricksie angler fish. Oh yes, because because the image of 518 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,120 Speaker 1: the angler fish with its large gaping mouth and sharp teeth, 519 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 1: and then that that that strange bioluminescent lure that hangs 520 00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 1: in front of it, I mean, it's just such an 521 00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: amazing looking creature. And that's without even getting into it's 522 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:54,800 Speaker 1: extremely bizarre reproductive methods. So with the tiny male, the 523 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,800 Speaker 1: tiny male that's like a little reproductive heat seeker that 524 00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,680 Speaker 1: infuses with their body. We've discussed that on the show before, 525 00:29:02,080 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 1: but he did have a run in with the angler fish. 526 00:29:04,400 --> 00:29:08,040 Speaker 1: Here's another quote from half mile down quote. Another interesting 527 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: fish on this trip was one which I saw by 528 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,320 Speaker 1: the light of our electric beam at nine feet on 529 00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:15,920 Speaker 1: the way up. It was one of the true giant 530 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,200 Speaker 1: female anglerfish, a full two ft in length, with enormous 531 00:29:19,240 --> 00:29:22,760 Speaker 1: mouth and teeth, deep and thick, with a long tentacle 532 00:29:22,800 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: arising from the top of its head. I saw no 533 00:29:25,480 --> 00:29:28,000 Speaker 1: light from this, but it was distinct for a moment 534 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,400 Speaker 1: in the surrounding illumination. Twice its mouth opened and partially shut, 535 00:29:32,600 --> 00:29:35,280 Speaker 1: and then we passed out of its life. Three of 536 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 1: these weird fish have been taken dead at the surface, 537 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,880 Speaker 1: but three years of intensive trawling have given us no 538 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 1: hint of their presence here. For a few seconds, I 539 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,920 Speaker 1: was within ten ft of one, and the memory will 540 00:29:46,960 --> 00:29:49,840 Speaker 1: never leave me. Yeah, I'd guess. In the steel ball 541 00:29:49,880 --> 00:29:53,840 Speaker 1: in the deep, you make a lot of memories, alright. 542 00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:57,360 Speaker 1: So one of the things we've discussed here is that 543 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,200 Speaker 1: so many, many of these sightings were can definitely be 544 00:30:01,240 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: backed up. Many of these sightings were of creatures that 545 00:30:05,360 --> 00:30:08,120 Speaker 1: are known to science, and we have specimens for them. 546 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:12,000 Speaker 1: But there's mystery. Yeah, I mean it is necessarily subjective reporting. 547 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:14,480 Speaker 1: Like we said, the photography of the time could not 548 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: capture things. So now if you take a deep sea subdown, 549 00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,640 Speaker 1: you can videotape the whole thing, so you can prove 550 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 1: what you saw when you came back. Here, we have 551 00:30:22,840 --> 00:30:25,120 Speaker 1: to rely on the word of the people who were 552 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:28,160 Speaker 1: in the bathmosphere looking out right, and that led even 553 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,960 Speaker 1: scientists at the time to question some of it. So 554 00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,160 Speaker 1: if theologist Carl Hubbs, for instance, he had some issues 555 00:30:35,240 --> 00:30:41,000 Speaker 1: with the reported duh bioluminescence, and he suggested in ninety 556 00:30:41,080 --> 00:30:44,040 Speaker 1: three quote, I am forced to suggest that whatever the 557 00:30:44,080 --> 00:30:49,360 Speaker 1: author saw might have been a phosphorescenceylinter rate whose lights 558 00:30:49,400 --> 00:30:53,680 Speaker 1: were beautified by halation in passing through a misty film 559 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:57,840 Speaker 1: breathed onto the quartz window by Mr Biebe's eagerly oppressed faith. 560 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: I like the snooty voice you give Hubs there, Well, 561 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:05,680 Speaker 1: I get, I do get a very like snooty, intellectual, 562 00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:09,520 Speaker 1: like stuffy academic vibe here saying who is this this 563 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:14,360 Speaker 1: science popularizer, Uh, you know, without an advanced degree, daring 564 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,680 Speaker 1: to report on the secrets of the deep. Yeah, I mean, 565 00:31:18,200 --> 00:31:20,840 Speaker 1: you're naturally I think a modern person is sort of 566 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:24,120 Speaker 1: naturally inclined to be on BB side here, especially because 567 00:31:24,160 --> 00:31:27,960 Speaker 1: of like we see him being criticized for non legitimate reasons, 568 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,800 Speaker 1: like you're hiring women researchers that you know that's a nonsense. 569 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:35,160 Speaker 1: So you you kind of like naturally want to say, like, Okay, 570 00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,680 Speaker 1: if people are coming at him with criticisms, they're not fair, 571 00:31:37,760 --> 00:31:41,600 Speaker 1: but some criticisms might be fair while other ones aren't. Yeah, 572 00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: I mean it comes back around to the fact that 573 00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:48,280 Speaker 1: we are depending upon his observations and the observations of 574 00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,239 Speaker 1: Otis and and in many cases one it's not like 575 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:53,440 Speaker 1: both of them saw the same thing. They're looking out 576 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,080 Speaker 1: of different windows. There are several cases where Baby says, oh, 577 00:31:57,120 --> 00:31:59,080 Speaker 1: and then Otis saw this creature and I really wish 578 00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 1: I could have seen it, by I didn't, or likewise, 579 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:05,040 Speaker 1: it's something that only BB saw and Otis was looking 580 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:08,320 Speaker 1: at something else. Now, in all of this, I'm personally 581 00:32:08,320 --> 00:32:11,600 Speaker 1: inclined to believe beebe or at least I really want 582 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:14,600 Speaker 1: to believe him and I and I have I have 583 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:20,200 Speaker 1: not conducted in like an exhaustive analysis of his personality 584 00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,680 Speaker 1: or anything, but based on what we've read about him 585 00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,480 Speaker 1: and his work, he seems to be to have been 586 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:31,760 Speaker 1: a very meticulous researcher who cared about accurately presenting uh 587 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:33,920 Speaker 1: what was going on in the ocean. Well, Ellis had 588 00:32:33,920 --> 00:32:36,120 Speaker 1: an opinion on that, right, did he does? Yees? So, 589 00:32:36,960 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: Ellis writes, quote, it is possible that Bebe was the 590 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,720 Speaker 1: only person ever to see these mysterious creatures. It is 591 00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,360 Speaker 1: also possible that he made them up. But although he 592 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:48,440 Speaker 1: wrote very cleverly and well, there is very little in 593 00:32:48,520 --> 00:32:50,840 Speaker 1: his published work to indicate that he was a practical 594 00:32:50,960 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: joker now to play Devil's advocate, though. Ellis does point 595 00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:58,160 Speaker 1: out that Bebe might have possibly joked at one point 596 00:32:58,200 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: about lights being those of quote a giant toadfish, and 597 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:06,840 Speaker 1: that perhaps bb having neither a graduate or undergraduate degree, 598 00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:11,120 Speaker 1: wanted to quote put one over on the academics. Uh 599 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,160 Speaker 1: and it's it's. It's also worth noting that he would 600 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:15,160 Speaker 1: have not been the first to play such a prank. 601 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:19,040 Speaker 1: Elis points to a nineteen thirty three prank by Australian 602 00:33:19,080 --> 00:33:24,120 Speaker 1: ethologist Gilbert Whitley, and he makes the point that B. 603 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,880 Speaker 1: B would have known that his observations were fairly safe 604 00:33:27,920 --> 00:33:30,560 Speaker 1: for the fris Eevil future. So, in other words, he 605 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:33,080 Speaker 1: could have made something up and known that, Hey, if 606 00:33:33,280 --> 00:33:35,720 Speaker 1: future explorers come down to the same part of the ocean, 607 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,280 Speaker 1: the same depth and they don't see it, that in 608 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,200 Speaker 1: no way disproves what I'm claiming to have seen his 609 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: reports quote would it would enter the literature as they 610 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:49,600 Speaker 1: have done, with virtually no possibility of being discounted. It is, 611 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,239 Speaker 1: after all, one of the basic tenets of cryptozoology that 612 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 1: negative evidence cannot be disproved, a fact beloved by chupacabra 613 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:02,080 Speaker 1: movie purveyors everywhere. So Ellis stresses that, look, we we 614 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:05,080 Speaker 1: simply don't know. Another thousand or ten thousand dives might 615 00:34:05,120 --> 00:34:07,800 Speaker 1: be required to to really prove any of this out. 616 00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:10,239 Speaker 1: But he says that the very fact that that they 617 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:13,600 Speaker 1: that some of these specimens have not been seen since Bebe, 618 00:34:14,080 --> 00:34:17,600 Speaker 1: that that casts their existence into doubt. But now, also, 619 00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,479 Speaker 1: as I think we have said before, Bebe did see 620 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,759 Speaker 1: some things that were not known about at the time 621 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,239 Speaker 1: but have since been verified. Yeah, I mean in the 622 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,000 Speaker 1: vast majority of the deep sea fishes he describes are 623 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:31,600 Speaker 1: confirmed by specimens uh, and in one case, the quote 624 00:34:31,680 --> 00:34:35,440 Speaker 1: untouchable bathmosphere fish uh did turn out to be a 625 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:38,920 Speaker 1: species of dragonfish later found to inhabit the middle layers 626 00:34:38,920 --> 00:34:42,160 Speaker 1: of the ocean where he reported them. So for many 627 00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:45,680 Speaker 1: of these great creatures, perhaps we simply haven't seen them again. Uh. 628 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:48,240 Speaker 1: The ocean is a big place and one that contains 629 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: plenty of mystery. Perhaps these species have suffered or gone 630 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,120 Speaker 1: extinct due to the due to the damage that humans 631 00:34:54,120 --> 00:34:56,920 Speaker 1: have inflicted on the ocean's highly possible yeah. Or as 632 00:34:56,960 --> 00:35:00,319 Speaker 1: we've discussed, perhaps these creatures were more easily seen by 633 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:03,760 Speaker 1: the silent, motorless bathosphere as it descended through the depths. 634 00:35:04,160 --> 00:35:07,560 Speaker 1: The aquatic environment, after all, is quite vulnerable to sound. 635 00:35:08,600 --> 00:35:11,360 Speaker 1: And to go back into the differences of the general 636 00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:14,680 Speaker 1: methods of sampling the depths, you if you've got the 637 00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,160 Speaker 1: Gilgamesh method and the eba zoom method, there are plenty 638 00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:21,120 Speaker 1: of species that are not very easily picked up by 639 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,840 Speaker 1: various kinds of eb zoom methods. Like whether you're trawling 640 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,920 Speaker 1: with a net or trying to drag a dredge along, 641 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,160 Speaker 1: whatever you're doing, there's some species that just tend not 642 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,319 Speaker 1: to get caught like that. Yeah. Now, one thing I 643 00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:34,839 Speaker 1: do want to throw in here is that in some 644 00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,759 Speaker 1: of these discussions of of the more mysterious creatures, it 645 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:41,960 Speaker 1: tends to it tends to fall into extremes. Right, Either 646 00:35:42,160 --> 00:35:45,320 Speaker 1: he definitely saw something that we have not seen since, 647 00:35:45,560 --> 00:35:48,040 Speaker 1: or he just made it up without really without really 648 00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:51,759 Speaker 1: addressing the fact that there are a number of possible 649 00:35:52,360 --> 00:35:55,080 Speaker 1: variations between those two extremes. I mean, it was dark 650 00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,640 Speaker 1: down there, it was dark. They're they're just getting glimpses 651 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,759 Speaker 1: of things, So I would I would order with, isn't 652 00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:02,880 Speaker 1: it possible that he saw some of these things but 653 00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:07,880 Speaker 1: misjudged their size, that he later remembered them a little differently? Like, 654 00:36:07,960 --> 00:36:10,880 Speaker 1: I don't think it is necessary for for b B 655 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:14,719 Speaker 1: to be a prankster or a liar for him to 656 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:18,120 Speaker 1: have misreported something that he that he thought he saw. Oh, 657 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,520 Speaker 1: I totally agree there. Yeah, And so you know, speaking 658 00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 1: for myself, I'm not inclined to really entertain some of 659 00:36:24,080 --> 00:36:28,360 Speaker 1: these more nefarious interpretations of his observations. I was a 660 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:30,360 Speaker 1: little thrown when he saw the crack in the size 661 00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:33,320 Speaker 1: of an island. Wait, that wasn't b B. I'm always 662 00:36:33,320 --> 00:36:36,560 Speaker 1: confusing BB with those medieval Norwegians. Well, this does raise 663 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:39,520 Speaker 1: the question if he if he was to make something up, 664 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:43,839 Speaker 1: like why didn't he go even broader with his descriptions? 665 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:47,640 Speaker 1: But I don't know that. Again, we're getting into into 666 00:36:47,719 --> 00:36:50,799 Speaker 1: areas of pure speculation here. Well. I I like this 667 00:36:50,880 --> 00:36:53,320 Speaker 1: because it sort of brings us back to the fact 668 00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 1: that we were discussing earlier and in the last episode 669 00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,640 Speaker 1: about how we know a lot more about the deep 670 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,840 Speaker 1: than we used to, but we still don't know tons 671 00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,239 Speaker 1: of stuff about the deep oceans. The deep oceans are 672 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,320 Speaker 1: it's almost a cliche to say now because people emphasize 673 00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:09,280 Speaker 1: it so much, but it's very true. They're they're entirely 674 00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:14,120 Speaker 1: alien to us. We know very little about them. Yeah, 675 00:37:14,320 --> 00:37:18,959 Speaker 1: it's it's been reported that of the ocean is unexplored. 676 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:21,359 Speaker 1: Uh and and and that's to say it hasn't even 677 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,480 Speaker 1: been seen with human eyes. Yeah. I know there are 678 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: various ways of people disputing that figure, but suffice to 679 00:37:27,960 --> 00:37:30,560 Speaker 1: say that even large portions of the ocean that are 680 00:37:30,760 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: sort of roughly mapped have not actually been seen. Yeah, 681 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,799 Speaker 1: as of two thousand fourteen, less than point zero five 682 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,400 Speaker 1: percent of the ocean floor had been mapped to a 683 00:37:41,520 --> 00:37:45,960 Speaker 1: level of detail useful for detecting items such as the 684 00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: wreckage of airplanes or the spires of undersea volcanic events, 685 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:53,040 Speaker 1: and I've seen a higher stat in recent years. For instance, 686 00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,680 Speaker 1: according to the Unseen Oceans exhibit at the American Museum 687 00:37:56,719 --> 00:37:59,640 Speaker 1: of Natural History, only ten to fifteen percent of the 688 00:37:59,680 --> 00:38:03,920 Speaker 1: CV sea floor is revealed to us inaccuracy. And in 689 00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,000 Speaker 1: either case, ultimately we know more about the surface of 690 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,759 Speaker 1: Mars than the sea floor of our own planet. Part 691 00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:10,359 Speaker 1: of the issue there, of course, is that we can't 692 00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,759 Speaker 1: use satellites to map the sea floor in the same 693 00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:16,400 Speaker 1: way that we can use satellites to map the surface 694 00:38:16,440 --> 00:38:19,400 Speaker 1: of Mars. We have to depend on things like sonar 695 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,520 Speaker 1: and to to do it. Yeah, but at the same time, 696 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:24,200 Speaker 1: as we've said, we know a lot more than we 697 00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:26,640 Speaker 1: used to and it's exciting that there is so much 698 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:29,040 Speaker 1: more to learn. Indeed, and I think that's why we 699 00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:31,080 Speaker 1: keep coming back to the ocean on stuff to blow 700 00:38:31,120 --> 00:38:33,200 Speaker 1: your mind. We talk about the mysteries about our space, 701 00:38:33,239 --> 00:38:35,920 Speaker 1: we talk about the mysteries of the inner mind, and 702 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: of course we're going to keep talking about the mysteries 703 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:41,400 Speaker 1: of the ocean. I mean, there's no dragonfish in space. 704 00:38:41,760 --> 00:38:45,719 Speaker 1: It's true, Like the ocean is the mysterious realm in 705 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:48,239 Speaker 1: which we know there is alien life and we keep 706 00:38:48,280 --> 00:38:53,560 Speaker 1: discovering new forms. There may be dragonfish in the mind, yes, oh, 707 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,000 Speaker 1: undoubtedly they're dragonfish in the mind. But but in the 708 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:00,239 Speaker 1: in the ocean, we can actually pull them up and 709 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:02,840 Speaker 1: uh and poke at them. Though how much better to 710 00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,399 Speaker 1: go down and observe them in the natural habitat rather 711 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:08,160 Speaker 1: than pulling them up. And so that's the legacy of 712 00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:12,160 Speaker 1: William bb in the athmosphere. That's right, The modern Gilgameshes 713 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,759 Speaker 1: should put it all right. Well, hey, be sure to 714 00:39:14,840 --> 00:39:16,799 Speaker 1: check out stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. That's 715 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,759 Speaker 1: where you'll find this episode, the previous episode, and all 716 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:22,399 Speaker 1: the other episodes of the podcast, as well as blog 717 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,760 Speaker 1: posts and links out to our various social media accounts. 718 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,440 Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our audio producers, Alex Williams and 719 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:30,919 Speaker 1: Tory Harrison. If you would like to get in touch 720 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,360 Speaker 1: with us to let us know feedback about this episode 721 00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:35,520 Speaker 1: or any other episode, to let us know a topic 722 00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:37,600 Speaker 1: you think maybe we should cover in the future, just 723 00:39:37,719 --> 00:39:40,320 Speaker 1: to say hi and let us know your your thoughts. 724 00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,759 Speaker 1: You can email us at blow the Mind at how 725 00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:56,040 Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com for more on this and thousands 726 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:58,399 Speaker 1: of other topics. Does it How stuff works dot Com 727 00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:14,360 Speaker 1: at the People the Big Four start