1 00:00:03,360 --> 00:00:06,439 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:13,000 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is The Monster Fact, 3 00:00:13,039 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 2: a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 2: focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. In 5 00:00:24,320 --> 00:00:27,240 Speaker 2: today's episode, I'm going to round out this initial batch 6 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 2: of Star Trek selections, and I'm going to go with 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:33,519 Speaker 2: a listener suggestion from one of our mini gems, the 8 00:00:33,640 --> 00:00:37,320 Speaker 2: Horta of Janus six. As we learn in the original 9 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 2: Trek episode The Devil in the Dark, the Horta is 10 00:00:40,479 --> 00:00:46,240 Speaker 2: a large, subterranean heap shaped organism entirely silicone based rather 11 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 2: than carbon based. It tunnels through the rock via powerful 12 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 2: acidic secretions, which it can also use defensively. Exceedingly long lived, 13 00:00:56,240 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 2: the entire population of horta dies out every sixty thousand years, 14 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,800 Speaker 2: with the exception of a single mother horta, which tends 15 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,200 Speaker 2: to the spherical eggs that will produce the next generation 16 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:12,760 Speaker 2: of this amazing species. While the Horta are reclusive and 17 00:01:12,880 --> 00:01:17,040 Speaker 2: ultimately peaceful, they can prove lethal in confrontations such as 18 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 2: the one with a Federation mining colony and the Devil 19 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,960 Speaker 2: in the Dark, which ultimately required the intervention of a 20 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:27,080 Speaker 2: Vulcan mind meld. In the non canonical Star Trek The 21 00:01:27,080 --> 00:01:29,880 Speaker 2: Worlds of the Federation by Laura Johnson written as Shane 22 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,960 Speaker 2: Johnson from nineteen eighty nine, we learned that the miners 23 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,479 Speaker 2: and Horta would eventually work together on Janus six following 24 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 2: this reconciliation. Now, I distinctly remember watching this episode of 25 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 2: the classic Star Trek as a kid, and I remember 26 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:49,840 Speaker 2: enjoying the alien monster based suspense and its thought provoking 27 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:54,919 Speaker 2: treatment of interaction between intelligent but radically different alien species, 28 00:01:55,560 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 2: and looking back on it now, it certainly has that 29 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,160 Speaker 2: Star Trek optimism that is often lacking in our modern 30 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 2: sci fi. It's no surprise that this one is often 31 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:07,440 Speaker 2: held up as one of the best original Star Trek episodes. 32 00:02:08,720 --> 00:02:11,960 Speaker 2: In Life Signs the Biology of Star Trek Susan and 33 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:16,480 Speaker 2: Robert Jenkins, the authors here discussed the singular nature of 34 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,760 Speaker 2: the Horta in Trek. The Federation was apparently not accustomed 35 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 2: to the presence of silicon based life, and had therefore 36 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,680 Speaker 2: missed the Horta's presence on Jenus six in their scans. 37 00:02:27,880 --> 00:02:32,280 Speaker 2: Entirely later on in tracks, similar mistakes were made with 38 00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 2: the micro brains of Valara three and the space born 39 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 2: crystalline entity. This all underlies a known challenge in astrobiology. 40 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,920 Speaker 2: We ultimately have only one model of life upon which 41 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 2: to base our observations, and it happens to be earthlife. 42 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:55,080 Speaker 2: We're told that Janus six never developed carbon based life 43 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 2: beyond a few spore producing plants as well as some algae, 44 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:02,560 Speaker 2: but it did boast minerals and heavy metals, and the 45 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 2: authors stress that while silicon based reactions occur much more 46 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 2: slowly compared to carbon based reactions, a planet like Janus 47 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:14,360 Speaker 2: six might, in theory have the minerals to catalyze the 48 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 2: chemical reactions needed for a silicon based life. Now, in 49 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 2: the larger realm of science fiction, silicon based organisms are 50 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:27,680 Speaker 2: not uncommon. The alien xenomorph is sometimes described as silicon based, 51 00:03:27,760 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 2: or at least partially silicone based, and there are numerous 52 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,440 Speaker 2: ways this is explained to factor in with their carbon 53 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,680 Speaker 2: based bodies. Other examples include the Kaiju of Pacific Rim, 54 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,840 Speaker 2: the Exogoths of Star Wars, and the easter island headed 55 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 2: Lithodia Rexians of Marvel Comics. However, as outlined by Charles Qchoi, 56 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:53,440 Speaker 2: In the space dot Com article Silicon based life may 57 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,720 Speaker 2: be more than just science fiction from twenty seventeen, various 58 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 2: experts speculate that silicon based or silicone income life is 59 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,720 Speaker 2: very possible. Silicone and carbon are similar in many ways. 60 00:04:04,960 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 2: Silicon is one of the most common elements in the universe, 61 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 2: and chemist have artificially synthesized organosilicone molecules composed of both 62 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:18,359 Speaker 2: silicone and carbon, So by some estimations, silicon based life 63 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:22,599 Speaker 2: of some sort may be out there somewhere, whether we 64 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:26,360 Speaker 2: know of it or not. Back to Trek, the Ginkin 65 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:30,040 Speaker 2: stress that the Horta might actually reproduce and reason too 66 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:34,039 Speaker 2: much like a carbon based organism in this episode of Anything. 67 00:04:34,480 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 2: But then again, this is where science and philosophy butt heads. 68 00:04:38,440 --> 00:04:43,040 Speaker 2: Star Trek is ultimately about the hope, if not the reality, 69 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 2: of making contact, settling differences, and figuring out how to 70 00:04:47,839 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 2: move forward, both as an interstellar community within the fiction 71 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 2: and as a terrestrial species here on Earth in reality. 72 00:04:56,600 --> 00:04:59,800 Speaker 2: As much as I love my various nihilistic sci fi 73 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 2: visions and various examples of space horror, I feel more 74 00:05:04,240 --> 00:05:06,840 Speaker 2: and more like I need the Star Trek vision in 75 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,200 Speaker 2: my life. As an aside, I'll mention that there's actually 76 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:14,839 Speaker 2: an underground geographic positioning technology here on Earth named after 77 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 2: the star Trek Horta. It is, of course a backronym 78 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 2: which stands for Honeywell or Retrieval and Tunneling AID. Tune 79 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 2: in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, 80 00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 2: or Anamalia Stupendium each week. I like to do these 81 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 2: series and pacts of four to five, but I'll likely 82 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 2: come back to more Trek creatures in the future, so 83 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,000 Speaker 2: feel free to send in your recommendations or if you 84 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 2: have ideas for future series that I can do here 85 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 2: on the Monster Fact, fandoms I haven't dipped into, or 86 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,280 Speaker 2: fandoms I need to dip back into. Just reach out. 87 00:05:49,320 --> 00:05:51,240 Speaker 2: I'd love to hear from you. As always, you can 88 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,359 Speaker 2: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind 89 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 2: dot com. 90 00:06:05,520 --> 00:06:08,479 Speaker 1: Stuffed Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For 91 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 92 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:14,280 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.