WEBVTT - Listener Questions #13 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:11.000 What on Earth is a wardy comb jelly? And why 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.080 does it sound like it's probably very smelly? 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:16.440 If the Sun were replaced with a white hole, would 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.760 it be very bright or dark as coal? 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:24.880 How do willes navigate the seas? Magnetics gravity or mysteries 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:25.720 of chemistry? 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.880 Whatever question keeps you up at night, Daniel and Kelly's 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:31.520 answer will make it all right. 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.920 Welcome to another Listener's Questions episode on Daniel and Kelly's 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:37.080 Extraordinary Universe. 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.240 Hi. I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist, and I've never 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:55.840 been tempted to eat a warty comb jelly. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:59.320 Hello. I am Kelly Weener Smith. I also have never 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.960 been tempted to eat a warty comb jelly, But I 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.440 feel like the existence of the name wharty comb jelly 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.960 reveals that biologists have a much more fun time of 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:13.160 naming things than physicists do. What is your favorite species name? 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.920 Daniel wait, I can't get over warty comb jelly, and 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:20.520 I'm not gonna let it slide that you're somehow congratulating 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.560 yourself for this name. This name is a mess. I'm like, 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:25.760 is it a wart is it a comb? Is it 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.319 a kind of jelly? Is it a jelly made of warts? 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:30.720 Can I comb my hair with it? What is going 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.400 on with this name? It sounds like just three random words. 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.360 It sounds like a password recommended by XKCD. 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:39.240 All right, well, so one, I think you must lack 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:44.560 imagination because I imagine a jellyfish that is sort of warty 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.319 with some like comy projections. I think they did a 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:47.880 great job. 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.280 I don't know. I've heard this thing is also described 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:53.280 as a sea walnut, So I'm not sure anything in 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.440 our vocabulary can really capture the weirdness of this creature. 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.040 Maybe biology has gone beyond naming. 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:01.680 You know, it has two different life stages, and sea 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.000 walnut describes one of the stages very well, and warty 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.560 comb jelly describes the other very well. So maybe if 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:11.040 you just knew a little more natural history, you'd follow along. 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.080 So it needs five words in its name, not just three. 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.040 Oh it's oh that fabulous. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:19.720 It's pretty fabulous. But I think my favorite species, or 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.320 my favorite common name for a species, is the humped 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:29.519 trash line weaver. It's a spider that has like sort 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.920 of a humpy shape, but also it puts trash in 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:35.440 the middle of its web. And I don't remember why 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.880 should have looked that up before the show. But it's 0:02:37.919 --> 0:02:40.000 got a line of trash and it's got a hump, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.680 and it's a humped trash line. Orb Weaver and I 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:45.160 love them. They live on my farm in Virginia and 0:02:45.240 --> 0:02:46.680 they are permanent residents. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:48.919 Well, there's a well known spider that I think could 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.200 use a better name, And I once heard an episode 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:54.000 of This American Life where they were speculating about a 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.519 better name for the black widow spider. And my favorite 0:02:57.520 --> 0:02:59.840 suggestion is not family friendly. It has to do with 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:02.760 the fact that until we had running water, most of 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.480 the bites were on guys using outhouses because of little 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:08.560 swinging bits that the spiders bit onto. 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.360 Yeah. So I was reading a journal of parasitology and 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.919 there were men who were purposefully letting themselves get bit 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.320 by black widows to try to get a handle on 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.840 how bad the bites are. And the story starts with 0:03:21.880 --> 0:03:24.640 how he was like doing experiments on rodents and ends 0:03:24.680 --> 0:03:27.320 with how many days he was stuck in the hospital 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.920 after he did it to himself. But the doctor treating 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.080 him said, yeah, I've seen someone else with a black 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.080 widow bite, and it was in the same location, but 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:40.200 alcohol was involved, and so I have since found myself 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.800 wondering if men is like, oh, it's because of the outhouse, 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:47.400 I just but it was really just other shenanigans. 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:50.520 Well, there are so many wonderful questions to ask about 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.400 that story and where people get bitten by black widows 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:56.600 and other things about the universe. And today we're going 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.960 to be celebrating those kinds of questions because we're here 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.720 today not to talk about the things that we wonder 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.000 about the universe, but the things that you wonder about 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.760 the universe. Our podcast is a conversation between us and you, 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:11.960 and we want to hear from you. We want to 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.800 know what you want explained about this extraordinary universe. 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.680 So let's go ahead and jump into our first question 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:20.240 about the wardy comb jelly. 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.720 Hi, Kelly, Hi Daniel wanted to see if you could 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:27.200 discuss the wordy comb jelly things. 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:30.800 Well. I was excited about this question because honestly, I've 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:33.760 never heard of the wardy comb jelly, and it turns 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.839 out and has a number of really fascinating features. 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.400 Well, first of all, what do you think inspired this question? 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.400 Is it just the craziness of the name, or is 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:47.159 it some incredible biological magic that's happening in this critter. 0:04:47.520 --> 0:04:49.960 If I had to guess, I would guess that this 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.800 listener sent us the question because this species has a 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.880 transient anus. 0:04:57.240 --> 0:04:59.800 Another pair of words I never thought would go together. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.080 Biology is amazing, And. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:06.279 I'm hoping that that means exactly what I think it means. 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.039 Yeah. Probably, So let's back up and let's clarify the 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:12.160 appearance and the diet of this thing. And so we're 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.479 gonna do the inputs and when we get to the outputs, 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:18.560 we'll talk about the transientanus. So, all right, the warty 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.280 comb jelly you know, if you imagine it, it has 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.440 sort of like a jellyfish shape, okay, but has two 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.040 different stages of its life. When it's small, it's called 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.760 a sidipid. And at this point it looks like it's clear, 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:34.920 but it has sort of a walnut shape with two long, 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.360 feathery tentacles that come out from the back. 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.520 So why isn't it called a wardycomb jellyfish instead of 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.719 a wardycomb jelly Because when I hear wardcomb jelly, I 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:45.000 think of a pot of jam. 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.359 Uh. It was probably not named with you in mind. 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:52.080 And why not is the real question. 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.640 Well, you know, I think jelly so jellyfish might be 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.039 slightly distantly related. There's probably a lot of diversity in 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.480 jelly like things out there. These are some very ancient creatures. 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.640 And also, you know, jellyfish is sort of confusing because 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:07.400 they're not really fish, and so maybe someone was like, 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:09.120 let's drop the fish because these aren't. 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.880 Really fish, and also it's pretty good on toast. 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.400 I wouldn't suggest eating these, although I think they're mostly 0:06:15.480 --> 0:06:18.000 water and I don't think they could sting you, so 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.680 maybe it would be fine. Why not? But as they 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.159 transition to adults, they lose those long, feathery tentacles and 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:27.000 instead they grow these lobes. So I kind of imagine 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:31.520 like a glass paper weight, but with like ribbons coming 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.200 off of the sides kind of, So it has these lobes, 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:37.159 and the lobes have these like iridescent spots on them 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:40.400 that attract little like tiny fish so that they can 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:40.839 eat them. 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:41.920 This sounds really cute. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.120 No, it is really cute. You should look up a photos. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:47.920 It's cute and it has beautiful iridescent colors. I can 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:49.520 imagine having it as a pet, and I've seen it 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:50.760 at some aquarium. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.279 Because again the name wardicomb jelly doesn't conjure up cute 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.360 images in my mind. But your description was beautiful. 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.799 Well thank you. I mean, biologists have a sense of humor, 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.600 and that's that's what you need to know. And so 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.160 when they're young, they use those feathery tentacles to capture 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:11.800 very tiny creatures living in the water column. As they 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.920 get older and they get into the low bait stage 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.040 where they have those lobes, I agree, this is not 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:18.800 a very pretty name for the stage when they have 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:22.080 those like ribbons coming off the side. Then they're eating 0:07:22.120 --> 0:07:25.360 things like eggs and tiny fish and crustaceans, so they 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:27.640 start eating bigger things, so they have a transition. 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.160 So does this mean they're up near the surface where 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.360 they can eat those things or do they go much deeper. 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.720 They're swimming around the surface and they can move throughout 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.920 the water column, so you can find them at different depths. 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.480 They also will eat each other. So like for the 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:46.640 Daniel and Kelly checklist, we've hit cannibalism. So this species 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.160 has a lot of things that you and I love. 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.080 So next we're ar at least that I love. So 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.520 next we're going to talk about poop. That's point two 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:54.560 for dKu. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:56.680 I hope we get to aliens eventually. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.120 I was gonna say aliens are white chocolate. That's where 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:00.640 we got to get this kind of station two. 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.040 So tell us about how these things spend their time 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:03.560 on the body. 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:07.200 Okay, So as they eat and they accumulate waste, their 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:11.040 gut expands, and as it expands and kind of balloons out. 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:13.920 At some point it touches the outside of the body. 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:16.720 And as it touches the outside of the body, it 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.280 fuses and an anus is formed. So like the gut 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:22.160 and the outside of the body are only like one 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:26.640 cell thick, and so they fuse form a hole through 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.600 which waste is expelled, and this happens like every ten 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.000 minutes to every hour, depending on how big they are. 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.880 And then once the waste has been expelled, the gut 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.600 starts shrinking and it pulls away from the outside of 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.840 the body, and that hole is completely covered up. It 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.960 goes away, it totally fuses, and the anis disappears. What 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:49.600 I know, and it's thought that this is an intermediate 0:08:49.600 --> 0:08:52.560 stage between the permanent anuses so many of us know 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.400 and love, and this early stage of the anus, and 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.200 maybe we should put a warning at the beginning of 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.960 the show. But you could talk about butts with kids, right, yeah, And. 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:03.880 We could just pretend that permanent Anus is the name 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:05.319 of a punk band we both enjoy. 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:07.240 That's right, That's right, yeah, from the nineties. 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:10.800 I love their second album, Oh my God, so good? 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.199 Are you saying that this is a transition stage sort 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:15.920 of evolutionarily like that there are some critters that didn't 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:17.439 have an anus, and then there were critters with a 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.559 temporary anis, and then their critters with a permanent anis. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.559 So I'm imagining the PhD student who will one day 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.320 have the job of working on the phylogenetic tree studying 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.480 the evolution of anuses. But I did find a paper 0:09:30.520 --> 0:09:33.640 that was hypothesizing that this is a step in the 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.360 evolution of the anus that early on, when you've got 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:40.040 very primitive species, they have this transient anis that kind 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.160 of comes and goes. But as you move down the 0:09:42.160 --> 0:09:44.600 evolutionary tree, we sort of settle on a better method, 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:49.960 because why recreate the wheel every ten minutes if you 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:52.320 don't have to do that? So anyway, yes, this could 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:54.680 have been a step in the evolutionary path that brought 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:55.360 us to where we. 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:58.200 Are today, and does that allow us to extrapolate into 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.000 the future, like go from non to temporary to permanent. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:07.439 What's beyond that double triple extra permanent. I can't even imagine. 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.400 I don't know, man, we might need like AI and 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:13.680 artificial tech to give us, you know, additional new ones. 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.520 I know sometimes you have to move them around following 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:20.200 surgeries and stuff, but I can't imagine that we're going 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:21.760 to end up with too many more of them. I 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.800 feel like we've maybe hit the fitness peak on anus 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:27.360 and we're good where we are. 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:30.440 So I just heard a talk by Brian Mallow, the 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:33.280 science comedian who actually lives near you, and he was 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.840 telling me that there's a critter that lives on our 0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.080 face that doesn't have an anus. It's called a face mite, 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.920 and it like walks around your face chomping on stuff, 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:44.640 doesn't have an anus, and events you just explodes all 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.360 over your face. And I was like, wow, that's so 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:48.319 many gross details. 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.520 It is one of gross details in one story. I 0:10:50.760 --> 0:10:53.920 do feel like there's life stages of insects and stuff 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.239 where they don't have an anus. They just kind of accumulated, 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:57.800 and then when they move to the next stage or 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:00.439 when they transition to a different body plan and they 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:04.080 leave the feces behind. I gotta say, it's convenient to 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:08.240 be able to, you know, remove your waste as you 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:11.640 need without yeah, without too much trouble. 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.000 Well, what are the disadvantages of this. 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:19.319 Of needing to recreate an anus every ten minutes? I 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:23.240 didn't imagine i'd get asked that today. But here we are, Yeah, 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:24.880 I but here we are. I don't know. I mean, 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.000 I have not seen reports on, for example, how often 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.520 it fails. Needing to create a new sphincter over and 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:34.560 over and over again. Seems less efficient than just having 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.920 one that works when you need it, And so I 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.760 imagine the downside is that it's a fail point if 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.199 it needs to be created so regularly, and it's better 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:49.840 to just I can't say I've thought too hard about this, all. 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.360 Right, Well, then I'm going to connect us to the 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.080 last dot and ask you an alien anus question, which is, 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.640 if we're landing on an alien planet, do you expect 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.920 that aliens are going to have a permanent anus or 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:03.600 where they have a transient one? What do you think 0:12:04.200 --> 0:12:07.160 are there permanent anuses all over the universe, is my question, Kelly. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.440 I would say, uh it, you know, it depends. You 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:15.840 can never know for sure, but if I had to guess, 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.599 I would put my money on Yes. It seems like 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.960 a very convenient feature. And uh, you know, they maybe 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:27.000 they would have. I'm gonna say, yes, what do you think, Daniel, 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:29.920 I agree with you. 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:31.960 I think the universe is probably filled with butts? 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.680 Good. Yeah, all right, Well, I'm guessing that's what the 0:12:35.760 --> 0:12:38.160 listener wanted us to talk about. But this species is 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.360 well known for two other things. One, it lives on 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:43.800 the east coast of the US, and it's been introduced 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:45.920 in Europe into like the Caspi and c the Black 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:47.720 Sea and the Baltic Sea, and it's caused a lot 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:50.000 of problems there. Part of why it causes a lot 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:52.800 of problems is because when it is in the water, 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:56.720 it's consuming a lot of crustaceans and eggs and tiny fish, 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.600 and so it's been a problem for the native fish 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.040 because it's eating the baby stages of the native fish, 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.800 and it's eating the food that those baby stages of 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:05.440 the native fish eat, so it's competing. 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:06.600 That's not so nice. 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:08.760 Not so nice, so people have been trying to get 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:10.480 rid of them. But the other thing that they're well 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.480 known for is a result that was just published last year, 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.400 twenty twenty four. It is one of the few species 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:19.440 we know of that is able to turn back the 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:23.400 clock and transition back to an earlier life stage. So 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:25.840 let me give you some details. So we talked about 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.079 how it has that sidipid stage where it's a walnut 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:31.920 with feathery tentacles, and then it has a low bait 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:35.679 stage where it's a paperweight with some ribbons. And if 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.319 you've got it in the low bait stage and you 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.640 starve it or give it a lob back to me 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:43.680 where you remove one of the lobes, which is not 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.520 very nice to no. No, Essentially, if you stress it out, 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:49.880 it's able to essentially go back in time and it 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.720 absorbs the rest of its lobes and it goes back 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.079 to the sidippid stage, So it goes from having those ribbons, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.679 it absorbs those ribbons, it goes back to looking like 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.680 a walnut with feathery appendages. So it can like go 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.839 back in time and reverse its development, which not a 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.480 lot of species can do. We don't know that that 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:11.400 like extends its life span. But if they go back 0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:13.880 in time and then they grow back, they can grow 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:15.640 back that other lobe. So it would be like if 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:17.760 you lost an arm and you can be like, no, 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.440 not cool, you like absorb a bunch of body parts, 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:23.320 go back to just being like a ball of cells, 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.080 and then you sort of go through the development again 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:26.880 and now you've got both arms or something like that. 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.080 Well, maybe there's a great advantage to having transient bits 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.920 is that you can generate bits at will, and so 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.280 if you lose one boom, you can grow an arm 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.120 or like, hey, I could use a second head today, 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:38.840 let me grow another one. 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.160 Yeah, I don't know that they grow like twice as 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:43.040 many of the ribbons and they usually come back with 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:45.480 the same number of ribbons. But another thought for the 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.600 benefit of this reverse development is that if you're going 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:51.120 around and you're trying to eat babyfish and there's like 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:52.800 just no baby fish, it's not the right time of 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:55.120 year and you're starting to starve. When you go back 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.760 to that tentacle phase, you can now access a lot 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.640 of the much smaller food stuff, and so it could 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.720 be a way to like open up the kinds of 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:04.600 foods that you're able to eat at a time when 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:07.600 the foods that you are really well shaped to eat 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.840 are no longer available. So they've got this interesting reverse 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.400 development that we don't understand very well. 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:14.880 Fascinating. 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:17.640 Well that is all I have to say on the 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:20.160 wardy comb jelly. 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:22.400 And wait, this is the last question, which we teased 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:24.640 in the intro. Oh do you think the wardy comb 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:26.000 jelly is very smelly? 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:31.000 Oh? No, no, it's mostly water. I'm guessing it. I 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:33.840 don't think it smells bad, but I agree it's got 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:34.760 a kind of stinky name. 0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:36.520 What do you think I think probably if you put 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.640 it on toast and left it, it would smell pretty bad, 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:40.760 as basically everything from the sea does. 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.120 I mean, I think just about any organism, if you 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:44.520 let it die and you left it on your toast 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:46.880 for a while, you're going to regret that decision. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.840 Well, that's just fermentation. And sometimes fermentation is delicious, you know, 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.200 you get marmite or whatever, or cheese, and sometimes it's not. 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.680 Yeah. Well, you know our conversation went from transient anisis 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:04.000 to cheese. And let's see what the listener has to say. 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.480 Hi Kelly, Hi Daniel, Thanks for talking about the wordy 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:11.239 comb jelly. Maybe one day we'll all be able to 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:29.280 regrow our parts inside or out, or even flip them around. Thanks. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.200 All right, we're back from talking about the transient holes 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.880 in wordy comb jellies to talking about a very different 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:45.120 kind of hypothetical cosmic hole. 0:16:46.080 --> 0:16:51.160 I'm Sammy, I'm ten, and I want to know what 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:56.960 would happen if this sun was aplace with a white hole? 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.800 All right? I love this question, and I that young 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:04.240 people are thinking about the universe and asking questions. And 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.560 thanks to all the parents out there who listen to 0:17:06.560 --> 0:17:08.240 the pod with their kids. 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.880 So, Daniel, what are white holes? And do they come 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.080 and go depending on how recently youth consumed a meal? 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:20.680 You know, when we started this episode, I was like, well, 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.280 there are no connections between these topics. Now I'm seeing 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:28.080 them more and more. Yes, maybe aliens with transient anuses 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.000 are going to use cosmic white holes to come and 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.239 visit us and tell us about it and learn all 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:34.520 about our permanent ones. 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.440 We can hope, but hopefully they don't eat us. I 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.680 guess that wouldn't be cannibalism. So I'm not really connecting 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:40.800 the dots there, But anyway. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.360 Yes, So Sam is asking a great question. Basically, he's 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.640 wondering what does a white hole look like? And could 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.960 his serve as an alternate sun, etc. So let's talk 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:51.920 about what a white hole is. Number one. A white 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.320 hole is a hypothetical thing. We don't know that white 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.000 holes exist in the universe, and we're not even really 0:17:58.040 --> 0:18:00.399 clear on what a white hole is, you know, like 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:02.639 a black hole, we have a very crisp concept for 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:05.639 what it is. It's a prediction of general relativity. We 0:18:05.880 --> 0:18:07.840 talk about it, we understand about it, we can calculate 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.760 about everybody agrees what a black hole is a white hole, 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:12.680 and we'll get into what it is exactly. Is the 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.160 sort of a fuzzy set of concepts that are closely related. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.760 And so if you read about white holes and you 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:20.800 listen to this episode and you might think, on, that's 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:22.360 not what I heard, and then you go read another 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:24.119 article and you're like, that's not what I understood to 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.400 be a white hole. That's because there is nothing that 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:28.800 it is to be a white hole. It's like a 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.960 set of ideas that people are still sort of developing 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.440 that all go by the same name, which can be. 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.920 Confusing, sort of like our study of the anus, you've 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:40.520 got multiple stages. We're not really sure how to define it, 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:41.600 but all right, go. 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.439 On, yeah, yeah, So most commonly, a white hole is 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:48.240 thought as something like the opposite of a black hole. 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.239 So a black hole is a region in space, an 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:55.320 event horizon, which nothing can escape. Right. Remember that gravity 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.960 is the bending of space time in the presence of 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:00.920 mass and energy. So the Earth and bends the space 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.239 around it, which affects the way things move around it. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:05.560 And if you have enough mass and enough energy, you 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.600 bend space so much that you change its shape so 0:19:07.640 --> 0:19:10.560 that nothing can escape. It's not that black holes have 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.960 intense gravity to pull on things, even light. It's just 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.840 that the shape of space is such that nothing can escape. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.200 Space only points in one direction past the event horizon, 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:22.719 towards the center. So no matter how fast you go 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.520 or how you wiggle or struggle, you're always going towards 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.399 the center. That's the black hole, a region of space 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:32.120 where nothing can escape because of the shape of space itself. 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:36.480 Okay, so if I were to just guess a white hole, 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.639 so you'd imagine it would be exactly the opposite. So 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:41.639 is it is everything running to escape from a white hole. 0:19:41.760 --> 0:19:44.240 Nothing can you get pushed away from it if you 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:44.960 get too close. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.600 A white hole is a region of space that nothing 0:19:47.600 --> 0:19:50.640 can enter, so things can escape it, but nothing can 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:52.720 enter it. And the opposite of a black hole. A 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.320 black hole things can enter but nothing can escape. A 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:58.199