1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production 2 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:13,560 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:17,360 Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there 5 00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:26,920 Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. What's in a name? Well, for Hans, 7 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: his name meant everything. Hans was born in Vienna, Austria, 8 00:00:44,159 --> 00:00:47,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen o nine, and he studied under physicist Philip 9 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: Gross at the University of Vienna. After earning his degree 10 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: in chemistry, Hans went on to join a group of 11 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,160 Speaker 1: German scientists working on a special project during World War Two. 12 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:00,360 Speaker 1: They had been tasked with developing an atomic weapon to 13 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:04,679 Speaker 1: be used against the Allies. In nineteen forty three, Allied 14 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:08,399 Speaker 1: forces managed to sabotage the hydroelectric power plant where those 15 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,919 Speaker 1: German scientists were processing heavy water. A series of bombing 16 00:01:11,959 --> 00:01:14,559 Speaker 1: raids over the following months finished the job and Hans 17 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,880 Speaker 1: was forced to find new work. After spending some time 18 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,679 Speaker 1: on other projects in Europe, Hans moved to the United 19 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: States and began studying the composition of meteorites. In a 20 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: relatively new field called chemical cosmology or cosmo chemistry at 21 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: the University of Chicago. His work there brought into the 22 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,440 Speaker 1: u S Geological Survey in the nineteen fifties, where he 23 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:37,240 Speaker 1: did some of his most famous research on how carbon 24 00:01:37,319 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: traveled throughout the atmosphere. Hans analyzed trees by measuring the 25 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: presence of carbon isotopes in their rings, those same rings 26 00:01:44,720 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: that are used to calculated trees. H now, to be fair, 27 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: he hadn't gone into his research with any goal of 28 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:54,600 Speaker 1: a big groundbreaking discovery. Aside from satisfying his own curiosity. 29 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: He had hoped to maybe make the science of carbon 30 00:01:57,440 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: dating a bit more accurate. Instead, Hans found something strange. 31 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: While studying the carbon fourteen levels of a normal piece 32 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:08,640 Speaker 1: of wood in nineteen fifty five, he detected the presence 33 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:12,359 Speaker 1: of a carbon isotope not found in atmospheric c O two. 34 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: What he'd found was the kind of isotope created by 35 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,919 Speaker 1: burning fossil fuels. Hans spun his discovery into a new 36 00:02:18,960 --> 00:02:22,400 Speaker 1: avenue of research, investigating whether the oceans of the Earth 37 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:26,040 Speaker 1: has stored carbon within their waters. Hans teamed up with 38 00:02:26,040 --> 00:02:29,800 Speaker 1: oceanographer Roger Ravel to conduct carbon fourteen studies in the 39 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: planet's oceans. Their scientific paper, published in nineteen fifty seven, 40 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:38,000 Speaker 1: concluded that carbon dioxide created by fossil fuel combustion had 41 00:02:38,080 --> 00:02:42,480 Speaker 1: not lingered in the upper atmosphere as other scientists had theorized. Instead, 42 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: much of it was being absorbed by the oceans. However, 43 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,880 Speaker 1: if emissions continued to grow at their current rate, he said, 44 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: then carbon dioxide would collect in the atmosphere and trap 45 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,160 Speaker 1: the Sun's heat, increasing the Earth's surface temperature. We call 46 00:02:56,280 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: this phenomenon the greenhouse effect. An article in an Indiana 47 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: newspaper dubbed the phenomenon global warming, the first time anyone 48 00:03:04,280 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: had ever used the term. Hans and Revel had brought 49 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:10,760 Speaker 1: the concept of man made climate change to everyone's attention, 50 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: academic and layman alike. Hans eventually moved to Lahoya, California, 51 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: where he spent the remainder of his life. He'd frequently 52 00:03:19,880 --> 00:03:23,960 Speaker 1: received letters from admirers, mostly children, who had read his 53 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 1: books and wanted to tell him how much his work 54 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: had meant to them. There's just one problem. Hans hadn't 55 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:34,160 Speaker 1: written any books, especially ones for children. You see, the 56 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 1: United States Postal Service had been accidentally delivering some other 57 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: person's mail to the scientist. That's because there was another 58 00:03:41,720 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: doctor living in Lahoya with a surprisingly similar name. Hans's 59 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: last name was spelled s U E S S. The 60 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: other doctor's name was spelled s E U S S 61 00:03:53,960 --> 00:03:57,320 Speaker 1: with the E and U flipped. Both though were pronounced 62 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: the same way SEUs, and it seems that Dr hunts 63 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: SEUs had been getting letters and bills meant for the 64 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: other Dr SEUs, the pen name of children's author Theodore Geisel. 65 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: Hans SEUs passed away in his personal research papers were 66 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: sent to the University of California, San Diego, where they 67 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: have been cataloged and stored ever since. However, if you 68 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:23,200 Speaker 1: go to the library to look up his work, make 69 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 1: sure you spell his name correctly, otherwise you might end 70 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: up poring over the artwork and drafts of such best 71 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: sellers as Green Eggs and Ham and the Cats and 72 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:36,960 Speaker 1: the Hat. Dr Seus's collection of items, including sketches, notebooks, videos, 73 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: and photos, are housed within the main library building at 74 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,320 Speaker 1: you See San Diego. It probably doesn't help that the 75 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: building bears the name of the man who wrote a 76 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,720 Speaker 1: scathing critique of industry and its effects on the environment 77 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:51,720 Speaker 1: if we don't change our ways. And no, I'm not 78 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,240 Speaker 1: talking about Dr hunts SEUs. The library was named for 79 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,479 Speaker 1: the man who brought us the Lorax, one of the 80 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: few manuscripts not present at the library of You see 81 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:16,880 Speaker 1: San Diego, a building otherwise known as the Geisel Library. 82 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,440 Speaker 1: At first, it didn't look like much. In the nineteen fifties, 83 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:24,599 Speaker 1: archaeologists digging among the ruins of the royal palace in 84 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: the ancient city of Ugurt in Syria uncovered a collection 85 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,679 Speaker 1: of clay tablets, most of which had crumbled and deteriorated, 86 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,200 Speaker 1: leaving behind just a few fragments of text, but one 87 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,240 Speaker 1: remained intact. The tablet was cataloged while academics worked on 88 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:44,920 Speaker 1: deciphering the wedge shaped characters. Transcribing it proved difficult. The 89 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,479 Speaker 1: Hyrian language had long been extinct, so it wasn't until 90 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty eight that language experts Emmanuel Laroche made a 91 00:05:52,360 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 1: shocking discovery. The tablet, dating back to the fourteenth century 92 00:05:56,520 --> 00:05:59,919 Speaker 1: b c e. Contained a hymn, making it the oldest 93 00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 1: fully documented piece of music still in existence. While archaeologists 94 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,599 Speaker 1: had unearthed musical instruments made mostly of ivory, and bone 95 00:06:08,640 --> 00:06:10,880 Speaker 1: that date back further than the tablet. They had never 96 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:14,640 Speaker 1: found a complete musical melody intact before, so the museum 97 00:06:14,640 --> 00:06:18,080 Speaker 1: in Damascus was now home to the world's oldest recorded song, 98 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: and no one knew what all the words were, much 99 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,920 Speaker 1: less how to play it. Interpretation was difficult, as the 100 00:06:24,960 --> 00:06:28,360 Speaker 1: Herian language had long died out. What they could translate 101 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:30,839 Speaker 1: was that the hymn had been written to Nicoll, the 102 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,200 Speaker 1: ancient goddess of orchards and the daughter of the summer King. 103 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:38,000 Speaker 1: Once I have endeared the deity, the hymn starts out, 104 00:06:38,400 --> 00:06:41,880 Speaker 1: she will love me in her heart. There are several 105 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,320 Speaker 1: lines to the verse and three interpretations, two of which 106 00:06:45,360 --> 00:06:48,440 Speaker 1: came from Laroche. While a few lines mentioned fruit, the 107 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,600 Speaker 1: last line implies fertility. Even to the experts, it's unclear 108 00:06:52,720 --> 00:06:55,159 Speaker 1: if the melody was meant to appeal to the goddess's 109 00:06:55,160 --> 00:06:59,600 Speaker 1: blessing of a harvest or for children, or both. Now 110 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: trans posing the hymn was difficult enough, but in the 111 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: early nineteen seventies academics set out to put the lyrics 112 00:07:05,440 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: to music. The back of the tablet contained instructions for 113 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:13,280 Speaker 1: tuning a musical instrument, most likely a nine string Babylonian liar, 114 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: the most likely instrument of the time. Another section of 115 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: the tablet contained what appeared to be musical interludes, and 116 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 1: even more difficult, the text, written in a spiral pattern, 117 00:07:23,600 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 1: alternated from the front of the tablet to the back, 118 00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 1: and changes were indicated by interval names and number signs. 119 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: It was all a mystery, and although professors and academics 120 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:37,600 Speaker 1: of life eventually paired up the instructions, it wasn't a 121 00:07:37,640 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: matter of just sitting down and playing the notes. You see, 122 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: sheet music as we know it wouldn't be used for 123 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:46,520 Speaker 1: another two thousand years. Once more, specialists in the field 124 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: of music and language found themselves stumped. The problem was 125 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: that when the unknown composer wrote to him, instructions revolved 126 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:58,320 Speaker 1: around a heptatonic scale, keeping it as simple as possible. 127 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:01,880 Speaker 1: It looks nothing like modern music. The arrangement between the 128 00:08:01,920 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: words and how the notes are played came down to 129 00:08:04,440 --> 00:08:08,040 Speaker 1: not only the interpretation of those words, but matching pitches 130 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:12,320 Speaker 1: and tone per octive with nothing familiar to go on. Basically, 131 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,520 Speaker 1: on the scale of difficulty, matching hearing and lyrics and 132 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: music to modern day sheet music was a feat akin 133 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: to understanding Einstein's theory of relativity written in a different language. 134 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:27,440 Speaker 1: Not only was the culture long gone, the specific characters 135 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: indicated a localized version of the dialect, a sort of 136 00:08:30,800 --> 00:08:33,599 Speaker 1: local slang. The knowledge they had of the Hearing in 137 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:38,640 Speaker 1: people seem tenuous at best. It wouldn't be until nineteen 138 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: seventy two when the tablet was finally decoded, and the 139 00:08:42,400 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: best part. This breakthrough allowed the piece to be set 140 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,040 Speaker 1: to modern music, and it played to the public for 141 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,320 Speaker 1: the first time in nineteen seventy four. Orchestras, guitarists, and 142 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: other musicians have played their own interpretations of Hearing and 143 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,800 Speaker 1: Him Number six over the years since then. Though there 144 00:08:58,840 --> 00:09:02,120 Speaker 1: are different renditions of the Him, the melody is always 145 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:07,280 Speaker 1: hauntingly beautiful. If music is the universal language, then perhaps 146 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:09,920 Speaker 1: the Hearing in Him is proof that music bridges time 147 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:14,560 Speaker 1: and culture, and that should be music to our ears. 148 00:09:17,440 --> 00:09:20,160 Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet 149 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn 150 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:28,680 Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. 151 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:32,240 Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership 152 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:35,560 Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show 153 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:39,480 Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television 154 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:41,719 Speaker 1: show and you can learn all about it over at 155 00:09:41,800 --> 00:09:45,320 Speaker 1: the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, 156 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:46,839 Speaker 1: stay curious.