Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas,
Speaker 1: and we're in now. Now that we're safely into it
Speaker 1: and we know there's no chance of twelve sucking us
Speaker 1: back into its clutches, we thought to be about time
Speaker 1: to just run through some of the big science that
Speaker 1: happened in because, as is generally the case, science did
Speaker 1: not take the year off. Maybe you didn't pay attention
Speaker 1: to everything that came out of the science headlines, but
Speaker 1: you you probably got some of these stories. These are
Speaker 1: the big ones. These are the ones where, uh, if
Speaker 1: you were going to talk science just with random folks
Speaker 1: on your commute to work or you know, at a
Speaker 1: dinner party, these are some of the topics who would
Speaker 1: have come up. So it serves to remind us that, hey,
Speaker 1: we had some really big, uh you know, landmark achievements
Speaker 1: in science, and those are spilling often to where we are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and um, actually we had some themes come out of
Speaker 1: this too, which we'll discuss. But it's kind of interesting
Speaker 1: that this was a year in science where you really
Speaker 1: saw a lot of innovation, of course, as you always do,
Speaker 1: but UM particularly by in the private sector and by
Speaker 1: citizens something called UM Citizens Science, which we'll talk about
Speaker 1: a little bit later. But yeah, there's a ton of
Speaker 1: stuff to choose from. But we're going to hit the
Speaker 1: big items on the list, some of which we have
Speaker 1: talked about before, but we're going to UM just trying
Speaker 1: to cover them and say why they are so very
Speaker 1: important and why they are actually game changers to our reality. Really. So,
Speaker 1: first off, one of the big things about twelve was
Speaker 1: this was the first year UH in ages that we
Speaker 1: had we didn't have a Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Endeavor
Speaker 1: final mission, and in twelve its activities basically involved you know,
Speaker 1: coasting down the street into storage. Yeah, I mean, basically
Speaker 1: what you saw was the shuttering of the shuttle program
Speaker 1: in then the actual concrete manifestation of that truth UM
Speaker 1: occurring in twelve, we saw four different shuttles that were
Speaker 1: ferried off to new lives in different places, usually museums
Speaker 1: UM or space themed attractions, without any kind of immediate
Speaker 1: replacement for those shuttles either. Right, So, probably most notably
Speaker 1: was the Endeavor shuttle towing that which became a pretty
Speaker 1: big spectacle, right, because if you tow a shuttle through
Speaker 1: the streets, people will notice, trees will need to be
Speaker 1: cut down, signs removed. But before the endeavor was actually
Speaker 1: um towed to its final place. Uh, it actually was
Speaker 1: flown from the Kennedy Space Center on the back of
Speaker 1: a seven forty seven to California and then there it
Speaker 1: was towed by I believe it was Toyota Tundra uh
Speaker 1: to its new home at the California Science Center in
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Yeah, there were some fabulous video footage of
Speaker 1: that shuttle making its way down the street. They're like,
Speaker 1: you know, sped it up so that it was a
Speaker 1: little snappier, but it was. It was, it was. It
Speaker 1: was emotional to watch. And that's the thing. I think
Speaker 1: that people are looking at this as a new era,
Speaker 1: that this was definitely a manifestation of what, you know,
Speaker 1: what's happening in space exploration. Uh. Most notably what we
Speaker 1: see is we see the private sector picking up where
Speaker 1: NASA might have, um, you know, if they had more
Speaker 1: funding left off right. Uh. And of course that that
Speaker 1: brings us to SpaceX, California based space X, which which
Speaker 1: everyone's heard of over the years They've been involved in
Speaker 1: a number of different projects, but most notably, UH, they're
Speaker 1: they're the first private company to deliver cargo to the
Speaker 1: International Space Station, which is pretty big deal. It. We
Speaker 1: were talking earlier and I about this, and I brought
Speaker 1: up the possible analogy of a dad who teaches his
Speaker 1: his teenage son to drive. So in this scenario, the
Speaker 1: NASA is the father, and and he's been doing the drive,
Speaker 1: and he's been doing the drive into the to school
Speaker 1: in the mornings, he's been doing the drive into the
Speaker 1: grow free store, and now finally he's reached the point where,
Speaker 1: all right, I think I think the sun can handle it.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a little he's a little cocky, he's
Speaker 1: he's new, he's he's maybe a little a little, a
Speaker 1: little heavy on the gas, but he's ready. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna drive anymore. I'm gonna let this guy drive me
Speaker 1: to the grocery store. Yeah. And and UH, you can
Speaker 1: actually take that analogy and even say that the parent
Speaker 1: NASA gave them a little test run. And that was
Speaker 1: back in May of two thousand and twelve, when the
Speaker 1: Dragon capsule actually delivered one sixty two meal packets forty
Speaker 1: five of them low sodium by the way, a laptop computer,
Speaker 1: change of clothes for the station astronauts, and fifteen student
Speaker 1: experiments to the International Space Station. So that was the
Speaker 1: first kind of like, well, let's see you on a
Speaker 1: test run here. Um that was obviously successful. So then
Speaker 1: as you say, we've got the larger, more official, hey,
Speaker 1: can you actually take a bunch of cargo up to
Speaker 1: the I S S for us? That later decision and
Speaker 1: eventually they're they're hoping to do humans in it extreme
Speaker 1: ends up, which is kind of like, you know, the
Speaker 1: father doesn't trust the son enough to say, let's not
Speaker 1: go for a Sunday drive with with your your mom
Speaker 1: and your grandma. Let's let's focus on you and me
Speaker 1: getting to the grocery in one piece. All right, Now,
Speaker 1: what's to do? Maybe a trip to the herd, to
Speaker 1: the hardware store there and back again. All right, we've
Speaker 1: got that check clicked off. We're working towards that Sunday drive. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I mean this is just, uh, I think what
Speaker 1: is going to become a good indication of things to come.
Speaker 1: Right now, some space X have a contract for a
Speaker 1: dozen flights to the space station. And then as I said,
Speaker 1: that October trip after the May test. Ruin was the
Speaker 1: first official one. UM and then space x isn't the
Speaker 1: only player in this commercial space. We've talked about Virgin Galactic. Uh.
Speaker 1: Sir Richard Branson's private space flight company and their recently
Speaker 1: completed high altitude test and Orbital Sciences is also under
Speaker 1: contract with NASA and Walstle launch a demonstration flight. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, it's it's it's definitely informs us about
Speaker 1: what what about this age of space exploration that we're entering,
Speaker 1: this this commercial well I'm not only entering, we're we're
Speaker 1: in it now. This age of commercial space exploration. On
Speaker 1: one hand, it's it's kind of like a oh, kind
Speaker 1: of like a libertarian um dream, you know, this idea
Speaker 1: of the of the of big government is not doing
Speaker 1: as much, but it's the the actual corporations like I
Speaker 1: canic individual human spirit. Yeah, like like Ron Swanson would
Speaker 1: really appreciate beause I feel like, you know, um, you know,
Speaker 1: a Swedem's capsule going into into space. So that kind
Speaker 1: of thing, and and it and so. But I mean
Speaker 1: some people were that's going to rub them the wrong
Speaker 1: wrong way. You know, it's the idea. Oh well, there's
Speaker 1: it's corporations doing this, and you know corporations, uh don't
Speaker 1: have the best track record with with everyone, right. It
Speaker 1: It reminds me of an article I did this year,
Speaker 1: or did in ten fictional Spacecraft we Wish were real,
Speaker 1: And I tried to, you know, I tried to make
Speaker 1: it a little more thought provoking instead of just like
Speaker 1: here's ten rad spaceship, because spaceships fictional space ships, by
Speaker 1: their very nature our rat you can throw. It's like
Speaker 1: throwing a dark you know, at a wall. Any of
Speaker 1: them hit, they're gonna be cool. That's just how it works.
Speaker 1: So I was trying to look at like, what in
Speaker 1: what way to fictional spacecraft inform our ideas about the
Speaker 1: actual future of space exploration, And I think I left
Speaker 1: off the USS Enterprise, even though obviously the Enterprise is
Speaker 1: a really cool ship. Yeah, and it's like a government thing.
Speaker 1: It's a it's about exploration, it's about it and being
Speaker 1: ambassadors and it's all these positive aspect. Yes, it's a
Speaker 1: warship too, but for the most part it's a very
Speaker 1: much a positive vision of our our future at the stars. Um.
Speaker 1: So I don't think I included that one, but I
Speaker 1: did and include the USS issue Mura, which is like
Speaker 1: a it's the setting for a space horror video game
Speaker 1: where it's a where they are all these like zombies
Speaker 1: running on the ship, but the ship itself is a
Speaker 1: commercial vehicle designed to crack open planets and harvest minerals.
Speaker 1: Because ultimately, well that's a you know, it's a far
Speaker 1: darker idea than than than the Enterprise. And I'm just
Speaker 1: talking about the function, not the zombies, um the idea
Speaker 1: of just going on harvesting minerals, and it's all about
Speaker 1: the bottom line. It's it's a it's a bleaker image,
Speaker 1: but it's ultimately a motivating idea. You know, you can
Speaker 1: actually see that getting us out there into space. If
Speaker 1: there is money to be had, if there are asteroids
Speaker 1: to be mined, then people are going to throw some
Speaker 1: money at it. Well, and that's what we're seeing, right,
Speaker 1: That's what is lining up with us because we've talked
Speaker 1: about the company Planetary Resources, and it's a desire to
Speaker 1: mind asteroids for platinum, which could be pretty lucrative. Of course,
Speaker 1: it would take a while for them to actually get
Speaker 1: their investment back, the money that they put into that
Speaker 1: investment to actually start making money. But really, when you're
Speaker 1: talking about an endeavor like that, you're talking about a
Speaker 1: generational accumulation of wealth, and they're not doing this. Those
Speaker 1: people who are behind that are so very rich that
Speaker 1: they're not worried about getting, you know, some money from
Speaker 1: a pound of platinum. They're just trying to um actually
Speaker 1: put their their lives and uh, their their effort into
Speaker 1: this thing that will affect generations to come right. So
Speaker 1: that's another um theme that that largely is tied to
Speaker 1: is Mars One, which is the completely private Dutch company
Speaker 1: that is committed to establish establishing the first human presence
Speaker 1: on Mars by the early twenties. So again you do
Speaker 1: see that coming into play, this idea of privatization really
Speaker 1: taking over. But with that comes responsibility. And we covered
Speaker 1: this a bit in Space Junk because we talked about
Speaker 1: how much is out there in orbit and how it's
Speaker 1: actually a problem. So couldn't this be a good thing,
Speaker 1: this privatization, knowing that you'd have to have companies come
Speaker 1: in and clean this up. Yeah, if you want to
Speaker 1: make money in space, you need to keep our orbit
Speaker 1: clean so that we don't entombe ourselves. In this uh,
Speaker 1: this this enclosing shell of space card. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: don't want your hugely expensive instruments, you know, crashed into
Speaker 1: by a piece of space junks. And hey, you gotta
Speaker 1: get up there and start sweeping. If you want to
Speaker 1: sprinkle nutmeg on Mars, you've got to pay the price.
Speaker 1: Which that's what I hope the Dutch do. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, what, yes, now it makes sense the Dutch.
Speaker 1: Yet Mars one will be covered. I'm sure Mars will
Speaker 1: be covered with with nutmeg. Um. So these are a
Speaker 1: couple of related podcasts. We have a space junk Removable
Speaker 1: podcast in Afterward Minding if you want to learn a
Speaker 1: little bit more about that. Um. But certainly, uh was
Speaker 1: the realization of this idea of privatization and space cool?
Speaker 1: Now what else happened in space? And and there's an
Speaker 1: interesting UM trend with all of these space stories we're
Speaker 1: mentioning because they're all stories that we really got to
Speaker 1: participate in as viewers. UM, I mean participate. We didn't
Speaker 1: you know, we didn't actually control anything, but we really
Speaker 1: got to feel like we were there for it, you know,
Speaker 1: because we were either huddled around a TV or we
Speaker 1: were taking a few minutes away from our workday to
Speaker 1: watch it streaming on on one of the news sites. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we were We were there when when the
Speaker 1: Dragon capsule uh met up with the International Space Station,
Speaker 1: and we were there when Mars Curiosity visited the Red planet,
Speaker 1: which was so incredibly cool because, first of all, think
Speaker 1: about all the engineering that went behind launching this craft okay,
Speaker 1: into space. This was when it was launched. It was
Speaker 1: November two thousand and eleven, okay, all of that just
Speaker 1: to get up in the air and to get it
Speaker 1: on the right trastructory, that's the easy part. It was
Speaker 1: landing it nine months later that became incredibly tricky and
Speaker 1: put everyone on pins and needles because if you think
Speaker 1: about this, by the time that the Mars Curiosity capsule
Speaker 1: was at the top of the atmosphere from the surface,
Speaker 1: it takes seven minutes okay um to get to actually land,
Speaker 1: and it takes fourteen minutes for the signal from the
Speaker 1: spacecraft to reach the Earth. So when they first get
Speaker 1: word that the vehicle has touched the top of the atmosphere,
Speaker 1: there's a seven minute window that requires the computer to
Speaker 1: land the machine. Okay, Because there's this delay, and it
Speaker 1: has to do so lawless lee and has to manage
Speaker 1: a landing with speeds of thirteen thousand miles per hour
Speaker 1: that have to come to a dead stop using really
Speaker 1: complex mechanical maneuverings. And this is just to watch this,
Speaker 1: It's just a beautiful ballet of engineering and innovation. I
Speaker 1: excited when I when I think about this. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I thowt it referred to as seven minutes of
Speaker 1: terror and then the whole thing. I mean, it's kind
Speaker 1: of it was kind of like an Ocean's eleven type scheme,
Speaker 1: you know, to actually land this thing and landing successfully
Speaker 1: and uh and and you really got that when you're
Speaker 1: following it on the video streams, you're you're totally investing,
Speaker 1: because nobody wants to watch an expensive wreck on Mars,
Speaker 1: you know, an expensive crash um. And so when when
Speaker 1: it actually came out, you know, successfully, everyone rejoiced that
Speaker 1: mohawk guy jumped up and down by all and most
Speaker 1: importantly we were able to land the most sophisticated explorer
Speaker 1: ever on the Red planet. Yeah, and that again, there
Speaker 1: seven minutes of terror where where you really saw the
Speaker 1: magic happen and you begin to understand how they're Every
Speaker 1: single component of that landing absolutely mattered and had to
Speaker 1: be done again flawlessly, because once you began to to
Speaker 1: enter that um the atmosphere, you have the heat shield
Speaker 1: protecting the capsule from the sixteen hundred degrees fahrenheit um
Speaker 1: of the atmosphere, and then you have to deal with
Speaker 1: the atmosphere of Mars, which there's enough of that you
Speaker 1: have to deal with it right, but not enough to
Speaker 1: actually slow the cat, to slow it down into create
Speaker 1: some drag. And then you have the heat shield popping
Speaker 1: off right at the right moment so that the machine
Speaker 1: can then began to see where it is, you can
Speaker 1: begin to use um the cameras and okay, so that's
Speaker 1: just one tenth of that part of that landing. Then
Speaker 1: you have a parachute that weighs one hundred pounds deploying
Speaker 1: and it can withstand pressures of up to sixty five
Speaker 1: thousand pounds of pressure, and it slows it down to
Speaker 1: two d miles per hour. But that's still not enough, right,
Speaker 1: so now the parachute has to pop off and rockets
Speaker 1: now help divert curiosity away from the parachute so it
Speaker 1: doesn't collide with that, but it now that that gives
Speaker 1: it the ability to have some measure of control of
Speaker 1: its landing, So then you begin to see it descend
Speaker 1: in a very controlled manner. Okay, here's the other problem
Speaker 1: you have. You've got rockets and you don't want them
Speaker 1: to kick up so much dust that you then ruin
Speaker 1: some of the machinery on curiosity. So what do you do, Oh,
Speaker 1: let's now deploy the tether system from the rockets, so
Speaker 1: then it can start to to lower away and then
Speaker 1: the rockets. That wasn't one of the really amazing parts
Speaker 1: to where it's you're you're rocketing down there and then
Speaker 1: the rockets are lowering it down on an on a string,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, it's just incredible that, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: is breathtaking to see all of that unfold. And then,
Speaker 1: as you say, all of a sudden, you have a
Speaker 1: successful um land being of one of the most complex
Speaker 1: labs on on wheels that you could ever want on Mars,
Speaker 1: taking soil samples and really actually starting to engage with
Speaker 1: the mission of this, which is to understand the past
Speaker 1: and the current habit ability for life on Mars. All right,
Speaker 1: so what else do we have on the plate. Other
Speaker 1: big news that happened in twelve, we have to mention
Speaker 1: the Higgs. Of course, Yeah, of course, of course the
Speaker 1: Higgs has just continue to be a big story because
Speaker 1: it seems like for ages now, because it's always like,
Speaker 1: when are they going to find the Higgs? What is
Speaker 1: the Higgs? Like? Because the Hig it's it's one of
Speaker 1: those questions just just what is it is a question
Speaker 1: that continues to sort of come up because it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of a it's what you hear about the Higgs
Speaker 1: all the time, and it's easy to either not learn
Speaker 1: what the heck it is to begin with, or to
Speaker 1: sort of forget it. Now. We did a whole episode
Speaker 1: on this um about the Higgs. You can look it
Speaker 1: up in our list of episodes. But you know, essentially
Speaker 1: that the ideas it's a hypothetical um sometimes it article
Speaker 1: that uh, and it's a field that gives that gives
Speaker 1: matter mass and if it, if we could find it,
Speaker 1: if we could prove that it actually exists, it could
Speaker 1: explain a number of the mysteries surrounding the cosmos are
Speaker 1: understanding of physics. It's uh, it's a suspect in a
Speaker 1: crime that should exist and we've just been looking for it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, because this is really um this is the
Speaker 1: big idea, right, that this Higgs field exists and it's
Speaker 1: a kind of cosmic molasses that keeps all of us together.
Speaker 1: So if we can really prove this, and we can
Speaker 1: really get a little bit more at this question of
Speaker 1: how do we exist, how do we come to exist?
Speaker 1: What really keeps us all together? What is this reality
Speaker 1: that we're all can jealed in. Uh So, here's the deal.
Speaker 1: The Large Hadron Collider, which is headquartered in Geneva, is
Speaker 1: tasked to try to find this Higgs particle, because again,
Speaker 1: if this can be isolated, then it gives crudence this
Speaker 1: idea that this Higgs field, this molasses does exist. Smashing
Speaker 1: those atoms looking for the brief existence of this particle
Speaker 1: before it blinks out and again, sort of committing the
Speaker 1: same crime over and over again, and then in the
Speaker 1: hopes that you'll glimpse the suspect that's right after these
Speaker 1: primordial fireballs are left after these proton collisions in the
Speaker 1: Large Hadron Collider. So in a July it was reported
Speaker 1: that a Higgs like particle was found, and this is
Speaker 1: really important they're calling Higgs like, Okay, the jury is
Speaker 1: still a bit out about this, right, because there's been
Speaker 1: some more information about this, because we found the suspect.
Speaker 1: We found the suspect. The problem is another suspect showed up. See,
Speaker 1: because it's like like a Raymond Chandler novel, you know,
Speaker 1: it's like you reached that point where they found the murder. Note,
Speaker 1: it just gets a little more complicated there are two suspects,
Speaker 1: or maybe maybe there wasn't a murder at all. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's how mysteries work, and that's how this one is
Speaker 1: kind of working out as well. Well, they've been going
Speaker 1: through the data and with a found is that now
Speaker 1: two bumps show in the data, casting doubt on the experiment. Okay, Um,
Speaker 1: what that means is that there appears to be one Higgs,
Speaker 1: both on with a massive one two three point five
Speaker 1: giga electron volts in one with one to six point six.
Speaker 1: So in a December fourteenth article in Scientific America excuse me,
Speaker 1: in Scientific American, it explains that it's been thought before
Speaker 1: that there might be one more than one Higgs, but
Speaker 1: not so close together. That's where the mystery becomes even deeper, right,
Speaker 1: because it's okay if there's another one, but just not
Speaker 1: so close together. So again, it's pointing to this question
Speaker 1: about whether or not there's a problem with the experiment,
Speaker 1: and physicist Adam Falkowski wrote on his blog quote, in
Speaker 1: this case, they most likely signal a systematic problem rather
Speaker 1: than some interesting physics. First and least, it would be
Speaker 1: quite a coincidence to have two Higgs particles so close
Speaker 1: and mass. So again, the jury is still out, but
Speaker 1: this is the fact that they're getting this close is
Speaker 1: still a game changer, and it's still amazing, and I
Speaker 1: think it points to this idea that in science you
Speaker 1: have to continue to go back to the drawing board.
Speaker 1: This is what makes good science good science, Right, you
Speaker 1: just don't accept that this was a Higgs particle. You
Speaker 1: begin to go through that data more and more and
Speaker 1: corroborated to the point where there's just absolutely no question
Speaker 1: that it is. And they're not there right now. Um,
Speaker 1: but they're getting closer. Yeah. I mean, science creeps forward
Speaker 1: and sometimes it has to creep a little little little
Speaker 1: ways back to recalibrate. You know, it's like a roomba
Speaker 1: running into stuff in your living room. But it's figuring
Speaker 1: it out right. Um, so so yeah, we continue to
Speaker 1: watch what happens with the with the higgs um. But
Speaker 1: certainly it was it was definitely a big year for
Speaker 1: the Higgs, regardless of what it actually ends up to,
Speaker 1: you know. Being the case with these particles that we
Speaker 1: these higgs is that we sort of found. Yeah, more
Speaker 1: to come on that, I think. Um, all right, we're
Speaker 1: gonna take a quick break and when we get back,
Speaker 1: we are going to talk about citizens science. All right,
Speaker 1: we're back. Um, so what else happened in Well, a
Speaker 1: lot of pieces sort of continuing business. Of course, science
Speaker 1: is a continuing business. We continue to search for certain things.
Speaker 1: We continue to search out things. And one of the
Speaker 1: things we've been looking for exoplanets, planets elsewhere in the
Speaker 1: in the in the galaxy, planets that maybe might be
Speaker 1: like Earth. That's what we have our eye out for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it turns out that there is a ton of
Speaker 1: data to sort through in order to find Earth like
Speaker 1: planetary candidates. And it's really helpful when you have citizens
Speaker 1: in this case, citizens scientists to help sort through the
Speaker 1: extensive data. And this is actually data that's provided by
Speaker 1: NASA's Kepler Mission. So here's this really cool thing. Fifteen
Speaker 1: new planet candidates. We call them again planet candidates because
Speaker 1: they have to have to be a certain distance from
Speaker 1: the Sun in order to be considered earth like properties
Speaker 1: or have earth like properties. Right, Um, they've been discovered
Speaker 1: by planet hunters, and planet hunters is this project of
Speaker 1: these citizens scientists. These are people who have access to
Speaker 1: the data that NASA has given them, and what they
Speaker 1: do is they look through all that data to try
Speaker 1: to figure out habitable planets. And again, like I said
Speaker 1: in that Goldilocks zone, right that distance from the Sun
Speaker 1: and not too hot, not too cold, approximate size. You know,
Speaker 1: it just has to be just right right and just
Speaker 1: the right distance from a star to have liquid water, right,
Speaker 1: which you know would be really important for life. Uh So, anyway,
Speaker 1: this is this is what is so cool about this
Speaker 1: organization is that they have found the fifteen new planet
Speaker 1: candidates and in addition, a planet named pH One with
Speaker 1: four sons was discovered by the group. And it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of suns for that's four times as
Speaker 1: many suns as we have. I mean, the really amazing
Speaker 1: thing about this is that you mentioned earlier about the
Speaker 1: the participation aspect um of of getting to know huddle
Speaker 1: around the TV or the computer monitor and watch things
Speaker 1: like the Mars landing, UM to watch the endeavor going
Speaker 1: down the street. And here is an example of actual
Speaker 1: participation where these citizen scientists are getting to sort through
Speaker 1: the data that that that Kepler has a massed and
Speaker 1: we're talking about a hundred and fifty thousand stars here
Speaker 1: that they're they're sorting through the data. They're examining the
Speaker 1: brightness measurements that are taken by Kepler, looking for signs
Speaker 1: that there could be planets orbiting them. And then when
Speaker 1: a planet passes in front of a star, there should
Speaker 1: be noticeable and temporary drop in brightness. And this is
Speaker 1: this sort of data again that they're looking at. And
Speaker 1: the idea is that the human brain is actually better
Speaker 1: at detecting this than an algorithm. So also someone who
Speaker 1: is maybe an amateur astronomer who is very excited about
Speaker 1: this work. UM. So you get this group together that
Speaker 1: is all um trying to find, you know, some sort
Speaker 1: of sign that there might be another earthlike planet. And
Speaker 1: again we've talked about this in our podcast about will
Speaker 1: we find an Earth flight planet planet in the like
Speaker 1: anytime soon. And uh, this is something that seems like
Speaker 1: it could happen for us in the next fifty years,
Speaker 1: that we could spot an earthlike planet. On one level,
Speaker 1: it just it gives us a lot more information about
Speaker 1: what is out there. But also there's a lot of
Speaker 1: imagination caught up in it because an earthlike planet could
Speaker 1: conceivably have earthlike life. Life on Earth is the only
Speaker 1: model of life that we have, and so when we're
Speaker 1: extrapolating and trying to figure out what alien life might
Speaker 1: consist of, that ends up what we look for, you know,
Speaker 1: we end up looking for an earthlike world, So possibility
Speaker 1: of life elsewhere in the universe, um, and also the
Speaker 1: possibility of a world that we could go to that
Speaker 1: we could colonize if we're still into that kind of
Speaker 1: sci fi idea by the time when the technology actually
Speaker 1: catch us up with us. Yeah. And I think it's
Speaker 1: another good example of a discipline that benefits from an
Speaker 1: institution like NASA allowing the public to come through data
Speaker 1: sharing their data, having an open and essentially crowdsourcing meaningful assault. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean again, it's kind of like that the father
Speaker 1: raising his son, his son's citizen citizen science. And uh,
Speaker 1: he's out there grilling steaks, right, and or or grilling
Speaker 1: peppers and or what have you. Um, the vegetarian option.
Speaker 1: He's out there grilling, and the sun is interested and
Speaker 1: has reached the point where yes, here I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do the main cooking. But you can hear you
Speaker 1: can rub some some barbecue sauce on it, not do
Speaker 1: put barbecue sauce in a steak. Yeah, and again you
Speaker 1: see this thing. Well, you could put barbecue sauce on
Speaker 1: a steak, I guess you could, But I mean, if
Speaker 1: it's a really good stake, there's no sense to put
Speaker 1: sauce on it. But the important thing is that you're
Speaker 1: involving the kid in the process. But you're right, if
Speaker 1: it's chewy and tough, you've gotta throw something on there. Uh.
Speaker 1: But yes, that's what I think is happening. Again. There's
Speaker 1: this sharing of data that's involving of of people you
Speaker 1: know out on the street, right, you know. And some
Speaker 1: of this is part and parcel to where we are
Speaker 1: in terms of technology and community, because it wouldn't be
Speaker 1: able to do this necessarily ten years ago, twenty years
Speaker 1: ago to share data to this extent and then try
Speaker 1: to get the results um in a way that was efficient.
Speaker 1: So that's Joe public, that's just everybody, every random person
Speaker 1: on the street potentially contributing to science. But then there's
Speaker 1: still plenty of room for the exceptional individual, for the
Speaker 1: Joe awesome if you will UM. And that brings us
Speaker 1: to our next two items on this list. Felix baumb Gardner. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And this was another example that everyone got to huddle
Speaker 1: around the TV or the computer and watched this happen.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of these moments in the last year.
Speaker 1: Then the moments that really hearkened back to the day
Speaker 1: of like watching the moon landing, where we all got
Speaker 1: to become really excited about about watching something historic. Pike Place. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I mean here's here's this Austrian daredevil who broke the
Speaker 1: speed of sound in October two twelve by jumping from
Speaker 1: the edge of space, a feat that he had spent
Speaker 1: five years five years preparing for. It took him two
Speaker 1: hours on a pressured cap soul powered by helium balloon
Speaker 1: to reach a platform twenty four miles up and before
Speaker 1: stepping onto the platform. This, I think it's interesting. He
Speaker 1: ran through a forty step checklist, because you know, before
Speaker 1: you take the big plans, you want to make sure
Speaker 1: that everything is is crossed off, right, uh. And then
Speaker 1: he stepped off the platform and he hurled through the
Speaker 1: sky at more than eight hundred and thirty miles per hour,
Speaker 1: at one point reaching eight hundred and thirty three point
Speaker 1: nine pile miles per hour or mock one point to four,
Speaker 1: breaking the sound barrier in a four minute free fall
Speaker 1: before popping his parachute and pulling off a running landing
Speaker 1: in a New Mexico desert. I mean, that is amazing
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah, I mean, yeah it was. It's just
Speaker 1: some amazing footage to watch and just quite a I
Speaker 1: mean just it's kind of terrifying to watch too. Like
Speaker 1: I would imagine if I did a forty item checklist,
Speaker 1: it would just be like different deities that I was
Speaker 1: just making sure I was square with before I jumped out.
Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, we get cool, alright, You're just throwing
Speaker 1: candy out in the air at that point, is to
Speaker 1: the air gods. Um well. And also I mean you
Speaker 1: have to understand too that again, this was five years
Speaker 1: and in the making, and this is someone who was
Speaker 1: so good at what he did. Um that he had
Speaker 1: the ability to control himself at those sort of speeds.
Speaker 1: And he did say at one point that he felt
Speaker 1: like he was he was going to a flat spin,
Speaker 1: and he felt all the blood rushing to his head
Speaker 1: and he thought he was going to lose control, but
Speaker 1: then he got it under control and was able to
Speaker 1: continue to accelerate in his speed. Yeah. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: an important thing to realize about. It is it is
Speaker 1: much more than just the technology of getting someone up
Speaker 1: that high and then you know, booting them out of
Speaker 1: the cap. So there's a there's a lot of skill
Speaker 1: that was involved in this. It's not nearly falling, uh
Speaker 1: and technology because I mean it was falling, but it's
Speaker 1: falling with the nest. Yes, falling. Yeah, I mean you
Speaker 1: have to have the experience in order to really know
Speaker 1: or to anticipate what that might feel like at those speeds. UM.
Speaker 1: So he also had technology on his side. He wore
Speaker 1: one pound pressurized flight suit and helmet, and without protection,
Speaker 1: his blood would have been vaporized because the atmosphere was
Speaker 1: so thin when he jumped at that height. The temperature
Speaker 1: at his launch point was estimated at seven degrees sevent
Speaker 1: d degrees below zero fahrenheit, if not lower. So this
Speaker 1: is really a game changer. Um. And and that this
Speaker 1: not only does this pressurized flight suit have implications um elsewhere,
Speaker 1: like for instance, you know astronauts, UM, if they had
Speaker 1: to bail out of a council early, this could absolutely
Speaker 1: save their life, um if it was at the right
Speaker 1: UM height and so on and so forth. UM. But
Speaker 1: I mean it also kind of speaks this new technology
Speaker 1: that allows us to again augment ourselves in a way
Speaker 1: that we're able to do things that are beyond our
Speaker 1: human capacity or what we think we're able to do.
Speaker 1: So there you go, Felix bomb Gardner. Uh, amazing moment
Speaker 1: in the science And that video is still out there
Speaker 1: if you want to want to check it out. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure be out there indefinitely. But not to be outdone.
Speaker 1: There's also another individual, another Joe Awesome that uh that
Speaker 1: made some headlines and and and this guy is really
Speaker 1: it's close to like a Howard Hughes we have today,
Speaker 1: I mean, except he hasn't yet entered like the full
Speaker 1: crazy mode. But certainly in terms of a filmmaker who
Speaker 1: is all about creating something awesome and ingenious on the screen,
Speaker 1: but is also very interested in uh achieving great things
Speaker 1: outside of the film world. And we're of course talking
Speaker 1: about James Cameron, who became the first aqua out to
Speaker 1: reach the deepest recesses of the Marianna Trench, UH touching
Speaker 1: down the Challenger Deep Site about eleven kilometers below the
Speaker 1: surface of the Pacific Ocean about yeah, which is about
Speaker 1: six point eight miles And he did that in a
Speaker 1: one person submersible call the deep Sea Challenger, and it
Speaker 1: took him two and a half hours to get there.
Speaker 1: And what I think is interesting he said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty much mostly devoid of life. I saw some
Speaker 1: shrimp like creatures. But he did say that it was
Speaker 1: amazing to be in such a massive place that you
Speaker 1: just looked and you know, the horizon just dropped off.
Speaker 1: In fact, there's no real horizon because we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: Is um really the steep trench, And to even call
Speaker 1: it a trench is a bit of a misnomer because
Speaker 1: the marrying a trench is really an abyss and it's
Speaker 1: located at a subduction zone. And subduction zones occur where
Speaker 1: one part of the seabed. In this case, the Pacific
Speaker 1: Plate dives beneath another and this is the Philippine Plate.
Speaker 1: So you know, take that all into consideration, as well
Speaker 1: as that it's in a remote location, and you really
Speaker 1: do have this dramatic landscape unfolding before you. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean in the sense that the sky is the great
Speaker 1: blue yonder, this is the deep blue yonder. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is really largely unexplored territory of the Yeah. We
Speaker 1: talked about that in our Sunken Dangerous podcasts um in
Speaker 1: because we talked about how we know more about the
Speaker 1: moon surface than we than we know about the oceans
Speaker 1: and what's going on with that. So again, you know,
Speaker 1: I would be tempted to call Cameron a ham if
Speaker 1: he wentn't so dedicated to this endeavor, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean he's a bit of a ham. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no denying the awesomeness of this. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: eight years to to uh engineer and make this submersible,
Speaker 1: which then says, okay, well, if if he's done this,
Speaker 1: and that means that we now have the ability to
Speaker 1: continue to visit this area of the ocean in the seabed,
Speaker 1: and now we can begin to take oil soil samples,
Speaker 1: which is something that Cameron wants to do. So, of
Speaker 1: course you have the trickle down effect. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that we're all going to be in submersibles in ten
Speaker 1: years going down to the Mariana Trench, but it does
Speaker 1: mean that it makes the technology a little bit easier
Speaker 1: for others to follow suit. Yeah, and speaking of trickling down,
Speaker 1: I found it interesting that inside of this pressurized cockpit
Speaker 1: um they had this system set up to where moisture
Speaker 1: from Cameron's exhaled breath and his sweat leaked down into
Speaker 1: a plastic bag. And the idea here was that if
Speaker 1: he if he had to stay down there longer and
Speaker 1: outlasted his water supply, he could then drink the contents
Speaker 1: of this bag, which has parallels with space flight, right,
Speaker 1: because we know that the same sort of technologies are
Speaker 1: used when you're somewhere and you're in a confined space. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of crossover you have between the exploration
Speaker 1: of space and the inspiration of the deepest portions of
Speaker 1: the ocean. I mean, both hostile extreme environments for humans.
Speaker 1: We were made too. We we evolved to live on
Speaker 1: a very narrow portion of the Earth's surface, and if
Speaker 1: you go to how you go too low. We're debt
Speaker 1: unless we bring the appropriate technology with us to bring
Speaker 1: a little of our our habitat with us into these
Speaker 1: hostile settings. Yeah. Again there's that theme of augmentation again
Speaker 1: showing up particularly this year. Alright, so um other things
Speaker 1: that have been building this past decade that are gaining
Speaker 1: more ground and are getting more exposure. I have to
Speaker 1: do of course with neuroscience, yes, and um specifically erasing
Speaker 1: your memories, which again it's not a new thing, but
Speaker 1: it gained some traction again this year. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: people have been wanted to do this forever. I mean
Speaker 1: that we've discussed like the time and time again, like
Speaker 1: the basic human condition and how wrapped up it is,
Speaker 1: and and worrying about stuff that's happened in the past,
Speaker 1: and worrying about stuff to come in the future, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, there's only something you can do about the future.
Speaker 1: But we've all but I think everyone is thought, boy,
Speaker 1: I wish I could go back and erase that, and
Speaker 1: maybe you get more into the time travel mode, and
Speaker 1: like I wish I could go back and fix that.
Speaker 1: But then when you realize that's impossibly. You think, well,
Speaker 1: if I can't fix it, then at least I could
Speaker 1: forget that that happened at all. I mean, it's the
Speaker 1: eternal sunshine of the mind. Would you erase a memory
Speaker 1: if you could? Um? No, Because I mean there have
Speaker 1: been times in the past where I would have said, yes,
Speaker 1: I wish I could go back and erase this or
Speaker 1: it rat that. But as you and you know, and
Speaker 1: maybe I just don't have bad enough memories that I
Speaker 1: that I would want to erase them. But ultimately reached
Speaker 1: that point where those memories inform who you are, you know,
Speaker 1: and to to take them away, um, you know that
Speaker 1: that takes away from from what you become. But but
Speaker 1: but again, where this really becomes important, it's with the
Speaker 1: idea of dealing with really traumatic memories and uh and
Speaker 1: ultimately not as much the research we're looking at here,
Speaker 1: not as much the extinction of a memory, but the
Speaker 1: sort of yeah, but also the dulling of it. Um.
Speaker 1: We we did a whole episode because a couple of
Speaker 1: years back at the World Science Festival, there was a
Speaker 1: lot of interesting talk about being able to erase memories,
Speaker 1: alter memories, and and some of it was pretty drastic,
Speaker 1: like this one um substance that could just sort of
Speaker 1: clear the mind, like reset the computer entirely. Uh that
Speaker 1: no one is actually tested on a human, and we
Speaker 1: can just sort of imagine what it might be like. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the one where I was like, well, could
Speaker 1: you would it be like the born identity it could
Speaker 1: you erase your memory and you still know kung fu?
Speaker 1: You know that kind of thing. One study we were
Speaker 1: looking at from Upslo University. Uh, they were looking specifically
Speaker 1: at this reconsolidation phase. Now, if you remember from when
Speaker 1: we talked about this before, this is the idea that
Speaker 1: when you think back to something, to a memory, you're
Speaker 1: not going and looking at something that is set in stone.
Speaker 1: Memory is is weird. Memory is uncertain. Memory, it's unstable
Speaker 1: because every time think of a memory as a little
Speaker 1: like something happens in your brain, like makes a little
Speaker 1: clay sculpture of what it would of what happened. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, I was I was stabbed by an elephant. Alright,
Speaker 1: So here's a you know, a little clay monitor of
Speaker 1: an elephant in a trench coat with which the big
Speaker 1: big well have a big shank a right, So then
Speaker 1: I put that away in the drawer, the memory, right,
Speaker 1: I'll leave it there, and then when I think about
Speaker 1: it again, I get that little clay model back out.
Speaker 1: But in handling it, uh, and in reconceptualizing and I
Speaker 1: end up changing things. Uh and that. But this is
Speaker 1: the this is the state where it's malleable. It's in
Speaker 1: my hands. So researchers have have for a while realized
Speaker 1: that the reconsolidation phase, this is when you want to
Speaker 1: alter a memory, alter the impact of a memory, or
Speaker 1: potentially erase it because this is where it's it's vulnerable. Well,
Speaker 1: it gets anchored in our brains by proteins and it's reconsolidation.
Speaker 1: So yes, this is where you want to interrupt the
Speaker 1: actual final consolidation of it. Uh. So long term real quick,
Speaker 1: long term memory is based on the formation of several proteins.
Speaker 1: These proteins are part of the consolidation process that you
Speaker 1: spoke of, and that occurs when a person learns something new.
Speaker 1: Remembering something causes the memory to become unstable for short
Speaker 1: amount of time, only to recover through another consolidation process,
Speaker 1: which is what you just talked about. So these researchers
Speaker 1: had test subjects look at neutral images, yes, and then
Speaker 1: they shocked with the Jesus at home. This is crazy,
Speaker 1: but yes they did it. And the reason they did
Speaker 1: that is because they needed them to associate these images
Speaker 1: with a memory. Right, so they would see like an
Speaker 1: image of maybe at an elephant holding a switch blade,
Speaker 1: and then they would they would become shocked. It's like whoa.
Speaker 1: So now, of course the idea is that you see
Speaker 1: an image of an elephant holding a switchblade again, you're
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna react because it's it's associated with a
Speaker 1: shock to your system. You'll have a fearful memory. Right.
Speaker 1: So now they divided the groups and this is where
Speaker 1: they started to try the consolidation process and figure out
Speaker 1: if they could game the system a little bit. And
Speaker 1: the first group, their consolidation process was disrupted through multiple
Speaker 1: presentations of the picture, while the excuse me, the consolidation
Speaker 1: process of the second group wasn't interrupted. And so what
Speaker 1: they did though, is that after this process, the picture
Speaker 1: was shown to the group again. So what they discovered
Speaker 1: is that the group that had their consolidation process inhibited,
Speaker 1: the fear that was previously associated with the picture completely dissipated.
Speaker 1: And then what they found them is that the consolidation process,
Speaker 1: when it is interrupted, than the memory no longer can
Speaker 1: incite fear. So what they did is that to corroborate this,
Speaker 1: they used m r I scanner and that showed that
Speaker 1: the remains of that particular fear memory had also been
Speaker 1: erased from the nuclear group of the amygdala. And we
Speaker 1: know the amygdala process is fear. So yeah, so just
Speaker 1: another step forward towards this possible future where we can
Speaker 1: go back and systematically erased memories, but certainly more near
Speaker 1: term gives us a lot more AMMO towards treating traumatic memories. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like a more enlightened version of
Speaker 1: confronting your fear. Is that kind of a thing, because
Speaker 1: certainly when you confront of fear, you were taking it
Speaker 1: out of the cabinet, holding in your hands, and it
Speaker 1: is susceptible to change to to to to altering uh,
Speaker 1: what the memory exactly is and ultimately how we feel
Speaker 1: about it. And I feel like this also underscores a
Speaker 1: bit of about what we talked about in two thousand
Speaker 1: and twelve, is this idea of consciousness, and certainly consciousness
Speaker 1: is made of memories and experiences and we talked about
Speaker 1: the failibility of this um idea that consciousness could be um,
Speaker 1: something that is solid and sturdy, when in fact we
Speaker 1: know that things like this memory um can really color
Speaker 1: ah the feeling of that consciousness that day, and that
Speaker 1: feeling makes us who we are right. So again interesting
Speaker 1: to see how much of our brain this plasticity lends
Speaker 1: itself to more of an unstable quality, or rather a
Speaker 1: changeable quality of our brains. And this leads us to
Speaker 1: another interesting bit of science that it also drives on
Speaker 1: this idea that who we are the human experience itself
Speaker 1: is not quite what we often think it is what
Speaker 1: we take it for granted to be. And this of
Speaker 1: course concerns toxic plasmosis now taxoplasmosis, which in brief we're
Speaker 1: talking about the cat parasite. You know, the idea that
Speaker 1: you're you're cleaning out the cat's litter box. You're a
Speaker 1: little too handy in there, you know, you start confusing
Speaker 1: with the sandbox. You can potentially pick up some of
Speaker 1: this this parasite. It goes through your body. It alters
Speaker 1: your mind because the idea is that this parasite has
Speaker 1: been pooped out of the cat wants to get inside
Speaker 1: of the rat, and then once it is in, the
Speaker 1: rat wants to return to the cat. And so how
Speaker 1: do you get a rat to return to the cat?
Speaker 1: It sounds like I'm doing some sort of Sousian thing here,
Speaker 1: But how do you get the rat to return to
Speaker 1: the cat? Well, you you sort of hack the rat's
Speaker 1: brain to make it and take more risks to make
Speaker 1: it crave cat urine, that kind of thing, so that
Speaker 1: it could put itself in a position to be eaten
Speaker 1: by the cat and return and finish its life cycle.
Speaker 1: So this has been in the news for a while.
Speaker 1: There's like a bunch of stuff about it back in
Speaker 1: two thousand nine, um and stuff before that. Scientists continue
Speaker 1: to study it because it's a it's a remarkable organism. Uh,
Speaker 1: and it obviously give and the how many domestic cats
Speaker 1: out there. It has a huge impact on human culture. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the fact that that this parasite could disconnect the
Speaker 1: fear part of the brain in rats was terrifying but
Speaker 1: also made some people step back and say, to what
Speaker 1: extent does the parasite operate in a human being? So
Speaker 1: it keeps coming back in the in the news because
Speaker 1: on one level, we continue to research it so and
Speaker 1: every now and then there are some new findings. But
Speaker 1: then it's also it's it's like those weird emails that
Speaker 1: your mother or your your your uncle sends you, you know,
Speaker 1: where it will be something crazy and you're like, come on, dude,
Speaker 1: just look it up on Snopes. It's not true, but
Speaker 1: but get but people keep sending them because it connects
Speaker 1: with them instantly, Like you know, if you get the
Speaker 1: one like Mars will be as big as the moon
Speaker 1: and the earth sky. Uh this weekend? Have you received
Speaker 1: this one? It goes out periodically and of course it's
Speaker 1: completely nuts. There's no way that that happens, um not
Speaker 1: without just just catastrophic you know of professions. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just it's not gonna happen. But but it affects us
Speaker 1: in a way. You know, we're like, oh wow, that's
Speaker 1: gonna be really crazy. That's really gonna affect me personally.
Speaker 1: I'm interested in sending this on. So when this story
Speaker 1: has come out about the cat, is like, well, I
Speaker 1: have a cat or my mom as a cat, uh,
Speaker 1: and that the parasites in that cat could be changing
Speaker 1: the way she thinks. I mean it, it has this
Speaker 1: impact on our lives, and it involves cats, so of
Speaker 1: course we're gonna be crazy about it. Yeah, And the
Speaker 1: takeaway from this is not that if you have a
Speaker 1: cat you are probably crazy, or that they're going to
Speaker 1: some the parasite is going to make you crazy. That
Speaker 1: is not the takeaway. The takeaway is that the parasite
Speaker 1: and it's just still research that's being done, it does
Speaker 1: seem to have some changes in personality in humans and
Speaker 1: biologists Yaroslav Flaggers as actually the person who spoke about
Speaker 1: this at length, and um, this was in an Atlantic article,
Speaker 1: how Your Cat Is Making You Crazy by Kathleen mccalf um. Again,
Speaker 1: the cat's not making you crazy, but that's the title
Speaker 1: of the article that goes into more detail about this.
Speaker 1: But what it really points to is that, you know,
Speaker 1: at some point, we're all being gained by microscopic puppeteers
Speaker 1: at some level. And I wanted to point to a
Speaker 1: study at Colorado State University that showed that when subjects
Speaker 1: were given a flu vaccination which stoked the subjects immune response,
Speaker 1: they doubled the amount of people they came into contact
Speaker 1: with during the time that they were maximally contagious. So Again,
Speaker 1: here's this idea that people when they had this flu
Speaker 1: vaccine and when they are contagious, we're a lot more
Speaker 1: social than they would normally be. Um, is this the
Speaker 1: flu that is actually gaming them to do this, to
Speaker 1: change their personality? And that's the question that that biologists
Speaker 1: are trying to get to, is to what extent do
Speaker 1: parasites and bacteria change the way we think? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: ultimately this the part about the story is not that
Speaker 1: toxoplasmosis is having the impact on who we are and
Speaker 1: how we think, but that it drives home how many
Speaker 1: things have an impact on who we are and how
Speaker 1: we think. And again, who we are, how we think,
Speaker 1: the human mind, it's not set in stone. It's affected
Speaker 1: by so many different variables and uh and and science
Speaker 1: has a wonderful way of revealing that to us. And
Speaker 1: if I were David Eagleman and I was sitting in
Speaker 1: here in my fancy jeans and my cool coat, I
Speaker 1: would probably say, which leads us to ask the question
Speaker 1: do we really have free will if all of these
Speaker 1: agents are acting upon us? He doesn't talk like that,
Speaker 1: but I'm being him, so all right, So there you
Speaker 1: have it. That is not all the science that took
Speaker 1: place in twelve finny stretch of the imagination. But those
Speaker 1: are some of the big stories, uh, and you you
Speaker 1: may have heard of most of them, you may have
Speaker 1: heard of all of them. Uh. But this is just
Speaker 1: about rewinding, looking back at what happened, and then looking
Speaker 1: looking ahead to where we're going in the future. So
Speaker 1: if you have any feedback on any of that, if
Speaker 1: there was a particular story that that we we didn't cover,
Speaker 1: do you think was really key? I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: you know, we should have talked more about record meltdowns
Speaker 1: of Arctic sea ice, uh, record high temperatures or you
Speaker 1: know what have you? Uh let us know. You can
Speaker 1: find us on Twitter, where we are blow the Mind.
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook and Tumblr. We're We're
Speaker 1: stuff to blow your mind on both of those and
Speaker 1: you can always drop us a line at blow the
Speaker 1: Mind at Discovery dot com for more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics. Is that how Stuff Works dot
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