WEBVTT - More of the Ig Nobel Prize Winners 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.319 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Be there 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:16.280 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.439 I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. And how the tech 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:22.640 are you? As you might be able to tell, I'm 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.919 under the weather. Like I thought when I was on 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:28.280 that work trip, I was starting to get sick, and 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.440 I was hopeful that it was nothing more than maybe 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:35.040 some congestion or whatever. But no, despite all the wearing 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:37.760 of masks and hand washing and all that stuff, I 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.200 still got COVID. It's no joke, y'all. Do your best 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:44.159 to protect yourself when you're out there. I know that 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.400 it can seem lame to wear a mask this long 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:51.640 after the pandemic, but it can make a difference. Like 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.320 my case is not as bad as it could be. 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.800 My guess is that wearing the mask helped at least 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:58.800 a little bit. I didn't wear the mask the whole 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:01.920 time because I had to participate in some events and 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.959 do some recordings and stuff, So it's entirely possible it 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:10.120 was during one of those instances where I contracted it. 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.720 But yeah, I've been spending the last several days isolated 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.800 in my office at home because fortunately my partner does 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.040 not have it. So anyway, all that's just to say, 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:23.679 I love y'all and I want you to be safe. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:26.600 So be careful out there, to your best, to just 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.600 you know, take care of yourself. I know not everyone 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:31.920 wants to wear a mask, and I get it, but 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:34.320 I want you to be around for a while, whether 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:36.280 you're listening to my show or not, I want you 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.959 to be around, So just be careful. But enough of 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:44.759 all that sappy stuff. Last Wednesday, although now it feels 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:48.080 like that was an eternity ago, I published an episode 0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:52.240 about the ig Nobel Prize, So this joke set of 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:56.560 awards is a spoof of the more prestigious Nobel Prize, that, 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.720 of course was established from the wealth of a dynamite 0:01:59.720 --> 0:02:04.640 gap named Alfred Nobel, the guy who invented dynamite. Perhaps 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:07.200 no Bell wanted his legacy to be more associated with 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.960 celebrating human achievement rather than blowing stuff up, you know, 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.600 like the Fast and Furious franchise, because that's all about family, 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:19.320 or at least that's what I'm told. I haven't seen them. Anyway, 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.519 The Ignobel Prizes grew out of one satirical science journal 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.480 called the Journal of Irreproducible Results, and then later migrated 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:31.720 to a second satirical science journal called the Annals of 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.560 Improbable Research. Mark Abrahams, who at different times helmed each 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:40.160 of those publications, serves as the Master of Ceremonies. He's 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.960 also been called the Commander of Comedy, and Abrahams likes 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.520 to reference the prizes as something that first makes you laugh, 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.560 then it makes you think. Now. Some Ignobel Prize winners 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.520 received the award for seemingly spending a great deal of 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.079 time and effort studying something that, at least on the surface, 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:02.600 does sound like it matters that much like why would 0:03:02.600 --> 0:03:06.720 you even bother looking into that? Others can sometimes receive 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:10.240 the award as a kind of raz from the scientific community, 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.440 kind of like almost like a for shame kind of thing. 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.200 For example, the former US Vice President Dan Quayle received 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:21.959 the nineteen ninety one ig Nobel for Education because he 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:26.360 demonstrated quote the need for science education end quote. That 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.280 was just a snarky way of saying dan Quayle's own 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.840 command of science was somewhat lacking. But anyway, in that 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.120 last episode, I left off at two thousand and five. However, 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:39.840 I wanted to talk about a few more winners who 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:43.040 received an ig Nobel Prize for stuff that relates to tech, 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.640 because obviously not all the prizes do. In fact, most 0:03:45.640 --> 0:03:49.360 of them don't. They do all relate around things like 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.440 science and peace and literature, kind of a reflection of 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.000 the real Nobel Prizes, but in a very cheeky, tongue 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.160 in cheek kind of way. Now, one of the ones 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:00.960 I want to mention next. It requires me to go 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:02.680 back a bit, because, like I said, I left off 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.280 around two thousand and five in the last one, but 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.200 there's one where I need to go back to two 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.680 thousand because the person that I really didn't mention. I 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:16.000 think I briefly gave a nod toward this person, but 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.560 I don't think they even named him was Andre Geiin, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:24.000 who with Sir Michael Barry, earned the Ignobel Prize for 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.680 Physics back in two thousand. But what garnered them such 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:32.000 an honor, Well, it was for a scientific experiment that 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.280 involved the use of magnets to levitate frogs. And while 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:41.719 that description is technically true and accurate, it doesn't tell 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.919 the whole story obviously, So Gime is a kind of 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.880 an interesting person in that he likes to do exploratory 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:56.560 experimentation to just learn new stuff, just to try new 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.200 things and see what happens, Like I wonder what would 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.480 happen if we this to that, and then he tries it. 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.520 So the story he tells is that one day he 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.159 was walking through the lab late one night when his 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:13.719 eyes beheld an eerie sight. I mean, with his spooky season, 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:15.640 I guess I can quote the monster mash. Now, he 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.320 was walking through the lab and he had this huge 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:23.960 like electromagnet device, and the coil of the electromagnet creates 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.560 kind of a cylinder, right like you've got an empty 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:28.800 cylinder in there, and he thought, I wonder what happens 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.919 if I pour water into that cylinder. Now, this is 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.640 a very expensive piece of equipment, and he actually says like, 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:40.040 without even really thinking about and certainly without using any restraint, 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:42.760 I decided to try it out. He turned on the electromagnet, 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.320 which was extremely powerful, and he poured some water in it. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:51.880 Well water has a very weak magnetic property to it. 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:54.120 It's not really noticeable most of the time. But he 0:05:54.200 --> 0:05:58.160 was using a very very strong electromagnet and perhaps that 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.080 magnetic property of water is one of the things that 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:05.159 has set up a lot of pseudoscientific discussion about water, 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:07.839 you know, like the idea of water having some sort 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.000 of molecular memory and that leads to things like homeopathy. 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.279 But that's not really what he was looking at. He 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:18.320 was just like, I wonder what happened. And what happened 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:20.279 was that the water kind of stalled as it was 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:25.799 pouring into the cylinder that this electromagnet had sort of created, 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:29.200 and that he was seeing that the water would beat 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:32.880 up into little spheres and float, and you know what, 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.440 frogs have a lot of water in them, you know, 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:40.800 So he tried putting a frog in essentially an electromagnet, 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.840 where like again, the electromagnet forms a cylinder, and by 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.640 putting the frog there, the frog floated right there because 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:52.560 the electromagnet was generating enough of a magnetic field to 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:56.640 levitate the frog to keep him or it, I guess, 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:01.360 floating within that little cylinder. I actually saw a video 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:03.280 of this. It looked like the frog was on one 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:07.200 of those parabolic flights, you know, the vomit comet, the 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:11.720 aircraft that goes up in big arcs and simulates microgravity, 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:13.880 and Lily the frog was in one of those also 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.520 didn't seem to be particularly happy about it. Can't say 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:20.920 I blame it anyway. This odd experiment actually contributed to 0:07:21.000 --> 0:07:23.640 science beyond the fact you know that if you use 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.920 a strong enough magnet you can levitate water and or 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:30.880 a frog, because Geime started to dedicate a small amount 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.200 of his time around ten percent according to his own accounting, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.280 toward conducting weird moonshot experiments. He said it was the 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:42.680 sort of stuff that probably wouldn't be likely to result 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.960 in anything important, but if it did, it could potentially 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.760 be a game changer. As it turned out, he was right, 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.200 because you see, Geime was also involved in the research 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.720 that led to the discovery of graphene. So, graphene is 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.200 a sheet of carbon atoms. It's a sheet that's just 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:08.200 one atom thick. Right, you could have billions of atoms 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:10.800 in width and length, but it's only one atom thick. 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:16.160 Guayman's colleagues used an ordinary pencil which has graphite that's 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.840 a form of carbon, and they use some sticky tape, 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.400 and with the sticky tape and the graphite, they were 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:28.040 able to isolate graphene from the graphite. Well, graphene is 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:32.240 also the basis for things like carbon nanotubes. A carbon 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.839 nanotube is just a sheet of carbon atoms that have 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.840 been rolled up kind of burrito style. And the way 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:42.680 you roll it up, the direction that you roll the 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.640 graphene so that you know the way the atoms align 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:49.760 with each other, that actually determines the physical properties of 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:52.400 the carbon nanotubes. You know, you roll them one way 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.480 and the carbon nanotube might act like an insulator. You 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.720 roll them a different way, could act like a conductor. 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:01.000 That kind of thing. It's really cool stuff, and it's 0:09:01.000 --> 0:09:05.480 one of those things that's like constantly referenced as going 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.800 to be the basis of the next generation of technological revolutions. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.640 We've already done a ton of stuff with like graphene 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:16.400 and carbon nanotubes since this discovery. Anyway, it means that 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.080 in twenty ten, Geime and his colleagues would win the 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:24.040 Nobel Prize for their experimental work in isolating graphene, which 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:26.640 means that Geime would become the first person to ever 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.560 win an ig Nobel Prize and then later win a 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.720 Nobel Prize. All Right, so now we've done with the 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:37.640 stuff that I forgot to cover in the last episode, 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.840 we can jump back to two thousand and five. Now, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.200 this next one isn't really tech related, but I kind 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.400 of feel the need to mention it because of how 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:51.000 wild it is. Back in the nineteen thirties, New Zealand 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:55.240 had an exploding trousers problem. If you're a fan of 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:58.640 the podcast Ridiculous History, you might already be aware of this, 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:00.960 because they actually did an epist sod about it back 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.400 in twenty twenty, which disappointed me. Because you may know this. 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.120 I occasionally show up on Ridiculous History as a character 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:09.960 known as the Quiztor, and when I came across this 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:13.840 while researching the Ignobel Prize, I thought, Oh, this would 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.160 be great to do in a Quiztor segment. And then 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:17.760 I did a quick search and found out, oh, they 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:21.200 already covered this years ago. Anyway, this all has to 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.599 do in New Zealand's Department of Agriculture. The Department of 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.560 Agriculture was giving recommendations to New Zealand farmers to use 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:32.920 a chemical compound called sodium chlorate as a weed killer. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:37.960 The New Zealand farmers were transitioning away from herding sheep 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.319 to herding cattle instead, But the sheep had been eating 0:10:43.080 --> 0:10:47.560 an invasive weed, and when they started switching to the cattle, 0:10:47.960 --> 0:10:49.920 those weeds were starting to grow out of control. So 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:53.439 the Department of Agriculture says use the sodium chlorate to 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:57.400 kill off those weeds. However, sodium chlorate is extremely flammable, 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:03.760 like explosively amable, so naturally as farmers would use the stuff, 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:06.320 some of it would end up getting soaked in on 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.040 their trousers. So one such farmer, a fellow named Richard Buckley, 0:11:10.280 --> 0:11:13.680 not the famed fashion designer I should add, was drying 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.440 his sodium chlorate soaked trousers in front of a fire 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:20.720 when he observed those pants began to explode like like, 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:25.520 there were a series of explosions within the pants. Once again, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:27.880 I am reminded of the Fast and Furious franchise, or 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:29.560 at least as much as I know about it based 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:34.160 off trailers and the podcast the worst idea of all time. Anyway, 0:11:34.760 --> 0:11:38.000 Buckley wasn't the only farmer in New Zealand with exploding pants. 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:42.199 Some others, unfortunately, were wearing their trousers when they caught fire, 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:47.080 and as you can imagine that had disastrous and tragic results. Actually, 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:51.520 but a fellow named James Watson wrote a scholarly article 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:54.880 examining this period in New Zealand history, and he called 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:59.840 it the Significance of mister Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers Reflections 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.480 on an aspect of Technological Change in New Zealand's Dairy 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:07.600 Farming Between the World Wars. Pretty wordy title. The journal 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:12.439 called Agricultural History published this article. Now, as that title 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:16.080 actually points out, this is a case of technological change, 0:12:16.280 --> 0:12:20.320 and the change didn't arrive simply for change's sake. There 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:24.800 were multiple factors that drove this change, and I think 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.000 that's a valuable lesson to pick up. Often we can 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.240 reduce technological advancement as if it were almost like a 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.760 natural process that if you just wait over time, tech 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.880 gets better. But obviously tech isn't some sort of biological 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:46.120 creature following an evolutionary path. Technology advances because people advance it. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.520 Sometimes the reasons for going in a certain direction with 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.760 technology are complicated and diverse and external. But by understanding 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.160 those driving forces, we can better understand why technology went 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.560 one way rather than another, and it might even open 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:06.439 up an opportunity to develop technology in a different way. Okay, 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.240 we're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:20.920 we're going to talk about some more ig Nobel Prize winners. Okay, 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.640 we're back. We're still in the year two thousand and five. 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.319 That was also the year that the quote unquote Internet 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:32.560 Entrepreneurs of Nigeria received an ig Nobel Prize in Literature, 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:37.440 specifically for the creation of the Nigerian Prince scam. And yes, 0:13:37.520 --> 0:13:40.400 this does relate to tech because this is a subset 0:13:40.640 --> 0:13:42.959 of scams that have been around for ages. Like it's 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:48.000 not a new idea, but the Internet and the popularity 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:53.800 of email really had them proliferate and become widespread. So 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.240 if you've ever heard of the Nigerian Prince scam, or 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.720 sometimes just the Nigerian scam, or I think sometimes the 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:04.160 four nineteen scam, then this is what that refers to. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.680 And in case you have never heard about this, here's 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:12.240 how the scam works. The scammers will send out waves 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:17.079 of emails to potential targets and the email will claim 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:21.960 that the target, your mark, the person you're hoping to trick, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.960 has the chance to make a boatload of money if 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:29.320 they just help the scammer out. So all they have 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.160 to do is put up a relatively small amount of 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.840 their money, and then the scammers say they're going to 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.880 use that small amount of money to unlock a big 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.400 old honkin' wad of cash, and then they will share 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.320 or even give that cash to the target. And so 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:48.720 for a little bit of money, you're going to get 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:53.240 an enormous payout. And the particulars vary depending on the 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:56.360 person who's sending out the scam, but the Nigerian prince 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:01.240 version typically frames the issue as this. They say that 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.680 a person of very high status, such as a prince 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:10.120 of Nigeria, has temporarily lost access to their wealth. It 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.800 may be due to political unrest something like that. Often 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.560 it's that the person of high status has now been 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:20.640 thrown in jail and they need some help in order 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:24.240 to get out. And there's usually some other details that 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.200 will go into this as well to kind of try 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:31.120 and play upon the target's compassion. So maybe they might say, like, 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:36.480 the prince's family is in custody and their lives are 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.360 at risk, they're under threat, and so if you can help, 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:43.760 if you can put this small amount of money forward, 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.120 that will be enough for the prince to use to 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:49.720 do things like I don't know, post bail or to 0:15:49.840 --> 0:15:54.360 bribe officials to get out of prison, and that once 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.640 they do, they will regain access to their wealth, they 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:00.280 will be able to rescue their family, and they'll be 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.800 able to reward the target by giving a huge share 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.720 of the wealth to the target. So obviously this is 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.920 just a scam. There is no prince in danger, there's 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.240 certainly no huge amount of wealth that will be shared 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.440 with the person. So if the target falls for the scheme, 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.960 they'll discover that the only thing that happens if they 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:26.920 wire the money to whatever account is attached to this scam, 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:29.120 the only thing that happens is that their bank account 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.000 will go down. So the two thousand and five Ignobel 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:36.400 Prize for Literature is cheekily applauding the ingenuity of con 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:39.600 artists as they create stories meant to separate a fool 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:43.560 from his money. In two thousand and six, Howard Stapleton 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.760 received the Ignobel Prize in Peace for a technological innovation. 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:52.800 It was Stapleton who created a device meant to repel teenagers. 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.800 I've actually talked about this before. The typical range of 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:00.840 human hearing spans frequencies as low as twenty that would 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:03.760 be a very very very low pitch, to as high 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.320 as twenty kill a hurtz, a very high pitch. That's 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:12.440 typical range for human hearing. Obviously, as individuals go that 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:18.280 range varies. However, as we age, our range of hearing 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.200 usually starts to narrow. We start to lose the ability 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:26.280 to hear certain frequencies. Usually it's off the high end, 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.880 so we start losing the ability to hear those higher 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:35.480 pitches as we get older. That means younger people can 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:39.680 hear higher pitches that older people can't. And there's the opportunity. 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:42.639 Stable didn't came up with the idea to use a 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:48.119 device that generates a very loud, very high pitch, a 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.400 piercing sound. But it's a sound that people of adult 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.520 age are not likely to be able to hear at all. 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:57.119 They wouldn't even know there was a sound playing, but 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:01.160 young people would be able to hear it. So let's 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:04.280 say you're the proprietor of a convenience store and you're 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.199 sick of all these lazy teenagers hanging out in your 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.880 store and loitering. They never buy anything, and they're upsetting 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:14.600 your paying customers. So you install one of these sound 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.639 generators in your shop, and when the kids are like 0:18:17.880 --> 0:18:20.359 taking up too much time and not buying anything, you 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:24.240 turn it on. This ends up irritating the teenagers enough 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.160 for them to leave because it's a very loud, high 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:30.040 pitched sound. You can't hear it because you're an adult, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.119 but the teens can hear it, so they you know, 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:38.440 they make tracks. Apparently Stapleton was an equal opportunity kind 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.159 of guy, because according to the Ignobel Prize, they have 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.120 a whole page about past winners and they actually explain 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:49.280 that he also used this concept to design ring tones 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.680 for cell phones that kids would be able to hear 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.800 but adults would not be able to hear, which would 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.720 mean that kids in school could hear when their phone 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.600 got a notification, but their teacher would remain none the 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:03.879 wiser because it would be a pitch too high for 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:08.000 them to perceive. Very sneaky. Now it's time for another 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.480 raz Award. This one is a doozy. It's from the 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.760 two thousand and seven Peace Prize and it goes to 0:19:14.800 --> 0:19:20.159 the United States Air Force. Y'all, this one is bonkers, 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:24.639 so okay. In two thousand and seven, as part of 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:29.439 a Freedom of Information Act request, some researchers got some 0:19:29.600 --> 0:19:33.919 information about the US military that was actually, I'm not 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.520 even sure how to put this in a way that 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.159 is a valid representation of how I feel about it 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:44.720 and is also family friendly. Let's just say it was unconventional. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:48.600 So the actual story goes back much further because this 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:52.760 was classified information and otherwise without the Freedom of Information 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.080 Act you would never be able to get access to it. 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.800 But the story goes back to the nineteen nineties. So 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:02.760 apparently back then people at the US Air Force explored 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:07.240 the possibilities of using chemical warfare, but not chemical warfare 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.320 in the sense of using like deadly chemicals in an 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.480 attempt to poison or to burn or to otherwise cause 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:19.679 physical harm to enemy combatants. Instead, they were looking for 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:25.880 chemicals that would alter behavior in combatants in different ways, 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.159 you know, as a way to reduce them as a 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.640 threat in war. So imagine like you find a chemical 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:37.120 that reduces aggression, for example. Well, one of these proposals 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:42.840 explored the use of quote strong afrodisiacs, especially if the 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:47.679 chemical also caused homosexual behavior end quote. Now, the media 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:51.720 ran with this and began to reference the whole idea 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.600 as a quote unquote gay bomb. Now there's no real 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.159 need to dive into how awful all of this is, 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.400 but I used to say that even considering some theoretical 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:08.120 weapon that would compromise a person's agency to that regard 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.640 raises some really serious questions. It's like saying, what if 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:18.000 we just roofeed everybody and also somehow turned them gay? 0:21:19.400 --> 0:21:23.119 And it boggles the mind, like the scientific basis for 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:25.800 such a weapon as flimsy at best. So it ends 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.320 up being just a theoretical discussion because it's not like 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.680 it's not like humans act on you know, pheromones or 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:37.560 aphrodisiacs like this. We're more complicated than that. But it's 0:21:37.560 --> 0:21:39.679 still wild to me that anyone would even consider it 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.280 as a viable weapon. I think it reveals, at the 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:48.399 very least a pretty strong homophobic tendency. Anyway, congrats on 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:53.159 winning an Ignobel prize. I guess another two thousand and 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:58.240 seven honoree was Ching Hussey, whose name I am sure 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:03.320 I have completely butchered. Anyway, he received a patent back 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:07.000 in two thousand and one for a quote net trapping 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:11.399 system for capturing a robber immediately. End quote. This is 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:15.800 a reminder also that these awards, these Ignobel Prizes, they 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.400 don't always come out the same year that something happened. 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:21.640 Sometimes it's years later, because you know, people just didn't 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:25.800 notice the inciting event, or maybe they had not had 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:30.280 a full appreciation of the impact of that event. But yeah, 0:22:30.840 --> 0:22:33.040 this was for a net trapping system for capturing a 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:35.680 robber immediately, which is kind of like have you ever 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.800 seen a film where someone's walking along a forest or 0:22:39.960 --> 0:22:42.920 jungle path and then suddenly they get swept up in 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:46.240 a big net that then holds them up over the ground. 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.280 It's kind of like that, except this net would actually 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:54.440 be installed above a point of entry, as the patent explains. 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:57.600 This is a direct quote from the patent quote. The 0:22:57.680 --> 0:23:01.159 device looks like a storing box and is installed above 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.480 the entrance of the business. When a robbery takes place 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:08.520 and the system is activated, an infrared detecting device determines 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:11.320 if a robber is in a zone beneath the storing box. 0:23:11.960 --> 0:23:15.520 A net, a curtain, and a plurality of barriers will 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:20.480 drop down immediately and simultaneously after a lifting motor is activated. 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.040 The system traps the robber and suspends him above the floor. 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:30.240 End quote. First of all, robbers could be women. Let's 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:35.040 not put gender to this, but no. I imagine the 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.320 fact that this invention would replicate a scene found in 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:43.119 various adventure movies is what prompted the Ignobel designation. And 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.119 you can actually read this patent yourself if you want to, like, 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:48.960 if you want to look at what this design actually 0:23:48.960 --> 0:23:51.320 looks like and to debate whether or not it would work, 0:23:52.040 --> 0:23:54.720 you can just go to a patent search site like 0:23:54.800 --> 0:23:58.320 Google has a patent search site, and the US patent 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:01.760 number for this one is sick million, two hundred nineteen, 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:07.120 nine hundred and fifty nine. Okay, skipping ahead to two 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.440 thousand and nine, we have a prize in public health 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:15.399 that went to a trio of inventors Elena Bodner, Rafael Lee, 0:24:15.680 --> 0:24:20.800 and Sandra Margin. They perhaps anticipated the pandemic of twenty 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:25.640 twenty because their invention was a garment piece of clothing 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:28.920 that you could quickly separate to create a pair of 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:32.240 face masks to be worn in situations where a face 0:24:32.320 --> 0:24:37.560 mask might be needed. That garment was a bra. Yeah, 0:24:38.320 --> 0:24:41.760 they invented a brazier that, when removed, could then be 0:24:41.840 --> 0:24:45.200 converted into a couple of face masks, allowing a pair 0:24:45.240 --> 0:24:48.480 of bosom buddies to stay abreast of the situation while 0:24:48.480 --> 0:24:51.720 remaining safe. And they got a patent for it. If 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:54.680 you want to read up on that patent, including to 0:24:54.720 --> 0:24:59.320 see the various sketches of the proposed invention, you can 0:24:59.359 --> 0:25:02.240 search for u US Patent seven million, two hundred and 0:25:02.240 --> 0:25:05.600 fifty five thousand, six hundred and twenty seven. Personally, I 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.880 wish to thank them for supporting public health while simultaneously 0:25:09.920 --> 0:25:14.600