Hello everybody and welcome welcome to another episode of this week in science. Oh, we are back. I'm a little off kilter but you know We are what we are and we are here. So we're about to get into this show of a Discussion are we ready team? Yeah Everybody's saying yes We're ready. Okay. So without any further ado because we are already late getting started. Let's do starting the show in three two This is Twist this week in science episode number 896 recorded on wednesday october 12th 2022 How to save the planet? It's a dart and a bullseye. That's what we do. Hey everyone. I'm dr. Kiki and tonight on the show We are going to fill your head with doom dart and pong but first disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer Every once in a while the sage words of the late former president of the united states ronald reagan rang in my ear What would this country be without this great land of ours? Which is a really interesting question to ask Obvious answers to that question are many not in lands stolen by genocide enriched by slavery is one India if columbus was right about geography another would be that Before reaching land a flotilla of spanish explorers Starved to death in the open ocean devouring first the meager goods that they had brought and then eventually Each other before shriveling up like a bunch of new world fruits They would never know the taste of or it could have stayed in england or france or any number of mostly european lands Where the ideas of democracy had been fomenting for decades? But what would that even be would that even be america is america a place an idea a mixed bag of Historically well-intentioned and evil intentioned actions. What makes a country a country? Is it the people? And what happens when those people no longer have a homeland? We are used to seeing it to some extent the tibet palestine kurtistan previously in ukraine To every indigenous peoples of the americas all the former british colonies and russian-held territories Highland maybe texas according to some and list goes on but even in these cases The people were still there the lands still existed currently. There are multiple nations with flags national anthems un membership cards We're facing the very real prospect of losing their island nations to climate change the maldives tuvalu the marshal islands neru and kibati May become uninhabitable by the end of this century inundated with rising sea levels Creating six hundred thousand landless citizens some are already attempting to secure future recognition by the un To maintain fishing rights these areas while others are seriously contemplating possibility of creating floating cities As terrible as it sounds Is only the beginning if actions are not taken soon and the best thing you can do right now is ask the question What would this world be without this episode of This week in science coming up next Good science to you kiki and blaire And a good science to you too, justin blaire and everyone out there welcome to another episode of this week in science We are back again Oh there you're wiggling your head around that you're ready. Is it's happening? It's here. My head is full of it You got it sloshing around you're so full I mean, I'm hoping that a little bit of that science knowledge and curiosity will splash out during the show tonight So don't keep it too tame Oh my god Yeah, well while the world is doing what the world does and We are learning what we can Let's have a good show shall we I have stories tonight What did I bring I have a story about shoving asteroids toddler teeth the robo revolt and brains playing pong What do you have for us, justin? I have got uh doomed nations Uh Also in the disclaimer there. Where's the guy? Uh, oh gosh. I've got uh two two different examples of precognitive ability to tell when earthquakes are going to happen Oh precognitive i'm all about knowing things before we should know them Yes, and a potato pathogen that could save the world Okay, yeah, how to save the world potato pathogens that is coming up next On this weekend science french fries. Oh, no, you might not be yet. The earth might survive, but french fries the point without The air what is in the animal learner? Oh, I have camouflage a confusing camouflage actually a direct, uh Contradiction to a previous camouflage A story on the show and then also I have a Wow, I can't talk today a story about Uh bad pets, so we'll talk about that Bad pets Oh I only like the good pets. You're a good pet cappy. You're a really good pet over there. Good kitty Anyway, we're all here for the science And if you are not yet subscribed to this weekend science You can find us all places that podcasts are found look for us on apple google spotify And other places. We're all over the place. We stream live weekly wednesdays at 8 p.m. pacific time ish and You can find us there on facebook twitch and youtube We are twist science on twitch twitter and instagram everywhere else just look for this weekend science our website is This way what is our website? Oh our website is twist.org That's the thing that makes it all easy if I could remember that kind of show. Yeah I'm excited.  We're we're just having a great time here. Are we ready to jump in? Yes Okay, well, you know, let's start with The big big wonderful news of the week. We've been talking about the dart mission. Yeah Yes Very important, especially the mora and mora I learned about that giant meteorite asteroid that slammed into Extincted Three quarters of the the planet's life 65 million years ago it makes it I was like, whoa, well, maybe we really need To find a way to protect ourselves in the event that something like that wants to happen again Yeah, you gotta think one step ahead because like if we if we don't die from climate change There may be an asteroid. So we have to make sure it's a real big shoulda Oh, we should we coulda Oh, we shoulda And maybe we now could yes, so nasa's Dart depth double asteroid redirection test And some investigation team has come out with their analysis of the data And it was a smashing success Yes, so they have Impacted dimorphis with the dart craft. It changed the orbit of this moonlit around ditimus By 32 minutes Shortening the 11 hour 55 minute orbit to 11 hours and 23 minutes But there is also error bars that are included in this whole situation as well. So plus or minus minus two minutes And they were only expecting a change of like 73 seconds Ah, so now it is on course to slam into the avalanche This is what I was gonna say. I thought you want to increase The orbit you don't want to reduce the orbit that's Well, okay, so it depends on where you're trying to make it It's like the easy way. No, no, it depends on it depends on what you're what you are aiming at We were aiming at this little moonlit and we wanted to adjust its orbit So that it would tighten the orbit slightly because we didn't want to shoot the moonlit away from ditimus I did something else They're looking at the complex system of the orbital dynamics of the asteroid ditimus the planetoid ditimus and its little moonlit And you know, you don't want to take that little moonlit and kick it off into Space where it can go do whatever it's going to do. So By tightening the orbit, it just means that it's a little tighter of a an asteroid all system It's not more dangerous to us. It hasn't put anything In earth's path that wouldn't already have been an earth's path This is not increasing danger to humanity at all. But what it did show is going to be a terrible movie I know I'm just saying you had you had your whole story mechanism built in to this one big event and you blew it Yeah, yeah, so anyway, no danger. There's no danger. There's no movie right now. There's no The plot of this movie. It's a documentary We are looking at the future of Our earth protection system. So if we do have the time between detection of some massive body on its way to impact the earth and that actual impact We could possibly send a mission like this that could nudge Whatever body it turns out to be away from the earth And I and I is it does show that there is actually a really good use for the space force For their ability to what was that? Oh, it's nasa Oh, that's space force. This is nasa Never mind. Space force is still useless NASA, however It's totally awesome. Just always knocking it out of the park. I have to say I I continue to be just utterly impressed by the competency and even beyond of the people who Invision and follow through with these missions and make them happen. I mean this is It's just amazing. So Okay, everyone who is afraid about the asteroids impacting our planet and killing off humanity like the dinosaurs were killed off maybe Just maybe we have a chance Yeah Justin, what do you want to talk about? Oh, gosh, that's a great question. I should probably look at my stories and see what the Oh, this is this is a oh, that's good. I was just saying that we're going to save humanity.  Well, it's not my fault Not my fault. So in the disclaimer, I talked about the the five nations that are now fighting to to with the un to form some form of statehood recognition In the advent that there's no longer land associated with their nations Yeah, there's places on land that uh Might also be running into this the UN's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs As well as the international federation of red cross and red crescent societies Release the report in advance of next month's cop 27 climate change summit in Egypt The report highlighted a few places where heat waves brought on by climate change are predicted to and this is their words exceed human physiological and social limits so in the Sahel, which is Sahel is I guess northern Africa basically as well as the Horn of Africa And south and southwest Asia The predictions are extreme events triggering large-scale suffering and loss of life There are Clear limits beyond which people exposed to extreme heat and humidity Cannot survive the report said We don't want to dramatize it said the IFRC uh, secretary general jaygen chapagane Who really really does not want people to panic but did point out Uh in a very steady calm voice that Clearly the data shows a very bleak future On current trajectories heat waves could meet and exceed the physiological and social limits In the coming decades including in regions. I mentioned before Sahel, north Africa south and southwest Asia Worn that the impact of this would be large-scale suffering loss of life population movements And a further entrenchment of inequality of outcomes report said Stream heat was a silent killer that it already is claiming thousands of lives each year Is the deadliest weather related hazard that we have? Which is not a thing that which is a great point because it's not a thing you think of uh, when you think of Climate or heat or nature or sorry climate or nature involved deaths Heat isn't the one that sort of jumps to the forefront unless you've spent A summer in the central valley of northern california in this case.  Yeah, this is This is what kills people Well, you talk about the dry heat right the central valley It's got a dry heat but with then with all the agriculture you've got you've got the irrigation and suddenly you've got Humidity and it's like wait a minute according to the study cited by uh study cited by within this report number of uh poor people people living below poverty level in the world in extreme heat conditions in urban areas is going to jump by 700 percent By the year 2050 that's not because of population growth That's a little extreme for that or everybody moving to the urban areas In these areas. This is uh increased heat waves projected future death rates from extreme heat are staggeringly high comparable in magnitude by the end of the century to all cancers or all infectious diseases combined It also points out and I and I don't know that this necessarily matters that Farmers children the elderly pregnant and breastfeeding women are at higher risk of illness and death according to the report So within those countries that may not have the resources to combat There are also people at the probably less economically advantaged positions within those societies Themselves who will also be therefore more impacted. Yeah so yeah And it also at final notice is our humanitarian system is not equipped to handle crisis of this scale Well, we've already seen that our humanitarian system our public health system. Like it Just was destroyed by the the pandemic like just globally not able to handle it so Without without any changes. It's not going to be able to deal with what's coming related to these these future heat related disease related Population immigration emigration related like there's just so many aspects of it That are going to be affecting things. It makes me think like we are all we People keep trumpeting the idea. We're living in the most peaceful time in history. We're living in the most economically advantaged time in history Most people are currently able to to eat and have things and live at higher economic levels And it's like great, but it's reminding me of that old saying that When you're in a good period Like you know in a relationship your relationship is great. You know, maybe that's when you should work on the things To make sure that when it breaks down, it's just not going to just crumble, right? So, okay, we're you set up a savings account when you have a well-paying job. Yeah Exactly. Yeah, and that's um, that's not what we're doing right now. It it. Yeah Yeah, there's like, uh, it was this is off to the side a little bit But uh, I was talking about whether or not they should rebuild florida a little bit last week Um, there is there's this intriguing thing that I was reading that was explaining There is sort of a problem in that we have the national flood insurance It creates the building standards so to rebuild in areas that were hit by storms Some of those buildings might have been built 40 50 60 80 years ago that have been destroyed And so there's a new building standard that if you are going to rebuild in those areas that have been Uh hit you have to build it to this new standard But the story pointed out that the new standard Is based on this old storm before the storm that actually wiped everything out So like for instance, they're like the levies that got rebuilt after Katrina, New Orleans Worse were were rebuilt to a higher standard that maybe wouldn't have handled Katrina Because they were built on the storm previous to the right So the things that are already in place that work that we're doing when the savings account that we're putting money into While we have this job Are for a different standard of living than the one we are now trying to live right? We're not taking inflation into account Yeah Oh dear well in the meantime With climate change and all those lovely mosquitoes and other things that are moving around Thanks to that. Don't we have any way that we can protect ourselves the Blair? Oh, yeah, do you like my new ring? What look at it. It's a pretty ring. No, it's just string but pretend it's a ring Imagine if I had a ring that was a bug repellent This this may be the future. This is a preliminary study from Martin Luther University dot all the Wittenberg and um this is looking at 3d printings and active ingredients that are mosquito repellents currently to make wearable Repellent that is not a spray or a lotion It could be a ring or a necklace or an anklet or a bracelet And so they used IR3535 which is an insect repellent developed by murk And it is known to be a more gentle repellent. It's gentle on the skin It's been used all over the world for many years and so they um While it's usually applied as a spray or lotion and offers several hours of protection They wanted to find a way to release the agent over a much longer period of time Like in a ring or a bracelet they inserted the insect repellent into a biodegradable polymer And they shaped it in various ways So the idea is that it would continuously evaporate and form a barrier for insects around where you're wearing that item The rate at which the insect repellent evaporates would depend on temperature Concentration structure all these things But based on the various experiments and simulations they did here They predicted that They would it would take over a week For the repellent to evaporate completely at a temperature of 37 degrees celsius or 98 6 degrees fahrenheit body temperature Right. So obviously if it's hotter if it's more humid if any other number of things are going on if you're sweating more Maybe this could be a different wear time. There could be other Other kind of factors included here Um, these were all prototypes and so the next step of the research Is to determine how well the rings function under actual wearing conditions So to put these on people and see how it actually works out I'm curious if you'd need 10 little rings If you need like a dog call like I I pictured like a um a flea collar, but for a human, right? Uh, so I'm just curious. I'm also curious if like you would weave this into a um One of those mesh insect repelling suits that that you would wear that uh for for when you like go into the Rainforest and you're doing research and you're wearing just basically a mesh Almost looks like a mesh range suit Yeah, you if you could weave repellent into the fibers of that to time release over a long period That would be super helpful Put it in a hat There's lots of different ways you could do this that would be really beneficial To where you wouldn't have to reapply every couple hours via a spray So I think it's a pretty well. I know there are there are bracelets and other repellent Devices that you you can wear or little little clips you put on your backpack and other There are these kinds of repellent things, but I I think the big aspect of this one is that it's biodegradable So that over time It not only is time releasing So it's a fairly constant consistent amount of repellent over time as opposed to a decreasing amount over time You don't have to throw it out Or if you do it's going to just Disintegrate and it's not going to yeah harm the environment, which I think is Awesome because there's too many rubber those little rubber bracelets already. Yes. Oh my gosh. Absolutely Yeah, so I think that's it too is that by it being biodegradable It it lasts longer and it's time release fashion and like you mentioned It's kind of a consistent release So it's not like with a flea collar if you put that on your dog The concentration is highest when you first put it on because it's basically just a treated piece of plastic or leather And so it's just however long the The repellent can stay in that thing and and it has diminishing returns over time as it's released just like an air freshener in your car It it has diminishing returns and eventually it's all out of that chemical. So um, yeah I think this is an awesome way to Also get people to wear insect repellent more Um and because it's just like with sunscreen right you put it on once and then you kind of forget about Right. Yeah, you don't reapply necessarily or it's too greasy or you have all these excuses not to yeah, right Not to mention that it's probably way easier once this could get a streamlined Um production to get to all parts of the world where you're not transporting liquid Which is way harder to do where you're using it constantly It runs out quickly if you could send rings and bracelets all over the world that would last weeks each of them That would be a huge benefit to countries where things like malaria are a huge problem So I do think it has a global health potential implications as well I think I think this is something we're going to see really soon and I think it's awesome Yeah, I mean not so much. I mean You know bed nets, you know for sleeping and weave it into the net weave it into the net, right? You know, you have these fibers. Yeah But why even why even weave it into anything like if you could just wear it you could do like Like a pacifier that's got the little uh clip on attached so that the kid Everything is kid related right now for me. They drop everything. Yes, right So you get you put the bink on the on one end you attach it and then the other end clips onto the clothes So when it pops out of the mouth, it doesn't fall on the ground.  Those things kind of I have no idea what I are three five three five smells like Smell like insect repellent for sure or deet or skin so soft. Yeah, which is it? I don't know skin so soft at least smells a little better. I have no idea I've never used any of these things, but I but I'm one of those people that mosquitoes don't like If you went to the rainforest, you'd probably still get some life Oh, yeah, but if I was in one of those high intense years, but I do want to test I do want to test like if you have like five people and and You know, two of them are wearing the The repellent ring or whatever that does it affect other people if they're with how far does the Or do they get a little bit of side protection? Well, that's exactly what they got to figure out. How much she ought to go got to wear Where do you got to wear it? How long does it last all that good stuff? Absolutely? Let's get it. Yeah, let's get it. All right. Well speaking of those bugs That you can't get away from uh, what about the ones on our teeth?  Yeah Tooth sweaters to that protective layer It's not a protective layer. It's build up of um I mean, we we talk about it as being bacteria In our mouth that is feeding on the sugars on the surface of our teeth that's Eating away at the dentin that protects the or the enamel that protects the summer Yeah, get to the cavities underneath. Well uh a researcher from the university of pennsylvania decided to take a look at the species of uh bacteria that were causing aggressive toddler tooth decay So this one especially for you justin is your child That's not fair. They just got the teeth Well, but they're temporary anyway.  They take a lot of damage, but What is going on on the surface of those teeth and what exactly is happening to make tooth decay and toddlers so especially uh aggressive sometimes well this researcher found two types of microbes not just little bacteria but also a fungus and together Streptococcus mutans and candida albicans Work together as a super organism Where normally the bacteria is unable To move around very much by itself and would just kind of sit around by itself When candida is present in the mouth the fungus Sends out feelers it has legs that spread out Over the teeth and the bacteria is then able to hitch a ride And take a trip other places it's unable to and so this ability of moving and spreading across the teeth That the streptococcus mutans would normally not have it now does so together It leads to a much more aggressive damage to teeth both the fungus and the bacteria are doing their work, but together it's like bad vultron Bad vultron For those kids today Or even adults perhaps We don't know what vultron is Sorry because I think that was from the 1980s Yeah It's a it's like a it's like a bunch of individuals. It's like power rangers It's like power. I was gonna say it's like power rangers like team for those kids today Who don't know what a power ranger is and I'll form the head Can somebody get us a uh at eight-year-old? Who can bridge a couple of these? See what the new combined forces superhero thing is Yeah So anyway, the researchers said, you know, the they've seen fungi and bacteria Working together before this is not like completely unfounded, but the way that it's happening is uh Really interesting because what it's allowing the bacteria to do is create um Create these biofilms on the surface of the teeth that it wouldn't ordinarily be able to create and biofilms We know are harder to get rid of than just small colonies of bacteria So because it's a biofilm it's a much it's much stronger. It's resistant to brushing it's resistant to flossing and Even mouthwash that we that we might use and so you don't want the biofilm to get started together. These two things are doing that But also on top of it. Uh, it's now potentially going to give us, uh A new direction to start looking at these dynamic fungal biofilm bacterial interactions how they create this these what they're calling biofilm superstructures And uh, how maybe if we can keep them from binding together if we can keep vulture on from forming if we can keep the power rangers from What do they do they ranger together? I don't even know what those guys they're all different colors They call it vulture running too. They're mighty morphing power rangers. I know is part of the deal Hey, let's vulture on together If we can keep them from morphing mightily Then, uh, we might be able to prevent more cavities Which is better for toddler teeth and for your teeth as well And potentially for your heart disease for cardiovascular wellness and all sorts of other Downstream effects that impact human health. I just got uh, I just got inundated by messages from eight-year-olds they say it's uh, like Yeah, they say it's like Promoting the solo careers of the members of one direction whatever that is One direction. Oh my gosh. Is that like no, isn't that what is my year olds, right? That's not even eight-year-olds anymore Who's the one guy from one direction? It doesn't matter. So So Harry Styles, he's got a great career. Somebody made sure he could not No more vulture running for him No directioning he's messed one so So so does this mean we need antifungal toothpaste? Not necessarily antifungal toothpaste because fungi are part of the microbial populations that are part of our overall health and everything it's just So is the bacteria and then we're like saying we want to you know, we want to brush our teeth all the time But no, maybe there will be some kind of treatment that can be given at early dental appointments That are a wash that the dentist puts on the teeth. Maybe there is something that Just specifically targets the interaction between these organisms to keep them from vulture running I don't know. I don't know. I I don't like the toothpaste. I mean, I know I know that the antibacterial In the toothpaste has been shown to reduce heart disease But I just have an issue with the broad spectrum antimicrobial in my toothpaste and I don't I don't use that toothpaste I can't do it. Yeah, and I have to disclaimer real quick all of the dental all the dental heart disease connections Have been disputed By people who study heart disease Yeah, the only ones Who still think that's a real science and promote it constantly our toothpaste Companies if you look up if you try to google the connection between heart I'm not gonna do it right now, but I hope that somebody googles it All kinds of information from the manufacturers of toothpaste And if you look hard enough, you'll find like, you know Where's american heart association, whatever it is and like, no, no, not really All right, so we might not have an antifungal toothpaste, but should we be eating potatoes? So first of all, uh Maybe we do have an antifungal toothpaste now Thanks to potatoes Thank you potatoes. So, uh, with all the growing threats Climate change is sending our way. It's easy to forget the other big problems that we have Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise as well Some estimates have suggested that we might run out of viable Antibiotics and antifungals within a few decades, which would make things like paper cuts and minor scratches life threatening occurrences As they were in the days before antibiotics were discovered if that happens simple infections could claim more lives than All other causes combined So researchers have been searching for new compounds to counter measure, uh Everything All these infections This week in embio and multinational team of researchers in europe report The discovery of a new antifungal antibiotic named Solonomycin a compound made by a bacteria that infects potatoes Aha, there we are The compound initially isolated from the pathogenic bacterium that infects potatoes appears to be produced Actually by a broad spectrum of related plant pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria are attacking potatoes underground Where their fuses competitors are? fungi and other bacteria Fascinating, okay. So so on microbes currently already produce most of our therapeutic antibiotics The soil is a Battleground of fungi bacteria fighting against each other fungi fighting fungi bacteria. It's a it's a bacteria bacteria world underground And there's been some rings. I need I need pat benatar in here right now Soil is a battlefield It is it is and it's been going on for a billion years and they've gotten really good at uh Working out niches who can go where how to fight this versus that the whole thing's been going on the experiment of soil Uh has been going on for a very long time. So solonomycin acts against a wide range of fungi Also known to infect and wreak havoc on agricultural crops and potatoes according to the researchers Making it an ideal candidate for crop antifungal uses and in lab studies the compound also acted against Candida albicans. Oh, there we are fungus that occurs naturally in the in the mouth, we know Uh, it can help bacteria move around and form Uh for more kinds of problems in the mouth. Okay. So the results then suggest solomycin Uh and related compounds could be useful for both agricultural and clinical Settings as well as now. Thanks to the other story for dental uh mouthwash Once once in a while Once at the dentist.  Is that correct?  It was still having it So they realized they actually have a spectrum Of compounds that are doing this work And one of the interesting things I thought from this was that uh It it releases this At the uh ph of a potato Which is around six So it doesn't just you know, it waits until it's even in the right environment, which is which is so like this is such a this is Using an antibiotic only when you're really sick Only when you really need it Because it if it's outside and it's just always putting this antifungal out there the the fungus can have Plenty of opportunities. The fungus would have gotten used to it, right? Right, right, right. So the pH levels Of the potato as well as requiring a cell density of the thing it wants to attack to be mirror as well It needs both of those to be in place Then it releases it It hits the target when it gets close and when it's in the right environment and doesn't do it the rest of the time Which is a brilliant strategy For for prolonging That tool in the in the in the toolbox that that weapon That doesn't then need to be redesigned and it's something humans need to learn from this potato pathogen When we uh attack disease so Oh to be as Smart as a potato And The pH in a in a potato It's only slightly lower than that of a mouth So, uh, we're actually we're not too far away from being able to suck on a pathogenetic infected potato to get the effect but uh But no they're going these are are going to be isolated compounds that will have nothing to do with infected potatoes By the time it becomes mario, but they're going to study this both on crops and for clinical use Uh and and humans as well I mean if we can have something that can fight these multi drug resistant Uh pathogens that's you know, wonderful and if we can Use the knowledge of how the potato uses it so sparingly in the actual design of the Antibiotics that come from this knowledge Can we create an antibiotic that itself is only triggered at In a very specific situation. So even if your doctor gives you the antibiotic when it's not necessary The antibiotic doesn't actually it won't work, right? So is there some way that we can make it triggered by the infection by the specific pathogen by you know Whatever uh environmental conditions are present in the body at at a certain point in time that would be yeah That's the million dollar idea right there.  It's bad for the potato, but you know, it kills off the potatoes or Yeah, terrible.  Yeah, I love it Well, I like knowing that there might be hope in the future for our antibacterial resistance that is becoming more and more of a problem You know something else that's becoming I mean, it's not supposed to be a problem But you know robots they're supposed to be helping us at work and more and more often Workplaces are bringing in robots that are supposed to be making Worklife more effective more efficient manufacturing your business whatever it happens to be But how do people really feel about these robots being brought into the workplace? New research report just published the rise of robots increases job insecurity and maladaptive workplace behaviors So just going to read from the abstract on this one because it is just It I kind of go well okay, so Draw so there hasn't been a lot of research assessing how Lay people how people in the workplace react robots coming into their workplaces and so they drew from an appraisal of stress and they found That employees exposed to robots reported greater job insecurity these these people in Singapore Had And also in India and an online experiment They found that increased exposure to robots increased job insecurity The robot related job insecurity leads to worker burnout and workplace in So people start lashing out at their co-workers and their managers and are just not as nice Anymore because everybody's like I'm gonna get fired for you know Not being a nice turn the robot robot's gonna do a better job than I am and also um To turn this around they have They have concluded that self affirmation Should be taken by the workers to buffer those negative effects of The job insecurity so just for those of you out there Science says that if you have robots being brought into your workplace, don't get mad at the robots Just tell yourself I'm good enough I'm smart enough And gosh darn it. Yeah Robots like me And the stirrer is small, right? So it's good One thing that I having worked with robots Yes In a lab setting One thing I found that did Mitigate all that sort of ill will towards the robots or co-workers or Is you put giant googly eyes Somewhere on that robot And named them and then named them And they don't seem as threatening although there's always I've seen it too. There's always that moment where you're like Wow, this new robot's really amazing. It's got this high throughput It can do all of these things at once and it is and then you sure watch the slow recognition is a bunch of scientists Years of study and work in the lab Or kind of realizes like Oh, that that's my job Yeah But that's what that's why I'm here Let's see the the other piece of this I think is what we were talking about when we were discussing futurism a few weeks ago with our guests um And that's that my fear with robots in the workplace Is that they will take the things that I need to do which is fine But then I will be asked to do more It's like it's that whole idea that automation And robots and like technology and the internet and all these things should have been turning our work week Shorter and shorter, but it's actually making it longer and expecting more of us so like that's I think that's There is also people who've been in a field for decades who have seen this kind of move of automation and technology And how that's actually made their job more demanding over time Oh, of course And I think that's the other pieces. It's not just this robot's going to take my job It's this robot's going to make my job easier and therefore more will be expected of me than should be Let's take our jerbs So yes Just give us all a 20 hour work week, please We're doing way more than we did with a 40 hour week Even 20 years ago So true We'll spend the money in the economy. You know, we will Yeah, but it there's a part of me also that from the the side of the corporate nature of of jobs and you know It's a little disturbing. I'm wondering, you know the 1984 kind of aspect of it in the future like, you know, you will Make self affirmations and your job is fine and everything is good. Um, you know, there's Interesting For the the future of work Affirm your job Your boss your boss your boss can also affirm your job and say you are not being replaced Usually avoid mentioning things that I have heard about from the news But uh, I've found out there's this thing called quiet quitting. Uh, which sounds like Bunch of people coming to work and then not doing their job Until they get found out That's not what it is But it was is people who come to work and do their job During the hours that they were asked to be at work. Yes, and only their job and only their job But yeah, but that's what a job is supposed to be Yes Working to rule as in working to the rule of your job's script Yeah, but I would point out That's all robots are capable That's also true. The robots cannot plan janice's birthday party. Can they? No, they cannot No, they won't and they won't if you if uh, and they if you don't uh, assign them work They won't do anything.  They're not going to complain either So they're like, oh, you want me to do a lot of work. Yeah, they're not a union. They don't get overtime What's overtime this show is not in it. I hope that you are enjoying all our time together This is this weekend science. Thank you so much for joining us for another fun filled science filled episode of our program If you want to help support this weekend science, please head over to twist.org and click on our patreon link We are listener supported $10 and more per month and we will thank you by name at the end of the show And depending on your level of support There are other things that get sent to you like stickers or t-shirts and other little bits and doodads But you've got to you've got to join us on patreon To be able to find out all there is in the world of twist But regardless you are who Keep us going you are our supporters and we thank you so much Because we really can't do this without you Coming back to more this weekend science. Do you know what time it is? It's time for that part of the show Where Blair talks about animals and it better be animals this time Blair or I'm gonna I don't know what I'll do. Anyway, it's time for Blair's animal corner With Blair Oh my gosh, I have a story about eye spots The type of camouflage Yeah, you did I was I was off sick, but you know what I was watching And there is a study this week about eye spots and how they are effective At changing the behavior of predators here. Let me let me demonstrate real quick My study found the opposite Oh Blair just put sunglasses on the back Don't attack her now while she's looking I'll see I see it's a cousin it eye spots That was very effective camouflage So if if you came up on me from behind goggles on backwards and you saw my swim goggles on the back of my head You might think I was looking that way and not want to attack me, right? Well, so this the study that Justin reported on a few weeks ago. This was published on September 14th Said that overall the best camouflage Was masquerade camouflage. So that's where it looked like uh, you were a part of The the habitat you lived in or you looked like something that a predator might not be interested Leave for Absolutely background matching and disruptive coloration So background matching is just like being a similar color to where you live And disruptive coloration is when you have stripes or spots or something to break up your body shape Those did not differ from each other and they also had some benefits, but not as much as the masquerade camouflage motion camouflage Had kind of limited success and there was no evidence that eye spot Eye spots had any impact on the the measures that they used in this early September Which was attack rate and search time of predators So here's the thing those are very specific measures related to predation And in fact most theories about eye spots have nothing to do with search time or attack rate In fact a lot of the time eye spots are located on a part of the body To lure predators to bite that area as opposed to a vital area of the body Interesting so attack rate and search time would have nothing to do with those things You'd have to look at mortality rates, right? And so this is part of the reason that um, you want to make sure that that when you're looking at a kind of cross-referencing comprehensive study of studies If you're looking at very specific measures There might be other things that you need to look at that are not being considered, right? So this is something that if you're looking purely at predation rates, who died when who got eaten when You might have found different measures than you did in this other study. So brings me to this study Which came out today on october 12th This was looking at the different kinds of eye spots and how eye spots could be beneficial to pray Fish butterflies moths praying mantids beetles.  That's a great question because because right now we're showing uh, some kind of a butterfly or a moth I'm not sure what that is. It's uh up on the screen and it does like if you look at it You're like, oh if I squint my eyes it kind of looks like a couple of deer eyes or maybe two deer Tiger eyes, right? The top was owl eyes But the thing is they look nothing like a moth or butterfly eyes Right, so they're not trying to look like butterfly eyes um, but so uh The what they what we already know as I mentioned is that these eye spots can deflect a predator's attention to pray's non vital body parts Like at their tail as opposed to their head They can also potentially intimidate from attacking at all. And so this was the um, the thing that maybe was Contradicted in this other study was that the attack rate in this other study appeared to be the same as other pray items that didn't have eye spots, but in this case anecdotally um, there are observations In the wild where Animals with eye spots versus animals that not are not will you know, the predator will come up size them up and walk away, right? And so, um Before we we go looking at whether that's a bunch of baloney or not. I want to go on to the actual Research that was done here because they did do some experimentation that I think is really interesting So this is all based on the idea that you can test A if they're being construed as eyes and b if they're effective deterrence By watching how animals respond based on the way that the eyes look like they're looking So this is this is the theory that The best eye spots would follow you wherever you go if this is the case be like the Mona Lisa How are you walking in the room they appear to maintain eye contact with you and therefore Whether you move left or right You are still inside of this big predator. And so you're not going to try to attack anywhere near that predator However in the experiment if the eye spots were displaced either to the left or the right So this these eyes looked like they were looking one way or the other They would protect prey from predators approaching in that direction. So you wouldn't want to go at them from the left if they're From the right if they're looking to their left, right, right? Anyway, so so the directionality of the potential pupils If they are being construed as eyes wouldn't matter if they're not if they're just big circles And they're just like looking weird and they disrupt their body shape then It wouldn't matter So what they did is they took chicks And they pitted them against artificial moths Those artificial moths classic experiment classic Neal worms with paper triangles pinned to them The paper triangles had eye spots on them either Looking straightforward. So they were they were follow. They could follow the chick wherever they went Or with the center circle nudge to the right or the left. So they were looking to the right or the left And then all of the prey were designed to be equally conspicuous to predators. They could tell there were mealworms in there They were interested Then they made three miniature catwalks Or as they call them chick walks To lead the chicks towards the moth One led directly towards them the two others directed the chicks to approach from either the left or the right They timed how long it took the chick to approach each type of moth from each direction and what they found was They were very slow to approach from the left when the eye spots were shifted left They were slow to approach from the right when the eye spots were shifted right When they approached from the opposite direction of the way the eyes were looking They went very quickly and ate the mealworm right away And when the eye spots were straightforward, so it looked like they were going Everywhere they were slow to approach from all three directions So that really seems like the chicks perceived them as eyes And that they were most effective when they gave when the eyes were gazing at the potential predator So at least in the case of these chicks They were eyes And they were intimidating Well chicks Chicks they are little predators, but they're baby predators that are picked off by bigger predators all the time So this would be a very important Stimuli for them really important contextual cue potentially Yeah, so statistically speaking is this you know in the big bad world of camouflage? Is it extremely effective? I don't know Yeah, did the mealworms still get eaten Yes, they did But yes, so so that's really the question right is it is is is it enough of a hesitation to increase survivability? That's the name of the game So and I would say yeah It is I mean based on the statistics It is a significant enough difference That would it would impact survivability. Maybe in one of the scenarios The uh the chicks attacked faster Because they were looking away, but so in nature eye spots are pretty much always looking the Mona Lisa way So that's why they tested it this way is to see if they were actually eyes That they were being perceived as eyes in nature. They all have this straightforward gaze So so the the point that I made at the previous Version of this camouflage study is in that study they had looked at all these prey species Versus a slew of different predators because they were doing meta studies Uh sometimes what was a predator and one was prey in the next study kind of a thing Um the thing I kind of point out then and I'll point out again here is I have a feeling that it's The eye spots for instance Or certain types of camouflage might be more effective Against certain predators. So so yes, we may have eaten every mealworm And so the eye spots. Oh, there's a little hesitation to approach. Maybe but it's still they all got eaten There's a difference just no the but they were pinned you have to remember they were I get it. I get it. I get it. I get it. But I'm just as an example If we just assume everything's like where but then there's like a type of field mouse that sees it and goes, ah Look at me and runs away like there might be it might be very Predator specific to that element of of a Camouflage that's allowed it to persist and has made it part of the arsenal of camouflage Even though, you know, uh The rooster that's passing by never gets fooled Right. I never and that that's what I was going to mention about this meta analysis that you had last month is that it could work Extremely well for one species against one species, right? But statistically in the entire world of predator and prey It could not be statistically significant amount, but to that species you can bet it might be significant Right, and it could be those meta analysis get into issues because you're not waiting Right kind of the importance for specific groups and there and there's a chance that there was a very long time period when uh These the back of the ice Moth was getting predated on a bird that it totally worked on And that's why there's so many of these eye camouflage Uh mods or whatever that are out there But but that bird Ran out of mods. He's now would eat something else And the new predators aren't fooled by it So it could also look uneffective because it could be an archaic thing that worked against a predator that it was in Close proximity. There's all sorts of but that would work if it called attention to them That is the problem, right? So if it called attention to them now and it was a holdover from the past They just don't go away very fast. Yes That's why you don't see any neon colored butterflies anymore You actually do because it signifies poison. Anyway, um The there's poison butterfly wait pause the show Pause the show just for a second toxic. There are poison butterflies. Yes. Most of them What that's like, that's why you have the monarch Copies the ones that like they want to look like monarchs because the mox monarchs have the milkweed that makes them toxic And they're taste bad So everybody wants but and so the birds eat them and they spit them out and everybody wants to look like the monarch So they don't get hit and it's not a butterfly that can get eaten and then it kills something Well, not a human, but yes Okay, I get I get the bad taste thing Before we move on to the rest of the part is that the the reason I love the study so much And I the thing I think that is so important about this is that they found a way to test Perception to figure out if they thought they the eye spots were eyes or not And it is great to be able to figure that out to also challenge our own perspective Go just because we think they look like eyes. That does not mean that other animals think they look like eyes Test that and confirm it. I love it. I think it's a really cool study design and A really good reminder of why we do studies like this Yeah, and I think the data really Really Plays it out really really does show that they are looking at these dots in circles as if they are Looking in a particular direction and that affected their behavior So it's actually oddly it's actually so charlie in the chair. I'm just pointing out also my strategy for making robots friendly in the workplace Yes, googly eyes I love it Very nice. Um next I have a quick story about uh animal trafficking And I know it's not a fun thing to talk about. Don't worry. I have a fun Stinger for the end of the corner.  Yes. Before then I have to address the fact That global demand for exotic pets is on the rise partially because online marketplaces make trading of exotic and illegal pets easier and partly because of social media As someone who follows many animal accounts on various social media types of things as you might expect The number of accounts that I have to unfollow because they are Joyfully showing off their pet bush baby or their their pet Just any sort of slow lorises otters Wild cats there's there's Parents there's so many things that um that are there's so many animals that are trafficked to be cute animals for social media Fodder And I know that in most cases those stories don't end well because they do not make good pets. They are wild animals But also the process to bring them into the united states and other wealthy countries that take exotic animals as pets Is a bad one um for that one exotic animal that you see that is someone's pet There could be 10 or 20 that died in transit because they were being smuggled into the country Not to mention you have removed that animal from the wild where they could be contributing to the genetic Biodiversity of an area and it ruins kind of the whole The whole ecosystem every time you take a breeding individual out of that space, especially if they're an endangered species so This was an article released in the conversation this week and it was looking at um A decade of wild harvested live vertebrate animals entering the united states Most of them were headed for the pet trade and they found 3.6 times the number of unlisted species compared with cites listed species What that means is so cites i've mentioned it before on the show It is the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora it's essentially a global effort Where countries come together and they discuss the listing of individual protected species of fauna and flora And they list their list is about 10 of all described plants and terrestrial vertebrates, which on one side is like Oh, that's actually a lot. There's a lot of of Of vertebrates on the planet 10 of them are listed. That's great. Um, but that means 90 percent are not being Counted when they go from country to country and 90 percent are not being stopped at the border when they go from country to country They're actually less than 1 percent of fish in vertebrates are on cites And so there's no international regulatory framework to monitor the trade of an unlisted species There is only cites. So only the things that are listed are being monitored and In police to a certain extent so with all of that in mind Knowing that three times the number of unlisted species are going into the us versus listed Means that luckily the united states is actually monitoring these things on our own So we have some data, but that means that there is data missing as to where they came from And uh, where else they are going on the planet Most of these unlisted species, uh go through kind of dubious movements around the world More than a quarter of them, uh, have conservation threats declining populations They're threatened with extinction. They're endangered all these sorts of things And so this highlights the need to monitor wildlife species all wildlife species when they enter countries and um It also shows that More regulation is needed to prevent trade regulation or declines so that like when when There are areas where animals can come and go and be trafficked back and forth about some sort of regulation That is how these animals get moved all over the world. But the really big thing None of this would happen if there was not desire from wealthy countries like the united states Usually it is less wealthy countries exporting wild animals into wealthy countries for The pet trade and so they only do that because there is a lot of money to be made there The reason the money is to oh, there's greedy poor people. They're the problem No, that's not what I said No They're trying to do whatever they can to get along in a world where money is disproportionately Distributed and the people in rich countries are willing to put a lot of money into receiving endangered and protected species so First I'm happy to see that there is Some work being done looking at the trafficking of these animals and the need to list more animals in cites Also the need to create a framework outside of cites. It's not enough The other thing is with This is like the whole conversation We're having with the increase of technology and automation and all these things things are easier than they used to be Including buying and selling things that are illegal including live animals.  Is it a protected species? How did this animal enter the united states? Were they smuggled in do they breed well in captivity because if they don't Guess what? They were stolen from the wild for sure. Most parrots stolen from the wild. They don't breed well in captivity Most exotic reptiles stolen from the wild. So knowing that Do some research before you you buy that exotic animal off the internet And also maybe just reconsider and buy a pet that is domestic and also would be a better pet for you Because when you buy an exotic animal as a pet a lot of the time they end up as invasive species Because people get overwhelmed. They don't make good pets because they're wild animals and they release them into the wild But they're not from there Disease transmission is a whole thing because these animals are being moved often in unsanitary conditions They are not going through regular health checks because it is is a smuggling situation And so diseases can be transmitted from animals to people So that's a whole thing Also, it can threaten wild populations. Of course, like I mentioned You're taking animals out of a functioning population when you steal these animals to be brought into the pet trade. So All that to say Stick with your domestic animals And if you see this is the other this is the reason I want to talk about this If you see these videos on social media of wild animals being treated as pets downvote them unfollow them If you feel confrontational you can write a nicely worded comment on the social media post But do not feed that machine don't like that video because that is actually hurting wild animals Yeah, I think it's a weird fetish to want to have pets in general But then specifically some sort of an endangered animal as if it was ridiculous Don't go smearing all pets. That is a broad brush there But it isn't it isn't like there's that woman who got who got arrested recently and one of the Dakotas. I think Who uh brought her rat pet raccoon to the bar with her? That is a wild animal. That is not a wild animal. Not a wild animal. No, this is the exact conversation We're currently having that is not a domesticated. No, I know I get that animal has not evolved alongside humans for Thousands of years And she might be putting the that cute little raccoon on instagram and you could say that's cute But what blare is asking is downvote that lives don't give it the attention because unless it's coming from a zoo or a um An endangered species Yeah rehabilitation center or a conservation Group that's trying to to help these a particular species Like blare is saying you're doing that species damage. Yeah even raccoons trash pandas. It's true yes Anyway, um, I would like to close out the animal corner with the results of fat bear week They were announced today It's I was very excited yesterday my predicted matchup for the final of 901 versus 747 came to fruition They were they were so good, but you know 901 could not keep up with the massive beautiful Rotund 747 I mean come on.  So um national park service individuals uh came on and and chatted about the uh, Brooks river And cut my national park in alaska and about why fat bear week is important And that video is still up on the fat bear week Web page so you can watch that if you want learn about fat bear week and about Hibernation and they had a bunch of park rangers list their favorite bear fact, which was very cool And you can also browse some photos and footage of 747. So I I'm I'm done with uh fat bear uh week I'm done. I'm done with it. It's it's become too corporate. There's too much money involved Well, it's a good thing you're done with it because it's over There was a bracket is closed. Yeah There was uh some ballot stuffing that took place at one point No 747 by the way is also known as cold bear Because uh, it's got one weird ear just like the the late night talk show host guy Who also talks about the bear on the show as his favorite because it's a namesake And so now you got now you got uh media big media dollars big corporate companies coming in and get through your throwing their weight behind A fat bear. Is he the fattest bear? Maybe but we'll never know because the voting's all you know, Justin We actually do know how much all these bears weigh So if you just wanted to figure out which one was the heaviest you could just you could just decide No, it's not about the whole point of this It's about the change It is not just about the change because you could also just run those numbers It is about who is the fattest By public standards. Yeah, so it's a popularity contest. Yes. It certainly is That's the whole point and the whole point is to bring education to Bear ecosystems and the ecosystems that they are a part of The salmon habitat the hibernation that these bears go through it's it's Wonder, I think it is such a wonderful creative way to bring people into the world of The world Nature Yeah, this is a good use of social media for animals. This is beautiful. This is the opposite side of that conversation We were just having it is about raising awareness about wild animals and keeping those wild animals wild. We are using Cams out in the wild to be able to observe these animals and talk about their function in their ecosystem It's perfect. I love it. Everyone gets in on it. It's fun. It's cute. You have to look at the little bear ears Ah In the bear chunks you get to look at the bear chunks and we do love the bear chunks Hey, you know, we also love we love it when you head over to the this weekend science zazzle store and Take a look at our merchandise. I mean there's fat bears out there but there's also twist t-shirts and hats and pillows and all sorts of wonderful Gifts even that you could get your favorite person for there for the holidays that are coming up They are coming and you know Everything that you purchase over on the this weekend science zazzle store does help support twist So your purchases are going to a support a great a great effort our podcast This is this weekend science and justin are you gonna tell me about how to tell the future right now? Well, yes, of course So it has been said somewhere by somebody at some point maybe That many animals Know when an earthquake is about to strike But worms for instance Worms for instance can tell precisely when an earthquake will happen down to the hour Days are even in some cases weeks in advance They just don't bother doing anything about it or telling anyone because it's really no big deal to them Doesn't affect them at all To start this not a real story two stories this week on the topic of earthquake precognition in humans To whom earthquakes are a really big deal Uh, the ability that some scientists claim and perhaps have been proven to have that allows them to tell when an earthquake is going to happen before it happens with their minds And some applied science what First researchers at stellar solutions a systems engineering services company studying intermediate and large-sized earthquakes in california Have discovered detectable changes changes in local magnetic fields that occur two to three days before an earthquake In their study published in the journal geophysical research solid earth the quake finder team Found that the signal of the magnetic field changes faintly, but statistically significantly enough ahead of an earthquake And seismologists hope that this technique can be refined and eventually be used as a forecasting tool So they did this in collaboration with google accelerated science team scientists tapped into magnetic fields from an array of magnetometers At 125 different sensor stations along major faults in california. They gathered data From 2005 to 2019. That's quite a long time at which time they they got 19 earthquakes of over 4.5 On the faults that they were studying There are multi station team Their multi station analysis having all these these sensors in very disparate areas Allowed them to separate noise That could affect the magnetometers Things like rush hour traffic Could show up there as blips iris dance festivals might even show up Solar activity has an effect on on the readings So after training algorithms On half of the data sets the researchers identified a signal indicating changes in the magnetic field Between 72 and 24 hours before the earthquakes. So a potential prognostication tool for earthquakes something that we have Not add in the past. So that's it and and in a paper in geophysical research letters Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory find that using deep learning ai to interpret The acoustic sounds a fault makes Can also be used to make future predictions. So in their lab They have been recording the sounds that faults make when they shift and they developed an algorithm of applied machine learning to the data to demonstrate that the fault emissions within the waveform and the sound and acoustics of the the fault slippages Is imprinted the information Regarding the current state where it is in a slip cycle in real time. So previously they've been able to tell Where along the the slippage the the quake is at any given time or where the fault is at any given time Now they have so much data That they've been able to analyze it and the way they put it is almost like putting it into a translation tool Where Where the uh It sort of finishes your sentence as you're writing In in like a word processor or something. I guess this would be like predictive speech predictive speech predicts to the next thing so you can just Uh, and and they think they can now use this to tell the future Of the fault now it only works And the paharito fault system As that is where the entire data set is coming from Though still not bad Place to start because this paharito fault system runs directly under the Los Alamos national laboratory Oh yikes. Yeah. Yeah, we're a nuclear material storage facility Maybe sitting directly over an active and little understood fault believed to be capable of a 6.5 magnitude earthquake and of course if you at Los Alamos national laboratory Was built before They realized that they had us. Yeah on a fault line And so it was not built to originally not built to withstand massive earthquakes I'm sure they've done retrofitting but still Well, this is this is it's good to know how long do we have Can we predict an earthquake is a big one coming? And do they have time to get everybody out or time to lock make certain security adjustments? Yeah, and can they can they retrofit a plutonium containment area Facility so that nothing so hopefully this is the last time you'll ever hear this mentioned Ever built a nuclear facility on top of a fault line But there are two predictions now Uh prediction methods for earthquakes So when we tell people hey, there's an earthquake coming They can take action Like as if a hurricane or a major climate crisis was looming and you know React in time I just think about what you would do if you were told there was an earthquake coming because you're not supposed to stand in the Doorway anymore So I guess you'd get under a table and then you just sit there and wait And just get more and more anxious Oh gosh, Blair you leave town In 30 seconds Well, yeah, you don't have that much time How much time do you have so yeah, so the electromagnetic one was 24 to 72 hours That one that one is the is the one that I think is going to be Significantly useful and the acoustic one they didn't say how far but they said it was into the future They would be able to predict where and when the next slippage was going to happen because Right, they can triangulate these signals. I'm sure Well, no the the Los Alamos one based on the audio Thus far they had been able to tell where it was in a slipping event in real time But because they have so much data on that fault they now can translate The early state parts of it so they can now do predictives with it where previously they couldn't Um, but in the case. Yeah, you don't go sit under the table for 72 hours. You leave town Hurricane coming leave town tornado on the way leave town The global climate crisis is gonna be global Oh, there's no where you can go higher ground higher ground is always the answer Not for an earthquake When's the last time you heard about a earthquake happening on top of a mountain never what You know, there are different types of faults, you know, they're right not mine Not mine Justin only has a limited number of faults Yeah, not his fault. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, this kind of predictive technology is the kind of thing that We've wanted for a very long time. So to be able to fine tune this I mean, especially for those areas like california, uh, the ring of fire places that are Going to be very prone to the possibility of massive earthquakes. This kind of preparation could make a huge Difference Eric nap from Alaska says earthquakes happen on mountains all the time. Yeah, I don't know all all the time all the time Not your fault though. Justin. All right.  It hasn't been super successful. We've seen a bit of integration to date this new attempt um These researchers at stanford university that have just published their paper Have taken brain organoids. So they used human Neurons stem cells neurons to grow organoids so multicellular tissue That is had a very yeah at an early developmental state, but about 60 days or so of developing So it's a little little choke Brain and they made these little brain organoids And in their paper in nature they reported in planting these organoids into rat brains so they took Rat pups implanted the human brain organoids into a section an area of the cortex of the Rat brain that is related to sensation. So the somato sensory cortex of the rat So, you know rat whiskers and other the hair and other aspects of Navigating their environment through the sense of touch are important this area of the brain deals with a lot of these signals And so these brain organoids they got implanted in there and lo and behold Nothing weird happened the rats The rats were rats the behavior was rat behavior. Everything was just fine the organoids integrated Beautifully, they weren't doing anything Odd there was no there were no seizures. So there was nothing medically wrong Nothing dysfunctional that could be determined about these rats as they grew and these neurons integrated Additionally, they had the neurons tuned. They had previously genetically modified the neurons to react to light signals and so optogenetically They would Would be stimulated when they were hit with blue light They trained the rats to go lick on lick some water a little water tube When they were exposed to the blue light and the neurons were involved And so they they showed that they the neurons were part of a circuit that when the neurons were triggered the rats went and they Got the water and so good good rats. They were rewarded with water. Everything was happy So what there's there's no uh, oh, there's no weird. There's no it's it's just We're learning more about how Uh, the human brain can work and so now what we know About this system in which nothing weird happened The researchers were able to take stem cells from from people with a disease that's very similar to autism, which is called joseph's disease, I believe is what it's called and Or Am I getting that wrong? Um, sorry, I did get it wrong timothy syndrome. And so timothy syndrome has similar symptoms To some that are seen in autism They used stem cells from three people that have this genetic condition They grew brain organoids put them into The rat brains and were able to show that those neurons Did show dysfunction that they did did not react the way that the quote-unquote Um, ordinary or average, uh, human neurons reacted within the rat brain. So what this Suggests is that we may now have the ability to create an animal model In which we can study human Genetic brain disorders. That's okay. That's exactly what I was going to ask is I feel like I'm missing. Why? Why do I want to ask this? Interrap brains like what what are we achieving? So this is it We want a better model to be able to study the human brain to manipulate and And do experimentation on the human brain to try to solve dysfunction Right. And so when you have an organism that is relatively long-lived rats can live several years So you're not dealing with mice that are you know Yeah, I'm just gonna be turning over very quickly But the the rats also are trainable. They Work very well in lab and behavioral experiments and So this is the kind of situation where you could You know study particular behaviors that are potentially tied to certain genetic disorders and Really determine the the synapses the signaling molecules the You know, what is really going wrong? You can do and how can we fix it in people on mice that you can't do in humans rats rats in this case, but but but Yeah, so this that's very fascinating for a whole bunch of reasons like what like a lot of these autistic spectrum or disorders Are are Come down to missing genes Or in active in active genes or not turned on ones there was one Recently, this is a side thing, but in the Williams burn disorder where they discovered that These people sometimes have these kids that they have to learning disability, but they have tend to have higher than average linguistic abilities higher than average musical A cutramon being able to Identify pitch Which is a really hard thing. Somebody plays it a note and they go. Oh, that's a c that one's an e You know at a very young age able to do this And it showed that there was this overactivity of growth in the area of the audio cortex, right because an RNA factor protein was Not present to mitigate growth right In the area so so the the question that I have on on the these rat studies is how How much does that travel in the brain like how do those Is that expression taking place with so specifically within those tissues that it's being expressed with the genetics Of those tissues and isn't influenced by the larger brain system. So there's some really intriguing Questions that might be able to be answered Just in whether or not You know, it might look like a null result, right? It might look like oh We did the organoid stings and we try to replicate the behavior, but it didn't happen And it may be because there's a more universal because rats don't play guitar got it Well, it might it might be because it's not the specific tissues The specific tissues are not the ones Functioning on their own. Anyway, it becomes a very much larger Yeah, because we do know so there's that yeah, there's going to be the the connectivity within the organoid and the what happens with RNA with Neurotransmitters other things that are released very locally But what happens at the places that they interconnect with other neurons within the rat brain the rat Uh, you know the rat neurons. So what are what is going to happen at those points and are What kind of limitations are there going to be as a result of you know, definitely a between species boundary? Yeah, because the genetics are different between the rats and the human neurons definitely And is it could we develop a drug then that can specifically target some of the neural generations so that one day everyone can have Pitch perfect hearing perfect or we can and do we want to do we want to live in that rain? Do we even want to live in that world? Of course we do perfect pitch is great. I wish I had It's just that everybody has the rare Not perfect, but decent pitch Okay, I have one last study and how many of you out there played pong as a Youngster or have played pong in your life. I see Justin raising a hand Blair's played pong pong is It's one of the original games, right? I played it when it was the only choice It was the only choice for so long.  And you have your little stick thing on the screen and it's bouncing the little Pong across and goes pong pong pong pong back and forth back and forth. Anyway, Sound it makes is pong Pong Pong yeah, and you had to move it to like channel two or channel four on the tv like the old stand There was a standalone pong console You need to understand That's where the title comes from it's the sound and those are paddles by the way. Those are your paddles You're turning paddles. There were there were gliders, but there were also paddles. It depended. Yeah, it depended There were multiple versions and it was a piece of furniture Yes, well anyway people can play pong AI can play pong But can neurons in a dish play pong? Apparently they can Yes, and so that is the new news Coming out of cortical labs in Melbourne, Australia, which yeah, it's morning there right now. Good morning, Australia The researchers there have created a system that they call Dishbrain Which I think is one of the best names for a For a For a brain in a dish dish brain and so they've got a bunch of neurons, but they've Got networked within a dish And in the networking within the dish They have different nerve cells so very like just it's slice of brain happening happening in a dish And they attached this little dish brain to a circuit so that they could Actually measure with electrodes the Electrical activity happening within the different neurons as the neurons communicated with each other during A game of pong and they taught the neurons how to play pong by giving them Signals so coordinated signals when the little the little ball the the pixel pong was Being hit correctly or in the right direction randomized noise when it was not hit in the right direction or not or the or the neurons missed it entirely and the Over time they were able to show that this Signal these neurons responded to an electrical signal. That's a substitute for the ball in the game game of pong, but that in this It's not just for fun, although the choice of pong to show that You know if a can a I can do something Neurons in a dish the wet ware can do it as well as uh is a is a good master stroke, but then in even beyond that it's looking to see how we can train The the the messy biological network for the development of future Biological processing units. So maybe our super ai is not going to just be Silicon silicon, maybe it's going to be Silicon and neurons working together in conjunction And unfortunately my first thought as I was thinking about this wonder like oh awesome They trained nerve cells to play pong. This is great. I was like, oh man This is like they're going to train these nerve cell systems to like take out Enemy planes and you know, it's going to be it's going to be signal recognition and you know Thank goodness I looked at the paper and none of the sources of funding seemed to come from any military Background there was not what appeared to be government funding from Anything DARPA like in any sensor form and they were all Programs funding just research into the human brain So I was very pleasantly supply surprised when I did look up The funding sources for this particular study and in this laboratory and so Cortical labs is on a very interesting path to determine whether or not we can use Neurons as computers Or as parts of computers Awesome biocomputing But then you've got it then you've got like another pet in the house splur. You gotta beat it and water make sure It's like, you know, it's like, uh, I want to go the opposite direction. The chat room is killing me right now photo Well, I begged and begged my dad for an early odyssey console for just a hundred dollars and he wouldn't he wouldn't give This was Pipes in that would be $763 and 33 cents today. Sorry kid. No bleeping way Yeah, except that's not that much more than a playstation cost now. They cost like 600 bucks, right? That's what I mean It's like a very special christmas present very special maybe Oh, yeah, so there's one at place at walmart for $739 a playstation five. So there you go. Oh same price. Yeah Yeah But that's in today's money now you got to go into the future and find out how much that is Into the future. Well, that would we'd have to take inflation into account Hey, uh, you know what time of the part of the show it is now That time where we've gone way over our tight 90 What time Justin what time is it? Uh, it's it's the is it clear the closing time Sweeping up Alcohol so finish your whiskey or beer Start putting the chairs on top of the tables get the mop out You don't have to go home, but you but you can't stay here. Yeah, well Yes, it is that time and I would like to thank everybody for joining us for another Fun-filled episode of this week in science. We definitely went over our Our 90 minute allotment. Thank you for staying with us for this whole time. It was a lot of fun I hadn't I enjoyed chatting with everyone today. I want to make sure however that We think not just you the viewer the listener my co-hosts But also a few people who do help out with the show every week Fada, thank you so much for taking care of social media and those show notes for youtube Great job, and it's really just wonderful to have your help. Thank you also also to gourd And iron lore and others who keep our chat room Friendly and happy and chatting with joy of science Thank you to identity for for recording the show and thank you to rachel for editing the show and Also, thank you to all of our patreon sponsors. I'm gonna say thank you to Teresa smith james schaefer richard badge Kent north coat rick loveman pierre velezard ralf e figure roe at john ratness Swami karl kornfeld karen tazi woody ms chris wozniak davon dav bun bigard chef stad health snider donathan styles aka don stylo john leali coffin garth charmer ragan Derek schmitt don munda steven alberand darryl my shack pronounced my shack stoop holic andrew swanson fredes 104 sky luke paul brunovitch kevin reardon noodles jack brian karrington david e youngblood matt base Vote beto for texas john mckay greg riley marqueson flow steve leesman aka zima ken haves howard tan christopher rappin dana pierce and richard brendon minnish johnny gridley remi day flying out christopher drier jaya greg briggs john atwood pretty girth garcia dave wilkinson rodney lewis paul rick ramis philip shane curt larson sue doster jason olds dave neighbor eric nap-e-o adam ish con kevin parochan erin luthan steved bell bob calder marjorie paul disney david simmerley patrick pecker rara tony steele and jason roberts Thank you all for supporting us on patreon and if you are interested in Doing the same supporting us on patreon head over to twist.org and click on the patreon link On next week's show We will be back wednesday 8 p.m. Pacific time broadcasting live from our youtube and facebook channels as well as from twist.org slash live Hey, do you want to listen to us as a podcast perhaps while you play some pong Just search for this week in science if our podcasts are found if you enjoyed the show get your friends to subscribe as well For more information on anything you've heard here today show notes links to stories will be available on our website www.twist.org As well as being able to sign up for a newsletter You can also contact us directly email kirsten at kirsten at thisweekinscience.com Justin at twistmenina and gmail.com or me blair at blairbaz at twist.org Just be sure to put twist t w i s in the subject line or your email Will be kim flushed with a couple of i spots and it'll be too terrifying. We won't be able to open it Ah, we'll look left. We'll look right But you can still sneak up on us on twitter where we are at twist science at dr. Kiki and at jackson fly and uh At blair's menagerie I snuck up on you We love your feedback if there's a topic you like it's to cover or address a suggestion for an interview I could it comes to you tonight. Please let us know We'll be back here next week and we hope you'll join us again for more great science news And if you've learned anything from the show remember It's all in your head This weekend science is the end of the world so i'm setting up shop got my banner unfurled It says the scientist is in i'm gonna sell my advice Show them how to stop the robot with a simple device I'll reverse below the warming with a wave of my hands and all it'll cost you is a couple of grand Coming your way So everybody listen to what I say. I use the scientific method and I'll broadcast my epic This weekend science This weekend science This weekend science This weekend science I've got one disclaimer and it shouldn't be news That's what I say may not represent your views, but I've done the calculations and I've got a plan For philosophy i'm looking up free Pong sounds Oh, there it is Oh my god That's gonna get me a probably gonna That's probably gonna get me a virus, but I like it Can I download it? I want to download log in to download I want to share this sound. Maybe I can share it this way Share screen Yeah Share screen Chrome tab Chrome tab And I want it to also share other things But I can't see my whole screen. I have this little tiny screen that I'm using for my telepromptery stuff And I can't see some things that I want to see and I wish I could see the things I want to see And it's making it very difficult. Um Well, let's see if that works If I do that and I hit that maybe you'll hear the sound Do you hear it? It's very quiet That's the pong sound. Yes. Yes. Oh, wait. I know. Wait. No, it's not the background music This weekend Don't you want to play pong now? Pong's pretty fun. I was trying to look up I wonder I wonder if anyone in the chat room will be able to remember this. I don't think there's any way I have a very clear memory of on macintosh performa there was a game Where it was basically fancy solitaire pong. So there was a bouncy ball There was a tile on the floor. It was 3d And you could move it around and the goal was to destroy To like hit all of these tiles on One two three four Break out. Yeah, break break out. Yeah It's a it's a thing No, it's not this because this is too. It's like advanced. This is a 3d one Oh, because Blair's young Listen, I had I played games on a time. This is like way later. You have to understand I I typed school projects on a typewriter.  No, so we had we had the typewriter We also had at that same time we had an apple to see But the apple to see was almost harder because it had the problem where there was no There's no delete Like or there was no there's no cursor So the only way to edit something it was basically all the way back, right? Yeah, so you had to delete all the way back if you made a mistake So you had to hand write things and then type it right and so like it was the same as a type So like sometimes we would use the typewriter instead if the printer was on the fritz or whatever right, you know, so but um But yeah, I had a couple of projects even before I think we had a printer for the to see that I did on a typewriter, but um, no, I was very exciting when we got the performer in the house. I was like I think maybe I was in middle school. I don't remember but Um, but no, it's I'm trying to find it's not this breakout No, this isn't it because this is not it Uh, so many that are my they put in bricles Try bricles b-r-i-c-k-l-e-s b-r-i-c-k-l-e-s No, it's very similar to break out. Yeah, it's very similar this. Yeah, this is I keep you saying this is 3d.  It was a whole game that that's what that's what it was lastoid breakout So this is just uh, this is a fun thing happening here A month ago one a month ago when I would do the show No, I'd come out to the studio and it'd be light So I got it. I've got a light in the studio, but it's really I got this big window So it's mostly so it's getting darker Now is it getting darker the sun's Just starting to come up and it's It's it's uh seven in the morning. Yeah, the sun's coming up here at seven Here okay, can I can I share my screen? Yes, I found a picture of it, but only one only one It's it's um, it's this Oh It says breakout 3d, but but yeah, it looked exactly like this. No, that's like some sort of uh Uh Labyrinth maze exploring. No, so so you see that's the little ball And then there would be blocks in the way So you'd have to like you'd have to bounce it to the back and then hit it on this other shield And then it would bounce front again. It was yeah, it was pretty It was pretty fun. Somebody's saying is it peggal? Don't google that. Yeah, I'm not googling that Um, I have another item for zazzle too. I'm almost done listing it Tags Sea dragon Oh sea dragon. We love the leafy sea dragon Oh, that's not how you spell science Fish How do you spell science? Yes, I the baby bib What A baby bib, you know, you did that just for Justin Post it here and then I'll screen share What did I do wrong? Oh, no, I didn't do anything hulk and lower decks new episodes see I watch those tomorrow night Midnight fada. Do you have a do you have a um Access yeah, or do you have a VPN VPN? I meant to solve so many problems Unsponsored plug for just uh vpns. Uh, there's probably good ones. Maybe there's bad ones. I don't really know Uh, but the one I have is the The worst Oh, yeah, lord and it's really awesome because While I still have all of my accounts where you watch things and stuff They don't work Uh in a foreign country So my VPN allows me to continue using the things that I'm paying for as though I was still in the place where I was when I signed up Yeah, isn't netflix trying to stop that though. They're trying to start some technology that detects whether or not you're using a VPN I don't I don't I hope that they're successful Because I just I'll cancel them. I mean, that's kind of the dumb thing about it and it's like if they stop working I'll stop paying them. Why would you Make me want to not pay Although although holder prices Although one of the interesting things the thing that maybe they don't want you to do is that when I'm not on my VPN I'm getting access to shows that might be network shows Uh, or what have you in the states because they don't have the network that they're on here So they go to places like netflix for their viewers All right, that's how I got to watch my entire uh better call sol Thing was uh watching it on I think netflix Oh Well, keep it up while you still got it Right shouldn't we get a VPN sponsor we should justin are you VPNing right now? No, I'm not VPNing right now because uh could be Because it creates a horrible lag Oh Well, no because because we're doing a unique very unique thing where we're all in this other streaming situation right now Uh, that it would ping it back to the states actually I had done it a few times But in attempts to at least avoid lag, I haven't done an experiment on the thing to know really how bad it was Causing lag, but felt like it was but I'm a big fan of the Nord VPN is the one I'm using. Uh, it supposedly does all sorts of other Privacy security kind of thing so you can't get tracked on the internet, but it's not kind of thing. I'm uh horribly concerned with I You know, just clean out your cookies once in a while. I think it's all you really need to be doing but Yeah, you know what you do know what sound that it makes when your VPN is Pinging back and forth You know what sound it makes Is that Barely hear it, but yeah I'm sorry. It's not louder. I don't know how to make it louder. It's very loud in my ears Yeah, I can't hear it Beep beep boop beep boop boop beep pong noises Um, okay So fada is watching and or first and then by the time that's over lower decks drops, then she hulk Oh my gosh. That's dedication bed time Well, you gotta have your scheduled and what you want to do we're we're what we watch the Lower decks and she hulk depending on Child things Thursday night usually is lower decks. So good So good last episode Hilarious. Oh man. It was so good. Oh my gosh. The only thing I'm watching at all is the uh The the hardfoot in Yeah, I didn't watch last week, but I've only seen three episodes of that. Oh, it's a guy. I really like it. It's good That's my weekend my weekend watching But that's not on the netflix so they can't be a sponsor for that one that one's on that the amazon Yes, the amazonians Yeah, good night noodles Yeah, and fada wants to rest his shoulder. Sorry your shoulder needs rest Shoulder resting while show watching Paul disney watching the inside of the idlids. That is the best nighttime show Love that show. Yes My cat is currently sleeping on the new hide-a-bed in my office So anyone who comes to stay at my house cannot be allergic to cats. That's all I'm saying Because they they are loving all of the furniture But I do have a hide-a-bed so people can stay haven't watched and or yet and or is when I need to get into And I'm she-hulk loving. Oh my god. She is so good. I don't want it to be the end of the season. Oh, man So I'm pretty upset about that actually Yeah Actually, I'm gonna unless there need to be new shows coming out soon again because I'm gonna be out of shows again And I'm gonna be very upset. Well, we've got this show. We could do a spin-off of this show Make a second. Yeah do a spin-off of this one Mo show shows for show one that's got one. That's like, oh, what's the other show that's uh, I tried to watch but then stopped What I know The the prequel to game of thrones. Oh house of the dragon or whatever.  I can't get over Yeah, there's just something wrong with the show.  This is the best time to buy Christmas gifts I'm gonna buy myself a Christmas gift of a my science brain t-shirt. That's what I'm gonna do Yeah, maybe I'll buy some friends some pillows Oh, and I got a I got a a picture from And one Adam Mishkan today who received his twist t-shirt from patreon He sent me a picture. He said look what came in the mail. He was very excited So all sorts of things out there 32 gigabytes of ram There you go Now you can now you can stream it all power So interesting, we're gonna be going to sleep whereas gourd is going to be up all night because that's what he does. He stays up Gourd stays up man. They make apple watch bands. What the heck? Oh, but do they have insect repellent? Wait, zazzle makes apple watch bands. Yes Uh-oh You can have a twist band for your apple watch Maybe What Just fascinating. Oh, no, it's it's a whole extra. No, no, no, thank that's an extra. No, okay You got to go through a whole extra seller thing What people got to tweet at me and stuff and tell me what they want their twist stuff on What do you want your twist on? Like oh aprons An apron is fun. We've done aprons before but yeah, we could do more Do we have a do we have a beer cozy yet? Oh That's a good one. It should be an orange cozy But I guess, you know, is there is there a A beer-swilling animal from your calendars. Do we have uh, do we have slippers feel like this emu? Do we have slippers? Just meandering around the house coasters Yeah You all Can I know Sadie? Oh can coolers. Yeah, this is what you're talking about a coosie Coosies. This is fun. What's Sadie doing? Oh, who knows? Oh, she's looking outside because Brian just left Come back Sadie come here Sadie I know you've got good ears. Come here Sadie I'll unplug. I'll unplug the There no caller here Sadie Sadie Come here Sadie Come here Sadie Who's there? Hi Sadie. Hi. Hi Sadie. Come here Good girl. Good Sadie. Come here Sadie Come here Sadie Come here. There we go. Oh, there's a Sadie. I see in here This is this weekend Sadie This weekend Sadie This weekend Sadie. Who's a good girl? My cat's like what who are you talking to right now? Just cut that out Hi Sadie you'd get a treat. Do you hear that crunch? Crunch crunch nighttime treat. I'll move the mic Here That was a good one. Crunch crunch crunch crunch. I'll give you one more There you go. Yeah, that's cute. No, but imagine if you had a pet raccoon how much fun that would be Justin, especially to take to a bar Oh, Justin. No No, no I met somebody once upon a time on the BART train who had um a raccoon with them and they also had a skunk and the skunk had been de-skunked um, but like they They had them in like big cat carriers But they were very friendly and they liked snacks and but they were you know, just the people had their raccoon and their skunk on BART But here they were their pets No, no The skunk was very sweet. I do have to say but at the same time I do remember just being like what these are These aren't house pets. No, I mean, I was little but I don't know It was quite an impression to see these animals that are normally wild animals Yeah With these people who are like, oh, no, they're totally fine here feed them this little snack and they're friendly And it's totally nice and we're on BART and this isn't weird at all uh Look, I can see Blair. You're tempted to stay up all night redesigning zazzle stuff. Yes. Yes, but but You know, it's late You should say good night Blair. Good night Blair. Say good night, Justin I can't say good morning, Justin. Good morning, Justin Good night Good night everyone Oh, wait here. I have to take Blair off of this there there. We can say I'll say good night everyone Thank you so much for joining us for another fun episode. So glad that you were here Sadie be a good girl Yeah Justin you're tell your baby to be a good baby. Oh, he's great. He's a fantastic baby He's amazing.  Don't be a bad pet. Be good and be safe and Stay healthy and stay curious. We look forward to seeing you again next week. Thank you Have a good one twist


Let's go through the Current Order Book column in Bookmap. I'll right click in this column and come down and select the data type, Current Order Book. This column is displaying the amount of liquidity here at each specific price level. The header up here, COB, stands for Current Order Book. This is your dome, your depth of market. What we're looking at here on the offer above current price, these numeric values here represent liquidity. These are limit orders that are available here for sale at these specific price levels. These are where sellers are lined up providing liquidity here on the offer. Down below current price, they're providing liquidity down here on the bid. So for example, down at 2660, we can see there is 212 contracts available for buying. Let's right click in the column and choose Configure. You have a variety of different visual options here to show either the ask or to show the bid or both. You can also show the extended book. Now I have full depth of market here, so all levels here are live. However, if you have a limit order book, let's say with 10 levels live on the offer and 10 on the bid, and you select the box for extended book, what you're going to see is liquidity that's available above current price that is not live, it is historical. However, it will be displaying the liquidity that was previously available when it was live at that time. You can also access an aggregate view of the current order book. In the aggregate view, it takes the liquidity at the best offer, for example, here and adds it to the next price level above it and so on. That's an aggregate view of all of the liquidity. This view can be helpful to understand specific skews in the book where a lot of liquidity might pop in and skew the auction. You can also set the maximum depth here if you want to look at a specific amount of price levels. So for example, looking at 10 here, and you can see that the white number above the 10 levels here on the offer is displaying the aggregate view of all of that liquidity for those 10 levels. You can also play around with the different settings here for showing bars, bars and numbers, or numbers only. You have some styling options here to split out the data. You can inverse the split if you like, or come back to this view here and align it to the left, to the center, or to the right. You can open up multiple COB columns and configure them in a variety of different ways, and build out your depth of market however you choose fit.