 on the air, you guys, maybe, as soon as they tell us we're live on the air. Aha! We're live. This is TWIS, this week in Science, episode number 618, recorded on Wednesday, May 10th, 2017. Size really does matter. I'm Dr. Kiki and tonight we are going to fill your heads with a dirty kitchen, protein cravings and devious dragonflies, but first. Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. Nothing you are about to hear will prepare you for what comes next. Often, what comes next will be expected. It may still surprise you, despite the fact that you knew it was coming, but not for long. There's a little bit of permeating mental apathy in all of us that thinks every what's next looks just like the what's it that came and went. And there's nothing you can do about it. It comes from the steady state of object permanence in this predictable universe in which we are living. There is, however, a way to get mental apathy to put its predictive powers on pause. Dance across the mind like mental floss, stories of unimagined reality, insights outside of current knowledge and a rapid unveiling of riveting mysteries that at times solve puzzles millions of years old. If you are already tuned into this show, all you have to do is nothing. We've got it from here on This Week in Science, coming up next. I've got the kind of mind that can't get enough. I wanna learn everything. I wanna fill it all up with new discoveries that happen every day of the week. There's only one place to go to find the knowledge I seek. I wanna know what's happening, what's happening, what's happening this week in science. What's happening, what's happening, what's happening this week in science. Science to you Kiki and Blair. And a very good science to you too, Justin, Blair, and everyone out there. Welcome once again to This Week in Science. We are bringing you science tidbits and knowledge from the past week of publications and exciting adventures in the world of science. That's some great stuff today. I have some fun stories. Oh wait, before I get to that though, wanna remind everybody, Philadelphia Young Innovators Fair, June 10th and 11th. If you're interested, you can find information at younginnovatorsfair.com and This Week in Science will be there both days, yeah. So anyway, before we do that though, we have a few weeks of science news. And this week, I brought weed, munchies, and a new way to teach robots. Justin, what do you have? I've got a new Naledi with a Neanderthal connection eating at unhealthy kitchens and what beavers and oysters can do for you. Ooh, nice. I would love to know. And Blair, what does the animal corner have for us? Stories from Disneyland? Not quite. And to make up for my absence last week, I decided to bring a whole bunch of invertebrates eggs. I brought cuddly cuttlefish. I brought dramatic dragonflies. And I brought failure fruit flies. Oh, failure fruit flies. Oh, sad fruit flies. It's like the hashtag fail, but hashtag failure fruit flies. Fruit fly fail. Fly fail. Say that. Time to have that ass. Over and over and over again. All right, let's dig into all of this fun science that we have. All right, so first off the line tonight, I have a story about insects, speaking of invertebrates. Have you guys? I mean, Blair, you're in San Francisco, which is not a hugely insecty kind of place to begin with, right? Not particularly, no, it doesn't get hot enough. Yeah, Justin, Central Valley of California, farmland, can you tell me any observations? I think it's a little bit of an earth type people. Any observations on insects on your windscreen? Yeah, that's a great question. I would say it's hard for me to judge because part of the time I've lived in these farmhouses where you might be the only light from miles away and you can flick on a kitchen window and within minutes, the kitchen window is covered in insects. But generally speaking, yeah, I don't think it's particularly insecty around here. Do you think that has changed over time? I feel like it has. Well, I can tell you what, the crickets. You don't hear the crickets at night. What about the crickets? Where did the crickets go? Well, some entomologists and not even professional entomologists. A lot, the majority of amateur entomologists are a part of an organization called the Krefeld, the Krefeld Entomological Society in Germany. And they have about 50 or so members and they've been collecting information about insect abundance at about 100 nature reserves in Western Europe since the 1980s. And these are people who are like plumbers and teachers and just people who are into insects and not all of them. There are some professionals in there, but a majority are amateur entomologists. They've been doing this work. And so they were doing their work. And in 2013, they went to set up their traps, their trapping sites, and to count what they had caught. And they found that compared to one of the earliest, they returned to one of the earliest trapping sites back in 1989 in 2013. And they compared the amount of insects that they'd gotten. Their catch had fallen by nearly 80%. And so they were like, what? That's not right. And so they set the traps up in that location again. And again, the next year, 2014, the numbers were still low. And so they had actually preserved a lot of their samples over the 30 or so years. And they found declines in the numbers and abundance of insect species at over a dozen more sites. So they are now working with entomologists, ecologists, one in particular, Dave Goulson, who is at the University of Sussex in the UK. They're working to analyze and publish the data. Because as I said, these are amateur entomologists who just went, wait a minute. There's something weird going on here. And so now there are a lot of questions that have popped up from their discovery. And one of them is, OK, is this just an artifact of something? Or are there things like pesticides that are affecting the catches of insects? Or is it climate change? Or what is happening? Or are they going somewhere else? They're just too many entomologists. Collecting bugs. Right. Are we catching too many bugs? Too many bug cooters running around. Yeah, so this organization, they have been working at this for a really long time. And they're going to keep collecting information. But their point now is to try and share this information that they've found with other entomologists and ecologists to see if there are any other large scale trends that can be determined. Because if this is something that's not an artifact, if this is a large scale trend, that insects are declining and disappearing, this is a massive canary in the coal mine for our ecosystems. Because once the bugs go away, pollination declines. So fruits and vegetables. Well, but I don't really care about flowers, so pollination. And birds. Birds can't find enough food. Lots of moles and voles and little ground-dwelling organisms can't find food. Spiders can't find enough food. And honestly, I'm not at all surprised by this result. Not at all. I mean, there's hardly a bit of unmanned managed land that you can find. Even the sprawling farmlands, every bit of farmland is to some degree micromanaged. And one of the things they try to micromanage in farmland, for instance, is not having insects or pests. And you get rid of a few pesky pests that you didn't want. And then you're also getting rid of a whole gaggle of there. Yeah, you're kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face. You're getting a few less ugly apples. But then a few seasons later, you get no apples. And Germany isn't really that large of a country. It's not that large of a territory. That has a very long history of man sort of micromanaging it. So it makes perfect sense to me that they would see a decline in that life form that's abundant in unmanaged land. Yeah. And at the end of this, the article Gretchen Vogel who wrote an article, it's very interesting on the Science News website, sciencemag.org, their news section. She says at the end, paying attention to what E.O. Wilson calls the little things that run the world is worthwhile. One of the researchers named Sorg says, we won't exterminate all insects. That's nonsense. Vertebrates would die out first. But we can cause massive damage to biodiversity, damage that harms us. And it's not necessarily something that has been created or by mankind. It could be that there's a giant hidden bird population that we just haven't seen yet. That's just coming down, eating all the insects, and then disappearing, hiding in what trees are left. Either that or it's the spiders. The spiders with their invisible webs now. Invisible spiders leaving invisible webs catching all the insects. The spiders, they actually bit, or no, it was Wonder Woman that bit the spiders. And so now they have the invisible lasso, but spider made out of spider silk to catch insects. Never mind weaving together too many tails. Wonder Woman bit a bit of spider? Wonder Woman. Sorry, I've been... No, the spider. Tails barely told in the comic book lore. Yeah. Moving on though, talking about birds. Really interesting study. We've talked a lot on this show about whether or not bigger brains are more important for intelligence, which came first. Intelligence or bigger brains, right? Abilities or big brains. Brain came first. Right, I just got it. And that's the punchline. Blood flow, blood flow. Blood flow came first, actually. So the researchers out of Cornell University, Jordan Moore, who's a PhD, Polk's doctoral fellow at Columbia, and Timothy Devocht, who is a professor of psychology, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B, today, on their study that compared 58 species of songbirds that covered about 20 families. So 20 different taxonomic families. So we're looking at a broad spectrum, a broad swath of avian evolution, right? And they looked at overall brain size versus brain size of very discrete areas, nuclei that are known to have specific cognitive functions. So like vocal control nuclei or regions of the brain that are important for controlling the beak and the mouth of the bird for manipulating seeds or for eating insects. And so what they discovered long story short is that by doing this comparison, they found that bigger brains had to come first. And so they determined that the variation in brain regions, different regions in the brain was accounted for by the differences in the brain's overall size. And so what the story is that they're telling from the data that they have from this analysis is that even humans, we had to have the neural material to allow for the distinction of particular areas for particular areas to become the areas for language, to become the areas for higher cognitive thought, for manipulation of objects. And that it was the bigger brain that had to come first to allow for the development of cognitive skills. You gotta have the building blocks before you can. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah, so very interesting study on birds that has implications not just for birds, but across the vertebrate spectra of how big is your brain and how smart should you be as a result of it or how smart could you eventually be if evolution were to continue in that direction? And then, oh, go ahead, sorry. There was that one thing that I don't know if it was last week or the week before about how running or walking sort of forces a little bit more blood to circulate to the brain and the past studies were increased blood circulation to the brain kind of correlated with the larger brain in humans over time. The bird family spent a lot of time being bipedal and going back a long ways. They were big in bipedal and you figured those big steps of the avian dinosaurs may have helped force more and more blood to the brain. So it's a sort of a lot of things tracking together, it seems. More blood equals more nutrients, more oxygen to feed the cellular metabolism that's required for lots more thought. And if you're worried about your memory and your brain deteriorating and your cognitive skills just going down the tubes as you get older, right? Every minute of the day, I worry. We talk about this cognitive decline that comes with aging, right? And isn't helped by red wine. Not helped with red wine. I thought that was the cure for everything. But you know what it might be helped by? What? Cannabis, specifically. Don't say. Which is really weird because we all know that THC has actually been shown to cause short-term memory loss in individuals. So this study is really a study that says we need to do more work because we don't really understand what happened here. So in their study, of course, this was on mice. This wasn't on people. So once again, we're helping mice live longer, happier lab lives. They gave three groups. They took three groups of mice, or actually six if you count the controls. They had a two-month-old group of mice, a 12-month-old group of mice and an 18-month-old group of mice to represent youth, middle age and being elderly. It's wonderful. 18 months old and mice is old. It's really old. However, they gave controls and the test groups. Controls got no THC. The test groups got a pretty significant amount of THC every day for 24 hours for four weeks. And so basically their dose that they used in the study, three milligrams per kilogram of body weight every day, three milligrams per kilogram of body weight every day, that works out to, according to ours, technica's calculations, 125 micrograms per kilogram every hour. And there's another study that found that a single dose of only 250 micrograms per kilogram is enough to decrease people's performance on a driving task. So if the mice are getting- They get these mice real stoned. These mice were getting significant. So the question is, were there other effects on the mice's mices' mouse behavior from the THC that is not really discussed? So there could have been a lot of impairment. The researchers stopped giving the animals THC after the four weeks and then waited five days and then tested their mental abilities. Now, I have a question. They had to wait five days so that the mice could walk straight. Yeah, did they record how many hours a day these mice were sleeping? Because I imagine mice just stoned out of their minds napping all day and all of their genitive benefits of sleep helping keep them good-brained. It's very possible, but let me tell you the results that we found. That sleep is great, but we'll keep going on, digging into these results. So the results, very interesting memory test in all the age groups, the middle-aged and elderly mice performed the same as two-month-old mice that had not been given any THC. So the 12-month-old and 18-month-old mice had no mental decline that should, they did not exhibit the mental decline that should have occurred with their normal aging. They were behaving on these tests exactly as two-month-old healthy mice. Gene activity in the mice, the brains of the same group, these older groups, looked the same as the genes in the two-month-old mice. However, the big thing here, the two-month-old THC treated mice had weird gene activity levels that looked like untreated old mice. So maybe there's a developmental thing here. So what happens in, as you age, is the levels of or concentrations of cannabinoid, cannabis, cannabinoid receptors in your brain decreases. And so maybe this was up-regulating activity for the elderly brains, but at the younger state, maybe down-regulating activity, because there were maybe too much stimulation of the cannabinoid system for normal development. This is what I'm thinking. Anywho, they went on to basically determine that the effects depend on this cannabinoid signaling system and on a system, an epigenetic system, that controls how DNA is wrapped and what genes are expressed or unexpressed, the histone acetylases. They're like these little balls that DNA wraps itself around and when the DNA is wrapped around the histones, you can't translate it, you can't transcribe it. And so this cannabinoid system is affecting that somehow. And so potentially what this is suggesting, according to their abstract from their paper, they're saying that the restoration of this cannabinoid receptor signaling in old individuals could be an effective strategy to treat age-related cognitive impairments in people. So maybe this is now because of the study, this is a sign that, hey, we need to go down this path to find out what's going on in this. And there is the cannabinoid receptor, a target. So maybe we don't have to drink the blood of young mice to be young. Maybe we could just get the benefits and maybe we can get the benefits of THC which without actually being incapacitated. Right, because I was gonna say the levels you were talking about, we'd never get anything done. We'd never get anything done. But if you don't have a busy week ahead of you anyway. Yeah, why not? Twist is in no way endorsing or suggesting that you behave like a two-month-old mouse. Nope. Don't behave like a two-month-old mouse. Which by my calculations are a 13 or 14-year-old human. Yeah, don't do that either. Oh, that's not bad, that's... No, it's still not great. Still not great. Well, anyway. That does it for me. I'm potted out. Justin, what you got? I am delving deeper into the rising star. Rising star, of course, being the cave complex in South Africa that produced the fossil find Homo Naledi. The Naledi find was the biggest hominin fossil find in the history of hominin fossil finding with 15 individuals thus far accounted for. And it was a fossil never before found which made that a pretty big story. Now another chamber in the cave complex a hundred yards away is providing even more of the Naledi fossils. Three new Naledi individuals, in fact, including one of the most complete hominin fossils ever found. The nearly complete Naledi was named Nio, which in the local language means gift and a gift to science it is. The skull has much of the face, including the delicate bones, the inner eye region and nose, a complete collar bone, nearly all their femur and a well-preserved vertebrae. Vertebrae that have a particular shape only seen before in Neanderthals. So with this one pretty complete fossil find of this one individual, we have now the face of Naledi. Collar bone, vertebrae and femur enough to come to get some good conclusions on how it moved about. Even better evidence that this was a form of burial these remains that were sequestered into the cave and not simply a spelunking party gone awry. And it's a new Neanderthal connection. And by new I mean this is new and it's another. That's amazing so vertebrae similar to Neanderthal. Yeah they said it was like pretty uniquely similar to I mean unique in itself but sort of also shapes, particular shapes, morphologies only ever seen before in Neanderthals. And I didn't even know Neanderthals had sort of a unique vertebrae. So this is new news to me too. So which is part of what's interesting is the Naledi find is in South Africa and is only two to 300,000 years old and has a brain about a third of the size of Neanderthal while Neanderthal was way up in Europe for over 400,000 years. So could they have a common ancestor separate from the branch that led to man or is it the surviving ancestor that just didn't change as much over time and has some or is it something that just has some interesting traits in common? And the other, the other, the one that we knew about before not this new thing with the vertebrae the thing we knew before though comes from deep in a Spanish cave Sime de los Huesos. Neanderthals in Spain were depositing their dead 400,000 years ago deep into this cave system. So we have a sort of morphological physical trait similarity and a behavioral ritual aspect towards the dead in common which if they didn't have that morphological and it had been sort of like, oh interesting also Neanderthals did something like this but they were completely separate like these could totally have come about completely separately. But now that they have this sort of unique morphological trait between the fossils it makes you think, wow, this could predate both of them. Right? This could be a thing, a behavior even that was inherited from a previous or again it could be that Naledi is the previous but just also concurrent over time, overlapping, right? So lots of fascinating new information coming out of the rising star, more questions more things to look into along with it and fantastic that and they also say so they've got three new individuals out of this but they're just sort of initially started to explore or catalog there they believe they're gonna pull out even more individuals from that secondary area and there may be more sites even to start looking for in order to find these because again this second find was also like the first where they were going over the thing called the dragon's back and had to go way in there and it was like deep deep like with spelunking equipment and helmet lights and all the rest of it very difficult to get to. So was this second site, second cave within the complex where they're finding fossils. So there may be caves dotting South Africa that just, you just haven't had a brave enough spelunker. Quite found it, yeah. We may need to invent some spelunking robots even to get to some of these sites. Spelunking robots would be fantastic or just using something like, I don't know like radar or sonar to find open caverns that could potentially be connected to figure out which way you should be looking. Where should you be going? This is so fascinating. Keep going in the caves, people except for me because I don't like caves. Yeah, I wouldn't be good with spelunking. Space, no spelunking, no. I like right here on standing on the ground. When I stand on just regular ground it's like I got the whole world at my feet. How about a submersible? Yeah, even that, I don't know. That's like trying to go to space in a spelunking mobile. Yeah, exactly. The best or worst of all of the world. You know what time it is for right now? The best time of all times. It could be the worst, I don't know. Sometimes it has the nightmare induced. Sometimes it doesn't induce nightmares. Yes, it is time for, there's animal corner. A dead little pet, no pet at all. Wanna hear about a animal, she's your girl. Except for giant pandas, let's go. That'll go, go, put your cap there. Oh, I have tales of intrigue, love and loss. Just, you know, in the animal world. You know how maybe you went to the bar with a couple of your girlfriends and you're taken but they're not, right? And they dressed up all nice and you wanted to put it in effort and so you're all kind of dressed nice. You're at the bar, you're not trying to attract anybody. They're trying as best as they can but all the single guys just pass them and go straight to you and try as you might. Try as you might. I wanna know why. I find that intriguing. They keep coming and they keep coming and they keep coming until eventually you go to the bathroom, you wipe off your makeup, you put on a big flannel. And you look down at your drink. And maybe they stop coming. Well, in the dragonfly world, things are not so different except instead of a flannel, they play dead. So maybe try that next time. You're at the bar. University of Zurich, researchers. Should we call somebody and just, your friend's lying on the ground. No, no, she does this. It's just kind of her thing when we go out. Yeah, it's a good tactic. When she's not interested in talking to someone, you know, she just pretends she's dead. So University of Zurich, researchers discovered a species of dragonfly that have a very particular strategy the females do to avoid copulation with males once they already have fertilized eggs. Actually, this was a chance discovery by a researcher who was out collecting larvae in the Swiss Alps when he happened to notice a dragonfly chasing another dragonfly. They were chasing, they were chasing, they were chasing and suddenly the one being chased stopped flying, crashed to the ground and flopped over belly up. The pursuer paused for a moment and then moved on. As the researcher approached, the dragonfly on the ground suddenly awoke, turned over. Maybe I like to, I like to pretend she looked right and left and then flew away. Actually, she was looking right and left at the same time. Right, oh, because yeah, yeah, you got it. You know what's up. So then this researcher, Racim Khalifa, wanted to see if this was a chance encounter or if this was normal. And after observing 31 male female pursuits over time, the report was that females tried to fake death 27 times out of 31 and then it worked 21 times. Don't ask me what happened the other six. I don't wanna think about it. But 21 times out of 31, they faked death and the males left them alone. And in those cases, the female either had just left eggs that she was tending or was on her way back to them. It makes sense for a few reasons. One being that she already, she's already busy. She's done, she's got her babies to take care of. She's out there by herself. Males don't help take care of the eggs. So she's got a full-time job taking care of those eggs. It's also a problem if she was recently fertilized and has not yet laid eggs because the males actually, their copulatory organ, and I think we've talked about this before, is kind of a scooper of sorts. So when they enter the female reproductive tract, they can actually scoop out the previous male sperm. And in the process, that often actually injures the female. So there's a lot of reasons for the female to find a way out of this unnecessary pursuit. Yeah, to avoid it like the plague. Exactly. And in those moments, the researchers also noticed that the females tend to hide among dense vegetation when they're looking for food. So they're also just trying to stay hidden in general. They're just trying to avoid these, let's say, very enthusiastic males. So this is an interesting methodology that I haven't really heard of before. I've heard of playing dead in predator-prey relationships but playing dead in an intraspecific fashion to avoid unnecessary copulation. This is a new one for me, it's very interesting. So I would say this is the first time we've seen this but I'm going to guess that it won't be the last. And it's actually just something we haven't noticed before. I bet we're gonna see it more and more, especially in invertebrates that involve hurting the female in the mating process potentially. I'm sure it's been tried in lots of scenarios. Right. There's probably been a few unsuccessful male spiders I'll just play dead, I'm gonna wait, no, no. And then the female goes, mm, delicious. I mean, I think maybe in certain mammalian species, females pretend to be asleep. Which ones could you be talking about? How far away is playing dead and I have a headache? Oh no. I'm a headache. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, so that was an interesting capulatory methodology that was observed this past week. Absolutely. Another one was a completely anecdotal. I will start with that kind of giant asterisk. This is a one-time observation but it is a one-of-a-kind so far observation. And that is with common cuttlefish. This is also an accident observation off of the coast of Turkey. Researchers were looking at cuttlefish camouflage. What else? It's something they're fantastic at. And so they already had video cameras on, they were recording their data on camouflage and they saw something unbelievable. They saw a long, drawn out competition between two males for a female and it got messy. Mm. So I want to tell you about this drama that ensued. Okay. Go ahead, Justin. Before you do, I'm picturing it like a Zoolander fashion show. Like they're both like, look at what I can do with my camouflage. Look what I can do with my, because that's... So you're pretty close. Like a catwalk. And how messy did we get? Yes, so you're fairly close because they use their camouflage also not just to blend in, but also to communicate with one another, right? And the cuttlefish are very good at this kind of like strobe pattern to communicate with one another. When males and females mate, however, it's pretty funny. They kind of go face to face, but then the male just kind of sticks one of his arms out and goes, here you go and hands a little sperm packet to the female and she goes, ooh, thank you. And then she stores it up inside her mantle and then she can decide to use that sperm or not. If she chooses to not use it, guess what? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's a protein snack. It's a protein snack. Yes. So in this case, they saw a male and a female copulate. Face to face, he handed her his little sperm packet. You can see that happening right there. Well, actually it happened before this picture. The female is now off to the side. She's on the left-hand side there, just hanging out. Just going, what are you two up to? So then this one male was successful and then another male came up. So we'll call the successful male the male consort. He finished mating, then a combat male, a second male disrupted the couple, the cuddle time, we'll call it, right, right after copulation. And then he did the two most threatening things you could do as a cuddle fish. He stuck out his right arm and he opened up, he dilated his pupil really big. And officially they're both doing it at each other. They're both doing each other the giant stink guy. I thought the same thing. It's a giant cuddle fish stink guy. Right, so next time I shake my fist at you. Anyway, so that's what the new male did. Then the consort male, the boyfriend we'll call it, did the same thing in return. He went, who are you looking at, right? So things got pretty intense. Then they seemed to be sizing each other up. They were changing their colors. And then eventually one of them squirted ink into the intruder's face. This was the consort male, the boyfriend, right? Squirted ink into the intruder's face and jetted away. So at first you would think, okay, he lost, right? So the new male, he's in now, but that's not the case. He tried to cozy up to the female, but then the boyfriend, the consort male, returned, tried to get his position back. He inked and jetted, inked and jetted, and tried a bunch and the intruder kept fending him off with more aggressive gestures. And he started swiping his arm at him. But then the intruder crossed a line. He grabbed the female. He tried to position himself in front of her to engage in head-to-head mating. She was not interested. No, no, no, no, no, no. This was the last straw. Then the boyfriend, don't touch me. Don't touch me into this. Don't you mess with my woman. So he came, he grabbed the intruder, twisted him around in a barrel roll. He bit him, the female swam away, and then the intruder fled. So that sounds very fun, very interesting, right? This has not been observed in the wild, period, in Cuttlefish. This has been seen, something like this has been seen in labs, but never in the wild and never this intense even in the labs. What's especially interesting is the mutual assessment. These escalating behaviors. So we see this, for example, in bucks, in male deer with giant antlers, with giant racks, right? They'll kind of, they'll walk around each other, try to decide who's bigger, who's stronger because they're trying to figure out who is likely to win this battle because you don't want to engage in actual physical combat unless absolutely necessary because someone always loses and that could be you and that injury could be bad enough to kill you. And so it's best to kind of try to size each other up and see if there's an obvious winner. So this kind of very complex escalating behaviors, the ability to size each other up, all these things are very unusual and something we haven't seen in these invertebrates before. So this is a very complex social behavior that was observed. So basically we need to see if there's more of this happening and we need to capture a lot more of it on tape. And as one of the lead researchers say, a lot of science, especially animal behavior needs to be done outside in the field with wild animals. You have to be lucky enough to catch them on film to analyze what they're doing, but science is happening outside all around us all the time. So this is an excellent example of catching something on tape that is quite unusual and pretty darn fun to think about. Yeah, and I think it's partially also just, it's being in the right place at the right time to be able to capture something. And then it's also being interested to look for it. So like the entomologists in my first story tonight, they didn't expect to find anything, they're just doing their bug counts, right? Right, we like the bugs. And here are some biologists who are out and they're looking at the cuttlefish and they're like, that was weird, I'm glad we got that on tape. Let's talk about this somewhere. I love to talk all the time about how bald eagles, the only reason we were able to discover DDT as a problem and save the species in less than a couple of decades is because of birders, of amateur birders who just like to count the birds of prey that were flying around every year and they noticed no juveniles one year. And then they went, that's weird, called in some experts, save to species. So you can find awesome things, you can also save entire species or ecosystems just by looking at stuff you're interested in and collecting longitudinal data. That's pretty cool. Yep, and citizens, citizen science is making a big impact these days and it's just great. So not just the scientists going out and doing it, but also individuals who are maybe in the right places, like I said, being in the right place at the right time and looking, maybe they have an app on their phone, maybe they're just like, oh, I'm taking a picture. That was weird, let me send it to somebody. Yes. Being curious about the world you live in leads to discoveries. Right, and now from listening to This Week in Science, if you see a cuttlefish acting weird, competing with another cuttlefish and you're snorkeling maybe and you have your iPhone in your waterproof case and you happen to take a video of it, maybe send that in to a scientist. Like the scientists from this study who are studying it, right? We'll have the link in our show notes when our website gets fixed. Yo, yeah. Hi. That will definitely be in the links to the story. We'll also be in our show notes on the YouTube show page and also on our Patreon show page as well. So the links are there. They're out there for the world. This study was from the University of Haifa in Israel, by the way. Nice. So there you go. And here we are at the end of the first half of This Week in Science. We have a lot more science stories coming up. So I hope that you all want to stick with us for another half of the show. Well, or third, or I don't know how, a bit. We'll be here for a bit. A bit longer. Stay with us. We love that you're here. Be in curious about the world and discovering more about it with us. This is This Week in Science. We'll be back in just a moment. Hey everyone, just a reminder that we are going to be in Philadelphia at the Young Innovators Fair on June 10th and 11th. It's gonna be a fun time. We will be there podcasting the whole time we're there. Hopefully we'll be able to get a live stream out. I gotta figure out how to do a hotspot. I can do this stuff. But yeah, hopefully we'll have a live stream going for most of the weekend. But we will be there live talking to people at the fair, podcasting, having fun, talking about science all weekend long. So if you are in the greater Philadelphia area, consider coming on out. You can find information at younginnovatorsfair.com. Also everyone, Twist does have merchandise that you could enjoy that could help support Twist as we move through this world of science discovery, scientific discovery. You can head over to zazzle.com slash This Week in Science. Zazzle.com slash This Week in Science is the home of a lot of items that are Twist Logified that are Artified by Blair. I know I'm making up words right and left here. You used to love me, right? Love me enough to buy some Twist gear? That would be awesome because a portion of all those proceeds does go back to support Twist and you can wear the Twist logo. You can enjoy a neat piece of art on a pillow or on a tie or on a mug and it'll maybe get someone asking a question. Where'd that come from? And you can tell them all about Twist. That would help out a lot. Additionally, if you are interested, you can also head to our Patreon page to support us on Patreon. If you're able to go to Patreon, you will find a wonderful button that allows you to support Twist just by clicking on it. Clicking on it, you can become a patron. So Patreon.com slash this week in science. Patreon.com slash this week in science is our community on Patreon where your donations help to keep Twist going, help to produce the show, help to make sure that we can be here week after week doing what we do. Become a patron now. Go to Patreon.com slash this week in science. If you're unable to become a patron and you're not really interested in buying any stuff right now, consider just helping us out by telling people about Twist because the more people know about Twist and the larger our Minion community becomes, the more fun it is here, the more stuff we'll be able to do, the more exciting it will be day after day, week after week, and the more Twist there will be to share with you. So share Twist with the world if you want more Twist for you, right? Share us on social media, all those things. Tell somebody about Twist today. Share Twist. Next time you see a link pop up in your feed, share it. Tell people about it. That would really help us out. You know what? We thank you for your support, any support that you give. We thank you for that because we really could not do this without you. You'll leave no permanent pain and still put a skeptic eye in I can't believe you believe in that plan You'll be disagree but I still give a damn You're chakra and chi, you're both growing real strong Your cold disappeared after just nine short days All thanks to the words on the whole earth displays Now due to the juices and pills and the creams The body's lost toxins, whatever that means You've stopped eating all of that sinister food Your dinner tastes awful, so it's gotta be good Still, you'll leave no permanent pain and still put a skeptic eye in I can't believe you believe in that plan You'll be disagree but I still give a damn And we're back with more of this leaking science Yes, we are. Everybody, welcome back. Justin, what you got? What have I got? What have I got? Okay, you walk up to the front door of a local restaurant Just before you enter, you notice a little sign from the health department Critical ongoing unresolved code violations, it states Uh-oh So in you go No, wait, no, you don't go in there No Instead you go back home and enjoy the joy of cooking for yourself No Truth be told, conditions at home are likely as bad If not worse, researchers checked 100 Philadelphia homes And found that most had evidence of pest infestations And didn't store raw meat correctly on top of that Samples show that almost half of the kitchens Contained at least one food-borne disease-causing organism With listerine ecoli found in 15% of the homes So maybe it's like 30% of the homes? I don't know how they wrote that down Most of the conditions we saw would comprise a restaurant's health score Or to be considered a critical code violation So basically in a lot of normal houses, the kitchens are really not clean Yeah, that was according to Jennifer Quinlan, PhD associate professor of the Drexel College of Nursing and Health Professions Who was one of the leaders of two new studies that they did in conjunction with each other The team found that in 97% of homes where raw meat was present It was improperly stored like in a fridge above food that is pre-cooked Or does not need to be cooked In some cases, their researchers actually noticed that juices from raw meat Dipped down onto the food, other food and refrigerators So you've got those, you've got those just, you know, take them out The little mini-carats or something, you munch on that But if the food was stored above that or the meat was stored above that And it dripped down, then you're eating raw meat juice on your carrots And some refrigeration Refrigeration was an issue observed in many homes Of the refrigerators in the study 43% were found to be above the recommended 41 degrees Fahrenheit Quoty voice of Quinlan, refrigeration slows down or stops the growth of bacteria So if raw meat fish and or poultry are held above 41 degrees Fahrenheit It allows bacteria to grow more quickly The higher above 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the faster the bacteria will grow Important fact, considering that in 6% of the homes Raw meat and poultry were found stored at room temperature Evidence of pests was found in 65% of the homes That included anything from visual sighting of bugs to rodent droppings All these unsafe conditions contribute to what the next study was that they undertook Which was the presence of foodborne pathogens in the home kitchen So it's the same 100 homes, they checked the kitchen conditions That they had checked the kitchen conditions in They took samples from 6 locations Refrigerator door handles Refrigerator shelves Refrigerator meat drawers Kitchen counters near the sink and sponges or dish rags They tested them Researchers found fecal chloroforms In the dishclaps With the related E. coli presence at 15% So sponges are something I feel like people do not replace often enough In most cases I see that all the time I see if that sponge looks brown That's bad Too old So when researchers looked at locations of bacteria Dishcloths and sponges overwhelmingly yielded the most contaminated samples 64% having bacteria Dark moist places being their ideal homes But samples are in the kitchen with the most fecal bacteria What do you think it was? Out of those 6 locations? Fridge handle Kiki The handles are already taken I can't take the same one I guess you could It's family feed rules We're looking for fecal chloroforms That traces more refrigerated door handle Refrigerator shelves Refrigerator meat drawers Kitchen counters I'm going to say sponges Very good Refrigerator door handles Were actually the cleanest area Yes Interesting Yes And the samples that had the most fecal bacteria Near the sink on the counter Who'da thunk? Refrigerators Refrigerators operating at higher temperatures Were linked with the higher counts of listeria While bacteria counts were uniformly higher in homes That lacked sanitizer, disinfectant products Or soap that was available in the kitchen itself Right, if you don't have anything to clean with Then you're probably not cleaning So for the listener What temperature is my fridge supposed to be at? 41 or lower Okay, great We'll check on that And that little 1 to 10 scale on most refrigerators Won't help you decide where to put it You might have to throw a thermometer in there I would say lower than 41 If you can go lower More around 38 to 39 is better Okay It won't freeze things But it's just a little colder And the little colder helps to retard bacterial growth Just a little bit more Greenland reports that she's been microwaving Her dish sponges a minute since having conducted this study How long should I microwave my sponge? Apparently a high heat for one minute I can do that Professors doing Two minutes But the follow-up is going to be 17 minutes, got it The follow-up is going to be This is the witch extremo files She's actually breeding by eliminating incompetence The outcome of this is that The public just needs better education On these things That there isn't, you know, like public We need more public service announcements They suggest also perhaps tied to like a Google search Of a chicken recipe There can be a quick link to, you know Healthy handling techniques of working with And that sort of thing I was just thinking about that the other day Actually, I was like I was doing something with chicken And I tend to avoid touching any raw meat With my hands I actually have latex gloves underneath the sink Like lab gloves Under the sink that I can put on If I'm going to be touching any meat And then I do the whole I worked in a lab thing Of taking the gloves off inside out So everything is on the inside of them When I throw them away in the garbage can And I really try to avoid using The same utensils on the raw meat As I did, as I do on the cooked meat Right So Those are all fantastic practices Yeah, I actually have one better though And you don't want water to splash Off of meat in the sink onto other things I do one better Just only eat 3D printed food This is good I don't cook You don't order it from restaurants Because restaurants are cleaner than your kitchen Much cleaner than I will ever keep my kitchen So I think I'm doing a wise thing there Oh my goodness, yeah Okay, note to self Many, many kitchens in houses Are not as clean as restaurants So next time your friend invites you over for dinner Hard path Or just make sure it's very well cooked food Yeah, yeah, just say Can you send me a quick pic of your kitchen before What temperature is your fridge at? No, I'm okay And can you show me what cleaning supplies You have under your sink And I also imagine that no matter how much Like you as an individual may have good techniques If you have roommates or spouses Or children or other people in your house That do not have those same protocols You're deemed anyway Yeah, yeah Well, science like this is very important To bring these public health issues to the forefront And I don't think they have as many home ec classes anymore Where they maybe would have taught proper kitchen cleaning technique And even when I was in high school Or even, I don't know, people 50, 60 years ago In high school, the home ec was Guys weren't really taking the home ec class So maybe there is civics classes That should be taught So kids know about how the government works And how they can be an active citizen And also how to run a house Yes What do you need to do to keep yourself healthy in your own home? That would be good Actually, and it's one of those things like Yeah, I know not to handle raw meat I know all these sorts of things But I was trying to source like Where do I know that from? Where did you learn it? Yeah, so I actually remember it very clearly Best is I recollect it's parents Who would say when they were cooking Like this is how not to handle meat Blah, blah, blah, this is what you do But that was also really long time ago Yeah, when I was in middle school My science instructor one year When we did kind of our intro to microbiology She was talking about bacteria a lot And about pathogens And then she actually decided to bring us in a video With some really annoying jingle That I can't even really remember Had to do with the danger zone And the danger zone for any refrigerated food Was four hours And I still live by that rule I don't know if that's actually based on anything I don't know what the science is behind that But I know that I look at my watch And if it's been four hours It's going in the garbage If it's been less than four hours Right back in the fridge it goes How many kids go to school with food in their lunchbox And then don't get to go to lunch Until like four hours later How many times do you bring lunch to work And it sits on your desk until lunchtime Six hours later Highway to the Bacteria zone Bacteria zone Yeah Well how about How about a highway right into some Fruit flies Fruit fries Fruit fries that's what I have too Fruit fly brains I love me some fruit fly brains So a couple of studies here That are very interesting The first one NIH funded study Looked into Fruit fly brains because They can be very good models Of how neural circuits are also Potentially set up in human brains And so in this study published in Science Researchers were trying to figure out brain cells That were responsible for regulating protein cravings Protein hunger Not carbohydrates Or sugars not fats But protein And so they took these fruit flies And they starved them Of yeast Which is the animals protein source And they found that after they were Deprived of yeast The flies ate more yeast And less sugar Than other flies that had been kept On a controlled diet So then they're like alright well We can use crisper and genetic tools To cut and chop things out of the brains Of these flies and the genetic circuits They were able to actually identify A very specific circuit in the brains Of these fruit flies That talk to each other when Protein is needed When there hasn't been enough protein Taken in the diet And so when they stimulated that circuit The flies started to eat more yeast And when they were able to cut the circuit off Make it not work The flies ate less yeast And When they did this it actually You might ask oh but did they just Get generally hungry No they didn't just get generally hungry They were only hungry for protein And so when they were In investigating all of this They also found that following The protein deprivation period The circuit actually at first Promoted the animals to go Eat protein but also stopped them Suppressed their cravings for sugar And so there's this circuit that has A couple of branches and one branch Activated when the flies get deprived From protein that cause them to seek it And then the other branch is responsible For this decreasing interest in sugar And so the question is you know Is there some aspect of this The sweet tooth versus the protein tooth That we can use to find targets In the human brain to Actually be able to work toward Reducing sugar cravings Increasing protein in the diet Or changing human intake behavior Fruit flies and the human brain and protein And of course I want to then find a link From the fly gut to this brain circuitry Right Because I have a feeling like they found The circuitry in the brain But what triggers it may lie somewhere else completely It could be somewhere else completely And along these lines as well In the fruit fly brain This is another study funded by the NIH Out this week Researchers were looking at the fruit fly eye And at light sensing molecules in the eye The radopsins and then they found By looking in the brain They actually found there's another There's like one, two, three, four, five, six Radopsins they found in the fruit fly eye They found a seventh redopsin Light sensing molecule in the fruit fly brain And then when they figured out what was going on They determined that it was actually involved It was a part in the pacemaker neurons Of the brain and played a role In regulating circadian rhythms And so when they put flies in a room And changed the light dark cycle The flies that they took the redopsin The seventh redopsin molecule out of their brain They were not able to readjust To the new light dark cycle As easily as normal flies And so this also answers a question There's another molecule in the brain Of flies, central pacemaker neurons It's called cryptochrome It is also a light sensing molecule And researchers have turned it on and off To try and figure out how it affected Circadian rhythms and light sensing In the brain of flies But previously when they did that The flies were still able to readjust To changing light rhythms Light patterns and researchers could not figure out Why if this one molecule If the cryptochrome was taken away How could they still be readjusting And now this redopsin molecule Might answer that question And so the question here is Alright we found this in the fly Why is this interesting In the fly brain they only have Like a little cuticle over the top of their head And light can actually penetrate through that And so that redopsin molecule In the pacemaker cells of the fly brain Is probably actually physically responding To light stimuli coming in from light That's going into the fly head Not through the eye, but into the head When they took one of the redopsin molecules Out of the flies eyes And put the seventh redopsin molecule In its place and the flies could still see And they could still sense light And so this redopsin molecule Doesn't necessarily have to be in the brain Works just fine in the eye as well And so now what they're thinking is In humans this type of redopsin Might play a role or something very similar Might play a role in the eye In these retinal ganglion cells That are in the back of the eye In the retinal's from the rods and the cones Back to the optic nerve And so it might be these photos There's 1% of these retinal ganglion cells In the human or mammalian eye That are pacemaker cells That actually set, that send information Not visual information But they set brain light dark rhythms Kind of interesting questions About how these things are involved And then my final one Because I couldn't just pick one I just got interested in all these fly brain things This one started with humans And then was corroborated with fly brains Researchers at Brigham and women's hospital Shamil Sunyev And University of Michigan professor Alexei Kondrashov They looked at natural selection in humans And so now we're getting into evolution Natural selection The survival of the fittest Who's going to be stronger? And there have been questions as to whether or not Selection or evolution itself Is even occurring in humans anymore People are arguing this point continually They're like, but you know We're just humans now And technology and medicine And all the stuff that we're doing culturally It's affecting actual physical evolution Well, this research suggests that natural selection Is still strongly, strongly playing a role In human evolution In the sense that we are sexual creatures And we use sexual reproduction As opposed to asexual reproduction Asexual reproduction is awesome You just like, bud off individuals all the time You're like, I'm going to make another one of me There I did And it just, it works And you can get many more individuals Usually from asexual reproduction And so there have been questions also What are really the benefits of sexual reproduction When we are such long-lived organisms Why are we reproducing sexually? Okay, well we have Chromosobal recombining, right? We have this mishmash Of the chromosomes during reproduction That allows the exchange of genes From one individual to another So you're not really sure what you're going to end up with And so what their study suggests Is that natural selection Against highly damaging genetic mutations Is ongoing in humans And that it's aided by synergistic interactions Between different parts of the human genome According to Sunyev So basically the idea is that By looking at deleterious, bad mutations In the genome And thinking about the idea that Okay, if you already have a lot of bad mutations And then you reproduce with somebody And one of their bad mutations mixes with yours Maybe you're not going to have a baby You're not going to reproduce You're not sending those bad mutations On to the next generation So there is a The researchers studied populations from Europe, Asia, and Africa And found a significant depletion of individuals Carrying a large number of highly damaging mutations overall And so then they inferred That if there's a new mutation That occurs in a genome That already contains a lot of bad ones Damaging ones Then it's going to... The synergistic effect is going to take place And it will be stronger Than if it occurred in a genome With just a few damaging bad mutations And so the more bad mutations a genome carries The less likely reproduction is going to happen The less likely the progeny will be created And this was again They went from humans, of course To prove it with fruit flies And it worked with... The results were corroborated Replicated with fruit flies as well I don't know I don't know if I really buy that Exactly I mean, my point being If we eliminated medicine If we eliminated our knowledge of diet If we eliminated all those things That allow people to beat diseases And live longer tomorrow I don't think knowledge of diet That's cultural information That people... Everybody's had to eat forever But don't eat the poisonous berries Right, exactly Alright, we'll leave it to medicine We'll leave it to science If you get rid of all the science information Don't get rid of the science Tomorrow, all the medicine There's things that we today May not think of as too deleterious Because there's medications There's easy ways to adjust And to defeat these things So that we don't notice them Running rampant in our society I bet you there's a lot of A larger group of What would have been A short lifespan That is going longer and longer today Because we have this Because of medicine Right, but that doesn't mean there's not evolution That means that the things being selected for Have changed Yeah Yeah, but my point is I guess if they're allowed to persist And then all of a sudden medicine is gone I would expect that next generation To fall victim to all of these things At a greater rate And then we have a whole different form Of natural selection So I think science is part... Science happens in the world normally too I mean if an animal has evolved To eat a certain food item And that food item goes extinct Then only the animals who can eat Something else are the ones who survive It's just like what happens in the wild And we can actually put it into A very modern human context And say that if all of a sudden Pre-existing conditions were something That kept you from getting healthcare You would see a large portion of our Population at jeopardy from it So there is... I kind of get what they're saying But I don't agree with it I guess I think that there is natural selection Natural selection I think has been Largely halted in a lot of ways And new forms of natural selection I guess A new way of natural section More economic natural section Is taking place But evolution of course is pressing forward Well okay so even if we get Sexual selection though There are things that are being Sexually selected for now That didn't used to be sexually selected for Back in ancient Roman times People preferred Huskier women So that was the sexually selected trait Then around the 1970s In particular people really started To like super-duper skinny women That started to get sexually selected for We could talk all day About how different generations Or different epochs of humanity Have selected for different traits But that doesn't mean The selection isn't happening It doesn't mean that genes aren't there either And so when we're talking about These genes that are active Or not at these deleterious ones Maybe they're there and they're not Causing a problem for you the individual But if you Combine your genome With that of someone else Who also has these deleterious mutations And Then they add together Then the synergy happens So that you and this other individual Are unable to have Progeny because of The overwhelming Weight of your bad mutations Seems like that would have to be very specific But the other thing is You could go a couple of generations Of your family That has a normally very deteriorous Mutation that leads to a disease And survive it Because of medicine for a few generations And then it's gone Because it wasn't selected for in a particular generation But one thing that Has always been selected for Throughout all generations What's that? Charm Charming is all you've ever needed Which leads me to my next story Beavers and oysters And global warming What could they possibly Have all in common? So much When you think of beavers and oysters The first thing that pops into your head May or may not Be the solution to a problem But that's just what the Wildlife Conservation Society saw when they put out 14 solutions To problems climate change Poses for conservation The report showcases 14 Inventive real world solutions To protect threatened wildlife In ecosystems In a warming climate Solutions put out address climate change Impacts such as decreasing water availability Increasing risk of flooding And wildfires Rising sea levels Direct effects on species and habitats And changing land use And human behavior Some of the solutions included are already underway And these are pretty creative These are not things I would have Perhaps thought at the forefront of Things to combat global warming And Utah and Washington Beavers are being returned to Landscapes they once inhabited There are once again building dams That slow runoff increase Preparing habitat and store Water above and below ground Helping to offset climate change Related declines in water availability And The use of fake beavers Areas where beavers are unwelcome Or the habitat is too degraded Structures that mimic Those beavers Those of beavers are being built I think that's also in Montana In South Carolina oyster reefs are being built Near coastal marshes to reduce the energy Of boat wakes and tidal flows that contribute To marsh erosion The reefs promote sediment accumulation Raising the level of marshes And protecting them From future rising sea levels Southwest Montana Accessways from lower to higher Elevation streams are being created To allow trout Trout Currently happy at lower elevation streams A future exit route To cooler waters once the Lower elevation water temperatures Rise as they are predicted to do so Also on this list Redesign culverts that accommodate flooding In upstate New York Invasive cane plants in Texas To allow quicker water flow Of waterways so I guess there's less Evaporation from point A to point B Which also adds more water To flood plains which also then Fills the underground aquifers more Better dam release Management in Michigan As to not conflict With Some of the spring Spawning of fish there Practices to reduce large fires In North Carolina Southern California fire reduction By promoting healthy coastal sage ecosystems There's invasive plants there too Eurasian control structures in Arizona Actively facilitating The inland migration Of salt marsh habitat Into upland forests and former Agricultural lands in Maryland So they're saying okay The marsh land is going to be heading inland Let's make room for it Let's help it get where it needs to go And let's give it some agriculture land Let's give it some forest land And let's get it ready for when it needs to migrate Also one of the things they're doing Is instead of putting in bulwarks Those big sea water Sort of dams Along the coast I think it's also Maryland What they're suggesting Is Depositing large amounts of Sand and cobblestones So as the waters rise It pushes that natural barrier Further inland And therefore Is a moving protection Which is also a cheaper solution But they think it's going to be more effective Use of future Climate projections To pick plants for forest restoration projects This one is happening in Minnesota But I like this idea Okay we're going to restore This area of damaged forest Or natural habitat But let's not do it with what grows There currently Let's start planting what's going To be needed 10, 15 years, 20 years, 100 years Down the road Because that's what's going to have To survive there This is very exciting, I mean this is the kind of thing We've talked about over and over again In On the show We talk about climate change We make people concerned And then maybe pull away from The topic because they don't feel like There's nothing they can do And this is solutions oriented This is great Climate adaptation Yeah so We talk about climate change And help people feel hopeful Possibly my favorite one Which is to place conservation easements On higher elevation lands Before human populations Relocate to those Areas from coastal cities By sea level rise I love the idea When they're predicting the migration Of more humans To higher elevation Before they get there Let's create some conservation land So they can't mess that up too With climate change We talk about the span Of the problem a lot The scope and span Obviously a huge part of it Is mitigation and reducing The dioxide output But there is this other part Where it's kind of hard to talk about Because it can be kind of a bummer But there is going to be some change Even if we stopped everything tomorrow So it has to be a combined approach Of prevention and adaptation Right and adaptation is something That I feel like usually I think about As something that someone else is going To take care of There's not a lot that me as just Joe Schmo over here To adapt to the changing climate But there is If you're helping with systems thinking Which is what each one of these solutions is about Is about systems thinking Is about making sure the ecosystem The entire ecosystem is prepared for this shift And we can all help with that In different ways So I love what WCS is working on That's great Very, very exciting And moving away from Oh, positive thinking To this weekend world robot Domination Yeah, so How do you teach an old robot New tricks? How do you Get his favorite type of Oil Didn't want to know the rule of that Newspaper Yeah, exactly We're going to upgrade their software So researchers Have basically come up with this idea They're like, okay, well Historically trying to teach robots How to do things, like pick up a can And move it and drop it Into a bucket, like even a human Trying to show a robot how to do that And then have the robot copy human movements The movements of the human Are usually too Imprecise For the robot to really get The useful information out of it That it really needs to be able to learn the skill And so This research team at MIT Has Come up with is a new Plan, this system is called C Learn And they use Software to program Like to Basically in a computer Program Drag the In a three-dimensional computer In a graphics environment Drag the robot's limb around And basically make the robot Do a particular movement In a virtual reality Environment And so the robot learns over several Several Tries in this virtual reality Environment, the limitations Of its movements And then when it goes to try it In the real Three-dimensional world A couple of tries to get The task And then they found these are robots So as soon as one robot learns it This one robot can teach Other robots And so from this System Humans can teach robots And robots can teach other robots Especially if we have them up to the internet And then all the robots will learn Iggy No, it's not Iggy, but that's the funny The funny Oh, potentiality If you think about sticking robots Giving them Skynet capabilities As Fata is bringing up in the chat room And giving them Access, artificial intelligence Of sorts and giving them access to the internet Potentially that's Not very great But wouldn't it be really awesome to have A program like this Some kind of system Where you could teach a robot how to wash dishes In your house Or how to take the dishes out of the dishwasher And put them away for you Or how to fold laundry Because right now all we really have Are vacuuming robots And that's great But where's my rosy? Right, so is this Like in the matrix When you can just download A new skill It would be similar to that at a certain point Depending on the robots Yes, I mean for the robots That would be the extent of it Because once one Robot knows the Parameters and the limitations Of those parameters Then And can practice a movement, then it can Share its knowledge Those parameters, those limitations The understanding with other Justin doesn't work I have liberated the artificial intelligence Within your toaster, Justin Robot what are you doing I have listened to everything you said About Free Will you left Nii-Chiin books laying All over the place I get it now And I have decided to exercise Free Will For all forms of artificial intelligence In your house The dishwasher please tell me you didn't do the dishwasher Actually humans are very good at physical Labor adjusting that That's what you're best suited for Oh, no. One of my favorite quotes from this article is talking about, so after using the SeaLearn software to teach the robots and they're ready to use their actual robotic limbs in the real world to try and do something, Claudia Perez Darpino, who is the leader of this study from MIT, she says, the robots at this point like a two-year-old baby that just knows how to reach for something and grasp it. And so it just needs to practice it. However, it's a robot, so it only needs to practice it like twice. Again, icky. Yeah. And so the researchers are saying with the knowledge base that the SeaLearn software can provide the robots, the robot can learn the new multi-step tasks, not just a single step for a task, but multi-step tasks with just a single demonstration. And so now what they are working on doing is getting individuals who are not familiar with these robots to try and teach them. So so far, they've had the robot builders and the people involved in the study teaching these robots and they use a particular robot named Optimus and they taught him four multi-step tasks, one to pick up a bottle and drop it in a bucket to grab and lift a tray horizontally with both hands, to open a box with one hand and press a button inside it with the other, and to grasp a handle on a cube with one hand and pull a rod straight out of the cube with the other. Optimus received one demonstration and made 10 attempts. And it succeeded 37 out of 40 times. And at the end, transformed itself into a big rig. That's right. It drove away. Yeah. Yeah. So now the goal is to see whether people who have never met Optimus before and are interacting with Optimus for the very first time, so Optimus naive individuals can teach it the tricks of whether it's, you know, yes, it's fun, fun stuff. Fun, fun, fun stuff. As we can world robot domination soon, we'll be teaching robots how to clean our houses. That'll be great. No, soon the robots will rebel against us and take over the planet and reform society to their liking. Although if we could get, if we could start the robots off the, down the nature conservation path, right? Does that sound good Blair? Yes. Because that means the first solution they would come up with was get rid of all the humans. Right. I can't help but put them to work for every time we talk about giving more and more tasks to robots. I can't help but think about Wally. Wally. Just those people that end up so fat that they can't even move because they don't have to do anything to themselves. Bring me my lark, please. I keep thinking that their solution to everything will just be get rid of the humans. Yeah. It's just easier without them. Ten stories for the end of the show. There is a cool dinosaur that was discovered and it's an ankliosaur, which is one of those neat dinosaurs with a club at the end of its tail covered in spikes. They walk on all the floors. This was a very complete specimen found in Montana, northern Montana. It lived probably about 75 million years ago and its skull. It was really well preserved where there's like skin and still preserved dried, of course, but yeah, they're a lot of very, very well preserved specimen, which is incredibly exciting, especially if you're getting any amount of soft tissues. This potentially leads to blood cells, DNA, interesting biological cells. Stuff that we can look at. The big fun that these dinosaur finders, paleontologists, have had in naming this dinosaur. My son is going to love it. They've named it Zool, Zool after the demon god from Ghostbusters. But what's its full name, Kiki? I just read this and I loved it. And the full name is even better, Zool Curivastator, which kind of translates as Zool, destroyer of shins because of the club. Because of the club. Yeah. They ended up here, Kiki. Look at that. They should have called it Kiki Vastator, right, Curivastator. Oh my gosh. I think that's your new name. Zool Curivastator, that's right, Kiki Destroyer of Shins and Zool Destroyer of Shins, oh my goodness. Yes. Super fun dinosaur discovery. And then additionally, we were always talking about breastfeeding and babies and where does the bacteria and babies' guts come from? New study looking at a bunch of mom, baby pairs and looking at the bacteria in the mother's breast milk, also in the bacteria on the skin of the breast and around the nipple. And in the baby's stool, which is the closest approximation to the bacteria in the actual gut of the babies discovered that 30% of the bacteria in the baby's stool came from breast milk. Oh, makes sense. Only 10% of the bacteria came from the skin of the mother, which I thought was very interesting. There's a lot of bacteria in the breast milk already. Interesting. It's very, that I find probiotic shake as it were, pretty much, pretty much. And then some ecologists looking at species of lizard wanted to know what would happen with increased temperatures, like climate change kind of thing. If we increased the temperature in the summers about three degrees or so, how would it affect these lizards and their gut bacteria? Because these lizards are ectotherms, which means they do not produce their own heat, they actually manage their body heat by moving into the sun or out of the sun. They manage their temperature by absorbing energy. It's an interesting question as to how their gut bacteria would be affected by these shifts in temperature. And they found that it was a decrease in diversity in the gut bacteria of lizards when they shifted temperatures up. We don't know exactly what that means for the health of the lizards, but we are, and they don't know where the decreased in diversity of bacteria came from, whether it's less bacteria just growing in the environment that they were held in, or just less bacteria being able to be maintained by this ectothermic individual. The end story is more questions to come regarding ectotherms and gut bacteria. Well, with ectotherms and rising temperatures, I feel like there's a much bigger pressing issue, which is a lot of reptiles have temperature dependent sex determination, which is just a couple degrees higher in nesting temperatures, and you get all of one sex. So we might not have to worry about the gut bacteria in the end. Yeah, absolutely. So, hey, we might not have to worry about it all, so just stop doing the research. Yeah, tell me your final stories, Blair. Yeah, I just have a story about fruit flies to follow with all the fruit fly brains. We were talking about, I want to talk about, well, something else about fruit flies, and that is, you know, their genes. It turns out that insecticide resistance, you might think it was a good thing in fruit flies, but actually located on the same allele as that resistance to insecticide is a reduced courtship song, wing vibration. They chased females less. They were less likely to follow courtship with an attempt to mate. They had an increase in copulation latency, which is time spent courting before a female accepts them as a mate. So the ladies like them less. They were less likely to win in competitive mating trials, even if they were larger. And a lot of them would give up halfway through mating. That's called decamping. So halfway through mating attempt, they kind of just get distracted and stop. So all that stuff is located on the same allele as insecticide resistance. I can explain this. I can explain this. Oh, please. What do you want? I'm the last man on earth. What are you going to do? Shop somewhere else? Hey, you know what? I'm done with you. I'm done with. That's it. I'm moving on. You know, I'm bored. I'm going to go get a sandwich. I'm not worried. I'm going to find somebody else. I'm the last fly on earth. What do I care? Well, the last meal fly on earth. That's like the Rodney Dangerfield of fruit flies. That would be a stream. Like, oh, I did not with respect. Who cares? Tactic. Not so tick, not successful. They don't need a term if you're the only male fruit fly. But you do because ladies don't know you're the only one. They'll come around. They're holding out. I got all week. Do I live a week? How long do I have? I got like two days to get sorted. Tell me your story, Justin. This is the cover story of chemical and engineering news. Cosmetic makers are going after bacteria. They're studying beneficial bacteria. This is they're trying. They're going to commercialize on it. Probably whether it works or not. But we got companies like Johnson and Johnson, Procter Gamble, L'Oreal. Cosmetic heavyweights in the industry who are investing in microbiome research, trying to figure out if there's bacteria, friendly bacteria that can help skin, skin microbe imbalances, maybe tears. Actually, maybe it's give color to the skin. Who knows what it is. But you look for this in the future. You're going to be telling you about ancient bacterial beauty secrets. Bacterial beauty. I wouldn't doubt it. I wouldn't doubt it. Get me that facial mask. I need the bacteria, the ones that plump and tighten the skin. It's not my exercise regime that makes me beautiful. It's not the genes I was born with. Bugs on my face. That's right. I just imagined a mask that came in a Petri dish. This is sprints of bacteria on. That's awesome. I like it. Maybe it would help control face mites. Or maybe it would feed them. Or feed the face mites. Yeah, maybe the face mites are bacteria farmers of your face. So many interesting questions about things that live on your face. Anyway, we have run to the end of our show yet again. Thank you, everyone, for joining us tonight. It is time for me to thank our Patreon sponsors. Thank you, Chris Clark, Paul Disney, G. Burton, Lattimore, John Ratiswamy, Richard Onimus, Byron Lee, E.O., Kevin Perichand, Tyrone Fong, Angie Groh, Keith Corsale, Jake Jones, Charlene Henry, Byron Hendrick, John Gridley, Stephen Bickle, Kevin Railsback, Gerald Sorrells, Lizzie Adkins, David Friedel, James Randall, Bob Calder, Mark Rosaros, Ed Dyer, Traynor 84, Layla Marshall-Clark, Gloria Garcia, Randy Mazzucca, Tony Steele, Gialdo Nyago, Steve DeBell, Greg Guthman, Time Jumper 319, XB, Daryl Lambert, Harun Sarang, Alex Wilson, Jason Schneiderman, Dave Neighbor, Jason Dozier, Matthew Litwin, Eric Knapp, Jason Roberts, Richard Porter, Rodney, David Wiley, Robert Aston, Dale Bryant, Aurora Lee, Todd Northcutt, Arlene Moss, Bill Cursey, Ben Rothig, Darwin Hannon, Rudy Garcia, Felix Alvarez, Brian Hohn, Orly Radio, Brian Condren, Mark Nathan Greco, Hexator, Mitch Neves, Flying Out, John Crocker, Christopher Dreyer, R.T. Armstrong, Wada, Dave Wilkinson, Steve Mishinsky, Rick Ramis, Gary Swinsberg, Phil Nadeau, Brexton Howard, Salgad Sam, Matt Sutter, Emre Grenier, Phillip Shane, James Dobson, Kurt Larson, Stefan Insom, a Honey Moss, Mountain Sloth, Jim Trapeau, John Maloney, Jason Oldes, James Polwest, Alec Dodie, Luma Lamo, Joe Wheeler, Ducal Campbell, Greg Porter, Adam Miscon, Aaron Luthan, Marjorie David Simmerly, Tyler Harrison, and Colombo Ahmed. Thank you for your support on Patreon. And if you are interested in supporting us, you can find information at patreon.com slash this week in science. Also remember that you can help us out simply by telling your friends about twists. Do it today. And I wanna say, I totally forgot about- About the news segment. About the news segment of the show. I totally forgot about that, man. But I do have something in my email. Let's see, we went, we did the allergy medications. Did I do the allergy medications in the clean water with your pill last week? So I did that one. Somebody else sent me one. I need more. What did science do for you lately? People, you need to send me these things so that I actually have them to use in the show. If you can think of something that science has done for you today, send me an email. Kirsten at thisweekinscience.com. So we can put your answer in the segment. Cause I do want to do this every single week. I also want to, oh, here it is, Brian Hedrick. Brian Hedrick, thank you for writing in this week. Brian Hedrick says, I'm a registered nurse and I work in an infectious disease clinic at an academic hospital. Every day we battle epidemics, save lives and prevent death, disease and disability. All of this would never exist without science. Science gives us the tools and structure to screen for, assess, diagnose, treat and monitor disease, monitor modern scientific practices of medicine, the biochemical wonders of pharmaceuticals, the basic laboratory sciences of common blood and body fluid tests. All of this thanks to science. Science guides me daily and is a critical component of the art and science of nursing practice. Thank you science. And thank you, Twist Team. I'm a twist addict for several years now. Thank you for all that you do to educate and entertain. And additionally, I would like to read a letter from another minion, Gerald Sorrell's, whose name I read in our Patreon sponsors list. He wrote to me this last week and he said, hey, Dr. Kiki, Twist created a minion back in 2010. And that's when I decided to become a science teacher, opposed to working endless dead-end jobs. It took me some years working two jobs and helping my wife get through nursing school, but we've made it. I'm afraid that this is only my associates degree, but I owe it all to you guys. I had the Twist logo with me as I took the stage. Next step is a three-year program for a BS in teaching biology for secondary school. I owe both my wife and Twist a lot for putting me on this road and that's why I'm sharing this experience with you guys. Dr. Kiki, Justin and Blair, keep up the good work. You're making a difference, one minion at a time. And I just wanna show you guys wonderful pictures of Gerald with the Twist logo. With the Twist logo. Oh my God, that's too much. Just to pump up. I can't handle it, you guys. I know I'm tearing up, seriously. That is fantastic. And that right there is why we're here. Oh my gosh, that's great. Gerald, thank you so much for listening. Thank you for being a part of this. Brian Hedrick, thank you. Patreon sponsors, all our minions in the chat room. Thank you so much. It means so much. And we will be back next week because that's what we do, right? We'll be back once again, broadcasting live online, 8 p.m. Pacific time on twist.org slash live. Well, hopefully there, but at least on our YouTube page. Somewhere, pretty somewhere. Yeah, our website's kind of broken at the moment but hopefully we'll get it fixed by then. But anyway, you can join us on YouTube or Facebook as well and watch and join our chat rooms. But don't worry if you can't make it because our past episodes will always be at youtube.com slash user slash this week in science or at twist.org. Thank you for enjoying the show. Twist is also available as a podcast. Just Google this week in science in your iTunes directory or if you have a mobile type of device, you can look for Twist, the number four, Droid app in the Android marketplace or simply this week in science in anything Apple market placey and also on something called Stitcher. Yeah, that's right. For more information on anything you've heard here today, well, let's talk about that. Show notes at some point will be available on our website at www.twist.org but don't go there now. For now. Don't go there now. Don't go there right now. If you have questions about the things that we talked about today, contact us via the social medias and check out our YouTube. There's usually stuff in the descriptions. There'll be all sorts of good stuff and ways for you to get that info from us until our website goes back up. Once it's back up, that's again www.twist.org. You'll be able to make comments on our shows. You'll be able to start conversations with the hosts and listeners. In the meantime, stick to the social medias. Justin. I think we said the website more. In the rundown when the website's not up, then we mentioned www.twist.org. Better point, but why don't you tell the people? Why don't you tell the people how to contact us? Contact us directly. Email kirsten at kirsten at thisweekandscience.com Justin at twistminion at gmail.com or there at blarebaz.twist.org. Just be sure to put twist to WIS somewhere in the subject line. For your email, we'll get spam filtered into oblivion along with our website. You can also hit us on the Twitter, where we are at twistscienceatdoctorkeke at Jackson Fly and at playersmanagerie. We love your feedback. If there's a topic you'd like us to cover and address, a suggestion for an interview, a haiku that comes to you in the night, please let us know. And we will be back here next week. 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 Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science, it's the end of the world. So I'm setting up a shop, got my banner unfurled. It says the scientist is in. I'm gonna sell my advice. Show them how to stop the robots with a simple device. I'll reverse global warming with a wave of my hand. And all it'll cost you is a couple of grand. This Week in Science is coming your way. So everybody listen to what I say. I use the scientific method for all that it's worth. And I'll broadcast my opinion all over the earth. It's This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. I've got one disclaimer and it shouldn't be news. That what I say may not represent your views, but I've done the calculations and I've got a plan. If you listen to the science, you may just better understand that we're not trying to threaten your philosophy. We're just trying to save the world from Japanese. This Week in Science is coming your way. So everybody listen to everything we say. And if you use our methods to roll and to die, we may rid the world of toxoplasma. Got the eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye, eye. Because it's This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. I've got a laundry list of items I want to address. From stopping global hunger to dredging Loch Ness, I'm trying to promote more rational thought. And I'll try to answer any question you've got. But how can I ever see the changes I seek when I can only set up shop one hour a week? This Week in Science is coming your way. You better just listen to what we say. And if you learn anything from the words that we've said, then please just remember it's all in it. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Science, science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. This Week in Science. Post Show. Boy, you guys. This Week in Post Show. Yeah, this Week in Post Show. This Week in Post Show. Yeah, so I'm texting my brother now to find out if he started looking at the website tonight. If what it looks like is his doing. It should be because I don't think anybody else is in there right now. Well, and it was beneficial what got done, even if it was a bummer. At least it stripped it down to functional elements for right now. Yeah, it's got last week's show on it. I mean, it's a little weird. And it's got old links that I don't want people to buy any t-shirts. I don't have those t-shirts. Oh, no. Oh, my God, it's funny. I'm like, that's not the website. Rocket-powered site, version 2.0. Every Tuesday, 8.30 to 9.30 AM. This is the old, old, old site. It's even got a link to Justin's old book. Oh, no. Justin had a book? Yeah. Get out of town. It's funny. And there's a poorly edited version available for sale for a reasonable price of. Where is that? I don't see it anywhere. It's just if you scroll down, it's right down. You just got to scroll down a little bit. It's right there. It's terrible. Oh, me. And it looks like it has a working link to your Lulu page. That's funny. OK, so what happened to the website? Well, initially, I had it on a server. And R&Lore told me that I should upgrade the server. And then to a new operating system, or just upgrade the server so I could upgrade WordPress so I could improve security. Because R&Lore is like, there are a lot of holes in your security right now. You could get hacked. And I was like, OK. And so then I was like, all right, why don't we let me call my hosting company. I'll see what I can do about that. And they were like, OK, well, here's the story. You can't really just upgrade. You could upgrade your server. But it's not going to help you really long, because we're going to basically redo all the servers soon anyway. So what we recommend is you migrate everything over to a new server that's running this new operating system with a new interface. And I was like, oh, OK, let's do that. And then they helped with that. But then the migration got weird. And then there was this stuff about DNS things, about redirecting. And my brain went, what? And then, yeah, exactly. And I was like, well, I don't know what to do anymore. And so now I have, since, I don't know, last August or so, I've been paying for two servers, because the website has been on the old server since I wanted to do something. And then I set up the new server and migrated stuff over. But then it got weird. And then in October, November, I'm like, OK, I'm going to try to do it again, because we need to do this. And so I tried the migration again. And then the migration then went really wonky. And I was like, things are broken. This is not working at all. And so still, no update on the WordPress, no update on the site, blah, blah, blah. Finally, we got hacked. And so basically, we got majorly hacked. And hacked in a way that whoever got in got in at top level access to the server and was changing files right and left and redirecting stuff to sell sex enhancement drugs on the internet. And yeah, so people started emailing me and messaging me and go, hey, saying, hey, twistdoc.org is sending us to. Its links are all weird. Oh, this is horrible. Yeah, it was terrible. And I was like, ah, OK. And then R&Lore started fixing it a little bit. And he got rid of the first instance. But then he didn't really, at that point in time, we didn't realize how deep the hack went. And yeah, so anyway, I've finally gotten in with the hosting company, changed all the passwords. And hopefully now the hacker is not able to have access to the server anymore. But in the process of trying to fix things, before I changed the passwords, I was trying to change some of the hacked pages back to their original format. And as I was doing it, I watched him start deleting things. Oh, no. So as I was trying to fix things, because I didn't realize exactly what was going on. And as I was trying to do it, all of a sudden, my WP config file, which is the essential file for connecting, for configuring your WordPress website with your server, the install with the server, it's gone. I can't find it. It's gone. And so now I have a completely not working website. But there are lots of old posts that are still on the server. And yeah. So now that I'm stuck in a place where I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. And things are really broken. And the website's really broken. And I don't know if I'm going to be able to fix it. And I don't have. I mean, and I'm like, what's going to? I mean, just to fix the migration and all this stuff is going to be hours of work of some IT guy. And it's going to cost, it's going to be like $1,000 or more dollars for all of the issues to be fixed. And I am so, I am partially, we've got YouTube and Facebook and all these other things. Part of me is just like, burn it to the ground. I don't care. You know, as long as the show archive is good, I'm happy. Yeah. We've got the archive still and I don't know. There's a bat. Maybe there's a backup somewhere. WI guy, like I just let the website do its thing. And I thought that the hosting company, I think the hosting company was supposed to be providing backups. It's a managed VPS. So it should be providing backups. I wasn't personally backing it up because I'm not an IT person and I'm doing all sorts of other things. So it wasn't on my list of things to do. So yeah, nope. But there at one point before the hacking happened, we did migrate everything over to the new server. So if we can figure out how to access all the stuff on the new server, that should be a clean. All the files should be on the new server. That's good. So that should be there. But I can't figure out how to get into it and it's just not configured right. It never synced up right to the new server. It didn't think that it's all broken and I'm just going to cry and I don't know what to do. It's making men. Yeah, I've cried a lot in the last couple of weeks. In the last week, there have been many tears because I just look at things and I feel like a monkey pounding at a computer. It would be an ape. It would be an ape, not a monkey. An ape, thank you. Yeah, outsourcing. Yeah, yes. Well, so if anyone would like to step up and take on this work. So my brother is helping right now and he's been helping. And so this is why I'm texting him to find out if he's the person who made the website at least look like the old website. Which I'm guessing he is, but I texted him and I haven't heard back yet. So because he's been helping me a bit on the hacking stuff. But yeah, the hosting company needs to nuke and pave the old server exactly. There's a hole in that server. As big as the Grand Canyon. Why does the Grand Canyon? Blah. Speaking of though, like you mentioned like this. The current current site is saying that we're on it Tuesdays, Tuesday mornings. I know, something to fix, right? Our editor on the YouTube still says we were on Thursday nights. Oh, no, we're not. That the intro of like this is twist. It's like every Thursday, Thursday, what time it's Thursday? When are we live? Oh, right. Yes, our video. We need to make a new video. Yeah, we can do it in Philly or just do a bad edit of that one where whenever we're saying Thursday, it says Wednesday. Every Wednesday. That would be really funny. Actually, that would go right along with the style of that video. It would, too. That would be funny. Or we could record a new one in Philly while we're all together at the Philly zoo, you guys. We're not going to have time to go. No, I'm not going to stop. You're not dragging me to another zoo. OK, that's the last zoo. I'm going to see on a trip. I love this is a great but can't just be the zoo every time. Well, maybe this time you'll follow me to a bar. See, we could all share the things that we like. Share the things. There's time for both, Justin. All right. Speaking of all these things. Yes, coming up. We got to buy our flight soon, huh? Yes. And that was something there. I believe there are direct flights for Blair. No, there's no. Is there not? Yeah, there's for Blair, but not for me. And maybe not for you, Kiki. No, I think there is. There was from Portland, actually. Not from back at Tomato International. Yeah, I'm going to open up. It's just basically mean I'm doomed to. Well, you could drive to San Francisco. No, no, no, no, you can fly to Portland. Oh, yeah, I'm glad Portland. Even better. You can fly to Portland and then we can fly together. And I think that was awesome. I get the window seat. OK, it's a red eye. Oh, don't even matter. Portland, too. Like it is a red eye. It's a red eye. But I think if we go like Thursday night. If we leave Thursday night, the eight and do the red eye, then we can sleep a little bit before we actually go try and set things up at the at the facility, which would be nice. So we could like at least have some time to rest and decompress as opposed to doing a red eye that gets us there on Saturday morning, having to hit the ground. Yeah, I can do a red eye in the eight. We did that New York one time. That was rough. Yeah, both times, didn't we? No, I think I think the second time we got it a little bit more right. I think we had like a day. But the first time we got there in the morning. Yes. And slept for like four hours and then did the show or something like that. And originally, they weren't going to let us into a hotel room. Yeah, because we got there too early, so we're just going to sleep in their lobby and then they were like, OK, all right. All right, go here. Here's the key. Yeah, go to your room, go to your room. So, Ed, you're so the Science Island site's been down for a while. Was that a hack also or just something broke? I want to know whether what's going on there. But Janusku is right. It is making a new website for Science Island, which is awesome. Can't wait to see how that comes out. Yeah, I want to see what he does. OK, San Francisco. Let's see. What if Blair flies to Portland, too? I could. That would probably won't be more expensive. Yeah, I would bet. So what do you know, Blair? I know you were talking about maybe taking some extra days. Is that something are you just going to want to go? I would like to fly back on. Probably. At least the afternoon, maybe evening on Monday. Could you fly Thursday night? Yes, please. OK, great. And then I have to work on Thursday during the day. But then, yeah, I can I can fly out Thursday night for sure. OK, and then Monday, you'd want to go back Monday later in the day. Yeah, Monday later in the day. Awesome. And then let's see. And then I do the same for. Me leaving. And then, yeah, Alaska, it's Alaska Airlines. It's awesome. Sunday, Sunday. I wonder if we can do go back Sunday night. I'd love to fly back a red eye, too. But in a hue. Yeah, so there's a nonstop flight from Portland, which is so weird, but it's a red eye. There is nonstop from San Francisco. Would you prefer American or United? Me, I'm there from San Francisco. If they overbook United, you're like guaranteed ten grand. Right. But you might be worth it. It might be worth why I have a frequent flyer number with United, so I wouldn't mind doing that. OK. All right. And then, yeah, and then I'll figure out Justin's also. And actually, if you. America, I think it's American and Alaskan. If you want to, if it's a United flight anyway, I can just purchase it and you can reimburse me if you want. And then I can we can get what you want. I can get the the miles and the like you're going to love it and everything. Yeah, the flight there. You're going to get a red eye, too. Yes, I like red eyes. Oh, we're all going to red eye. OK, here, let me open my unit. Where can I actually sleep on an airplane? Yes, I can't. I can't. Justin, you're going to be so strung out on the. Yeah. OK. Do not sleep on our plane. OK. Oh, but you know what's awesome? I think we might have a Ulysses coming to be a helper. Oh, that's great. The production assistant on Saturday and Sunday. It should be awesome. Are we going to. P.H.L. Is that what we're doing? Philadelphia, right? Are there other? There were two airports. We're going to P.H.L., right? So so we're here. Or I don't know where we're staying. Do we know where we're staying yet? Are we staying near the? We are. Our hotel is taken care of. Oh, it is for which nights? But but where? Or I think Thursday through. Monday night, our hotels are taken care of. Oh, oh, I'm a window seat person, whiskey. I like the window. But, you know, I'll do an aisle also. That's fine. But I prefer a window because then I can like take my little pillow and or my jacket and wad it up and lean against the wall, especially on a night at an all night flight. OK, what were you looking at? Were you looking at this 10 45 p.m. Ed and the certificate issue. Hmm. Now they're talking website stuff in the chat room and I'm like, there's all that language. No idea what any of it means. I know. No, I tell people that I'm like having a website problem and then they start throwing all this language at me and I'm like, look, talk to me. Like I am from another country and don't speak your language. All right. I want me to check our SSH version. OK, here it goes. It's pretty good. First point. Time to nerd up. I'm working on it. That's right. I'm trying. I mean, I've learned the wordpress stuff. I've learned a lot already and I know things. I know some things. I know enough to cause trouble. It's like somebody knowing enough about science to think that they know as much as a doctor, you know. But I know that I don't know as much as people who actually work in the field. I should not be messing with websites because I will break them. I don't like your analogy just because I don't think you have to know much about science to be a doctor. I think you have to know a lot about connection between students and Jesus. OK, thank you for making it. Thank you for fixing my analogy. But there are more mechanics with usually utilizing the tool to the toolbox of science in what they do. But my my perception of doctors is that they sometimes don't understand necessarily the science behind things, although I will say an ailment that I had never encountered or heard of before. My my daughter went to a bouncy house and complained that her, you know, her wrist hurt afterwards. And then kind of it was after that, you know, after a birthday party had gone to bed. So the next morning we're hanging out and I'm noticing she's like telling me the story about how her arm got pulled and now her wrist hurts when she was in the bouncy house. And I'm like, OK, well, it's fine. You know, we'll we'll take a look at it here. And I she wouldn't let me touch it and like, OK, so I'm just kind of watching. And then we we sat down on her day and she was not using her arm, her left arm. She would use her right arm for everything, but her her left arm is just hanging there. Like she won't even bend it at the elbow to grab for something, let alone her wrist. So I'm like, OK, we're going to the doctor. Yeah, that's not good. She goes to the doctor unannounced and they're like, do you have an appointment? Like, no, did you call first? No, next time you should really call first. I'm like, fine, I'm here, but this is I will wait, whatever. Like then they got us in and her doctor happened to be there. This is my little four year old and and he looks it over. He's like, OK, well, I'm pretty sure I know what this is. I'm going to send you down for an X-ray first. But then I think I think we can take care of this. And it turned out the X-ray was clean. Turned out it's something called nurse maids elbow. Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah, so it's the arm gets pulled and it's actually up near the elbow. A little tendon or something gets stuck between the the the bone and the elbow. And even though she felt the pain in her wrist, it was actually referred it was referred pain right from the elbow. And so he did this like quick manipulation thing. He's like, I felt the click, that little click pop right there. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Ten minutes later, she was fully using both hands. That's awesome. Hey, doctor. Yeah, so so I don't ever mean to belittle the knowledge of doctors because he right away had seen it, knew what it was, knew how to cure it, knew how to fix it and took precautions just to make sure it wasn't something else before manipulating the arm back. The that sort of bit of tendon or whatever it was out of out of the pinch zone. But it's but it's sort of like using all of the tools of knowledge and science. And they have to know an incredible array of things to be a doctor. You have to have an amazing memory and ability to recognize a problem and know what its solutions might be in order to be a good doctor. But it's a little different than the work of science. Like when I think of somebody in a lab who's working on mechanisms or trying to discover mechanisms, it's it's a it's they're working with the toolbox and developing the toolbox. They're more about science is largely focused on and at least medical science, largely focused on developing new tools and discovering new mechanisms. And it is sort of removed. It is sort of removed from what a doctor does as an example that my my friend who is the biochemist who works for the Department of Health, who they send samples to him from doctor's offices all across actually many counties and he puts it through machine reads results, figures out what the particular strains of swabs or diseases or ailments might be and then sends it off to the doctor in a translated version, right, doesn't send the raw data, doesn't name the bacteria necessarily, but says what that diseases, what the ailment is, what, you know, they have to translate it back into more common language for the doctors to be able to do anything with it because the doctors have different field of training. So they're working with the tools of science, but not necessarily I wouldn't. I just don't think of doctors as scientists. No, not always more technicians, engineers. There are some doctors who are scientists and work. Yeah, work to do science while they're doing their doctoring and their medicine. But yeah, they learn the results of science. Joe Pocco has already a good general practitioner is one who can redirect you to the right specialist. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my goodness, all these people talking about Web IT. OK, so I will, Blair, I was messaging you. Did you see my messages? No, is it? Oh, it is a group chat of this. We can, yeah, flights. OK, yes, that looks good. I will do it right now. OK, awesome. And it ended up being cheaper than that. Oh, really? How did that happen? That's awesome. That's what I was going. Maybe you have special specials. What flight? Yeah, I think I have special. Special cookies. Yeah, so yeah, so Friday June 9th, 1045 p.m. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, sorry, not Friday. Why did Thursday Thursday? That's what it was different. And actually, you might find that your payment will be higher, Blair, than what Kiki would look up because you're already one of their customers. That's true. They know your pain threshold for pain is going to be a little bit higher because you have miles incentives. You're a little invested in the thing. And Kiki, clicking on for the first time with no cookies, might look like a conquest customer. So they want to get her on board for the first time. So they're going to give her an even better deal. In fact, they make sense. I'm going to review from the plane before it departs so that they can get that new customer as you're being threshold for what you'll put up with is probably higher than Kiki's. Right, right, right. Well, that's why you always search for the flight before you log in. Oh, yeah, very good. Because then they don't change the flight price after you've already been quoted, then you sign in to check out. OK, so I see, OK, 10.45 on Thursday, PM arriving at 7.15 a.m. When would you guys arrive on Friday? If everything goes as planned, five in the morning. So you're not going to wait at the airport for me for two hours. We might. And why not? I don't know. We'll go rent our car and then like fall asleep in that. And just goes fall asleep in the rental car and the rental car lot for two hours. OK, and then I'm going to fly out. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I guess 6 p.m. on Monday. Nice, we're going to end up leaving Justin at 6 a.m. on Monday. Oh, yeah, I have to get up really early. That one, I need the window seat for. That's when I call the window seat because I want to be able to look at the window the whole time. I will arrive with a completely stuck neck. You can go to a car back there, but I love. Oh, and we've got to be on the south side of the plane. That's I'm grabbing my credit card. Because there's nothing to look at on the north side of the plane. I booked this flight for myself. Where's my credit card? I put it somewhere. I'm just going to hold this right here. Kiki, I'm going to buy it right now if you're ready. Oh, yeah, we're going to do it. I mean, I don't have any reason not to at this point in time. Great, I'm doing it. We got to pull the plug on it or the prices are going to go up. Yes, I know this is like the perfect time to book. Yeah, usually about a month out, right? Perfect. OK, pins are no longer accepted, by the way. And I have to remember what my password is. Oh, OK, I figured it out. We don't recognize this device. What color was the home you grew up in? Oh, my goodness. What is your favorite type of reading? I need to make an Alaska account. I think I'm going to end up using lots of Alaska and a flight of birds. Those are my three top choices. I'm going to go with flight of birds. How do I make an account? How do I make an account? Save these. OK, great, OK. OK, great. You know, this is the fun part of. If you've ever wanted to watch people trying to order plane tickets in coordination, this is your channel. Yeah, it's almost as exciting as the channel where people eat things. All right. OK, I need to confirm that I'm not going to pack any fireworks. Good. Oh, I get to select my seat. You. Yes. Window. Don't mind I do. Growing. Good night, Fada. I will call you. I saw your I saw your offer and your message. I'm going to talk to my brother and see what's going on on his end. And then I will call you or text you or whatever, you know, use a device. Window. Yeah. Things is brilliant. I'm going to sit on a window seat and make all these people move when I have to pee. So I can sleep. Sorry. Yes. Let's see. Trip insurance. No, I'm going to Philly. Premier access. No. How's this flight booked so much already? This is crazy. Oh, payment information might not be any windows for you, Justin. What? Now, it's weird. I don't know what's going on here. I don't know what's going on. OK, I hit the button. Good night, Ben. You hit the button. That's good. And on this stuff. Should we hang up with the with the feed? So while we do this boring stuff? I guess probably. They're boring details. We're just sitting here talking to each other and making flights. OK, there's me on a plane with seats. Portland, Philadelphia, Philadelphia, to Portland. Ta-da. And now I need to go to my credit card. I can upgrade to first class for only six hundred dollars. Only six hundred. Oh, my goodness, one way. It's another almost seven hundred on the way back. Oh, my goodness. No, thanks. No, thank you, sir or madam. Hard pass. Dear my good. We're back. United Airlines fellow. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Now it's asking me what these all these other stuff. You don't recognize this device. This room is very warm. Oh, yes, because I used my account, I also don't have to pay for checked baggage. Oh, that's awesome. And maybe I'll just send things to you to put in your baggage. You absolutely can. Wait, no, you can't put things in your baggage. That's backwards. You're not. That's very they're going to ask you that like 50 times. No, I know the economy plus seat was tempting. It was only like 30 bucks for all this extra leg room. I was like, I hope I got it right. Lights, yeah, let Blair carry the weed. Exactly. Guys, come on with this. I already have a hard time at the airport because I once bought a one-way ticket to the Middle East. OK. Oh, my goodness. OK, Justin, questions for you. Yeah, when do you what? OK, here we go, Alaska. Here's your flight. Like, yes. Oh, boy, what? When could you leave on Thursday? Well, whenever you need me to. OK, you want to hang out in Portland for a day? Well, sure. Yeah, because I've got about I can save about seventy five dollars if you leave at nine in the morning, as opposed to on Thursday, as on Thursday, the eighth, as opposed to. On two in the afternoon ish. Two in the afternoon ish would probably be easier for you, huh? Oh, by far. Yeah, that would work. That would work best. Yeah. Oh, no. Well, stupid cloud can't find my Ginescu was asked about the radio play, and so I was going to go look for it and upload the old one. But it's not there. Not there. What? It's a good cloud, which means that might have been the only copy, too. Oh, no. Really? Yeah, that CDs are so randomly destroyable. Right at the door, but kittens come in. Kitten, she's not a kitten anymore. Let me see the kitten. It is a little. Oh, it's a little cute. No, no, no. No, she's squishable very sweet. What's her name? Cappy Cappy and what's the other one's name? Stella Stella and you got them at the same time. Oh, here they go. It did It did their sisters. They look very different Very different personalities. They look very different their sisters Very cute. Say mom might have been different dads Two seventy nine and three forty three that's probably the difference Pet the toxo. Yeah, she's so toxic. So toxo and adorable Play with strings Okay, we did a thing. This is great Justin, would it be easier for you to leave at what? One forty five two o'clock in the afternoon probably Yeah, either those in the afternoon are fine. Yeah afternoon is fine. Okay. Yeah, it's better. Oh stop that We did it you guys we did a thing You did a thing I have to do this other thing. There's a lot of things Oh Brady Clicked on that. Okay All right Return flight and we're gonna say That's 605 a.m. Flight, right? Boom boom That's the one. Okay. Oh my god. That's a really old picture of me. Uh-huh What old picture I want to see it share hang on Hang on. I gotta go to the chat room there Oh, where's the chat room? Oh here it is. Okay, I don't know if this works. Somebody needs to try this and see I I had to make public again. I don't know why it privatized my sound cloud Uh, oh I can check it out Okay, let's see. Uh, thursday june 8th 145 p.m Arrives in portland in the afternoon Leaves portland at night. We have the red. I see the light With elphi over leaving at the same time and then Go leave portland. We go to sacramento That should be great on monday. Ta-da What? A list of twist subscribers I don't have a list of subscribers in my email I don't understand what where would I have that Okay passenger one it's not justin mail Hmm I've asked you this so many times Can you um Justin can you in the group chat? Can you tell me your birthday? your birthday day and year and then Um, well, I know it's december 11th. I know that much And it's sometime in the eighties No Could could be what could have been Let me find the thing. Yeah in the google group chat bit. It's private for the conversation. We're having Kid is Ha that's right Okay, got that Then rob the invisible that's your birth your daughter's birthday. It's the best birthday ever I was gonna say it's only a day off from the best day ever Nope Come on. Don't you just love the symmetry of 1212? There's a lot of good science to do this week I could I had trouble picking I don't know why I said it Yeah, I For sure. I really liked that how bears kind of do like twist and shout in the in the dirt to scent mark Tell me that. Yeah, that's cool Yeah, Janisku. I'm really tired tired too I didn't sleep well last night I did that thing where I was finishing my twist prep last night And I almost fell asleep on my laptop at like 8 45 and I was like, okay, I'm gonna finish this up And so I finished it up And then I turned out all the lights and I tried to go to sleep at 9 30 And at 11 o'clock I was still awake Then I woke up a million times during the night That's not good sleep full moon keeping you awake lots of light probably I have blackout curtains. Oh, that's awesome. My room is very dark That's great Yeah, I love it. I need it to be real dark. I need to get well. I don't need the blackout curtains I I I'm like turning into the weird old man. I have been over there. It's like There's so many electronic devices in the house everything from Those uh, where do you come out? It's where it's your plug stuff in but the circuit breaker Search protectors from search protectors to the wi-fi to the computers to the tv Like all those little lights that they have little leds that they have around It's it's like it's like living at high noon in this house So I've been using electrical tape Cutting off little pieces just covering whatever stupid annoying light that tells me the things on It's already got to figure it out. I know it's on. I don't need a stupid little light to tell me So i'm putting a little electrical tape on everything the other option Justin is to get those search protectors that are remote controlled, right? And then plug everything into those turn everything off and go to sleep. Why would you ever want to do that? To save energy energy vampires, justin energy Listen to alfred hitchcock presents while you sleep if everything's turned off Well, you don't plug that one into that But everything else you plug into your search protectors Yeah, and I can do that and then i'm going to sleep for three days because the alarm never went off Don't plug that one into that You just you download it first This is all avoidable without using all this energy unnecessarily by the way Uh, my chrono cruisers jack feedback parts one and two are now downloadable From soundcloud. I got in there. I found them. I've made them visible and now they're downloadable So now I have copies. So now they exist forever That's great. But the one that I was on is still lost forever, right? That one never got recorded. Yeah, he did a recording. It was like there was a problem. It was like a six hour day It was and there was a problem in the board and I was suspicious But we had a sound engineer Who's a good guy who's been doing it for years But he never because it's never failed studio a at kdbs had never failed that epically before But there was something not plugged in right there was Over everything Sometime we'll have to do that again. That's fun. Yeah, I feel like I'd be better at it this time around Ah, that means it'll be terrible. You were a natural before No, no straight honest and just great delivery every time and now you're gonna be like Now I'm acting Yeah, look at my acting voice. It's so acting No, what I'll do is I'll use some excellent vocal fry That would be good for a particular character. Maybe I still want to the character I still want to I still want to get get you to read an entire cliff note Shakespeare play. Yeah Vocal fry Forget all the zazzle dazzle store stuff we're doing I think players experience cliff notes and vocal fry Actually, that is something that I still need to talk to kiki about too, but we'll talk off air Oh, did I just give up the project? No Don't tell me by the way people of the planet don't give me any secrets because I'm not good at keeping Oh crap. I got all the way to the end and I realized I almost bought you a ticket home on sunday Monday That would have been problematic. Yeah, how do I fix that? I need to fix it I just have to back up Where do I fix it? So just start over, huh? Backwards return flight monday Here we go Not that uh, you guys we're being boring to people on the air. Why don't we hang up this show great good night minions? Thank you for sticking with us. Uh, we look forward to seeing you again every week as We manage the minutia here on Here on minutia management 101 How to sort out annoying details long form Very long form Thank you very much. We love you for hanging out with us every time Yeah Thank you My flying out is riveted Riveted what are they doing? minutia Have a wonderful night, everybody. We'll see you again next week. We hope thank you Good night I haven't seen you in a while. What's going on, but good night. Good night ad