 A year to plan every year. I got a pirate hat this time though. Nice. Oh, it's very nice Very nice embossed. No, what's the word for that? Seasless I have made us live. Okay No, it's called the thing but my ear things gonna fall off my New beyond We are going to do show no is good show We do we talk science as we do you know I Like science science is good. You guys ready for a show We're here because it's time for us to start the show We start the show for my babies all my babies my science babies three two This is twist this week in science episode number 642 recorded on Wednesday, October 25th 2017 spooky science on twist so we Hey everyone, I am dr. Kiki and today we are going to fill your heads with Franken pigs shrunken heads and vampires of sorts, but first There's Clamer disclaimer disclaimer as darkness falls across the land the science hour is close at hand Creatures crawl in search of studies to analyze all that research Unmuddies and whichever stories shall be found will fill the airwaves with such a sound Anti-matter crisper pigs jumping spiders shrunken heads medieval leprosy spider scrolls Spread by scrolls give evolved microbes spider venom a world radioactive zombie plastic tombs robotic bees you'll hear real soon and though you might not hear it live Your mind will shiver hope you survive for no mere mortal can resist the science news here on twist This week in science Halloween edition coming up next With new discoveries that happen every day of the week. There's only one place to go to find the knowledge I Are the last two minions Stars she blows I wouldn't keep taking my hot Good science to all my see stress my sister's I do the science for my science babies Yeah, nobody knows what my character is unless of course they watch or orphan black if you watch orphan black you have some concept It's not perfect. It'll get there before Halloween. It is pre-Halloween Blair, who did you bring? Are you this evening je suis un chef de cuisine? Oh Yeah, yeah, tu fais le tu fais le nourriture et pour le manger. Oh, yeah J'aime beaucoup les I can't I can't think of anything Justin's a pirate as I'm sure you Thought I was a minute man today. Can I mess this up again? You you are you are Didn't they are didn't the Minutemen are I don't know I was using the evidence All right, everyone welcome to another show we have all sorts of science ahead for you some of it's scary I mean it all depends on your perspective. I don't think any of it's scary, but we are here. I have stories about Franken pigs Bacteria doing what they want doing what they do and also Something we just don't understand. It's a mystery Justin, what do you have for us? I've got radioactive zombie plastic medieval leprosy squirrels and why a wandering mind is a good thing to have Oh also Robo bees. I Really don't want any medieval leprosy squirrel. No, this is my worst nightmare This really is Halloween. I know squirrels player leprosy squirrels And Blair what is in the animal corner I've got spiders and shrunken heads and Also, let's see virtual reality pain The future is not so bright is it everybody Or it might be I don't know any who we've got a lot of stories coming up everyone Twiso ween is in full effect And as we jump into our new favorite segment of the show I want to remind everyone that they can subscribe to the twist podcast on itunes on Google plays Podcast portal stitcher-spreaker to NIN wherever you find fantastic podcasts around the world You will find us you can also find us searching on YouTube and Facebook Just look for this week in science. You can also go straight to the source at twist.org We also at twist.org have our 2018 calendar available for pre-ordering so twist.org We got calendars Blair drew them They're so cute and I think it's a coloring calendar. I can't wait Can't wait. So anyway, let's jump into this weekend. What has science done for me lately? This one's a short one, but it is absolutely true Minion Seldon McCabe wrote in to say it allowed me to share my experience at Eclipse totality with my online friends and he shared the link to a video Which I will share on our web page and in our description notes on YouTube and Facebook and elsewhere So that you too can experience the awe and wonder and the joy of The Eclipse that Seldon McCabe and his friends experienced at totality It's true. I didn't Blair you and I didn't really do much of this the live streaming or the recording I put my camera away Yeah, I mean totality. Yeah, I have my whole life to see pictures of eclipses and this was my one Potentially only chance to see it in real life and I really I'm really thankful to people that took the time to do it But I really didn't want a screen in between me and what was happening Plenty of versions of that to see Yeah But the thing is there are versions of it everyone who did take video of those two minutes ish of the eclipse this past summer Everyone who did was able to share it with people around the world where the eclipse was not happening Yes, so it'd be it took something that was a very unique local experience and turned it into a global one Absolutely. Yeah, and I know that at at the zoo They had tried to have an eclipse viewing party, but they fought it was fogged out They couldn't see anything so instead they live-streamed footage of the eclipse happening and they were still able to participate and additionally, thank you science physics cosmology astrophysics for letting us know how a heliocentric solar system works and a Spherical or oblate spheroid body such as the earth how it might rotate in space Canted at an angle like towards the Sun with its own satellite Moving around that could occasionally in a predictable manner Block the view of the Sun So hey science for being able to predict where we should be to see that That is science. There we go. There we go Yeah All right, everyone remember we need to keep filling this segment of the show up with your stories your Your ideas about what is important about what science does for you? What has it done for you lately leave us a message on our Facebook page Facebook comm slash this week in science And I will schedule it to be read, you know what there's a limerick coming up in a few weeks Someone wrote a Yes Someone great is present of all the challenge was accepted blur there more send more Yes, please send more everyone We are waiting for your stories to fill this part of the show and let's move into the science So should I get just just you want franken pigs or do you want a mystery? I like them both Give me the pigs Okay Demanding more pigs in the kitchen this chef wants more piggies. I wonder why So let's talk about how these piggies may affect our cuisine coming up in Ziff you chair Huh way if Americans can get around the GMO aspect of this in fact, however Researchers publishing in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used CRISPR cast 9 to Help pigs lose weight and Right so we like the nice fatty pigs the fat marbling the meat because of that it adds The flavor for those people who are not vegetarians and do eat the bacon and the ham and the all the things that come from the pigs However This research they don't think that they're affecting fat deposition within muscle What they were focusing on is specifically a particular protein called uncoupling protein one or UCP one And this is responsible for something I've talked about before on the show called Brown brown or brown adipose tissue mediated thermogenesis So we have two types of fat in our bodies. We have white fat and we have brown fat White fat is for energy storage brown fat can actually burn the energy inside of it and Use it as a form of heat for thermal regulation. So Pigs I did not know this pigs have a problem thermo regulating They don't keep themselves warm when it's cold, which is why they lay down so much fat So pigs get really fat. They have a big layer of white fat because their bodies don't do really good at this natural heat production and so they insulate instead and Farmers ranchers who ranch pigs actually have to invest in cold climates in Heating to keep their pigs warm So there's an energy cost an energy outlay in order to ranch pigs normally So these researchers thought well, what if we could adjust or insert actually this UCP one gene into The pig and get it working so that the pigs could thermo regulate How could this affect pig ranching down the line? And so they're like gave it a shot they use CRISPR-Cas9 and they did this they inserted mouse UCP one into the UCP one locus in the pigs the porcine endogenous UCP one locus and the resultant pigs Had a better ability for thermal regulation They had less fat on their bodies and they had an increased lean percentage So more lean muscle so Hopefully I guess everyone's hoping that it won't affect the flavor of the meat and the marbling in the meat and the fat That gets into the meat itself and make that too lean But in the long run this could be something that is a big jump forward for the pig ranching industry You wonder what the cost benefit is if you lose You lose weight on the pigs So you you lose money from the individual pigs or meat But you're gaining money from not having to have the heater on Mm-hmm. I wonder which would actually win out much. Yeah We'll have a bunch of dead pigs in the morning if we just leave the heat off It's got it. We got it. Thanks for you know, how do you know how much? Like if your pigs are happy like you're gonna have to the fatty pigs anyway, huh? Yeah, so in in this it's pretty interesting. They the average so according to the study The fat was about 15 percent versus 20 percent in unmodified Unmodified controls so it all lost about five percent of their of their fat the average percentage of lean meat Increased three percent from about 50 percent to 53 percent So it's not significant. These are happy little pigs Happy little happy little pigs becoming happy little bacon Someday more bacon crisper bacon crispier bacon Yes, there's something there, you know, okay now moving on to the mystery This is a mystery of the universe We've had interviews before we've talked before and in fact earlier this year I talked about a study that was investigating the differences between the proton and the anti proton Now the reason somebody would look a physicist would look at the differences between a proton and an anti proton is That we have a universe made up of matter There's anti matter too, but when anti matter and matter connect when they bump into each other They annihilate So Looking so far there don't seem to be there haven't been any differences found in between anti matter and matter and So people have been wondering they're like How come we have a universe? How is it even possible that we have a universe? Why didn't why didn't it annihilate? There was asymmetry somewhere in the very beginning that allowed matter to dominate and we still don't know why and so Researchers are still trying to figure out step by step What happened so physicists at CERN in Switzerland looking again at the proton and the anti proton They trapped anti protons within a magnetic field and Held them there. It's a it's a special kind of trap For for anti matter. It's called a penning trap It uses magnetic and electric fields to hold these particles in place So they don't touch anything because if they touch something they get destroyed, right lost their study material Yeah, so they have to trap these things and so they trap them in the penning traps and they used two traps To make the most perfect anti matter chamber ever And they held the anti protons for 405 days That's over a year They trapped these protons anti protons for over a year and they measured and measured and measured trying to find something that's called the magnetic moment But in the case of the anti matter the anti proton it's the anti magnetic moment and this is the number that measures How this proton this particle reacts to a magnetic force how how strongly attracted it is to a magnetic force And so they've measured this for protons previously and now They measured it for anti protons They have a value of minus 2.7928473441 micro newtons Or it's a it's a nuclear magneton A nuclear magneton Minus 2.7. Anyway It's negative That's the only difference from the proton It matches exactly The way that the anti proton is attracted or reacts to a magnetic force is exactly the same but opposite To a proton So still we have no idea why the universe is here still Over a year of testing almost a year and a third of testing and No clue no idea No idea and so studies are uh going to be booted up at alpha At cern it's another experiment experimental chamber And they're going to be studying gravity and anti matter to see what kind of effects gravity have And you know if gravity pulls matter Down or toward it will anti matter be repelled Does anti matter fall up? Yikes magnetism, but not maybe gravity, but I do love the I love the title of this so much Title of this paper universe Shouldn't exist cern physicists conclude. Yep. That's just Cern shouldn't exist We shouldn't exist. Well, it's not that we shouldn't exist. It's just we don't know What makes the difference at this point in time? We haven't figured out How matter dominated if all the measurements up to this point. We haven't made all the measurements yet. That's the thing We have to make all the measurements to figure out. What is the factor? What parameter leads to asymmetry? That's what we need to figure out I don't know Nothing related to the physical Particles of anti matter at this point in time Have us coming up with any conclusions. So It's a mystery We shouldn't exist be sure to tell children that On this filling halloween Children the rules of the universe. Tell us we shouldn't exist Be here think about that when you're going to bed small child Why can't you sleep because we shouldn't exist or stony person? Anyway This is this week in science Justin, what did you reported in the journal of medical microbiology? They identified a strain of mycobacterium leprae The bacteria that causes leprosy an ancient dna extracted from a female skull Discovered in england around suffolk area through radiocarbon dating a team of researchers confirmed that the women lived between 885 and 1015 ad They took shavings of bone from the skull in order to extract the dna and they also there detected the bacteria That causes leprosy the women from hoxen is one of a growing number of medieval leprosy cases identified in human remains Found in around east anglia in the early medieval or norman ish period researchers suggest an explanation For the prevalence of leprosy in the area may be found in the medieval trade Possibly fur which would have included one animal known to carry the disease even to this day Squirrels You just made blairs so happy Yeah, no, it's just proving my point. They can't be trusted No There's there may be a good reason. There may be good historical reason blair Uh for us to be wary of squirrels. See what have I been telling you all? This is uh disfiguring diseases likely have had a severe impact on this particular woman They could find all sorts of visible damage to the skull Uh that She probably had extensive facial lesions And is likely to have suffered nerve damage all the way out to extremities Analysis of the bacteria revealed that the women from hoxen have been infected with the same strain of leprosy already identified in skeletal remains Found for man and great chesterford who lived as early as 415 to 545 ad suggesting That the leprosy had persisted for hundreds of years In the southeast of britain Sarah inskip research associate st. John's college cambridge lead author of the paper said This new evidence coupled with the prevalence of leprosy hospitals in anglia from the 11th century onwards adds weight to the idea That the disease was endemic to the region earlier than other parts of the country Same strain of less leprosy has also been identified in skeletal remains of medieval denmark in sweden And the study author suggests North sea trade links with scandinavia may offer an explanation for the apparent prevalence of the disease In both places it's possible that this strain of leprosy was proliferated In the southeast of england by contact with highly prized scroll pelt and meat, which was traded by the vikings At the time this woman was alive. So it's one of those things you don't know about vikings We're really into squirrel meat apparently Yeah, so there's a catch squirrels are prolific Squirrels like nuts. I don't know Well, uh, last case of human leprosy in case you're afraid of going uh to the uk now Uh, the british isles was over 200 years ago But a recent study this is like just a couple of years ago demonstrated that leprosy infection in red squirrels and brown sea squirrels and an island dorset persist to this day and The disease that affects those squirrels is uh, very closely related to that detected from the woman from hoxney So See, so what did we learn from this? Stay away from squirrels Yeah, it's the it's the same strain that infects only one other animal based source of this is known to exist And that is armadillos That's that's it the nine banded armadillo, which is caused leprosy cases in florida Hashtag fun fact Yeah, right Oh my gosh, uh, so one of the things that is in terms of the uh, denmark in sweden cases it is questionable This is uh in skip again. It is questionable. How long the bacteria could have survived on fur or meat But it's notable that squirrels were also sometimes kept as pets barf So squirrels are smart. I could see how that could happen. They're cute and fluffy and Oh, yeah pet squirrels Yeah, I mean if you're coming across as blair has said, uh, if you come across a squirrel in a park Just really tamp down that That urge to feed the squirrels don't feed wild animals don't feed wild animals Here's one of the reasons why not advisable. Let me show my daughter. She chases squirrels. She's like She thinks the squirrel will chase it and right up the tree and sometimes squirrels turn around and chase you back For real She probably just tried to catch it. So but now that I know she can get leprosy from a squirrel. Who knew tamp that down Yeah, but that's in england Not here, right? Yeah, I don't know. I haven't I haven't looked for it So but i'm gonna assume all squirrels cause leprosy from now on It's just a safe way to do it. They can get you sick whether it's leprosy or not. They could carry other things too So it's just a good idea Not to feed wild animals that are not super scared of humans that have sharp pointy teeth Ed from kinetic it says that his grandfather ate squirrels stew And roadkill in rural main is how they shop for meat Eww Yikes, leave leave the roadkill alone people It's not a federal offense Yeah, don't mess with the roadkill Don't feed the squirrels. Don't get leprosy from the squirrels by not messing with the squirrels Yeah This is this weekend science and do you know what time it is it's time for blairs animal corner Giant panda But you got Blair I have shrunken heads Uh, not the kind that you would find in a voodoo shop, but instead the shrink in the second hand store That was right Yeah, there's a whole song about that isn't there which doctor and anyway, uh, red tooth shrews Wow alive Have heads that shrink This is like an actual individual animal whose head entire head shrinks Gets large again and shrinks again as a seasonal adaptation To winter I can do that watch watch and this is not This is not a teeny tiny amount of shrinking This is 20 percent Way to say yes So this all started with an early study Looking at the population level so they were just catching random shrews Measuring their brain case. They found that the height of the brain case declined by 20 percent and then increased again in the spring by 15 percent They created a name for this weird phenomenon After the first person who reported the observation the denel phenomenon d-e-h-n-e-l But this new study which is from, uh, the max plank institute for ornithology Germany which is yeah because birds no the the thing is we've no this is part of the work that I did in grad school Oh, let's hear it birds hippocampuses grow During the fall so they birds that migrate birds that migrate and birds that store food have changes in regions of their brain But then does it so it grows? Does it shrink again? It does. Yes. So a bird that stores food In the end of the summer in the fall the brain starts growing and the birds start storing food Okay, and then they survive on that food over the winter and into the spring and then it's mating season and their brains shrink Okay, so this is not so bizarre. I was reading this study and this is mammals. This is mammals We're losing my mind Okay, because so okay, so it all started with this original study looking at the population level just grabbing random shrews This new study actually takes specific shrews They follow individuals over the course of seasons So from the summer of 2014 into fall of 2015 they captured a shrew They anesthetized it. They x-rayed their skull and implanted a microchip. So this was this was not just brain case size this was they were really looking at the size of their brain the size of their skull everything and They found that the head shrank over the course of the season And then they also showed regrowth in spring They are still not sure what the cause of this is They also found that their entire body shrinks in the winter Their spine gets shorter their organs lose mass But their brain mass is the thing that decreases by 20 to 30 percent imagine losing a third of your brain I Can't Imagine so shrews don't migrate or hibernate in winter, but they live in some pretty cold places So the idea is because they have high metabolisms. They have a very high energy demand that that They they're decline in brain size Actually helps them need less food because the brain is so energetic I think what I see is actually a bit of a feedback loop Because what does your body do at starvation? It starts to eat its own organs, right? So Potentially their body is burning this stuff for energy and at the same time reducing the need for more energy Because they've burned brain So that that would be my hypothesis is that it's actually kind of a one-two punch but They are saying that it looks like The evidence points to the fact that the cranial structures are reabsorbed and then they regenerate bone tissue. It just seems So crazy But this is every single individual that they measured this happened to this was not something that it was just the bigger ones That was the original explanation was that because of population dynamics It was um, actually the big ones were dying so the average decreased No, it's every single shrew Their brain shrinks their entire head shrinks That's wild and it's also wild because it's such a strange thing and why have we not seen this before so Why have we not seen this before and what is happening measuring it? I mean, it's all it is is asking the right question These shrews are like this big they're like smaller than the palm of your hand So you could see how an untrained eye it's not like Elephant heads are shrinking by 20 percent. That would be very obvious We would think we would notice this little fuzzy shrew that hides underground most of the time anyway Of course, it's going unnoticed if we're not measuring it What I would be very interested to see is if it is Just a product of starvation Or if there is a hormone trigger that makes it start happening before they actually start starving And if you stopped it what would happen to their body? Would their would their brain grow each spring if it didn't shrink in the winter? So so this was a This was a field study, right? They were all this is a field study So they're retrapping individuals over seasons measuring them putting them back in the wild And seeing, you know, who lasted what who what anyway, yeah, what you're suggesting doing is starving shrews Bringing for science for science bringing for science bringing shrews into the lab This is this is the study that needs to be done. You bring shrews into the lab And you basically have a year-long study. Some of the animals are on a regular schedule with normal food Others get food deprivation springtime. Others get food deprivation in fall, right? There you go. That's what I need to do Yeah, and what the researchers and then they can follow hormone levels through the entire time Yeah, yeah, and what the researchers want to do next which is not what I suggested Is they actually want to know if the process affects cognitive abilities, which is a great question And they also want to know structurally in the brain what happens as the head shrinks. So Is it the same in every shrew or is it different what part of the brain gets eaten up? These are great questions, but this bizarre phenomenon Has huge avenues of research just asking to be explored And and it's pretty bizarre, but we we've also seen this and reported on this in dinosaurs where we we weren't looking at brain size obviously, but um That part of the problem with morphology was that you were identifying Dinosaurs based on cranial Formations and what they found was a lot of these for these these different species turned out to be the same species that in a lifetime will grow a a bit of skull or horny bit here and then reabsorb it and it will be gone as they get older and You know, so so there have been some pretty interesting Uh strategies in information of skull over the over the years We just just not just not wait. I haven't I haven't seen any one of these strategies survive Yeah, uh, we get to this shrew right that's actually changing morphology Just try to bring this to an animal that you can kind of think of a little more Uh, you have more familiarity with like a dog imagine your dog But a quarter to a third of their head size gone their head shrinks down but their body Their body also shrinks a little bit, but not as much as their head and then It comes back every year I was already just picturing this in people like how well that's a whole another barrel of fish, but uh, yeah A pretty weird stuff shrunken heads and then moving on to Spiders I like spiders Um, people think they're scary. I guess yes. Yes, that's true Um, but it wouldn't be Blair's animal corner without um some spiders on halloween But I particularly you know want to talk about this guy. That's not scary Look at this little fun lady. This is a jumping spider the cutest of the spiders I just want macro pictures of jumping spiders all over my home someday Um, if I were with their eyes staring at you and yeah, if I were kids and their friends come over they're just like Where are we? Anyway, um, so jumping spiders Um, so jumping spiders are of course famous for um, mating displays the peacock jumping spider, of course the amazing Dance that they do the males have to make a pretty big display for the female to acquiesce To actually go through mating. Well, uh, the plot thickens with jumping spider mating because um, their strategies on the female side are kind of extreme And that is um that they actually will only mate once in their entire life And this is This is not a thing where you know the males they have terminal copulation where they lose their breaking up Where'd Blair's internet go or is that me? No, no, it's uh Blair broke. Oh, you're back. I'm back though. This is important So right at the point you're right at the point where they were losing It's not that the male spiders are losing there So they lose their copulatory organ, right? That's one some spiders some spiders some spiders the females eat the male After copulation, that's a one and done scenario this spider though not this one this one the female Does it once and she goes i'm i'm good i'm good for life after the one Time so let's explore this for a second. Um, so in other invertebrates a lot of the time they go through sperm competition inside the female so if the female Has a mating event multiple times during her life Then there will be sperm from different males in her body And that actually has an internal competition for which sperm will win and actually help make a baby then the The other option is, you know males have special organs to scoop out sperm so that they can displace it with new sperm There's all these sorts of things because in invertebrates a lot of time Sperm can last a lifetime. It doesn't really have a shelf life for them Um, so they can actually keep they can retain that sperm the female for multiple generations of babies So because of that it would appear that the jumping spider She's good with one time So the the really interesting part would be so that So she's not just putting out one. Uh, is it brood of uh of spiders? She can do this later, too You can have a whole lifetime multiple generations of babies She's good on one mating event. So um, this was a study. Um In australia looking at 89 female jumping spiders Surveyor in canna and they were caught as immature Spiders in australia. So they were virgin and they were brought into the laboratory Each female was paired with a different male daily for the first 10 days of her life Of her adult life after, you know, she hit spider puberty And then every 10 days thereafter for the rest of her life They switched males and they found that the first mating induced sexual inhibition In most of the female jumping spiders. So the most common Method was to mate only once in their lifetime a few of them Did mated twice almost nobody mated more than twice in their lifetime After mating females were so unreceptive to other males that they were they would fend them off with their legs and turn away It would push them away And so yeah, I don't need you Exactly. She goes I got some I'm good. So they can store their sperm for the rest of their lives. Like I said, so This is interesting because Whoever gets to the female the virgin female Wins the reproduction game. That's it because that female after the first event She's done So there's no sperm competition. There's nothing she's not she's storing it And she's keeping it. So the amount of Of competition between males for virgin females in jumping spiders has got to be Insane which totally changes the way we look at Jumping spider evolution too because this means that one male can monopolize a female just by getting to her first But this is just the the australian jumping spider Right necessarily all jumping spiders, right? So this is this one survey in canna jumping spider. So So that's the case with them So now it's time to turn to other jumping spiders See if this is actually happening what the other thing that would be really interesting to study based on this Is why is there a again a hormonal change in the spider that's making them say no, thank you Or is it just that they have enough they have kind of a reserve? It's been filled. They're good so The fact also then that the females Can fend off the males which I guess because they're spiders Generally speaking the females are a little bit better. They have a little bit more of an upper hand In the mating game than in other species and other species males can kind of Push their agenda Whether the females interested or not but in most spider species the females can kind of call the shots in mating So yeah very often in spiders. They're either equal size or the female is larger, right? Yeah Yeah, and jumping spiders usually they're the same size, but the females are more aggressive So if you ever see the the peacock spider videos if you ever watch those the males when they're dancing Eventually if the females not interested she'll actually turn and jump at the male and the male will run away Because the female is more aggressive. So anyway the the kind of mold breaking element to this story is the fact that sperm competition is not part of this The males cannot Display to convince a female who's already been mated to mate That is really a one-and-done scenario. So how do the males compete for virgin males? and then how has evolution not caught up here and figured out a way for males to be able to sneak in and get more matings out of this deal and Will that happen soon? That's the other thing, you know, like you talk about Evolutionary arms races with predator and prey But I think about it a lot in terms of male and female Because a lot of the time, you know, the males and the females of a species have different Concerns different investments different priorities with mating and so there is kind of an arms race of Trying to figure out who's going to call the shots in a mating event and so It's I think it's fascinating It's unlike anything I've heard of and I can't wait to see kind of what the mechanism for this choice from the female is and hear about More of the background here Yeah, it's it's almost like I wonder if as a strategy You know How could that is I mean obviously jumping spiders survived to the modern day So it's survived all of its evolutionary history Then I'm wondering is this like a new thing Is this gonna last because there could be there could be some some risk of Getting a shallower sort of gene pool like sort of the point of Of the multi partner or the sperm competition Is that you're mixing up that genetic soup so that you're giving enough looks at different things to Out of the different next generations There's enough variety that they may be better If equipped in some directions maybe a little less than others So it's it's a spreading of your chances and your odds of survival And it's and it's it seems like a very narrowing possibly narrowing of a gene pool But then again, how many how many are in a spider's brood? Like there's probably a lot of spiders and so just by that sheer number it just didn't matter So as long as one male spider isn't inseminating all of the females in an area It should be okay, which is very unlikely to happen. Yeah All right, everybody I think we've made it through the Keepers tab of this week in science twissel wean That's right. This is this week in science. We're gonna take it to the break right now And I hope everyone stays with us for a few moments for our messages. We will be back with more spooky science after this Show Hey everybody, I do hope that you are enjoying the twissel wean edition of this week in science We sure are having fun here on this end Head over to twist.org you guys Because you know what's there pre ordering for the 2018 Blair's animal corner this week in science calendar, which Blair has hand drawn. It's black and white this year Malia. No, she's colorblind. 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Oh, I sit and wait for your publishing If one has real power who needs You can travel by thought to And we're back with more this week in science Yeah, we are just in what you got So so in the uh in the intro to the show I tease the story about radioactive zombie plastics And now that I'm about to do the story I realize I may have overstated the radioactive zombie bit It's just plastic And well, oh actually there is plastic involved, but the story is about concrete But but concrete can be exciting To talk about as well after all concrete is the second most widely used material on the planet. Can you guess what the first is? Water which is actually used in making concrete as well It's it's the number one used Material and it's even used in the number two material the manufacturing concrete generates about 4.5 of the world's human induced carbon dioxide emissions 4.5 percent that's a bigger number than I would have Estimated MIT undergraduates have found that by Exposing plastic flakes to small harmless doses of gamma radiation Then pulverizing the flakes into a fine powder they can mix the plastic with cement paste to produce concrete That is up to 20 percent stronger Than conventional concrete Yay stronger concrete, but that's not all their ad mixture Will uh put adds adds up to 1.5 percent of the total material in the concrete Which if utilized everywhere tomorrow would reduce human output footprint of the world's carbon dioxide emissions by 0.0675 percent, which is a really big amount despite being starting with a Point followed by zero and then some numbers. It's it's a massive impact really uh This is a quote from Michael short assistant professor in MIT's department of nuclear science and engineering There's a huge amount of plastic that is landfill every year Our technology takes plastic out of the landfill actually They took no plastics out of landfills in the study actually they got the plastics that they used From a recycling plant and there's very little indication Invention itself would increase recycling efforts by individuals Maybe though with a little industrial competition for recycled plastics The the reduce reuse recycle movement could get a little bit more support Uh, this paper appears in the journal waste management It's interesting. I I'd be a little worried. I'd want to do some testing on weathering on the concrete To see if plastic would end up in the water column From the concrete Yeah, yeah, it's it's in it's in there. So actually what happens that would be my concern What happens when they hit it with the we use recycled plastics? Well, that's what they that's what they're using Yeah And so then you're keeping them out of the landfill putting it in the concrete And then at least it'll take longer to end up in the water column All right. So so what they took this what they did was it's a good question. They they used the Cobalt 60 radiator that emits gamma rays at mit it's something that's uh currently normally used to The sort of decontaminate food All right, they run it past this gamma ray thing. It's not something that leaves residual radiation You're not going to have detectable radiation radio activity from this But it changed the structure of the plastics. It made it a It turned it into a more crystalline form that actually made more bonding connections with the concrete So your question about weathering it's less likely to leak out of the concrete than any of the other ingredients or concrete because it's more bound It's actually a little bit denser One of the interesting things are left less spaces. I don't know how it's Weight is any greater But one of the they they tested it through a An x-ray micromography regime and They revealed that they're They're radiated in plastics, especially at the higher doses. They exhibited these crystalline structures. There's more cross-linking more molecular connections Uh, which is what led to this sturdier concrete and they put it through all kinds of of other tests as well But to see how strong it was Um, let's see. They were they increased the strength. It was 20 compared to samples made with Portland cement and they also did some Another mixed cement which it was also a little stronger with which is what they used for their final formula, which is uh, fly they use fly ash and silica fume Which is by itself a little bit stronger than portland cement. So they they ran it through Uh, some pretty good compression tests to see what it did But this is as long as they continue to use recycled plastics And they don't eventually find that they love this concrete so much that they need to produce plastic for it It was it was it was sort of sideways like enjoyment of the story was the fact that they kept talking about how this could take plastics out of landfills And then they talked about how they went to a recycling plant to get their plastic I guess I guess I guess it's harder to imagine A bunch of mit students rummaging around a landfill in search of the materials for their project, but Um, I still don't see maybe they just haven't been recycling They're at their lab. I'm just like hey, this has a use We could still use this for something Well, I mean there are a lot of bottles that do get thrown into the trash and if they could be separated out Because there's a financial impetus for it. Then maybe that would happen Um, secondarily When we you do in plastic recycling, it's not cheap. That is a that is a money intensive heat intensive like that It is an energy intensive process and compared to Uh, you know, say aluminum recycling, which is fairly straightforward plastic is not easy It's why they say certain types of plastic You have to look for the special symbol on the bottom and it has to be this certain type of Recyclable plastic because it's amenable to the processes that we currently use so there's It could be great And if you could I mean and if this is the process of hey these things They'd get recycled recycled maybe recycled in maybe into other plastic bottles But maybe they would go into cement. Does it really matter? Yes, as long as we don't make more plastic It's like yeah, if and at this point in time if we stopped making plastic Is there enough plastic on the on the planet to support cement production? Oh, yeah Especially if we skim the oceans for our plastic I love this though. This is like this this is like these bottles are becoming these this plastic is like the spider-man of Concrete, you know, it's like we we put gamma rays On the plastic bottles or what is it? What was it the hulk? Was the hulk the gamma rays gamma radiation? I think it was yes. This is it plastic is the hulk for concrete That's great Okay, so I had a couple of stories this week that I just thought were super interesting and I wanted to discuss great because because Evolution it's so fascinating and There's so many questions about what's happening now In terms of climate change and human impact on environments and also where things are going to be going You know, are we in the middle of the sixth mass extinction? Is it human caused? We don't know So here we go. We're talking about evolution The first story I ran across this week was on vox.com and it was with regards to a new book That is coming out. Um, there's a conservation Biologist who has written a book called inheritors of the earth How nature is thriving in an age of extinction And his premise this chris thomas from the university of york in the uk He says, yeah, okay. We're killing a lot of things. There's a lot of stuff dying right now but As we kill things other things Are gaining ground and are making way and leading to Speciation and diversification Wait, what? Yes, well, yeah, because it's leaving empty areas in habitats Yes, and no, um, so because of human activities, there's been increased hybridization because different Species are being moved by humans and also because of the way climate is being affected species are moving into different areas And the niches that they have Existed in are overlapping More and more and so there's hybridization. That's occurring. There is also Um, there are new urban niches that have been created that were not Available before because of humans using the environment. We have changed it and created new environments for wildlife to thrive pigeons the house sparrow You know among other worlds squirrels with their leprosy. Yes Um flies various things. So there are new new hybrids chimeras and and just species that are Becoming very prevalent that were not before And so there's this this interview on vox between ferris jabber and chris thomas is fascinating to me because chris thomas doesn't Deny that there is extinction happening His premise however is that give it 10,000 years You know the scale of evolution the scale of change the scale of extinctions and Biodiversity booms is much larger than the 100 to 200 years that we are looking at right now Look at it on the 10,000 year scale And all the little debates that we're having about invasive species this and that and the other are completely moot And these and species are going to be thriving because of humans Oh my gosh, so I love this argument because um They're kind of right right like the earth will be here Yeah, it's not going anywhere. What do you do? Life abides the earth will be here, but the question that's not the question That's never been the question to me the question has been what do you want it to look like here now? and for the next several hundred years for our children for our grandchildren for our grandchildren's children and Do we want it to be filled with amazing species going extinct and Intense climate change and deforestation or do we want to try to Maintain some of the natural beauty that we have right? so I'm totally on board with that saying that we are altering the environment and as we alter the environment Species will change and adapt. There will be new evolutionary radiation. That is just the way it works, right? that's the nature of evolution, but I think also you need to take a step back and While that's a fine point That's not really the argument I would I would argue right? Yeah, the argument is that the argument he's making is is just that the earth will rebound eventually So it doesn't matter what sort of devastation We commit upon the earth now because Someday it'll go back to whatever it was. It's it's been yeah, no big deal Is and yeah fine, but what about what about us? What about now? What about these species like? Look, that's that's that's the question is what kind of impact do you want to have as a species on this planet? It applies to everything global warming. So what the earth will change climates again You know 200,000 years from now to be different be fine as if nothing that we do today is impacting us now And that's the argument that he's making for it's not about what we do now What we do and who he's probably talking to is somebody who's not engaged with nature doesn't know the the food cycle or whether I think so. I think they're saying Look, uh, your day-to-day life isn't going to be affected no matter how much we Well, that's not true Let me let me tell you some of his let me tell you some of his But that's yeah his his thoughts one of the quotes from this interview. He says in many respects We are fighting the origination of new species We are doing things that slow that down deliberately in particular I'm thinking of the fact that we usually take a disliking to new hybrids Think they're somehow impure and try to exterminate them when actually this is a natural process By which new genetic diversity is created There's a great argument running through the global shift in conservation thinking toward ecosystem goods and services where more biological diversity is in principle associated with more good things We get from the earth everything from personal enjoyment to conditioning of the atmosphere retaining soils keeping water clean Almost all of these good things we get from biological diversity. We get from species quite close to us Uh Um And he says I like the idea that there are giant pandas Blair in the forest in parts of china But I don't benefit in terms of the direct ecosystem goods and services in and around myself from the fact that there's some rare species at the other end of the planet The number of species in the region that you live in is much more relevant to the delivery of the good things that we get from nature And that is the element of biodiversity. How many species in each region that seems to be going up Around the world. Who is this person? Are they a scientist? Yes They are making that point that I have a real question. It doesn't matter. What kind of science? Who is he? He is a conservation biology professor. Wow, so This is astounding to me That is like Antithetical to conservation biology, right freed up false like we know that the that the coral reefs in the tropics Give us oxygen here We know that there is science. You can find that like these far off places have Direct impacts on our daily life the climate change at the tropics affects currents that affect our fish right off our coast there's This is astounding to me. We just did a story recently about the ecosystem services of pandas and That's as much as you know, it irked me They they definitely did say that that there were there were clear measured impacts on the bamboo forest from The pandas and the fact that we have medicine From the rainforest that are keeping people alive That are not biologically similar to us or geographically near us This is fascinating to me that that But that would be the argument he takes the locality. Yeah the broad brush that's being painted with is kind of surprising like in in At the start, I totally understood where he was coming from which I do think it's important to like take that step back and also Remember that this is part the main reason we want to we want we care about conservation is actually kind of selfish Right because no matter what the earth will continue so in some ways that actually makes people care who are not As much of environmentalists naturally if you talk about how it actually affects their life And it's it's a good investment for them personally to care about the environment right now, but So I was totally on board with him at the beginning I know his his view is in is very interesting. It's actually very nuanced and uh And very very different from what we've heard from so much of conservation biology and he actually says that Mass extinctions when we call them mass extinctions That is 75 percent of we you call about 75 percent of species Or to be a mass extinction Right now we are somewhere on the order of 5 percent of mammal species to 10 percent of bird species In the last 50 to 100 thousand years Since what about invertebrates though and what about that's like we had I mean there was a story last week We talked before about the insects being lost in germany. Yes amphibious. There's so mammals birds That's one part, but you have to look at the entire picture So yes, how close are we to that 75 percent? And he argues that there's actually a very high rate of species Birth right now And that we should be looking at that and not just bemoaning The fact that some species are dying And again, there's elements to this natural right like protecting new hybrids and not trying to exterminate hybrids I totally understand where he's coming from with that but I would I would argue that it's nowhere close to equal The rate of extinction to the greatest I'm sure it's not I'm sure it's nowhere close But the question is you know if we're going to be trying to conserve species Do we want to conserve the past or do we want to conserve the future? And if we're going to take and this is an interesting point to take from his ideas If we are going to be optimistic that there is going to be a biodiversity boom of sorts As a result of all the damage we're doing all the things we're doing to our environment Not even think about it as damage just the change we've affected If that's going to happen do we want to specifically help those species that are going to be successful? See and I would argue that is the major fallacy with the environmentalist movement to this point is focusing on species I have been saying and I will continue to Stand up on my soapbox and chant That we should be saving habitats. We should not be saving species If you save a habitat, you're saving thousands of species So don't worry about the tree frogs worry about the rainforest. Don't worry about the Pandas worry about the bamboo forests Because that's where you're doing the real good saving an individual species pulling animals out Starting a breeding program re-releasing them that doesn't do anything for them If you're not saving the place where they live and that actually has a way stronger impact on the health of our planet So if there's an open area of Canada that's not really being used for much. Can I put it? Can I put a? mammoth sir that I was gonna say I just want to know Justin wants to figure out how we can bring back the past Hey, if uh, if the tundra needs help and mammoth poop will help maybe I'll change my mind Maybe I'll flip up on this one. Well, we have to do the study. So we need Right. Um, and then we just need to synthesize mammoth poop And then and then following on with the idea of You know, how who we should be what should be be conserving who should be be taking care of How exactly is it that evolution takes place? Which species are going to win out? Which are going to be successful, which are not? So there is an experiment that has been ongoing since february 24th 1988 In the lab of Richard Lensky Oh, yeah, this is like this is like uh This is one of those this is an experiment that that was going to show up probably on this show Again before too long as this number continues to get higher, right? Exactly So back in 1988 Dr. Lensky seated 12 flasks with E. Coli The lab rat of the bacterial world And then set them up and then gave them only enough nutrients so they could grow glucose being the main nutrient But not enough that they would be overfed just enough to grow and then every day I think there's only been like a couple of skipped Dates because of natural disasters or um, you know something that went on But I think basically every single day since 1988 someone in the lab Has taken a sample of each Flask Put them in a new flask With new growth media and then set them up to grow And so every 75 days from there on Some of that culture goes in the freezer for analysis and the the conditions Basically set them up so that they the the organisms have enough food to grow But if they use it all up, then they'll starve overnight so they have to Adapt to these conditions and this is pressure for evolution so Over the last few decades 68,113 generations Of E. Coli bacteria Have been born lived their lives and moved on The bacteria have been maintained at 37 degrees with pretty much Glucose as the food source and it's a diminishing supply that adds this selective pressure um, and They are they have seen some results so The cells have gotten bigger They use glucose more efficiently so they don't use it all up so quickly They grow faster as well. So they're able to grow faster bigger While using the glucose better. So this is totally like stronger better faster in E. Coli The mutation rate has slowed down, but it hasn't stopped and there are still some molecular tweaks that are going on 20,000 generations in one of the cultures Evolved to start eating citrate in addition to glucose and it is the only Line the only lineage that's evolved to do that No other lineage has Figured that out has had that mutation to figure it out over the time and in the time since that 20,000 generations It's less able it uses citrate more as a primary source and less with glucose And so the question That's asked in this ours technical article is that The inability to metabolize citrate is one of the things that we use the characteristics we use to define E. Coli So in the fact that they now metabolize citrate primarily and don't want to really use glucose Does that mean they speciated? Are they E. Coli anymore? Was that a mutation that led to a speciation event because of a food source? Questions well species are just Needless labels needless labels and though it's all it's all It's all arbitrary And then there are six of the initial 12 populations that are hyper mutators and they picked up mutations that allowed them to control DNA repair and so they can Get more they get more or it controls their DNA repair in a different way, so they actually build up more mutations in certain areas of their genomes And so they have jumps In their genetic diversity that the other species the other lineages don't Because they're they're Changing they're fixing the DNA the fixing the mutations in a different way than the other the other strains did the other six populations are Just regular mutators It's all totally fine um And this is all going on and on random stotat stochastic mutations leading to diversity And we potentially have already seen speciation as a result so 68,000 generations in and how much longer will this experiment go and where will it go? Answering questions about how mutations Lead to evolution. No, we don't have sentient E. Coli yet. That didn't happen Just don't let it out. Don't let the smart E. Coli out. Don't connect the E. Coli to the internet. Yeah God then we'll get AI E. Coli I like it that would be fun. That's my dj name Ha I can see it AI E. Coli in the His house chopping up salad for you all right, I've obviously never been to a record listening party, so I'm not catching these references And instead I was paying attention to robotic bees uh The latest generation of robo bee from harvard john a polson school of engineering and applied sciences can fly Dive into water swim and propel itself back out of the water and land This this robo bee is a thousand times lighter than any other previous aerial to aquatic robot that has ever existed so This is very small. This is a millimeter sized robot that moves in and out of water It lots of challenges with that first water is 1000 times denser than air so the wing flapping speed Uh has to be different between air and water flapping to frequency is too low Uh robo bee can't fly too high the wings snap off in the water Poor little bee research has found a they a the right rates It's somewhere around 220 to 300 hertz for flying around the air And under 13 hertz once it's in the water to move about uh, there's another problem though Getting into the water in the first place surface tension Is more than 10 times the weight of the robo bee itself and three times its maximum lift so Uh, there's this is whole like hitting the water and breaking That could be a thing Getting into the water Doesn't really look like a bee Oh, you've got to see it fly look at the wings. Look at those wings. Those are bee wings and it's black and yellow and If you're on the fizz orc site, there should be a video of it getting out of the water So there's the other problem is getting out of the water So they figured out that if they made sharp pointy things at the bottom They could break the surface tension of the water and they could drop into the water Problem was getting back out again uh with the This bee trying to get out of the water surface tension Strong as it is they actually created a pretty amazing Technique in this tiny tiny bee so they retrofitted robo bee with four buoyant outriggers And a central gas collection chamber So once the robo bee swims to the surface an electrolyte plate In the chamber converts water into oxy hydrogen, which is combustible So can you see this very are you screen sharing the video? Yes Of the look at this amazing leaving the water All right surface tension is strong. So this is I mean this is no mean feat for a small Device to be able to escape the forces of surface for this little bee. It's three times its maximum lift with its wings Yeah, so how did it get out? Well, it created this little pocket of oxy hydrogen and had enough of a spark to fire To launch to just break that surface and then the flapping takes over and he can land perfectly Look at that little landing bee breaking water surface tension and landing like a chip Like a chip goes robo bee And next thing you know, we'll have robo bees on mars Well, one of the kind of fun things that they run into though is there's there's all these different dynamics when you change scale You know water tension on a surface becomes a problem, which it wouldn't have in a larger scaled model Yeah, things like the the lift of the thing in the surface into the water becomes a problem That wouldn't have been a problem before So they're finding changing the scale all of the forces that they're used to working with these engineers Everything is different and they have to adjust everything So pretty pretty amazing fun study there Don't know how this is actually going to use robo bee in the future But if if they can make it fly in submersion land and you know pollinate the plants on mars like he was saying Probably a pollinate plant on mars Yeah, because they're probably they have no problem with radiation. So this may be the best candidate Speaking of radiation space is full of it and we've been trying to figure out How Do things in space get made planets? How do they clump up and turn into planets? And so we sent a mission to a comet to kind of help us figure this out rosetta Went to 67 p garrison mob Cher mango well cherry mob garrison mango. There we go. So my name is cherry cherry Cherry I like that much better. So The rosetta mission the lander actually got stuck for a while wasn't able to get some get data back but they did get some data back and so a research team out of technisch universe stadt braum schweig germany jurgen bloom and his team Have published in the monthly notices of the royal astronomical society on their study of particulate matter In the comet the surface structure of the comet And what they have determined Is that based on the surface structure of the comet what they were able to measure that was there is that We could get rid of a whole bunch of hypotheses about how planets are formed because Based on what they saw on cherry All you have are dust and ice particles that are attracted to each other And that gets stuck to each other That The uppermost layers are irradiated by the sun radiation. There's that link right there So that there's no ice on the surface, but beneath the surface. There's a cold mix of dust particles and ice but eventually as they Accumulate together are held together initially by molecular forces But then later it becomes gravitational as they get bigger and bigger the clumps get bigger and bigger And the evidence from rosetta is that our idea that the dust and ice Rings Or this the the particulate matter that surrounds a young star Over time It just starts You know, they bump into each other dust and ice it bumps into it And another piece bumps in another people bumps in and it aggregates and eventually you have something the size of a comet Maybe that comet bumps into something bigger You have aggregation aggregation and that is how this study suggests that planets form It's also true that we The best idea we got so far. Yeah, I don't know if it was the ita kawa The ita kawa asteroid That hayabusa was trying to land on but it had it it was it was it was like Gravely it was described as not a completely solid rocky surface, but like the whole thing was made out of clumped gravel uh That a lot of uh, these these asteroids out there Might be big clumps of gravel like all these smaller bits that are haven't completely Recoagulated until you know, they need to get bigger. They need a larger mass. They need to run into a few other things To start to get that compression Going Yeah, and so I'll start small. Yeah, it starts small and so the researcher bloom. He says although it sounds very dramatic It's actually a gentle process In which the dust agglomerates are not destroyed But are combined into a larger body with an even greater gravitational attraction The accumulation of the dust agglomerates into a coherent body is virtually the birth of the comet Yeah, and he says that this He's this is a big step in the planet formation model. So thank you, rosetta Thank you for that Got another story justin. Yeah, this is a fun people with if this is cody voice People with efficient brains may have too much brain capacity to stop their minds from watering Cesaric schumacher george tech associate psychology professor schumacher and students and colleagues including a lead co-author christine Goodwin measured the brain patterns of more than a hundred individuals In mri machines Participants were instructed to focus on a stationary fixation point for five minutes And they used that data to identify which parts of the brain were working unison They'd also filled out one of those little flyers where they asked you lots of questions Lots of questions hiding the one that was probably the most important Do you daydream frequently was the question that they were really focused on? And interestingly it turns out that those who Said that they daydream frequently Scored higher on intellectual and creativity Creative ability and had more efficient brain systems measured in the mri machine Leaning us to the overall conclusion that if your mind wanders in a boring meeting It's because you're smart not because Not because you can't pay attention I'm sorry. What we're using All right, except uh for the smart ones in this they were able to pick up key points of data and return to the meeting as If their minds had not wandered. Oh, yeah, I was totally listening. I heard everything Something about daydreaming but being good, I don't know Yeah, say, uh, how can you tell if your brain is efficient? One clue is that you can zone in and out of conversation or tasks when appropriate Then naturally tune back in without missing important points or steps That sounds like multitasking but where one of the things you're doing is not important Which might be the meeting or it might be the daydreaming. It just all depends. Yeah Sometimes it's both or neither. Well in terms of education. I mean this has uh implications for those students who are Who daydream who End up somewhere else in class who maybe are the class clowns doing other things Coming up with ways to entertain themselves Yeah, sometimes these kids are the kids who have figured it out. And so as a teacher As an educator, how do you keep their minds? Active, how do you keep them not just now? I mean daydreaming was great But how do you keep them engaged in the class and that is the ongoing question? Yeah, shimaka here also says higher efficiency means more capacity to think And the brain may wander when performing easy tasks So it may be if your mind is wandering it may be not just a Might not just be signaling to your boss that you're bored with their conversation Um, but that you just get it and it didn't really need to take an hour and a half To get to this information do we still need to be talking about this? Yeah, most of these meetings are absolutely essential down to every minute. So I don't know what you could be talking All right, so that we Get down to the business in the last minutes that we have here. It's time to do some quick I don't know how quick these are going to be but this is what we call it This is our quick news segment that sometimes ends up being a longer discussion depending on the story So interesting study out of University of california berkeley researchers got funding from the national institute of health And heising simons foundation to investigate gun violence In california published in annals of internal medicine. They looked at Gun shows in nevada and their relation to gun violence in california They found that There was a 70 almost 70 increase in deaths and injuries from firearms firearms in communities In california within convenient driving distance Of nevada gun shows So for a couple of weeks around gun shows happening in nevada Places in california experienced a spike In deaths and injuries due to gun violence Well, it would be great if we could take that from correlation to causation By figuring out if the people responsible for that gun violence attended the gun show Right, so we can't do that Exactly, but that would be the next question But what the What they were looking at is the idea that california is very restrictive In its gun laws nevada is not and so People from california probably tend to go to nevada purchase guns trade guns Come home And do it under nevada law in nevada and then drive the drive the weapons home So Technically it's not that easy actually the thing that that surprises me though about this study is isn't that they found this correlation But that the national institute of health Funded it. Yeah, that's that's spent that's like Yeah, that's a step in the right direction for sure um, but it's just Go ahead. It's just frustrating because I feel like I feel like we could be doing multi levels of this study at the same time And it would still it would always point to the same thing so How many times? How many times do we have to show that guns cause violence One more One more time just one more maybe two Three would really be building a case Another 17 of them and I think we're getting close to a discussion Right, but it's too soon to have that conversation. Oh, yeah It's gonna take 30 more times Before we're at a point where but it's probably again too soon after those 30 What we really need to do So the researchers say the study suggests that travel to less Less restrictive states may threaten the effectiveness of firearm laws within california when a less restrictive state is next to a state that is more restrictive There may be spillover effects More research is needed to know for certain So maybe it'd be nice if there would be more funding for this kind of research just to know for certain Yeah, that would be awesome um, and then I have a couple more. I'm going to run through them researchers at northwestern university have been studying RNA interference and so RNA interference is this concept in which we use small segments of RNA to bind with and interfere with gene activity They have been searching for molecules small double-stranded RNA molecules that they think Are an ancient Not used anymore because we have an immune system that has evolved differently, but an ancient kill switch To prevent cancer And so he's been looking for this the researchers have been looking at peter this researcher Marcus peter at northwestern He's been looking at this for several years and he says we think this is how multicellular organisms Eliminated cancer before the development of the adaptive immune system, which is about 500 million years old It could be a failsafe that forces rogue cells to commit suicide and we believe it is active in every cell protecting us from cancer and so The research that they have published recently They've done a phase one and a phase two trial And the uh, or they've they've done a no actually that's a that's a different study that I was going to talk about next This one they have um actually discovered Some RNA sequences that bind to DNA That is related to cell death and so this RNA assassin molecule Triggers this mechanism that marcus peter calls dies death induced by survival gene elimination That's pretty awesome, right and that's the name of the band i'll be spinning all night so right and so they have tested this treatment in mice dies treatment And they delivered the assassin molecule via nanoparticles to mice with human ovarian cancer the treatment Reduced the tumor growth. There was no toxicity And the tumors did not develop resistance to this treatment And so this is something that will specifically address solid cancer treatment so tumors that form in people's body um But what is really exciting is that it's uh, they're looking at a small number of molecules that can tap into this metabolic kill switch that only kills cancer cells Really interesting metabolic kill switch metabolic kill switch. Yes, um, there was uh, there was a quote from the lead author marcus peter describing Like how effective this possibly is these RNA molecules eliminating All these survival genes at once and he says it's like committing suicide by stabbing yourself shooting yourself and jumping off a building all at the same time Sounds like overkill But that's good in the sense of if it's only killing if this is only happening to cancer cells. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Yep That's great um, and if my final story was uh related to vampires The the vampires that the elderly are going to be As research moves forward So the new research now is looking at stem cells taken from younger individuals They took bone marrow To get mesenchymal mesenchymal stem cells from donors between 20 to 45 years old And they have used them in phase one and phase two trials to test the effectiveness of these mesenchymal stem cells on treating frailty In the elderly and to date frailty like oh go outside get some exercise go for a walk, you know get moving do something You know, maybe your diet can help There's not much that we can do for the frailty that that comes from the degeneration of your muscles and your body as aging occurs and so The patients in these trials had an average age of 76 years old They were infused with these young people stem cells And it helped I mean it's a very small sample size The phase two uh the They looked at 15 frail patients six months later all the patients Had improved fitness outcomes All their tumor necrosis factor levels were better and their overall quality of life was good And there were no negative or adverse health health effects Um, and they did a randomized double blind study with a placebo group Which is a big deal. You need that randomized double blinding with a placebo to make sure that you're not confounding factors and adding bias in anywhere no adverse effects physical improvements noted by the researchers were remarkable So publishing in the journals of gerontology These researchers say they're going to be moving forward into an expanded phase two b trial They're looking for 120 subjects across 10 locations and then they will move to phase three trials That will look at thousands of individuals uh to potentially lead to public approval So far we have small group a small group of people That it nothing bad happened and it was a positive effect So this definitely sounds like vampires for real, right? But there's part of me that's like great. This is gonna get me closer to 200, baby I'm on board Yeah, if they're doing the research now Blair, you are you're set. I want to be set. You're set You're So much younger than I am. Oh my god, not even that much But but but just just so you know that's also Going to raise the uh, minimum age for collecting social security To 145 It's Justin social security. What are you that's not going to be around 10 years Oh, no, that's going to disappear over the infinite horizon is when that's calculated to stop working Which by the way when you do calculations over an infinite horizon, that means it it's never today Yeah Yeah, it'll be fine Um real quick before we go. Do you want to hear about spider venom? I do VR VR spider venom VR spider venom Yes, a new virtual reality game highlights the benefits of spider venom in pain management UEA school of pharmacy university of east anglia Pharmacy and school of computing sciences is based on Is looking at ongoing research into the potential spider venom to stop pain and cure chronic illness So this VR game makes a view of your brain Submerges player players into the world Of the brain where they learn how pain is processed in the brain Why we sense pain and how spider venom has the ability to alleviate it It teaches us about the functions of cells and pro proteins that sit on these cells that are part of pain treatment And in the game virtual spiders release their venom when you click on them Then the player has to quickly work out which of the spider venoms can shut down pain And it ends when the player identifies the perfect venom to block pain causing proteins Which ends with the words pain over Of course it does Yeah, so it is debuting this friday the 27th of october at the norwich science festival and it is called bug off pain Bug off pain bug off pain if you have VR systems You will be able to download it from bugoff pain.com Starting this friday Check it out Bug off pain you can explore your brain pain and spider venom I wish I had VR now so spiders in your brain I need to Get some get some cardboard and make some google goggles Yes, all right who thought spiders in your brain would be good Spiders in my brain. Oh my gosh. There we go spiders You know, I think some people get spiders in their brain and it's not because of the venom I don't want to talk about that because every night I cover up my ears because I don't want spiders going in my ears Not uh, you're not No, I used to do that when I was a child though Oh my gosh every night I would I would cover a sheet over my ear because I wouldn't want spiders in my ears and brain Yeah, I had a really quick court conversation with my daughter about spiders where she was saying she didn't like spiders and She says these things every once in a while, but Just show her jumping spiders Well, I go well like what do you what what's worse mosquitoes or spiders and she hates getting a mosquito bite So she went mosquitoes. I was like well Spiders eat mosquitoes and if it wasn't for miss for spiders, there'd be more mosquitoes and she's all now She loves spiders. He's like there's a spider, but but we're not gonna touch it, but we're not gonna squish it. I'm like, yeah There we go Yeah We're not gonna touch it. We're just gonna leave it alone unless it's on my bed They picked this up other place like she says mice are gross Right. I'm like, where did she because should we go down to the pet store and she she wants to like Hold the mice and have them run around on her hand She thinks they come up on the cage and they're like coming to want to talk to her and she's like really loves them But somewhere she heard that mice are gross. So now she says this I'm like So you don't want to go see the mice down at the store and she's like, no, let's do it Yeah, so spiders also Pain Pain sharing spider, that's right I want a doctor named dr. spider And spiders they're not they're not closely related to us and a lot of them that can cure pain Are not from here. So take that doctor guy Going back to that con conservation conversation I got a wooden spoon with your name on it doctor guy But doctor guy, just so you know blare does agree with you about pandas To an extent Maybe you should invite him to talk with us on our show at some point I that would be one of those shows where I'd just be like this Yeah, be sure to do that virtually. I don't want to be in the same room That would be so fun. Oh my gosh I want to see blare go aggro But you know what I really want to see right now. I want to see our scroll I want to see our roller for Our patreon sponsors because we've gotten to the end of another show We've made it all to the all the way to the end And I just want to thank everyone for listening for watching All our chat room. Thank you for the vibrant conversation in the chat room always keeps me smiling And to fata and identity for and brandon for helping out all the things you do keeping the show going Love it couldn't do this without you and our patreon sponsors for Sure You ready? I got a new scroll. I'm going to try and read the names in a different order. Is it spooky? No, it's just the normal way Thank you to our patreon sponsors a honey moss erin luthan adam mishkan alec dodie alex wilson andy grow arlene moss Rt on ben roethig bill cursey bug calder brexton howard brendan menish brian hedrick brian kondren brian hoh and bruce cordell Oops, and I reset it. I don't know how I did that one. It wasn't until you put it alphabetical. I realized There are a lot of bryans a lot of bryans And an error occurred and you're gonna see my drive Because it's all open Yeah We're gonna keep going honey moss erin luthan adam mishkan alec dodie alex Wilson andy grow arlene moss rt on ben roethig bill cursey bob calder brexton howard brendan menish brian hedrick brian kondren brian Hone brought bruce cordell biren lee charlene hedry christopher drier christopher rapid colombo amed craig porter gail brian Dana pierce and daniel garcia darwin hannon darryl Dave neighbor davolkinson david david friedel david simmerley david wiley donald trump the dubious ducal cambell e o edward dire emigrenia urk nap eric wolf felix alvarez flying out gary s gerald sirrell's jibberton latimore jerald orn yango Greg goodman greg riley herun sarang hexator howard tan luma lama jackman boister jake jones james james dobbson james randall james dozier jason olds jason roberts jason schneiderman jim telier jim jim drapo joe wheeler john atwood john crocker john gridley john ratna swammy Keith corcel ken haze kevin kip perichand kevin railsback kensenia velcova kurt larcen larry garcia layla louis smith mark mazar's marjorie mark marshal park matt setter matthew litwin mitch neves moore cowbell mountain sloth natin greco orly radio patrick cone paul statin david did paul disney philip doe philip shane randy mozuko richie little henricks richard odermis rich reporter rick ramis richard astin rodney rudy garcia salgott sam shuwata surfer kadelic stefan insom steve devils steve lesmond steve brishinsky the hardened family todd north cut tony steele tyler harrison tyron fong trainer 84 and ulysses adkins there were new ones yeah so many new names i love being able to read this and have it updated every month so thank you all our new patreon sponsors our old patreon sponsors thank you so much thank you for supporting us on patreon if you are interested in supporting us on patreon you can find information at patreon.com slash this week in science and remember you can help us out simply by telling your friends about twist also remember if you go to twist.org you can order our 2018 calendar if you are so interested twist.org you can pre-order the calendar it is the link is there and on next week's show november 1st once again we will be back live 8 p.m pacific time wednesday on twist.org slash live and you can watch and join our chat room online but if you don't make it that's okay it's all right we're all archived various places you can go to twist.org you can go to twist.org slash youtube you can go to facebook.com slash this week in science we're all over the place man you can find us 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 device you can look for twist number four droid app in the android marketplace or simply this week in science in anything apple market placey for more information on anything you've 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the end of the world so i'm setting up the 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 all the warming with a wave of my hand and all it'll cost you is a couple of grand this week 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 but we're not trying to threaten your philosophy we're just trying to save the world from jeopardy we can science is coming away so everybody listen to everything we say and if you use our methods to roll and i die we may rid the world of toxoplasma got the eyes this week in science this week in science this week in 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 away you better just listen to what we say and from the words that we say that please just remember it's week in science this week in this week in science science this week in science science this week in this weekend science Science, science, science, science This week in science, this week in science This week in science, this week in science Now, let's go to the post show Yes I'm ready I'm ready to go to the post show Yes We have to go to the show Yes And now, we have the post show Yes A little post show A little A big post show I can do the packing For the trip to San Francisco tomorrow Yes You have to do the packing Do the packing I know The packing But it's Difficult Yes Because the weather is hot It's hot Yes, it's very hot I'm confused 80 degrees Fahrenheit Today It's a shame Yes, it's a shame It's a shame It's not the San Francisco It's the garbage All right, all right, everyone out there I'm using our poor French to have a conversation But we actually had a conversation there Yeah, we did We did It was understandable I have a French minor That's the most I've used it in probably five years Yeah, back a long time ago when I was an undergraduate I wanted to get a French minor But then I realized that they'd make me right in French a lot And I just wanted to speak it Yeah, I wrote a 20-page paper Oh, geez In French I didn't get a minor in French It was like... It was not easy It was not easy No Yeah, I was like, no, I'm not going to do that I think I just want to speak it And so then I went to France for a little while And I tried to... Have I told you this story? I tell people this story I went to France and I tried to buy a book at a bookstore And I was so excited I went to the woman who was selling the books at the bookstore I said, Avez-vous le petit prince? And she said, Would you like to speak English? I know They like to do that there It makes me really sad Although, last time I was in France I was trying to return a rental car And I could not find the place to return my rental car In the middle of Paris And I ended up pulling into a rental car return With the wrong company And so I... And the guy there didn't speak any English And so I had to try Yeah I had to do it And I had to get directions I had to explain I had an Avis rental car that I had to return And so I had to explain that I needed to get to the Avis rental return And I had to get directions on how to drive there And it worked out It was clunky as I'll get out But it worked out And next You will be on the right On the right On the left On the left On the left On the left Oh my gosh But it'd be like at the street light you make a right And... Yeah, I don't even remember how to say that Anyway My favorite French in TV is from... I don't know if anyone's going to get this It's from a cartoon Mais je suis zénome Je ne suis pas zenoiseau Oh, that sounds very familiar I'm a man, I'm not a bird What is that from? It's from the tick Where he was turned into a bluebird And put in a cage And he could only speak high school French That's great What are my favorite things ever? I'm going to have to look that up Oh my god, one of the best scenes ever I remember in high school Doing a translation of Alouette And being horrified About what that song is actually about Once I learned what the words actually meant Yeah They're preparing a bird to cook it But they're like talking about You know A little bird, yeah Pretty little bird Gentile Beautiful, pretty Alouette So they're plucking the bird And then they say Oh, I pluck the beak You pluck the beak Oh, little bird Little bird I pluck you Oh, next I pluck the feet It's like piece by piece by piece They're prepping this bird to be cooked But the way the song sounds You think that they're just singing about A cute little bird in a tree This is kind of It's pretty upsetting But I guess we have our own children's songs That are pretty gross like Ring Around the Rosie Je te plumerai la tête Je te plumerai la tête Pull the whole head off Alouette Oh Let's say I will pluck your head Yeah, pluck your head off Oh my god Je te plumerai le bec Je te plumerai le bec Yeah Je te plumerai les yeux Je te plumerai les yeux Pull the eyes out Uh-huh Oh my god It's so... I think the pluck your eyes out is the That's definitely that one in the feet Pulling the feet off really bothered me I was like, ew Je te plumerai les pattes Je te plumerai les pattes Le cul Les ailles Le dos Oh, no, no, no It's hot I'm wearing a chef's coat and it's hot Uh-huh Yeah, we're in a chef's coat I can't With the French Red Postshow Blair can't do it anymore So it's just really hot I closed the sliding door so the whole neighborhood Didn't have to hear me do a twist And so it's warm In the house with the no air conditioning In the It was 90 yesterday Oh my gosh It was like 108 on Either Santa Barbara Or San Luis Obispo Was it San Diego? And they're not They're not supposed to get the Indian summer We're supposed to get the Indian summer, that's fine Like this is supposed to be our summer But we also had a hot summer So that also is like not great But yeah, they're not supposed to have that now There's supposed to be cooling down for fall right now And they're not My cat's Little paws are Underneath the door She's like sliding them under the door And like looking for something Yeah, that's really cute She wants to grab something She wants it Hmm She's like I know At the end of the show This is the time where I get to get pets After show After show I get pets So did you guys see My My proof of the calendar? Yes I just have to finish the We need to make sure the holidays are all right Right, so I'm working on that If there are any more holidays That people might think of Yeah, so I have our I was like going through it And I didn't screen share that was dumb So I'm going through our document from last year And fact checking Of the 2018 dates Because sometimes things change So I have to go through and make sure all those are correct I also have another Fun list of dates That I'm going to look at To see about adding And Yeah, and then It'll be ready to go So The dates might switch to Depending on which holidays or which days But so right now we have There's the cover And then we have The anaconda So I want to trim Hold on for a second Skvrl So we have our twist-o-bean Tiger Coral reef Do Tiger Salamander Leopard shark Let's see Tartigrade And So looking a month ahead We had twist-o-bean Scheduled for next week We did? Oh no Oh man We messed it up Oh well, we did it early It makes sense This makes more sense I always do it before the Yeah, yeah, yeah Sorry people with calendars Oopsie I have a calendar I just listened to Blair I know, I have a calendar right there I was like, okay, it's a squeak, alright I had it in my phone As this week Which is funny, because I Pull from my phone calendar For that calendar So I effed that up somehow But as we come into November It's not on the calendar, but November 6th, 5th, 6th, 7th We're in Denver So that's coming right up Justin, have you registered for the conference yet? Yes Okay, good We have plane tickets Right, because I didn't do that I got us plane tickets Yeah, we do I thought I emailed you that stuff Yeah, I'm sure you did, but just today At work I was walking around and I was like I didn't book a flight I think Kiki did I did it for us all That's great It's all taking care of their travel People took care of it Yeah I really wanted one airline So now I'm not going to get miles On my plan, but that's okay You will, because it's your airline Oh, it's my airline Oh, great The best airline We have conference And live show On the 6th I'd like to do a Denver meetup On the 5th Or 6th, we could do the 5th or the 6th I'd like to do a meetup Well, we arrive at 2.17pm On Sunday Or at least I do When do you arrive? Maybe it would be fun to do the meetup Yeah, we all arrive around the same time That's what the travel agent did So we're traveling from the airport together Yes, to the hotel I'm into doing it the night before Potentially I don't know, whatever you want Cool Alright, because it's like a week and a half out And so I'm thinking Or two weeks out, exact A week and a half out Unless you think you need to be prepping that first night At all Yeah, we might want to do prepping And not drink a little Okay, yeah, that's a good The whole time And it would be like if we did it the 6th Yeah, then the show's over already And so then Now we have to answer a question though If we do it on the 6th Uh-huh Is that going to be our show for that week? Because I can record it That's what we're going to do We can record it and we can also make it live I say no Will that be our show for that week? I say no I say Does it come home Tuesday and then Wednesday? I see three options No, two options Will we put out two shows that week? So one option is We record it And we do a live Intro to the recording And we find a way to air the recording On Wednesday Just so we can be like, hi everyone We're going to play our show Just so, you know, loyal Visitors will still have a Greeting from us On Wednesday But also We could potentially borrow stories from Tuesday Or Monday For the Wednesday show Yeah, I mean The reason I'm for two shows is because I don't think This will be one of the jet laggy ones Because we're not going really far We're not going that far, yeah So I don't think Our recovery time Will be impacted I don't know And we're going to be very specific We Sort of interviewing And bugging out with the entomology It's going to be a very buggy show Very bug focused You're so funny So I mean, there's going to be A lot of other stories that We'll probably want to have brought For that week that we'll then Well, you guys Right now Blair, I know I was almost like I know, but I was also like Why are we Me and Kiki going? Blair could do the whole show Get out of here You don't want to give me that idea You don't want me with those ideas She doesn't need us for this one at all This is her I'm going to have to like Find insecty stories This is my house of wheels That's true, but it's just not twist Without you guys Yeah, no I'm going You better come Otherwise, I'm just going to show up And run around looking at things But yeah, this is I expect I expect the Blair's Animal Corner To dominate The airtime on this one That would be Alright, so maybe two episodes That week Justin, if you're down Blair I mean, we can do that I mean I never have anything to do on Wednesdays But this, so if we don't If we don't have twists, I will be going to bed At 6pm, which would also be fine Heavens knows I need it But I am happy I am happy to do a second twist I don't know what you guys mean Needing sleep, I don't know Right Okay, so there's that So we can do two shows that week And then Thanksgiving That Wednesday It's not Thanksgiving It's the night before Thanksgiving We said we would do a show, right? Yes, we always kind of do that Are we going to do that? Yeah, sure Justin? Yeah, oh, yeah Fine I'm not doing anything Thanksgiving Eve Cool And then all the other days, like we're not on New Year's or Christmas in December So we're good for that Excellent The holidays are coming, you guys Oh my gosh, I can't believe it Yeah It's crazy I know, I'm not ready for it We can get ready for it though Twist mugs Yeah And you get a twist mug And you get a twist mug And you get a mammoth pillow And you get a mammoth pillow I love those pillows, they're so great You get a mammoth pillow I got a bear Pillow for my mom, she likes it That's awesome She better like it, you made it Ish Yeah I totes made it Yeah, okay Let's see, I'm coming to San Francisco Yeah, so you're in town for The festive weekend Yeah And I think I was looking at the conference schedule And I think I'm going to completely I don't think I'm doing anything Saturday night And I'm going to completely blow off Sunday Of the conference And then we leave at three on Monday So, there's a really cool event Happening Sunday night Okay, what is it called? Boo-ling For rhinos Woo And this is to anyone else Listening, who's in the San Francisco Bay Area It's a fundraiser for rhino conservation But you know, according to You know, Dr. Guy Who cares? Anyway Dr. Guy Dude, so anyway Yeah, so it's Bowling, pizza, sodas And then we also have a silent auction With lots of animal Like art And spa packages And signed like sports memorabilia And all sorts of crazy stuff But it's Yeah, it's a fundraiser for rhinos And we also have a costume contest Cause it's boo-ling for rhinos And Yeah, so it's at the Presidio Bowling Center And on my Facebook page There's links to the event Right, or you can just show up And pay at the door It's on Sunday, the 28th Awesome So, there's that And then I might be available during the day On Sunday a little bit What time does it start? Uh Six How about a kid thing? Kids come We can put up bumpers Sweet That would be awesome I got a kid who's going to be with me Yeah And he'll be in a room with a bunch of zookeepers Dressed up for Halloween Oh my goodness, that would be so fun I love that Oh, and maybe Dave Robison is going to do it too Sunday Sunday Sunday Sunday Oh Ed, you're so great Ed already got the link up there Geez, I just wanted to do that So fast, Ed, you're fantastic So speedy So speedy Yeah, Jackson Fly Justin, you need to watch Orphan Black It's so good So good Yeah, and if anyone shows up, I'll be happy to sign things or whatever Yeah, you should That would be awesome Bowling Bowling for rhinos I'll be in costume, not in this costume In my actual Halloween costume I know It's a weekend That it's a celebratory Halloween weekend I'm having, I mean My costume, I guess I can pack in It's just pants on a jacket Yeah, there you go And makeup My friends have makeup I bet I can borrow makeup I can make it work I could also just buy it at Walgreens for like $3 I might have to get more Mustaches Yeah, because I wasn't going to bring a costume, but maybe I should I think I might run out of mustaches by the time the weekend's over A mustache A question What is your question? Is it time for us to be done now? Yeah, I think so I'm throwing mustaches That definitely means a sever bit My C stress I don't like this one so much It makes you look like you have a big nose Oh my gosh, you guys, I went and saw Depeche Mode this week I went and saw Depeche Mode Except for some of their new songs Which are good They're very politically oriented One song is like Where's the revolution? All these images of fists up on the screen They want people to be fighting Fight against the machine But Dave Gahan Blade singer of Depeche Mode He definitely looks like John Waters these days He's got that little tiny mustache I love John Waters He's got that small little black mustache Dave Gahan He's got the long big-ish nose like John Waters I was working the John Waters angle, Mr. Depeche Mode He's going for it Alright everyone out there It's another week Another show It was TWISOWEEN That was super fun We did it a week early Sorry everybody If you were really pulling back I just love Halloween I just love it Halloween was coming I have three costumes this year I need to have more costumes I do I'm glad we did this driving part of my costume Now you know what you're missing Now I know what I need to go do So this is one For Buet the Zoo on Saturday I'm going to be the safari guy from last year's TWISOWEEN Oh yeah And then I have a very special costume for my actual Halloween parties that I am Saving I go to parties Don't be a party pooper Oh Who poops at parties Only party poopers Okay I'm going to say goodnight Justin Good night Justin Oh no wait I'm doing it wrong I'm just procrastinating because I don't want to pack Cause I hate packing Yeah Ed I'll be sure not to let any spiders crawl in my ear tonight Thank you I'm going to wear these suckers all night long Yeah I'm going to take mine off Which I can't reach now But somebody said I'm supposed to turn it sideways I know but it doesn't turn sideways It's a pointy part Pirate hat It's all the flowers Say goodnight Blair Say goodnight Justin Good night Justin Good night Kiki My name is Helena Good night Helena Good night I'm Claudette Don't lose my babies My science babies Goodbye Bon appétit Happy Twizzling everyone