 This is twist this week in science episode number six hundred and twelve recorded on Wednesday March 29th 2017 water you gonna do? Hi, everyone. I'm Blair Basterich and today we will fill your head with social constructs water woes and spiders but first Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer You have arrived at a destination, which is a good thing one in which your wildest inquiries are being pursued The go-to destination of the wondering mind How do you know if you found the right spot? If you are irritated by ignorance Unsatisfied with not knowing left wanting when hearing only half truths find uninformed rhetoric Anti-climactic then look no further you have arrived from ground shaking insights to far distant planetary Discoveries you will hear the harmonic tremors of new knowledge as we move the heavens and earth into focus Until you are completely satisfied A wondering mind is a wonderful thing And we're so happy you chose to share yours with us here on this week in science Coming up next I've got the kind of mind that can't get enough I want to learn with new discoveries that happen every day of the week There's only one place to go to find the knowledge I seek. I want to know what's happening What's happening? What's happening this week in science? What's happening? What's happening? What's happening this week in science? Good science to you Blair Good science to you Justin and Everyone out there. We are without a dr. Kiki tonight, but we are so excited to still bring you the science We have a great show tonight. We have so much science news I brought obviously an extra large jam-packed Blair's animal corner. I brought some spiders. I brought some monkey brains I brought water ice fat Brought a bunch of good stuff. What did you bring Justin? I've got weather whiplash water woes plant microbiomes bulimic bullies and Why we do it? Why we do what? Oh, okay. All right. Good. I can't wait Meanwhile, let's get into it. I'm going to start right off with some Water news Some really exciting news about wastewater and a new way to clean it a new research from the University of Granada and from the center for electrochemical research and technological development And the center of engineering and industrial development In mexico have developed a process that allows us to clean waters containing heavy metals and organic compounds using what any guesses Um, uh Micro nanotubes or something. I don't know. That's a good guess. Um orange peels Orange peels orange peels Yeah, that's the technology. It's way behind that. So every year about 38.2 million tons Of fruit peels are produced worldwide In the food industry and so these peels Some folks considered maybe we should look at using those because We don't really have a use for them now. They go to compost. They go to landfill They're just kind of a waste This new research looked at a new process By which they could modify the structure of residues in those peels giving them absorbent properties such as greater porosity and surface area and therefore therefore being able to To remove metals and organic pollutants present in water So they could potentially pack those materials into fixed bed columns in a way similar to a filter Where they run on a constant flux flux process So it's like a usual wastewater treatment where they have they have these kind of columns that they move through with gravity Um, and the laboratory scale study allowed them to See some promise in this possibility so they think now that they can Use these materials as absorbents They can actually compete potentially with activated carbon like in a brita filter For the absorption or coverty of metals present in wastewater I'm not telling you to run your wastewater through some orange peels and drink it service announcement But this is promising Yeah And with something that's uh already readily available. That's that's always good We're already making it. It's up to good just sitting around our orange peels How many cuties have I eaten in the past just a few weeks? many And then the other opening story that I have relating to water is watered at solid form ice of course looking at the arctic And reports of green ice. What is green ice you ask? I'm so glad that you asked it is When there is a phytoplankton bloom under arctic sea ice Yeah, so back in 2011 researchers observed this They thought that it was impossible for a couple reasons the first being that the ice is so thick that That heat and light should not be able to penetrate deep enough to allow as we've learned Blair Light finds a way light finds a way you heard it from Jeff So it's the thickness, but also the big thing is the albedo Albedo that's not related to what you were talking about Justin That's about the reflection of light and that's why when you wear black clothes You get really warm and when you wear white clothes you don't get as warm It's because the white clothes reflect. They have a higher albedo. They reflect the light the black clothes Do not they absorb the light and so what's happening is as the sea ice is Shrinking and it's getting less thick. That's also decreasing its Reflectivity and so less light is being reflected off of the ice More heat is going down into the water which is causing a plankton bloom Now at first I was like, oh, this is great because plankton phytoplankton is like a plant So that's actually a carbon sink. This is a great thing. Right. We want more phytoplankton. Here's the problem phytoplankton blooms are the source Of the arctic food web It's kind of the main point of the arctic food web because where there's phytoplankton There's fish where there's fish. There's marine mammals. Where can marine mammals not go? Under sea ice because marine mammals need to breathe oxygen So this is potentially changing the seasonality of the blooms and therefore the fish colony The fish populations growing but it also potentially could be Moving that food source of the marine mammals to a place where it's not accessible to them Hmm Yeah, so 20 years ago only about three to four percent of arctic sea ice was thin enough to allow large colonies of plankton to bloom but today Researchers have found that nearly 30 percent of the ice covered in arctic ocean In the arctic ocean permits sub ice blooms in summer months So this is totally changing the ecology of the arctic In just another way we hadn't even thought about yet the albedo of sea ice Yeah Do you have some water stories justin? Yeah, so uh one consequence of global climate tia Change is the likelihood of more extreme seasawing Between drought and flood a phenomena that's being dubbed here as weather whiplash And with wild weather swings will come unforeseen consequences Unless we have folks who can foresee consequences, which Well, this isn't even as it but for at least for now we have these folks. These are researchers at the university of kansas They've published findings in the journal biogeochemistry showing weather whiplash in the american midwest's agricultural regions Will drive the deterioration of water quality For municipalities forcing them to seek costly remedies to provide safe drinking water to residents So it's already tough in the midwest for for water And as this is quotey voice from terry loweck Assistant professor of environmental studies at university of kansas lead author of this investigation As rainfall patterns change with climate change. It's predicted there will be more times of drought And more times of excessive rainfall really big storms in case you're unfamiliar Uh, loweck and co-author aimee bergen Associate professor of environmental studies said the extreme flux between drought and rainfall Changes the storage of nutrients in the agricultural landscape nitrogen used in fertilizing farms most importantly so This is more loweck Quoty voice farmers put their normal amount of fertilizer But when we have a drought Plants don't grow as big and don't take up as much nitrogen Instead of going into the plants which would be harvested. It stays in the soil No water is flushing it away But when a flood occurs nitrogen is then washed onto the surface waters as tributaries that feed into rivers The soil is like a sponge. This is quotey voice from bergen. Although she seems to sound exactly the same So it looks like a sponge and when it's dry the nitrogen stays put but as soon as you wet it Like when you ring a sponge the nitrogen can flood into the rivers because many of these rivers supply drinking water for communities throughout middle america's uh remodeling Remediating high loads of nitrogen will stress taxpayers as water departments are forced to build new facilities to eliminate the nitrogen from the drinking supply And they're going to have a really hard time paying for this because this is a unforeseen although here foreseen event That while predictable isn't necessarily budgetable, especially for a small community so uh, they looked at 20 12 2013 drought and flood cycle affected much of the midwest That led to a nitrogen spike in surface waters uh, what they kind of discovered Was that midwest across the last 10 to 15 years even so they looked further Uh, we found that the connection between drought to flood conditions and high nitrate was pretty common Indeed skyrocketing nitrate levels and Des Moines and raccoon rivers There's a raccoon river. That's awesome force the Des Moines waterworks to construct a 4.1 million dollar nitrate removal plant That costs seven thousand dollars per day to operate So they went from Anywhere from 25 to 150 plus days each year of running this plant And this is again money that's coming out of small municipality funds That probably didn't have this in the budget weren't planning to be spending all of this money So this is just one of those other now foreseen but previously unthought of Uh events that's taking place and it's it seems to be growing too. Uh Here says munitions. This is bergen again. Who's also gonna send the same as look municipal water services should be paying attention Iowa is the bullseye of this problem and it's going to spread out from there In iowa now it's hitting smaller and smaller municipalities according to analysis by the Des Moines register 30 percent of them Will soon have this problem and most don't have the tax bases to support huge nitrate removals or huge nitrate removal facilities, uh, this is Again, one of these important things that when we when we start peeling back Say regulations when we start ignoring problems like climate change We're all in the same planet together and everybody at some level is going to be affected But this could be a really huge impact on the midwest although I don't doubt that there are some who are already Who are already in the water bottling business We're seeing this as an opportunity. I think for most folks they'd rather Not deal with this Going down the road also sort of on the water tip here is sort of an interesting Thing going on where they they were looking at groundwater This is university college london and nasa's goddard instituted space studies in new york I show that 11 percent of the global non renewable groundwater drawn up for irrigation Goes to produce crops that have been traded on the international market Additionally two-thirds of those exported crops that depend on what they're calling non renewable because The the underground water tables take so long to replenish You can kind of look at it as a non renewable resource Uh They say that of those crops two-thirds are basically by three three countries pakistan is 29 percent Uh 27 percent of the united states in india rounds that out now a lot of other countries are doing this too and it's going to this is sort of an interesting on the horizon conflict As midwestern water for instance starts becoming so expensive to clean On top of that if they're using the groundwater that they've got to export crops They're exporting fresh water in essence. There's I mean it's it's it's only one more Carrier away from just filling a ship full of water and sending it overseas You're first filling it into the crops and then it goes on to a ship and then it goes overseas, right? So so there is this there is this future i'm seeing here coming where Where water is going to be a politically even more so politically charged issue It is in other places of the world already. I understand the water wars and other. Yeah Yeah, but but it's kind of not been an american problem to an extent You know there's been some farmers who complain that they lost their crop lands to to the water needs of los angeles But uh, yeah, chinatown's a great movie, but it's also a history lesson Yeah, it's it's interesting because There are I think all the time about how their surveys done looking at people specifically in Areas where they think that Climate change doesn't exist that environmental regulations aren't important These surveys also show that people say even if it does exist That it won't affect them personally and so this is one of those situations where you see both of these stories you hear about Very finite amounts of water Being reduced or being used for things in ways that will affect populations That I would be willing to bet a lot of them have no idea that they And it's it's also it's also one of the points in this in this paper that they make that it's not just It's not just that you know, oh no your local water is being sent abroad. It's also how much We may rely on crops or other countries may rely on crops that that are that are being grown abroad On water that may not be there Going forward. So if you've really begun to rely on a A a rice source a let's see. Well, they kind of nailed down some of the crops that seem to be wheat rice sugar cotton and corn Among the the most essential internationally traded crops that are they're more and more dependent on water for anything. Oh, no wait everything Everything but but then think of it as as if you're not not in america But if you are a foreign country that's really relying on imported american corn Or if we become very dependent on A cotton that's grown somewhere else for whatever the industry is whatever it is And all of a sudden they're not able to supply it and you don't have a backup You know, that's another place where then things like starvation or economic People can kind of take place. So Well, if these things aren't we hear about adjusting costs of goods and services a lot from other aspects looking at Adjusting for health costs for example With cigarettes that's part of the reason cigarettes are so expensive is that they're taking into account all of the medical costs from people smoking the cigarettes So this might be a situation where we start assessing costs of foods Based on how much water it takes to make them and how much it takes to clean the drinking water after the plants have been grown Like I mean that's a whole cycle of unseen costs how much how much fertilizer does this crop use that then causes us in times of Weather whiplash to have to cleanse the water after Absolutely. Hey, uh blare if uh, if anybody out there is just tuning in you're listening to this week in science with Blair basterich and justin jackson blare I think it's that time again Oh, do I get to play my own theme song? That's fine. Here we go. It's time for blare's animal corner Oh I have some really fun stuff this week I have First a story about spiders that kiki wanted to bring Last week but decided to save it for this week for me and I am just so excited It is about wolf spiders Wolf spiders are so called because they stock their prey on the forest floor in dry creek beds They are lone wolves. They live and hunt on their own except for mating encounters, of course and if you put your ear real close you can hear them howl Oh And they're about 200 species cc's of wolf spiders in the united states at the height of my spider hysteria when I was terrified of all spiders Wolf spiders were definitely at the top of my terrifying list. They they look like they're up to no good That being said In those about 200 species most of them are totally harmless. They're too small to hurt us So on the whole They're not that bad and Recent studies have been looking at wolf spiders for a few reasons One is that there's so many different species of them Another is that each species appears to approach mating a little bit differently These guys wolf spiders are known as I don't believe this the twerking spider The twerking spider they're called that because they Wave their arms around and then beat their abdomen Up and down to make vibrations so twerking makes sense And the females they actually will spin a trail of pheromone lace silk that is irresistible to male spiders And males can read from those chemical cues In the silk if a female is receptive to mating if she has already mated Or if she has cannibalized other males in the past. Yes, that would be helpful information Yeah, even these spiders the ladies like to eat their mates. So in about 10 percent Just be terrible too. It's like, hey, it looks like she's a receptive lady I think I'll go and pay her. Oh, what's that? It's a leg and another leg and part of an abdomen You know suddenly I'm not so in the mood Keep walking So the ones that they can tell that have either already mated or if they've cannibalized other males in the past these males will When approaching those females will either avoid them completely hide and try to be invisible or court furiously to overwhelm the female senses So um in a study from the use choice in california They wanted to study a few different species of wolf spiders for a few reasons But the way that they did it is they actually put the Females first overnight in a clear plastic bowl called an arena The bottom would be covered in a paper disc which would help researchers detect minute vibration When the spider walks scratches or engages in their twerking courtship dance And then the female would kind of spin the silk all over overnight Then the next day they would place atop a laser doppler vibrometer. So that's how they they registered the vibrations They would place males in the arena And use a video camera and the vibrometer to record what happens In about 10 of those encounters the female immediately ate the male So bummer You real bummer for the dude right away didn't even get a chance It's like bad ending to a date. Yeah, this rate of cannibalism is about half as high As the encounters of other species so wolf spiders they They do have a good amount of courtship that's successful So when they they paired these guys tempers at the time they were eating But then the rest of the time they would watch the mating dance and the ensuing kind of struggle They watched the male would begin his front legs He would raise his front legs. He would strike the paper And then I love this the leading professor he Um He narrated the encounter so all attempt Here he goes Here comes the female now look at her. She's interested The female cautiously approaches the male. She does a curtsy. This is a spider invitation to mate The male frantically bounces and waves Yes, she's excited. It's going to happen unless the male gets skittish Despite her apparent willingness the male is running away to the edge of the arena Where he resumes his dance this time. It's a little less enthusiastically The female approaches again Does another pivot curtsy, but the male backs again away They were close, but then she rears up slightly and scares him. She's armed and dangerous She's not being aggressive, but he's clearly smaller than she is He doesn't have a lot of experience No and then after about a minute of posing the female suddenly chases the male in two frantic laps and Run away run away run away before it turned through some Yes What the research found Aside from the fact that spider copulation is fascinating. I knew that already They found that each species of wolf spider engages in a unique courtship dance They employ multiple forms of communication and this behavior is plastic and learned This means That spiders what we previously thought Was a behavior that was pretty much pre-written in their genes It looks like they learn from their experiences. They adapt their their methods and that there are What I would say culturally different tactics for these spiders So it's not a genetic change But the species have distinct tactics for wooing females. So somehow they're passing this on The I'd say that could be genetic too. I mean because like If a strategy has if you if you have a really bad strategy Maybe it doesn't get passed on as much So yeah, so as as the the main professor said if a male is too bold He could get eaten by a female or a passing bird If he is too timid he could survive but miss any chance to Things to keep your head on a swivel for absolutely. So you have to live this medium of being Being gutsy enough to actually achieve mating with a significant other that may eat you While also not being so gung-ho that you get eaten right away Yeah, that those are words to live by right So the idea is based on their experimentation It really looks like these spiders learn and they adapt to different scenarios so spider spider behavior is a lot more complicated than we thought Next I have a very silly story. Two things on that story real quick. Two things one I would not make it very long as a spider Uh Get eaten right away But or by a bird like something's gonna get It's not gonna end well um And then and then two I really want to subscribe to this channel And and and see a variety of species narrated While eating popcorn late at night like I think this is what I need. Yeah for my doing pleasure Well, I got I enjoyed doing it because I got to pretend I was David Attenborough for a second. Yeah, that's cool. Okay So next I want to talk about Um chimps and captivity. I saw a really interesting but kind of silly story in the news this week about chimps and listening to music So as someone who's worked with captive chimps before and other captive primates It's commonplace to play the music on rainy days to show them movies To leave the radio on maybe talk radio if if they're If they're suddenly separated from their uh, their group their family group their social group Um, so this is very common practice but new research Shed some interesting light on that research from university of york's department of Psychology Investigated how classical and pop rock music affected the behavior of the chimpanzees at edinborough zoo They wanted to see if the music impacted Their welfare positively or negatively and if they had a preference towards what kind of music So first they just played music and they measured the welfare or wellness of the individual chimps But then the next stage is pretty interesting They gave them a chimpanzee jukebox, which was essentially a touchscreen Where they were able to select what they were going to listen to it would have things like mozart Beethoven Adele and justin beaver And so of course the title of this study was Beethoven to beaver This the results of this study showed that neither classical nor pop rock music had a positive effect on welfare They did not show any consistent preferences for music a specific type of music or silence and It suggests that music is not relevant to chimpanzees Yeah, and in fact previous studies looking at zoo housed orangutans have shown that they are unable to distinguish music from digitally scrambled noise What's interesting to note though is that there was no negative effect on chimps either Hmm So if we know that And for example, some people who Take care of these animals might want to listen to music during the day while they're working as humans it's good to know that That they Are not negatively affected by that so That's an important thing to look at and that's something that I haven't really seen a lot of people look at before is What are we doing as humans when we take care of these animals that could be a negative stimulus When we're not even thinking about that when we're just cleaning the cage next door Are we doing something that could negatively be affecting our animals and Usually people are pretty good at monitoring their animals behavior and Recognizing wellness and all this kind of stuff. So usually that's not an issue But it is good to know that the music doesn't bother them I would also wonder whether Their selection of music was not broad enough. Maybe they don't like Mozart or Justin Bieber, but they like the Beatles Who knows maybe they like jazz We don't know. Yeah, it didn't seem quite that eclectic, but um but also I want to mention that as a as a As a group of animals that have found a lot of different ways to communicate I would guess that animals that communicate with song birds, for example Probably have a pretty close preference for certain things But we I don't think we found a way to test for that yet The other thing I will mention too is remember I said that we play music and we'll also play videos For them and they really like flipping through magazines actually the chimps flip through magazines and they will know Sometimes a certain individuals will recognize a magazine. They've looked at before and toss it back so visual medium Maybe they like tv. We don't know We have to do I'd say that's probably the next study is do they like movies? And then if you take away the sound from the movie, do they care? So so I don't know. So I watched I think they're gibbons. Are the gibbons they go? Okay, so I was watching the gibbons who weren't being particularly active today And and there was behind them There's another enclosure that has the chimpanzees and the chimpanzees started talking up a whole bunch like making I can't do a good chimpanzee sound. Maybe but But the gibbon like went up to the top and was like looking over like to check out what was going on in the chimpanzee uh enclosure, but it was I sort of like thought of it like That's their reality tv Oh, let's see what the chimps are doing now You know like Watching that dynamic because they weren't interested in the past was by they weren't paying any attention to people Like people are like just white noise to them at this point But the little bit of activity in the chimpanzees and it didn't look like you know Like he was nervous about or anything, but it was just like really wanted to see what was going on over there Well, that's true. Yeah, so chimps in captivity don't care for music, but you could take it or leave it All right, so speaking of music. It's time for our break time music Please stay tuned for more this week in science. Meanwhile, we are going to take a short break Did you know that this week in science has merchandise available online You can go to twist.org by some of our swag We also have a link on our website that goes directly to our zazzle store You can go to twist.org and click on that zazzle store link in the menu bar to start buying now We have all sorts of fun stuff. We have mouse pads hats lumbar pillows mugs of all shapes and sizes aprons bags tote bags onesies for little toddlers in your life We have phone cases necklaces postcards plates I really want to see someone with a Blair's animal corner plate wall. I think that'd be rad wrapping paper clocks all sorts of things pet tags Just in case you want a rat or a tyrannosaurus rex on your Cat or dogs pet tag trucker hats. Do people still wear those trucker hats? Maybe anyway, go to the twist go to twist.org click on the zazzle link at the top And you can start buying now proceeds do go to this week in science If you're not looking for any this week in science swag twist is supported by listeners like you Your donations pay for hosting bandwidth contractors. We need to hire Fun things we try to do for the show when we go on special trips to do live shows We appreciate any amount two dollars five dollars ten dollars a hundred dollars Probably not you make the show possible We currently accept donations a couple of ways First we have a paypal donation button on the show page on our website In fact almost every single page you navigate to on our website You can probably find the paypal donation button Very easy big fat button just click Or you can go to patreon.com slash this week in science Patreon is kind of like Kickstarter for media producers So you can get stuff in return for your donation and you donate per content created. So in this case per episode Whatever your preference go to the website Listen to the most recent episode Talk to people about what you saw or heard And make a donation If you can't afford a donation We can always use your help to get more people listening to and watching this week in science The reason we're here is to spread the science now more than ever We want to talk about science start a conversation about science get all of you in the know If you know people that would want to hear about science Think they might like what we have to offer our Our quirky atmosphere Justin, you know me with my animal corner and of course The same one kiki if you know someone that might like this show Use your social networks for science and tell people to tune in to this week in science You can steer us steer them to our website. That's probably the best thing to do Steer them to iTunes steer them to the apple store steer them to twist for droid Steer them to our twitter or our facebook. There's lots of different ways to share What we have to offer You can also post a review to to itunes as twist and give thumbs up to recent reviews that were helpful The reviews are how itunes spreads Podcasts suggest podcasts to regular podcast listeners So those reviews having recent reviews and having lots of thumbs up on reviews Helps us get seen by the average itunes listener So all of that Can help us spread that science and we thank you For helping us do that And we of course, thank you for your support We could never do it without you And we are back with more this week in science, that's right. What do you have for us justin? Uh, let's see Let's talk about sex Why do we do it? What is that whole thing about you ideas? Yeah, well, apparently the researchers here who just published in the journal of evolutionary biology That weren't so sure why we have sex So they created a computer model That would test Why we have sex And now of course they're not starting at this late date in evolution They wanted to go all the way back all the way back figure out why When did sexual reproduction come into play? Why is it even there? Why not just keep Butting off little clones of yourself or having self-fertilized eggs Why go through this expense this complexity? orchestrate things in this universe so that there's All this sex going on Well, one of the things that they they kind of looked at Or came came to at the end of this was that a asexual reproduction While more efficient from an energy standpoint Isn't necessarily that good In creating beneficial mutations that get selected in and out So you have a mutation that takes place that's not helpful And it's going to be there every generation after and it's just going to go downhill because most mutations aren't necessarily beneficial what sexual reproduction allows under their computer model and played out in favor of Being a hardier species Being able to to sort of through sex have another layer of Uh, well have that layer of selection that allows Those mutations that aren't beneficial to sort of be weeded out of the society in which it occurs So Sex it's what makes That's all stronger Great Can't say I'm surprised Yeah, it does make sense Still they didn't figure out like exactly when it started or anything that's sort of that would be Do you do you want to talk about animal sex while we're at it? Yeah, let's okay great. So let's talk about guppies And how uh, how they like their partners Uh team of researchers with members from sweden and the uk found that female guppies With larger than average brains preferred to mate with males that were more colorful than average So brainy females liked bright colored males Previous research showed that guppies with larger brains are smarter than other guppies So in this case size does matter with the female's brain size So in this new study the researchers wanted to find out if bigger brains also impacted their choice of mates they bred guppies over several generations selecting for brain sizes 36 with larger than average brains 36 was smaller than average And they constructed a special fish tank for the experiment where the females could swim back and forth between two ends Where they held males in place so the males couldn't move They placed males with different degrees of coloring in either end of the tank and place the female in the middle So then they recorded how often she hung out with each of the two males When they compared how the females behaved in the tank they found that those with bigger brains showed a strong preference for more colorful males Why because The color of the males Is usually an indicator of health in guppies Because coloring comes from pigments and foods that they eat So the more successful at finding food the brighter their colors And so the the smarter females the brainy or females were able to figure that out And to test that hypothesis a little bit further they even threw a feel a few wild born guppies in there that had larger than average brains And those ladies also picked the more colorful males So So it is all about looks for the guppies So Smart ladies know what they like. That's right And soon smart ladies will also know what you like Oh, oh, tell me more Some are lemony others earthy and at times seductively skunky University of british columbia scientists have scanned the genome of cannabis plants In search of what accounts for the variety and aromas Cody voice here of yorg bulman Professor in the michael smith laboratories and faculty of forestry at the university of british columbia The goal is to develop well-defined and highly reproducible cannabis varieties This is similar to the wine industry, which depends on defined varieties Such as chardonnay or merlot for high value products Our genomic works can Inform breeders of commercial varieties, which genes to pay attention to for specific flavor qualities. They found 30 terrapin Terrapin Synthesis synthase genes that contribute to diverse flavors and cannabis that number is Comparable to genes that play the role in grapevine flavors in the wine industry. So it's a nice Oh, we have about the same number of tweaks to create all of wine variety that we can play with And creating cannabis variety the genes of researchers discovered play a role in producing natural products like limonene Meersine and pine in the cannabis plants these fragrant molecules are generally known in the industry is terrapins the limonene compound produces a lemon like flavor my My myersine produces the dank earthy flavor characteristics of purple kush said booth They also found A gene that produces the signature terrapin of cannabis beta caroleffine Which interacts with cannabinoid receptors in human cells along with other active ingredients in cannabis And quotey voice. He says there's a need for high quality consistent products made from well-defined varieties Researchers say it will be important to examine what extent the terrapin compounds might interact with cannabinoid compounds It's like in thc that can refer the medicinal properties of cannabis And it's part of an ongoing collaboration between bullman graduate student judith booth and jonathan page an adjunct professor in the botany department who founded the cannabis testing and biotechnology company and dia anandia maps So next time I go wine tasting. Can I call a wine skunky? Um, well, you can go like I'll get kicked out. Yeah, I don't know It's not the quite you could you could do that. I think you can do that with your beer Yeah, that's true hops is uh, you know closely related to the the Instead yeah, it'd be it'd be hilarious you use like marijuana terminology like at a brewery Oh, this is uh, this is a very skunky. Uh, what do you do? IPA here? Uh, very very lemony uh, very lemony Well, you're when you're enjoying your your skunky Herbs and you end up eating too much You're liable to gain some weight and when you gain some weight Why is there not something telling you to stop eating? well Recent research Tells us perhaps there is and we're just not listening Researchers have identified a molecule that's sent by fat cells to the fly brain This is in fruit flies that senses when they've had enough food and inhibits feeding Fat is the primary long-term energy storage in animals and the control of fat levels is critical for survival If you're not fat enough, then if there's not enough food, you have nothing to live off of in times of famine If you have too much fat, you have all sorts of other health problems and you can die that way too So there's kind of a sweet spot for fat in all animal species And because fruit flies replicate many of the feeding related regulatory mechanisms and genes That work in humans once again fruit flies excellent model for research They focus the researchers focused on non-coding RNAs or micro RNAs Which are well known inhibitors of gene expression and they searched for micro RNAs that When overexpressed in fat tissue affected feeding behavior and they found a micro RNA called m i r i a b 4 myriab 4 which increased feeding more than 27 percent And a target gene called purple Which was expressed in fat bodies reducing purple expression Now we're getting confusing enhanced feeding Suggesting normal function was to inhibit it. So purple was this gene related to fat accumulation So when when purple is there it should be inhibiting Eating and when it's lacking it enhances feeding. So very simple. So too much fat eat less not enough fat eat more So purple is one of the enzymes that build a molecule called ptp Which is released by fat bodies and circulates in the fly brain Then a third enzyme converts pdp into a well-known enzyme cofactor called tetrahydrobiotaren BH4 BH4 is required in the neurons to produce npf a neuropeptide that regulates feeding Okay, so there's this long long chain reaction From the building of fat to not eating or from the lack of fat to eating That's basically what they learned that there is a direct Chain link or a domino effect almost right between all these different mechanisms That allow your body or the fruit fly body to self correct when it comes to fat So the study indicates that fat tissue sends a molecular signal to the fly brain to regulate feeding behavior So now they want to do further studies to determine if similar systems Are found in mammals and then of course if they can manipulate it to help achieve weight loss or gain I feel like they just should consult with the food industry. I feel like the food industry It's going to be like, oh, yeah, we know how to turn that off. Yeah, exactly, right But so much of it is just time, right? I think about all the time how I think i'm hungry And then I wait 10 minutes And I realized I was done Right, so this is just you have to wait for the accumulation of fat So it's not about what you're eating right in that moment. It's about your body responding to your current current Essentially your current bmi your current percent fat in your body So we need to figure out how to listen to that Yeah, and you know, you know who's really obsessed with uh with the percentage of body fat index In Richard Simmons. No, yeah, perhaps Also school bullies Oh, okay Yeah, it turns out school bullies and their victims are more obsessed with weight loss than anyone else This is uh research at a university warwick 42 percent of bullies have a extreme preoccupation with weight loss as well as 55 percent of bullying victims and 57 percent of teens who are both bullies and bullied So there's like a there's a crossover like not all bullies are just bullying Some bullies are also themselves being bullied and then turn that bullying on to others whereas Only and I say only because in sort of comparison to that number 35 percent of kids Not involved in bullying at all or obsessed with losing weight So it's it's much higher in those that are bullying and being bullied Well, isn't that kind of the the age old moniker of they're bullying because they feel that about themselves So kind of yeah, so it says bullies are preoccupied with being more attractive and stronger And victims are affected psychologically by being picked on giving them low self-esteem Desire to change their body This was uh, 2,800 adolescents in the uk Secondary schools were screened For this involvement in bullying through self and peer assessment I think the peer assessment is kind of a key part So it's not just the shelf like you believe I would never bully But they also asked the peers like who's the bullies That's you you could get in on somebody else sort of vouching for your bullies Bullies are not very good self reporters Yeah, they were they were uh for the honor system And they took out of the 2,800 800 teenagers Who they who they said were in uh Sample of those who were involved in the bullying at least were analyzed for eating exercise thoughts behavior self-esteem levels body image and emotional well-being They were asked to complete a barrage of established Psychological quizzes such as Rosenberg self-esteem scale the strengths and difficulties questionnaire body's team scale for adolescents and adults And the eating behaviors component of the child and adolescent psychiatric assessment Yeah, so so it's not it's it's you know, it's kind of like doesn't come away with a whole lot here, but The idea of that Okay, so it says bullies are bi-strat strategic They want to be popular by being dominant through bullying But also want to look good in contrast those who are bullied The victims are occupied with weight because they have a poor body and self-esteem Emotionally stressed and hope that looking good might alleviate them of that stress and make them feel better If we could reduce bullying they contend it would help to improve self-worth body image well-being and healthy ways of keeping fit among these adolescents Research does psychological functioning mediate the relationship between bullying involvement weight loss preoccupation and adolescence a two-stage cross sectional study Is published in the international journal of behavior on nutrition and physical activity so I wonder too If you're eating well And you're keeping the food down and also not overeating and not under eating, right? And then the stuff actually that you're eating is good stuff Emotionally you can be more balanced person You're going to be less likely to have mood swings Or outbursts Your home hormones will be flying a little bit less off the handle. Maybe you'll be a less violent person And I don't know if any of that is true Yes, of course. That's all conjecture. I don't know that any of that is true. Um, but you know and gosh, like We're whenever whenever we start down that slippery slope of talking about anything about nutrition and well-being And psychological health There's so little that we really know at this point I mean the entire microbiota maybe like it may be like I would love to cross this study with a Analysis of the microbiomes of these students and then we might find oh Certain gut bacteria Cause bullying right certain right like like it could just be like This is just an escalation like that chain of events that you were describing between Eating something and feeling hungry There could be this whole chain of events between how you digest your food and whether or not you're a bully at school based on weight issues Right, let's see then Justin. I worry about without bullies Certain social structures will be upset And people will not grow Through adversity in the same way I have a hilarious story for the aftershocks balance Yeah, like it's okay. So it's all it's all lord of the flies. We send all the kids out there. You know what? You get you get bullied a kid pushes you into playground punch him in the nose. That's just escalating That's not what I said That kind of is kind of is you know There's part of being a functioning adult in this world requires kind of a thick skin because children are sometimes monsters Because children are children the one I love how I love how it's not other adults You've gotten to this stage in your life and you have the thick skin glare because of your interactions with children. Yeah Yeah, absolutely No question I mean the the adults are also monsters But you know, but I can deal with it now. It's the children who have the cutting tabs Children They taught me important lessons Yeah Anyway speaking of microbiota, didn't you have another story? Oh, yeah, let me go Let me cut to that one there. Um, so we we've paid a lot of lip service around here to the wonderful world of the microbiota We just mentioned it again in the last segment The microflora of the gut is so beneficial that without it We would all be dead Now there's a renewed focus to look for the beneficial relationship of microbes And plants a better understanding of friendly microbiota The beneficial fungi and enhance plant growth and create disease resistance Well The importance of few a few individual bacteria species is already currently pretty decently understood relatively little Is known about the microbial communities that surround roots and that dwell on the leaves We get uh, and we've covered pin point sort of stories about how this is doing what then over here We got something else but understanding the the more complex community of microbes on plants is still Not been a focus, which is really odd because especially when we talk about You know the that whiplash weather effect the all the all the money that's on on the line in agriculture All that the chemical industry has done over the years and getting into genetics and trying to create plants breed plants that are That are more sustainable or that can survive better in better areas Still haven't addressed the microflora of the plant Yeah Wow enter Posey busby of organ state university who along with colleagues at eight other research institutions Are calling for a plant microbiome project kind of like the human one that went through Uh to help understand how beneficial microbes can be harnessed in sustainable agriculture by understanding relationships that impact plant growth efficiency of nutrient use stress tolerance And disease resistance the author notes there has been no coordinated effort to consolidate and translate new ideas Into practical solutions for farmers to that end They propose a set of five broad research priorities Develop model host bite microbiome systems for crop and non-crop plants multiple models are needed to span the range of crop plants Which include grains vegetables fruits economically important tree species Tools for creating and working with these systems and data derived from them should be available in public databases next Define the core microbiome if there is such a thing the set of organisms found in most samples of a particular set of plants In order to identify relationships that should be prioritized for further study Comparison of core microbiomes is likely to reveal further insights into both genetic environmental influence on microbiome composition next Seek to understand the rules of microbiome assembly and resilience as part of this goal The authors recommend prioritizing research aimed at designing synthetic microbial communities That can successfully colonize plant organs and persist long enough in natural environments to benefit the host and Determine the functional mechanisms at work in agricultural microbiome interactions to learn how these interactions promote nutrient exchange Drought tolerance and other features of microbiome activity would I which in that in that interactions are talking about I'm sort of thinking like if you plant this crop next to this crop Their microbiomes will be in conflict whereas if you have plants even if it's different species, but that have very similar Microbiomes you can plant them next to each other and they will at the worst enhance each other's Microbiome activity next characterize the complex interaction among plant genotype environmental factors farm management strategies Microbiome this is when there's like okay way down the line. We'll incorporate all of this The definition of a healthy beneficial microbiome may depend on specific environmental challenges Faced by the plant authors point out or ultimately there may be a generic microbiome Whose composition promotes growth and health under a wide range of conditions the fact that we don't know this This deep into the game of agriculture Right somewhat I mean I get that we are really being able to drill down and understand microbiome I feel like we've been talking about this forever on this show But this show has been around for 10 years and agriculture is now thousands of years old. So I get it. It's there's some catch up Yeah, that's I it seems pretty Pretty it seems like an obvious place to look and I can't wait to hear all about it No, I this is I think this is going to be a favorite thing to follow For a while and they can clear the conclusion by encouraging Uh, but more so than ever the tools technology is funding are now in place to tackle the fundamental questions in agriculture Biome research or for now at least by encouraging the pursuit of these five key research priorities We aim to accelerate the development of agriculture microbiome manipulations Management strategies that will increase the sustainability and productivity of global agriculture and can you imagine Can you imagine if if if five years from now We're looking back 10 years whatever it is. Things are going quick now. It could be three years We're looking back at the age of insecticides is being gone because We can now manage plant populations through microbiome So I this is look if you're if you're aspiring if you're considering Well, I could go into microbiology or I could just stick with the chemistry thing and go into We're we've been talking power plants that are going to be run by microbiologists We're talking all of agriculture chemical industry potential having a potential to be replaced or just added to Microbiology microbiology is going to Only increase I mean, we're just understanding them the the gut of the human being now From everything from food to plants to power microbiology will be involved and be a critical role in absolutely um, so I have a couple more stories that are pretty quick The the first is about ravens ravens, of course one of the smartest birds in the world They are so gosh darn smart new research suggests because they are so gosh darn social researchers In austria and colleagues in france outfitted around 30 ravens with little backpacks measured their gps position Every hour they were charged by solar power and the data was transmitted using the gsm network for mobile phones in the regions and in the last four years of data collection, uh, they collected movements up to 160 kilometers per day in addition in austria and italy 332 ravens were marked individually with colored rings and wing tags and their presence patterns and two study sites were monitored over years What they found was that while some non breeding ravens stay only in relatively small areas Others may move thousands of kilometers per year Many ravens meet repeatedly in different locations Usually at rich food sites like landfills compost stations, you know the watering hole the water cooler and adjacent common knight roosts What they were surprised about was the similarity to humans Some people prefer to spend their entire life in a single city or even a small village Others want to travel and explore the world. So the exact same variability is found in non breeding ravens They also found that the ravens make friends, but also fight heavily with other group members and that they remember specific individuals So every time a raven joins a group of con specifics of another individuals of the same species at food sources They can benefit from remembering previous interactions to decide who is friend or foe the combination of social bonds with within the non breeding society and Making this highly dynamic system May have driven their brain evolution Yeah So ravens, they're just like us And I have another zoo story from oh, yeah go for it. So, um We we've stopped for a snack and One of the kids dropped a whole bunch of seaweed onto the ground and then And it could have just totally been a coincidence but When they picked it up and threw it in the garbage I heard a I heard a a Just laugh because like this is just it just the timing is right where I was like Thinking that the girl was like no That could that would have totally been ah just leave it They might have just been going. Hey dudes. He just dropped some really cool stuff in that garbage can It could be it could be The way it hit me was like what no come on Ah Um, so speaking of zoos my very last story tonight is not super focused in science facts So I just want to mention that it was all over the internet in the past week, which is why I wanted to talk about it It's all about the Tasmanian tiger. Did you hear about this Justin? No The Tasmanian tiger was declared extinct in 1936 the very last individuals were in the Hobart zoo The Tasmanian tiger is a marsupial carnivore that was originally on Mainland Australia, but was extinct there about 2 000 years ago and since then has been only found on the island of Tasmania so Recent sightings of things in northern Queensland. So this is mainland Australia Leads people to believe that perhaps they are Tasmanian tiger That's dogs The question right parallel dogs. They have had sightings of large dog-like animals. They're not you know, they're not foxes These these sightings have persisted over decades despite widespread skepticism. So just like you everyone's like They're not 10 years. No, absolutely not researchers from James Cook University have now started a launch Uh have launched a search for the animal long considered extinct So professor bill Laurent said he spoke at length to two people about animals. They had seen it in Cape York peninsula That could potentially be Tasmanian tigers thylacines And they had given plausible and detailed descriptions One employee one was an employee from Queensland national park. Those national and park employees Know what a dog looks like and they were pretty sure it wasn't a dog All of the sightings were at night, which would fit along with their nocturnal habits, but it is hard to see I'm absolutely sure that that wasn't a dog No, it was night and it was off in the distance night But it was only about 20 feet away in many of the cases pretty close Then they described their eyes their size their shape their behavior and those were all Inconsistent attributes of other large species in northern Queensland like dingo's wild dogs or feral pigs The sightings were mostly at two separate locations on Cape York peninsula But the the specifics are being kept confidential. So everything is being held in confidence Because they don't I mean I'm aware of the fact that if we Let's just remember we're all really excited at this. Yay Tasmanian tigers might not be extinct There are some individuals who might think yay, let me go hunt it So, that's why this has to be kept kind of confidential They also don't want to be called kooks Or or conspiracy theorists or any of these things So they want to have really hard evidence before They go much further and a researcher with James Cook University Sandra Abel Uh, the university's center for tropical environmental and sustainability science is leading an intensive field survey. She's Picked sites for 50 camera traps the survey will be underway in april or may of this year and She would like to see obviously some Tasmanian tigers, but she's not extremely Optimistic about it. If nothing else she would like to see some other rare or endangered mammal species on the camera traps and Maybe get a good idea of the predators in the area that might be causing problems or selective pressures to endangered animals it's so They're not ruling it out The scientists are out there actually recording the data, but before you get all excited We don't have any hard evidence yet that this is actually happened So that's where we are with the Tasmanian tiger Do you have any more stories, Justin? Uh, I think I think I think there's one thing. Uh, I would like to to have a moment of silence about The uh The current administration has rolled back the clean power plan This is this is something that you know Is being pitched as it's going to stimulate jobs because now coal power plants can burn dirtier than they did before and they Companies won't have to spend as much money making uh Sure, those emissions aren't harmful Uh We know better Right, we also need an epa so Yeah, we may not have that much longer, but But but these things are reversible as well But but the idea that That you're going to get gains somehow in jobs That outweigh the cost of human health Um, yeah, it's right back to where we were talking at the very beginning right these um unlisted costs of things There is there is a cost to continuing Accelerating global climate change there will be a health cost to that there will be a cost to increase pollution both of air and water And those costs greatly outweigh Uh and and in truthfully from based on based on the people who I who I've you know I'm gonna unnamed sources. No, they're named sources. These are these are people that study this um, there's There's an interesting article Uh, that was a study by dr. Driscoll It's published in journal nature climate change Uh, we sort of talks about the trade-offs of this of the plan And and basically is come is explaining that we we likely aren't going to see jobs increase Uh from this that that they're using that they're using this as The the verbiage that sort of sells it But the reality is there's going to be a huge economic cost to it Uh, and there's no sign that it will actually increase Uh jobs may it although they did say there there's maybe one or two coal mines that might benefit from this But in the long term what's one of the industries that do have growing job markets Solar power solar right so electric vehicles right so Part of it's just about once again Doing your own research finding the real data Knowing the funding sources behind articles and publications Well, and this is the thing the the data that the the administration held up Was from a coal lobbying uh firm. It was literally a lobbyist version of science And used and referred to nothing else so We're all in trouble people, but here's can I can I can I leave a um a silver lining? Oh, please do Okay, so in my day job. I've been doing interviews with teenagers To pick my team for the summer for summer programming and last year I had an interview question about how they do research on new topics And every single teenager last year said internet And I would say okay The internet's big Where do you go on the internet to find your information? They go. I don't know. I just google it Oh, I'd go to you wikipedia Okay How do you know where that information comes from? Oh Okay, this year Every single teenager that I interviewed When they brought up the internet Immediately on the heels of the word right away. No no pause said internet, but I make sure it's a trusted source Internet, but I look for consensus internet, but I look Where the funding comes from or what the source is or you know all that kind of stuff So there is a paradigm shift coming from this garbage news that's coming out It's creating an awareness in this gap of the of the internet coming out of us Maybe not knowing how to vet our sources. It really seems to be coming out just in the past year these teenagers Know to look at their sources. So they're being positive turning into a big After-show-esque conversation. So we should close out the show pretty Yeah, let's do that. But I do want to mention that it's looking good for people being skeptical and scientific It looks like it's on the upswing and I'm excited And that's why we're here, right? Absolutely. We will we'd be here with it or without it We'd be here with it or without it and before we close out the show I do want to thank all of our patreon supporters So I will be reading our list of patreon supporters From the youtube video when kiki had a crawl because oh, that's not This is a train wreck All right, all right, I'm in but it's still gonna be our Patreon supporters if you're interested in supporting us you can find us at patreon.com slash this week in science Or at twist.org. We're gonna cover all of that. Yes Here are our patreon sponsors. Thank you to chris clark paul disney g burton latimore john ratna swami richard omus brian byron lee eo jared lysett kevin parochan andy groe keith corsell jake jones jerald serrallis ulysses adkins derrick nickle david friedel james randall eric schwaub bob calder mark mesk mesk zarros ed dire trainor 84 brian hedrick leila marshal clark charlene davidson henry larry garseer randy mazuka tony steele jerald onyago steve debel kasenia volkova daryl haroon sarang melissa mausley alex wilson jason s schneiderman gregg geuthman dav neighbor jason dozier matthew litwin eric knap jason roberts richard porter rodney david wiley robert astin aurora lee bill cursey bill uh ben rothig darwin hannon ruby rudi garcia nick abasi felix alvarez cosmic gypsy brian hone orly radio brian kondren marked nathan greco hexatour debora valentine smith mitch nevis flying out john g crooker christopher drier sylvan wespey archium shoewater david wilkins wilkinson steve meshinsky rick ramos gary swinsburg phil nidow braxton howard solgood saia matt sutter emma grignier philip shane james dobson kurt larson stefan insom michael george russell jensen mountensloth jim john h. maloney jason olds james paul west alex doney iluma lama joe wheeler dug dugle cambell craig porter adam mishkin erin lutheran marjorie paul stanton david simerley tyler harrison and colombo ahmed you know i never realized how long that list of supporters because i can't say it as fast as kiki so no she's got it down to such you know how talented she is so thank you patriot patrons i'm so sorry i missed your name maybe that's a new patreon perk blare will mispronounce your name on next week's show once again we'll be broadcasting live this time kiki will be with us again our fearless leader that will be at eight p.m pacific time on twist.org slash live where you can watch and join our chat room but don't worry if you can't make it you can find our past episodes at youtube.com slash this weekend science or twist.org thank you for enjoying the show twist is also available as a podcast just google this weekend science and your itunes directory or if you have a mobile type device you can look for twist the number four droid app in the android marketplace or simply this weekend science and anything apple market plazy for more information on anything you've heard here today too bad not available no wait it's available on our website i forgot it's at www.twist.org what's that website it's www.twist.org like twis like this weekend science.org where you can also make comments and start conversation with the hosts and other listeners or or or you can contact us directly email kirsten at kirsten at this weekend science.com justin at twistminion at gmail.com or blare at blarebaz at twist.org just be sure to put twist twis somewhere in the subject line or your email will be spam filtered into oblivion you can also hit us up on the twitter where we are at twist science at dr kiki at jackson flying at players menagerie we love your feedback if there's a topic you would like us to cover on dress a suggestion for an interview a haiku that comes through in the night please let us know we'll be back here next week with a bit more direction and we hope you'll join us again for more great science news and if you've learned anything from the show remember it's all in your this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science it's 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 broadcast my opinion all of it's this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science science this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science science science i've got one disclaimer and it shouldn't be news that's what i say may not represent your views but i've done the calculations and i've got a plan if you listen to the science you may just get understand that we're not trying to threaten your philosophy we're just trying to save the world just coming your way 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 ghandi weekend science this weekend science this weekend science science this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science science science 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 got the help can i ever see the changes i seek when i can only set up shop weekend sciences coming your way you better just listen to what we say from the words that we've said then peace weekend science this weekend science science this weekend science this weekend science science this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science this weekend science kiki is with family actually on a road trip right now on her way to visit family so she obviously couldn't do twists from the car that's where kiki is thanks identity for wasn't quite as good as when kiki's here but i like to think we carry on with the science what dar what's wrong i'm trying to think what i have to share with the circle today i'm running my sound board having a grand old time with that no i should probably instagram it thanks rob and yes fata we carry on what else can we do yes a friendly third voice kiki was missed but luckily she's alive no she's fine she'll be missed oh no that's careful no hold on oh dar sorry the show's over but we'll hang out for a little bit um i'm i interrupted you mid-rant do you want to continue me yeah what was i ranting about i've forgotten my ranch i've forgotten everything i've gotten a total blank you were ranting politico oh yeah the politics suck right now yep i don't want to talk about politics for a change it but the politics are so bad that justin does not want to rant about politics anymore i can't i can't fathom it let alone there's dissect anything anymore i'm just like i want to turn away and i never wanted to turn away from the political i have never wanted to just turn my head and go forget it never all right yeah i'm i'm over it i'm not i'm not over it and i'm i'm i'm really not over it but i'm over the discussing ad nauseam because right now there's very little that we can do so i disagree so here's stuff there don't get me wrong there's stuff to do but in terms of enacting system-wide change the best way to do that is to just make sure this does not fizzle out between now and the elections in 2018 that is the only way to ensure that we we recover some territory in a big fast way so i am so i'm i'm trying to sustain i'm in this for a for a marathon not a sprint and if i could do too much all at once and get too over consumed this is what happened right after the election or really it happened right after the election that happened again right after the 20th of january is i got overwhelmed i got consumed by this like foreboding and doubt and i had to shelf it and i'm trying right now to set parameters for amounts of time and amounts of energy that i can give to this garbage so that i remain engaged for the next two years that is my opinion take it or don't yeah there's my grant how do you like that yeah so here's i don't know this isn't the silver lining this may be a carbon dust mining uh just going colleagues this is back to that that study that was looking at first i'll read his statement i'll quote his voice his statement out here our research shows that a power plant standard like the clean power plan could save thousands of lives and communities across the united states every year the health gains from a standard like clean power plan yielded net economic benefits that would far outweigh the cost the economic benefits tend to be greatest in the highly populated areas near or downwind from coal fired power plants to the experience a shift to cleaner sources with the standards if we overturn clean power plan we will forfeit important health benefits and undermine the long-standing American tradition of energy innovation and clean air progress at a time when we need it most the they calculated state by state air quality health outcomes determined the greatest health gains under this plan and therefore the greatest potential loss of health and its repeal occur in pennsylvania ohio texas illinois michigan and new york there's a lot of red in that how quickly people will understand that their air is now less healthy uh how how much people will will be told within those communities because you have here's the thing you have to factor in to in terms of this should be um on on the on the minds of people who are going to be affected by this but what's also right there near these people who are going to be most impacted are the wealth centers of people who are causing this this pollution to be in there which means they probably have decent influence on radio news information that people see the the what used to be you know they used to be in the company town the company newspaper toaded the company line and and you would think with the democratization of media that that would go away that that the media sources that people get are on a larger scale that and that's true but what happens is you don't get your local news you get some sort of national news as your your democratized news right that you can have access to and it's not specific to your community that which still remains specific to your community is actually perhaps in ways more heavily uh influenced by the local industry so or as as much as the company town so a lot of this a lot of the problem that we're going to have to combat anything in the future is going to be about who's disseminating the information we've had so many times this conversation of well if we could just put the information into terms that people could understand it's true it's true but don't you think they have to want to understand it no i think i think what i think the the i think the choke point in this the bottleneck if you will for any information that people would perhaps love to know would would welcome to know is the delivery system you can have the vaccine but if you don't got a needle they ain't gonna get it right if you have no way to put it out there and so what we really have is is an information um um what do you call it an information bottleneck the information is there we have we understand what science is telling us about about global warming about the effects the health effects of the regulations that we have in place we have we we have all this information we know a lot about how it's going to affect people's lives but there's nobody there where they live that's telling them that yeah that means you this is how it's going to affect you this is why you should even care about this the the their local medias and even the national media because it can't focus on everybody's individual thing doesn't seem to take it serious or or maybe that's who you start with right maybe you try to educate those folks but i don't think they care i i think i think when you have a news producer which we this show is produced but nobody hands you your stories nobody hands me my stories nobody tells us the take to have on any given story a lot of those people that we look at as even journalists are a team of journalists perhaps behind them and they're also likely people who have selected those journalists are selecting the stories that they're going to work on so there's this whole thing of information not getting just from source to source but there's this whole filter in the middle and that's that's the problem and i know i i think i think you could craft the most articulate and personal message on on any environmental issue but you would have to go door to door door hey do you have 10 minutes to learn about how global warming will so so you have to go through the avenues that already exist so for example 80 almost 80 percent of people who enter museums aquariums and zoos want to hear about environmental issues climate change and suggestions for themselves they want that research has shown that that's real science so knowing that we can use that information to help this cause they don't want to hear about it from the scientist on the news they don't want to hear it about it from their political representatives they want to hear about it from the people who they think are impartial and have a stake in the future of our environment of our biological systems and that are the that that is these these people that work at these nonprofits and run these centers so i'm i'm just using that as an example so we can take information like that the thing to do here i think in this breadth of knowledge that we have and these these expanses of outlets and not knowing which way is the best way to reach people and when they're most receptive and how they're most receptive is to do exactly what we do with science do science on it do the social science because otherwise there's there's no way to make traction in this in this information bottleneck that is simultaneously amplifying information that may or may not be accurate or helpful or well-framed and so there there are social science organizations that actually this is what they do so all of my climate change interpretation training is through this organization but they also do health research trying to figure out how people want to hear about threats to their health about how to stay healthy about what they should do about health care for children and for adults there is science being done so just as much as we do science on the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the albedo of sea ice we can be doing science on how to talk to people because our brain is is complicated and our social structure is complicated so if we want to make change through this enormous society with varying values we have to figure out how to queue in to universal values and use those to get real points across right so we can use science to figure out how to talk about science yeah that that's true and and but we will also probably be able to just use economic levers for instance though those power plants that are leaving the clean power plan standard if they're exporting that energy to to a state or an area that doesn't want them lowered if the if if the politics you know if you were to attempt to I could like I could foresee like if California which is got green enough great it's not going to rely on this but if California were to be offered energy from a plant that has left the standard behind they could offer a lower price for that energy you know there this is this is like the the thing this is like when they're when you want though because then you start thinking about disparity in economic situations you start thinking about different investments so people start thinking about zero sum there's a lot of unproductive ways to think about things when you start to get into the value of capitalism essentially yeah but but capitalism in their own health or in the environment right put it in a capitalist frame they don't think but they but so so here but here's what i'm getting at here's what i'm getting at the the desire to roll back the EPA standards for uh auto emissions or or not it's not just the auto emissions but it's also the fuel mileage it's the fuel mileage standards California which is going to be followed by several i think it's like maybe 13 other states at this point California this is this is an old story but California was so smoggy uh the valley where where the valley girls are from down in Los Angeles used to have a hanging haze that was so thick you could take a bite out of the air because of this because the the situation was so drastic in Los Angeles California got an exemption from federal standards in an air quality and was allowed to create higher standards they've kept that we've kept that ever since and and so when they were talking about you know well we're going to let the auto industry self-regulate on on fuel mileage California went okay um but we're still gonna do it right and and there's only one California no it's not one California it's those 13 other states as well which one of which is like New York right but but California is where cars are sold more than any other state and if you build a car with a different standard for say emissions smog than California your car won't smog in California which means you have to go through the whole process of production of building a car for this state a car for that state a car for another state and your biggest market which is demanding that it's it's that whole it's that whole ability to you know they make almost every car now with the sunroof why because it's cheaper to put a sunroof in every car than it is to put a sunroof here put a sunroof there do you want one do you not want one the the whole process of manufacturing is simplified by making uniform and repeatable so the same thing with emissions if you're going to if you're going to build a lower emissions or a lower mileage vehicle and it can't sell in your biggest market it doesn't make sense because you're still going to have to build that other car right for that market why is it not selling in the biggest market because Californians and Californian policy makers care right and my point is my point is this is going to become much more of a it's going to become less of a federal issue it's going to become much more of a state by state issue and so when you get the big when you get those big powerhouses like in California like in New York saying we're not going to go along with your national minimums of regulations and in fact we're going to impose barriers to those who dip below them or below what was already present I think that's going to have an impact so so part of part of what I'm saying is the the power of the EPA as they try to dismantle it on the national level will be rebuilding itself in the state level and and California is going to be a leader in this California is going to almost need to create an EPA for the nation within California because of it does have that kind of leverage because we do that have that kind of influence and because we can't affect to a very large degree what gets produced out of our specific state you know and we've talked we've talked about this before but a lot of those red states are are a net negative to the federal government anyway so as they roll back then the the the cost of a federal government it's only going to increase the influence of a state like California and thankfully the state of California it's and I literally have stopped thinking about this is left right liberal conservative these are such meaningless words at this point I now literally think of politics as adults versus adolescents this is this is how this this is the teenagers want to run everything that would be great if that was sustainable but it isn't I just think about empathetic beings and non empathetic beings so can you picture someone outside of yourself who needs something or who might at some point need something no no see see and I this is where this is where this is where my my lefty wing of things and yours differentiate I don't like that argument really I don't like that argument I I honestly don't I am an iron randy and liberal I want things that are good for me right and I absolutely believe it's good for me to live in a neighborhood where the people have gotten educated I I truly believe it's better for me if I live in a community where everybody got their shots where everybody you're not a millionaire no no no I'm definitely not but this is where you'd be able to live where you wanted around the people you wanted send your children to the schools that you wanted none of that would matter right but this is my point this is my point though you don't have listen it's a lie that you have to give a damn about the other guy and be a hardcore liberal you don't it's actually in your best interest if everybody is educated has access to healthcare it's actually in your best interest if the coal power plant down the street isn't polluting it's actually in your best interest if our nation doesn't suffer from global warming it's actually in your best interest that a car gets great gas mileage and doesn't doesn't pollute the air it's in your personal benefit gain if you enact every liberal policy the fact that it affects everybody is so what who cares it's the fact that it's affecting everybody that's giving you a exact personal gain from it you can be a purely selfish person and ascribed to every liberal policy that's coming down but social okay so let's take it back down the evolutionary tree a little bit okay social organisms developed empathy or whatever you want to you know call empathy in that case right the ability to help another altruism right essentially to help themselves to help their homes but this is exactly where this comes from but if you can't picture what somebody else needs you can't help foster a good environment for yourself so we're kind of saying the same thing but in different ways what i'm saying is that these individuals that don't think we need a department of education that don't think that we need a department the endowment for the arts that don't think we need a department of the environment or an environmental protection agency those people cannot see past their own needs to see other people's needs and in your case what you're saying yes understand that that also benefits them and i and i and i i say i would say that the people who are propagating it are looking out for their personal selfish needs they just have a lot more influence because they've got a lot more money that's all that is right it's it's i think the thing that i would love to communicate down through that filter of media which is impossible to reach a lot of these people because there's barriers to them hearing anything outside of the 24 drone of the uh i don't want it to sound like too corporate media but local like we paid for um propaganda probably more to it is that what is in your your own best interest is that we're we're we're watching functioning society that we're functioning society and and you know part of the reason that uh the adolescent ideology is is so strong in rural communities is that there's they have less interaction with large populations of people and and because of that they don't understand see the real-time differentiation of wow there's a neighborhood where everybody's educated everything's working great there's a neighborhood that was redlined wasn't allowed to invest in our own businesses or pay for education they're doing terrible they just assume everywhere has that same uh the same build build of of i don't know of so yeah no no in so what you're talking about is actually something that they talk about in child development called perspective taking yeah so part of raising a complete adult is teaching a child from a very young age how how to take another organism's perspective calling on on the on the ground like a dog that could be trying to walk a day in someone else's shoes that could be imagining that you are the opposite sex and what maybe those those struggles or troubles would be or what things would be like for you in that space but that's something that a lot of people take for granted that they do when they're young and it allows them to kind of see other perspectives when they get older but not everyone has that opportunity when they're younger not everyone is exposed to these different types of people with different situations different resources and so they have trouble understanding what that's like right and i think i think i think that their local news is allowing a prolonged adolescence because if you look at you look at the folks who are like who would willfully gleefully vote against the welfare state in this country they also tend to be from states that aren't actually paying for that and actually have a negative income when it comes to the federal to you know the when their states are being floated by federal dollars and have a negative cash flow you know that they're allowed to have opinions that the the uh what is it what's the saying um caching caching uh caching checks that reality can't cash or writing checks writing ideological checks that reality can't cash that's i don't know if that's actually saying and maybe i just made that up for not having remembered the actual saying but but that's sort of they're allowed to not interact and are being told that the differences between them and others that there are differences between others them and others that we're not all americans like we're not all in this together we're not all in one planet with this global warming thing that's somebody else's problem and often end up voting against their own best selfish interests people will are constantly like one of these things that like with the the attempted health care repeal that fell on its face but we're gonna their health care voted to lose their own health care yeah so many people are like i didn't know i voted for that you know you haven't been i don't have a lot of care i have the affordable care act yeah i've got a totally different thing it's working great no no that's actually that uh oh no but my uh my health care has been going way up where are you from okay that's a state that didn't subscribe to the medicaid extension that's why your health has been going up like this is yeah so hard to communicate to everybody at once what we need is a bigger platform we need a bully pulpit we need a megaphone uh for information like a podcast perhaps we need like some way like a podcast to get information out there to people um i don't know what no what we really know what we really need i've suggested this before i suggested this before we completely transform uh the genre of a show we do to one of religious extremism and within that pepper in and you've got to be concerned about global warming or we do a show that's all about gun news today and as a side talk about problems in health care why i'm good i'm okay i'm doing my own way of doing that okay everyone loves animal every time i talk about animals just by the way but in the chatroom just nailed it we're gonna need a bigger boat but really it's it's such an easy thing to be like okay you love seals well it turns out that the arctic sea ice is shrinking which is causing an algal bloom which brings fish under the ice or the fish can't eat them so if you like seals and you want to save seal populations we have to cut down our carbon dioxide emissions yeah i have the seals they're they're doing the work for me everyone loves animals who doesn't love animals a lot of people don't know everyone loves animal videos on the internet yeah but if the animal is around you and now we'll have now that they've been filmed on the internet we'll have them forever but no i i think it is important to to create the chain of effects like from eating to feeling hungry um what the disappearance of seals might mean to fishermen uh what it might mean like you have to you have to take it from you can't just tell people seals are great support seals there's this policy that's bad for seals yeah yeah you need to find the tentacles but that's exactly you find what they care about so if if you're talking to to a grandmother with her child with her grandchild you can you can talk about future generations and how we can safeguard a healthy environment for future generations if you notice that somebody has a duck hunting cap on it's very easy to say ducks live in wetlands wetlands depend upon a certain balance between salt water and fresh water when glaciers melt we get fresh water uh welling up at different times of year when sea ice when when glaciers melt in the Arctic we get saltwater intrusion into estuaries so the salt water freshwater balance changes that makes the wetland brushes recede there's less habitat for ducks duck season will be reduced how can we safeguard your duck populations so that you can still hunt by reducing climate change it's very easy because guess what it's all connected yeah it's all connected everything absolutely it's all there yeah there we go but but yeah spelling out these connections yeah oh absolutely and that's that's my bread and butter that's what i do spelling out these uh my profile people as much as you're not supposed to do that you you do a quick scan of your audience you figure out what they care about and you talk about that okay so on that subject i have a really weird thing that happens when we do live shows what which is i don't know where to look like i'm kind of used to like foe making eye contact with you and kiki on the show yeah even though i don't think i ever look in the camera yeah like right now i'm looking in the camera yeah i am not too but we're never quite but it's still on your face which is to the left right and i'm looking off down to the to the right which is where your face is right um but what's what's uh what's weird and then in my in my job i do lots of face-to-face eye contact e-conversation stuff and then we're suddenly in front of an audience live and there's like a hundred plus faces out there that i can see anyway and i'm like sort of like like a crazy person with my eye jazz moving around trying to make eye contact with everybody at once but it's or then i'm then i just said okay i can't make eye contact with anybody at once this is just my my brain is freaking out like who do i look at what did i look at what did oh they looked away no so then i'm like i'm gonna look through the tree tops i'll look up there somewhere as they talk as though i'm looking off into space like it's really a maddening sort of thing and then now i'm becoming i'm becoming become astutely aware of when news anchors aren't looking directly into the camera i mean i have i want to go into like a major news studio and see where the teleprompter is and at first i just assumed it was a straight overlay of the camera like somehow but it i i often catch them sort of just ever so slightly directing their gaze next to where the camera is so this is something that i learned too with my very short brief exposure with it with a teleprompter so they have the kind that do go right over the screen but even then it becomes really obvious that you're reading because the letters are really big so often so then they tell you here's a here's a little inside tip for anyone looking to use a teleprompter which i never mastered but you're supposed to move your head around a bunch as you talk because then they can't watch your eyes move so you're supposed to move your eye your your head around and just articulate because then you can't see my eyes moving when i'm talking so if you see someone moving their head around while they talk it's so you can't watch them reading you know you know where you can really see this like blatantly where saturday night live it's like the first part of the show it's like well rehearsed sketch sketches sketches sketches sketches and and nobody seems to be using a teleprompter and then they've got some and then like towards towards the end you've got somebody who's like looking way off of a camera to read their lines because they'd never rehearsed this this they had to fill in at the last minute or or like the guest actor who's like i can't remember what i'm supposed to say yeah and they're just oh man okay okay um laura are we ready did we do it i think we did a show i think that was it yeah well now that like fada's leaving and dar is leaving and already left and already left i think it's it's time for us to go the crowd's thin and out all right everybody uh don't forget to tip your waitress on the way out or your waiter as the non-sexist version of that saying might go no tip us on the way out just the tip though please oh patreon.com slash this weekend's live that's what i'm talking about um good night everybody good night everyone i love you goodbye uh-huh where it loves you all bye say good night jesson good night jesson good night good night good night player goodbye