 For eight hours only only allowed to broadcast for up to eight hours says YouTube Shucks hi everyone. Can you hear us? I? Need some affirmations from the chat room. Ooh, Gord sees Blair and Justin. That's a good sign Are you doing Justin you think we can do this without her? No Is every like what's your choice a year we're like oh Yikes Even the disclaimer is broken. Yeah, I know that's not I There's no there's nothing different about that I normally had I normally do it first. Yeah But I I got Side-tracked into the stories so heavily that by the time it was showtime. I realized oh boy Let me just real quick check and make sure this works Best sound quality ever Okay, oh is there a chat room? Yeah. Yeah, there's always a chat room All right, are you ready? We're gonna start it's 802. Yeah, I'm okay. All right, you know what you're gonna say. Yeah, I got Okay three two This is twist this week in science episode number 669 recorded on Wednesday, May 2nd 2018 Jeepers Creepers Hi, everyone, I'm Blair Bazderich. We don't have dr. Kiki tonight, but we still have a lots of science We are gonna fill your head with old spiders dino birds and ancient DNA but first Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer Despite not writing a disclaimer in time for today's episode something must be said here at the beginning of the show So for that reason and that reason only I'm just saying this week in science Coming up next Good science to you Blair Good science to you Justin Welcome everyone here and out there to this week episodes of this week in science We have an amazing show ahead again. We don't have dr. Kiki tonight So we're gonna do the best we can at bringing the science. I still found lots of cool stuff to talk about What did you bring Justin? I've got a bunch of ancient people's DNA stories First bird, maybe proto bird pre bird dinosaur probably and oh and something else and Stephen Hawking All right very neat I brought oh my goodness I brought so many things But just for a little Toe dip into the pool of science that I brought today. I brought some mosquito news some bat news Mantis shrimp news Some interesting stuff so Let's Before we jump into the show, let's just remind everyone you can subscribe to twist on iTunes Google Play Stitcher speaker anywhere you find podcasts you can find us just search for this week in science You can also find us on YouTube if you like looking at our beautiful faces or on Facebook by searching for this week in science Or just go to twist org So it's time for some science Justin. What would you like to tell us about? Oh, am I up first your first? Okay, this is This is University of Kansas anthropological geneticist Michael Crawford and an international research team They have narrowed down the Native American founding population That came over from Siberia To approximately 250 people That was it From 250 to like 40 million. That's a narrow gene pool. Yes. Yeah So the study how strong was the bottleneck associated with the people in the Americas new insights from Multis sequence data published is is now published in the journal genetics and molecular biology And it's exactly what they say going from that first few hundred They can actually sort of now see the The it's an incredible opportunity to evaluate the adaptive evolution That took place because you have 250 people who aren't all that different from each other. So they Research exam examined nine non-coding regions of the DNA samples collected from populations to trace this path This was including populations individuals in China 10 Siberian groups 10 Native American populations that were scattered across The Americas Central and South America the Crawford actually I guess he's he was in he was one of the first non Soviet researchers to go into Siberia back in 1989 after the breakup of the Soviet Union And he's worked on a loot and escrow migration populations from Siberia this whole time Says it's difficult to go back in time and follow the populations But we can characterize contemporary genetic diversity and estimate the mutation rates that have occurred in different regions so Yeah, so back in 2015 he was part of a group that found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans Entered the Americas from Siberia Into what is now Alaska no earlier than 23 years ago? they also found at that time that the group Did split into a couple groups and maybe spent no more than about 8,000 but around 8,000 years of isolation and Beringia, so this is this region in Alaska and Yukon, Canada They were there for about 8,000 years before the giant glaciers on the Americas melted enough for them to spread out to the rest So they did DNA sequencing that spanned over 15,000 years of samples Along with computer modeling and they suggest 250 ish people made up the Founding population and so what they can do with this is that is that you can now look at Existing genetics in a very diverse population diverse regions all the way through jungles of South America the deserts of the Southwest United States all these different regions and see how perhaps environment or other stressors Caused evolution how adaption took place in a human model so pretty pretty exciting Pretty exciting data sets that they're working with now. That's pretty cool I think that it's also this is a really good example of how We think about genetic bottlenecks and I know I at least a lot of the time hear that and I go Oh, no, we're doomed, but then there's all these other factors Right, so some people thought it was all about genetics and some people thought it was all about adaptation and and it's of course It's a little column a it's a little column B It's a little epigenetics a little bit of all this other stuff happening and so That's not this is a perfect example of how 250 individuals might sound like quite the genetic bottleneck But there's still opportunity for change in a population and it can blossom to millions of individuals It's very interesting and I think that it's it's an important lesson for that and something that a lot of us can Can relate to because it's human Yeah, and they're pretty distinct, you know pretty distinct populations too As you as you head down into South America or where there's a repopulating event too that takes place So these these folks We're 8,000 years in this sort of ice age Oasis of the ice age up in Beringia and And made it down into the lower states and then for some reason some of them were like it's getting too warm down here They went back up and crossed over and ended up in Greenland so they're the Greenlandic population is Largely a Sort of coming dropping down into the Americas and then then leaving again Or maybe there weren't as many elk as they had hoped down there well, actually the story is That the they were the that population was led there by somebody who had a vision And so he was fun right Back story to before he had this group that was following him in his vision quest is he may have murdered somebody Oh, I see No longer welcome Where he had been living and had to Attention everyone I had a vision that you should ignore anything anyone says about me and follow me right now Let's go pack up. No time. No time. Let's go And his vision panned out. He had this vision of these other peoples and they found other people They were already in you it's there who hadn't done the drop-down cross over to sort of come across come across Canada and and also that was a little interesting there because when they got there you mentioned they were like there weren't as many elk or something When they got there there were musk oxes So much meat on a musk ox that weren't being hunted because they were dirty animals and The Inuits who were there were using seal skin to stay warm Which was not very effective Yeah, when you take all the blubber off not so warming and They're like freezing and hungry and there's all these like furry musk ox that they're like a dirty animal wouldn't want to eat it No, they're just gonna fish So they changed he changed that but that was that was sort of a I guess a failing population at the time Well, I'll tell you I'm not one for furs, but if I was gonna pick one musk ox would be pretty cool quite fluffy Nice excellent well, um, any stars blare I brought a lot although I just realized They kind of all belong in the animal corner That's that's much to be so it's I I might just start the corner up now and and we'll have an extended version sound good What time is it? It's very 13 minutes in okay, okay, so it's time for blaze animal corner. Oh, no Well, I'm gonna start with a story that is about mosquitoes, but is also therefore very much about humans So mosquitoes as you probably are aware the the Males are not the ones who bite and make us itches. Those are the females And yeah, and what what a lot of people also don't realize is they are biting us and they are Feeding on human blood Not for nutrition, but actually because there's protein and other components other building blocks in our blood That they use to make eggs Yeah, so that's why or that's until now Why they thought that mosquitoes bit us and drank our blood was really just to make eggs But now You're not that far off. So the University of Cincinnati Did a study that was actually Quite accidental in its in its origination So they actually found out That they had this batch of thirsty dehydrated mosquitoes that some of them escaped in the lab And what they discovered the hard way was that those mosquitoes were unusually aggressive They were all trying to bite all over everybody in the lab So they saw something very interesting here these dehydrated these very thirsty mosquitoes were being very aggressive So Now This is a this is a good question about what happens when a mosquito is thirsty Usually we think about mosquitoes and mosquito population dynamics around wet times because you think about standing water That's what you don't want because that's where they lay those eggs that they made out of your blood It turns out that lack of water might also be pretty important So University of Cincinnati, they then took mosquitoes in their biology lab Which they describe as adults of six different species sequestered in large mesh boxes in a room kept at a balmy 82 degrees Each box has a source of water and nectar and a place to lay eggs to create a constant supply of lab specimens And they say it is like the ritz carlton in there for mosquitoes But so in this study they decided to take some of these mosquitoes and they theorized that dehydration Would actually lead to suppressed metabolism reduced activity and decreased blood feeding Due to just being laid out pretty much what they found instead was that dehydration changed them to the opposite They found that only 5 to 10 percent of female mosquitoes feeds at any time when they have normal access to water and food But when you dehydrate them that prompted as many as 30 percent of female mosquitoes to seek blood So what they found was that dehydration increases propensity of mosquitoes to land and feed on hosts mosquitoes that had access to water When they were higher in temperature and humidity still did not seek increased blood meals So it's really just they're thirsty. They're going for blood because they're thirsty So they released some adult mosquitoes in a large mesh enclosure that mimics conditions of nature and then They put a membrane covered disc of blood that mimics a bird or animal host And then uh, they recorded the occasions A day after rain and a day after a dry spell to see What they saw them doing in the two and so they really did see the dehydrated mosquitoes were more likely to seek blood So why is this important? Because now if you're having an outdoor event you can leave out really tiny glasses of water around the perimeter Right, right. This is actually super important because what are we seeing more often now with climate change? Drought and so as drought happens We can now potentially project a change in mosquito behavior remembering of course that Mosquitoes bring a lot of really dangerous things They they have a huge toll on public health because of malaria because of naziqa also so they if they know That drought is likely to bring more Mosquitoes and more mosquito bites then they can get ahead of these public health crises So so this is this is sort of ruining One of my attempts at finding silver linings in the face of global warming Which is prolonged dry spell which global warming isn't necessarily it just depends on it increases the severity and the likelihood Of drought in a lot of places in a lot of places other places. You're gonna be weather or just snow So it increases the likelihood of extreme weather events So if you're a place that has droughts, you're likely to have more drought Your place that does not does california is drought prone Right one of the silver linings I was I was hoping for Was that that meant less standing water and a smaller mosquito population? But if those smaller mosquito populations are just gonna be a lot more aggressive about biting people then The whole silver lining thing is gone Yeah, absolutely So this is another situation darned if you do darned if you don't the mosquitoes are going to cause problems Now I will just as a quick disclaimer remind everyone that through this weekend science We discovered that mosquitoes are also pollinators. So we can't just do away with them completely But what we can do is anticipate that if droughts are going to make mosquitoes more likely to bite We can try harder to vaccinate Spread out more mosquito nets Do other things that we can do to reduce the number of instances during which you're bitten I wonder if you could leave out like like, you know, like a hummingbird feeder, but like a really small version With blood in it. Yeah blood in it. That's just a great idea So that way, you know, you put one outside the window and then if you got the hole in the screen, you gotta be fine Let's just stop by the a little Little blood drinking fountain and be gone Yeah, absolutely. So maybe blood feeders are the wave of the future. Who knows Speaking of creepy things. I want to talk about the mantis shrimp So we love the mantis shrimp on this show The mantis shrimp is amazing for a bunch of reasons But you you can't help but admit that they're kind of crazy looking kind of creepy looking So we've talked a lot about the mantis shrimp. They're they're stabby tendencies and they're slammy tendencies But also they're spectacular eyeballs So their eyes are fascinating because they see colors that we're not that that we can't even fathom They have so many Cones they I think they have 12 different kinds of cones instead of the three that we have their eyes are just insane But now an extra layer of sight insanity on the mantis shrimp comes from university of bristol Looking at their eyes. They say that they are the most mobile eyes in the animal kingdom So if you ever see a video of a mantis shrimp That you'll see that their eyes are constantly moving up down side to side and also rotating on their axes and so I'm like a of Stem thing they're like Yes implanted in there embedded in there and they're independent of each other So they can move in pitch that's up and down yaw is side to side and they can roll They can twist around the eye stock and they can do this independently from one another So what university of bristol wanted to see was why it seems like they never stop moving How they avoid blurring their vision because if you imagine you're doing this all the time you'd have trouble focusing on things and Why why are they moving it so much? So What they did is they wanted to see what this if that this had anything to do at all with stabilization So They found that mantis shrimp they make Stabilizing side to side movements that help keep their vision steady as they move But then when they dug deeper they found that while they They are stabilizing in the horizontal direction They're still rolling their eyes If you imagine that you're you're like adjusting binoculars that's what I'm doing if you're just listening But that's kind of how they're rolling their eyes around this central axis Even when they're stabilizing them left to right So what they then did is they wanted to see What would happen if they Put them in Something that was moving them around so if kind of like a giant Like one of those uh those Those county fair structures maybe that you've walked through where it's a it's a big tube that's kind of turning I'm so dating myself right now who goes to the county fair anymore But but you would walk through this thing and it'd kind of be moving and you'd have to adjust your body like this So they had a thing that did that on all different dimensions So so they were moving in space and they were trying to keep their eyes on a fixed object object and they found that that that actually Didn't have a lot of effect on on the shrimps at all No matter what position their eyes moved in or their body moved in They can still reliably and accurately follow the motion of a pattern that's moving sideways Yeah, so As they did this they they were trying to essentially give the mantis shrimp vertigo And They found that in response to things moving around them the mantis shrimp Did not roll their eyes in any conjunction with their surroundings moving around them So the mantis shrimp is completely immune from the effects of rolling eyes and changing Visual planes around them so This stuff has no effect on on their space on their eyes on the rolling of their eyes This is unprecedented and just confusing So even when their eyes are completely sideways they can see fine, but of course we None of us see with our eyes Right, I mean we see with the brain and so if their brain is perfectly Used to accepting this information I'm sure it's making plenty of sense out of it And it kind of already makes me think of like well like I'm used to having sort of binocular predator vision right Whereas like a lot of prey species have their eyes way on the sides of their heads so they can see a 360 That would be weird to us If suddenly we were looking both left and right At the same time that would be a really odd Uh, yeah, I agree and and our brains would have a hard time processing that another one that comes to mind is eagles I think eagles do a a sort of rapid eye movement scanning thing when they're flying Uh up above a field and and what that sort of allows them to do is Pick up motion a little bit better because even though they're moving their eyes rapidly When there is a little when they when they settle on something when they focus on something That vision is a little bit more crisp than it was if they were had just been staring at something for a while And it may also assist them Uh by their way their brain works and picking up motion So yeah, yeah, absolutely And so we've before on the show talked about how recent research looking at all these different Potential colors that the mantis strip can see might actually be a reflection of the fact that they can't see much And so because their vision is so bad they have to compensate with extra codes. So this could actually be something where They might not be able to see that well at all they're just seeing kind of blurry clumps and They don't need To be able to see good enough so that moving their eyes around like this doesn't actually affect their picture much at all If it's low death, it doesn't really matter But what is really the question then and what has got these researchers really puzzled and excited for their next study Is if that's the case if this doesn't affect them all of this eye movement Why are they rolling their eyes at all? Because they're just massively unimpressed with everything. Yeah. Yeah, they're just constantly just There they go. Oh, there's that blob fish again. Oh my uh Stop complaining blob Yes, but it's yeah, why is this happening? Why are they moving their other eyes constantly? if they If they don't adjust that behavior in relation to space moving around them, it's Maybe they're not eyes at all Maybe they can't see it all who knows well, I figured this is something that gets eaten by other things So there's yeah, well sometimes they're pretty good at defending themselves, but they can be eaten by other things There's there's that sort of keeping an eye out in every direction For stuff going on, but maybe it's yeah, maybe it's not a Maybe it's not something they have any sort of control over Right, maybe their eyes are just sort of like like a heartbeat or a breathing And just or just constantly being moved by the ocean Maybe they're just the same buoyancy and they're just yeah Well, who knows we'll find out hopefully but the mando shrimp is just an enigma Speaking of vision and predator vision actually I have the latest news in camouflage Which is a thing that I've known about since I was very small But I've learned as the years progress There's more to know about camouflage. It's not just about blending in with your surroundings It's so much more complicated and specialized than that And we've talked a bunch on the show about really weird kinds of camouflage like zebra stripes and potential reasons for them being the way that they are But the type of camouflage that I find the most interesting and often the most beautiful is called disruptive coloration which we've talked about on the show before and this is basically just a A type of camouflage that breaks up the body shape of an animal So that even if they're not camouflaged, it is hard to recognize what the shape of that animal is This is something that has been theorized But has not been confirmed until today So university of sterling and Abbotay university both in scotland. I had to look them up They looked at A particular camouflage found in pythons moths and frogs say that five times past pythons moths and frogs And they found that they have something very special called edge enhanced disruptive coloration So this means there are dark patches of camouflage on the edges And then they have other so half of them has darker edges and half of them has lighter edges And so this makes them difficult to identify as a particular type of thing So the idea is this gives the impression of shadows and depth And it slows the process of recognition In the past Says dr. Sherman in the study. It has been assumed that if you can detect where a target is you must also know what it is But for the first time we show this is not the case So in this study They had human volunteers. So here's the also like asterisk asterisk asterisk human volunteers our vision as just discussed not the best in the animal kingdom We are also we are we have this binocular vision. We are predators, but we're kind of Um lazy and out of practice. So I would say we need to test this on some some really hardcore predators to know for sure That this was working to the effect that they claim what they did is they took these human volunteers They had them view images of camouflaged animals on a monitor And then they were asked to locate the target and identify it as either predator or prey They found that participants required longer to identify a target even if they located it quickly So it took them a longer time to figure out what it was And then even when they simplified the background so they they kind of did this like pebbly Here, let me see if I can screen share for you. So they did this pebbly background um, the pebbly background was supposed to Help this the shape of a bunny rabbit. Let's say um Blend in and they had these different kinds one of those uh charts that they used to to mess with heller blind people Yeah, absolutely. So I would have failed this test for sure, but so you can see um, Oh, this is so hard for me But so this is an animal that has edge enhanced disruptive coloration So certain edges are different colors Then you have an animal that's that has a uniform color match So they found a color in the palette behind them and they just colored it all that color And then they have flat disruptive coloration in the middle So that's coloration where they just have the fancy patterning, but they don't have the The edge enhanced element and so when they did that they found that if you had edge enhanced disruptive coloration They had a lot of trouble Finding and they had more trouble identifying them after they found them So this take this gives a prey animal an extra beat an extra few seconds to Escape capture after they've been discovered So as I said, this is something that that we've been theorizing for decades This is something that I learned about in college, but this is something that we didn't have Evidence for this is just something that was observed and assumed and we were right But now it's actually been proven at least with human volunteers at this point So the other kind of asterisk to this is that This does potentially have some pretty interesting applications. Of course in the use of camouflage in military context Which I was very surprised to hear that The current military camouflage that's used is not developed on empirical evidence So there's no research saying that the that any particular type of camouflage is best for military use So this is actually something that could affect Some real world applications pretty interesting Yeah There you go camouflage. We're still learning new things about it. All right. I think it might be Time for a break. Look at that. Oh, yeah, I think we are gonna take a quick break and then We're gonna have more science for you. Stay tuned for more This week in science Did you know That twist has merchandise you might enjoy? Yes, so Justin's helping me out with the break. This is fun So If you head on over to twist.org So let's see. Where's my oh, I'm skipping ahead. Here's twist.org There's all sorts of fun stuff on our website But in particular if you click on this link that says zazzle store, you'll be transported To our zazzle store How come it looks like an art supply store? I don't know man But there's our logo. We never got it. We never got around to changing the default. I don't know. It's fine I used those things when I made things So if you go to if you go to twist.org and then you click on the zazzle tab You'll find all sorts of cool stuff. So this just at first you'll see the most popular things the things that have been purchased the most We have mouse pads. We have mugs. We have t-shirts. We have pillows. We have stamps. 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You can also just support the show And those donations they go to a lot of things they go to our hosting our bandwidth Contractors we need to hire fun things we do for the show when we travel for live shows all that kind of good stuff We appreciate any amount of donation one dollar two dollars five dollars ten dollars a hundred dollars if you have it We probably appreciate the larger numbers more per Justin, I don't know about you, but I value all of our our donors Oh, I didn't say that I wouldn't value the other ones, but I say in the denominational sense you would have to I mean people know to give us what they can I think that goes without saying we could use whatever you have to give And we can take that in a couple of ways. So if you go to twist.org You you'll find PayPal buttons all over the website. It's just all over so on the front page the entire website You can click just click anywhere. No, that's not actually true There's PayPal buttons. They're very obvious. They're on the show pages You can make a straight donation to us and then all the money Minus a couple of fees go straight to us the other way that you can Support is through patreon and patreon is kind of like Kickstarter for producers of media or content And you can find us at patreon.com slash this week in science Depending on your donation level You get different sorts of kickbacks. So For example, I have not sent out an original Blair's animal corner piece of art in a long time Because we don't have any of the donors in that level right now, but if you donate A certain amount per month, I think it's $15 a month. I don't remember but if you donate a certain amount You can get an original piece of art from me. You also can get shout outs on the show You can do all sorts of amazing things You can get all sorts of cool stuff t-shirts by helping support us on patreon And the best way to do it with patreon is that with patreon, right? 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I do. I just don't know whose segment it's going to be. I'll do it. I'll do it because I I found the message I did all of the fact finding so right now. It is time for What has science done for me? lately That's right So tonight we have a message from taren in perth in western australia Taren says hi twist gang. I am a relatively new listener I've only been listening to the podcast for a few months But I love listening and I really appreciate the variety of stories that you share As a biology nut. It's great hearing stories from outside my usual field I really enjoy listening to the what has science done for me lately Segment and it always gets me thinking what would I share? I thought about the medical advancements that have helped me or my family and friends But don't have any spectacular stories like others have had Then I thought about the fact that I work with animals and the constant research that improves my ability to look after my animals And even look after animals in the wild Then I thought about the technological advancements helping us to protect the environment and maybe even mitigate climate change and other issues But none of these things seemed enough none of them really Shares what science does for me and why I love science then I realized I love science. I love learning new things understanding new things and everyday things I love the huh and wow moments you get in science. I love that with science We will never stop learning What has science done for me lately every day? Science makes me happy and I think that should count for something It does that's awesome. Thank you so much. Terrin. I Loved that that is that was straight out of my heart and your heart Connected here through the internet and twists. So remember everyone We need you to write in to let us know what science has done for you lately What does it do for you every day? This segment is so important to us in all times But especially now we want to help remind everyone why science is important and why it's important to talk about So if you would like to share what science has done for you lately, please leave a message on our facebook page That's at facebook.com slash this week in science or you can email dr. Kiki directly at It's kirsten at this week in science.com. Sorry. It was wrong in the notes kirsten at this week in science.com We want to fill this segment every week forever So keep sending those stories our way. We love hearing them They really warm our heart and remind us why we're here. Isn't that right, Justin? It's true. It's it's true. All right, Justin time for more science. What do you got? Let's see Okay, let's go to If you want to learn a bit about your ancestral roots You can spit a little bit of saliva into an eppendorf tube Send it off to a sequencing company to analyze your dna Okay But if you've been dead for a thousand years, you are likely out of spit making it much more difficult to get your results Unless you plan ahead Which is exactly what some forward-thinking people of the mule spring rock shelter did While the discovery of dna sequencing technology and eppendorf tubes were still several hundred years away Folks in the foothills of the spring mountains of southern nevada Gathered agave and yucca plants for food the artichoke-like hearts and inner leaves of the plants were roasted then chewed To consume the sweet pulp And once the gum lost its flavor They did what many gum churros still do to this day They simply spat it out wherever they were This left wads of stringy fibers that they called quids In the late 60s researchers from nada nevada's desert research institute and the university of nevada las vegas Recovered thousands of these curious quids They put them into storage without any consideration for dna preservation because That still wasn't a thing Now half a century later a research team decided to reexamine the quid specimens And see if they could extract dna from them This is quotey voice of susan edwards who's an associate research archaeologist at the desert research institute uh one of the co-principal investigators Who came up with the idea of doing this the quids course texture is excellent for capturing skin cells from the mouth Making them the equivalent of a modern-day cheek swab We were surprised says dwayne mosher or mosher Phe associate research professor of microbiology. We were surprised by the consistency with which we were able to recover intact human dna From this common type of plant-based artifacts since these materials were also radiocarbon dated In essence they provide a time resolve resolved hotel registry For this unique site over a period of hundreds of years research on this is published in the public library science online So that's really cool. So even though they sort of Missed the you know Just order one of those dna kits and then spit into the thing. They still got sequenced And and what's really brilliant is they didn't even have to pay They got it for free That's awesome. That's uh, wow gum Silly gum quids quids Uh, I got another question for you though. Yeah How far back in history do you need to go to find a bird? That's no longer a bird or if you go the other way how far removed from a dinosaur Or how dinosaur like or how bird like the differentiation before we start going. Ah, that's bird Well, let's see Archaeopteryx Was 150 million years ago Has feathers Has wings Has little teethers though has teeth. So Can a bird have teeth? I don't know you tell me How would a beak does it have to have a beak? Uh, well, I would say That's a good question. I would say so I think that so birds have calcified eggs, right? They have feathers No, oh no Oh, okay Calcified eggs they have feathers our dinosaur is calcified I don't I think so Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. They have um hollow bones Ooh, the hollow bone one's a good one. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, and they're warm-blooded Those are birds So archaeopteryx I don't know if archaeopteryx had all of those things That's a good question. I'm not I'm not well versed. So what did you find? Ah, so this is a 100 million years ago in North America there was something that looked like a toothy seagull Okay, the earnest disbar Uh See it drew the attention of some famous naturals. OC marsh out of Yale who was the first person to describe it Charles Darwin was also very fascinated with this creature yet despite the existence of partial specimens There had been no significant new skull material beyond the fragmentary remains found back in the 1870s now A Yale lead team reports on new specimens with three dimensional cranial remains including One example of a complete skull and two previously overlooked cranial elements that were in the original specimen Revealing new details about these Striking transformation and evolutionary history. So this is a hundred million years ago. So this is still firmly in the age of the dinosaur giant lizard II But this is they're saying right under our noses This whole time was an amazing transitional bird says the alpalaeontologist Bart on Jean Boulard principal investigator this study published in the journal nature It has a modern-looking brain Along with a remarkably dinosaurian jaw muscle configuration and It's got the maybe the first bird beak nice It's kind of a proto bird beak. It's really interesting. So he says uh Buller goes on the first beak was a horn covered Pitzer tip at the end of the jaw So it's like it's jutting out from the top of the jaw and it's just like it's like a horn kind of a thing And what they are what they're thinking is that this uh, this sort of proto beak was a grasping mechanism Making up for the fact that they had given up its hands for wings Would you give up your hands for wings? Uh, oh, that's a good question That's a tough one I'm gonna solidly say no I everywhere like I could just be like, okay. I can't type so I won't text you back I didn't like my opposable thumbs but uh back to the seagally thing seagal dino Um, so this is pretty interesting looking at the illustration on this article the teeth Look very not teeth like and they look a lot more like the serrations that you'll find on a duck bill So they're they definitely look like this in between state where if you look at archaeopteryx's face it's definitely very much a a potentially a face with with Kind of a bill shaped face That has teeth on it. So this is definitely a different This looks much closer towards a bird beak And it's also that they think it was it they had not lips exactly but they were covered they wouldn't have been exposed Interesting right they would have been probably pretty hard to see if you were just looking at the creature missing bird link I see Yeah, and it says this extraordinary specimen reveals the surprisingly late retention of dinosaur-like features in the skull Yeah, and it's one of the closest known relatives of modern birds from the dinosaur times I love this. I love when we find things in collections That are super important Yeah, you're like, oh wait look over here in this drawer. Oh my gosh What's also kind of interesting is that I think you know that the the brain that they're they're saying is very Very much a bird brain It's very it's pretty much there first and the rest of morphology comes You know along much much much later But then you can start to sort of think well a lot of bird brain based activity If it pre-exists being a bird That may give some interesting insights Yes, that's true Well, I think that as we as we explore the fossil record this whole archosaur Branch of the tree of life that is dinosaurs and birds and crocodilians Is going to become more and more blurred so kind of like this whole idea of Modern humans and there were these all all these other humanoids and turns out oops They kind of like weaved in and out and in and out I think that as we take a deeper Look as we take a magnifying glass to almost any branching on the tree of life You're likely to see some weirdo crossovers and some potential inner minglings before final breaks and all this kind of stuff So I think this is very much in line with as we learn more and as we find more We're going to see these weirdo middle zones Of is this this or is this that and it's again because it's all about Our lust for categorization And And that categorization has a use it puts things Yeah, absolutely allows us to learn from them and refer back to them, but life does not live in a box so it's Things can mostly fit inside certain boxes But there's always going to be weirdo things that don't belong in any of the boxes And one un weirdo thing about this. Yeah, is that they uh Buller's lab had had already kind of zeroed in on the the genes in the beak and the palette Being patterned by the same So that so that it it makes perfect sense Based on what we already knew that this would be how the how a beak would first sort of emerge And I love that I love that when when they found that the missing link quote-unquote For turtles for the origin of turtles. They found exactly what they anticipated. They found flattened ribs They were starting to protrude out of the skin so This is You can tell based on what you see What the middle zones should be and it's actually really encouraging to find those. That's pretty cool Um You know what else flies Bats oh also bats. Yes. Yes. So I have a story about Hori bats That's h o a r y Hori bats. Hori is an adjective that means gray or white as if with age So Hori bats are from north america Wake Forest University in north carolina did a study on inconspicuous echolocation in Hori bats. What the heck does that mean? Well They found that they were not finding bats The way you find bats normally is you monitor echolocation And they were all of a sudden discovering that there were bats that were being unusually quiet So they used Specialized infrared cameras and ultrasonic microphones to record bats flying through river corridors in northern california And they discovered that bats use short extremely extremely quiet Micro calls and at times they found no echolocation at all detected Even from bats flying within 10 feet of highly sensitive audio recorders. So Then they Wanted to see what the heck was going on. So they they stretched stretched a mist net Which for those of you that have have never collected birds or bats in the wild before I know might be a few of you a mist net is a really thin Net that you stretch across an area that usually is where it gets very misty So it kind of blends in so the animals can't see the mist net and the net When in when a when a flighted animal flies into the net it creates this kind of little pocket It's a very loose net and so the animal gets caught in the net And then a researcher can record them or tag them or whatever And then they can very easily open up the net and the animal can fly away So they spread these mist nets across the natural flight corridor where they were studying these Hori bats And they found that at first the bats used micro calls or no calls at all Approaching this mist net And when they flew into the net only micro calls or no calls were detected on the initial approach They began producing normal echolocation calls within a few feet of the net when it was too late to go back So This is really interesting. This is something that we did not anticipate Researchers have always historically monitored gnats monitored gnats monitored bats and monitored bat populations based on recording echolocation so this is kind of Earth shaking in the bat research community the idea that bats might not use echolocation as often as we anticipated So they think that this actually might be happening in response to mating behavior and so The the hypothesis is that it makes them less conspicuous to competing bats and to potential mates so they can kind of Sneak up on mates and they don't they're not as they're not eavesdropped on so They they kind of they drew this conclusion because that was the only time of year that they They saw this weird micro calls or lack of echolocation happening But this is really important because First of all Our population estimates are probably all out of whack If they if there are bats that don't use echolocation during certain times of year but it also Creates a problem with obstacles because if if we are putting up obstacles That they are not anticipating they will get caught they will run into things They will get in trouble the really big problem is wind turbines So before any wind turbine is constructed. There's intense acoustic monitoring as a part of the environmental assessment So that's how they figure out. Is this a bat corridor could not hear any echolocation Let's put up that wind turbine But that can be a fatal mistake if there's this micro echolocation that's undetectable that Could be creating these wind turbines in these corridors that actually are really beneficial really important to bats so The next step is now miniature bat backpacks with an audio recorder and a tracking device Attached to find out exactly where and when they use echolocation and not So if that's the case if there's certain seasons for example that they don't echolocate Then you can't do your environmental assessment then or you have to do an environmental assessment in some other way during that time of year Or if there's micro micro echolocations are detectable, but with different equipment that means an adjustment in equipment so Bats they're a little more complicated than we anticipated So every once in a while I hear What must be the bout bat uh word for Man on porch or I don't know what it is Yeah, but I'll go out and and there's uh, there's a lamp that's out on a grassy area just outside my back porch And pretty much every night. There's bats Zipping around this thing because the the insects get attracted to this light. And so they're zipping around out there And I'll go sit down out there and I can hear them every once in a while a little chirp A little chirp a little chirp and they're just flying around in circles Here and there and then I'll get out or I'll stand up and there'll be one loud chirp and they're all gone Oh Yeah, or it's a loud chirp going human. Oh, yeah, maybe they're still there. They're just being yep He'll hear us He'll spread our secret those giant human ears Yep, not proportional to a bat. It's just a bigger giant ineffective ears Yeah So bats they have a lot going on and um, if we're gonna save them we we need to We need to stop again really kind of typecasting those bats as echolocators turns out they're more complicated Uh, Justin you have any more stories? Well, I don't but uh, but Stephen Hawking does oh, please do tell So, yeah, he's got a brand new theory Uh, his final theory on the origin of the universe He worked on this in collaboration with professor thomas pertog It's been published recently in the journal of high energy physics The theory is based on string theory and it predicts that the universe is finite and far simpler than many of the theories out there Uh event so, uh, it's not that there isn't still a big universe and Even maybe pockets of different universes multiverse, but uh, yeah, maybe smaller So there's a guy And I don't pretend to understand so modern theories of the big bang predict that our local universe came into existence with the brief burst of inflation Tiny fractions second flap through the big bang itself the universe expanded at an exponential rate Widely believed however that once inflation starts their regions where it never stops We thought that the quantum effects can keep inflation going forever in some regions of the universe so that globally inflation is eternal Uh inflation is eternal. Yeah, but the uh, uh, but maybe not so this is hocking an interview last year The usual theory of an eternal inflation predicts that the globe that globally our universe is like an infinite fractal with a mosaic of different pockets universes separated by an inflating ocean Local laws of physics and chemistry can differ from one pocket universe to another Which together would form a universe I have never been a fan of the multiverse at the scale of different universes in the multiverse is large or infinite The theory can't be tested What's the problem can't be tested I mean, I can't know for a fact that there's a universe where we're all wearing cowboy hats right now, but it might exist Well, and the paper hocking her talk say this account of eternal inflation as a theory of the big bang is wrong Problem with the usual account of eternal inflation is that assumes an existing background universe that evolves according to einstein's theory of general relativity Entreats the quantum effects as small fluctuations around this However, this is her talk the dynamics of eternal inflation wipes out the separation between classical and quantum physics as a consequence Einstein's theory breaks down in eternal inflation Which would be I think just about the first time We've heard of an einsteinian theory breaking down under anything. Uh, we predict that our universe Oh, not there specifically, but just the one we share on the largest scales is reasonably smooth and globally finite So it's not a fractal structure, which I didn't think it was So does that mean if actually it's gonna slow it's gonna slow to a stop is the theory then if it's not if it Don't know that it says that I don't know. Well, that's the opposite of eternal inflation. Right is well is non-eternal inflation. So it's You're right That is but this is also about different pockets of this taking place differently in different places Not our universe, but another universe outside of our universe that might be expanded generally differently Ah They developed a variation of the Holography concept is a Leonard Susskind kind of thing in string theory To project out the time dimension in eternal inflation. This is the idea of physical reality in certain 3d Spaces can be mathematically produced to 2d projections on the surface this gets into Like kind of like we're living into the matrix once you start over analyzing like how physics works, right? Well and talking about time scales that are not even fathom fathomable as hard It's it's I picture I'm trying to think about what they're saying and and I'm probably totally misinterpreting this But I'm kind of picturing a melting stick of butter In an olympic and an empty olympic-sized swimming pool session a melting stick of butter in an empty olympic-sized swimming pool because It's fine. It's a finite space But it doesn't really matter But wouldn't it be totally viewable by the surface because it'd be all like the lipids would be No empty an empty swimming pool. Oh, it's empty. There's no water. It's empty. There's nobody else in that No, there's no water in it. It's just that's the container Then why is it a swimming pool? You're And you're melting butter. So like is it a hot day? It's summer. How come there's no water in the pool? It feels Endless the space that this butter could expand out into but it's not That's what it's feeling like to me, but I could be way over simplifying. I don't know So they uh, there's a potential to test their theory With say what now why go detectors? Uh her dog believes a primordial grab that primordial gravitational waves ripples in spacetime Generated at the exit from eternal inflation constitute the most promising smoking gun to test the model Don't know what that means, but we may find out one day You know space may make some people feel insignificant in its size and scope But not me and I was actually heart warmed by my my my last quick story And it's isn't the actually there's a pair of researchers That uh took up the task to figure out The longest route you could sail by sea in a straight line in the oceans Right like what is that like how far could you go? uh When they when they got out their ruler though to figure this out it turns out The world is round when the ruler was applied to the globe to plot the course It course plotted the course out into space so Not very long if you're going to keep a straight line My brain not ready Not ready. Well, the real story real stories. They uh They came up with two courses and I guess because of the way they were because I don't understand but apparently you can go Uh a really long way 32 000 kilometers was that right? Yeah 32 000 kilometers In a straight line if you pick the right route In the sea you leave from russia and somehow you end up in pakistan, but as I look at this I get that the world's curved. I just don't see how it's curved that way. That's like the way a satellite goes Yeah, yeah, yeah No, I say it's a ruler you end up out into space and you can't go in a straight line anywhere on So very far Yeah well I'm glad to hear research from steven hawking Making its way. I like to imagine Him and einstein in an in an argument In a in a laboratory in in heaven if it existed It would it would be it would be fun to to see and hear I wouldn't understand any of it, but uh It would be neat And then somebody goes don't you know all of the answers have been revealed as soon as you get here They're like, but what's the fun in that? That's no fun. That's not heaven. Okay. Um, I have the dumbest people in here I have a fun story a nice and quick one about The world's oldest spider Spider, where was it discovered just in? How is it a big spider? It's a big one then it's in australia. It's certainly in australia ding ding ding ding This is a trapdoor spider One of the largest types of spiders and it has been found to be how old? So so you're asking me and I can tell it's a trick question because I'm gonna say something along the lines of Many many millions of years We're talking about like not how long has it existed right this individual They found a matriarch spidey spidey in australia. This spidey in australia is the oldest spider. They've ever found Howl So I have no idea how oldest spider can be but i'm gonna say something in the neighborhood of like three years Okay, good guess. Good guess a little bit more So previous record holder was a tarantula in mexico at a ripe old age of 28 Oh, wow years old This spider blew him out of the water um, this spider was discovered by barbara york main in 1974 and has been monitored since the spider died just a couple weeks ago at the age of at least 43. Oh, right because when they found the spider it was already Spidering around I don't know already spidering. Yep age of the spider when they found it So I don't then be able to tell exactly the age at least 43. That is 40 more spider Then I would have just not having known how old the spider can be. What is that? What's a typical spider? A few years Okay, so I wasn't like completely off the scale. I'm like, oh most spiders make it till you know, it depends on the It depends. I mean tarantulas usually live if like pet tarantulas live five to ten years. It's pretty normal Um, but so the thing about this study that's really amazing. First of all, people don't know spiders can live to be that long We didn't know even the the the current record holder at 28 years old This was 43 years old. That's way older than that But what's really interesting about this study? If you ask me is that Barbara who started the study in 1974 She started recording this individual matriarch. This was at curtain university Her lab continued her research after she retired. She's still alive. She's 88 years old and they have continued her research and they have continued watching this matriarch so they were able to definitively say that this spider at 43 At death was the oldest spider ever recorded So they were able to record age cause of death and all this kind of stuff. They were able to record life history so this demonstrates A really sweet thing that that lab did but also It shows you why long-term research is important and with a lot of the way academia is set up Not a lot of research gets carried on Not just from graduate student to graduate student, but after Professors or researchers retire So I think that this is a good reminder of why it's so important, especially when we're learning about life strategies and about About animals that we don't know a lot about that continuing these long-term studies can be super important Although I'm already thinking that Somewhere, you know 20 years ago Some lab assistant made a mistake Counted the wrong side and we're supposed to just clean the thing I didn't uh wasn't paying attention Uh luck that I got a friend that works at the pet store ran over grab another spider put it in they never They'd ever do This is a wild spider This is not a lab spider. This is Which makes it even more amazing. What do you mean? It's a wild way To say it's a wild spider. Yeah, they were able in the lab. No Then how do they like they're not watching the spider? No, they know they know they've identified markings Maybe they've marked the spider. They know these are spider people. They know this is the same spider without a doubt That's like saying how do you know that's your tabby cat? They know they know that's the right spider absolutely Well, that's a lot of I don't know That's that's the way these things work. Well, okay. Why did the spider died? Did like a bird eat it? Why did the spider cross the road? Um, no, it's I don't know actually they they haven't released cause of death But they were able to record it and it sounds like it was probably natural cause Because they're saying that this is what they think might be a representative lifespan Wow, that's pretty impressive. Yeah Absolutely. Do you have a last story Justin? That was it. You're all done. I have one more story I thought you had another so I thought you had What's this plotting the course that was the one about the Those were trying to figure out how far you could see Yes, yes. Yes. I didn't really talk about it. All right. Okay fair enough. Okay. So I have one more story about horses So horses, uh Are pretty smart. We've talked about that on the show before they've been with humans for a very long time But a new study from universities of Sussex and Portsmouth found that horses can read and remember human emotions In this study, they took domestic horses They presented them with a photograph of an angry or happy human face Waited several hours and then had the actual person from the photographs walk in Sit down and exhibit an emotionally neutral state They found that the short-term exposure of the photograph of a person's facial expression was enough to create a difference In response upon meeting that person in the flesh So despite them having a very neutral facial expression expression in the live meeting They saw a difference in horse gaze and this is something that has been studied before Is that animals and in particular horses tend to view negative events with their left eye Due to right brain hemisphere specialization for processing threatening stimuli So left eye right hemisphere And so they were able to watch that people so the pictures were shown where they either were smiling really happy Or they were showing a picture where they looked like this All scrunched Squinty face a face. No. Oh, yeah, so they showed them these pictures And then they had them come in sit down neutral expression Nothing special in the eyes. Nothing special in the mouth. Just neutral expression and they found that the people who had the scrunchy mean face in the picture Those horses left eye left eye gaze So they also made sure that in the experiment humans didn't know which photographs the horses had seen before they came in So they weren't expecting anything they Also saw that the differences in reaction were only applied to the person the horses had actually seen in the photograph So if they brought in somebody who they hadn't seen in a photograph, they didn't do the left eye stare So Professor Karen McComb from University of Sussex Says what we found is that horses can not only read human facial expressions But they can also remember a person's previous emotional state when they meet them later that day And crucially that they adapt their behavior accordingly. Essentially horses have a memory for emotion This is the first time that it's been shown that horses can remember emotional experiences with specific individuals There you go horses, you know, what's up? And as uh, somebody says in the chat room in our youtube chat Horses have been with us for a long time. I wonder if the same thing would happen with wild horses. I would guess No I would guess this is absolutely because these animals are For tens of thousands of years at least Tied to us and they have evolved alongside us. They don't look like horses looked before we brought them in with us So I would guess that if you did this experiment on dogs You'd see similar results But if you did this experiment on a wolf or on a zebra, you'd see nothing second That would be my guess right, but I think that there was a study along these lines and the wolf did better than the dog so that was You're right, but that was It's sort of telling like okay, but they did they weren't so that's the difference I'm going to look at one to indicate which it was the dogs were slower to pick it up than the Then a wolf. Yes. So so this was in the instance where the face was threatening or not They weren't asked to recall it with specific individuals So that's where this is different is that they are remembering Faces and the context that those bring and can't octopi do that So octopuses Octopuses, uh, that's a good question I don't remember a study about human emotion with octopus. No, I guess not emotion, but they for whatever reason would And maybe it was because they felt like they got stink-eyed or mistreated Um, they could if they don't like you as a somebody who's working in the in the lab or the aquarium And you leave and are gone for a while and you come back they remember and might like spit water at you So octopuses and other cephalopods are really good at associative memory So they'll remember stripes mean squid and squares mean crab So I am not surprised to hear that they can learn about specific individuals. That makes a lot of sense um, but I think that what the what is so Particular about this study and I haven't seen replicated before and hopefully we'll see more of it now Is the combination of face recognition with context um memory So the idea that it's not that they got any actual negative stimuli as a result It's just that you saw a sour face from a picture of a person And then that individual showed up in real life and you were wary of them So that's something that even with crows crows aren't aren't predisposed to understand human facial expression But they are predisposed to remember context and pass along context clues The reason I think the wild horses might still be able to do this though Although you'd have the whole problem of them being uncomfortable. Maybe around So it's like impossible to do this study maybe But they they use facial physical posturing Ear The ears a bit. Yeah, they use a ton of visual emotive cues amongst each other That may be pretty easy to translate into a human Human face as well. It's what we're good at and we can probably recognize pretty pretty readily How a horse feels if you're somebody who has horses you're pretty comfortable with the mood your horse is in, right? Um So I I would expect that the ability would be there But they would probably be just more concerned about a wild horse would be just more concerned about getting wasted Right, so then you could try to replicate this study But I think you would have different implications But you could you could for example take pictures of other horses that are stressed out versus comfortable show them those pictures And have the horse combine that totally calm And she yeah, let's see what happens if they get uneasy when the horse that they saw is stressed out in a picture comes by So there's other extrapolations of this But I think what's important about this study is that they were attuned to human faces And then they remembered that when they met the human in person And that's the combination of all these things that we've tested in other animals and other studies But the combination of all these things together Says to me at least That these animals have evolved alongside us and have been bred alongside us and they are very well attuned to That it is important. It is advantageous for them to be aware of and store information on human temperament And and I would A little bit in saying that I think that's also just one of the natural skill sets of a horse I don't think your cat would care Regardless of how long cats have been domestic. I bet you can show I would argue are not domesticated Okay, that's a good. I would kind of agree with that too. They're not but it's a cat can survive without For so long and I bet you if you did the same try to do the same study with cats They would just look like they didn't care no matter what Yeah, so I mean cats are a weirdo thing because we've kept a lot of Kept a lot of bizarre wild traits in these animals that we have in our home. So it's it's a whole extra mess of Weird variables, but with the horses horses have been a tool that humans have used For tens of thousands of years at least so and I think I think though that Possibly part of how that relationship began and got started and why they like there's well I don't know. Maybe you're I was about to say there's a reason that we're not out on the plane's riding cows But you know And there's a reason we're not out riding zebras either, but yeah People ride zebras. Nobody does No, you don't want to mess with the zebra They're like mean donkeys Yes, yeah, yeah, they'll sneak up on it Anyway, I think we've done it. I think so. I think that's the show All right. Well, we are going to start our wrap up tonight with a shout out to everyone on patreon I do not have access to the list Because the grandmaster dr. Kiki has access to that login information But I will say a huge huge. 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It says the scientist is in i'm gonna sell my advice Show them how to stop the robot with a simple device I'll reverse all the warming with a wave of my hand And all the science is coming your way So everybody listen to what i say i use the scientific method opinion all over the earth It's this week in science this week in science This week in science This week in science This week in 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 from japanese This week in science is coming away So everybody listen to everything we say, and if you use our methods to roll and die We may rid the world of toxoplasma This week in science I'm stopping global hunger to dredging Loch Ness I'm trying to promote more rational thought, and i'll try to answer any question you've got But how can i ever see the changes i seek when i can only set up shop one This week in science is coming your way You better just listen to what we say, and it's in all of your head This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science We did it We did a show Those of you on youtube I was scrolling through some of the comments And i noticed some questions about classification So i'm just going to real quick Address So The platypus is an egg-laying mammal The only other mammal that lays eggs is called the echidna It's my echidna So those are the two And then There is also a question about Red pandas Okay so red pandas are mammals Red pandas are carnivores They are in carnivora They used to be classified with raccoons But they are no longer classified with raccoons They're all by themselves So red pandas There were some questions in the youtube chat about that There were also questions about platypuses So mammals The thing that identifies all mammals No matter what are Justin The most part live bird Not 100% though Because you have the platypus and the echidna that lay eggs So think about the word Mammal Mammaries They all have memories They all make milk Even the platypus and the echidna Which do not have nipples Still create milk Lactose based Sustenance for their babies It's just kind of like Wet out on their tummy And it goes down They have specialized hairs That it just flows down These specialized hairs And the baby just kind of like Lick it off the specialized hairs So I did a report in college On the type of lactose In platypus milk It is a special protein Only found in monotreme milk So monotremes are egg laying Nails Wow, where can I get some I would be like Good question I'm guessing you won't like it But yeah Then they were asking at red pandas Red pandas are normal mammals They have live birth They have everything that other mammals have They're in carnivora So they're related to bears And wolves And cats But they used to be classified In the same family As raccoons But they are no longer in the same family As raccoons, they are in their own family There you go Fun fact, hashtag fun fact And they have 40-something gut microbes In common with Panda bears? Yes, because of the bamboo And the bamboo eating lemur Absolutely bamboo lemur Oh And Dave Shorty said Eggs and milk from one creature Makes me want to farm them The eggs that come out of platypuses Are like the size Of a Hershey's egg You'd get for They're like this big They're teeny tiny So They're funny The reason that they still lay eggs Is that they're The blastopore The rudimentary Thing that isn't even a fetus yet That is a developing ball of cells Like the pre-fetus Basically In us, it has these huge What are called invaginations So they're basically like wrinkles All around it so that it can implant Into the uterine wall In mom And it allows for Gas and nutrient Exchange until the development of The placenta So the placenta Placental mammals are what we consider Like normal mammals because they have this placenta Which allows them to cook In mom for a very, very, very long time Because they have this gas and nutrient exchange That is extremely Fancy and well developed On the opposite end, you have Modetremes, you have platypuses and echidnas That they're like a They're like a Ping-pong ball, they're like very smooth So they have trouble kind of like Attaching to the uterine wall of mom The gas exchange is not great And so they have to be Plopped out sooner And so that egg protects them when they're Still very small When they're not even really a fetus yet So it allows them to pop out and they're Contained in its eggs The in-between between those two Are marsupials So marsupials They have some invaginations They have some of this wrinkliness On the Ball of cells So that they have some gas exchange with mom But it is not as developed and there is no Placenta And so as a result, they're born very early When they're the size of a jelly bean And they're still blind and their back legs don't work And they have to crawl by themselves Into their mom's pouch And then they stay in that pouch until they're big enough To be able to go out on their own In fact about that is that the mom Actually has two different types Of milk and two different types Of nipples in her pouch So she has a high protein And a high fat Milk So the high protein fat is for the teeny tiny little thing That's still developing all the important stuff And the high fat milk is for when They're bigger and they're coming in and out of the pouch And they're just kind of bulking up So And for those who may not also Describe koala pap Oh It's just basically poop It's poop that is Infused With the bacteria That allows them to digest eucalyptus And so baby koala So here's another fun fact Koala pouches upside down So the baby koalas are poking out Towards the The bottom of the koala It seems like an inefficient That's perfect because they just poke They poke out, eat the little pap And go back in So they have their bacterial seed that way So the A baby koalas First meal Because before they can They're drinking milk But before they can even digest eucalyptus They need A binkle transplant Yup, sure do Yup I'm just, I'm full of these In case you were curious And yes, the plural Of Plata puss Is Plata pussuses, plata pie That's a great question I'm gonna look it up actually So octopuses Wait, where are you getting these questions? I'm not seeing all of these Kiki usually does that Really? So yes, platypus is correct So platypus Plata pie is incorrect So The problem is It's Greek So octopus and platypus Is Greek So you would say platypus Or if you're being super correct About the Greek you would say platypodes Which is why you'll hear people say octopodes Occasionally But really because we're an English language And we are Pluralizing based on English rules You are supposed to say platypuses Or octopuses I thought it was platypods And No, it's poed Poed Octopodes That's why I'm here I'm here to educate That's the science That's the science We're learning I'm so happy to clear it up Oh my goodness Alright What do you think Justin Do you have anything you're dying to talk about? Yeah, I can't stop thinking about The quid Spitters And I now have access to genetic sequencing Equipment Which means I could go around In town Or just pick up gum Pick up bubble gum from the sidewalk Plug it out from underneath tables at the diner And I can start tracking down people And be like Excuse me I think you dropped this Oh Throw it at them and leave Well pretty soon you'll be able to do DNA Tracking on like Vandals and things like that Huh Oh my gosh Did you get vandalized? No Pretty funny So we got I got to play for the first time With the nanopore thing Oh And the software is called Minion Which I thought was really awesome But nobody else there understood Why I was so excited That it was called Minion Oh yeah So if the Spickle Me movies come out Or the Minion movies come out It's It's kind of fun Just because you see You see the word Minions everywhere That was us first We had it Yeah I guess we did it We did the show We did some after show We could call it good We could take off My throat I'm trying to keep things from Happening It's been a rough You're fighting off the cold Yeah I'm trying to make sure I still have a voice tomorrow I have to teach high school students tomorrow About climate change Which I did today And I'm so excited about it I love doing it I love looking at their dead faces But then at the end At least some of them It's clear that they're excited that you came They just couldn't show it During the class It's always when I walk around with my stickers Everyone's like stickers are dumb And then I walk around and they're like I'll take one Like yeah Got them Got you with the animals I'm going to show this We had a congressperson Visit our workplace today Ooh that's cool There's all these Ridiculous Emails I shouldn't be talking about work but I'm going to do a little bit That we're like you know We want everybody to be busy Doing something sciencey It's like It's what everybody's always doing anyway But it was sort of funny Well it's like when the boss walks through And I'm like Writing a Facebook post And so I'm on Facebook Because that's my job And then I suddenly feel really self-conscious About it Like oh no They're going to think I'm messing about Here and I'm really I feel like I have to put up a sign that's like No really I'm working Yeah and I think there's There's something to it too maybe there Because I think I kind of just Assumed that everybody there is The boss because it's like they're all You know have been doing what they're doing For forever or longer And so maybe I'm already Kind of on the point of like always Trying to make sure I'm keeping busy That I don't notice if other people aren't normally Yeah but It seemed kind of funny because it's a pretty busy place So then like Yeah It was pretty fun Yeah it was exciting Alright I'm out Good night minions Say good night Blair Say good night Justin Good night Justin Good night minions Bye