0:00

This is a Triple J Podcast. If

0:02

you were packing a bag for the end

0:04

of the world, what is one medicine you

0:06

would take? We had a

0:08

caller who had seen the movie Leave the

0:10

World Behind and put that question to myself

0:12

and Dr. Karl. You'll find out

0:15

what we chose in this science episode.

0:17

Plus medications, why do they

0:19

lower your sex drive? And

0:21

could dinosaurs survive in our atmosphere

0:23

today? This is Science with

0:25

Dr. Karl, I'm Lucy Smith, let's get into it.

0:30

I will say there's been a couple of

0:32

questions coming through and I thought we would

0:34

kick off this week's episode with it. So

0:37

someone has texted in saying, Dr. Karl is

0:39

talking about blood balance and glyco card on

0:41

Instagram. Can you talk about it today and

0:43

let listeners know which one to choose? Now

0:47

you have been,

0:49

I guess, the target of what

0:51

would you call them? Some AI

0:53

ads? Thieves. Yeah. What's

0:56

going on? Okay,

0:59

so a bit of background. ChatGPT

1:01

today announced a new product.

1:04

And what you have to do is

1:07

just download 15 seconds of anybody's voice

1:10

and they will then recreate what

1:12

you type in that person's voice.

1:15

And so it could be, hi,

1:17

I'm Kim, the head of the

1:19

ABC, and I want you to vote for this

1:21

political party. And it will sound just like him.

1:24

And I can't see any benefit from this product,

1:26

but only harm. One benefit from

1:28

AI that's already here. We

1:31

can now diagnose breast cancers up to five

1:33

years earlier. And

1:35

therefore, earlier treatment means

1:37

a better outcome. Okay, I'm trying

1:39

to find one good outcome from

1:41

AI. But if you go

1:43

looking, you will find that on Facebook and Twitter

1:45

and Facebook and Facebook and Facebook, at the moment,

1:47

there's about 110 to 130 people who are putting

1:50

up ads claiming that

1:54

I am promoting some sort of product. And

1:56

firstly, they're saying that I'm a professor

1:59

at Monash University. Secondly, that my name

2:01

is both Krushelinsky and Krushel-Nitsky. They're spelling

2:03

it a few different ways each time.

2:05

Thirdly, that the product that I'm supposed

2:07

to be advertising, and by the way,

2:09

on Facebook and on Twitter and on

2:12

Insta, it says, at the top, I

2:14

do not advertise any commercial product. I

2:16

never have, I never will. And this

2:18

is a thing. You think these ads are

2:20

kind of obvious, but I've literally gotten a

2:22

text today from Michael saying, hi Dr. Kahl,

2:24

I'm wanting to know if you're really endorsing

2:26

and promoting glyco control. I can't

2:28

really purchase this product if it can really remove plaque from

2:31

my arteries. So I can't

2:34

stress this enough that if you're seeing

2:36

Dr. Kahl promoting any kind of product,

2:40

any commercial product, or really even

2:42

trying to sway your health, or

2:45

it really kind of takes

2:47

these things with a grain of salt. A big

2:49

grain of salt. This is our PSA this morning.

2:52

That's right. So with regard to removing the plaque,

2:54

it says that it can remove, if you read

2:56

down, two kilograms of plaque

2:58

from your arteries. Mate, that

3:00

is bigger than your head. Your head doesn't

3:02

weigh two kilograms. You don't even have two

3:05

kilograms of blood vessels. And the saying can

3:07

remove two kilograms of plaque, one kilogram of

3:09

clot, and 400 grams of

3:11

calcium. Like, that's a big fat mug,

3:13

a really huge mug of tea. That's

3:15

an enormous cup of tea. There's

3:18

coming out with lies. So I do

3:20

not promote any commercial product. I

3:22

have been involved with, say, microsleep

3:25

government campaigns and vaping campaigns,

3:27

but never any commercial products. And

3:30

the thing is that many

3:32

people who have sent me emails, Karl, I ordered

3:35

the product. I spent $90. It

3:37

didn't arrive. You have been scammed. I'm

3:39

really sorry. I cannot stop them. We've

3:41

told Facebook about this over and over.

3:43

And Facebook's response has been, they

3:46

do not break our advertiser guidelines.

3:51

I think the advertiser guidelines are, if

3:53

you've got money and you want to advertise anything, we'll

3:55

take it. That is a hypothesis on

3:58

my part. I'm not too sure. But

4:00

Facebook has been told over and over

4:02

and they refuse to do it and

4:04

people are losing money and at some

4:06

stage, I don't

4:08

know how to do it because they're based

4:10

overseas in many cases and they don't follow

4:12

the laws of Australia because the internet is

4:15

a worldwide, well, the worldwide web exists on

4:17

the internet. I don't

4:19

know what to say. So this is our PSA. PSA.

4:22

Just a stay vigilant that even if

4:24

you think it might be blaringly obvious,

4:26

maybe someone in your life doesn't. So

4:28

just really stay vigilant out there and

4:31

know that if you are seeing any

4:33

ABC personality, I've seen these ads

4:35

pop up with News Breakfast Lisa Miller as

4:37

well. Just know that we

4:39

work for a government funded broadcaster and

4:41

a taxpayer funded broadcaster. We cannot be

4:44

out here telling you to buy something

4:46

or referring a commercial product. We

4:48

cannot be involved with any commercial product.

4:50

That's it. That's the bottom line. Stay

4:52

vigilant. All right, Dr. Karl, I hope that we

4:54

can get into these questions.

4:57

Cheerful things. Happy things. Yeah,

4:59

let's do it. We've got Anita from Adelaide here. Dr.

5:02

Anita. Oh, I thought it's cheerful. What's going on, Anita?

5:04

Hello, doctors. My question is, why

5:07

does Australia not have native

5:09

honeybees? Our bees

5:11

are only solitary usually but we

5:14

have honey ants. I'm

5:16

wondering why they didn't, did they evolve on

5:18

other continents after Australia separated

5:21

out or did they

5:23

evolve and then become extinct? I'd

5:26

like the answer to that one, please. I

5:29

think you've answered it yourself, Dr. Anita. They

5:31

did. So Australia split

5:34

off from Gondwana land, Gondwana,

5:36

about 50 million years ago

5:39

and then everything

5:41

developed independently in Australia

5:44

and the honeybees are

5:47

not native to Australia. They

5:50

came in Europe and Asia

5:52

and Africa and they were brought to Australia

5:54

and we have some here. There's also

5:56

something else called the Varroa mite, the...

6:02

It does look like it's going to be

6:04

doing bad things here in Australia. Each

6:07

year something like a third

6:09

of a million hives, B

6:11

hives, travel from one part of Australia

6:13

to the other. I think I've got the number right. I think

6:15

it's a third of a million and they end up in one

6:17

occasion in the Mildura

6:20

area and they do

6:22

pollination. Then they go somewhere else

6:24

to do pollination maybe of canola.

6:28

They've got to stop this to some

6:30

degree because the varroa might, imported

6:32

from overseas and where it's been for a long

6:34

time, has finally made it to Australia. It made

6:37

it to Newcastle a couple

6:39

of years ago and it's spreading. Unfortunately

6:41

we're in that transition period where things are

6:43

going to get messy. To answer your specific

6:45

question Dr Anita, they didn't

6:48

arrive in Australia. There

6:50

was no ecological niche that they

6:52

blossomed into. But why?

6:55

I don't know. Evolution is not perfect. I don't know if I

6:57

can use it. Yeah, okay. Alright,

6:59

no worries. Thanks so much. Thank you Dr

7:01

Anita. Thanks Anita. We've got Nathan in Sydney.

7:03

Now Nathan, you used to work at a

7:05

pizza shop and you noticed something. What was

7:08

it? Yes, so hi

7:10

doctors. My question is about

7:12

ambient temperature and the way it affects the

7:14

temperature of other things. As I

7:16

said, I worked in the pizza shop for

7:18

over 10 years and I consistently experienced this.

7:21

Now the pizza oven was set to 270 degrees all year round.

7:25

The conveyor belt time was always 7 minutes

7:28

and we'd pop in a garlic bread that's wrapped in our

7:30

aluminum foil. On a winter's day, I could just grab it

7:32

out of the oven and then I came out the other

7:34

end and plop it on the table.

7:36

But on summer, it was so hot, you just had

7:38

to quickly grab it or use tongs or

7:40

something to get it off and I just

7:42

don't understand. If the oven is

7:45

always at 270, why was it always so

7:47

much hotter on a summer's day? In

7:49

this case, we've got to go measuring and

7:52

so you need one of those little infrared

7:54

laser type thermometer thingies where you can aim

7:56

it and see what the temperature is. properly

8:00

adjusted oven will give you 270

8:02

degrees regardless of whether the outside

8:04

temperature is minus 100 or plus

8:06

100. But I'm suspecting that they're

8:08

made good enough, not perfectly and

8:10

on a hot day they'll run

8:12

hotter than 270. I'm figuring that

8:14

the thermostat that says switch off

8:16

around 270 is not that good. So I'm

8:19

figuring that it's not a

8:21

perfect oven. So it in fact is hotter

8:23

than that. The idea that

8:25

it would cool down in the ambient air,

8:27

is that possible Dr. Nathan?

8:29

Like how long was it where it came

8:31

out of the oven before you grabbed it?

8:34

No, no like sometimes it'd just be yeah out for

8:36

like a few seconds before you grabbed it. Well

8:39

is it possible that some of the cooler

8:41

room air could have gone into the outlet

8:43

of the oven? You said it was on

8:46

a conveyor belt? Yes I guess so. Yeah

8:48

look we've got in this case you need

8:50

to measure some temperatures. The information will come

8:52

by knowing the temperatures in different parts of

8:54

the oven chain. Yeah okay.

8:57

So Nathan you've got to go back to that pizza shop

8:59

and start working again. Great, back in

9:01

Korea. Yeah exactly. Good luck. We've got

9:03

Heath in Quakers Hill here. Now Heath,

9:05

got a question

9:10

about dogs. Morning doctors,

9:12

my question is why do

9:15

dogs chase and bite their own tails? Dogs

9:18

like to play like humans and it could

9:20

be just plain old playfulness. Oh here's a

9:23

body part I'll go chasing it in circles.

9:25

I'm seeing that with my little granddaughter aged

9:27

16 months. She gets fascinated by different things

9:29

and the nieces of different ages as well.

9:31

Secondly there can be irritation. There can be

9:33

a bug biting it. They could do it

9:35

because on one occasion when they went and

9:37

bit their tail everybody said hey look at

9:40

Freddo playing with their tail and they're thinking

9:42

oh they're paying attention to me. I love

9:44

having attention. Dogs

9:46

can have mental problems. They can

9:48

do compulsive behavior. I'm slightly

9:51

obsessive with making sure the house is locked before

9:53

I leave but I know people who even when

9:55

they've done it they have to go back and

9:58

do it again and again and again. and

10:00

this sort of behaviour can exist in dogs as

10:02

well. That's

10:04

kind of it, you know, I don't know more than

10:06

that. If we could have a vet ring in. Hang

10:09

on, it's 04-something-something-something, I forgot that

10:11

number. Help me do... 0439-75-7525

10:14

text in if you are maybe an animal behaviour

10:16

psychologist, etc. Yeah,

10:21

vet... We'll see. We've got Scott and

10:23

Foster here. Now, Scott, I love this

10:25

question. You've just seen a movie. Tell

10:28

us about it and tell us what your kind of thoughts were

10:30

off the back. Well, I

10:32

suppose it was... Yeah, it's the movie where,

10:34

like, basically the world goes into chaos. And

10:37

I suppose writing off the back now, watching

10:39

the latest alone series on SBS.

10:41

And it was a conversation where, well, like,

10:44

what would you grab? Like, you know, as

10:46

far as, like, when I was sort of

10:48

saying medicine, so maybe we all do that

10:50

sort of little naughty thing of leaving, you

10:52

know, extra stuff in the

10:55

kitchen, in the bathroom cabinet, you know, maybe some

10:58

antibiotics. And I thought, oh, I wasn't there to take some

11:00

antibiotics. So if the world was about to end, what would

11:02

Dr Karl take? Ooh.

11:04

What's that? One medicine you would take, Dr Karl,

11:06

if it's kind of giving end of days, end of

11:08

the world. This was off the back of the film,

11:10

leave the world behind. And how many things are you

11:12

allowed to take in your head? What, it can carry, you know,

11:14

a little backpack or...? Yeah. But,

11:17

yeah, what's the one... So, Scott, you want to know the

11:19

one medicine that Dr Karl would take? Yeah,

11:21

I want to know, yes. Probably antibiotics,

11:24

something like flucloxacillin is a

11:26

broad spectrum antibiotic. Works

11:28

against cellulitis and a bunch

11:31

of other things. Probably

11:33

a painkiller would be nice. I

11:36

do like the fact that when you go to see the

11:38

dentist, you get access to a painkiller. What

11:41

would you take, Scott? Well,

11:44

yeah, I'm definitely taking my antibiotics. But

11:46

I also have a metal aortic valve.

11:48

So I'd probably have to take some

11:50

of my other stuff that would

11:53

keep me going as well. You've got a metal aortic

11:55

valve. Can you hear it from the outside going tick,

11:57

tick, tick? I can hear it between my

11:59

ears all the time. about 65 times a minute.

12:02

Wow. And

12:04

how long have you had that for? 12,

12:08

14 years. Wow. So

12:10

what happens normally is that the blood

12:13

is taken from chamber to chamber in

12:15

the heart by very beautifully synchronised and

12:17

coordinating opening of chambers and closing and

12:19

squeezing. And normally, you have it going

12:21

out through the aortic valve in through

12:23

the aorta, which is the diameter of

12:25

your thumb. But in your case, you've

12:27

got a valve, which is, I'm guessing,

12:29

it's a ball covered with silicon rubber

12:31

inside a metal cage. And it hits

12:33

up against some other silicon rubber. And

12:36

that can be bad to

12:39

the blood cells. So you've got to

12:41

take an anticoagulant. Is that right? Yep,

12:44

that's right. Yeah. So what

12:46

would you take, Lucy? I'd

12:49

be profane, I think. Oh. Yeah.

12:52

Yeah. Paint doesn't make you a better person.

12:55

OK. Are you allowed to take anything like a

12:57

knife or a hammer or a chisel or? Well,

13:00

take all those things. But yeah, something might keep

13:02

you going. My wife reckons you might take any

13:04

depressants with her. Oh, true. It's

13:07

a joke. It was a joke. OK. All right.

13:09

I'm a geek. OK, fair enough. All right. OK,

13:11

thank you. Yeah. You got

13:13

me thinking now. I'm just going to think of all the things

13:15

that you've got to take every so

13:17

often. Yeah. Iron tablet. True.

13:21

The only real tools you need are a hammer

13:24

and a file. And with that, you

13:26

can make anything up to a jet engine. Oh. OK,

13:29

Dr. Carl, we need you on the new series of

13:31

Alone. OK? OK. Nick

13:35

in Armidale here. Dr. Nick, you

13:38

have a question. We were just

13:40

talking about what we would

13:42

take if it was the end of days and

13:44

we needed to take some sort of medicine with

13:46

us. And I said painkillers,

13:48

ibuprofen. Nick, you've got a question

13:51

about painkillers. What is it? I

13:53

do. Hello, doctors. So It

13:56

seems like there's not many options for painkillers,

13:58

as in over the counter. Heresy

14:00

to Molinari person, and then even in

14:02

Sussex and Lambs and in our heavy

14:04

stuff and hospital it's nearly all in

14:06

an opioid kind of family, which is

14:09

in our scary sort of stuff. Answer

14:11

my question is, why don't we have.

14:13

More. Painkillers: more varieties

14:15

and better kind of more

14:17

cesspool pain treatment options with

14:19

modern medicine. Because

14:22

we haven't fully explored, pine we know

14:24

is three groups of people in the

14:26

world who do not experience pain. so

14:28

sleep. You've got thirty seven trillion cells

14:30

in your body and these have a

14:33

pump. The. Shelves sodium on ramps

14:35

as him the other way and

14:37

will Southern University medicine there was

14:39

one that is about twenty of

14:41

them and and Abs Mlc Helsinki

14:43

taught number seventeen and this have

14:45

the melty happens in a Pakistani

14:47

family of circus performers mean they

14:50

do not feel pain. And

14:53

they normally during the early twenties for

14:55

broken legs. Doesn't hurt or broken This

14:57

it doesn't hurt. Signal is is a

15:00

group of people in it is Lee

15:02

we done as a pathway and Saudis

15:04

is a woman in England who has

15:06

pain mediation via the marijuana pathway To

15:09

the reason that out the his work

15:11

is it you make your own or

15:13

the money brain. As a Us you

15:15

make more sense. You probably heard the

15:18

would endorphins. Endorphin is short for endogenous

15:20

Indo means from within. To.

15:22

This. Means you make it

15:24

so they get it endogenous, more sane

15:26

and they get rid of the middle

15:29

bit and he with was just endorphins

15:31

and says away the reason that of

15:33

his work is you make your own

15:35

obese The reason a marijuana was as

15:38

you may go marijuana and this woman

15:40

in England and her husband died and

15:42

she just so pie the when a

15:45

husband dies assist response was. Of.

15:47

i just put his season ticket on a

15:50

bus i'm gonna have to catch it in

15:52

says he sort of slowly dissociate from reality

15:54

spurs the seas it's there are potential painkillers

15:56

down at pathways in most cases we can

15:58

get rid of time There's a

16:01

certain types of pain that we cannot

16:03

get rid of like neuropathic pain and

16:05

in those cases We put in things

16:07

into the spine usually that put electrical

16:10

impulses and you work by a remote

16:12

control and there was a so

16:14

to say funny case where It

16:17

actually did some cross wiring and every time she did it

16:19

to get rid of the pain She also had an orgasm

16:21

and she got sick of it. It was

16:23

just like I just want to get rid of the pain No, I do not

16:25

want to have a good time right now. I just want to give you the

16:27

pain. So We don't

16:29

fully understand pain. We only started working with pain

16:31

nerves maybe 20 years ago So I guess the

16:33

answer is we're still in early days with pain

16:36

relief Yeah, that

16:38

makes sense that yeah, we've got to use

16:40

what the body does in kind of artificial

16:42

versions Is it the same with ibuprofen and

16:44

paracetamol? The reason is the body naturally produce

16:46

those? I think

16:48

they work by stopping inflammation. I do

16:50

not know the pathway. I I

16:53

used to know the pathway by which they work but

16:56

didn't know I don't think I look at the pathway

16:58

by which they release the Pain I think they do

17:00

it by relieving the inflammation locally. I do not know

17:02

this is homework for me Thank you so much for

17:04

telling me but I don't know if we make our

17:06

own natural aspirin or ibuprofen I don't think we do

17:08

I think they work by a different pathway Right.

17:11

Okay. Thank you for that. And then the opiates

17:13

work centrally in your brain and the marijuana works

17:16

centrally in his brain and for some people Reduces

17:19

pain but not for everybody Right

17:21

depending if you've got that pathway or not And

17:23

yeah, because we're all wide differently like we just

17:25

discovered three thousand three hundred new nerve cells In

17:29

the different types of nerve cells in the brain

17:31

last October, which we didn't know existed before so

17:33

there's so much we don't know Well,

17:35

yes, big black hole in the human head,

17:38

right? Dead right From

17:42

per year Dean, what's

17:45

your question? It's

17:47

about the results of what

17:49

happens with animal inbreeding I mean originally my

17:51

question started from when they bought back Dolly

17:53

the sheep and they talked about bringing back

17:55

the thylus I thought great bring it

17:58

back from extinction just to watch it go back into extinction

18:00

again or do we bring back 20, 30, 40,

18:02

I'm going to give them a gene pool and

18:05

then I read about a pride of

18:07

Asiatic lines, the last of the Asiatic

18:09

lines in a reserve in Goa and

18:12

they're all cousins. So what's their future? Do

18:14

they die off

18:16

or do they no form or what

18:19

happens? If you give them enough time,

18:21

they will develop some genetic diversity with

18:23

time. Cheaters went

18:25

through an evolutionary bottleneck

18:28

about 8,000 years ago

18:30

and all the cheaters today are

18:32

so closely related that you can do a

18:34

skin graft from one to the other and

18:37

you don't have to worry about immunosuppression

18:39

because they're that closely related. So it

18:41

all depends on how quickly they mutate

18:43

and apparently cheaters are mutating very slowly.

18:46

So which specific thing are you asking

18:48

about then? Before

18:52

the lines are related, they're

18:54

inbreeding so they

18:56

did a blood test on all the last of

18:58

the pride and they're all cousins. We

19:03

know what happened with cheaters that they're very

19:05

slow at mutating. It could

19:07

be the lines which are part of

19:09

that cat-the-line family would be

19:11

slow or fast and we don't know. So

19:13

it would be an evolutionary molecular

19:16

biologist who specializes in the big cats who would be

19:18

able to tell us on that. We

19:21

may well be able to bring them back, we may

19:23

not and with regard to the thylacines, all that was

19:25

a terrible thing, we killed them believing that they were

19:27

actually killing the sheep but in fact

19:29

that they were helping protect the sheep but it

19:32

was just a big mistake on humanity's side. Clever

19:34

humans once again. We've

19:38

got Amelia in Brisbane now. Now

19:40

Amelia, you've got a question about mammals. What's

19:43

your question? Hi doctors. My

19:45

question is, why do mammals need to

19:47

be at certain temperatures to function and

19:49

if our blood was thinner, would we

19:51

be able to function at a lower

19:53

temperature? So it's

19:55

not so much thinner. So blood is

19:57

an organ that happens to be a liquid. 55%

20:02

salt water and it does a whole bunch of functions.

20:05

Looking at the cold blood inside of

20:07

things, we keep our temperature at the

20:09

same level and so we are

20:12

optimised for being able to function through the

20:14

day and the night. Snakes, if

20:16

you see them in daytime, you're not going to

20:18

see them at night because they can't move. They're

20:20

in a state called torpor. So

20:23

the cost of us being able to function

20:25

all day and all night in the environment

20:27

is that we have to have huge amounts

20:29

of food whereas the reptiles

20:31

can go without food for weeks or sometimes

20:33

even months at a time. So

20:36

as a result, we've evolved down a

20:38

pathway where the enzymes that are necessary

20:40

to kick reactions along, they work best

20:43

at a certain temperature range. So the

20:45

temperature range we work at is maybe

20:47

35 to 40 and outside that

20:49

bad things happen, bad things are already happening at 40.

20:52

Under about 35, I can say immediately I

20:54

grab my hand and I'll pull you out of the water and

20:56

you'll look at me and you won't be able to clutch your

21:00

fingers around my wrist and grab me. We

21:02

can't pull you out. Another thing is that

21:04

the cell membranes and you've got 37 trillion

21:07

cells, they've been optimised to work only in

21:09

that very narrow range and the same with

21:11

proteins and your brain. So

21:14

it gives us the ability to

21:17

roam the planet but the

21:19

cost is we've got to keep on eating whereas

21:21

on the other hand, the pythons will do that.

21:23

Think about a horse for the Melbourne

21:25

Cup. It is running and it's going flat out and

21:28

it's running for about 4 minutes or whatever it is.

21:31

A python can run at 4 times

21:33

that level of metabolic activity for 36 hours

21:36

and what they're doing when

21:38

they've swallowed something is that they're growing their

21:40

gut back and they're growing their liver and

21:42

they're manufacturing acids like crazy and they're just

21:44

lying there panting and they are just absorbing

21:47

and manufacturing the acids to dissolve that creature

21:49

which could be bigger than a very large dog.

21:53

But most of the time they just lie around not

21:55

burning up about cin-g at all. Wow.

22:00

It is amazing to think that pythons can work that hard. And

22:02

a snake will do that as hard. You can see the bulge

22:04

in their body when they're swallowed a rat. Massive.

22:07

Well, I've only seen pictures of it on my

22:09

feet. I haven't seen it either. Thanks, Amelia. Thank

22:11

you, Amelia. Thank you. Zach,

22:14

you got it. Zach. Zach in

22:16

Barara. Zach. You've got a question about rain. What

22:18

is it? Yeah, hey, doctors.

22:20

So my question is, why are

22:22

some raindrops bigger than others? So

22:25

for rain to form, you've got to

22:27

have little tiny particles in the atmosphere

22:30

that act as nucleation centers. And as

22:32

you've got a dirty environment, which is

22:34

highly polluted, the raindrops can be bigger

22:36

because they can form

22:39

more coalescence. Secondly, if you have up

22:41

currents, the rain starts to fall down,

22:43

and then it gets blown upwards

22:46

and it runs into other raindrops. And

22:48

it gets heavier and then it falls down. So

22:51

now you've got a bigger, fatter raindrops. Thirdly, you

22:53

have a similar process happening with hail, where it

22:55

just goes up and down, up and down, until

22:57

it gets heavy enough to break through the updraft

23:01

and you can have in extreme cases,

23:03

hail the size of golf stones, golf

23:05

balls. Thanks,

23:08

Zach. I love that real dollopy rain. Oh,

23:11

where it just sort of goes splop, splop, splop.

23:13

Yeah. I love that from when

23:15

I was living in the tropics because it would rain every

23:18

afternoon at about 10 past four when

23:20

I was in lay, and you just hear

23:22

this sort of blop, blop, blop, and then

23:24

within 60 seconds, it was

23:26

so that if you went out in it, you'd

23:28

be wet into your armpits. Just walk out, walk back

23:30

in, wet into your armpits, mate. It was really solid.

23:33

My gosh, Steven, into Wumba. You took a bit

23:35

of camping, you've noticed something. Morning,

23:38

doctors. My question is, how come

23:40

every time I go camping? So I do a lot

23:43

of camping in a swag, so it's not a dome

23:45

swag, so it's just like a driver's swag. So a

23:47

lay flat one. I can leave my

23:49

head out all night while sleeping and never get

23:51

bit by mosquitoes, but as soon as I put

23:53

my arm or my foot out, I get bitten

23:55

straight away. Wow. Different

23:58

sweat glands, so you've got a lot of sweat. sweat glands

24:00

in your hands and

24:03

the sweat itself isn't particularly

24:05

attractive to mosquitoes but depending on the bacteria you

24:08

have on your skin they will eat that and

24:10

then create a whole bunch of other chemicals which

24:12

are attractive. So you've got different types of sweat

24:14

glands and sweat on your face and your arms.

24:17

So that's the best we've got up with at

24:19

the moment that the chemicals are more attractive. On

24:21

the other hand your face does have the wonderful

24:23

property of putting out carbon dioxide and so the

24:26

in general the mozzies are attracted to

24:29

the carbon dioxide because they

24:31

know that's a source of an animal's breathing

24:33

and they bite you not to annoy you

24:35

but to get protein from your blood to

24:37

fill their baby. So the female

24:39

mozzies being nice to their future babies

24:41

how can you possibly deny them like

24:44

the miracle of life? They're obsessed with

24:46

me. Really? In my family group they

24:48

love all of the females in my

24:50

family and they don't like me. I

24:53

can just go outside you know we I was with

24:55

some friends recently and we thought oh we'll eat out

24:57

on the veranda and I even have one of those

24:59

little put them on her kid those little mosquito

25:01

patches that you can just wear on your clothes.

25:04

No eating alive on my feet. It's

25:06

the deep stuff mate that's the stuff that works. We've

25:08

got Amanda in Bendigo. Amanda what's

25:11

your question? Hi

25:13

doctors my question is why

25:15

do some medications reduce

25:17

your sex drive? Because

25:21

you're a little powerhouse of

25:23

hormones you run via chemicals

25:26

and running the whole show

25:28

is the hypothalamus which is

25:31

called the conductor of the

25:33

hormone orchestra and there are

25:35

multiple feedback loops and so

25:37

sex drive is related to

25:40

both estrogen and testosterone and

25:42

so it's really easy that if you're taking something that's

25:44

going to for example save your life oh by the

25:46

way you're going to interfere with this and lose your

25:48

sex drive for a little while or have it

25:51

increased also it happens. So it's

25:53

normally mediated by the hypothalamus and a

25:55

feedback loop there. You can

25:58

try and look around for medications

26:00

that have different side effects. So

26:03

if you go back 500 years Paracelsa said all drugs

26:05

are poisons what matters is it does so you can

26:07

go and check with your GP and say I know

26:10

this is something sometimes happens happening to me I'm

26:12

having this happening to me. Can you find medication

26:15

that has the same effects

26:17

but doesn't have this side effect and normally there's

26:19

a range of things you can try. Okay,

26:22

I like that you called me in Powerhouse. That

26:24

was a bit exciting.

26:27

And so I'm talking about

26:29

like hormone blockers for cancer

26:31

treatment. In

26:38

this particular case, I'm very sorry to hear

26:40

that you've got cancer, a

26:43

cancer. How's

26:45

your prognosis? Good,

26:47

yes good. All good breast

26:49

cancer and all

26:51

rebuilt with fabulous new boots.

26:55

By the way for those who don't know the

26:57

word pro means before and nosis comes from nora

26:59

to no. So prognosis means

27:02

how things going and normally what

27:04

the person with cancer is interested in is

27:06

the prognosis for and here comes a magic

27:08

phrase five years survival

27:11

rate. If you've got a

27:13

90 or a hundred percent survival rate you're

27:15

very happy. If it's less than 1%

27:18

you're not happy. So normally with cancer the cancers

27:20

we just sort of tend to go in boots

27:22

and all and we sort of they tend

27:24

to say look we're sorry we haven't got a

27:26

drug yet that'll leave other things untouched. That's just

27:28

the way it is. Look it is worthwhile checking

27:31

with your doctors and let them

27:33

know that you want something different if possible. But

27:35

you might not have that option at the moment

27:37

with our current knowledge. Do

27:42

you have a question on behalf

27:44

of you kids? What have you guys been talking about

27:46

lately? Hi, Dr. Carl

27:48

and Dr. Lise. We

27:51

have gone dino crazy in this

27:53

house. So

27:55

we've got a question about the dinosaurs

27:58

and if we manage to close the dinosaurs

28:00

today like they did in Jurassic Park.

28:03

Given that 200 million years ago

28:05

there was

28:08

more oxygen in the atmosphere than

28:10

there is today which apparently led

28:12

to giant insects as well, would

28:15

the dinosaurs grow to their full potential

28:18

and would they actually be able to

28:20

survive in our modern day atmosphere? Ah,

28:23

they survived for an incredibly long period of time

28:25

from 220 million years ago right up

28:29

to 65 million years ago and if

28:31

you include the birds as dinosaurs which

28:33

they are, they're still around today. So

28:35

the technical term they

28:38

use is the nonavian which

28:40

is a fancy non-bird dinosaurs died out but

28:42

the dinosaurs are still around today. Back

28:45

350 million years ago there were

28:49

in fact giant insects

28:51

because the oxygen level was up around

28:54

30 percent, 35 percent. But

28:57

when the dinosaurs started off the oxygen level

28:59

was down to about 11 percent and there

29:03

were three types of animals back then. There were

29:05

the crocodiles who owned the reptiles who had the

29:07

legs out to the side that was a big

29:09

disadvantage. There were the mammals and they had the

29:11

legs under the hips which was a big disadvantage

29:13

but the oxygen level was very low and

29:15

we mammals we've got the

29:18

disadvantage that we dilute

29:20

the incoming oxygen rich air

29:23

with what is left in the lungs whereas

29:26

the dinosaurs and the birds have got a

29:28

different system. The air comes in and goes

29:30

into the lungs gives up its oxygen and

29:33

then goes into the hollow bones. So they've

29:35

got a sort of a throughput system. As

29:38

a result of that superior breathing

29:40

mechanism they were able to survive

29:42

from 220 million

29:45

years ago to 65 and the oxygen level

29:47

gradually rose from about 11 to

29:49

about 16 percent. So they would

29:51

survive in the higher oxygen of

29:54

today. There's a book on this

29:56

by Helen Pilcher and I've done a podcast

29:58

with her on show. loads of science and

30:00

the book is called the

30:19

birds have got all sorts

30:21

of stuff inside their DNA

30:23

that could take us back

30:25

to Tyrannosaurus rex to their

30:27

vaguely related amazing

30:29

yeah so in fact i just saw

30:32

the photos last night i'll let you

30:34

in on it they've managed to breed

30:36

a six-legged mouth not breed but

30:38

uh so what happens

30:40

is they have a look at the DNA and

30:42

part of the DNA switches off during making the

30:45

legs and they switch off the bit the switches

30:47

off and they switch it on again and then

30:49

you end up with a six-legged mouth just

30:52

to see what was going on so we

30:54

still don't understand full embryology but the thing

30:56

is they're almost certainly within the chicken and

30:58

bird DNA there are big hints of

31:00

the other dinosaur DNA that's

31:03

amazing so we could bring them back maybe maybe

31:06

maybe that's a definite maybe georgie

31:08

thank you so much we've got alex in

31:10

sydney here dr alex do you want to

31:12

chat about something dr car referenced earlier yes

31:15

good morning dr lucy good morning dr karl

31:19

welcome i was i was just wondering

31:21

how you make a jet engine from

31:23

a hammer and a file ah

31:26

okay so the two basic tools are

31:28

a hammer and a file and a

31:31

hammer is a hard rock that

31:33

doesn't splinter and a file

31:35

is a different textured hard rock that

31:38

you can rub against things and

31:41

with the hammer you can

31:43

make things change shape and you can

31:45

weld them together and

31:47

with a file you can make them change shape

31:49

by removing material so

31:52

in one stage we were traveling in

31:54

the gibson desert and the

31:56

clutch cable broke on our four-wheel drive and

31:58

we hadn't seen another person person for three

32:00

weeks and there was nobody we're going

32:02

to see for another week and the clutch cable

32:05

broke luckily I had a spare I took it out of the

32:07

packet it was the wrong one

32:09

they put the wrong one the number on the

32:11

clutch cable was different from the number on the

32:13

packet they've been sitting there for eight years with

32:15

the wrong thing and so I had to do

32:18

a bit of welding to add metal which I

32:20

did by bridging the batteries together and then remove

32:22

metal with a file and it took me about

32:24

a day but I made a change shape to

32:26

what was needed and it wasn't

32:29

the best weld and it broke but it

32:31

got us out of the Gibson desert and

32:33

we were able to get another one that

32:35

was properly made so you start off with

32:38

just two rocks you then get a fire

32:40

going and you get some clay and you

32:42

make your mini blast furnace look this up

32:44

on YouTube Veritasium Peter Libidev and Derek Mueller

32:47

he goes to where they make a hundred

32:49

and fifty thousand dollar forward Japanese for the

32:51

old way and they get this blast furnace

32:53

going once a year and it

32:55

runs for 36 hours so what you do is you

32:58

get a sand which is rich in iron

33:00

and you get charcoal and you grind them

33:02

all up and you blow hot air through

33:04

it and in the old days you have

33:06

a fire and you'd have strong people standing

33:08

on bellows working for 36 hours and you

33:11

blow this hot air through this thing you've

33:13

made of clay and you got sand and

33:15

charcoal and the sands got iron in and

33:17

then after 36 hours you let it cool

33:19

down and now you've got yourself some iron

33:21

you've gone from no metal to metal then

33:24

you do things to that you add carbon to make

33:26

it a bit harder not too much and so

33:28

you work your way up into having your hammer and

33:31

your file from that you then start working your way

33:33

up the process and you can end up with a

33:35

jet engine but you've

33:37

got to have that knowledge that we've so painfully

33:39

gathered the first still was about four thousand years

33:41

ago in Africa we

33:43

think and five thousand years

33:45

ago you could get copper lumps of copper right lying on

33:48

the ground and 11,000 years ago in the

33:50

Middle East they were making tools of

33:53

copper. Wow. So

33:55

what we're saying is Dr. Karl that maybe you should be

33:58

on the next season Of Alone. There

34:00

you could make an engine out in

34:02

the wilderness. True, but I need the

34:04

technology the Egyptians developed for four thousand

34:06

years ago. For says these ago they

34:08

made transparent rock. and because of those

34:10

bits of transparent rock sitting on my

34:12

face, we call them glasses or the

34:14

Nsc and be useful to society. Final:

34:16

Question Abby in Newcastle you gotta assume that

34:18

cheese which I love? What is this? Side.

34:21

Of days sensitivity products as sin.

34:24

I didn't really interested because I've

34:26

been hearing about breed season com

34:28

the that the mole these delegates

34:30

states I wanna know how old

34:33

is it. The. Mold cells

34:35

in Why is it going extinct? Why

34:37

can't they just keep making it. As

34:40

when he had broken beer was

34:42

is soft cheeses. the waxy cody

34:45

on the outside is actually the

34:47

dead bodies, the mold and some

34:49

different houses. stuff of this might

34:51

as well. So this reciprocating the

34:54

from the of thought you need

34:56

a fungus involves and the fungus

34:58

which is called penicillin Like penicillin

35:00

the antibodies penicillin camembert. He is

35:03

not going extinct but his has

35:05

very low genetic diversity. How they

35:07

threw his bloody into some floor

35:09

and. Is another creature comes along,

35:11

got a bacterium or virus and

35:14

attacks it. Is not enough

35:16

to the diversity so all of

35:18

this narrow range of fun guy

35:20

that makes brie and can be

35:22

could be what's out. There are

35:24

other versions of Penicillin, Kim coat,

35:26

Camembert your eyes as as exists

35:28

to they make it with regard

35:30

as attractive colors like. Green.

35:33

Or purple Cody Ceci there's a series of

35:35

on of water. know what a purple one

35:37

is Wrong spoon that will you be good

35:39

for Jersey Gov as he done a pathway

35:41

and have enough going on we could try

35:43

and bring back some genetic diversity. It's was

35:45

engineering techniques which we have developed. it. That's

35:48

interesting and that could see ya in

35:51

his we loving embrace. Our and I

35:53

loved of In a country that has four thousand

35:55

for tots the to go to Love! it's. thanks

35:59

so much a list to this episode of Science

36:01

with Dr Karl and if you are part of

36:03

the podcast fam but you want to ask a

36:05

question remember you can put yours forward on the

36:07

Triple J text line Thursdays 11 till 12 on

36:09

0439 757 555 and you could be a part

36:11

of history, part of the podcast feed,

36:17

immortalized. My name is

36:20

Lucy Smith, this episode was produced by

36:22

Sarah Harvey and we will catch you

36:24

next week. Thanks, bye. Dave Marchese here

36:26

from the Triple J Hack team. Hey

36:28

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