0:00

Probably

0:01

Science Hello

0:10

and welcome to probably science I'm Andy

0:13

wood I'm Jesse case I'm

0:15

Matt cushion. How are you everyone? Doing

0:19

Doing good doing good. Yeah, how are you?

0:21

Well, I mean, you know all things considered I'm

0:24

doing as well as everyone else's

0:26

Things are good. Yeah Yeah,

0:30

yeah you guys well we should get our guest in

0:32

and then then we should discuss, you know We

0:35

just had a big holiday. Oh

0:37

Yeah, I want to hear about everybody.

0:39

Yes before we Spooky

0:41

time. Yeah, let's it's been a long time

0:43

coming. We have not had this guest

0:46

in the 11 years of podcasting We have no excuse

0:48

for it the wonderful talented Steve

0:50

Benequist. Hey everybody Well,

0:53

he was seven when we started the show. That's true.

0:55

Yes and still wetting the bed

0:58

Not my bed, but just any bed I could find

1:00

yeah Yeah, like

1:03

I can Have

1:05

you guys ever pissed another bed? Oh I

1:10

don't I mean I can't count it out

1:12

for when I was young young, but I don't believe

1:14

I've done it at an age where

1:17

You know, you'd be like, oh who pissed in that bed Sure.

1:20

Have any of you guys done the like? The

1:23

the move where you mistake something else for

1:26

a toilet in a state of drunkenness, yeah

1:29

I've never done it. You have you have done that? Yeah,

1:32

I mean I've I've One

1:36

time I woke up and I'm sober

1:38

now everybody don't worry about it years

1:41

and years now, but I woke up one time

1:43

and there was I had

1:45

I had pissed in like a

1:48

Like one of the dustbin things that comes

1:50

with those a broom like in the closet Mm-hmm.

1:53

I just like open the closet and like saw this

1:55

pan and I'm like, yeah, that'll do it,

1:58

you know Never

2:00

by mistake, no. Well,

2:04

yeah, I'm not asking have you peed in appropriate places,

2:06

but have you thought you were peeing in a toilet while you're... No,

2:09

no. I mean I can't answer if I thought it was a

2:11

toilet or if I just didn't care that it was... Right,

2:13

right. You know what I mean? But no, I

2:15

don't think I've ever been unable to identify

2:18

something as a... Like it's never been like a cactus

2:20

and I'm like, that's an interesting toilet. Right. You

2:22

know. Like the famous joke joke

2:25

about the guy who shits in a gold toilet

2:27

and then the next day it's a Hey Jerry,

2:30

I found who shit in your tuba. I

2:37

love a good joke joke. Yeah,

2:39

I don't know this. You do. Yeah.

2:42

No, it's uh, yeah. It's funny. Did

2:47

everybody have a good Halloween? Do

2:50

you guys get into it? Whatever we get up to.

2:54

Sure, I'll go unless someone else is. I

2:57

mean I did very little.

2:58

Holly finally got around to decorating

3:01

like she's normally big into her Halloween.

3:03

So the apartment's normally

3:05

like far more than it gets Christmased

3:08

out in December. But she's been

3:10

really busy and so it

3:12

only got fully Halloweened out a few days ago. But

3:15

now it's gonna stay like that I think until December. Okay,

3:17

nice. Yeah, I did

3:20

last minute. I'm always awful

3:22

at costumes to the point that it's like you show up

3:24

and it's not really even... You

3:27

try to explain something like that is just what

3:29

I could find in the closet. But I realized I could

3:31

probably pull off a Tom Selleck with just

3:34

uh... If I could, I mean with

3:36

specifically a Magnum PI. With

3:38

things that I already have with the purchase

3:41

of a $5 Walmart baseball cap and

3:43

then applying the Detroit Tigers logo

3:45

with white puff paint. So I

3:47

already had the you know mustache,

3:50

wig, Hawaiian shirt. And

3:52

it surprisingly works fine. So

3:54

now I have a go-to for the future.

3:57

It's like very last minute and it works

3:59

unless you're... under age 40. I had no

4:01

idea Magnum PI, like

4:03

I didn't really watch it either. Like it wasn't even really

4:06

my time. But did you have a lot of

4:08

sort of like younger millennials and Gen

4:10

Z people just going like I guess that's just Andy's

4:12

look. Yeah. Well someone was like Burt

4:15

Reynolds and like okay, mustache kind

4:17

of contemporaneous close enough. And

4:19

then the older gentleman

4:21

who runs the open mic at the Joshua Tree saloon,

4:24

he sees me for a distance and

4:26

says, Groucho Marx. Like

4:29

this is not working. Groucho in the Hawaiian shirt. Maybe

4:31

he's too old. Yeah,

4:33

it's a sweet spot of Magnum PI

4:36

heads. And Groucho Marx would never sell reverse

4:38

mortgages. They would never. He's just looking

4:40

like President Taft. Andy,

4:44

have you put on weight? I

4:48

love a lazy man's costume. To me that's the ideal

4:50

too, is like you make one tweak to how you

4:52

already look and it's like, oh, I'm

4:55

all set. Yeah. No effort.

4:58

It's ideal. And something you can still, you

5:01

can wear all night, you can eat and drink with it

5:03

on. Yeah, once

5:06

those things get forgotten, then you're just like, this is

5:08

a five minute thing when I appear at the party and I get

5:10

some laughs and now I have hours

5:12

of health because it's a cumbersome. Yeah, I'm

5:14

still a fan of anyone who commits to an incredibly

5:17

complicated pun that no one gets. Just

5:21

every time that has to be explained every time

5:23

and then just gets a.

5:25

That's your punishment. Yeah.

5:29

Yeah. So, Steve, no,

5:31

no costume for you? No, no. My ringing

5:33

silence, definitely an

5:35

indicator of what I was up to. I

5:38

watched a Hammer horror

5:40

film. Oh, on TV. What's

5:42

a Hammer horror film? Hammer was this

5:44

British, maybe Matt knows about this, kind

5:48

of cheapy, like the, what

5:51

the hell is that director's name? Trauma.

5:54

They like trauma, but from the six fifties and sixties,

5:56

they made like really low budget, not as crazy

5:58

as they're trying to be. They're not.

6:00

No, they're pretty good. It's kind of like the successor

6:03

to the Universal Monsters from a couple

6:06

of decades earlier. It's like Christopher Lee and stuff,

6:08

right? Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

6:11

So this one was The Mummy, 1958 or something. And

6:15

British cinema definitely

6:18

was like decades behind in the budget. Like

6:20

they were too busy repairing their

6:22

country after the war. Am I right, Matt? Yeah,

6:26

let's go with that as the reason. This is

6:28

why Doctor Who looks so horrible that I can't

6:30

even watch it. Is that also the production quality thing?

6:33

The dollak of the garbage can turned

6:35

over. So The Mummy

6:37

is just a guy covered with mud and he's like really

6:39

pretty buff for a mummy. Like you'd think he'd be a little

6:41

more desiccated, like get a skinnier actor. But

6:45

it was cheesy. But the color, they spent a lot

6:47

on the Technicolor. Oh,

6:49

that's where all the budget went. It's

6:52

interesting how certain

6:55

Universal Monsters... I mean that's

6:57

from Universal, the production company. That's why

6:59

they're called Universal Monsters, right? No, I think

7:01

they just have wide appeal. The studio. Well,

7:06

I didn't know. Them monsters

7:08

to everyone. It's not like one

7:10

man's monster is another man's. Right,

7:14

but it's

7:16

just interesting that it's like you have Dracula.

7:20

But then there's a few that are not

7:22

like... Is Creature from the Black Lagoon considered

7:24

a Universal? Yeah, I believe.

7:28

Okay. That was a new invention, is that what you're

7:30

saying? Frankenstein

7:32

already existed, but the Creature from the Black Lagoon was

7:34

new. Well, just no one gives a shit

7:36

about Creature. Like it never took off. Hey, hey,

7:38

hey. No, I

7:40

love Creature from the Black Lagoon. I love a Creature from any

7:43

lagoon. Mr. and Mrs. Lagoon who

7:45

cared about their child. No, I know. I know.

7:47

I mean, I'm down with any lagoon Creature.

7:51

Anybody of water. The Creature

7:54

from the Purple Isthmus.

7:56

Like I don't care. I'm on board.

7:59

that like Dracula obviously

8:02

kept going

8:03

you know Frankenstein there's a

8:05

new mummy movie like every seven years you

8:07

know mm-hmm black

8:09

Lagoon it was like it was like one thing and

8:12

then it's over

8:13

and yeah

8:15

I don't know I'm looking at the science

8:18

I read somewhere the creature from the black lagoon

8:20

was like inspired by some like

8:23

new species of fish or something that they found in the

8:26

early 50s that as

8:29

anyone ever heard this I

8:31

haven't heard that sorry

8:34

it's a very shaky offering but I'm

8:36

pretty sure I read like that

8:38

whoever wrote the screenplay was like yeah there's some

8:41

I don't know something about pollution or I

8:43

don't know okay I got nothing wait

8:46

so there's wolf man okay so I'm not

8:48

seeing creature from the black would look at the very I

8:50

just sent the link to the Wikipedia of these movies

8:52

and it's like one of the last releases is black

8:55

lagoon at the end of a run of like 30 other

8:57

Universal monster movies like 1954

8:59

is the

9:02

law and then revenge

9:04

of the creature and then the creature

9:06

walks among us even though it's the last one in the series

9:08

it's still got three movies in but look

9:10

at this list like there are like literally

9:13

probably ten mummy movies probably

9:15

ten Dracula ten mummy

9:18

well mommy's around like 3,000 years so yeah there's

9:21

gonna be more mummy move yeah right

9:24

Dracula's only like what a few centuries old

9:26

right I think so

9:28

well when was it once it a lab the impaler

9:30

and who's Dracula like I mean yeah I think that all

9:32

see it anyway but like you based

9:35

on the Crusades time so maybe a thousand years

9:37

of the most what

9:39

was Frankenstein someone just wrote Frankenstein

9:42

right Mary Shelley and possibly yes

9:44

possible ghost writing from Percy who knows

9:47

but that's the rumor disagree

9:49

disagree I

9:52

mean it's kind of weird it's the only book she

9:54

put out and it's that I don't

9:57

know you think you would see more neck bolts

10:00

like You know I mean like

10:02

I know we've discussed this yeah,

10:05

we discussed this also actually reminder

10:07

we were

10:08

Who was it who messaged specifically reminding

10:11

us that I I promised a picture

10:13

of Doug as? Old Frankenstein

10:16

up and then failed to deliver so I will

10:19

post that right now I will tweet this as we

10:21

are talking

10:22

Wow yeah, although we're not live so no one's

10:24

gonna know that yeah It was it was Ted Theodore

10:26

Logan on the head or Logan for

10:28

into the pie I'm not your legend

10:30

as he was referred to at some point yeah, Ted theologian

10:34

No, I I didn't mean to I didn't

10:36

mean to repeat a thought on the podcast.

10:38

I'm getting very old I This

10:41

is just it's how often I think about

10:43

it like I think about

10:45

I think about neck bolts probably like

10:48

twice a week

10:49

like as much as you guys think about Rome You

10:52

know like I'll think about her. I'll think about

10:54

neck bolts Just

10:57

some some battery terminals coming out of the neck makes

10:59

zero sense and Are

11:02

they are they like? Cathode

11:05

anode or whatever yeah, yeah,

11:07

I mean I don't know which side's possible diode yeah

11:10

Yeah, or are they I thought they were just mechanical

11:12

fasteners, but these are actually like you hook up the battery

11:14

to that Well, that's what you connect to your lightning

11:17

rig because that's all that makes electricity in your castle

11:19

Right were they in the novel like does anything

11:22

I read the novel a long time ago No,

11:24

no, I don't think neck bolts cuz I

11:26

don't think so really I mean but Ben

11:28

Franklin had discovered electricity by then right

11:30

so Yeah

11:33

Yeah, this is 1800s I don't like

11:36

I remember reading the book and being surprised that

11:38

there's really nothing in the description that resembles

11:40

the movie there monster Right

11:42

here. There is no mention of

11:44

neck bolts in the book

11:46

Wow

11:47

there you go It

11:50

is a great book. Yes. I'm sure she

11:52

wrote it. Okay. Let's forget that part of it. It's a great

11:54

book Everyone should read it. It definitely

11:56

holds up. I read it

11:58

sometime last 20 years

11:59

and uh yeah it is

12:02

amazing me too i hate i

12:04

so i google this and then um you

12:06

know quora which sucks anyway but

12:09

uh quora has the uh why did frankenstein

12:12

have bolts in his neck and then somebody writes dr

12:14

frankenstein did not have any bolts in his neck because

12:16

he was a normal healthy human oh god thank

12:19

quora his creation on

12:21

the other hand they

12:24

should call it pedant instead of quora yeah

12:27

i'm gonna sit here and correct you on everything who

12:30

was it i think i think it was a friend of the show

12:32

i think it was a past guest was it i think it might have been alice

12:34

frazer the other day who who

12:36

tweeted online pointing out that if

12:39

she if if the monster is frankenstein's

12:41

creation then he'll be what he'll be effectively member

12:43

of the family so his surname will still be frankenstein

12:47

yeah so fuck you pedants yeah

12:51

and we've all seen i'm sure you talked about this the person

12:53

who just wrote in pencil on

12:55

the last page of frankenstein and it's as he floated

12:58

away on the iceberg he said by the way if you just

13:00

want to call me frankenstein i'm cool with that he

13:07

should have had a name i mean just

13:09

if you're going to create somebody give him a name yeah

13:13

doug something but

13:15

okay yeah in the movie they did use those as

13:17

uh the battery hookups okay i forgot that

13:21

yeah man sorry i'm getting back to the neck bolts again well

13:23

no i mean yeah that's why the bolts would be there they wouldn't

13:25

they wouldn't just be there just for the you know i thought it was

13:27

mechanical fastening of the head onto the body

13:29

like okay i could see

13:32

that washer on the inside holding

13:34

it in place yeah because he couldn't really turn his

13:36

neck well could he

13:38

or could it just be style like uh

13:40

gauged ears you know yeah yeah

13:42

well this is what we were discussing last

13:45

week was just how how that

13:47

has not become one of the go-to

13:49

body modifications

13:51

you haven't been to a portland strip club

13:53

in a while have you yeah well

13:55

that's the thing you know i see you see you see all the sort of

13:57

you've seen the

13:57

skull horns and uh And

14:00

the gauges and the various the

14:02

various surface piercings and stuff like that, but

14:04

I've never seen bolts maybe maybe I'm wrong Maybe

14:06

there is somebody who has it but Not

14:09

seen it. Yeah

14:09

You could be

14:11

the first yeah Yeah,

14:15

would they be would they be like? They

14:17

come dermals like what it would

14:20

be subdermal or would it be a thing that is like forever?

14:23

Through the skin but but seeing

14:25

the metal on the outside or is it like those things

14:27

people put their forehead where it's gonna be It's gonna

14:29

cause the skin to bulge, but it won't be a forever

14:32

open wound I don't know. I think it would

14:34

stick through I think you wanted to be I think you wanted

14:36

to go through yeah You know what

14:38

skin over it. That would be weird Then

14:42

it's just like I don't know how I don't get how

14:44

any of those One

14:46

way piercings Work, you know

14:48

what I mean? Like when it's not a loop

14:50

and because with a loop I get that that whole

14:53

the whole you you dig you Poke

14:55

will just scar up and heal up right

14:58

when it goes all the way through like any kind

15:00

of ear or nose piercing but when it's just one

15:02

of those like One

15:05

way things How does that

15:07

ever? Heal or how

15:09

do you take it on and off isn't it sort of implanted

15:12

like there's another plate behind it I

15:15

don't know isn't that the deal so

15:17

how do you take that plate out if you want it out or

15:19

how do you like? I don't know But

15:22

I I don't think it's just like a pin You

15:25

know like a like a ball head pin just

15:27

sticks in somewhere Yeah, I assume it's like a barbell

15:29

kind of thing where there's a bulb on both sides But

15:33

I don't get how that thing heals

15:35

or does it never heal

15:38

No, I need a specialist on here

15:40

Yeah, any of you have body

15:42

mod people No,

15:45

I don't have any I don't know. I don't have any piercings or

15:47

tattoos or I'm so boring the same

15:49

here same here

15:50

Yeah, isn't it highly body

15:53

modification free

15:55

podcast like all of us Wow not

15:57

one It's

16:00

like I'm too cynical of like I know

16:03

I'm not gonna be I Everything

16:06

about it strikes me as I

16:09

know we have listeners that have a bunch, you know, go

16:11

for it Do you do stuff your body is a wonderland,

16:13

you know, it's a work of art express yourself I've

16:17

just never been committed to something enough

16:19

of like there's no I know

16:22

it would be impulsive Even if it was like

16:25

I'm always questioning if I'm in a phase Right.

16:28

Yeah, I'm saying so it's like I

16:30

I can see myself getting a tattoo

16:33

or something in

16:35

the pretty normal sense that's like a

16:38

tribute to Something,

16:41

you know like like Tasmanian devil sure

16:45

Obviously like on the ankle attributed to as or

16:48

Or something like that No, you know like

16:50

when my when my cat dies or something, but

16:53

even then it's like I'm not gonna forget that I don't know why

16:55

I would get that Yeah, at least

16:57

your cat has no risk of like doing a Morrissey

17:00

alt right turn That's that's

17:02

the thing. My cat has some weird tweets man. Okay,

17:05

like there's so many Morrissey fans who do

17:07

that They'll get his autograph and then go immediately

17:09

to a tattoo shop and have it tattooed over and think

17:12

well, where are you now guys? Yeah,

17:15

yeah, it's it's hard getting a tattoo of

17:18

a other person You might

17:20

have got a Louis CK tattoo back in 2006, you

17:22

know, yeah Maybe

17:24

did it. It's just like yeah, how do you know it's like

17:27

it's like picking a shirt you can never change I'm

17:29

always gonna like this shirt like really

17:31

yeah, right you know

17:33

forever I mean I've had some good shows.

17:36

Yeah me too. Yeah. Yeah,

17:39

but yeah the styles change like to me gauged

17:41

ears are like the bow tie of

17:44

the ear of the you know of piercings and

17:47

They're a little dorky a little Sorry,

17:50

sorry, I know I'm alienating listeners. I

17:53

don't know I don't know what you do once you've got them

17:55

though, cuz there's no undoing them there is actually

17:57

we've had we've had a guest On the show who had them

17:59

undone I won't name him but when I first

18:01

met him in the comedy scene he still had the

18:04

ear-dew laps and they can just like snip those

18:06

and then stitch it up and it's a... It's

18:09

really not nice pedal, was it past me? Was

18:12

it past me?

18:12

It

18:15

was a Michio Kaku actually. Yeah,

18:18

oh yeah. I remember now. I remember

18:20

now. Steve, we like Plus Our Guests before

18:22

we get into the stories of the week. Please. If

18:25

anything, is your background in science? And that's

18:27

ranged from classes people liked or hated as a kid

18:29

to blowing stuff up in the woods with your friends to whatever.

18:32

Uh, let's see, I did have

18:34

some interest in fireworks as a kid. Oh,

18:38

I was on it. Yeah, yeah, nothing advanced.

18:40

You know, it was in New Hampshire where I grew up so

18:42

you didn't have a whole lot of access. I thought you were just

18:44

about to tell us like a cool love story. Oh.

18:48

I was seven and my neighbour... Yeah. Excuse

18:51

me. We painted our fence together one summer

18:54

and that's my wife. And I saw

18:56

the fireworks, yeah. Yeah. Science.

19:01

I mean, you guys did specifically. I asked

19:03

whether I should do any research or prep and

19:05

I was told no. No, no, no. Not at all. The

19:08

answer can be nothing. That's a fine answer.

19:10

Like, not enough of... But were you into Lego?

19:13

Were you or like what was your favourite

19:15

science subject in school? Yeah, actually,

19:18

I hated it. I did like Lego and

19:20

I did have... There was this weird toy called

19:22

Capsella. Does anyone remember that? Oh, yeah.

19:24

I had Capsella. It was great. Not weird

19:26

but like forgotten. Like these weird... Engineering,

19:28

yeah. Yeah, clear plastic orbs

19:30

with like different gears inside. You could

19:32

connect them kind of like Lego

19:36

and make functioning machines.

19:39

Yeah, it was like a modular... Yeah.

19:42

They were semi-spherical or spherical

19:44

but then they would have connections so you could just have like a drive

19:46

shaft going through all these spheres and you could make

19:49

like... And there would be like floating

19:51

pontoons. You could make a thing with the propeller but

19:53

then it floats. Yeah, you could actually like... Yeah, you could make a little

19:55

vehicle or crane or... Yeah,

19:58

that was pretty cool. It was like a better...

19:59

It's like

20:01

a director 80s 80s version of erector set

20:03

with some electronics. Yeah, very cool. Yeah,

20:06

which for the Britain is McConnell McConnell

20:10

McConnell that was our version of the same thing

20:13

That's just a company or a person there. Yeah

20:17

Yeah, it was a guy with a guy would come around to your house and we'd help you

20:19

build a crate. I am McConnell Universal

20:24

universal monster. Yeah, he cut

20:31

The Nuclear the the nuclear

20:34

like energy set that

20:36

the the guy that made a rector set

20:38

is like a crazy person, you know yes,

20:41

and he put out like He

20:44

put out like a nuclear it's like a nuclear

20:46

energy set which was of course immediately not okay

20:49

It came with like some uranium and shit What

20:53

was his name oh right here AC Gilbert,

20:56

yeah, let me look this up I'll link to this It

21:01

like a my first Mercury, oh For

21:05

kids here it is. I'm linking to it

21:07

right now the Gilbert you 238 atomic

21:10

energy laboratory It's

21:13

like it was like a kids like science

21:15

kit and It

21:18

had like a cloud chamber 1950 Wow Related

21:24

note from this time My

21:27

dad who was born in 1940 told me about Shoe

21:30

stores used to have x-ray machines in them And

21:34

you could just put your foot on it like a full

21:36

blast x-ray. Yeah No, I remember my parents

21:38

telling me the same. Yeah, they would they would x-ray your foot

21:40

to see that it the shoe fitted Well, yeah,

21:42

but it wasn't there wasn't like one second and off

21:45

like now It was just like full blast you could just see

21:47

on the puppet of your foot. Oh, yeah

21:50

I didn't realize yeah because that's I

21:53

you see those sometimes in old films like old comedies

21:55

as well The way the x-ray used rather than

21:57

just like one exposure and then they develop a film

22:00

It's just like a fluorescent

22:02

screen that you stand behind and x-rays blasted

22:04

it and then you stand in between and they can just like Look

22:06

at look at you. Well, they've handed direct

22:08

line of it I'd forgotten

22:11

that that was around the same time my parents told me that they used to

22:13

play with mercury when it was a Yeah,

22:15

like an indoor when it was like when it was too wet

22:17

to play outside in school They just say

22:19

it they stay indoors and then they just give them

22:22

files of mercury that they could get up on the desk and play

22:24

with My

22:27

parents gave me syphilis to play with

22:29

Times change. Yeah How

22:34

can we don't have like universal monsters who just

22:36

got irradiated irradiated feet just

22:39

like the most limited Just

22:41

a Hulk just from the ankles

22:43

down. Well, isn't it like you like

22:45

you've got lead feet. Isn't that a phrase? Sure.

22:48

Okay. Yeah, you know, but maybe

22:50

it was a good it was not insulting It was like you're gonna

22:52

do good at the shoe store. You're fine. Yep Yeah,

22:57

don't worry about it I never know

22:59

your size I never understood the get the lead

23:01

out Led Zeppelin rock blocks on classic

23:04

radio I got the one meaning of it Led Zeppelin,

23:06

but I'm like, is there a saying get

23:08

the lead out? And I guess there was it's just like it wasn't

23:10

a thing Anybody said in my childhood as in

23:13

like pick up the pace like you

23:15

got right lead, but I'd never heard

23:17

that version I'm like, this is like a one-way

23:20

Double-on to see yeah, it's like you just assumed

23:22

there was a double on tundra but didn't even know what the

23:24

other Tundra was right with

23:27

there's the expression gold bricking which

23:29

is like identical to being lead foot, right?

23:31

I think it's painting a brick gold.

23:33

So it's it's making it seem like it's

23:36

um, you think it's sandbagging I always confused and

23:38

bagging and gold bricking the sandbag is what

23:40

you do to someone else right if you want to kind of Stop

23:43

some sandbagging is intentional. Everyone

23:46

back up What the fuck are you talking

23:48

about? I heard gold breaking

23:50

is like when you're Sorry,

23:53

I thought gold bricking was the same as being lead foot

23:55

like you as if you're very heavy and you're

23:57

moving slow I thought it was old brick and

23:59

killed in a trash ... Wait, hold on.

24:01

Let's see. What is gold-breaking? Carpet-bagging,

24:05

sand-bagging, and gold-breaking, I definitely always

24:07

have to ... Carpet-bagging is

24:09

a political thing. Yeah, we all use those words. I'd

24:11

say weekly. I'm sick of Googling it, frankly. Okay,

24:14

yeah. Gold-breaking is the practice of deceiving

24:16

others about one's work efforts, pretending

24:18

to be working when one's actually not being productive.

24:21

It's also kind of sand-bagging. Okay. Just

24:23

swindle, yeah. Invent excuses to

24:26

avoid a task.

24:27

All right.

24:28

Okay. I've got to learn something then. What does he

24:30

call the Bowski? Does he say, get

24:32

your gold-breaking ass out of my beach

24:35

community

24:36

or not?

24:37

Gold-breaking. The Malibu cop.

24:40

Right, right. To the dude. Doesn't he use

24:42

one of these old-timey insults? I don't think

24:44

it's gold-breaking, but yeah. Oh, okay. I

24:46

think he does, yeah. Hmm. And

24:49

then what is this, sand-bagging? Okay,

24:51

sand-bagging, I think, is just like dragging your feet,

24:53

but let me see if that's what the internet

24:56

says, too. And then what's carpet-bagging?

24:58

Carpet-bagging is like a political thing where like

25:01

an opportunist comes into an area.

25:03

You're an outsider. With all of their possessions

25:06

in like a giant duffel bag to take advantage

25:08

of some, I think it came

25:11

from like people coming down to the south

25:13

during reconstruction to like cash

25:15

in on opportunity there or something.

25:18

To take advantage of an easy, to basically

25:21

parachute it into an easy district. Well,

25:23

I think to be an outsider who

25:26

doesn't represent any local interest at all. Like

25:28

you're not from around here. You came here with your carpet bag.

25:31

You just got a big duffel and threw everything in it and came

25:33

out. Okay, sand-bagging is deliberate.

25:35

Is that related to tea totaling? No,

25:38

that's not drinking booze. I

25:40

don't know why it's... It's possible that a carpet-bagger

25:42

could be a tea-totaling sand-bagger as

25:44

well. And you could gold-brick if he wanted

25:46

you to think he was working harder at his carpet bag. Or

25:49

drinking. Or he could act drunk. Yeah.

25:52

He's not working you. Wow. Unless

25:54

he gets the lead out. Mmm. You gotta

25:56

get that lead out. Yeah, but sand-bagging is deliberately underperforming

25:59

or holding back one's true capabilities.

26:02

Are we ever

26:04

going to remember any of these? No,

26:08

I forget that I already talked

26:10

about neck bolts. I immediately

26:12

forget everything. Let's talk about neck bolts. Guys

26:16

they're crazy. I think we do kind of

26:18

have a tie in to man's

26:22

promethean hubris in trying to

26:24

breathe life into a corpse in

26:27

the form of breathing life into

26:29

a pig heart. Guys we got some bad

26:31

news. Got an update. I

26:34

don't know if you heard about the second time

26:37

we've put a pig heart into a human. Steve

26:39

is this news to you? I know.

26:42

A few people sent in this story. Just to be clear

26:44

this was done for medical

26:46

reasons. It wasn't a prank.

26:48

And it wasn't cosmetic. Yeah,

26:51

it was news to me. And the pig

26:55

that got the guys heart is still doing fine. We

27:00

don't mean to make it like. It's

27:03

been six weeks since Lawrence Fawcett,

27:05

second living person to receive a genetically modified

27:07

pig heart transplant and

27:09

he has died after the experimental procedure.

27:12

The University of Maryland Medical Center where the experimental procedure

27:15

performed said the heart began to show signs

27:17

of rejection in recent days. His

27:19

last wish was for us to make the most of what

27:21

we've learned from our experience or others can be guaranteed

27:23

a chance for a new heart when a human organ is unavailable.

27:26

He then told the team of doctors and nurses who gathered around that

27:28

he loved us will miss him tremendously. He said

27:30

Dr. Bartley Griffith, clinical director

27:33

of the Cardiac Xenotransplantation Program

27:35

at University of Maryland School of Medicine.

27:38

Fawcett was 58 years old, first

27:40

admitted on September 14th

27:42

after experiencing symptoms of heart failure.

27:44

And then he underwent the experimental transplant six days

27:47

later. His heart disease and preexisting

27:49

conditions made him ineligible for a traditional human

27:51

heart transplant. So

27:54

it's back to the pig drawing board. Organ

27:58

rejection is so weird. That's

28:00

so weird to me, man. Well, I mean, it's also like it

28:02

makes sense, like your body's gonna... It's

28:05

amazing that it actually works in a way. That

28:08

it works at all, yeah. Yeah, but it sometimes works,

28:10

yeah. How

28:12

long did he live with the pig heart? Six

28:14

weeks.

28:15

Huh.

28:16

And this again was a genetically

28:19

modified one, I believe, right? Yeah,

28:21

I did, I just did, but yes. Yeah, you

28:23

did. So, with that modification, I think intended

28:26

to overcome some of these rejection

28:28

tendencies. Right. But not

28:31

enough this time, so... Now

28:35

they use like pig valves all the time,

28:37

right? There's like parts of pig hearts

28:39

that get used, I think. Yeah,

28:41

I think that's true. And maybe I'm

28:44

guessing the less complex something is,

28:46

the less of an issue it is for rejection, but

28:48

we are decidedly not experts

28:51

on this stuff. And

28:53

that's why you guys tune in every week. No,

28:55

I just don't understand. Yeah, I don't

28:57

understand where your body draws the line

29:00

to say... I mean, we were

29:02

just talking about piercing, right? Your

29:05

body isn't just like spits it all out, like

29:07

if you try to get a gauge something,

29:10

it's like, nope, no, not happening. It

29:12

just heals around it, you know?

29:16

I don't know, you can implant several

29:19

things. It's just something

29:21

about a different biological

29:24

tissue, your body could just be like, no,

29:26

that's not me. I'm

29:28

not having any of that. Yeah. It

29:31

can even turn on its own cells, like if it doesn't

29:33

recognize for some reason the mean

29:35

that's

29:36

partly what cancer is. I

29:39

think that's partly why cancer... I

29:42

think it's a lack of that. It's a cancer the opposite way. Yeah,

29:44

it's opposite.

29:45

Yeah. Where it like... Stealthivism under

29:47

control. But it's also

29:49

autoimmune diseases, is that for sure?

29:52

Anything like lupus is... Which

29:57

is why I remember in the early

29:59

days of Covid when there a bunch of, you know, constantly scientists

30:01

on the radio sort of desperately

30:03

trying to play whack-a-mole with misinformation. But

30:06

one of one of them was just someone talking about

30:08

how this phrase boosting

30:10

your immune system, like anything that

30:12

claims to boost your immune system is like that doesn't make

30:14

sense as a to

30:17

any doctor or

30:19

medical scientist, you don't want to

30:21

boot your immune system like every other system

30:23

in your body is something that's meant to be kept

30:26

in balance.

30:27

Like too little of an immune system is bad, but

30:29

also too much of an immune system is also very

30:31

bad. That's like a lot

30:33

of my vitamins down the toilet. Yeah,

30:37

I was just talking to my sister about this and she's going through

30:39

a little thing and she was

30:42

observing that good health

30:44

is just basically not feeling

30:46

any abnormality at all. And

30:50

like the word dis-ease, it just means if

30:52

it's not, if you don't have ease, then

30:55

something's wrong. It's

30:57

all about balance. Either extreme would be

31:00

not good. Like, yeah, those people who can't

31:02

feel any pain, like they're always like

31:05

cutting themselves and breaking bones and not

31:07

know it. That sounds good. Like no, pain is an indicator

31:09

that helps keep you in stasis also. What

31:12

is this? Who are these people? What? You've never

31:14

heard of like children who have no pain

31:16

and their parents lives are hell because every day they

31:18

come up from school, you have to like inspect their whole body because they

31:20

might have like cut themselves and they don't know it. And they might

31:22

have broken a bone or something. No, no,

31:25

I don't think I'm just making this up. I've

31:27

heard of these. No, I've, I've, I've heard of that.

31:30

Yeah, absolutely. And particularly when they're young, they

31:32

have to like, they kids who have it, they

31:34

have to watch pretty carefully because yeah,

31:37

particularly children just don't know to not put

31:40

a touch hot things.

31:43

And wow, I would think that'd be hard to

31:45

reach adulthood with that. You know, I mean, like, yeah,

31:48

yeah, because you're not going to get better

31:50

from that. You have a neural condition where you're,

31:53

you're not getting any pain signals. I

31:56

just dropped an article here about it. Yeah,

31:58

it's a real condition. condition,

32:01

congenital analgesia or total

32:03

insensitivity to pain and it can be quite

32:05

dangerous. It

32:09

has to be neural, right? Because you could feel pleasure.

32:13

Like you could be tickled,

32:15

I would assume. Good

32:17

question. We've got to find one of these people

32:19

and try to tickle them. It's not, yeah, you just don't,

32:21

it's not, you don't have any nerves or something because

32:24

that'd be, you couldn't do anything.

32:26

Right.

32:27

Okay, there's some interesting historical stuff

32:29

on this. In this article I just dropped, you guys

32:31

can check out in the show notes as well. In 1932,

32:34

a clinician described a 54-year-old man who reported

32:36

never having felt pain despite a list of injuries including

32:39

a blow to the face of the pickaxe, a bullet

32:41

through a finger, what is this like this guy's living? A

32:43

broken nose, severe laceration of the knee and a

32:46

burned hand all without apparent pain. I'd

32:48

like to think that's all happening in a lab where they're testing

32:50

him. Oh, wait, oh. The

32:54

scientist is just running out with a pickaxe. The

32:57

three students' laboratories. You're not far off.

32:59

The next line, the man named Edward Gibson

33:01

made his living in Vaudeville letting

33:04

audiences push 50 to 60 pins in his

33:06

body and once letting a nail be hammered through

33:08

his hand. Oh my God. That's

33:11

what entertainment was. What have we lost by

33:13

swapping that for the internet? Yeah,

33:15

thanks, TikTok. Yeah, I know. These

33:18

days these woke entertainers are letting

33:20

people, yeah, I go to a show, sometimes

33:22

I have a hammer with me. I've got my hammer

33:24

and nail. And they

33:26

won't have it. The

33:29

world come to, you know? I did see,

33:32

I was in Vegas a couple weeks ago

33:35

and I found out once I was there that they were

33:37

having the Legion of Skanks,

33:39

that podcast. I

33:41

haven't heard it. It's very not up my

33:44

alley. It's very East

33:46

Coast-y in

33:48

the pejorative sense. But

33:51

yeah, I had this thing called Skankfest. But there were a lot

33:53

of comics that we know and like who were part of it because it was like

33:55

a lineup of a couple hundred people. And

33:59

so I... I just think somebody

34:01

knew there got me a pass and I was watching the naked

34:04

roast battle. Oh Fine

34:07

is he would I assume that's a literal

34:10

name. That's just literal. It's a roast battle

34:12

and all the people on stage are naked Yeah, okay

34:14

sure and And

34:17

the novelty of the nakedness wears

34:19

off very quickly and then just watching

34:22

a roast battle and feeling uncomfortable But

34:25

the host of it would also like take breaks from

34:27

that to let the audience come up and staple

34:29

money to his body Which

34:31

he would get to keep but you know, and

34:33

if you give him like a hundred you can stay put to his head So

34:36

this the staple gun and it's like this is so

34:39

this is not this is not my thing Feels

34:43

wrong. I was on a show with a money

34:46

staple to your body guy once and it was

34:48

super Oh the same show there was

34:50

a guy who decided to be naked and he had A

34:53

micro dick which sort

34:55

of raises all kinds of questions why I decided to do

34:58

that But um, I mean

35:00

why not? Yeah, I guess how do

35:02

we define a micro dick? You're

35:05

that's a good I did not Look

35:08

down Jesse No,

35:14

no, I'm asking because of myself My

35:18

my erect penis is I think

35:21

average average It's not

35:23

some crazy dick but

35:26

it but it's average like there's

35:28

never been any like

35:30

Complaining nor fawning over, you

35:32

know,

35:33

this is it's it's a penis. It's a dick. It works

35:35

For my flaccid penis

35:38

is comically small Comically

35:41

like like what I mean is that the difference

35:43

in size from my flaccid to

35:45

my average Erect penis is

35:48

it's insane. So I wonder

35:50

it like I'm like is this like a micro dick

35:53

issue? It's true.

35:55

He probably wasn't aroused to

35:57

be fair. Right? I mean, he wasn't performing with a boner I

36:00

just don't

36:03

know when one considers a micropenis,

36:06

and it could just be me completely in my head because

36:08

you don't see many flaccid dicks. Like

36:11

you see more hard dicks than flaccid

36:14

dicks. They've

36:17

put, I think the entire run of Naked

36:19

Attraction is now on Max, the

36:21

British show, which is, I

36:23

think we talked about this before, like the most bonkers

36:26

reality competition dating show ever. We

36:30

should move on to a story soon, but before we

36:32

do, I do have one. We got a story. Oh

36:34

no, I can't. Okay.

36:36

This makes me feel a lot better.

36:38

This is great. What is? The

36:40

micropenis is measured

36:43

erect, so

36:46

it's considered a micropenis if it's less

36:48

than three inches when erect. Okay.

36:51

Which is, you know. Wow, that's a low bar. Tiny

36:54

little dingaling there. So.

36:57

You're good. Yeah. I

36:59

mean, as is everywhere the micropenis is also good.

37:01

No, no, of course. Of course. No, it's

37:03

not. I just, I've never known because like my

37:06

flaccid penis, like I laugh sometimes. Like

37:08

I wake up my morning piss and I look down and I just giggle

37:11

because I'm like, that's ridiculous. Like

37:13

that's so small dude. That's so small. I

37:17

want to applaud you, Jesse, for turning this to science.

37:20

Like you took my off-hand dimensioning of a dude

37:22

in a show and we've learned something. We

37:24

all have. It's very educated. Just my

37:26

other question. While we're talking about sort of circus

37:28

sideshow type stunts, do

37:31

we think that the last

37:34

few years of repeated COVID tests

37:37

has made the blockhead

37:39

circus sideshow stunt less impressive?

37:41

Like if you know the one where someone hams a nail into their nose

37:44

and like right the way

37:47

in and everyone goes, oh, but nowadays I'm thinking

37:49

like I

37:50

put a,

37:51

I put like a COVID testing swab and you know, if

37:53

you're doing it properly, you find that little bit where you

37:56

find the opening at the back of your nose and you go

37:58

right into your sinuses.

37:59

Like I've done that to myself now, I can

38:02

do that. I feel like I now can do like,

38:04

I feel like I can hammer a nail into

38:06

my skull without killing myself.

38:09

Well I mean it depends, if you're actually hammering

38:12

it, it seems like it's a very fine

38:14

line, you could go too far pretty

38:16

easily. Yeah, I don't think you hammer it, I

38:18

think the hammering is for effect, because

38:21

it takes no pressure to put it, so you find where it is,

38:24

and then you just like very gently tap it and it sort of

38:26

goes back further. But you know, I feel like I could

38:28

put a nail, I reckon I could put a nail right through there,

38:31

I think I could do it. Maybe you should put up a little

38:33

video of that for the fans. Maybe

38:35

I should, maybe that'll be a Patreon bonus for Christmas. Merry Christmas.

38:41

Why are they called blockheads, speaking

38:43

of getting to the bottom of terminology? Because

38:46

it's like

38:47

a block of wood. Like you're treating your head as

38:49

a block that you're hammering into? Yeah.

38:52

Oh okay.

38:53

Is that also just the origin of the insult, the

38:55

blockhead? I don't know.

38:59

Alright guys, so healthcare

39:01

providers determine micropenis size by

39:04

the stretched penile length. That's

39:07

the SPL, alright? Okay. That's

39:10

what we call it. And the proper way to establish

39:12

the SPL is to gently stretch the penis,

39:15

hold it close to the body, and measure it

39:17

from tip to base. Providers

39:19

diagnose micropenis if the length is less

39:21

than 2.5 standard deviations below

39:24

the average. Okay. So

39:26

for example, an average stretched

39:29

penile length for adult males is

39:31

a 5.25 inches. Not

39:35

erect?

39:36

I see, it's a stretched penile

39:38

length which is like this thing you use.

39:41

But yeah, I feel like

39:43

stretching is showing as far as it could go,

39:45

right? I think stretching is the same

39:47

probably as erect length, right? Yeah, because

39:49

the erection is just like putting it up, lacing

39:52

it. It makes it stretch.

39:54

Yeah. I mean I'm stretching right now

39:56

and it is not as long as it could go.

40:00

So the great thing about remote recording

40:02

guys, we're all doing it right now and Nobody

40:06

everyone's doing it in their cars. They're listening It's

40:10

I was gonna I mean I was gonna do a sperm story

40:13

that multiple guests and listeners rather sent

40:15

in sure But yeah,

40:18

like I feel like there's very much sick talk now. I feel

40:20

like we've been Heavy

40:23

no, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to I've

40:25

always wondered about that. I'm like, what is it? You

40:27

know, I mean like what's a micro penis?

40:30

uh

40:31

What causes it, you know, and

40:33

it's a combination of genetic and Hormonal

40:37

conditions in childhood. It's

40:39

usually diagnosed as a newborn

40:41

or during very early childhood. Oh

40:45

Interesting but what if you're a great

40:47

lover, but you have a micro dick like if

40:50

you have the confidence that it didn't

40:52

stifle your life I'm sure that exists.

40:54

Oh, that's absolutely As

40:57

a physical Fox News hosts

40:59

probably embody that right, I mean

41:02

you think they're tender lovers I

41:06

think it back No,

41:08

no, I'm not attaching any value to anyone's

41:12

Penis size. I just I've I've

41:14

often wondered

41:17

Given given the tight

41:19

and I can only speak for myself

41:22

given the Averages

41:25

of the boner

41:26

I would assume, you know that the average Nothing

41:29

nothing special nothing to write home about there's

41:31

an average But then given the given the tightness

41:34

of my flaccid penis, I think I have a

41:36

particularly stretchy penis Is

41:38

probably what I'm gathering here. The elasticity

41:41

is the selling point. I have a very elastic.

41:43

Yeah elastic Remember

41:46

puppetry of the penis Yes,

41:48

whatever happened to those guys. They're still

41:50

around

41:51

We are pulling the strings of the question.

41:53

They are still that bit not only are

41:55

they around it's a franchise now Really?

41:58

Yeah, like I know the original

42:00

two guys because they used to come to the Edinburgh Fringe every

42:02

year. And

42:05

uh... Do they like work out at

42:07

Mike's? Like workouts with you? Yeah,

42:09

yeah. They've got a few uh... They

42:13

shot with their notebook and they just put it

42:15

on the store and glance over every cell phone and go

42:17

like, oh okay, a mole. Oh you're

42:19

thinking of all the puppetry of the penis. Yeah.

42:25

But um,

42:26

but yeah now they have, they have different,

42:29

they've got a couple of different troops there's one in Vegas

42:32

that

42:33

I believe every, I think Christina

42:36

Walkinshaw, friend of the show, sometimes opens

42:38

for them. That sounds right. I think that's

42:40

the Blue Ball group, good thinking of. Anyway,

42:45

maybe Jesse with your extra elastic penis

42:47

there's a place there for you, you know? I

42:50

don't think so. I don't think, because I've seen those puppetry

42:52

videos and I'm like, nah I can't do any of that.

42:54

You know what I mean? Some people have a larger flaccid

42:57

penis to work with. It's like, for me

42:59

it's like a joke. It's a joke. You know

43:01

what I mean? Sorry, we'd have

43:03

taught you with the failed dreams.

43:05

No, no. Alright, let's talk

43:07

about somebody else's body for a matter of, no it's

43:09

just uh, I just never knew if it meant

43:12

stretched out or not. Sounds

43:14

like you're fine. Sure. You know what,

43:16

it doesn't matter because the biggest sex organ is the

43:18

one between your ears, gentlemen. Aww. You

43:22

know what I mean? Yeah, no if you put it in your mouth,

43:24

yeah if it can reach back there.

43:28

I could just never have a real job again. I love

43:31

it. I like that. I can never, it's

43:33

just over for me really. Well

43:38

actually, yeah we have multiple sperm

43:40

stories. I guess we can't make it off. We do. Also,

43:43

so there's the sperm laws of motion

43:45

that both I know Justin Broad and Michael Valvania

43:47

sent that in. Oh there's also just in

43:50

between them, there's an email from Scott

43:52

Stanley because we mentioned cryogenics when

43:55

discussing frozen semen, he makes clear, and

43:58

he says, I thought you'd enjoy hearing about

44:00

Colorado's Frozen Dead Guy Festival

44:02

and the cryogenically frozen

44:04

Norwegian guy that the festival celebrates.

44:07

Here's an article explaining how

44:09

he ended up frozen in a tough shed in rural Colorado

44:11

and the drama surrounding his afterlife. So

44:13

we'll put that in the show notes as well. Is

44:17

it called the Frozen Dead Guy Festival? Frozen

44:19

Dead Guy Days. It's the opposite

44:22

of Burning Man. No

44:28

drugs, no fun, no nakedness.

44:30

They just had to relocate it though if you look

44:33

at the Wikipedia article on it. It was held

44:35

in the town of Nederland, Colorado and

44:38

that town is finally like, get your fucking

44:40

gold brick and asses out of that beach

44:42

community and in 2023 the festival will move

44:45

to Estes Park, Colorado.

44:47

Very beautiful part of the country. Yeah.

44:51

They had 25,000 visitors in 2019

44:53

for this thing?

44:55

Wow.

44:56

There is a coffin race during

44:58

the Frozen Dead Guy Festival. This is bonkers.

45:00

Wow. Wow.

45:06

There's a polar plunge. How

45:09

did I not know about this? This is

45:10

not that far from where my

45:12

in-laws live. This is visible.

45:15

Yeah. Yeah. No, I would go.

45:17

I mean, I would go to the Frozen Dead Guy Festival.

45:20

They have frozen t-shirt

45:22

competitions for the Wikipedia article.

45:24

Oh, Lord. Poetry

45:27

Slam. We've been having Dead Guy Festivals

45:29

for as long as civilization has

45:31

existed. That's very true. I guess technically

45:34

Christmas is a Dead Guy Festival. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah.

45:37

Well, I would say Easter more than Christmas

45:39

or maybe wait, which is the day that... Well, I guess, yeah.

45:41

I mean, they're old. Yeah, but those are

45:43

Dead Guy Festivals, but this is a Frozen Dead Guy.

45:46

Memorial Day? Yes.

45:48

Yep. Sure. Sure. Dead

45:51

Guys. No one wants to touch that one. Yeah,

45:53

no, it's true. I mean, yeah, it's

45:57

what we celebrate.

45:59

So maybe we wake when is it's gonna be in um

46:03

February. Oh, no, wait So

46:06

the 2023 is already happened. That's what I'm trying to okay.

46:08

No, it's like waterfall

46:12

March No, that's

46:14

the film

46:16

There was a March 1 in 2022. I presume The

46:20

Wikipedia is written in in future tense,

46:22

but I presume there was one this this March All

46:25

right, I'm down to check it out

46:28

if we can get a live podcast going there somehow That'd

46:31

be awesome.

46:32

Yeah, I don't know do they have a comedy stage at the frozen

46:34

dead guy festival If anyone's involved in the

46:36

frozen dead guy festival, let us know

46:38

Book us. Yeah, we

46:40

all deliver that guys been in my crowd several

46:43

times What's

46:45

going on with you guys over here a bunch of

46:47

frozen dead guys So,

46:50

yeah, we do different sperm stories are we doing a sperm

46:52

story or not? I

46:55

think this is more of a

46:58

Propel time story. Yeah, it's more of a propelled

47:00

motion story. It's not like a it's not

47:02

yeah This is funny sperm story like a this

47:05

is sperm defying one of the major laws of physics

47:07

So I mean sort of defying that the

47:10

behavior of them seems to contradict

47:12

to lower physics but According

47:16

to this new study that characterizes

47:18

the motion of these sex cells and single-celled

47:20

algae Kenta Ishamoto

47:22

a mathematical scientist at Kyoto University

47:25

and colleagues Investigated these these

47:27

non reciprocal interactions. These are defying

47:29

the Newton's third law of motion In

47:32

sperm and other microscopic biological swimmers

47:34

to figure out how they slither through substances that

47:36

should in theory resist their movement So

47:39

rebel sperm that don't follow the

47:41

rules. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily Microscopic

47:45

cells wriggling through sticky fluids as this

47:47

article in science alert There's also another version

47:49

of the article in IFL science,

47:51

which again, what is it? What does

47:53

it stand for? there is no way

47:55

to know but so

47:58

Newton's third law can be summed up as for every

48:00

action there is an equal and opposite reaction, it

48:03

signifies a particular symmetry in nature

48:05

where opposing forces act against each other. In

48:08

the simplest example, two equal sized marbles

48:10

colliding as they roll on the ground will transfer their force

48:12

and rebound based on this law. But nature

48:14

is chaotic, and all physical systems are

48:16

bound by these symmetries. So-called

48:19

non-reciprocal interactions show up in unruly systems

48:21

made up of flocking birds, particles in fluids and swimming

48:23

sperm. These motile agents

48:25

move in ways that display asymmetric

48:27

interactions with the animals behind them or

48:30

the fluids that surround them. Forming

48:33

a loop- I don't like the wording of this, it says forming a loophole

48:35

for equal and opposite forces to skirt Newton's third

48:37

law. The air bud referees,

48:40

ah, there's nothing in the rule book. Yeah,

48:44

it doesn't skirt the law, it just gives

48:46

the appearance of it not- Right. Yeah,

48:49

I don't like that wording. It says, because birds and cells

48:52

generate their own energy which gets added

48:54

to the system with each flap of their wing or whip of their tails,

48:57

the system is thrust far from equilibrium

48:59

and the same rules don't apply. V-eh,

49:02

it's fudged, I don't like that language either.

49:04

Ishamoto and colleagues analyzed experimental data

49:07

on human sperm and also modeled the motion of

49:09

green algae. Both swim

49:11

using thin, bendy flagella that protrude

49:13

from the cell body and change shape or deform

49:15

to drive the cells forward. So like a little whippy tail

49:17

that they swim with basically. Highly

49:20

viscous fluids would typically dissipate a

49:22

flagellant's energy, preventing

49:25

a sperm or single cell algae from moving much

49:27

at all. And yet somehow, these elastic

49:29

flagellic and propel these cells along without provoking

49:31

response from their surroundings. The researchers

49:34

found that sperm tail and algal flagella

49:36

have an odd elasticity which

49:38

allows these flexible appendages to whip about

49:41

without losing much energy to the surrounding fluid.

49:44

But this property of elasticity didn't fully explain

49:46

the propulsion from the wave-like motion. So

49:49

from their modelling studies, they also derived a new

49:51

term, an odd elastic

49:53

modulus to describe the internal mechanics.

49:56

It's a from solvable

49:58

simple modules to biological flagella waveforms

50:02

for these algae, whose Latin I'm not going

50:04

to pronounce, and sperm cells, we studied

50:06

the odd-bounding modulus to decipher the

50:08

non-local, non-reciprocal inner interactions

50:11

within the material.

50:13

So that all makes sense. We've all followed that sentence, right?

50:15

Sure. Yes. Absolutely, yeah.

50:17

The findings could help in the design of small,

50:19

self-assembling robots that mimic living materials,

50:22

while the modeling methods could be used to better

50:24

understand the underlying principles

50:26

of collective behavior.

50:28

But we're not actually saying that

50:30

law was violated. To move forward,

50:33

they do have to exert a force in the other

50:35

direction. They're moving the fluid around them

50:37

backwards in the process of moving forward. They have

50:39

to be, right? Yes, or at least

50:41

collectively the fluid forward. So there

50:44

will be, because it doesn't have to be, I

50:46

think that might also be the case, because it's

50:48

not necessarily one little bit

50:50

of the fluid around

50:53

that moves backwards in a way that you'd expect, because it's

50:55

being dissipated around the fluid. Collectively,

50:59

right. Yeah. But it

51:01

must be, if you added up collectively all

51:04

of the particles of the fluid around and

51:07

calculated it, it would collectively

51:10

add up to

51:11

the equal and opposite to the way it moves forward.

51:14

Again, it has to. It's like, have you

51:16

guys ever seen maybe my favorite science YouTube

51:18

video, Veritasium, when Derek

51:22

decided to figure out whether you can have a wind-propelled

51:25

vehicle that can travel downwind

51:27

faster than the wind that's propelling it? No,

51:30

that's awesome. And the answer is yes. It's

51:34

the most controversial video he's ever done.

51:37

And he's had so many follow-up videos where he's

51:39

debated by big-name physicists.

51:44

A physics professor bet him $10,000 that he was wrong. And

51:48

as much as you watch it and it seems like this

51:50

violates every rule of physics,

51:53

eventually he breaks it down and shows that, no,

51:56

all of the appropriate rules

51:58

are followed. Let

52:00

me see if this is the one. It's only two years ago that

52:03

is more than that. Very worth

52:05

a watch. This is again like my favorite

52:07

science thing on YouTube and

52:10

I can't even intuitively explain exactly

52:12

how it happens but yes nothing is whatever

52:16

momentum is gained by this sale

52:19

car. So it's they do it on the Bonneville

52:21

Salt Flats where they do all the land speed records and it's

52:23

a it's like a race

52:26

car with a windmill

52:28

on top of it

52:32

and yeah they prove by having this

52:35

hanging like

52:37

a piece of fabric that

52:39

it eventually is moving forward

52:43

faster than the wind that's pushing it and

52:45

then he shows he makes a model of this

52:48

and shows how like you're still taking power

52:50

energy from the

52:53

moving air and like

52:57

there is some air that is now moving less

52:59

quickly and that is what you've gained

53:01

your it doesn't I can't

53:03

explain it but watch the whole video and I think he does a great job

53:06

of explaining how this can be because it just

53:08

looks like he's doing some camera trickery.

53:11

So there's no additional force it's just the wind

53:13

that it's in. Yes. Wow. It's purely

53:16

the wind and then and the propeller

53:19

is acting so the propeller is powering

53:21

the wheels but it's

53:23

doing the opposite of what you would think.

53:26

Wait a second how does it work? So I think the wind is exerting

53:29

force on the

53:32

body of the thing that's what starts

53:34

getting it going and then

53:36

as it's going forward

53:38

the propeller is getting spun in

53:41

the same way that a power

53:43

generating windmill would be

53:46

and it's giving

53:48

power to the wheels and as I'm saying I know

53:50

it sounds like you're describing a perpetual motion machine like

53:53

the system shouldn't add up to more than the

53:55

downwind speed but it's

53:58

possible in the same way that it's been possible for a

54:01

boat to tack at

54:03

a 45 degree angle and have

54:05

its linear velocity

54:07

be greater than the dowd wind speed

54:09

that's powering it. Yeah, it kind

54:11

of makes... well, yeah, and you can have

54:14

something...

54:14

something heavy,

54:18

move

54:21

slower and hit a ball and propel it

54:23

further, like, quicker. Right. But

54:25

anyhow, this is very worth the watch. And if our listeners don't

54:27

already watch Veritasium on YouTube,

54:29

it's also just one of the best science

54:33

channels out there. That's

54:35

super cool. I'm looking at it. The

54:37

vehicle itself is so clunky looking. Yeah.

54:40

It looks like something I would have built out of Legos when I was

54:43

seven. Yeah. Just really

54:45

tall.

54:46

Amazing.

54:47

Good stuff. Okay, so yeah. Do sperm

54:49

break the laws of physics? I don't know.

54:51

I don't think they... Again, like, they

54:54

don't break the laws of physics. I hate that...

54:56

Right. I hate that wording. They

54:59

appear to move in... I like it for badass.

55:02

Yeah, they move in a way that appears

55:04

to

55:05

contradict the laws of physics. Okay.

55:08

That gives the appearance of

55:11

contravening it.

55:12

It is weird when even scientific papers

55:16

have that sort of clickbait language, like, is

55:18

that a sign of the times we're living in that that scientist

55:21

felt the need to, like, gin it

55:23

up and really sell it

55:25

like it's breaking the laws. Oh,

55:28

this is just... I think this is just from Science

55:30

Alert. I don't think this is

55:32

the raw paper.

55:34

Well, but Matt, you were reading part

55:36

of it that sounded like it was language straight from the... Yeah,

55:39

maybe that was just the summary. Yeah,

55:42

because the real paper, the

55:45

actual journal here

55:49

is extremely, like, extremely

55:52

dense. Gotcha. The...

55:55

Well, I just mean the language. It's, like, very much not,

55:58

like, this appears to violate... the,

56:02

it says this study explores a violation,

56:07

this study explores a violation of Newton's Third Law

56:09

in motile active agents by

56:11

considering nonreciprocal mechanical interactions

56:14

known as autoelasticity, that's

56:16

the abstract. I

56:20

think that's as far into that as there, or that's

56:23

as, that's as much as they hint at that

56:25

and then the answer

56:27

is no, it does not. I see,

56:29

I see. Does anyone remember

56:31

the article recently about

56:34

the motion of butterflies, which also

56:37

appears to be, they're trying to explain the

56:39

apparent randomness of it and how does it get where it's

56:41

going?

56:42

No. I don't remember that. Also, by the way,

56:44

Patrick Duran also sent in the sperm story. There

56:46

may be others. I keep finding more.

56:49

I'm sorry. Let's get to those. Oh

56:51

no.

56:52

What is this butterfly

56:54

situation? I, let's see, within

56:57

the last year I feel like I read about a butterfly

56:59

motion. They studied, you know, because

57:01

they kind of go left and right and that's

57:04

why it's hard to catch them, but a butterfly movement.

57:08

I just,

57:11

they were trying to explain like that

57:13

it isn't illogical

57:15

or inefficient. It's just, you know, how they, I

57:18

don't know, I can't find the article. No

57:22

one doesn't ring a bell? No one ever heard of it? No, I hadn't heard

57:24

about that. No, no, I'm indifferent

57:26

to butterflies. What? Totally,

57:29

no, I'm, I was in North

57:31

Carolina recently and I really

57:34

miss seeing all the like monarch butterflies because

57:37

it's full of monarch butterflies and

57:39

they're doing, they, you know, they start doing their migration

57:41

to Mexico, like

57:44

the yearly, yearly

57:46

migration. It freaks me out. Like, have

57:48

you guys seen the, they like

57:50

just didn't know where they all went until really

57:52

recently.

57:54

Like they found the monarch

57:56

butterflies, like that where they all fly to.

58:00

They go to Mexico, you know? They

58:02

couldn't just put like a tracker on one of them? They're

58:05

very tiny. I guess. Uh.

58:09

No, let me see here. The...

58:12

Yeah, I don't know how you track a butterfly.

58:14

It lies within rugged forested mountains.

58:18

Yeah, let me figure out when it... It was discovered

58:21

way too recently. Like

58:24

more so than you would think. Yeah. I

58:26

thought I remembered it from seventh grade science class

58:29

when we had to catch in San that

58:31

they taught us about the migration, but

58:34

you're saying it's newer than that. Well, we knew they migrated.

58:36

I just mean like, where are they all landing? What's

58:38

going on? Oh, they like specific place. Yeah, because

58:41

it's kind of a small...

58:43

You know, it's a bit of a small area. Right.

58:47

And their life cycle is such that like if they die

58:49

and lay their eggs, you know, before anyone really

58:51

sees them, you might not realize

58:53

it's the same population. Yeah,

58:56

let me figure out when this was discovered.

58:59

It's just that they all end up at Margaritaville

59:02

in Cabo? Yep.

59:04

Yeah.

59:05

Yeah, for Tequila Tuesday. Not

59:08

Cabo Wabo. They don't like Sammy Hagar. No, they're

59:11

not Sammy Hagar fans. No. It

59:13

really... It makes sense. Yeah.

59:17

Because they can go 55. Or

59:19

they're not limited by that, rather. That's

59:21

like very reasonable top speed

59:24

as far as they're concerned.

59:26

Yes.

59:28

They fly the best on hot summer nights.

59:30

Yeah.

59:32

So, you know, maybe

59:34

the secret to tracking butterflies would be developing

59:37

something very, very small

59:40

to put on them. Like

59:44

something 54 million times

59:46

smaller than the Large Hadron Collider?

59:50

Great segue there. Not very good. It's

59:52

not very good. Flawless, flawless.

59:57

1976 is

59:58

when we figured out where Monarchs go. Which

1:00:01

seems really recent. Yeah,

1:00:03

that is pretty recent. Yeah, I didn't

1:00:06

mean it was like just last month or something Sure, but

1:00:08

in the grand scheme of things. Yes. All right But

1:00:11

yes, Scott virus sent in a story about is it

1:00:13

a tiny tiny little particle accelerator?

1:00:15

That is

1:00:16

as Andy said 54 million times smaller

1:00:19

than the large Hadron collider and it works It's small

1:00:21

enough to fit on a coin. I said it was average

1:00:23

size when it's hard you don't Think in front

1:00:25

of me you guys are trashing me the whole yeah, it stretches

1:00:27

They have the elasticity to it So

1:00:29

it can open the door to a wide range

1:00:31

of applications including using the

1:00:33

teensy particle accelerator inside human patients

1:00:36

What the new machine known as a nano?

1:00:39

Photonic electronic accelerator and NEA

1:00:41

consists of a small microchip that houses

1:00:43

an even smaller vacuum tube made up of thousands

1:00:46

of individual pillars Researchers

1:00:48

can accelerate electrons by firing mini

1:00:50

laser beams at these pillars The

1:00:52

main acceleration tube is approximately

1:00:54

point zero two inches. That's half a millimeter

1:00:57

long In

1:01:00

a ring that

1:01:02

Sorry, which is 54 million times shorter

1:01:05

than the 27 kilometer ring that makes up the

1:01:07

heart of the LHC

1:01:09

The inside of the

1:01:11

tiny tunnel is only around 225 nanometers

1:01:13

wide and just

1:01:17

for context human hairs are 80,000 to

1:01:20

a hundred thousand nanometers thick

1:01:24

So I can't work it.

1:01:26

We're talking like a 500th

1:01:29

of the slide

1:01:33

Go ahead go ahead. Sorry. No, are you gonna say

1:01:35

no? I'm gonna derail it by objecting

1:01:37

My inner Luddite is coming out and just saying

1:01:39

bullshit. That's impossible.

1:01:42

None of this can exist How do you make

1:01:44

something that small? Yeah can't exist Well,

1:01:47

I think I think you need to use children because they've got smaller hands,

1:01:49

right? Oh, there you go. Okay, I'm back on

1:01:52

board

1:01:53

So if this new study published in nature as

1:01:55

researchers from the Frederick Alexander University

1:01:58

in Germany used This tiny

1:02:00

contraption to accelerate electrons from an energy

1:02:02

value of 28.4 kilo-electrovolts to 40.7,

1:02:05

which is in a 43% increase. It's

1:02:10

the first time a nanophotonic electron accelerator

1:02:13

has been successfully fired, and

1:02:16

for the first time we can speak, said the

1:02:18

authors say, we can speak about a particle accelerator

1:02:20

on a microchip. So

1:02:23

the LHC uses more than 9,000 magnets

1:02:26

to create a magnetic field that accelerates particles to

1:02:28

around 99.9% of the speed of light. This

1:02:31

thing also creates a magnetic field, but it works

1:02:33

by firing light beams at the pillars in the vacuum tube,

1:02:36

which simplifies the energy in just the right way,

1:02:38

but the resulting energy field is

1:02:40

much weaker. The electrons only have

1:02:42

a millionth of the energy that the particles accelerated

1:02:44

by the LHC have, well unsurprisingly. But

1:02:47

the researchers believe they can improve the design by using

1:02:49

alternative materials or stacking multiple tubes

1:02:51

next to another, which

1:02:53

could further accelerate the particles. So

1:02:59

this could be used

1:03:01

in targeted medical treatments that could replace

1:03:03

radiotherapy as

1:03:07

one possible thing. Or, yeah,

1:03:10

it says the Dream application would be to place it on an

1:03:12

endoscope in order to be able to administer radiotherapy

1:03:14

directly at the affected areas within the body.

1:03:18

But this is still a long way off. Just

1:03:20

nuke the cancer cells?

1:03:22

Yeah, we had

1:03:24

a sonic wave cancer story

1:03:26

last week. These are all interesting new

1:03:28

ways of destroying

1:03:30

cancer cells. Can't

1:03:34

they make these as small as

1:03:37

resolution is

1:03:40

good?

1:03:41

I'm

1:03:44

sure you're using a microchip as you have

1:03:46

your pattern, and you're

1:03:48

shooting light

1:03:58

behind the pattern. pattern

1:04:00

into a lens, so it's putting

1:04:02

it on a very small wafer. But

1:04:05

we keep hitting the resolution limit, right?

1:04:09

I'm not sure. Resolution

1:04:11

of... Well, like, you

1:04:14

know how, I mean, we've talked about this a lot, like on

1:04:17

a wafer you can fit more and more, they're

1:04:19

just transistors, but you can fit... Right, but we're going to hit some

1:04:21

actual quantum limits of

1:04:24

the acreage, the density per...

1:04:28

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Per

1:04:30

centimeter, whatever. I suppose we

1:04:32

could. I mean, they're already about like,

1:04:34

they're making them now better as thick

1:04:37

as like an atom. I'm talking about...

1:04:39

And there's a line we can't cross, the MERS law

1:04:41

is going to break down at that point. Right, right, right. Yeah,

1:04:44

but I would...

1:04:46

Yeah.

1:04:47

You're saying that's also going to be the

1:04:49

limit of this, so this can go even smaller? Yeah,

1:04:52

just to be this doesn't seem that

1:04:54

small to me in those terms. I

1:04:56

think this could go way smaller. But it's got so

1:04:59

much more going on than just the transistor

1:05:01

does, you know? Like, it's got all these pillars

1:05:03

and... Yeah, that's... Yeah.

1:05:06

The machinery that makes this, you know, machinery

1:05:09

might not be the right term, is

1:05:11

itself amazing. Right, right.

1:05:14

Oh, for sure, but they're still making

1:05:16

this... I know, like,

1:05:18

it's more complicated than a transistor, but they're still

1:05:20

making this by using layer upon layer

1:05:22

of photo etching. Hmm. Like,

1:05:24

they're not... Right, there's not... There's

1:05:26

not tiny little tweezers building the... Right,

1:05:29

right. Wearing a gem loop and the... Yeah.

1:05:32

Yeah. Like a jeweler who's... So,

1:05:35

I mean, I don't know. I think it could... Yeah, it

1:05:37

could be done smaller. Do

1:05:40

better, Sykes, is what we're... Yeah, not impressed. Yeah.

1:05:43

Come back to it. Thanks, but no

1:05:45

thanks. Not impressed. Give

1:05:48

me a big collider, that's what I'm... Yeah.

1:05:52

Yep. Yeah, okay, if we can...

1:05:55

So if we can do a fucking

1:05:57

18K Las Vegas sphere, tell

1:05:59

me we can... do a tiny...

1:06:02

Would you guys go see the Las Vegas sphere?

1:06:04

I'm kind of tempted. Yeah. Yeah,

1:06:06

but didn't you say you were just in Vegas? Yeah,

1:06:08

but it's like that happened to be the weekend that

1:06:11

the U2 show was opening. I hadn't even looked at tickets,

1:06:13

but then I heard afterwards there was like $500 or something. Oh,

1:06:16

they're crazy. They're still like, that

1:06:18

wasn't just an opening night ticket. I'm going to be in Vegas

1:06:20

in... I'm always bad at pluggy

1:06:23

stuff, but I'm going to be in Vegas in a couple of weeks' time

1:06:25

back at the Rio, at the Comedy Cellar. So anyone who lives

1:06:27

near Vegas, come and see you come to the show, get

1:06:30

us a shout. But yeah.

1:06:32

Would it be clear you're not going

1:06:34

to be in the sphere? No.

1:06:38

Well, you perform in your regular bubble, like

1:06:40

sort of your germaphobe

1:06:42

bubble. But you know what it's like.

1:06:44

I contacted the bookers at the sphere, but they look

1:06:47

at how many Instagram followers you

1:06:49

have in your face, and they're like, that kind

1:06:51

of thing. It'd much rather book some influencer

1:06:53

who's rather than a veteran comic who knows

1:06:55

what they're doing. Maybe you

1:06:58

want some wine stuff. You didn't

1:07:00

get past at the sphere. You didn't get to sign your name

1:07:02

in white paint on the wall outside the sphere.

1:07:05

Yeah, I can still do the mic.

1:07:07

I mean, I'll do the sphere mic. I'll sign up and... Yeah,

1:07:10

they offered to let me be the door guy, and I'm like,

1:07:12

this is insulting. I'm not going to be the door guy at

1:07:14

the sphere. That's how a lot of them start, man. That's how you get too

1:07:16

started. I know, but I've been doing this too long, man,

1:07:18

to be... Bono

1:07:20

used to flyer for the Bill Murray

1:07:23

Comedy Club. Yeah, he used to bark.

1:07:25

He used to bark people into the club.

1:07:28

Look at him now. Look

1:07:30

at him now. Headlining. Headlining. Yeah, it worked.

1:07:35

They got an agent and everything. I know. They're

1:07:38

doing great. I know. We should... Speak

1:07:40

of where you can see people. Steve, where can

1:07:43

our listeners see you and find you and see

1:07:45

all the things you're doing? Well, I'm on the

1:07:48

various socials as Steve Benekwist,

1:07:50

B-E-N-A-Q-U-I-S-T, and

1:07:53

I will be in New Hampshire, Keene, New Hampshire,

1:07:56

doing a guest spot with Maria Bamford

1:07:58

on November 17th. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah.

1:08:02

I haven't seen her live in forever. She's so great.

1:08:05

She's the boss. One of the very

1:08:07

best. And then, you know, usually shows around

1:08:09

Los Angeles, so you check my feed.

1:08:12

See what I'm up to.

1:08:13

Go to that. Anything else to plug,

1:08:15

Jesse, Andy? Hmm.

1:08:19

Nope. No. Hey.

1:08:23

No. All right, then. I'm

1:08:25

in the middle of moving right now to a different, I mean,

1:08:27

still in Nashville, but to a different place. And,

1:08:29

yeah, so I'm not doing anything. I'm just

1:08:31

in moving land. So if

1:08:33

anyone in Nashville has a truck,

1:08:35

you can help. Yeah, sure. No, I'm using my dad's.

1:08:38

I don't need your help. Leave me alone.

1:08:40

Doesn't everyone in Nashville have a truck? No,

1:08:42

I don't. Oh, okay. Yeah. So

1:08:45

wait, I should plug. There's something I, yeah, I haven't

1:08:47

worked all fucking year, writing-wise. So

1:08:49

I started, I think I told you guys, I started Airbnb-ing my place, and then

1:08:51

I'll just, like, take off

1:08:54

for a weekend when it rents. I should just drop the link. If

1:08:56

you're in Joshua Tree and you want to rent my house,

1:08:58

is that okay to do in a podcast? Yeah, it's fine.

1:09:01

I think it is. Come stay

1:09:03

at my house. Any of the regular listeners

1:09:05

to the show want to poke around Andy's living quarters

1:09:07

and, you know, see his stuff? For that

1:09:10

matter, on weekdays, I also rent out a room here,

1:09:12

and it's almost always been, I think I told you, it's almost always been

1:09:14

European travelers, because I think they're more used to,

1:09:16

like, hostile situations. If you want to come

1:09:18

stay in a room at my house, I'll show you around.

1:09:22

You'll also get to read many of the books

1:09:24

that various publishers have sent to us, and we've had the

1:09:26

authors on the show. Andy's got a well-stocked

1:09:28

bookshelf full of various Probably Science guests.

1:09:31

I'll drop the link. Let's see what happens. What's

1:09:33

the worst that could happen? Well,

1:09:35

you can find that link and the link to all

1:09:37

of the stories we cover at probablyscience.com.

1:09:40

You can also find

1:09:42

our Patreon and PayPal links there. We'll

1:09:44

do an

1:09:45

extra bonus story for the Patreon patrons after this. You

1:09:48

can find us on Twitter at probablyscience,

1:09:50

individually at AndyTWood, at Jesse

1:09:52

Case, and at Matt Kirshen. And

1:09:54

if you want to send us any stories, questions,

1:09:57

comments, clarifications, you can email us at probablyscience.com.

1:10:00

Thank you for joining us and we

1:10:02

will see you next time.