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sex the human body and

0:58

will take you on a beach vacation

1:00

to visit the homes of piping plover

1:02

years but , alzheimer's

1:04

disease is a devastating brain disorder

1:07

that targets the brain's ability to hold

1:09

on to memories and thinking skills for

1:11

people worried about their loved ones were

1:13

themselves getting alzheimer's research

1:16

provides hope that the disease could someday

1:18

be a thing of the past but a massive

1:21

report from science magazine highlights

1:23

a startling discovery that

1:25

decades of old timers research may

1:27

be based on faulty data researchers

1:30

are grappling with the revelation and

1:33

what it means for the future of studying the disease

1:36

the winning me today to talk about this and

1:38

other sites stories of the week is my guest

1:40

magic earth science writer for five thirty

1:43

eight based in minneapolis minnesota welcome

1:45

back to the show maggie thanks for having me

1:48

let's start with this thing story about alzheimer's

1:51

written by charles pillar what is

1:53

the story say well you

1:55

first off i went to

1:56

a brief recap of this

1:58

amyloid hypothesis of all

1:59

hammers because it is really at the center

2:02

of what's going on and the basic

2:04

idea with this is that

2:06

this degenerative brain disease happens

2:08

when something causes a protein

2:10

called amyloid beta to clump

2:12

up in the brain kind of like a hairball

2:14

in your shower drain this is an

2:16

idea that's got idea ton of attention it's gotten

2:18

the bulk of the investment money of the last

2:21

three decades

2:21

basically sucked all the air out of the

2:23

room in the field of alzheimer's research

2:26

i'm not even though as multiple

2:28

drugs that were designed to kind of

2:30

draino out all that amyloid beta

2:32

build up have really failed to help

2:35

patients

2:36

so this is something that's

2:38

not standing

2:39

by itself you know i'm we're looking at this

2:41

report in science that is showing that

2:43

there's probably some kind

2:46

of malfeasance happening

2:48

that's not

2:50

the isolated issue with

2:52

this hypothesis there's also

2:55

other people who long thought that

2:57

maybe this was not a

2:59

correct understanding of how or fibers

3:01

works

3:02

there was a little more about the protein

3:04

that's implicated or amyloid beta

3:07

what is this protein and what does it typically

3:09

you in the brain

3:11

so this is a protein that can occur

3:13

when a bit your protein called and amyloid

3:15

precursor protein gets cleaved and a certain

3:18

way

3:18

the and people are still trying to

3:20

understand what that precursor protein

3:22

doesn't your brain exactly just

3:24

like they're trying to figure out still

3:26

what beta amyloid does what

3:28

we do know is that beta amyloid

3:30

the team there is a blog and the

3:33

that and organic chemist called derek

3:35

lowe wrote for science where he

3:37

really described it as something that was just

3:39

really hard to work with and synthesize

3:42

because just as

3:43

tommy thing that sticks to

3:45

everything and we know

3:47

it's definitely found definitely these plaque

3:49

like clumps in the brains of people

3:51

who have been autopsied after dying from all

3:53

simers so there are good reasons

3:55

why people think it's involved it's

3:57

just not

3:58

super clear whether it's a car

3:59

that agent

4:01

and what seems to be the origin of

4:03

this misinformation

4:05

bow the cause of alzheimer's

4:07

yeah so the science piece

4:09

is basically this whistleblower went public

4:12

with evidence that suggests at least a couple

4:14

of the studies

4:15

important to beta amyloid hypothesis

4:17

have been deeply flawed the whistleblower

4:20

who is a vanderbilt neuroscientist

4:22

named dr matthew schrag he does not

4:24

describe this is proof of fraud or misconduct

4:27

but he's basically identified a bunch of red

4:29

flags that really point in that direction

4:31

and one of these issues involved

4:34

so they less day she's a researcher

4:36

at the university of minnesota and his

4:38

work appeared to show that beta

4:40

amyloid cause dementia and rats

4:43

this is something that was supposed to be

4:45

kind of the silver bullet that proved beta amyloid

4:47

hypothesis was right and it

4:49

really went on question

4:51

for about sixteen years

4:52

until schrag found hands of evidence

4:55

that loves these data and images have

4:57

been altered including situations

4:59

where it looks like images of results

5:01

were pieced it together from different experiments

5:04

to produce a more favorable outcome

5:06

and these findings of fact about twenty papers

5:09

that less these been involved with over the years

5:11

have we heard anything from the people

5:13

responsible for these if he papers

5:16

lesson , does not seem to have publicly comments

5:18

had one of his coauthors

5:21

on that two thousand six papers she said

5:23

that she wants to retract the study

5:25

in it's entirety you know the confidence

5:28

and it's been undermined but she

5:30

also said that she still thinks

5:32

the beta amyloid hypothesis beta

5:34

amyloid flawed in itself

5:36

do we know just how much alzheimer's

5:39

research is baby impacted i

5:41

think we're still trying to figure that out this

5:43

out this something that bad

5:45

really it is gonna

5:47

be a challenge for are people

5:50

going forward you know there's a lot of other theories

5:52

about how alzheimer's works and

5:54

there have been other reasons to suspect

5:57

that may be the beta amyloid hypothesis

5:59

doesn't leak

5:59

lane it for a long time and

6:02

this this give more of an opening

6:04

to people who really feel like

6:06

their work has been ignored and that other

6:08

hypotheses have been ignored what

6:10

happens next next i think

6:12

the big thing that needs to happen is

6:15

somebody needs to go into

6:17

the brought data and as less the papers

6:19

so one of the reasons why schrag doesn't

6:21

want to describe this as fraud yet

6:24

is because all the scene is these

6:26

images that were published is not seen the raw data

6:28

so this is basically a

6:30

red flag that says we need to take a little bit deeper

6:32

into what's going on

6:33

and let's move on to another

6:35

health related story we know

6:37

that the covert nineteen pandemic disrupted

6:40

a lot of things in our lives work

6:42

schedules childcare arrangements

6:44

his dog ownership up but

6:46

it turns out that childhood vaccines

6:48

schedules have been really impacted

6:50

by this to tell us about that

6:53

yeah so there's been a decrease

6:55

in uptake of childhood vaccines it's

6:57

happening globally and this is

6:59

something

7:00

dot on my radar a little bit because

7:03

we , a polio case in the us

7:06

last week at that was announced it happened earlier

7:09

this year but year man actually

7:11

was paralyzed by polio

7:13

in rockland county new york and

7:15

this is the first time that there's been a polio

7:17

cases the us than a decade arm

7:20

it's also happening also happening county

7:22

that has home to

7:25

vaccine resistance in recent years and

7:28

this this the county where back in

7:30

twenty eighteen twenty nineteen they had that sick measles

7:32

break so this this

7:35

of something that probably as time

7:37

the into vaccine resistance the

7:39

single case is also significant because

7:41

it called attention to this larger problem

7:44

that extends well beyond rockland county

7:46

so globally childhood vaccination

7:49

rates has decreased or stagnated

7:51

during the covert pandemic it

7:53

depends how much based

7:55

on which vaccine you're talking about but

7:57

for example the one the coverage diphtheria

8:00

tetanus that's fallen by five

8:02

and it's points which is the largest decrease

8:04

in up taken thirty years experts

8:07

are blame

8:07

the combination of factors and that includes

8:09

supply chain issues economic problems

8:12

natural disasters that have happened around the same

8:14

time

8:15

that also these efforts to undermine

8:18

trust in public health campaigns the been

8:20

tied to help people feel about cool that

8:22

how do we get back on track to make

8:24

sure that kids are adequately protected

8:26

against

8:27

the ss ah the

8:29

get vaccinated

8:31

yeah that seems like a

8:33

like a good solution

8:35

when when i when i come up with a would a deeper

8:37

solution i will have a higher

8:39

a great never let let

8:42

space for our next story specifically

8:45

the moon it turns out that there

8:47

are some places up there that are actually pretty

8:49

constables tell us about that

8:51

yet so one of the big issue

8:53

but lunar exploration and particularly any

8:55

kind of long term habitation

8:57

plans has always been

8:59

temperature the moon has

9:02

these huge swings huge

9:04

swings temperature on it's surface his doesn't have an

9:06

atmosphere so temperatures

9:08

the as high as like two hundred and fifty

9:10

degrees fahrenheit days

9:13

a two weeks long and when

9:15

week night time comes that can drop

9:17

to negative to

9:19

hundred and eight degrees fahrenheit and

9:22

these temperatures are even higher and lower

9:24

the surface of moon depending on what location you're

9:26

at so when we

9:28

send astronauts to the moon years ago

9:31

they were surviving their partly because their trips

9:33

were times to be at lunar dawn

9:36

when it wasn't too hot or too cold so

9:38

this has always been has big big

9:40

issue

9:41

and now nasa has

9:43

found at these kits on the moon's surface

9:46

that they are finding the temperature

9:49

hovers around the three degrees

9:51

fahrenheit all the time these

9:53

pets are probably collapse lava tubes

9:56

and at least a couple of them look like they might

9:58

lead into the mouth of the case

9:59

which is really exciting

10:02

because it could be a great place to locate

10:04

a base get your exploration

10:06

for space tourism there

10:09

is always a great big butt of

10:11

a difference that came

10:13

, the same week that found that

10:15

rocket travel especially the

10:17

kind of frequency of rocket trouble you would

10:19

need if you were doing space tourism tourism

10:22

real real bad for this planet

10:25

so the study looked at air

10:27

pollutants that were released

10:29

during the hundred and three space launches

10:31

happened in tween a team and

10:34

, found chemicals that can damage the ozone

10:36

layer other chemicals that are enhancing climate

10:38

change to give you an

10:40

example the

10:41

that he concluded that said release directly

10:44

into the upper atmosphere by

10:45

rocket launch his five hundred times

10:47

as efficient as cheating the planet

10:49

that released during when you're burning

10:51

fuel in an airplane and

10:54

it also concluded that concluded that of regular

10:56

speed tourism could clawbacks

10:58

sixteen percent of the improvements made to the

11:00

hole in the ozone layer since nineteen

11:02

eighty seven oh wow yeah

11:05

i guess i shouldn't canceled my my

11:07

trip to hang out in a sixty three

11:09

degree moon pits yeah yeah

11:11

maybe maybe it's not time

11:12

for moon cave people

11:15

well let's and with a very summary

11:17

story on that would be pretty relevant

11:19

to anyone who likes an outdoor grill

11:22

it turns out that there is a mathematically

11:24

optimal number of times to flip

11:27

a burger on the grill so what's

11:29

the magic number yeah so the

11:31

summer is more than half over but mathematician

11:33

some look the phone has published

11:35

tokyo actions that will help you cook burgers

11:37

faster and the time you have like

11:39

and his calculations

11:41

are based on the fact that you have a piece

11:43

of meat on a grill one side is always

11:45

gaining heat that's the sites is in the fire

11:47

and when said is always losing keep the side facing

11:50

the sky so regular

11:51

means more even heat and

11:54

faster grilling and he found

11:56

that flipping that burger three or four

11:58

times can

11:59

use to cook time as much as twenty nine

12:02

percent if you flip more than that you're

12:04

on the gaming anymore cooking speed limit

12:06

to this you can't infinitely flip a burger

12:08

and infinitely get it to cook

12:10

instantaneously right so

12:12

it's that three to four

12:13

times that seems

12:15

, make the difference now

12:18

this work is theoretical

12:20

and even worse it is based on

12:22

a theoretical burger that as well dot ah

12:25

so i know that a lot of they'll be a lot of quibbles

12:27

with that with that decision right three

12:30

or four you know it it may be less than

12:32

that if you want a burger that's actually edible but

12:35

it does line up with real

12:37

world cooking analysis that jake

12:40

can see lopez all did at serious

12:42

like and twenty nine p and when he

12:44

found that flipping that burger every fifteen seconds

12:47

reduce the cooking time by nearly a third

12:49

that's all the time we have for now i'd like

12:51

to thank my guest maggie kurth science

12:53

writer for five thirty eight beast in minneapolis

12:56

minnesota thank you for joining us yeah

12:58

thank you so much

13:00

current friday is supported by flip and

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this week i'm a new yorker radio our will hear

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14:29

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wherever you get your podcast

14:47

this is science friday i'm sophie bushwick

14:50

across the globe hundreds of

14:52

millions of people have been dealing

14:54

with extreme heat the three

14:56

most populated countries in the world

14:59

china india only

15:01

us have been gripped by heat

15:03

weeds over the past few weeks extreme

15:06

heat isn't just uncomfortable it

15:08

can be deadly especially for

15:10

our most vulnerable populations

15:13

in the united states he is responsible

15:15

for more deaths than any other

15:17

type of weather event joining

15:20

me to talk about what high can't do

15:22

to the bodies and how we can protect

15:24

our health and safety is my guest

15:26

persuade show associate professor

15:29

associate professor health at florida state university

15:31

in tallahassee florida

15:33

welcome to find friday thank you for having

15:35

walk me through what happens in the

15:37

body when we're exposed to extreme heat

15:40

i know from personal experience that i

15:42

get covered in sweat and my face

15:44

turns red but what's going on

15:46

inside how to human organs

15:49

systems react to he served

15:51

wonderful question is so humans

15:53

are warm blooded creatures so we have to maintain

15:55

a consistent core body temperature to function

15:58

properly so essentially

16:00

this is an energy balance problem when are exposed

16:03

to extreme heat for a long period of time or

16:05

we succeed don't want our body heat stores

16:07

heat stores gain heat that's going to increase or core

16:10

body temperature to dangerous levels though

16:13

our body is pretty good at a coping with

16:15

eat and environmental threats so the skin

16:17

and the central nervous systems have the ah receptor

16:20

second sense woman

16:22

and it's respond by two primary

16:24

mechanism really sweaty

16:26

just as you mentioned which is our most

16:29

effective and energy efficient

16:31

method and the second one which we don't

16:33

think about as much is increasing blood

16:35

flow and trying to

16:37

dissipate heat from the carb of our bodies

16:39

your skin so sweaty way to

16:41

average going which can be kind

16:43

of miserable what is really are most effective way

16:45

to call our bodies down that

16:48

when there are hotter endorsing conditions

16:50

we can start to see that that is

16:52

restricting the rate of our

16:54

sweat meal do that for usually core body

16:57

and actually to dehydration are increasing

16:59

plaza when he to the skin it's

17:02

kind of a complex miss penis and but essentially

17:04

increases our heart rate are hard to

17:06

not eat his contract the amounts

17:08

of blood being pumped to

17:11

our skin and essentially censor body

17:13

in or cardiovascular system have to work harder

17:16

that can lead to increased risk

17:18

of adverse cardiovascular events

17:21

such as heart attacks or strokes

17:22

and how does a sex change

17:25

when the a heatwave lasts for many

17:27

days or even week

17:28

great question we know that

17:30

heat waves kids the

17:32

now we have and or humid conditions

17:34

for more than today's the consecutive

17:37

days can stream human body

17:39

further there's unfortunately not a lot as

17:41

evidence for laboratory studies there

17:43

some primary evidence that

17:46

, that there is accused of effect

17:48

of he came in the body over

17:50

multiple day period so essentially

17:54

been stressed over multiple days doesn't give the body

17:57

the ability to dissipate that heat to courthouse

18:00

you restore some as normal bodily functions

18:02

and to rehydrate so these

18:04

longer prolonged periods of periods of

18:06

i can't stress or bodies of about the short

18:09

term and over the long period which

18:11

is really exciting i researched the tournament

18:14

and what about heatstroke when

18:17

does the body's reaction to heat

18:19

sort of cross that line and become heatstroke

18:21

yeah so while the symptoms

18:23

between heat exhaustion and heat stroke

18:25

are fairly similar

18:27

the start of gold standard is near core body

18:29

temperature is rising above a hundred

18:31

three degrees fahrenheit on sweeter

18:34

hundred four degrees fahrenheit and

18:36

it's going to be accompanied by some of the same symptoms

18:39

as it seeks austin senses

18:41

some mental health and confusion the

18:43

news nice yeah it

18:46

can be accompanied by either

18:48

access wedding or in if one

18:50

is getting dehydrated losing the ability

18:52

to sweat and are

18:54

potentially blacking out or losing consciousness

18:57

how fatal is

18:58

heat stroke sure is so each

19:00

show if not three is a

19:02

new rapid fashion can be quite fatal

19:04

is essentially overwhelming multiple

19:07

or the else the cardiovascular respiratory

19:09

mean ah system

19:11

the happy and said

19:13

sports medicine in their variety of

19:15

other a medical professions house the

19:17

pretty tried and true techniques to call the

19:19

by down rapidly for example

19:21

cari string institute and united states

19:24

has pioneered to techniques to cool

19:26

about a year and essentially put someone in

19:29

an ice bath or a foreign having

19:31

an ice bath so in a bag

19:33

bring someone in a bag for vice

19:36

until their car to buy temperature the

19:38

lower to a safe level before transporting

19:40

them to a healthcare saudi for for the care

19:43

sound effects are essentially just a very

19:45

very cold bath

19:46

it is it's

19:48

that type of thing that would prefer polar

19:50

bear but how can be lifesaving

19:53

and who isn't most at risk

19:55

for adverse health effects

19:56

the heat so everyone faces some

19:59

rest

19:59

extreme heat particularly during

20:02

the hot prolonged the human periods

20:04

that you mentioned that week

20:06

are most concerned about some groups that

20:09

includes older adults and people

20:11

with preexisting health conditions and seat

20:13

it affects many those who

20:15

says that we discussed owner adults

20:17

also a store heat for a

20:19

longer period of time or less capable

20:22

of dissipating at the also have a

20:24

lower ability to detect when they're thirsty there's

20:27

another key risk groups as well hurry

20:29

those include a low income households

20:32

who essentially have difficulty pain

20:35

for electricity some the poorest

20:37

households spend about sixty percent of their

20:39

income on electricity which

20:41

is comparable to the not spend on food

20:44

or transportation

20:46

i also worry about people who are outdoors

20:48

were that's outdoor workers are people who

20:50

exercise outdoors during these hot or

20:52

humid period

20:54

people who are and housed and you don't

20:56

have the ability to texas

20:58

a safer color spaces and finally

21:00

pregnant people and younger

21:03

children

21:04

and you mentioned a couple things the

21:06

body does that try to cool itself

21:08

down are sweating and

21:10

and having blood flow to the skin but

21:12

can you go into a little more detail about how that

21:15

works how does an uncomfortable

21:17

layer of sweat help my body stay cool

21:19

yeah great question so many

21:21

or simply dress with sweat

21:24

perhaps one way to think about it with d to compare

21:27

if you've ever visit our martha

21:29

the a dry desert heat for his

21:31

is a hotter human more heat is

21:34

just say it's the same the average year roughly

21:36

seat of the like a hundred degrees fahrenheit in

21:38

a dry desert heat you'd start to become sticky

21:41

because the sweaters i'll evaporated

21:43

almost instantaneously off your body then

21:46

i you are a coin unfairly effectively

21:49

the your your next concern and will be

21:52

replacing those fluids and avoided your hydration

21:54

and some of the challenges that that me ring

21:57

in contrast when you're not hot and humid climate

22:00

your body sweating and you're drenched with sweat

22:02

know contagious whole essential because

22:05

it's not going down

22:07

i know this vegas

22:09

hard to play i'm gonna keep playing

22:11

it and that's when eraser

22:14

to be drenched in sweat it depending on

22:16

the conditions and the difference between

22:18

the vice er nu skin and in the air and see

22:21

how human that would

22:23

serve dictate if your body can reach

22:25

some sort of balance or if he needs to go through an

22:27

air conditioned space to reach that

22:29

what happens if your body

22:31

if you're in a shoe made it their environment

22:33

so your sweats not really evaporating

22:35

as much as it needs to the cool you off but

22:38

you don't have an ac what what happens your

22:40

body of his unsuccessful in the schooling

22:42

after

22:43

the questions so essentially the body

22:46

will continue to gain heat and that's going

22:48

to increase or core body temperature the

22:50

vice to find a try to there's

22:52

only two levers of increasing it sweat rate

22:55

an increasing percentage skin the

22:58

didn't associate a lot of are key body

23:00

system start to not function

23:02

as well are facing charges

23:05

and this i in couldn't include

23:07

our cardiovascular system or respiratory

23:09

system kidneys are

23:12

so essentially advisers just

23:14

to shut down

23:15

i want to talk about other parts of

23:17

the world outside the united states

23:19

there there seems to be a misconception out

23:21

there that traditionally warmer countries

23:23

like india or pakistan are

23:25

better equipped to handle heat waves

23:28

but both of those countries have been really

23:30

struggling with this heat what's going on

23:32

here

23:33

how your appears to be a misconception

23:35

that people on hotter the north more

23:38

humid climates such as the tropics or

23:40

the neatly more suited

23:43

to cope with extreme heat but

23:45

there's no evidence the from human

23:47

bodies physiology that people

23:50

were indies hotter more humid climates tropical

23:52

climates are innately more able to cope with

23:54

heat so i

23:56

seen it another way it's much more likely that

23:59

as there is

23:59

the substantial bring of extreme heat

24:02

on his knees already and it's just

24:04

not be measured

24:05

and only eat percent of

24:07

india's population has air conditioning

24:09

how does a sci access affect

24:11

how countries are equipped to deal with heat

24:13

waves

24:14

the question in the theory of climate change

24:16

where i am changes made

24:18

an average temperatures it's making our

24:20

team heat events more frequent

24:22

intense longer lasting and geographically

24:25

widespread there

24:27

can be seen as transition to unfortunately

24:29

from been more for luxury to being

24:31

absolutely critical

24:33

or so the suburbs

24:35

the in places with hot and or hot humid

24:37

climate so at

24:40

for better for worse air conditioning

24:42

is or most effective intervention

24:45

to prevent he related illness

24:47

and death

24:49

you mentioned climate change increasing

24:51

the need for air conditioners what are your

24:53

other big concerns as climate change

24:56

makes heat waves more and more com

24:57

hurt extreme heat challenges public

25:00

health nuts when i'm most concerned about

25:02

but

25:03

extreme heat as a really profound implications

25:05

for are functioning of our economies

25:08

we know that it relative we

25:11

regular or everyday conditions

25:13

and much of this world

25:16

that extreme heat is sufficiently

25:18

hot superconductivity doing

25:21

lead to more accidents and injuries and

25:23

pair cognitive functioning the

25:25

limit the ability of our children to learn in school

25:29

this is already been on all encompassing the

25:31

challenge that we need to step up to the plate to

25:34

you've worked with some cities

25:36

to address this to meet seat

25:38

resiliency plans what are some

25:40

strategies for keeping see

25:42

the school of our cities

25:44

are

25:45

in the early stages of pioneering them

25:49

need strategies to accurately and

25:51

justly address extreme

25:53

heat

25:54

though for example near city

25:57

during covered nineteen

25:59

the subsequent

26:01

wave i decided that it wasn't

26:03

safe to open their cooling centers

26:05

your refugees and these are for context

26:08

or historically the try the most

26:10

common method that cities have used

26:12

to death to extreme heat i would be

26:14

to open a city on space like a library

26:17

the two people to cool down for a few hours

26:20

new york city switched to hanging out portable

26:23

air conditioning units to about seventy thousand

26:25

people including are

26:28

giving it out to so that the hey not only have

26:30

an air conditioned unit that they have the ability to pay for

26:32

it there's a radius of non

26:34

air conditioning based techniques and

26:37

perris people are looking at the most popular

26:39

one is green

26:41

infrastructure or cooling infrastructure

26:43

and pretty uniformly

26:45

across the u.s people are interested in these

26:48

whether it's a place like, orlando, florida

26:50

that is trying increases she can

26:52

be cover up to forty percent of i

26:54

didn't old century like miami

26:56

dade county which has world's first

26:59

chief heat resigns officer entanglement so

27:03

there there are many innovative strategies but

27:05

they're just starting to get off the great

27:07

the saints friday from w n y

27:09

c

27:10

studio we're talking

27:12

to chris wage l three studies climate

27:14

change and human health at florida state

27:16

university in tallahassee about

27:18

how people in you can deal

27:21

with extreme heat

27:22

and to these strategies apply to all

27:24

cities or are there are exceptions for

27:26

for example do these strategies

27:29

work just as well in new york as in

27:31

los angeles

27:32

yeah excellent point so

27:35

the strategy

27:36

zero can be summer

27:39

transferable if there's

27:41

either to to a specific location

27:43

so running with the issue of tree planting

27:46

a place like phoenix arizona where our

27:48

teeth and eleven arrive others are

27:50

working on the out into extreme

27:52

heat

27:53

there are gonna be considering

27:55

somebody are more complex tradeoffs

27:57

the tree planting so who and an area

27:59

the nexus is also seen challenges

28:02

doing them

28:03

the water availability and then also

28:05

perhaps prioritize trees that don't require

28:09

a lot of action water which

28:11

you primarily gonna be native vegetation but

28:13

that does provide a lot of shape

28:16

in a place like miami

28:17

the may have to think about which

28:20

trees are also resiliency storm surge

28:23

or is some salt water exposure

28:25

to when you're planning some

28:27

of these efforts

28:28

and what if someone's in a situation

28:31

where the cities are super hot

28:33

but they don't have trees or even

28:35

a sees are there other methods

28:37

that they can use to keep themselves cool

28:39

the question unfortunately the

28:42

sort of last resort strategy that we have

28:44

it's moments and , this is still under

28:46

development leno the pieces

28:48

climate change is outpacing

28:51

the ability to build solid evidence to adapt

28:53

to the one of these strategies

28:55

would be partially immersing part of your

28:57

body whether that's putting years

29:00

a leg who are and i'm into

29:03

i see a room temperature

29:05

the water didn't have to be particularly cold that

29:07

a to turning on the cold water or

29:09

a route have a shirt for

29:11

you're never met say twenty minutes to

29:14

provide some he belief that being

29:16

said one of the challenges as the lot of people

29:19

the who suffer from extreme heat

29:20

the not necessarily know ours

29:23

is cognizance that they're experiencing the symptoms

29:25

maybe they just feel a little off that day or

29:28

, so was still be one of the

29:30

challenges for them to recognize that it could

29:32

be seen heat and to take some action

29:35

and imagine

29:36

you even know that you

29:38

that heatstroke pinpoint the somewhat

29:40

like kobe we have to look

29:42

at multiple conversion lines of symptoms

29:45

the for example if one has dizziness

29:48

there's a heavy sweaty nord

29:50

or recently where heavy sweating and stopped

29:53

nicer weakness it's

29:55

best to air the side of caution then

29:58

start to call for help with that

29:59

from a neighbor

30:01

from who is checking in on you or

30:04

i called nine one one particularly as he moved

30:06

to more confusing are more

30:08

severe symptoms of he's shocked if

30:10

one has the ability to take their temperature that also

30:13

could help but looking back to be

30:15

at the symptoms and every other side of caution

30:17

to make lot of said

30:18

that's all the time we have for now i'd like

30:20

to thank my guest chris do a joe

30:23

associate professor of public health at florida

30:25

state university in tallahassee florida

30:28

thanks for joining us chris think sophie

30:30

speaking of how our warming

30:32

climate changes the world around us

30:35

we've got a book recommendation this

30:37

one comes from science friday

30:39

member town in duluth minnesota

30:41

the book i'm looking forward to reading the summers by

30:43

earth against and is cold water always

30:45

wins join us afloat thrive

30:48

in the age of droughts floods and climate

30:50

change these , in the face

30:52

of climate changes we build more

30:54

and more areas and later

30:56

more pavement we need to think about how

30:58

we can slow the flow of water through

31:01

our landscapes through our impacts

31:03

on our infrastructure smoke in this

31:05

book will be a very interesting read thanks

31:09

if you'd like to join tom in our sci fi

31:11

book club had to science friday dot

31:13

com slash book club our

31:15

book clubbers are currently reading

31:17

greed by blake crouch

31:19

can join the conversation and see what

31:22

we're reading next that's all at science

31:24

friday dot com slash book club

31:27

during friday's supported by flip and

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moses guide to how to be an earthling a

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science friday i'm silky bushwick

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32:51

you happy to be an hour north celebrating i went

32:53

public radio news local

32:55

science stories of national significance

32:59

my years nearly through and so

33:01

is the piping plover is nesting season

33:04

it is make or break time for these

33:06

small endangered shorebirds

33:08

and i heard that cipher producer

33:10

shauna bucks bomb is a piping plover

33:13

superfan hi sophie yes

33:15

you are correct time

33:17

, mean i've been obsessed with them ever since

33:19

i first learned about than six years ago

33:22

i know that it's pretty rare to see

33:24

a piping plover flit across the beach

33:26

but just how many of them are left

33:29

so there are roughly eight thousand

33:32

piping plover than the entire world and to put

33:34

in context

33:35

birders often get really excited

33:38

to see a rare bird like a snowy

33:40

owl but they're about twenty eight

33:42

thousand snowy owls in the world which

33:44

still not enough and not alone

33:46

but that's over to read heinz

33:48

number of painting clover

33:50

oh wow why are there so few

33:52

piping plover how did he become

33:54

the injured ccs

33:55

yeah so i didn't cover is like

33:57

to nest along the water out and open

34:00

which makes their babies a very vulnerable

34:03

to say a predator just gobbling

34:05

them up but a really big factor

34:07

here is well

34:09

i

34:12

know it's were taking a prime

34:14

nesting real seat on the beach good news

34:16

though there are people out there who are

34:18

trying to

34:19

protected up over you

34:21

actually got to go see some plovers up

34:23

close yup that's right hands

34:26

down best highlight of my year since

34:28

the last week i went to visit

34:30

a protected area out on for tilden

34:33

it's a new york city beach out in the rockaways

34:36

and some of the toughest terrain for these

34:38

tiny birds and i got to talk

34:40

with the volunteers dedicated to keeping

34:42

them safe

34:44

we're getting close to be my first my

34:46

first sighting over i rl ever

34:48

oh my gosh you're in for

34:50

a history and so excited i've

34:52

seen soon as i gotta hide his

34:54

every single time i see that america

35:06

gonna pull it off a district

35:09

it looks like they're must floating

35:11

above the fans have they're going so fast

35:15

watch though it is it

35:17

moves one of it's see him a fun to

35:19

get things to come up in the sand and if you

35:21

watched a little sick as well it's

35:23

watching it's time to do the same thing

35:25

and one of the thing series that they would say respond

35:28

a certain call for stuff like humans

35:30

aldrin said i always listen to their parents

35:32

if you've never seen one piping plover

35:34

sort of look like

35:35

cotton ball flopped on top of

35:37

to stick to little black ring

35:39

around their neck so tiny and really

35:42

easy to miss if you aren't looking for them

35:44

but luckily i had an experience

35:46

guide i'm personally very i'm the founder

35:49

of n y c pull over project i grew

35:51

up on the beaches of south jersey on the

35:53

southern tip of long beach island and holgate

35:55

new jersey which happens to be now

35:57

the most important place for believers and news

35:59

the but i'd never seen them

36:02

up close and fast forward to

36:04

the beginning of a pandemic i was out

36:06

here and marts of twenty twenty and

36:09

i saw a piping plover run by me and

36:11

then another and then another i saw like

36:13

six or seven and they were at close range

36:15

and then i saw dogs off leash i saw kids

36:18

up in the dunes i saw no signage

36:20

and it was just like what is going

36:22

on i mean i'm like shaking my sister

36:24

and i'm like sitting and excitement and also

36:27

anger

36:28

so chris decided to channel that anger

36:30

into action and he founded the

36:32

see over project

36:34

the next spring he partnered with a national park

36:36

service to set up closures all

36:39

along the rockaway peninsula their

36:41

staffed by a bevy of dedicated

36:43

volunteers and now and it's

36:45

second year the nonprofit has roughly seventy

36:47

five on tears and they talked

36:50

about two thirds

36:51

an hour so far this season seven

36:53

serbia are

36:56

closer a mouse

36:59

there isn't that

37:02

that area and we had one runner

37:05

and i close

37:07

the remainder my every year they right outside

37:10

of south , for a while

37:14

while close the beach the six in the birds

37:16

like will immediately accept them

37:19

closer because it's like not sufficient

37:21

verlag men and women saw this

37:24

the volunteers has a deceptively

37:27

hard job there the enforcers

37:29

and if someone go through the closer area

37:32

tries to bring in their dog which is a no

37:34

no they have to tell them politely

37:36

to walk around to another

37:38

most people are a special but

37:40

in new york after all right

37:43

now it's a very end of the breeding

37:45

season and chris

37:46

he not taking any chances and

37:48

i like up with wait and see them

37:51

the

37:52

where is he mad at a high tolerance mood

37:55

yeah we're i'm

37:57

you know you're going to get to talk you know you're going to get

37:59

a chat

38:00

the roughly forty five minutes i was standing

38:02

by the closer at forts hill the beach

38:05

crypt called the park

38:06

twenty one person who was

38:08

who the closure area and then there was

38:10

a group with a dog who had already

38:12

been us to leave but tried to enter

38:14

again

38:15

and i mean some people might think that that's heavy

38:17

handed but here listen we had a tix

38:19

stepped on on this base rate here two

38:21

days ago so we can

38:23

not be too careful

38:24

the chick was sent to a rehab facility

38:26

in delaware but and four

38:29

that we the check didn't make it

38:31

and these clover chicks are up against

38:33

a lot there

38:34

a predators is well long

38:38

for seeing ghosts crabs raccoons

38:42

feral cats dogs

38:44

we had a drone incident where birds

38:47

were attacking the drone and then everybody's

38:49

tix when everywhere you know when things like a drone

38:51

or fireworks so up all bets are off

38:53

right like it just creates a terror

38:55

of that

38:56

why then do the plovers insist

38:58

on coming back every year to such a precarious

39:01

placed nest

39:03

well the , truth

39:05

is that from delaware up to mean there's

39:07

very few beaches without people so

39:10

with that they are

39:12

creatures of habit and so they're going

39:14

to keep coming back to these beaches for food

39:16

sources

39:17

the piping plover my it up from

39:19

florida south carolina some as far

39:21

as the caribbean they arrive in march

39:23

but they don't certain nesting until april

39:25

and may this year there are forty

39:28

nine breeding pairs nesting amir

39:30

for the beaches and just to fledglings

39:33

that is tix that have learned to fly

39:35

and hopefully the be the i saw

39:37

import killed a beach will

39:39

be fledgling number three but

39:41

i've been covered born on beaches surrounded

39:44

by people like the city birds tend

39:46

to be smaller have lower survival rates

39:48

and just hate

39:49

her to be mature enough to fly it's

39:51

hard not to get discouraged it's hard

39:53

not to get sentimental but like

39:56

any this work there is

39:58

no time for that right and

39:59

hoover's don't have time for that rates are like the

40:02

next day i've seen this happen multiple

40:04

times they've lost one

40:06

two three four of their checks or

40:09

their nest was destroyed and then the next

40:11

day they're out it again calculating

40:13

and try it again and chris takes

40:15

his cue from the plovers just

40:17

keep going keep advocating for more

40:19

and

40:20

closures keep educating the public

40:22

these are large complicated beaches

40:25

but it's not impossible we have seen success

40:27

of endangered species like like

40:29

the bald eagle freight we can see bald

40:31

eagles now and new york city and the thing

40:33

that really keeps chris going

40:36

eating that next generation

40:38

and when i can so young people like

40:40

that's apparent that's a check like

40:43

really close by i mean

40:45

that's like such her a gift

40:47

to be able to do that i feel like i'm passing

40:49

along something that someone was kind

40:51

enough to pass to me

40:54

present friday i'm sure sign of a

41:04

there are actually three different

41:06

regions in north america where piping plover

41:08

migrate each year some birds

41:10

nest and lay eggs along the atlantic

41:13

coast that includes the pulver as we

41:15

just heard about along new york city beaches

41:18

others migrate up to the northern great

41:20

plains and last but not

41:22

least some piping plover usb read

41:25

along the shoreline of the great lakes

41:27

different habitats mean different challenges

41:30

and different triumphs for these

41:32

keepers

41:36

joining me now is michigan radio reporter

41:38

and leicester crown to tell us more about

41:41

his reporting on the fighting over

41:43

population in the great lakes region

41:45

leicester welcome to science friday

41:47

either good alliteration there

41:49

so has

41:51

it been a good year for the piping plover as in

41:53

the great lakes region

41:55

it's pretty good you're simply because there were

41:57

a lot of six this year

41:59

we

41:59

the head about an average number of nesting pairs read

42:02

around seventy one nesting pairs across

42:04

the area it for different

42:06

states and ontario and across

42:08

all five great lakes butts

42:10

most of them like usual are concentrated

42:13

in michigan

42:13

and how does this year's population compared

42:15

to previous years

42:18

the population of nesting pairs is pretty

42:20

close to what has been for the last few years

42:22

is kind of plateaued but we've had some rough

42:24

years because of high water on the great

42:26

lakes and as you know the the

42:28

nest on the sand in and

42:30

right next to the water and the it

42:33

doesn't take much for their nests become inundated

42:36

you recently took a trip to the sleeping

42:38

bear dunes national lakeshore what

42:40

did you learn about piping plover nests

42:42

there

42:42

oh how to do wildlife

42:45

biologist their vince cavalry and he

42:47

basically said they don't put a lot of effort

42:51

simpli sitting on the sand

42:53

and kicking their backs eat out and making

42:55

a little depressants in the sand and

42:57

that's where the female will lay her eggs they

43:00

then typically line that the nascar

43:02

with cells or small pebbles

43:05

and that's the entirety of the next

43:07

we just heard about what

43:09

the piping plover is are up against on new

43:12

york city beaches but what are

43:14

the biggest threats to the piping plover

43:16

in the great lakes region

43:18

mostly predators mean

43:20

we see a lot of raccoons and crows

43:22

that are you know getting in and getting the nest

43:25

or a killing an adult and and recently

43:27

in the last few years we've seen

43:30

a return of and endangered

43:32

south and the the merlin

43:35

and with that bird these

43:37

been telling the adult piping

43:39

plover so it's the wildlife officials

43:42

have officials lot of lot of to

43:44

make you do you kill the

43:46

predator bird to saved the piping

43:48

plover or do

43:50

you find some of the way nonlethal

43:53

way to deal with these predators are

43:55

so that you have a population of i think pullovers

43:57

it's it's a tough decision for them

43:59

the after hanging out with the great lakes plovers

44:02

you feel positive about the future of this

44:04

population

44:05

i really do because of the number

44:07

of six the were hatched in the wild this year

44:09

there were at least two hundred thirty

44:12

one six hatched in the wild

44:14

and then there were some other eggs that were saved

44:17

by the biologists because a predator

44:19

might have killed one of the adults so

44:21

there were an additional eleven six

44:23

that hatched in the captive ring center from

44:25

abandoned eggs so that's a big number

44:28

when you're talking about only seventy one nesting

44:30

pairs and now you got something like two

44:32

hundred and forty two chicks that have been introduced

44:35

into the world that's that's good news

44:37

and as by any means thanks luster

44:39

for sharing your reporting with us thank

44:41

you

44:42

after graham is a reporter for the environment

44:44

report at michigan radio faced in

44:46

ann arbor michigan

44:50

one in we love your advice i

44:53

settle a pods a group of animals

44:55

that includes squid and octopuses

44:58

and gas i know cephalopod

45:00

we kept and last month but

45:02

our fascination with these critters

45:04

is year round and we're

45:06

not the only one earlier

45:09

this month a team of researchers unveiled

45:11

the oct a glove a device

45:13

that can latch on to slippery objects

45:16

underwater here to tell us more

45:18

about the octopus inspired gloved is

45:20

michael bartlett assistant professor of mechanical

45:22

engineering at virginia tech based

45:24

in blacksburg virginia

45:26

michael welcome to science friday

45:28

i don't be afraid to be here with you thank you

45:31

third at the beginning why did you look

45:33

to octopuses for inspiration

45:35

the octopus with an absolutely amazing

45:37

creature we know that has a arms

45:40

but it also has over two thousand

45:42

suckers across those are

45:44

it also has

45:46

mechanical sensors and

45:47

mikel factors which allowed to actually feel

45:49

unsafe environment

45:51

and importantly it's brain is

45:53

actually distributed throughout his body

45:55

though it can control his arms his if

45:57

he's an and it can do all of this

45:59

getting information from the sensor and

46:02

processing and a spray in across his body

46:04

these all back contribute to why it's so great

46:06

at grabbing things underwater

46:08

yeah i really think it's a combination

46:10

of that suction control the

46:12

sensing and then the processing of that

46:14

information to them control the manipulation

46:17

and what that does this is actually allows the octopus

46:20

to individually control those

46:23

two thousand and it he said i am a

46:25

hard enough time controlling my ten fingers

46:27

i don't know how the octopus control over

46:30

two thousand suckers on eight arms

46:32

so with our system we have an adhesive

46:34

which can mimic those suckers we then just

46:36

micro light our sensors which allow us

46:38

to minutes those mechanical sensors the

46:41

take all that information and then prophecy

46:43

in a microcontroller so that allows

46:45

us to have this synthetic nervous system

46:48

this if he's in control so that combinations

46:50

that really gotta started with the article

46:53

and walk me through with the final

46:55

product with this club looks like get and how

46:57

it works

46:58

yeah to what we had as we first needed

47:00

to develop the

47:02

fuckers are the adhesive and this consists

47:04

of a rubber talk about

47:06

the size of a raspberry

47:08

the have a pin number eight on pop and if we

47:10

change the shape of that membrane we can quickly

47:12

turn off

47:13

and turn on occasion so we

47:16

use what's called a micro light are sensor

47:18

and what's that micro light are censor lot of to do

47:21

they put it next to an adhesive

47:23

we could actually them see the environment

47:26

when you have the optical of on what you have

47:28

is an adhesive with the sensor at

47:30

each of your fingertips so

47:33

all you have to do is with this glove

47:35

on his move towards an object underwater

47:38

at that point the sensor will be looking

47:40

it depends what's near it and as soon

47:42

as you get close to an object it automatically

47:45

turns on the adhesion or the fucker

47:47

then you are then had passed to whatever

47:49

was beneath your hands with a he isn't

47:51

though user doesn't even have to grip

47:54

on to the object that the glove does it all

47:56

that's that's incredible what what kind of stuff

47:58

can pick up yeah

47:59

exactly right all we have to do

48:02

is get close and then we can grab that object

48:04

automatically that allows the pick

48:06

up all kinds of thing

48:08

so in our testing we picked up plastics

48:10

and metals you picked up flag objects

48:13

and curbed objects and we picked up hard

48:15

and soft thing for example

48:17

with you're actually able to put a little toy

48:19

car the bottom of the fish tank and as

48:22

you approach it with the optic love with just a single

48:24

thinkers it you can pick up that to a car

48:26

and move it around in the water and then

48:28

it will automatically relief that car

48:31

as soon as you're done oh wow

48:33

and how do you hope people will use this technology

48:35

in the future the i think either one

48:37

of the most compelling a potential

48:40

use cases would be for some kind of rehabilitation

48:43

or assisted devices so if a user

48:45

has his glove on and let's say they need some help

48:47

picking up objects maybe taking a drink

48:49

of water

48:51

uber be just get their hands close

48:53

to an object the optical of would

48:55

just the task to that cup for example

48:57

and then the user could actually then not

48:59

have to grip that are squeezed the but

49:02

just use the glove for think it could be

49:04

fun in situations underwater

49:06

things like scuba diving

49:07

maybe even different kinds of file

49:10

sampling underwater you know what kind of

49:12

fun for us to is what if we

49:14

could make a robot that

49:16

with soft and affordable just like

49:19

the octopus

49:20

then took this it he then and sensing

49:22

approach and then put that across that robots

49:25

then we would have this really i think amazing

49:27

all the metics system that looks like an

49:29

octopus grip like an octopus in

49:31

a different day you know can swim for the

49:34

ocean like an octopus a little octopus

49:36

robot exactly

49:38

michael thank you for joining

49:40

they'll be thank you so much for having me

49:41

michael bartlett is an assistant professor

49:43

of mechanical engineering at virginia tech

49:46

based in blacksburg virginia

49:49

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