Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Her name was Sin, but she's now known to many as Lady Dy. Born around two b c. Lady Dye was an important figure during the Han dynasty. She had an eye for the finer things in life and was considered one of the social elite. She wore mostly silk clothing and cosmetics such as blush
and powders to show off her wealth. Her lavish parties were catered with foods and wines only ever tasted by the royal family and the ruling class. She also entertained her guest with performances by musicians who played only for her, and when she wasn't hosting elaborate gatherings, Lady Dye could be found playing the guchin, an instrument typically studied by the upper crust of Chinese society. Unfortunately, for all the whining and dining she did, Lady Dye didn't get around much.
It was her stationary lifestyle that most likely contributed to her premature death. It's believed that at the age of fifty, she suffered a heart attack brought on by a high cholesterol diet. Her body was interred alongside her late husband and eventually her son, in tombs deep underground. Buried with her were clothing, boxes of makeup, musical instruments, eating utensils, and other personal items. However, it wasn't Lady dys life that proved to be that interesting based on what we
know today. She lived like many of her peers and died young, her lifestyle proving a little too rich in more ways than one. It wasn't until over two thousand years later in n that we learned about one thing
that set Lady Die apart from everyone else. As mouse Doong spread fear across China a vague threats from a capitalist nation, meaning the United States, citizens all over the country started digging bomb shelters beneath their homes, which is why workers at a hospital in the capital of the Hunan province had begun digging into the side of a nearby hill. They had only dug about one feet down
before stopping for a smoke break. What they didn't know was that just on the other side of the dirt was an open shaft leaking a flammable gas right behind them. They lit their cigarettes, which in turn ignited the air and dazzling bursts of blue fire. A team of archaeologists were called in to examine the scene, but the level of funding needed for a full investigation could not be procured, so they reached out for help to an unlikely source,
local high school students. Teens volunteered to dig and sift as they worked their way down fifty feet of clay into a series of cavernous tombs. Each of the three noble corpses occupied their own tomb, but it was Lady Dyes that proved to be the most extraordinary. In its center stood a coffin painted black, a color signifying death. Within that coffin were three others nested, one inside the other, painted in different color schemes to depict the journey to
the afterlife. They had been adorned with images of clouds, animals, and important places designed to tell a story of life, death, and rebirth. It was inside the fourth and smallest coffin where archaeologists made their most important discovery. Up until then, the mummies discovered in places such as Egypt had experienced significant levels of decay. Even with no exposure to the sun or the elements, their bodies had been desiccated into
little more than dry skin on brittle bones. Lady Die, however, was a sight to behold. Her skin was soft and pale, with a presence of moisture. Her arms and legs could still bend at the joints, and none of her organs had deteriorated. Even her hair and eyelashes had remained in place, and there were traced amounts of red blood in her veins. An autopsy was performed, the results of which gave doctors deep insight into how she might have lived when she
was still alive. They even found the vagus nerve, which is as thin as a hair and controls the expansion and constriction of the lungs. It often disintegrates with other body tissue as the body decays, but it was still present in Lady Dye. We know more about the Han dynasty today than we ever had before. All thanks to
Lady Die. Her near perfectly preserved corpse, as well as the array of items found inside her tomb, have shed a light on an era of China's story, long thought lost forever and there may still be more to learn, either from her or the other tombs still hidden beneath the streets. It seems the ancient Chinese understood that the preservation of their dead was just as important as the preservation of their history. Sometimes we just have to dig
a little deeper to find it. It's been said that the eyes are the window to the soul, though I'm willing to bet the eyes are more like windows in more ways than One look through a warped one and you're liable to see strange shapes or mismatched colors, or you might not see color at all. The way the eyes perceive light significantly affects how one sees the world. I mean, entire swaths of the Internet have waged war
over the color of one particular dress, a gold dress. However, there is a condition of the eye that doesn't affect how we see color, and it's a bit more complicated. It's called stereo blindness, and it affects three to five percent of the population. People diagnosed with stereo blindness or
unable to accurately determine the depth perception of objects. A forest of trees might look like one flat panel of green and brown, someone might knock over a bottle of soda on the table, not realizing it's six inches away rather than two feet. Neurobiologist and professor Susan Barry, also known as Stereo sus, suffered from stereo blindness in the nineteen fifties when she was only a few months old. During the first several years of her life, she underwent
a number of operations to attempt to realign her eyes. Unfortunately, they didn't have the intended effect, and she still had trouble reading road signs at a distance or seeing hands raised at the back of her classroom. Years later, she worked with a vision therapist who would help her achieve true stereoscopic vision. Bruce Bridgeman was another such person plagued by stereo blindness, and his story is somewhat stranger than Sue's. Born in nine, Bruce had always been a three dimensional
person living in a two dimensional world. Doctors examined him from a very young age, and while the idea of surgery had been considered, his parents decided not to pursue it. They let nature take its course, and Bruce lived a perfectly normal, if a bit flattened life. You see, while most people's eyes point forward, thus allowing them to perceive
depth and distance. Bruce suffered from a condition called exotropic strabismus, also known as lazy eye, except instead of only affecting one of his eyes, both of them pointed outward, hindering his vision. Like Sue, Bruce was also a neuroscientist and had studied his own vision since the nineteen eighties. He noticed how freeway signs were unreadable until he had already passed their exits, and how other people had trouble understanding of he was looking at them or not during a conversation.
It wasn't until two thousand twelve when Bruce got a whole new perspective on life. Literally. He and his wife decided to go see the new Martin Scorsese film Hugo, which was being shown in three D at the local theater. As the movie started rolling, Bruce slipped on his pair of three D glasses and marveled at how everything on screen seemed to jump out at him. He was able to determine the depth between characters and scenery for the
first time in his life. He never experienced a film this way before, and for two hours he felt like everyone else. When the movie ended, Bruce removed his three D glasses, expecting to re enter that flat, two dimensional world that he'd left behind earlier. Instead, he noticed how things were a little brighter. There was a lamp post across the street. And I'll say that again if it didn't sink in, there was a lamp post across the street. Hours before, there had been no such thing as across
the streets in Bruce's world. Now, scientifically speaking, there's no official proof as to what really happened to Bruce's vision, but the working theory is that the three D film jump started his visual system somehow. It realigned his eyes, allowing him to perceive depth. And while what happened to Bruce isn't something that can fix everyone facing stereo blindness, under his specific circumstances, it worked like a charm. Despite the apparent movie theater miracle, though there's still a lot
more work to do. Bruce continues to train his eyes and improve his stereo vision. So while the film didn't entirely cure him, it's obvious that the effects of three D technology made all world of difference. I guess you could say it was worth the price of admission. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.