Extra Sensory Pawception

far beyond the sixth sense. We'll also take a look at some human supersensors, including the future of cyborgs and a real life daredevil superhero. Are you a supertaster? Do you find broccoli, grapefruit, coffee, cabbage, or spinach completely inedible because of how better they are? It's so you may have more taste buds on average than others, allowing you to taste with greater intensity. Specifically, super tasters have greater

numbers of what are called bungeiform papilla. There these little tiny bumps on the surface of the tip of your tongue. They're called bungeform because they're shaped like little mushrooms. Inside each of the papilla are a cluster of taste buds, and each taste bud contains around fifty two a hundred and fifty taste receptor cells. So here's how it works.

These cells specialize in different flavors. Different receptors bind two different chemicals that are generally separated into the categories that sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and new mommy. You may have been taught about a taste map in elementary school that different parts of the tongue are responsible for tasting different things like sweet, sour or salty. But they lied to you. They lied to

your sweet innocent child self. The different types of taste receptors are found all over the entire tongue and are even diverse with in the same taste. But you can actually do a fun little experiment to see if you're a super taster, which I'm going to inflict on my guests in just a minute. Here, coat your tongue in blue food, die and admire the fact that you just

blue yourself. Then get one of those little binder rings or use a standard hole punch to make a hole in a piece of white paper, hold it up to the tip of your blue tongue and now count the number of bumps. These are the little fungeiformed papilli that we just talked about. Most people will have about fifteen to thirty five papillae within that six millimeter diameter circle,

but supertasters will have thirty five to sixty. And for those of you who find you seek out ghost peppers and blue cheese, if you counted less than fifteen papilli might be what's called a non taster, so you can tell your friends you actually have a medical reason why you use way too much salt. Joining me today is Jamie LOFTUS activist, coder, co host of the Becktail Cast, and zamboni expert. I great to have you. Thanks for

having me, of course. Okay, so I'm just gonna like, I'm gonna put my tongue in the blue and then I hope it I don't know, I'm panding. I'm gonna how you put you put a circle on your tongue, Yeah, well on the try to do it like near the tip, not on the very tip, but yeah, like near the tip because that's where the blue is. Yeah, there you go. Um and so uh so, now we've got unfair blue, and we have little um circle so that we can count the number of papilla within the circle. Jamie is

really struggling, so I'm going to do her first. All right? Is that enough? Yeah? So I've counted the bumps on Jamie's tongue. I didn't realize I had such a horrible throbbing tongue until you had to keep it out of your mouth for drying out of your mouth. So most people have fifteen to thirty five pilly within six millimeters and you have fourteen, which I mean, I bet if we did it a bunch of times, which we're not gonna do, you get an average of fifteen at least

and then maybe more. So you're normal. So I've got but like on the lower side. Um well, I mean again, we'd have to take an average of your entire tongue. True, So I bet you're just completely normal. Okay, my turn, your turn, But I gotta re blue. I would go for another day. I gotta blew myself again. You got to yourself again? There's this uh so wait wait, less just means you can so if there's more pilla, can you taste? Bet there was? Yeah, more papilla means you

can taste better. If you count less than fifteen, you're non taster. Hell yeah, So that means you can't taste as good. Do you like season your food a lot? Yeah? Maybe you are on the lower end of tasters. I put like, yeah, I put all sorts of fun up stood way more salt than most people. Maybe you are. It could be that you're like actually sort of on the lower end of the taste spectrum. I think that that is a superpower because I can eat really shitty

food all the time. Nice, big, big financial boon. Nice. Yeah. Alright, So is my tongue still blue? Yes, Okay, I'm gonna put it's on now. Okay, I'm going to get a little too close. And I count eighteen, So that wasn't the bluest area of your tongue. I would hazard to guess there were probably two or three more I didn't see. Okay, Yeah, that seems about normal. Okay. Um, it's like fifteen to thirty five. Uh and then if you count like, if

you get thirty five to sixty, you're actually a super taster. So, um, is that good? What is that? So? It means that you're being helpful. No, No, No, it's it's that you have way more papillae than normal, so you're gonna be very sensitive to, uh, to taste, so like really bitter flavors.

And I've wondered if I'm a super taster because I'm very sensitive to taste, but I've suspected that it's not so much going on with my tongue, but it's that I'm I'm like smell more than normal, and smell has a lot to do with taste, So like, uh, you're as you're eating food, it's you're also smelling it, and then that's sort of like combines in your in your brain to form like, oh, this tastes pleasant or it

tastes like donkey ass. Also, I'm actually sensitive to this ingredient in food coloring, not not in the blue stuff, but in the red. You know that there's that like diets and stuff, so cut pink cupcakes or red velvet cake that uses that that red dye number forty UM taste really bitter and disgusting. It tastes like a bunch

of asks to me. Um. And it's actually not made out of uh, it's not made out of ground up beetle but but like I mean, some dyes some die was but this is just artificial yeah, old school um, but it it still tastes like, still tastes like beetle ass, even if it's not made out of beetle ass. And that's probably because I have more uh taste receptors that

can pick up on the bitter flavor. So like I was at a Christmas party and there was all this like red um cupcakes and they looked yeah because of Christmas, And like I ate when I'm like, tastes like this

tastes like bugass. And I don't know why I love the taste of chemicals in my food, which is why I will die before sixty love it, I mean probably because like that's that's the only way you can get get that flavor is by like putting a bunch of like burn me filming, I don't care, just like pure citric acid in your mouth, just fizzing and bubbling away, like I can finally taste and taste. Childhood, we had this.

Do you remember that that period of time? You probably didn't care for this period of time where they were just dying foods and condiments. Random hated that I loved it. So I don't even like ketchup, but the green and purple ketchup just that was offensive. But I loved it. And there was also like they had I don't know, they had blue SpongeBob macaroni and cheese. Why loved it because under hear the sea, of course, and they had blue margarine that came in a bottle and stop it.

And I used to sneak downstairs and just have a pile of blue margins. Oh my god, for myself, who

are you? You're a monster? It was good. I mean, that is interesting because maybe maybe you are like I mean, I didn't do a survey of your entire tongue, but the you could be a non taster, like you could have slightly you were taste buds than average, and then and then that would allow you to and maybe the bright colors of the food would make it more appealing, because it's like, you know, some kind of visual stimulation to like make you get through that pile of blue margarine.

Come on another, goodpa, I guess you couldn't taste How terrible that should be. No, I think I was more connected to the idea of how fun it was more the man taste gross. I also used to eat SpongeBob macaroni, but in the normal color of like neon orange. I mean, yeah, we all know and love there was a blue option. I remember it was like twenty five cents more. I had to argue with my mom it should be it should be free. They should they should pay you to

eat blue macaroni. It enhanced my experience. I'm like, we're going to have to pay them. Yeah, I bet you'd love those, Like, um, do you like those rainbow bagels and like, have you seen that? I've seen them. I've never had one myself, but I wouldn't be able to taste the difference, right yeah, so yeah, I mean I don't think the food die actually can influences the taste. It's just that like unless it's that asked but die

the red dye. But like I do think it's like you expect a certain flavor to come with certain colors, so like like red and green should be like vegetables or fruit and like um, and then like the yellows and browns and stuff, you could have more savory stuff. And like purple is an I guess grapes purple flower. I'm okay with purple food, Like I like purple potatoes and stuff. Yeah, I like. I mean I'll eat not purple, not purple ketchup? What a purple margarine? Which is chemical

base to begin? I guess if it's in Like, if you're making mashed purple potatoes and you use purple margine, it's just gonna get lost in the purple. So that I love it. So I want to go on an imagination journey with you. Will you join me? Of course? Thank you for asking. So imagine if you could taste with every part of your body. That sounds horrible, Okay, it's like, it's a fair point. It's a fair point that it's horrible, because yes, we could taste our own underwear,

in our own sweat and the ground and dog faces. Yeah, I feel like the majority of stuff in the world is not stuff I want to taste, right, But are there any positives to this? Like, because I was thinking you could go to a grocery store and just feel everything. Oh, if you're in the right space, that would be great, right, What would be like the best? Like would it be a grocery store, because like the grounds kind of nasty.

I know, Well, I guess there's no place unless you have someone covered in a delicious sauce carrying you everywhere. That sounds that sounds lovely, regardless of whether you can taste everywhere. I was covered. If I had some sauce boys to carry me arous boy in delicious areas, then I think it would be great. Or maybe you would

find out that things that look disgusting. I don't know, everyone's licking in the ground, all right, Well, you get a couple of sauce boys to carry around the grocery store, and you touch all the milon to touch, well, I guess melons. If you just touch it, you're tasting the rind, right, so you have to get into you kind of have to smush you gotta get you gonna also higher someone to you know, get to the good part because you're tasting a lot of wrappers right right right complicated also

sounds like something that would be easily I don't know. Well, if you're tasting, is that does that mean I'm very wet? Well? Why would you? I mean, I guess you would sort of be wet, right, or because you're a tongue you're just dry, dry tongue everything. Yeah, you're just dry humping fruits all the time. Chicken. Oh, you could be a vegetarian because you could just feel up a live chicken. Oh my god, that's that's a great hack. You could

just you just touch an animal. But that's scary because then if you were like hanging out with your parents, would you just if they were delicious, what would you you'd hug them a lot would be And also, okay, other questions, would you be full? No, you know you're just like like, are you full after licking a chicken? No? It sounds that sounds scary. What if your closest like friend, you develop a taste for a friend and you're just like this trusted, confident Yeah, I could see that being

a problem. But then you could like you just carry along some snacks and eat those, so you don't eat your friend vampire right right, like a flavor vampire vampire trying to Yeah, so I bring this up because catfish are actually a giant tongue you yeah, okay, So yellow bullhead catfish has over a hundred and seventy five thousand taste buds all over its body. It's wet, slippery body.

What's going on in its mouth the same thing. Well, it's got the highest density and its whiskers, you know, the little like the little flanges that come out of its mouth, I know, adorable. So it actually has a good reason for this because it's around in the dirty, muddy parts of the water, scraunge around all that fish dookie.

It can't see very well because it's very silty. So in order to hunt its prey, which are like little fish, snails and so on, they need to be able to like taste taste everything around them so that they can like, you know, if they rub against something that's like they're like, oh, and then the flavor and then they eat it. The catfish is a dirt freak. That's yeah, intense. Yeah, they're pretty freaky. They just like roll around until they find something.

You just gotta goatee just rubbing up consuming it. Also, do you fish? Are you a fisher? Fisherwoman? My mom used to hook up with them. I turned on a boat. She had sex with them. I was a boat assistant, but only for a well because I was thinking, like, if you caught a catfish one of these catfish that bodies are tongues when when you hold it up like look at my big fish, and how cool I'm You know, it's tasting you before you even get to taste it, which is a delicious irony. I think that I mean,

good for them, good for you, catfish. So I'm going to move on to another super sensor that this time it's more about smelling odors. So the jewel beetle can detect fire up to fifty miles away. And why something you might not expect or really want. It is very horny for dead trees. It wants to, yeah, it wants. It wants to burrow into the dead tree because it's gonna lay its eggs in there. They are a type of borer beetle. The beetles have sex with each other,

am I saying? Okay? So they do, but then they're like, but I want to be near a tree, right. The tree is more like the unwilling the trees like a surrogate. Right. But it kind of kills the tree too, which is, you know, not great. So it prefers these dead or dying trees because it wants to get in, like deep in there so that the little larva can eat what's called the canbum in the flim freaky okay, so that's

that's like the guts of the trees. Uh. And then but a healthy tree is going to have insect fighting capabilities, so it's going to produce pitch and tar and resin and trap them. Like that's how we get Jurassic Park because it in cases the flyer mosquito. And then Jeff Goldbloom has sex with a dinosaur and my favorite part of the right, we all love that part. And then they have a bunch of like Jeff goldbluem a sores that go around and rereak havoc and find a way

so they're okay. So yeah, they're just like the beetles, get too horny and it kills them. Well, right, So the beetles are competing to get to the tree first so they can burrow in there lay their eggs before anyone else. It's like a bunch of soccer moms swarming the parking lot to a private school. And then do they stay with the eggs or do they bail? I

think they bail. But firefighters will get swarmed by these beetles. No, And it's must be a real treat to be a firefighter, risking your life, getting smoke all over, and then like beetles insult to injury, rost, beetles pooping out eggs like just lot know, but can you agin just beetles everywhere? So apocalyptic. I killed a very pregnant fly once on accident.

It was, oh my god. I still have dreams about it. Something. No, I don't like smushing bugs, not because I'm a humanitarian, but because their guts really discussed me and so, and there's always way more than you think. Yeah, it's gonna it's like a really tiny, little, teeny tiny bugg and you squish and it's like like piles of white goo. Just like where is this coming from? What was this

used for? I don't know? Are you just a big googball? Well, we're gonna look inside of this beetle by smushing it around in our brains. Yeah. So how do they detect fire from so far away? They actually have this really complex system of smoke detection and infrared heat radiation sensors that work together to pinpoint precisely where smoking fire is coming from. So they smell from their antenna because life

is weird. Uh, They have olfactory receptors on their antenna and they're able to detect chemicals found in smoke, and they're so sensitive they can actually differentiate the different chemical profiles of species of trees like oak or pine smoke like a redwoods burning better. Can they travel fifty miles to get to that tree? Yeah? Yeah, they can fly their airborne and coming towards trees. But they also have

infrared radiation sensors in their abdomen. So there are these very sensitive fluid filled bulbs and then when the temperature heats up around the bulbs, the pressure inside this goofy water balloon builds up and then that's measured by a neuron and then it sends a signal to the little beetle brain that goes like, hey, it's hot, man. But it's like very very sensitive, more sensitive than like when you feel, you know, like heat on your skin, and

so they detect very small changes. And so so how are these two things connected of like you feel the heat and then you look for smoke or these separate systems. Now they kind of get all intermingled in the brains. So like you have these two detectors, the radiation in the smoke, and then using both of those sets of data, their little tiny beetle brains triangulate exactly where the smoke is, and that's how they can find it from so so

far away. That's such a long way for eggs, you're going to bail on anyways, a real journey, high effort for a very low effort. Parents, bad parenting. What if you were bitten by a radioactive jewel beetle? Would you gain the ability of super smell? Well, some already have this skill, but it may be more of a curse than a blessing. Hyper Osmia is a rare condition in which you have a heightened sense of smell. Causes can be genetic or due to hormone levels, environmental factors such

as medications, or even lime disease. Having a highly sensitive sense of smell can cause great discomfort, nausea, and be really distracting. I have a fairly sensitive sense of smell, and when someone cracks open a cannatuna, it feels like the ocean just parted in my face, and I hate it, So I can really sympathize. Just imagine how disgusting it would be to be able to smell someone's gym socks from across the room. But if you're curious what it's

like to have super smell. Good news, we're all endowed with night smell vision, smell a vision, whatever. Researchers found that smell sensitivity is linked to the circadian rhythm being strongest right before bedtime. How did they study this Well, they threw some adolescence as Super Awesome in lab slumber party with a really strict bed time to establish a

stable circadian rhythm. To test their odor threshold, they had the kid smell what the study calls and the this is a direct quote and I'm not kidding about this sniffing sticks. These are a brand of lab created sticks with odors at known quantities, so you can test how sensitive someone's sensive smell is. The researchers found that the kids in the lame slumber party were better at huffing these sniff and sticks right before they went to bed.

So that means we're all taking off our shoes and smelling those juicy SoC odors right at peak smell an hour. The human body is a magnificent machine. Smell you later. We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be back with more stinking podcast. So have you ever wondered why we're ticklish. To get to the bottom of this, scientists tested tickling on rats. When the rats received a tickle, they laughed really, they emitted high pitched squeaks that are

associated with a heavy rat. They also wiggled around and jumped, just like a little kid when you're tickling them. The researchers found a specific pattern of activity in the somatosensory cortex, which is a fancy word for saying you're feely part of your brain when the rats were tickled. It's more

complex than just stimulating the nerves. However, there are rats had the same pattern of activity in the brain when the researchers playfully chased them with their hands, making little tickly fingers, you know, like when you're like, ah, the tickle monster is gonna get you. The study suggests that there might be a complex social reason for tickling, which

might also explain why you can't tickle yourself. Tickling is all about the unexpected, which is why when you get a soda and the fizziness touches your nose, you might feel it tickle. But what if you're like our next featured creature, where he sees the entire world through vibrations

and tickles in his nose. So star nosed moles use their noses in a really different way than you might expect, which generally you think of noses as being used for like smelling or to hold a mu stash, but they actually use it to see the world in a way that's like really weird. What do they use their eyes? They don't, they're blind, so their noses are really messed

up looking. They look like two hands kind of like and I was like, oh, maybe that was symbolism in that movie because the hands have like eyes in it, and like star nose moles use their like weird hands nose to put it past um, But maybe I'm just a big mole nerd, so um. So yeah, their nose looks like this pink, fleshy starfish and we'll we'll put a gross picture for you guys up on her Twitter.

And it can smell, But the main reason it has those like little nose fingers is so that it can feel the earth around it and feel vibrations coming off of its little tiny prey items. And then it's like it's like literally feeling this like vibration and zooming towards it. So it can eat a little insect. Woa, okay, this is okay, again a dumb question. But there's no dumb questions, only dumb people. There's maybe one of them. So we're using the noses eyes, Are we also using the nose

as a nose. Yes. Actually, it's one of the only noses that can smell underwater. So they they snort out air bubbles and then suck them back in and they're like, yeah, this smells like like p or whatever. That well, because you're not a fancy mole in your nose is very normal looking and doesn't have fingers coming out of it. It has a hundred thousand nerve fibers in its nose,

which is a lot. That's a lot, a lot. And it's the world's fastest eater, so it can decide whether to eat something within a quarter of a second and then just go for it, just go for it. Which I feel like I'm the world's fastest snacker because like I just I like pouring things into my mouth, like not even liquids, but just like discreet snacking. Yeah yeah, but you know, scientifically speaking, they got me beat. That's so weird. I don't think of like moles as like

very effective predators. They're about like him possible. Yeah, like to the little insects and worms, they're just this terrifying hell bees that can find them even if they're not making any sounds and just their hearts are beating and their moving a little bit. I've got a newfound respect for terrifying holes. I'd like there to be like a B movie of just giant moles that snoreful around and tunnels,

sort of like let's normalize hideous animals and children's movies. Yeah, look like have have some Pixar movie about a star nosed mole who wants to be a painter even though he's blind and and but the world only season for his freaky nose. But he finds a way. But he yeah, I mean how could he not. He can breathe underwy you can attack within a quarter of a second. And I don't want any of like that classic like we're going to give them all a makeover Princess Diary style.

It remains disgusting the entire time. In the movies called Star a mold story, it's a part of the extended A Star is Born you. So I'm going to talk about another freaky nose with you. So, vampire bats, I believe they are adorable. I accept that they're a little freaky looking. But they're these little tiny bats, and indeed they do drink blood. They don't kill people or animals. They just kind of take a little nibble and drink

some blood. Is that all they eat? That's all they So how do they know, like what the best spot is for maximum blood using. They actually have this really sensitive nose that has these little dimples and it's full of this protein called t r p V one. That's my science robot voice, cute. So these proteins have been modified in these bats to be able to sense heat

at this very very minute level. So their nose can actually detect very faint differences and heat, so they can like see like, oh, this part of the cow has a really active vein that I can explort right into. Do they care? I don't know why I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Are they like, well, I don't want to pick a vein that would kill someone?

Now they absolutely don't care at all. Um, So they're saliva contains an anti coagulants, so the blood doesn't like clot yeah, and so it's like, I just got to keep that blood of flowing. And these are very small bouts and their tongues have this little tiny groove in it, and the way they drink the blood is actually through capillary action. So capillary action is like how you can use paper towels to mop up fluids and how plants drink.

So they've got like little brawniest brawny tongues. Um, they have this very narrow tube in their tongue that like the way capillary action works is water is super sticky. It's like why when water gets on you, you're wet, because it doesn't just fall off. It's it's sticky and it likes to stick to itself, but it also likes to stick to the surfaces. So if the stickiness to a surface is greater than its stickiness to itself, it

will travel up that surface. So if you have a very narrow tube, that surface tension is not that great because there aren't that many molecules on that surface sticking together. So it's more sticky to the sides of the wall of this capillary and it just kind of like scoots right up into the bat's mouth. Wow, that's very efficient. Yes, they are very efficient, precise bloodsuckers. That's terrifying. Do you know what like region are they native to. I don't

know if they've actually seen one in person. So they're like in Central and South America and in Mexico. Yeah, they love the cattle there. We had a bad issue in my hometown. But they were big and dumb, so like fruit bats. I don't know, they were big, and my dad would leave the door open and so they were just flying to our house and like, where are

you from? From Massachusetts? Okay? Yeah, yeah, So there's a lot of big, stupid bats there and you just catch them in a blanket and then go outside and release them. That's scary because like their vectors for rabies and I'm always like freaked out about finding a bat because it's like, right, imagine just leaving your home open. And there's like video footage of me when I was a baby, just with fun,

fun memories or the bad baby here. So that's one way of like detecting something is through your nose, through the vibrations and heat differences in your nose. But elephants use their feet. Uh you would think that of the animals like their trunks would be heavy, would be yeah, but I mean their trunks are extremely sensitive, to be sure. But their feet are able to detect seismic information from up to twenty miles away. WHOA, Okay, so they can

like detect earthquakes before they even happen down. Yeah, that's crazy. Well I'm not sure if it's straight down because like

the further down you get it, think it's like it's denser. Um, but like in the soft soil that's gonna be conductive to the vibration twenty miles so they can hear warning calls from other herds of elephants through their feet and they get really so these mean researchers played these warning calls through the grounds like twenty miles away, and then the elephants over there, we're like getting really agitated because they're like, oh man, someone's like, yeah, I feel it

in my feet. Uh. So the biologists think they're capable of this because they have conduction of seismic waves up through the foot, through the bones and then through like the school and the ears. Yeah, it's why. So like we actually our bones are very conductive to like sound.

That's why when you talk, you like hear yourself a certain way, and then when you hear yourself recorded, you're like you I absolutely listen, Yeah, you sound disgusting because that's how you actually sound, and you're just not us. That's so upset and because sometimes do you ever, you're

just like, oh, this is I could deal with this point. Yeah, my voice sounds wonderful, And I think I finally, like, after having to hear my voice a lot, like I've gotten used to how like squeaky it sounds, because like through my bones, it's just so much lovelier. It's always pitched up. Yeah, listening, listen to this podcast through my bones,

and you're gonna be like, oh my god. This. Moles, elephants, and bats may have us beat with their supersensory noses and feet, but we're starting to develop impressive technology around touch. Artificial limbs are becoming more and more advanced, not just in their mechanical ability to hold things, but the really

important function of touch. There's a new prosthetic being tested at the Cleveland Better and Affairs Medical Center that connects force sensors in the prosthetic fingers to electrodes that attached to the residual nerves in the flesh above the amputation. The electrodes stimulate the nerves when they detect activity in

the artificial sensors. The trick is developing complex stimulation patterns that can mimic the many different types of sensation, the cool condensation on a glass, the squishy feeling of an overripe banana, or the slippery, wet feeling of an angry catfish tasting you with his tongue. Body. Hey, don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more touchy feely stuff after the break. Have you ever visited a psychic who brags about a sixth sense? Well, big freaking what most of

us have a sixth sense, maybe even more. Sure. There's touch, taste, smell, site, and hearing, but there's also appropriate exception. I know that sounds like a terrible sequel to inception or some kind of Harry Potter spell, but trust me, you probably have appropriate exception. And here's a way to test. If you do close your eyes, now, touch your nose. Congratulations. If

you succeeded, you have appropriate exception. Appropriate exception is the ability to sense where your body parts are even if you can't see them. Being able to touch your nose was actually big accomplishment. Think about it. Could you just walk to somewhere on the ground marked with an X with your eyes closed. Well, that's essentially what your hand just did. So how do you accomplish this. It's a lot more complicated than you might think. We have special

appropriate sceptor cells in our muscles and tendons. These cells are kind of like little gps is. They send signals to the brain with information about the muscle and tendons movement and location. They do this with the help of this little protein called Piazzo two. When a muscle stretches out, that Piazzo two protein opens its mouth and allows particles to flow into the appropriate sceptor cell. Then that cell fires and sends a signal to the brain saying, hey,

your muscles stretched out. That allows your brain to understand where your arm is based on how your muscles are moving. So scientists wanted to test to see if this Piazzo protein really was so important, so they removed it from mice vintoms. Mice showed no body awareness. They weren't able to walk. They kind of dog paddled on the ground. They reached limbs upward randomly they really looked like drunk

people on an ice skating rink. So you should think those little piazzo two proteins for allowing you to find your nose or mindlessly guy derrito's into your mouth. So you want to take a trip down to imagination station with me again? Yes? Here, you are here for it all right. So if you are a superhero with special sensory abilities, what would it be? What would I? Oh? God, I oh, I never have the right answer. There's question, there's loaded, there's no wrong answers, only wrong people. I

just don't want to be seen. Okay, so that's invisibility sensory and that was just a statement effect. Let me see sensory. Um, I don't want super vision. Yeah, that would suck. I don't any kid see people's ding dongs for miles way. Yeah, I don't know. That's a kind of perverted we want to see people's ding dongs. I don't want to perverted, wish. I wouldn't want to hear people's thoughts because I'm very petty. You'd hear about ding dongs all the time. Yeah, yeah, and to not that

that's out super touch, that might be good. Yeah, I think if you could turn it on and off like when you pet a cat. Can you imagine that would be amazing? Yeah, But then if you felt that all the time, then like when you stubbed your toe, you would die. That's true, if you would feel pain like times harder. Right, small sounds annoying. I have a pretty sensitive nose and it's bad. That's not good. Like I smelled burning all of us once, like and it just made me want to puke. And I don't even know.

Why do people always think that you're having like a stroke because the smell thing is really strong. Anytime someone smells something very specific, I'm like, we have to go to the Remember. I remember when I was a kid, I was like, there's something smells just awful, like like rotting something, and like my parents thought it was crazy. And then I was like smelling around the house like a dog. And then I finally found like this plant

that had started to rot and yeah, yeah, so that's curse. Yeah, it is a curse. Tuna. Like I mentioned earlier, it's just like Poseidon's butt crack and I can't I can't do it. Well, I used to eat it and then I think somehow, like your taste buds change or and I don't know. I think I just I think it started when I my mom gave our dog some tuna and then like there was hot tuna dog breath, and I was just like, no, this is bad. I think I would go with touch if I had to pick.

That sounds the least. Yeah, that sounds pretty good, and then like you could get some benefits from that super touch. I feel like I would Maybe this is cheating a little bit, but I'd want to be able to understand completely what an animal's expression means. So like like if my dog is making a face, I want to know if that's like pooh face where she has to go poop, or if that's just I want attention, so I'm going to pretend I have to pooh. So we don't even

have that for people, No, we don't. The reason I specify animals as I was thinking, well, maybe I would want to be able to detect lies or what someone's expression means exactly, but maybe not because I like to be lied to sometimes. I feel like if you wanted to do that sort of suit, you would just have to be a very particular kind of person that would be like, well, then I'm going to just manipulate people because I know what everyone's thinking at all times. I'm

too weak for that. And you can't ever ask something like do these like bright red jeans look good on me? Because then they'd be like, yes, Sweeney, they look great. Yeah. I need those lies. I need those lies make the world go around. So the reason I ask is platypie. Uh. They have a special sensory ability beyond the normal five called electro reception, which it sounds like an X men, doesn't it for animal? Yeah, So it's the ability to detect electrical fields. So first we got to understand what

the heck is a platypus. It's a it's a monetreum. So that's a very primitive form of mammal where they lay eggs and they don't even have nipples. They just can't use milk. Wait what Yeah, they just just leak men just like in a puddle of their own lactation. Well, I mean like it gets all in their fur and then the little baby is just kind of look at like they fur. I think I'm thinking of a pokemon. I don't know what plato pie. They have the bills, the beaver tails in the fur. Oh, I'm thinking of

the right pokem okay, yeah, that's yeah, it is. It's also a pokemon. What is that one called. It's like but it's like a big blobby yeah yeah, platypus thing, yeah, platyplex. So actually people used to think it was a hoax because they're like a bill and then a beaver tail and no nipples. But it's a mammal, Like it sounds like a yeah, it sounds like an idea you would

have on mushrooms. Yeah, but actually that bill serves a really interesting purpose because it has tens of thousands of electro receptors, which are these little cells that can detect electrical fields. Why well again kind of remember like with the catfish and the mole, they can't see very well in their environment. Platypie can see, but they're often in

like murky, silty water. So if they want to detect their little prey, like those little shrimp and worms and insects, they need a little boost so they can detect these very very faint electrical signals that are coming off of the prey. Because like we're actually we have electricity going on, like when your heart beats there's an electrical pulse there. Your brain activity are when your synapse fires, there's a

little electrical yeah, just very very faint in your muscles too. Um, so you you do have this electricity, but it's very minute, and so they are able to sense that. And they also have mechano receptors, which are like movement receptors, which detect physical motion, and then using both of those sort of like how the jewel beetle uses both of its sensors to triangulate. The platypie uses both of these two pinpoint prey in this very precise manner, and so hammerhead

sharks also have this ability. They have electra receptor pores in that weird hand or face of theirs. That makes more sense to me. I feel like I underestimated the platypus. Platypi are nuts. They have like yeah, like it's like a kid in class that you're like, this guy's a loser. Yeah, and then all of a sudden he can recite right whatever, he's magneto. Yeah, You're like, oh he can, Okay, he's sorry,

sorry for teasing you. Please don't kill me with your spooky powers, right right, it's the nerd that comes back for you, So the hammer had to be fair. Is the jock of electroc reception because it's basically jacket, because he's much more sensitive. They have what are called ampulea of Lorenzini pasta. I know it sounds like pasta, It sounds like delicious shark pasta, but they're these ampules are like bulbs full of electro conductive jelly and nerves that

are really sensitive to changes in electrical charge. And they can even detect prey under sand. Who yeah, so that's pretty important for them if they're like scraunging around and pray Adams will hide under sand to try to avoid being eaten those little jerks. Man sharks don't need to be more powerful, but you know, good for him, Yeah, good for sharks. Good for them. There, I like a sensitive jock. Yeah, and they're in their special powers. So

the electro reception is a close range sensor. You can't do it for miles pretty nuts, but um so so for the sharks, they can sense prey up to three cubic feet away, which is still pretty crazy. Like if I was a shark, I could like close my eyes and know that you're there and read your thoughts, you would like know what I was doing, or you would well just like know you're there, because like I can sense the electrical impulses coming from your your all your

muscles and stuff. I know I'm not saying that sharks can read your thoughts, but like could they? But I would be willing to roll the disode. I feel like if sharks were smarter, maybe they could since all of the synaptic information. Sharks are dumb? Are they dumb? Yeah? I mean sharks are fish and they're not super smart. What a waste of their power? I know, I know. So platypie can just since within several cubic centimeters because

they're they're pretty small in their little nerds. Yeah, it's dumb. I was like, I have to be in I wouldn't be in a platypus face. Well, so I read this thing that this factoid about how sharks can detect the charge between two batteries a thousand miles apart, and it's a little bit misleading because while it's true they're able to detect very faint charge, which is what the fact

it's sort of trying to get across. It's actually I mean, first of all, it's not a thousand miles distance, which right thought there could be a misinterpretation because like what they're saying is like you run a wire between two batteries thousand miles apart, in that very faint charge fits within three feet of a wire. Yeah, it's very confusing. Yeah, it's very confusing. It's so it's sort of a weird, weird fact that gets repeated and then um, also, I

think that's just engineering wise, not possible. I don't think you can run a wire, But right, has anyone who has tested this? I don't think so. I think it was it's just a way to say, like they're able to detect very faint electrical fields, but it makes them seem classic like they can find you a thousand miles away. Not true. Now, just don't get in these animals. Faces don't be within three ft three cubic feet of a shark.

That's just good practice, good sense. Yeah, So, Jamie, what do you think cows, butterflies, birds, bees, flies, cockroaches, and round worms have in common? Oh? Skin, nice, good one, thank you. Well almost but not quite true because bees and the other insects that I mentioned have stons. So you failed. I failed the test yet leave. So the answer to my stupid riddle is they can all detect

magnetic fields. Butterflies detect the Earth's magnetic fields in order to navigate during migration, so they know the direction of the field and then they go like, oh, this is north and this is south, and then they're able to go on their great migration. So this one's really interesting because we don't actually really know how this happens. Researchers are looking into it, but there's yet to be like a solid answer on how animals are doing this. Wow,

not even one species specifically, all of them. Yeah, so like some species we have a little bit of a better idea. So cryptochromes are another pokemon. Like this sounds fake, but yes, it's proteins that are found in animals um and they're associated with light detection, so they you know, like circadian rhythms and sleep cycles. The protein detects light and it's like, oh, it's bedtime now. But they're also thought to maybe be able to detect magnetic fields in butterfly,

birds and flies. But when researchers looked into whether this is what is helping bees, they have disproved that. So they put bees in this dark environment where they can't see any light. So cryptic, I know, just being in the dark night, the dark. But are the bees more scared of you or the dark? Are you both scared of the monsters? I'm extremely afraid of both. So cryptochromes

don't work without the presence of light. And they train these bees to detect, like they know bees can detect magnetic fields, and they train them to associate the magnetic field with a tasty snack, so they would like go towards the magnetic field and get reward. In the dark environment,

they could still do this. So the cryptochromes have nothing to do with it, and they don't know exactly why or how they can use the magneto reception, but they think that maybe iron granules in their cells could be responsible for it, because irons like it's encompasses, it's magnetic, but they metals, metals magneto bees. That's terrifying. Yeah, that's terrifying. So if you have anything magnetic, the bees can find you. Well that I mean, the bees will always find you

no matter what. And I know how critical they are to the world, but I need them far away from at all times. Do you think any of these researchers used their study for evil where they're like, I've trained a swarm of bees to follow these magnetic fields. I have bees you could really engineer, and you could just yeah, engine your whole plane, Like go to the President and be like like I am bees or and I have the power of bees, and they will do as I say.

And then the President laughs him out of the room and he's like it's like bees come hither, and like turns on an electromagnet or something and all these bees come towards God. I'd be like another Fox Sisters hoax. You could just be science to trick the whole world to become the b lord. I like this idea. Let's let's remove this from the podcast, and then I'm going to do it and I will, yeah, and you can

just pay me up to not tell anyone. So there's also the issue of cows and deer a finding themselves to the magnetic fields well grazing so from north to south, and researchers used the Google the Google Google imaging to study these pictures aerial satellite photos of cows and showed like, hey, look they're all aligning themselves from north to south, so other researchers couldn't replicate it. But then this one research group that tried to disprove it was proven wrong by

other researchers. So, okay, if you're cad, what are the cows doing? So the cows are aligning themselves from north to south, so like, but south heads north or vice versa, towards Santa towards Santa. Yeah, so the cows are trying to find Santa. A group of researchers showed this. Their research was questioned by this other group of researchers who said, no, you're wrong, But then that group of cow doubters was proven wrong. Researchers are so bitchy, I know. Can't you

just let the cows believe in Santa? Just let the cows look at Santa. The cow's eyes are watching God. I don't ask why is Santa God there? Yes, I do use them interchangeably. I mean, they both got beards, they're both omniscient, they both punished the wicked. Yeah, oh yeah, they're they're both are hateful omient Oh no, oh my Santa, I know they're the same. We have to ask the cows they're one and the same, and the cows knew it all along. The cows are trying to tell us,

so we kept eating them. We did. They're like, guys, stop eating us so we can tell you about Santa God. And then we're like, sorry, couldn't hear you? Over eating you? Over eating you? Yeah, this is why, this is why we can't have sensory hands, because right, yeah, well that's why I want the ability to see an animal's expression, because then I could see in the cow's eyes what it's saying. And it's an urgent message. First it's saying MoU and then it's saying don't eat me. But then

thirdly it's saying, Santa is God. Watch out. This is a very Eliza Thornbury school. It's exactly what I know. Why didn't Eliza like ever do anything useful with her powers. I know she's pretty selfish with it. I know, tell me a child, but it's like, come on, come on, she was supposed to be the smart one. But like, she never has animals, right, she doesn't have animals rise up against humans, kill everyone and establish a beautiful new animal world. I want to know what would happened if

Debbie had the power. I feel like she would have created an evil business. Oh yeah, so you guys remember Thornberry's Debbie Liza's Thornberry is a girl who could talk to animals. Debbie was she was cutie. But Debbie was the cool older sister who listened to like smashing pumpkins or whatever. Crop top. Yeah, she was cool. She was awesome. She wore like a flannel yeah, and then she she

was kind of grunge. Yeah, awesome. If Debbie could talk to animals, that show would have been a hundred percent cooler because she would have been getting drafts high, like. She would have been some Yeah, she had been doing dabs with girafts. She would have been you know, I think she would have met some evil animals and started a band, yeah, like Howler Monkey band, like really exploiting the animals to her own gain. And that is what I want to watch. That's a kind of late capitalism.

I'm here for I'm here for it. So humans can't use electro or magneto reception, but there are some examples of extraordinary alternative ways people have come up with to see the world. People who are blind have invented a form of flicking to help navigate the world. This is called human echolocation. It works similarly to bat echolocation. The clicks bounce off nearby objects, and people learn to identify the different sounds of the clicks when they're bouncing off

different obstacles. So you can do it in a few different ways. You can tap your foot or a cane, or tap your palette so like if you can click your tongue against your palet like and researchers have actually tried to quantify this, so they've worked with people who have become experts at echolocation, and not only have they found that they're able to identify different objects like cars and trees, but also found out that while echolocating, the

visual cortex of the brain becomes active. And this is not true of someone who's not practiced at echolocation. So you can't just click and have your visual cortex light up. It's years and years of practice and associating your clicking and echolocation is seen. So masters of echolocation can function similarly to decided people. Ben Underwood had his eyes removed when he was only three years old due to retinal cancer, and he taught himself to echo locate since age five.

He was able to play sports like basketball. He was able to skateboard and rollerblade and completely avoid obstacles. Tom Dewight is another expert of human echolocation. He's known as the Batman of Belgium, which I object to because Batman was lame compared to him. Tom Dewhite's skills were way cooler, So I feel like Batman should be called the Tom Dwight of Gotham. So, Jamie, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me. He got

anything to plug? Uh? Yeah, you can listen to my podcast I House with Caitlin Dorante. It's called the beck Del Cast. Every Thursday, we analyze a very popular movie through a feminist lens and it's really funnily learned. That's awesome. Yeah, thank you for ru new movies for us. All. I like I do that too, Like whenever I watch a movie, I ruin it in my head, so I feel like if someone else ruins it for me, it's just ticks

out of step. It allows people to hate us personally, right, right, I blame I can blame you instead of my overactive brain to be blamed. So you can follow me at Katie Golden or at co bird Writes, which I would totally suggest because birds are awesome. You can also follow us on Twitter.