Big Science of 2012

not take the year off. Maybe you didn't pay attention to everything that came out of the science headlines, but you you probably got some of these stories. These are the big ones. These are the ones where, uh, if you were going to talk science just with random folks on your commute to work or you know, at a dinner party, these are some of the topics who would have come up. So it serves to remind us that, hey, we had some really big, uh you know, landmark achievements

in science, and those are spilling often to where we are. Yeah, and um, actually we had some themes come out of this too, which we'll discuss. But it's kind of interesting that this was a year in science where you really saw a lot of innovation, of course, as you always do, but UM particularly by in the private sector and by citizens something called UM Citizens Science, which we'll talk about a little bit later. But yeah, there's a ton of

stuff to choose from. But we're going to hit the big items on the list, some of which we have talked about before, but we're going to UM just trying to cover them and say why they are so very important and why they are actually game changers to our reality. Really. So, first off, one of the big things about twelve was this was the first year UH in ages that we had we didn't have a Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Endeavor final mission, and in twelve its activities basically involved you know,

coasting down the street into storage. Yeah, I mean, basically what you saw was the shuttering of the shuttle program in then the actual concrete manifestation of that truth UM occurring in twelve, we saw four different shuttles that were ferried off to new lives in different places, usually museums UM or space themed attractions, without any kind of immediate

replacement for those shuttles either. Right, So, probably most notably was the Endeavor shuttle towing that which became a pretty big spectacle, right, because if you tow a shuttle through the streets, people will notice, trees will need to be cut down, signs removed. But before the endeavor was actually

um towed to its final place. Uh, it actually was flown from the Kennedy Space Center on the back of a seven forty seven to California and then there it was towed by I believe it was Toyota Tundra uh to its new home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Yeah, there were some fabulous video footage of that shuttle making its way down the street. They're like, you know, sped it up so that it was a little snappier, but it was. It was, it was. It

was emotional to watch. And that's the thing. I think that people are looking at this as a new era, that this was definitely a manifestation of what, you know, what's happening in space exploration. Uh. Most notably what we see is we see the private sector picking up where NASA might have, um, you know, if they had more

funding left off right. Uh. And of course that that brings us to SpaceX, California based space X, which which everyone's heard of over the years They've been involved in a number of different projects, but most notably, UH, they're they're the first private company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, which is pretty big deal. It. We were talking earlier and I about this, and I brought up the possible analogy of a dad who teaches his

his teenage son to drive. So in this scenario, the NASA is the father, and and he's been doing the drive, and he's been doing the drive into the to school in the mornings, he's been doing the drive into the grow free store, and now finally he's reached the point where, all right, I think I think the sun can handle it. You know, he's a little he's a little cocky, he's he's new, he's he's maybe a little a little, a little heavy on the gas, but he's ready. I'm not

gonna drive anymore. I'm gonna let this guy drive me to the grocery store. Yeah. And and UH, you can actually take that analogy and even say that the parent NASA gave them a little test run. And that was back in May of two thousand and twelve, when the Dragon capsule actually delivered one sixty two meal packets forty five of them low sodium by the way, a laptop computer, change of clothes for the station astronauts, and fifteen student

experiments to the International Space Station. So that was the first kind of like, well, let's see you on a test run here. Um that was obviously successful. So then as you say, we've got the larger, more official, hey, can you actually take a bunch of cargo up to

the I S S for us? That later decision and eventually they're they're hoping to do humans in it extreme ends up, which is kind of like, you know, the father doesn't trust the son enough to say, let's not go for a Sunday drive with with your your mom and your grandma. Let's let's focus on you and me getting to the grocery in one piece. All right, Now, what's to do? Maybe a trip to the herd, to the hardware store there and back again. All right, we've

got that check clicked off. We're working towards that Sunday drive. Yeah. So I mean this is just, uh, I think what is going to become a good indication of things to come. Right now, some space X have a contract for a dozen flights to the space station. And then as I said, that October trip after the May test. Ruin was the first official one. UM and then space x isn't the

only player in this commercial space. We've talked about Virgin Galactic. Uh. Sir Richard Branson's private space flight company and their recently completed high altitude test and Orbital Sciences is also under contract with NASA and Walstle launch a demonstration flight. Yeah. It's I mean, it's it's it's definitely informs us about what what about this age of space exploration that we're entering, this this commercial well I'm not only entering, we're we're

in it now. This age of commercial space exploration. On one hand, it's it's kind of like a oh, kind of like a libertarian um dream, you know, this idea of the of the of big government is not doing as much, but it's the the actual corporations like I canic individual human spirit. Yeah, like like Ron Swanson would really appreciate beause I feel like, you know, um, you know, a Swedem's capsule going into into space. So that kind

of thing, and and it and so. But I mean some people were that's going to rub them the wrong wrong way. You know, it's the idea. Oh well, there's it's corporations doing this, and you know corporations, uh don't

have the best track record with with everyone, right. It It reminds me of an article I did this year, or did in ten fictional Spacecraft we Wish were real, And I tried to, you know, I tried to make it a little more thought provoking instead of just like here's ten rad spaceship, because spaceships fictional space ships, by their very nature our rat you can throw. It's like throwing a dark you know, at a wall. Any of them hit, they're gonna be cool. That's just how it works.

So I was trying to look at like, what in what way to fictional spacecraft inform our ideas about the actual future of space exploration, And I think I left off the USS Enterprise, even though obviously the Enterprise is a really cool ship. Yeah, and it's like a government thing. It's a it's about exploration, it's about it and being ambassadors and it's all these positive aspect. Yes, it's a warship too, but for the most part it's a very

much a positive vision of our our future at the stars. Um. So I don't think I included that one, but I did and include the USS issue Mura, which is like a it's the setting for a space horror video game where it's a where they are all these like zombies running on the ship, but the ship itself is a commercial vehicle designed to crack open planets and harvest minerals. Because ultimately, well that's a you know, it's a far

darker idea than than than the Enterprise. And I'm just talking about the function, not the zombies, um the idea of just going on harvesting minerals, and it's all about the bottom line. It's it's a it's a bleaker image, but it's ultimately a motivating idea. You know, you can actually see that getting us out there into space. If there is money to be had, if there are asteroids to be mined, then people are going to throw some

money at it. Well, and that's what we're seeing, right, That's what is lining up with us because we've talked about the company Planetary Resources, and it's a desire to mind asteroids for platinum, which could be pretty lucrative. Of course, it would take a while for them to actually get their investment back, the money that they put into that investment to actually start making money. But really, when you're talking about an endeavor like that, you're talking about a

generational accumulation of wealth, and they're not doing this. Those people who are behind that are so very rich that they're not worried about getting, you know, some money from a pound of platinum. They're just trying to um actually put their their lives and uh, their their effort into

this thing that will affect generations to come right. So that's another um theme that that largely is tied to is Mars One, which is the completely private Dutch company that is committed to establish establishing the first human presence on Mars by the early twenties. So again you do see that coming into play, this idea of privatization really

taking over. But with that comes responsibility. And we covered this a bit in Space Junk because we talked about how much is out there in orbit and how it's actually a problem. So couldn't this be a good thing, this privatization, knowing that you'd have to have companies come in and clean this up. Yeah, if you want to make money in space, you need to keep our orbit clean so that we don't entombe ourselves. In this uh,

this this enclosing shell of space card. Yeah, if you don't want your hugely expensive instruments, you know, crashed into by a piece of space junks. And hey, you gotta get up there and start sweeping. If you want to sprinkle nutmeg on Mars, you've got to pay the price. Which that's what I hope the Dutch do. I was gonna say, what, yes, now it makes sense the Dutch. Yet Mars one will be covered. I'm sure Mars will be covered with with nutmeg. Um. So these are a

couple of related podcasts. We have a space junk Removable podcast in Afterward Minding if you want to learn a little bit more about that. Um. But certainly, uh was the realization of this idea of privatization and space cool? Now what else happened in space? And and there's an interesting UM trend with all of these space stories we're mentioning because they're all stories that we really got to

participate in as viewers. UM, I mean participate. We didn't you know, we didn't actually control anything, but we really got to feel like we were there for it, you know, because we were either huddled around a TV or we were taking a few minutes away from our workday to

watch it streaming on on one of the news sites. Uh, you know, we were We were there when when the Dragon capsule uh met up with the International Space Station, and we were there when Mars Curiosity visited the Red planet, which was so incredibly cool because, first of all, think about all the engineering that went behind launching this craft okay, into space. This was when it was launched. It was November two thousand and eleven, okay, all of that just to get up in the air and to get it

on the right trastructory, that's the easy part. It was landing it nine months later that became incredibly tricky and put everyone on pins and needles because if you think about this, by the time that the Mars Curiosity capsule was at the top of the atmosphere from the surface, it takes seven minutes okay um to get to actually land, and it takes fourteen minutes for the signal from the

spacecraft to reach the Earth. So when they first get word that the vehicle has touched the top of the atmosphere, there's a seven minute window that requires the computer to land the machine. Okay, Because there's this delay, and it has to do so lawless lee and has to manage a landing with speeds of thirteen thousand miles per hour that have to come to a dead stop using really complex mechanical maneuverings. And this is just to watch this,

It's just a beautiful ballet of engineering and innovation. I excited when I when I think about this. Yeah, I mean I thowt it referred to as seven minutes of terror and then the whole thing. I mean, it's kind of it was kind of like an Ocean's eleven type scheme, you know, to actually land this thing and landing successfully and uh and and you really got that when you're following it on the video streams, you're you're totally investing, because nobody wants to watch an expensive wreck on Mars,

you know, an expensive crash um. And so when when it actually came out, you know, successfully, everyone rejoiced that mohawk guy jumped up and down by all and most importantly we were able to land the most sophisticated explorer

ever on the Red planet. Yeah, and that again, there seven minutes of terror where where you really saw the magic happen and you begin to understand how they're Every single component of that landing absolutely mattered and had to be done again flawlessly, because once you began to to enter that um the atmosphere, you have the heat shield protecting the capsule from the sixteen hundred degrees fahrenheit um of the atmosphere, and then you have to deal with

the atmosphere of Mars, which there's enough of that you have to deal with it right, but not enough to actually slow the cat, to slow it down into create some drag. And then you have the heat shield popping off right at the right moment so that the machine can then began to see where it is, you can begin to use um the cameras and okay, so that's

just one tenth of that part of that landing. Then you have a parachute that weighs one hundred pounds deploying and it can withstand pressures of up to sixty five thousand pounds of pressure, and it slows it down to

two d miles per hour. But that's still not enough, right, so now the parachute has to pop off and rockets now help divert curiosity away from the parachute so it doesn't collide with that, but it now that that gives it the ability to have some measure of control of its landing, So then you begin to see it descend in a very controlled manner. Okay, here's the other problem you have. You've got rockets and you don't want them to kick up so much dust that you then ruin

some of the machinery on curiosity. So what do you do, Oh, let's now deploy the tether system from the rockets, so then it can start to to lower away and then the rockets. That wasn't one of the really amazing parts to where it's you're you're rocketing down there and then the rockets are lowering it down on an on a string, and uh yeah, it's just incredible that, yeah, I mean,

is breathtaking to see all of that unfold. And then, as you say, all of a sudden, you have a successful um land being of one of the most complex labs on on wheels that you could ever want on Mars, taking soil samples and really actually starting to engage with the mission of this, which is to understand the past and the current habit ability for life on Mars. All right, so what else do we have on the plate. Other big news that happened in twelve, we have to mention

the Higgs. Of course, Yeah, of course, of course the Higgs has just continue to be a big story because it seems like for ages now, because it's always like, when are they going to find the Higgs? What is the Higgs? Like? Because the Hig it's it's one of those questions just just what is it is a question that continues to sort of come up because it's it's kind of a it's what you hear about the Higgs all the time, and it's easy to either not learn what the heck it is to begin with, or to

sort of forget it. Now. We did a whole episode on this um about the Higgs. You can look it up in our list of episodes. But you know, essentially that the ideas it's a hypothetical um sometimes it article that uh, and it's a field that gives that gives matter mass and if it, if we could find it, if we could prove that it actually exists, it could explain a number of the mysteries surrounding the cosmos are understanding of physics. It's uh, it's a suspect in a

crime that should exist and we've just been looking for it. Yeah, all right, because this is really um this is the big idea, right, that this Higgs field exists and it's a kind of cosmic molasses that keeps all of us together. So if we can really prove this, and we can really get a little bit more at this question of how do we exist, how do we come to exist? What really keeps us all together? What is this reality that we're all can jealed in. Uh So, here's the deal.

The Large Hadron Collider, which is headquartered in Geneva, is tasked to try to find this Higgs particle, because again, if this can be isolated, then it gives crudence this

idea that this Higgs field, this molasses does exist. Smashing those atoms looking for the brief existence of this particle before it blinks out and again, sort of committing the same crime over and over again, and then in the hopes that you'll glimpse the suspect that's right after these primordial fireballs are left after these proton collisions in the

Large Hadron Collider. So in a July it was reported that a Higgs like particle was found, and this is really important they're calling Higgs like, Okay, the jury is still a bit out about this, right, because there's been some more information about this, because we found the suspect. We found the suspect. The problem is another suspect showed up. See, because it's like like a Raymond Chandler novel, you know,

it's like you reached that point where they found the murder. Note, it just gets a little more complicated there are two suspects, or maybe maybe there wasn't a murder at all. I mean, that's how mysteries work, and that's how this one is kind of working out as well. Well, they've been going through the data and with a found is that now

two bumps show in the data, casting doubt on the experiment. Okay, Um, what that means is that there appears to be one Higgs, both on with a massive one two three point five giga electron volts in one with one to six point six. So in a December fourteenth article in Scientific America excuse me, in Scientific American, it explains that it's been thought before that there might be one more than one Higgs, but

not so close together. That's where the mystery becomes even deeper, right, because it's okay if there's another one, but just not so close together. So again, it's pointing to this question about whether or not there's a problem with the experiment, and physicist Adam Falkowski wrote on his blog quote, in this case, they most likely signal a systematic problem rather than some interesting physics. First and least, it would be quite a coincidence to have two Higgs particles so close

and mass. So again, the jury is still out, but this is the fact that they're getting this close is still a game changer, and it's still amazing, and I think it points to this idea that in science you have to continue to go back to the drawing board. This is what makes good science good science, Right, you just don't accept that this was a Higgs particle. You begin to go through that data more and more and corroborated to the point where there's just absolutely no question

that it is. And they're not there right now. Um, but they're getting closer. Yeah. I mean, science creeps forward and sometimes it has to creep a little little little ways back to recalibrate. You know, it's like a roomba running into stuff in your living room. But it's figuring it out right. Um, so so yeah, we continue to watch what happens with the with the higgs um. But certainly it was it was definitely a big year for the Higgs, regardless of what it actually ends up to,

you know. Being the case with these particles that we these higgs is that we sort of found. Yeah, more to come on that, I think. Um, all right, we're gonna take a quick break and when we get back, we are going to talk about citizens science. All right, we're back. Um, so what else happened in Well, a lot of pieces sort of continuing business. Of course, science is a continuing business. We continue to search for certain things.

We continue to search out things. And one of the things we've been looking for exoplanets, planets elsewhere in the in the in the galaxy, planets that maybe might be like Earth. That's what we have our eye out for. Yeah, and it turns out that there is a ton of data to sort through in order to find Earth like planetary candidates. And it's really helpful when you have citizens in this case, citizens scientists to help sort through the extensive data. And this is actually data that's provided by

NASA's Kepler Mission. So here's this really cool thing. Fifteen new planet candidates. We call them again planet candidates because they have to have to be a certain distance from the Sun in order to be considered earth like properties or have earth like properties. Right, Um, they've been discovered by planet hunters, and planet hunters is this project of

these citizens scientists. These are people who have access to the data that NASA has given them, and what they do is they look through all that data to try to figure out habitable planets. And again, like I said in that Goldilocks zone, right that distance from the Sun and not too hot, not too cold, approximate size. You know, it just has to be just right right and just the right distance from a star to have liquid water, right,

which you know would be really important for life. Uh So, anyway, this is this is what is so cool about this organization is that they have found the fifteen new planet candidates and in addition, a planet named pH One with four sons was discovered by the group. And it's pretty cool. That's a lot of suns for that's four times as

many suns as we have. I mean, the really amazing thing about this is that you mentioned earlier about the the participation aspect um of of getting to know huddle around the TV or the computer monitor and watch things like the Mars landing, UM to watch the endeavor going

down the street. And here is an example of actual participation where these citizen scientists are getting to sort through the data that that that Kepler has a massed and we're talking about a hundred and fifty thousand stars here that they're they're sorting through the data. They're examining the brightness measurements that are taken by Kepler, looking for signs that there could be planets orbiting them. And then when a planet passes in front of a star, there should

be noticeable and temporary drop in brightness. And this is this sort of data again that they're looking at. And the idea is that the human brain is actually better at detecting this than an algorithm. So also someone who is maybe an amateur astronomer who is very excited about this work. UM. So you get this group together that is all um trying to find, you know, some sort

of sign that there might be another earthlike planet. And again we've talked about this in our podcast about will we find an Earth flight planet planet in the like anytime soon. And uh, this is something that seems like it could happen for us in the next fifty years, that we could spot an earthlike planet. On one level, it just it gives us a lot more information about what is out there. But also there's a lot of imagination caught up in it because an earthlike planet could

conceivably have earthlike life. Life on Earth is the only model of life that we have, and so when we're extrapolating and trying to figure out what alien life might consist of, that ends up what we look for, you know, we end up looking for an earthlike world, So possibility of life elsewhere in the universe, um, and also the possibility of a world that we could go to that we could colonize if we're still into that kind of sci fi idea by the time when the technology actually

catch us up with us. Yeah. And I think it's another good example of a discipline that benefits from an institution like NASA allowing the public to come through data sharing their data, having an open and essentially crowdsourcing meaningful assault. Yeah. I mean again, it's kind of like that the father raising his son, his son's citizen citizen science. And uh, he's out there grilling steaks, right, and or or grilling peppers and or what have you. Um, the vegetarian option.

He's out there grilling, and the sun is interested and has reached the point where yes, here I'm gonna I'm gonna do the main cooking. But you can hear you can rub some some barbecue sauce on it, not do put barbecue sauce in a steak. Yeah, and again you see this thing. Well, you could put barbecue sauce on a steak, I guess you could, But I mean, if it's a really good stake, there's no sense to put sauce on it. But the important thing is that you're

involving the kid in the process. But you're right, if it's chewy and tough, you've gotta throw something on there. Uh. But yes, that's what I think is happening. Again. There's this sharing of data that's involving of of people you

know out on the street, right, you know. And some of this is part and parcel to where we are in terms of technology and community, because it wouldn't be able to do this necessarily ten years ago, twenty years ago to share data to this extent and then try to get the results um in a way that was efficient. So that's Joe public, that's just everybody, every random person on the street potentially contributing to science. But then there's still plenty of room for the exceptional individual, for the

Joe awesome if you will UM. And that brings us to our next two items on this list. Felix baumb Gardner. Yes, yes, And this was another example that everyone got to huddle around the TV or the computer and watched this happen. We had a lot of these moments in the last year. Then the moments that really hearkened back to the day of like watching the moon landing, where we all got

to become really excited about about watching something historic. Pike Place. Yeah, well, I mean here's here's this Austrian daredevil who broke the speed of sound in October two twelve by jumping from the edge of space, a feat that he had spent five years five years preparing for. It took him two hours on a pressured cap soul powered by helium balloon to reach a platform twenty four miles up and before

stepping onto the platform. This, I think it's interesting. He ran through a forty step checklist, because you know, before you take the big plans, you want to make sure

that everything is is crossed off, right, uh. And then he stepped off the platform and he hurled through the sky at more than eight hundred and thirty miles per hour, at one point reaching eight hundred and thirty three point nine pile miles per hour or mock one point to four, breaking the sound barrier in a four minute free fall before popping his parachute and pulling off a running landing in a New Mexico desert. I mean, that is amazing

right there. Yeah, I mean, yeah it was. It's just some amazing footage to watch and just quite a I mean just it's kind of terrifying to watch too. Like I would imagine if I did a forty item checklist, it would just be like different deities that I was just making sure I was square with before I jumped out. You know, Yeah, we get cool, alright, You're just throwing candy out in the air at that point, is to

the air gods. Um well. And also I mean you have to understand too that again, this was five years and in the making, and this is someone who was so good at what he did. Um that he had the ability to control himself at those sort of speeds. And he did say at one point that he felt like he was he was going to a flat spin, and he felt all the blood rushing to his head and he thought he was going to lose control, but then he got it under control and was able to

continue to accelerate in his speed. Yeah. I mean, that's an important thing to realize about. It is it is much more than just the technology of getting someone up that high and then you know, booting them out of the cap. So there's a there's a lot of skill that was involved in this. It's not nearly falling, uh and technology because I mean it was falling, but it's falling with the nest. Yes, falling. Yeah, I mean you have to have the experience in order to really know

or to anticipate what that might feel like at those speeds. UM. So he also had technology on his side. He wore one pound pressurized flight suit and helmet, and without protection, his blood would have been vaporized because the atmosphere was so thin when he jumped at that height. The temperature at his launch point was estimated at seven degrees sevent d degrees below zero fahrenheit, if not lower. So this

is really a game changer. Um. And and that this not only does this pressurized flight suit have implications um elsewhere, like for instance, you know astronauts, UM, if they had to bail out of a council early, this could absolutely save their life, um if it was at the right

UM height and so on and so forth. UM. But I mean it also kind of speaks this new technology that allows us to again augment ourselves in a way that we're able to do things that are beyond our human capacity or what we think we're able to do. So there you go, Felix bomb Gardner. Uh, amazing moment in the science And that video is still out there if you want to want to check it out. Well, I'm sure be out there indefinitely. But not to be outdone.

There's also another individual, another Joe Awesome that uh that made some headlines and and and this guy is really it's close to like a Howard Hughes we have today, I mean, except he hasn't yet entered like the full crazy mode. But certainly in terms of a filmmaker who is all about creating something awesome and ingenious on the screen, but is also very interested in uh achieving great things

outside of the film world. And we're of course talking about James Cameron, who became the first aqua out to reach the deepest recesses of the Marianna Trench, UH touching down the Challenger Deep Site about eleven kilometers below the surface of the Pacific Ocean about yeah, which is about six point eight miles And he did that in a one person submersible call the deep Sea Challenger, and it took him two and a half hours to get there. And what I think is interesting he said, well, you know,

it's pretty much mostly devoid of life. I saw some shrimp like creatures. But he did say that it was amazing to be in such a massive place that you just looked and you know, the horizon just dropped off. In fact, there's no real horizon because we're talking about here. Is um really the steep trench, And to even call it a trench is a bit of a misnomer because the marrying a trench is really an abyss and it's located at a subduction zone. And subduction zones occur where

one part of the seabed. In this case, the Pacific Plate dives beneath another and this is the Philippine Plate. So you know, take that all into consideration, as well as that it's in a remote location, and you really do have this dramatic landscape unfolding before you. Yeah, I mean in the sense that the sky is the great blue yonder, this is the deep blue yonder. I mean,

this is really largely unexplored territory of the Yeah. We talked about that in our Sunken Dangerous podcasts um in because we talked about how we know more about the moon surface than we than we know about the oceans and what's going on with that. So again, you know, I would be tempted to call Cameron a ham if he wentn't so dedicated to this endeavor, but I mean, I mean he's a bit of a ham. But but yeah,

there's no denying the awesomeness of this. Yeah, I mean eight years to to uh engineer and make this submersible, which then says, okay, well, if if he's done this, and that means that we now have the ability to continue to visit this area of the ocean in the seabed, and now we can begin to take oil soil samples, which is something that Cameron wants to do. So, of

course you have the trickle down effect. That doesn't mean that we're all going to be in submersibles in ten years going down to the Mariana Trench, but it does mean that it makes the technology a little bit easier for others to follow suit. Yeah, and speaking of trickling down, I found it interesting that inside of this pressurized cockpit um they had this system set up to where moisture from Cameron's exhaled breath and his sweat leaked down into

a plastic bag. And the idea here was that if he if he had to stay down there longer and outlasted his water supply, he could then drink the contents of this bag, which has parallels with space flight, right, because we know that the same sort of technologies are used when you're somewhere and you're in a confined space. Right, there's a lot of crossover you have between the exploration of space and the inspiration of the deepest portions of

the ocean. I mean, both hostile extreme environments for humans. We were made too. We we evolved to live on a very narrow portion of the Earth's surface, and if you go to how you go too low. We're debt unless we bring the appropriate technology with us to bring a little of our our habitat with us into these hostile settings. Yeah. Again there's that theme of augmentation again showing up particularly this year. Alright, so um other things that have been building this past decade that are gaining

more ground and are getting more exposure. I have to do of course with neuroscience, yes, and um specifically erasing your memories, which again it's not a new thing, but it gained some traction again this year. Yeah. I mean

people have been wanted to do this forever. I mean that we've discussed like the time and time again, like the basic human condition and how wrapped up it is, and and worrying about stuff that's happened in the past, and worrying about stuff to come in the future, and uh, you know, there's only something you can do about the future.

But we've all but I think everyone is thought, boy, I wish I could go back and erase that, and maybe you get more into the time travel mode, and like I wish I could go back and fix that. But then when you realize that's impossibly. You think, well, if I can't fix it, then at least I could forget that that happened at all. I mean, it's the eternal sunshine of the mind. Would you erase a memory

if you could? Um? No, Because I mean there have been times in the past where I would have said, yes, I wish I could go back and erase this or it rat that. But as you and you know, and maybe I just don't have bad enough memories that I that I would want to erase them. But ultimately reached that point where those memories inform who you are, you know, and to to take them away, um, you know that

that takes away from from what you become. But but but again, where this really becomes important, it's with the idea of dealing with really traumatic memories and uh and ultimately not as much the research we're looking at here, not as much the extinction of a memory, but the

sort of yeah, but also the dulling of it. Um. We we did a whole episode because a couple of years back at the World Science Festival, there was a lot of interesting talk about being able to erase memories, alter memories, and and some of it was pretty drastic, like this one um substance that could just sort of clear the mind, like reset the computer entirely. Uh that no one is actually tested on a human, and we

can just sort of imagine what it might be like. Yeah, this is the one where I was like, well, could you would it be like the born identity it could you erase your memory and you still know kung fu? You know that kind of thing. One study we were looking at from Upslo University. Uh, they were looking specifically

at this reconsolidation phase. Now, if you remember from when we talked about this before, this is the idea that when you think back to something, to a memory, you're not going and looking at something that is set in stone. Memory is is weird. Memory is uncertain. Memory, it's unstable because every time think of a memory as a little like something happens in your brain, like makes a little clay sculpture of what it would of what happened. It's like,

all right, I was I was stabbed by an elephant. Alright, So here's a you know, a little clay monitor of an elephant in a trench coat with which the big big well have a big shank a right, So then I put that away in the drawer, the memory, right, I'll leave it there, and then when I think about it again, I get that little clay model back out. But in handling it, uh, and in reconceptualizing and I end up changing things. Uh and that. But this is the this is the state where it's malleable. It's in

my hands. So researchers have have for a while realized that the reconsolidation phase, this is when you want to alter a memory, alter the impact of a memory, or potentially erase it because this is where it's it's vulnerable. Well, it gets anchored in our brains by proteins and it's reconsolidation. So yes, this is where you want to interrupt the actual final consolidation of it. Uh. So long term real quick, long term memory is based on the formation of several proteins.

These proteins are part of the consolidation process that you spoke of, and that occurs when a person learns something new. Remembering something causes the memory to become unstable for short amount of time, only to recover through another consolidation process, which is what you just talked about. So these researchers had test subjects look at neutral images, yes, and then they shocked with the Jesus at home. This is crazy,

but yes they did it. And the reason they did that is because they needed them to associate these images with a memory. Right, so they would see like an image of maybe at an elephant holding a switch blade, and then they would they would become shocked. It's like whoa. So now, of course the idea is that you see an image of an elephant holding a switchblade again, you're gonna you're gonna react because it's it's associated with a shock to your system. You'll have a fearful memory. Right.

So now they divided the groups and this is where they started to try the consolidation process and figure out if they could game the system a little bit. And the first group, their consolidation process was disrupted through multiple presentations of the picture, while the excuse me, the consolidation process of the second group wasn't interrupted. And so what they did though, is that after this process, the picture

was shown to the group again. So what they discovered is that the group that had their consolidation process inhibited, the fear that was previously associated with the picture completely dissipated. And then what they found them is that the consolidation process, when it is interrupted, than the memory no longer can incite fear. So what they did is that to corroborate this, they used m r I scanner and that showed that the remains of that particular fear memory had also been

erased from the nuclear group of the amygdala. And we know the amygdala process is fear. So yeah, so just another step forward towards this possible future where we can go back and systematically erased memories, but certainly more near term gives us a lot more AMMO towards treating traumatic memories. Um, you know, kind of like a more enlightened version of

confronting your fear. Is that kind of a thing, because certainly when you confront of fear, you were taking it out of the cabinet, holding in your hands, and it is susceptible to change to to to to altering uh, what the memory exactly is and ultimately how we feel

about it. And I feel like this also underscores a bit of about what we talked about in two thousand and twelve, is this idea of consciousness, and certainly consciousness is made of memories and experiences and we talked about the failibility of this um idea that consciousness could be um, something that is solid and sturdy, when in fact we know that things like this memory um can really color ah the feeling of that consciousness that day, and that

feeling makes us who we are right. So again interesting to see how much of our brain this plasticity lends itself to more of an unstable quality, or rather a changeable quality of our brains. And this leads us to another interesting bit of science that it also drives on this idea that who we are the human experience itself is not quite what we often think it is what we take it for granted to be. And this of course concerns toxic plasmosis now taxoplasmosis, which in brief we're

talking about the cat parasite. You know, the idea that you're you're cleaning out the cat's litter box. You're a little too handy in there, you know, you start confusing with the sandbox. You can potentially pick up some of this this parasite. It goes through your body. It alters your mind because the idea is that this parasite has been pooped out of the cat wants to get inside of the rat, and then once it is in, the

rat wants to return to the cat. And so how do you get a rat to return to the cat? It sounds like I'm doing some sort of Sousian thing here, But how do you get the rat to return to the cat? Well, you you sort of hack the rat's brain to make it and take more risks to make it crave cat urine, that kind of thing, so that it could put itself in a position to be eaten by the cat and return and finish its life cycle. So this has been in the news for a while.

There's like a bunch of stuff about it back in two thousand nine, um and stuff before that. Scientists continue to study it because it's a it's a remarkable organism. Uh, and it obviously give and the how many domestic cats out there. It has a huge impact on human culture. Yeah, And the fact that that this parasite could disconnect the fear part of the brain in rats was terrifying but also made some people step back and say, to what

extent does the parasite operate in a human being? So it keeps coming back in the in the news because on one level, we continue to research it so and every now and then there are some new findings. But then it's also it's it's like those weird emails that your mother or your your your uncle sends you, you know, where it will be something crazy and you're like, come on, dude,

just look it up on Snopes. It's not true, but but get but people keep sending them because it connects with them instantly, Like you know, if you get the one like Mars will be as big as the moon and the earth sky. Uh this weekend? Have you received this one? It goes out periodically and of course it's completely nuts. There's no way that that happens, um not without just just catastrophic you know of professions. Yeah, it's just it's not gonna happen. But but it affects us

in a way. You know, we're like, oh wow, that's gonna be really crazy. That's really gonna affect me personally. I'm interested in sending this on. So when this story has come out about the cat, is like, well, I have a cat or my mom as a cat, uh, and that the parasites in that cat could be changing the way she thinks. I mean it, it has this impact on our lives, and it involves cats, so of

course we're gonna be crazy about it. Yeah, And the takeaway from this is not that if you have a cat you are probably crazy, or that they're going to some the parasite is going to make you crazy. That is not the takeaway. The takeaway is that the parasite and it's just still research that's being done, it does seem to have some changes in personality in humans and biologists Yaroslav Flaggers as actually the person who spoke about this at length, and um, this was in an Atlantic article,

how Your Cat Is Making You Crazy by Kathleen mccalf um. Again, the cat's not making you crazy, but that's the title of the article that goes into more detail about this. But what it really points to is that, you know, at some point, we're all being gained by microscopic puppeteers

at some level. And I wanted to point to a study at Colorado State University that showed that when subjects were given a flu vaccination which stoked the subjects immune response, they doubled the amount of people they came into contact with during the time that they were maximally contagious. So Again, here's this idea that people when they had this flu vaccine and when they are contagious, we're a lot more

social than they would normally be. Um, is this the flu that is actually gaming them to do this, to change their personality? And that's the question that that biologists are trying to get to, is to what extent do parasites and bacteria change the way we think? Yeah? Yeah, ultimately this the part about the story is not that toxoplasmosis is having the impact on who we are and how we think, but that it drives home how many things have an impact on who we are and how

we think. And again, who we are, how we think, the human mind, it's not set in stone. It's affected by so many different variables and uh and and science has a wonderful way of revealing that to us. And if I were David Eagleman and I was sitting in here in my fancy jeans and my cool coat, I would probably say, which leads us to ask the question do we really have free will if all of these agents are acting upon us? He doesn't talk like that, but I'm being him, so all right, So there you

have it. That is not all the science that took place in twelve finny stretch of the imagination. But those are some of the big stories, uh, and you you may have heard of most of them, you may have heard of all of them. Uh. But this is just about rewinding, looking back at what happened, and then looking looking ahead to where we're going in the future. So if you have any feedback on any of that, if there was a particular story that that we we didn't cover,

do you think was really key? I don't know, maybe you know, we should have talked more about record meltdowns of Arctic sea ice, uh, record high temperatures or you know what have you? Uh let us know. You can find us on Twitter, where we are blow the Mind. You can find us on Facebook and Tumblr. We're We're stuff to blow your mind on both of those and you can always drop us a line at blow the Mind at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics. Is that how Stuff Works dot com