Shark Week Special

I know? And the fact there was so little shark tech back in two thousand nine that the subject we chose to cover was Bruce, also known as the mechanical shark that was used during the filming of Jaws, which which now now that you say that, I kind of I kind of wish that we could go back in time and make you not do that episode, because I really want to do that, especially since Chris had revealed that he had never seen the film Jaws. He could

not quote any of the movie with me. That when you put it that way, it's not necessarily a bad thing, um, but but I was I was about as speechless as you are right now, Lauren. That's how I was. I was. I could not believe it. I couldn't fathom it. I mean, that's an amazing movie. Jaws, by the way, is easily in my top ten films favorite films. I mean it just I think that movie is almost perfect, and part of it is because the Shark didn't work so well.

But if you want to hear all about Bruce and the trials and travails of the Jaws shooting schedule and how that machine that didn't work so well actually made the movie better, go back and listen to that podcast. Go to the Tech Stuff rss feed, search for that old file and listen to That's the only one that

pops up so until today. So today today we wanted to talk a little bit about, um, the biotechnology that sharks have inside of them right now, cyborg sharks when well, actually some sharks, if you really wanted to, you know, have a little bit of robotic components that humans have

put in them. But naturally, sharks senses are really cool and you can't really call it technology, but some people have been developing technology to counteract it in order to help prevent shark attacks, which is pretty grad and some people have started working on technology that would give us

a similar set of senses that sharks have. I'll talk a little bit about that, but it's it's something we're gonna cover in greater detail in the future episode of tech Stuff, so we won't go too far in there. But yeah, when you look at what sharks are able to do and and how their senses work, it's almost like they are super natural creatures. I mean, it's because they are able to sense stuff that we pathetic little humans are incapable of sensing without some sort of augmentation. Right.

This is why they are on the top of their food chain without having fancy things like guns to help them hunt. When when you hear I'm going to quote Jaws again, when you hear them described as eating machines, which they are called in Jaws, that's very, very true. And they are really well I hesitate to use the word designed, right because that that's just one sort of thing, but they're really well suited. How about that for eating?

I mean, they're just great at hunting down and eating stuff, and all of their senses kind of pretty much tie into that. You know, find food and eat it, or if you see something that is bigger than you that will eat you, go the other way. Those are essentially the two things that guide to sharks life, you know, and occasionally find another shark to make little sharks. That's

also that's important too. But let's start with let's start with talking about their ability to smell things, because this is one of those things that everyone has heard, right, that have an incredible and very sensitive sense of smell. Right. Yeah, The statistic that gets are not statistic, but that little factoid that gets tossed around a lot is that a great white can detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic sized pool. Now, rule number one, do not

put great whites in your Olympic size swimming pool. Do not. And rule too don't bleed in it. Bad plan. Yeah, don't do that. Um. I love that, that's the idea that that within an Olympic size swimming pool. Because of course, the first thing I think of is like, something, did you put that shark there? It does raise James Bond? Why did you hang out with that James Bond villain? Don't don't hang out with the James Bond villain. It does make you think of some potential amazing updates to

the Olympics. But yeah, I think that's I think that's the Hunger Games, not the Olympics. Could be separate, separate categories. Certainly be the Hunger Games for the shark anyway. But so so, the way that sharks shark's sense of smell works is that as as they're swimming through the water, they've got two forward facing nostrils um provide for bidirectional smell.

This is what really blows my mind. They can actually detect where a smell is coming from, right because they're the nerves and their noses are so sensitive that they can um calculate in their brains how how quickly a smell reached one nostril versus the other, and used that to decide which direction it's coming from. So it's kind of like our sense of hearing, even though and and

our hearing is not that great either. You know, it's very easy to fool a human being into thinking that a sound is coming from a particular direction when it's really coming from another one. But in general, if you're in a situation where you allow noises coming from one side, that sound hits one side of your your you know, hits one year before it hits the other, and you can think, oh, that sounds coming from this direction. It's subconscious.

It's not you know, it's not something that you're thinking about the shark is. The shark isn't floating in the water thinking, ah, yards away to my left is a tasty morsel and I shall now go and snap up. It just things turned this way. Um, so yeah, it's it's these cells are incredibly sensitive and the fact that it can take that information into account that it has hit one side before it hit the other and know that this is the direction it needs to move in

is pretty phenomenal. Uh. Yeah, So so that's smell right, yeah, smell um. Sound They hear incredibly well. To be fair, sound travels faster and further underwater than it doesn't end right, sound always you know, we talked about the speed of sound, but the speed of sound depends upon the medium through which it travels. So sound travels at a different speed through solids than it does through uh the atmosphere or

through water, as it turns out. So yes, sharks are pretty good at hearing stuff, huh, especially things in the in the low pitched sound range. Which helps with that um, that kind of flopping motion that anything that's going to be easy to catch, it's gonna make right. Yeah. So if it's an injured fish or a say fish or something that that's not able to swim very effectively, it's going to be making noises through its its motions through the water that the shark can detect, even from pretty

far away. Uh. And in fact, sharks are able to hear at a range that's I believe below human hearing levels, right. Um. They can hear sounds with frequencies ranging from ten hurts to eight hundred hurts, and are particularly responsive to sounds lower than three hurts. UM. For comparison, UH, ten hurts is one point five octaves below the lowest note on a piano. So so sharks could appreciate some really groovy music that we just wouldn't even be able to hear,

would not no no register at all. We might feel it, Yeah, we can. We We can only hear uh sounds ranging from about twenty five hurts to a sixteen thousand, so so starting at twenty so, I mean, you know, we have a good scale too, but it's just way up in the other direction. I see, so our scales overlap somewhat, but the extremes on either end one of us is able to hear when the other one is not capable

of hearing them. So, if you're going to be swimming in the ocean that's filled with lots of sharks, swim in a high pitched way. Yeah, if you were playing some sweet Mariah Carey for the shark, that shark would not even notice. First of all, I take a shoe

with the term sweet Mariah Carey. But fair enough. Um, you know, of course we're joking, and we should also say, you know, we're talking a lot about sharks, and we'll be talking more in the second half about the technology we've developed to kind of foil the senses that sharks have. But in general, remember, shark attacks very rare. These are

not animals that are out to get you. They actually have a lot more to worry about from us than we do from them, statistically speaking, right now, there of course can be situations that a person is in where they are more danger of a shark attack than others, but it's still a rare thing. I just think it's responsible to say that now all the time. Let's talk about other ways that sharks can find you and kill you.

What's another sense site they've got? Um? Okay, so you know how cats eyes reflect light in photographs or or or in the dark, if alligators or alligators. Yeah, this is caused by I didn't look up the pronunciation there you go, which I think is Harry Potter speak for open the door. I don't. I don't think that's correct. Yeah, I think that's a little more on now you mention

it all right? At any rate, this is a this is an organ that's located behind the retina um and it's made up of reflective crystals and when so so when light travels through the retina and hits them, um, it's reflected back out onto the retina. So you know, this is fascinating. This is the same sort of approach, by the way that we are trying to mimic when we create solar panels. So solar panels, you know, it's not just create something that's dark that absorbs a lot

of light. We actually are trying to create solar panels using nanostructures that reflect light back down in so it absorbs as much as possible and reflects as little as possible. To make the solar panel very efficient. It's the same kind of concept of um, you know, having, for example, a candle holder that has mirrored sides, like a lantern that has mirrored sides, so that it will end up

producing more light for the viewer. Now, in the case of sharks, what this means is the shark is able to see even in really dark situations, which makes sense.

I mean, if a shark is swimming towards the bottom of the ocean, depending upon how deep that is, there's very little light there to take advantage of, and from what I understand, they're able to see well I guess ten times better in dim situations than a typical human being would be able to, which which means that yeah, never never be alone in a dark room with the sharks. So alright, so dark Olympic sized swimming pools filled with blood or bad places to be if there happens to

be a great wet shark in there. And also don't make any like low booming noises tips good tipsy. Next next we come to um they're superpowers, right that the really cool superpowers. I'm going to save my favorite one for last um and and go to the lateral line and okay, this is a system of tubes that run up and down a shark's body just under the skin.

They're lined with these little um hair like protrusions that are connected to sensory cells, and so when something comes near the shark, it causes the water to stir through these tubes, moves the hairs, and alerts sensory cells that something's going on. So this is almost like hearing. It's very similar to the way we hear, only this time you're kind of feeling motion. So it's very similar to

to hearing. I mean, if you look at the human ear, then you'll see that when when we the way we perceive sound is that we have these molecules that are banging together. I mean, sound is a very physical thing. Molecules bang together and it ends up impacting our ear drum, which in turn moves some tiny little bones inside our ear that then end up making this uh, this kind

of a sack of fluid. Uh. Move within that are these little bitty hair like structures, and when they they vibrate, that sense the electrical signal that we then interpret as sound. This is similar except they're not necessarily hearing it they're kind of feeling like it's it might be it might be a little bit like a like a cat's whiskers and in the way that yeah, you get that motion or that contact, and and it's a big clue off

that's something something is nearby. You see. This is really tricky for us to to translate into something that we can identify with because this is outside of our ability. It's like skin plus one. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I don't know how to Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'd be like if I'm sitting at my cubicle and Josh Creepy hands Clark is walking up behind me, and I sense his presence before he's able to lean over me and then inhale deeply, which, by the way, she has not

done that for a very long time. He has not done that for a very long time. Fans behind you in a Gremlin mask a couple of weeks ago. That's right, Yeah, chum got a Gramlin mask. I'm not sure. I'll not sure why. I have a feeling. One of their listeners sent it in that they get lots of stuff from their listeners, you know, not that none of them so listening. I don't I don't need you guys sending us stuff

unless you want to. But it's just that it's amazing because you know, Josh and Chuck, they're busy, so they leave the office for a while and just started up like they start to peek up over the cubicle walls. Anyway. Anyway, um so, my favorite shark sense is um is they can they can sense electrical signals. They've got electro reception. Yes, this is the apula of Lorenzini. Yeah, Ampula of Lorenzini.

I at first thought that was the actor who was in Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, but it turns out that's Lorenzo Lamas and it's not the ambula of Lorenzo Lamas. So Lorenzini was an Italian scientist a few hundred years back who who found this this organ um or or series,

I would call it an organ. It's a good Okay, Yeah, it's a it's a series of small clusters of um electrically sensitive receptor cells that are positioned under the skin in a shark's head kind of actually wear the whiskers on a dog or cat would be um uh, they're they're connected to pores on the skin surface. These pores are filled with this kind of gel jelly like stuffy, it's really stiff stuff, but it it is. Yeah, because I read about a scientist who specializes in extracting this

stuff from sharks that have died. Like they captive sharks and if a shark dies part of the processes, they try to pull the stuff out so they can experiment on it as quickly as possible to far in more about it, because we're going to talk about this stuff, but still largely mysterious to us. Anyway, This this particular organ is pretty cool. It doesn't sense movement, it doesn't sense sight or sound. It senses electrical fields, which is crazy and like and like electrical fields of that are

created by a fish's heart. Eat. Yeah, all living things have an electrical field. It's what penetrates us and binds the universe together. It's not the force, but it is something that living things produce. It's just a natural byproduct of being a living thing. You have this electric field around you as as your heart and other muscles contract, they give up very small electromagnetic impulses. These are very very faint, and so these incredibly sensitive organs that sharks

have can detect the presence of those electrical fields. And in fact, I read about a really cool um experiment where this was first kind of verified and or at least it was one of the ones that verified, and it happened back in nine And here's how they did the experiment. They got some flatfish, which sharks would like to eat. And flat fish often will be at the very bottom of the ocean floor and bury themselves into the sand, hid right, so they are out of sight.

So what they did was they put these flat fish in a little chamber that was essentially hidden from the sharks. The shark can't see the flat fish, and the chamber was supposed to also mask the smell of the flat fish, so the shark couldn't get the scent. But the sharks still could sense the presence of the flatfish and would

try and eat the chamber. So then they decided they'd have to repeat the experiment, because you know, just doing that alone does not verify that there's anything going on, right, we have to do good science here. So what they did next was they took those same types of chambers and they filled it with chopped up whitefish, and white fish oil is something that will really attract a shark. So they put it in this chamber, and again the chamber sealed, so the scent isn't getting out, and it's

still concealed so the shark can't see it. And the sharks did not react. They did not go after it as if it were a fish. So this suggested that perhaps they think about the fish being alive was what they could sense. And so then they did a third test. In this third test, they put tiny little electrodes under the sand and then they ran a very weak electrical current through those electrodes, creating a faint electric field, and the sharks reacted as they did when they could sense

the flat fish. And this seemed to be the proof here that sharks have spidy sense science, I guess it's sharky sense. That's beautiful. So, yeah, they can detect these electric fields and hunt out prey or predators. It's only a few feet away from the sharks knows that this that this is sensible, right, Yeah, it's not like it's not like it's ability to to smell something from you know, whatever, But but it does mean that once they get closer to their intended prey, that they are able to zone

in on it pretty quickly, even if it's hiding. Um. They scientists also think that they may possibly help eat us this for navigation by sensing the magnetic pull of the earth. Wow, so they're able to actually detect them maybe field possibly possibly um and doesn't And definitely they have found that baby sharks use this while they are still in uh, in their eggs to uh if a predator is coming, the baby shark can sense it through this uh, through this organ and stay still enough so

it'll pass the predator will not get them. Nice. Yeah, this is uh, this is interesting stuff. And you know, we've also heard all about sharks going on these long migrations and then showing up like like whale sharks tend to show up, I believe off the coast of Central America. Um. And I have a friend actually who went and got to see this in person. Actually you know him too. Uh it's a friend of both of ours who went

and saw this in person. And from his his account, it sounds like it was toy spectacular to see all these whale sharks an enormous number. But yeah, so it may be that they're using this this ability as part of that navigational um, you know, aid so that they know which way to go where they're going. And I feel like that about wraps up our first section here

on on shark inner technology. Right, So now we're going to talk about in the second half all about the ways we kind of mess with sharks really in an attempt to not be eaten by them or to study them further. Before we get into that, though, let's take a quick moment to thank our sponsored All Right, we're back. So we've talked about the sharks senses. Let's talk about some of the things we do with sharks and how

we study them. Yeah, well, okay, we were just talking about shark migration habits, and this is one of those things. This applies to any kind of marine life. You know, the sea is kind of deep and a little bit dark and easily accessible, right, not super you know, the fact that we can't breathe or walk on it is problematic for us. So so in order to find out more about things like sharks, we tend to tag them these This is done um in sharks cases, by acoustic trackers. Now,

this was really cool. I did not realize this, and Hill I saw the research that you sent about the fact that these are all acoustic based. That means their sound based and in fact the sensors and the receptors only work when they get pretty close to one another. Yeah, there's there's huge arrays of these under various oceans. The most extensive one is off the kind of Halifax spanning KOs which is about hundred and fifteen miles. So these are for Canadian sharks. Yes, I bet they're extra polite.

I'm I'm not sure if that's a true fact, but I'm willing to roll with it. Okay. But yeah, so there and if you if you're working with someone who has done this quite a bit. I mean, this is a process that actually doesn't take very long. Uh. The the way it works is they have to, uh first they have to entice sharks to come close to whatever boat they are on. Research usually not difficult. Food is a pretty pretty strong attractor. Yeah, they just put some

bait chum. Yeah, anyone who's watched Jaws again, that big old bucket of chum, same sort of things. So they usually end up putting like a perforated bucket into the water and shake it around a bit and then within you know, half an hour, to an hour, they start attracting sharks. They catch the sharks, often using rotten real approach, but they'll catch the sharks bring them aboard the boat.

As it turns out, if you turn a shark upside down with some species of shark anyway, it kind of paralyzes them, a similar effect to to you know, picking a cat up by the scrap or something like. Yeah, it's it's called tonic immobility. Actually know a lot of I've got a lot of friends who suffer from gen and tonic a mobility where you put it, like at least four or five drinks them and they just they

ain't going anywhere. What I didn't name you, Lauren, so um anyway, Yeah, if you put a shark on its back, some sharks they go into this tonic immobility trance like state, which allows the researchers then to perform the procedure, which involves making an incision implanted to an acoustic device, uh and then stitching them up and that can take about ten minutes, and then they can put the shark back

into the ocean. Shark swims away and none the worse for wear, and whenever it swims near a receiver, the transmitt mission from the implant will be picked up by the receiver and then they can track the sharks movements right, you know, and that includes tracking where they're going during different seasons, where they feed, and even where their pups are hatched and raised. Right, So that gives us a lot more information about creatures that were a large you know,

largely are very mysterious to us. I mean, it's there's only so much research you can do by capturing and putting into captivity a shark because obviously that's a totally different set of circumstances than a shark being allowed to roam freely. Yeah. Yeah, so so it's pretty cool stuff. And then there's um some other things we can do with sharks that like not be eaten by them. That's

that's a big thing that people want. So there are a lot of of occupations out there that involve everything from science research to certain types of fishing or ocean harvesting, or or even hobbyists like surfers. Right where it could mean that you are occasionally put into an environment what it could be shark rich and uh and you know, again, sharks are not out to get us, but there are times where you could be in a situation where you

could be prone to a shark attack. So I've got a lot of work done in ways of making that not happen, which is excellent. There's one of the slightly older technologies is called electric shark repellent. Yeah, this is now. Remember we talked about the Lorenzo Lamas Oregon in the last section where it allows you to detect bad movies. I'm looking at my wrong notes and feel Laurenzini, well impelve Lareenzini allows them to detect electric fields. So here's

the thing. If you overwhelm the shark's ability to detect electric fields, it causes them discomfort. It's kind of like if you were to overwhelm any of our senses, and it's it's a little bit like blowing an air horn maybe, or or a flash bomb or something like. If it's if it's an incredibly bright light, you can't look at it right, if it's incredibly loud sound, you want to get away, if it's an incredibly bad smell that you want out. I mean, they're they're all these different uh

ways that we have experienced as human beings. Are senses being overwhelmed and it's not a pleasant experience. Same sort of thing here, the electric shark repellent. The idea is to create an electric field that's not going to hurt the shark. It's not going Yeah. The design is not harm the shark in any way, but to create, yeah, or or just give it like a really unpleasant sensation so it gets the heck out of there right. Uh. This was developed by South Africa's Natal Sharks Board around Um.

It's currently by a company called shark Shield the technology and originally it was called Protective Oceanic Devices or pods. Currently it is called shark Shield and it works by creating an electromagnetic field detectible from a couple dozen feet away. Yeah. It's usually between eight and ten meters, depending upon the strength. The strength of it. Yeah. It consists of a battery

pack which provides the power and two electrodes. Uh. The one that shark Shield showed off that I saw had an electrode that fits on a scuba tank and a second electrode that fits around the diver's ankle. So these two electrodes are what produced this electric field. And it's a weak field. It's not terribly strong, because remember that shark's ability to sense these electric fields is incredibly sensitive,

so it doesn't take a lot to overwhelm it. So when the shark swims in and encounters this intense field, it usually just jerks away. Bid. Yeah, it looks like it. It looks like something like, you know, you just hit the worst smell you've ever smelled, and you just got to get out of there. It's kind of like that. There's like a quick spasm and then they're just gone.

So it doesn't look like there's any It doesn't stun them to the point where they suddenly go motionless and start to sing again, and they don't flop around or anything unpleasant like that. It's like it's like nothing not doing that. The video actually had the guy, one of the guys, underneath uh tuna, a giant tuna that they had cut open his bait. Well, great white sharks swam around him but would not get close to him because he was wearing one of these things. They are not guaranteed.

Studies have found that sharks, I mean basically, if you have a bit of bait and do you put an electric field on it or near it, a shark is gonna eat it. Yeah, but humans are are not tasty bait. Most sharks, in fact, once they take take an initial bite out of human, person will go new. That's not good at all. It's called a test bite. But the problem is that a test bite can be can totally

kill you. Yeah, if it's a if it's a large enough shark with a powerful enough bite, that's more than enough to at least maim you, I mean give cause you serious injury, if not actually critical injury rather um. Yeah, but so I recommend not being uh tunabate while you're in the water. So Olympic size swimming pool filled with blood and tuna bate, loud load noises. Uh, you don't want to jump in just with one of these to protect you. Yes, okay, got it, all right, I'm still

I'm making this checklist is getting longer. I'm never going swimming again, not even in my pool. He's just this, This next one might might comfort you a tiny bit. Slip and slide. The most recent technology to have been developed UM comes from the University of Western Australia, teamed with a biotech company called UH Shark Attack Mitigation System. All right, So Sam's Sam's right, and this is shark repelling wet suits based on visual designs. So it is

fashion so bad that sharks run screaming. The other way sham screaming. Oh no, not even so what how does it do this? Like? Is it is it? Is it hiding you or is it? Well? There there are two types of patterns that they have developed. One is a m cryptic or blinding pattern, and this is kind of like water camo. It helps you. It's a it's a series of grays and greens and blues and helps you

blend in hypothetically with the background of the of the water. Interesting. Now, that would not leave me terribly confident if the shark got close enough, because again, it could start picking up that electric field, absolutely, but it might at least not attract the shark's attention the way that any normal bit of surfer gear might. Yeah, and if the shark doesn't come close, then that field isn't is not gonna be

activated anyway. Like we said, it's very sensitive, but it has to get within a few feet of you before it starts picking anything up. So you know, it's a little bit like um active shark cameos. The other kind is warning and this makes you so highly visible with a with a disruptive high contrast pattern that the shark looked like takes one look at you and goes that is not that is not normal, that is that is tasty,

and that is maybe dangerous. Wow. Okay, so it's looking at you and it's just so it's essentially oh, high contrast banding. I see that. Yeah. So yeah, it's these very it's these very thick black and white bands. You look a little bit like a zebra surfer and so interesting. So if you threw a zebra into an Olympic sized swimming pool, don't do that. Why would you do that? Science? Okay, No, you're fair, that's Fair's fair? Yea, it would be cruel

and unusual zebra punishment. Um. Yeah, but I mean these are really interesting ideas because you know, bank, when when us and I first talked about doing a Shark Week episode or tech stuff at that time, the most of the stuff we were looking at it was pretty low tech. We were looking at things like chain mail suits that are bite suits designed to withstand a shark's bite, but you still get bitten by the sharks, right, and you can still sustain heavy bruising and even even bone breakage

through a chain mail suit like that. And then we also talked about like shark cages, but really, shark cages don't have a lot of tech to them. It's essentially a metal cage designed to keep the shark away from you. Really good welding. Yeah, so I'm glad that you were able to find so many interesting examples of technology being used in shark research and just protecting people who are working in environments where there are a lot of sharks.

And of course here's where we remind our listeners yet again, sharks are not out to get yet. They are not, none of them. None of them are like Jaws. Yeah, they certainly won't follow you from not tuck it down to the Caribbean and then wait for you and and and plan revenge like Jaws. For they what a horrible movie that is. However, you will get to meet Michael Caine if that happens, so that's kind of cool. Um And and sharks are very useful. I'm just going to

ignore that last. Sharks are very very useful um as the top of their food chain. They help keep the gray seal population in check, which it sounds terrible for gray seals. But the thing is that if you take a major predator out of an ecosystem, um you wind

up just working that ecosystem on balances. And then next thing you know, you have other other animals populations exploding, which then is a negative impact on other populations and other eco system For for example, US, if the gray seal population isn't kept in check, then the amount of fish that we can capture from from natural waters goes way down because the gray seals eat too many of them. Yeah, so it's and etcetera, etcetera. So if you like sushi,

don't kill sharks. Fair enough, Sharks are hunted very frequently form for their fins, which are sold as food and occasional occasionally as like kind of her herbal traditional medicines. Yeah, there's and a lot of sharks are protected by law, although which does not stop poachers at all. Doesn't stop them at all. No, so uh, and then there are you know, there are plenty of sharks out there that I think are wicked awesome that are not a danger

at all to humans, like whale sharks another example. They are not They're not going to chew you up they're not going to do that. That's not what they eat. The tiniest of tiny things. If you swam directly into its face, um, it would probably wonder what the heck you're trying to do. It might I suppose it could crush you accidentally. It could whack you with its tail. But they tend to be these just giant, slow moving,

fairly gentle creatures. I mean they're they're essentially they're filter feeders, very similar to other filter feeders. Um, and they're awesome. We have a couple here in Atlanta that I like to see whenever I go to the George To Aquarium. Well that that's a good conversation just about the science of sharks and the technology we've developed. Oh oh, I forgot to mention. I had mentioned at the top of the show about the possibility of developing tech that would

allow us to kind of emulate what sharks can do. Right, Yeah, that electro was that the electro electro sensitive idea. Yeah. So so this is something that we'll talk about more in a future podcast. We're gonna probably do an episode about body modification. Uh. And in the interest of full disclosure,

Jonathan has two tattoos. Um. But the body modification I was going to talk about was that there's this subculture of body modifying folks and one of the things they like to do is have a tiny magnet implanted uh in their fingertip. In a fingertip usually it tends to be at least the reference I've always seen is make it the ring finger on your non dominant hand, because so that if something terrible goes wrong, that's you've lost

the least useful finger. Morbid. But yeah, it's tough, and we'll talk more about it if we do a full podcast on it. But the the ideas the magnet would allow you to do things like sense electric fields because the the relative the nature between electricity and magnetism means that you have this this connection now would have to

be a fluctuating electric field. You can detect it if you moved through it, but upon moving through it, like if you if you just encounter an electric field that wasn't changing, you would detect it when you first encountered it and then it would just be normal. Right, So it had to be a fluctuating electric field for you to continue to detect it. But this would allow you to do that where you could sense electric fields just well, not just like, but in a similar way to the

way sharks do. So it's kind of interesting that there are body modification fans out there who are building in the capability of sensing things the way a shark would not necessarily you know, framing it that way, but that's how it ends up, and I think that's pretty awesome. I don't think I would be volunteering to do that anytime. I don't want to that either. Yeah, yeah, it seems

like that might be a little extreme, even for me. Um. But however, it's kind of interesting and we'll talk again more about that because there's been some other interesting developments of technology built up around this kind of body modification. But anyway, I just thought i'd throw that in there because I thought it was meat, you know, this idea of this sixth sense out of the seventh that sharks have, and and to uh to kind of talk about how

there are people who are sort of emulating that. Anyway, that kind of wraps up this conversation. Guys, if you have any suggestions for future topics of tech stuff, like you totally want to hear that body modification episode, let us know. Send us an email. Our address is tech stuff at Discovery dot com, or come find us on Facebook and Twitter. We're not hiding, We're right there. Our handle is tech stuff hs W, Lauren and I will talk to you again. Really sing for more on this

and thousands of other topics. Does it? How stuff works dot com