The crew revisits truth, maps, flat Earthers, and April Fool’s history. Science news: Artemis II, found time, zombie cells, and a spider disguised as a fungus. And no fooling, a fist bump with RZA
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j: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole of Research down here in the Basement Studio. You have me, Joe.
Nick: Yeah. Got Nick.
j: we’ve got Nick
Geo: Georgia,
j: and we’ve got Georgia here in the Mini talking about
Nick: the new name for three episodes
j: I know we’re keeping it there. Yeah we had David Detmer, retired philosophy professor.
On talking about the truth and how complicated it is. So it was a really good episode 60, Lassoing The Truth Serum. So that was a very that was a very good
Nick: was a fun episode. I enjoyed that one a lot
j: Mm-hmm.
Nick: and I think the timing of it releasing made it even better.
j: Yes. I think it’s it was very relevant to our times.
Geo: and it was on April Fool’s
j: and a release on April, no fooling on April Fool’s Day. But yeah, there was a,
Nick: you call it April Fooling? Like who are you? Fooling?
Geo: [00:01:00] we know the history of April Fool’s Day? Like why that came about?
Nick: It started all as a lie.
j: I know that’s
Geo: I’m just curious why they pick April 1st.
j: I
Geo: Now, every day is April Fool’s Day.
Nick: I mean, April Fool’s Day doesn’t matter anymore. We got every day, other day.
j: So just a quick look of this, the origins are murky, but may trace to 1582 when France switched from the Julian to the Greg Gorian calendar. People failing to recognize the new year moved from late March to January 1st, were mocked as April Fools. It also seems to stem from spring festivals celebrating unpredictable weather.
So those two,
Geo: that’s very relevant still.
j: yep. So there’s a few others. Roman Goddess Connection, April was sacred. The Venus and the Ven area was held on April 1st, possibly tying the day to ancient [00:02:00] traditions. And then, so
Geo: Mo in the modern times, we have the whole where you purposely prank someone.
j: Yeah.
Geo: You know,
j: Yep. Modern,
Geo: like we use that as an excuse to be like, whoa, it’s April Fools Day and like,
j: papers, news, television stations will publish false stories to fool the public.
Geo: Right.
j: Kind of a
Nick: I mean, I always love those. There was only one day that one year it actually got me where I was like, what?
Geo: What was that?
Nick: it came up. Ah.
Geo: Do you remember
Nick: was a while back. I think it was, I don’t even remember. I think it was like an announcement of
Geo: Uhhuh?
Nick: and I was like, oh, wow, that’s so cool. And then it didn’t take till later that I was like, oh,
Geo: They got you. Yeah. Everyone
j: NPR did, and it was they were going to move all of the music in the Library of Congress on the 70 eights. They were gonna, cut records for. Storage because, unlike digital media, if the technology changes, then you can’t [00:03:00] play the digital files. But if you have 70 eights, then you can just have a stylist.
If it’s into the world, you find one, you can just still make music off of it. So I read that and I was like, oh, this is like a cool idea. But that’s gonna take a lot. I mean, 78 doesn’t hold that much information,
Geo: I know who gets that job,
Nick: I love getting fooled by it. It’s always good.
j: good.
Geo: and now it’s weird because of social media. Like you might not see a post on the day that it posts, , it’s two or three days later. Yeah. And then you’re like, and then you have to go, oh, this was from April Fool’s Day.
Nick: It takes a minute before you’re like, ah.
j: So before I get into the episode a few things to clean up. The other thing that happened on April Fools was the Artemis two
Geo: And that was a, not a prank.
j: was not a prank no two back to the moon. People were headed there. So real exciting to see that.
Nick: I think Georgia has a song for this. Georgia, you wanna take off?
Geo: I do.
j: All right. [00:04:00] Maybe that’ll be a bonus
Geo: that is an April Fool’s
j: 4th.
Geo: Nobody wants to hear me see
j: but yeah, they’re,
Nick: sing your Rocketship song all the time. I don’t
Geo: Oh. Oh, you’re right. My zoom, zoom.
j: That’s why
Nick: That’s why I said zoom into this.
j: Yeah.
Geo: Oh my God, that’s a great point. I’m gonna have to remember that for Mother Goose tomorrow,
j: But as the astronauts, they’re all making our way.
They went around the moon, took some great pictures, and they’re now, I believe, on their way back to earth as the time of this recording. So
Geo: So they didn’t actually even get out to stretch their legs or
j: No, they did not get out. This was a test run. So they did a lot of testing on like emergency procedures, taking panels off, doing a bunch of checks.
So this mission
Geo: Yeah.
j: Then three we’ll take the lander up, and then four we
Geo: And when would that be? Do you
j: I think it’s next year. I think every year we, it.
Geo: Are these astronauts planned to be going on? Any other missions Or how do they decide [00:05:00] that? Do you know?
j: I don’t know.
Geo: It just feels
Nick: In two years, are they going back
Geo: yeah, it feels like, oh
j: have different, there’s a,
Geo: I’m the first woman, but I didn’t even get to get outta the ship.
j: I think that happened even in the Apollo mission that, you know, they went up and there were people who didn’t. Go to the moon.
I did the testing that, okay, you’re done and now we have a line
Geo: Right. I mean it’s all like building blocks. It’s all important. But I was just curious if they process
j: process. That’s
Nick: I feel like I’d be a little upset that I got chose for one and not the
Geo: Right. Right.
j: I mean, I don’t know. I wouldn’t be upset.
Nick: You know, it’s like,
Geo: I don’t know. I think,
Nick: did I mess up? Did I get fired? What do I do now?
Geo: think you always wanna do the next thing.
You know what I mean?
Nick: Yeah,
j: I mean,
Nick: you don’t want to do the next thing, Joe.
j: I do, but I mean, going into space is exciting. So unless it’s, I
Geo: just like Will.
Nick: there, I might as well lick a rock.
j: you know, that’s why
Geo: They didn’t even they didn’t even get out to lick rocks.
Nick: I [00:06:00] just wanted to go lick a rock, but I couldn’t lick a rock because I’m stuck in this stupid chip.
j: I was gonna say the you guys are talking about being screwed, but Michael Collins he actually stayed in the lunar module. While Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldering landed on a Luna surface. Oh. So he didn’t even count himself.
Nick: more
Geo: Oh my God, you gotta be kidding me.
j: And then he didn’t, I don’t think he got to go back up. So that was,
Geo: that stinks.
j: Yeah. So
Nick: I had been like, Hey guys, can I just go outside for a minute? Like, let me just do a jump.
j: yeah. But he was in the, he was in lunar orbit, so he wasn’t even on, he didn’t actually
Geo: he didn’t actually, he
j: he hung
Geo: car warm.
j: right. He just kept the lights, the gas r you know, if you guys see aliens, let’s go.
I’m ready. So, yeah, no, that was but yeah, so that was,
Geo: so they wouldn’t see aliens on the moon. They would be the aliens.
j: Well,
Geo: Do you know what I mean?
j: right.
Nick: Was that a high thought there, Georgia?
j: [00:07:00] I know. Yeah.
Geo: It was yes. Right up there with zoom, zoom, zoom.
j: Just quickly looking it up that Michael Collins did an interview in 2019 and said he was delighted with his seat.
Despite missing the walk, and he was actually offered another chance to walk on a moon as later commander, but declined it according to NASA post.
Geo: I wonder why he declined.
Yeah,
j: Yeah, I mean, maybe you do it once and
Geo: Yeah.
j: So, back to the episode. There was a couple things you said we would touch on.
One was the, map accuracy. We talked about the sizes of continents on maps and how they’re drawn. So the Equal Earth Projection or Gail Peters projection is what they’re now, provides a more accurate representation of land sizes. And it’s actually named after James Gall and Arno Peters. They created this map in 1885, but it wasn’t published until 1974.
Geo: And I’ve, I mean, and is it widely known about like, yeah,
j: I mean, I think they’re trying to [00:08:00] get it out there.
Geo: is that something I could just Google and I can look at like that, the map that’s more
j: this in the show notes, but they, there’s a website called True Size Of, and you can actually compare. Drag
Nick: that website.
j: continents on top of other continents and really see
Geo: and then can you compare it to like the other maps,
j: is called a Mercator. And so you can use that to, yep. You can adjust and it’ll adjust for latitude and things to actually give you. The true kind of ratio between different land masses. So that was really cool.
So I’ll throw that in there. The other one, I’ll throw these article links. There was this was the idea that girls are bad at math. And so there was a few, recent large studies have shown there’s no intrinsic gender difference in children’s earliest numerical abilities. That paper was published in July, 2018 in Nature
Geo: and it really was more about the perception of being
j: Yeah. Being told that you’re bad. Right.
Geo: just think, oh, I’m a girl. [00:09:00] Like, you know,
j: and the perception from teachers that, oh, you’re gonna be bad, you’re gonna be worse at math, and so you’ll be better at this. And so you never get that Right confidence boost that you need
Geo: going in or, and also like, like going into like STEM, going into engineering.
j: The other one that I didn’t mention in the episode, but it’s is the Dunning Kruger effect. Are you guys familiar with
Geo: Is that the one you’ve talked about before? I
j: have talked.
Geo: that you know enough to then not really.
j: You have limited
Geo: you know who talks about this one a lot.
j: But yeah, you have limited knowledge and you’re confidence in a domain is greatly overestimated. Versus their expertise.
And this was identified in 1999 and it suggests that incompetence prevents people from recognizing their own mistakes, often leading to higher confidence than experts.
Geo: Oh God. I could see so many examples.
j: about this guy, he
Geo: Oh, about
j: Pittsburgh and he went in a bank. [00:10:00] Robb did, and then he went home, and then the cops and everyone showed up at his house and arrested him. He’s like, , how’d you guys find me so fast? It was like an hour later or something really quick. And they go, oh, yeah you didn’t have a mask on. So we saw your face and we, and people knew who you were and we knew where to find you.
And so they were like, no. He goes, no, I did these experiments. Where if you rub lemon juice over your face, then you become invisible to cameras. And they go, what? And he goes, yeah, I even tested it. I did a bunch of tests with the Polaroid camera, and they went, and during the investigation and searching the home, they found the Polaroids and they could see.
And the problem was that his tests, he would always after putting a lemon juice on the camera, was tilted at an angle, which didn’t show his face and assumed then that the lemon juice truly did make him invisible, the cameras.
Geo: Don’t do that.
j: Yeah, don’t
Nick: I was not expecting that outcome
Geo: Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about that a lot. Yeah, I’ve heard him talking.
j: And then the follow up [00:11:00] on David’s point about the flat Earthers, there is a documentary and almost to the same point called Behi Behind the Curve. And in that. Like he said, there’s conferences. But in this show, this documentary, it follows people who are really setting up these very involved experiments that they feel will prove the Earth is flat.
And this one that’s in there is this Bob Knodel’s laser gyroscope experiment. And he kind of tries to test the earth rotation. And he says, oh, if the earth’s not moving, we won’t, you know, if it’s flat, you’ll see this. And if it’s round, and he actually then. It proves that the earth is indeed rotating and hence it’s round and in gen.
And generally then all these experiments, when they get the result that proves the Earth is round and kind of prove all, you know this, add to the evidence. They go, oh, our experimental design was flawed. Not that the result they got, the reason they got was [00:12:00] correct. So yeah, there’s more, there’s a whole documentary Behind the Curve and I’ll throw that.
Into the show notes.
Nick: It’s pure comedy gold. They were not trying to be ironic about it, and that’s what made it so great. The look on their
j: you’ve seen it?
Geo: Yes.
Nick: Yes,
j: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t, I
Nick: know exactly what you’re talking about.
Like, it’s one of those like late night watches where you’re like, this is just hilarious.
j: yep. Yeah, no. So that was just a few
Nick: Highly recommend.
j: From the episode I thought I would add to it. Had some listener feedback. So, one was Alex who listening and mentioned a few things and he mentioned the Mon Mothma
Geo: mamma,
j: the character in Andor.
Who gave a speech to the Senate and so I’ll put that clip, “but it’s of all the things at risk, the loss of an objective reality is perhaps the most dangerous. The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil. When truth leaves us, when we let it [00:13:00] slip away, when it’s ripped from our hands, we become vulnerable.”
To the appetite of whatever monster screams the loudness. And so, and then Alex added his own, “truth is discovered or known, it doesn’t necessarily lead to accountability.” So that was his, some of
Geo: His thoughts. There you go.
j: And he also brought up Operation Paperclip and that was the program. We’re more than 1600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the US government employment at the end of World War II for things like rocket development and medical technologies that they could bring over.
Nick: So was that one ever really a secret? I feel like that one was well known
j: I think it was a secret.
Geo: I think they really tried to keep those people’s identities confidential.
j: Where they actually, I think it was people, they knew people were coming into science programs from Germany.
Geo: Germany.
j: But it wasn’t, their history and their background, they got new identities, they were [00:14:00] protected from the trials that were going on at this time, remember they were under trial for the horrendous Crimes against Humanity that were caused
Geo: And they should have and they should have been held accountable.
But because they had this skillset
j: And Russia was, the Soviet Union were recruiting these people, but it’s,
Geo: but it’s not like
j: like a
Geo: America was also doing those horrible
j: experiences. Yeah.
Right? I mean
Geo: same time, we make it sound
j: seem like,
Geo: like, oh, we’re so much above that.
Yes. You know.
Nick: stopped doing experiments. It’s just how well known they are
j: yeah. So, yeah.
Nick: I was gonna say what other experiments that are known about what that would be?
Geo: The one I’m thinking of is the one about syphilis.
Nick: There are better known podcasts that will cover conspiracy theories better. If you’re interested, go seek those ones out. Those are always fun.
j: Yeah,
Geo: Right after you watch Beyond the Curve.
Nick: Oh yes.
j: [00:15:00] Cool. All right. Anything else you guys got before we move the new business?
Nick: No, not really. I thought that episode was a lot of fun though.
j: Yep. It was, yeah. And I will say because of the Artemis launch, we’ll be shuffling some episodes around that’s coming up. We will do the, still keep the
Splatter punk episode next with Phrique to support Slay the Lake that’s happening in Kenosha. Is that Wisconsin? Is that April
Geo: April 18th.
j: yep. So, so yeah, so
Nick: you guys going?
j: more about that. I think we
Geo: I plan on going. It’s.
j: it’s
Geo: To let you know, like, I don’t know if, I know we’ve talked about it before, but it’s the like horror writing, horror writers L-G-B-T-Q,
j: Mm-hmm. And
Geo: it just sounds, I haven’t, you’ve gone to one of the,
j: these? I did go to one.
Yep.
Geo: but I haven’t, but I’m really, I’m, yeah, I’m really excited.
j: Yes. We’re gonna go
Geo: April 18th. So go.
j: And we’ll put it in the show [00:16:00] notes
Geo: do you think you might own on it
Nick: I don’t know, maybe.
j: the Rabbit Hole, the Research
Geo: a field
j: Field
Nick: field trip.
j: We’ll talk about that. We just had one, but I want to get to the cool science stuff.
Geo: I’m sorry Joe.
j: I know. Is that, Nick, did you have anything?
Are you
Nick: I did, it was in the vein of space. , it was a whole thing about how the property of viruses change when they get sent to space.
And I thought that was super interesting ’cause we’re, I feel like Joe and I have been on a rather big space kick lately, especially with Artemis two going up. But yeah, they were saying that regular ones does a really good job at infecting right
j: Mm-hmm.
Nick: But when they get sent to space, something in the property makes it becomes more powerful, more potent.
That’s what it’s, and I thought that was so cool. Can you go with that, Joe?
j: of the microgravity, they had conditions there. They tested it. Yep. And some viruses, I think they were bacteriaphages.
[00:17:00] So these are viruses that particularly attack bacteria that they go, it alters their structures attachment. And I think infection rates will go up so they
Geo: it’s probably how it travels through the air really.
j: It could just be the, how they evolve once they affect their hosts, then the changes that happen in this new environment.
Right. So we think about evolution and evolution as, passing on your genetic material and inducing changes. And then those changes are influenced and selected for by the environment. If you change the environment, something I can reproduce really quickly.
I’m guessing I didn’t read this paper, but they could evolve more rapidly and adapt to their new environment faster
versus let’s
say humans, which we only have usually one child per birth cycle. So our evolution is really slow compared to, insects or viruses which, reproduce in the millions at a time. So every time they churn through. They are, [00:18:00] they’re evolving a lot quicker and they can adapt to their environment a lot faster than we could, you know, so that I’m thinking that’s what’s happening.
Nick: I thought they were saying something about wanting to see how they react after they come back down and if they can. End up helping make processes stronger.
j: Yeah, I mean, especially like bacteriaphages. So if they can, because, we have, we use antibiotics, so these are drugs that can affect the way bacteria will divide or replicate or weaken their cell walls or things like that to make them more susceptible in the die. So we use these kind of things that other like fungal species or other bacteria make.
The fend off other bacteria. But if bacteriaphages, which naturally attack bacteria, trying to use that. If you have now more virulent bacteriaphages so these won’t harm humans, they’ll just go after bacteria. Then you could maybe create a new generation of, antibiotic [00:19:00] drugs.
Using a biotic
Nick: wild.
j: So that would be my guess. Once again, I didn’t, I need to probably dig in this
Nick: wasn’t a super long article. I don’t think they went super deep into all of it, but I just thought it was super interesting to see that, you know, the speed of something can change or the potent
j: Potency. The virulence yeah. So, yeah no, I think that’s, like I said, I think it has to do with their evolutionary rate that they can evolve in into their new environment.
And you see that with like bacteria, like they do gain resistance to antibiotics. Their generational cycle it’s so much faster that you can then find and select for something that is, is much stronger resistance than its parents.
So, yep. Very cool. Yep.
Nick: So what did you bring?
j: Yeah, I got a couple things and one is probably that same line. A really cool arachni mimicry of a pathogenic fungus. So corti opus, we [00:20:00] all familiar with that. It’s the fungus that. We’ll control spiders, ants, things like that, and make them do its
Nick: Oh yeah,
j: like climb up to a high point and then it will fruit and then spread its spores all around.
And so what they found was this spider and I’ll put it as a show notes because I’ll probably hack up the species name Taczanowskia waska
Waca. It’s a new spider species.
Nick: that’s.
j: And it’ll,
Geo: it will
j: it actually will mimic it being infected. So it appears to be infected with the fungus, but it’s really not infected.
And so it’s kind of this it uses this. Decoration to ward off predators. But it can also, be used in hunt hunting. So if , another animal sees it, the spider is sitting there with the fungus grown out of it, it might go, oh, it’s safe to pass, get close enough then that the spider can make a meal, and ambushed the prey. So it’s really kind of cool, this kind of [00:21:00] mimicry that it’s developed over time, once again in its environment kind of interacting with this species that it’s now used, using
Nick: that one’s so wild of a camouflage.
j: And indeed, yeah. To pretend that you’re,
Nick: oh no, I’m a diseased. It’s like
j: Yeah.
Nick: if someone’s like, oh, I wanna camouflage myself with leprosy, it’s like, oh,
Geo: Yeah. I remember, I,
Nick: don’t do that.
Geo: I remember this guy that he used to say, if he was going to be like in a sketchy neighborhood or like he’s on a bus or something and he’s nervous about it. He just starts. Talking to himself really loud and he says crazy stuff. , no one messes with you.
If you’re clearly insane. Nobody’s gonna mess with you. It’s kind of the same.
j: Yeah. I think it
Geo: think it’s kind of thing.
j: similar. No, it’s really cool.
Nick: You could be either be someone talking to themselves or just someone
j: your phone,
Geo: Like I think you really have to,
j: yeah, you gotta be
Geo: You really gotta [00:22:00] play it up nowadays.
j: be kind of hard.
So,
Geo: dunno, I think you could pass yourself off as being completely insane.
Nick: Who, Joe.
j: yeah, that’s not me.
Nick: I get it.
j: So I had a, another one that was interesting and maybe we all have this feeling, it’s that it was called gain time is expanded, examining the psychological and behavioral consequences of gaining time.
And essentially the, this kind of study, it’s how if you gain an hour like so a canceled work meeting if it this unexpected windfall of spare time, it feels expanded. So it feels, so if you get, you gain like an hour from missed meeting or a canceled meeting, that time feels longer than 60 minutes.
It gives you this ex ’cause this expectation from this unique sense of opportunity. And so you actually respond differently if you get this found time or this gain time where it’s like, oh, you don’t have, we’re not doing this meeting [00:23:00] today. Okay. That, that 30 minutes or 60 minutes now feels like 90 minutes.
Like it feels much longer psychologically, even though it’s obviously to 60 minutes, but you have this kind of sense of finding this time and then doing things with it or
Nick: you already have in mind what you’re doing, so your brain is like, I already have this planned out. But now that you have to create a new task for yourself, you end up having so much more of a, oh, what am I gonna do with myself kind of moment.
j: Exactly. Yep. No, I think you have that pho. I kinda, that burst of energy like, oh man, now I can do something else. I can get caught up, or I can take a nap. I don’t know if this actually said you could take a nap, but I’m
Nick: I mean, I kind of just forget what I’m gonna do and then just get into a standstill of, well, what am I gonna do?
j: So I’ll put that link
Geo: and then I feel like it, you have that and then, oh gosh, I didn’t do anything really with that time and then I get depressed.
j: Well that’s I guess that’s a different thing.
Nick: That went down real quick.
j: right. It’s like,
Nick: I’m so sorry, [00:24:00] Georgia
I guess you could just call me. I’m not doing anything
j: yeah. Yeah, then I had one more. It was interesting to stay on the zombie theme. I was thematically thinking, I dunno, to gain time doesn’t really fit. But it was this cool paper about zombie cells that return from the dead. So the paper was selection free, whole genome transplantation, revives dead microbes.
And so they
Nick: know what? I think I was reading that article
j: did you read that one? Yeah. Yeah.
Nick: Could not understand it. And my brain was like, what?
j: And so this is this whole idea of like synthetic biology, and it’s a really fascinating and interesting field that’s been taking, picking up steam and synthetic biology is can you get life to create resources that we need? It could be medicines, it could be materials like whatever.
So can you take something that’s living and then reprogram it? To actually create the thing that you want it to make. And so this is interesting because the idea here was that you had [00:25:00] dead bacteria and then they took the genome from another bacterium, and put it into the dead one and machinery that was still happen to be in the dead one. Started to use the other genome
Nick: this is where I got a little confused. So when it’s a dead cell, isn’t that like, isn’t, doesn’t stuff start to decompose or is
j: it you can start having breakdown
Geo: it a
j: you would have that I believe, yes. I think the, and I could, I need to, I would’ve to look at the methods.
I should have had that know you were ask me methods questions. No, you’re fine. Let’s
Geo: but
Nick: where I got confused. I don’t know
j: no,
Geo: it would have to be pretty like newly
j: They do, they talk a bit about it. They say a general solution to this problem killing recipient cells without compromising their capacity to continue to do work.
Right. So to y’all’s point, this whole genome transplant that if you, the cell’s been dead [00:26:00] too long, all the proteins and things will denature break down, like the cell’s not actively doing anything, so it won’t maintain its system.
So they were crosslinking and stopping replication of the genome and that would essentially kill the cell if they block its genome for being used .
So it actually can’t now make new proteins and stuff . But this process, they used this cross-linking process would leave all it, its machinery transcription, translational machinery. That’s the machinery that can read DNA to RNA and RNA to protein that can do work in a cell.
We’ll leave that all intact. Then they could take the donor genome. Which they grew. And then just to explain back that the donor genome, they didn’t actually take another bacteria and then open ’em up and pull the genome out. They actually used they made what’s called a plasmid, a little circular piece of DNA.
And then that was of the other genome from the other bacterium, and make copies of that in yeast. [00:27:00] And then they could take that. So the yeast would make a bunch of copies of the bacteria plasmid, and then they have like now the donor plasmids, and then they would put that into the deactivated bacterial cells.
So essentially they were like on life support,
Nick: controlled environment, right?
j: weren’t like dried out, crusty bacteria on a plate, like, you know.
Nick: them off.
Geo: So, wow.
j: yeah. Really, and that’s how synthetic, that’s how you would do synthetic biology and do that, or, trying to put new organelles into. A thing that doesn’t have the organelle. Think of photosynthesis and the chloroplast.
Geo: or is that also like growing certain organs out of a different organ?
You know, and I mean like a different type of cell. We talked about that a little
I like what makes it synthetic?
j: I guess you could have biological parts or devices or systems or taking existing ones and making a useful purpose out of it. So have it reimagine something that then you can use. So you’re taking engineering, [00:28:00] molecular biology, genetics, computer science, and then trying to create for all intents and per an optimized organism. Let’s say that, so something that, that suits your desires perfectly.
Geo: Mm-hmm.
j: No. It’s a very, it’s a fascinating area. Of research. I think it’s one of the new focuses of NSF funding is synthetic biology. I think it’s gonna be, one of those things we’ll hear more and more about, it’ll creep up and it’ll be like, oh, this is some synth bio, material.
I think you’ll see it more. So it was kinda like nano particles and nano kind of things. You know, 10, 15 years ago now we’ve just gotten used to it and someone says, oh, nanoparticles.
Nick: Yeah, that makes sense. I know what that is or have the general idea what it is.
j: yeah, no, so this was fascinating. Like I said, it was a fascinating paper to see it come out and to do that, but yeah, I just feel like I’m in journal club, like back in grad
Geo: I mean, didn’t we come up with a name for this segment? Oh
do [00:29:00] we have a name? Well, I think we need a name and it,
Nick: club.
Geo: and we need it to be like,
j: I don’t want journal club. I
Geo: I don’t know. It needs to be like a music or something that leads into it. So everyone knows that’s what we’re doing now.
j: Alright. Well that’s a whole different
Nick: Well, if anyone has any
j: you’re right. There we go. Cool.
Geo: Science.
Nick: kind of media have you guys been up to watching lately?
Geo: Well, we saw a movie just was that last night? No. Was that last night?
j: That was two nights ago.
Geo: Oh,
Nick: know. What movie did you guys see?
Geo: One spoon full of
Nick: Oh, that one? Yes.
j: One spoon of chocolate. By
Nick: ain’t no fool in there
j: by. By the RZA the Abbott
Nick: we did run into,
Geo: We got a fist bump.
j: did. We got fist bumps. Yes. Yes. We were,
Nick: all round.
j: there was, yes. No, it was a very, yeah he came to be with the people and yeah, he, we were looking
Geo: were the [00:30:00] people.
j: we were looking at some DVDs and that were in the lobby and next thing he was standing be asking us how we liked the movie.
And it was yeah. I’m not sure if we answered or just drooled a little bit. I think we did.
Nick: all kind of just went.
j: Yeah. Yeah. Nick had to apologize for literally running into him. So that was and then he was like, yeah, it’s okay, buddy. What do you think of the movie? Yeah,
Geo: It was really,
j: it was, yes,
Geo: it was, yeah. It was good.
j: It was good. Yes, it was a really good movie. It was presented by Quentin Tarantino. Quentin Tarantino wasn’t there, but it was a grind house style.
Geo: He’s produ, he’s one of the producers
j: One of the producers. But yeah, it was written and directed by RZA and you could see it was really good. And yeah, then he did a question and answer,
Nick: films
j: Right.
Lot of elements. If you’re, if you like Grindhouse, \ , Kung fu Samurai movies mm-hmm. Then you’ll see all the little elements and Easter eggs in there. It was, yeah, it was good. I like it. I, and this summer, I think it’ll be, I think it’s the pre premiering now. And I think May it comes out. [00:31:00] More wide, but yeah.
So it’ll be like kind of a nice summer movie to go see. Yeah. But it was really fun. It was at the Music Box, the Beyond Chicago Film Festival, so
Nick: Which we absolutely loved every bit of that we were there. Music box. Fantastic. If you’re in Chicago, please check it
j: I would check it out. Yeah. So
Nick: the Beyond Fest was very cool.
j: Yep. It was a lot of cool movies, a lot of good indies. It was really neat. But yeah, that was fun. Yeah, we the crew was on the road mixing it up, getting fist bumps with RZA so if you’re out there, RZA, come on the pod. Love to have you, love to
Geo: enjoyed it even.
Nick: to be less awkward.
Geo: Joe did even put
j: Pass
Geo: pass on a,
j: I know I wanted to, I wanna talk about the embryos. He had this whole embryo theory. I need to talk about science there. So come Show RZA we’ll chat a little bit. No, really nice guy. I mean, you know. Yeah, just really I love it. Talked about, he talked about the process and really doing the studying and then doing the work.
Like it’s really it took [00:32:00] him 12, 13 years to. Get this movie done. Kind of just going back, kind of learning the fundamentals, learning the basics, and yeah, it was really, it showed, yeah, really good. So
Nick: Yeah, very much enjoyed it.
j: A lot of fun there.
Nick: What else? What else have you guys watched? Anything Red
Listened to?
Geo: we’re watching the New Duffer Brothers show on Netflix.
j: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Geo: S Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
j: Yep. That’s, that is, I think that’s it.
Geo: Yeah, it’s really good.
It’s very trippy.
j: Yep.
Nick: Nice.
Geo: yeah. It’s got
j: all
Geo: right away, like in the first episode, there was
there’s
a couple jump scares. Well, for me not for Joe,
j: no, it was all right. It was,
Geo: I gotta be careful ’cause then. My cat lays on my lap, and then that can be da. That’s dangerous.
j: That is a little dangerous. That’s on Netflix. So just
Geo: yeah. Netflix.
Mm-hmm.
j: to point that out. What else? Yeah, I [00:33:00] think, oh, we’re watching For All of Mankind.
Apple Plus the new series dropped. We’re watching Daredevil. The new season,
Geo: That’s really good.
j: So the couple three episodes have dropped and all to solid, so really,
Geo: good. How about you, Nick?
Nick: Me. Well, besides the movie we all saw together tonight, I was told. Joe and Georgia that I was watching a movie, but I lied. I was watching some stuff on Apple tv,
j: Hey.
Geo: Oh, like a series.
j: What were you watching?
Nick: I watched the first episode of Monarch,
Which is the Godzilla King Kong series. Wasn’t bad better than I expected. I think I went in with low expectations though, so,
Geo: Yeah.
Nick: I’ll probably, it’s a it’s a hard show to binge, so we won’t watch two episodes in a night. But after that we watched Platonic
j: Mm-hmm.
Nick: and that [00:34:00] was the Seth Rogan show, which he’s with someone else, which now I’m drawing a blank on.
But yeah, enjoyed that too. And I’ll probably watch Plubris tonight or
Geo: say better. Or Wes is gonna be really upset with you.
j: You should check out For All of Mankind. I think you would
Geo: Severance.
j: a lot of space.
Yeah. Yeah. A little. You want something different For All of Mankind. I think especially with the space element. I think it’s really that one also throw it in there, but Yeah.
Geo: But what it’s on, like, I wanna say it’s on the fourth
j: it’s on the fourth season now. But yeah, I mean that gives
Geo: know, I’m just saying
j: is one you can binge too. You can watch ’em, you know they’re longer, but they are, you can watch a few episodes ’cause it follows historically, you see this little changes in history. If it went one way or the other. And you get caught up in that. Then they have a bunch of segments, like the the real history.
Geo: Which is separate from the actual show. Separate
j: separate from the real show. Yeah. So real, really cool, really well done. Alt history show. So
Nick: Hell yeah. Yeah. I’ll have to check that out because I was like, oh, I know. We’ve been wanting [00:35:00] to check out a few shows, so, and you guys keep telling me to watch shows on there and. So I was like, you know what, I’m gonna get a month worth. Let’s see what it’s about.
j: Yeah, there you go. Good job.
Nick: And what, I’m almost caught up with Daredevil.
I just started Born Again, so I can work my way up to the new season
j: So
Geo: So you’re on the first season
j: you’re dedicated man, that’s,
Nick: yeah, well it’s, ’cause I don’t remember last season
Geo: right? Mm-hmm.
Nick: and I don’t recall, I didn’t recall watching. Season three, and I know I didn’t watch the Defenders, so I’m all caught up now.
Geo: Wow.
j: Cool.
Nick: Yeah. And yeah haven’t started any new games besides the ones I’ve been playing. And yeah that’s been just about it.
j: it. Yep. I didn’t talk about the books.
I read, I finished a few books. Change agent. I think I mentioned that. That’s the gene editing [00:36:00] book by
Geo: That was a recommendation by a
j: Bruce yeah. Bruce
Nick: Oh yeah.
j: Energy Directed Weapons episode. And then I had, I read All the Sinners Bleed by SA Cosby. So a little really good thriller ,
Geo: definitely race relations. Definitely.
j: Very good. And then IFI finally finished Dear Writer by Maggie Smith, so I’ve been talking about that. So I’ve been making my way through very motivational little skew towards poetry, but I think it fits for all writers and creatives.
I think it has a lot of good things about how to get through the noise, how to keep creating. Even when you may not want to or doesn’t feel like you should, but it was really good. So really motivational. So those three kind of finished up in the last week-ish or so. I don’t think I mentioned books in the last Mini, so yeah, trying to keep
Geo: I’m Reading Retreat by Kristin Ritter. Do you know who that is?
j: who that is. Well, I know who it is.
Geo: Do you?
Nick: The actress,
Geo: Yeah. Jessica [00:37:00] Jones. Yeah.
Nick: Yeah.
j: while ago. This is our second book.
Geo: is our second novel. I read her first novel too, which, oh, I’m drawing a blank.
j: Burnout or?
Geo: No, it definitely starts with a B, which that really narrows it down.
Nick: Yep. That’s
Geo: and the first book she wrote was set in Indiana and it was really good. Bon yeah, bonfire. It was really good. And this one is also twisty. Yeah, and I probably have about 25% more to go on that, but I was real excited to see she had a new book.
Nick: Nice. Yeah, I didn’t know that she was writing books. I’ll check that out.
Geo: Yeah. Pretty cool. She makes knitting patterns too.
Nick: Are you
Geo: Am I obsessed? No.
j: Alright. Good.
Geo: that is my favorite Marvel show. I just have to throw that out there.
j: Yeah, it’s a good one. [00:38:00] Cool.
Geo: Alright,
j: Alright.
Nick: Well was th this was another episode of the Mini
j: This is another episode of the Mini, and you have me, Joe.
Nick: Ya Got Nick
j: got Nick.
Geo: Does that mean we go down many holes?
j: you just say who you are? I didn’t ask questions.
Geo: Georgia.
Nick: was Georgia
j: Yeah, it’s like.
Nick: and. We went down some mini holes.
j: If we went down many holes, stay. Stay curious, stay safe.
Nick: Bye.
j: we love y’all. Cheers.
