A slightly sick Jonathan is back to talk about some past winners of the Ig Nobel Prize. Learn about how a wasabi-spraying alarm could save lives, how an inventor planned to recreate a classic cartoon trap, and how a bra might be just the thing during the next pandemic.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Get ready for season poor of the restless once an original podcast presented by t mobile for business- and I heard radio join me as I sit down for in depth discussions with the people at the intersection of technology and business you'll, learn how each
These leaders is building a bridge to what's next and leveraging transformative technologies like five g to create a more connected and meaningful future. Today, listen to the restless ones.
available on the iheartradio, app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Ac hotels by Mary. It is a european inspired hotel brand, where every detail has been refined, crafted and considered to ensure a seamless day. Wake up to the european inspire breathless with handshake, prosciutto, freshly bay croissants and made to order hot items. Unwind the ac lounge, with their custom, Jen tonic, served in a scientifically engineer. Glass get arrested,
Might sleep with the relaxing lavender turned down ritual visit, ac dash hotels, dot com and learn more about the perfectly precise hotel, ac hotels as part of the myriad bud boy portfolio,
Hotels, nissan has a car for everyone, and that means
every driver who, once more whatever your more, is more fun more freedom, more zip,
more head, turning style, more turbo, charged excitement from sports cars and sudan's to ease these pick. Ups, an crossovers at nissan, more is all we do so, there's no compromising here.
ex adventure for endless thrills and the more you ve been looking for check out nissan's it.
citing line up, learn more at me, son, usa, dot com, avis, adjacent alexander for visible wireless. Some wireless companies say they have no yadda yadda, but details matter. You should know what you signing up for so yadda yadda. I'm reading this add four visible on the visible plan: get one line of wireless on horizons: five g network for twenty five dollars a month every month, that's unlimited data text, talk and hot spot for twenty
five dollars a month. All taxes and fees included no surprises, like some other guys, learn more about visible wireless, invisible data management practices at visible that come additional term supply
welcome to textile production from my heart, radio,
We therefore welcome to textile. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland, I'm an executive produce with thy heart radio and held the tec. Are you
as you might be able to tell I am under the weather. Like I thought when I was on their work trip, I was starting to get sick and I was hopeful that it was nothing more than maybe some conjecture
whatever, but now, despite all the wearing of masks and handwashing, and all that stuff, I still got covered its no joke. Ya'll do your best.
act yourself when you're out there. I know that it can seem lame to wear a mask this long after the pandemic, but it can make a difference like
My case is not as bad as it could be. My guest,
at wearing the mask, helped at least a little bit. I didn't
the mask the whole time, because I had to participate in some events and do some recordings and stuff, so it's entirely possible was during one of those.
instances where I contracted it by yeah. I've been set,
the last several days, icily
that in my office at home, because fortunately, my partner does not have it so anyway,
all? That's just to say I love you all and I want you to be safe, so be careful out there too.
best. Just you take care of yourself
I know not. Everyone wants to wear a mask and I get it but
once you to be around for a while
whether you listen to my show or not. I want to be around so to speak, careful
but enough of all that savvy staff. Last wednesday, upload pellet feels like that was an maternity ago. I published an episode about the egg, no
EL prize, as though this joke set of awards as a spoof of the more prestigious nobel prize. That, of course, was established from the wealth of a dynamite guy named Alfred nobel, the guy
invented dynamite. Perhaps no bell wanted his legacy to be more associate with celebrating human achievement rather than blowing stuff up. You know like the the fast and furious franchise, because that's all about family- or at least that's what I'm told I haven't seen them,
anyway, the ignoble prizes grew out of one satirical
as journal called the journal of Iraq, producible results and then later migrated to a second satirical science journal called the annals of improbable research mark abrahams, who at different times helmed each of them.
obligations serves as the master of ceremonies he's also been called the commander of comedy
and abrahams likes to reference the prizes as something that first makes you laugh. Then it makes you think now some
Nobel prize winners receive the
word for seemingly spending a great deal of time and effort studying
something that, at least on the surface doesn't sound
it matters that much like. Why would you even bother looking into that others,
and sometimes received the award, is a kind of roused from the scientific community can alike
almost like a for shame kind of thing, for example,
former us. Vice president Dan Quayle received the nineteen ninety one ig nobel for education, because he demonstrated quote the need for science, education
quote. That was just a snark. U way of saying dan whales
don't command of science was somewhat lacking, but anyway, in that last episode I left off
two thousand five. However, I wanted to talk about a few
are winners, who received an egg nobel prize for stuff that relates to attack, because, obviously not all the prizes do in fact most of them. Don't they
do all relate around things like science, in peace and literature, kind of a reflection of the real nobel prizes, but in a very cheeky tongue, in cheek away now
One of the ones I want to mention actually requires me to go back a bit cause like I said I left off around two thousand five and the last one.
but there's one where I need day to go back to two thousand, because the person that I really didn't mention, I think I
briefly and gave a nod toward this person, but beguiled the graven named him up was Andre guys, who
sir Michael bury earned the egg nobel prize for physics back in two thousand, but what garnered them such an honour? What
It was for a scientific experiment that involve the use of magnets to levitate frogs animal. That description is technically true and an accurate. It doesn't tell the whole story, obviously so.
game is a kind of an interesting person in that he likes to do exploratory experimentation
to just learn new stuff,
try new things and see what happens like. I wonder what would happen if we did this to that and then he tries it. So
story. He tells us that one day he was walking through the lab late one night when his eyes beheld an eerie site. I'm, u is spooky season,
guess again quote the monster mash. Now he was walking to the lab and he had this huge like
electromagnet device and the court
of the electromagnet creed,
kind of a cylinder right like you, ve gotta, an empty cylinder in there, and he thought.
wonder what happens if I pour water into that cylinder nihilism,
very expensive piece of equipment and he actually says like without
really thinking about, and certainly without using any restrain. I decided to try it out
they turned on the electromagnet, which was extremely powerful and he poured water and water has a very weak magnetic property to it.
it's not really noticeable most the time, but he was using a very, very strong electromagnet and perhaps that that magnetic property of water is one.
Things that has set up a lot of pseudo scientific discussion about
water. You know like I, the idea of water having some sort of molecular,
memory, and that leads to things like homeopathy. But
that's not right, really what he was looking at you just like. I wonder what happens within what happened was
but the water a kind of stalled, as it was pouring into the cylinder that this electromagnet had sort of created,
and that he was seeing that the water would beat up into
well spears and float, and you know what frogs have a lot of water in them. So I tried putting a frog in in essentially an electro electrode,
where, like the again, the electromagnet forms a cylinder and by putting the frog there, the frog floated.
hey there, because the electromagnet was generally
the magnetic field to levitate the frog to keep him or it. I guess flow
in within that little cylinder actually saw a video of this. It looked like
rob was on one of those parabolic flights. You know the vomit comment, the aircraft that goes up and
big aurex in simulates microgravity. They lay the free
was one of those also didn't seem too
particularly happy about it can't say I blame it anyway. This odd experiment
actually contributed to science. Beyond the fact you know the views of a strong enough magnet, you can levitate water and or a frog.
because guy I'm starting to dedicate a small amount of his time around ten percent, according to his own accounting toward conducting weird moon shot expire,
immense, he said, was the sort of stuff that probably wouldn't be likely to
Tell them anything important, but if it did, they could potentially be a game changer as it turned out. He was
right because you see game, was also involved in the recent
that led to the discovery of graphic. So graphically is a sheet of carbon atoms. It's a sheet this just one atom thick right. You
billions of atoms in width and length, but only one atom, thick.
Ireland's colleagues used an ordinary pencil which has graphite that's a form of carbon
he's some sticky tape and with the sticky deepen the graphite, they were able to isolate grafting from the graphite,
well, grafting is also the basis for things like carbon nanotubes, a carbon anna
it is just a sheet of carbon atoms.
There have been rolled up, canna, burrito style and the way you roll it up the direction that you roll, the grassy.
so that is the way the atoms aligned with each other. That
actually determines the physical properties of the carbon nanotubes. Now you,
well then one way and the carbon anna too might act like an insulator europa different way could act like a conductor. That kind of thing it's really
cool stuff and it's one of those things is like constantly reference. Dad's gonna be the basis of the next generation of technological revolutions. We ve already done a tunnel stuff like grafting and carbon nanotubes, since this
scullery anyway. It means that in twenty ten diamonds, colleagues would win the nobel prize for their experimental work in isolating grafting, which means that guy would be
on the first person to ever win an egg nobel prize and then later win a nobel prize,
So now we ve done with the stuff that I forgot to cover. In the last episode, we can jump back to two thousand five. Now the next one isn't really tech related, but I kind of feel the need to mention that, because of how wild it is back in the nineteen thirties, new zealand had unexplored
being trousers problem. If you're a fan of the pod gas, ridiculous history, you may already be aware of this because they actually did an episode about it back in twenty twenty,
which disappointed me. As you may know, this I occasionally show up on ridiculous. History is a character known as the quizzed her and when I came across this
While researching the ig nobel prize. I thought oh, this would be great to do in a quizzed or segment and I did a quick search and found out. Oh, they already covered this year's
go anyway, this all has to do in new zealand department of agriculture, the department of Agro-
sure was giving recommendations to new zealand. Farmers to use a chemical compounds called sodium chloride as a weed killer.
the new zealand farmers were transitioning away from herding sheep to hurting cattle instead, but the sheep had been eating. A an invasive
indeed, the end when they start switching to the cattle, those weeds, restoring to grow the control so the departed.
Agriculture says, use the sodium chloride to kill off those weeds. However, sodium chloride is extremely flammable, like explosively flammable, so naturally, as
commerce would use the stuff some of it would end up getting soaked in on their trousers. So one
which farmer a fellow named richard buckley, not the famed fashion designer, I should add,
was drawing his sodium chloride soaked trousers in front of a fire when he observed those pants began to explode. Like
Like there were, a series of explosions within the pants
Once again, I am reminded the fast and furious franchise, or at least as much as I know, about it, based off trailers and the podcast. The worst idea of all time.
anyway, buckley wasn't the only farmer, new zealand with exploding pants, some others, unfortunately, were wearing their trousers when they caught fire and, as you can imagine,
that had disastrous and tragic results. Actually, but a fellow named James watson,
wrote a scholarly article examining this period in new zealand history and he called it. The significance of MR richard buckley exploding trousers reflections on an aspect of technological change in new zealand, dairy farming between the world wars, pretty wordy title. The journal called egg,
cultural history published this article, not as that title actually points out. This is a case of technological change and the church
didn't arrive simply for changes, sake. The result of factors that drove this choice
and I think that's a valuable lesson to pick up often weaken, reduce technological advancement, as
if it were almost like a natural process that, if you just wait, overtime, tech gets better, but obviously
Tat is in some sort of biological creature following an evolutionary path, technology advances because people advance it
sometimes the reasons for going in a certain direction with technology are complicated and diverse and external by
my understanding, those driving forces. We can better understand why technology went one way rather than another, and it might even open up an opportunity to develop technology in a different way. Okay, we're going to take a quick break. We come back we're going to talk about some more ig nobel prize winners. I I I I I
paper gas listeners returning for season for is the restless ones and original podcast presented by t mobile for business and I heard-
radio join me. As I sit down for in depth discussions with the people at the intersection of technology and business, learn of there
nick missions and challenges to enhance, optimization and drive their organizations forward. We reveal how today's
bored thinking, leaders continue to thrive and a world of ever changing technology.
here from those on the leading edge of business, share, industry, expertise and how a strong, inflexible network lays the foundation for positive changes in their fields for
Revolutions and customer experience and employee enable meant to ideas with the power to change the game and even the world. They are building a bridge to what's next and adopting transformative technologies like five g to create a more connected and mean
for future today check out new episodes of the restless ones available
on the iheartradio, app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
part of the game we're talking with some of the most successful families and sports to learn what really making them tech from staying healthy to. Fostering strong family box will hear from athlete, such as kerr warner and what lessons are being passed.
Down to a new generation of athletes. There is a level when we play that we feel were invincible. You feel like it's not going to happen to you, but then any time it
does, whether it's? U suffering in injury or teammate suffering, but dramatic injury. That's what stops you in your tracks and it makes you go. Ok, we're not invincible and it becomes more personal. It's a part of the process to have two works
through those things you know and understand the risks that go into it
understand the rewards of the love for the sport, listen to the heart of the gate, every thursday on the eye, heart, radio, apt, apple, podcast or wherever you get your projects,
crypto is like finance, but different. It doesn't care. We
you invest trade, we're safe, do it
weakens, or at five a m
christmas day, at five, a m crypto is mine.
For everyone everywhere, all the time crack and see what crypto can be not investment device
retraining involves risk of alaska currency services are provided to? U s in? U s territory, customers. By pay! Word ventures in PV, I d be a crack and view pd eyes disclosures a crack and our complex legal slush disclosures ready to change your phone service. You gotta check out boost infinite wireless at boost infinite.
dot com. You get their low priced service in a brand new iphone every year and, most importantly, listen to this- you get the benefit, a boost. Infant,
new technology that selects between its own network and the other two major networks. So you get the best quality calls and data anywhere you are. No one else can do that accept boost so head over to boost infinite dad
switch today, you simply owe it to
self to see what the folks at booster, offering you go to boost infinite, dotcom right now, that's boost. I m
by an I t, doggone boost infinite wireless is
only carrier built for the next fifty years, not the last so sweet
today, one more time go to boost infinite doc up. That's boost infinite, dot, com,
Why settle for one network when you can have three c boost infinite, dotcom, four terms and conditions
Ok, we're back!
we're still in the year two thousand five that was also the year that the quorum quote. Internet entrepreneur
as of nigeria, perceive that egg nobel prize in literature, specifically for the crew,
some of the nigerian prince scam. And yes, this does relate to tech, because
this is a subset of scams that have been around for ages like it's, not a new idea, but the internet and the popularity of email really had them proliferate and become
widespread. So if you ve ever heard of the nigerian prince scammer, sometimes just the nigeria,
scam or, I think, sometimes the four nineteen scam. Then this is what that refers to
and in case you have never heard about this- here's how
While the scam works
the scammers, we'll send out waves of emails to potential targets, and the email will claim that the target your ear, your mark, the person you're hoping to trade
Has the chance to make a boat load of money if they just help the scammer out, so all they have to do
split up a relatively small amount of their money, and then
the scammers say they are going to use that small amount of money to unlock a bigger,
a hunk in wide of cash
and then they will share or even give that cash to the target answer.
For a little bit of money, you're gonna get an enormous pay out and the particulars very deep.
thing on the person who sending up the scam, but the nigerian prince version
typically frames the issue, as this they'd say that a person of very high status, such as a prince of night,
Syria has temporarily lost access to their wealth. It may be dude,
political unrest, something like that. Often it's that the person of high status has now been
thrown in jail, and
need some help in order to get out and
there is usually some other details. It will go into this as well to kind of triumph play upon the targets, compassion so maybe
they might say, like the princess family is
Custody and their lives are at risk that are under threat, and so, if you can help-
If you can put the small amount of money forward, that will be enough for the prince to use to do things like I don't post bail or to bribe officials to get out of
prison and that once they do, they will regain access to their wealth. They will be able to read,
their family and they'll be able to reward the target by giving a huge share of the wealth to the target. So
Obviously, this is just a scam. There is no prints. Indeed,
third there certainly no huge amount of wealth that will be shared with the person. So if the target falls for the scheme,
they'll discover that the only thing that happens if they wire the money to whatever account is attached to the scam
The only thing that happens is that their bank account will go down so the two thousand five ignoble
prize for literature is chiefly apply.
Adding the ingenuity of con artists, as they create stories, meant to separate a fool from his money in two thousand and six howard stapleton received the ig nobel prize in peace for a technological innovation, and it was stapleton who created a device meant to repel teenagers
I've actually talked about this before at the typical range of human hearing spans frequencies as low as twenty hertz
The very very, very low pitch to as high as twenty killer hurts a very high pitch that
Typical range for human hearing, obviously,
individuals. Go. That range varies, however, as we are,
Our range of hearing usually starts to narrow waste
but to lose the ability to hear certain frequencies. Usually it's off the high end.
We start losing the ability to hear those higher pitches. Ass we get older.
that means younger people can hear higher pitches, that older people can't and there's the opportunity sailed and came up with the idea to use a device.
generates a very loud, very high pitch, a piercing, sound but
the sound that people of adult age are not likely to be able to hear at all. They wouldn't even know there was a sound playing, but young people would be able to hear it. So, let's say you're the proprietor of bacon
he store and you're sick of all these lazy teenagers hanging out
your store and loitering they never binding.
in their upsetting you're, paying customers, so
you install one of these sound generators in your shop and when the kids are like taking up too much time and not buying anything, you turn it on. This
ends up irritating the teenagers enough for them to leave, because it's a very loud high pitch sound. You can't hear it because you're an adult, but the teens can hear it. So they you know they they make tracks appear.
Italy stapleton was an equal opportunity kind of guy because, according to the ignoble prize, they have a whole page about past winners. They actually explain that
also use this concept to design ring tones for cell phones. That kids would be able to hear, but adults would not be able to hear which would mean that kids,
school could hear when their phone down a notification by their teacher would remain
None the wiser because it would be an pitched too high for them to perceive very sneaky
Now it's time for another raza award. This one is a doozy, it's from the two thousand seven peace prize, and it goes to the united states air force. Your this one is bonkers
so. Ok in two thousand seven as part of asia
them of information act. Request
some researchers got some informed
About the: u s: military! That was.
Actually, I'm not even sure how to put this in a way that is it
valid representation of how I feel about it and is also family friendly. Let's just say it was unconventional, so the actual story goes back much further, because this was classified information
Otherwise, without the freedom of information act, you would never be illegal access to it, but the story goes back to the ninety nine, these so apparently back, then some people at the? U s airforce explored the possibilities of using chemical warfare.
but not chemical warfare in the sense of using like deadly chemicals, in an attempt to poison or to burn or to otherwise cause physical harm to enemy combatants. Instead, they were looking for chemicals that would alter behaviour in
combatants in different ways. You know as a way to reduce some as a threat in war. So imagine, like you, find a chemical that reduces aggression, for example. Well,
one of these proposals explored the use of quote strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual
behavior input. Now the media ran with this and began to read
Hence the whole
idea, as a quote, unquote gay bomb
Now, there's no real need dive into howl off
All of this is but suffice it to say that
when considering some theoretical weapon? That would compromise a person's agency
That regard raises some really serious questions. It's like saying what have we just roof feed ever
body and also somehow turned them gay
and boggles the mind like the scientists.
Basis for such weapons? Weapon is flimsy at best, so it ends up being just a theoretical discussion because it's not like it's not like humans act.
And they all pheromones third aphrodisiac likeness, it's where more complicated than that, but it still wild to me that anyone would even consider it as a viable weapon. I think
reveals at the very least, a pretty strong homophobic tendency anyway, congrats on winning an ignoble prize again.
another two thousand seven honorary was killed ching. He say whose name I am sure I have completely butchered
Anyway, he received a patent back in two thousand one for a quote: net trapping system for capturing a robber immediately in,
But this is a reminder also that these a
These ignoble prizes, they don't.
Is come out the same year that something happen sometimes his years later, because young people just did notice the inciting
then, or maybe they had not had a full appreciation of the impact of that event, but yeah. This was for a net
having system for capturing a robber immediately witches kennel,
have you ever seen: a film where's
months, walking along a forest or jungle path and then suddenly they get swept up in a big net, then holds them up over the ground. It's kind of like that, except this net would actually be installed above a point of entry, as the patent explains. This is a direct quote from the patent quote. The device looks like a storing box and is installed above the entrance of the business when a robbery takes place in the system is activated and infrared detecting device to tee
if a robber is in a zone beneath the storing box, a net a curtain and a plurality of barriers will drop down immediately and simultaneously after
Lifting motor is activated the system traps the robber and suspense him above the floor and quote. First law robbers could be women. Let's not must stop
the gender to this, but now I imagine the fact that this invention would replicate a scene found in various adventure. Movies is what prompted the ig nobel designation, and you can actually read this pattern
yourself. If you want to leave. If you want to look at what this does
I am actually looks like and to debate whether or not it would work you can just go to a patent search site like Google has a patent search site and the? U s. Patent number for this. One is six million. Two hundred nineteen thousand nine hundred fifty nine ok skipping ahead to two thousand nine. We have a prize in public health, though, went to a trio of inventors, Elinor, bognor, Raphael, Lee and sandra margin. They perhaps anticipated the pandemic of twenty twenty, because their invent,
and was a garment piece of clothing, that you could quickly separate to create a pair of face, masks to be worn in situations where a face mask might be needed. That garment was a bra yeah
they invented, a brazier that, when removed, could then be converted into a couple of face masts, allowing a pair of boots
somebody's to stay abreast of the situation while remaining safe and they got a patent for
If you want to read up on that patent, including to see the various sketches of the proposed invention-
You can search for: u s: patent: seven million two hundred fifty five thousand six hundred twenty seven. Personally, I wish to thank them for supporting public health while simultaneously removing personal support. Ok, I think that's as many juvenile jokes as I can get away with
without completely alienating all of you, I'm sure have alienated most of you, but some of you are still there. I hope brigham and take another quick break, and then I've got a few.
Or ignoble prize winners. I want to mention before we sign off on paper
guess listeners returning for season for is the restless ones and original podcast presented by t mobile for business and I
radio join me as I sit down for in depth discussions with the people at the intersection of technology and business.
Learn of their unique missions and challenges to enhance, optimization and drive their organizations forward. We reveal how today's
forward. Thinking. Leaders continue to thrive and a world of ever changing technology.
Here from those on the leading edge of business, share industry, expertise and how a strong, inflexible network lays the foundation for positive changes in their fields.
revolutions and customer experience an employee, enable meant to ideas with the power to change the game and even the world. They are building a bridge to what's next and adopting transformative technologies like five g to create a more connected and me
for future today check out new episodes of the restless ones available
on the iheartradio, app apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts,
the heart of the game, we're talking with some of the most successful families and sports to learn what really making them tech from staying healthy to, fostering strong family values will hear from athlete, such as kerr warner and what lessons are being passed,
down to a new generation of athletes. There is a level when we play that we feel were invincible. You feel like it's not going to happen to you, but then any time
does, whether it's? U suffering in injury or teammate suffering a traumatic injury. That's what stops you in your tracks and it makes you go. Ok, we're not invincible and it becomes more personal. It's a part of the process to have to work
through those things, you know and understand the risks that go into it
and understand. The rewards of love for the sport listened too hard at the gate. Every thursday on the eye heart radioactive apple, podcast or wherever you get. Your projects could always like finance different
it's for everyone everywhere, all the time crack and see what crypto can be none investment. Vice president reding involves risk of loss. Crypto currency services are provided, he wasn't use territory, customers by peradventure seemed to be a crack and ready to change your phone service. You gotta check out boost infinite wireless at boost infinite dot.
You get their low priced service in a brand new iphone every year and, most importantly, listen to this. You get the benefit of boost infant,
its new technology that selects between its own network and the other two major networks. So you get the best quality calls and data anywhere you are. No one else can do that, except boost so head over to boost infinite die,
com in switch today, you simply oh- it
yourself to see what the folks at booster, offering you go to boost infinite, dotcom right now, that's boost. I
by I, I t he dot. Com boost infinite wireless is
the only carrier built for the next fifty years, not the last. So sweet
today, one more time go to boost infinite doc up, that's boost infinite dot com,
Why settle for one network when you can have three c boost infinite doc on four terms and conditions
ok, we're back, and I only have one prize and twenty tend to mention in this episode and its.
sort of indirectly about technology, the
the nobel prize for medicine, went to a pair of researchers from the netherlands for quote, discover
that symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller coaster? Ride input now the actual paper that prompted this award has the title: roller coaster,
asthma, when positive emotional stress interferes with dis nea perception, despite the nea new to me, d Y s, p a amy. I know acne on things like that,
but despite nea is hard for me to say- and I may be so may be- pronounced to be totally wrong. So once fair play
but anyway, this is. This is more about the your forest thrill that you get with certain activities can apparently interfere at least with our perception of asthma symptoms, if not the actual symptoms, our perception of them, which, ultimately, in our brains,
kind of means the same thing. So it's less about the technology itself, it's more about how roller coaster are the way to create this euphoric response. But I just love the idea of a doctor advising a patient to take a trip out the six flags and write some really coast,
in order to treat their asthma in two thousand and eleven some research.
in japan, received the ignoble prize in chemistry for figuring out, quote the ideal density of air borne with soggy to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency input
so it's kind of like using with soggy, which you can also think of his horseradish, its lower cop, more that, but
similar you can think of it as sort of like smelling salts but Jonathan you may say, while this is no doubt amusing, what does it have to do a technology while my friend, while they they took them
knowledge of this, like they learned what concentration of this smell. Does it take to wake someone up? They then applied that in a technology they created a special type of smoke.
and it emits a synthesized, was sobbing smile upon detecting smell
now. Some of you might think well at that seems excessive. Why would you do that? But if you are hard of hearing like, if, if you are doing
an audible smoke alarm may not wake
you out of a sound sleep and then the
a fire. Obviously that creates an urgent situation so
the study, which at first sounds absolutely silly, led to the development of a technology that potentially could save lives
so, they actually did some research here, they found out that all, but one of their test subjects would wake up within two minutes of the scent reaching
the one outlier who did not wake up within those two minutes, happened to be really congested at the time
So as a nasal blockage, so the what
We had no means of reaching them
Pretty ingenious use of technology like the idea of speed
being with soggy to wake. Synthesize was sobbing this case, but to spray was sobbing and wake people up ass so that they can respond to an emergency situation just one of those kind
Weird inventions, he wouldn't have necessarily thought about are now
up to two thousand twelve next up as the egg
nobel prize were an invention. I've referenced many times
Zander showed that I talk about this
more often I talk about off the show then, on the show just a couple weeks ago:
while I was trying to record an interview over the internet, I talked about this, so the prize was in the field of acoustics, and I went to
who cuts talk, a curry, horror and kaji cicada for their invention. They called the speech
So this is the device that plays back a person's own spoken. Words.
at a very small delay, so essentially
This device has a microphone which picks up a targets speech. Then it has
slight delay device, so it it just a dip inserts a digital delay, and then it plays back the speech.
by a very short delay through a speaker system, and it plays a back at this. The person whose making the speech
of you. Ve ever had the experience of being in, say, like you know, a video call or something like that
and you hear yourself on a delay- you know that
before long. It starts to get difficult to continued to speak too. To make sense,
Longer you go the harder it gets. You might find yourself stumbling over your own words or even saying stuff, that isn't words at all
While the speech jammer was meant to do this on purpose, the inventors intended it too
used by agencies like law enforcement, so
Jane, you got a big crowd.
It's getting all riled up. Maybe there's a charismatic.
Speaker standing on a little platform.
and delivering a rousing speech and your worried that the crime
who's going to become unruly. Maybe
will turn into a riot. Well,
who would use the speech jammer, and you had pointed at the person giving the speech and they would say
and find it difficult or maybe even impossible, to continue to rally the troops.
Though you can argue this- isn't exactly a noble cause. Maybe it is more of an ignoble one. I guess
if you ve, never experienced this feeling, it really is a bit disconcerting. I think a lot of people could actually works through it. I cannot the gets as effective as its
always made out to be at least not for everyone. I've I've done it. Might
Alfred I've seen other people really push through when this is happening, like let'S sister,
I not an ideal situation where you're getting that little bit of a delay and you're in play back in its causing some issues. In my experience you can get through it just takes a lot
effort, and it's not pleasant. There is also a great two thousand twelve prize in neuroscience for the ignore bells,
I would argue this one was actually extremely important. Others went
the group of researchers who use
some very sophisticated brain brain activity, detection equipment like including an f m r, I machine and they detected brain activity in a dead salmon and as
the fish- and yes, if this were a research project that somehow prove that dead fish can have meaningful brain activity throughout the entirety of their body.
that would be weird, but now this
actually, a difference.
Wishing to show that, without using very careful controls,
and rigorous scientific discipline. The possibility for pop false positives using these types of instruments and the typical types of of statistical analysis, false paused a possibility, is extremely high. Ah,
Firstly, this means any conclusions that you draw from. Such work would have to be couched in the fact that the press
This isn't always reliable. That does require that extreme effort to
try and eliminate false positives as much as possible, and if you dont have the strict controls in place, you actually can't be confident in any conclusions drawn from using that equipment. So it's obvious. The dead fish cannot have meaningful
brain activity, so obviously if the research suggests otherwise something has gone wrong right now you can
you can definitively say this dead fish does not have any brain activity, so that
in something has gone wrong in the process, and you can start to take a look at that. It also means that
if it's possible to get that kind of reaction. While you are measuring a dead fish, it
brings into question the validity of data
from procedures that have actual people involved were
That was also wrong because the equipment wasn't calibrate correctly or controlled for properly.
brings into question the really pointing out you ve gotta, be super.
Careful, because otherwise, your drawing conclusions on data that might not be reliable and risks
soldiers have been using mri machines which create images through magnetic resonance to track brain activity as people do everything from like simple tasks. Like me, oh lifting a cup of liquor,
to watching for emotional responses to various stimuli like
watching to see what our brain reacts as a person looks at a different set of photographs. That kind of thing
This information could be
actually teach us a lot about how the brain works and clearly
to be really useful for practical stuff in the future
designing brain computer interfaces like having that that understanding of the brains workings can mean that we can create better brain computer interfaces, which could end up opening up all sorts of opportunities, but
it will for people who may not have any
way of moving around on their own are communicating outwardly, but these
searchers were showing that any kind of work that,
based around this field, has to be accompanied by carefully applied. Strict procedures
to mitigate the risk of false positives, because otherwise we might
that pursuing a path that action.
doesn't lead anywhere and its because
way we used- or maybe I should say, misused. The scientific instruments gave
the wrong idea about what was going on in the first place, and we
pursuing something good just didn't exist. It's like we were snipe hunting the research
serves as a warning an eye on this.
you think that's incredibly valuable. It's also
for me to remember when I see pressing,
This is about technology meant to interact with the brain that we should all be critical thinkers about this.
stuff and to remind ourselves that, without
intervene rigour. We can't really count on results, especially at something that just kind of popped up out of nowhere.
I am reminded of all those various toys that proclaimed
used brainwave activity to allow you to control something
and allow that is question.
at the very least right so
yeah. I think this particular ignoble prizes for something that is genuinely important, and I can see it.
a perfect example of something that first makes, you laugh and then makes you think, because the whole
was precipitated upon these scientists, detecting brain activity in a dead salmon,
as a way of showing how you have to be careful with your scientific process so fantastic prize. There are eight that wrap up this episode of text up about the
If nobel prizes up to two thousand twelve clearly, we got a little bit more than a decade left to catch.
So we'll do another episode about this, not too long from now.
Alan and really focus on the technology angles.
Obviously, there are lots of other prizes that were awarded over the years for other categories,
I recommend you check them out, because some of them are really interesting. Some of them are just adult, though, make a scratch
had in some of them are again
and those sort of rats awards to say. Shame on you for doing this, because you made the world worse, there's a few of those in the eu
well prizes as well. It also is really amusing to me that a lot of the recipients of the ignoble prize will take the effort to
attend the ceremony, and often
our nobel laureates there as well, so at all like seems to be done and in pretty good humour, and I like that, alot too, I think that's really encouraging actually
nell. I hope you're all well, I hope you're all staying safe, I'm
slowly getting better myself, hopefully in tomorrow,
was episode I'll sound a bit better than I do today. In we'll just beyond an upward swing and I'll tell you again really sick
text
is an heart radio production for more
I gather from my heart radio, this
the I radio apple podcasts,
wherever you listen to your favorite jobs. Crypto is like finance, but
on your terms, trade at five, a m on holidays or whenever you want crack and see what crypto can be,
unless minimize continuing involves risk of loss of two thirds easier visas are provided to you as an u s, territory dismissed by peradventure seem to be a crack and hey. It's Malcolm grab will host a revision, is history. Ebay motors is here for the ride. Your elbow, greece, fresh installs and a whole lot. Love transformed a hundred thousand miles and a body full of rust into a drive entire
its own briquettes allergy headlights, whatever you need Ebay motors has and with Ebay guaranteed, fit its guaranteed. If it's your ride the first time every time or your money back plus at these prices
you burning rubber, not cash. Keep your right or die alive at ebay motors, dotcom eligible items. Only exclusions apply. There's a new way to access
heart radio, hands, free and on the go. Introducing the new
hey, I heart voice experience on compatible skull, candy, ear, button headphones and the best part it's free and easy to use
download the sky, like you out from the officer or google place door and simply say: hey iheart play and specify your favorite
you think radio stations or pockets and right now I hurt listeners, get an exclusive fifteen percent up any school. I q compatible ear buzzer headphones with promo code skull, candy fifteen on school, candy, doc,
slash iheart grab some today the hollow holidays around the corner and video is making it easy to give the gift of sound this year. With this incredible sound ordeal for a limited time, you can score a busy obese theory- south africa,
one hundred ninety nine dollars that walmart dotcom we through three sixty degree sound a wireless, some liver, told the audio and building bluetooth these down by will take movie nice gaming sessions in their favorite iheart holiday, music playlists to a new level, but very ideal. This won't last long pedal walmart com and get to give that keeps on giving today.
Transcript generated on 2023-12-12.