July 30, 2024 • 10 mins
Some people will go to great lengths to stay true to their passion, whether that's a friend or a scientific mystery.
Pre-order the official Cabinet of Curiosities book by clicking here today, and get ready to enjoy some curious reading this November!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Ernst Johanna Schmidt was obsessed. Now. The subject of his
obsession was not particularly well understood by his friends and family,
and Ernest thought that they could afford to be more understanding.
After all, he was hardly the first person in history
to form this particular interest. The topic on his mind
had fascinated the likes of Aristotle and Pliny the Elder,
(00:57):
it stumped Freud, and captured the imagination of the ancient Egyptians.
And yet most people he encountered outside of work, they
just viewed it as well a little strange. You see,
Ernst was interested in eels. Specifically, he wanted to know how, where,
and when they reproduced. This seemed innocuous as a question,
but it had troubled scientists for centuries. That's because for
(01:20):
most of history, no one had ever caught a young
eel or witnessed eels mating. The slippery creatures seemed to
lack genitalia altogether, making sexual reproduction impossible. So then where
did all the eels come from? Did they spring fully
formed from the entrails of the earth as Aristotle suggested,
or was there something else going on? Part of the
(01:42):
mystery was solved in the eighteen seventies, when Ernst was
just a teenager. Scientists discovered that eels undergo several major
metamorphosies throughout their life. Think of a caterpillar and a butterfly,
or the face huggers and xenomorphs of the alien franchise
that different stages looked like completely different creatures, but they
were the same animal from different points in life. In
(02:03):
the case of the European eels, they hatch as larvae,
later transformed into small, translucent glass eels, and eventually become
the much larger yellow eels. It isn't until their final
silver stage that the eels develop sex organs and become
capable of mating. But here's the really strange parts and
the thing that interested Earnst the most. Just before European
(02:25):
eels mature into their final stage, they leave their homes
in rivers, lakes, and lagoons and disappear into the ocean.
Some will even travel thousands of miles across land or
straight up the walls of dams to reach saltwater. And
this explains my early scientists struggled with the eel question
for so long. All the eels capable of mating were
(02:45):
somewhere deep in the ocean where no humans would encounter them.
Where exactly they went to procreate was anyone's guests. But
Ernst was determined to put the mystery to bed once
and for all. Starting in nineteen oh four, he embarked
on several marine expeditions in the Mediterranean Sea and the
Northern Atlantic Ocean. He trawled the ocean floor in search
of larval eels and found that the older, larger specimens
(03:08):
were always closest to the coast. They got smaller the
deeper into the ocean he went, and he soon realized
that the eels were leading him to a single origin point.
It took him over twenty years of searching, but through
trial and error, Ernst finally found what he was looking for.
A small section of the Atlantic Ocean known as the
Sargasso Sea turned out to be the origin point for
(03:29):
all European and American eels in the world. Along the
way his understanding of the eel life cycle deepened, Ernst
learned that eels can live for over one hundred years,
and that's as they mature in gross sexual organs, their
stomachs dissolve. Their final swim can cover a distance of
six thousand miles, and during that time the eels survive
(03:50):
off their existing fat reserves, slowly starving to death. Scientists
today believe that they die soon after mating, which makes
sense with the lack of an opera's stomach. Strangely, the
new larval eels that hatch from their eggs swim back
to the same parts of the world their parents came from.
How they know where to go is still a mystery.
So Ernest's discovery didn't answer every question, and it actually
(04:13):
created plenty of new ones. But the weirdest thing about
what he found might be this one unusual fact. That
section of the ocean all the eels are coming from
it just so happens to be the center of the
Bermuda triangle. Some friendships withstand the test of time through
(04:44):
life's ups and downs, and despite major differences, there are
pairs whose bonds go down in history. Often these friendships
are born out of unexpected circumstances, and that's how our
story today begins. In eighteen fifty, a young woman named
Florence visited the city of Athens. As she roamed the Parthenon,
she noticed some boys bullying a young girl. They made
(05:06):
fun of her unusual appearance, but they didn't just call
her names. It seems that they were going to hurt her.
Florence hurried over to the scene and chewed the boys away.
As she dusted the girl off, she tried to figure
out who she was there with, and that's when she
realized that this girl had no family and nowhere to live.
Florence wasn't the type to abandon someone in need. She
(05:27):
was from a wealthy family and so she had plenty
to give. She decided to take the girl back to
her home country of Britain. The girl seemed happy to
go with her, but there was more trouble on the horizon.
They arrived back in Britain by ship, and the motion
terrified the little girl. To add to that, the ship
didn't carry any food that the girl could stomach. As
the journey went on, she began to starve. Meanwhile, Florence
(05:49):
suffered from sea sickness, so she struggled to take care
of the girl herself, and because others on the ship
were uncomfortable with how different this girl was from them,
Florence had no one to help her fortune. Florence worked
as a nurse, and she was highly skilled at her job,
so she managed to make herself well and then found
a way to feed the girl, and finally they arrived
in Britain and Florence took the girl under her wing.
(06:11):
Soon enough, Florence noticed that the girl didn't exactly know
how to behave in polite British society. For one, the
girl had grown pretty attached after Florence rescued her from
that attack in Athens, so in return, she became overly protective.
If anyone ever got too close to Florence while the
girl was around, she would try to scare them off,
and this only added to the fact that people were
put off by the girl's appearance alone. Florence struggled to
(06:35):
fix this behavior. Along the way, she was able to
teach the girl to Curtsey, something that all young girls
were expected to do. At the time, and this at
least endeared her to people who would otherwise be offended
by her more let's just say aggressive tendencies, and this
girl's captivating stare also didn't hurt. She had wide, discerning eyes,
which soon became known all around town, and this was
(06:56):
one reason for the name that Florence gave her, Athena,
the Greek god us associated with wisdom. The name was
also a nod to the city where they first met.
Over time, Athena learned to behave herself. Florence started taking
her everywhere she went, and people found this a little odd.
Florence was renowned as a healthcare worker and Athena was
just different, but Florence didn't care what they thought about it.
(07:19):
She would even bring Athena to work with her, and
this is how Athena learned to take after Florence's caretaking abilities.
As the story goes, one day, Florence had to change
a burn victim's bandages. She brought Athena with her, and
at first the patient was confused to see Athena there.
They had never seen someone like her in a hospital before,
but they had more important things to think about, because
(07:40):
having their bandages changed was extremely painful. As Florence worked,
the patient winced and writhed. Florence did everything she could
to comfort them, but it felt impossible, and then Athena
started showing the patient her curtsies. For a moment, both
the patient and Florence were surprised, but then the patient
seemed to calm down. Performance was the perfect distraction from
(08:02):
their pain. Realizing what she was doing, Athena went on
to perform some dance moves and this really cheered the
patient up. Soon Florence was finished with the bandages, and
Athena's behavior that day was a reminder of the impact
that true care and compassion can have. Florence started bringing
Athena to work with her every day after that. Like
the burn victim, many of her patients were initially confused
(08:26):
and maybe even a little annoyed that Athena was there,
but she quickly won them over with her quirks and charm.
The way she made patients feel calm and comfortable was
a huge help to Florence. Their life together went on
like this for four years, and then in eighteen fifty four,
the War in Crimea broke out because of Florence's superb
nursing skills she was called to serve. She was ready
(08:47):
and willing, but there was one major downside. She would
have to leave Athena behind. War, of course, was no
place for a girl so small and unaware of the world,
but Florence reminded herself that it was only temporary. Before leaving,
Florence racked her brain for the best place to keep Athena,
and finally she landed on a solution, the attic at
her family's house. Florence didn't love the idea, but it
(09:09):
was the best one she had, and her family agreed
an attic was a good place for someone like Athena.
After all, Athena was an owl. Now it broke Florence's
heart to leave Athena behind. Caring for Patience was much
different without her, but Florence's work during the war earned
her unparalleled recognition. Even back home in Britain, people heard
everything that she had accomplished there, and no one was surprised.
(09:32):
After all, she was the famed nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale. Unfortunately,
owls don't have the same lifespan as humans. After Athena
passed away, Florence couldn't part with her beloved pet, and
so she had her taxidermied. Athena may not have gone
down in history like Florence, but her legacy still lives
on today because Athena's nine inch tall body can still
(09:54):
be seen in the Florence Nightingale Museum. An enduring testament
to a cure friendship. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
(10:19):
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
Ernst Johanna Schmidt was obsessed. Now. The subject of his
obsession was not particularly well understood by his friends and family,
and Ernest thought that they could afford to be more understanding.
After all, he was hardly the first person in history
to form this particular interest. The topic on his mind
had fascinated the likes of Aristotle and Pliny the Elder,
(00:57):
it stumped Freud, and captured the imagination of the ancient Egyptians.
And yet most people he encountered outside of work, they
just viewed it as well a little strange. You see,
Ernst was interested in eels. Specifically, he wanted to know how, where,
and when they reproduced. This seemed innocuous as a question,
but it had troubled scientists for centuries. That's because for
(01:20):
most of history, no one had ever caught a young
eel or witnessed eels mating. The slippery creatures seemed to
lack genitalia altogether, making sexual reproduction impossible. So then where
did all the eels come from? Did they spring fully
formed from the entrails of the earth as Aristotle suggested,
or was there something else going on? Part of the
(01:42):
mystery was solved in the eighteen seventies, when Ernst was
just a teenager. Scientists discovered that eels undergo several major
metamorphosies throughout their life. Think of a caterpillar and a butterfly,
or the face huggers and xenomorphs of the alien franchise
that different stages looked like completely different creatures, but they
were the same animal from different points in life. In
(02:03):
the case of the European eels, they hatch as larvae,
later transformed into small, translucent glass eels, and eventually become
the much larger yellow eels. It isn't until their final
silver stage that the eels develop sex organs and become
capable of mating. But here's the really strange parts and
the thing that interested Earnst the most. Just before European
(02:25):
eels mature into their final stage, they leave their homes
in rivers, lakes, and lagoons and disappear into the ocean.
Some will even travel thousands of miles across land or
straight up the walls of dams to reach saltwater. And
this explains my early scientists struggled with the eel question
for so long. All the eels capable of mating were
(02:45):
somewhere deep in the ocean where no humans would encounter them.
Where exactly they went to procreate was anyone's guests. But
Ernst was determined to put the mystery to bed once
and for all. Starting in nineteen oh four, he embarked
on several marine expeditions in the Mediterranean Sea and the
Northern Atlantic Ocean. He trawled the ocean floor in search
of larval eels and found that the older, larger specimens
(03:08):
were always closest to the coast. They got smaller the
deeper into the ocean he went, and he soon realized
that the eels were leading him to a single origin point.
It took him over twenty years of searching, but through
trial and error, Ernst finally found what he was looking for.
A small section of the Atlantic Ocean known as the
Sargasso Sea turned out to be the origin point for
(03:29):
all European and American eels in the world. Along the
way his understanding of the eel life cycle deepened, Ernst
learned that eels can live for over one hundred years,
and that's as they mature in gross sexual organs, their
stomachs dissolve. Their final swim can cover a distance of
six thousand miles, and during that time the eels survive
(03:50):
off their existing fat reserves, slowly starving to death. Scientists
today believe that they die soon after mating, which makes
sense with the lack of an opera's stomach. Strangely, the
new larval eels that hatch from their eggs swim back
to the same parts of the world their parents came from.
How they know where to go is still a mystery.
So Ernest's discovery didn't answer every question, and it actually
(04:13):
created plenty of new ones. But the weirdest thing about
what he found might be this one unusual fact. That
section of the ocean all the eels are coming from
it just so happens to be the center of the
Bermuda triangle. Some friendships withstand the test of time through
(04:44):
life's ups and downs, and despite major differences, there are
pairs whose bonds go down in history. Often these friendships
are born out of unexpected circumstances, and that's how our
story today begins. In eighteen fifty, a young woman named
Florence visited the city of Athens. As she roamed the Parthenon,
she noticed some boys bullying a young girl. They made
(05:06):
fun of her unusual appearance, but they didn't just call
her names. It seems that they were going to hurt her.
Florence hurried over to the scene and chewed the boys away.
As she dusted the girl off, she tried to figure
out who she was there with, and that's when she
realized that this girl had no family and nowhere to live.
Florence wasn't the type to abandon someone in need. She
(05:27):
was from a wealthy family and so she had plenty
to give. She decided to take the girl back to
her home country of Britain. The girl seemed happy to
go with her, but there was more trouble on the horizon.
They arrived back in Britain by ship, and the motion
terrified the little girl. To add to that, the ship
didn't carry any food that the girl could stomach. As
the journey went on, she began to starve. Meanwhile, Florence
(05:49):
suffered from sea sickness, so she struggled to take care
of the girl herself, and because others on the ship
were uncomfortable with how different this girl was from them,
Florence had no one to help her fortune. Florence worked
as a nurse, and she was highly skilled at her job,
so she managed to make herself well and then found
a way to feed the girl, and finally they arrived
in Britain and Florence took the girl under her wing.
(06:11):
Soon enough, Florence noticed that the girl didn't exactly know
how to behave in polite British society. For one, the
girl had grown pretty attached after Florence rescued her from
that attack in Athens, so in return, she became overly protective.
If anyone ever got too close to Florence while the
girl was around, she would try to scare them off,
and this only added to the fact that people were
put off by the girl's appearance alone. Florence struggled to
(06:35):
fix this behavior. Along the way, she was able to
teach the girl to Curtsey, something that all young girls
were expected to do. At the time, and this at
least endeared her to people who would otherwise be offended
by her more let's just say aggressive tendencies, and this
girl's captivating stare also didn't hurt. She had wide, discerning eyes,
which soon became known all around town, and this was
(06:56):
one reason for the name that Florence gave her, Athena,
the Greek god us associated with wisdom. The name was
also a nod to the city where they first met.
Over time, Athena learned to behave herself. Florence started taking
her everywhere she went, and people found this a little odd.
Florence was renowned as a healthcare worker and Athena was
just different, but Florence didn't care what they thought about it.
(07:19):
She would even bring Athena to work with her, and
this is how Athena learned to take after Florence's caretaking abilities.
As the story goes, one day, Florence had to change
a burn victim's bandages. She brought Athena with her, and
at first the patient was confused to see Athena there.
They had never seen someone like her in a hospital before,
but they had more important things to think about, because
(07:40):
having their bandages changed was extremely painful. As Florence worked,
the patient winced and writhed. Florence did everything she could
to comfort them, but it felt impossible, and then Athena
started showing the patient her curtsies. For a moment, both
the patient and Florence were surprised, but then the patient
seemed to calm down. Performance was the perfect distraction from
(08:02):
their pain. Realizing what she was doing, Athena went on
to perform some dance moves and this really cheered the
patient up. Soon Florence was finished with the bandages, and
Athena's behavior that day was a reminder of the impact
that true care and compassion can have. Florence started bringing
Athena to work with her every day after that. Like
the burn victim, many of her patients were initially confused
(08:26):
and maybe even a little annoyed that Athena was there,
but she quickly won them over with her quirks and charm.
The way she made patients feel calm and comfortable was
a huge help to Florence. Their life together went on
like this for four years, and then in eighteen fifty four,
the War in Crimea broke out because of Florence's superb
nursing skills she was called to serve. She was ready
(08:47):
and willing, but there was one major downside. She would
have to leave Athena behind. War, of course, was no
place for a girl so small and unaware of the world,
but Florence reminded herself that it was only temporary. Before leaving,
Florence racked her brain for the best place to keep Athena,
and finally she landed on a solution, the attic at
her family's house. Florence didn't love the idea, but it
(09:09):
was the best one she had, and her family agreed
an attic was a good place for someone like Athena.
After all, Athena was an owl. Now it broke Florence's
heart to leave Athena behind. Caring for Patience was much
different without her, but Florence's work during the war earned
her unparalleled recognition. Even back home in Britain, people heard
everything that she had accomplished there, and no one was surprised.
(09:32):
After all, she was the famed nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale. Unfortunately,
owls don't have the same lifespan as humans. After Athena
passed away, Florence couldn't part with her beloved pet, and
so she had her taxidermied. Athena may not have gone
down in history like Florence, but her legacy still lives
on today because Athena's nine inch tall body can still
(09:54):
be seen in the Florence Nightingale Museum. An enduring testament
to a cure friendship. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
(10:19):
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.