August 31, 2025 • 31 mins
Today we’re covering ideas 13 through 9! These include a fascinating discovery about NASCAR and psychology, a clock that’s so accurate it’s reshaping our understanding of time, a tasty way to make concrete stronger (and more environmentally friendly), and some truly delightful revelations about dinosaurs. Plus: We explain particle physics through song.
Check out musician David Nagler’s website and his band, As For the Future!
This episode originally aired on March 5, 2025.
Got a question you’d like us to answer? A rabbit hole you think we should explore? Email higeniuses@gmail.com or leave us a message at (302) 405-5925.
Follow us on Instagram @parttimegenius and Bluesky @parttimegenius.bsky.social!
Learn more about your ad choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com.
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 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we
are taking a little break, but we will be back
with brand new episodes starting September ninth, and we have
been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer.
I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In
the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the
twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years.
(00:22):
This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe
did all this extra research for it. We pulled in
contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for
the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and
fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy
(00:42):
it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's
dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess What Will? What's that? Mango?
I can't believe it, but we are already halfway through
(01:02):
our countdown to the twenty five best science ideas from
the past twenty five years. It's crazy. So twelve and
a half in exactly twelve and a half in and
I don't know about you, but I feel like these
stories keep getting better and better. I mean that's kind
of how a countdown.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Works, but I feel like you should tell people what
is coming up next, preview it.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, today's episode has five stories, including what Nascar does
to our brains, a clock that changed the way we
think about time, and our attempt to explain particle physics
through music. Is that even possible? There's only one way
to find out, so let's dive in. Hey, the podcast listeners,
(02:01):
welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm mungkish Heatikur, and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Will Pearson and
our palam producer Dylan is over there in the booth
wearing his lucky sunglasses. So I have a good feeling
about today's episode.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So in case you're wondering, yes, he does have unlucky
sunglasses and we had to ask him to stop wearing
them during the show. Only the lucky sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's right, it was a whole thing. It was anyway.
Before we get into the countdown, I just want to
remind you to subscribe to Part Time Genius on your
favorite podcast app, which should be iHeart the iHeart app
and if you enjoy the show, which I hope you do,
please give us a nice rating and review. It really
helps us out. And also we actually read the comments.
(02:44):
Someone has to do a show on three D printing
and we're planning one in the works. And this week
someone named Elliott wrote the best podcast My name is Elliott,
Oh I like that, which is the greatest narrative.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You know, went from how he felt about the podcast
to his you know it was good, good stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, Elliott, if you're listening messages on our Instagram, so
we can send you something fun. But let's get into
the show.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Actually, it just hit me Dylan is probably wearing those
glasses because you know what's next on our countdown Mango.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That Dylan is so clever. Okay, so the first thing
we're covering today is NASCAR. Now, over the years, there
have been lots of studies on NASCAR to improve the
safety for drivers. There have been research papers on how
the car's bodies and safety measures affect injuries. NASCAR also
a worded a grant to Michigan State University to study
everything from heat exhaustion and drivers to figure out better
(03:39):
exercises and diet regimen for the athletes, and there have
been studies on why fatherhood affects drivers because NASCAR drivers
often drop one point six places on average the year
after having a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Wow, it does kind of make you wonder like if
it's at all related to the fact that they're probably
sleeping less.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I think that's probably part of it. But scientists also
hypothesized that when you have a kid, you think about
your mortality money, and so you might be less prone
to make risky moves on the course. That makes sense anyway.
The most interesting study I read about was done by
this psychologist, Guy Vidioloni from West Virginia University Institute of Technology,
(04:18):
and it's a four year study called quote Driving under
the Influence of Nascar. It isn't so much about what
happens on the track as it is how the races
influence people watching at home. So according to NPR, Vidilioni
looked at all the traffic accidents that took place in
West Virginia and then whittled it down to accidents that
mimicked what happened on a racetrack. So these were things
(04:42):
like pile ups of multiple cars or accidents where there
was aggressive driving and His conclusion was that five days
after major NASCAR races, there's a big spike in traffic accidents. Now,
VIDILIONI actually put in a whole bunch of controls to
make sure he wasn't just saying something wild. He wanted
to be really conservative about his conclusions, but he counted
(05:04):
about six hundred and fifty extra accidents on West Virginia
roads in the days after the races, essentially because people
were quote acting out NASCAR in their own driving this wild.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Although the thing that stands out to me Mango is like,
why is this on the fifth day after a race
instead of like immediately after.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I don't think he figured that part out exactly. Like
he theorized that maybe it's because races tend to take
place on weekends, and so a Thursday or Friday after
tends to be the days that you let loose after
a rough week. But his study is really pointing to
the subtle ways that media affects behavior in the real world. Now,
NASCAR is just one example of this. Another famous case
(05:43):
is of the MTV show sixteen and Pregnant, where the
reality show actually captured the difficulties for high school students
trying to raise kids, and people were really affected by it.
The show led to a five point seven percent reduction
in teen births, which apparently was a third of the
overall decline in teen births in the country.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Academics actually sometimes refer to it as the you are
what you watch phenomenon, And it's pretty interesting to see,
sort of like how MLK talked about the interracial kiss
on the original Star Trek being one of the most
important moments on television, or how President Joe Biden credited
Will and Grace with changing America's perception of gays more
than just about anything else.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, that's right. So anyway, this whole NASCAR thing won't
be a problem ten to fifteen years from now when
we're all taking way mos everywhere and getting the chauffeured
around and robotic cars. But until then, all you NASCAR
watchers out there, he doctor Villlioni's advice, and be a
little mindful of how you're driving the week after a
big race. We want to keep you safe.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Absolutely, all right, Mango, let's say you are a clockmaker.
I'm just going to say that. Okay, Now, you've built
a beautiful time piece that counts hours and minutes. But
now you've got a problem. You want your clock to
count each second with pinpoint accuracy.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It turns out you need to crack open the periodic table,
because according to the International System of Units, this is
how you measure a second.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
The second is defined by taking the fixed numerical value
of the caesium frequency the unperturbed ground state high perfine
transition frequency of the cesium one thirty three atom to
be nine billion, one hundred and ninety two million, six
hundred and thirty one thousand, seven hundred and seventy when
expressed in the unit hurtz, which is equal to s
(07:29):
the power of negative one.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You got it. So that is the definition of a second. Yeah,
it's the definition of a second. I got lost in
the reading of it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
But as you may have noticed, it's a little bit complicated.
So the only way to measure it is with an
atomic clock. And the way this work sounds completely made up,
but I promise it's actually real. Basically, an atomic clock
is a machine that shoots laser beams at caesium ions,
measures frequency at which their electrons jump to different energy levels,
and then sends the readings to a place called the
(07:59):
International buz Ro of Weights and Measures.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So this is a real place.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's a real inner governmental organization. Yeah, and it's actually
based in France.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So we've got laser clock sending data to friends. I
guess I'm with you that far.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Okay, I'm glad you're keeping up. So there are around
four hundred and fifty atomic clocks in the world, all
sending these readings. So timekeepers at the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures they crunch these numbers from the clocks
and then vote on the quote official time, which they
publish in a monthly publication that comes out monthly called
(08:35):
Circular Tea.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I never thought I'd say this about anything that involves caesium,
but uh, that is pretty adorably whimsical.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It is in a way, but it's also pretty serious.
Stuff like this process is how we determine what's called
international atomic time. And a standard atomic clock made with
caesium is so accurate it can keep time for about
one hundred million years without skipping a beat.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
But starting in the mid adds, researchers at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology or in IST, a federal
lab in Colorado, they began developing a new generation of
atomic clocks that could make caesium seem outdated. Actually, so
what makes these atomic clocks so special? Well, they use
aluminum instead of caesium, so basically a positive aluminum twenty
(09:23):
seven ion. In two thousand and eight, NST scientists built
something they call the quantum logic clock.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It contains a single aluminum ion cool to nearly absolute zero,
shot with an ultraviolet laser, and the aluminum ion acts
like the second hand on a clock, so it ticks
by jumping up and down between energy levels. But instead
of ticking once for every second, it ticks a quadrillion
times per second.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is a big number, make note.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And it's so accurate it won't lose a second for
thirty three billion years. That's almost triple the age of
the observable universe.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
That is really hard to imagine.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, or hard to put to the test, I think.
And this aluminum clock does more than just tell time.
It's even changing our understanding of space time because researchers
have used it to test Einstein's theory of relativity. According
to Einstein's theory, gravity affects the passage of time so
the stronger the pull of gravity, the slower the time.
And as a result of this, somebody who lives in
(10:23):
the mountains of Colorado, where gravity's pull is slightly lower,
they'll age faster than somebody who lives at sea level. Now,
the quantum logic clock is so sensitive it actually proved
that a person standing at the top of a staircase
or someone standing on a stool experienced a faster passage
of time. It showed that each additional foot of height
(10:44):
adds about ninety billions of a second to your lifetime.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So NBA players would live longer than jockeys. I have
a dumb question to ask, why do we need clocks
to be this accurate.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It's a fair question, but take GPS for example. GPS
isn't just a location tracking technology, it's also a type
of clock. So if you're driving down the highway and
the GPS is five seconds late telling you to take
an exit, you'd be pretty mad about this. Right, for
the GPS to be useful, it needs to show both
an accurate location and an accurate time. It needs that
(11:20):
time to be precise down to the second. And it
turns out that's true for a lot of other technologies
as well. Take telecommunications, satellite networks, radio signals, lots more
things like this. Anyway, it's hard to overstate the importance
of this quantum logic clock in the nerdy and wonderful
world of time keeping. Those caesium clocks that impressed you
(11:41):
at the start of this segment will eventually end up
being obsolete. And while experiments with other elements are ongoing
right now, aluminum is the leading contender to become the
ticking heart of what we call a second.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause
for a quick break. But there is so much weird
science right after Welcome back to part time Genius. When
(12:16):
we're talking the twenty five greatest science ideas of the
last twenty five years, and we're up to number so
it probably won't surprise you to learn that water is
the most consumed material on Earth. But can you guess
what comes in second? Mm? I'm gonna go with coffee.
You know I might have guessed that too, but know
the answer is concrete. Oh really? Since the Industrial Revolution,
(12:39):
humans have poured nearly nine hundred billion tons of concrete,
and nowadays we're pouring the stuff at a breakneck speed,
especially in the developing world. For example, in the time
period between twenty eleven and twenty thirteen, China poured more
cement than the US did during the entire twentieth century.
(13:00):
Isn't that incredible? But all that concrete has a big downside.
It's responsible for eight to nine percent of global carbon
dioxide emissions.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I never thought of concrete as being such a big
pollution problem. I know, it's not a great thing. I
think of, you know, the sidewalks and things that cars
drive on, But I didn't think of it in that way.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, I didn't realize it either. But apparently making concrete
is an energy intensive process. So it starts by taking
limestone and baking it to temperatures over twenty six hundred
degrees fahrenheit. That kind of heat requires powerful kilns fired
by fossil fuels, and that's just to make cement. To
turn cement into concrete, you have to add aggregates like sand,
(13:39):
and really lots of it. As a result, sand mining
is a big business around the world. We've actually talked
about this before. There's even a burgeoning black market for sand,
backed by so called sand mafias. Anyway, this dangerous mix
of pollution, mining and mafia's got scientists wondering how to
make concrete production more green, Like, what if we supple
(14:00):
minute sand with something else, something more sustainable, something that
could reduce concrete's carbon footprint. And it's something that you
mentioned just a few minutes ago. Wait, coffee. Yeah, so coffee.
Every day, humans drink two billion cups of coffee and
most of the coffee grinds just end up in a landfill.
But in twenty twenty three, Australian engineering researchers had an idea,
(14:22):
what if we used those ground up beans to make concrete.
So that's what they did. They scorched coffee grounds to
about six hundred degrees, which made the grounds break down
into a substance called biochar, which is basically charcoal. And
when they began testing, they discovered that if you replaced
just fifteen percent of the sand in concrete with coffee
(14:43):
fueled biochar, the concrete becomes thirty percent stronger. And how
does that actually work. It turns out the biochar retains
water better than sand, and as a result, the concrete
cries slower than usual, which reduces the risk of shrinking
and cracking, helping it maintain its strength. There are actually
two benefits to this discovery. One, by using spent coffee,
(15:05):
it reduces the demand for sand, and two, by making
concrete stronger, it reduces the amount of cement required for
each bag, and with less cement and sand required, the
total carbon footprint of each bag of concrete could drop significantly.
As it happens, a major industry group called the Global
Cement and Concrete Association has pledged to go carbon neutral
(15:26):
by twenty fifty and thanks to those coffee loving Aussies,
they've got a really strong foundation to work with. It's
an incredible discovery and asso pun mego. I'll take it
all right now, mego.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We happen to be living through one of the most
polarizing moments in recent history. IM sure if you've noticed this,
But I think one thing we can all agree on
is that dinosaurs are really, really cool. That should be
the thing that brings us together. In fact, that might
be some of the firmest common ground we have left
at this point. What do you think?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think a little more
positively than that, but in general, yeah, I mean, everyone
loves dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Exactly, and it's always struck me that even though we're
dealing with creatures that are over one hundred million years
old in some cases, to this day, we are still
finding new things out about them. And the last quarter
century has been particularly generous. We've on earthed so many
new fossils and developed so many breakthrough research techniques that
some scientists are now calling this the Golden Age of paleontology.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
There are way too many of these dino revelations for
us to cover today, but singling out just one didn't
seem right either, So instead, I thought I would walk
us through some of my favorite highlights and they can
kind of all share this spot together.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What do you think, I love it like a big
heap of dino discoveries is exactly what this science series needs.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Absolutely, I thought you'd approve of this. So what stuck
out to me most is all this research that sort
of challenges what we thought we knew about dinosaurs, which
for most of us is just what we saw in
the Jurassic Park movie.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
For instance, in one of the most famous scenes of
the original movie, we see a t rex chasing after
a speed jeep and nearly catching up to it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that didn't happen in real life. That was just
a movie, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
In fact, she was even closer than she appeared to
remember because of that whole mirror.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, I think we all remember that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That scene was considered plausible for nearly a decade after
the film's release, with many paleontologists speculating that a real
t rex could run as fast as forty five miles
an hour. But in two thousand and two, researchers John
Hutchinson and Mariano Garcia used some clever math to show
that the rex likely had a much slower role than
(17:37):
we previously thought. So, using biomechanical data from the dinosaur's
closest living relatives those would be birds, now, the pair
was able to extrapolate just how much muscle mass it
would take for an animal the size of a t
rex to actually be able to run. As a general rule,
no more than fifty percent of an animal's body mass
is composed of muscle in only a fraction of that
(18:00):
muscle is allocated to the legs. But for a t
rex to run forty five miles an hour, its leg
muscles would need to account for eighty six percent of
its total body. Right, some real masks.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Those are monster legs. It feels like the leg muscles
would be up to its eyeballs. But uh, you know,
in that case, there's no room for anything else.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, it doesn't add up there. So even though the
researchers had poked a giant hole in one of Jurassic
Park's best scenes, the filmmakers didn't hold it against them.
In fact, Hutchinson was even hired to consult on one
of the Jurassic Park sequels based on the strength of
this breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That's pretty awesome. But I'm curious, do we know what
a t rex's top speed would be?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, the two thousand and two study concluded that t
rex would have had a hard time topping twenty five
miles an hour, and according to a twenty seventeen study
from the University of Manchester, they probably can only reach
speeds of around twelve miles a mile, so any faster
and the seven ton predators would risk shattering their bones.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Actually. Wow, so it's almost like at speed that a
human could outrun. At this pace.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, and remember that's the top speed. The t Rex
was even slower when walking exactly how slow remained a
mystery until twenty twenty one, when Dutch researchers built on
those earlier findings and used computer modeling to prove that
Rex walked at a leisurely pace of between two and
three miles an hour. Now, another point of departure from
the Jurassic movies is that the predatory dinosaurs, including t Rex,
(19:25):
did not have permanently exposed teeth. Researchers and artists have
long believed that bipedal carnivores have lipless mouths where their
upper teeth would hang over their lower jaws, not unlike
you know, maybe like a crocodile or something like that.
But according to a twenty twenty three study from the
University of Portsmouth, the dinos actually kept their choppers discreetly
(19:46):
covered with a pair of thick lizard lips. Isn't that
kind of funny to imagine? So the researchers found that
toothwaar and lipless reptile groups was much different from that
of carnivorous dinosaurs, and based on computer modeling, it would
have been impossible for a lipless t rex to close
its mouth without the lower jaw actually crushing the very
(20:06):
bones that supported it.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That is really interesting, And you know, I feel like
with all these breakthroughs, they've kind of defanged this idea
of a really frightening t rex, right, but like suddenly
they're like only strolling around at two miles per hour.
Like they don't have those goofy grins anymore, right, you know,
bearing their teeth and a dinosaurs supposed to have feathers,
(20:32):
right like on top of everything else, they're fluffy.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Actually, I've got some good news on that front because
while many dinosaurs are now believed to have sported feathers,
including raptors and a few of the t rex's cousins,
the rex itself is thought to have had this smooth,
more scaly skin. The exception would have been juvenile t rexes,
whose small bodies may have needed feathers for thermal insulation
by the time they reach adulthood, though their forty foot
(20:57):
long bodies were so good at retaining heat that they
know or needed those downy coats. So if anything, an
adult t rex may have had a stripe of bristles
on its back and shoulders, but those would have been
used to attract a mate rather than to keep warm.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
All right, So that's at least one thing the movies
seem to have gotten right.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, and there's there's still room for improvement on that
front too, because while the t rex was scaling, they
likely weren't the drab uniform color they're often depicted as
you know, you always picture that exact colors. Recent analysis
of t rex fossils have turned up evidence of melanin,
the same pigment found in human skin and bird feathers,
and that suggests that the rex's skin may have had
(21:35):
patches of several different colors, possibly even like a camouflage pattern,
which makes sense you think about the stripes and spots
of modern predators.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That is crazy, you know. I kind of imagine like
being given like a t rex as a kid and
told to color it, and like, you know, you pined
with fancy colors, and that seems completely wrong, right. I
also had no idea that melanin could fossilize.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Well, paleontologists didn't eat either until two thousand and eight,
and since then discovery has led to all kinds of
new insights about the appearance of dinosaurs, including some pretty
solid guesses about the exact colors of their skin and
feathers now more than anything.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Though.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
All the advances we've talked about show us that the
dinosaurs weren't the straightforward terrors that we often see in
pop culture. Like any other animal, they live full lives.
That included some quieter moments as well.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I like how you're trying to make it seem like
we should all be adopting them from shelters. I feel
like it's the right thing to do. I would still
be a terrified one. Oh totally.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean, you know me, I'm terrified when I see
a cat, can imagine a dinosaur?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
All right?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well, because dinosaurs are so cool, we decided today on
our Instagram we're going to give away some super special,
scientifically accurate dinosaur action figures. It is important to call
them action figures. I called it a dolt earlier. Gabe
got very like that.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
He is our resident toy expert, so I'm going to
have to lean on that and I will agree to
ill at an action figure. So head over to our
instagram at part Time Genius and find out how you
can win.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Okay, listeners, you've got to pay for the show with
some ads, but uh, we'll be right back after this
quick break. Welcome back to part time Genius, where we're
(23:27):
listing out the best ideas in science in the last
twenty five years. Nay, okay, well, so how much do
you know about sub atomic particles?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All right, Well, my knowledge of subatomic particles would, if
I'm being honest, probably fit inside a sub atomic particle.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, that's what I thought. So here's a quick overview
that'll help you understand our next great science discovery. So
let's start with protons. These tiny particles hang out in
the nucleus of every atom, and they're made up of
even tinier particles called quirks, which in turn are held
together with even tinier particles called gluons. Now, gluons have
(24:07):
no mass, but they do carry energy, specifically something called
the strong force, and in terms of nuclear physics, it
basically means it holds stuff together. Now stay with me,
because I'm sure you know that deep in a tunnel
near Geneva there's something called the large hadron particle collider.
And a hadron is any clump of two or three quirks,
(24:28):
And what this thing does is it blasts particles like
protons at each other at insane speeds, so scientists can
find out what happens when they crash into each other.
And even before this technology existed, scientists have been thinking
about the outcomes of proton collisions. So one hypothesis they
came up with was that protons might exchange a couple
(24:49):
of the gluons that hold them together, creating a super weird,
massless little particle made up of only gluons, which they
called and this is true a blue ball glue ball?
Is that the actual scientific term, though it is so
ah way, In nineteen seventy three researchers put forward a
very specific version of this theory. They said that it
(25:11):
was possible for three gluons to briefly stick together after
a collision. Now, at the time, there was no actual
proof of this, It was just an idea. And they
call this hypothetical particle the odderon.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
All right, so I want to make sure I understand.
So an oduron is what like a triple glue ball? Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's weird. I had never thought of particle
physics involving this much fun vocabulary.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I feel like I might have majored in it if
I had known all this.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
But all right, So are you going to tell me
that someone finally proved this odoron thing is real?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So in twenty twenty one, a group of scientists using
the Large Hadron Collider did in fact find evidence of odon.
So yes, when protons collide in this thing, about three
quarters of the time they get smashed apart, but about
twenty five percent of the time the protons survive intact.
They just kind of bounce off each other. And because
at the point of impact, they exchange gluons, sometimes two,
(26:04):
sometimes three, and those gluons keep them together. So are
you still with me here? I think so? Right. So,
quirks carry a charge kind of like a positive or
negative electric charge, but this is expressed in terms of color,
so they can be red, green, or blue, and when
you have all three of those stuck together, the charge
is said to be white or balanced. But there's also
(26:25):
something called an anti color, which is the property of
anti quarks. Is this like antimatter, Yeah, So the antiquirk
is the antimatter evil twin of the quirk, and it's
either anti red, anti green, or anti blue. But what's
interesting is gluons have both colors and anti colors, so
you could have a gluon that carries red and anti green,
(26:48):
which sounds like a very strange Christmas ornament. A spokesperson
for the Oderon experiment told Gizmoto that the math of
Vaulteer is quote too hard to explain, but suffice it
to say, su Suer has observed frequency differences in proton
proton collisions versus proton anti proton collisions, and they realized
the difference had to do with changing color balances that
(27:10):
could only be explained by the existence of a triple
gluon clump. The odder On I'm trying real hard here, mango,
but I gotta be honest. This is making my head
heart a little bit. I know it is complicated stuff,
but it's also an incredible discovery. But to make the
story a little more personal, we asked our pal David Nagler,
who is an incredibly talented musician and composer, to write
(27:34):
a song about it, Hiding in.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Plain sight Now I'm in the light light because of
a proton proton and a proton anti proton condition. That's
the difference between the two. Three good on stuff like good.
Thanks to the particle physicists for clearing up being decision
(28:23):
I'm an a lot, but I'm not that odd and
out un. I'm a real hot rod. It's not monochromatic light.
(28:50):
I'm red, green and blue making white. It may seem
like a fax, but it's only quantum chromo dynamics. Folks
deep in the particle e Sallerator keeping proton longevity greater.
So I can agree. The force is.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Strong in me strong.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Autobun, but I'm not that and autorum. I've got a
real hot bond man. Aut'm not that and auto um.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's not that b.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Wow. It seems so complicated, but you know what mego.
It also makes me want to dance. Yeah, the song
or the science that you know, all of it. I'm
just feeling good after this. I couldn't agree more. And
big thanks to David Nageler for helping us out with this.
We'll put a link to his website in the show
notes so that you can check out his music. It's
not usually about physics. Okay, that's it for today's episode,
(30:35):
but be sure to tune in tomorrow when our countdown
continues with a scientific secret Lurking and home depot, some
lively molecules and a medical treatment that began in a really,
really gross place. You won't want to miss it. And
if you'd like to win that realistic dinosaur action figure,
head on over to our instagram at part Time Genius
(30:56):
to check out today's giveaway contest. As always from Will, Gabe,
Mary and Dylan, thank you so much for listening.
Hey everyone, it's Mango here. With summer winding down, we
are taking a little break, but we will be back
with brand new episodes starting September ninth, and we have
been working hard on so many fun episodes this summer.
I cannot wait for you to listen to them. In
the meantime, we are re airing our countdown of the
twenty five greatest science ideas of the past twenty five years.
(00:22):
This list was so joyous to make. Mary and Gabe
did all this extra research for it. We pulled in
contributors for various places. We got incredible songs written for
the show. The whole thing is bizarre and delightful and
fascinating and joyous, and honestly, I just hope you enjoy
(00:42):
it half as much as we enjoyed making it. Let's
dig in. You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production
of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. Guess What Will? What's that? Mango?
I can't believe it, but we are already halfway through
(01:02):
our countdown to the twenty five best science ideas from
the past twenty five years. It's crazy. So twelve and
a half in exactly twelve and a half in and
I don't know about you, but I feel like these
stories keep getting better and better. I mean that's kind
of how a countdown.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Works, but I feel like you should tell people what
is coming up next, preview it.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, today's episode has five stories, including what Nascar does
to our brains, a clock that changed the way we
think about time, and our attempt to explain particle physics
through music. Is that even possible? There's only one way
to find out, so let's dive in. Hey, the podcast listeners,
(02:01):
welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm mungkish Heatikur, and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Will Pearson and
our palam producer Dylan is over there in the booth
wearing his lucky sunglasses. So I have a good feeling
about today's episode.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
So in case you're wondering, yes, he does have unlucky
sunglasses and we had to ask him to stop wearing
them during the show. Only the lucky sunglasses.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
That's right, it was a whole thing. It was anyway.
Before we get into the countdown, I just want to
remind you to subscribe to Part Time Genius on your
favorite podcast app, which should be iHeart the iHeart app
and if you enjoy the show, which I hope you do,
please give us a nice rating and review. It really
helps us out. And also we actually read the comments.
(02:44):
Someone has to do a show on three D printing
and we're planning one in the works. And this week
someone named Elliott wrote the best podcast My name is Elliott,
Oh I like that, which is the greatest narrative.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
You know, went from how he felt about the podcast
to his you know it was good, good stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Well, Elliott, if you're listening messages on our Instagram, so
we can send you something fun. But let's get into
the show.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Actually, it just hit me Dylan is probably wearing those
glasses because you know what's next on our countdown Mango.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
That Dylan is so clever. Okay, so the first thing
we're covering today is NASCAR. Now, over the years, there
have been lots of studies on NASCAR to improve the
safety for drivers. There have been research papers on how
the car's bodies and safety measures affect injuries. NASCAR also
a worded a grant to Michigan State University to study
everything from heat exhaustion and drivers to figure out better
(03:39):
exercises and diet regimen for the athletes, and there have
been studies on why fatherhood affects drivers because NASCAR drivers
often drop one point six places on average the year
after having a kid.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Wow, it does kind of make you wonder like if
it's at all related to the fact that they're probably
sleeping less.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I think that's probably part of it. But scientists also
hypothesized that when you have a kid, you think about
your mortality money, and so you might be less prone
to make risky moves on the course. That makes sense anyway.
The most interesting study I read about was done by
this psychologist, Guy Vidioloni from West Virginia University Institute of Technology,
(04:18):
and it's a four year study called quote Driving under
the Influence of Nascar. It isn't so much about what
happens on the track as it is how the races
influence people watching at home. So according to NPR, Vidilioni
looked at all the traffic accidents that took place in
West Virginia and then whittled it down to accidents that
mimicked what happened on a racetrack. So these were things
(04:42):
like pile ups of multiple cars or accidents where there
was aggressive driving and His conclusion was that five days
after major NASCAR races, there's a big spike in traffic accidents. Now,
VIDILIONI actually put in a whole bunch of controls to
make sure he wasn't just saying something wild. He wanted
to be really conservative about his conclusions, but he counted
(05:04):
about six hundred and fifty extra accidents on West Virginia
roads in the days after the races, essentially because people
were quote acting out NASCAR in their own driving this wild.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Although the thing that stands out to me Mango is like,
why is this on the fifth day after a race
instead of like immediately after.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I don't think he figured that part out exactly. Like
he theorized that maybe it's because races tend to take
place on weekends, and so a Thursday or Friday after
tends to be the days that you let loose after
a rough week. But his study is really pointing to
the subtle ways that media affects behavior in the real world. Now,
NASCAR is just one example of this. Another famous case
(05:43):
is of the MTV show sixteen and Pregnant, where the
reality show actually captured the difficulties for high school students
trying to raise kids, and people were really affected by it.
The show led to a five point seven percent reduction
in teen births, which apparently was a third of the
overall decline in teen births in the country.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Oh wow.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Academics actually sometimes refer to it as the you are
what you watch phenomenon, And it's pretty interesting to see,
sort of like how MLK talked about the interracial kiss
on the original Star Trek being one of the most
important moments on television, or how President Joe Biden credited
Will and Grace with changing America's perception of gays more
than just about anything else.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, that's right. So anyway, this whole NASCAR thing won't
be a problem ten to fifteen years from now when
we're all taking way mos everywhere and getting the chauffeured
around and robotic cars. But until then, all you NASCAR
watchers out there, he doctor Villlioni's advice, and be a
little mindful of how you're driving the week after a
big race. We want to keep you safe.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Absolutely, all right, Mango, let's say you are a clockmaker.
I'm just going to say that. Okay, Now, you've built
a beautiful time piece that counts hours and minutes. But
now you've got a problem. You want your clock to
count each second with pinpoint accuracy.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
It turns out you need to crack open the periodic table,
because according to the International System of Units, this is
how you measure a second.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
The second is defined by taking the fixed numerical value
of the caesium frequency the unperturbed ground state high perfine
transition frequency of the cesium one thirty three atom to
be nine billion, one hundred and ninety two million, six
hundred and thirty one thousand, seven hundred and seventy when
expressed in the unit hurtz, which is equal to s
(07:29):
the power of negative one.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You got it. So that is the definition of a second. Yeah,
it's the definition of a second. I got lost in
the reading of it.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
But as you may have noticed, it's a little bit complicated.
So the only way to measure it is with an
atomic clock. And the way this work sounds completely made up,
but I promise it's actually real. Basically, an atomic clock
is a machine that shoots laser beams at caesium ions,
measures frequency at which their electrons jump to different energy levels,
and then sends the readings to a place called the
(07:59):
International buz Ro of Weights and Measures.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So this is a real place.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
It's a real inner governmental organization. Yeah, and it's actually
based in France.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
So we've got laser clock sending data to friends. I
guess I'm with you that far.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Okay, I'm glad you're keeping up. So there are around
four hundred and fifty atomic clocks in the world, all
sending these readings. So timekeepers at the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures they crunch these numbers from the clocks
and then vote on the quote official time, which they
publish in a monthly publication that comes out monthly called
(08:35):
Circular Tea.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
I never thought I'd say this about anything that involves caesium,
but uh, that is pretty adorably whimsical.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
It is in a way, but it's also pretty serious.
Stuff like this process is how we determine what's called
international atomic time. And a standard atomic clock made with
caesium is so accurate it can keep time for about
one hundred million years without skipping a beat.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
But starting in the mid adds, researchers at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology or in IST, a federal
lab in Colorado, they began developing a new generation of
atomic clocks that could make caesium seem outdated. Actually, so
what makes these atomic clocks so special? Well, they use
aluminum instead of caesium, so basically a positive aluminum twenty
(09:23):
seven ion. In two thousand and eight, NST scientists built
something they call the quantum logic clock.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Now.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It contains a single aluminum ion cool to nearly absolute zero,
shot with an ultraviolet laser, and the aluminum ion acts
like the second hand on a clock, so it ticks
by jumping up and down between energy levels. But instead
of ticking once for every second, it ticks a quadrillion
times per second.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
That is a big number, make note.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
And it's so accurate it won't lose a second for
thirty three billion years. That's almost triple the age of
the observable universe.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
That is really hard to imagine.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, or hard to put to the test, I think.
And this aluminum clock does more than just tell time.
It's even changing our understanding of space time because researchers
have used it to test Einstein's theory of relativity. According
to Einstein's theory, gravity affects the passage of time so
the stronger the pull of gravity, the slower the time.
And as a result of this, somebody who lives in
(10:23):
the mountains of Colorado, where gravity's pull is slightly lower,
they'll age faster than somebody who lives at sea level. Now,
the quantum logic clock is so sensitive it actually proved
that a person standing at the top of a staircase
or someone standing on a stool experienced a faster passage
of time. It showed that each additional foot of height
(10:44):
adds about ninety billions of a second to your lifetime.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So NBA players would live longer than jockeys. I have
a dumb question to ask, why do we need clocks
to be this accurate.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
It's a fair question, but take GPS for example. GPS
isn't just a location tracking technology, it's also a type
of clock. So if you're driving down the highway and
the GPS is five seconds late telling you to take
an exit, you'd be pretty mad about this. Right, for
the GPS to be useful, it needs to show both
an accurate location and an accurate time. It needs that
(11:20):
time to be precise down to the second. And it
turns out that's true for a lot of other technologies
as well. Take telecommunications, satellite networks, radio signals, lots more
things like this. Anyway, it's hard to overstate the importance
of this quantum logic clock in the nerdy and wonderful
world of time keeping. Those caesium clocks that impressed you
(11:41):
at the start of this segment will eventually end up
being obsolete. And while experiments with other elements are ongoing
right now, aluminum is the leading contender to become the
ticking heart of what we call a second.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause
for a quick break. But there is so much weird
science right after Welcome back to part time Genius. When
(12:16):
we're talking the twenty five greatest science ideas of the
last twenty five years, and we're up to number so
it probably won't surprise you to learn that water is
the most consumed material on Earth. But can you guess
what comes in second? Mm? I'm gonna go with coffee.
You know I might have guessed that too, but know
the answer is concrete. Oh really? Since the Industrial Revolution,
(12:39):
humans have poured nearly nine hundred billion tons of concrete,
and nowadays we're pouring the stuff at a breakneck speed,
especially in the developing world. For example, in the time
period between twenty eleven and twenty thirteen, China poured more
cement than the US did during the entire twentieth century.
(13:00):
Isn't that incredible? But all that concrete has a big downside.
It's responsible for eight to nine percent of global carbon
dioxide emissions.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
I never thought of concrete as being such a big
pollution problem. I know, it's not a great thing. I
think of, you know, the sidewalks and things that cars
drive on, But I didn't think of it in that way.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Yeah, I didn't realize it either. But apparently making concrete
is an energy intensive process. So it starts by taking
limestone and baking it to temperatures over twenty six hundred
degrees fahrenheit. That kind of heat requires powerful kilns fired
by fossil fuels, and that's just to make cement. To
turn cement into concrete, you have to add aggregates like sand,
(13:39):
and really lots of it. As a result, sand mining
is a big business around the world. We've actually talked
about this before. There's even a burgeoning black market for sand,
backed by so called sand mafias. Anyway, this dangerous mix
of pollution, mining and mafia's got scientists wondering how to
make concrete production more green, Like, what if we supple
(14:00):
minute sand with something else, something more sustainable, something that
could reduce concrete's carbon footprint. And it's something that you
mentioned just a few minutes ago. Wait, coffee. Yeah, so coffee.
Every day, humans drink two billion cups of coffee and
most of the coffee grinds just end up in a landfill.
But in twenty twenty three, Australian engineering researchers had an idea,
(14:22):
what if we used those ground up beans to make concrete.
So that's what they did. They scorched coffee grounds to
about six hundred degrees, which made the grounds break down
into a substance called biochar, which is basically charcoal. And
when they began testing, they discovered that if you replaced
just fifteen percent of the sand in concrete with coffee
(14:43):
fueled biochar, the concrete becomes thirty percent stronger. And how
does that actually work. It turns out the biochar retains
water better than sand, and as a result, the concrete
cries slower than usual, which reduces the risk of shrinking
and cracking, helping it maintain its strength. There are actually
two benefits to this discovery. One, by using spent coffee,
(15:05):
it reduces the demand for sand, and two, by making
concrete stronger, it reduces the amount of cement required for
each bag, and with less cement and sand required, the
total carbon footprint of each bag of concrete could drop significantly.
As it happens, a major industry group called the Global
Cement and Concrete Association has pledged to go carbon neutral
(15:26):
by twenty fifty and thanks to those coffee loving Aussies,
they've got a really strong foundation to work with. It's
an incredible discovery and asso pun mego. I'll take it
all right now, mego.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
We happen to be living through one of the most
polarizing moments in recent history. IM sure if you've noticed this,
But I think one thing we can all agree on
is that dinosaurs are really, really cool. That should be
the thing that brings us together. In fact, that might
be some of the firmest common ground we have left
at this point. What do you think?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think a little more
positively than that, but in general, yeah, I mean, everyone
loves dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Exactly, and it's always struck me that even though we're
dealing with creatures that are over one hundred million years
old in some cases, to this day, we are still
finding new things out about them. And the last quarter
century has been particularly generous. We've on earthed so many
new fossils and developed so many breakthrough research techniques that
some scientists are now calling this the Golden Age of paleontology.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
There are way too many of these dino revelations for
us to cover today, but singling out just one didn't
seem right either, So instead, I thought I would walk
us through some of my favorite highlights and they can
kind of all share this spot together.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What do you think, I love it like a big
heap of dino discoveries is exactly what this science series needs.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Absolutely, I thought you'd approve of this. So what stuck
out to me most is all this research that sort
of challenges what we thought we knew about dinosaurs, which
for most of us is just what we saw in
the Jurassic Park movie.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
For instance, in one of the most famous scenes of
the original movie, we see a t rex chasing after
a speed jeep and nearly catching up to it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So that didn't happen in real life. That was just
a movie, Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
In fact, she was even closer than she appeared to
remember because of that whole mirror.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, I think we all remember that.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
That scene was considered plausible for nearly a decade after
the film's release, with many paleontologists speculating that a real
t rex could run as fast as forty five miles
an hour. But in two thousand and two, researchers John
Hutchinson and Mariano Garcia used some clever math to show
that the rex likely had a much slower role than
(17:37):
we previously thought. So, using biomechanical data from the dinosaur's
closest living relatives those would be birds, now, the pair
was able to extrapolate just how much muscle mass it
would take for an animal the size of a t
rex to actually be able to run. As a general rule,
no more than fifty percent of an animal's body mass
is composed of muscle in only a fraction of that
(18:00):
muscle is allocated to the legs. But for a t
rex to run forty five miles an hour, its leg
muscles would need to account for eighty six percent of
its total body. Right, some real masks.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
Those are monster legs. It feels like the leg muscles
would be up to its eyeballs. But uh, you know,
in that case, there's no room for anything else.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, it doesn't add up there. So even though the
researchers had poked a giant hole in one of Jurassic
Park's best scenes, the filmmakers didn't hold it against them.
In fact, Hutchinson was even hired to consult on one
of the Jurassic Park sequels based on the strength of
this breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
That's pretty awesome. But I'm curious, do we know what
a t rex's top speed would be?
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, the two thousand and two study concluded that t
rex would have had a hard time topping twenty five
miles an hour, and according to a twenty seventeen study
from the University of Manchester, they probably can only reach
speeds of around twelve miles a mile, so any faster
and the seven ton predators would risk shattering their bones.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Actually. Wow, so it's almost like at speed that a
human could outrun. At this pace.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Yeah, and remember that's the top speed. The t Rex
was even slower when walking exactly how slow remained a
mystery until twenty twenty one, when Dutch researchers built on
those earlier findings and used computer modeling to prove that
Rex walked at a leisurely pace of between two and
three miles an hour. Now, another point of departure from
the Jurassic movies is that the predatory dinosaurs, including t Rex,
(19:25):
did not have permanently exposed teeth. Researchers and artists have
long believed that bipedal carnivores have lipless mouths where their
upper teeth would hang over their lower jaws, not unlike
you know, maybe like a crocodile or something like that.
But according to a twenty twenty three study from the
University of Portsmouth, the dinos actually kept their choppers discreetly
(19:46):
covered with a pair of thick lizard lips. Isn't that
kind of funny to imagine? So the researchers found that
toothwaar and lipless reptile groups was much different from that
of carnivorous dinosaurs, and based on computer modeling, it would
have been impossible for a lipless t rex to close
its mouth without the lower jaw actually crushing the very
(20:06):
bones that supported it.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
That is really interesting, And you know, I feel like
with all these breakthroughs, they've kind of defanged this idea
of a really frightening t rex, right, but like suddenly
they're like only strolling around at two miles per hour.
Like they don't have those goofy grins anymore, right, you know,
bearing their teeth and a dinosaurs supposed to have feathers,
(20:32):
right like on top of everything else, they're fluffy.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Actually, I've got some good news on that front because
while many dinosaurs are now believed to have sported feathers,
including raptors and a few of the t rex's cousins,
the rex itself is thought to have had this smooth,
more scaly skin. The exception would have been juvenile t rexes,
whose small bodies may have needed feathers for thermal insulation
by the time they reach adulthood, though their forty foot
(20:57):
long bodies were so good at retaining heat that they
know or needed those downy coats. So if anything, an
adult t rex may have had a stripe of bristles
on its back and shoulders, but those would have been
used to attract a mate rather than to keep warm.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
All right, So that's at least one thing the movies
seem to have gotten right.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, and there's there's still room for improvement on that
front too, because while the t rex was scaling, they
likely weren't the drab uniform color they're often depicted as
you know, you always picture that exact colors. Recent analysis
of t rex fossils have turned up evidence of melanin,
the same pigment found in human skin and bird feathers,
and that suggests that the rex's skin may have had
(21:35):
patches of several different colors, possibly even like a camouflage pattern,
which makes sense you think about the stripes and spots
of modern predators.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
That is crazy, you know. I kind of imagine like
being given like a t rex as a kid and
told to color it, and like, you know, you pined
with fancy colors, and that seems completely wrong, right. I
also had no idea that melanin could fossilize.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Well, paleontologists didn't eat either until two thousand and eight,
and since then discovery has led to all kinds of
new insights about the appearance of dinosaurs, including some pretty
solid guesses about the exact colors of their skin and
feathers now more than anything.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Though.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
All the advances we've talked about show us that the
dinosaurs weren't the straightforward terrors that we often see in
pop culture. Like any other animal, they live full lives.
That included some quieter moments as well.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
I like how you're trying to make it seem like
we should all be adopting them from shelters. I feel
like it's the right thing to do. I would still
be a terrified one. Oh totally.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I mean, you know me, I'm terrified when I see
a cat, can imagine a dinosaur?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
All right?
Speaker 2 (22:39):
Well, because dinosaurs are so cool, we decided today on
our Instagram we're going to give away some super special,
scientifically accurate dinosaur action figures. It is important to call
them action figures. I called it a dolt earlier. Gabe
got very like that.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
I didn't like it.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
He is our resident toy expert, so I'm going to
have to lean on that and I will agree to
ill at an action figure. So head over to our
instagram at part Time Genius and find out how you
can win.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Okay, listeners, you've got to pay for the show with
some ads, but uh, we'll be right back after this
quick break. Welcome back to part time Genius, where we're
(23:27):
listing out the best ideas in science in the last
twenty five years. Nay, okay, well, so how much do
you know about sub atomic particles?
Speaker 2 (23:38):
All right, Well, my knowledge of subatomic particles would, if
I'm being honest, probably fit inside a sub atomic particle.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, that's what I thought. So here's a quick overview
that'll help you understand our next great science discovery. So
let's start with protons. These tiny particles hang out in
the nucleus of every atom, and they're made up of
even tinier particles called quirks, which in turn are held
together with even tinier particles called gluons. Now, gluons have
(24:07):
no mass, but they do carry energy, specifically something called
the strong force, and in terms of nuclear physics, it
basically means it holds stuff together. Now stay with me,
because I'm sure you know that deep in a tunnel
near Geneva there's something called the large hadron particle collider.
And a hadron is any clump of two or three quirks,
(24:28):
And what this thing does is it blasts particles like
protons at each other at insane speeds, so scientists can
find out what happens when they crash into each other.
And even before this technology existed, scientists have been thinking
about the outcomes of proton collisions. So one hypothesis they
came up with was that protons might exchange a couple
(24:49):
of the gluons that hold them together, creating a super weird,
massless little particle made up of only gluons, which they
called and this is true a blue ball glue ball?
Is that the actual scientific term, though it is so
ah way, In nineteen seventy three researchers put forward a
very specific version of this theory. They said that it
(25:11):
was possible for three gluons to briefly stick together after
a collision. Now, at the time, there was no actual
proof of this, It was just an idea. And they
call this hypothetical particle the odderon.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
All right, so I want to make sure I understand.
So an oduron is what like a triple glue ball? Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's weird. I had never thought of particle
physics involving this much fun vocabulary.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I feel like I might have majored in it if
I had known all this.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
But all right, So are you going to tell me
that someone finally proved this odoron thing is real?
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So in twenty twenty one, a group of scientists using
the Large Hadron Collider did in fact find evidence of odon.
So yes, when protons collide in this thing, about three
quarters of the time they get smashed apart, but about
twenty five percent of the time the protons survive intact.
They just kind of bounce off each other. And because
at the point of impact, they exchange gluons, sometimes two,
(26:04):
sometimes three, and those gluons keep them together. So are
you still with me here? I think so? Right. So,
quirks carry a charge kind of like a positive or
negative electric charge, but this is expressed in terms of color,
so they can be red, green, or blue, and when
you have all three of those stuck together, the charge
is said to be white or balanced. But there's also
(26:25):
something called an anti color, which is the property of
anti quarks. Is this like antimatter, Yeah, So the antiquirk
is the antimatter evil twin of the quirk, and it's
either anti red, anti green, or anti blue. But what's
interesting is gluons have both colors and anti colors, so
you could have a gluon that carries red and anti green,
(26:48):
which sounds like a very strange Christmas ornament. A spokesperson
for the Oderon experiment told Gizmoto that the math of
Vaulteer is quote too hard to explain, but suffice it
to say, su Suer has observed frequency differences in proton
proton collisions versus proton anti proton collisions, and they realized
the difference had to do with changing color balances that
(27:10):
could only be explained by the existence of a triple
gluon clump. The odder On I'm trying real hard here, mango,
but I gotta be honest. This is making my head
heart a little bit. I know it is complicated stuff,
but it's also an incredible discovery. But to make the
story a little more personal, we asked our pal David Nagler,
who is an incredibly talented musician and composer, to write
(27:34):
a song about it, Hiding in.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Plain sight Now I'm in the light light because of
a proton proton and a proton anti proton condition. That's
the difference between the two. Three good on stuff like good.
Thanks to the particle physicists for clearing up being decision
(28:23):
I'm an a lot, but I'm not that odd and
out un. I'm a real hot rod. It's not monochromatic light.
(28:50):
I'm red, green and blue making white. It may seem
like a fax, but it's only quantum chromo dynamics. Folks
deep in the particle e Sallerator keeping proton longevity greater.
So I can agree. The force is.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Strong in me strong.
Speaker 3 (29:12):
Autobun, but I'm not that and autorum. I've got a
real hot bond man. Aut'm not that and auto um.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's not that b.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
And it's.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Wow. It seems so complicated, but you know what mego.
It also makes me want to dance. Yeah, the song
or the science that you know, all of it. I'm
just feeling good after this. I couldn't agree more. And
big thanks to David Nageler for helping us out with this.
We'll put a link to his website in the show
notes so that you can check out his music. It's
not usually about physics. Okay, that's it for today's episode,
(30:35):
but be sure to tune in tomorrow when our countdown
continues with a scientific secret Lurking and home depot, some
lively molecules and a medical treatment that began in a really,
really gross place. You won't want to miss it. And
if you'd like to win that realistic dinosaur action figure,
head on over to our instagram at part Time Genius
(30:56):
to check out today's giveaway contest. As always from Will, Gabe,
Mary and Dylan, thank you so much for listening.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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