November 27, 2012 • 23 mins
Ah, autumn - arguably the most beautiful time of the year, thanks to the vibrant colors trees put on display as they close up for the winter. Ever wonder why and how trees change color in the fall? Chuck and Josh have it down pat and explain it here.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
works dot com. Hey, buddy, if you don't mind if
I plug my November page real quick, please do. I
am growing a mustache this month for November for uh
for cancer research, specifically male prostate cancer research. That's right.
(00:26):
And you can donate to my team, which would be
pretty cool because you know, you get a free podcast
and it would be nice to put a little money
towards cancer research in the name of nice here, give
him some money. He's growing on facial here to help
a charitable organization engaging really important scientific research. That's right.
(00:46):
And you can go to mobro dot c O slash
Charles Bryant and that's my page, or just go to
the November site. Type in Charles Bryan in the search
bar and look for the picture of me. There's only
a couple of us out there. Chuck's wearing a red shirt,
that's right. Yeah, um, so what is that again? That's
mo bro dot CEO slash Charles Bryant. Yes, thank you
(01:07):
in advance. Yeah, that's nice, Chuck. All right, let's get
to it. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant in audio and video. Chuck,
we're just hanging out doing some recording, uh, doing our thing.
I guess this is episode number five million two. That's right. Yeah,
before we get started, I wanted to point out Josh
(01:28):
that on the way in, about twenty minutes ago, in
a parking deck, I saw what was probably an eighty
thou dollar Mercedes with a license plate that said Rush Fan.
Oh yeah, have you seen that? Yeah. I'm trying to
figure out. I've seen it many times. I'm trying to
figure out are they talking about Rush I think so
or Rush Limbaugh. Yeah. And the first time I saw
(01:50):
I was like, all right, and I was like, oh,
I wonder which one, geez now, doubting myself. And then
that was Rushed the band, which I thought, well, obviously guy.
First of all, it would have to be and um,
it's obviously guy that's some sort of ceo here in
the building. Because maybe his car was pretty sweet. Yes,
but also consider this, it doesn't have a reserved spot. Yeah,
(02:14):
that's true, Russia Limbaugh fan. I don't know if you
would say Rush to people call him that, I would
have put l M B H fan f N. Now
people would definitely call him rush, all right. Yeah, he
could also love that drug that used to be legal
Rush that you'd buy it headshops in like the eighties.
Maybe he just loves that. Yeah, he stocked up on it.
(02:35):
What is that stuff? Isn't have no eradicated? Or did
it convert into something that we like, like PCP, something
we know by another name. I don't know, but and boy,
we're segueing already, but this is a short one, so
I guess it's all right. I did see an internet
thing yesterday, um, where this artist took like every drug
you could think of and drew a self portrait. It
is pretty interesting, I gotta say, like from the the
(02:58):
weird like fund psychedel like mushroom one too. Um, how
which one was it that was just horrifying? It was
just like fuzzy scribbling methamphetamines. No, that one was pretty
scary too, But there was one that was just like weird.
Oh it's probably rob now, but he did do that
he drank. Yeah, you should do none of this, by
(03:21):
the way, people, even if you are an artist. Yeah,
you know who makes the best art clean non addicted
human beings who get high on um? You know, a
nice spring day, and they're not getting high during that
spring day. They're getting high from the spring day. That's
what I meant by that. Sure, let's talk about days.
Let's talk about fall instead of spring. Yeah, that's autumn,
(03:44):
you want. Autumn is my favorite season, Josh, same here,
um as it is a lot of people because here
in Atlanta, which is like living in the middle of
a forest, um, an urban forest it is. It's like
the most heavily wooded state in the Union. I understands
what I hear. Well, this article here gives a lot
of due to New England, which is no slouch obviously,
but Georgia in the southeast man the Rocky are the Rockies.
(04:08):
They moved over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Uh, just gorge
smoky Smokey's like vibrant reds yellows. Orange is just like unbelievable.
I saw an article I think it was on MSNB
series A Today's Show article, um and it was like
places other than Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that are
(04:29):
good for I hate this word leaf peeping. I thought
that was made up and I had to look it
up and it's not. Yeah, it's real. Yeah, It's the
most disgustingly folksy word I've ever heard in my life.
But that's what it's called. If you go and look
at leaves as they change color, you're a leaf peeper. No,
you're not. Uh, some people will call you that. I
think you have to associate with that thing. Like you
(04:49):
might have a T shirt that says that, like leaf
peeper at work or leaf peepers do it with their
eyes open, nice nice in the woods. Yeah. So yeah,
if you are into that kind of thing, some people
might call you a leaf peeper. Um, and you probably
are a veteran of New Hampshire's Vermont and mains autumn.
(05:12):
But like you're saying, the Smokies are nice, the the
Appalachians are nice. Um. Out west apparently has some really
good leaf peeping. Yeah, Um, Utah, I'm sure Utah, Colorado,
and Arizona. Maybe in the right spots probably, Yeah, probably
(05:32):
northern Arizona. As long as like the there you have
some sort of maybe like an elm, a good maple
out there, it's gonna be worth standing and gawking at
for a certain period of time. Um. If you go
a little further up in Idaho, you're gonna hit the
Snake River. And if you hit the Snake River, you're
probably going to run into a Native American of the
(05:53):
Shoshoni tribe. This is like their central location, or it was,
is their ancest street. The Shoshoni. If you ask them,
especially if you ask them a few hundred years ago,
I'm sure why the leaves turn color, say like red
or yellow? They would tell you a little story about
the Great Bear. Yeah you've heard this one, right, I have?
(06:14):
Do you want to tell it? Well, apparently the lore
says that, um, the color came from above and after
they killed the great bear in the sky, which is why,
you know, for a hunt for the pelt um, the
blood splashed down and turn the leaves red. Yes, chuck,
Which makes a lot of sense, except there's plenty of
(06:35):
times when you see a tree that's turned bright yellow.
What is that? What's to explain that? Shoshoni? Um, Well,
they would say that it comes from the bear's fat
splashing out of the pot when they are cooking it,
which is thought a little gross, it is, but it's practical. Yeah. Um,
So that's the that's one explanation for why leaves turned color.
(06:57):
And after reading this article, I found that um science
is a percent sure what's going on there. They have
a pretty good idea, but they're not especially when it
comes to turning red. You can't crawl inside of a leaf.
You can't walk up to one and ask it right,
Oh you're red? Yeah, like the walls of this room. Yeah,
(07:19):
these walls talk back and they say disturbing things. But
you're right. They don't know for sure, but they have
some pretty good guesses. And it all starts with photosynthesis
and chlorophyll. Yeah, do you do you remember photosynthesis? I
looked it out to refresh myself. Yeah. That's one of
the neat things because it's one of the very first
science things you'll learn as a kid. Yeah like that.
(07:39):
That word has been with me since I was a tyke. Yeah,
chlorophyll photosynthesis and uh, go ahead, give the give the
first grade version. Okay. Well, chlorophyll is a pigment and
uh plants. It's green, and it's green because it reflects,
or it absorbs red light and blue light and so
the only light that's left is green and that's the
light that we see. It doesn't absorb that. Yeah, so
(08:01):
since it's a pigment, it can absorb light and do
crazy things with it, and in the case of a plant,
it converts the light energy in the chemical energy in
the form of a dino scene triphosphate A t P.
So what's just happened is it's captured light and taking
that light and turn it into a chemical So it's
stored energy, which is pretty cool. A little further down
(08:23):
in the leaf, you take a little water, you got
the A t P, combine it with some C O two,
and then all of a sudden you got glucose. And
if you have glucose, what were you gonna say. I
thought you were gonna say, a chicken pot pie. You
have the beginnings of a good chicken pot pot Like,
you can't make a chicken pot pie without a D
t P. That's just the start. Um. So you have
(08:46):
all this glucose and you're ready to make some chicken
pot pie. Before you make that, the plant is going
to use it to fuel cells. It's the it's what
it it's it's food. It makes its own food, right,
that's pretty neat in itself. That's autosynthesis. So photosynthesis um
is carried out in the presence of lots of light,
(09:06):
right and during the right kind of weather, when there's
a lot of light. So um, summertime. Yes, summertime comes
to an end though the days start to go a
little shorter. That's right, it gets darker earlier. Ye air
drives out of it. Yeah, and the plant says, you
know what, I'm kind of dumb making my own sugars
for a while. I'm gonna just live off my fat
(09:29):
like a great bear in the sky. That's right, And
so it stops thinking chlorophyll. Uh. Yeah, And chlorophyll is
not the only thing going on in the leaf. Obviously
you have your green, but there are also other pigments
like a caroteen and xanthophill. Xantho means yellow and Greek.
And that is what gives carrots and egg gilks their
cover cover, their color, their cover. It's a cover color.
(09:53):
Shell gives it the cover. Yeah, that's what gives it
the color. And uh, they're always in leaves, and they
also help absorb the sunlight. They're not the start the
chlorophyll is um, but they do transfer chlorophyll for photosynthesis.
They help. Yeah, and so the plant always has I
guess caroteens and um, what is it? So, but it's
(10:19):
it doesn't always produce chlorophyll. So when it stops producing chlorophyll,
xanthe xanthophil and the caroteens go hey look at us. Huh,
I think it's always chlorophyll, right, No, it's but it's
always there at some point or is are there some
leaves without chlorophill at all? Oh? Like, no, it depends
on the time of the year that I thought, right, So,
(10:40):
like the plan will stop producing chlorophyll and the caroteens
and the xanthophill will take over. But yeah, I believe
that there's always chlorophyll. Er every plant has an ability
to make chlorophyll right for photosynthesis, I think so, because
that's how it eats. Yeah. Yeah, So you've got the
red or you've got the yellow, and you have the
orange leaves explained bay Um, there's no chlorophyll any longer, right,
(11:02):
and we should probably talk about that period of hybrid nation.
What goes on. There's another step that goes on. Yeah,
a couple of things happen. Um. The leaf is going
to form a layer of separation. Um. Jennifer calls it
cork like cells at the base of the leaf seals
it all from the tree. It's like a little stopper,
I guess, and then the tree stops producing the chlorophyll,
(11:23):
and um, well that's pretty much it, Like, no more chlorophyll,
we've got a barrier between the I guess, the end
of the branch and the leaf. Yes, so the tree
doesn't dry out when it loses all its leaves exactly. Uh.
And here's where we get into the red. Where the
red comes from something called pigment called anthocyanin, and that's
(11:44):
a flavonoid, so the flavonoid family, and depending on the
pH it can be responsible for reds, purples, and blues
and all sorts. It's like what makes a plumb purple?
For instance, they're great blue berries, blueberry blue. Uh. There's
more than three hundred distinct anthough cyanons, and apparently they're
(12:06):
really really good for you, like loaded with antioxidants. Yeah. Yeah,
that's why, probably why blueberries are so good for you. Yeah,
well exactly, it's a super food. But one of the
things I found that said that it was it's one
of some of the strongest physiological effects of any plant
compound on the planet is found in the anto cyanin.
It's pretty crazy. Well, they don't Um, not all plants
(12:30):
produce antho cyanons. Not all plants that do produce antho
cyanons produced it all the time. I try to get
a list, oh yeah, of just trees. But I'm sure
it's out there. I just couldn't find it. I would
say a lace leave, Japanese maple, that will be at
the top of the list. That was for having it. Uh,
that's all I got. But so, I mean, if you
(12:51):
if you are a leaf peeper or you're somebody who
others might call a leaf paper, it's a terrible word.
Any kind of peoper is just that. Yeah, because you
know pep Yeah exactly. UM. If you if you are
into looking at fall leaves, we'll say that. Um, then
you probably know that some years there's really great reds,
(13:14):
other years there's not. I felt like last year we
didn't have that many. Yeah, it seems like I don't
remember seeing red for a while now. Um. And science
is not certain what's going on, but what they think
happens is uh. Anthocyanins are created by a plant to
recover sugar during times when it's um there's a period
(13:38):
of stress that the plant's going through. So if you
have a very wet summer into autumn, you're probably not
gonna see any reds. You have a very dry um
summer into autumn, you will usually see reds um. And
the reason why is because apparently these the sugar stores
in the leaves are just kind of dry, their dry
(14:00):
it up, they've turned into sap. So the plant produces
anthro syanons to going and recover it, to get it
all loosened up so I can suck it back out
into its trunk before those cork like cells cut it off. Yeah,
it's sort of like there's a timetable and they know
that they're gonna be cut off from that supply soon,
so it just really tries hard there at the end
to get every last bit out, every last bit. And
(14:20):
the antho cyanons are a red pigment, so when it
sends it into the leaves, that's what they think is
going on. Um. They said that the best predictor that
they found for um a nice brilliant red display in
the autumn. As as summer turns into autumn, warm sunny days,
so there's lots of sugar production going on, and then
um cool nights that slows down the ability of the
(14:44):
tree to suck the sugars that were produced that day
out of the leaves. So there's a bunch stuck in
there and dry to right. Yeah, that's kind of what
we got going on now. Yeah, hopefully we'll see a
lot of reds. I think my favorite the reds are nice.
But I don't know what tree it is. But it's
one particular tree that has those yellow like it just glows.
Oh yeah, man, it's just like so yellow, it's blinding.
(15:05):
It's a type of maple, is it. I think so,
Like there's a couple. There's one that like really glows
that's a maple, and then there's another that's um, maybe
the oak. I can't remember seeing him. I feel like
we talked about this. It was yeah, the time we
went leaf peeping, we talked at length about this. That's right. Yeah,
I forgot. We brought our little flaska of apple cider
(15:26):
walk through the woods. It was a heck of a
peeping trip, that's right. Um, So well, I guess that's
pretty much the end of it. Science science has a
has explained the yellow and the green, and the orange
and the red. Pretty sure about the red, Pretty sure
about the red. Yeah, they're not convinced. Um. Yeah, I
(15:47):
wish I had something else to add, but I think
this is just one of those that you know, this fall,
you can tell your friends you see that tree, you
know what's you know, it's red. Well that's what we're
doing here. Yeah. Um oh. Also, if you are into
um looking at leaves as they change color in the fall,
if you're one of those people who doesn't there, well
some people you know, like get in their car and
(16:08):
drive places. Yeah, but who was just like shut the shades.
I don't want to see that stuff. People who hate
art rush fans, right, depending on the kind of rush
they're talking about. If you are into that, though, there's
a um an app. If you also are into smartphones
and you own one, you can download a free app
called a leaf Peeper. I'm not saying this, but it's
(16:30):
a p E p r UM and it's free and
it's like this color coded map of the United States
by region area and it shows um where the leaves
are green, um, turning, moderate, fading, and gone, so you
can kind of track the leaves as they Yeah, it's
pretty neat and you can take pictures and post it
(16:52):
to your favorite social media site. Well, I think I
was going to call for that anyway. I think if
you live in a place, do you think rules the
uh poster pictures on our Facebook page and um, I
will do the same. We will do battle Georgia against
the world because I think we have some of the best.
You're gonna go do some leaf peeping, some pictures, keep
(17:14):
it some leaves. It seems like something you should do,
like wearing like shorts and hiking boots and nothing else.
Your leaf peeping. Yeah, I mean Emily and I will
usually try and tack one drive up in the mountains,
you know, maybe pasties while you're leave. I can't wait
for the video of this. Uh, let's see if you
(17:38):
want to learn more about things like leaves changing color.
I love stuff like that. I love earth science. Science,
I think is what it is it Yeah. Um, you
can type in earth science in the search bar how
stuff works dot comment. It will bring up stuff like this. Um,
and I said stuff like this, which means time for
(18:00):
listener mail. Uh. This is an oldie, but a goodie.
It's about sherpas. Wow, that is older and I think
that was a good time to point out that I'm
not sure if Sherpas has fallen off the list. But
if you get our material from iTunes, you're only gonna
get three one one, um, But we have many more available.
(18:21):
And if you type in your favorite search engine like Google,
let's say, um, stuff you should know RSSKI, it will
bring you to a page with all four hundred and
fifty plus shows, or you can listen right there, or
some people use like a stitcher or um. I think
there's some other various podcasts apps that like list the
(18:44):
whole thing. So we've been getting ass lately, like hey,
what about the sarcopenia, where's that one? Or where's this one?
They're all there in the vault. That's right, and stuff
you should know RSS all for free? Still get them,
get them all, collect them all all right? So this
is about sharp is And if you have not heard that,
when it's an old one, you should go listen to it.
Did you like that one? That was one of my
least favorites? Like, all right, don't listen to it. Dust
(19:07):
does not recommend guys. I recently listened to the Sherbet
episode from a Ways Back and found that I had
an interesting story regarding Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent I was
born in Canada, but my mother and her family are
all from New Zealand. My uncle Alan Sairs lives just
north of Auckland currently and it's one of the most
interesting people I know. Uh. He made his career in
(19:29):
sports Photokgree primarily for horse racing. He got a start
in the field thanks to Sir ed Um. This is
the story as told to me by my uncle a
little over ten years ago. When Hillary was training for
his ascent, he could be seen from time to time
hiking on the roadside, all decked out in his climbing
gear in order to be well used, well used to
the way, or well used. One day, my uncle, then
(19:52):
in his mid thirties, passed him, stopped him and said,
can I take your photo? H Sir ed Um, already
well known locally, was happy to oblige. My uncle never
distributed any of the prints. Well what was he wearing
like a camusole or something? What? He didn't distribute the prints?
Oh no, I don't think it was anything like that.
(20:13):
So he just held onto him. But when word came
back that Hillary had succeeded, and he sent my uncle
rush to develop his many copies of the photo as
he could. My uncle never distributed any of the prints.
Huh weird. Yeah, But when the word came back that
Hillary has succeeded in his assent, my uncle rushed to
develop his many copies of the photo as he could.
He stuffed them into envelopes addressed to many of the
(20:33):
world's newspapers, along with a note asking for whatever uh
recompense they felt the photo was worth. So that's a
great business model to send pictures and say, hey, pay
me a little something, right, Hey, Rupert Murdoch, let's use
the honor system. Many papers ran the photo, though, uh
and there were no photos, as there were no photos
of the ascent available until after Hillary had descended and
(20:57):
his own photos were developed. My uncle died here and penniless. Thankfully,
the strategy worked for my uncle, and he became well
known for sports photography in the nineteen fifties and sixties,
initially um. He is now ninety seven years old and
has no UH and in no way has slowed down.
In fact, he has just finished a book on his
career as a naval intelligence officer in w W two
(21:20):
that is due to be published next year. He was
also a successful track and field athlete in New Zealand
winning its silver medal in ninety eight. This guy sounds
pretty awesome in what are now the Commonwealth Games. Um, yeah,
that's fantastic. We'll plug the book when it comes out. Yeah,
for sure, send it. Um. I could not stop thinking
about this story while listening to the podcast on sherpos.
(21:42):
He also tried to track down to copy the photo,
but have been unable to find it. Um best regards
Anthony zeller Meyer. Well, thanks a lot, Anthony. Yeah, it's
a grandaughter. Nine seven man, keep going seriously. Um wow,
if you have a family member that you're very proud
of for good reason, for like eight good reasons, we
(22:02):
want to hear about that person. Also, don't forget Chuck's
call out, like he's putting the SmackDown on your neck
of the woods. Doesn't even have to be in the
United States. Europe's got some great leave. Asia has some
great leave. Basically, anything that's um above or below the tropics,
you're probably gonna have some good leaf color. What falls
like in Japan? Good? Nice? Yeah, it seems maples. Yeah
(22:26):
over there they just call the maples. Uh, we want
to see pictures of your your hometown trees showing their
greatest colors. Right um you. Also, if you remember this
show any tribe right in say hi. You can tweet
to us at s y s K podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know,
or you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast
(22:49):
at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Does it how stuff? We're dot com
Welcome to you stuff you should know from house stuff
works dot com. Hey, buddy, if you don't mind if
I plug my November page real quick, please do. I
am growing a mustache this month for November for uh
for cancer research, specifically male prostate cancer research. That's right.
(00:26):
And you can donate to my team, which would be
pretty cool because you know, you get a free podcast
and it would be nice to put a little money
towards cancer research in the name of nice here, give
him some money. He's growing on facial here to help
a charitable organization engaging really important scientific research. That's right.
(00:46):
And you can go to mobro dot c O slash
Charles Bryant and that's my page, or just go to
the November site. Type in Charles Bryan in the search
bar and look for the picture of me. There's only
a couple of us out there. Chuck's wearing a red shirt,
that's right. Yeah, um, so what is that again? That's
mo bro dot CEO slash Charles Bryant. Yes, thank you
(01:07):
in advance. Yeah, that's nice, Chuck. All right, let's get
to it. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant in audio and video. Chuck,
we're just hanging out doing some recording, uh, doing our thing.
I guess this is episode number five million two. That's right. Yeah,
before we get started, I wanted to point out Josh
(01:28):
that on the way in, about twenty minutes ago, in
a parking deck, I saw what was probably an eighty
thou dollar Mercedes with a license plate that said Rush Fan.
Oh yeah, have you seen that? Yeah. I'm trying to
figure out. I've seen it many times. I'm trying to
figure out are they talking about Rush I think so
or Rush Limbaugh. Yeah. And the first time I saw
(01:50):
I was like, all right, and I was like, oh,
I wonder which one, geez now, doubting myself. And then
that was Rushed the band, which I thought, well, obviously guy.
First of all, it would have to be and um,
it's obviously guy that's some sort of ceo here in
the building. Because maybe his car was pretty sweet. Yes,
but also consider this, it doesn't have a reserved spot. Yeah,
(02:14):
that's true, Russia Limbaugh fan. I don't know if you
would say Rush to people call him that, I would
have put l M B H fan f N. Now
people would definitely call him rush, all right. Yeah, he
could also love that drug that used to be legal
Rush that you'd buy it headshops in like the eighties.
Maybe he just loves that. Yeah, he stocked up on it.
(02:35):
What is that stuff? Isn't have no eradicated? Or did
it convert into something that we like, like PCP, something
we know by another name. I don't know, but and boy,
we're segueing already, but this is a short one, so
I guess it's all right. I did see an internet
thing yesterday, um, where this artist took like every drug
you could think of and drew a self portrait. It
is pretty interesting, I gotta say, like from the the
(02:58):
weird like fund psychedel like mushroom one too. Um, how
which one was it that was just horrifying? It was
just like fuzzy scribbling methamphetamines. No, that one was pretty
scary too, But there was one that was just like weird.
Oh it's probably rob now, but he did do that
he drank. Yeah, you should do none of this, by
(03:21):
the way, people, even if you are an artist. Yeah,
you know who makes the best art clean non addicted
human beings who get high on um? You know, a
nice spring day, and they're not getting high during that
spring day. They're getting high from the spring day. That's
what I meant by that. Sure, let's talk about days.
Let's talk about fall instead of spring. Yeah, that's autumn,
(03:44):
you want. Autumn is my favorite season, Josh, same here,
um as it is a lot of people because here
in Atlanta, which is like living in the middle of
a forest, um, an urban forest it is. It's like
the most heavily wooded state in the Union. I understands
what I hear. Well, this article here gives a lot
of due to New England, which is no slouch obviously,
but Georgia in the southeast man the Rocky are the Rockies.
(04:08):
They moved over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Uh, just gorge
smoky Smokey's like vibrant reds yellows. Orange is just like unbelievable.
I saw an article I think it was on MSNB
series A Today's Show article, um and it was like
places other than Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine that are
(04:29):
good for I hate this word leaf peeping. I thought
that was made up and I had to look it
up and it's not. Yeah, it's real. Yeah, It's the
most disgustingly folksy word I've ever heard in my life.
But that's what it's called. If you go and look
at leaves as they change color, you're a leaf peeper. No,
you're not. Uh, some people will call you that. I
think you have to associate with that thing. Like you
(04:49):
might have a T shirt that says that, like leaf
peeper at work or leaf peepers do it with their
eyes open, nice nice in the woods. Yeah. So yeah,
if you are into that kind of thing, some people
might call you a leaf peeper. Um, and you probably
are a veteran of New Hampshire's Vermont and mains autumn.
(05:12):
But like you're saying, the Smokies are nice, the the
Appalachians are nice. Um. Out west apparently has some really
good leaf peeping. Yeah, Um, Utah, I'm sure Utah, Colorado,
and Arizona. Maybe in the right spots probably, Yeah, probably
(05:32):
northern Arizona. As long as like the there you have
some sort of maybe like an elm, a good maple
out there, it's gonna be worth standing and gawking at
for a certain period of time. Um. If you go
a little further up in Idaho, you're gonna hit the
Snake River. And if you hit the Snake River, you're
probably going to run into a Native American of the
(05:53):
Shoshoni tribe. This is like their central location, or it was,
is their ancest street. The Shoshoni. If you ask them,
especially if you ask them a few hundred years ago,
I'm sure why the leaves turn color, say like red
or yellow? They would tell you a little story about
the Great Bear. Yeah you've heard this one, right, I have?
(06:14):
Do you want to tell it? Well, apparently the lore
says that, um, the color came from above and after
they killed the great bear in the sky, which is why,
you know, for a hunt for the pelt um, the
blood splashed down and turn the leaves red. Yes, chuck,
Which makes a lot of sense, except there's plenty of
(06:35):
times when you see a tree that's turned bright yellow.
What is that? What's to explain that? Shoshoni? Um, Well,
they would say that it comes from the bear's fat
splashing out of the pot when they are cooking it,
which is thought a little gross, it is, but it's practical. Yeah. Um,
So that's the that's one explanation for why leaves turned color.
(06:57):
And after reading this article, I found that um science
is a percent sure what's going on there. They have
a pretty good idea, but they're not especially when it
comes to turning red. You can't crawl inside of a leaf.
You can't walk up to one and ask it right,
Oh you're red? Yeah, like the walls of this room. Yeah,
(07:19):
these walls talk back and they say disturbing things. But
you're right. They don't know for sure, but they have
some pretty good guesses. And it all starts with photosynthesis
and chlorophyll. Yeah, do you do you remember photosynthesis? I
looked it out to refresh myself. Yeah. That's one of
the neat things because it's one of the very first
science things you'll learn as a kid. Yeah like that.
(07:39):
That word has been with me since I was a tyke. Yeah,
chlorophyll photosynthesis and uh, go ahead, give the give the
first grade version. Okay. Well, chlorophyll is a pigment and
uh plants. It's green, and it's green because it reflects,
or it absorbs red light and blue light and so
the only light that's left is green and that's the
light that we see. It doesn't absorb that. Yeah, so
(08:01):
since it's a pigment, it can absorb light and do
crazy things with it, and in the case of a plant,
it converts the light energy in the chemical energy in
the form of a dino scene triphosphate A t P.
So what's just happened is it's captured light and taking
that light and turn it into a chemical So it's
stored energy, which is pretty cool. A little further down
(08:23):
in the leaf, you take a little water, you got
the A t P, combine it with some C O two,
and then all of a sudden you got glucose. And
if you have glucose, what were you gonna say. I
thought you were gonna say, a chicken pot pie. You
have the beginnings of a good chicken pot pot Like,
you can't make a chicken pot pie without a D
t P. That's just the start. Um. So you have
(08:46):
all this glucose and you're ready to make some chicken
pot pie. Before you make that, the plant is going
to use it to fuel cells. It's the it's what
it it's it's food. It makes its own food, right,
that's pretty neat in itself. That's autosynthesis. So photosynthesis um
is carried out in the presence of lots of light,
(09:06):
right and during the right kind of weather, when there's
a lot of light. So um, summertime. Yes, summertime comes
to an end though the days start to go a
little shorter. That's right, it gets darker earlier. Ye air
drives out of it. Yeah, and the plant says, you
know what, I'm kind of dumb making my own sugars
for a while. I'm gonna just live off my fat
(09:29):
like a great bear in the sky. That's right, And
so it stops thinking chlorophyll. Uh. Yeah, And chlorophyll is
not the only thing going on in the leaf. Obviously
you have your green, but there are also other pigments
like a caroteen and xanthophill. Xantho means yellow and Greek.
And that is what gives carrots and egg gilks their
cover cover, their color, their cover. It's a cover color.
(09:53):
Shell gives it the cover. Yeah, that's what gives it
the color. And uh, they're always in leaves, and they
also help absorb the sunlight. They're not the start the
chlorophyll is um, but they do transfer chlorophyll for photosynthesis.
They help. Yeah, and so the plant always has I
guess caroteens and um, what is it? So, but it's
(10:19):
it doesn't always produce chlorophyll. So when it stops producing chlorophyll,
xanthe xanthophil and the caroteens go hey look at us. Huh,
I think it's always chlorophyll, right, No, it's but it's
always there at some point or is are there some
leaves without chlorophill at all? Oh? Like, no, it depends
on the time of the year that I thought, right, So,
(10:40):
like the plan will stop producing chlorophyll and the caroteens
and the xanthophill will take over. But yeah, I believe
that there's always chlorophyll. Er every plant has an ability
to make chlorophyll right for photosynthesis, I think so, because
that's how it eats. Yeah. Yeah, So you've got the
red or you've got the yellow, and you have the
orange leaves explained bay Um, there's no chlorophyll any longer, right,
(11:02):
and we should probably talk about that period of hybrid nation.
What goes on. There's another step that goes on. Yeah,
a couple of things happen. Um. The leaf is going
to form a layer of separation. Um. Jennifer calls it
cork like cells at the base of the leaf seals
it all from the tree. It's like a little stopper,
I guess, and then the tree stops producing the chlorophyll,
(11:23):
and um, well that's pretty much it, Like, no more chlorophyll,
we've got a barrier between the I guess, the end
of the branch and the leaf. Yes, so the tree
doesn't dry out when it loses all its leaves exactly. Uh.
And here's where we get into the red. Where the
red comes from something called pigment called anthocyanin, and that's
(11:44):
a flavonoid, so the flavonoid family, and depending on the
pH it can be responsible for reds, purples, and blues
and all sorts. It's like what makes a plumb purple?
For instance, they're great blue berries, blueberry blue. Uh. There's
more than three hundred distinct anthough cyanons, and apparently they're
(12:06):
really really good for you, like loaded with antioxidants. Yeah. Yeah,
that's why, probably why blueberries are so good for you. Yeah,
well exactly, it's a super food. But one of the
things I found that said that it was it's one
of some of the strongest physiological effects of any plant
compound on the planet is found in the anto cyanin.
It's pretty crazy. Well, they don't Um, not all plants
(12:30):
produce antho cyanons. Not all plants that do produce antho
cyanons produced it all the time. I try to get
a list, oh yeah, of just trees. But I'm sure
it's out there. I just couldn't find it. I would
say a lace leave, Japanese maple, that will be at
the top of the list. That was for having it. Uh,
that's all I got. But so, I mean, if you
(12:51):
if you are a leaf peeper or you're somebody who
others might call a leaf paper, it's a terrible word.
Any kind of peoper is just that. Yeah, because you
know pep Yeah exactly. UM. If you if you are
into looking at fall leaves, we'll say that. Um, then
you probably know that some years there's really great reds,
(13:14):
other years there's not. I felt like last year we
didn't have that many. Yeah, it seems like I don't
remember seeing red for a while now. Um. And science
is not certain what's going on, but what they think
happens is uh. Anthocyanins are created by a plant to
recover sugar during times when it's um there's a period
(13:38):
of stress that the plant's going through. So if you
have a very wet summer into autumn, you're probably not
gonna see any reds. You have a very dry um
summer into autumn, you will usually see reds um. And
the reason why is because apparently these the sugar stores
in the leaves are just kind of dry, their dry
(14:00):
it up, they've turned into sap. So the plant produces
anthro syanons to going and recover it, to get it
all loosened up so I can suck it back out
into its trunk before those cork like cells cut it off. Yeah,
it's sort of like there's a timetable and they know
that they're gonna be cut off from that supply soon,
so it just really tries hard there at the end
to get every last bit out, every last bit. And
(14:20):
the antho cyanons are a red pigment, so when it
sends it into the leaves, that's what they think is
going on. Um. They said that the best predictor that
they found for um a nice brilliant red display in
the autumn. As as summer turns into autumn, warm sunny days,
so there's lots of sugar production going on, and then
um cool nights that slows down the ability of the
(14:44):
tree to suck the sugars that were produced that day
out of the leaves. So there's a bunch stuck in
there and dry to right. Yeah, that's kind of what
we got going on now. Yeah, hopefully we'll see a
lot of reds. I think my favorite the reds are nice.
But I don't know what tree it is. But it's
one particular tree that has those yellow like it just glows.
Oh yeah, man, it's just like so yellow, it's blinding.
(15:05):
It's a type of maple, is it. I think so,
Like there's a couple. There's one that like really glows
that's a maple, and then there's another that's um, maybe
the oak. I can't remember seeing him. I feel like
we talked about this. It was yeah, the time we
went leaf peeping, we talked at length about this. That's right. Yeah,
I forgot. We brought our little flaska of apple cider
(15:26):
walk through the woods. It was a heck of a
peeping trip, that's right. Um, So well, I guess that's
pretty much the end of it. Science science has a
has explained the yellow and the green, and the orange
and the red. Pretty sure about the red, Pretty sure
about the red. Yeah, they're not convinced. Um. Yeah, I
(15:47):
wish I had something else to add, but I think
this is just one of those that you know, this fall,
you can tell your friends you see that tree, you
know what's you know, it's red. Well that's what we're
doing here. Yeah. Um oh. Also, if you are into
um looking at leaves as they change color in the fall,
if you're one of those people who doesn't there, well
some people you know, like get in their car and
(16:08):
drive places. Yeah, but who was just like shut the shades.
I don't want to see that stuff. People who hate
art rush fans, right, depending on the kind of rush
they're talking about. If you are into that, though, there's
a um an app. If you also are into smartphones
and you own one, you can download a free app
called a leaf Peeper. I'm not saying this, but it's
(16:30):
a p E p r UM and it's free and
it's like this color coded map of the United States
by region area and it shows um where the leaves
are green, um, turning, moderate, fading, and gone, so you
can kind of track the leaves as they Yeah, it's
pretty neat and you can take pictures and post it
(16:52):
to your favorite social media site. Well, I think I
was going to call for that anyway. I think if
you live in a place, do you think rules the
uh poster pictures on our Facebook page and um, I
will do the same. We will do battle Georgia against
the world because I think we have some of the best.
You're gonna go do some leaf peeping, some pictures, keep
(17:14):
it some leaves. It seems like something you should do,
like wearing like shorts and hiking boots and nothing else.
Your leaf peeping. Yeah, I mean Emily and I will
usually try and tack one drive up in the mountains,
you know, maybe pasties while you're leave. I can't wait
for the video of this. Uh, let's see if you
(17:38):
want to learn more about things like leaves changing color.
I love stuff like that. I love earth science. Science,
I think is what it is it Yeah. Um, you
can type in earth science in the search bar how
stuff works dot comment. It will bring up stuff like this. Um,
and I said stuff like this, which means time for
(18:00):
listener mail. Uh. This is an oldie, but a goodie.
It's about sherpas. Wow, that is older and I think
that was a good time to point out that I'm
not sure if Sherpas has fallen off the list. But
if you get our material from iTunes, you're only gonna
get three one one, um, But we have many more available.
(18:21):
And if you type in your favorite search engine like Google,
let's say, um, stuff you should know RSSKI, it will
bring you to a page with all four hundred and
fifty plus shows, or you can listen right there, or
some people use like a stitcher or um. I think
there's some other various podcasts apps that like list the
(18:44):
whole thing. So we've been getting ass lately, like hey,
what about the sarcopenia, where's that one? Or where's this one?
They're all there in the vault. That's right, and stuff
you should know RSS all for free? Still get them,
get them all, collect them all all right? So this
is about sharp is And if you have not heard that,
when it's an old one, you should go listen to it.
Did you like that one? That was one of my
least favorites? Like, all right, don't listen to it. Dust
(19:07):
does not recommend guys. I recently listened to the Sherbet
episode from a Ways Back and found that I had
an interesting story regarding Sir Edmund Hillary's ascent I was
born in Canada, but my mother and her family are
all from New Zealand. My uncle Alan Sairs lives just
north of Auckland currently and it's one of the most
interesting people I know. Uh. He made his career in
(19:29):
sports Photokgree primarily for horse racing. He got a start
in the field thanks to Sir ed Um. This is
the story as told to me by my uncle a
little over ten years ago. When Hillary was training for
his ascent, he could be seen from time to time
hiking on the roadside, all decked out in his climbing
gear in order to be well used, well used to
the way, or well used. One day, my uncle, then
(19:52):
in his mid thirties, passed him, stopped him and said,
can I take your photo? H Sir ed Um, already
well known locally, was happy to oblige. My uncle never
distributed any of the prints. Well what was he wearing
like a camusole or something? What? He didn't distribute the prints?
Oh no, I don't think it was anything like that.
(20:13):
So he just held onto him. But when word came
back that Hillary had succeeded, and he sent my uncle
rush to develop his many copies of the photo as
he could. My uncle never distributed any of the prints.
Huh weird. Yeah, But when the word came back that
Hillary has succeeded in his assent, my uncle rushed to
develop his many copies of the photo as he could.
He stuffed them into envelopes addressed to many of the
(20:33):
world's newspapers, along with a note asking for whatever uh
recompense they felt the photo was worth. So that's a
great business model to send pictures and say, hey, pay
me a little something, right, Hey, Rupert Murdoch, let's use
the honor system. Many papers ran the photo, though, uh
and there were no photos, as there were no photos
of the ascent available until after Hillary had descended and
(20:57):
his own photos were developed. My uncle died here and penniless. Thankfully,
the strategy worked for my uncle, and he became well
known for sports photography in the nineteen fifties and sixties,
initially um. He is now ninety seven years old and
has no UH and in no way has slowed down.
In fact, he has just finished a book on his
career as a naval intelligence officer in w W two
(21:20):
that is due to be published next year. He was
also a successful track and field athlete in New Zealand
winning its silver medal in ninety eight. This guy sounds
pretty awesome in what are now the Commonwealth Games. Um, yeah,
that's fantastic. We'll plug the book when it comes out. Yeah,
for sure, send it. Um. I could not stop thinking
about this story while listening to the podcast on sherpos.
(21:42):
He also tried to track down to copy the photo,
but have been unable to find it. Um best regards
Anthony zeller Meyer. Well, thanks a lot, Anthony. Yeah, it's
a grandaughter. Nine seven man, keep going seriously. Um wow,
if you have a family member that you're very proud
of for good reason, for like eight good reasons, we
(22:02):
want to hear about that person. Also, don't forget Chuck's
call out, like he's putting the SmackDown on your neck
of the woods. Doesn't even have to be in the
United States. Europe's got some great leave. Asia has some
great leave. Basically, anything that's um above or below the tropics,
you're probably gonna have some good leaf color. What falls
like in Japan? Good? Nice? Yeah, it seems maples. Yeah
(22:26):
over there they just call the maples. Uh, we want
to see pictures of your your hometown trees showing their
greatest colors. Right um you. Also, if you remember this
show any tribe right in say hi. You can tweet
to us at s y s K podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash Stuff you Should Know,
or you can send us an email to Stuff Podcast
(22:49):
at Discovery dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics. Does it how stuff? We're dot com
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