1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:04,799 Speaker 1: You know, human beings have this really specific, almost cinematic 2 00:00:04,879 --> 00:00:07,160 relationship with the concept of the end of the world. 3 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:10,039 Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely. We always expect a spectacle, don't we. 4 00:00:10,279 --> 00:00:13,960 Speaker 1: Right when we picture some massive existential threat, we almost 5 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:18,359 always look up. We have been conditioned by decades of 6 00:00:18,359 --> 00:00:21,679 summer blockbusters to expect the danger to arrive in a 7 00:00:21,719 --> 00:00:24,440 massive chrome spaceship. 8 00:00:23,839 --> 00:00:26,559 Speaker 2: Or jagged rock the size of Texas hurtling out of 9 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:26,960 the dark. 10 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:29,480 Speaker 1: Exactly. We want the threat to be external. We want 11 00:00:29,519 --> 00:00:30,800 it loud, and we want. 12 00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,920 Speaker 2: It visible because it creates a sense of agency. If 13 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:35,799 the monster is coming from the stars, well we can 14 00:00:35,799 --> 00:00:37,520 build a wall, or we can build a laser or 15 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:40,240 a spaceship to meet it. It externalizes the fear. 16 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:44,479 Speaker 1: It's that classic US versus them mentality. But I have 17 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:46,880 been sitting with this stack of reports you send over 18 00:00:46,920 --> 00:00:50,159 for today, the analysis on umbilical cords, the data from 19 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,520 those deep ice caves in Romania, the thermal readings from 20 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,240 the Pacific, and honestly, it feels like our collective radar 21 00:00:57,359 --> 00:00:59,560 is just pointed in the completely wrong direction. 22 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:03,119 Speaker 2: That is the uncomfortable truth of this collection of data. 23 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:07,480 We aren't looking at hypothetical alien invasions. Here, we're looking 24 00:01:07,519 --> 00:01:09,879 at data points that are already in the room with us. 25 00:01:10,159 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: Yeah, the discoveries that have scientists legitimately rattling the cages 26 00:01:14,359 --> 00:01:17,359 right now aren't coming from the alpha centaury system. They 27 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:20,159 are coming from our own trash, our own history, and 28 00:01:20,239 --> 00:01:25,200 even our own biology. Their microscopic they are submerged, or 29 00:01:25,239 --> 00:01:27,680 they are just hiding in plain sight. They really are 30 00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:31,159 so welcome to thrilling threads. I am your host, and 31 00:01:31,239 --> 00:01:33,640 today we are pulling a thread that, frankly, I was 32 00:01:33,719 --> 00:01:36,480 a little hesitant to touch. We are going to look 33 00:01:36,519 --> 00:01:39,400 at a series of recent scientific discoveries that have prompted 34 00:01:39,439 --> 00:01:43,159 researchers to use words they usually avoid in peer reviewed papers. 35 00:01:43,239 --> 00:01:47,000 Speaker 2: Words like terrified, unprecedented, and irreversible. 36 00:01:47,159 --> 00:01:50,239 Speaker 1: Yeah, the heavy hitters. And we should clarify right out 37 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:52,319 of the gate for you listening. When a scientist says 38 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:55,239 they are terrified, they aren't talking about the kind of 39 00:01:55,239 --> 00:01:56,840 panic you feel in a haunted house. 40 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,959 Speaker 2: No, not at all. They are talking about statistical terror. 41 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,840 They mean the data represents a deviation from the norm 42 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,519 that is so significant that their predicted models are just breaking. 43 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,719 They're looking at a graph line going vertical and realizing 44 00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:12,919 they have no idea where it stops. 45 00:02:12,719 --> 00:02:17,080 Speaker 1: Right, It's intellectual terror. It is the realization that the 46 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:20,960 baseline of our world has fundamentally shifted. So here is 47 00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:23,199 our mission for this deep dive. We are going to 48 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:25,400 validate that fear. But we are going to do it 49 00:02:25,439 --> 00:02:28,159 by digging into the actual mechanics of why. 50 00:02:28,319 --> 00:02:30,680 Speaker 2: We are going to look at forever chemicals appearing in 51 00:02:30,719 --> 00:02:33,560 the most pristine biological environments on Earth. 52 00:02:33,719 --> 00:02:35,960 Speaker 1: We are going to dig into the permafrost to find 53 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:39,120 bacteria that shouldn't exist. We will look at why the 54 00:02:39,159 --> 00:02:41,719 ocean is boiling, why the deep sea cleaning crew has 55 00:02:41,759 --> 00:02:44,719 completely vanished. And yes, we will eventually look up at 56 00:02:44,759 --> 00:02:46,159 the sky to see what we are missing. 57 00:02:46,479 --> 00:02:49,800 Speaker 2: And we will finish with a theoretical risk that sounds 58 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,759 exactly like science fiction but is dangerously close to science fact. 59 00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:58,039 Speaker 1: Wet's start small, uncomfortably small section one of your notes 60 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:02,000 involves a study on umbilical cords. Now, biologically speaking, the 61 00:03:02,039 --> 00:03:04,120 womb is supposed to be a fortress. 62 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:06,319 Speaker 2: Right, that is the standard biological assumption. 63 00:03:06,439 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: Yes, the placenta is this incredible evolutionary filter designed to 64 00:03:11,360 --> 00:03:14,199 keep the chaos of the outside world completely away. From 65 00:03:14,199 --> 00:03:15,240 the developing fetus. 66 00:03:15,599 --> 00:03:17,879 Speaker 2: That was the prevailing wisdom for a very long time 67 00:03:18,199 --> 00:03:21,719 that the placental barrier was this perfect shield. But this 68 00:03:21,879 --> 00:03:25,960 recent study, which analyzed really detailed scans of umbilical cord 69 00:03:26,039 --> 00:03:28,120 samples from people born between two thousand and three and 70 00:03:28,120 --> 00:03:31,479 two thousand and six, has effectively shattered that assumption. 71 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,639 Speaker 1: They were looking for synthetic compounds, and they didn't just 72 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:38,080 find a trace of something. They found forty two distinct 73 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,120 forever chemicals. 74 00:03:39,599 --> 00:03:42,520 Speaker 2: Forty two And to really grasp why that number is 75 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:45,439 so shocking, you have to understand what a forever chemical 76 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:50,039 actually is. We call them pfas, right, pfas. Yes, these 77 00:03:50,039 --> 00:03:53,479 aren't just random, naturally occurring toxins like lead or mercury. 78 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:57,439 These are absolute masterpieces of human chemical engineering. They are 79 00:03:57,479 --> 00:04:02,000 built using carbon fluorine bonds carbon fluor exactly in organic chemistry. 80 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:04,039 The carbon fluorine bond is one of the strongest single 81 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,759 bonds known to science. It is incredibly short and incredibly stable, 82 00:04:08,280 --> 00:04:10,240 and we designed it that way on purpose. 83 00:04:09,960 --> 00:04:12,439 Speaker 1: Because we wanted indestructible stuff we did. 84 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,080 Speaker 2: We wanted nonstick pans that wouldn't flake into our eggs. 85 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:18,600 We wanted firefighting phones that could smother a raging jet 86 00:04:18,639 --> 00:04:22,720 fuel fire in seconds. We wanted raincoats that would literally 87 00:04:22,759 --> 00:04:26,879 never soak through. We needed a chemical armor for modern life. 88 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:28,360 Speaker 1: So we built them to be invincible. 89 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:32,319 Speaker 2: Precisely, we engineered them to resist heat, resist water, and 90 00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,600 resist oil. But the problem is, because that bond is 91 00:04:35,639 --> 00:04:39,639 so unnaturally strong, nature has absolutely no mechanism to break 92 00:04:39,639 --> 00:04:40,000 it down. 93 00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:41,120 Speaker 1: Nothing can eat it. 94 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,000 Speaker 2: Nothing soil, bacteria can't digest it. The UV radiation from 95 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,480 the sun barely touches it. And most importantly, your liver 96 00:04:48,639 --> 00:04:51,079 enzymes cannot slice it apart to flush it out, so 97 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,199 it doesn't leave it. Bioaccumulates, And that is. 98 00:04:54,199 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: The baked in concept that really struck me in this report. 99 00:04:57,480 --> 00:04:59,399 These babies, who, by the way, if they were born 100 00:04:59,399 --> 00:05:00,959 in two thousand and three, there are adults in their 101 00:05:00,959 --> 00:05:03,399 twenties right now they are they didn't ingest this from 102 00:05:03,439 --> 00:05:05,639 eating a candy wrapper or by crawling around on a 103 00:05:05,680 --> 00:05:08,800 dirty kitchen floor. They received it intravenously before they even 104 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:09,800 took their first breath. 105 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:14,959 Speaker 2: It is a literal intergenerational transfer of pollution. The mother 106 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:19,199 accumulates this chemical load over decades of just living in 107 00:05:19,199 --> 00:05:23,639 the modern world, drinking tap water, wearing tweeted clothes, using 108 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:25,560 standard cosmetics. 109 00:05:24,879 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: Just living life, just living life. 110 00:05:26,639 --> 00:05:30,480 Speaker 2: And because the chemistry of pfas mimics natural fatty acids, 111 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:32,920 or it bands so perfectly to proteins in the blood, 112 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,959 it bypasses that placental filter we talked about. It just 113 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:39,000 flows right into the fetus. It essentially treats the developing 114 00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:40,439 child as another storage depot. 115 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:43,120 Speaker 1: What are the biological costs of starting your life day 116 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:46,639 zero with a baseline of industrial solvents in your blood? 117 00:05:46,680 --> 00:05:49,120 I mean forty two chemicals. That is a heavy cocktail. 118 00:05:49,199 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 2: That is the truly terrifying part for the toxicologists involved 119 00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:54,959 in this research. Of those forty two chemicals, they found 120 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:59,040 a significant number are chemically identified but biologically. 121 00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:00,720 Speaker 1: Unmapped, meaning we know they are there, but we have 122 00:06:00,759 --> 00:06:01,519 no clue what they do. 123 00:06:01,800 --> 00:06:04,279 Speaker 2: Right. We know the molecular structure we can drawn on 124 00:06:04,319 --> 00:06:07,519 a whiteboard, but we don't know the physiological cascade it 125 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,240 causes in a human body. However, the ones we do 126 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:15,959 understand are heavily linked to metabolic disruption, compromised immune responses, 127 00:06:16,199 --> 00:06:17,839 and severe developmental delays. 128 00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:20,439 Speaker 1: It's almost like it's like a software bug pre installed 129 00:06:20,439 --> 00:06:23,079 in the hardware. You're walking around wondering why your immune 130 00:06:23,079 --> 00:06:25,839 system is so sluggish at age thirty, or why your 131 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,720 cholesterol is doing weird things despite a good diet, and 132 00:06:28,759 --> 00:06:31,399 the answer might be a brand of stain resistant spray 133 00:06:31,480 --> 00:06:33,560 some when used on a sofa in nineteen ninety five. 134 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:37,439 Speaker 2: That is very apt analogy. And because these are forever chemicals, 135 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:41,199 the concentration in the global environment is only increasing. The 136 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:44,120 babies born in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty five 137 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:47,920 likely have a vastly more complex chemical cocktail than the 138 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:49,560 two thousand and three cohort. 139 00:06:49,319 --> 00:06:51,639 Speaker 1: Because we just keep inventing new variants to get around 140 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:53,040 the regulations on the old ones. 141 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,160 Speaker 2: Exactly, we ban one the chemical companies, tweak one molecule 142 00:06:56,199 --> 00:06:58,000 and put a new one on the market. We are 143 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:01,839 effectively running an uncontrolled Glowe mobal toxicology experiment on our 144 00:07:01,879 --> 00:07:02,680 own species. 145 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,959 Speaker 1: And since these chemicals do not degrade, we are just 146 00:07:06,079 --> 00:07:08,920 stacking the deck higher every single year. It is the 147 00:07:08,959 --> 00:07:11,519 invisibility of it that really gets to me. You can't 148 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:13,800 see it, you can't feel it, but it is there, 149 00:07:13,839 --> 00:07:17,519 just woven into your DNA replication machinery, which perfectly. 150 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 2: Brings us to another invisible threat. But this one isn't 151 00:07:20,199 --> 00:07:23,399 man made. It is ancient and it is waking up. 152 00:07:23,519 --> 00:07:26,439 Speaker 1: Right. Let's pivot from the womb to the ice Section two. 153 00:07:27,360 --> 00:07:31,000 This takes us to a deep ice cave in Romania. Now, 154 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:33,480 writing this, it genuinely sounds like the start of a 155 00:07:33,519 --> 00:07:37,519 sci fi horror movie where the scientists definitely do not 156 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:38,639 make it out of the first act. 157 00:07:38,879 --> 00:07:42,079 Speaker 2: In this case, the horror is purely biological. This is 158 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:45,120 where the concept of time itself gets weaponized against us. 159 00:07:45,480 --> 00:07:48,839 We so often think of extinction as things dying, but 160 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,199 in microbiology, things don't always die. They just go dorm it. 161 00:07:52,279 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: They hit pause exactly. 162 00:07:54,279 --> 00:07:56,920 Speaker 2: Researchers were drilling into ice inside this cave that had 163 00:07:56,920 --> 00:08:00,759 been completely stable and undisturbed for about five thousand years. 164 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,439 Speaker 1: So we are talking the Bronze Age, long before the 165 00:08:03,519 --> 00:08:05,759 Roman Empire, before the Great Wall of China. 166 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:10,600 Speaker 2: Correct, and inside this pristine ice they found a strain 167 00:08:10,680 --> 00:08:15,199 of bacteria. They have named it Cyrobacter sc sixty five. 168 00:08:15,040 --> 00:08:19,040 Speaker 1: A three Sorrobacter sc sixty five A three. It sounds 169 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:20,519 like an industrial cleaning agent. 170 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:24,160 Speaker 2: It is a formidable organism. Now, I should say, finding 171 00:08:24,240 --> 00:08:28,079 old bacteria isn't exactly new. We find microbes in ice 172 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,040 cores all the time. The headline here isn't simply that 173 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:33,399 it was alive. It is what happened when they brought 174 00:08:33,399 --> 00:08:35,039 it back to the lab and tried to kill it. 175 00:08:35,240 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: Okay, laid out for me. Doctor Christina Precaria and her 176 00:08:38,039 --> 00:08:40,759 team revived this thing. They warmed it up, they gave 177 00:08:40,759 --> 00:08:42,799 it some nutrients, and it started dividing. 178 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,080 Speaker 2: Yes, and then they subjected it to a standard battery 179 00:08:45,120 --> 00:08:49,320 of modern antibiotics. Now, logically, an organism from five thousand 180 00:08:49,399 --> 00:08:52,639 years ago should be completely defenseless against drugs invented in 181 00:08:52,679 --> 00:08:53,440 the twentieth. 182 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:54,799 Speaker 1: Century because it's never encountered them. 183 00:08:54,919 --> 00:08:58,080 Speaker 2: Right, It has never seen penicillin, It has never seen methicillin. 184 00:08:58,159 --> 00:09:00,480 It has never encountered any of the highly com complex 185 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:03,039 synthetic molecules we use in hospitals today. 186 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,279 Speaker 1: It should be an absolute slaughter. It's like bringing a 187 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:06,519 musket to a drone fight. 188 00:09:06,879 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 2: It really should be, but it wasn't. It was the 189 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:13,480 exact opposite. Sarbactor SE sixty five A three was highly 190 00:09:13,519 --> 00:09:17,120 resistant to ten different modern antibiotics, and that includes some 191 00:09:17,159 --> 00:09:19,799 heavy hitting injectables that we reserve for ICUs for last 192 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:20,679 resort infections. 193 00:09:20,799 --> 00:09:22,559 Speaker 1: Okay, you have to help me with the logic here. 194 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,759 How does a microscopic bug from the Bronze age have 195 00:09:26,879 --> 00:09:30,519 the code to defeat a completely synthetic drug invented by 196 00:09:30,559 --> 00:09:33,759 Pfizer in the nineteen nineties. Is it just incredibly lucky? 197 00:09:34,080 --> 00:09:37,759 Speaker 2: This completely challenges the standard narrative we have about antibiotic resistance. 198 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,080 We usually tell the public, Hey, you use too many 199 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,879 prescription drugs. You didn't finish your course. So the bugs 200 00:09:42,879 --> 00:09:44,080 evolve defenses. 201 00:09:43,679 --> 00:09:45,799 Speaker 1: Which makes sense, evolution under pressure, and. 202 00:09:45,759 --> 00:09:48,799 Speaker 2: That is absolutely true for modern superbugs and hospitals. But 203 00:09:48,879 --> 00:09:52,120 this discovery in the ice proves that the core mechanisms 204 00:09:52,120 --> 00:09:53,399 of resistance are ancient. 205 00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:56,879 Speaker 1: Explain that mechanism. What is the bacteria actually doing to 206 00:09:56,919 --> 00:09:57,759 survive the drug? 207 00:09:58,279 --> 00:10:01,279 Speaker 2: Bacteria fight dirty. They have been fighting fungi and other 208 00:10:01,320 --> 00:10:05,559 competing bacteria for millions of years. Fungi produced natural antibiotics 209 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:09,919 to kill bacteria and steal their resources. In response, bacteria 210 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:13,519 evolved genes that code for very specific physical defenses. It's 211 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:16,759 like armor, more active than that. Some create what we 212 00:10:16,799 --> 00:10:20,799 call eflux pumps. These are literally tiny mechanical pumps built 213 00:10:20,840 --> 00:10:24,519 into their cell walls that grab the antibiotic molecule and 214 00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:26,960 spit it back out before it can do any damage. 215 00:10:27,159 --> 00:10:28,879 It's like having a bouncer at the door of the cell. 216 00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:29,559 Speaker 1: Wow. 217 00:10:29,639 --> 00:10:33,320 Speaker 2: Others produce specific enzymes that act like molecular scissors. They 218 00:10:33,399 --> 00:10:37,159 just slice the antibiotic molecule in half, completely neutralizing it. 219 00:10:37,399 --> 00:10:40,360 Speaker 1: So this bronze age Serabacter already had these pumps and 220 00:10:40,399 --> 00:10:41,000 these scissors. 221 00:10:41,039 --> 00:10:44,399 Speaker 2: It had an entire library of them. This single bacteria 222 00:10:44,759 --> 00:10:48,799 carries over one hundred resistance related genes. It is a 223 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,240 fully loaded weapon that has just been sitting quietly in 224 00:10:52,279 --> 00:10:54,360 the freezer since the invention of the wheel. 225 00:10:54,200 --> 00:10:56,720 Speaker 1: And the delivery system for this weapon. Right now is 226 00:10:56,799 --> 00:10:57,799 climate change. 227 00:10:57,639 --> 00:11:00,519 Speaker 2: As the exact threat, Doctor Percarrey is worn the global 228 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:04,320 health community about as the permafrost melts globally and as 229 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:08,440 these ancient glaciers retreat, this meltwater, which is carrying these ancient, 230 00:11:08,519 --> 00:11:12,039 highly resistant strains, flows into the ground water, it flows 231 00:11:12,039 --> 00:11:15,159 into the soil, and eventually it washes right into the ocean. 232 00:11:15,279 --> 00:11:17,159 Speaker 1: But wait, if I drink that water while I get 233 00:11:17,200 --> 00:11:20,799 sick from Cyrobacter specifically, is it a human pathogen? 234 00:11:22,039 --> 00:11:24,840 Speaker 2: Maybe not? It might not be adapted to infect human 235 00:11:24,879 --> 00:11:29,559 biology at all. But bacteria are incredibly social organisms. They 236 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:33,440 swap data constantly through a process called horizontal gene transfer. 237 00:11:33,879 --> 00:11:36,519 Speaker 1: This is the part of the notes that genuinely sounded 238 00:11:36,559 --> 00:11:37,519 like science fiction to me. 239 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:39,720 Speaker 2: It is very real and it happens all the time. 240 00:11:40,159 --> 00:11:43,120 Bacteria can extend a payless which is like a microscopic 241 00:11:43,159 --> 00:11:47,279 hollow tube, and physically connect to another bacteria nearby. They 242 00:11:47,279 --> 00:11:50,639 can then copy a plasmid, which is a small circular 243 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:54,039 ring of DNA separate from their main chromosome, and just 244 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:55,120 pass it through the tube to. 245 00:11:55,120 --> 00:11:58,200 Speaker 1: Their neighbor, like hitting someone a flash drive exactly like that. 246 00:11:58,320 --> 00:12:00,720 Speaker 2: So Cyrobacter doesn't need to be the bug that infects you. 247 00:12:00,879 --> 00:12:02,600 It just needs to meet a common E. Coli or 248 00:12:02,639 --> 00:12:06,279 a Salmonella strain in the agricultural water supply and pass 249 00:12:06,279 --> 00:12:09,519 over a plasmid that contains those ancient resistance geens. 250 00:12:09,639 --> 00:12:12,360 Speaker 1: It's just uploading a god mode cheat code to modern 251 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:13,399 everyday diseases. 252 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:18,279 Speaker 2: It's a massive reservoir of resistance that our epidemiological models 253 00:12:18,279 --> 00:12:21,399 simply did not account for. We are out here fighting 254 00:12:21,399 --> 00:12:24,080 the bugs we know. We are spending billions of dollars 255 00:12:24,080 --> 00:12:27,159 developing new drugs to outsmart them, while the melting ice 256 00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:31,279 is quietly releasing these hardened veterans that already know exactly 257 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:32,639 how to beat our best weapons. 258 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:36,759 Speaker 1: It complicates the battlefield immensely. We aren't just racing against 259 00:12:36,759 --> 00:12:39,720 modern evolution anymore. We are racing against history. 260 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,759 Speaker 2: And the ice is melting much faster than anyone predicted, 261 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:45,399 Which brings us to the actual engine driving all of 262 00:12:45,399 --> 00:12:47,279 this chaos, the heat itself. 263 00:12:47,440 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 1: Section three, The Ocean's fever. Now, if you are listening 264 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:53,559 to this, you hear about global warming so much that 265 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:56,639 it just becomes white noise. It loses its impact. But 266 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:59,200 there was a specific data point release regarding the year 267 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:02,200 twenty twenty five that stopped everyone in their tracks. A 268 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:04,879 massive study led by Lejing Chang at the Institute of 269 00:13:04,919 --> 00:13:09,519 Atmospheric Physics in Beijing, involving like fifty different climate scientists. 270 00:13:09,759 --> 00:13:13,840 Speaker 2: Yes, they were measuring the ocean heat content, that is, 271 00:13:13,919 --> 00:13:18,320 essentially the total kinetic energy absorbed by the seas. The 272 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:20,759 headline from their data is that twenty twenty five wasn't 273 00:13:20,799 --> 00:13:23,759 just a record breaking year, it was a statistical jump. 274 00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,320 The ocean absorbed more heat than at any point in 275 00:13:27,360 --> 00:13:28,519 recorded human history. 276 00:13:28,639 --> 00:13:31,000 Speaker 1: I have heard the ocean described in these reports as 277 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,720 a heat sponge. Is that physically accurate. 278 00:13:34,159 --> 00:13:38,240 Speaker 2: It's the perfect thermodynamic description. Water has a very high 279 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:41,879 specific heat capacity. That means it takes a tremendous amount 280 00:13:41,879 --> 00:13:43,919 of energy to raise the temperature of water by even 281 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:47,519 one degree. Conversely, it means water can hold a massive 282 00:13:47,519 --> 00:13:50,879 amount of energy without boiling. To put it in perspective 283 00:13:50,919 --> 00:13:53,840 for you, the oceans have absorbed about ninety percent of 284 00:13:53,879 --> 00:13:56,399 the excess heat trapped by human greenhouse gases since the 285 00:13:56,399 --> 00:13:57,759 Industrial Revolution. 286 00:13:57,519 --> 00:14:00,279 Speaker 1: Ninety percent, So the ocean is literally saving us. If 287 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,240 the atmosphere had to hold all that heat instead, the surface. 288 00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:05,159 Speaker 2: Temperature of the planet would be hundreds of degrees hotter. 289 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,159 We would be venus. The ocean is the only buffer 290 00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:12,120 keeping us alive. But the sponge is getting completely saturated. 291 00:14:11,720 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: And this heat has physical mechanical consequences beyond just know 292 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:19,440 the water feels a bit warmer when you go swimming right. 293 00:14:19,759 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 2: Heat is kinetic energy. When you heat water, the individual 294 00:14:23,399 --> 00:14:26,960 molecules move faster, they vibrate more aggressively, and as they 295 00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:31,320 move faster, they physically push apart from each other. In physics, 296 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:33,440 this is called thermal expansion. 297 00:14:33,159 --> 00:14:36,039 Speaker 1: So the water literally gets bigger, it takes up more space. 298 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 2: Exactly. A very significant portion of the sea level rise 299 00:14:39,480 --> 00:14:42,440 we are seeing right now isn't just melting ice adding 300 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:45,279 new water from the land. It is the existing water 301 00:14:45,399 --> 00:14:48,240 expanding in volume simply because it is warmer. 302 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:50,639 Speaker 1: That is wild to think about. But the scary part 303 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,440 isn't even just the water level rising. It is the 304 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,200 feedback loops, the tipping points. Researchers like William Ripple and 305 00:14:57,279 --> 00:15:00,159 Johann Rostrom talk about this constantly in the literature. 306 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,360 Speaker 2: A tipping point is critical to understand. It is when 307 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,679 a complex system is pushed past the threshold where it 308 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,320 can no longer return to its previous state, even if 309 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,799 you completely remove the pressure that cost it. It is 310 00:15:10,799 --> 00:15:13,200 the humpty dumpty effect. You cannot put the egg back 311 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:15,039 together once it rolls off the wall. 312 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:18,279 Speaker 1: And the main mechanism here involves the albedo effect. Right, 313 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:19,039 Let's break that down. 314 00:15:19,159 --> 00:15:23,679 Speaker 2: Sure, Albedo is just a scientific measure of reflectivity. Ice 315 00:15:23,759 --> 00:15:27,320 is bright white. It acts as a mirror, reflecting about 316 00:15:27,320 --> 00:15:30,799 eighty percent of incoming solar radiation right back out into space. 317 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:34,279 Ocean water, on the other hand, is dark blue or black. 318 00:15:34,639 --> 00:15:39,399 It absorbs solar radiation. So as the atmospheric heat melts 319 00:15:39,440 --> 00:15:42,799 the ice, you replace a giant mirror with a giant 320 00:15:42,919 --> 00:15:44,080 dark thermal absorber. 321 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,519 Speaker 1: So the ocean gets hotter because there's less ice to 322 00:15:46,559 --> 00:15:47,320 reflect the sun. 323 00:15:47,480 --> 00:15:49,840 Speaker 2: And because it gets hotter, it melts even more ice, 324 00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:53,879 which makes the surface even darker, which makes it absorb 325 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:57,840 even more heat. It is a completely self reinforcing runaway. 326 00:15:57,480 --> 00:16:00,559 Speaker 1: Cycle, and the researcher suggests this cycle is act pushing 327 00:16:00,639 --> 00:16:02,000 us out of the Goldilock zone. 328 00:16:02,039 --> 00:16:04,720 Speaker 2: They argue, we are exiting the climatic window of the 329 00:16:04,799 --> 00:16:08,480 last eleven thousand years, an epoch called the Holocene. You 330 00:16:08,559 --> 00:16:12,080 have to remember, every human civilization, every single crop we 331 00:16:12,159 --> 00:16:14,600 know how to grow, every coastal city we ever built, 332 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,879 was designed for the stable climate of that specific window. 333 00:16:17,679 --> 00:16:18,840 Speaker 1: And we are moving out of it. 334 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 2: We are effectively evicting ourselves into a hotter, more extreme 335 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,279 planetary state that the human species has never experienced. 336 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 1: And it is one thing to look at a chart 337 00:16:28,879 --> 00:16:30,919 and see a red line going up. It is an 338 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:34,120 abstract terror. It is another thing, entirely to see what 339 00:16:34,159 --> 00:16:36,919 that heat actually does to the living things in the water, 340 00:16:37,679 --> 00:16:40,639 which brings us to Section four, Casualties of the deep. 341 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:46,080 Speaker 2: Yes, we are witnessing a massive biological collapse in real time. 342 00:16:46,759 --> 00:16:49,519 Since early twenty twenty three, we have been trapped in 343 00:16:49,559 --> 00:16:53,879 the largest global cooral bleaching event on record. Current estimates 344 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,679 suggests eighty four percent of global resource affected. 345 00:16:57,000 --> 00:16:59,279 Speaker 1: Eighty four percent. And I think people hear the term 346 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:01,200 bleaching and they think, oh, the coral turn white, it 347 00:17:01,200 --> 00:17:03,480 looks clean, it looks pretty. We really need to correct 348 00:17:03,480 --> 00:17:04,720 that image for the listener. 349 00:17:04,880 --> 00:17:08,079 Speaker 2: We do. White coral is a color of starvation. Coral 350 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:10,200 is an animal. It's a poly up closely related to 351 00:17:10,279 --> 00:17:13,759 a jellyfish. It secretes a limestone skeleton, but the living 352 00:17:13,799 --> 00:17:17,680 tissue hosts these tiny symbiotic algae called zook andcelli. 353 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:19,319 Speaker 1: Inside it, right, and they do the heavy lifting. 354 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:23,759 Speaker 2: They do. These algae photosynthesize sunlight and provide the coral 355 00:17:23,799 --> 00:17:26,079 with up to ninety percent of its food, and they 356 00:17:26,079 --> 00:17:29,559 give the reef all those vibrant colors. It is incredibly 357 00:17:29,599 --> 00:17:31,440 successful evolutionary partnership. 358 00:17:31,480 --> 00:17:33,759 Speaker 1: But the heat breaks the partnership. 359 00:17:33,839 --> 00:17:37,839 Speaker 2: It shatters it. When the water hits a certain thermal threshold, 360 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,160 the coral animal becomes immensely stressed in a panic response, 361 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:46,240 it physically expels the algae. It literally vomits out its 362 00:17:46,279 --> 00:17:49,400 own food source. Wow, it turns bone white because you 363 00:17:49,440 --> 00:17:53,079 are suddenly seeing the bare limestone skeleton underneath the clear 364 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,400 starving animal tissue. If the water does not cool down 365 00:17:56,400 --> 00:17:58,920 within a few weeks, the algae do not return, and 366 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:00,440 the coral simply starts to death. 367 00:18:00,480 --> 00:18:03,920 Speaker 1: And with twenty twenty five absolutely shattering heat records, the 368 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,359 water isn't cooling down. There is no relief window. 369 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,400 Speaker 2: Correct. We are looking at the functional extinction of reef 370 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:12,160 ecosystems in our lifetime. That is twenty five percent of 371 00:18:12,200 --> 00:18:15,359 all marine biodiversity losing its nursery, it's hunting ground, and 372 00:18:15,440 --> 00:18:17,720 its home. It is an ecological freefall. 373 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,440 Speaker 1: But here is the weird one for me. The coral 374 00:18:20,559 --> 00:18:22,759 is the tragedy we can easily see in shallow water. 375 00:18:22,799 --> 00:18:25,160 You can snorkel over it. But there is a mystery 376 00:18:25,160 --> 00:18:27,160 in the deep ocean that you included in your notes 377 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:29,920 that honestly freaked me out even more than the reefs, 378 00:18:30,759 --> 00:18:32,400 the vanishing zombie worms. 379 00:18:32,559 --> 00:18:38,480 Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, the ouzidex, a truly bizarre, fascinating organism you. 380 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,640 Speaker 1: Wrote in the notes. No mouth no gut, no anus. 381 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:43,920 How does this thing even qualify as an animal? 382 00:18:44,079 --> 00:18:47,359 Speaker 2: It is a hyper specialist. It has these alien root 383 00:18:47,519 --> 00:18:51,039 like structures that it physically drills into solid bone, usually 384 00:18:51,079 --> 00:18:54,160 massive whale carcasses that fall to the ocean floor. It 385 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,519 secretes a powerful acid to dissolve the bone matrix, and 386 00:18:57,519 --> 00:19:00,559 that it relies on symbiotic bacteria inside them those roots 387 00:19:00,720 --> 00:19:03,599 to digest the fats and proteins trapped in the marrow. 388 00:19:03,759 --> 00:19:04,839 It recycles the dead. 389 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:08,240 Speaker 1: It is the deep sea's janitorial staff. So researchers didn't 390 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:11,519 experiment to study them. They took huge whalebones, dropped them 391 00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:14,119 to the seafloor, waited ten years, and then came back 392 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,119 expecting them to be completely covered. 393 00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:18,799 Speaker 2: In these worms, and they found absolutely nothing. The bones 394 00:19:18,839 --> 00:19:22,720 are pristine, bare, Not a single worm had colonized them. 395 00:19:22,759 --> 00:19:24,799 Speaker 1: Why did the worms just move to a different area. 396 00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:28,079 Speaker 2: No, they died, They suffocated. This is the dark side 397 00:19:28,119 --> 00:19:30,519 that heat sponge problem we were just talking about. It's 398 00:19:30,559 --> 00:19:34,319 a matter of solubility. Warm water simply cannot hold as 399 00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:38,079 much dissolved gas as cold water. It is basic physics. 400 00:19:38,359 --> 00:19:41,400 Think of a warm bottle of soda going flat much 401 00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:42,480 faster than a cold one. 402 00:19:42,599 --> 00:19:44,480 Speaker 1: Right, the bubbles escape. 403 00:19:44,079 --> 00:19:48,119 Speaker 2: Exactly as the global oceans heat up. They are rapidly deoxygenating. 404 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:50,559 Speaker 1: And on top of that, the ocean circulation is slowing 405 00:19:50,559 --> 00:19:51,839 down right, exactly. 406 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:55,720 Speaker 2: Normally, deep ocean currents act like a giant churn, bringing 407 00:19:55,799 --> 00:19:58,400 oxygen rich surface water all the way down to the 408 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,200 abyssal depths, but that mechanical pump is slowing down due 409 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,319 to the massive temperature differentials. Researchers Fabio Dio and Craig 410 00:20:06,359 --> 00:20:10,559 Smith have identified these rapidly expanding areas called oxygen minimum 411 00:20:10,599 --> 00:20:11,799 zones or OMZs. 412 00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: So we aren't just cooking the surface life with the heat. 413 00:20:14,279 --> 00:20:16,720 We are literally suffocating the bottom feeders. 414 00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:20,079 Speaker 2: That is the ultimate fear. If the decomposers, the deep 415 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:24,000 recyclers like the ozodex cannot survive, the entire carbon cycle 416 00:20:24,039 --> 00:20:25,880 of the deep ocean breaks down, the bodies will just 417 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:28,680 pile up. We are disrupting the fundamental machinery that keeps 418 00:20:28,680 --> 00:20:29,920 the ocean chemically balanced. 419 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,880 Speaker 1: Okay, that is incredibly heavy. We have done the microscopic 420 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,920 chemical threats in our blood. We've done the zombie bacteria 421 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:41,839 waking up in the ice, and we have done the boiling, 422 00:20:42,039 --> 00:20:45,160 suffocating ocean. Let's take a breath and look up for 423 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:48,720 a minute, because usually space is where we look for escapism. 424 00:20:48,799 --> 00:20:50,559 Speaker 2: Well, not today, unfortunately. 425 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:54,599 Speaker 1: Clearly not Section five the threat from above. This data 426 00:20:54,640 --> 00:20:57,799 comes straight from NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office. 427 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:02,200 Speaker 2: Yes, doctor Kelly Fast, she has arguably the coolest title 428 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:05,440 and without a doubt, the most stressful job description in 429 00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:06,279 the federal government. 430 00:21:06,559 --> 00:21:08,720 Speaker 1: She is the one who tracks the asteroids. Now, I 431 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:10,839 thought we were good here. I thought we had successfully 432 00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:14,039 mapped all the massive dinosaur killers. I remember reading years 433 00:21:14,039 --> 00:21:16,279 ago that we know where like ninety eight percent of 434 00:21:16,319 --> 00:21:17,359 the big ones are. 435 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,880 Speaker 2: We do. We have mapped the planet killers. Those are 436 00:21:19,880 --> 00:21:22,920 the ten kilometer wide rocks, the ones like the impactor 437 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:24,839 that hit Chicks a Love and wiped out the dinosaurs. 438 00:21:25,160 --> 00:21:27,200 We know where they are, we track their orbits, and 439 00:21:27,240 --> 00:21:30,440 we are safe from them for the foreseeable future. But 440 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:33,119 doctor Fast isn't staying awake at night worrying about those. 441 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:36,759 Speaker 1: She is worried about the city killers, the mid sized rocks. 442 00:21:37,039 --> 00:21:40,880 Speaker 2: Yes, think the size of a large football stadium one 443 00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:44,359 hundred and forty meters across and up. If one of 444 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:47,000 those hits the Earth, it is not an extinction event 445 00:21:47,039 --> 00:21:50,160 for the human species, but it creates a crater the 446 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,720 size of a major metropolitan area. 447 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:55,559 Speaker 1: Like the Tunguska event, but maybe bigger exactly. 448 00:21:55,759 --> 00:21:58,839 Speaker 2: And if it hits the ocean, which is statistically more likely, 449 00:21:59,279 --> 00:22:02,359 it generates a localized tsunami that could scrub an entire 450 00:22:02,440 --> 00:22:08,640 coastline clean of infrastructure. Is a multi megaton class explosion. 451 00:22:08,279 --> 00:22:10,680 Speaker 1: And the stats you pulled on this are deeply unsettling. 452 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:13,279 There are estimated to be around twenty five thousand of 453 00:22:13,319 --> 00:22:15,279 these rocks flying around near Earth, and we. 454 00:22:15,240 --> 00:22:17,920 Speaker 2: Have only officially found in tract about forty percent of them. 455 00:22:17,960 --> 00:22:21,160 Speaker 1: Wait, so there are fifteen thousand football stadiums made of 456 00:22:21,200 --> 00:22:24,400 solid rock flying through our local solar neighborhood at forty 457 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:26,480 thousand miles per hour and we have no idea where 458 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:26,799 they are. 459 00:22:26,880 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 2: That is correct? 460 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,160 Speaker 1: How is that even possible? We have telescopes everywhere, we 461 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:32,720 have a raise in the desert, we have satellites in orbit. 462 00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:34,720 How do you miss a rock that big? 463 00:22:34,960 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 2: Because space is unimaginably dark, and asteroids are incredibly dark rocks. 464 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,519 They are like charcoal briquettes floating in a pitch black 465 00:22:43,559 --> 00:22:46,640 coal mine. They do not emit their own light. We 466 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:49,079 can only spot them if they happen to reflect sunlight 467 00:22:49,119 --> 00:22:52,000 at the exact right angle toward our lenses, or if 468 00:22:52,039 --> 00:22:53,960 they happen to pass directly in front of a bright 469 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,279 star while we just happen to be looking at that 470 00:22:56,359 --> 00:22:57,160 exact patches. 471 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,839 Speaker 1: Guy, So they are basically invisible in the standard visible 472 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:01,880 light spectrum. 473 00:23:01,920 --> 00:23:04,480 Speaker 2: Mostly yes, especially if they are coming at us from 474 00:23:04,519 --> 00:23:06,799 the direction of the Sun. The glare of her own 475 00:23:06,839 --> 00:23:09,240 star completely blinds our optical telescopes. 476 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:12,240 Speaker 1: So what is the fix? How do we find the 477 00:23:12,279 --> 00:23:14,200 fifteen thousand missing rocks? 478 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:16,359 Speaker 2: You have to stop looking for light and start looking 479 00:23:16,359 --> 00:23:20,319 for heat. You need infrared asteroids absorb heat from the 480 00:23:20,359 --> 00:23:23,119 sun and they reradiate it. Even if they are pitch 481 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:25,720 black to the naked eye, they glow brightly in thermal 482 00:23:25,759 --> 00:23:29,839 cameras against the absolute cold backdrop of deep space. NASA 483 00:23:29,880 --> 00:23:32,599 is currently building the Near Earth Object SURVEYOR. It's a 484 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:36,599 space based telescope specifically designed to spot that thermal glow. 485 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,119 The goal is to find ninety percent of these hidden 486 00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:40,839 rocks within a decade of its launch. 487 00:23:41,200 --> 00:23:43,279 Speaker 1: Okay, that sounds like a solid, actionable plan. 488 00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:46,799 Speaker 2: It is a brilliant plan. But doctor fast warning was 489 00:23:46,839 --> 00:23:49,599 specifically about the gap we are in right now. The 490 00:23:49,640 --> 00:23:53,759 surveyor telescope isn't up yet right now today, if one 491 00:23:53,799 --> 00:23:57,079 of those invisible fifteen thousand rocks was spotted coming out 492 00:23:57,119 --> 00:24:00,400 of the Sun's glare on a direct collision course with Earth, 493 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:04,039 and we only had three weeks notice, we cannot stop it. 494 00:24:04,119 --> 00:24:06,559 Speaker 1: Well, hold on. We did the Dart mission recently. We 495 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,920 literally smashed a probe into an asteroid a few years back. 496 00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,480 It worked. I watched the video. Everyone celebrate it. 497 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:16,039 Speaker 2: It did work. It spectacularly proved that the physics hold up. 498 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:18,279 We prove that if we hit a rock with enough 499 00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:22,200 kinetic force, we can slightly alter its orbit. But Dart 500 00:24:22,279 --> 00:24:25,519 was a one off, highly planned science experiment. We do 501 00:24:25,599 --> 00:24:28,480 not have a fleet of kinetic impactors sitting on launch pads, 502 00:24:28,759 --> 00:24:31,279 fully fueled and ready to fire at a moment's notice. 503 00:24:31,319 --> 00:24:32,799 Speaker 1: We just have the theoretical blueprint. 504 00:24:32,799 --> 00:24:35,640 Speaker 2: We have a blueprint, not the shield. Building and launching 505 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,319 a mission like Dart takes years of prep. If we 506 00:24:38,359 --> 00:24:40,759 only have three weeks of warning, we are helpless to 507 00:24:40,799 --> 00:24:43,319 do anything but evacuate the impact zone. 508 00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:46,119 Speaker 1: So we are currently just sitting in a massive window 509 00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,119 of vulnerability. 510 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,279 Speaker 2: We are crossing a busy highway with our eyes closed, 511 00:24:50,599 --> 00:24:52,359 just hoping we make it to the other side before 512 00:24:52,359 --> 00:24:54,440 the eneosurveyor launches and opens our eyes. 513 00:24:54,559 --> 00:24:57,279 Speaker 1: Well, at least asteroids are a natural phenomenon. If we 514 00:24:57,319 --> 00:25:01,359 get hit, it is cosmic bad luck. But this next section, 515 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:07,680 this is pure unadulterated human hubris. Section six mirror image life. 516 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,640 Speaker 2: This is a fascinating one. This is where advanced biology 517 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:13,119 meets sheer geometry. We need to talk about. 518 00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,359 Speaker 1: Chirality, hyality, handedness. 519 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:17,240 Speaker 2: Right, hold out your hands and look at them. They 520 00:25:17,279 --> 00:25:20,640 are structurally identical. You have four fingers, one thumb, a palm, 521 00:25:21,279 --> 00:25:23,559 but they are mirror images of each other. You cannot 522 00:25:23,559 --> 00:25:26,359 perfectly superimpose them. You cannot put a left handed glove 523 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:28,319 on a right hand comfortably. Got it. 524 00:25:28,519 --> 00:25:29,519 Speaker 1: The shapes are flipped. 525 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:33,599 Speaker 2: Molecules work the exact same way. Complex organic molecules can 526 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:36,480 be constructed in a left handed or a right handed orientation. 527 00:25:37,079 --> 00:25:39,720 And for reasons that evolutionary biologists still do not fully 528 00:25:39,799 --> 00:25:43,079 understand all life on Earth, every plant, every animal, every 529 00:25:43,079 --> 00:25:48,440 bacteria shows left handed biology. Our amino acids, our DNA structures, 530 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,279 our sugars, it is all built exclusively on the left 531 00:25:51,279 --> 00:25:52,440 handed molecular. 532 00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:54,680 Speaker 1: Architecture, so nature is strictly a lefty. 533 00:25:54,599 --> 00:25:59,680 Speaker 2: Exclusively, which means our enzymes, the tiny biological machines that 534 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,559 diget just our food and fight off disease, are basically 535 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:07,079 left handed gloves. They're physically shaped to grab left handed molecules. 536 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,319 It is a highly specific key in long system. 537 00:26:09,440 --> 00:26:12,160 Speaker 1: But now scientists are trying to build mirror. 538 00:26:11,839 --> 00:26:17,079 Speaker 2: Life synthetic biology. Yes, they are artificially constructing functional bacteria 539 00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:20,839 in the lab using right handed molecules. The intended goal 540 00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:24,559 is to create organisms that are chemically hyper stable, maybe 541 00:26:24,559 --> 00:26:27,559 for producing new pharmaceuticals or industrial materials that won't easily 542 00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:28,680 degrade in the environment. 543 00:26:28,799 --> 00:26:31,839 Speaker 1: But there was a major report from December twenty twenty four, 544 00:26:32,279 --> 00:26:36,119 signed by thirty eight top scientists, including two Nobel laureates, 545 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:39,920 that basically said stop immediately, this is way too dangerous. 546 00:26:40,279 --> 00:26:43,599 Speaker 2: They issued a stark warning that if a fully functional 547 00:26:43,640 --> 00:26:46,559 mirror image bacterium ever escaped the containment of the lab, 548 00:26:46,759 --> 00:26:49,319 the ecological consequences could be catastrophic. 549 00:26:49,519 --> 00:26:52,000 Speaker 1: But why if it is a mirror image, wouldn't it 550 00:26:52,039 --> 00:26:54,599 just be totally incompatible with us? Wouldn't it just bounce 551 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:55,880 off our cells and die. 552 00:26:56,039 --> 00:26:58,680 Speaker 2: That is the very optimistic view, But the fear is 553 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,839 that it would be completely in to us. Your immune 554 00:27:01,839 --> 00:27:05,960 system relies entirely on physical shape recognition. If a right 555 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,880 handed pathogen enters your bloodstream, your left handed antibodies might 556 00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:12,720 simply fail to recognize it as biology at all. They 557 00:27:12,759 --> 00:27:14,599 wouldn't bond to it, they wouldn't trigger an. 558 00:27:14,559 --> 00:27:17,839 Speaker 1: Alarm, so it operates like a microscopic stealth bomber. 559 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,200 Speaker 2: Worse, it is a stealth bomber that faces absolutely no 560 00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:26,119 predators in the wild. No natural enzymes could digest it. 561 00:27:26,599 --> 00:27:29,480 Other soil bacteria couldn't eat it to keep its numbers 562 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:34,079 in check. It could replicate unchecked, consuming base resources, potentially 563 00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:38,119 completely out competing natural life. Or, as the report warned, 564 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:41,839 if it did become parasitic, it could cause pervasive, lethal 565 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:44,799 infections that absolutely no antibiotic could touch. 566 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,160 Speaker 1: Because the animotic molecules we use literally wouldn't fit into 567 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:49,759 the bacteria's mechanical structure. 568 00:27:49,839 --> 00:27:52,200 Speaker 2: Exactly, you cannot fit a left handed key into a 569 00:27:52,279 --> 00:27:55,119 right handed lock. Our entire global medical arsenal would be 570 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:56,559 completely useless against it. 571 00:27:56,559 --> 00:27:58,960 Speaker 1: It is an alien invasion that we literally printed in 572 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:00,880 a laboratory, and unlike. 573 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:03,640 Speaker 2: A novel virus where you can study the protein code 574 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:08,240 and eventually manufacture of vaccine. Here the fundamental based geometry 575 00:28:08,279 --> 00:28:10,319 of the organism is just wrong. 576 00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:14,640 Speaker 1: It really feels like the ultimate Jurassic Park warning. Just 577 00:28:14,680 --> 00:28:17,799 because we technically can do something does not mean we should. 578 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,240 Speaker 2: And thankfully the scientific consensus right now is shifting heavily 579 00:28:21,279 --> 00:28:24,359 toward a global pause on this specific type of research. 580 00:28:24,839 --> 00:28:27,039 But as the laureates noted in the report, it just 581 00:28:27,079 --> 00:28:31,000 takes one one rowe lab, one breakdown in an autoclave, 582 00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:33,039 one failure in containment. 583 00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: So if we just pause and sum this all up 584 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,240 for a second, we are chemically compromised from before birth 585 00:28:38,279 --> 00:28:42,519 with indestructible Pfas the melting ice is actively waking up 586 00:28:42,640 --> 00:28:45,559 armored enemies we cannot fight. The ocean is heating up, 587 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:49,039 expanding and suffocating its own recyclers, the sky is hiding 588 00:28:49,079 --> 00:28:52,000 fifteen thousand city killing rocks, and we are in labs 589 00:28:52,039 --> 00:28:54,960 actively flirting with creating indestructible mirror monsters. 590 00:28:55,079 --> 00:28:57,559 Speaker 2: It is a formidable list when you put it all 591 00:28:57,559 --> 00:28:58,160 together like that. 592 00:28:58,240 --> 00:29:00,839 Speaker 1: How do we even measure the aggregate of all this anxiety. 593 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:02,799 Is there a single metric for global dread? 594 00:29:02,960 --> 00:29:05,839 Speaker 2: There is actually section seven the doomsday. 595 00:29:05,319 --> 00:29:08,160 Speaker 1: Clock, maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist. 596 00:29:08,279 --> 00:29:11,519 Speaker 2: Yes, it has been taking for seventy eight years now. 597 00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:18,880 Midnight represents global civilization ending catastrophe. It traditionally tracked nuclear war, 598 00:29:19,400 --> 00:29:23,359 but now it includes climate collapse and uncontrolled biotechnology like 599 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:24,240 the mirror life. 600 00:29:24,079 --> 00:29:26,279 Speaker 1: We just discussed where are we sitting right now? 601 00:29:26,319 --> 00:29:29,119 Speaker 2: In January of twenty twenty five, the clock was set 602 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:33,039 at ninety seconds to midnight, But in January twenty twenty 603 00:29:33,079 --> 00:29:35,039 six they officially moved. 604 00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:36,880 Speaker 1: It again one hundred and two seconds to midnight. 605 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:39,680 Speaker 2: Technically they frame it as one minute in forty two seconds, 606 00:29:39,880 --> 00:29:42,920 but yes, it moved closer. This is the absolute closest 607 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,000 the clock has ever been to the apocalypse in its 608 00:29:45,119 --> 00:29:48,119 entire history. It is closer now that it was during 609 00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,880 the Cuban missile crisis, closer than the height of the 610 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:51,359 Cold War. 611 00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,039 Speaker 1: And it is not just one specific crisis driving it. 612 00:29:54,039 --> 00:29:56,599 It is the convergence of everything exactly. 613 00:29:57,279 --> 00:29:59,880 Speaker 2: They refer to it as a poly crisis. Nuclear ten 614 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:04,000 is undeniably high, but the climate tipping points we discussed 615 00:30:04,279 --> 00:30:08,000 the ocean heat, the melting ice. Those are flashing bright red. 616 00:30:08,839 --> 00:30:12,799 Uncontrolled AI and biotechnology are accelerating faster than policy can 617 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,720 keep up. The bulletin is explicitly signaling that our collective 618 00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:19,720 margin for error has completely collapsed. We used to have 619 00:30:19,839 --> 00:30:22,720 minutes to figure things out. Now we only have seconds. 620 00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:26,079 Speaker 1: It is a symbolic clock, obviously, but the data behind 621 00:30:26,119 --> 00:30:29,519 it makes it feel incredibly accurate. It feels like humanity 622 00:30:29,559 --> 00:30:31,359 is walking a tight rope in a high. 623 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 2: Wind, and we keep looking down. 624 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 1: Before we wrap up this session, I want to pull 625 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:36,759 one last thread. It is not a global threat, but 626 00:30:36,799 --> 00:30:39,519 I think it serves as a perfect historical metaphor for 627 00:30:39,559 --> 00:30:43,480 this tension we have between curiosity and danger. Section eight. 628 00:30:44,039 --> 00:30:45,400 The Emperor's Tomb. 629 00:30:45,359 --> 00:30:48,480 Speaker 2: Ah, the final resting place of Qin shi Huan, the 630 00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:52,359 first true Emperor of Unified China, the man famously buried 631 00:30:52,359 --> 00:30:53,359 with the Terrakott Army. 632 00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:56,000 Speaker 1: We have all seen photos of those warriors, thousands of them, 633 00:30:56,039 --> 00:30:58,039 but we have never actually seen the Emperor himself. 634 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:03,039 Speaker 2: No, the central tomb, which is a massive underground complex 635 00:31:03,119 --> 00:31:06,680 under a massive earth mound, has remained completely sealed for 636 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:08,240 twenty two hundred years, and. 637 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,680 Speaker 1: This isn't just out of some cultural respect for the dead, 638 00:31:11,079 --> 00:31:14,519 is because archaeologists are legitimately afraid to open it. 639 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,839 Speaker 2: There are two very real fears holding them back. The 640 00:31:17,839 --> 00:31:21,720 first is the physical trap. The ancient historian sema Con 641 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:24,920 wrote that the central tomb is rigged with mechanical crossbows 642 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,200 set to fire on intruders, and much more famously, he 643 00:31:28,200 --> 00:31:31,759 wrote about rivers of liquid mercury mechanically designed to flow 644 00:31:31,799 --> 00:31:34,359 and simulate the Great river systems of China. 645 00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,839 Speaker 1: Which sounds completely like a myth. It sounds exactly like 646 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:38,640 a trap from an Indiana Jones movie. 647 00:31:38,720 --> 00:31:40,920 Speaker 2: It did sound like a myth until we actually scan 648 00:31:41,079 --> 00:31:45,160 the soil over the mound. Modern resistivity scans show incredibly high, 649 00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:48,759 totally unnatural concentrations of mercury in the exact area the 650 00:31:48,759 --> 00:31:51,519 tomb is located. The legend might actually be true, and 651 00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:54,519 enclosed mercury vapor is incredibly. 652 00:31:53,839 --> 00:31:56,240 Speaker 1: Deadly, So you crack the seal on the door and 653 00:31:56,279 --> 00:31:59,279 you release a toxic cloud that kills the excavation team 654 00:31:59,799 --> 00:32:00,359 is risk. 655 00:32:01,599 --> 00:32:04,440 Speaker 2: But the much greater fear is actually for the history itself. 656 00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,480 When the Terracotta warriors and the outer pits were first 657 00:32:07,559 --> 00:32:10,519 dug out, back in the nineteen seventies. They weren't brown clay. 658 00:32:10,759 --> 00:32:14,799 They were painted in vivid, brilliant colors pinks, reds, greens, blues. 659 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:18,640 But the chemistry of the ancient lacquer was incredibly unstable. 660 00:32:18,680 --> 00:32:20,039 Speaker 1: What actually happened to them. 661 00:32:20,079 --> 00:32:23,079 Speaker 2: The moment the humid, stale, two thousand year old air 662 00:32:23,079 --> 00:32:26,200 of the tomb met the dry, oxygen rich outside air 663 00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:29,039 of the modern world, the chemical bonds and the lacquer 664 00:32:29,079 --> 00:32:32,920 failed completely. It dried out, it curled up, and it disintegrated. 665 00:32:33,279 --> 00:32:37,000 The vivid colors literally vanished in minutes. The archaeologists had 666 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:38,640 to stand there and to watch two thousand years of 667 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:41,400 breathtaking art turned to dust right before their eyes. 668 00:32:41,559 --> 00:32:42,599 Speaker 1: That is just tragic. 669 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,000 Speaker 2: It is every archaeologist's worst nightmare. Observation became destruction. So 670 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:50,319 modern scientists made a hard decision. Until we have technology 671 00:32:50,319 --> 00:32:53,039 that can absolutely guarantee the preservation of whatever is inside 672 00:32:53,039 --> 00:32:56,079 that central chamber, maybe advanced nanotech, maybe working in a 673 00:32:56,119 --> 00:32:58,160 vacuum environment, the tomb stays closed. 674 00:32:58,319 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: They are using ground penetrating radar and remote sensing instead. 675 00:33:02,519 --> 00:33:05,400 They are looking, but they are absolutely not touching. 676 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:10,119 Speaker 2: It is a profoundly rare example of human restraint. We 677 00:33:10,240 --> 00:33:14,799 have the physical ability to blast that stone door open today, 678 00:33:15,119 --> 00:33:17,839 we have the heavy machinery, but we have the wisdom 679 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:20,400 to know we are not ready for what happens next. 680 00:33:20,799 --> 00:33:23,079 Speaker 1: And that perfectly brings us back around to the start 681 00:33:23,079 --> 00:33:25,599 of this whole discussion. The restraint they're showing with the 682 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:27,839 tomb is exactly what we need with the mirror life 683 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:30,480 research and the preparation for the tomb. Waiting to build 684 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,400 the right technology before we act is exactly what we 685 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:35,279 need for the asteroid gap exactly. 686 00:33:35,319 --> 00:33:37,799 Speaker 2: Fear is not just about being scared in science, fear 687 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:38,400 is data. 688 00:33:38,519 --> 00:33:40,359 Speaker 1: I really like that. Explain that a bit more. 689 00:33:40,519 --> 00:33:43,319 Speaker 2: When scientists say they are terrified of the ocean temperatures 690 00:33:43,359 --> 00:33:47,079 of the melting ice, they're flagging a massive systemic risk. 691 00:33:47,599 --> 00:33:50,519 That flag allows us to act. We found the pfas 692 00:33:50,599 --> 00:33:54,079 and the umbilical cords great, now we can aggressively regulate them. 693 00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:56,599 We see the ancient resistance in the ice. Now we 694 00:33:56,640 --> 00:33:59,680 know we need to pivot and invest in bacteriofitch therapy 695 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:03,000 or new mechanisms for antibiotics. We see the gap in 696 00:34:03,079 --> 00:34:05,759 asteroid detection. We build the thermal telescope. 697 00:34:05,839 --> 00:34:09,480 Speaker 1: So the terror is actually functional. It is the evolutionary 698 00:34:09,519 --> 00:34:11,599 adrenaline spike that makes you run from the lion. 699 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:15,639 Speaker 2: Precisely, ignorance is just a cozy blanket that slowly smothers 700 00:34:15,639 --> 00:34:18,440 you in your sleep. I will take the acute anxiety 701 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:21,559 of looking at these thrilling threads over the completely false 702 00:34:21,599 --> 00:34:22,760 comfort of not knowing what. 703 00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:25,840 Speaker 1: Is coming anxious preparation. I think that is the perfect 704 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,079 necessary vibe for twenty twenty six. 705 00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:30,679 Speaker 2: It is the only survival strategy that actually works in 706 00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:31,559 a complex world. 707 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:34,239 Speaker 1: So we want to leave you the listener with a question. 708 00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:38,079 Today we talked about the Emperor's tumba box we're terrified 709 00:34:38,119 --> 00:34:41,119 to open because we might completely destroy what is inside 710 00:34:41,480 --> 00:34:42,920 or it might violently hurt us. 711 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,559 Speaker 2: And we talked about the Mirror Life synthetic biology, a 712 00:34:46,639 --> 00:34:48,960 box we are actively building that we might never be 713 00:34:48,960 --> 00:34:50,719 able to close once it is open. 714 00:34:51,119 --> 00:34:53,599 Speaker 1: Here is the scenario I want you to think about 715 00:34:53,719 --> 00:34:57,039 if we develop the technology tomorrow to open the Emperor's 716 00:34:57,039 --> 00:35:00,239 tombs safely. But the scientist told you there was a 717 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:04,039 one percent risk, just a one percent chance of releasing 718 00:35:04,079 --> 00:35:08,599 something trapped in there, maybe a massive pressurized mercury cloud 719 00:35:09,360 --> 00:35:12,559 or maybe a dormant ancient pathogen just like our ice 720 00:35:12,599 --> 00:35:14,679 cave friend, Would you press the button? 721 00:35:15,159 --> 00:35:17,760 Speaker 2: Is the profound knowledge of our ancient past worth a 722 00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,199 one percent gamble on our collective future? 723 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:21,960 Speaker 1: We really want to know where you draw the line. 724 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,440 Are you a risk it for the history person? Or 725 00:35:24,519 --> 00:35:27,880 are you a let sleeping emperor's lie person. Drop a 726 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:30,079 comment below and let us know your stand. 727 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:33,000 Speaker 2: I genuinely suspect the answers will be very revealing about 728 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:35,000 how people are viewing systemic risk right now. 729 00:35:35,039 --> 00:35:37,119 Speaker 1: Thanks for pulling these threads with us today. It has 730 00:35:37,199 --> 00:35:39,559 been a really heavy one, but I definitely feel better 731 00:35:39,599 --> 00:35:42,559 knowing the actual layout of the minefield we are walking through. 732 00:35:42,639 --> 00:35:43,800 Speaker 2: Knowledge is always power. 733 00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:47,719 Speaker 1: Until next time, keep looking deeper and stay curious. This 734 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:49,239 has been thrilling threads.