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<v Speaker 1>We love these strange stories, these strange science stories. So

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<v Speaker 1>let's kick that off, shall we.

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<v Speaker 2>Strange science, It's like weird science, but strange.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna say this amino acid wrong, but that's what

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<v Speaker 1>we do during strained science is mispronounced things just to

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<v Speaker 1>get to get your anger up. B tain b taine

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<v Speaker 1>b E t ai n E b tane a modified

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<v Speaker 1>amino acid that plays an important role when it comes

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<v Speaker 1>to metabolism. And btaine is a molecule that's made by

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<v Speaker 1>your kidneys. It's also found in some foods, and they're

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<v Speaker 1>saying it can produce a bunch of benefits just like

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<v Speaker 1>exercise does, and can slow some signs of aging, at

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<v Speaker 1>least when you feed it to mice. We don't know

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<v Speaker 1>if it happens to humans, but it's worth the shot, right.

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<v Speaker 1>There's a new study that came out in the magazine

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<v Speaker 1>or journal Sell that shows consistent exercise does raise levels

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<v Speaker 1>of that compound of btane, at least in young men.

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<v Speaker 1>That study also found that feeding that betaane to the

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<v Speaker 1>aged mice boosts their immune health and their grip strength.

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<v Speaker 1>How do you study the grip strength of a mouse?

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<v Speaker 1>For now, obviously there's nothing that can replicate the actual

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<v Speaker 1>benefits to your body of just doing the exercise. Exercise

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<v Speaker 1>itself sharpens the mind. It can smooth and sooth i

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<v Speaker 1>should say inflammation. It can help your cells damage, repair

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<v Speaker 1>damaged tissue, keeps some diseases at bay, or at least

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<v Speaker 1>at the very least eases some of their symptoms. But

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<v Speaker 1>this deep level molecular mechanism as to why it works

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<v Speaker 1>is still not fully clear. So a group out of China,

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<v Speaker 1>the Chinese Academy of Sciences, enlisted the aid of thirteen

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<v Speaker 1>healthy young men to lounge about for forty five days.

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<v Speaker 1>It's really hard to do, isn't it. Yeah, sure, it

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<v Speaker 1>was lounge about for forty five days, limit their physical activity,

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<v Speaker 1>and then have them run five.

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<v Speaker 2>K's every one or two days.

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<v Speaker 1>And the researchers would take the blood and the stool

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<v Speaker 1>samples from these guys and they would do a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of measurements on them after their forty five day rest

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<v Speaker 1>and then twenty five days into their new running routine,

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<v Speaker 1>and they said that they found the exercises were reshaping

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<v Speaker 1>the body at a molecular level. After twenty five days

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<v Speaker 1>of regular running, there were changes in immune cells in

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<v Speaker 1>lipid metabolism in the gut microbiome, et cetera, but that

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<v Speaker 1>the biggest change was the abundance of that amino acid

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<v Speaker 1>that btane, and following up on those results, they then

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<v Speaker 1>started feeding btaane to mice. Old mice that drank water

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<v Speaker 1>spiked with btain had stronger muscles, less inflammation, and more

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<v Speaker 1>youthful skin than their counterparts who did not get the supplement. Again,

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<v Speaker 1>still no answer as to how they were able to

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<v Speaker 1>test the grip strength of a mouse. There's a new

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<v Speaker 1>study also into spiders that says the female when you

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<v Speaker 1>look at a species of spider where the female eats

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<v Speaker 1>the male after sex, that the males are pretty picky

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<v Speaker 1>about who it is they go. Afore, scientific studies spent

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<v Speaker 1>an ordinate amount of time and effort to demonstrate something

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<v Speaker 1>that is rather obvious, and in this case, they have

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<v Speaker 1>done it again. This one specifically is looking at cooi

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<v Speaker 1>males and seductive females in the sexually cannibalistic colonial spider

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<v Speaker 1>Cryptophora citricola, and it's about the relationship dynamics in a

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<v Speaker 1>group living spider cecies, a species that is where females

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<v Speaker 1>are prone to eat the males after sex. Researchers found

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<v Speaker 1>that the males were selective about their mates. They favored

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<v Speaker 1>the younger ones duh, and the well fed females, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>because the males hoped they wouldn't get eaten. We're in

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<v Speaker 1>the middle of austrange science. We saw that lake I

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<v Speaker 1>think they called it Ti Larry Lake here in central

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<v Speaker 1>California where outside of Fresno, there was a lake that

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<v Speaker 1>had kind of come back after this naturally occurring lake,

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<v Speaker 1>after it had been dammed and irrigated, and you know,

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<v Speaker 1>they've changed basically the water table of the central Valley

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<v Speaker 1>when agriculture came in. They're seeing something like that out

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<v Speaker 1>in the outback in Australia. Catty Tanda Lake Eyre is

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<v Speaker 1>a thirty seven hundred square mile ephemeral lake and despite

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<v Speaker 1>the fact they call it a lake, it rarely has

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<v Speaker 1>any water in it. They get about five and a

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<v Speaker 1>half inches of rain in that part of Australia every year,

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<v Speaker 1>and they said it's more like a giant saltpan in

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<v Speaker 1>the South Australian desert. In fact, like we see the

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<v Speaker 1>Great Salt Flats here in the United States. A British

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<v Speaker 1>speed record breaker in nineteen sixty four used the racetrack

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<v Speaker 1>that was this just dried saltpan to record a world

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<v Speaker 1>speed record at four hundred and three miles an hour.

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<v Speaker 1>In nineteen seventy four, the lake filled to its capacity

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<v Speaker 1>for just the third time on record. That flooding has

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<v Speaker 1>been taken as the high water mark and they haven't

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<v Speaker 1>seen it since then. But as of right now, this year,

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<v Speaker 1>tropical Cyclone Alfred dumped a bunch of rain on that

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<v Speaker 1>Queensland area, the water flowing down to this Catty Tanda

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<v Speaker 1>Lake Eyre and they said it appears to be filling

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<v Speaker 1>for just the fourth time in one hundred and sixty years.

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<v Speaker 1>A huge tourist boom as people go check that out.

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<v Speaker 1>The waterbirds that have made their way inland now are

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<v Speaker 1>also one of the reasons why so many people are

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<v Speaker 1>headed out that direction. If you're a fan of books

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<v Speaker 1>on neurology, listen. I know not everybody's going to say,

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<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, that sounds great, But Malcolm glas Well wrote

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<v Speaker 1>a book called Blink, and in it he talked about

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<v Speaker 1>the difference between our gut reactions. You know, something that

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<v Speaker 1>happens immediately and we just react to something. Sometimes it's

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<v Speaker 1>we react to the way someone looks or re react

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<v Speaker 1>to a sound.

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<v Speaker 2>We react in a way that.

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<v Speaker 1>Is faster than we can consciously even make a decision,

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<v Speaker 1>which takes a lot of brain power and a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of time. There's another book called Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow,

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<v Speaker 1>Doctor Daniel Canneman a similar book, much more detailed in

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<v Speaker 1>terms of the science behind all of that.

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<v Speaker 2>But this continues to be one of.

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<v Speaker 1>Those issues where people are fascinated by what is the

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<v Speaker 1>difference between the flash reaction to something and an actual

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<v Speaker 1>time spent by your brain making a decision about something.

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<v Speaker 1>Cognitive psychologists have talked about how to distinguish insight from

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<v Speaker 1>analytical problem solving.

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<v Speaker 2>It's a better way to put it.

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<v Speaker 1>And they say that the insight is kind of lives

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<v Speaker 1>by itself.

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<v Speaker 2>Not everyone agrees for that.

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<v Speaker 1>With that, there's a psychologist out of Temple University and

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<v Speaker 1>he says that insight might not be as different from

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<v Speaker 1>analytical thinking as it seems. And he says that insight

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<v Speaker 1>also comes from the brain gradually building on what it

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<v Speaker 1>already knows, which incorporates new information. Each failed attempt that exists,

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<v Speaker 1>your brain constantly learns and alters the way it's going

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<v Speaker 1>to react. To something based on how many times you've

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<v Speaker 1>experienced this thing. Now, that doesn't explain some of the

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<v Speaker 1>very early experiences that we have when we're kids, When

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<v Speaker 1>we're babies, there are things that we react to instinctively

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<v Speaker 1>without any previous exposure to it. I mean, think about

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<v Speaker 1>when you put a baby down in a crib and

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<v Speaker 1>their arms kind of shoot out like they're falling. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>they've never fallen before. How would they know to do that?

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<v Speaker 1>What is it about that?

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<v Speaker 2>Now?

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<v Speaker 1>This psychologist says, the main feature of insight is the

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<v Speaker 1>emotion that someone feels after they find an answer or

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<v Speaker 1>they create something that seems new. That's that aha moment

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<v Speaker 1>that I was talking about, the Eureka thing, and whatever

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<v Speaker 1>happens in your brain at that time, he says, releases

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<v Speaker 1>the right chemical or something happens in your brain neurologically

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<v Speaker 1>that reinforces whatever it was that you did that was correct,

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<v Speaker 1>That you solved a problem that you hadn't been able

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<v Speaker 1>to solve before. All that exists in this world of

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<v Speaker 1>trying to figure out how your brain works now