(Intro music)
Gus: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of A Spot of Science
Gus: I'm Gus Chris: I'm Chris
Sally: And I'm Sally Gus: This episode of A Spot of Science
Gus: Is brought to you by Movement watches. I absolutely love
Gus: The watch they sent me. It's sleek, stylish,
Gus: And I always get tons of compliments when I wear it out
Gus: Movement was started by 2 broke College kids
Gus: That wanted to wear stylish watches but couldn't afford them
Gus: So they started their own watch company
Gus: Watches start at just $95. At a department store
Gus: You could spend 4 to 500 bucks
Gus: Movement figured out that by selling online
Gus: They were able to cut out the middle man and retail mark-up
Gus: Providing the best possible price
Gus: And you can get 15% off today with free shipping
Gus: And free returns by going to
MVMTwatches.com that's M V M T
Gus: Watches dot com slash bitesize
Gus: Again that's MVMTwatches.com/BITESIZE
MVMTwatches.com/BITESIZE
Gus: Join the Movement
Gus: Thank you to Movement watches for sponsoring this episode
Gus: Of A Spot of Science
Gus: Uh, how you guys doing?
Gus: You ready to talk a bit of science?
Sally: Let's Gus: See where we go
Sally: Just a spot of science though not too much
Sally: Just a spot
Gus: Chris, I'm gonna let you take a crack at this one
Gus: Um, "Hi guys...
Gus: ... love the show my question is...
Gus ... why is it that the human brain can perform...
Gus: ...all the functions it needs to ensure the survival...
Gus: ...of the body but as humans with brains...
Gus: ...we don't exactly know what it's doing...
Gus: ...throughout the body?"
Gus: That's submitted by Theodore T.
Chris: Because...
Chris: Our brains would get
Chris: Overwhelmed
Chris:By all the crap that's going on
Chris: Because...
Chris: We don't need it to survive, right?
Chris: So... Gus: We don't need the brain to survive?
Chris: No no no we don't need to that like for example
Chris: Um right now
Chris: Uh my heart is
Chris: Is beating. I'm not thinking about it
Chris: Because I don't need to know but if it stopped
Chris: Beating I would know it
Chris: So it's like, it's, it's at, it's at ease
Chris: It's at, your body's at ease
Chris: It's functioning as it should
Chris: And whenever.. it.. So that way whenever something is
Chris: Not going right your body is like WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA
Chris: Wait listen think about that brain
Chris: Um, then, so then
Chris: That's whenever your brain thinks about it. But on, as a day to day
Chris: It's like it's normal not to think
Chris: Because it'd be a lot of work to have to think about like
Chris: Oh man I've gotta digest that food now
Gus: So you just don't wanna overload the brain with trivial things?
Chris: Yeh, it's just like, you don't need to know
Chris: All you need to know is when something's wrong
Gus: So need to know basis? Chris: Yes
Sally: Yeah! Cool, end of show, yeah
Sally: No... it's not quite that simple
Sally: But yeah everything you said there was accurate
Sally: I mean there's the question of what does it mean to know
Sally: Um...
Sally: Because your brain is fully aware
Sally: Of everything that's going on in your body
Sally: It's the autonomic nervous system is the kind of
Sally: Unconscious nervous system
Sally: Telling you what's going on. Your brain is very
Sally: Aware of that, your brain is the thing controlling
Sally: Your heart and your
Sally: Lungs and the, the,
Sally: Movement of your gut and peristalsis and all that
Gus: Movement?
Gus: (holds up Movement brand watch) Chris: (laughs) Sally: Ummm...
Sally: But say, say your brain
Sally: is... doing all of that
Sally: Already it's just not the conscious part of your brain
Sally: Sooo...
Sally: Yeah so your brain knows that
Sally: What's really interesting though
Sally: Is that there are some people
Sally: That are able to tap into that
Sally: Because the links are there
Sally: The brain to the gut link
Sally: I mean the brain to the gut link is
Sally: SOOO strong to the point that our gut is
Sally: Almost its own second brain
Sally: Umm...and
Sally: Sooo... there
Sally: Are Tibetan monks
Sally: That can control their heart rate
Sally: Um this one's a bit dubious
Sally: Because there are some that are like
Sally: Yeah I can just totally like flatline
Sally: My heart if I need to
Sally: And then just.. no you probably can't
Sally: It was um recorded about
Sally: 30-40 years ago so that one's a bit
Sally: Questionable but also they're supposedly
Sally: Meant to be able to control their skin temperature
Sally: There's this practice where
Sally: A Tibetan monk in the freezing cold
Sally: Is sitting there pretty much naked
Sally: And then they put wet cloths
Sally: On his back and
Sally: He heats up the cloths
Sally: Drys them
Sally: With his own skin temperature
Sally: And they can supposedly raise the temperature of their extremities
Sally: Of their fingers and toes by about 17 degrees
Sally: This is all questionable
Sally: However
Gus: 17 degrees Celsius? Sally: Celsius yes
Sally: Um of course, this is a science show
Gus: Laughs Sally: Um...
Sally: However there are
Sally: The Moe-can tribe or mock-can
Sally: I don't know how you pronounce it, they're known as sea
Sally: Gypsies they're in South-East
Sally: Asia/Australia/Australasia
Sally: That sort of area um
Sally: On this island and their entire
Sally: Lifestyle is based around fishing and
Sally: Diving to the point where the children learn
Sally: How to swim before they
Sally: Learn how to walk
Sally: They have, so firstly they train themselves
Sally: How to be able to
Sally: Breathe for 22 and a half
Sally: No sorry they breathe for much longer
Sally: Hold their breath underwater I should say
Sally: And the longest breath is 22 and a half
Sally: Minutes just in terms of training yourself there
Chris: Wow Sally: Um...
Sally: But what's weirder is that normally
Sally: When our eyes are underwater
Sally: Our pupils will contract
Sally: And that means
Sally: It's really hard to see properly
Sally: They are able to train their vision
Sally: And it is a matter of training
Sally: That their pupils dilate
Sally: And so they can focus underwater
Sally: We can't focus underwater because
Sally: Our eyes are adapted to
Sally: Air so light travels
Sally: At a different speed through air to water
Sally: And that's why it bends at a different angle
Sally: Which is why you need different lenses
Sally: BUT they able to
Sally: Uh switch their vision
Sally: Um and so
Sally: To the point where it takes them
Sally: A while to get used to seeing on land
Sally: Some of the kids have
Sally: Blurry blurrier vision on land
Sally: Than they do underwater Gus: You have inadvertantly
Gus: Touched on the second
Gus: Question which I just want to read for
Gus: Posterity's sake because I think you've already answered this
Gus: Uh it's uh
Gus: Like the fish have evolved to walk on land
Gus: Is it possible to make ourselves evolve to do other stuff?
Gus: Like breath underwater or maybe even see way better?
Sally: Yeah Gus: That was submitted by Devon
Gus: And I think that's exactly what you just described Sally: So this tribe of people
Sally: If anyone is
Sally: Any human is gonna move back into the sea
Sally: It's gonna be this group of people
Sally: Because they are so, they can
Sally: Dive for so
Sally: Like they're diving but without air packs
Sally: Um and so the person
Sally: That breathes for, held his breath for
Sally: 22 and a half minutes that wasn't
Sally: Moving that was just controlling
Sally: Lowering his own metabolic rate
Sally: So that's possible uh
Sally: It's almost a self-meditation type thing
Sally: You can lower your own metabolic rate so that your
Sally: Oxygen consumption is lower
Sally: A big part of holding your breath isn't that
Sally: You're running out of Oxygen
Sally: But the build up of Carbon Dioxide
Sally: And that is what sets off the alarm saying
Sally: I need to breathe, I need to breathe, so a huge
Sally: Of training yourself to hold your breath for longer
Sally: Is to be able to
Sally: Ignore those Carbon Dioxide warnings
Gus: Ignore the warnings of death Sally: Yeah
Sally: Um basically
Sally: You're not gonna die but it jolly well hurts because it acidifies the
Sally: Surrounding fluids
Sally: Um and so yeah they can
Sally: See underwater I mean
Sally: We're not gonna go like full on
Sally: Fish with gills we would still
Sally: Be aquatic mammals
Sally: So like the whales, the dolphins, the dugongs
Sally: They all still have internal lungs
Sally: They all have to come up to the surface to breath
Sally: But they can hold
Sally: Their breath for hours
Gus: You don't have to raise your hand you're not in class
Gus: Despite the fact you're learning something
Sally: Miss Miss I've got a question Chris: If... Is there a situation where
Chris: A mutation could occur
Chris: It is like the beginnings of gills
Chris: That could allow us to breathe underwater?
Chris: Right?
Chris: Is that possible? and then
Chris: If that was possible
Chris: If we took that one
Chris: Person and
Chris: They had sex with like a lot
Chris: Of people
Chris: And, and then those people
Chris: Like can pass on that trait
Chris: And then it was like we purposely
Chris: Human who can breath underwater Gus: Can?
Gus: Can I try to answer for Sally? Sally: Go go ahead
Sally: I love this hand up thing
Gus: If there was a sexual advantage to it it will take off
Chris: Well but
Chris: What if we were like purposeful about it?
Sally: So this is artificial breeding? Chris: Artificial breeding
Chris: Like we were like man, look at that dude
Chris: Who can breathe underwater. This is
Chris: Like he could be an ugly dude
Gus: Ok I can't answer this, Sally go
Sally: So that system of artificial
Sally: Could happen it's that very first step
Sally: That's gonna be the tricky bit
Sally: Is having a mutation where
Sally: Your lungs are on the outside of your body and you still don't
Sally: Die because
Sally: The trouble with
Sally: Adaptations and evolution is that
Sally: Evolution doesn't have any foresight
Sally: It only works on
Sally: Is this gonna be better in the next generation which is why
Sally: We have all these stupid things like
Sally: We have out light
Sally: Detecting cells
Sally: Behind the nerves that connect the light detecting
Sally: Cells to our brain
Sally: So the light has to travel through a load of tissue
Sally: Before it reaches the light detectors
Sally: Just because they evolved that way
Sally: And it's very difficult to switch it round
Sally: Where as Cephalopods; squids,
Sally: They've got it the other way around just because that's how they started off
Sally: It's all contingent on previous adaptation
Sally: And out lungs are
Sally: So specialised
Sally: That...
Sally: Firstly to have a single mutation that
Sally: Had that sort of effect
Sally: Would be so rare to be
Sally: Pretty much impossible I mean there are some
Sally: Genes that are
Sally: Have a huge amount of control they're the Homeobox
Sally: Genes they say this
Sally: Is where the arm should go
Sally: And so once that arm gene is switched on
Sally: All
Sally: The other genes get for an arm get switched
Sally: On so obviously there's skin and bone
Sally: And genes all around but it once
Sally: The arm gene has been switched on
Sally: That sends a cascade of other signals
Sally: Right chaps let's uh make an arm over here
Sally: Um but in terms
Sally: Of lungs as well we have Alveoli
Sally: The little air sacks I mean
Sally: You can drown if you just
Sally: Have a few centimetres of liquid at the bottom
Sally: Of your lungs Gus: That's why pneumonia's
Gus: So scary Sally: Yeah you
Sally: Really don't need a lot of fluid
Sally: To drown so in order to get
Sally: A mutation where it's on the outside
Sally: So you'd have to have a super human environment
Sally: One of the reasons that
Sally: We have our lungs on the inside is because
Sally: So gills work because it needs
Sally: So Osmosis needs uh um
Sally: Partially permeable membrane
Sally: It works better when it's in
Sally: Liquid because then the gasses can dissolve
Sally: And move that way
Sally: So fish can have external gills because they're
Sally: In water, if you have
Sally: External gills on land you've got to
Sally: Moist and that's why
Sally: We evolved to have them on the inside
Sally: So if you had them on the outside there would have to be
Sally: Some way of keeping them moist and so there's so
Sally: Many steps there that to have a
Sally: Single mutation would be quite rare and there's this whole
Sally: Debate in evolution as
Sally: Is do we have gradual evolution
Sally: Like Darwin thought?
Sally: Or do we have punctuated evolution
Chris: Yeah like where there's one really cool evolution
Sally: Yeah and it seems to be a mix of the two so
Sally: It's mostly gradual but then occasionally
Sally: You'll get a huge leap so for example
Sally: In wheat the plant
Sally: That was all gradual but then suddenly they had
Sally: A duplication event where the entire
Sally: Genome duplicated
Sally: So before it had
Sally: A certain number of chromosomes the next generation had
Sally: Twice as many chromosomes
Sally: And that didn't kill it because plants are pretty
Sally: Robust with that kind of thing
Sally: And that duplication freed
Sally: Up the plant to do whatever it
Sally: Wanted with those other genes
Sally: Because it still had the safe copy like it had the old
Sally: Hard drive in there it's like
Sally: This is fine then we can do what we want with this
Sally: And know that we're not going to completely screw up our original
Sally: But things like that in
Sally: Humans would be quite difficult
Sally: But you're right if that ever did
Sally: Evolve; unlikely
Sally: You could then artificially breed it
Sally: By making that one individual
Sally: Have lots of kids
Sally: Choosing those kids that have that mutation
Sally: And then breeding them together
Sally: And that's what I'm doing with my flies at the moment in the lab
Sally: I have got some flies that glow
Sally: Green under UV light
Sally: I make them have kids I
Sally: Pick out the ones that are still green I
Sally: Make them have kids, I pick out the ones that are green
Sally: Get rid of the ones that aren't green and that's how I breed
Sally: Green into my flies
Gus: So I have a follow up question to something
Gus: You said a little earlier Sally: OK
Gus: You described the stomach as being like a second brain Sally: Yeah
Gus: Like what does that entail?
Gus: Like what do you mean by that? Sally: So there's so much
Sally: Because we typically think of our brain
Sally: Controlling all our organs and the flow of information
Sally: Going from the brain to the rest
Sally: Of the body
Sally: But there's also kind of the reverse happens
Sally: And so our bra... our gut
Sally: Sends signals to our brain
Sally: And Uh I mean there are a lot of
Sally: Um... insects
Sally: For example that so ganglia is just a group
Sally: Of neurons in a cluster
Sally: So it's kinda like a wannabe
Sally: Brain it's almost a brain but not quite
Sally: And they'll have them distributed all around their body
Sally: Um so
Sally: Our gut has such a strong collection of nerves
Sally: And things and it sends so much
Sally: Back up to our brain
Sally: That they're
Sally: They're talking to each other
Sally: Rather than one controlling the other it's
Sally: Much more of a conversation than a
Sally: Kind of dictatorship Gus: So it's like you and me Chris
Chris: (laughs) Which one are you?
Gus: I'm the brain obviously
Gus: You're the stomach, you have 2 lunches in the fridge
Chris: (laughs) Gus: So you're definitely the stomach
Gus: Thanks for watching everybody I feel like I
Gus: Learned a lot this week. If you have any questions you'd like to submit
Gus: To us just send them to sciencespot@roosterteeth.com
Gus: And we'll answer them on the show
(Outro music)