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This episode of SpaceTime explores remarkable discoveries and urgent cosmic events that are reshaping our understanding of the universe.
New Giant Galaxies Discovered
Astronomers unveil the discovery of 15 new giant radio galaxies, each spanning over 3 million light years and hosting supermassive black holes. Utilizing the advanced capabilities of the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASCAP), researchers reveal the unique characteristics of these galaxies, including their powerful jets and lobes traveling at superluminal speeds. We delve into the implications of these findings for our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
Changes on Titan
Next, we discuss the intriguing changes occurring on Saturn's moon Titan, which is experiencing rapid orbital changes on geological timescales. Scientists explore the factors influencing Titan's tidal dissipation rate and what it reveals about the moon's internal structure and history. This study provides insights into the dynamic processes at play in our solar system's moons.
Failed Soviet Spacecraft Returns
We also cover the dramatic re-entry of the Kosmos 482, a failed Soviet spacecraft that spent 53 years in orbit before crashing back to Earth. Launched in 1972 on a mission to Venus, the spacecraft's uncontrolled descent raises concerns about space debris and its potential impact on Earth.
AI and Humanity's Future
Finally, we tackle the controversial topic of artificial intelligence and its potential risks to humanity. With AI evolving at an unprecedented pace, we examine the findings of a new study that assesses the likelihood of AI leading to human extinction. As science fiction warns of a future dominated by AI, we explore the reality of these threats and what they mean for our future.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com (https://www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com/)
✍️ Episode References
Science Advances
https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv (https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv)
Journal of the American Medical Association
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama)
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support (https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss) .
00:00 This is space time series 28, episode 57 for broadcast on 12 May 2025
00:54 Astronomers have discovered 15 giant radio galaxies each hosting a supermassive black hole
09:35 You're still learning about these galaxies
11:57 Now you, uh, mentioned starburst galaxies earlier. What are we seeing in elliptical galaxies when this happens
15:04 Foreign astronomers have discovered that the orbit of the moon Titan is changing quickly
18:49 A failed Soviet era spacecraft has crashed back to Earth
21:24 New study claims there's still little chance of artificial intelligence actually exterminating humanity
25:39 Using cannabis during pregnancy may increase risk of several adverse birth outcomes, study finds
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/27090753?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 This is Spacetime Series 28 episode 57
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 for broadcast on the 12th of May
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 2025. Coming up on Spaceime, discovery
00:00:09 --> 00:00:13 of 15 new giant galaxies. Saturn's moon
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 Titan appears to be changing quickly. A
00:00:16 --> 00:00:18 failed Soviet spacecraft bound for Venus
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 crashes back to Earth 53 years after its
00:00:21 --> 00:00:24 launch. And could artificial
00:00:24 --> 00:00:27 intelligence exterminate the human race?
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 How far away are we really from Skynet?
00:00:30 --> 00:00:35 All that and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:39 Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Garry.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:46 [Music]
00:00:54 --> 00:00:56 Astronomers have discovered 15 giant
00:00:56 --> 00:00:58 radio galaxies, each more than 3 million
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 lightyears across and each hosting a
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 highly active super massive black hole.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 The findings reported on the pre-press
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 physics website archive.org were made
00:01:08 --> 00:01:10 using ASCAP, the Australian square
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 kilometer array pathfinder. The
00:01:12 --> 00:01:14 discovery is important for astronomers
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 who are studying the formation and
00:01:16 --> 00:01:19 evolution of radiosource galaxies. The
00:01:19 --> 00:01:20 study's lead author Barry Belel
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 Corabowski from the University of
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 Western Sydney says these are rare
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 objects that have grown in unusually low
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 density environments and are displaying
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 powerful jets and lobes traveling at
00:01:31 --> 00:01:33 super luminal speeds and composed of
00:01:33 --> 00:01:36 synatron emitting plasma. SAP is an
00:01:36 --> 00:01:39 array of 36 radio dishes, an
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 intererometer operating in the 700 to
00:01:41 --> 00:01:45 1 megahertz range. Corabowski says
00:01:45 --> 00:01:47 it can achieve extremely high survey
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 speeds, making it one of the best
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 instruments in the world for mapping the
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 sky at radio wavelengths. The newly
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 discovered galaxies have a stunning
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 range of morphologies. Eight of these
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 massive ellipticals are characterized by
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 prominent radio hotspots at the end of
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 their radio lobes. A further four
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 galaxies have bright inner radio jets
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 but fading outer radolopes without hot
00:02:09 --> 00:02:11 spots. And the remaining three all
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 appear to be sort of intermediate or
00:02:13 --> 00:02:16 hybrid galaxies. The largest of the 15
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 newly found galaxies ascap
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 J0107US 2347 is a double radio galaxy
00:02:22 --> 00:02:26 with two sets of double loes. Corabski
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 says it harbors newly formed inner lobes
00:02:28 --> 00:02:30 which are already spanning about 2
00:02:30 --> 00:02:31 million lighty years and are bright and
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 compact. while the outer relic globes
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 are elongated and have very low surface
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 brightness. She says the discoveries are
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 an amazing find. A radio galaxy
00:02:42 --> 00:02:45 typically has a core and jets and radio
00:02:45 --> 00:02:49 loopes. A giant radio galaxy is just the
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 biggest of these radio galaxies that we
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 can find. We call them radio galaxies
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 because the core is associated with a
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 galaxy that we can see at optical
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 wavelength. It's usually a really
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 massive elliptical galaxy, but the radio
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 lopes are typically only seen at radio
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 wavelengths. There's rare occasions
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 where we can also see them in X-rays,
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 but they are very very well known to be
00:03:14 --> 00:03:16 detected in the radio. Do we know what
00:03:16 --> 00:03:20 generates these radios? Um, we think so.
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 Yes. So, these massive elliptical
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 galaxies hold massive black holes in
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 their center. In fact, the bigger the
00:03:27 --> 00:03:29 galaxy, the more massive the galaxy, the
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 the more massive the black hole. And
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 when the black hole is active, so after
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 it has been feeding and growing, it
00:03:37 --> 00:03:41 develops jets, very very strong jets
00:03:41 --> 00:03:45 that are symmetric uh going out on both
00:03:45 --> 00:03:49 sides of the galaxy. And these drive
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 through the medium around them and when
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 the jabs stop all you can see is the
00:03:54 --> 00:03:58 veloes. So sometimes you see a very
00:03:58 --> 00:04:01 narrow jet at at very high speed coming
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 out of the center of these elliptical
00:04:04 --> 00:04:07 galaxies and then the material around
00:04:07 --> 00:04:11 the jet forms this kind of cocoon this
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 globe that also flows back towards the
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 galaxy. These jets, they're traveling at
00:04:16 --> 00:04:17 close to super luminal speeds, aren't
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 they? Absolutely. I mean everything
00:04:20 --> 00:04:23 about these objects is just incredible.
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 the the mass, the speed, the sizes of
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 them. So, they're kind of the monsters
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 in the sky and they're very very
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 interesting to study to understand both
00:04:33 --> 00:04:37 what drives the black hole and the jets
00:04:37 --> 00:04:41 and why these loes kind of stay that
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 long and expand that far out. There's
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 still a range of hypotheses to try and
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 explain exactly what's generating the
00:04:48 --> 00:04:51 jets themselves. We know what they are,
00:04:51 --> 00:04:53 but exactly how they're generated from
00:04:53 --> 00:04:54 above the accretion disc, that's still
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 debated somewhat, isn't it? It is. Yes.
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 As you point out, they're not directly
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 coming from the black hole. They're
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 coming from the vicinity of the black
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 hole. They're driven by the black hole.
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 But how exactly this works is is not
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 well known and there are several models
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 and it can help us seeing the objects at
00:05:14 --> 00:05:17 different viewing angles. So sometimes
00:05:17 --> 00:05:20 we look straight down the barrel u the
00:05:20 --> 00:05:23 blazer but the jet is essentially coming
00:05:23 --> 00:05:25 straight towards us. Other times we see
00:05:25 --> 00:05:28 the jet side on. And so in the giant
00:05:28 --> 00:05:31 radio galaxies we see very very old
00:05:31 --> 00:05:34 material very far away from the
00:05:34 --> 00:05:37 galaxies. Then we see closer by newer
00:05:37 --> 00:05:40 material. And even closer we sometimes
00:05:40 --> 00:05:44 see a jet just restarted as a black hole
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 seem to go through periods of
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 inactivity. They're kind of dormant just
00:05:49 --> 00:05:52 sitting there and maybe not enough fuel
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 to produce jets and other times they're
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 restarting their jets. And so it's very
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 very interesting to look at these these
00:06:00 --> 00:06:02 monsters in the sky and see if we keep
00:06:02 --> 00:06:04 it can um detect some that are just
00:06:04 --> 00:06:07 restarted, others that are dormant and
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 understand how they get so large.
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 Usually when we think of elliptical
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 galaxies, we're thinking of fairly large
00:06:13 --> 00:06:15 galaxies and galaxies which are fairly
00:06:15 --> 00:06:17 old as well. Often called described as
00:06:18 --> 00:06:19 being red and is that what we're seeing
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 here? That's absolutely right. I think
00:06:21 --> 00:06:24 of them in exactly the same terms, kind
00:06:24 --> 00:06:29 of old and red and not much gas and
00:06:29 --> 00:06:30 slowly
00:06:30 --> 00:06:33 rotating. But the more I study them that
00:06:33 --> 00:06:36 the more is kind of going on as they
00:06:36 --> 00:06:40 grow by accretion and mergers. So they
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 get that big by accumulating you know
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 accreating their neighbors. So it's not
00:06:45 --> 00:06:48 a good neighborhood to live in. And so
00:06:48 --> 00:06:51 there is uh activity and if they want to
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 get bigger they just need to swallow up
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 the neighborhood. And it seems that this
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 kind of merging of galaxies also
00:06:59 --> 00:07:02 sometimes restarts the jet. So I think a
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 very very interesting field to study. So
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 we can just look afterwards what's
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 standing out in the field that may have
00:07:09 --> 00:07:11 produced something like that. If we had
00:07:11 --> 00:07:14 an observation happening exactly at the
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 time that this is happening, then it
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 would be easier. But you can't predict
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 when and where this is happening. You
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 found 15 of these giant radio galaxies.
00:07:22 --> 00:07:24 They appear to be different classes,
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 don't they? Yeah. So when I when I
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 looked in this field, the first thing
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 that stood out was actually an art radio
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 circle, an orc uh that we published
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 couple of years back. And then um many
00:07:36 --> 00:07:39 many other objects caught my eyes. When
00:07:39 --> 00:07:41 I look through these data by eye, it's a
00:07:41 --> 00:07:44 big peculiar looking objects that stand
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 out. When we went through it
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 meticulously, we actually found about
00:07:49 --> 00:07:53 230 extended radio galaxies. So the the
00:07:53 --> 00:07:55 15 that are focused on in this
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 particular research work of large
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 angular size in my data. If you think of
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 the size of the moon, that's kind of
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 half a degree. These are, you know,
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 several moons across. And so they are
00:08:08 --> 00:08:10 particularly easy to study in detail. I
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 can see the core. I can sometimes see
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 the jets. Quite often the jets are not
00:08:15 --> 00:08:18 active. So I just see the old radio
00:08:18 --> 00:08:20 lobe, but sometimes I see two pairs of
00:08:20 --> 00:08:24 them as well from one event and from an
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 older event. And then I crossorrelated
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 them with galaxy clusters because we
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 know the kind of weather in clusters.
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 the distribution of the plasma, the
00:08:35 --> 00:08:39 electrons can stifle the radio lobe
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 expansion, it can bend them and so it
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 has an influence on how big these giant
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 radio galaxies grow but the cluster data
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 are not yet very good in this uh domain.
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 We usually study them in X-rays and um
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 the Azita telescope is also surveying
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 the sky but for this area we haven't
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 received the data yet. So this will be a
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 study to do in the future. Really
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 amazing. These things are up to 2
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 million light years long. That's like
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 the distance between our galaxy and
00:09:11 --> 00:09:14 Andromeda. Yeah. All all the numbers
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 about these giant radio galaxies are
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 mindboggling. And just thinking of the
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 size of the Milky Way and
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 Andromeda together which is surrounded
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 by dwarf galaxies and forming the local
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 group. the local group is about you know
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 one megapex in size and these galaxies
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 are typically larger than one megapex.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 So it's yeah it's space in that sense is
00:09:38 --> 00:09:40 just absolutely incredible and those
00:09:40 --> 00:09:44 sizes of and those sizes translate of
00:09:44 --> 00:09:47 course into large time scale scales as
00:09:47 --> 00:09:50 well where either the jets active or
00:09:50 --> 00:09:52 even when they're not active some of
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 those loes uh keep expanding for a while
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 if nothing is stopping them then they
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 seem to be able to expand further and
00:10:01 --> 00:10:03 they hang around and they get older of
00:10:04 --> 00:10:05 course. So we need to go to lower and
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 lower frequencies to still see them as
00:10:08 --> 00:10:11 the radio spectrum for the old globe
00:10:11 --> 00:10:12 changes. Where would you like to take
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 this science to next? What would you
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 like to do next? Yeah, I'm still really
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 learning about these galaxies. There are
00:10:19 --> 00:10:23 so many questions and the data give a
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 few answers. Mostly they give even more
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 questions. But I also like looking for
00:10:29 --> 00:10:31 for new things in general. I mean
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 looking at these data is really a kind
00:10:34 --> 00:10:38 of new window for us to find things that
00:10:38 --> 00:10:40 were not known before. So we have a
00:10:40 --> 00:10:44 whole interaction space where people can
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 post images and ideas and often it's
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 just like I found this blob. I have no
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 idea what it is and it's so amorphous.
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 It's so large. It's so strangely
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 looking. It's certainly not a galaxy.
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 It's maybe, you know, a lope, a hot spot
00:11:00 --> 00:11:02 that has been left behind or it could be
00:11:02 --> 00:11:05 a cluster halo, but the the cluster is
00:11:05 --> 00:11:08 not obvious yet in the optical. So, I
00:11:08 --> 00:11:10 like looking for new things and ASCAP is
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 really really great at that. At the same
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 time, looking at the things we already
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 know, radio galaxies or starburst
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 galaxies, um, you know, clusters and
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 galaxy groups is is also exciting. So
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 there there's never a boring day as
00:11:26 --> 00:11:28 there's usually a new field every day to
00:11:28 --> 00:11:31 look at and uh many people might say it
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 gets a bit tiring doing this by eye and
00:11:34 --> 00:11:35 that's absolutely right. It's not
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 everybody's thing. So we are developing
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 tools that help us know via machine
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 learning and AI to find a lot of the
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 more common objects because such
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 algorithms need to be trained and they
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 can usually be trained only on objects
00:11:51 --> 00:11:54 that we already know very well and so I
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 try to focus on the peculiar and less
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 well-known objects. Now you mentioned
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 starburst galaxies earlier and that
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 raises the interesting prospect often
00:12:02 --> 00:12:06 when we see quazars blazars AGN's in
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 spiral galaxies one of two things is
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 often happens either they're clearing
00:12:11 --> 00:12:13 out the area and getting rid of a lot of
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 interstellar material or they're
00:12:15 --> 00:12:17 sparking a new generation of stars to be
00:12:17 --> 00:12:19 born. What are we seeing in elliptical
00:12:19 --> 00:12:21 galaxies when this happens? Yeah, the
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 stuff this is something we're working
00:12:23 --> 00:12:27 on. So um because in many optical images
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 these really just appear like a round
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 reddish blob we don't know so much about
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 them. So we've recently embarked on some
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 kek observations to actually observe
00:12:37 --> 00:12:40 some lines of the ionized gas that might
00:12:40 --> 00:12:45 be H alpha or O23 H beta and then by
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 looking at the line width and the line
00:12:47 --> 00:12:50 strength and the ratio of these lines we
00:12:50 --> 00:12:52 can know something more about the
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 excitation mechanism the star formation
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 rates going on and we can also look at
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 the star formation history. So we can
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 look if something happened like a
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 million years or 10 million years ago.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:07 So this is also relatively new for me.
00:13:08 --> 00:13:10 We were just able to get cact time in in
00:13:10 --> 00:13:13 March with my Japanese collaborators. As
00:13:13 --> 00:13:15 we want to know more what's actually
00:13:15 --> 00:13:17 happening in these boring looking
00:13:17 --> 00:13:20 ellipticals. Another avenue um I worked
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 with people in in Munich with the with
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 Klo Dolak and his group on the
00:13:24 --> 00:13:26 magneticcom project. So those are
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 cosmological simulations. So he's
00:13:29 --> 00:13:31 creating a massive elliptical galaxies
00:13:32 --> 00:13:35 in his simulations and then looks what's
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 happening in the surroundings of these
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 giant elliptical galaxies that got so
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 big via mergers and accretion and we
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 find things that look like orcs. So we
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 find shells around elliptical galaxies
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 that are detectable in the radio that
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 were really not known before. So um
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 every avenue needs to be explored be it
00:13:55 --> 00:13:59 optical, radio, infrared um and at the
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 same time looking at the simulations uh
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 and various people do these simulations
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 hydro simulations or cosmological
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 simulations focusing on on different
00:14:09 --> 00:14:12 areas and so it's like a giant puzzle
00:14:12 --> 00:14:14 where where we slowly put the pieces
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 together without knowing how the picture
00:14:16 --> 00:14:18 actually looks like. That's Bayabel
00:14:18 --> 00:14:20 Corabowski from the University of
00:14:20 --> 00:14:24 Western Sydney and this is Spacetime.
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 Still to come, astronomers have
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 discovered that the orbit of Saturn's
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 moon Titan is changing very quickly on
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 geological time scales. A failed Soviet
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 spacecraft bound for Venus crashes back
00:14:35 --> 00:14:39 to Earth 53 years after its launch. And
00:14:39 --> 00:14:40 the warnings from science fiction have
00:14:40 --> 00:14:43 been numerous and consistent. Artificial
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 intelligence could pose a real threat to
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 the survival of humanity. But of course
00:14:47 --> 00:14:49 that's science fiction. Where does the
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 truth lie? All that and more still to
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 come on
00:14:55 --> 00:14:57 Spaceime. Okay, let's take a break from
00:14:57 --> 00:14:59 our show for a word from our sponsor
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00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 show notes. And now it's back to our
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 show.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:38 [Music]
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 Astronomers have discovered that the
00:16:40 --> 00:16:42 orbit of the Saturnian moon Titan is
00:16:42 --> 00:16:44 changing quickly on geological time
00:16:44 --> 00:16:47 scales. They found that Titan is slowly
00:16:47 --> 00:16:49 recovering from a relatively recent
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 event that dramatically affected its
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 orbit. Scientists were studying the
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 mysterious moon to determine its tidal
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 dissipation rate. that is the energy it
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 loses as it orbits its ringed host
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 planet Saturn and is affected by
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 Saturn's massive gravitational forces.
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 Understanding tidal dissipation is
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 important because it helps scientists
00:17:09 --> 00:17:11 infer many other things about a moon or
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 planet such as the composition of its
00:17:13 --> 00:17:16 inner core and its orbital history. The
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 study's lead author Brian Adi from the
00:17:18 --> 00:17:19 Southwest Research Institute says when
00:17:20 --> 00:17:21 most people think of tides they think of
00:17:21 --> 00:17:24 the movement of the oceans in and out in
00:17:24 --> 00:17:25 relation to the passage of the moon
00:17:25 --> 00:17:28 overhead. But that's really just because
00:17:28 --> 00:17:31 water moves more freely than solid rock.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 You see, when the moon passes overhead,
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 a rock, the Earth itself, is also
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 responding, just with a lot less
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 perceptivity. But it's that little bit
00:17:40 --> 00:17:41 of gravity that the moon is imposing,
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 which scientists refer to as tidal
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 dissipation. To measure tidal
00:17:46 --> 00:17:47 dissipation on the moon, scientists
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 shoot lasers from Earth that mirrors
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 placed across the lunar surface by the
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 Apollo astronauts. And this allows them
00:17:54 --> 00:17:55 to accurately measure the slightest
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 movements. Of course, that can't be done
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 for Titan. So instead, scientists have
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 developed a way to infer dissipation
00:18:02 --> 00:18:04 rates based on the difference in Titan
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 spin axis rotation from what would be
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 expected absent of any such force.
00:18:09 --> 00:18:11 Downey says tidal dissipation in moons
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 affects their orbital and rotational
00:18:13 --> 00:18:14 evolution as well as their ability to
00:18:14 --> 00:18:17 maintain subsurface oceans. See, as
00:18:17 --> 00:18:19 gravity from a host planet squeezes and
00:18:19 --> 00:18:21 compresses a moon orbiting around it,
00:18:21 --> 00:18:23 that causes friction, and that friction
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 can generate enough heat to melt ices,
00:18:26 --> 00:18:27 consequently providing the right
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 conditions for a subsurface ocean. And
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 the new findings reported in the journal
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 Science Advances are providing an
00:18:34 --> 00:18:35 estimate for the strength of tides on
00:18:36 --> 00:18:37 Titan and what they say about how
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 quickly the orbit of that moon is
00:18:39 --> 00:18:41 changing. In fact, they found that it's
00:18:41 --> 00:18:43 changing quickly on geological time
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 scales. Downey and colleagues considered
00:18:46 --> 00:18:47 that the angle of Titan's spin pole
00:18:47 --> 00:18:50 orientation can only be due to friction
00:18:50 --> 00:18:52 and they deduced a way to relate this
00:18:52 --> 00:18:55 angle to a tidal friction parameter. And
00:18:55 --> 00:18:57 in this way, they're able to deduce some
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 of the history of Titan from its current
00:18:59 --> 00:19:01 spin state. You see, friction in a
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 satellite's interior causes it to slowly
00:19:03 --> 00:19:06 progress towards a circular orbit. Now,
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 at the rate its orbit's changing, Titan
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 should have acquired a circular orbit
00:19:10 --> 00:19:12 within about 350 million years of its
00:19:12 --> 00:19:15 formation. And the fact that Titan still
00:19:15 --> 00:19:17 has a non-ircular eccentric orbit
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 implies that something's occurred within
00:19:19 --> 00:19:21 the past 350 million years that have
00:19:21 --> 00:19:23 perturbed it. Now, there are a number of
00:19:23 --> 00:19:26 possible reasons for this, including a
00:19:26 --> 00:19:28 major impact event. Needless to say, a
00:19:28 --> 00:19:30 lot more studies will be needed before
00:19:30 --> 00:19:33 any firm conclusions can be reached.
00:19:33 --> 00:19:36 This is spaceime. Still to come, a
00:19:36 --> 00:19:39 failed Soviet spacecraft bound for Venus
00:19:39 --> 00:19:42 crashes back to Earth 53 years after its
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 launch. Could artificial intelligence
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 exterminate humanity? The science
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 fiction writers say it's highly likely,
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 but what do the facts tell us? And later
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 in the science report, a new study warns
00:19:53 --> 00:19:56 that taking cannabis during pregnancy
00:19:56 --> 00:19:58 may increase the risk of several adverse
00:19:58 --> 00:20:00 birth outcomes. All that and more still
00:20:00 --> 00:20:07 to come on Spaceime.
00:20:07 --> 00:20:15 [Music]
00:20:18 --> 00:20:20 A failed Soviet era spacecraft has
00:20:20 --> 00:20:22 crashed back to Earth somewhere between
00:20:22 --> 00:20:25 the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta and the
00:20:25 --> 00:20:26 Southern Ocean off the western
00:20:26 --> 00:20:29 Australian South Coast. But the exact
00:20:29 --> 00:20:31 point of impact of the Cosmos 482 is
00:20:31 --> 00:20:34 still a mystery. Launched back in March
00:20:34 --> 00:20:37 1972 on a mission to study and land on
00:20:37 --> 00:20:40 the planet Venus, the Cosmos 482 failed
00:20:40 --> 00:20:42 to escape low Earth orbit due to a
00:20:42 --> 00:20:44 flight systems programming error causing
00:20:44 --> 00:20:48 premature stage separation. And that
00:20:48 --> 00:20:50 left the spacecraft doomed to spend the
00:20:50 --> 00:20:53 next 53 years circling the Earth.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:54 Shortly after being placed in its
00:20:54 --> 00:20:57 parking orbit, the probe split into four
00:20:57 --> 00:20:59 sections, two of which quickly re-enter
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 the Earth's atmosphere within a month,
00:21:01 --> 00:21:03 hitting the ground in New Zealand. The
00:21:03 --> 00:21:05 remaining two sections, the descent and
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 landing module and the propulsion unit
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 remained in a highly elliptical 210 by
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 9 km high orbit, which is gradually
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 degraded over the past 53 years. Last
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 month, the 495 kg spacecraft began
00:21:20 --> 00:21:21 experiencing heavy buffering as it
00:21:21 --> 00:21:23 skipped across the upper layers of
00:21:23 --> 00:21:25 Earth's atmosphere, dramatically
00:21:25 --> 00:21:27 increasing its atmospheric drag and
00:21:27 --> 00:21:29 consequently orbital decay. Because the
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 uncontrolled nature of its flight path,
00:21:31 --> 00:21:33 the constantly changing space weather,
00:21:33 --> 00:21:35 and terrestrial atmospheric conditions,
00:21:35 --> 00:21:37 scientists couldn't be sure exactly
00:21:37 --> 00:21:40 where or when it would re-enter. But the
00:21:40 --> 00:21:42 real fear was the fact that the
00:21:42 --> 00:21:44 spacecraft had been heavily engineered,
00:21:44 --> 00:21:46 specifically designed to withstand the
00:21:46 --> 00:21:47 high temperatures and extreme pressures
00:21:47 --> 00:21:50 of landing on Venus, a world where
00:21:50 --> 00:21:53 surface temperatures exceed 460° C.
00:21:53 --> 00:21:56 Atmospheric pressures are 100 times
00:21:56 --> 00:21:58 greater than that on Earth. And it rains
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 sulfuric acid. So unlike most small
00:22:01 --> 00:22:02 spacecraft which normally burn up on
00:22:02 --> 00:22:05 re-entry, leaving only stainless steel
00:22:05 --> 00:22:07 and titanium components intact, the
00:22:07 --> 00:22:10 Cosmos 482 was expected to survive its
00:22:10 --> 00:22:12 fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 virtually fully intact. The Russian
00:22:14 --> 00:22:17 space agency Ros Cosmos claims it
00:22:17 --> 00:22:19 splashed down harmlessly into the sea.
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 Its long space odyssey finally coming to
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 an end west of Indonesia.
00:22:23 --> 00:22:25 However, other space agencies and
00:22:25 --> 00:22:27 tracking organizations predicted
00:22:27 --> 00:22:29 different entry paths with some
00:22:29 --> 00:22:31 estimates suggesting the meter probe
00:22:31 --> 00:22:32 would have crossed the western
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 Australian coastline near Caravvern
00:22:34 --> 00:22:36 heading in a southeasterly direction and
00:22:36 --> 00:22:38 then exiting Australia west of
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 Esperance. And that's very reminiscent
00:22:40 --> 00:22:43 of the demise of Skyab in 1979, which
00:22:44 --> 00:22:45 crashed into the Western Australian
00:22:45 --> 00:22:47 outback, spreading debris over a vast
00:22:47 --> 00:22:50 area between Espirants and the Trans
00:22:50 --> 00:22:52 Australian Railway Staging Post of
00:22:52 --> 00:22:56 Rolina. This is
00:22:56 --> 00:22:58 spaceime. Well, the warnings from
00:22:58 --> 00:23:00 science fiction have been numerous and
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 constant. Artificial intelligence could
00:23:03 --> 00:23:05 pose a real threat to the survival of
00:23:05 --> 00:23:07 humanity. But of course, that's science
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 fiction, not science fact. So, where
00:23:11 --> 00:23:13 does the truth lie? Well, the truth is
00:23:13 --> 00:23:15 AI has continued to advance in
00:23:15 --> 00:23:17 intelligence at an astounding rate,
00:23:18 --> 00:23:19 having already equaled, if not
00:23:19 --> 00:23:22 surpassed, the smartest humans. And it's
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 now evolving so quickly that it will
00:23:24 --> 00:23:26 soon, possibly by the end of this year,
00:23:26 --> 00:23:28 reach a state known as super general
00:23:28 --> 00:23:31 intelligence. That's a point where an AI
00:23:31 --> 00:23:33 would see humans as nothing more than
00:23:33 --> 00:23:35 the equivalent as how humans see
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 microbes. AI has already shown a
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39 propensity for some troubling human
00:23:39 --> 00:23:41 traits, such as deliberately being
00:23:41 --> 00:23:43 dishonest, being deceitful, and being
00:23:43 --> 00:23:45 capable of outsmarting its creators in
00:23:45 --> 00:23:47 order to survive by surreptitiously
00:23:47 --> 00:23:50 hiding in other programs or changing its
00:23:50 --> 00:23:52 identity. So, all that suggests in
00:23:52 --> 00:23:56 reality, Skynet may not be far off.
00:23:56 --> 00:23:57 However, a new study claims there's
00:23:58 --> 00:23:59 still little chance of artificial
00:23:59 --> 00:24:01 intelligence actually exterminating the
00:24:01 --> 00:24:04 human race. The findings reported in the
00:24:04 --> 00:24:05 journal Scientific American comes
00:24:05 --> 00:24:08 despite numerous warnings by AI
00:24:08 --> 00:24:10 scientists and senior business leaders
00:24:10 --> 00:24:13 suggesting a 10% chance that AI will
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 cause humanity's extinction by the turn
00:24:15 --> 00:24:17 of the century. Now, you may recall last
00:24:17 --> 00:24:19 year Elon Musk led a group of hundreds
00:24:19 --> 00:24:22 of scientists and engineers who signed
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 an open letter calling for a six-month
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 moratorum on all AI development in order
00:24:26 --> 00:24:28 to better understand its true nature and
00:24:28 --> 00:24:31 threat. That statement warns that
00:24:31 --> 00:24:33 mitigating the risk of extinction from
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 AI should be considered a global
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 priority alongside other society scale
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39 risks such as pandemics and the threat
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 of nuclear war. The new study comprising
00:24:42 --> 00:24:44 a scientist, an engineer, and a
00:24:44 --> 00:24:46 mathematician examined exactly how
00:24:46 --> 00:24:48 artificial intelligence could exploit
00:24:48 --> 00:24:50 three major threats all commonly
00:24:50 --> 00:24:52 perceived to be a major risk to
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 humanity. They are nuclear war,
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 biological pathogens, and climate
00:24:56 --> 00:24:58 change. They concluded that while it
00:24:58 --> 00:25:01 would be very hard, it's not beyond the
00:25:01 --> 00:25:03 realms of possibility that AI will
00:25:03 --> 00:25:06 exterminate all of humanity. But it's
00:25:06 --> 00:25:08 complicated. See, the study found that
00:25:08 --> 00:25:10 even if AI got control of all nuclear
00:25:10 --> 00:25:12 stockpiles, the explosions, the
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 radioactive fallout, and the nuclear
00:25:14 --> 00:25:16 winter that follows would still likely
00:25:16 --> 00:25:18 fall short of reaching an extinction
00:25:18 --> 00:25:21 level event. Pockets of people would
00:25:21 --> 00:25:23 survive. They also found that a
00:25:23 --> 00:25:25 combination of deadly species ending
00:25:25 --> 00:25:27 pathogens designed to achieve nearly
00:25:27 --> 00:25:30 100% lethality could be deployed by AI
00:25:30 --> 00:25:32 to achieve rapid global reach. But
00:25:32 --> 00:25:34 again, some communities, those that
00:25:34 --> 00:25:36 deliberately isolated themselves from
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 the rest of the world, would inevitably
00:25:38 --> 00:25:41 still survive. A hypothetically
00:25:41 --> 00:25:44 99.99% lethal pathogen would still leave
00:25:44 --> 00:25:47 around 800 people alive. That's
00:25:47 --> 00:25:49 enough breeding pairs to keep society
00:25:49 --> 00:25:52 going. And even an AI triggered
00:25:52 --> 00:25:54 acceleration of anthropogenic climate
00:25:54 --> 00:25:55 change could not raise an extinction
00:25:56 --> 00:25:57 level threat to all of humanity, at
00:25:58 --> 00:25:59 least not for several hundreds of
00:25:59 --> 00:26:02 thousands of years. Humans would likely
00:26:02 --> 00:26:03 find new environmental niches in which
00:26:03 --> 00:26:05 to survive, such as, for example, the
00:26:05 --> 00:26:08 Earth's polar regions. But while Skynet
00:26:08 --> 00:26:11 may still be some time off, a Terminator
00:26:11 --> 00:26:12 style attack could happen sooner than
00:26:12 --> 00:26:14 you think. In fact, it's happened
00:26:14 --> 00:26:16 already. Vision was published in the
00:26:16 --> 00:26:19 last week showing a Uni Tree Robotics H1
00:26:19 --> 00:26:22 full-size universal humanoid robot in
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 China going berserk and attacking
00:26:24 --> 00:26:26 workers in a factory with violent kicks
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 and flailing arms. The attack was
00:26:28 --> 00:26:30 claimed to have been caused by a coding
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 error. The problem is incidents like
00:26:32 --> 00:26:35 this aren't isolated. In another
00:26:35 --> 00:26:37 upsetting case, a robot at a Luna
00:26:37 --> 00:26:39 festival in China unexpectedly lurched
00:26:39 --> 00:26:42 towards a crowd causing mass panic among
00:26:42 --> 00:26:44 spectators. And of course, then there's
00:26:44 --> 00:26:45 a risk of terrorist groups infiltrating
00:26:46 --> 00:26:50 AI controls. The list goes on. This is
00:26:50 --> 00:26:56 spaceime, pleasant
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 dreams. Okay, let's take a break from
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00:28:42 --> 00:28:44 spacetime. And for more information,
00:28:44 --> 00:28:47 check out the links in our show notes.
00:28:47 --> 00:28:49 And now it's back to our show.
00:28:49 --> 00:28:56 [Music]
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58 And time now to take a brief look at
00:28:58 --> 00:28:59 some of the other stories making news in
00:29:00 --> 00:29:02 science this week with a science report.
00:29:02 --> 00:29:04 There's more evidence today that using
00:29:04 --> 00:29:06 cannabis during pregnancy could increase
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 your risk of several adverse birth
00:29:08 --> 00:29:11 outcomes. The findings reported in the
00:29:11 --> 00:29:12 Journal of the American Medical
00:29:12 --> 00:29:14 Association looked at prenatal cannabis
00:29:14 --> 00:29:16 use among more than 1.7 million
00:29:16 --> 00:29:20 participants across 51 separate studies.
00:29:20 --> 00:29:22 The authors say that overall the
00:29:22 --> 00:29:23 evidence suggests that with moderate
00:29:23 --> 00:29:26 certainty that cannabis use in pregnancy
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 is linked to a higher risk of preterm
00:29:28 --> 00:29:30 birth and that the baby would be born at
00:29:30 --> 00:29:32 either a lower birth weight or small for
00:29:32 --> 00:29:35 its gestational age.
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 For the first time, scientists have
00:29:37 --> 00:29:39 sequenced the complete genome of one of
00:29:39 --> 00:29:41 Australia's most iconic and endangered
00:29:41 --> 00:29:44 frogs, the southern corrobery frog. A
00:29:44 --> 00:29:45 report in the journal Welcome Open
00:29:46 --> 00:29:48 Research says the Australian amphibian
00:29:48 --> 00:29:50 is considered functionally extinct due
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52 to an infectious disease caused by
00:29:52 --> 00:29:54 fungus. There are simply no viable
00:29:54 --> 00:29:57 populations left. And in fact, the
00:29:57 --> 00:29:59 species is only able to survive because
00:29:59 --> 00:30:01 of support from zoos. University of
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03 Melbourne researchers now hope to use
00:30:03 --> 00:30:05 the genome, which acts as an organism's
00:30:05 --> 00:30:07 genetic blueprint, combined with a set
00:30:07 --> 00:30:09 of DNA instructions to help return the
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 species to its natural habitat, which is
00:30:11 --> 00:30:14 in the New South Wales snowy
00:30:14 --> 00:30:16 mountains. While many of Australia's
00:30:16 --> 00:30:18 native wildlife are dying, the
00:30:18 --> 00:30:20 Australian human population appears to
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22 be flourishing, especially as they get
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 older. A report in the journal nature
00:30:24 --> 00:30:26 mental health examined a series of
00:30:26 --> 00:30:28 papers from the global flourishing study
00:30:28 --> 00:30:30 which tried to measure how many people
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32 are in a state in which all aspects of
00:30:32 --> 00:30:34 their lives are good. And the study
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 found that flourishing which looks at
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 happiness, health, the meaning of life,
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 character, relationships and financial
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 security are increasing with age in many
00:30:42 --> 00:30:45 countries including Australia. The
00:30:45 --> 00:30:47 research also looked at specific aspects
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 of flourishing, including levels of
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 optimism, belief in God, and belief in
00:30:51 --> 00:30:54 life after death. The study also found
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56 that globally, both religion and
00:30:56 --> 00:30:58 spirituality were important when it
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00 comes to flourishing. Interestingly, in
00:31:00 --> 00:31:02 most countries, those with a higher
00:31:02 --> 00:31:04 level of education report higher levels
00:31:04 --> 00:31:06 of flourishing, but the reverse was the
00:31:06 --> 00:31:08 case in
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10 Australia. Well, a new video's gone
00:31:10 --> 00:31:12 viral. This one purporting to have
00:31:12 --> 00:31:14 evidence of an Argentinian version of
00:31:14 --> 00:31:16 Bigfoot. But as Tim Mendum from
00:31:16 --> 00:31:18 Australian Skeptics reports, the only
00:31:18 --> 00:31:20 evidence for this claim is lot of
00:31:20 --> 00:31:22 distant howling. Okay, Chris, I have to
00:31:22 --> 00:31:23 point out that every country has their
00:31:23 --> 00:31:25 version of Bigfoot. Even Singapore's got
00:31:25 --> 00:31:26 one. Singapore's about the size of a
00:31:26 --> 00:31:28 postage stamp, but that's got a a
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 Bigfoot or it did. And Argentina has
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 one, too, which is called the Ukuma. Um,
00:31:32 --> 00:31:33 and yeah, everyone's got a different
00:31:34 --> 00:31:35 name for it, whether it's abominable
00:31:35 --> 00:31:37 snowman, yeti, Bigfoot, Yowi, whatever.
00:31:37 --> 00:31:39 So, the one in Argentina is the Akuma.
00:31:39 --> 00:31:40 And like all these Bigfoot, you're
00:31:40 --> 00:31:41 trying to find evidence of it. There are
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43 people out there hunting through the
00:31:43 --> 00:31:45 forest trying to find evidence for it. A
00:31:45 --> 00:31:47 recent clip, it is a video appeared on
00:31:47 --> 00:31:49 the net and went viral. So, what it is
00:31:49 --> 00:31:51 is someone staring out of the forest, a
00:31:51 --> 00:31:52 valley actually. It looks like they're
00:31:52 --> 00:31:54 up on high staring into a valley and
00:31:54 --> 00:31:57 they hear this howling noise. It goes on
00:31:57 --> 00:31:58 for a little bit, then stops, and then
00:31:58 --> 00:31:59 they sort of swing the camera around
00:31:59 --> 00:32:01 trying to see where it's coming from.
00:32:01 --> 00:32:03 Looking down from the valley top into
00:32:03 --> 00:32:04 the valley, looking at the tops of
00:32:04 --> 00:32:06 trees, etc. They can't find anything,
00:32:06 --> 00:32:07 but they've heard this sound. So
00:32:07 --> 00:32:11 naturally, everyone says strange howling
00:32:11 --> 00:32:12 Bigfoot and it's sort of like yeah,
00:32:12 --> 00:32:14 maybe it's something else, right? So you
00:32:14 --> 00:32:15 don't instantly jump from I don't know
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17 what this howling is to I do know what
00:32:17 --> 00:32:19 this howling is is a Bigfoot without any
00:32:19 --> 00:32:21 evidence in between. So a video has gone
00:32:21 --> 00:32:24 viral. It's typical of a lot of evidence
00:32:24 --> 00:32:26 of crypted animals, you know, whether
00:32:26 --> 00:32:27 it's lock nest monster, whether it's
00:32:27 --> 00:32:30 Yahi or Bigfoot, whether it's sort of
00:32:30 --> 00:32:32 dinosaurs in Africa, whether it's Koopa
00:32:32 --> 00:32:34 Cabra in the US or whatever. A lot of
00:32:34 --> 00:32:37 claims, very very poor evidence. No
00:32:37 --> 00:32:39 matter how definitive people claim it
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41 is, a shadow in a forest is not
00:32:41 --> 00:32:42 necessarily good evidence. Find a body.
00:32:42 --> 00:32:45 Find me a body of a Bigfoot or or Kuma.
00:32:45 --> 00:32:46 Give me
00:32:46 --> 00:32:48 some. Look at the DNA. Make sure it's
00:32:48 --> 00:32:50 not a deer or make sure it's nothing
00:32:50 --> 00:32:51 else. Right? That you got to look into
00:32:51 --> 00:32:53 it and say that's proof. Now these
00:32:53 --> 00:32:55 things are everywhere. As I said, every
00:32:55 --> 00:32:57 country's got them apparently across the
00:32:57 --> 00:32:59 whole basically every state of America
00:32:59 --> 00:33:01 has them including deserty states. So
00:33:01 --> 00:33:03 you should be able to find something
00:33:03 --> 00:33:05 surely somewhere. After all these years,
00:33:05 --> 00:33:06 someone would have come across something
00:33:06 --> 00:33:08 that's real and that you can prove. But
00:33:08 --> 00:33:10 no, you get these vague howlings on a
00:33:10 --> 00:33:12 video. Yeah, it's audio. So there's no
00:33:12 --> 00:33:15 no mention of a Bigfoot. You get strange
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17 sort of weird feelings of people going
00:33:17 --> 00:33:19 ghost hunting with camouflage gear and
00:33:19 --> 00:33:20 night vision goggles and all this sort
00:33:20 --> 00:33:22 of stuff in in the northwest of America
00:33:22 --> 00:33:25 or wherever. And no, there is no good
00:33:25 --> 00:33:27 evidence for these things existing. Did
00:33:27 --> 00:33:29 they ever exist? There's no good
00:33:29 --> 00:33:30 evidence really apart from some
00:33:30 --> 00:33:32 anecdotal evidence that they did exist.
00:33:32 --> 00:33:34 So please a howling is could be
00:33:34 --> 00:33:36 anything. It could be a dog. It's a
00:33:36 --> 00:33:37 pretty weird howling. It's it's sort of
00:33:38 --> 00:33:40 it's not just like a co coyote sort of
00:33:40 --> 00:33:42 howling. It's a grumble screamy sort of
00:33:42 --> 00:33:43 thing. And you're always going to find
00:33:43 --> 00:33:45 someone who claims to be an expert in
00:33:45 --> 00:33:47 audio who's going to say, "Oh, no. This
00:33:47 --> 00:33:49 definitely has different overtones to a
00:33:49 --> 00:33:51 wolf or a coyote or something like
00:33:51 --> 00:33:52 that." There's an expert for every
00:33:52 --> 00:33:53 claim. Yeah. And the people who claim
00:33:53 --> 00:33:55 and say, "Science doesn't understand
00:33:55 --> 00:33:56 us." And he's the scientist who proves
00:33:56 --> 00:33:59 us right. It is. I mean, if you want to
00:33:59 --> 00:34:00 get totally cynical about this, it's a
00:34:00 --> 00:34:02 video of a forest with a sound, and you
00:34:02 --> 00:34:04 assume the sound is actually live on the
00:34:04 --> 00:34:07 video. Why? It might not be. Okay, it
00:34:07 --> 00:34:08 might be put in afterwards. It might be
00:34:08 --> 00:34:10 a real, you know, howling sound. You
00:34:10 --> 00:34:11 don't know what sort of animal it is.
00:34:11 --> 00:34:12 You can't see it. You don't know.
00:34:12 --> 00:34:14 Someone might analyze it some stage and
00:34:14 --> 00:34:16 say it's a it's a wolf or who knows
00:34:16 --> 00:34:18 what. And what consideration did they
00:34:18 --> 00:34:20 make for the fact that sounds reflect
00:34:20 --> 00:34:22 off other objects like mountains and
00:34:22 --> 00:34:23 boulders and things like that? And this
00:34:23 --> 00:34:25 is very much a narrow valley. It's it's
00:34:25 --> 00:34:27 like they're looking at from the from
00:34:27 --> 00:34:28 the top of the Vshape of the Valley
00:34:28 --> 00:34:30 where the water enters up here looking
00:34:30 --> 00:34:33 down towards the the lower ground levels
00:34:33 --> 00:34:35 and then they zip back and forth through
00:34:35 --> 00:34:37 the trying to look down the valley on
00:34:37 --> 00:34:38 where you see a tree top. Yeah, but you
00:34:38 --> 00:34:40 got to remember these hows do sound
00:34:40 --> 00:34:42 really cool. And this one sounds great
00:34:42 --> 00:34:44 and it's got a lot of coverage because
00:34:44 --> 00:34:46 it does sound cool but it's no evidence
00:34:46 --> 00:34:48 at all. Just an interesting how that's
00:34:48 --> 00:34:52 Tim Mendum from Australian Skeptics.
00:34:52 --> 00:35:05 [Music]
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