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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00:16:21 --> 00:16:22 you'll find all those details in our
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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00:28:47 --> 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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