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✍️ Episode References
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
https://www.cosmos.esa.int/cosmology (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/cosmology)
Nature Astronomy
https://www.nature.com/natastronomy/ (https://www.nature.com/natastronomy/)
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00:00 This is Space Time Series 28, Episode 63 for broadcast on 26 May 2025
01:00 New estimates on the universe's end
12:30 The strange gravity of asteroid Bennu
22:45 India's plans for its first manned spaceflight
30:00 Science report: Herpes virus linked to Alzheimer's disease
Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/27331483?utm_source=youtube
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 This is Spacetime series 28 episode 63
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 for broadcast on the 26th of May
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 2025. Coming up on Spacetime, the
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 universe to end sooner than thought. The
00:00:12 --> 00:00:14 weird, wild, wacky gravity of the
00:00:14 --> 00:00:17 asteroid Bonu and India to undertake its
00:00:17 --> 00:00:20 first man space flight within 2 years.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:25 All that and more coming up on Spaceime.
00:00:25 --> 00:00:29 Welcome to Spaceime with Stuart Garry.
00:00:29 --> 00:00:37 [Music]
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 A new study claims the universe could
00:00:46 --> 00:00:50 end in 10 the power 78 years from now.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 That's a one with 78 zeros behind it.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 And it is much sooner than previously
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 thought. The findings reported in the
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 journal of cosmology and astroparticle
00:00:59 --> 00:01:02 physics are based on the calculations of
00:01:02 --> 00:01:03 three Dutch scientists looking at
00:01:03 --> 00:01:06 so-called hawking radiation. They
00:01:06 --> 00:01:08 calculate that the universe's last
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 stellar remnants will take about 10 ^ of
00:01:11 --> 00:01:13 78 years from now to evaporate. And
00:01:13 --> 00:01:17 that's much shorter than the 10 ^ 1
00:01:17 --> 00:01:19 years previously postulated. Hawking
00:01:20 --> 00:01:22 radiation proposed by Steven Hawking
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 back in 1974 is a phenomenon where black
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 holes emit thermal radiation due to
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 quantum effects near the event horizon.
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 The point of no return beyond which an
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 object falls forever into a black hole
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 singularity. This radiation reduces a
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 black hole's mass eventually leading to
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 its disappearance. Now it works like
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 this. Quantum physics predicts that the
00:01:44 --> 00:01:46 vacuum of space isn't truly empty, but
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 rather it contains constantly
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 fluctuating pairs of virtual particles
00:01:50 --> 00:01:52 and antiparticles that literally pop in
00:01:52 --> 00:01:55 and out of existence. Now, near a black
00:01:55 --> 00:01:57 holes event horizon, these virtual
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 particles can be separated by the
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 singularity's intense gravity. If one of
00:02:02 --> 00:02:03 these virtual particles falls into the
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 black hole, the other can escape and be
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 observed as radiation, becoming real and
00:02:08 --> 00:02:11 effectively evaporating the black hole.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:13 The escaping particle carries or
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 radiates away energy, thus reducing the
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 black hole's mass. And the rate of this
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 evaporation would depend on the black
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 holes mass. Larger black holes have
00:02:22 --> 00:02:24 lower Hawking temperatures and evaporate
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 more slowly, while smaller black holes
00:02:26 --> 00:02:27 have higher Hawking temperatures and
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 therefore evaporate faster. Now, over
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 time, the continuous emission of Hawking
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 radiation would theoretically lead to
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 the gradual evaporation of the black
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 hole itself. And taking that to its
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 natural conclusion, eventually the black
00:02:41 --> 00:02:43 holes mass will reach zero. It'll no
00:02:43 --> 00:02:46 longer exist. Now, the new research by
00:02:46 --> 00:02:48 black hole expert Hina Fali, quantum
00:02:48 --> 00:02:50 physicist Michael Wandre, and
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 mathematician Walter Van Sulcrim, all
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 from the University of Radbound is a
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 follow-up to an earlier 2023 paper by
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 the same trio. Now, back in that paper,
00:03:00 --> 00:03:02 they showed that not only black holes,
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 but also other objects such as neutron
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 stars can also evaporate through Hawking
00:03:07 --> 00:03:09 radiation. Now, after that publication,
00:03:09 --> 00:03:11 the authors received heaps of questions
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 from scientists about how long the
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 process would take. And they've now
00:03:15 --> 00:03:17 answered that question in this new
00:03:17 --> 00:03:19 study. And as we mentioned at the top of
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 the story, the authors have calculated
00:03:21 --> 00:03:23 that the end of the universe is about 10
00:03:23 --> 00:03:26 the^ of 78 years away if only Hawking
00:03:26 --> 00:03:29 like radiation is taken into account.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:31 They base this on the time they
00:03:31 --> 00:03:32 calculate it would take for a white
00:03:32 --> 00:03:35 dwarf star, the most common persistent
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 type of celestial bodies in the universe
00:03:37 --> 00:03:39 to decay through hawking like radiation.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:41 The problem is previous studies didn't
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 take this into account, putting the
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 lifetime of white dwarves at 10 the
00:03:45 --> 00:03:48 power of 1 years. Now the
00:03:48 --> 00:03:49 researchers calculated that the process
00:03:49 --> 00:03:52 of Hawking radiation theoretically also
00:03:52 --> 00:03:53 applies to other objects with a
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 gravitational field. The calculations
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 further showed that the evaporation time
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 for an object depends only on its
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 density. To the author's surprise,
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 neutron stars and stellar mass black
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 holes took the same amount of time to
00:04:06 --> 00:04:10 decay, 10 to the power of 67 years. This
00:04:10 --> 00:04:12 was unexpected because black holes have
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 stronger gravitational fields than
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 neutron stars which should cause them to
00:04:16 --> 00:04:19 evaporate faster. But the thing is black
00:04:19 --> 00:04:21 holes have no surface. So they reabsorb
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 some of their own radiation and that
00:04:23 --> 00:04:26 inhibits the process. It's a fascinating
00:04:26 --> 00:04:28 study. All purely hypothetical of course
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 but nevertheless
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 fascinating. This is spaceime. Still to
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 come, the weird, wild, wacky gravity of
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 the asteroid Bonu and India to undertake
00:04:38 --> 00:04:41 its first man space flight within 2
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 years. All that and more still to come
00:04:43 --> 00:04:47 on Spaceime.
00:04:47 --> 00:04:55 [Music]
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 Astronomers have examined the weird
00:05:02 --> 00:05:04 Alice in Wonderlandike physics that
00:05:04 --> 00:05:06 govern gravity near the surface of the
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 asteroid Bonu. The new findings are
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 based on data gathered by NASA's Osiris
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Rex spacecraft, which undertook a sample
00:05:14 --> 00:05:15 return mission to the half kilome wide
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 near Earth asteroid. The probe was
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 launched back in 2016, arriving at Bonu
00:05:20 --> 00:05:24 in 2018. It then spent 2 years studying
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 the carbonatous Apollo Group space rock
00:05:26 --> 00:05:28 before swooping down to the surface and
00:05:28 --> 00:05:30 grabbing some samples for return to
00:05:30 --> 00:05:33 Earth in 2023. During the mission study
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 of Bonu, scientists examined and mapped
00:05:35 --> 00:05:37 its topography, its structure, its
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 composition, and importantly for this
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 story, its gravitational pool. A report
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 in the journal Nature Astronomy found
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 the asteroid has a mass of 73 billion
00:05:46 --> 00:05:50 kg. And the authors also found that Bonu
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 exists in the delicate balance between
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 two competing forces, the result of the
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 asteroid spin. See, Bonu completes a
00:05:57 --> 00:06:00 full rotation around its axis once every
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 4 hours. That's quite fast. The studies
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 lead author Daniel Shears from the
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 University of Colorado Boulder says
00:06:07 --> 00:06:09 those forces play an important role in
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 the asteroid's long-term evolution and
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 potential demise. He says when you spin
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 an asteroid up, you create a competition
00:06:16 --> 00:06:18 between gravity that's holding things
00:06:18 --> 00:06:20 together and centrifugal acceleration
00:06:20 --> 00:06:23 which is trying to pull things apart. To
00:06:23 --> 00:06:25 study those forces, Shears and
00:06:25 --> 00:06:26 colleagues used Assaaris Rex's
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 navigational instruments to measure the
00:06:28 --> 00:06:31 minute tug that the asteroid exerts on
00:06:31 --> 00:06:33 the spacecraft. And in the process, they
00:06:33 --> 00:06:35 dug up a lot more than they expected.
00:06:35 --> 00:06:37 Now, based on the group's calculations,
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 it appears the region around Bernu's
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 equator is trapped within a
00:06:41 --> 00:06:42 gravitational feature known as a
00:06:42 --> 00:06:44 rotational robe. And that's something
00:06:44 --> 00:06:46 scientists haven't yet clearly observed
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 on an asteroid. Now, the Ro limit is the
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 point at which the gravitational tidal
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 effects of a large body on a smaller one
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 become so powerful as to overcome the
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 smaller body's own internal gravity,
00:06:58 --> 00:07:00 causing it to fling apart. And she's
00:07:00 --> 00:07:02 found that that's when things get weird
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 with Bonu. So now if you're standing
00:07:05 --> 00:07:08 inside the boundaries of Bonu's ro lobe
00:07:08 --> 00:07:10 and you slipped on say banana peel for
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 example then not much would happen.
00:07:12 --> 00:07:14 You'd be captured by the lobe and fall
00:07:14 --> 00:07:16 back onto the surface. But if you were
00:07:16 --> 00:07:19 outside the ro lobe and slipped on that
00:07:19 --> 00:07:21 same banana peel you'd end up rolling
00:07:21 --> 00:07:23 towards the equator and you could
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 theoretically gain enough energy to
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 quite literally roll off the equator and
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 up into orbit and then into outer space.
00:07:30 --> 00:07:31 Now she admits it all sounds like the
00:07:32 --> 00:07:33 sort of environment looks Carol would
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 have appreciated but it does matter in
00:07:35 --> 00:07:38 real life especially for the lifespan of
00:07:38 --> 00:07:41 Bonu. See that's because radiation from
00:07:41 --> 00:07:43 the sun is causing Bonu to spin faster
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 and faster over time. And as the
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 asteroid's rotation builds up speed its
00:07:48 --> 00:07:50 ro limit might also be shrinking along
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 with the forces that are holding the
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 whole thing together. And as the rose
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 lobe narrows further around the equator,
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 it becomes easier for the asteroid to
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 lose material. Tree says that so far
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 that material's been trapped by gravity,
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 but at some point if the asteroid keeps
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 spinning faster, then you would wind up
00:08:07 --> 00:08:09 falling off the cliff. In other words,
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 Bernu could well be in the process of
00:08:11 --> 00:08:14 spinning itself into pieces. And Shri
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 says that's important because Bernu is
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 one of those asteroids which could one
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 day impact the Earth. The main role of
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 the University of Colorado on the Osiris
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 Rex mission is in the radiocience
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 experiment. When we send a spacecraft
00:08:28 --> 00:08:31 out to this asteroid millions, billions
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 of kilometers away from the Earth. The
00:08:34 --> 00:08:36 only way we can command it, control it,
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 see what it's doing is by sending radio
00:08:38 --> 00:08:40 waves out to the
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 spacecraft. The main result from radio
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 science is actually to measure the mass
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 and the gravity field of this asteroid.
00:08:47 --> 00:08:49 pristine material from the very dawn of
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 the solar system. Bennu has a
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 non-negligible probability of impacting
00:08:55 --> 00:08:58 the earth uh a few hundred years in the
00:08:58 --> 00:09:00 future. We take our very precise
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 measurement to determine its location
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 accurately enough so we can say oh okay
00:09:05 --> 00:09:06 it's going to miss the earth by a far
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 distance in in the future. If in fact
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 that's not the case then we need to
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 start thinking about well how would we
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 actually push this asteroid out of the
00:09:15 --> 00:09:16 way?
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 You need time and you need to understand
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 the the the properties of the asteroid.
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 That's Daniel Shre from the University
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 of Colorado Boulder. And this is
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 spaceime. Still to come, India to
00:09:29 --> 00:09:30 undertake its first man space flight
00:09:30 --> 00:09:32 within 2 years. And later in the science
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 report, archaeologists excavating the
00:09:34 --> 00:09:36 ancient Iraqi city of Nineveh have
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 discovered the royal palace's throne
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 room. All that and more still to come on
00:09:41 --> 00:09:46 Spaceime.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:48 Today's episode of Spaceime is brought
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00:11:58 --> 00:12:01 [Music]
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 The Indian Space Research Organization
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 ISRO says it'll attempt to launch its
00:12:05 --> 00:12:08 first man space mission in early
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 2027. The historic flight will follow an
00:12:11 --> 00:12:12 unmanned test flight of the nation's
00:12:12 --> 00:12:15 Gagian spacecraft later this year. The
00:12:15 --> 00:12:18 5.3 ton capsule was designed to carry a
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 crew of three into low Earth orbit. The
00:12:21 --> 00:12:22 spacecraft will be sent into orbit using
00:12:22 --> 00:12:26 an updated version of the 59 m tall GSLV
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 Mark III rocket. GSLV standing for
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 geocynchronous satellite launch vehicle
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 although these days it's also being
00:12:32 --> 00:12:35 known as launch vehicle Mark III or
00:12:35 --> 00:12:37 LVM3. So far four Indian Air Force
00:12:38 --> 00:12:39 pilots have been selected for the flight
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 and they've already undertaken their
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 cosmonaut training in Russia and are now
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 undergoing further mission specialist
00:12:45 --> 00:12:47 training back in India. And the Indian
00:12:47 --> 00:12:49 Navy's also been rehearsing, conducting
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 sea recovery trials for the mission with
00:12:51 --> 00:12:54 more simulations planned prior to
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 flight. Meanwhile, an Indian rocket
00:12:57 --> 00:12:58 carrying a new Earth observation
00:12:58 --> 00:13:01 satellite has failed to reach orbit. The
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 PSLV C61 launch vehicle blasted off from
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 the Shiraikota Space Center on the Bay
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 of Bengal coast carrying the EOS09
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 spacecraft. ISRO says there was a sudden
00:13:12 --> 00:13:13 fall in chamber pressure during the
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 third stage rocket burn preventing the
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 payload from reaching orbit. An
00:13:18 --> 00:13:20 investigation is now
00:13:20 --> 00:13:22 underway. This is
00:13:22 --> 00:13:37 [Music]
00:13:37 --> 00:13:39 spaceime. And time now to take a brief
00:13:39 --> 00:13:41 look at some of the other stories making
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 news in science this week with the
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 science report. A new study has found
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 that herpes simplex 1, the virus
00:13:48 --> 00:13:49 responsible for cold sores, may also
00:13:49 --> 00:13:51 have a key role to play in the
00:13:51 --> 00:13:53 development of Alzheimer's disease. The
00:13:54 --> 00:13:55 findings reported in the British Medical
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 Journal, suggest that treatment with
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 antiviral therapy might be linked to a
00:13:59 --> 00:14:02 lower risk of the condition. The authors
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 matched up close to 350 pairs of
00:14:05 --> 00:14:07 people, one diagnosed with Alzheimer's
00:14:07 --> 00:14:09 and the other without. Now, overall,
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 they found the likelihood of an HSV1
00:14:12 --> 00:14:15 diagnosis was 80% higher among those
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 with Alzheimer's. They also found that
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 people who used antiviral medication
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 after their diagnosis were 17% less
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 likely to develop Alzheimer's compared
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 to those who didn't use the treatments.
00:14:26 --> 00:14:28 Additionally, the authors also looked at
00:14:28 --> 00:14:30 the role of other herpes viruses and
00:14:30 --> 00:14:33 suggest that both HSV2 and vericillar
00:14:33 --> 00:14:35 rooster virus infections were also
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 associated with a heightened risk of
00:14:37 --> 00:14:38 getting
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 Alzheimer's. Archaeologists excavating a
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 dig site in the ancient Iraqi city of
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 Nineveh have discovered the royal throne
00:14:45 --> 00:14:47 room of the north palace of King Ashel
00:14:47 --> 00:14:50 Banipal. The find includes large
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 portions of a monumental stone slab some
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 5 1/2 m long by 3 m high and weighing
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 around 12 tons. It features a carved
00:14:58 --> 00:14:59 relief depicting the ruler of the
00:14:59 --> 00:15:01 Assyrian Empire from the 7th century
00:15:01 --> 00:15:03 B.C.E. along with two important deities
00:15:03 --> 00:15:06 and other figures. Shown in the center
00:15:06 --> 00:15:07 of the recently discovered relief is
00:15:08 --> 00:15:10 King Ashaw Benipal, the last great ruler
00:15:10 --> 00:15:13 of the Assyrian Empire. He's flanked by
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 two supreme deities, the gods Asher and
00:15:15 --> 00:15:18 Ishtar, the patron goddess of Nineveh.
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 Archaeologists believe the figure
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 suggests that a massive winged sun disck
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 was probably originally mounted above
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 the relief. The ancient city of Nineveh
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28 located near the modern Iraqi city of
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 Mosul is considered to be one of the
00:15:30 --> 00:15:31 most important cities of North
00:15:31 --> 00:15:34 Mesopotamia and under King Senarib
00:15:34 --> 00:15:36 became the capital of the Assyrian
00:15:36 --> 00:15:40 Empire in the late 8th century B.CE.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:42 A new study has found that native
00:15:42 --> 00:15:44 Australian bees living in areas where
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 European honeybees are prevalent wind up
00:15:46 --> 00:15:48 having fewer female offspring and a
00:15:48 --> 00:15:50 higher death rate in their first years
00:15:50 --> 00:15:53 of life. The findings reported in the
00:15:53 --> 00:15:55 Journal of the Frontiers in Bee Science
00:15:55 --> 00:15:57 studied native bees living in bee
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59 hotels, wooden boxes designed for native
00:15:59 --> 00:16:01 bees to rest and breed in. They looked
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 at 14 sites around Perth, looking at
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06 whether their proximity to introduced
00:16:06 --> 00:16:09 bees impacted various signs of fitness.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 The authors say it takes fewer resources
00:16:11 --> 00:16:13 to produce male bees compared to female
00:16:13 --> 00:16:15 bees. So, the change in sex ratio they
00:16:15 --> 00:16:17 observed among native bees could be a
00:16:17 --> 00:16:19 sign that the natives are struggling to
00:16:19 --> 00:16:21 compete for resources, which in turn
00:16:21 --> 00:16:23 makes it harder for the next generation
00:16:23 --> 00:16:25 to reproduce because there are fewer
00:16:25 --> 00:16:27 females in the area.
00:16:27 --> 00:16:30 While a source of eternal frustration
00:16:30 --> 00:16:31 for those of us fascinated by the
00:16:31 --> 00:16:34 wonders of a universe of science fact,
00:16:34 --> 00:16:36 for many others, the mysteries of the
00:16:36 --> 00:16:39 supernatural retain a sort of magical
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 allure. Now, whether it's the Bermuda
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 Triangle, personality test, ghost
00:16:43 --> 00:16:45 hunting, crop circles, the Loch Ness
00:16:45 --> 00:16:46 monster, or Bigfoot, they all have one
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 thing in common. They simply don't live
00:16:49 --> 00:16:51 up to the rigors of actual scientific
00:16:51 --> 00:16:54 testing. Nevertheless, they all attract
00:16:54 --> 00:16:56 passionate supporters. And in fact, even
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 when people know they're not real,
00:16:58 --> 00:17:00 they're still often fascinated by the
00:17:00 --> 00:17:02 idea. And Tim Mendum from Australian
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 Skeptics says there's a whole range of
00:17:04 --> 00:17:06 reasons why this is such a common human
00:17:06 --> 00:17:08 quirk. Various reasons have been
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 suggested. One is that people want our
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11 world to be more exciting, more
00:17:11 --> 00:17:13 glamorous, more weird, mysterious.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 That's one thing is the excitement
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 level. The other one is the fear level
00:17:17 --> 00:17:19 that the world's a pretty scary place.
00:17:19 --> 00:17:20 Things happen to you without any
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 apparent reason. I'd like there to be
00:17:22 --> 00:17:24 some more reliable information in the
00:17:24 --> 00:17:26 world. And if I don't feel that the
00:17:26 --> 00:17:28 world as it is, as I know it is
00:17:28 --> 00:17:29 reliable, I'll tune into something else
00:17:30 --> 00:17:32 which is sort of UFOs exist or the world
00:17:32 --> 00:17:34 is flat or the stars can decide my
00:17:34 --> 00:17:36 future etc. That's another one that fear
00:17:36 --> 00:17:37 factor. The other one is a conspiracy
00:17:37 --> 00:17:39 factor that anything which is associated
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 with established fact or science or
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 policy must be false because obviously
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 they're campaigning against us whether
00:17:45 --> 00:17:46 it's big government, big farmer, big
00:17:46 --> 00:17:49 science, whatever. Anything they say is
00:17:49 --> 00:17:50 inherently false according to some
00:17:50 --> 00:17:52 people and therefore will go to the
00:17:52 --> 00:17:53 opposite. If I don't trust the
00:17:53 --> 00:17:54 government, therefore something which is
00:17:54 --> 00:17:56 anti-government must be true, which is
00:17:56 --> 00:17:58 poor logic, but never mind. It's never
00:17:58 --> 00:18:00 been a major issue. So the governments
00:18:00 --> 00:18:02 are trying to block UFOs. Governments
00:18:02 --> 00:18:03 are trying to block this knowledge or
00:18:03 --> 00:18:04 that knowledge. Therefore, that
00:18:04 --> 00:18:06 knowledge has hiding the truth about
00:18:06 --> 00:18:08 Bigfoot. Well, they Well, I don't
00:18:08 --> 00:18:09 understand that one actually. I don't
00:18:09 --> 00:18:10 know why a government would actually
00:18:10 --> 00:18:11 cover up Bigfoot. I thought, you know,
00:18:11 --> 00:18:13 tourism etc. would be a good thing. It's
00:18:13 --> 00:18:15 the latest Animal Planet Bigfoot story
00:18:15 --> 00:18:17 that's doing the rounds. Yeah, it
00:18:17 --> 00:18:18 probably is. I mean, yeah, the
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20 inventiveness of people to find
00:18:20 --> 00:18:22 conspiracies is never ending. So there's
00:18:22 --> 00:18:23 various reasons why we like super
00:18:23 --> 00:18:25 science. One is fun. It might be fun
00:18:25 --> 00:18:27 thing. That's why we cover it on this
00:18:27 --> 00:18:29 show because it is. That's right. Yeah.
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 There are it's fun elements. It's
00:18:31 --> 00:18:32 exciting. It's Yeah, it's interesting.
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 It's as interesting as Harry Potter. I
00:18:34 --> 00:18:35 don't believe Harry Potter's real. I
00:18:35 --> 00:18:37 don't believe that Loch Ness monster is
00:18:37 --> 00:18:38 real. Doesn't stop you enjoying them.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 But then yeah, it also You've been there
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 three times. Come on. I have been there
00:18:42 --> 00:18:43 three times. Not to Harry Potter, I
00:18:43 --> 00:18:45 should say, actually. But the Loch Ness,
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 I have been. Yeah, it's great. It's a
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 lovely place, too. I recommend it. nice
00:18:48 --> 00:18:50 little restaurants and things, but um
00:18:50 --> 00:18:51 just by saying it's fun doesn't mean
00:18:51 --> 00:18:53 it's true. And if if you believe it's
00:18:53 --> 00:18:54 true, it can actually start influencing
00:18:54 --> 00:18:57 you in what you do in life. Like
00:18:57 --> 00:18:59 astrology is not true. Your listeners
00:19:00 --> 00:19:01 always interested in astronomy would
00:19:01 --> 00:19:03 probably know that that nothing in
00:19:03 --> 00:19:04 astrology. There's nothing in the flat
00:19:04 --> 00:19:06 earth theory as well. Probably nothing
00:19:06 --> 00:19:08 in UFOs, UAPs, whatever. No evidence
00:19:08 --> 00:19:10 certainly, but people follow astrology.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:11 People definitely follow astrology and
00:19:12 --> 00:19:13 use it to make their life decisions.
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 People are interested in UFOs and can
00:19:16 --> 00:19:17 use that as part of their philosophy of
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 anti-government everything and that UFOs
00:19:20 --> 00:19:21 are here to save us or destroy us
00:19:21 --> 00:19:22 depending on your point of view. Flat
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 Earth is a classic conspiracy theory.
00:19:24 --> 00:19:26 They're trying to cover it up. It's one
00:19:26 --> 00:19:27 of the silliest conspiracy theories out
00:19:27 --> 00:19:29 there. But I mean there are things which
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 are dangerous to people and those things
00:19:31 --> 00:19:33 that are fun. Fine, have fun. But what
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 the skeptics see unfortunately is these
00:19:35 --> 00:19:36 things extending into other areas.
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 Conspiracy about UFOs might be a
00:19:38 --> 00:19:40 conspiracy about health as well. Might
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 be that lead to the same mindset. That's
00:19:42 --> 00:19:46 Tim Mendum from Australian
00:19:46 --> 00:19:59 [Music]
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 Skeptics and that's the show for now.
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