Latest / Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities / Buzzing With Danger

Transcript

Buzzing With Danger · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Humans have become very good at a lot
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of things over the years. Our use of language, both
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: spoken and written, has allowed us to pass knowledge from
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: one generation to the next, helping us become masters of
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: many useful skills over time, cooking, hunting, building devices that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: help improve our lives and overcome challenges. In fact, our
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: inventiveness is possibly the most defining qity we have. We
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: as a species are incapable of flights or spending long
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: periods of time underwater, and yet we've built contraptions that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: allow us to do both. We've improved the quality of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: our food, our medicine, and our response to natural disasters
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and epidemics. We really are quite inventive, But right at
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the top of our list of skills is something deserving
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of less praise. We are tragically good at war. In fact,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: humans have been battling each other for so long that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: some of the most ancient mythologies on the planet include
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a god of war. It seems that there has always
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: been warfare, but rather than invent our way out of it,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: we've become really good at finding new ways to do
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: it better or worse. The Romans understood this very well,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and while they might not have invented one particular weapon,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: they spread its use far and wide. It was a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: small object, easily lifted that could be thrown into hordes
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of enemy troops, causing widespread damage when they exploded, sending
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: out shrapnel that could turn the tide of battle in
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: their favor. In the eleventh century, German forces serving under
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Emperor Henry the First found themselves defending a fortress against
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: French troops from the rain. In a desperate attempt to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: send their attackers running, the Germans picked up the same
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: weapon and tossed it over their walls, and it worked.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Its usefulness spread over the years, reaching most of Europe.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: King Richard actually employed the use of catapults to launch
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the weapon deep into enemy encampments. In the hundreds, during
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a battle between Portugal and the Moors, the weapon was
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: used with great success, and towards the end of the
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Thirty Years War, defenders of a walled city in Bavaria
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: used their own version of these weapons to toss them
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: over the walls, inflicting massive damage on the Swedish army
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: trying to attack them. Covered in wounds, the Swedes retreated.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: There are even stories of sailors using this weapon during
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: naval battles. One or two brave souls would climb up
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to the highest point on their ships, rigging and then
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: tossed the weapon down onto the enemy vessel, and the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: destruction it caused would often give the smaller ships an
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: advantage over much more threatening attackers. Now, I do need
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to stop and point out that this is a weapon
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: that saw very little advancement over the centuries. While firearms
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: have seemingly evolved from the Stone Age to the Space
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Age in terms of usability and effectiveness, this ancient weapon
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: has stayed pretty much the same. But there have been
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: some creative uses of it throughout history. Although typically thrown
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: by soldiers or defenders, some people have actually tried using
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: this weapon in new and inventive ways. Some castles in
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: England whales in Scotland were known to embed the weapon
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: directly inside their walls, knowing that attackers would set it
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: off and harm themselves in the process. Other armies developed
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: smaller delivery devices, loading blow pipes with the dangerous contents
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of these bombs and shooting them at their enemies in
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: close range combat. And in the fourteenth century, one European
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: weapons designer created a sort of gatling gun catapult that
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: spun around and fired off a constant barrage of their payload. Thankfully,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: modern armies no longer used this weapon in the battles
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: they fight, something I think soldiers on both sides can
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: be thankful for. You see, it was the sort of
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: weapon that could backfire easily, harming both the people who
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: are targeted as well as those doing the targeting. Plus,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: we've just decided there are more effective ways of defending
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: ourselves than throwing a delicious food source at our enemies,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: especially when we run the risk of getting stung in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the process. That ancient weapon of choice, often thrown over
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: walls into crowds of attacking soldiers, the beehive. Can I
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: confess something to you. It's something I'm embarrassed about, even
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: though it happened almost thirty years ago. You see, despite
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: being an above average student in high school, I nearly
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: failed in one subject, chemistry. Maybe I shouldn't feel so
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: badly about that. I know a ton of people who
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: have told me the same thing. Chemistry, even the basic stuff,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: is tricky and it takes a special mind to master
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the rules and systems inside it. As far as I'm concerned,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: those who go on to study it in college, let
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: alone grad school, are the closest thing to wizards to
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: walk the earth. But there's no denying the power of chemistry.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Right If it wasn't for smart people trying out new ideas,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't have super glue, or penicillin or the tiny
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: glowing rectangle you're using to listen to this story right now,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Chemistry has changed the world. So while it's a tough
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: subject for most students, let's be grateful for those who
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: excel at it, students like Stephanie. Stephanie was born in
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: ninety three to parents who had immigrated to Pittsburgh from
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: pole Land, and she discovered an early love of the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: natural world. This was thanks in part to her father,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: who worked as a naturalist, and even though he passed
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: away when she was just ten, that interest never went away.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: In six she graduated with a degree in chemistry from
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Carnegie Mellon University and then took a pause. Medical school
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: was on her list of goals, but she needed to
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: earn the money to pay for it first, so she
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: took a job as a chemist at DuPont, putting her
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: bright mind and her new degree to work. Once settled there,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: she was put onto DuPont's Pioneer Research Laboratory team, their
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: mission to find a lightweight fiber that was stronger than steel.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: You see, at that point, most automobile tires were made
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: of rubber and reinforced with steel wire. It was effective,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: but it added a lot of weight, and DuPont understood
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: that chemistry might hold the answer. Now Stephanie had no
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: plans to stick around. Medical school was where she wanted
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: to be, but she was the sort of person who
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: found chemistry fun if you can believe that, And soon enough,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: a summer became a year, and then two. In nineteen
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: fifty nine, her work won her a publication award from
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the American Chemical Society. She had demonstrated how to produce
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: a nylon rope inside a beaker of chemicals, not earth
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: shaking on its own, but Stephanie did it at room temperature.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And maybe you're thinking to yourself, wait, I've seen science
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: teachers do this in school, and you'd be right. But
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it was Stephanie who taught them all how to do it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: Stephanie would end up filing twenty eight patents over her
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: four decades at DuPont while building a legendary career as
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a chemist, problem solver, and innovator. Not bad for a job.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: She never intended to keep just a way stop on
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: her journey toward a medical degree that could have helped
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: her save lives, but thankfully one of her inventions made
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: up for all of that. In nineteen sixty four, the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: US was about to face a gasoline shortage, and one
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: way to help cars is less gas was to reduce
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: their weight, which brought the tire project back to her desk.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: If they could find a lighter material to replace that
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: steel wire inside them, tires would become more efficient. Now
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to go into the chemistry of her solution.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: You can listen to the first twenty seconds of this
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: story for my reasons why. Plus the terminology is so
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: complex that would put my tongue into nuts, but in
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: Layman's terms, that get us into the ballpark. What Stephanie
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: did was recognize some potential in something that others would
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: have considered a mistake. Most nylon fibers were made by
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: heating the polymers and then running the clear solution through
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: a spinneret a sort of hypodermic needle for polymer solutions.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: The results were stiff fibers that broke fairly easily, but
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Stephanie created a solution that wasn't clear. In fact, she
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: later described it as sort of like buttermilk, and when
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: run through the spinnerett, this new recipe, for lack of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: a better term, produced a fiber that was five times
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: stronger than steel. After a brief stint inside tires, this
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: new polymer found its way into more flexible items, rope,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: fabric for sales, and even bicycle tires. But it was
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: one particular item of clothing that changed history. Stephanie Kulec
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: might not have made it to medical school, earned her degree,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: and gone into practice, saving lives and hospitals everywhere in America,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: but she invented something that has kept a lot of
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: people out of the hospital ever since. The lightweight incredibly strong,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: flexible and adaptable material that we used today in bulletproof
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: vests Kevlar. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious. Yeah,