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Bioluminescence: A Bright and Shiny Fish · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know?
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuff Bryant
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and uh. You put us together and you get a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: little something called Stuff you Should Know. And that's what
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this is. Whether you like it or not, you have
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: to listen to it. It's try. Um. Actually, no one
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: has to listen to this. It's part of both Obama's
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: and Romney's platforms. Yeah, it's a part of Obamacare. You
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: gotta listen to Stuff you Should Know, and you gotta
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: get an r f D chip in your hand, and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: you have to give poor people all your money. None
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of that is true, that you have to listen to
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  Speaker 1: the podcast and the porpulal part um. Chuck, how's it going?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It's great. Are you feeling sick? Do you need any
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: kind of here Obama or otherwise? Now? Are you feeling sick?
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I'm fine. Chance, like my shoulder muscles are gonna pop
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: right out of my skin. I went to that foot
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  Speaker 1: massage play some Buford Highway the other day. You ever
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: been there. M hm. Treat your feet Is that what
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: it's called. Yeah, that's a great name. They'll they'll do
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  Speaker 1: an hour on your feet for bucks if that's what
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  Speaker 1: you desire. Oh yeah, I know. About a little bit
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  Speaker 1: bit into it, they'll ask you like, would you want
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  Speaker 1: to go half and half, like half body half foot,
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  Speaker 1: because basically they get you in there, they're going at
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  Speaker 1: your feet and you're like, you know, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if I could do an hour on my feet. Each
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  Speaker 1: toe has gotten their own massage at this point, like
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  Speaker 1: they're just jelly cracked your toes. Yeah, so they think, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you know, i'll pay another twenty bucks for the body,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: right they give you t it's really nice. You should go.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: It does sound nice, but it's not like private. Like
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  Speaker 1: you're in a big room with like fifteen recliners. Everyone's
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  Speaker 1: just sitting around and well we've gotten backrubs at the
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  Speaker 1: mall before. Yeah, that's true. You remember, I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how I got on this Treat your feet Buford Highway.
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  Speaker 1: Go eat some fun and then go get your foot massage.
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  Speaker 1: Where's good fun around here? We're trying to figure that out.
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  Speaker 1: The Yeah, where uh if you are we going to
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  Speaker 1: do this now. Okay, I like fun number two, um,
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  Speaker 1: which is past Claremont. Um, it's in a little shopping center.
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  Speaker 1: Just look it up, okay, I mean it's it's all good,
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  Speaker 1: all good fun. Um. Yeah. I don't know how we
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  Speaker 1: got on there, but some places on Beaureford Highway. Oh
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  Speaker 1: you use some money, seriously, at least some free fun. Um.
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  Speaker 1: This has nothing to do with bioluminescence. No, it doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: Although sometimes if you stir your funt around, chuck, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna see some um fungus possibly rise to the top
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  Speaker 1: a couple of times. Right, Yeah, that's a good one too.
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  Speaker 1: And um, where those things still alive and not cooked,
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  Speaker 1: they possibly might glow. And where they to glow, you
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  Speaker 1: would say, look at those things, they're bioluminescing. That's right,
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  Speaker 1: because that's what they do. It is a life form
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  Speaker 1: that generates their own glow inside their body, their own life. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: pretty awesome. And um, you I read a different um
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  Speaker 1: study It was like, what what's the deal with this?
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  Speaker 1: Because this is still very much a mystery. Um, we
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  Speaker 1: have an idea of how this goes down, but not
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  Speaker 1: in every case. We also don't understand why in a
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  Speaker 1: lot of cases, um, and in in some cases we
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  Speaker 1: don't understand how. And the thing is is, I don't
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  Speaker 1: think it's that it's out of the grasp of science
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  Speaker 1: to understand it. I think that when researchers are looking
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  Speaker 1: into this, they just they become so transfixed on the
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  Speaker 1: beautiful glow that they forget what they're doing and waste
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  Speaker 1: tons of time. And then all of a sudden, you're like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I gotta publish our Paris. And then it's just like
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  Speaker 1: they just write why on a piece of paper and
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  Speaker 1: send it in, as Tracy Wilson of Pop Stuff Great
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  Speaker 1: Podcast points out, and Tracy's articles are always awesome. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: oh man, they're comprehensive. You know, I never have to
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  Speaker 1: worry about it. Um. Sadly, sometimes scientists can either harm
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  Speaker 1: the light making magic when they try to study them,
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  Speaker 1: this makes it hard to study, or the animal will
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  Speaker 1: exhaust it's light making glow capabilities out of like fear
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  Speaker 1: or defense or spite or spite, which will also make
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  Speaker 1: it hard to study. So those are a couple of reasons,
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  Speaker 1: and the whole just why right. So, Um, we do
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  Speaker 1: have a pretty good handle to some extent, But let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about what luminescence itself is right with that this
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: light bulb right here in this a key of brand
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  Speaker 1: lamp um. It's incandescent. It's an incandescent light bulb. I
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: think this is an edison bulb is oh? Is it
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  Speaker 1: like the real old amy looking one sort of um?
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  Speaker 1: So that is pretty simple. It has electricity that passes
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: through a filment, just a thin metal piece of something metal,
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  Speaker 1: and that heats up, and it heats up so much
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  Speaker 1: that it gives off light, which is incredibly inefficient. And
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  Speaker 1: if say a jellyfish for to do this, it would
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  Speaker 1: catch fire even though it's under water. Right, So what
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  Speaker 1: um living organisms do when they want to give off
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  Speaker 1: light is something called cold light or bioluminescence, which is
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  Speaker 1: the combination of chemicals that produce light like a glow stick,
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  Speaker 1: but no heat. But it is just like a glow stick.
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  Speaker 1: You're combining two things that will make a glow exactly,
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  Speaker 1: except you don't have to shake up the jellyfish. They
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  Speaker 1: do not like that. Or it's like the glow sticks
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  Speaker 1: that I used to sell very often at Stone Mountain
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  Speaker 1: Laser Show. It's like the glows free Summer that I
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  Speaker 1: used to dance with at races. You were at raves
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  Speaker 1: and I was selling these things during like Lee Greenwoods,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Lee Greenwood, Lee Green Would you Proud to be an American? Yeah? Boy,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I heard that song five thousand times. So bad. Anyone
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  Speaker 1: who's never been to a Stone Mountain, Georgia. They have
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  Speaker 1: a big rock there and they have a laser show
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  Speaker 1: on it during the summer. It's a big rock that
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  Speaker 1: has a basically the Confederate heroes carved into the side
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  Speaker 1: of it by the guy who did Mount Rushmore. How's
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  Speaker 1: that the same guy? Huh? Yeah, And they show a
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  Speaker 1: very corny laser show every summer since like the early
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, and not just once this summer, like every
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  Speaker 1: night during the summer. Yeah, that's why I've heard it
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand times. It's something And Chuck, you still work there.
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  Speaker 1: I think you left that out selling gloves sticks sticks
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  Speaker 1: full circle. Yes, all right, let's quit stalling. Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about bioluminescence. Okay, that's all over the place. Uh. Like
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  Speaker 1: you said, we don't know exactly how it works in
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  Speaker 1: all cases, but we do know that these animals do
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  Speaker 1: mix together. There are different substances, just like a glow stick,
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  Speaker 1: wood and to turn their little glow on and off. Um.
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  Speaker 1: Here on the planet, not in the ocean, because that's
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  Speaker 1: where most of the stuff takes place here on planet Earth.
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  Speaker 1: On the dry land. Uh, you can have things glowing
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  Speaker 1: like fox fire, which is this fungus that feeds on
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  Speaker 1: rotting wood. You look at pictures of fox fire. Pretty cool. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't look real, but it's real. It's very real. Um.
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  Speaker 1: The jack O lander mushroom you can google that as well.
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  Speaker 1: That's my favorite bioluminous in organism. Why just because it's
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  Speaker 1: the South on land on Terra Firma, because it's a
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  Speaker 1: perfectly named thing, the jack O lantern mushroom. Like it
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  Speaker 1: has that glow coming through the gills, um, and just
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  Speaker 1: the gills, so it looks like there's like this glow
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  Speaker 1: coming inside and there's like holes where it's coming out of.
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  Speaker 1: It's so neat. My favorite on Terra Firma is the
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  Speaker 1: lightning bug a k a. The firefly. Here in the
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  Speaker 1: South and I guess I'm not sure where else it
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  Speaker 1: on lightning bugs, but definitely in the Sound. You'll see
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  Speaker 1: them come out every summer and if you're a little kid,
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  Speaker 1: you can go around and catch them. And put them
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  Speaker 1: in a jar and then and then release them. And
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  Speaker 1: in fact you may be harming them just by catching them.
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  Speaker 1: But what you don't want to do if you're a
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  Speaker 1: kid is like smash these things because it's just yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that means you're gonna end up being a serial killer
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  Speaker 1: one day probably. Uh. So the firefly is uh, you
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  Speaker 1: know you generally you think of them as the adults
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  Speaker 1: lying around, but their little larva can glow as well
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  Speaker 1: on the ground, right, And a lot of people call
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  Speaker 1: um firefly lava glow worms, but glow worms are apparently
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  Speaker 1: another kind of fly larvae. Fireflies are fireflies or lightning bugs.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, um, centipedes, millipedes, there's all all kinds of
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  Speaker 1: little things that can glow worms. Uh, there's some worms
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  Speaker 1: that give off a bioluminescent sludge and no one has
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  Speaker 1: any idea why is it their poop and then pop it?
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  Speaker 1: I don't think so. Ober. The the the secretion they
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  Speaker 1: produce when they're mating and all that, it's probably like that.
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  Speaker 1: It probably comes from the ring. I can't remember the
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  Speaker 1: name of the ring. So that's on Earth. But if
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  Speaker 1: you really want to get down to some cool, glowing creatures.
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  Speaker 1: You need to dive down into the ocean to the
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  Speaker 1: twilight zone, which I think we've talked about that, haven't
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  Speaker 1: we know? We talked about it in biospeleiol in caves. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there's different zones of light penetration in caves and in
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  Speaker 1: the ocean too, that's right. Um, the twilight zone is
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  Speaker 1: generally about six hundred sixty two feet deep. Six It
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  Speaker 1: depends because obviously different kinds of ocean water are gonna
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  Speaker 1: allow different amounts of light in. It depends on what
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  Speaker 1: the ocean floor looks like, but it is, um, it
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  Speaker 1: is the dysphotic or poorly lit zone deeper than the
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  Speaker 1: euphotic sunlit zone or good zone or shout or then
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  Speaker 1: the aphotic midnight zone, which is like scary no light.
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  Speaker 1: That's a scary time down there, right. Those are the
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  Speaker 1: things down there that have like no eyes, right, because
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  Speaker 1: there's no reason, same like with the caves. So um, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I remember what was the Prometheus Salaman just three ft
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  Speaker 1: long and doesn't have eyes. The scariest thing ever except
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: for the cigar shark, which will actually get do in here. Okay,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: so is that the cookie cutter shark man that things
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  Speaker 1: frightening um. So in this uh, this twilight zone, the
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  Speaker 1: desphotic zone or mezo pelagic zone, mesopelagic zone, stop laughing
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  Speaker 1: at me. Uh there, this is where most of the
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  Speaker 1: bioluminescent organisms on Earth can be found. And the light
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  Speaker 1: that penetrates this area um is a blue green color
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  Speaker 1: because the red, yellow, orange. Yeah, the red, yellow and
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  Speaker 1: orange are absorbed by the seawater above and the violet
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  Speaker 1: is scattered, so the blue and the green are the
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  Speaker 1: ones that get through. So everything's just kind of color
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  Speaker 1: blue green. That's what the sunlight is. So most of
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  Speaker 1: the bioluminescent organisms in this um dysphotic zone, dysphotic zone
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  Speaker 1: have evolved to produce light at that same wavelength from
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  Speaker 1: something like four four hundred seventy nanometers, which is like
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  Speaker 1: the blue green spectrum. That's right, So matches that sunlight, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: which is pretty cool. Yeah, well we'll get to it.
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  Speaker 1: But it can lead to some cool things like camouflage.
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  Speaker 1: So uh, the but it also means that it travels farther.
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  Speaker 1: Light travels that that type of light travels the farthest
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  Speaker 1: and water because it has a shorter wavelength than the
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  Speaker 1: other types. So an animal producing this could really cook
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  Speaker 1: down there basically. Yeah. Uh, we're talking jellyfish, shrimp, grill, squid,
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  Speaker 1: other kinds of fish, marine worms, whatever the heck that
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  Speaker 1: is therely what you think it is. Yeah, what are
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  Speaker 1: those one worms called? It like come up out of
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  Speaker 1: the little tubes tube worms? Oh yeah, yeah, I believe
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  Speaker 1: that's what they're called. Um, either that or it just
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  Speaker 1: made some terrible like sixth grade joke. But um. They
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  Speaker 1: they they are like on the ocean bottom and they
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  Speaker 1: they have they just come out of these tubes and
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  Speaker 1: grab stuff and go back in there like three ft long.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: You've not seen this sea snake to me. Yeah, but
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  Speaker 1: they're I think they're attached or they may be attached
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  Speaker 1: to their tubes, or they just never come all the
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  Speaker 1: way out. I'm gonna have to look into that. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Uh so you talked about the blue green light is
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  Speaker 1: what they generally produce. Um, there is something called the
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  Speaker 1: loose jawfish, which actually can make red light very deep
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  Speaker 1: in the ocean. But that's really unusual that can make
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  Speaker 1: red light, and it's um. A lot of species can't
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  Speaker 1: even see the color red down there because I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if they're just their brains aren't used to it
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  Speaker 1: because they never see it. So the loose jaw uses
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: this thing um to to basically sneak up on people. Um,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: it's like Jane Gum at the end of silence of
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  Speaker 1: the lamb and and like the fish are like Jodie
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  Speaker 1: Foster like, and Jane Gum is the loose jaw fish
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  Speaker 1: coming up behind her like I can see you, you
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  Speaker 1: can't see me. So, like we said earlier, we don't
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  Speaker 1: know for sure why all these uh, bioluminescent forms of
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  Speaker 1: life are down there doing their thing. Um. You did
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  Speaker 1: mention the earthworm that has the secretion. They don't know
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  Speaker 1: why they do that. The mushroom spores, they think that
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  Speaker 1: maybe it's um to attract insect to spread these spores.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: That's why the mushroom glows makes sense. Um Sometimes and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: this one's kind of cute. Sometimes animals will light up
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  Speaker 1: when something nearby them lights up, which I think might
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  Speaker 1: just be a little like, hey, how you doing, I
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: can glow too, Well, that's how far a fliers are doing. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're attracting mates right with it, like a very specific
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  Speaker 1: pattern right there. They used it to communicate like, hey,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you're looking pretty good. Meet you by the fence post, right, yeah, um,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: let's go get some fun. So should we talk about
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: the dino flagellates, the dino flagellates, dino flagelates? Am I
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: pronouncing it wrong? No? I think that was wrong? Okay,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: well yeah, So have you ever seen Apolar thirteen? Yeah?
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You remember the part where um they had a problem.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Is it Tom level? Gym level? Where gym level? And
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: UH is hanging out with Bill Paxton and they're talking
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: about how they're just shooting the breeze while they're trying
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: to stay alive, and um he talks about how he
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: was flying a mission, um coming in on an aircraft carrier,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and there was a blackout and he couldn't see where
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: he's going, he couldn't find the aircraft carry to land.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: He's running low and fuel. Then all of a sudden
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: he looks and he notices that there's a bunch of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: um he calls it like glowing algae or whatever. But
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: what he's talking about where dino flagelets that were kicked
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: up by the wake of the aircraft carrier and he
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: used them as like a runway to guide them in.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I remember that part. That's a great part that whole
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: movie from like start to finish with. But these dino
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: flagelets create what's called the milky sea when you get
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: enough of them together, when they're disturbed physically, they start
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: to glow. And if you have a bunch of them,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: you can see him from space. Actually in this article
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: there's a picture of a pretty substantial milky sea off
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the coast of Africa. Pretty cool stuff. And if you
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: google milky Sea two you can see some like that's
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: cool looking. But I like the shots from like low
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: flying planes, helicopters and uh a little eerie. Yeah, that
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: may say. So. They have no idea again, why dino
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: flagelates would glow when they're disturbed. Obviously they're like trying
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: to register their complaint. They can't talk, you can't flip
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: anyone off, so they glow out of anger. Apparently, Um,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: they they there's a theory called the burglar alarm theory.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: I like this one. Or basically they think that, um,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: when dino flage lets start to glow, it's because there's
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: little fish eating on them, right, which is disturbing. They
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: think that maybe they glow to basically alert larger fish
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: that will come eat the smaller fish so they'll stop
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: eating the dino flagelets. That there's little fish in the area.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Pretty awesome, Like hey, help come eat this guy because
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: you're bigger. Uh. Here's some other and you know, these
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: are the ones that are the most understood because there
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: is a lot of uncertainty, Like we said, like ten
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: times um. But here's here's some of the reasons that
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: they think they're doing this communication, which we've mentioned with
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the firefly or the lightning bug. Uh, to locate food,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: maybe to use it as an actual light to see
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  Speaker 1: in the dark. Pretty cool, or a spotlight to catch prey,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: oh like temporarily blind something gotcha? Or no, to like
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: go find it. It's very dark in here. I need
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: to see what fish are around to attract prey, like
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the anglerfish, Like look at this bright glow, come here, chomp. Yeah.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: I love that one. What was that in Finding Nemo Man?
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: The thing was scary. I didn't see that movie, good one, Camouflage.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I don't watch any of those anymore because Emily doesn't
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: like him. Oh, yes, she doesn't like Disney movies. She
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: doesn't like any of those Pixar movies because it's always
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: like some tragedy like someone dies in its heartbreak and
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: keep her away from toy story three. Dude, I can't
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: even watch that movie. I made her watch up and
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: she was just like a like a little blob of
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: play the first ten minutes or this so sad. God.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: But I always explained to her, like, this is why
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: they make these movies, so kids can learn how to
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: cope with death. And then they see like it's all
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: happy afterwards, you know, all right, camouflage this is the
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: cool this one, yeah, and the it's pretty. It makes
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: sense too. If you're in the ocean, and if you
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: ever like swum down ten or fift ft and looked
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: up open your eyes in the ocean, I've done it. Um.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: It's it's hard to see stuff below you, but it's
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: easy to look up because you know the sunlight's penetrating
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: down and see like the silhouette or in the case
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: of Jaws, you see like the silhouette of the lady's
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: legs on the raft. You know, that's good eating. Um.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: If you have, like in the case of what's it
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: called counter elimination, you can actually produce spots on your
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: underside to make it more difficult for a fish beneath you,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: a predator beneath you to look up and like make
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: out what's going on, Like, you won't have the the
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the perfect little silhouette outline of a yummy fish. It'll
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: confuse it, basically because you're cutting down in the contrast
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: pretty cool, like you're creating light that blends in with
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: that same blue green light, and all of a sudden
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: you disappear well or just breaks up your shapes don't
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: look like you should. Um. And then there's the opposite,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the cookie cutter or cigar shark, which is the name
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: I think you made up, Um, that's real, which basically
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: has the reverse of that, where the bottom, the underside
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: of the cookie cutter shark glows except for this one
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: spot in the middle that is dark that looks like
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: a small fish, So of shark or some other animal
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: looking up, we'll be like, I'm gonna go eat that fish.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden it's like, oh god,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: it's a cookie cutter slash cigar shark. And then the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: cookie cutter shark takes a bite out of them, round
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: bite and that's why they call it the cookie cutter.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: It's like a little plug of flesh and if you've
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: ever seen google these dudes in their face, it's like
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the most frightening little thing you've ever seen in your life. Yeah,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: they're pretty terrifying. And you'll see pictures of like a
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: shark or a whale washed up on the shore with
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like hundreds of these little bite plugs taken out of them. Yeah,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: that's pretty awful. That's a that's a terrible way to go. Yeah,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: but good for you, cigar shark, because you're small and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you're doing what you can. Tough world down there. It's
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: wildly you know, it's diphotic, and then self defense is
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: the last reason. Um And basically, like a squid may
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: release inc to cloud your vision, some of these things
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: can release a cloud of a glowing cloud two uh,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: basically make you sit back and put on pink Floyd
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: and like chill out for a little while. Yeah, I
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: looked it up. There's a shrimp. There's a type of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: shrimp that releases a bioluminescent cloud. And I couldn't get
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the name. I saw both fire breathing and vomiting shrimp
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: for the common names. But yeah, it just puts it out.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: That's not what I would want order on the menu,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the fried vomiting shrimp, uh, and make sure there's extra
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: poop in the main vain. Um. So what's going on here? How?
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: How is this magic happening? Well, just like we've mentioned
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: with a light stick, and involves two different substances mixed
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: together to produce this reaction. Um. And there can be
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: all different kinds of kinds of chemicals. But depending on
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the on the fish or the being, the being, the life. Uh.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: The g one is a a lucifer in and that's
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the light producer, and the other is a lucif phrase
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and that is the enzyme that catalyzes it. So and
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: those aren't specific things like you you wouldn't look at
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the chemical composition of something and be like, oh, that's
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: lucifer in. Something can be a lucifer and it's a
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: generic term for something that produces light or something that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: catalyzes the production of light, the lucifhrase. That is correct,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: And they will mix together and a lot of times
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: the lucifer in is something called a photo protein and
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: it needs an eye on a charged ion to get
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: things going. That would be the lucifhrase. That's right, But
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in all cases there's some sort of trigger. Could be mechanical,
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: could be chemical, could be neu logical startle. Yeah, it
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: could be something they don't understand yet, but something triggers
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: these two things to get together and make this reaction.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: And one thing that I didn't realize was the word
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Lucifer means lightbringer. Yeah, I never knew that. You mean,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I um went on a little side tear last night
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out why the devil would be named
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the light Bringer? Did you find out? It's a mystery.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: It's um Latin and it came years, like centuries after
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: UM the Old Testament was originally written, and I can't
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: remember what version, but it was basically like added on
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: by the I guess the Romans maybe added it on,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: but it's because it's Latin and the original version was
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: not written in Latin. Lightbringer, the light Bringer, the morning Star,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: that's another way to put it. They said, maybe it
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: had to do with Venus, because Venus is like a
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: false are, and so maybe Lucifer is a false angel,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: is what they're saying. But makes sense because the devil
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: would always come in disguise. Maybe, Yeah, I think that's
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: weak light Bringer. That's pretty specific like what is that.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I bet there's some theologian that has the answer here.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I want to hear it. Yeah, I would hard to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: find out about that one podcast at Discovery dot com
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: if you know that answer. So, Um, you've got lucifer in,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: you've got luciphrase. Some of these chemical reactions require another substance,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: and a lot of times it's oxygen, right, So luciferen
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: will come in in contact with an oxygen molecule and
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: then the luciphrase comes along, and then you've got a
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: bioluminescent glow, which is pretty cool. But they also think
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: that that's one of the reasons I should say, that's
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why they think that bioluminescence is
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: an accidental byproduct of regular old evolution and that originally um,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: like there's a lucifering called um ceiling terrazine. I believe
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: it's how you pronounce it, uh, And it's an antioxidant.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: It goes around and tries to find like rogue, harmful
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: free radicals oxygen derivatives right and get rid of them. Uh.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: And they think that this happened this was a process
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that was way way older than bioluminescence, and then along
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: came some substance that became a lucifhrase, and then light
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: was created, and then it was just a byproduct like heats,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: a byproduct of metabolism, right. Um. But they think also
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: that over time this happened in like maybe it's going
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: on inside of us right now and we're producing light,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: but we just don't know it, or it's just so
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: weak that we wouldn't even possibly be able to detect it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: But this happened enough times in animals in the ocean
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: where suddenly ones could catch prey more easily because they
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: could see better than other animals that weren't bioluminescing, And
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: so it was selected in these skies, and now bioluminescence
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: is its own trait rather than a byproduct of the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: antioxidant process. I bet you're right. Oh it's that's not
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: me man. I think you just cooked this up. I
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: wish that's better than why as far as research papers go, Yeah,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: throw a theory out there, see if it sticks, That's
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: what I say. So the deal with these these animals
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: is they either have all this stuff like in their
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: body as part of them, or they have a little
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: relationship with a bacteria, like producing bacteria that live in
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a light organ and this is pretty cool. Like some
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: of these animals can pull this organ back into their
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: body like it's always on. Sometimes they don't want to
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: light to be on, so they'll pull it back in
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: the body. Or they have a little something like a
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: light uh an eyelid that they can just kind of
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: close over the light, which is pretty amazing. Yeah, but
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: it's always going. Yeah. And what the other thing with
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: evolution is they think that because they don't see this
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: as often in lakes because lakes are younger, then they
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: think it maybe happened independently at different parts in the ocean.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: So I talked to Tracy about this, and it was
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a little hinky. She wrote this a long time because
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: she couldn't quite remember what the point was. But the
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: point was that they think that because the process of
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: antioxidation is a normal thing, um, that the the conditions
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: were right for bioluminescence to be selected naturally in some places,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: but it wouldn't in like a lake. So the the
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: idea that this happened independently and spontaneously when needed through
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: evolution is kind of backed up by the idea that
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: you don't really see bioluminescence at the bottom of lakes
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: because you don't need it. It all makes sense when
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you just peel the peel the little curtain back, don't
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: it when you peel the glowing skin bag? What else
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: you got? Anything else? You've seen glowing cats? Yeah? The
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: Mayo Clinic likes to put jellyfish jeans in animals. The
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: most the biggest one so far as a cat and
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: make it glow because they're checking um disease. They're using
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: it to mark the progression of diseases. But they made
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: a glowing cat. It's pretty cool, now does the I
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: gotta look this. It glows under a blue light, but
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: it glows green, and it's like the cat glows green
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: like it. I guess it's the hair the caratinate produces
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: has some sort of fluorescent property to it, but it's
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: it's not bioluminescent in it's fluorescent, and fluorescent is where
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: you take light of one color and reflected back, absorb
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: it and reflected back of it as a different color.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: You're not actually producing light, all right. I just looked
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: it up. Wow, it's a glowing cat and I double
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: check the day, a double check the damn like, this
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: better not be an April Fool article. But it's not.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I want one of those this photic Yeah, okay, so
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: if you you're done, I'm done. Yeah. There's glowing rats too.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: You know these are baby cats I think you should punch.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Are called kittens in some countries. Um, if you if
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you want to learn more about bioluminescence, you should type
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: that in to the search bar. And you want to
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: type b I O l U M I N E
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: S C E n c E not ful in the
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: search bar at how stuff works dot com, and it'll
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: bring up this very cool article with some pretty glowing pictures. UM.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: And I said, uh, search bar somewhere in there, which
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: means it's time for a listener mail. No it's not, Josh.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Today's part two of you want to say it? For
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: those of you don't know, this is a point at
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: the show where we um thank people for little tokens
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: and gifts and chatch keys and things that they have
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: sent us food sometimes foods, and UM, it's a good
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: chance to hear your name on the show as a
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: as a thank you, and it's a good chance for
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: some of you to find out where you can get
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: some of these things, because a lot of times they're
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: like really great creative, crafty things. People write books, and like,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: we want to support uh crafters and writers and bakers
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of cookies, and we want to support Bill Wagoner, who
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: sent us a bumper sticker on how to pronounce Nevada Nevada.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I'll never get used to that. It's not right. It
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: is right, but I tell everyone that writes in only
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: people from Nevada say it that way. Everyone else says
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Nevada Nevada. That's Nevada, all right. Lily, her sister Toby,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and brother in law Danny start a company called Please
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Be Good Humans. Yeah, I mean they've gotten uh, they
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: sent us some shirts. I think they sent some to
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the stickers. They've got them. Know, everybody has stickers. We
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: passed them out. Oh well, Kristen Conger, I think that's
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: short too though, Oh she did. I think so. Oh
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: that's great. Um. And basically everything is has the p
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: B g H logo on it, which is like, be
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: good to each other, and of everything they sell goes
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: to the charity of your choice. So if you go there,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Please Be Good Humans. The Internet you can actually get
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: some of the stuff and choose your own charity that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: will go to. Very nice message, Very nice. Um, how
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: about some Randy Carbonny action. Yeah, he send us his
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Pirate Gag booklet, which is a tailor made for Pirate Day.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Talk about too Pirate Day. If you want to learn
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: more about that, you could go to Pirate Day p
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I R A T E A d A y dot
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: blog spot dot com and hook up with Randy carbon Action.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Christopher M. A Roth with an E at the end
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: sent us a kN version of his book Dirk Danger
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Loves Life. I don't have a kindle yet, and I'm
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: dying to read this thing, just sitting there. Um. Susannah
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: from Archie the Archie Comics. Um, she sent us a
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: bunch of stuff. She she she sends us stuff in
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: like waves. I guess you could put it. But most recently, um,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: she sent us a Archie meets Kiss hardcover book of
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Kevin Keller book. Um, that's the first gay character. That's right,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: first gay comic book character. This whole green lantern hubbub.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I haven't heard that. Oh yeah, there's apparently two green lanterns,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and one of them came out as gay and it's
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: just a man in the comic that he came out.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: And yeah, but Archie's gotta beat it's right because of
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Kevin Keller is the first gay character UH in the
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Jinx comics that Susannah is she draw right produced those
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: which yeah, I mean that's her baby, So UM support
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the Jinx comics and Archie's a whole. She sent his
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: shirts and what we're supposed to meet at UH Comic Con,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: but she said they were slammed in the booth and
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: she was unable to get away. Oh I met Uncle
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: John's Reader people. From reader People, they gave us shirts
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: and hats, very nice, so thank you for that as well.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: We're from Mad Magazine too. Just like floored me. Yeah,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: did you write that guy back? I totally did you. Yeah,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: I finally did. Um. Daniel Mackenzie from Oakland, California Sennison
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: LP from his band shut I Unison, awesome music, indie rock,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: little noisy, little melodic, right up my alley, shut Out Unison.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't see that one. It's good stuff. Um. Andy
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Parr Sentison edition of Games Magazine's World of Puzzles. Is
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: that the one that had us as a clue. I believe.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: So yeah, stuff you should know was a clue in
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: a word search. I believe nobody got it. I don't
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: get this one. That's cool, but it was very nice
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: that he uh he did. He went to that in trouble.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Uh Suki s u k I Design Laboratory, senter some
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: hankies and this was the lady who designed the baby
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: head T shirt with the fly. Yeah, our favorite T
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: shirt of the submissions, the most disturbing one. It was
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: one of my five favorites. It was my favorite inning. Yeah.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: But um, she designed that, and she sent us some
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: hankies with like these hankies have like sleeping sickness and
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: hepatitis and like the chemical combinations of these on the hanky.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's what's contained within. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. Um yeah,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: thank you for those. Duff Man sent it's the Springfield
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Isotopes couzy. Yeah, from deaf Man himself. Yeah, uh, we
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: appreciate that, sir. Uh. Silver Fox broad Band sent his
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Silver Fox T shirts and at first I was all, well,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: is this broadband company sending his shirts? Then I looked
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: up they supply internet for senior homes, So I was
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden work with pride. Everyone at my
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: gym thinks that I'm a silver Fox. Comfortable. Let's see
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: the guys from rock tail Ours send us a T
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: shirt the podcast about rock music. Um, that's rock and
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: then tail t a l e our check them out.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Bike rappers dot com uh with w R A p
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: B are not rapping like music. They sent us some
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: reflective bike rappers and dog collars. Basically just these little
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: bell grow things. Such an easy invention but but necessary
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: and you wrap them on the frame of your bike
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to make your bike more reflective. And they have a
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: little reflective dog collars too. It's pretty cool. Um, we've
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: got Christmas cards from a bunch of people. Thank you
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: very much. From this is how far behind we are.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: It's Christmas in July, everybody, Nick and Lindsay Devon, b
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: Becca Evans, Andrew and Janelle Thomas. So thank you very much.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: Merry Christmas all your people, and happy Halloween. M oh
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and I've got one more and send us a Halloween car.
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: Oh thanks, Happy Halloween, am. And then again from Nick
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and Lindsay. They sent us Valentine State cards. Yeah, they're
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: they're pretty sweet. They send us stuff are you done,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: because I got two more in this one. Let's go
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: for it, dude. David Beaver's family has been making a
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: magnetic calendar for fifty years, and not just one. They've
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: been making the magnetic calendars for fifty years. Uh. The
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Magnetic Calendar dot com owned operated, made and sourced in
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: the Midwest. It's a selling point family business. They've been
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: doing this for how long fifty years? Fifty years? Uh?
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: And then Jill Swing sent us a Twinkie the kid
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: t shirts, So thank you very much. Yeah, I believe
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: it was how many design to write? I don't know,
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: I think it is, was it? Yeah? Well, thank you everybody.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: That was very kind of you. Yeah. We have one
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: more installment and they'll here soon, and then I have
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: to do it because these are all the ones that
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Chuck compiled. I think it's most of them that you
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: have a lot. I've got a decent amount. All right. Well,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: then they'll be apart four, okay, and then we'll start
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: all over all right, all right? If you want to
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: send us something, even something is innocuous, is just a hello.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: You can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
• 36:07
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• 36:09
  Speaker 1: stuff you should know and you can send us an
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: email to Stuff Podcast at Discovery dot com. For more
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit how Stuff
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Works dot com. M brought to you by the reinvented
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you