From humans secretly glowing like discount glow sticks to sharks displaying better table manners than most toddlers, today's science roundup proves that nature is absolutely bonkers in the best possible way. We're exploring a world where your body emits light (just not enough to read by), cuttlefish have better impulse control than most adults, and apex predators are apparently more civilised than Black Friday shoppers.
You're Literally Glowing Right Now (But Don't Get Too Excited)
Here's something that'll blow your mind: you're currently emitting light. Not enough to ditch your electricity bill, but actual photons are streaming off your body right now. It's called biophoton emission, and every living thing does it - from you reading this to that sad plant you've been neglecting on your windowsill.
The glow stops when you die, which is both fascinating and slightly morbid. Scientists reckon this could revolutionise medical diagnostics, but let's be honest - we're all just secretly hoping someone figures out how to make us glow bright enough to find our keys in the dark. Until then, you'll have to settle for being a very, very dim human torch.
The Ocean's Getting Darker (And Fish Aren't Happy About It)
While we're all worried about climate change melting ice caps, here's another cheerful update: our oceans are literally getting darker. Thanks to nutrient runoff and messed-up currents, the photic zone (where sunlight actually penetrates) is shrinking faster than your motivation on a Monday morning.
Marine life that depends on sunlight is basically getting the equivalent of permanent winter depression. It's like someone's slowly dimming the lights on the entire ocean ecosystem. Finding Nemo would be a much shorter movie if Nemo couldn't actually see where he was going.
Cuttlefish Have Better Self-Control Than You Do
Remember the marshmallow test? That psychological experiment where kids had to choose between one marshmallow now or two later? Well, scientists decided to torture cuttlefish with the same dilemma, except with shrimp instead of marshmallows.
Plot twist: the cuttlefish nailed it. They waited for the better food, showing more patience than most humans exhibit at a buffet. These eight-armed geniuses can also recognise symbols, which means they're probably judging us for our poor life choices.
Sharks: The Ocean's Most Polite Dinner Guests
In the "things that shouldn't surprise us but absolutely do" department, tiger sharks and white tip sharks have been caught displaying impeccable table manners. When feeding on a whale carcass, these supposedly vicious predators took turns like well-behaved dinner guests.
No fighting, no pushing, just orderly queuing that would make the British proud. It's like they've been attending etiquette classes while we weren't looking. Meanwhile, humans literally trample each other for discounted TVs. Maybe we should be taking notes from the sharks instead of fearing them.
From glowing humans to patient cuttlefish, polite sharks to darkening oceans, science keeps proving that reality is far weirder and more wonderful than anything we could imagine. Next time someone tells you nature is predictable, tell them about the cuttlefish with better impulse control than most adults - that should shut them up.
Stay curious, keep questioning everything, and remember - you're literally a walking, talking light source.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 The Force Might Be Real
00:50 Introducing the Hosts
01:04 Exploring Bio Photons
01:26 Disgusting Animals and Human Reactions
02:08 The Komodo Dragon Story
03:25 Scientific Evidence of Bio Photons
09:48 The Ocean is Getting Darker
14:44 The Marshmallow Test and Animal Cognition
21:41 The Risk of Foraging
22:19 Cuttlefish and Cognitive Abilities
22:51 Disgusting Foods Around the World
25:33 Psychological Mechanisms of Food Rejection
34:22 Sharks' Polite Scavenging Behavior
38:02 Conclusion and Listener Engagement
SOURCES:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.70227
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.3161
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/fish-science/articles/10.3389/frish.2025.1520995/full?ref=404media.co
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[00:00:00] Rod: It turns out, maybe the force is real. So sci-fi, star Wars, you know, they talk about, uh, this amazing glowing force that permeates all living things. It connects us, it flows through us, it flows with us, et cetera, et cetera. And it's based on these little, I dunno what they're critters called mi we're not gonna talk about Midor, but there is this phenomenon called bio photons. And apparently all living things, including humans, constantly admit this ghostly glow, which vanishes almost as soon as we die.
[00:00:47] Will: It's time for a little bit of science
[00:00:49] Rod: just a little bit.
[00:00:50] Will: I'm Will Grant, associate professor of science communication at the Australian National University.
[00:00:55] Rod: Sounds very impressive. Um, I'm Rod Lamberts, 30 year veteran of science [00:01:00] Communication with the mind of a teenage boy.
[00:01:03] Will: I know. So today you're gonna tell me about the regular force.
[00:01:07] The real force. I'm gonna
[00:01:08] Rod: about the real force.
[00:01:10] Will: What else we got?
[00:01:11] Rod: Well, yeah, what do you got?
[00:01:12] Will: I got, I got a new thing for us to worry about.
[00:01:15] Rod: Thank you. That's what I've been looking for. I've got a, I've got a thing that maybe you, you could try at home. It's gonna be a bit complex to do it, but just see how freaked out you can be.
[00:01:25] Will: Nice. Yeah. Yeah. I got some smart animals.
[00:01:28] Rod: I've also got a, a little trip into the world, the wonderful world of human disgust.
[00:01:32] Will: Well, and I've got some disgusting animals for you as well.
[00:01:35] Rod: They're all disgusting, but in an adorable way. Come on. My dogs right? I love them. They're adorable, but fuck, they're
[00:01:41] Will: No, no, no, no.
[00:01:42] They're gross. No. Look, I mean, I, I know we are dog owners. Uh, so cat, cat owners at this moment are saying cats aren't disgusting.
[00:01:51] Rod: Have you.
[00:01:52] Will: Yep.
[00:01:52] Rod: Uh, yes, they are. They're not
[00:01:56] Will: as gross as dogs. Like dogs are dog
[00:01:58] Rod: They've all got their own. Uh, [00:02:00] pros and cons,
[00:02:00] Will: fair enough, fair look. Animals, yes, in general. A gross.
[00:02:05] Rod: Yeah.
[00:02:05] They're not built to be inside.
[00:02:06] Will: I just got, I just gotta tell this story. This is a total tangent, but, um, but it always made me laugh. So this is Guardian article. Um, I reckon it was about 20 years ago.
[00:02:14] and it was the story of this correspondent who was living in Indonesia at the time.
[00:02:19] He told the story of walking to his work from, from wherever he lived. , Every day. And a water buffalo had been, uh, caught in like a swamp or something like that. And it was, it was alive, but dying. And, um, and the, a Komodo dragon had, um. This
[00:02:38] Rod: this is gonna go well.
[00:02:39] Will: Yeah. It, it had burrowed into the water buffalo and was eating it slowly from the inside, from the back door. Uh, I, I don't know, I don't know if it was backdoor side door or, or any like, but, but the buffalo was still alive and the Komodo dragon was just happily eating slowly. And, but the thing about this article that got [00:03:00] me is the Guardian columnist.
[00:03:03] They weren't observing this as a piece of, okay, nature, roaring tooth and claw, but as more you are an abomination of a species, this is disgusting and horrible and you should not live like
[00:03:13] Rod: this.
[00:03:14] Will: and I can imagine seeing this over a three day period just going,
[00:03:19] Rod: someone shoot the buffalo again, not a euphemism, but it sounds like one, I'm off to shoot the buffalo.
[00:03:25] Um,
[00:03:25] So the force, right, so like I said there, there's, there appears to be this ghostly glow basically around living things, animals and plants.
[00:03:34] Will: Bit like, okay, gimme, gimme, gimme a spectrum here.
[00:03:38] Like are we, can we see this with a special goggles or,
[00:03:41] Rod: or you, well, you kind of need, you need something that can pick up that they're basically called, these bio photons are ultra weak photon emissions. So periodic, weak little photons, like light bits. So yeah,
[00:03:51] Will: yeah, look, there's obviously a, a couple of animals that can do, uh, bio bioluminescence.
[00:03:56] Rod: No, it's not that
[00:03:57] Will: deep sea fish and fireflies and stuff
[00:03:59] Rod: that. Yeah. [00:04:00] No, not that it's not, it's not that. No. Look, people have been arguing about this for ages apparently. Like Some people didn't think they exist, but now people are starting to agree, but it's shrouded in controversy.
[00:04:09] So basically it seems like mitochondria, you know, the energy bits of ourselves. The little energy factories. Yep.
[00:04:14] Will: And related.
[00:04:15] Rod: substances. Apparently they emit the equivalent of a few photons per second per square centimeter of skin. A few photons. Okay, so just a little bit. There are bing out.
[00:04:25] Will: So there are a little blips of photons per square centimeter. Yeah. Wow.
[00:04:29] Rod: From our energy cells, et cetera. So they're called, that's why they're called ultra wheat. Like it's just little pitiful blips occasionally, apparently.
[00:04:36] Will: So if I got nude in a really dark cave, keep
[00:04:39] Rod: talking.
[00:04:41] Will: That's all I, that's, that's, that's all of my story.
[00:04:43] But, but
[00:04:43] Rod: it's a long weekend.
[00:04:44] You
[00:04:44] Will: Are we, are we saying that, that I can be detected?
[00:04:46] Rod: I don't, well, this is kind of what they're getting at. So this one, let's say, look, they're really hard to detect and disentangle from other biological processes or light sources, background lights, radiation, warmth can all reveal depending on how you [00:05:00] measure it.
[00:05:00] Light or glow. So some clever clogs, uni of Calgary, they got these digital cameras that could detect single photons and then they put them on two hour long exposures. So that's the kind of thing you gotta do. You gotta like sit it there and watch it, just kind of hold your breath And they go occasionally and they focused on four heer mice.
[00:05:18] I
[00:05:19] Will: Ah,
[00:05:20] Rod: dunno if they shaved the mice off. These are mice.
[00:05:22] Will: Okay. Okay.
[00:05:23] Rod: Um, and the photos were
[00:05:25] Will: know, probably genetically engineered Yeah. To be hairless.
[00:05:28] Rod: Also they were, um, the exposure starts before they were dead and then after they were dead.
[00:05:35] Will: you've gotta try both conditions.
[00:05:36] Rod: You do
[00:05:37] Will: that. That is, that is your control condition there, I think. Mm-hmm.
[00:05:40] Rod: And obviously, of course, they, you know, died of natural causes
[00:05:43] Will: Well, it depends what you mean by natural.
[00:05:45] Rod: True murder is natural, I suppose.
[00:05:47] Will: it's been around for a
[00:05:47] Rod: while. Yeah, it's pretty popular. So basically they were kept at the same temperature to exclude heat as a factor, and they were put in a dark box to avoid light pollution.
[00:05:55] So they wanted to control for other possible photonic
[00:05:58] Will: Uhhuh Uhhuh,
[00:05:59] Rod: and they [00:06:00] found that there was an emission. The this bio photonic emissions significantly decreases after death across the whole body of the mouse. So after death, it very quickly drops away.
[00:06:09] the first thing they can say is these ultra weak photon emissions are real.
[00:06:13] Will: Yeah. Or happen. Or at least coming from the living us. They're not bouncing off us or
[00:06:17] Rod: something. Yeah, yeah. They're being generated by the the critter, and so one of the research says, look, this really shows this is not just another imperfection or caused by some other biological process. It's something that comes from all living things.
[00:06:29] That's cool. That's kind of cool. They took a picture of an umbrella tree as well. So not just a anate object. An anate creature, you know what I mean? Yeah. Animal, that's the word. so they cut some leaves on the tree and they, um, were, you know, doing the photon emission measurement.
[00:06:43] Various drugs were applied to the plant service like benzocaine, which nubs things and whether you apply the drug or not, when you do this cutting, you watch the changes in photon biophoton emissions, and once they start to die off. They cease. So it happens to, um, plants as [00:07:00] well. There's a party pooper version of this though.
[00:07:02] Oh, so check Academy of Sciences dude in Prague. He says, look, yeah, the absence of bio photons after death, it's 'cause there's, you know, no more blood flow. 'cause the oxygen rich blood isn't there anymore. You know, it drives metabolism and that's what your bio photons are. What he claims if the blood had been kept circulating, he reckons you would've observed by photonic emissions anyway, if you just keep artificially pumping
[00:07:27] Will: Yeah. Oh, okay.
[00:07:28] Rod: Yeah. He's saying this is a quote. It's not related to the systemic liveliness. It's related to the liveliness of the optical accessible tissue.
[00:07:37] Will: Okay. Okay. Okay. So what he's saying, there's a magical difference between the liveliness of blood flowing due to your heart versus blood flowing due to an what? What is, what is the problem here?
[00:07:49] Rod: kind of claim I, I think what he's trying to say, it's kind of boring and mechanical. It's not related to some kind of life force or
[00:07:54] lifeness. okay.
[00:07:54] Will: I'm with him.
[00:07:55] It's not a life force thing. It probably just could be associated with, [00:08:00] you know, the processes of being a force. It's not the force force, it's not the, it's not the force. It's pretty like weak end version of the force.
[00:08:08] Rod: Yeah, I, in reality,
[00:08:09] Will: glow,
[00:08:09] Rod: we slightly glow. Yeah, we slightly glow. Not after we're
[00:08:12] Will: I mean it's, it's not exactly something that kills the death star, like slight glow.
[00:08:19] Rod: Well, I'll let you know on a secret,
[00:08:20] very slight glow.
[00:08:21] there isn't a death star to kill.
[00:08:22] That's true. So we wouldn't have to worry
[00:08:23] Will: Is there any purpose to this? Uh,
[00:08:25] Rod: yeah, actually there could be.
[00:08:26] Will: oh,
[00:08:28] Rod: This is interesting 'cause basically I reckon you can, using this and getting better at measuring it, you can monitor living tissues, et cetera, without having to be invasive in any way, shape, or
[00:08:36] Will: Ah.
[00:08:36] Rod: Ah, so it's kind of more like Star Trek than Star Wars 'cause you're basically getting your, your tricorders and stuff and you can monitor for things.
[00:08:43] and your life science and you can kinda go,
[00:08:45] Will: not holding the mirror against their nose or something like
[00:08:48] Rod: We could do that too, but it's tricky to do when you're between two spaceships.
[00:08:51] Will: so.
[00:08:52] Well, you know, we have talked in the past about, uh, people. Hovering between life and death and, uh, the difficulties of [00:09:00] detecting death. a few hundred years ago. this could be a thing that they bio they could have used, they could have, you know,
[00:09:05] if
[00:09:05] Rod: they can also, you can monitor the health of forests and stuff by looking at it that way.
[00:09:08] So you can remote sense health, life force, et cetera, sort of stuff. Yeah. So there's something in it, like I say, so it's more Star Trek than Star Wars, but that's cool. As far as I'm concerned, it's the damn force, man.
[00:09:20] Will: So I'm gonna start this story, at the tail end just because it, it impressed me starting from the back. Well, yeah. So I'm just gonna read the last sentence, , from, from the abstract of this story. Um, the implications of this thing, Currently unknown, but likely to be severe. And I'm like,
[00:09:37] Rod: cool. That's how you start all like big Hollywood, blockbuster movies, everything went to shit anyway.
[00:09:42] Will: we really don't know, but it's gonna be severe. So, uh, here's, here's a new thing for you to worry about. Thanks. The ocean is getting darker,
[00:09:50] Rod: darker,
[00:09:50] Will: darker
[00:09:51] Rod: like reflecting less light or just denser and.
[00:09:55] Will: Darker inside the ocean. So, um, I don't know how much you know [00:10:00] about the layers of the ocean, but I watched a lot of OCNs with the kids, so I know the different zones.
[00:10:05] Yeah, yeah. You know, you, you got the, you know, there's sy names for it or there's the less sciencey names top zone.
[00:10:11] Rod: rassa, Uber stru.
[00:10:13] Will: Rasa, uh, top street, uh, the photic zone. That's, you
[00:10:16] know, ftic,
[00:10:17] or
[00:10:17] you could call it the sunlight zone. You know where, where, where the,
[00:10:20] the
[00:10:21] Rod: actual light
[00:10:21] Will: direction. There's actually light in the ocean up to, up to like 200 meters.
[00:10:25] Um, I think
[00:10:26] Rod: 200.
[00:10:27] Will: Yeah, that's deep. It vari, it varies where you are. Obviously if you're in the equator and the, and the water is clear, then it could get down to, but it's, it's light at 1%. So what they're saying is, is 1% of the surface, you know, that's sort of the desire. Yeah. Uh, you go down to the Arctic or the Antarctic and 'cause the light's coming in at an angle, it's not anywhere near as deep.
[00:10:46] So it does, it does vary below that. Then you get the Twilight Zone, the midnight zone, the hale zone. I think there's another one in there I missed where it just gets darker and darker and
[00:10:54] Rod: than the Midnight
[00:10:55] Will: Zone.
[00:10:55] Yeah. Darker than the Midnight
[00:10:56] Rod: Come on.
[00:10:57] Will: I think they might be too darker than the midnight zone, [00:11:00] which is midnight.
[00:11:00] Yeah. Extra midnight. And navy black. You're in a cave. No. Like, I think, yeah. It's, it's, yeah. And, and a lot of this is defined by the amount of light that's coming down, which gets vanishingly small, I think. I think the third, the midnight zone, there's, there's nothing but, but beyond that, then it adds pressures and things like that.
[00:11:17] Right. But anyway, we're focused on the, the photic zone, which is the, is the top 200 meters or so. Yeah. That's the happy bit of the ocean where most things live. Yeah. obviously anything that requires, well, any marine organ organisms that photosynthesize, so you've got sea grasses and kelps and stuff like that.
[00:11:34] Yep. and anything that lives on those things, it's gotta live in the top 200
[00:11:38] Rod: they need that zone.
[00:11:39] Will: So there's things that live lower. Um, but what they're, what they're doing is they're living on, on things that fall down or, you know,
[00:11:46] Rod: they ate volcanoes or something.
[00:11:47] Will: something to do with volcanoes.
[00:11:49] Yeah. Anyway. So these researchers have compared NASA satellite imagery from 2002, 2003, sorry, and 2022.
[00:11:58] Rod: And, and everything's [00:12:00] fine.
[00:12:01] Will: Everything's fine. Nearly 10% of the world's oceans, the photo zone, the top bit at the top has gotten darker. Like it's, it's shrinking the, the zone in which light is coming.
[00:12:11] Uh, so it's getting less further down, uh, and yeah,
[00:12:14] Rod: but
[00:12:16] Will: 10% of the ocean has gotten darker over this 20, 20 year period. Is
[00:12:20] Rod: mean like. The 200 meter is less than 200 meters or across the whole 200 meters is dimmer.
[00:12:27] Will: well, actually yes. Like if you were to draw, it's both. So if you were to draw the line previously at 200 meters Yeah, then it will be darker at 200 meters in these zones.
[00:12:36] But also if your line is, okay, where, where are we down to 1% of light? You've moved up like by 50 meters or something like that. So, so, so some up to
[00:12:45] Rod: natural processes, man. It's always natural processes.
[00:12:48] Will: It's
[00:12:48] Rod: soul flare activity.
[00:12:51] Will: But yeah, so, so some, it's, it's, it's like shrinking that zone by up to a hundred meters.
[00:12:56] So where previously it might have been 200, now it's 100. Like it's, it's.
[00:12:59] Rod: it's [00:13:00] so be barely noticeable. I mean, what's 50% reduction? Big fucking deal.
[00:13:04] Will: Yeah.
[00:13:04] Rod: is great. Great. So what you're doing is just making the ocean more efficient.
[00:13:10] Will: Um, we
[00:13:11] Rod: need the top a hundred meters.
[00:13:12] Will: squeezing it all into, into the top little bit.
[00:13:14] So
[00:13:15] Rod: That's just excellent. Do we know why?
[00:13:19] Will: there's potentially two processes here. But, but I, I'll let you in a spoiler. Both of them are human caused, like it
[00:13:25] Rod: I won't have it.
[00:13:26] Will: So. So one of them
[00:13:29] is,
[00:13:29] um.
[00:13:30] Rod: And
[00:13:31] Will: Stuff. Stuff that is coming from human processes and running out the rivers into the seas. So, so
[00:13:36] kaka poo.
[00:13:37] Yeah.
[00:13:37] Well, yeah, kaka poo, but the, the leftovers of farming, nutrient runoff, uh, microplastics, everything that is being washed into the sea from there. So, so there is definitely a whole function there.
[00:13:49] Rod: What is it like souping up the water,
[00:13:51] Will: souping up the water. It, it literally is literally thickening, literally the well, and, and also new things are blooming like algal blooms.
[00:13:58] Yeah. Is, is gonna cause a [00:14:00] problem. Algal blooms will, will, uh, stop the light. Uh, and then, uh, due to climate change changes in ocean currents seem not to be stirring the water in the same way. Cool. And so cool.
[00:14:10] Yeah, we've got a cool
[00:14:13] Rod: And is this, this has only just been really looked into, people have gone, oh, goody. So,
[00:14:17] Will: so a couple of years they discovered the changing color of the ocean.
[00:14:20] Mm-hmm. The ocean's getting greener and that's because there's more algal blooms because of farm runoff, things like that. And now that now they've shown there's darkening, which means that, um, the ecosystems will be less able to survive. So. Cool.
[00:14:33] Rod: This is great. This is great. It
[00:14:35] Will: It it just as an apocalyptic thing, it's like, and then the oceans got dark.
[00:14:40] Rod: What? But
[00:14:44] Will: You know the marshmallow test I
[00:14:46] Rod: I do.
[00:14:46] Will: Kid can have one marshmallow now, or if they don't eat it, they can get two in 15 minutes.
[00:14:54] The marshmallow test has been critiqued.
[00:14:56] How much can you delay gratification? A lot of people said, oh, this is a great study to [00:15:00] show who's gonna be successful in life because you know, the kids that can delay their gratification go on and get good jobs.
[00:15:06] Now the critique
[00:15:07] Rod: is
[00:15:08] Will: there are plenty of circumstances where it is not sensible to delay gratification, and there may be just a class bias here in this kind of thing, so you can be successful and eat the marshmallow straight away. But the interesting thing about the marshmallow test is it's also a nice way of looking at animal cognition,
[00:15:23] So it's not quite what job an animal is gonna have in future life. Are they gonna be a lawyer or something like that? But, but more we can
[00:15:30] Rod: only represent hyenas.
[00:15:32] Will: We can understand, you know, do those animals, what, what level of future thinking do those animals have? Like are they ones that might plan or they might, um, they might be making a tool for, for a future thing or cing?
[00:15:43] the, a question there is what level is that instinct versus some sort of cognition? Now this study is not gonna tell you that. No. Um,
[00:15:52] Rod: but
[00:15:52] Will: so marshmallow test has been shown previously in, um. Sort of species that you think of. Okay. They're pretty high-end, intelligent [00:16:00] species.
[00:16:00] Crows. Crows, definitely. Um, okay. 'cause crows are known to, um, known to cache and known to use tools. So, so classic examples. Dogs can pass
[00:16:09] Rod: it. Okay.
[00:16:10] Will: depends on the dog. You know, we've all seen the idiot
[00:16:12] Rod: Yeah. Beagles. No.
[00:16:13] Will: No, no.
[00:16:14] Rod: Do you know I've heard more than one story from people, different people's beagles, where they've had to go to the vet because they've eaten golf balls, fucking morons, golf balls eaten, not caught and gone, but like,
[00:16:26] Will: I'm sorry. Okay. Call for research. I want a list of all the stupid things dogs have eaten because my God, like
[00:16:32] Rod: I want the niche. The niche is beagles though. 'cause apparently they're just mor, ironically unbuttoned when it comes to food.
[00:16:37] Will: Oh. And also, um, nasally triggered, like they, they, they cannot handle, not sniffing something like their,
[00:16:44] their, their brain has been so genetically engineered, or at least genetically bred for sniffing that they are almost uncontrollable.
[00:16:51] They're so driven by it. Um, yeah, so dogs, uh, primates, um, you, you can imagine. Yeah. So, [00:17:00] so there were new study out cuttlefish
[00:17:03] cuttlefish. So you
[00:17:05] Rod: squid with
[00:17:06] Will: squid, squiddy, squiddy type
[00:17:07] Rod: squiddy type with carvable bones.
[00:17:08] Will: Yeah, exactly. So we we're
[00:17:10] Rod: at the settle
[00:17:11] Will: the cephalopod, not a ke of pod, even though it looks like it should be.
[00:17:13] Rod: are you gonna tell me yet? Another thing I like to eat actually has a brain and, and cares about its friends. I'm sick of research like this. Like when they went, oh, cows actually, they identify personalities and they're really friendly.
[00:17:25] I'm like, but they're also delicious.
[00:17:28] Will: look, look sadly species that identify their friends. Uh, if that's your boundary of what you can eat, um, what you are,
[00:17:37] Rod: it's clearly not,
[00:17:37] Will: I, I, I don't think you necessarily have to be vegetarian, but, uh, there's certainly a bunch of things that you shouldn't.
[00:17:43] Um,
[00:17:43] Rod: it just annoys me though.
[00:17:45] Oh, no, no, no, no. They love it. Love it. Pig pigs basically dogs, but they're pinker. I'm like, fucking pastor.
[00:17:48] Will: but you could say, you could say, you know, passing the marshmallow test. You know, that's, that's a future oriented thinking. And, and one thing here about future oriented thinking is not saying they, they understand the mortality, but they, they [00:18:00] occupy a cognitive world a little bit closer to ours.
[00:18:02] Um, and we don't, we don't eat dogs. We don't eat crows. But for other, we don't tend to eat primates very much. cephalopods. Um, possibly other mollus too, but I don't have it for this study, but, um, I just wanna tell, talk through this study 'cause it's, it's just got some awesome stuff.
[00:18:15] So these researchers, they designed a test where cuttlefish, they put 'em in a special tank with two enclosed chambers that's got transparent doors so the animals can see what's behind
[00:18:25] Rod: them. Mm-hmm.
[00:18:26] Will: Behind door number one is something they
[00:18:28] Rod: money
[00:18:29] Will: not
[00:18:30] Rod: and door number two, a box with a mystery
[00:18:32] Will: No. in the, in, in door number one. Yeah. Was a raw king prawn? Apparently, no. Apparently Okay. But not quite to the cuddle fisher's desire really. And behind door number two was a much more enticing live grass shrimp. So raw king prawn, that's dead and live. So I don't know. I don't know which, which, it doesn't really matter which one is the
[00:18:55] Rod: one is preferred,
[00:18:57] Will: but one is definitely preferred.
[00:18:58] Okay. And and known to be preferred. So it could [00:19:00] be the live, could be the taste of them, whatever. Yeah. Also, the doors had symbols on them. So the cuddle, the cuttlefish could read
[00:19:07] Rod: Obviously they put it in their own language
[00:19:11] to be more,
[00:19:11] Will: I, I was reading this and he's casual about, okay, the cuttlefish are being trained to recognize, not read. Um, but, um, the, there, there was a, a triangle for the, um, for the raw king prawn, a circle for the, the one they want.
[00:19:26] Um, oh no, sorry. The triangle is, is the live grass shrimp that you want circle for the raw king prawn that you don't quite want. And a square meant this door's never gonna
[00:19:35] Rod: open.
[00:19:36] Um, I feel like the kind of, you know, missing the lead here
[00:19:39] Will: I,
[00:19:40] Rod: cuttlefish can read
[00:19:42] Will: like that was buried in this article and I'm like, symbolic communication
[00:19:48] Rod: Oh yeah, they can do that. Yeah. Anyway, back to whether they'd eat the marshmallow. I'd be like, do, do, do do, do, do you taught a fricking weird squid fish to navigate a room.
[00:19:59] Will: So, [00:20:00] uh, the circle meant the door would open straight away. A triangle meant the door would open after a time interval of 10 to 30, 10 to 130 seconds. So, uh, 10
[00:20:10] Rod: 130 is quite a range.
[00:20:12] Will: Yeah. Yeah. It's like two minutes.
[00:20:13] And the square, which was only in the controlled condition, meant it would never open. So, so if it's seeing square and either triangle or circle, then it's just going for the one that
[00:20:21] Rod: will
[00:20:21] open. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:20:22] Will: , But, but then it has to, has to weigh up. So in the test condition? Yeah. Uh, the crappy prawn was behind, uh, the, the door that opened first.
[00:20:31] Yeah. While the live shrimp, the tasty one, was only accessible after a delay. If the cuttlefish went for the prawn, then the shrimp was immediately removed
[00:20:39] Rod: And they could see that. They
[00:20:41] Will: see that. They could see it. Right.
[00:20:41] They could see it. All. The cuttlefish in the test condition decided to wait. So, so it's like, it's not even testing, which, how, how, which Cuttlefish or all of the cuttlefish are
[00:20:54] Rod: even one weirdo.
[00:20:54] Will: They're they're looking at, they're looking at
[00:20:56] the
[00:20:56] Rod: fat cuttlefish who just fucking feed me now. Fucking, fucking,
[00:20:59] Will: Yeah. Not even [00:21:00] one weirdo, not one that was brought up in, uh, a terrible house where there's a, there's a little brother that would steal all your Easter eggs. No, they're all like numb. I'm waiting for that live one. Like they, they're,
[00:21:09] Rod: I assume they're all fed the same amount of time beforehand, blah,
[00:21:12] Will: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Um, so I'm just like. Oh man, they are all sitting there going and waiting for the tastier food, waiting for the
[00:21:21] Rod: maybe cut a fish, feel hunger differently.
[00:21:24] Will: So the theory is,
[00:21:25] Rod: I mean, I've thought about this a thousand times.
[00:21:26] Will: Obviously it could, it could be to do with the way that they hunt.
[00:21:29] Um, so, uh, you know, tool use might indicate, you know, future planning or casing might indicate future planning. But cuttlefish sort of, um. Lie there hidden and they're camouflaged. And then they might jump out when they're foraging. And so it's dangerous for them to come out of cover.
[00:21:45] So what they're doing is looking for what is the
[00:21:48] best, make it worthwhile. Make it worthwhile.
[00:21:50] make it a buck. Yeah, exactly. So, so it's a risk to them to come out. So they break camouflage when they forage, so they're exposed to every predator in the ocean that
[00:21:57] wants to eat
[00:21:58] Rod: I assume in this experimental [00:22:00] condition, they're just floating in a
[00:22:00] Will: they're just in a tank.
[00:22:01] So there's no predators. But this is as in like evolutionary wise.
[00:22:04] Rod: Instinctual behavior,
[00:22:05] Will: In the ocean. Um, you, you, you go for the food that it's worth breaking
[00:22:10] Rod: coming for.
[00:22:11] Will: for. And so they were deciding, I can see that food there that's worth breaking cover for, which is just, I don't
[00:22:16] Rod: it doesn't
[00:22:17] sound
[00:22:17] Will: ridiculous.
[00:22:17] it it look, yes.
[00:22:19] Maybe the lead is we can train cuttlefish to read.
[00:22:21] Rod: should be.
[00:22:22] Will: But number two way
[00:22:23] Rod: by the way, we can make books for fish. We
[00:22:25] Will: can make them into little lawyers that will just delay their gratification and
[00:22:28] Rod: well.
[00:22:30] Will: I
[00:22:30] Rod: dunno. I'm more excited about them reading, I'll be honest. I mean that's impressive.
[00:22:34] Will: I get it.
[00:22:35] Rod: done scientists, but.
[00:22:36] Will: but, uh, look, we should all, uh, have a look at the species we're eating and, and sort
[00:22:41] Rod: of
[00:22:41] Will: think about, think about their cognitive abilities and
[00:22:44] Rod: fuck off. I don't need a lot of dead things, but I really enjoy it when I do, like I really do. Speaking of eating dead things, is there any food that you are truly disgusted by? Like just no. Either have eaten or just the idea of it makes you disgust?
[00:22:59] Will: Uh, [00:23:00] no. None that I, none that I have eaten, but I know they exist as foods in some countries. Um, it's like the, um, I don't know the name for it. I think in the Philippines it's, it's a common delicacy.
[00:23:10] It's like the um, the duck egg, the fertilized duck egg. So it's got
[00:23:15] Rod: oh, it's been underground for a thousand years, and you eat the bones. And I know just necessarily just the whole,
[00:23:19] Will: it's, it's the whole, like it's got the, it's got the baby duck in there.
[00:23:22] Rod: and you've gotta chew
[00:23:23] Will: through
[00:23:23] it.
[00:23:23] I can't
[00:23:24] Rod: Handle
[00:23:25] Will: that.
[00:23:25] Rod: Yeah. I'm not keen on that.
[00:23:27] Why?
[00:23:28] What is it that,
[00:23:29] what, what's your reality? Like, what's it based on? Just that it's You eat a
[00:23:33] dead baby,
[00:23:33] Will: I, well I remember my mom saying once that it felt unfair to eat baby carrots 'cause they hadn't had a chance to grow yet. And I'm like, like,
[00:23:41] okay. that's
[00:23:41] nice. Um,
[00:23:42] I, I don't, I don't know if it's that, like, I think there is a little bit of.
[00:23:46] Our, our, our food production system's rough as it is, so
[00:23:51] Rod: crunching through bones
[00:23:52] isn't highly appealing. crunching
[00:23:54] Will: through bones is not appealing to me. That's, that's, yeah. Particularly if they're sort of semi hard, sort of, you know,
[00:23:59] [00:24:00] uh, like that's,
[00:24:01] Rod: yeah. And I, I wouldn't be super keen. I mean, I've, I've only had two foods that I've really gone, oh fuck
[00:24:05] Will: no. What
[00:24:05] were they?
[00:24:06] Rod: were they? One
[00:24:07] was, there was a wonton soup uhhuh, but there were lamb brains in the wontons.
[00:24:12] And what revolted me more than anything was just the texture. They were just so gelatinous and flavorless. So I got texture I didn't like with no reward for the flavor as well. And I was just like, I wasn't revolted, but it was definitely like, mm.
[00:24:23] Will: not really loving
[00:24:24] Rod: Mm. Yeah. And the other one was this weird, I was at a sushi train in Japan and these, these, um, they were kinda like, sort of dumpling things that came around and I found out after I'd eaten them, they were crab brainin,
[00:24:38] Will: Crab brain, all crab brain. How much, how much, um, how much brain do you get per crab?
[00:24:43] I'm feeling like it's not a big
[00:24:44] Rod: No, no. Well, I dunno how big the crab was. I mean, it might have been a giant,
[00:24:47] Will: Oh yeah, there was, this is like, this is like Mozilla. So
[00:24:50] Rod: exactly. But it tasted like crap. Like it, it left an aftertaste, you know, a really horrible taste that leaves sort of a residual smell in the back of your [00:25:00] nose.
[00:25:00] It just won't go away. It was sort of musty.
[00:25:01] Will: Yeah. I, I,
[00:25:02] Rod: like
[00:25:03] old slightly moist books. Do
[00:25:04] Will: you know, you know, it's not the, not the same, but have you had, pork that's got taint.
[00:25:08] Rod: No.
[00:25:09] Will: when a pig, and I dunno, like, like when it's really high in testosterone, either if it's oh, and either if it's in a particular period or something like that and it gets through the meat and it's just, it's just wrong.
[00:25:20] It's
[00:25:21] Rod: like angry dude.
[00:25:21] Will: Oh, well, yeah. It's, oh. Yeah,
[00:25:24] Rod: yeah.
[00:25:25] Will: so I don't know some of those hormonal type, um, things that you get in meats are not great. Like,
[00:25:30] Rod: Okay. Doesn't sound great. None of it sounds great. But, uh, according to at least some scientists, we, we reject potential foods for. At least, basically, at least in the eighties, they came up with this.
[00:25:40] Four general reasons, although there hasn't been a lot of research since then on this. Just was the rejections to the
[00:25:47] Will: just, is this adults or children,
[00:25:48] Rod: Adults, yeah. Grown ass peoples. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who've gone through the standard? I don't like it 'cause I've never heard
[00:25:54] Will: it. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
[00:25:54] Rod: yeah, So the four they say are in inappropriate, dangerous, [00:26:00] distasteful or disgusting.
[00:26:01] So disgust.
[00:26:03] Will: is
[00:26:04] Rod: Apparently commonly a primary reason for rejecting animal products.
[00:26:07] Yep.
[00:26:08] Distaste tends to be often apparently again, applied to plant-based foods. So taste, texture, smell. So you know, kids who call up their nose, you know, Brussels sprouts,
[00:26:17] Will: or, or mushrooms have a mushrooms very much like kids that, like the texture is not something,
[00:26:22] Rod: I know adults who cannot abide them.
[00:26:24] Yeah. So that's their distaste. So apparently that's quite often distaste, plant-based, inappropriate. They weren't clear, but I'm gonna say, I don't know, eating. Kids or
[00:26:32] Will: or seems inappropriate or, or
[00:26:33] against your religious rules. Like, like, uh, pork and,
[00:26:36] Rod: pork in the, those parts of the world. Dangerous. Um, I don't know.
[00:26:41] Bicycles, explosives, they're probably dangerous. Don't eat
[00:26:43] them collections
[00:26:44] Will: and shit. Like this is,
[00:26:45] Rod: well, the inside
[00:26:45] of
[00:26:46] Will: potentially poisonous and stuff.
[00:26:47] Rod: Yeah. So that's probably better than, I mean, we all know not eat bicycles as well, but Yeah.
[00:26:50] Will: No, that French guy, did
[00:26:52] Rod: He did. He did. Fuck. He ate a car in the end, didn't
[00:26:55] Will: He ate a plane.
[00:26:56] Motherfucker ate a plane. Like, like, oh man. [00:27:00] Way to turn your way. To turn your, um, potentially eating disorder, potentially psychological disorder into a. Somewhat of a career.
[00:27:08] Mm-hmm.
[00:27:10] Grating it
[00:27:10] Rod: up on your corn flesh.
[00:27:12] Will: Fucking horrifying.
[00:27:14] Rod: Just don't eat that much metal in grease and paint. Flex did it eat the chairs?
[00:27:19] He was eating upholstery.
[00:27:21] Will: I feel
[00:27:21] Rod: like,
[00:27:21] entertainment
[00:27:22] units a
[00:27:23] Will: lot. Like, I mean it was a C or a Boeing, but
[00:27:26] Rod: just the idea it though, imagine when you start, you walk and you go, alright, I'm gonna eat that. It's gonna take a while
[00:27:32] Will: and it's gonna be a hassle to cut every single bite. Every single. It's gonna be a pain in the
[00:27:37] Rod: Because he wasn't swallowing whole bolts. I assume he was grinding the bicycle golfer.
[00:27:40] He, he graded them up, right? He, he think like eating shaved metal.
[00:27:44] Will: I think that's what you're
[00:27:45] Rod: did. Fuck psych.
[00:27:46] Will: So
[00:27:47] Rod: it's also
[00:27:47] Will: not gr like I get like, you know, poster, poster up in your cafe that says, dude who eats bicycle coming to town.
[00:27:54] And you go, I'll be interested. And then you turn
[00:27:56] Rod: It's a long
[00:27:57] Will: like, it's not a
[00:27:58] Rod: a very long show.
[00:27:59] What's,
[00:27:59] Will: [00:28:00] what's the narrative arc here? Yeah. At the end
[00:28:02] Rod: fucking now he pour iron filings on his yogurt. You are like gross. I mean, I'm not disgusted by it. I'm just like, that just sounds like it'd be really fucked
[00:28:09] Will: and
[00:28:10] sad and tedious.
[00:28:11] Like crappy
[00:28:12] Rod: bits of metal. That's gotta have an effect. Iron filings and things are scraping through your belt.
[00:28:18] I'm against that.
[00:28:20] Um,
[00:28:20] so some people, uh, university of Exeter Po Mob, they wanted to see which of these psychological mechanisms came into play when people reject meat compared to vegetables. So they were looking at inappropriate, dangerous, dis stateful, disgusting. They wanted to dig in a bit further and why, which is a good question to ask.
[00:28:37] They wanted to look at the way or the reasons and understanding why people reject certain foods. It might help them help other people adjust to different diets if they've got, you know, severely interventionist diets for medical health reasons, whatever. Maybe if we understand more about their reasons for rejection of foods, et cetera, we can assist them.
[00:28:55] Will: Yeah, sure. No, I look and, and totally it's absolutely an area in which treatments would be needed. [00:29:00] Yeah. Yeah. So
[00:29:02] Rod: they had
[00:29:02] nearly
[00:29:03] 300 people in online group of, of participants. 250 were anti meat. They vegetarians about 50, 60. Were omnivorous. Mm-hmm. So like
[00:29:13] Will: Discussed somewhat omnivorous, like calm down on your om right here.
[00:29:18] Rod: Yeah.
[00:29:18] Well they didn't eat
[00:29:19] Will: bicycles And until he, like, I think that dude can count as omnivorous, like I feel
[00:29:23] Rod: like.
[00:29:24] so meat. Meat and veg. Yeah.
[00:29:25] Will: Yeah.
[00:29:25] Rod: So apparently there were 11 images of different, as they put it, substances, which included things like meat, commonly disliked vegetables, which they list as olives, weird sprouts, raw eggplant.
[00:29:37] I can't really,
[00:29:39] Will: I don't,
[00:29:40] Rod: when do you eat raw eggplant? It's not part of any recipe.
[00:29:42] Will: It's got a weird rubbery texture.
[00:29:44] Rod: Yeah, it's, yeah, it's just sort of chewy and bee treat, apparently is another one. Commonly disliked.
[00:29:48] Oh my god. Vegetables
[00:29:49] Will: incorrect. Incorrect.
[00:29:51] Rod: I feel the same bad olives. Like how do you not like olives?
[00:29:54] Will: I can understand that. Like I, I love olives, but they, they're a strong flavor.
[00:29:57] Rod: so they were shown these different images [00:30:00] and they were asked a bunch of questions about how eating those foods would make them feel. And I wanted to distinguish between what people felt when they rejected different foods.
[00:30:07] So the questions got more detailed. So like a disgust related question would be,
[00:30:12] Will: I
[00:30:12] Rod: would dislike any dish which contained even the tiniest amount of this food. Even if I could not taste it, smell, feel, or see it. Yeah. So full on
[00:30:21] Will: a
[00:30:21] Rod: to that food that that particular thing, distaste would be more like.
[00:30:25] I would dislike the taste, smell, or texture of this food. So it's just like you'd have to interact with it and know that you were eating it and kind of go, nah. And the people who ate meat as well, were also shown images of things that other, most people, normal people would find disgusting, like dog meat or shit.
[00:30:41] Will: Great.
[00:30:42] Rod: And then, you know, asked, you know, how would you feel
[00:30:44] Will: eating this?
[00:30:44] Eating
[00:30:45] Suboptimal.
[00:30:47] Rod: exactly. Not great. So they found there when they, when the participants said they wouldn't. Meat, a substance pictured in the study. They take a picture of meat. They completed the questionnaire then to probe their reasons for that rejection.
[00:30:58] So the vegetarians like, [00:31:00] this is meat you wouldn't eat. Yep. Tell us more about why. Yeah. And they found that people, overall, people who rejected vegetables did it based on distaste, but people who rejected meat, it was disgust that drove them. Okay. Discussed in particular. And I was saying this is the most robust evidence that we have that rejecting meat, uh, and vegetables are repellent on different underlying
[00:31:19] Will: Okay. No, I, but I can believe that.
[00:31:22] Rod: But what caught my attention, this is why I actually dived into this at all. Vegetarians would regularly respond to meat that other people would eat, like roast, chicken, beef, whatever.
[00:31:33] The
[00:31:33] same way that meat eaters would respond to the idea of eating dog meat. Shit, or human flesh.
[00:31:38] yeah. yeah, yeah. Same level of disgust. So for me saying, would you like a plate of dog shit? And you're like, I'm horrified a vegetarian, would you like a steak? And they apparently would feel the same level of disgust.
[00:31:49] Will: I can totally believe
[00:31:50] Rod: As cannibalism, which I think is fascinating. Like that's deep disgust. I knew, I mean, I'd live with a vegetarian.
[00:31:56] I know vegans, and I'm like, I knew they weren't a fan, but I didn't
[00:31:59] [00:32:00] imagine, well, I guess a visceral level of disgust like that.
[00:32:03] Will: Well, obviously there's gonna be different reasons that people are vegan or vegetarian. , And, and I've, I've certainly heard of people that are like, I have, you know, there, there are certainly people that are like ethically.
[00:32:11] That's, that's what I'm, that's what I'm doing for,
[00:32:12] Rod: I get that.
[00:32:13] Will: other people, other people. It's like, no, I don't give a shit about the ethics. It's just, it's so disgusting to me, the concept like viscerally, not intellectually so,
[00:32:21] Rod: and I do not share that. My problem is, it really doesn't discuss me at all. I think it's just fucking delicious whenever, I mean, I'm extremely happy.
[00:32:28] Will: I'd rather
[00:32:28] Rod: I had the visceral reaction. 'cause it's probably better that I didn't like it as
[00:32:31] Will: much.
[00:32:31] I mean, it had the dog food or, or shit. But what about our boundary species meat? Like, um, you know, so, so here's a steak made from dog. Yeah. Like, what does that
[00:32:43] Rod: Yeah, this, this, yeah. This gets weird and borderline.
[00:32:45] I mean, to me, yeah, I, I would be appalled by it 'cause I like dogs. However, in the right environment, I reckon there's virtually nothing I wouldn't try if I knew it wasn't poisonous.
[00:32:55] Will: Okay.
[00:32:55] In theory
[00:32:56] and by right environment you don't mean cannibalism like, like sorry, [00:33:00] survive.
[00:33:00] Sorry. No, like shipwreck shipwreck survival. Where you, where you
[00:33:03] like,
[00:33:03] that, but you mean like, okay, this is, this is a clean looking restaurant in a country where this is
[00:33:08] Rod: Where this is standard about like, look, I don't want to, but it is like, you know, do you eat horse in France?
[00:33:13] Will: Oh, horse horses.
[00:33:15] delicious. Yeah, exactly.
[00:33:16] Well, it's okay,
[00:33:17] Rod: No, I liked it, but it's all, it's about sauce, right?
[00:33:20] Will: I know like, like
[00:33:21] Rod: enough garlic can
[00:33:22] Will: just enough.
[00:33:23] Well, I had mine, uh, recently with Wasabi was Oh, it's great. It's a great vehicle for the Wasabi.
[00:33:27] Rod: We should, horseradish goes with horse. Everyone knows that. But the, um, they said basically in every case though, these responses and their reasons for being. Horrified. It was always different no matter who they were.
[00:33:38] People's negative reaction to vegetables was always different to the reactions to meat. Like vegetables sit in a different category. Yeah. Even if you're anti that vegetable, there doesn't appear to be this visceral level of disgust, et cetera, compared to the, the way a vegetarian feels about eating acceptable meats, which I think is very interesting.
[00:33:56] What, what do you do with it? I don't know. I'm just interested and then yes, it could help people. [00:34:00] Who have visceral dietary issues and have to change it for medical reasons. But I just think how fascinating, the level of disgust, I mean, I have a friend who, they eat meat, but they're very specific. So if there's the hint, just the tiniest hint of fat, for example, I can't eat
[00:34:13] Will: that.
[00:34:13] that's where the texture gets weird.
[00:34:15] well, I got a little bit of, uh, uh,
[00:34:18] Rod: uh, uh,
[00:34:19] Will: animals
[00:34:19] eating things for you. Like not eating
[00:34:21] Rod: you people.
[00:34:22] Will: well. Well, this is a, it's not a, it's not a disgust 'cause um, this is, I just like this as a story because it's a fun bit of scientists doing stuff.
[00:34:30] The title here is Novel Observations of an Oceanic White Tip Shark and Tiger Shark Scavenging Event. So,
[00:34:37] Rod: oh, it sounds so delightfully, arm's length and banal.
[00:34:40] Will: No, it kind of is, it's, it's, it's, it's kind of lovely. So, yes, riffing off the idea of things that disgust. Don't think sharks have that in their brain. Like maybe, maybe if they saw a tree that would not interest
[00:34:53] Rod: them,
[00:34:53] It put one drop of blood on it.
[00:34:54] Will: boom.
[00:34:55] I doubt, I doubt there is a moment of disgust. It's like, what can I, I mean, they're scavengers [00:35:00] and their predators. on April 9th, 2024. Yeah. These scientists watched for eight and a half hours at as, at least nine different, um, of the white tip shark and a bunch of tiger sharks fed on a giant blubber lump of whale carcass. So this is a, a
[00:35:17] Rod: of
[00:35:17] still
[00:35:18] Will: a blob of whale carcass that's like two or three meters long. It just looks, it looks just like a, a little white
[00:35:23] iceberg. And it had been spotted by some tour operators floating in the ocean, um,
[00:35:28] Rod: Hawaii. Oh, it's
[00:35:28] Will: floating.
[00:35:29] It's floating. Right.
[00:35:30] Now it's actually not terribly common to see these things. So,
[00:35:34] Rod: um,
[00:35:34] they normally sink, right?
[00:35:35] Will: I, I think they'd normally sink, I dunno why this one didn't, but, but also typically they're, they're, they're just gonna be small or you just won't notice them or something like that.
[00:35:43] But it was a large enough blob that the sharks were like, okay, this is, this is pretty cool body. And the scientists as well, or
[00:35:49] Rod: have some barbecue.
[00:35:50] Will: this is pretty cool. We can go and watch this thing. And so they watched all day on the, on this day from when they got there at like 10:00 AM until sunset. And then they couldn't see anything [00:36:00] anymore.
[00:36:00] So they, they had to go and they couldn't
[00:36:01] Rod: find
[00:36:01] them, which is strange 'cause they're actually physicists. So why would a bunch of physicists do that? Like what, what are you? A shark e eist.
[00:36:08] Will: But, um, the thing is that they were saying is the sharks were really quite polite with each other.
[00:36:12] Rod: Like,
[00:36:13] no, no good sir, after
[00:36:14] Will: there,
[00:36:14] there was a bunch there the whole time, like they'd just be milling around and,
[00:36:18] Rod: um,
[00:36:18] and not like going
[00:36:19] Will: each other
[00:36:20] They, they did not go each other at all. There was, there was no ramming behavior, no nudging behavior. They, so typically only one or two sharks would be on the lump of blubber at a time. And you, you can see that like, they're like jumping a little bit outta the
[00:36:32] Rod: water,
[00:36:32] yeah, yeah.
[00:36:32] Will: their heads out to grab a bit of blubber.
[00:36:34] The others would hang back. And then when that shark might've had its fill, then another one would come in.
[00:36:39] I got theory
[00:36:40] the small sharks would be underneath, sort of picking up the scraps, the big sharks at the top. but it was, it was like a polite little shark
[00:36:46] Rod: I, I got a theory, I, I've worked out why, what. I mean, there's a cost benefit analysis here. If you look at it and you go, okay, that's a shit ton of food.
[00:36:52] Will: Yep.
[00:36:53] Rod: And if I scuffle with a, was it a tiger shark? I might come away worse for wear. But if I just kind of hang [00:37:00] back, there's so much food.
[00:37:00] There's
[00:37:00] Will: There's so much food.
[00:37:01] Rod: Maybe they're thinking ahead too. Oh my God. All creatures. All creatures think
[00:37:06] Will: people. Look, they must have, they must be thinking ahead just a tiny bit to go, look, I'm still gonna get food.
[00:37:10] Like there's, there's, there's no way that sharky up there is gonna eat the whole
[00:37:14] Rod: lot. So
[00:37:15] Yeah.
[00:37:15] I wonder if the same thing, obviously we've gotta test this out. Let's go and get a a whale. Mm-hmm. And make it a piece that's clearly only enough for two sharks and put in front of nine and see if they're still nice to each other. Ah.
[00:37:25] Will: But look, I mean, this is, This is the sort of, the animal version of, the tragedy of commons. You know, the,
[00:37:30] the, we humans can't share resources, so we end up fighting over it. You know, we fight over the carcass, we fight over the coins dropped on the ground, and, and it's
[00:37:36] Rod: all terrible,
[00:37:37] I'm not selfish, but they might be. So I'm gonna take
[00:37:39] Will: of it but it's actually, it's actually not true in humans and probably not as true in the animal world as well. So, look, I just wanna make you a little bit happy that even sharks. Even sharks can have a pleasant little picnic
[00:37:50] Rod: together.
[00:37:50] That does surprise me. I'd like to see it happen again. I want more than one observation.
[00:37:55] Will: Well, we can do it. We can go and look for some sharks and kill a whale. Get some whale
[00:37:59] Rod: blubber.
[00:37:59] We've [00:38:00] gotta kill a whale.
[00:38:01] Will: Nice. Uh, this has been your little bit of
[00:38:04] Rod: science.
[00:38:04] just a tiny
[00:38:05] Will: for the week
[00:38:06] I've been Will
[00:38:06] Grant.
[00:38:07] Rod: I haven't, I've, I've been the other
[00:38:08] Will: guy.
[00:38:09] Other guy. Um, you know, listener.
[00:38:11] Your job is of course to rate us. Um,
[00:38:14] Rod: we, I want 89 not stars. I want moons. I want 'em to give us moon ratings instead. Moons, yeah. Stars. Everyone gets stars. I want 19 star, 19 moon rating.
[00:38:23] 19 Yep. On every platform, even platforms that don't exist.
[00:38:26] Will: Well, uh, go out there and do that.
[00:38:28] Listener. Uh, you're the best. We
[00:38:30] Rod: love
[00:38:30] you. And if you've got questions for us, yes.
[00:38:32] Questions
[00:38:32] Will: for
[00:38:32] us? Where do they send
[00:38:33] them?
[00:38:34] Rod: They sent him to Cheers at the internet. No. Cheers at a little bit of science One Big word. Dot com au au au. We're Australian or is that Austria?
[00:38:44] This is the, the world's first, uh, Austrian Science podcast done in English. The first, the.
