Science or Fiction Robotics Theme

You're listening to the skeptic's Guide to the universe, your escape ity. Hello and welcome to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe. Today is Thursday, june fourth, twenty twenty six and this is your host, Stepen Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella. Ebody. Cara Santa Maria. Howdy? Jane Novella. Hey guys, Evan Bernstein. Good evening folks. And we have a very special guest this week who's gonna join us for the whole show as a guest roue Christian Huik, Christian, weelcome back to the SGU. It's great to be back. It's a guest roguele what an honor. It's great to chat with y' all. So in case anybody out there doesn't know, Christian, you are the director of Optimal Robotics lab and an associate prorofessor of meechanical Engineering at Florida State University. And that's pretty much how you are best known to the world Would you wereight? one hundred percent, I agree with that. No withithout a doubt, no one knows me for anything else. So what's gonna happen? I mean, incidentally we could mention offhand that you were in two seasons of sururvivor. If anybody watches that show, I don't know. What' survivor? Yeah. Is that still on? Not right now. Not just any not just any two seasons, just finishing season fifty fifty Yep, yep, they just keep making those. They just keep adding numbers. It's funny how numbers work, but yeah, they they have been they've been pumping out two two seasons a year since two thousand with a one year break for COVID. So I it's just to as mathematicians would say twenty twenty six. But season fifty that was a that's probably the most special season ever yet. So it's an honor just to be that season, I think was just like, whoa, what a huge a huge pat on the back, I think. clearly. It was it was a lot of fun. I got us I mean it was quite a flattering call to get. I mean, there there have been like seven hundred fifty one people who have played the show, but who's counting And and I think that so it's it's a rare fight air that they even call you for consideration, but actually be out there. It really felt like something special. you know, I was out there with people that I hadn't that I watched on television, you know, when I was fourteen years old when the first when the first season came out. So I'm like, oh, I'm there with them. I'm on a beach with them And I might have to vote them out tonight. We'll see what goes. happens Did you have fun when you were on the show? Was that fun or was it really this massively stressful or both It is both, but it is extremely fun. There's a reason I went back two times. It's the it's an incredibly intensive fun and it's been for a very particular type of psychotic person What type is that? Well I mean Skeptics Gues Rogues, of course is what I mean. that's what I mean. No it is I'm sure we'll talk about it more later, but it is the kind of show that like it's for those who don't know, it's more than just like a naked and afraid style survivor survival show, notot that there's anything wrong with that except me being like television, you know, But they're great, but like there's there's a strategy element to how you have to vote people off. It's a game of social politics of trying to get to the end without being voted off. and that emits this whole world of like high strategy and deception and like game theory and like multi agent dynamics that tickles the robot assist in me. and it tickles it good. But you didn't get to bring any robots to the island th. Al on the shirt. Just on my shirt. otherwise they know that ironically though, Steve, one of the things was I was working when I first applied to be on Survivor, I was working in a robotics lab that specialized in walking on sand. And I was like, that was an little talking point. I was like, Ohh yes, it's like, you know you this is your strategy for walking on sand. We run these kinds of algorithms for that om lose everyone's attention on the island and just hope you aren't immediately consequence. I gott to mention, Christian, early in the show, when you made fire with the glasses. Oh boy. I was like in heaven from seeing you do that. It was so It was so awesome because you clearly displayed science on the show and it was such a profound like You know, making fire is awesome You did it with like, you know, like a rusty spoon and a rock. You know, It was like Gyver Gver. Grab these couple of things I want to make fire was such a hero moment for anyone that appreciates science. Clearly you read Lord of the Flies Well, more I'm more just paying attention in optics, you know, I think that's really of the prerequisites there. I mean, it is one of the beautiful moments like like I didn't plan to to come out to make fire. You might think that's like silly on a show like Survivor, but it's about so many things other than not starving. In fact, you just basically plan to starve the whole time. And basically at a point where I'm like, we're out here. what are we doing? It's very sunny And because this this was season fifty, it was a big all star season. So they're bringing back players who played a long time ago, they a lot of them tend to be a little older and had reading glasses. And I was like, o wait, there's an opportunity here. because you know, because as people know may or may not be aware, reading glasses they're of course convex lenses. They focus like. That's what you need if you want to make a fire. You know, I am horribly nearsighted. so my diffusing lenses would not be useful So it's kind of like a perfect storm of things like, hey, let's just try it? And sure enough, it worked out. And if it hadn't, it would have been horribly embarrassing because like the camera guys are like hovering over your shoulder as you're trying to do this. and eventually they're gonna gonna get bored and walk away and that would be a dejecting feeling to know that you're too boring trying to make fire for a first survivor. So I'm glad it worked out. otherwise I would have been very embarrassed It hasn't been done of fifty seasons. There's only really a handful of times where it was actually successfully done on the show. So think Chan made fireworglasses, if I recall Yeahep. I believe he did. I think they had to use in fact, I think they used someone's nearsighted glasses and used a drop of water to help focus the light in that case. So you make your own little miniature bifocal in that case. But yeah, I mean, it's it's not a it's not a common thing. It wasn't something I'm planning on doing. that's kind of the nature of a show like Survivor and frankly in science in general, you kind of got to adapt to the data in front of you and say, you know, this is our world now This is what we got to do. Well, Christian, you're going to talk to us a little bit later in the show about the science of survivor And I want to hear about how being a skeptic was a distinct advantage in the game. But first we're going to go through some news items, Bob starting with you. We're gonna give us a quickie. All right, guys, thank you, Steve. This is your Quiie with Bob. Let's talk about the New England meteor that happened this past weekend. Explosions were actually reported throughout New England this past Saturday, may thirtieth. And so we got some official information From various sources, One of them was the American Meteor Society. They said that this was a three foot wide and of course, one meter, they have to say after that. one meter wide meteor had entered the atmosphere, say north of Boston. They said that at the time that it was unlikely the meteor struck the ground. There were reports all the way from Delaware to Montreal, so it had a big swath know of the air of the country, the East cooast that actually heard it. It was a double boom. A lot of reports were of a double boom. Some people said they felt the ground shake. Some saw the fireball and I actually found a video showing the fireball, which was which they said looked like a shooting star in the daytime sky. The video that I saw it was going, it seemed to be going straight down, but of course you really don't know what the angle was, right? I could have been at the bad angle And it could have looked going like it was going straight down, but it could be at an angle, but it was big I mean, you could tell. I mean if you're seeing a shooting star In the daytime sky, this is bright. and this looked this looked big too. I would have loved to have seen it at night. NASA also then chimed in. They say they said that it was natural. It's not a satellite. It's not space debris, It's not alien technology, although they didn't say that last bit. The NASA spokesperson Allard Butel said that the media was traveling about seventy five thousand miles per hour hundred and twenty thousand seven hundred kilometers per hour. He said that it likely fragmented about forty miles or sixty kilometers above the ground And what do you guys think of the estimates of the energy release? How How much TNT do you think was equivalent? Couple of hundred tons. twelve megatons. twelve megatons. five hundred gigawatts. No, twenty exat tons. No, it's only three hundred tons. three hundred tons of TNT. Yeah that's still a lot of TNT. But then there was a later analysis and so we got ere detail So NASA was saying, I guess a couple of days later that there was like a five foot wide, not a three foot wide diameter meteor at one point two five meters or something. They said that the fireball was as heavy as an elephant. The speed of the velocity of this, they said was not seventy two thousand, not seventy five thousand miles per hour, but forty two thousand miles per hour The density, it was kind of dense, eight thousand kilograms per cubic meter. So they said this was consistent with an iron meteorite. And I mean, I've seen iron meteorites up close. They are amazing things. They just seem like they are glued to the earth. They are so ridiculously heavy. And they also said that this did not just disintegrate in the atmosphere, they said that it fell in Cape Cod Bay Nastra Astrro Materials Research and exxploration Science Division said this fall into water is technically called A fishy squisher. fishy squisher. A fishy squisher. That's aish fish. I You know, that's kind of funny and goofy. I think I could have come up with something a little better, but okay, it's fishy squisher. So I'll end with my experience with this. I am on stage at the Extravaganza in Madison And because I'm hopelessly addicted to my cell phone, I felt the vibration in my pocket. We're on stage. and it was during a period where we weren't doing anything. So we're just standing there and I just took a quick look at my screen. and it was from my wife, Liz. and I see two things. I see Boston and I see Meteor, and then Jay notices me stands right in front of me and says, putut your phone away So of course, I had to I am the prodacer of the show bob. like I'm constantly wearing multiple hats. I am monitoring everything that's going on