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00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Stuart Gary: This is Space Time series 29 episode 121
00:00:03 --> 00:00:06 full broadcast on 9 October
00:00:06 --> 00:00:09 2026 coming up on Space Time,
00:00:09 --> 00:00:12 a mysterious star cluster discovered hidden
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 deep inside the Milky Way's disc, the
00:00:15 --> 00:00:18 truth about Nazi Germany's infamous nuclear
00:00:18 --> 00:00:21 bomb project, and the chronic need for
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 dark skies all. Ah, that and more
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 coming up on, uh, Space Time.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 Welcome to Space Time with Stuart
00:00:30 --> 00:00:30 G.
00:00:46 --> 00:00:49 Astronomers have discovered a mysterious star
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 cluster hidden in the crowded galactic disc
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 of the Milky way galaxy, some
00:00:53 --> 00:00:56 32 light years away.
00:00:56 --> 00:00:59 A report on the Pre press physics website
00:00:59 --> 00:01:01 arXiv.org claims the object, which has been
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 named Garo 04, was first identified
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 identified as an unusual collection of stars
00:01:05 --> 00:01:08 in observations by the Vista variables
00:01:08 --> 00:01:11 Navia Lakta and its extension or Triple
00:01:11 --> 00:01:14 VX survey. The inner regions of the Milky
00:01:14 --> 00:01:16 Way Galaxy, especially around the galactic
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 plane and bulge, are crowded with stars,
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 dense gas and dust lanes all rich in star
00:01:21 --> 00:01:24 forming activity. And the stars in these
00:01:24 --> 00:01:26 regions are traces of the Milky Way's
00:01:26 --> 00:01:29 chemical history and evolution. So examining
00:01:29 --> 00:01:31 these regions can reveal a lot about our
00:01:31 --> 00:01:34 galaxy's past mergers. The problem is
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 dust blocks out optical wavelengths, so
00:01:37 --> 00:01:39 astronomers need to switch to infrared
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 observations in order to peer through this
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 thick cloak of dust. Near infrared surveys,
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 uh, like the vvvx have revealed
00:01:47 --> 00:01:49 numerous previously hidden open and globular
00:01:49 --> 00:01:51 star clusters in these dust lanes.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:54 The study's lead author Lisa Garra from the
00:01:54 --> 00:01:57 European Southern Observatory in Chile says
00:01:57 --> 00:01:59 the Garo four star cluster was detected by
00:01:59 --> 00:02:02 visually spotting a prominent clump of red
00:02:02 --> 00:02:04 giant stars in the VVVX infrared. Im
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 further analysis using multiple survey
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 databases, including the third guide data
00:02:10 --> 00:02:12 release provided precise positions and
00:02:12 --> 00:02:14 motions of these stars, and the two mass
00:02:14 --> 00:02:16 survey provided supplementary infrared
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 photometry. Cluster member
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 stars all moved together through space in a
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 similar directional speed, so the authors
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 used this shared proper motion to
00:02:27 --> 00:02:29 statistically separate members of the cluster
00:02:29 --> 00:02:31 from unrelated foreground and background
00:02:31 --> 00:02:34 stars that left just 613,
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 or around 29% of the original
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 2 stars in the field
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 as likely members of the cluster.
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 Garrow and colleagues estimate the cluster is
00:02:44 --> 00:02:46 around 5 billion years old with lower
00:02:46 --> 00:02:49 metallicity than our Sun. Astronomers refer
00:02:49 --> 00:02:52 to all elements other than hydrogen and
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 helium as being metals. The cluster
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 moves on a nearly circular low tilt orbit
00:02:57 --> 00:02:59 around the galactic centre, staying close to
00:02:59 --> 00:03:02 the galactic disc at all times, thereby
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 confirming that it is a disc cluster rather
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 than a halo or bulge object.
00:03:06 --> 00:03:09 Garo04 is too old to be a typical young
00:03:09 --> 00:03:12 open cluster, but at the same time it's not
00:03:12 --> 00:03:14 old or metal poor enough to be a classic
00:03:14 --> 00:03:17 globular cluster. And there's the weirdness.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:20 It joins a small but growing list of similar
00:03:20 --> 00:03:22 puzzling in between clusters which have been
00:03:22 --> 00:03:25 found in other surveys in recent times.
00:03:25 --> 00:03:27 Garris says the next step will be to
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 undertake a more detailed chemical analysis
00:03:30 --> 00:03:32 and better disentangle the real nature of the
00:03:32 --> 00:03:34 cluster, classifying it as either a globular
00:03:34 --> 00:03:37 cluster, an open cluster, or some sort of
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 in between intermediate class object.
00:03:41 --> 00:03:42 This is space time.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:45 Still to come, the truth about Nazi
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 Germany's infamous nuclear bomb project
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 and our chronic need for dark skies.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:54 It's more than just astronomy. All that and
00:03:54 --> 00:03:57 more coming up on, uh, space time.
00:04:03 --> 00:04:05 The Manhattan Project was not just a question
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 quest to build a nuclear bomb. It was a quest
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 to build a nuclear bomb before Nazi Germany
00:04:10 --> 00:04:13 completed theirs. One route to
00:04:13 --> 00:04:16 building an atomic bomb is to build a nuclear
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 reactor to produce fissile material. But
00:04:18 --> 00:04:21 it's always been unclear how close the Nazis
00:04:21 --> 00:04:24 were to creating their own reactor. Their
00:04:24 --> 00:04:27 final attempted reactor, the B8 pile, used
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 heavy water as a neutron moderator. Uh, the
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 only source of heavy water at the time was
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 the Norsk Hydro plant in Vermont, Norway,
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 which was controlled by the Nazis from April
00:04:36 --> 00:04:39 1940 until its destruction by Allied
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 saboteurs and bombing in November
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 1944. The Nazi
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 nuclear bomb project led by Werner
00:04:46 --> 00:04:48 Heisenberg, claimed that the B8 pile was just
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 short of criticality when American forces
00:04:50 --> 00:04:53 found and dismantled it in 1945.
00:04:54 --> 00:04:56 After the war, Heisenberg and colleagues like
00:04:56 --> 00:04:59 Carl Friedrich von Wiesensacker claimed they
00:04:59 --> 00:05:01 had understood the physics of an atomic bomb,
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 but deliberately steered the Uranium club
00:05:03 --> 00:05:05 project towards a uranium machine reactor
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 rather than an atomic weapon. They claimed
00:05:08 --> 00:05:10 they had kept the effort under scientific
00:05:10 --> 00:05:13 control, avoiding the push for a massive
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 industrial programme that could have produced
00:05:15 --> 00:05:17 an atomic bomb for Hitler and in some
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 accounts implied passive resistance or
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 reluctance rooted in moral scruples. But
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 that claim has been largely dismissed as a
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 post war rationalisation. There's virtually
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 no real supporting evidence and mainstream
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 historical consensus attributes the German
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 nuclear programme's failure mainly to
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 scientific incompetence and misjudgments by
00:05:36 --> 00:05:38 Heisenberg. There are also resource
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 constraints, organisational problems and
00:05:41 --> 00:05:44 luckily a low priority from the regime rather
00:05:44 --> 00:05:46 than any real moral resistance from
00:05:46 --> 00:05:49 Heisenberg or his cohorts. The simple
00:05:49 --> 00:05:51 fact is Heisenberg and colleagues made
00:05:51 --> 00:05:54 significant errors in their calculations on
00:05:54 --> 00:05:56 the critical mass and practical requirements.
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 The evidence shows the programme was a, uh,
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 genuine weapons related effort that simply
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 stalled due to shortcomings, not sabotage.
00:06:05 --> 00:06:07 Now, Timothy Kearth and colleagues from the
00:06:07 --> 00:06:10 University of Maryland have analysed two
00:06:10 --> 00:06:12 cubes of natural uranium from that project,
00:06:12 --> 00:06:14 as well as historical records, technical
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 reports, correspondence and other archival
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 material. Using all these resources,
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 they've concluded beyond doubt that to go
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 critical, the B8 pile would have required
00:06:25 --> 00:06:27 twice as much uranium as they had and twice
00:06:27 --> 00:06:29 as much heavy water as was produced by the
00:06:29 --> 00:06:32 Nursk's hydro plant during the entire war.
00:06:33 --> 00:06:34 The graphite available in German controlled
00:06:34 --> 00:06:37 areas would simply not have been suitable for
00:06:37 --> 00:06:39 a substitute moderator. According to the
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 authors, given the design that the Germans
00:06:42 --> 00:06:43 were using, they simply did not have the
00:06:43 --> 00:06:46 materials needed to build a working atomic
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 bomb. The slowing of Germany's nuclear
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 bomb project wasn't because of resistance by
00:06:51 --> 00:06:54 Heisenberg, but incompetence. This
00:06:54 --> 00:06:55 is space time.
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 Still to come, the chronic need for dark
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 skies. And later in the Science Report,
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 a new study confirms that kids exposed to
00:07:04 --> 00:07:07 adversities in childhood face worse outcomes
00:07:07 --> 00:07:09 in life when reaching adulthood. All that and
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 more still to come on, uh, space time.
00:07:27 --> 00:07:29 The Royal Astronomical Society is demanding
00:07:29 --> 00:07:31 urgent action to address the damage light
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 pollution is doing to astronomy, to human
00:07:33 --> 00:07:36 health, to biodiversity of the planet and to
00:07:36 --> 00:07:38 the natural environment. It follows an
00:07:38 --> 00:07:40 influential conference on the issue, hosted
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 by the Society, where compelling evidence was
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 presented about the significant impacts of
00:07:45 --> 00:07:47 artificial light at night. Exposure
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 to light pollution and the lack of natural
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 sunlight can lead to poor metabolism and the
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 development of diseases such as type 2
00:07:54 --> 00:07:56 diabetes, obesity, obesity, dementia,
00:07:56 --> 00:07:59 Parkinson's and retinal problems. There's
00:07:59 --> 00:08:01 also evidence to suggest it directly impacts
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 on a person's mood and increases the
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 prevalence of both depression and anxiety.
00:08:06 --> 00:08:08 And it's not just humans who are affected.
00:08:09 --> 00:08:11 The impact of artificial light on the natural
00:08:11 --> 00:08:13 environment is also highly significant.
00:08:14 --> 00:08:16 It can alter habitats, fragment
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 ecosystems and accelerate biodiversity
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 loss, especially among the many nocturnal
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 species which rely on natural darkness to
00:08:24 --> 00:08:27 survive. Caterpillar populations have
00:08:27 --> 00:08:29 declined by 52% in areas exposed to
00:08:29 --> 00:08:32 street lighting. And evidence shows around a
00:08:32 --> 00:08:34 third of insects drawn to artificial light
00:08:34 --> 00:08:37 sources die due to exhaustion, predation
00:08:37 --> 00:08:40 or disorientation. They also point
00:08:40 --> 00:08:42 out that marine biodiversity suffered as
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 well. Light pollution also reduces plant
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 pollinator interactions by up to 62%,
00:08:48 --> 00:08:51 significantly impairing pollination and plant
00:08:51 --> 00:08:54 reproduction. Of course, artificial light and
00:08:54 --> 00:08:56 light pollution also compromises the view of
00:08:56 --> 00:08:58 the night sky for both astronomers and the
00:08:58 --> 00:09:01 general public. And, uh, to counter this, the
00:09:01 --> 00:09:03 Royal Society is calling for artificial light
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 at night to be legally recognised as a
00:09:06 --> 00:09:08 pollutant. The Society believes
00:09:08 --> 00:09:11 nighttime should be recognised as an integral
00:09:11 --> 00:09:13 part of the natural environment, requiring
00:09:13 --> 00:09:16 protection on par with daytime activities. In
00:09:16 --> 00:09:18 order to strengthen conservation efforts,
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 they want to See nighttime lighting used only
00:09:21 --> 00:09:24 as needed and when it is needed, using
00:09:24 --> 00:09:25 warmer coloured lighting.
00:09:26 --> 00:09:28 Tanya Hill, a senior curator of astronomy at
00:09:28 --> 00:09:30 the Melbourne Planetarium, says light
00:09:30 --> 00:09:33 pollution is a growing problem globally. We
00:09:33 --> 00:09:35 need more dark sky areas.
00:09:35 --> 00:09:38 Katarina Miljkovic : It breaks my heart. I grew up in Liverpool
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 and western Sydney and I remember my dad
00:09:41 --> 00:09:43 showing me the Magellanic Clouds and the
00:09:43 --> 00:09:45 Milky Way from my backyard. That was one of
00:09:45 --> 00:09:47 the things I would go out and you could just
00:09:47 --> 00:09:49 see that. I remember spending time up in the
00:09:49 --> 00:09:51 Blue Mountains in my car, cousins just lying
00:09:51 --> 00:09:53 on the trampoline, absolutely lost in the
00:09:53 --> 00:09:55 gorgeous skies. And yeah, that light
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 pollution is just encroaching on us more and
00:09:58 --> 00:10:00 more. And I think the scary thing, kids
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 growing up today who just don't have that
00:10:02 --> 00:10:05 access to the sky, I mean we're told that
00:10:05 --> 00:10:06 more than a third of the Earth's, uh,
00:10:06 --> 00:10:09 population can't see the Milky Way from
00:10:09 --> 00:10:11 their home and about 80% of the Earth's
00:10:11 --> 00:10:14 population don't have access to dark skies.
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 Those figures are just alarming. And
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 it's more the fact that if you've never seen
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 it, you don't know what you're missing. And
00:10:21 --> 00:10:23 that's what really concerns me.
00:10:23 --> 00:10:25 Stuart Gary: I'm um, told that when there's a blackout in
00:10:25 --> 00:10:28 the United States, emergency services get
00:10:28 --> 00:10:30 phone calls from people saying there are
00:10:30 --> 00:10:31 lights in the sky.
00:10:31 --> 00:10:34 Katarina Miljkovic : Oh no. Oh no. There are those stars, those
00:10:34 --> 00:10:36 beautiful stars that you see. Although that
00:10:36 --> 00:10:38 does also make me think because we can talk
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 about light pollution and the fact that we're
00:10:41 --> 00:10:43 causing this glow that is fading out the
00:10:43 --> 00:10:46 gorgeous light of the stars. But then there's
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 also another type of pollution which we're
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 doing with all the satellites that are up
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 there. I've had quite a few of my colleagues
00:10:52 --> 00:10:54 who have gone away recently with the holidays
00:10:54 --> 00:10:56 and all of them have said they've gone out to
00:10:56 --> 00:10:59 look at the stars and they were amazed by
00:10:59 --> 00:11:01 the number of satellites that they're now
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 seeing. It has just grown so much.
00:11:04 --> 00:11:07 Stuart Gary: The trains of Starlink satellites is
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 quite ridiculous. There are so many of them.
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 It's not just Starlink now we've got Blue
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 Origin starting their network. There are
00:11:14 --> 00:11:15 others out there as well. Yes, there are just
00:11:15 --> 00:11:16 so many.
00:11:16 --> 00:11:17 Katarina Miljkovic : Absolutely.
00:11:17 --> 00:11:19 So I, uh, just recent count is that there's
00:11:19 --> 00:11:22 about 15 satellites in orbit and
00:11:22 --> 00:11:25 10 of those are uh, the Starlink SpaceX
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 satellite. That just is mind boggling to
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 me that what we're doing up there for our
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 skies and what that also means. I remember
00:11:33 --> 00:11:36 hearing last year there was a great
00:11:36 --> 00:11:39 indigenous panel at Melbourne Museum that was
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 speaking about indigenous space futures. And
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 Professor Dean Sanders, he was saying how he
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 was out on country, waiting with an elder who
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 was going to share a story with him, being
00:11:50 --> 00:11:52 the stars. And he started the story and a
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 satellite went by and it was like, oh, that
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 was fine. They stopped for a moment, let the
00:11:56 --> 00:11:59 satellite pass. The elders started to repeat
00:11:59 --> 00:12:01 their story and there was another satellite
00:12:01 --> 00:12:03 and another satellite. And I think that's the
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 issue. It seems that we always tend to take
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 things to extreme, don't we? If it was just
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 the odd satellite and you waited for a
00:12:09 --> 00:12:10 moment, but the fact that there were just
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 more and more coming and the story, the
00:12:13 --> 00:12:15 knowledge couldn't be shared, and it just
00:12:15 --> 00:12:16 brought them both to tears.
00:12:16 --> 00:12:19 Stuart Gary: There are some things we can do about this.
00:12:19 --> 00:12:20 Uh, we can change the way our street.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:24 That's starting to happen, but not nearly
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 fast enough. And it won't do enough either,
00:12:26 --> 00:12:27 because you'll have tall buildings with lots
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 of fluoros and neons and LEDs. But
00:12:30 --> 00:12:33 there's also areas that are set aside that
00:12:33 --> 00:12:34 are now reserved, aren't they?
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 Katarina Miljkovic : Yeah, absolutely. And look, this is the thing
00:12:36 --> 00:12:38 about light pollution. We actually know how
00:12:38 --> 00:12:40 to fix this. You know, other types of
00:12:40 --> 00:12:42 pollution are much harder to fix. This one,
00:12:42 --> 00:12:44 all we need to do is turn off the light. So
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 it can be. There's just a few simple things
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 you can do. You can use warm, redder light
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 rather than the bright white blue light,
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 which affects our eyes so much more. I know
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 starting out in astronomy, one of the first
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 things that, as a hobby and an amateur
00:12:57 --> 00:12:59 astronomer, where I began, uh, the first
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 thing you learn is you cover your torch with
00:13:01 --> 00:13:03 red cellophane to keep your night vision. So,
00:13:03 --> 00:13:05 yeah, you can change the colour of the light
00:13:05 --> 00:13:08 you use. You use motion sensors, so to make
00:13:08 --> 00:13:09 sure that the light is only there when it's
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 needed, direct light for where it's needed,
00:13:11 --> 00:13:14 and shield it so it isn't creating this glow
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 going up in our skies. I was actually just
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 trying to. Look, I know a few years back,
00:13:18 --> 00:13:21 Melbourne put forward a policy based
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 on what they're doing in France, which.
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 France is one of the countries that has been
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 able to reduce their light pollution. And
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 part of that is as simple as dimming or
00:13:30 --> 00:13:32 turning off unnecessary lighting between
00:13:32 --> 00:13:34 midnight and sunrise. But as you mentioned,
00:13:34 --> 00:13:37 there are. We are lucky in Australia. We do
00:13:37 --> 00:13:40 have large areas in the country that
00:13:40 --> 00:13:42 have, uh, still have some lovely dark
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 skies. And one of the things that, uh, we
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 have done is that across the country there
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 are eight dark sky places. And
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 these are certified by the Dark Sky
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55 Alliance. It's an international board.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 There's an Australian section that does that.
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 And so this varies from there's,
00:14:00 --> 00:14:03 um, an urban night sky place, which is in
00:14:03 --> 00:14:05 Palm beach on the edge of Sydney. We're all
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 the way up to the Warrumbungal Dark
00:14:08 --> 00:14:11 sky park, which is out near Coonabarrabaram,
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 where our professional telescopes still
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 operate. And that is a place that we really
00:14:16 --> 00:14:19 want to preserve the dark sky, both for the
00:14:19 --> 00:14:20 visitors, visitors and the people who live
00:14:20 --> 00:14:22 there, but also for the astronomers to be
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 able to still have access to try and work out
00:14:24 --> 00:14:26 the mysteries that we want to discover about
00:14:26 --> 00:14:27 the universe.
00:14:27 --> 00:14:30 Stuart Gary: The sad news is even at Kunabarabran,
00:14:30 --> 00:14:32 if you look to the east, you can still see
00:14:32 --> 00:14:34 the glow of Sydney, even though absolutely
00:14:34 --> 00:14:35 hundreds of miles away.
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 Katarina Miljkovic : And it just, it's getting bigger and bigger
00:14:38 --> 00:14:41 as the city expands out. That's right.
00:14:41 --> 00:14:43 Stuart Gary: That's Dr. Tanya Hill, the senior curator of
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 astronomy at the Melbourne Planetarium at
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 Museums Victoria. And this is
00:14:48 --> 00:14:49 space, time.
00:15:05 --> 00:15:07 And time. Now to take another brief look at
00:15:07 --> 00:15:09 some of the other stories making news in
00:15:09 --> 00:15:10 Science this week with a Science report.
00:15:11 --> 00:15:13 A new study has shown that kids who are
00:15:13 --> 00:15:16 exposed to adversities in childhood face far
00:15:16 --> 00:15:18 worse outcomes in life when reaching
00:15:18 --> 00:15:20 adulthood. The findings, reported in the
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 Journal of the American Medical association,
00:15:22 --> 00:15:24 based on research involving some
00:15:24 --> 00:15:27 1 participants, showed that
00:15:27 --> 00:15:29 being exposed to adversities such as
00:15:29 --> 00:15:32 childhood abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic
00:15:32 --> 00:15:33 violence, living with drug addicts or
00:15:33 --> 00:15:36 alcoholics, living with someone with a severe
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 mental illness, having parents have split up,
00:15:38 --> 00:15:39 or having a member of your household
00:15:39 --> 00:15:41 incarcerated while growing up is linked to
00:15:41 --> 00:15:44 elevated rates of depression, post traumatic
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 stress disorder, suicidal tendencies,
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 interpersonal violence, low scores at school,
00:15:49 --> 00:15:52 and using illicit substances when reaching
00:15:52 --> 00:15:54 adulthood. The authors found varying grades
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 of effects depending on how many adversities
00:15:57 --> 00:15:59 a person had experienced during childhood,
00:15:59 --> 00:16:02 with specific types such as emotional abuse,
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 and discrimination being more consistently
00:16:07 --> 00:16:07 linked.
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 A new study has confirmed that the more ultra
00:16:11 --> 00:16:14 processed foods you eat, the higher your risk
00:16:14 --> 00:16:15 of getting chronic diseases like heart
00:16:15 --> 00:16:18 conditions, diabetes and cancer.
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 The findings, reported in the Journal of
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 Family Medicine and Community Health, are
00:16:22 --> 00:16:25 based on an analysis of 51 previous studies
00:16:25 --> 00:16:28 involving some 9 million people. The
00:16:28 --> 00:16:30 analysis also found that eating more such
00:16:30 --> 00:16:32 foods increased your risk of death.
00:16:33 --> 00:16:35 Ultra processed foods include many packaged
00:16:35 --> 00:16:38 snacks as well as frozen meals. They tend to
00:16:38 --> 00:16:41 be less nutrient but higher in energy, and
00:16:41 --> 00:16:43 they contain multiple additives that may
00:16:43 --> 00:16:44 combine to affect health.
00:16:46 --> 00:16:48 Marine scientists have discovered that an
00:16:48 --> 00:16:51 endangered species of sea cucumber can live
00:16:51 --> 00:16:53 for decades, with some animals living more
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 than 100 years the findings reported in the
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 journal Science, are based on the first of
00:16:58 --> 00:17:01 its kind genetic mark recapture study. The
00:17:01 --> 00:17:03 authors suggest that black teatfish sea
00:17:03 --> 00:17:05 cucumber populations recovered much more
00:17:05 --> 00:17:08 slowly than previously thought, and this had
00:17:08 --> 00:17:10 implications for commercial fishery catch
00:17:10 --> 00:17:11 limits.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 Ohio's night stalkers Bigfoot research group
00:17:15 --> 00:17:17 claims the Buckeye state is experiencing a
00:17:17 --> 00:17:20 population boom of bigfoots. The group
00:17:20 --> 00:17:23 claims Sasquatch is making a comeback after
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 half a century of silence. Ohians are
00:17:26 --> 00:17:29 reporting a huge increase in eerie howls,
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 screams and hulking footprints scattered
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 primarily between Akron and Youngstown in the
00:17:33 --> 00:17:36 state's northeast. The sceptics, Timms
00:17:36 --> 00:17:38 Mendham says believers are describing
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 creatures between 6 and 10ft tall, completely
00:17:41 --> 00:17:42 covered in dark fur.
00:17:42 --> 00:17:44 Tim Mendham: In the list of American states which have
00:17:44 --> 00:17:46 claimed Bigfoot, uh, Ohio is number four,
00:17:46 --> 00:17:48 obviously Washington State, Oregon State are
00:17:48 --> 00:17:49 up there, probably California as well. So,
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 you know, mainly on the west coast. Ohio
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 moving a bit inland. It's ranked fourth in
00:17:53 --> 00:17:55 the nation. And recently there has been a bit
00:17:55 --> 00:17:58 of a Bigfoot flat going on, not seen since
00:17:58 --> 00:18:01 1978, uh, apparently, and therefore a lot of
00:18:01 --> 00:18:03 people claiming, I know what I saw, which is
00:18:03 --> 00:18:05 classic positive, confident claim, which gets
00:18:05 --> 00:18:07 knocked down pretty quickly often. And
00:18:07 --> 00:18:09 they're suggesting that Ohio is becoming, or
00:18:09 --> 00:18:12 certain parts of Ohio are becoming sort of
00:18:12 --> 00:18:14 hotbeds of breeding populations. Now, that's
00:18:14 --> 00:18:16 often the thing that's forgotten in a lot of
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 these cryptid monster claims is that you've
00:18:18 --> 00:18:20 got to have a breeding population for it to
00:18:20 --> 00:18:22 survive. One animal, Loch Ness monster, is
00:18:22 --> 00:18:24 not going to last forever. And you've got to
00:18:24 --> 00:18:26 have a breeding population of a certain size
00:18:26 --> 00:18:28 without being interbreeding within sort of,
00:18:28 --> 00:18:29 uh, the family. You actually have to have
00:18:29 --> 00:18:31 quite a few. The whole bunch of people who've
00:18:31 --> 00:18:33 supposedly seen this family, this group,
00:18:33 --> 00:18:35 individuals, whatever they've seen, heard
00:18:35 --> 00:18:38 noises, eerie howls, as they say, and
00:18:38 --> 00:18:40 footprint about the sign of a human, large
00:18:40 --> 00:18:42 head. And that's obviously, you know,
00:18:42 --> 00:18:44 compulsive evidence that these things exist.
00:18:44 --> 00:18:45 People say, I've never heard a howl like
00:18:45 --> 00:18:46 that. Well, perhaps you haven't heard of how
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 like that doesn't mean it's a Bigfoot. I've
00:18:48 --> 00:18:49 never seen footprints that big. But I mean,
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 no one's taken the photo of this huge
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 population of Bigfoot. There's just been a
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 flap, which tends to happen when one or two
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 people start seeing things. Others get in the
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 mood to see things. Not to say they're faking
00:19:00 --> 00:19:02 anything like that, but they just interpret
00:19:02 --> 00:19:04 any strange thing as, oh, the explanation is
00:19:04 --> 00:19:07 Bigfoot for Loch Ness monster or flying
00:19:07 --> 00:19:09 saucers. Or whatever. And, uh, in this case,
00:19:09 --> 00:19:12 they seem to be up around northeastern Ohio.
00:19:12 --> 00:19:14 One of the people who made a claim, a
00:19:14 --> 00:19:16 scientist who's an investigator of these
00:19:16 --> 00:19:17 things made the curious claim that when, uh,
00:19:18 --> 00:19:20 talking about these eerie noises and screams
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 and howls, he said, quote, some of these
00:19:22 --> 00:19:24 screams pegged higher than a baboon on the
00:19:24 --> 00:19:27 spectrograph. Your listeners will be knowing
00:19:27 --> 00:19:28 that spectrograph is an instrument for
00:19:28 --> 00:19:29 measuring light. So I don't know how you
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 measure a howl or a scream on an instrument
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 that measures light, but it sounds good. It
00:19:34 --> 00:19:36 sounds sciency. But you wonder. This is a guy
00:19:36 --> 00:19:38 who's a chief researcher, a serious
00:19:38 --> 00:19:39 researcher, has been doing it for years,
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 saying that sort of thing is just what it
00:19:41 --> 00:19:42 makes you wonder about, the quality of the
00:19:42 --> 00:19:44 people and therefore the quality of the
00:19:44 --> 00:19:46 evidence of these things. And again, no real
00:19:46 --> 00:19:46 evidence.
00:19:46 --> 00:19:49 Stuart Gary: Increases in Bigfoot sightings constantly
00:19:49 --> 00:19:51 correlating almost exactly with increases in
00:19:51 --> 00:19:53 black bear populations.
00:19:53 --> 00:19:55 Tim Mendham: My goodness, you're such a cynic. When
00:19:55 --> 00:19:57 someone takes a photo, definitive photo,
00:19:57 --> 00:20:00 everyone carries a high quality camera in
00:20:00 --> 00:20:01 their pocket, a movie camera in their pocket.
00:20:01 --> 00:20:03 Perhaps these sightings are too fleeting. If
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 they're fleeting, you can't really trust what
00:20:05 --> 00:20:06 you're seeing with your eyes. Even though
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 they say, I know what I saw. If they're not
00:20:08 --> 00:20:10 fleeting, get your camera out, get your phone
00:20:10 --> 00:20:12 out and take a photo. But no, I'm too scared.
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 It's such a thing. I watched this thing for
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 minutes and I forgot to take my. Take a
00:20:16 --> 00:20:17 photo.
00:20:17 --> 00:20:19 Stuart Gary: That's the sceptics, Tim Mendham. And this is
00:20:19 --> 00:20:20 Space Time.
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