S27E105: Record-Breaking Antimatter, UK Rocket Mishap, and the Mystery of Space Cuisine

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_03]: This is SpaceTime, Series 27, Episode 105, for broadcast on the 30th of August 2024.

[00:00:07] [SPEAKER_03]: Coming up on SpaceTime, discovery of the heaviest antimatter hypernucleus ever created,

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_03]: a spectacular rocket engine explosion at the United Kingdom's new spaceport,

[00:00:18] [SPEAKER_03]: and we look at why food tastes bad in space.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_03]: All that and more coming up on SpaceTime.

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to SpaceTime with Stuart Gary.

[00:00:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Physicists with the Star Collaboration have for the first time ever observed a new antimatter hypernucleus

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_03]: known as anti-hyperhydrogen-4.

[00:00:54] [SPEAKER_03]: The new particle was created at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory's

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_03]: RIC Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.

[00:01:02] [SPEAKER_03]: The experiments reported in the journal Nature represent the most massive antimatter hypernucleus ever discovered.

[00:01:08] [SPEAKER_03]: It's an important scientific advancement on our journey to try and understand

[00:01:13] [SPEAKER_03]: one of the most basic questions of the universe.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_03]: There's almost no difference between matter and antimatter other than their electrical charge.

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_03]: See, current physics assumes that the properties of matter and antimatter are symmetrical

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_03]: and that equal amounts of both matter and antimatter were created

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_03]: at the birth of the universe in the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_03]: However, there's a problem.

[00:01:36] [SPEAKER_03]: You see, matter and antimatter annihilate each other when they come into contact.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And so the universe and everything in it should have quickly disappeared

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_03]: in a blinding purple flash of gamma radiation microseconds after it formed.

[00:01:50] [SPEAKER_03]: Yet for some reason it clearly didn't and we live in a universe full of matter

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_03]: rather than one full of antimatter.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_03]: And scientists have no idea why that's the case.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Some physicists speculate some mysterious physical mechanism

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_03]: caused annihilation of most of the matter and antimatter,

[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_03]: but for some reason one in ten billion matter particles survived.

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And it's these particles which form the matter universe we see today.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_03]: In today's matter-dominated universe, antimatter is extremely rare

[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_03]: because it is easily annihilated by surrounding matter.

[00:02:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Artificially producing antimatter is difficult.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_03]: Producing antimatter nuclei and antimatter hypernuclei,

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_03]: formed by combining several antibaryons, are even more difficult to make.

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Since the Darroch equation indicated the existence of antimatter in 1928,

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_03]: scientists have discovered six types of antimatter hypernuclei

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_03]: over nearly a century.

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_03]: And this is where the relativistic heavy-ion collider at Brocaven comes in.

[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_03]: It's designed to accelerate heavy-ion particles in beams

[00:02:52] [SPEAKER_03]: to nearly the speed of light and then make them collide.

[00:02:56] [SPEAKER_03]: These collisions are meant to simulate the sorts of conditions

[00:02:59] [SPEAKER_03]: that existed in the early universe shortly after the Big Bang.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_03]: They produce fireballs with temperatures of several trillion degrees,

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_03]: which contain approximately equal amounts of matter and antimatter.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_03]: As the fireball rapidly expands and cools,

[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_03]: some of this antimatter manages to escape annihilation with matter

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_03]: and can therefore be detected by the star detector.

[00:03:20] [SPEAKER_03]: Anti-hyperhydrogen-4 is composed of one antiproton,

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_03]: two antineutrons, and one anti-lambda hyperon.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Lambda baryons are a family of subatomic hadron particles

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_03]: containing one up quark, one down quark,

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_03]: and a third quark from a higher flavour.

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_03]: A hyperon is a baryon containing one or more strange quarks

[00:03:39] [SPEAKER_03]: these are the ones of the higher flavour we were just talking about,

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_03]: but no charm, bottom or top quarks.

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Due to the presence of the unstable anti-lambda hyperon,

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_03]: anti-hyperhydrogen-4 decays after travelling just a few centimetres.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_03]: After analysing experimental data from approximately 6.6 billion

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_03]: heavy ion collision events, the authors were able to reconstruct

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_03]: anti-hyperhydrogen-4 from its decay products,

[00:04:03] [SPEAKER_03]: anti-helium-4 and a pi meson,

[00:04:05] [SPEAKER_03]: identifying a signal for around 16 anti-hyperhydrogen-4.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_03]: The pi meson, or pion for short, is the lightest meson

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_03]: and an important component of cosmic rays,

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_03]: existing in three forms based on charge.

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_03]: The authors were also able to measure the lifetime of anti-hyperhydrogen-4

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_03]: and found no significant difference when compared to that

[00:04:26] [SPEAKER_03]: of its corresponding matter particle, hyperhydrogen-4,

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_03]: further verifying the symmetry between matter and anti-matter properties.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_03]: This is space time.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Still to come, a spectacular rocket engine explosion

[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_03]: on Britain's new spaceport

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_03]: and we look at why food tastes so bad in space.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_03]: All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_03]: A first stage rocket booster has exploded in a spectacular fireball

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_03]: during a hot fire test at Britain's new Saxe-a-Vaud spaceport

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_03]: in northern Scotland.

[00:05:13] [SPEAKER_03]: Damage to the launch pad was minimal

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_03]: and no one was injured in the blast on the remote island of Ernst.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_03]: The booster was being tested by the German rocket manufacturer

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Rocket Factory Alsburg, which hopes to undertake Britain's

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_03]: first vertical rocket launch into orbit from the complex later this year.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_03]: The failure comes three months after the company carried out

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_03]: a successful engine test at the same site.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Saxe-a-Vaud is the first licensed vertical spaceport in Britain.

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_03]: This space time.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Still to come, why food tastes so bad in space

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_03]: and later in the science report, a new study reports

[00:05:47] [SPEAKER_03]: that 5% of people are consuming products

[00:05:49] [SPEAKER_03]: that are potentially toxic to their livers.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_03]: All that and more still to come on Space Time.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_03]: A new study may finally help explain why astronauts are constantly

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_03]: reporting that their meals taste bad or at the very least bland in space.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_03]: The findings reported in the International Journal of Food Science and Technology

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_03]: examine common food aromas and could help improve not just

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_03]: the nutritional intake for crews in space,

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_03]: but also the diets of isolated people here on Earth,

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_03]: including those in nursing homes.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_03]: Previous research had already shown that aroma plays a big role

[00:06:39] [SPEAKER_03]: in the flavour of food.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_03]: So, scientists decided to test how people's perception of vanilla

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_03]: and armoured extracts as well as limon essential oil changed

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_03]: from the normal environment on Earth to that of a confined setting

[00:06:51] [SPEAKER_03]: such as the International Space Station,

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_03]: which for these tests was simulated for participants

[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_03]: with the use of virtual reality goggles.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_03]: The study's lead author Julia Lowe from RMIT University says

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_03]: participants found that both vanilla and almond aromas were more intense

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_03]: in the International Space Station's simulated environment

[00:07:10] [SPEAKER_03]: than under normal ground conditions.

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_03]: However, they found no change in intensity for the lemon scent.

[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_03]: The authors found a specific sweet chemical in the aromas of vanilla

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_03]: and almond called benzaldehyde could explain the change in perceptions,

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_03]: in addition to an individual's sensitivity to a particular smell.

[00:07:28] [SPEAKER_03]: Lowe says a greater sense of loneliness and isolation

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_03]: may also be playing a role.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_03]: This is the first study involving a large sample size of participants,

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_03]: thereby also allowing the researchers to capture variations

[00:07:39] [SPEAKER_03]: of individuals' personal experience of aromas and taste in isolated settings.

[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Lowe says the findings show that spatial perception

[00:07:47] [SPEAKER_03]: played a significant role in how people smelled aromas.

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And this complements the results of other studies

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_03]: on the topic of astronauts' eating experience in space,

[00:07:56] [SPEAKER_03]: including the phenomenon of fluid shift.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_03]: You see, weightlessness causes fluids to shift from the lower extremities

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_03]: of the body to the upper parts,

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_03]: and this creates facial swelling and nasal congestion

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_03]: that affects one's sense of smell and taste.

[00:08:10] [SPEAKER_03]: The symptoms typically begin to disappear within a few weeks

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_03]: of being on board the space station.

[00:08:15] [SPEAKER_03]: But despite that, astronauts were still not enjoying their food,

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_03]: even after fluid shift effects were gone.

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_03]: That suggests there's something more going on.

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_03]: Former astronaut instructor and co-researcher Gayle Iles,

[00:08:26] [SPEAKER_03]: also with RMIT, says that despite carefully designed diet plans,

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_03]: astronauts aboard the space station

[00:08:33] [SPEAKER_03]: were simply not meeting their daily nutritional requirements,

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_03]: something which is dangerous on any long-term mission.

[00:08:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And with upcoming MAD Artemis missions

[00:08:42] [SPEAKER_03]: likely to involve long-duration space flights,

[00:08:45] [SPEAKER_03]: especially when people go to Mars,

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_03]: that presents a serious concern.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_03]: So scientists need to understand the problems with diet and food

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_03]: and how crew can better interact with their meals.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Lo says the study's results could help personalise people's diets,

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_03]: especially in socially isolated situations,

[00:09:02] [SPEAKER_03]: both on Earth and in space.

[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_01]: It is well known that astronauts do not enjoy their food in space.

[00:09:08] [SPEAKER_01]: We've seen this in the literature,

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_01]: which suggests that astronauts do not actually meet

[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_01]: 100% of their nutritional requirements.

[00:09:14] [SPEAKER_01]: So what we are trying to do is to try and kickstart this in Australia.

[00:09:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So we don't have a nice, high-fived budget,

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_01]: so we're just thinking how can we get this started?

[00:09:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And one of my particular interests is on understanding

[00:09:26] [SPEAKER_01]: how the eating environment itself could impact

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: on how people choose different kinds of food.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_01]: We have seen this in sensory and consumer studies

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: that they found that if you eat in different environments,

[00:09:36] [SPEAKER_01]: that may yield very different responses,

[00:09:38] [SPEAKER_01]: especially when you're eating in a more quiet eating environment.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So we're trying to replicate this in a spaceflight eating environment,

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01]: if you think about it.

[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_01]: International Space Station kind of feels like

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01]: when you are in a confined, locked-up room.

[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So we replicated this using virtual reality,

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and we are trying to understand if people smell different types of fruit differently.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_03]: When I talk to kids about being an astronaut or something like that,

[00:10:02] [SPEAKER_03]: first question is how do you get out of the toilet in space?

[00:10:05] [SPEAKER_03]: Every kid wants that.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_03]: And the second question is what sort of foods do you eat in space?

[00:10:10] [SPEAKER_03]: That's changed a lot over the years from originally astronauts simply ate pastes,

[00:10:14] [SPEAKER_03]: because the paste would stick together and it wouldn't float around.

[00:10:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Nowadays they have a far more varied diet,

[00:10:20] [SPEAKER_03]: but it still doesn't taste good, and that's obviously a real problem.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it is. It is a real problem,

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_01]: because it means that if you look in the literature,

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_01]: most missions are about six months,

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_01]: or some of them go up to about a year.

[00:10:33] [SPEAKER_01]: What we don't know actually is what happens beyond that,

[00:10:36] [SPEAKER_01]: because if they are all not meeting their nutritional requirements,

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_01]: it's okay in the short term.

[00:10:41] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what happens in the longer-mast missions.

[00:10:43] [SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what happens to the human itself.

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a need to look into, you know,

[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_01]: is there a way that we can encourage them to meet their 100% nutritional requirement?

[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_03]: We know that when you're in space, fluids rush to your head.

[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Astronauts are always complaining they feel like they've got a head cold,

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_03]: even though they don't.

[00:11:02] [SPEAKER_03]: And I always thought that might be the reason why foods don't taste good.

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_03]: But your studies show it's more psychological than that.

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_03]: It's the environment they're in that makes them feel closed in.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it is. So we know that the body fluids rush to the head.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_01]: It's sort of like you're having a cold.

[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_01]: So when you're having a cold, it blocks your senses of your ability to smell.

[00:11:21] [SPEAKER_01]: So you're only tasting the food.

[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's why when we're having a cold, food normally doesn't taste good

[00:11:25] [SPEAKER_01]: because you're only tasting the five tastes, essentially.

[00:11:30] [SPEAKER_01]: So what happens is that it's also found in literature with the body fluid movements.

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's suggested that within after four days to about two weeks,

[00:11:39] [SPEAKER_01]: the body should do the job to be able to regulate this.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01]: But what we've seen in the data,

[00:11:44] [SPEAKER_01]: like if you look in the papers of nutrition research or space,

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_01]: is you're not eating food in the six months or longer term mission.

[00:11:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So it suggests that there's something else going on there.

[00:11:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's not just, well, the body fluids will play a factor.

[00:11:58] [SPEAKER_01]: But what we are interested in is to understand what other things are happening in there.

[00:12:01] [SPEAKER_03]: And this is where the idea of improved smell comes into the whole thing.

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes. We actually just started with smell.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Our research group is also looking at taste as well.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Smell is easier to replicate virtual reality as a start.

[00:12:14] [SPEAKER_01]: But eating is really a combination of taste, smell, texture and everything else.

[00:12:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so it's very interesting that we found this.

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_03]: Tell me about benzaldehyde.

[00:12:22] [SPEAKER_01]: So what we found when we're looking at the data,

[00:12:26] [SPEAKER_01]: we put people in different environments like the virtual reality space

[00:12:30] [SPEAKER_01]: like environment versus a control environment.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It's quite interesting to see that certain aromas were more intense.

[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_01]: So what we did was then we did a chemical analysis to try and figure out why.

[00:12:40] [SPEAKER_01]: What we found was because the full-almost aromas are very complex.

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of aromas in there,

[00:12:46] [SPEAKER_01]: but there are some similarities between two of our aromas

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_01]: which were also more intense when people are in the virtual reality.

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And that what we found was this common aroma called benzaldehyde,

[00:12:58] [SPEAKER_01]: which is normally a sweet-like compound,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01]: which is common for both vanilla and almonds.

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_01]: So we found that they were more intense.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Something that's more intense doesn't necessarily mean that they may taste good.

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_01]: It just means that in that environment, it may be slightly more pronounced.

[00:13:11] [SPEAKER_01]: So maybe that may suggest that some people may not like their food in space.

[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_01]: We had a reasonably large number of 54 participants.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_01]: So normally in sensory science, if you want to look at differences between people,

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: we need to look at about 30 people to see the individual variation

[00:13:27] [SPEAKER_01]: because we are all different.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: And this is what we did.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_01]: We ran the studies.

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_01]: We duplicated in different environments

[00:13:32] [SPEAKER_01]: to see what are the differences in these different eating environments.

[00:13:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And what did you find?

[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_01]: We found that in the space-like virtual reality environment,

[00:13:41] [SPEAKER_01]: participants were quite engaged in that environment.

[00:13:44] [SPEAKER_01]: And they reported a low to medium intensity of loneliness in this environment.

[00:13:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of expected because these are healthy participants.

[00:13:52] [SPEAKER_01]: So to be able to induce them to a low to moderate feeling of loneliness,

[00:13:57] [SPEAKER_01]: it means that this could be a good measure to try and understand what's going on.

[00:14:01] [SPEAKER_01]: And we also found that in this virtual reality environment,

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01]: certain aromas were more intense in comparison to a controlled environment.

[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_03]: Were you surprised to find the psychological impact being as strong as it was,

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_03]: the fact that putting on the virtual reality headset made a difference?

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_01]: I guess a no to that because what I've been working on before this,

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_01]: my research team looks at more normal eating environments,

[00:14:26] [SPEAKER_01]: like day-to-day eating environments,

[00:14:27] [SPEAKER_01]: like eating in a cafe or eating...

[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Some people look at eating in a bar in comparison to like

[00:14:32] [SPEAKER_01]: a standard dentistry-proof type environment.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_01]: It's found that emotion do play a big factor in what fruit we tend to choose

[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_01]: and how much we like certain fruits.

[00:14:42] [SPEAKER_01]: And emotion is something that is influenced by the eating environment itself.

[00:14:47] [SPEAKER_01]: So duplicating this to obviously a space environment, more extreme.

[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_01]: So we were expecting to find some differences.

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_01]: That is quite surprising for us as far as to start when we're running pilot studies to see these.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_01]: That was on a much smaller sample when we actually duplicate this to the 54 people that we are running

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_01]: and we found consistent findings.

[00:15:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So that's telling me that the idea of a romantic dinner in a fancy restaurant is really a good idea,

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_03]: but it's also telling me that eating in front of the telly is not as good as eating in a family sitting in the dining room.

[00:15:18] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly. That's what we're trying to get to.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_01]: And it's something that in the sensory science world,

[00:15:22] [SPEAKER_01]: they've been looking at this whether how different eating environments may impact

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_01]: on what we feel about the same fruit.

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: And eating is contextual.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_01]: So for example, if you think about a sandwich,

[00:15:33] [SPEAKER_01]: if you eat a sandwich in a scenic park on a spring day,

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it feels very different when you're scoffing down the same sandwich in front of a hotel.

[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_03]: Where do you want to take this next?

[00:15:42] [SPEAKER_01]: So we are looking to actually combine this with different body postures.

[00:15:47] [SPEAKER_01]: So that's looking at the body fluid movement and to combine it to the virtual reality,

[00:15:52] [SPEAKER_01]: to see if there's an added effect.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_01]: And that's something Grace Look, which is the first author of this paper,

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_01]: my PhD student is running next as well.

[00:15:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Now this isn't just applicable to space.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_03]: This can be used in all sorts of settings,

[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_03]: places like nursing homes and hospital settings as well.

[00:16:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes. So we are only at a fundamental stage to try and see if there's a difference

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_01]: in this more extreme eating environment.

[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_01]: But yes, if you think about it, a space like eating environment,

[00:16:17] [SPEAKER_01]: it's very similar to a nursing home in the sense that people are confined.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_01]: You're only looking at a couple of people that you're looking at.

[00:16:24] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a very limited menu as well.

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_01]: So there is similarities that you can draw to other people living and working in this environment.

[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_03]: That's Julia Lowe from RMIT University in Melbourne.

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And this is Space Time.

[00:16:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And time now to take another brief look at some of the other stories making news in science this week

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_03]: with the Science Report.

[00:17:01] [SPEAKER_03]: A new study suggests that close to 5% of people are consuming products

[00:17:05] [SPEAKER_03]: that are potentially toxic to their livers.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_03]: The findings reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association

[00:17:11] [SPEAKER_03]: are based on a survey of close to 10,000 people across the United States.

[00:17:16] [SPEAKER_03]: The researchers found that 5% of people reported consuming either turmeric,

[00:17:21] [SPEAKER_03]: green tea, ashwagandha, carcinia camburgi, red yeast rice or black kohash products.

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_03]: The people who use these herbs tended to be significantly older,

[00:17:31] [SPEAKER_03]: better educated and more likely to have arthritis than other users.

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_03]: The authors warned that clinicians need to be made aware of the toxic liver issues

[00:17:39] [SPEAKER_03]: that could arise from these mostly unregulated products.

[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_03]: A new magnetic robotic glove has been developed by scientists

[00:17:47] [SPEAKER_03]: to help people who need hand rehabilitation.

[00:17:51] [SPEAKER_03]: A report in the Journal of Device claims the glove can solve problems

[00:17:54] [SPEAKER_03]: with current options for hand rehabilitation which are often costly and impractical.

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Engineers developed the glove to provide resistance by way of magnets

[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_03]: which can be used during exercise to help people regain strength in their hands.

[00:18:07] [SPEAKER_03]: They say the gloves are inexpensive, customizable and portable,

[00:18:11] [SPEAKER_03]: allowing patients to use them both in the clinic and at home.

[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_03]: The new gloves could help patients stick to their rehabilitation exercises

[00:18:18] [SPEAKER_03]: more consistently which would then improve their overall quality of life.

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_03]: A new study has found that your social position,

[00:18:26] [SPEAKER_03]: including your job and income, is linked to your food preferences.

[00:18:31] [SPEAKER_03]: A report in the British Medical Journal looked at the food and drink purchase records

[00:18:35] [SPEAKER_03]: of 1,521 households both in London and in the north of England.

[00:18:40] [SPEAKER_03]: They analysed how people made daily food and drink purchases

[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_03]: as well as their self-reported use of food delivery apps and prepared takeaway meals.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_03]: They also collected data on other factors such as social position, income and body mass index.

[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_03]: The authors found that those in the lowest so-called social grade

[00:18:58] [SPEAKER_03]: had more than double the odds of using food delivery apps compared to those in the highest group.

[00:19:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And while there were no associations between weight and online grocery shopping,

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_03]: those who used food delivery apps were some 84% more likely to live with obesity

[00:19:13] [SPEAKER_03]: and 45% more likely to be overweight compared to those who didn't use them.

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And the British results aren't unique. Similar results were also reported in Australia.

[00:19:25] [SPEAKER_03]: While the study's observation on therefore can't prove cause and effect,

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_03]: the authors suggest grocery purchasing may depend on financial resources

[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_03]: while takeaway purchasing could be linked to culture and social groups.

[00:19:36] [SPEAKER_03]: Food delivery apps could also be making it easier to make unhealthy food choices

[00:19:40] [SPEAKER_03]: and therefore worsening health inequalities.

[00:19:44] [SPEAKER_03]: The editor of the pop paranormal website Higgepop says he's a skeptic

[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_03]: and the many ghost hunts he's been on haven't changed his opinion yet.

[00:19:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Tim Mendam from Astrea Skeptic says the editor's findings mirror his own experiences on ghost hunts

[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_03]: and those of other science-minded investigators.

[00:20:02] [SPEAKER_02]: This is an article written by the founder of the Higgepop Paranormal website.

[00:20:07] [SPEAKER_02]: It has a lot of interesting stuff and case studies and things,

[00:20:09] [SPEAKER_02]: but it also has a lot of skeptical comments.

[00:20:11] [SPEAKER_02]: And he said he's been on 100 ghost hunts, actually 101, in 71 different locations,

[00:20:17] [SPEAKER_02]: a lot of them high-profile ghost hunting sites.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_02]: And he says, and I'll quote him,

[00:20:21] [SPEAKER_02]: I'd experienced the same stimuli and psychological cues as the ghost hunters.

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_02]: I was sure I would experience the same things as those who reported paranormal activity at these places,

[00:20:31] [SPEAKER_02]: even if it wasn't caused by the spirits of the dead.

[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_02]: But exactly 101 investigations later, I've had none of this.

[00:20:38] [SPEAKER_02]: Where are the creaking floorboards and the tricks of the eye?

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_02]: The doors slamming in a draft.

[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_02]: It makes me wonder what are these ghost hunters experiencing that they could be mistaking for the paranormal?

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_02]: He's based on his own experience that he's done all these ghost hunts

[00:20:49] [SPEAKER_02]: in often high-profile places at the right time,

[00:20:52] [SPEAKER_02]: places where there's supposed to be hauntings reported every week, etc.

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_02]: And he goes there and sees nothing, and sees nothing, and sees nothing, and sees nothing.

[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_02]: There's a few interesting events he's had,

[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_02]: but he doesn't regard them as highly significant

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_02]: and perhaps they could be explained with further investigation.

[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_02]: So he's a proponent of this stuff.

[00:21:06] [SPEAKER_02]: At least he does promote the proponents of ghost hunting, etc.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_02]: And he suggests that there are four ways that ghost hunters often use technology, especially,

[00:21:14] [SPEAKER_02]: to find their ghosts.

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_02]: One is what's called spirit boxes.

[00:21:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Another is electronic voice phenomena, EVP detectors, word bank tools.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_02]: These are all sort of little handheld devices that you can use to test for ghost presence

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_02]: and of course personal experience.

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_02]: These are things that go beep?

[00:21:27] [SPEAKER_02]: They're things that go beep.

[00:21:28] [SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of them are just frequency rangefinders

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_02]: or they just whiz across through all the frequencies

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_02]: and when you come across a weird crackling sound, that's obviously a ghost.

[00:21:36] [SPEAKER_02]: EVP are the same sort of thing.

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_02]: Electronic voice phenomena are not necessarily voices.

[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_02]: They could just be crackling, static and all sorts of things.

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_02]: And often that's when you play back afterwards.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_02]: You don't hear it when you're there, but you play it back afterwards

[00:21:46] [SPEAKER_02]: and you discover, oh, that sounds interesting.

[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_02]: So it's a bit of cognitive bias in there.

[00:21:50] [SPEAKER_02]: Word bank tools are similar where they affect a word generator.

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_02]: But the question is about all these things,

[00:21:55] [SPEAKER_02]: can ghosts interact with technology as these things are supposed to indicate?

[00:21:58] [SPEAKER_02]: That comes down to what is the ghost?

[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_02]: Is it an ethereal thing?

[00:22:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Is it a physical thing?

[00:22:03] [SPEAKER_02]: Can it actually do things like knock vases off of mantel pieces?

[00:22:06] [SPEAKER_02]: Or is it just wander around, et cetera, being ghostly?

[00:22:10] [SPEAKER_02]: Personal experience is as much in the eye of the beholder as anyone else.

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_02]: He has been to these things.

[00:22:15] [SPEAKER_02]: He hasn't had any personal experiences and he knows, okay,

[00:22:18] [SPEAKER_02]: that maybe he has to spend another 100 ghost hunts, whatever.

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_02]: But doing 100 is pretty good, pretty decent investigation.

[00:22:25] [SPEAKER_02]: Especially one particular web, haunted site, supposedly haunted site,

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_02]: he spent 40 hours in all up and yet still didn't see anything.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_02]: It can be sort of not good for your social life.

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_02]: I've been on ghost hunts.

[00:22:34] [SPEAKER_02]: Most skeptics are certain sort of level, if you like, have been on ghost hunts.

[00:22:38] [SPEAKER_03]: The perfect ghost hunt is one at a haunted pub.

[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_02]: That's exactly right where there's a lot of spirits.

[00:22:44] [SPEAKER_02]: It's amazing how often, this is an interesting phenomenon,

[00:22:46] [SPEAKER_02]: it's amazing how often old pubs in the UK are haunted.

[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_02]: And you think why?

[00:22:51] [SPEAKER_02]: Is it the spirits ha-ha-ha?

[00:22:53] [SPEAKER_02]: Or is it because these pubs want a bit of publicity

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_02]: and to get people to come along to actually have a few drinks

[00:22:57] [SPEAKER_02]: and watch a glass fall off a counter?

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_03]: The glass falls off the counter because the counter is just a little bit wet,

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_03]: just wet enough to cause the loss of friction.

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_02]: You're just a squirrel, you're just a squirrel sport.

[00:23:09] [SPEAKER_02]: The ghosts are like the cats of the spirit world.

[00:23:12] [SPEAKER_02]: They just like to walk along and knock things over.

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_03]: Well that's the proof why the earth isn't flat

[00:23:16] [SPEAKER_03]: because otherwise cats would have knocked everything off.

[00:23:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, that's right.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_03]: That's Tim Endham from Australian Skeptics.

[00:23:37] [SPEAKER_03]: And that's the show for now.

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[00:24:31] [SPEAKER_00]: You've been listening to Spacetime with Stuart Gary.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_00]: This has been another quality podcast production from Bytes.com.