StarTalk Radio - Cosmic Queries: The Science of Humans at War

Episode Date: July 22, 2016

Author Mary Roach is back to help host Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice answer fan-submitted questions about the softer side of military science: people, from advances in combat medicine, to the possibility of building super soldiers. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to new episodes ad-free and a whole week early.

Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist. And this is StarTalk. This is a Cosmic Queries edition of StarTalk. Yes, it is. And in this Cosmic Queries, we're going to be talking about the science of war. Yeah, man.

Ooh, science of humans at war. Yeah, and I have to tell you, man, people are obsessed with this subject. I don't understand how, I don't get it. I have never received the breadth of queries. Because you solicited questions on this topic already. Yes, we have solicited questions

from all over the internet. I was told this morning that this would be the topic, but you've been scheming all week on this. All week long, we've been receiving questions, and I have to tell you that people are very passionate about it, and they're doing a lot of deep thinking. Okay. Some of the questions, I'm like, you were clearly high when you wrote that question. You had to be high to write that question. Because I don't have any...

You don't get to see the questions. Plus, that's true. But though I be a scientist, I have no particular expertise in this topic. Right. Okay, so I figured, okay, then they plunked a book down in front of me called Grunt, The Curious Science of Humans at War. So I said, damn, I got to read this book like in the next hour. But then they told me, no, Mary Roach, the author of the book, is here with us.

Yes. From Oakland, California, Mary Roach. Yes. Thank you, Mary. This is not your first time on StarTalk. No, no. It's like your fourth time or something. I think we, yeah.

Yeah. You've got like the coolest StarTalkian books we could ever find. So great, great to have you on here. So basically these questions are going to be for Mary. Yeah. I'll be Mary's sidecar on this. I could back her up with some physics if we need it. Right.

This is her book. Yeah. For the most part, this is what people want to know. And Mary, I'm not going up with some physics if we need it. This is her book. Yeah, for the most part, this is what people want to know. And Mary, I'm not going to lie to you and say, oh, I read this book, and I haven't read it yet. I just saw it like this minute. No, no, no problem. Every other talk show host is lying to you when they said they read your book. Oh, I know. You know this.

I know. I haven't read it either. Okay. I don't remember what's in it. I wrote it a long time ago. Right. We'll see what these people say. We'll see what the people say.

And listen, like I said, some of the questions are out there but just before you go in oh go ahead just an overview yeah what is this subject okay so this is military science but specifically not the weapons and the bombs and the strategy which i from you may have a lot of questions there about that when i will turn those all over to you okay so this is the human right the human condition yeah it's an extreme heat and loud noise and fear and panic and flies and diarrhea and all the things that people don't necessarily think about but the military thinks about because it knocks soldiers out of commission and anyway so yeah that kind of it's all in here so this this is like your this

was your next project after all these other completely far-flung places you have been in your book portfolio. Yeah, you'd think I would take a body of knowledge that I've worked on and build upon that so that I don't. No. No. I'm going to start all over again. Start all over. Knowing nothing. All right, so let's try this.

Okay. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. Still before. Okay. What is the most weirdest scientific thing you can share with us about military grunts? Okay, here's... Just pull the soil here first.

The book starts out with the chicken gun. And I love the chicken gun. Because I like to say the word chicken whenever possible. I think I know the chicken gun story. Do you? I don't think I'm familiar with the chicken gun. You're testing the canopy of airplanes, of fighter pilots. Okay.

Right. So, okay. The chicken is a stand-in for your turkey vulture, your Canada goose, your starling, whatever it is. It's kind of a worst case scenario because the chicken, it's kind of an odd choice because it doesn't, chicken doesn't actually fly. They don't fly. They don't fly.

They're not going to, no matter how long you're a pilot, you are never going to actually hit a chicken. But it's a bird and it's readily variable at your grocers. It's consistent. So you take a frozen chicken, you thaw it out, you load the chicken gun and you fire it at the canopy. At the same speed that the plane would otherwise encounter it

flying through the air. A lot of thought went into this because there's also, because they're like, well, the chicken, it's very dense, it's a big heavy thing, that'll be great. But in fact,

there's something called, pause for drama, the feathered bullet phenomenon. The feathered bullet phenomenon. Tiny little bird, you know, starling maybe, you know,

hits the windshield, just like a bullet, right into the pilot. Gotcha. Yeah, so, you know, right into the pilot. Gotcha. Yeah. So you think you have it figured out. Yeah, we'll use a chicken.

And then all of a sudden that tiny bird comes through and shoots you in the head. Well, wait, because the bird peers a tinier hole. Yeah. It's a different kind of impact, basically, that was not previously considered. It's closer to a bullet. Okay, so to test this, they should just shoot bullets. They could do that. Chickens. Sit here and let's see if the bullet hits you.

Ready? Go. Or find a finch that's packing. You have a bird, fire a gun. Right, exactly. Now, just four days ago, I was at Edwards Air Force Base, and I saw the canopy of the F-22 fighter. And it was large and beautiful it was completely transparent and what the pilots were telling me is that now it's not just a canopy to their side and to their front it is completely around them and so they have full

high quality visual confirmation of anything that's around them right and i said shouldn't you be flying with instruments rather than relying on your own damn eyes? Yeah, that's normally the pilot's way. Oh, okay. Rely on instruments. That's what I thought. No, if you're a fighter pilot, that's what I thought. But anyhow, let's get to...

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's an interesting example. Yeah, the chicken gun. The chicken gun. The problem I found out is that when birds and planes take off into the wind, so the birds are like, oh, no, no, no, heading along. They're not looking behind, so they don't have a visual awareness to get out of the wind. So the birds are like, oh, no, no, no, no, you know, heading along. They're not looking behind, so they don't have

a visual awareness to get out of the way. So that was a, that's a problem. They're not looking at what's coming at them. Right. The plane's coming up

from behind. But for me, that's one of the, one of the most beautiful metaphors. Do tell. It's in life. Mm-hmm.

Here we go. When the wind is against you. Right. Remember, that is exactly the condition planes take flight. And that is a beautiful metaphor. Right. And Canada geese.

I'm sticking with the airplane here. Why did I ruin my metaphor? I said chicken. I chose the more lovely Canada goose. Yeah, so the plane wants the highest speed it can be relative to the air. It's not about the ground. It's about the air. So you take off into the moving air.

Then you can take off at a lower ground speed because your airspeed's higher. That's all. That's it. The birds figured that out, too. Yeah. Very intelligent. So let's do this. The birds figured that out, too. Yeah. Yeah. Very intelligent. So let's do this.

Chuck, you solicited questions on this topic? And we have them. And our first question is a Patreon patrons question, which, of course, if you actually support us on Patreon, then we will put your question to the top of the queue. Is that right? Yes, as a matter of fact. Are they actually buying their way to the top of the thing?

I can think of no better way to get people to participate or to get votes. Okay. Okay. Buy the votes. Okay. What's your first question? This is from Jeff Prime, who is a Patreon patron, and Jeff wants to know this from Omaha, Nebraska. My unit and I were deployed in Iraq from 2007 to 2008. I personally have known several men

from my unit that suffer from PTSD while other members do not. With all other variables being equal, is there a biological reason why some soldiers handle war differently in a mental capacity that helps explain why some soldiers suffer PTSD while others do not. Good one. Mary, what do you have? That's a very good question. Very good question. Yes, and I do not know the answer.

Cool. Yes. Okay. There you have it. There you have it. And moving on. No, I'm joking. I can reflect on this fact.

There's probably a reason. Yeah. I would think that if we knew that definitively, then we would be able to delineate why that is and then look for a cure to PTSD. Or keep those people out of combat. One of the things in the book was they were looking at heat injuries, and there's a huge individual variation in who can acclimate to extreme heat, who can start sweating heavy and sooner. I can deal with this, and other people can't, and they get heat, like who can feel like start sweating heavy and sooner. And there's like, I can deal with this. And other people can't and they get heat stroke and they sometimes die.

I'm pretty good in a wide range of temperatures. And what I found is, oh, could you put on the heat? And I'm just kind of chilling with the cool. No, I'm just- You're self-regulating. Yeah, kind of. It's not that I don't feel hot or feel cold. It's that I'm okay with it.

Now, you have a... See, that's probably psychological. You just roll with everything. Maybe it is psychological rather than physiological. In either case, you still want to know who's susceptible to PTSD and who isn't. Right. Right. And, of course, there's that very famous scene.

I only know it from the film. I assume it was true. With Pattonon walks into an infirmary and there's these wounded soldiers there, bandits, and there's one soldier who has no wounds at all. He's there in tears

at the edge of the bed. He has what they called back then shell shock. Yeah, there was shell shock. And then combat fatigue. And then it was combat fatigue. And now it's PTSD. When there wasn't enough syllables. You've got to keep it. Because more real when you have more syllables. Give us an acronym.

People would finally pay attention to it. Yeah. So he slapped, he bitch slapped. Yeah, he did. The soldier. And this made it to the press that he had no sort of compassion. No compassion. Yeah.

Empathy for this young yeah empathy for empathy for the yeah and he was saying he didn't bother him apparently so he figured everybody else should i guess it was a day when psychological injury was not viewed as the same as physical injury whereas today so often this is how we do okay yeah well what else you got that's a great question um it remains a great question without an answer available from this table. I don't have an answer. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, this one is really for Neil, Mary.

And I'm reading it, Neil, because I'm not sure what this guy is talking about. And this is from Nick Sazfranski. Sazfranski. Do you think that's right? Sazfranski Nick Sazfranski. Sazfranski. Do you think that's right? Sazfranski. Sazfranski. If you start pronouncing names correctly, then we won't know what to do with you. Pronounce it however you want.

And that's your thing now. That's my thing. It could be Sazfranski. I don't know. Sazfranski, right? Sazfranski. Sazfranski. Here we go.

I don't know. This is what he says. I'm a young sci-fi writer and fantasy. I'm currently working on-fi writer and fantasy. I'm currently working on a hard science fiction book. My question is, how much do we understand, here's the thing, Neil, exotic particles? What, if any, effect they do have on the human body? And then he says, if you could put a blurb about my book, I'd really appreciate it.

Yeah, so I don't think I'm going to do the blurb about the book. Well, I think I have a way to link this back to Mary, but we have the portfolio of particles that exist, that have been measured. They have names, they have masses, they have energies in different states and this sort of thing and half-lives. And so some particles just go straight through you like neutrinos. Billions go through you every square centimeter every second from the sun, and they do nothing to us. They don't interact. What matters is if they interact with you. That's the difference.

Okay? And if they interact, they could do damage. And so this is a—so if you want to weaponize a particle, you would make some kind of device that you know contains particles that will interact with your body in some way, mess with your DNA, mess with your skin, mess with whatever, and then that becomes a weaponized ray gun, basically. So you make the particles a delivery system for some type of debilitation. Correct, correct. Now, we do this for electromagnetic energy. So there's a movable microwave device, which is a non-lethal

anti-personnel weapon. It's non-lethal. So if there's a crowd of people, you drive up this truck, you aim this antenna at the people, and it's like you just put them all in a microwave oven. Now, do you first get them to hold a burrito? So they can eat it on the way. And you've got to take the wrapper off. Exactly. So what happens is their skin starts feeling hot, and they want to go out of the beam. So they scatter.

They scatter. So you can decentralize what might be a mob that's coming. Is there any discussion in the military about weapons, the effect of weapons on people that are not just guns, that you're traditional? Well, there was,

not in this book, but one of my previous books, there was Infrasound. I don't know which book this was even about. There was this... She's got so many books, she don't remember

which book that was in that she wrote. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's badass, actually. That is pretty badass. And some book that I wrote somewhere. I believe I said... So what you can all y'all do is like buy them all buy them all lay them out she's the point to it and you let me

you let me know you buy them all exactly right so yeah but infrasound there was this talk about that they that the military was looking for uh uh non-lethal weapon, I think it was. Supposedly, it would... No, it's infrasound, and it has this long, slow wave. Low-frequency waves. Low-frequency, and then it would have the same resonant frequency as some of the internal organs, so it would create fear, nausea,

terror, but yeah, it never... This is like in Jurassic Park. It never went anywhere. When T-Rex Yeah Like the liquid Right And you see the

The vibration And the liquid In the glass Right right right That type of deal Yeah like They would launch A ball of

But anyway I could never find it That'd be a knob T-Rex would be One of the settings Right Yeah yeah By the way

The military doesn't Have to look for that We already have it It's called One Direction Yeah They're a boy band Well there was some By the way, the military doesn't have to look for that. We already have it. It's called One Direction. Yeah. They're a boy band. Well, there was some concern about, NASA had concerns about, because the engines were putting in a launch. They would be putting out tremendous amounts of infrasound, and they were afraid they were going to deliver jelly to the moon.

Even it was that intense. But I think as it turned out, it wasn't. But in fact, they do have what they call a sound abatement system. But I think as it turned out, it wasn't. But in fact, they do have what they call a sound abatement system. And before every launch, in the seconds before they ignite the engine, you see this basically a swimming pool's worth of water dumped onto the launch pad. And the water absorbs the acoustic reverberations.

That's right. They're worried that the acoustic reverberations would just completely tear apart the entire bottom half of the rocket. Right, like the singer with the glass breaking shower. Exactly, yes. So what they do is they put in the water. That absorbs the energy, and that way the energy doesn't hit the rocket again. So next time, watch very closely every single launch.

And they're big tanks surrounding launch pads. They're water tanks. Bada-bing! And then the vibrations hit. It vaporizes the water. So some of the smoke you see coming out is steam, basically. Vaporized by the acoustic energy of

vibration. That's amazing. Give me one more question. By the way, that is the exact sound that it makes when the water is dumped. Bada bing. Bada bing. Awesome. It's awesome. Three words. Give it to us, Chuck.

Okay, here's a quick one since we don't have a lot of time. Tech advancement through wars from Maddie Stark on Facebook says this. How do you feel about the idea that war is necessary for technological advancement? Ooh, let me cast that in a grunt question, okay? Okay. So how much have we, how much has war advanced medicine?

A lot, in terms of combat trauma. I mean, stuff like, all right, you get somebody whose artery is cut

and they've got about two minutes, so, you know, get it in terms of getting Two minutes before they're dead. Before they bleed out and they're dead, two minutes to stabilize,

stop the bleeding, stabilize them and get them somewhere. They've gotten really good at that. So emergency care, that's been huge. And of course, the whole concept of triage.

Triage. Triage. It's a war-based, yeah, war-based thing. And also things you wouldn't necessarily think about. There was a Navy guy,

Captain Phillips, not that other Captain Phillips. Gotcha. But who came up with this discovery that if you If someone's got extreme diarrhea Like cholera Where you're like losing

Five gallons of liquid He even invented this thing The cholera cot It's a cot with a hole in a bucket You're just And you're going to die quickly Because you're just Right

Leaking You're leaking So what has he invented? The bucket? That's not an invention Well the cholera cot Was one invention, but not the important one. The important one was if you add glucose to the rehydration fluids, it enhances absorption of the fluids and the salt. So now you can drink them rather than hook up an IV.

So in a third world country where somebody, they don't have to make their way to a clinic and get hooked up to an IV. They can actually drink this stuff and it's saved millions of lives. Because it's still like two damn two some million people die so here's here's a morbid question you ready ready i'm always have more people have more lives been saved by the medical advances from war than lives that have been lost from the waging of war itself wow interesting well they you know okay well here's a figure for you this war is figure for you. This war is good for you people.

I know. We have to kill you in order to save you. You're listening to StarTalk. Stay tuned for another segment. Welcome back to StarTalk. Here's more of this week's episode. I left you with a question just before the end. I just wanted to know, given how many lives have been saved by medical advances from innovations during war, how many lives have been saved by medical advances from innovations during war right could one make the case the morbid case that the number of people who have died at war is less than

the number of lives who've been saved by the medical advances derived from it probably just from the the the dysentery and diarrhea statistics alone i mean you're telling okay so 2.5 million people a year still the who that's the figure for deaths. The World Health Organization. Still to this day. Yes. 2.5 million people die from dehydration, from diarrhea, cholera, or some other. Yeah, in developing nations.

So that's a huge. 2.5 million a year. 2.5 million a year. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so 50 million people died in the Second World War. It was the last number I checked. So 25 years of that, that's just the diarrhea alone. Right.

But they are dying. We didn't stop them from dying. So I want to know if lives have been saved. Well, no, but she's saying that just the advancements that we've made to combat that may have saved a significant number of lives. Whether or not it balances, we don't know. Right, but my statistic, they're still dying. They're still dying. So what you're saying, that number could have been much larger.

Much, much larger. If that's the number that's still dying, it would have been huger. Huge. Huge. It would have been huge. Right, right. Just like my hair. Huge. Huge. Huge. It would be huge. Huge. Right, right. Just like my hair, huge.

Huge. Huge. Not like my hands. You know what? I recently saw a statistic on the number of deaths from car crashes versus the number. Every year that there's been a military conflict, the number of deaths just from car crashes dwarfs the number from killed in whatever the war that's going on.

Okay, not the Second World War, but surely since then. No, since then. We lose 100 people a day. Now, are they only accounting American deaths, or are they counting the number of people? Because we tend to kill a lot more people than... Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's true. But I can tell you, it's 100 people a day on the roads.

And at the peak of the Vietnam War, we were losing 100 servicemen a week. So it's basically a factor of seven higher in cars than in military, not the First World War, not the Second World War. But here's something I tweeted recently, the Second World War, you run the math. We were losing 1,000 humans per hour wow 1 000 per hour died at the hands of another human being during the six years of the second world war wow that's insane however the mexican-american war seven to one ratio uh disease to combat injury. Dysentery, diarrhea, malaria, seven to one.

Of course, Mexico and diarrhea, they're always going to be linked. Wow. I know. Poor Mexico, even back then. Even back then. Don't drink the water. Back then. Yeah. So, yeah, there was that quote, William Osler, dysentery has been more fatal to soldiers than powder or shot.

Ooh, wow. That's even as good as your chicken metaphor that you let loose earlier. It's not. All right, Chuck, what else you got? Here we go. Let's move on. This seems to be a big theme that people want to know about.

And this is from Heron Filth. Okay, that's the name. That's how you're pronouncing the name, but go on. No, no. F-I-L-T-H. Let me have fun with how you can't pronounce stuff. Okay. All right, go on.

Maybe he just wrote it that way to mess with me. All right. Here we go. Hi, Neil. Really love the show. Keep it up. My question is, in recent films such as Civil War, we're talking about Marvel Comics Civil War, we see genetically advanced soldiers like Bucky, who is a character, Captain America's friend.

I'm sorry, I'm translating as he asks the question. And the Winter Soldiers, also part of the genetically modified soldiers. Could super soldiers eventually become a reality? If so, what are the biological implications of doing such a thing? Greetings from Mexico City. Whoa! Yes! This is a show for you.

Wait, so Mary... I want to go to Mexico City. It's supposed to be great. So Mary, are there studies of... Have there been attempts to modify the human physiology in war i saw this amazing paper uh darpa you know darpa darpa is the way outside the box defense advanced research project yes yes it was a paper it was speculation it was not projects that are underway but they were listing like one of the whole points of darpa is to have highly speculative research yeah it could break open a whole new field of military might.

That's cool. This was in particular modifications to the human body. What could we do? And inspiration from the animal kingdom. So they were looking at unihemispheric sleep, which you have in marine mammals and in some geese and ducks. Right. One eye open. Yeah.

Right. Exactly. So they funded some research So some basic research Into marine biologists And bird people Ornithologists Would be the

I guess the word I call them bird people Look into this Bug people I call them bug people Yeah The bug people Have probably been doing

Some work too But you know Fund Just looking into Like how does this work and could we foster this and somehow make our soldiers able to sleep because sleep deprivation is huge and it affects your performance your military performance so if there were a way to sleep with one half on the brain and keep the other eye open and make sure nobody's sneaking up then you swap brain

halves yeah presumably both halves like sharks right yeah all right so so that there was an it was an amazing list There were things like The human llamas Or could you Somehow have more hemoglobin For mountain warfare Could you make somebody able to

Kind of Sherpa-ize them quickly To be able to To function better at high altitudes I do remember Surgically installed gills Was on the list. Wow. Okay.

That'd be like Waterworld right there. Yeah, exactly. Does Kevin Costner know about this? That's right. We're going to try him out first. When he came around his neck and you saw the gills in the movie. So here's my take on that. Not that anybody asked, but I'll tell you my take.

In the early days of space exploration, there was all this talk about modifying the human physiology to accommodate the stress and strain on our body in space. And in almost every case, they came up with an engineering solution to the problem rather than a biological one. Therefore, it was not invasive to the human body. They would talk about, is there some pill you can take where the brain would not require as much oxygen when you do a high G-turn out from a, you know, as a fighter pilot might when they're turning around. And that way your brain wouldn't need as much oxygen. And then the engineers just developed these suits.

Right, where they just squeeze your leg. Squeeze your leg. Blood ain't got no way to go. Right, right. So many of these are, how about one where you don't feel nauseous and feel nausea in zero g or you can just spin up the space station and create one g so so my my oh you we do you want to make bulletproof skin or just make kevlar bullet and wear a bulletproof vest right so I want the bulletproof skin just saying you're just saying I'm just gonna go on record and say the bulletproof skin is what I would go for so I'm more Tony Stark on this give me the give me either suit give me the power the money

and the brains and we'll make we'll make anything we need I will be able to fly that's cool that's cool right. What else you got? All right. Here we go. Johnny Glasgow from Facebook says, hi, Neil. That would be Facebook, our followers on Facebook. Our followers on Facebook. Our Facebook headquarters.

Right. Exactly. Right. He's not actually having coffee with Zuckerberg right now. He says, hi, Neil. Hi, Mary. What scientific advances made during wartime have the biggest positive

effect on our civilian lives today? I'm going to have to go with the medical stuff. The medical stuff. Yeah. The stuff we were talking about earlier. The stuff we were talking about earlier. That is the most positive effect. Positive effect. Yeah. Right. I mean, I guess you could talk about, I mean, like, taking forward the whole notion of drones completely taking humans out of the equation.

But that's, you know, it's got other issues. The whole episode on Star Trek. That was indeed where they fought the war through mathematical calculations. Right. And then people reported to a chamber for for a vexation because the calculations show that you would have been it would have been killed in the in the business walked in and they took him out right exactly and that which is that Captain Kirk said no you can't do that way is

not war is ugly and bloody Sp Spock said, actually, though, statistically, I can see the merit to this particular approach. Well, that's cool. Yeah. So definitely the medical advancements. That's what comes to mind in terms of a positive. Yeah, positive. Okay. I would say, are there any technological advancements? I would say one thing. Go ahead. The V2 rocket was the very first intercontinental ballistic missile, which became the foundation of our entire space arsenal. So everything that we know and love about space, including where you get your weather maps from the weather channel, you get people saying, what do I need space for?

I have my GPS in the weather channel. That's all I need. That's like, get your government hands off my Medicare that's what that statement is exactly what that is so I would say I don't know not yeah NASA I mean anything that's miniaturized fire oh yeah the entire miniaturized lightweight that was NASA not more I know there's probably a yeah there's probably a War didn't have to miniaturize the way NASA did. No, no, no. You have to launch it, you know.

Well, then again... Every ounce cost you money. Here's a war thing, though. That's right. The first... By the way, it's $10,000 a pound to orbit. Oh, gosh. So if you got a little extra gut,

I ain't flying that into space. You go get back on a treadmill. So how about this? I believe the first computers were used to calculate the trajectory of mortar shells. That is true. Is that correct? That is true.

Okay. Yes. Yep. And now we have computers. I mean, we know what they do now. Yeah. So, in fact, the military led the development of supercomputing. Yes.

That's right. Nowadays, it's commercially driven because the demand is there. But in the day. Yeah. Back in the day, yeah. Back in the day. Right. There you go. All right.

All right. Well, not bad. Not bad at all. Okay. What else you got? Here we go. This is from Christian Prisblick. Prisblick.

Okay. Here you go, Mary. Take a look. Now they're just messing with you, Chuck. They're just messing with you. I know. Christian, right? Where are the Joe Smiths out there?

Prisblick? Prisblick. Next time, can a Joe Smith please ask Chuck a question? I know. Where's Joe Smith when I need him? Okay. Christian Prisblick from Twitter says this. Do vets of armed combat face a disproportionate number of chronic health issues, and does race play a role or as well as class?

So class and race, do they play a role in the chronic health issues that vets face? And do vets face more chronic health issues than anyone else by virtue of being a vet? Yeah. Yeah. There's a tremendous amount. I mean, just starting with the number one VA expense, hearing loss. Really?

It's not just bombs going off and rifle fire. It's steady state noise. You're in a Blackhawk helicopter, which is like 106 decibels. They have hearing protection. Chuck's imitating a helicopter. You like that?

Can you do an M16? Well, M16 is a little bit more staccato, so it's... The M16, the rifle. Sounds like a duck. Yeah, I do. But then there's the Huey from Vietnam. No, no. It's like it was a... It was a pulsing sound.

So you're saying the consistent, being persistently bathed in high decibel sound even beyond just whether you were near an explosion. Right. And the other problem is that when the noise, when things go kinetic, when there's fire, when there's like, there's fire you know when there's like there's no warning you don't have time to go roll down my foam ear plug and pull my

outer ear back and put that you know there's just not time and they're not going to wear that stuff all the time because you lose your situational awareness you can't hear somebody shouting get down heard somebody over there so they uh they've tried to do that in some movies well they have yeah they have Special operations This is really cool Bionic hearing It's so cool This is a headset

And it attenuates The loud noises It changes the Right So the loud stuff Gets quieter And the quiet stuff Is amplified

So you're like the bionic I was It's like So you can hear Across the room You can hear a conversation Yeah that was No that was the eye

What you're doing Oh was that the eye That was the eye That you're doing oh was that the eye that was the eye that was the ear that was the ear okay i think you're right yeah you know amy summers had the ears she had the ear now she's selling mattresses late night tv can you hear me now so okay so that's interesting so these so so yeah, but that's just That's the biggest one But then, yeah You've got a traumatic brain injury And orthopedic stuff

I mean, if you're in a vehicle That is designed to withstand an IED going off I mean, you'll survive But the bottom of it would come up And slam into the foot And the pelvis and the spine Speaking of that Just wear and tear on your body Even even if you're not blown up.

So speaking of that, and this question is from. So these are veterans that have been in combat, not just veterans, generic veteran. Right, right. Because most veterans have not been in combat. Right. Oh, so do they have more? Well, I don't know.

Well, yeah, I mean. We presume it's combat veterans. We would have to assume because, I mean, I'm going to say Carpal Tunnel doesn't count. I've been sitting at this desk filling out these reports for weeks. My wrists are killing me. Actually, I have this book called Dear America, which is a collection of letters home from Vietnam that was collected before they made a Vietnam memorial here in lower Manhattan. And so on the memorial are subsets of these letters. The book is all of them.

That's cool. And just to your point, Mary, these are letters from all manner of servicemen serving in Vietnam. And there's some talking about their friends getting blown up in front of them and wading through the muck and mire and the mosquitoes. And then there's another letter of someone who's in an office in Vietnam saying, I can't, you know, I don't want to laugh, but it's so hot in here, it's almost 94 degrees, and the fan doesn't work. These working conditions are unbearable.

It's like, do you have any f***ing idea what's going on? Around you? Around you? My typewriter keys are sticking. The humidity. So I think your biggest problem is your biggest problem. That's really what that is. Whatever your biggest problem is, that's your biggest problem.

Wow, that's cool. Chuck, how many questions can you squeeze into this? All right, you know what? Try it. Go. Here's the deal. We're going to go philosophical. Les Ollenhauser says, do you think there can be, or ever has been, something that can unite

humans so effectively as war? What a profound question. Mars mission. Ooh, look at you with the Mars mission. Landing a human Mars mission. I think everybody's going to tune in to that, right? Don't you think?

I don't know. Well, so let me agree to that. So I've thought a lot about things that unite humanity. Okay. So one of them is war, which is the largest organized unification of humans that we experience. That immobilizes us like a good war. Exactly. And what odd thing is it immobilizes us against one another, but it's nonetheless mobilizing.

Another one is the Olympics. True. And another is the World Cup. Which, by the way, is a metaphor for war. Yes, it is, actually. And so too is the World Cup. Exactly. Except you don't end up too, is the World Cup. Exactly. Except you don't end up dead at the end of it.

Right. So, the World Cup, the Olympics, and the International Space Station. When you look at the cost of the International Space Station, the number of countries involved, it is the greatest collaboration of nations outside of the waging of war. Really? You look at just the total investment that has gone in it. Basically $3 billion a year plus. So, yeah.

Yes. So I agree. Landing on Mars could do that if it's done as a global national consortium. As it's done. Which it would be, wouldn't it? I mean, don't you think? It can be, but I don't have enough confidence in the human species to think that we wouldn't do it out of competitive urges rather than cooperative urges.

to think that we wouldn't do it out of competitive urges rather than cooperative urges. So you're saying that if we make it a reality show competition between countries, we're more apt to go to Mars than if we were just to wait for us to finally come together. My feeling is that your urge to be innovative is greater stimulated when you're in competition than when you're in cooperation. That's my feeling here. Okay. As capitalism at its best, reveals. Right.

I want your money. I don't want you to give your money to the other person. So now that competition drives me to be better. There it is. There it is. Gotcha. There it is. I think we're out of time.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Well, let me just... So, Mary, let me break ranks here and pull away from Chuck's questions. Okay. Is there one other thing you want us to know about your book before we end Star Talk today? Oh, gee, it's a dark topic, but it's an interesting, quirky, fun read. I don't want people to get it.

You mean war is serious, but people in the military have a good sense of humor. You have to, I think. Anytime there's death involved and life and death and all that. It's fun. You interviewed servicemen? I was on a nuclear sub. I was in Camp Lemony. It let you in?

It took me a year and a half to get on that. I know. That's pretty cool, actually. It was cool. I was all over the place. It took me a year and a half to get on that. Yeah, I know. I know, yeah. Yeah, they did. That's pretty cool, actually. It was cool. Yeah, it was cool. So I was all over the place. And it's an interesting, it's a foreign culture. And like any foreign culture, it's just a really interesting place to go and to learn about.

Cool. Mary, thanks again for being on StarTalk. Thank you. And so we'll just, I want to be on your tour list every single time. Oh, you bet. Okay. Oh, yeah. You'll never get through to me. I want to be like the tour list every single time. Oh, you bet. Okay. Oh, yeah. You'll never get through to me. I want to be like the only show that had every one of their damn books.

Right here. We get them all. We're six for six, so. Well, we got to close out this part of the show. When StarTalk returns, Chuck Nice and Bill Nye take over the studio for a segment of maker-themed cosmic queries. Yes. Brought to you by Google.

Welcome back. Here's more of StarTalk. This is from at Mrs. Doodle Journey on Instagram. At Mrs. Doodle Journey. At Mrs. Doodle Journey. Okay. Okay. What is the best way to make a portable greenhouse?

So I suppose she's looking at this. If I were, no. No, no, no. This weekend. Really? Yes, with clear plastic inflatable dome that's what i do that's it that's all you really need what i what i do people play tennis under inflatable domes people make inflatable domes for their backyard for fun right held up

by a fan right so you could i could easily imagine a clear plastic dome you carry it in essentially a backpack or a shopping cart or a hand truck right and you show up at wherever you want inflatable dome zone and turn the bad boy on and the fan to hold the thing inflated will run off a solar panel connected to a battery that would keep the thing inflated all night i I did that without even just from the hip. I'm going to tell you, that was impressive. And then in space, it seems like it would be just the same thing with a lower pressure inflatable dome. And plants do seem to grow okay in space. You know, that's a little game they play up there.

Right. So as long as you have the right soil. Or the right hydroponic medium. Right. Can I say medium? I like that. You're on the radio medium. I like hydroponic medium. Right. Can I say medium? I like that. You're on the radio medium. I like hydroponic even better.

Yes. And then you can grow stuff, I guess, portably. Awesome. But still, so far, you still need a source of light and water and hydroponic nutrients. That's why they have lamps and closets. I'm sorry. I can't hear you. I don't know what you're talking about.

and closets. I'm sorry. I can't hear you. I don't know what you're talking about. You know, changing the subject to what used to be illegal agriculture at home. Yeah. Looks like that's all going to be legal soon enough. Well, it should be. Let's be honest. Can I ask as a fellow citizen? Yes. I don't want to breathe the secondhand smoke from the legalized and properly taxed marijuana sales.

You do not want to breathe the secondhand smoke. I do not want to breathe the secondhand smoke. Well, that's why they'll have coffee houses where you can go and designate areas for people who enjoy that. And grown in an inflatable greenhouse. Exactly. Maybe in an inclement place. Say you're in Norway or something in the winter time and you just gotta have your inflatable greenhouse for whatever you could do that your coffee house uh enjoyment enjoyment right just don't make me breathe this i just never like to smell if i may whine it's never like to smell

and you worked in nightclubs for 100 years yes everything smelled like smoke well not well that was one of the great things about moving here to new york city was shortly after i moved here uh when was this uh 1999 exactly but shortly thereafter uh the mayor said no more smoking in the in anywhere we're going to get rid of smoking and Interior spaces. Interior spaces. And everyone lost their mind. Thought the place was going to go out of business. Especially the restaurants

and more importantly the comedy clubs because they're like, what are you talking about? That's all we do here is smoke and drink. That's all that happens here. Occasional laugh is told. Right. And we don't even care about that as long as people are smoking and drinking. And sure enough. What happened is.

More people came. And they spent more money. Yeah. All right. So let's move on to Jennifer. You know, Jennifer. It's a long last name. Oh, my.

Jennifer. Melcade. Melcade. Melcade. Anyway, Jennifer. Exactly. coming to us from instagram now this is somewhat of an existential question like dude and so you're gonna have to kind of really just branch yourself for a minute hey bill what's next after 3d printing i jennifer i don Jennifer, I don't know. I don't know, but I think additive manufacture

of all sorts is in the future for sure. You know, you can design shapes you can make additively or 3D printing that you can't make through conventional machining. So what's after that? I guess molecular scale 3D printing atomic scale look at you you had it in you yes atomic scale 3d print individual atoms placed on let's say substrates of circuit of exotic new future circuits wow extremely compact hustling against moore's law you know

we're every 10 years we double the amount of memory in a given volume. Right. Yes. That's the future, Jennifer. I've answered it succinctly. And you can take that to the bank, Jennifer. No.

It seems reasonable. It does seem reasonable. It seems reasonable. All right. So now, okay. So this is... These names. Oh.

All right. So go ahead. All right. So this person, I'm going to call you Yoy. Okay. Yoy, that's pretty cool, actually. Yoy. All right, so go ahead. All right, so this person, I'm going to call you Yoy. Okay. Yoy, that's pretty cool. Yoy, all right. Hey, Bill.

I think you mean yo. Or yo. Yo. You can stop right there. Yeah, yo, Bill. Yo. And he says, hey, Bill, what are the limits of 3D printing? Don't cop out and say the human mind, Mr. Science Guy.

Do we know yet what we cannot do or could never do with 3D printing? Well, I think of something big. What's a big thing? Empire State Building. Empire State. I don't see why you couldn't 3D print it. No, and imagine the printer.

How big does it hang? Oh, no, no, no. The printer could go around. Well, not just that. The printer could go around the foundation in a big spiral. And it's going up to the sky indefinitely as long as somebody fed it spiral 3D printing fluid. You know what? Now that you say that, there are these window cleaning autobots that they use.

I forget the building in Australia. The clean windows. Yes. Robotically. Robotically. And that's how they use. I forget the building in Australia. The clean windows. Yes. Robotically. Robotically. And that's how they work. They just go around the building all day long in a spiral. In a spiral, yeah.

Why not? What's not to love? In other words, think of it where the printer doesn't have to be bigger than the object being printed. Let's go with that insight. Right. Follow me? Right. I got you.

Got you. Like a spider web is bigger than a spider. Exactly. Like the Empire State Building is bigger than that insight. Right. Follow me? Right. I got you. Got you. Squirting like a spider web is bigger than a spider. Exactly. Like the Empire State Building is bigger than a human. Exactly. By some fraction. Oh, my God. And humans showed up there and built the freaking thing.

See? So, hey, yo, here's the problem. You think too small. No, I'm joking. No, no. He or she is a listener and viewer. We love you. No, we do love you.

You're not. That's a really good point, though. A spider web is much bigger than a listener and viewer. We love you. We do love you. That's a really good point, though. A spider web is much bigger than a spider. Yes. And it's because you're building out. And so this would be building around. A spider provides the protein, the raw material, and then also the design and construction. It's very cool.

Think big. Think big. It doesn't have to be a spiral. That was Uncle Bill just kind of jamming. Mm-hmm. All right. Here we go. Swanson Dinner.

Swanson Dinner wants to know this. Our good friend. Our good friend Swanson Dinner. Swanny says, 3D printing seems like a great way to pave the road for human colonizations. Pave the road. Get it? Our solar system. Well, that's it.

That's what we want to do is have 3D printers on board spacecraft that would make everything an astronaut needs when he or she needs it rather than packing all this stuff. Right. And I'm sure, I think you'll want a substantial number of rolls of duct tape. But also, you'd have a machine that would print all the tools you might need. Should anything go wrong, you make the tool to fix that thing. Otherwise, you don't take the tool. Instead, you take computer programs, computer files,

full of the files to make the tools. Thanks for listening to StarTalk Radio. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Many thanks to our comedian, our guest, our experts, and I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Until next time, I bid you to keep looking up.