Easter Island update (climate stress + adaptation, not simple “ecocide”)

51:20popular narrative was that the society collapsed there because of self-inflicted ecoside. Meaning they cut down all the trees and then by the time that the European colonizers came, there was a decimated population that was like almost starving and blah blah blah. Okay. Um that turns out to not be entirely true. >> Shocking. shocking that the European colonizers um made up a >> a story about the history. >> Yeah. A story about the history that is cons conducive to them and says, "Oh, the natives didn't know >> what they were doing, >> what they were doing." Okay. It turns out from new sediment core data, what they did was they studied hydrogen

52:01isotopes of plant leaf waxes. >> Okay? >> And these things preserve sort of a climate history across climates, across centuries, right? So by studying the the hydrogen isotope data there, what they actually found out was that the annual rainfall there dropped sharply by almost 24 to 31 in during the mid6th century. And this is right before sort of the European explorers went and like saw what was happening, right? And so what's happening is instead of like entirely collapsing due to deforestation and conflict which is the original theory what probably happened is the Rapanui

52:42people adapted to this severe climate stress and they shifted their rituals their power structures and their ceremonial centers to respond to that climate stress. Right? And it emphasizes more like human resilience and that the history of Easter Island is way more complicated than what this overconumption narrative that the colonizers had pushed. >> Surprise, surprise. >> Classic, very fascinating. We could probably I'm sure some people would be like hydrogen isotopes of plant leaf waxes being able to be analyzed over centuries in and of itself. I would love to understand that. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one for a deep dive

53:22>> because it's it's >> that that's so curious to me. >> Yeah. >> But clearly is hugely impactful >> in both this like historical climate science related research but also mapping it in this case which is what's kind of interesting to an anthropological >> Yeah. I mean it's it's a technique that's like very similar to when people do ice cores. Have you heard of that? Like when they they barrel like a ice cylinder in an Antarctic glacier. And because Antarctic glaciers are like so old, layers of that are going to give you a recorded history of the climate going back almost millions to tens of millions of years. Right? So similarly, plant waxes like leaf waxes are stuff

54:03that are very old because it's not like >> it's it's not like a plant in that it was just born. It's like it created the wax and then it's the wax has sort of persisted across centuries. It's kind of like um in Jurassic Park when you have the resin, right? Resin is a plant residue. It's not wax, but it's it's a type of residue that can last through the ages. Similarly, leaf wax is something that can last through the ages. So, it gives us like a a a diary. Yes. >> Of what the climate was like in that locality if we can really analyze it at that atomic resolution, which is what these guys did at the Colombia climate school. FA fascinating. This was a paper in uh communications earth. Um, again, I

54:46think we'll continue to see as scientific tools and instruments and the funding that goes to support those endeavors, uh, continues to grow in capability, uh, we will be illuminating more about our as much about our past, >> yes, >> as we will about where we are going as a species. Our fourth and final story in the rundown. This one's a weird story about psychology, language, and baby chickens. >> Yes. and I don't know much about it on purpose. >> And before we get into it, >> okay, >> I would like to take our audience on a trip to Bahrain and ultimately Italy.

55:26>> Okay. >> We just ended Formula 1 testing in Bahrain. >> Yes. >> The season opener is happening in Australia at the end of this week >> for F1. >> For Formula 1, of course, I'm talking about Formula 1, the greatest sport um alive today. And Ferrari is back, baby. Ferrari is so back. This is going to be our year, dude. We've been We've been We haven't had a driver's championship since 2007. We haven't had a constructor's championship since 2008. I'm not blaming anybody. I'm just saying this is this is the reality of the situation. But we've got Charlotte Clair, who I'm I'm personally a fan of

56:07Charlotte Clair. Lewis Hamilton, one of the greatest of all time. So, also congratulations to Charles. I think he just got engaged. >> He did. He No, he just got married. He got married in um in Monaco. He's a Monagas native Monaco driver. Most most drivers like go there for the tax reasons. He was born there. >> I was born in it. >> Yeah. Yeah. He was born in it. Exactly. Um Ferrari had a great testing in Bahrain. Charlotte Clair was one second clear of Mercedes George Russell. >> Okay. And I know I know everyone's going to be like, "Oh, during testing everyone is like, you know, they're putting artificial masses on their on their car and they're like gaming the system to to

56:48not." But a second is crazy. And what gives me what gives me hope is that um Hos, which is an American team that is a engine customer of Ferrari. So Ferrari's engine is the same engine that's in the Hos in the Hos car. H is also doing really well during testing. So that's like it's like a you know in science we look for coincident data >> to to suggest that there's an underlying invariant. >> And as a scientist I'm just saying Ferrari is bad. Okay. And dude we're we're we're we're going to run away with it. It's going to be amazing. >> Can I ask a quick question before we continue? Which is did did the wing thing get figured out? I

57:28>> No, no, no. Ferrari has Ferrari has an amazing wing. I don't know if we're going to >> the upside down thing. >> Yeah. Yeah. So Ferrari has a wing that flips. Yeah, >> when it goes from um a curve to a straight, we don't have DRS this season because so for for those who are also listening um Formula 1 is all about the formula, right? Which is the regulations that the Formula 1 gods produce, saying these are the rules for how you can build a car. And then every car manufacturer looks at those rules and says, where can we read between the lines and create little efficiencies that others might not? Mhm. >> And Ferrari figured out that there's nothing against the building a rear wing

58:10that will entirely flip 180° depending on what part of a racetrack you're on. Because during straits, you want low drag cuz you just want to go straight. During curves, you want high downforce because you want more grip so that you can like take corners faster, right? And those two can be can have different wing configurations on the rear wing based on the aerodynamics that you get and so on and so forth. And most people just have a flap that goes like this and then goes down. This thing is going >> is turning around 180°. And all these other teams were like, "Yeah, we thought of that." I know you didn't. You didn't think of that. Okay. Okay. You saw it and you're like, "Oh, we better like

58:51cover our No, you didn't think of that. Ferrari thought of that." That's That's right. Anyways, I'm going off about um Ferrari because this next I'm going to bring it back to science. >> Okay. Okay. >> This next rundown study, >> yes, >> is from the University of Padua in Italy. >> Okay. >> It was out in the journal Science. >> Okay. >> And that's the connection to Italy.