Learn about bioprinting from Zach Weinersmith, creator of “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.” You’ll also learn about Derinkuyu, an ancient underground city; and, Dr. Neubronner’s miniature pigeon camera that predated drone photography. Please support today’s sponsor, Skura! Visit https://skurastyle.com to get sponges delivered right to your door, and enter promo code CURIOSITY to get your first month FREE! In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People — https://curiosity.im/2SnS8t9 Before Drone Photography, There Was Dr. Neubronner's Miniature Pigeon Camera — https://curiosity.im/2LzlK6j Additional resources from Zach Weinersmith: Pick up “Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything” on Amazon — https://amazon.com Geek webcomic “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal” — https://www.smbc-comics.com/ Follow @ZachWeiner on Twitter — https://twitter.com/ZachWeiner Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Learn about bioprinting from Zach Weinersmith, creator of “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.” You’ll also learn about Derinkuyu, an ancient underground city; and, Dr. Neubronner’s miniature pigeon camera that predated drone photography.
Please support today’s sponsor, Skura! Visit https://skurastyle.com to get sponges delivered right to your door, and enter promo code CURIOSITY to get your first month FREE!
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Additional resources from Zach Weinersmith:
Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/bioprinting-w-zach-weinersmith-giant-underground-cities-and-miniature-pigeon-cameras
CODY: Hi! We’re here from curiosity-dot-com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn about bioprinting from Zach Weinersmith, creator of the “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal” webcomic. You’ll also learn about an ancient underground city; and, why amateur aerial photography isn’t as new as you might think it is.
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Zach Weinersmith 2 - Bioprinting [2:38 - 1 segment] (Both)
ASHLEY: Researchers are working on ways to create 3D printed organs. And if that sounds complicated: you’re right. Today we’re diving into the science of bioprinting, in the second half of our interview with special guest Zach Weinersmith. He’s the cartoonist behind the popular geek webcomic “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal,” and co-author of the new book “Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything.” In the book, he tackles robotic construction projects, synthetic biology, and some other exciting stuff we didn’t have time to get into. But we did have time to ask him about bioprinting. So here’s Zach on what bioprinting is, and how we do it.
[CLIP 2:38]
CODY: Again, Zach Weinersmith is the man behind the popular geeky webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, and you can dig into bioprinting and more in his new book, “Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything.” As always, you can find links to more from Zach in today’s show notes.
This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People — https://curiosity.im/2SnS8t9 (Ashley) [FREELANCER]
Imagine an underground city 18 stories deep, with enough room to house 20-thousand people. If you think this is some future city planned to escape an asteroid or global warming, you’re wrong. In fact, we’re digging into some history for this story. Picture this. It's 1963, and you're on a construction crew renovating a home. You bring your sledgehammer down on a soft stone wall, and it all crumbles away, revealing a large, snaking passageway so long that you can't see where it ends. This is the true story of how the undercity at Derinkuyu [Dare-IN-koo-you] was discovered… or, re-discovered, technically. While those workers knew they'd found something special, they couldn't know just how massive their discovery had been. The underground city is over 3,000 years old, and comes with all of the necessities — and a few luxuries. I’m talking fresh water, stables, places of worship, and even wineries and oil presses. And Derinkuyu is just one of about 40 underground cities in the area. And they were made possible in the first place because there’s a lot of tuff in the area, that’s “tuff” like T-U-F-F. Tuff is a kind of volcanic rock that solidifies into something soft and crumbly, which makes it relatively easy to carve enormous subterranean passages into. And those passages were extremely well-protected, thanks to massive, rolling stone doors that block each floor off from the floor above. This tells us the inhabitants were clearly hiding from invading forces. The city contains elements of Hittite culture, but some scholars suggest the city may have come from the Phrygians, a tribe of Thracians who could’ve been hiding from Persians who were the next to take over the region. Either way, considering they’ve been used for centuries to hide from some threat, maybe it’s a good thing nobody’s living in them right now.
[SKURA]
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Before Drone Photography, There Was Dr. Neubronner's Miniature Pigeon Camera — https://curiosity.im/2LzlK6j (Cody) [FREELANCER]
Drone photography isn’t as new and novel as you might think. Because before drone photography, there were... pigeons. Yes, I’m talking about pigeon cameras. And what’s amazing is how similar these pictures are to the products of today's action cameras. If not for their grainy quality and black and white coloring, you might have a hard time figuring out which photo came from a pigeon and which came from that little flying thing that’s banned from most tourist locations around the world. In fact, they were so good, they eventually attracted interest from the military.
The invention of the pigeon camera dates back to 1907 when one of Dr. Julius Neubronner’s carrier pigeons went missing. It showed up a few weeks later, but the German apothecary was very curious as to where it had been. He used pigeons for urgent deliveries to a nearby sanatorium a few miles from his home, so it was pretty important for his business to solve the puzzle. So, he developed a small camera with some tiny shoulder straps, that was attached to the bird's belly. The camera was equipped with a timer so that photos would be taken at regular intervals.
When Neubronner presented his photographs to the public, people were amazed by images that were different from the balloon photography they were used to. There was something wild and spontaneous about their appearance that made them remarkably popular, much like drone and GoPro footage today.
Neubronner's pigeon camera history doesn't merely end with pretty pictures, though. During World War I, Neubronner's camera-equipped pigeons were used for reconnaissance by the German war department. This tactic didn’t last very long, pigeon photography was no match for the rapid improvements in airplane surveillance.
But legend has it that the CIA developed its own pigeon camera after World War II. Today, the Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. has a whole room dedicated to these high-flying spies. So, the next time you admire aerial drone footage or selfies from a skydive, remember: pigeons did it first.
ASHLEY: Before we recap what we learned today, here’s a sneak peek at what you can catch this weekend on curiosity-dot-com. This weekend, you’ll learn about how researchers may have found the missing evidence that explains the origins of life;
An island within a lake on a volcano within a lake on an island;
Why the deadliest animal in the United States might surprise you;
And more! Okay, so now, let’s recap what we learned today.
CODY: Today we learned that bioprinting is SUPER intricate, and involves a lot more than just printing a big blob of mass.
ASHLEY: And that ancient civilizations built ancient underground cities to hide from invaders.
CODY: And that amateur aerial photography was pioneered by a German apothecary. With a little help from pigeons.
[ad lib]
CODY: Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes. And have a great weekend! I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Stay curious!