579: Nuclear Powered Evolution | The Wolves of Chernobyl Reveal Human Potential

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A few years ago, scientists discovered something impossible in Chernobyl.

Animals were thriving in radiation levels that should have killed them.

In the 50s, the United States tested 23 nuclear weapons at Bikini Atoll.

The area is still radioactive, yet life flourishes there.

Plants and animals grow faster than they should.

After the Fukushima disaster, animals developed stronger antioxidant systems.

They reproduced faster.

This happened in just 15 years.

How can plants and animals evolve so quickly?

Well, they can't.

They activated ancient genetic sequences designed to survive radiation, genes that were always there, waiting.

And in Earth's most radioactive places, those genes are waking up.

March 1st, 1954, Bikini Atoll, Operation Castle, Test Bravo.

The military expected a 5-megaton blast.

They got 15.

This miscalculation created a blast 1,000 times stronger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Uh-oh, someone forgot to carry the one.

The fireball reached 20 million degrees Fahrenheit in under a second.

That's 2,000 times hotter than the sun's surface and twice the temperature of the sun's core.

The mushroom cloud stretched 25 miles high.

The blast carved a crater in the sea floor over a mile wide and 300 feet deep, deep enough for a 30-story building.

Why the hell are you humans still messing with nukes?

I honestly don't know.

Yeah, it's a good thing the aliens will protect you.

Will they?

Yeah, protect or enslave.

We'll find out soon enough.

The explosion vaporized three small islands.

The lagoon became a radioactive soup.

Wind patterns spread fallout across thousands of miles.

Locals suffered radiation sickness and evacuated.

Over four years, there were another 22 nuclear tests.

Scientists believed nothing could survive this.

They were wrong.

Researchers found nearly 100 species of fish and coral thriving in radioactive water.

What?

This is how Godzilla was born.

Yeah, I don't think from the depths.

Journey stories high, breathes fire, his head in the sky.

Godzilla!

Godzilla!

Please stop.

Godzilla!

I'm begging you.

And Godzuki.

The crater left by the nuclear bomb was covered in coral, vast colonies of it.

Then the researchers found the crabs.

Oh, they make a shampoo for that.

No, no, no, no, no.

Coconut crabs on the beach.

Ah, that makes more sense.

These crabs eat radioactive coconuts.

The water, soil, and trees contain cesium-137, a radioactive isotope that destroys DNA and causes cancer.

Tests showed lethal radiation levels in the crabs, but they're fine.

Oh, maybe this explains the crab cat.

Let's stay focused.

This pattern repeats at every nuclear disaster site.

Different animals, same response.

For some reason, nature knows how to handle radiation.

But when did life develop these defenses?

And why?

Well, years later, Chernobyl provided a clue.

Deep in Ukraine's radioactive exclusion zone, something strange was happening to the wolves

In 1986, a safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant failed.

The explosion released 400 times more radiation than Hiroshima.

The Soviet military gave 100,000 residents hours to evacuate.

They established a 1,000-square-mile exclusion zone around the reactor.

The land was declared dead.

Nature disagreed.

In 2014, Dr.

Kara Love studied wolves in the CEZ.

Their blood work revealed genetic changes that defied evolution.

In just 15 generations, the wolves activated specific DNA repair mechanisms.

Each generation grew more and more resistant to radiation.

The wolves are exposed to six times the legal safety limit of radiation every day of their lives.

Researchers identified the wolves' genetics seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.

But wolves weren't the only animals changing.

When Chernobyl was evacuated, people were not allowed to bring their pets.

Thousands of cats and dogs were left behind.

Most of these animals died from radiation exposure, but not all of them.

Studies documented over 800 descendants of the original abandoned dogs living in the exclusion zone.

Well, not much research when it's studying the cats.

Stop it.

DNA samples from the Chernobyl dogs show their genetics are so unique that they could be classified as a new species.

Other animals adapted differently.

Eastern tree frogs are normally bright green.

In Chernobyl, they're black.

The increased melanin in their skin protects them from radiation.

Birds in the zone develop darker feathers to survive.

In 2013, a study revealed that they weren't creating new abilities.

They were awakening old ones.

And then there's the fungus.

No, not that kind of.

What did the mushroom say to the girl he was trying to pick up at the bar?

Will you let me get through this, please?

Oh, fine.

Go ahead and kill all the fun guy.

Black fungi in Chernobyl don't just resist radiation.

They eat it.

They grow toward the reactor core, converting gamma radiation to chemical energy, like plants convert sunlight.

NASA tested these fungi on the International Space Station.

They processed cosmic radiation in zero gravity.

Similar species appeared at other radiation sites.

At Fukushima, fungi activated their radiation processing abilities within hours of exposure.

When radiation levels dropped, they returned to normal.

Johns Hopkins discovered these fungi adapt to different radiation types, from gamma rays to beta particles.

Their genes contain instructions for processing all kinds of radiation.

These same genes appear in 50 million year old fungi fossils.

So why did ancient life forms develop protection against radiation?

Dr.

Lynn Rothschild is an astrobiologist at NASA.

She says Earth's atmosphere millions of years ago provided less insulation from cosmic radiation.

For life to survive, it would have developed methods to protect itself and then pass them down through DNA.

Now this makes sense, but there's a hiccup.

Cosmic radiation is mostly protons.

The fungi have defenses against neutrons, beta particles, and gamma rays.

These don't come from space.

These come from uranium nuclear reactors.

Hang on, hang on, hang on.

Humans didn't have nuclear reactors 50 million years ago.

That's true, they didn't.

So what are you talking about?

They found a nuclear reactor from millions of years ago?

No.

Oh, they found 17 of them.

Ah.

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There was a time in Earth's history when radiation was much, much higher.

In Gabon, West Africa, scientists discovered evidence of at least 17 natural nuclear reactors that operated 2 billion years ago.

The Oclo reactors, as they're called, sustained nuclear fission for hundreds of thousands of years.

And these reactors weren't small.

Each site produced around 100 kilowatts of power.

Groundwater moderated the reactions, creating natural on-off cycles, just like modern nuclear reactors.

Who built the reactors?

Well, yeah, no, Naki.

Linked to Hanunaki episode down in the old juicy jug.

No, there's...

It's from the nuclear war between Atlantis and Lemuria.

Linked to Atlantis episode stuffed in your pooty box.

No.

Oh, the nuclear war with Mars.

Linked Mars episode down in your pucker pot.

Well, scientists are pretty sure they're natural nuclear reactors.

Yeah, but not 100% sure.

Well, science can never be 100% sure about anything.

Okla wasn't unique.

Similar isotope patterns in Colorado's uranium deposits suggest ancient fission reactions.

Uranium mines in Australia show nuclear activity from billions of years ago.

The gunflint chert contains Earth's oldest fossils, 1.9 billion-year-old microorganisms, with radiation adaptations matching modern bacteria.

Life maintained these defenses even as Earth's radiation levels decreased like a biological memory.

These mechanisms remained intact through billions of years of evolution.

This is how evolution and genetics work.

You know this.

You also know that genes and traits that are no longer useful are eventually removed from the gene pool.

But if that's true, why are these genes still here?

And why are they in human DNA?

Radiation response mechanisms match genetic markers found in ancient human settlements.

Our ancestors faced this before.

They also developed radiation resistance.

How do we know?

Because their children are still here.

In Ramsar, Iran, people live with radiation levels 10 times higher than safety limits, yet they have normal cancer rates and normal lifespans.

What we found was that people who lived in the high background areas had significantly fewer induced chromosomal abnormalities than their neighbors who lived maybe just a few kilometers away where background radiation levels were normal.

It sounds totally improbable, but it appears that radiation may actually help the body resist genetic damage.

Studies reveal Ramsar residents have enhanced DNA repair abilities.

Their cells fix radiation damage faster than it accumulates.

It's like a whole village of toxic avenges.

Really?

It's a compliment.

Things are going to change in this town.

I'm not just another pretty face.

Similar populations exist in other parts of the world.

Guavapari in Brazil is famous for its beauty, biodiversity, and unique radioactive black sand.

The Brazilian Nuclear Energy Commission documented enhanced DNA repair in locals going back generations.

These populations also have something else in common.

Their settlements date back thousands of years.

Archaeological evidence shows continuous human habitation near natural radiation sources.

Gobekli Tepe, one of humanity's oldest sites, is built near uranium deposits.

Similar deposits lie beneath Mesopotamia's oldest cities.

These radiation levels should have driven humans away.

Instead, our ancestors stayed and became resistant.

They passed that resistance to their children, who also passed it on.

These protections are not just in the genes of people living near radioactive sites, they're in all of us, and they could be the catalyst for humanity's next great leap.

Space agencies in every country are trying to unlock human potential.

This potential might be achieved in space.

Enhanced DNA repair, conscious control over our metabolism, natural radiation shielding.

Within a century, we might activate these dormant abilities at will.

In a thousand years, as humans colonize space, different environments will drive unique adaptations.

Colonists on Mars, Titan, and Europa will evolve differently.

Each population will adapt to their local radiation signature and environment.

In 10,000 years, space-dwelling humans might process radiation-like food.

Their skin could generate protective fields.

Their DNA might repair itself instantly.

While this is purely speculation, we know these abilities exist in Chernobyl's fungi.

That's why NASA is so interested in this.

Further into the future, we might develop new senses.

The ability to detect different types of radiation and heat, enhanced vision that would allow us to see ultraviolet or infrared.

Some animals on Earth already have these abilities.

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No fees, no interest.

I used it to get this portable spa with jets.

Now the bubbles can cling to my sculpted but pruny body.

Make the most of your money this holiday with PayPal.

Save the offer in the app.

N1231, see paypal.com/slash promo terms.

Points, give your renee for cash and more pay in for subject to terms of approval.

PayPal Inc.

at MLS 910-457.

What does Zinn really give you?

Not just hands-free nicotine satisfaction, but also real freedom.

Freedom to do more of what you love, when and where you want to do it.

When is the right time for Zen?

It's any time you need to be ready for every chance that's coming your way.

Smoke-free, hassle-free, on your terms.

Why bring Zinn along for the ride?

Because America's number one nicotine pouch opens opens up something just as exciting as the road ahead.

It opens up the endless possibilities of now.

From the way you spend your day to the people you choose to spend it with.

From the to-do list right in front of you to the distant goal only you can see.

With Zen, you don't just find freedom, you keep finding it again and again.

Find your Zen.

Learn more at Zinn.com.

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Even further into the future, humans might develop senses that utilize quantum biology.

Quantum biology.

Did you just make that up?

Nope.

European robins navigate perfectly in darkness across thousands of miles.

Moths detect mates miles away.

Plants convert sunlight with near perfect efficiency.

For decades, scientists couldn't explain these abilities.

Now they think they know.

These animals are tapping into the quantum realm.

The robin's eye contains a protein called cryptochrome.

When struck by light, it creates quantum entangled electrons that react to the the Earth's magnetic field.

I think, having studied quantum mechanics myself years and years ago, I would never have realized then or even believed, I think, that it would be possible that quantum mechanical effects could be actually housed within the eye of a bird.

That is a huge surprise, and that's nothing we learned in quantum mechanics when I was young.

One theory says that dogs' sense of smell uses quantum tunneling.

They detect quantum vibrations of molecules that they perceive as sense.

Even plants tap into the quantum realm.

When sunlight hits a leaf, it always chooses the most efficient route.

The energy uses quantum superposition to explore all possible pathways at once.

This is exactly how quantum computers work.

In a million years, humans in space might develop similar abilities.

And the framework for this might already be in place.

I'm claiming that we need new physics to understand consciousness.

Now, when I mean new physics here, I mean something outside the physics we know, but it's not simply invented for the purpose of explaining consciousness.

It's something which I think we need anyway.

Physicists Roger Penrose and Stuart Hemeroff believe consciousness comes from quantum processes in brain cells.

Microtubules in the cells create quantum states that become conscious thought.

I realize these microtubules are there, and they look like just the kind of thing that could well be supporting the kind of level of quantum mechanics up to a level where you could expect the

quantum state to sort of collapse.

That's the terminology people use in quantum mechanics.

Microtubules, they are inside brain neurons.

They are indeed.

You know how waves collapse into particles when they're observed?

If you don't, the human explains it in a simulation theory episode.

Linked down in your luscious love lack.

Think of your consciousness as waves of possibility.

These waves exist in multiple states at once.

When these quantum states collapse, you experience a moment of awareness.

Whenever the state reduces, whenever the wave function collapses, that's what this is doing, it's associated with a moment of what we call proto-consciousness.

For 30 years, scientists dismissed it as fringe thinking, but now the evidence is getting harder to ignore.

Evidence is emerging that microtubules may exhibit interesting quantum behaviors after all.

There are certain quantum states in microtubules that if you have a coherent gravitational collapse of these, orchestrated collapse of these,

somehow consciousness arises.

Where now there is a concrete evidence that quantum physics has exactly the properties that describe consciousness and free will.

If consciousness uses quantum mechanics, your thoughts transcend ordinary physics.

Your consciousness could be part of a quantum reality that connects you and me and everyone across space and time.

This sounds like speculation, but every mechanism I describe today exists in nature.

Every adaptation has appeared in some form of life.

The quantum reality that creates your consciousness is the same quantum reality that governs everything in the universe.

And everything in the universe, you, me, our planet, our sun, all come from the same source.

The very matter that makes us up was generated long ago and far away in red giant stars.

A blade of grass, as Walt Whitman said, is the journey work of the stars.

Carl Sagan said, we're made of star stuff.

The evidence suggests he was right in ways he never imagined.

Those ancient stars didn't just create the atoms that make up our bodies.

They might have encoded the blueprint for consciousness itself.

I like this theory because it means we're all connected.

Our time on Earth is short, but maybe that's the point.

We're here to experience physical life and take those experiences back to our source, where we share them and learn from them.

Maybe our real lives aren't here.

Maybe our real lives are out there among the stars.

Out there, the stars are showing us we're part of a shared consciousness, temporarily wearing human form.

Out there, the stars are preparing us for an awakening that will reshape our reality.

Out there, the stars are calling us home.

Our ancestors worshiped the sun, and they were far from foolish.

It makes good sense to revere the sun and the stars because

we are their children.

Thank you so much for hanging out today.

My name is AJ.

There's Hecklefish.

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Oh, I shouldn't have said the N-word.

Am I already demonetized?

I'm leaving it in.

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I played Polypius and Area 51.

A secret code inside the Bible said I would.

I love my UFOs and paranormal buns, as well as music.

So I'm singing like I should.

But then another conspiracy theory becomes the truth, my friends.

And it never ends.

No, it never ends.

I feel the crap guy down, got stuck inside Mel's hole.

With them chaotrup, I've been only two aware.

Dude, Stanley Kufrick fake the moon landing alone

on a film set of shadow people there.

The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man, I'm told.

And his name was Cole.

I can't believe

I'm dancing with the bitches.

And go fish on Thursday, nights, Wednesday, J2.

And rap on my beat all through the night.

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth.

So the rap balls are beat all through the light.

The Mothman sightings and the solar storms still come to have got the secret city underground

Mysterious number stations, planets Earth O2, Project Stargate, and what the Dark Watchers found

in a simulation, don't you worry though

The Black Knights that are of told me so I can't believe

I'm dancing with the fears

Headroom fish on Thursday nights with day J2 And the white moms live at me all through the night

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the white mom's rubber me all through the night

Had to fish on Thursday night swede J2 And the white moms be all through the line

All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So white balls up with me all through the

lightie loves to dance

Gurdy loves to dance

Girdie loves to dance

Gertie loves to dance on the dance floor

because she is a camel.

And camels love to dance when the feeling is right on waves in time.

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