Belle Talks About:

Hello World, this by far is one of the most depressing topics I am interested in. I cover the severity of microplastics in our environment, how they affect us, and what we can do to solve this problem. I see the solution in Biology; life has already found a way, we just need to utilize it. There are microbes that have been found that can metabolize some plastics, and I lay out my ideas to how we could implement a solution. I even cover what I think would be some unintended consequences to the solution. Enjoy, if you can! 

Resources: 

"What are Microplastics?" https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html

"Plastic: It's not all the same." https://plasticoceans.org/7-types-of-plastic/

"Endocrine Disruptors" https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/endocrine/index.cfm

"Adipogenic Activity of Chemicals used in Plastic Consumer Products" https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c06316

"Scientists accidentally create mutant enzyme that eats plastic bottles" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/16/scientists-accidentally-create-mutant-enzyme-that-eats-plastic-bottles

"Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by Aspergillus tubingensis" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749117300295

In this episode I talk about something that I have been passionate about for years: Viruses. 

Viruses are weird. Way weirder than you would think, and there are amazing applications that we can apply to viruses. 

We can potentially use viruses as the blueprint for biotechnology the way that we used the blueprint of birds to make planes and the blueprints of Bacteria to isolate and optimize CRISPR. 

I talk about the relationship of many human species ranging from modern Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and the Paracas People of Peru. The history of our species is incredible, and there is so much we still do not know. I talk about the facts we do know, the arrogance of archeology, and a sub-species of human that are taboo to talk about but existed. 

The Paracas People of Peru had elongated skulls, and their DNA has been tested. This is a mystery that should be discussed by more academics. Neanderthals and Denisovans also had larger skulls than modern humans, but the shape was different. The size or volume of the skull is not as important as the structures that can develop due to the shape of the skull.  

I try to be clear when I talk about undisputed scientific facts versus what my interpretation of things are. If I find that anything I said was wrong, I will correct myself in the future. I am just human, but what does that mean anymore? 

If you want to know more about the Paracus People, here is a link to Brien Foerster's website: https://hiddenincatours.com/. He is currently the leading expert on this topic. 

Here is the link to the website that shows a comparison of other hominid skulls: https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution/Increasing-brain-size.