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Curiosity Weekly

The Phantom Torso Experiment Protected Astronauts in a Very Creepy Way

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Learn about why we need memorials for medicine; NASA’s Phantom Torso experiment; and why we often overestimate outliers.

Additional resources from Steven Johnson:

The Phantom Torso Experiment Protected Future Astronauts In The Creepiest Way Possible by Ashley Hamer

We overestimate the outliers we see, which may hamper diversity efforts by Kelsey Donk

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer — for free!

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/the-phantom-torso-experiment-protected-astronauts-in-a-very-creepy-way

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.

0:06.0

I'm Cody Goff. And I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:08.0

Today you learn why we need memorials for medicine with best-selling author Stephen Johnson.

0:13.2

You'll also learn about NASA's kind of creepy phantom torso experiment

0:17.6

and why we tend to overestimate outliers.

0:20.5

Would satisfy some curiosity. What's the biggest statue you can think of?

0:26.0

Chances are, it's some sort of a memorial to war, put there to remember a battle or a general or fallen soldiers. There aren't too many statues devoted to medical achievements.

0:37.6

And today's guest says, well, there should be. Stephen Johnson is the best-selling author of 13 books, along with his

0:45.2

latest entitled Extra Life, a Short History of Living Longer. We asked him why he

0:50.8

thinks we need memorials for medicine.

0:53.0

Years ago I wrote this book about an important figure in the history of public health, this guy John Snow,

0:58.2

not the Game of Thrones, John Snow, with the British doctor who figured out that cholera was in the water in London in 1854 and that you know that's a it's we've talked about the importance of solving the problem of waterborne diseases snow was a a major figure in that, and there's a little kind of plaque memorializing his breakthrough idea at a replica of a pump in Soho because the outbreak he used to solve the mystery of cholera and revolved around a kind of a

1:26.4

well that had been contaminated with the bacterium that causes cholera. And so there's this little, you know,

1:31.1

you would miss it if you walk by on the other side of the street.

1:33.7

There's this little kind of plaque and a kind of replica of the pump to commemorate this.

1:38.8

And this was an idea, understanding the you get is not really visible from 40 feet away. But just think of the, you know, the

1:57.6

scale of the military memorials that you see are just, you know, you walk down, you know you walk down you know from

2:03.0

Soho to Trafalgar Square I mean I can see from my window Grand Army

2:06.4

Plaza here in Brooklyn which commemorates the union army and the civil war

2:10.7

in the United States like we have these massive tributes to the lives lost

2:17.1

in military conflicts.

2:19.3

It's just a part of our kind of urban fabric.

...

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