Brennan Lee Mulligan Asks Hank Green: Punching Animals, Flying, and Averted Crises

Worst Animal to Punch

• ⚠️ The geography cone snail is the worst animal to punch due to its harpoon-like proboscis injecting potent conotoxins with no anti-venom, causing paralysis and death.
• 👶 Morally, a human baby is the worst to punch, leading to legal consequences and harm to an innocent.
• 👊 Punching a rhinoceros would likely break your hand without affecting the animal, while a gorilla would retaliate violently.

Science vs. Technology Divide

• 💡 Historically, science and technology were intertwined, with figures like Galileo both researching and building tools.
• ⚙️ The Industrial Revolution marked a split, creating separate academic departments for science (curiosity-led) and engineering (practical application).
• 💸 Concerns arise when technology is driven by profit motives and venture capital, potentially leading to opposition with truth-seeking science.
• 🤝 Bridging the gap between academia and engineering is crucial to prevent blunders and ensure technology serves societal good.

The Physics of Flight and Earth Travel

• 🦅 To fly by flapping arms, one would need to flap 100 times per second, faster than a hummingbird, with large surface area, which would likely cause arms to ignite.
• 💧 Water is "thick air", meaning fish "fly" in water, and humans could "fly" by flapping in water, but it's swimming, not dry-sky flight.
• 🌍 Falling through a hole in the Earth requires a vacuum-sealed tunnel (dug by lasers) to avoid extreme air resistance and heat.
• ⏳ Without a vacuum, air resistance and decreasing gravity towards the center would slow a fall, taking over a week and preventing passage to the other side.

Humanity's Averted Disasters

• ✅ Improved disaster preparedness in the last 50 years has drastically reduced death tolls from tropical cyclones and earthquakes, saving millions.
• 🌐 Major global threats like Y2K, smallpox, the ozone layer depletion, and acid rain have been successfully addressed through scientific and technological efforts.
• 🦠 The SARS outbreak (2003) was contained because symptoms preceded contagiousness, allowing for effective lockdown, unlike COVID-19 where transmission often occurs presymptomatically.

Navigating Expertise and Skepticism

• 🗣️ Strong cultural forces attack expertise, making it difficult to communicate the value of specialized knowledge.
• 🧐 Academia is vulnerable to attack due to government funding, tenure, and perceived separation from broader society.
• 🤝 Bridging the gap between experts and communities (e.g., through local engagement) can help heal skepticism and foster trust.
• 💬 Changing minds is rare but possible through long, empathetic conversations that allow people to feel agency and address their underlying concerns.

Surviving on Candy

• ☠️ Gummy vitamins are not a viable sole food source; adult versions can cause iron poisoning, and children's versions lead to vitamin A poisoning and organ failure.
• 🥜 Peanut M&Ms offer the best chance for survival (around a year) due to protein, fat, carbs, and some minerals.
• 🍋 However, a diet solely of Peanut M&Ms would eventually lead to scurvy due to a lack of vitamin C.
• 💡 The ideal candy for long-term sustenance would be peanut M&Ms with added orange chunks to provide vitamin C.