TRANSCRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.940 --> 00:00:03.819
Welcome to Gotta Be Kidding Me, where the weirdest
00:00:03.819 --> 00:00:06.559
true stories from science and history get the
00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:10.580
spotlight they deserve. This week, three generations
00:00:10.580 --> 00:00:14.179
packed inside a single cell. An asteroid we've
00:00:14.179 --> 00:00:17.519
been studying for 169 years without quite noticing
00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:20.199
what we were looking at. A predator condemned
00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.859
for a crime its own skull calls into question
00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:25.800
and two missing hours on a New Hampshire road.
00:00:30.280 --> 00:00:33.439
We'll start in Scottish waters with a newly discovered
00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:36.170
microbe and a very strange family arrangement.
00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:40.500
Most single -celled organisms reproduce by dividing
00:00:40.500 --> 00:00:44.009
into two. But scientists studying a newly discovered
00:00:44.009 --> 00:00:47.250
marine microbe from Scottish waters found this
00:00:47.250 --> 00:00:50.750
one doing something very different. The microbe
00:00:50.750 --> 00:00:53.850
belongs to a group of marine microorganisms that
00:00:53.850 --> 00:00:56.549
help break down organic material in the water.
00:00:57.310 --> 00:00:59.490
Nothing about that job suggests what's coming
00:00:59.490 --> 00:01:03.460
next. Instead of simply dividing, a mature cell
00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:06.560
grows new daughter cells inside its own body.
00:01:07.140 --> 00:01:09.560
Eventually, the mother cell ruptures, releasing
00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:12.079
those daughter cells into the surrounding water.
00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:16.260
Already unusual, I know. But when researchers
00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:19.140
looked inside the daughter cells, they found
00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:22.819
another surprise. Some already had the next generation
00:01:22.819 --> 00:01:26.180
developing inside them. Pregnant grandmothers,
00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:29.900
if you will. Generations nested inside generations.
00:01:30.340 --> 00:01:33.439
scientists had never documented this method of
00:01:33.439 --> 00:01:36.760
reproduction in this group before. It's basically
00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:39.620
a set of Russian nesting dolls where, eventually,
00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:43.930
the largest doll explodes. Next, we go to something
00:01:43.930 --> 00:01:47.129
astronomers have been looking at since 1857.
00:01:47.969 --> 00:01:50.469
Turns out, seeing something and knowing what
00:01:50.469 --> 00:01:52.989
you're looking at are not necessarily the same
00:01:52.989 --> 00:01:57.629
thing. Asteroid 44 Nysa has always been a little
00:01:57.629 --> 00:02:01.069
strange. It's unusually bright, and previous
00:02:01.069 --> 00:02:04.250
observations suggested its shape wasn't quite
00:02:04.250 --> 00:02:07.799
ordinary. Then astronomers got a better look.
00:02:08.629 --> 00:02:11.789
High -resolution images from the Large Binocular
00:02:11.789 --> 00:02:15.409
Telescope in Arizona and the Very Large Telescope
00:02:15.409 --> 00:02:19.030
in Chile revealed two deep valleys cutting across
00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:23.330
the nicest surface. Those valleys appear to separate
00:02:23.330 --> 00:02:26.750
three distinct lobes connected by narrow necks.
00:02:27.419 --> 00:02:31.120
There are two possible explanations. NASA could
00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:33.939
be a single body that's been battered into an
00:02:33.939 --> 00:02:37.259
extraordinary shape, or the three lobes could
00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:40.139
have started as separate objects, come together,
00:02:40.319 --> 00:02:43.949
and then remain joined. If the three lobes really
00:02:43.949 --> 00:02:47.250
did begin as separate bodies, NASA would be what
00:02:47.250 --> 00:02:51.050
astronomers call a contact trinary, three bodies
00:02:51.050 --> 00:02:53.430
touching one another and traveling through space
00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:57.129
as one. The same observations delivered one more
00:02:57.129 --> 00:03:01.139
surprise. A small moon is orbiting NASA. So after
00:03:01.139 --> 00:03:05.460
169 years, what we thought was one asteroid may
00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:08.319
actually be three bodies joined together with
00:03:08.319 --> 00:03:11.599
a fourth circling the whole arrangement. That's
00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:15.219
quite a lot to miss in one asteroid. Back on
00:03:15.219 --> 00:03:17.699
Earth, another familiar shape led people to the
00:03:17.699 --> 00:03:20.460
wrong conclusion, and this one had consequences.
00:03:21.219 --> 00:03:24.080
The Thylusian was blamed for killing sheep, and
00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:26.460
its wolf -like appearance certainly didn't help
00:03:26.460 --> 00:03:29.180
its case. But take a closer look at the skull.
00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:32.949
and the case starts to fall apart. An average
00:03:32.949 --> 00:03:35.250
thiolusian weighed roughly half as much as a
00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:38.449
gray wolf, but its skull was about the same size.
00:03:38.949 --> 00:03:42.889
It also had a long, deep jaw, a tall, narrow
00:03:42.889 --> 00:03:46.430
snout, and a widened area around the canine teeth.
00:03:47.409 --> 00:03:49.610
Researchers found that those jaws were suited
00:03:49.610 --> 00:03:52.669
to fast, powerful snapping bites rather than
00:03:52.669 --> 00:03:55.250
the prolonged grip needed to wrestle down large
00:03:55.250 --> 00:03:59.300
prey. That points instead towards smaller, faster
00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:02.319
animals, including prey around the size of a
00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.840
bandicoot. Taken together, those features don't
00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:08.759
closely match any other living predatory mammal.
00:04:09.560 --> 00:04:12.199
Unfortunately, people had reached their verdict
00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:15.180
long before anyone examined the Thylusian this
00:04:15.180 --> 00:04:19.160
closely. Its resemblance to a wolf helped cement
00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:22.500
its reputation as a livestock killer, which led
00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:25.720
to Tasmania offering bounties for dead Thylusians,
00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:29.490
and thousands were killed. Sadly, the last known
00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:34.980
Thylusian died in captivity in 1936. And finally,
00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:38.519
we're headed to New Hampshire in 1961 where Betty
00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:40.959
and Barney Hill noticed a strange light during
00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:44.339
a nighttime drive home. The light was only the
00:04:44.339 --> 00:04:49.480
beginning. On September 19th, 1961, Betty and
00:04:49.480 --> 00:04:51.579
Barney Hill were driving through New Hampshire's
00:04:51.579 --> 00:04:53.720
White Mountains when a bright object appeared
00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.920
to follow their car. They pulled over. looked
00:04:56.920 --> 00:04:59.639
at it through binoculars, and eventually continued
00:04:59.639 --> 00:05:02.660
home. But the trip had taken about two hours
00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:05.060
longer than expected and neither could account
00:05:05.060 --> 00:05:08.009
for the missing time. Over the following months,
00:05:08.350 --> 00:05:11.170
Betty had vivid nightmares while Barney developed
00:05:11.170 --> 00:05:15.050
an ulcer. A few years later, under hypnosis and
00:05:15.050 --> 00:05:18.029
in separate sessions, they described being taken
00:05:18.029 --> 00:05:21.310
aboard a craft, encountering humanoid figures,
00:05:21.870 --> 00:05:25.639
and undergoing examinations. Betty also remembered
00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.540
being shown a star map. She later drew it from
00:05:28.540 --> 00:05:31.579
memory, and years afterward, an amateur astronomer
00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:34.519
argued that the pattern matched a real star system.
00:05:35.180 --> 00:05:38.000
Other astronomers disputed the match. Whatever
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:40.600
happened during those two missing hours, the
00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:43.319
Hill's story became the blueprint for decades
00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:47.740
of alien abduction stories that followed. And
00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:50.100
that's your Weak and Weird from Gotta Be Kidding
00:05:50.100 --> 00:05:53.399
Me. You can find all four stories and more at
00:05:53.399 --> 00:05:58.399
gottabekidding .me. That's G -O -T -T -A -B -E
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:03.220
-K -I -D -D -I -N -G -DOT -M -E. And if you haven't
00:06:03.220 --> 00:06:06.399
done so already, sign up for our free newsletter
00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.699
and we'll send you the weirdest true stories
00:06:08.699 --> 00:06:11.240
from science and history straight to your inbox.
00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.860
For even more stories, follow us on X and blue
00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:18.300
sky at shock and scroll. I'm your host, Tami
00:06:18.300 --> 00:06:21.160
Koron, and I'll see you next time for more strange
00:06:21.160 --> 00:06:24.720
science, unbelievable headlines, and weird news.