Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Marvel Anatomy: Infinity War

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Justin takes the wheel as he once again brings out the official Marvel Anatomy book to discuss the science of comic book superpowers. He and Dr. Sydnee discuss the feasibility of abilities in characters like Daredevil, The Invisible Woman, Captain America, Spider Woman, and The Lizard. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/

Saw bones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, talkies about some books. One, two, one, Miscite and Medicine. for the mouth. Wow. Hello everybody and welcome to Saul Bones, Marital Tour of Miscite and Medicine.

I'm your co-host, Justin McElbowley. And I'm Sydney McElbowley. And Sydney, I'm so excited to be here with you to record this great podcast. Me too, Justin. I really appreciate you did more work than me on this one. Oh, I wouldn't call it work, Sid. I wouldn't because once again, we are turning to the annals of the Marvel universe to talk

about Marvel anatomy to get the perspective insight wisdom, all of it, of Dr. Sidu McAroy. One of the leading experts, not only in biology but superheroes and superhero biology? I've never I've never claimed that we we try to alternate if we're gonna do a heavier more serious episode to do something that's a little lighter the next time around to give you give you a break and we're going as light as we go Justin's taking over. Oh, this one. So it's kind of light to a point where it's almost sort of ephemeral. It's almost like not very important to say.

I know, it's very important. Well, let me say, you would think that episodes like this would be among our least controversial as compared to some of the heavier topics we cover. But what I found the last time you did this is a lot of people will definitely have thoughts and opinions on the things that we say about Marvel characters. So it is pretty controversial.

Okay, they can have whatever opinions they want. Let me say something. If I'm reading to you from this book, this is canonically made by the Disney, Walt Disney corporation of which Marvel is a subsidiary. So this is just as legit and anything else do you my read. Yeah, but what I'm saying is when I start riffing on what I think that means from a medical or scientific or pseudo scientific standpoint.

Keep it, hey, hey, pal, keep it to yourself. All right. Yeah, that's fine. I appreciate it. I really, I do. No one's been me. No one has been in the least, but like, I don't want to give that impression. Everyone's been very kind in their suggestions that perhaps there are other ways to look at these issues.

Do you want to talk about Daredevil? Sure. Daredevil is a superhero. He is a lawyer. He does not, he is not cited in the way that we, us, us, us common humans are cited. Daredevil is taking in his environment and the shape of his environment, what things look like with his extremely advanced other senses. Okay. So what I wanna talk to you about is Daredevil's other senses because Daredevil was, I mean, depending on how you want,

it was a chemical. Okay, they doused him in radioactive chemicals. Okay, so this is not, it is not just based on the premise that if you lose one sense, the other ones, like this isn't naturally occurring. It's a riff. I would say it's really riff on that. Like, well, but then they're enhanced in some way.

Correct, because of Correct. Okay. Because of chemicals. Okay. Um, dare it. Well, he's the defender of Hell's Kitchen. You know this, which seems pretty like Gordon Ramsey's restaurant. No, no, no, no, the neighborhood. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that seems pretty specific. Yeah. Um, yeah. And and Hell's Kitchen is apparently from what I hear her from people very gentrified at this point. It's not really that that in need of a specific defender, but okay. He does have a day job So maybe just didn't have a lot of time wait He is oh that's all he defends is just this one area if you do something outside of Hell's Kitchen

He's like no one this fun. Does that make him feel bad when you look at like spider-man's responsible for like all of New York City And you've got Batman over there in charge of Gotham, which isn't real, but like looks pretty large. Well, I would say this, just to, I mean, Spider-Man's not in charge of all of New York, because Derri-Dable has- So he done that door- Minus Hell's Kitchen. Although at the end of the day, like Superman defends the whole planet.

Yeah, but he's a metahuman, like at a much more advanced level, and is it from a different like, if you're, if you're spider man, okay, here's, okay, listen, doctor, who saves the entire universe? Okay, repeatedly. Um, okay. So listen, I don't want to get off on this, but it does seem to me that if I'm a spider man and I got all New York to worry about, if I see a crime, have any health kitchen, it is nice to be like, okay, that's fine. Daredevil did that.

That's not my area. I have the other regions, okay. Daredevil has enhanced senses. Okay, first of all, what in his brain is helping him to process these senses. There's something, there's a brain part of this. There's different part. There's a brain part.

There's a brain part of this. Yeah, well our senses definitely have brain parts. Yes. But they're all different parts of our brain is what, I mean, that's part of it. Like, if we're talking about eyesight and smell and taste and sound and and then things like touch. So I don't know if this also means reflexes.

Like does he have enhanced sensation? Like whether it be like touch or reflexes or what? It's a cortex. I'm looking for a cortex. It's, I mean, like all over. Like that. I mean, we're talking about the entire central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. It's some peripheral nervous system is some of these.

Yeah. Yeah. Daredevil's somatosensory cortex, the area of the brain that receives an interpret sensory input is exceptional and stability to process incoming signals from his enhanced senses. Okay. But then what can he do with that? It lets him assemble a detailed picture of his surroundings despite his lack of sight. Right.

Okay. No, I understand that part, but like does he react faster? Does he move quicker? Does he? How? What is the output? I'm talking, I'm talking. I'm talking.

That's the input processing. Punching is the output. Punching is the output. Okay. But like that. But that's a different piece of the, like these are different pieces of the nervous system at this point. I'm just saying like the message is coming in and the message is going out might be different wiring.

And so the punching would not necessarily be enhanced by that. I mean, I just, okay, listen. That's all I'm saying. I'm just talking about how can he smell better? It's all just wiring. How does he, how can he smell better? Where, perfume, shower? C'mon.

Is this what it's like to be? I said, how can he smell better? Is this, is this what it's like to be you? I'm so sorry. How can he smell better? I mean, where are we talking about like his olfactory nerve is enhanced? His olfactory receptors in his nose. There's a picture here. Could you see?

The olfactory. Yeah. The olfactory is everything. There's a descend way. There's an area at the top of your nasal cavity, the cribiform plate that like connects up to your brain part. Yeah. The brain pieces and this like perforated piece of bone through which these nerve fibers extend. How good is it said he can identify virtually anyone he has ever met by scent alone, even

in dense crowds and in the up to distances of 50 feet. That's, that seems too far, right? That seems like too much. Well, I mean, I think what you're up against is like, and this is where I, if he has been like super enhanced by some sort of mythical chemical that we don't necessarily have in the real world, right? Like, this isn't just like his- Are you asking me if your Neville technology is possible in our world? What I'm saying is that- that our range of what we can smell even if you

enhanced our sense of smell which I mean this is all based on the idea that we're not using all our brain all the time which we are but even if you could enhance it there's only so many different like things we can smell and differentiate and so if you have people who you know use the same detergent or something like there's a lot of ways where people could end up smelling fairly similar. I have no smell. I don't have much of a smell.

So I'm not sure he could track me. That's what I'm saying. I don't naturally have much of a smell. I'm not sure. I don't really have much of a smell. I'm not very hairy, but you do. I don't have like a distinct smell. What do you mean you're not a hairy person?

What, what do those two thoughts have to do with each other? I'm not a hairy person. You have more beaux if you're a hairier. What? Oh dang. Okay. Oh dang never mind. I guess that's wrong too. Do I have the way? I'm pretty hairy. Do I have more be oh? Listen, daredevils, parietal lobe, process, the sensory input at an exponentially higher rate than the average human brain. I wanted to bring the parietal lobe in there too. That's part of it. Okay. Derritable's inner ears can sense changes in sound and pressure completely imperceptible to most humans. How is his ear different? The inner ear and all that stuff. How is it different to allow for him to, since changes in sound and pressure completely

in perceptual motion? Changes in sound and pressure. You know what? I don't know. So much of the inner ear, what we're really talking about is like balance and proprioception and position and space and stuff. I'm not sure. Well, there is no apparent physical augmentation.

It's just a regular ear. It's just an ear, but his... He can't improve. I thought you would like the Marvel people can't improve on the ear. On the ear? Yeah, one of the more elegant designs. I can understand that. It would be hard to improve on the ear. I'm assuming they're just basing this on the idea that he's got like moron neurons up their firing more more connections more synapses.

I've explained that better ready. Through taste daredevil can identify almost any substance, including poisons and toxins at concentration as low as 20 milligrams. He could taste home. He could taste. He could. He could. He could taste home. What. He could taste homey off. He could. He could taste homey.

What a useful skill. Yeah. Do you have any guess as to how he's able to do that? He has more taste buds. Incorrect. There's no, there's not an increased number of fungiform epil A. Is that right? Yep. So they're, they're ready for you.

Saw you coming. It's likely due to the radiation induced development of specific genes related to flavor distinction. He's a super taste. He is a super duper taste. Or I would say because we have super taste. He's a super duper taste. Charlie insists she's a super taste.

She is absolutely bitter fruits. Tastes far more bitter and sweet, far more sweet. She is insistent. She is a super taste. That is why she doesn't like to eat so many vegetables. It's because she tastes them so much more strongly than we do. John Lee super taser is a they might be giant song that Charlie got very into when she was a kid because she very much wanted to be.

She will tell you she's a super taser and that she's allergic to dust, but she's not. There are no rules. There are no rules. Skin can pick up on menisculed changes in the temperature and humidity of the surrounding atmosphere. Now, I was gonna ask you how he does this, but I'm just gonna tell you, ultra sensitive touch receptors. I just thought, I don't think you would. There's a lot of, that's the way we sense touch

as in like fine touch, firmer pressure, sharp things that cause pain, the sensation of an itch. These are all different sensations and different receptors responsible. I mean, there's some overlap between some, but like, you can't say on a broad, like you can't paint that with such a broad brush. They should know better. Well, they've demonstrated more competency in these areas in the past. So well, Daredevil is, you know, he's his own thing. You got to let Daredevil be Daredevil.

Well, I wasn't going to try to stop Daredevil from being Daredevil. Lucky for you. What do you think about Daredevil overall? Are you excited to see him back out in action? He's going to be dead. I've never seen anything with Daredevil in it. So I don't, I mean, I think it's an interesting, it reminds me, do you remember the episode of MASH where a Hawkeye temporarily loses his eyesight because of a steam injury? And then he's really great in surgery because he can smell that a bowel's been nicked when

everyone else says there isn't and he keeps insisting, keep checking, keep checking and they find that yes, they did indeed, Mississippi is a shrapnel and he saves soldier's life. Yeah. Because his enhanced sense of smell. Yeah. I guess we can all enjoy different forms of entertainment. Do you want to talk about Captain America? Sure.

When Captain America throws his mindy shield, all that opposes my dish, you must yield. Okay. Um, Is that it? Okay. Um, is that it? Okay. Captain America. Sorry dad used to sing all these like goofy cartoon themes songs from the 60s and they're so embedded into my psyche that I can't.

Captain America relies on um, his quick tactical thinking. So I'm going to go ahead and tell you that he's smart, really, really smart. Okay. He's very smart. Do you know how much do you know about how Captain America broad strokes, because it's always presented in broad strokes, right?

Like, they're like, he got injected with a super soldier serum that Tony Stark's dad made, right? Sure. Yeah, I mean, that is definitely a version of it. But in addition to the super soldiers here I'm in most comic adaptation. He was also bombarded with Vita rays. What are Vita rays? Well, hun, they're the rays that activate the super soldiers Are they by Vita? It sounds like vitamin. Right. Yeah. Super soldiers here is activated by Vita rays. We had just discovered vitamins, I guess, and whenever it comes to America came around,

something we were really excited about them. This does sound like something from that era, like, come sitting on our super sauna and get exposed to Viterase. Ladies, the men will be flocking to your side once you get exposed to our Viterase. You'll love this said, the captain can run at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour and lift more than three times his body weight. He can easily master such diverse combat forms as judo, juditsu, and karate.

How is he able to maintain maximum exertion for long periods like this? How can he do it? Um, okay, well, I would just like to know, first of all, that like there are probably a lot of people out there who have learned multiple forms of martial arts and they didn't need like super serum to do it. I just want to throw that concept. Yeah, but you gave them the idea. Captain America.

No, probably not. But it doesn't have something to do with his. Because I said he easily mastered them. Do you think they easily mastered them? Probably not. Yeah, some people maybe. No, I know. Easily mastered multiple forms of martial art.

Not easily. Well, but did he really do it easily? What's easily? That's the objective. I know he did it easily because the B.I.B. L.E. tells me so, which by which I mean marvel and anatomy. I'm guessing that it has something to do with like, a lack of fatigue in his muscle

fibers, maybe like lactic acid build up is not quite a problem for him because that's what generally like we start to get fatigue of our muscle fibers. We build up lactic acid that makes us feel achy and we slow down and we need to take a break. And so there is something different in his structure that his muscle fibers do not fatigue. Sidney, I'm so impressed because this is one of my favorite ones they have in here. Captain America's biochemistry is bolstered by optimized blood circulation and enhanced delivery of nutrients and lymph fluids.

These heightened processes facilitate the flushing of toxins from his body at a much higher rate than any standard human, allowing him to maintain maximum exertion for long periods with outbuildup of lactic acid by product in his muscles. You like that? I just figured that out. You like that? That's good. Yeah. Well, if they came to the same conclusion as you, it makes it feel more scientifically grounded. It makes me feel like we're closer than ever to the Captain America future that we all

deserve. I'm assuming that that's the muscular part of it. There's certainly a cardiovascular part. I mean, the heart is also a muscle, but his lung capacity and all that must be enhanced. You know what I mean? Like everything. The lungs and heart function at optimized levels far beyond those that most human specimens could ever achieve. See, the thing with Captain America is theoretically, he is operating at peak human potential.

Like in theory, it's a little bit like Batman. I mean, it's not, but like in theory, this is like the best anybody could ever do. If you're like really on your macros or whatever, this is what you would be able to achieve with girls in America. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I know what you're saying. And certainly like as humans evolve, you see some changes, but I mean, they're slow. Obviously, you don't see them like the next day.

But all that being said, it's still, I think that it's still sort of predicated on this idea that if we all just like drank the right shakes and did the right number of reps, that this would be there waiting for us. That's probably, I mean, that, no, it's certainly not true. Also like running 30 miles per hour is pretty cool, but like we do have cars now. That is a wild thing to say. That is a wild, that's a wild. I mean, he's not the flash.

What I'm saying is like, yes, I can't run 30 miles per hour, but I have a car that I can get in and drive over twice that fast and still not be breaking the law. That's a great point. That's such a good point, Sydney. Gosh, gosh, that's a good point. Well, what I would say is as Captain America

was running by me at 30 miles per hour, I would say, get a car. Yeah, that would drag him. I think he would take half to take a second like, I know I've defeated the red skull, but that really hurt me. Sydney, that really hurt my feelings. Do you know the Viterase, how the, according to this, the, what the Viterase are messing with and what the super soldiers here, it is active, it is changing epigenetic markers. That is the theory behind what that research works. Well, you're talking about methylation now, gene methylation. And that, you know, it's wild about that,

is like our technology is not at the point where we can routinely do that, obviously. But those are active areas of research today because we know that so much of what happens to us health-wise, physical, in terms of our physicality, does have to do with epigenetics. There's definitely research into altering, changing, reversing that process now.

Now, I don't think anybody's doing it with Viterase, but... That's a great point you just made. Viterase aren't untapped area of potential that I feel like we're not even really getting it. It's interesting because they're hitting on something that is definitely an area of medical research. We are going to take a break.

Yes. And when we come back, we've got more great superheroes, but Sydney. Let's go to the billing department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines, the escalate my car before the mouth. Hey.

Hi, I'm Travis McElroy. And I'm Theresa McElroy. And where the host of Schmanners? We don't believe that etiquette should be used to judge other people. No, on Schmanners we see etiquette as a way to navigate social situations with confidence. So if that sounds like something you're into? Join us every Friday, on Maximum Fun or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's John Moe inviting you to listen to Depresh Mode with John Moe, where I talk about mental health and the lives we live with all kinds of people.

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Said what do you know about the invisible woman? She's invisible and a woman. Okay, that's huge. I've never heard of the invisible woman. Do you know what team she's on for chance? Marvel one because that's a Marvel book. I don't know. No, I'm who is the, I don't know anything about the invisible woman. I've never heard of the I mean the invisible woman is Part of the fantastic four Susan Richards. So if you've ever seen So that's her thing is she's invisible that is her thing. Okay. I've never watched any fantastic for anything. Her brother

is the human torch. Okay. I'm assuming he gets fiery. Correct. And then Mr. Fantastic. Stretchy. Stretchy. Yeah. Okay. And Ben Graham is the thing. Sometimes he's made of rocks. Sometimes he's made of rocks, that's his thing. I mean, he's hard to hurt and he's strong because of the rocks. Sometimes they put Spiderman there. Sometimes this robot, you know. I don't know anything about the Fantastic Four. Sometimes Spiderman has a pizza bag on his head

and wears a Fantastic Four outfit. And that's the amazing bag man. And that was like a low red disguise he had to use one time. I don't know, look it up. Okay, so Suzy Storm is the invisible woman. She is, the way her power works is by changing... This is not biology, so I'm just going to say this part, okay?

Envisible woman can render herself completely undetectable across a range of electromagnetic wavelengths. It's not triggered on a cellular level, but it relies on her mental manipulation of light wavelengths. So she can change the light around her so the light no longer reflects off of her and rather passes through her to make her invisible. Okay. I mean, that would make something invisible.

Right. Not that we are capable of doing that, but like, I understand what they're saying at least. Okay. But she experiences a change likely. The research is not complete on this. Yeah, okay. She likely experiences a change in her vision when she does this.

Can you think of what change? Can you puzzle out what kind of change might happen in her vision? Now, we are getting into some areas outside of biology with this, but I will tell you, I will tell you this, her vision likely, we're not sure, becomes monochromatic. I don't, I don't understand that because the light continues to bounce off of other objects around her, right? Right. Just like it did previously.

Yes. But colored light can't reflect off of her retina because she's invisible. Because it's passing through us. It's passing through it so she can only see in black and white when she's invisible, maybe. I feel this, okay. Interesting. I would wonder if you're going to make that argument, how can she see anything?

It's not an argument as a fact, although admittedly, the research is still out. I think that why would it be monochromatic? Why wouldn't it just be, she makes herself invisible, but she also can't see anybody. Everything else becomes invisible to her. So she is physically still there. You can touch her. She's just invisible. She'd rather you didn't.

Well, no, I just mean like she still has physical form. Yes, that's correct. I just thought that was interesting. No, it's very interesting. I think that's very interesting. I just think I think it's an interesting thought experiment. Again, the research is still very early. Well, and their concept of how she becomes invisible, that's, I mean, I get that, that's grounded. And although can I I just say like, objects is like, that was my worst part of physics. Oh, okay. Well, this is a good idea.

I mean, I still did fine in all of it. I'm just saying like, this is the, why? This is a good brush up for you then, right? This is a good opportunity for you to flex those muscles. That was an area where I was like, can I just get back to Gushy Things with cells? I'm, all of this refraction and reflection.

I just know thank you. Okay, Sid, spider woman. Do you know spider woman? Personally? No, that would be a wild thing to withhold from me this long in our relationship. That spider woman is different than spider-guin. Right.

Spider woman is Jessica Drew and she isGwyn. Right. Spider-Women is Jessica Drew, and she is Spider-Women. She's completely different. And what's fun about the Spider-People is that a lot of them have explained, like a lot of them have different reasons for why they have the same power. So she didn't get bitten by a spider?

No, well, how the power is actually physically work. So she did get bitten by a spider. Well, how the power is actually physically work. So she did get bitten by a spider. How did she, man, that's a really good question. How did she become a... I just assumed this was a multiverse version where this person, this was the one who got bitten by the spider instead of Peter Parker. Now I have to look this up.

Okay, said, Jessica Drew lived in London and her family moved to a lab built by her father and she became gravely ill because of months of uranium exposure. To save her life her father injected her with the experimental serum based on a radiated spider's blood. Because the serum required a month's incubation, he placed her in a genetic accelerator. And then, I mean, that's, yeah, I mean, and then she's finally let out. I mean, there's a lot of nothing's in there, really.

Yeah, so anyway, it's firepower. Okay, but the way she has those powers is different. She is a very good at swaying people. She's very good at like bringing people around to her way of thinking. What? Well, that's why I'm asking you. Well, is that something spiders are good at? Because generally speaking, when I see a spider, I'm not swayed to its side. I'm running as far away from it as possible. Unless it writes some pig and you're like, oh my god. Oh my gosh. Is this like, is that where they got this idea?

Was Charlotte's web the genesis of the idea that a spider could sway you? I could say this with 100% certainty no. This is a very different method of swaying that Jessica Drew is able to conduct. Is it like pheromones? Is it like some sort of chemical that she's releasing? Yes, she has glands beneath her skin that can produce potent pheromones that can alter the emotional state of those

in her vicinity. Can I just say, like men are so predictable. What do you mean? I just, this is, she has special, like, sense that she releases and men are intoxicated. I can't help myself. Fair. No, it's fair. No, no, no, everybody calm down.

Stop yelling. It's, it's fair. Okay. She has, this is my fear. This is the reason I want to talk about this. And I don't even know if this is fair, but I did want to bitch it because it is a biological function. She produces her wall crawling ability in a unique and honestly, even for comic books, in a unique and honestly, even for comic books, pretty unhinged fashion. And last time we did talk about Spider-Man and his ability to use his little, what was the word to use like little? Like, hair like projections. Like, yeah, we thought we thought it was either that sort of thing, like almost like, sillia or something, or we thought like it was like a gecko using like hydrostatic or whatever, you know,

like that sort of thing, those were the kinds of things we, yeah, toyed with. But she's got, Deskid Drew has one that's different from those. Uh, does she create something sticky? Oh my God, yes. She does? Yes.

That was just a rant, like, what else could you do to stick the thing? She produces a biological secretion from specialized glands in her hands and feet, presumably they're vying for space with the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the vying for space with the, the, the pharamong glands. Pharma glands. Evacurate. This would represent a dramatic departure from Spiderman's theorize, set, setay, base,

seat tape. I don't know. His adhesion, this accretion ex, exuded from her glands would need to quickly permeate the pores of the targeted surface, whether it be a con and they've listed some surfaces here, a concrete slab, a sack of bricks or a wall of wooden plates. You can imagine surfaces, you've seen surfaces, you know, surfaces. It would need an immediately dry forming a solid grip between her digits of material in less than a second.

That's wild. That's a wild way to get. But then immediately undri, I guess, so that she can lift her hand up and move again. Not dry so much that she, yeah. It is honestly just wild. It is wild. That's the way it works, Jessica Dre.

I don't, okay. I'm very sorry about that. Who made this character? Um, who made this character? I need to know about. Probably, oh, it's Archie Goodwin. Who is a friend of my dad actually? Archie Goodwin, okay, well, yeah,

Archie Goodwin who passed quite some time ago in 1998, actually. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. I just, I won't criticize too much. I just, again, I said like, you know, of course the female spider woman secrets, fair mones that that sway men to do her bidding. And then of course also she's now there's a sticky substance that comes out of her. Now here's what I will say. Come on.

She was co-created by it because I don't want to get lost. The shovel she was co-created by Marie Severin, who was in comics for a very, very long time, worked with EC Comics and Marvel in the Willow Island, her comics hall of fame. So she was co-create. She was an artist, though. So I don't know if she would have come up with the weird, weird hormonal secretions. This sticky, sexy, heavily-centred spider woman. Yeah. See, she looks just like this just about how you expected them to see me.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, they all wear tight outfits. I'm not going to sit here and get all, you know. I always thought hers was cool. It's kind of got like an hourglass melon. I think her costumes need. Yeah. Okay. We're gonna talk about the lizard before we wrap up here.

All right. You know the lizard, right? No. I mean, is the Spider-Man villain? He is Dr. Kirk Connors. Oh, okay. He had his- He looks like an alligator though. Kirk Conner's. Oh, okay. He had his... He looks like an alligator though.

His bit was he had lost his right arm and was doing... Trying to regenerate it, using like lizard technology because their tails grow back. Yeah. Now... I remember this, I remember this. When he becomes the lizard, the changes are not only physical. He has, it turns, it changes his cognition to that of a, it says here beast, although it seems like he's trying, he's doing better with that lately,

kind of as what they're saying here. Why does his brain become more like, why does he become more like savage when he's in his lizard form? His brain, stem, hind brain, whatever, that region of the brain, the earliest region becomes larger, and his frontal area becomes smaller, like the area responsible for executive function shrinks.

It's actually more of a bypass. His brain chemistry experiences radical rewiring as the cerebellum is bypassed in favor of the basal ganglia, the primitive reptilian complex of the human brain. Gotcha. And also changes the shape of his brain, which I thought you would enjoy. It goes from a pleasing sort of, uh, which is a ovular shape, would you say that to more of a squished? Like elongated? Swished down and elongated. Helmet kind of thing. You know what's interesting though?

It's like, is that just practical so that it fits in his head? Cause like his head gets that shape. It gets that shape. So maybe his brain changes that shape. Um, do you know how the, um, the, the, this process? Do you know what it, this process, do you know what it triggered to make it work with the logic of this is? No. The hybridization process that Connors underwent seemingly activated vestigial DNA already present in the human genome, an artifact of our species evolution from reptilian ancestors millions of years ago. Is that how it worked? Well, I think what they're trying to say is that

there are pieces of DNA that are now being used to create proteins. Like, we're using different data than the data that we typically use to construct humans, right? Like, we read the instructions of DNA, it makes different proteins, and then these proteins build the human first in embryology and then ongoing throughout our lifespan. I'm guessing that like we're reading the code differently is what they're trying to say, because it wouldn't be like secret DNA that was also extra in there. It's just like part of the code that's being read differently or that typically isn't processed, isn't transcripted, that kind of thing. There is also an interesting side effect of that neural remapping that I mentioned earlier

that has manifested recently. And I love the way that books like this have to be written because they are trying to make, I mean, in some cases, decades of backstory jive with, like, so they mention here, so everything happens like recently, or it used to be that has happened. And then recently, he's, so recently, Conners has recently developed the ability to telepathically communicate with reptiles, which is a skill that could be a side effect of his neural read mapping. So his brain is rewired in it somehow made it, so he can talk to him.

No, I'm not. OK, I am not a... Even they must know that that's a bit of a stretch. I'm not a herpetologist. But do reptiles communicate with each other? Psychically. Telepathically? I mean, I know that animals have lots of ways of communicating that aren't like talking

because animals don't talk. So like, I understand that there's lots of communication methods that I, as a, I'm just a human doctor, I don't understand about animals. But is telepathically one of them? Because I didn't, I would guess not. But I'd, I'm not gonna sit here and say, I know anything, I used to have an iguana. This is the closest I get to any expertise on this.

A brief survey of available websites on that topic of reptiles communicating telepathically results in a broad spectrum of sites with similar range and credibility. Quora is pretty high on there, which is never a good site. Yeah, so then I'm guessing they don't communicate telepathically, but maybe they have some sort of, I don't know. I was reading or I was watching a TikTok recently about how they used to think that deer were led in directions by a single recently about how they used to think that deer were led in directions by a single leader.

And what they realize after observing deer for a very long time is that if you watch a group of deer out in the forest, that they will look in directions as they're pausing. And when a certain threshold of them are all looking up in the same direction periodically, then as a group, they will decide to go in that direction. So it's not a single leader. They use the direction that 60, 70% of them are all looking to decide where the next place that go is.

So it's actually a group decision, but you don't only know that if you watched which way they all look. I feel like the American electoral system. Wow. Political. What? Political insight from me. Huh, really makes you think that it's it.

Thank you so much for, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you've enjoyed yourself. Thanks to the taxpayers for using their song medicines as the intro and the outro of our program. And thanks so much to you for listening. We very much appreciate it. It's it.

Anything I am forgetting anything you'd like to say. I just want to thank you for doing the research as it were for this episode so that I could take a break. And next week we'll get back to business as usual. That's going to do it for us. Until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. It's always, don't drill a hole in your head. Music

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