Things We Believed Before the Scientific Method | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and this is stuff you should know. the Let's Get Jiggy With Science. Edition you know you're about to get. jiggy Chuck uh with it yeah with it and. it is this episode about what people.

believed before the Scientific Method. yeah you know we have a pretty good. episode on the scientific method and we. have talked about some of this stuff. here and there throughout the years uh. like you know early science and it's. easy to make fun of that stuff right but. we are here not to make fun of it uh and. not necessarily to defend it but to just. put it into perspective of where these. po people were at the time and you can. see how lot lot of this stuff made sense.

at the time see that was as Jiggy as it. comes all right see you later um yeah. that was really well put and just as a. refresher real quick so you don't have. to pause and go back and listen to our. scientific method episode you can if you. want but if you don't feel like doing. that the scientific method is just. basically a plan to keep yourself from. going down blind alleys or being misled. by what seems to be the case but isn't. necessarily the case sometimes your own. eyes lie to you and it basically says is.

like based on you know data you've. you've collected or things you've. observed form a hypothesis like this. happens because of this figure out how. to test it test it look at the results. did it support the hypothesis did it not. support the hypothesis and either keep. going forward or go back to square one. and by testing it that's where the. scientific method really shines and. before the Scientific Method people. didn't do that they used their eyes the.

empiricists they formed um uh uh. theories the rationalists or dogmatists. they um performed experiments the. methodists that's really what they. called them but they didn't actually. like test this stuff um and so they were. able to create these theories that were. totally wrong sometimes were really. right but in a lot of cases were really. wrong and that those things were adopted. for like thousands of years in some. cases yeah because a lot of science was.

mixed up with Philosophy for a long long. time and as you'll see with some of. these like if you if you had a good. enough uh sort of philosophical thought. about something and other people said. hey that makes sense and you kept. repeating it a lot then at the time. people were like well that's good enough. for us yeah which meant also if. philosophy was in there you had to also. it had to explain why more than be um. reliably consistent in its results yeah. exactly.

so um one of the first ones that I think. people think of when they think of. ancient science is the four humors. humors of medicine which was something. that came along from. hypocrates all the way back in I think. the fourth or fifth century bcee and was. in place until the 1600s essentially. that was how people practice medicine. yeah I mean that's a long run uh. hypocrates probably did not make it up.

himself it's uh theorized that he. probably brought it over or he didn't. necessarily but it was brought uh over. to the Greeks maybe from India maybe. from Egypt but hypocrates ran with it. and then galin really ran with it and. Galen is who is uh probably most people. think of Galen when they think of the. humors the four humors right but humor. hu m o r is Latin meaning fluid and. that's basically what they're talking. about with the four hum uh humor I.

almost said humid the four humors which. are the fluids of the body and I we. should just name them uh quickly I think. FL flim yeah you got blood MH and then. you got the two bils you got black bile. and uh yellow bile right and um those. things are not just the sum total of. what was studied or what was responsible. for ill health or for health um they. they almost stood in for a bunch of.

other things too like your energy could. be low or angry or or overly happy and. all those were associated with different. humors right so um I think it was. Palomar University um website on it. basically put it like um more than just. fluids themselves you could think of the. humors as those things that flow fluids. energy that kind of stuff yeah and all. these humors also had um complexions. they had um they were either wet or dry.

cold or hot and there were combinations. of those but not NE not literally that. no it's a little confusing it's super. duper confusing and I think this is an. example of what happens when people over. a couple thousand years kind of. contribute to stuff it gets a little. off-kilter yeah like blood is hot and. wet but that didn't necessarily mean. they're saying that when you touch blood. it was hot to the touch right it's. almost like uh what.

aesthesia approach right to the body. yeah well put so like water is cold. boiling water is cold ice is. hot I I don't understand some of it. exactly right so the the upshot of it. was is that the each humor was um Hot. and Hot or um has a it had a temperature. and humidity yeah hot or cold wet or dry. and depending on what symptoms you had.

you either had like a a hot and wet um. disease right or a cold and dry disease. and that sounds better the treatment was. to um use the opposite so I think. pneumonia was cold and wet because it. came on during the winter MH which is. very cold and wet around the. Mediterranean at the time and you would. treat that with something um warm and. dry so herbs were warm and dry you would. treat use herbs to treat pneumonia and. the whole Pursuit was just to to to. regain balance each person had a a pre.

um I guess ordained balance of those. four humors and when they got out of. whack that's when you were you came down. with the disease yeah so you you've. heard about uh you know forcing yourself. to vomit um or you know the bleeding the. old great Steve Martin sketch from. Saturday Night Live years ago you just. need a good. bleeding uh that's what they were doing. they were trying to get you back into. balance uh by removing.

whatever humor they thought you know. either the flim or the blood thought. would you needed you had an excess of at. the time to bring you back into uh. homeostasis so they were again they were. wrong but you know things like. homeostasis they were on the right track. with some of this some of these ideas at. least for sure yeah and that's I think. kind of a recurring theme in this when. you look in on Ancient science and. ancient knowledge it's like they kind of. had like the Contours of some of these. and that's a good example that I thought. Contours exactly so it wasn't until.

paracelsus who came up I think in our. xenobiotics episode mhm um when he came. along he he was a definitely an outlier. and an outsider thinker and he was like. I think gayen was just really wrong this. stuff just doesn't quite add up yeah um. and I think William Harvey who is an. English I think physician in 1616 he. showed that the heart pumps blood and. that just completely undermined the.

humoral medicine thought that these. these humors moved around the body. through attractive. forces yeah and and you know again this. is one of those kind of what I said in. the intro like this is one of those that. people believed and got on board with. because it made sense at the time it was. uh something that they uh were very. persistent about and if you're. persistent about something even if it. wasn't proven uh at the time that was. that was enough for people um it was the.

consistency of sort of the idea that's. repeated over and over that got people. on board for a long time hundreds of. years yeah and um I think it's. interesting like the humoral medicine is. still one of the foundations of. ayurvedic medicine from India and that's. why they think what it might have come. from India originally to Greece but what. the basis of it is that you use like. movement and diet to keep your humors in. balance and that was kind of the basis.

of the the Greek interpretation too but. then they took it too far and and. started using it to treat disease and. doing all sorts of weird stuff so now we. have modern medicine and modern medicine. likes to disown its predecessors but it. wouldn't be here if we didn't have. things like humoral medicine first up. with. gayen why. not uh you have sneakily not mentioned. that this is a top five oh that's right. it's a top five maybe part one of a top.

10 who knows yeah we'll see uh should we. try and knock out the next one yeah I. say that I say so I agree that's what I. say all right this one's interesting uh. and this has to do. with it sounds a little wacky but again. you have to to keep in mind where they. were at the time so uh this is the idea. uh put forth by how do you pronounce. that name I'm going with um.

uh ooys UD doxis udis yeah I think UD. doxis all right UD doxis of uh nidos uh. was born between 395 and 390 BCC uh. lived to kind of early to. mid-50s and he came along and said all. right I've got some pretty radical. things to throw out there uh that are. five-fold uh part one the Earth is the. center of the universe check and. everyone was like sounds reasonable uh. and it was reasonable at the time and.

we'll talk about that in a second uh. number two all Celestial motion is. circular number three all Celestial. motion is regular MH uh number four the. center of the path of any Celestial. motion is the same as the center of its. motion all right and then number five. the center of all Celestial motion is. the center of the. universe uh and I said you know he can't. be blamed for that first one even though. he was wrong about. geocentrism uh at the time when you.

stood on the planet and you looked up. and you saw you know Stars sort of uh. moving and other things moving in a. circle around the Earth you probably. felt like you were the center of the. universe exactly I mean it would just. make sense you'd be a fool to think. otherwise because there's no indication. that the Earth itself is also moving it. seems like everything else is moving. around the earth so it's not so. far-fetched to think that oh the Earth. is the center of the universe part of it. also tied into that natural philosophy. thing where humans were the center of. the universe they were like the creation.

of the Gods and um of course why would. Earth be anything but the center of the. universe but it also had to do with. practical stuff like what they saw with. their own eyes yeah like he wasn't the. first person to come up with this like. this had been around for a long long. time and he was just sort of officially. reaffirming it but he was the first. person to give us a model of of the. movement of the the cosmos celestial. bodies moving through the sky and trying. to explain it and somebody who came.

before him an. aamis I'm going with that he was the. first one to say hey I've got it this is. back in the 6th Century BC um it's. shells everything exists in shells. man yeah the idea that like uh I mean it. almost sounds like he was creating. little. miniature uh galaxies and like. everything we see is contained inside.

its own little miniature Galaxy like. literally contained in a shell yes but. all of these shells are rotating in. different orbits around. earth right but they can affect one. another right or did that come along. later that came along with UD doxis so. an ximenes basically said it's shells. and then UD doxis was the first one to. really lay out an an explanation a. theory for how these shells worked uh. and I think he came up with 27 different.

shells some shells had shells within. shells got really kind of crazy but the. point of this isn't like because UD. doxis was mad or anything like that he. had to keep adding shells to explain. things they saw in the night sky yeah so. it's almost like they dug themselves a. bit of a hole and instead of course. correcting and saying well maybe we. should look into a different Theory or. something they were just like kept. adding shells exactly ly so um one of.

the big problems was that first of all. the Earth is not the center of the. universe but also that the motion of. celestial bodies is not circular and. it's not regular he was wrong on. everything he was basically wrong yeah. on on all five of those points but. um the the reason that they that he. thought it was circular was that circles. were perfect and again the Earth was the. center of the universe and it was. created by the God so of course it was. perfect but other people have pointed. out that it had to be circular if he was.

going to apply math because. noncircular math for movement hadn't. really been created yet that's basically. that's all he had to work with was. circular motion so if he was going to. actually investigate this and try to. figure it out with math he had it had to. be circular so just by by what he had. available at the time that's why this. motion was supposedly circular but that. was a huge boondoggle because it's not. circular as we found out finally from. Kepler who came along in I think the.

17th century so again this is like 2,000. years people are like shells is where. it's at even cernus who said he was the. first one to really say the sun is at. the center of the universe and what he. was talking about was a solar system and. he created a revolution with that he. still was saying but it's all within. shells it's just everyone was like that. makes a lot more sense and then he and. then he brings up the shells exactly so. cernus lays it out and then Kepler comes. along he like there's no shells and.

these these orbits aren't circular. they're elliptical and he ended up. laying the groundwork for Astro physics. to come yeah you know it's so easy now. that we have uh telescopes and and. Beyond like it's hard to even put your. mind in a framework of the only thing. you have is standing on the earth and. looking at something with your eyeballs. and trying to take a guess at what's. happening out there yeah and I I think. that's what gets lost too is when we. look back and like poke fun at our.

ancient predecessors for being so dumb. that like they were really trying to. figure this out with what they had. available at the time and even if it. does seem wacky it's like can you. explain how Adams come together to form. a rock I can't that's a good teaser you. know. yeah uh yeah I think it's easy to poke. fun of now but um the other alternative. is they didn't even try and as we see. time and time again a lot of the stuff.

that they came up with at least led to. the next thing and the next thing and. that's what science is so y like hat uh. my toga is off to them you took your. Toga off oh wait a minute my uh my uh my. my grape vine top of my head is off. there you go all right my to's back on. okay good because I was gonna say. they're like a helicopter won't be. invented for a thousand plus. years all right I think we should take a. break now and uh we will talk about the.

idea that the Earth is rotating around a. central fire right after. [Music]. [Applause]. [Laughter]. [Music]. this.

all right uh I promise talk of wackiness. uh before we left about the idea that. the Earth uh circled a central fire. Capital C capital F like the big fire. right and this was a thing uh. pythagoreans which are uh the people uh. the group that um you know followed in. the footsteps of Pythagoras himself in. the sixth century. they thought that the Earth circled a.

big Central fire and not only the Earth. but basically everything the all the. planets all the stars the Sun and the. Moon everything circled around a central. fire uh and that there was also a. counterar like another Earth uh and I. don't know how you pronounce that. antichthon I think it's anticon anticon. yeah it's it's a really odd word it is. it's not capitalized which is makes me. feel weird yeah it seems fishy but. that's the name of a counter Earth.

that's either in the same orbit or in. its own orbit but always opposite the. Sun from earth right right this wasn't. something where they were pointing up. and it was Mars and that's so they. called Mars This is a hypothetical. planet that they were saying was out. there we just can't see it and then also. with the central fire they're not saying. that was the sun the sun had its own. orbit around the central fire yeah and. the central fire was unseen because. grease always revolved in a way or the. Earth always revolved in a way that.

Greece was opposite the central fire so. it could never see it yeah so there was. this guy uh filus probably I think. that's exactly right of Croton which. sounds like a planet that would Circle a. fire take me to your leader I am croon. but uh Croton was actually in southern. Italy and he was a another Greek. philosopher scientist there were a lot. of those guys mhm and he was hanging. around with. Socrates uh he was a pretty prominent.

Pythagorean oh yeah and he was one of. these guys that put forth this uh you. know this idea even though like he they. moved away from geocentrism which is. great but instead of moving directly. into Helio cism they mov to the central. fire thing first Central fire sism yeah. so yeah he he basically said there's a. central fire everything orbits around. the central fire um and the all of the. orbits are circular they Lov circular. orbits um and that the Earth the Sun the.

moon and the five planets each had their. own orbit and there was that counter. Earth too Bizarro Earth and ticken um. that was opposite Earth at all times. that um made 10 10 orbits Al together. and there are a couple of reasons for. that one is that to the pythagoreans 10. was a perfect number so of course there. were 10 orbits but also it explained. having that counter Earth that 10th. orbit explained uh lunar eclipses.

because then that meant that that was. just antican Shadow being cast on the. moon yeah also to uh in defense of these. sort of wild ideas uh they did have the. idea that these orbits um they they. varied quite a bit in how long they took. uh the Earths took 24 hours the Suns. took a year the moons took a month and. you know they were on a right track at. that point as far as lunar orbits and. Earth's orbits and in the Sun and things.

like that cuz they all do take different. amounts of time and they were they were. pretty on track with the Earth taking 24. hours except they the way they describe. it was uh I think it was more that uh. not the Earth is spinning on its axess. as it orbits the Sun but more like uh. we're really circulating the central. fire a lot faster than the Sun and we. lap the Sun every 24 hours and that's. how we have day and night it's just so. wrong but you can understand it's so. fascinating that they had that data they.

had that information available and they. just went the exact wrong direction with. it yeah but again this is just what this. is what they had available to them at. the time I find that fascinating that. that's how they explained it um it's. pretty cool so in this um IFL science. article I found they basically said it's. actually possible hypothetically for a. counter Earth to exist yeah in in the. same orbit as Earth but always opposite. Earth like traveling at the same rate. we've discovered extra solar planets.

that have that same Arrangement so it's. it's possible but it's impossible that. there actually is a counter Earth. because uh We've run models on it our. astrophysicists have I should say you. and I haven't um and it would it would. affect other planets even just a small. counter Earth would affect other planets. um orbits very noticeably starting with. Venus and Venus's orbit is not being. affected by any mysterious object so.

there is no counter Earth that turns out. that's right so I'm sure Jim Morrison. was very disappointed to hear that the. central fire went away this all reminded. me of like a door song Central fire yeah. for sure you know everything revolving. around a central fire a counter Earth. yeah yeah it does kind of seem doors. also pink floydy yeah that's true cuz. the doors didn't get super Spacey as. like literal space no but he a central. fire sounds Jim Morrison counter Earth.

sounds Sounds pink floydy yeah you're. right okay I'm glad we finally settled. that uh all right what do we got next um. so another one that I think a lot of. people are familiar with is the four. elements like earth air Wind Fire Earth. Wind Fire and Air great band oh okay ex. screws it all up air another great B air. should open for earthwind and fire. exactly um and those that that whole. idea it dates back to like the humoral.

um sense of medicine as well um this was. something that was found in I think the. 6th Century BCE and that uh an examenes. the guy who also said it's shells also. was like it's air I love this guy yeah. he really was out there but he like he. lived in a van down by the river but he. was very well. regarded yeah so uh I mean. a lot of people were sort of thinking at.

the time that things were all made from. a single thing none of no one could get. together and agree on what that single. thing might be uh but like you said for. ex uh what was it an xamines yeah I. think so uh he was all about the air. yeah and Plato came along and then later. said actually we've got Earth fire water. and air and Aristotle said don't forget. about the ether and they're like all. right. yeah fine that's something that that.

comes up a lot when you start. researching ancient knowledge Aristotle. uh in particular was the guy everyone. looked at for a thumbs up or thumbs down. yeah on and knowledge at the time and. just him giving a thumbs up would would. mean that people would keep doing it for. 2,000 years until the Scientific. Revolution he was that well regarded in. his time and following his time as well. so uh he he definitely was like yes I'm. totally down with the whole earth air.

fire water and ether idea that. everything is made of that and that. everything is touching everything else. so like the space between you and me. filled with the air element but not only. that it's not only like if you look at. the Earth that's obviously Earth element. or if you look at fire that's Fire. Element everything is made up of a. combination of some degree of each of. these elements and there's actually. method to that Madness too it wasn't. just like because we're. we know what water is we know what air.

is we know what fire is and Earth that's. what we're going to say everything's. made up they actually made observations. that either LED them to this or that. really supported their ideas in the. first place yeah for sure like for. example this how stuff works article. gives a great example um wood was solid. which means that it had Earth in it it. floated which means that it had an air. element to it and then it burned a witch. right then it burned Wich didn't yeah so. part fire too so you could see how these. things kind of came together to form a.

log or a stone or a rabbit is another. recurring theme yeah uh all right so. that's where we are then this guy uh. empid does comes along he's from Sicily. fifth century BC and he was one of the. first people to kind of put forth the. theory that uh you know maybe things are. built out of things that are so small. that we can't see them right there are. actual building blocks we can't touch. them we can't see them or feel them and.

uh if you look at a stone like look at. that big rock over there that's not we. call it Rock but it's not rock it's made. up of these small elements and people. went elements and he said yes elements. and this was a pretty like far out but. on the right track way of thinking for. fifth century BCE yeah I think he was. imp pedes was the guy who came along and. said no that these things are all made. up of different combinations and. interactions of these four elements and. he also suggested that the the.

Transformations or the creations of. these things took place through an. attractive Force known as love oh man I. love that part that that was the. combiner the Creator Force so if you. step back and think about epidoc he's. just introduced the idea that there are. elements there are elements it's just. not earth air fire wind and and water um. and he also introduced the idea of. attractive forces that bring elements. together and it's not love maybe it's. more like electromagnet magnetism or the.

the nuclear force something like that. yeah exactly boy talk about Jim Morrison. he would have been all over this episode. totally I think he would have been a big. stuff you should know fan do you think. so I could see him really just talk and. smack about us for no good reason on the. internet I mean how old would he be. today he died at it's a 27 clubber and. he died in what the 70s so uh mhm I. would say probably 48 let's say was born. in. 1948 so 75 he'd be that's perfect age to.

complain on the internet these days I. remember I remember seeing a uh a phony. Gap ad this is a long time ago where. they showed like an aged Jim Morrison in. like Gap jeans or something what and. they did a really good job with it and. it looked like totally like what you. could picture him looking like are you. sure you didn't just dream that I'm. pretty sure I I also saw a thing. recently where they use AI to create. like what would they look like now kind.

of things uhhuh uh for a lot of people. who died young and some of them were. pretty good and some of them like. Elvis's was just like you just basically. gussied up Vernon Presley his dad oh. really it was like obviously his dad you. lazy AI yeah some of them were okay some. of them were pretty dumb well like who. who was one that was okay that you saw. uh oh boy I'm trying to remember um I. don't know I have to go look that up I. always get to look up the stuff you talk. about on the episodes cuz the moment.

we're done I'm all of it just vanishes. yeah you stop existing that's great. that's a secret to our longevity I think. that's right we just both stop existing. in the other's minds until the next. time uh all right so where are we we are. uh I think we're at Democritus okay yeah. yeah Democritus then comes along yeah. and he's like all right I got this new. Theory uh because there were some. problems with what imp Dole was talking. about um first of all he has offered no.

evidence I don't know if anyone noticed. that at all uh and second of all you. take that rock over there and he said. it's made up you know of if you if you. break it up it's made up of smaller. things but if you keep breaking that. thing up you're never going to get down. to fire no matter how small you break. that thing up right so he came up with. this idea that you could break something. down to uh finally its most basic unit. an indivisible unit that he called uh.

atomos which is Latin or Greek for atoms. yeah this guy came up with the idea of. Adams which he not only said were the. indivisible base units of everything. everything he also said that they were. indestructible and eternal mhm uh and. then he also said that they exist in. free space around us what you would call. today a vacuum so this guy basically. predicted atomic theory couple thousand.

years ago right and it's known as the. best guess in Antiquity he got it so. close where he went astray is that he. said that when you broke down a Rock you. would get to the Rock atom and that was. it like what you saw a rock a rabbit. something like that you you would um if. you broke it down to its constituent. part like its base atom it was a a. rabbit atom or a rock atom or a log atom. or a Chuck atom things the thing it was.

it was like that specific kind of atom. rather than a combination of just a few. types of atoms that can make anything. yeah which you know you did pretty good. up into that point uh you did very good. I would dare say excellent up into that. point would you take your tog off for. him I'd flash it okay but you know with. permission of course sure I would hope. so you it's like do you mind if I lift. my to good and he'd be like I'm glad you.

added that CH uh so you know everyone of. course wanted to know what Aristotle and. Plato thought even uh you know at the. time or especially at the time and they. both basically rejected uh these ideas. uh Aristotle sort of accepted it but he. said well. also uh there are those four core. elements but they can be transformed. into one another mhm and everyone was. like oh God here he goes again let like. now we have to start thinking that. because Aristotle said it exactly he was.

he he threw his lot in with the four. elements in part because he totally. rejected. democritus's assertion that there was. such a thing as Adams moving in a void. in free space he said there's no such. thing as a void everything around us is. connected like the stuff that just looks. like space between you and me that's the. air element filling that up like there's. nothing that's not connected and because. he just would not accept the idea of a. vacuum um he gave the the thumbs up to. um empid idea with the elements thumbs.

down to Democritus so Democritus is. incredibly accurate prediction would. have to wait about 2,000 years before. people finally came around and were like. oh Democritus was super right yeah. exactly and that's in. 1643 Evangelista torelli very nice came. along Linda Evangelista torelli that's. right uh uh an Italian mathematician. this time uh studied under Galileo. uh came along and showed that air and I.

believe he was he the first person to. create a vacuum in an experiment like. this yeah so that's a pretty key part. here but in a vacuum showed that air had. weight like this thing that we can't see. or or well sometimes you can smell it I. guess but you can't see it or uh or feel. it or anything like that and but it was. still capable about of of pushing down. liquid mercury uh which is also how we. got the ometer by the way right and. everyone was like it it rocked.

everyone's World basically like we can't. feel it we can't see it but it has. weight so it's got to be made of. something and so what's it made of right. so how can an element be made of. something else I guess is the the point. of that and then even more to the point. torelli by creating the first. experimental vacuum proved that democ. democritus's assertion that there is a. vacuum his prediction part of his atomic. theory was right so that was what really. led to the investigation into atomic.

theory which is finally I think um put. forth in I think. 1803 Maybe by John. Dalton amazing it really is amazing that. he got that close like imagine just and. again he's guessing he had no way of te. testing any of this but it was a really. good guess yeah very very smart Forward. Thinking guy yeah I'll bet he was a heck. of a a um. discus thrower too all right well we're.

going to take our final break and we're. going to come back and talk about our. final topic number one spontaneous. [Music]. [Applause]. [Laughter]. [Music]. generation.

all right Chuck so there's a well-worn. Trope that if you throw some grain in. like a Cellar and leave it alone for a. little while it'll spontaneously. generate. mice right have you you've heard that. before haven't you sure that that old. bumper sticker apparently there's an. element that I'd never heard of before. you have to put the grains of wheat on a. soiled shirt and then it'll generate.

mice after a given amount of time and. that came from the mind of a guy named. Antoine V Le Leen hook Leen hook whoa. vanon Leen hook yeah who in the 1670s. basically pointed to a bunch of stuff. and said spontaneous generation. spontaneous generation spontaneous. generation and again he he so he wasn't. actually coming up with this idea of on. aneous generation he was giving it a. boost um in the 17th century it was.

actually a really ancient way of. explaining where life came from and at. the time of again Aristotle there were. three competing theories right there was. spontaneous generation there was. preformationism and then there was. epigenesis and depending on what you. thought about what you subscribe to at. least one if not two of those at the. same time can I name my favorite uh. spontaneous generation from Jean.

Baptista Van Helmont yes uh that if you. took a brick mold and lined it with. basil you would spawn. scorpions yeah isn't that weird it's. pretty good he also said um and I think. I said it was Antoine Von Leen hook who. said that no I'm sorry that was the guy. who um who started to perfect the. microscope he comes in later on I was. wrong but um van Van Helmont Van Helmont. he he was the one that came up with a. whole bunch of different ones like Mice. from grain Scorpions from brick molds um.

I think insects was a huge one uh that. if you laid out rotting meat yeah this. is a big one maggots would spontaneously. generate and again you it's it you it. sounds mad it sounds ridiculous and. Preposterous to us today but that was. before uh Antoine Von Leen hook the. Dutch scientist introduced or. popularized the microscope and could. show with his his much more improved. version of the microscope that there was.

a whole other world out there that's. invisible to the naked eye prior to that. they they had no idea and if they did it. they were just guessing and so it would. make sense that you're like okay if you. leave some rotting meat out these. totally these things just come out of. nowhere the maggots generate from from. spontaneously from rotting meat yeah but. you know that was disproved before the. microscope the maggots at least by uh. Francesco REI was a tusin physician and. said uh you know all you got to do is.

keep the flies off of it and you're not. gonna get maggots so let's just cover it. with some muslin and voila no maggot so. everyone was a little disappointed I. think the microscope comes along right. and um it it didn't like blow up. everything automatically as far as these. theories go it did not settle anything. out of the gate um because what. basically they were saying was you know. there are things that are so tiny we. can't see them with our naked eye but.

now we can see them with this microscope. but then all of a sudden people started. saying oh well those tiny things are. what's causing the spontaneous. generation then we just couldn't see. them before right but then the. microscope also said the people who were. in favor of spontaneous generation said. great those are the things that are. spontaneously generating then we just. don't see them until they become maggots. and so they performed um experiments. where they would seal a flask of water.

boil it to sterilize it and then wait a. few days and go back and look and there. would be microbes again where there. hadn't been before and they're like see. spontaneous generation and then some of. the critics of those experiments said. you guys just aren't boiling it long. enough it's not actually sterile right. and it wasn't until I think 1860 when. Lou pester came along and said this is. how you precisely sterilize things and. showed the world how to do it that he. really was he he managed to really kind. of put the the final nail in the coffin.

for spontaneous generation yeah and that. was kind of it uh from that moment we. knew or you know it we started to build. on the idea that life uh arises from. life that's the only way things do not. spontaneously generate as fun of an idea. as that is uh life comes from life and. that's the only place that comes from. yes so I said that in the ancient world. you may have subscribed to um two of. those and the reason why is because one. of them epigenesis an Aristotle product.

Aristotle brand um was pretty pretty. accurate it was Aristotle explaining. that the fluids from the mother and the. fluids from the father um exchanged. during sexual reproduction are what give. rise to biology what gives rise to life. and after that it just becomes an embryo. and starts growing and the main rival. the epigenesis was preform ISM which. said that if you could get a sample of. your dad's sperm and could zoom in on it.

an individual sperm cell you would see a. a mini version of yourself and that that. you that was just that was deposited in. your mom where you started to grow you. came out of your mom you kept growing. until you finally reached your adult. size but you were preformed even before. you were conceived and those were the. two Rivals but the cool thing about. epigenesis is that you could say. epigenesis and spontaneous generation. can coexist because some spontaneously.

generate like say crocodiles out of a an. exposed Riverbank once they once they. spontaneously generate then they'll just. start um reproducing biologically. through epigenesis. yeah pretty interesting that Aristotle. finally got one right that guy yeah that. guy I like the Aristotle brand I had a. really great time and I know you did so. I say we do a part two of this someday. all right we'll see okay uh well as.

everyone's waiting for that you can go. check out this house of Works article. about uh Things We Believe before the. Scientific Method and um I think since I. said that it's time for listener. [Music]. mail yeah I dug this one out I uh jeez. this one's been out there for a long. time so I'm just going to say long time. coming okay uh hey guys just listen to. how conversion therapy doesn't work oh. yeah uh Joe The Listener got on you I. guess this was another listener mail um. got on to you about saying and historic.

and then you started to doubt every HW. but the rule is super simple guys as. long as you know how things sound does. the word start with a vowel sound uh if. the answer is yes then an is correct it. starts with a consonant use a so uh. here's some examples The Undertaker. tapped people out with a Hell's. Gate I guess that's a wrestling thing. okay. uh the atomic leg drop is a Hulk Hogan.

move I like this guy uh it was an honor. to have seen uh Bray Wyatt's creativity. on screen and honor uh the pre-show for. this pay-per-view lasted an. hour so and historic it sounds snoody. almost to say and historic but it's true. because you say it takes about an hour. and doesn't sound snoody no but it. depends on how much you emphasize the H.

in historic because most people don't. say historic it's. historic right whereas honor it's like. the it starts with an O like the H is. silent almost right like you're from. England and enry iggins is speaking to. you. exactly uh these examples uh guys brings. me to the request from my email could. you do a show in pro. wrestling nice and that is from uh Aviva. thanks aiva that was a great email one. of the all-time greats agre and yes.

we'll do one on pro wrestling someday. we've done we've nibbled around the. edges but we'll finally do one on just. pro wrestling yeah we did the Mexican. wrestling right Lucha Libra yeah and we. also did a live one on Andre the. Giant so maybe not on pro wrestling. then uh well if you want to be like a. Viva and take your shot at requesting an. episode you can do that by sending us an. email to stuff podcast iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart.

Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. [Music]. shows.