The Reality Check Episode 25

Bear Armour+Evolution Book Reviews+Dream Myth

Troy James Hurtubise
True Iron Man

Part 1:

"Only one man who can see through solid matter, withstand temperatures exceeding 3600 degrees, and stop an army of bullets. Troy, the new super hero." This man is called Troy James Hurtubise, the true iron man, who was a very peculiar person. He built full-body armor as you can see in the picture of him, and you can watch his videos of him testing the suit with him getting rammed by large objects. 

Well, what was the armor for? It was to get close to bears without getting hurt. His obsession with bears started when he was 20 after he survived a skirmish with a grizzly he calls "Old man". His project is called Project Troy. 

Troy just did it because he wanted to research bears. Then people started to notice and made a documentary called Project Grizzly, which was about his life long work. 

The movie wasn't too popular because most people watch movies for action or meaning. But, all Troy wanted to do is to just get close to the bear and withstand the bear without getting hurt. But he was recognized by the world after the movie, and MIT awarded him the Ig Nobel Prize. 

There are many other functions on the full-body armor besides just the armor. 

Charles Darwin
Father of Evolution

Part 2: 

On Feb. 12th in 2009, Darwin turns 200! (So does Abraham Lincoln) And it was the 150th anniversary of his published evolution theory! 

The first book published about evolution was in 1859. Darwin had almost every living creature known to man in the book and tied it all together with evolution (except humans, he left that out on purpose). 

I am definitely going to read this book, I actually already have it at home, but I haven't read it yet. Here is the list on the books that we should read if we want to find information on evolution:

On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 

Darwin’s Origin of Species: A Biography by Janet Brown 

Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory by Edward J. Larson 

Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould

The Moral Animal by Robert Wright

The Blank Slate: The modern denial of human nature by Steven Pinker 

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins 

Genome by Matt Ridley 

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel C. Dennett

A Darwinian Left by Peter Singer 

Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species by Sarah Hrdy 

Jon's bonus recommendation: Evolution: Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer

Science Myth of the Week: Can we read while we are dreaming?

There's a batman episode long time ago that kinds of gets into this topic. Batman was trapped in a dream and there, he read about some information valuable to him. That is impossible, because when you read, you use the right side of your brain, and when you dream, you use your left side. It just happens that it's not possible.