Science Can't Explain This Woman's Superpower

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Transcript

00:00A nurse from Scotland has a real-life scientific superpower.

00:05Joy Milne can smell the presence of Parkinson's disease in other people.

00:10Around 12 years before her husband, Les, found out he had that condition,

00:15she noticed an unusual musky smell coming from him.

00:18Then he started having trouble with routine things like mowing the lawn or playing darts.

00:24Joy even considered him as he became detached and ill-tempered.

00:27But when Les started talking about some shadow off to his side, Joy knew they had to see a neurologist.

00:35When his diagnosis was confirmed, she started attending events with other people who have Parkinson's.

00:41And yes, she could sense the same smell in all of them.

00:46Scientists got interested in Joy's unusual skill in 2012 and decided to test her.

00:50A team at the University of Edinburgh gave her 12 t-shirts,

00:556 from healthy people and 6 from people who had Parkinson's.

01:00Joy's job was to sniff the shirts and figure out which ones belonged to the people with health issues.

01:05And she got them all right.

01:08But then Joy said that one of the shirts from a healthy person smelled like Parkinson's too.

01:12The scientists thought she made a mistake, but 8 months later, that same person was diagnosed with Parkinson's.

01:20That meant Joy could smell it before doctors could even find it.

01:24She was born with something called hereditary hyperosmia,

01:28which means she's able to notice tiny scent changes that no one else can detect.

01:33Mrs. Milne believes she inherited it from her grandmother.

01:37When Joy was little, her grandma wanted her to develop this ability and learn to distinguish the smell of different parts of a rose.

01:45She could tell the scent of the petals from the scent of the leaves from the scent of the pistols and stamens.

01:51At the same time, grandma told Joy to keep this superpower to herself,

01:55so even her husband didn't know anything about it.

01:59He first noticed her nose was ultra-sensitive when they went on a trip to the Scandinavian far north,

02:04and she told him the tundra had a cream odor.

02:09Mrs. Milne said this talent makes her everyday life hard

02:12because any cleaning chemical or perfume is too overwhelming for her.

02:17And even though she can smell Parkinson's in public,

02:20medical ethicists strongly recommend her not to tell strangers they got it.

02:25When scientists got interested in Joy's talent,

02:27they first thought the odor was concentrated not in the armpits,

02:31but it turned out to be the neckline.

02:33They figured out Joy can detect this condition thanks to sebum,

02:38an oily substance produced by our skin.

02:41People with Parkinson's often produce too much of this oil,

02:45a condition called seborrhea.

02:47Scientists discovered that the smell Joy picks up comes from tiny changes in the sebum's makeup,

02:53especially in certain chemicals.

02:55One reason the sebum smells different in people with Parkinson's could be tiny microbes on the skin,

03:01which change the way the oil is made.

03:04Another reason might be that too much oil keeps certain smelly substances trapped on the skin for longer.

03:10Scientists tested the sebum of people with Parkinson's,

03:13both those taking medicine and those who weren't.

03:16They found that their sebum had a special pattern that made them different from people without this condition.

03:23This means that the smell Joy detects could help scientists create a brand new test to diagnose Parkinson's just by checking the skin's oil.

03:32Otherwise, it's pretty tricky to diagnose because it has so many different symptoms,

03:38some that affect motor function and others that don't.

03:41It can sometimes look like other health issues or just signs of aging,

03:45so even the best neurologist can get it wrong up to 30% of the time.

03:50Using Joy's talent could help catch Parkinson's super early

03:54because the changes in sebum happen years before a person knows they have this condition.

03:58If doctors could test for it early, they could help patients much sooner and save many lives.

04:06Plus, the new skin swab test would be way faster, cheaper,

04:10and wouldn't involve any unpleasant procedures, unlike some of the current tests.

04:15The new diagnosing method could also help to see if the meds are working

04:19because the odor is lower when symptoms are under control.

04:23In the future, scientists are hoping to develop new tests

04:26based on the same principle for other series' health issues.

04:31This way, Joy's super-smelling ability could change medicine forever.

04:37Daniel Kish is another human with a real superpower.

04:41Blind from an early age, he's trained himself to see with his ears.

04:45He makes clicking noises with his mouth,

04:48and when those sounds bounce off objects and come back to him,

04:51he listens carefully.

04:52The echoes tell him where things are, just like how bats find their way in the dark.

04:58Daniel worked with scientists from six different universities to study this amazing skill.

05:04He says we know tons about how eyes work,

05:07but what we understand about human echolocation is still very little.

05:12Scientists recorded thousands of clicks from Daniel and two other echolocators.

05:16They discovered that these clicks create a cone of perception

05:20that spreads out in front of the person at about 60 degrees,

05:24like a flashlight made of sound.

05:26The strongest details come from what's directly in front of them.

05:30When someone uses echolocation,

05:32their brain activates the same areas that process vision.

05:36It's not like regular eyesight, but it creates a picture in the mind.

05:39The world appears in a fuzzy 3D way,

05:43where people can tell shape, size, texture, and even how solid something is.

05:49Now that scientists know more about how echolocation works,

05:53they can help blind people learn to use their clicks in the best way possible.

05:57Sometimes, after brain impairment,

05:59people get new talents called acquired savants.

06:02It's very rare, but when it does happen,

06:05the person might suddenly become amazing at math

06:07or be able to draw entire cities from memory,

06:11down to the tiniest details.

06:13One famous case is Orlando Sorrell.

06:16In 1979, he was playing baseball at school.

06:20Suddenly, a baseball hit him hard on the side of his head.

06:23But instead of stopping, he just kept playing.

06:26For a whole year after that,

06:28he got really bad headaches that lasted for hours.

06:31Then, he realized he could instantly figure out tricky calendar questions,

06:36like how many Mondays were in the year 1980.

06:39He could also remember every single thing that had happened to him every day.

06:44You might wish you had the amazing talents of savants,

06:46but their brains work very differently from other people.

06:50They focus on tiny details that most people ignore,

06:53which is why they're so good at certain things like math or drawing.

06:57But this makes it really hard for them to take tests at school.

07:00That's because tests usually ask big, general questions,

07:05and savants think in a much more focused and detailed way.

07:09Some people can see music, taste sounds, or feel colors on their skin.

07:14Their senses are crossed,

07:16as they have a rare condition called synesthesia.

07:20One of its common types is seeing certain colors as days of the week,

07:24or hearing a whoosh sound when watching something go past them.

07:27Elizabeth Salser has a super rare kind of synesthesia,

07:32where her sight, hearing, and taste are all connected.

07:36When she hears music, she doesn't just listen to it,

07:39but sees colorful sound waves floating around her,

07:42and she can taste the music too.

07:45For years, she thought everyone could do this.

07:48She only realized she had rare synesthetic perceptions at the age of 16.

07:53Since then, she's taken part in many studies.

07:55It turned out, she's the only person in the world so far

07:59with an interval-taste combination.

08:02Elizabeth became a professional musician,

08:04and uses her gift to play symphonies in a way no one else can.

08:09Research shows that people with synesthesia

08:11often have better memory and score higher on intelligence tests.

08:16They also often choose creative or art-based careers.

08:19Many music artists have sound color synesthesia,

08:22and Billy Joel is one of them.

08:25That's it for today.

08:27So hey, if you pacified your curiosity,

08:29then give the video a like and share it with your friends.

08:32Or if you want more, just click on these videos

08:34and stay on the bright side!

08:35Thank you very much!

08:41Here I look here!

08:42Just kidding!

08:43Let's turn it out!

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