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What If You Were Born on Mars? - YouTube
Channel: What If
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martians might really exist
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in the future
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but instead of the aliens of sci-fi
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movies martians would be humans born and
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raised on mars
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and in this episode you're one of them
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why would your skin be orange
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would you be a different species
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and would you ever be able to visit
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earth
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this is what if and here's what would
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happen if you were born on mars
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some of our previous episodes have
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already looked at what it would take to
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live on mars but that's only half the
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story
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to create a stable settlement on the red
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planet people would have to start having
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babies
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how many people would we need to create
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a healthy
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non-inbred population
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well some say we'd only need 98 people
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but others say we'd need a minimum of 10
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000
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but regardless of the size of the
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breeding population
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it would only take a few generations
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before we started seeing a huge
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difference between earthlings and
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martians
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mars is the most earth-like planet in
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the solar system but it's not exactly
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like the earth
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its gravity atmosphere and magnetic
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field would create serious challenges
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for human life
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and challenges often go hand in hand
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with evolution
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children on earth are born with up to
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120 genetic mutations
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move those babies to mars and they would
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start having mutations suitable for
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martian living
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and those mutations would likely pass on
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to their children
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by the time we settle on mars we'll
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probably have the ability to modify our
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own genes
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putting martian evolution on the fast
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track
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so if you were born in the third or
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fourth generation of martians
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you would be a lot different than you
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are today
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but what are the main reasons why your
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body would change
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well first there's gravity
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mars only has one third of earth's
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gravity so your bones wouldn't
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experience the same force
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your bones would lose their density and
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become more brittle breaking them would
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become a common issue
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then there's the atmosphere
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on earth you're used to a dense
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atmosphere that mostly contains nitrogen
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and oxygen but on mars you'd be
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experiencing a thin atmosphere that's
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mostly carbon dioxide with only trace
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amounts of oxygen
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you wouldn't be able to evolve a whole
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new respiratory system but you could
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develop other ways of dealing with the
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lack of oxygen like you could have
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denser capillaries that are more
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efficient at moving blood and
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transporting oxygen to your muscles
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but even with these advances you'd still
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have to live underground or in a thickly
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insulated house to survive the harsh
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atmosphere
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and since life on mars would be confined
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to small spaces martians wouldn't need
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to be able to see far into the distance
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yeah you would be born nearsighted
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and finally there's the radiation
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earth has a strong magnetic field that
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protects us from lethal solar radiation
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but mars has a weak magnetic field
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that's scattered along the planet
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on earth our bodies produce melanin it
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protects us from the radiation that does
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make it through earth's magnetic field
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but the radiation on mars would be much
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stronger and
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melanin
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just wouldn't cut it
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instead your skin would produce
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carotenoids
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this pigment would help protect you
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against skin cancer by slowing or
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stopping the cell cycle
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carotenoids can even make melanoma cells
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self-destruct
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they're also what gives carrots their
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vivid orange coloring yeah in other
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words your skin would be
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orange so with all these changes to your
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body would you be able to visit earth
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well
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mars wouldn't have the same type of
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bacteria and viruses that the earth does
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so your immune system would be weaker
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than that of an earthlings which means
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earth could be a dangerous place for you
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and even if your immune system were
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strong the gravity of earth would be too
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much for your brittle bones
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if you were born on mars you'd probably
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have to stay there
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humans have looked the same for a very
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long time but within a few generations
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of living on mars we could have orange
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near-sighted humans who could survive on
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less oxygen
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and once we successfully settle on mars
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we probably wouldn't stop there
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in the future humans could have
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settlements on all sorts of planets even
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outside the solar system
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you know
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what if all aliens whom we're so excited
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and terrified to meet are just future
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versions of humans
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well
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that's a story
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for another
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what if
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[Music]
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