What do you call a nosy pepper?

I... I don't know. Jalapeño business!

(Theme Song)

Hello and welcome to the first episode of the Lab,

A new series here on Asap Science, where we take your questions and turn them into experiments,

so we can experience science firsthand.

My name is Mitch -And I'm Greg and we are ASAP Science.

And don't worry, the animated videos are still gonna be coming out every week, but on Sundays leading up to the new year,

is our first series of the lab.

so tune in on Sundays

And Mitch, what exactly are we doing today

So today, we are actually looking at the science of pain

and we're gonna start out by having a lot of spicy peppers to understand

why spice feels like pain

And then, we're gonna be putting our hands in some really cold water and see if swearing can actually can help with pain

And finally, we are gonna be getting electrocuted to talk about the anticipation of pain and how awful that is.

Do you think you are gonna be good at this?

No? I'm like so weak. Okay, I'm the weak one of this group.

I have red hair genes, so you know, I can like handle anything.

They are all gonna be challenges, by the way. So, should we just... should we just start?

Yeah, let's do this

Alright, first up, we have our spicy pepper challenge

We've ordered these peppers from the least spicy to most spicy

And then, we have a list of facts. So, every time we bite a pepper, we have to spew off a spicy pepper fact

And, this is the hottest pepper in the world: the California (Carolina) Reapers

So, we are really excited about this one

Hopefully, we are not gonna projectile our vomit on the camera

And the first person who grabs this milk for release... relief loses the challenge

So, are you ready?

I'm ready I'm ready

Ok heh heh

Spicy peppers excite receptors that usually respond to heat, and these are known as nociceptors

These nociceptors respond to temperature, extremes.... Oh my God, it's actually really hot.

And mechanical stimulus, but they can also obviously respond to chemicals

I wanna just spit it out and drink my mlik

Big...

When you eat a hot pepper like this one, your central nervous system gets very confused.

*Laughing*

Bring it!

AAAAH

Okay!

Capsaicin is the active ingredient in hot peppers

Which stimulates the nerve to respond to mild temperature increases,

It sends two signals to the brain, that it's warm and that it's an intense stimulus

which causes this burning sensation.

-This is awful

*Laughing*

Should we just have the milk?

-I'm so white, like I'm just so in pain.

I don't... I don't think I can do this any longer.

It's getting worse, like it's going.. -Look I'm drooling

My glasses are fogging up!

Okay, I quit.. I quit, I'm...

Oh my god that feels so good, just drink your milk. - NO

So this is a Ghost Pepper

Be careful man *ping*

The signal creates the same physical reaction to heat, that includes vasodilation, sweating and flushing...

I feel tingling in my fingers

Uhm.. and that's it! You sweat and you flush, and you vaso.. My hand!

My hand feels weird. - I'm sweating, I'm sweating.

Okay, I'm gonna read my other fact, because I already lost.

My right hand is tingling.. I TOUCHED MY EYE!

-Oh my god, are you okay? Don't touch it more!

Okay I'm done. - Go wash your hands.

Wait, I think I need to put milk in my eye.

No, okay, go wash your hands.

(Greg in the background) AAAAH

-Okay

It was interesting, one researcher actually gave rats spicy foods to see if they would actually like it,

and it turns out humans are one of the only animals in the world that will choose to eat spicy things

I'm literally drooling

Choose to eat spicy things over stuff that actually isn't spicy, so...

How do you feel, explain to us how you feel.

-Like a fool for saying, that I was like, I am so good at pain.

Okay Mitch, so why is milk helpful for us.

Well, so water is not helpful because Capsaicin is actually hydrophobic,

so the water doesn't really do anything except swash it around all around your mouth,

whereas the milk actually absorbs it, brings it down to your stomach and actually is a chemical reaction

that makes it feel a whole lot better.

So avoid water, stick to milk.

-And also, the relief that you feel when drinking this milk, excites the pleasure sensors of your brain,

which is why this feels so good right now.

And why people go back to spice, even though they know it's awful.

Also, I'm gonna give up on coffee. Ghost pepper every morning? *snaps fingers*

Haha yeah. -I'll be awake for 24 hours.

So pain actually is something that is used to protect your tissue from damage,

so for example, if you touch a hot burner, your tissue is getting damaged immediately

and you feel the pain immediately. But some things actually take more time to feel the pain.

So to elicit some slow pain, we have these buckets filled with ice

we're just gonna put our hands in them to see how long we can last

but the one caveat being that Greg is allowed to swear and I'm not.

-Yeah you better f***ing believe it!

Okay! Are you ready for more pain? -I think so... okay time to roll up and put in?

Okay, we have to do the exact same time to be as scientifically accurate as possible!

Okay, ready? 3...2...1...

(Greg) AAH

Oooh, okay so... - Oh my god I don't...

A study actually found that when people were allowed to f***ing swear,

they were able to keep their hands in ice water for on average 40 seconds longer

it's because it actually releases, in your brain, the fight-or-flight response, it releases adrenaline

and you feel a lot better.

Holy f***ing pigeon..

One interesting thing is how when you swear too much you can actually overuse that... -No you f***ing can't!

Anyway, I'm actually in so much pain. -Well, I'm f***ing feeling great.

Fingering, fingering a BUTT! Fingering a butt. -Ooooh my god.

Oh, it actually like hurts... are you seriously holding it still?

I am. -That's crazy.

But maybe my hand is gonna pull out, and like my limb is gonna come out and my hand is gonna still be in here.

And I'm like F*****K

One weird thing was that my body actually like heated up, my face and body felt so hot when that was happening,

and I think that was just like a fear response, I was like

I'm gonna lose my hand...

*Laughing* Okay, how do you feel?

Ooooh it is like when you come in from the cold

It is kinda nice when that happens.

Well, Greg won challenge number two as well, I clearly am a wimp.

-So one thing that we've learned from this is that swearing is great.

Okay, so it is time for a 'shocking experience'

they say that the actual antish..atishaputh.

Anticipation of pain can actually be worse than the pain itself.

How does it work, Mitch...

I don't know, so we've been given this ball and apparently we stick this key in

and it starts zapping at random intervals.

So also it says on here that this product emits electric shocks, keep out of reach of children under 14

it may interfere with the electrical devices such as a pacemaker

and do not use this if you have a heart condition or any other related illnesses.

and then it says, in all caps: THIS IS NOT A TOY.

We have to hold the ball while we're reading a fact and as soon as we're done we can pass it off

and the other person has to finish the next fact.

We're playing to three, right? -Yeah

So the first person who gets three, loses. -Three shocks, yeah.

I have really bad anticipatory like fear, so... -But you have to go first, cause I want to see you...

No! -Go

Okay...

Is it like... Oh my god! Okay. -Go go go go!

Ah! Euh.. Studies have found that both meditation and exercise can reduce or modulate feelings of pain.

AAAH

(Greg screams) THE PLACEBO EFFECT CAN AAAAH AAH NOO! It's going off!

It shocked you, stop, no stop stop.

AAAAAH -I think you won that, did you also get electrocuted?

YEAH! It electrocuted like six times.

I'm actually shaking! What the hell.

Okay, the placebo effect can work for pain if it's high end. In a 2008 study,

patients received painful electric shocks, afterward, ten cents placebo pill was given to the test after,

which alleviated pain 64% of the participants. A $2,50 placebo pill reduced pain for 85% of participants.

Chronic pain can shrink the size of your brain in a study of individuals who, with chronic pain,

could show up to 11% less- AAAH

*Laughing*

You almost broke my laptop! You threw it at the screen of my laptop.

I did not have a choice.

I think I should start this time. -Yeah, that's fair.

Okay, you ready? -Yeah

I'm gonna get shocked again...

Platypus are one of the few mammals to produce venom.

Though the venom isn't powerful enough to kill a human, the pain is excruciating and can last for a month.

Naked mole rats don't feel the pain of acid or the sting of chili peppers.

NO! Oh you cheated.

The scientific term for brain freeze is... euh.. AAAH

*Laughing*

Naked mole rats don't feel spice

Fascinating! Short and fascinating.

Okay, let's talk about anticipation

That was... It's not as bad as I thought it was at first, but it is shocking.

No, and the worst part is when you get it handed to you're like, oh I'm gonna...

-It's, it's gonna come, it's gonna come.

But then as soon as you do get shocked you're right in.

Well, you get scared and then... -For you, you just throw it away

Well, my hand... You didn't even get it so you don't even know.

I DID! I got your... second-hand electrocution.

Okay. Well okay, so,

Winner of this entire game, has been Greg.

So! We made it through all the pain and suffering, but it was all for the sake of science.

And now, it's time for

*together* this week in science talk!

*Music*

This week, scientists have started to discover how we actually spend our time

Using information from over one million participants, scientists found that we don't actually work more than we did in the past,

we just tend to multitask a lot more, making our lives seem more hectic.

You might not care much about your poop, but your brain does.

Neuroscientists have found that microbes in your gut can affect your brain development,

and also your mental health.

Known as the "poop studies', scientists are looking at how microbes affect a baby's brain development.

So next time you're changing a diaper, take a good look at that turd.

Speaking of poo, did you know that naked mole rats actually eat each other's poo?

But, for good reason!

Researcher's shown that when underlings eat hormone rich poo of a queen,

the added estrogen in their system actually prompts them to help take care of her offspring.

Let us know if you know of any other news from this weekend's science, use the #TWIST

and we're going to put all the information of the studies we've just talked about below.

Our Twitter and Instagram handles are right here, which you can follow

and thank you so much for watching the whole first episode of The LAB, we had a lot of fun making it.

If you have other questions or experiments you wanna see us try on this new series, let us know in the comments below.

And make sure you subscribe to ASAP Science, we've a new whiteboard video coming out this week

and we'll see you next Sunday for the next episode of The LAB.

See you then!