 It's time for this week in science. You ready Blair? I'm so ready. You're ready. Are we ready out there everyone? Welcome to our weekly live broadcast of the Twists podcast. It's just ladies night tonight for science. Blair and I are here with our towels. We're yes, ready for anything. And this We are prepared that is right and we're ready to have a great show and we hope that you are to know that Everything here is live as we're taping it the podcast will be edited Maybe maybe we'll do a tight 90 You never know So let us begin our show in a just a little moment here. Oops as I remember You know sometimes you have to scooch things over and squeeze things over and you haven't done it yet And then it's time and oh here we go time to squooch and squeech. Okay. Now. Let's start our show in Oh wait Blair. Hmm. Do you want to read the disclaimer? I wrote sure. Okay, great cold read. Here we go Never looked at it before we're doing it Awesome Now we're gonna go in three two this is Twists this week in science episode number eight hundred seventy seven recorded on Wednesday, May 25th 2022 don't forget your towel or science Hey everyone, I'm dr. Kiki and tonight on twist We will fill your heads with termite trees bird buds and pee pals but first Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer if you've been hitchhiking through the galaxy, you'll know that preparation is key Expect the unexpected and you'll never be caught off-guard Know there are unknowns and you'll always be knowledgeable or you'll at least feel better about facing the probable Crap shoot that is your future. Look back for inspirate Inspiration, but don't get dragged downhill Look forward with optimism and be ready for change look outward look inward look upward look downward look skyward The last one will keep things from landing on your head and just might help you catch your next ride But only if you don't forget your towel and the latest episode of this week in science Coming up next And A good science to you too Blair and everyone out there welcome to another episode of this week in science We are back again minus a Justin as he is soon to be in transit back to the United States but we are moving forward with our science and our towels so Let us move into the science for the week I have stories about AI moving science forward termite travels bird stuff and And more I've got a lot more, but we'll get to it. What did you bring for the animal corner Blair? Oh? I for the animal corner. I brought dolphin pee and Baby turtles, but I also have a fun story about skydiving salamanders And also the hygiene hypothesis return of the hygiene hypothesis We've never talked about that before. Oh, yeah Once or twice. Okay. I'm looking forward to it. We're gonna clean up with our science not too much Not too much just enough. We're just just enough cleaning. That's right as we jump in I want to let you all know that if you are not yet subscribed to this week in science You can find us all places podcasts are found look for this week in science You'll also find us on YouTube Facebook and twitch where we stream weekly on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Pacific time You can find us on twitch Instagram and Twitter as twist science And if all this is just so much to fill your head with then just go to our website We just twist org All right, you're ready to jump into the science. Yes. Give me the the short stories the short stories All right, let's start with some artificial intelligence just really moving science forward and potentially leading us to You know the future of science really I Mean that's the bigger picture, but the the short story is that published this week in Nature Astronomy is a paper by Joshua Bloom and his colleagues Showing how a mature matured matured a machine learning inference algorithm artificial intelligence algorithm was able to find Details related to gravitational lensing that scientists over the decades since it was First First shown by Albert Einstein have not picked up on so gravitational lensing is the Way that we are able to use the magnetic not the the gravity not magnetic the gravitational field around a Star or an object and how it bends light into a new trajectory as light passes around that object light is affected by Gravitational fields fascinating, right? so the idea with searching for exoplanets is that we can use one star in front of a Planet that passes in front of one star and as that happens We're able to see the dimming of the light when there is a star in front of a star with a planet going around it you have a gravitational influence that Occurs because of the star and the orbital mechanics of the planet around the star that it's orbiting anyway Physicists astrophysicists for decades have basically said okay There's a couple of outcomes to this and we've and they split it up into a couple of different categories the AI said mm-hmm It's more complicated than that Silly humans silly humans you're missing out on all sorts of nuance And so now you know it doesn't make things easier for astrophysicists who are trying to figure out the the exact location and orbital mechanics of Transiting planets in front of stars transiting other stars, you know, it doesn't make it easier on them It makes it a little it makes it a little bit more complicated, but it's going to be more accurate over time So The the way that normally the orbital stuff is worked out with this gravitational when in this sense gravitational microlensing They call it degeneracy and so instead of just two degenerates. There's just a whole posse of degenerates That are now leading to a whole unifying theory for This gravitational lensing Instance AI showing up the humans Yeah, and so work really like as I alluded to right in the beginning of this story is that There are many things where humans, you know, we think our pattern recognition is fantastic but when you start looking at massive data sets and when you start looking at At the various combinations when there are lots of parameters involved that make it more complicated That's when the machine learning can really Start discovering things that are outside our abilities and that's what's going to you know humans in Conjunction with artificial intelligences are gonna push science forward. Are you afraid always? Don't fear the AI if they figure out the the physics before we do then we're really doomed Why that's you know, they'll figure out theoretical physics Yeah, and they'll just start doing things that looks like magic to us But they're understanding the universe in ways we never have we won't stand a chance Well, if the artificial intelligences have already figured out time travel Wouldn't we know it? Unless they don't want us to know it All right, so you don't want to live with an AI but what about you live with a dog Oh, I love it and it turns out it's good for you because living with dogs or large families is Gross and that's a good thing. What wait? Why is it dogs or large families? I'm gonna tell you This is a study looking at the hygiene hypothesis something we've talked about a lot The idea is that lack of exposure to clean of an environment growing up lack of exposure to microbes Early in life actually leads to Immune issues because if you're not exposed to those things growing up then Then your body overreacts when they show up later on essentially and so researchers used an environmental questionnaire to collect information from nearly 4,300 relatives of people with Crohn's disease and enrolled in the Crohn's in and Colitis can Canada genetic environmental and microbial project the CCC gem project Okay, specifically wanted to look at Crohn's disease because it is an inflammatory disease in the gut that They think could have something to do with this They analyze several he environmental factors including family size presence of dogs presence of cats other household pets numbers of bathrooms in the house whether they've done a farm whether they Drank unpasteurized milk whether they drank well water and they also looked at the age at the time of exposure for all of these things What they found again, this is purely a correlation from a self-reported Survey, so this is a lot of asterisks. This is not direct evidence But what they found from this survey this questionnaire is that exposure to dogs particularly between age 5 and 15 was linked to healthy gut permeability and Microbe balance and the body's immune response as well. All those things are protectors against Crohn's disease They did not see that result with cats They're not sure why But that's interesting. Yeah, I don't know if it's the different proteins in the saliva that are usually become allergens It could be that they suggested might have something to do with the Activities that owners generally get up to with dogs versus cats and that dogs force owners outside So you get more environmental exposure. I also think it's because people roll around with dogs and dogs are pretty gross and dogs like lick you on the face all the time right after they've licked their butt like Even if you just want to believe my dog doesn't do that. It's happened. Okay, it's happened to get over it But it is also true with family with families of three or more members in the first year of life I Would argue similar just grossness I Kicking your nose and then touching your sibling's face, you know, just like all of that, right kids not washing hands lots of just You know the the the Twin Rivers the Elevens Streaming down the nose like all things. Yes, exactly But so this is what they saw dogs and larger families They hope that these findings will help us physicians Kind of know what questions to ask when they are determining who is at high risk for gut issues So if you say you have a dog that actually could be relevant Medical information. Okay, you have a dog. You are less likely to have Crohn's disease This might impact how I treat your symptoms or it might impact how we look out for it as you age, right? so it's Even if you can't figure out the exact Kind of mechanism right away It could still help with medical care if you know there is a correlation You can kind of test it out figure out if that correlation Might be causative and then you can use that information to impact your care So it's still way that's way down the line. This is really just hey when do you think you got a dog and When how many how old is your one age? Yeah, at what age were you first licked on the face by an animal? When did you drink well water? So it's yes, it's definitely Subjective still But it's a very interesting addition to the hygiene hypothesis that where we talked about dishwashers before and all that kind of stuff Just kind of feeds into the general theory that it's good to be exposed to some germs when you are growing up and I like your intense I like your interpretation that you know, it's Whether or not you're growing up in a gross situation dogs and family Yeah, it's you know, it's something I've actually thought a lot about with COVID too because if you know kids spent Over a year inside and so that was a long time that if they didn't if they were a single child home without a dog They were not getting exposed to very much irritants potentially as opposed to if they had other siblings at home They could have been exposed to more or if they had a dog or seven so it's all you know it it There's an impact there because there also could be getting exposure at school of course So when you take that away it changes things you take it all away reduce the exposure Suddenly hmm. We'll see we'll see what happens with immune systems and allergies and Autoimmune and gut disorders is the generations kind of pass What what's gonna happen 40 50 years from now? Yeah, right? Yeah, you have to get your inoculation when you're five of germs basically There's a cocktail we mixed up of all the potential Yeah, exactly think about that you could get exposed to allergens you get get exposed to low levels, you know, basically just a vaccine right low levels of Potential diseases and then also any gut irritants or anything like that just expose it all when you're young Well speaking of digesting things and how that works. Let's talk about termites wood termites Oh, yes, the scourge of many a homeowner. Yeah homeowners tend to not like them very much However, some researchers at the evolutionary genomics unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University with collaborators from around the world find wood termites Very interesting and they have published their research looking into the phylogenetic tree the evolution of wood termites in molecular biology and evolution dry wood termites, they are the second most Species termite species and Blair did you know that termites come from cockroaches? No, but they look similar They have a similar body plan, right? Yeah, so you say they look similar and that's really a lot of the information that we have about termites and their Evolutionary history it has to do with morphology and what they look like and where we find them. We can be totally wrong right, so Termites are a type of cockroach. They split from cockroaches about 150 million years ago, which I find fascinating did not know that that's new Just trivia point that people out there take that once to get in the brain bank there These dry wood termites are known to form smaller Colonies usually less than 5,000 ill of individuals as opposed to Other termites which live in the soil in big tunnel colonies and they're all in the underground And those can be like thousands and thousands and thousands of individuals millions of individuals so dry wood termites are Tend to be you know, not quite as social I guess but they're still pretty social. They're otherwise known as the calo termite today and The calo termite today because they split fairly early So it was like the split from the cockroaches and then about a hundred million years ago They split off from the other termites and it was this very early Split and so they were thought to be really primitive without a lot of interesting behaviors or other things aside from like eating wood And digesting it and reproducing that's about it. Anyway The researchers were like, hey, let's check this out. And so they collected About 120 different species multiple samples from around the world and were able to Really look at the diversity of the various species and figure out what started where and when and how and My picture up here and it turns out that They have been all over the world They didn't just Start in different places. They started in South America. These termites first split off dry wood termites first split off in South America and in And then started moving around and because they live in wood wood likes to float They have been across the oceans of the world some 40 times in the last 50 million years So they've floated back and forth and back and forth On bits and chunks of wood and then more recently With our wood hold boats and our our lumber that we take from place to place humans have helped them spread From place to place around the world and so they have actually they actually have a very interesting genetic history a lot of The diversity comes from these various I guess ocean travels, you know go at the starting in one place going someplace there then dividing out into multiple species Oh, and then coming back and interacting maybe with an older species and suddenly you have these species that are sub lineages of each other kind of Getting along and then you have cross pollination and then so their their diversity is Fascinating and it turns out that they're not that simple. They actually have a lot of the complex um Behaviors that were not expected to be had in these multiple species So hey, who knew drywood termites? They're diverse They're fancy and they like to travel it's They have a braided stream way better than ours to turn out It's we get all excited. We're like, well, it's not just out of africa We also bounced around in these areas and over here. It's like uh termites a bit around the world 50 times They have they've been and and they've really been All over the world. I mean for a species that started in South America. They've traveled Around the globe. They are everywhere and uh on an Antarctica though Great Except for Antarctica. There's not much wood for them to chew on down in Antarctica So that wouldn't just that one ship we talked about a couple weeks ago That might pop up It might Yeah, so the you know interesting question now is uh, we've got a little bit more understanding of How interesting their history is so now The textbooks that include termites need to be re rewritten because their phylogenetic history Which was based on morphology or how they look Is wrong in a lot of ways so time to rewrite some of those termite textbooks Made from trees which termites like to eat. Oh, it's the circle So you really do need the latest entomology textbooks You do. Yeah Yeah, if some of those other things you don't need the latest english lit textbook last years was fine history Maybe maybe that last chapter is important all that new stuff Biology science it can change drastically from year to year So you've got to get that new one go one study suddenly there is so much more understood About the termites so Termites are one thing Salamanders Yeah another I love salamanders. Tell me about them. Yeah, uh, you know what you might not have understood about salamanders before They fly now What? Yes, so the wandering salamander What a perfect name for it They hang out at the top of redwood trees And a new study from the university of south florida has found that this highly arboreal Species of salamanders specifically the wandering salamander a nades vagrants Engages in parachuting and gliding to slow and direct their descent from the trees So like na na climbing down. That's for suckers I'm gonna jump I'm just gonna jump it's a it's a lot. It's a lot of work. Let's go Yeah, so they rely on postures like skydiving humans to slow and control their fall This really hasn't been looked at at salamanders ever For one very simple reason their body does not look like is it lends itself to parachuting or falling vertically without dying at all They are little water monsters. That's their deal They are they are perfectly adapted for swimming. They have that Blade-like tail that helps them to swim through the water They can kind of scurry on land, but they have that sideways joint of their arms and legs So they're not even you know that effective at that. So all of this to say Why would you check to see if they're good at falling? Well It was observed in the wild and so it was time you guessed it to put salamanders in a wind tunnel Yes, of course Of course They parachuted consistently Slowing their vertical speed by up to 10 while they fell They coupled parachuting with undulations of their tail and torso Which allowed them to affect their gliding at non vertical angles at about half of the time Not only could they slow themselves down, but they use fine scale control in pitch Roll and yaw. That's basically just all the directions when you are falling To maintain right body postures. Yeah, exactly. It's just 3d is all that makes x y and z axes. Yeah They also executed banking turns and they were able to glide horizontally. So this is beyond just Not dying. This is being very in control of their orientation and placement in the air And again, this is the the first time that this has been observed in salamanders And now I would say the thing that's really cool about this Is that it's time to reevaluate any animal's ability to do this because If you see this video, it does not look like an animal that is well adapted for this You would not expect it by looking at a salamander that they would be good at Parachuting basically skydiving without a parachute. Excuse me. And so Um, that means Almost any animal could potentially be capable of this because they don't have any fleshy Wing like or or or webbing like or or fin like appendages that should help them with this They are really just using their movement to slow them down and to manipulate themselves in the air. So In theory anybody could figure this out I'm wondering though. I mean they live in the treetops You don't want to just die if you fall, right? So I mean so the ones that don't die are immediately selected for birds. Why right possible Right, but if you're lightweight, we know that insects very often can survive Falls from great heights because of their mass to You know body size the the ratio that's there are the salamanders the same way this particular salamander Could we take salamanders tiger salamanders that normally stay on the ground? They're so chunky I don't know if they'd be able to do it Yeah, so is this just be a body size and a you know, they have a reflex where they spread out Like a skydiver Is that something that Makes it more possible whereas other salamander species would just plummet Right. Well, because that's the other problem, right is that we we humans can't Skydive without a parachute because you know of the whole momentum thing. So we're so heavy and dense that that as we fall there's an acceleration and that creates a larger force over time and so There's that whole issue mass times acceleration squared. Yes, exactly. There you go mass times gravity. Yes. Anyway, yes, and um But but yeah, so I I have a similar theory that even if the tiger salamanders spread out perfectly out of instinct It still might have a bad time because it is so much chunkier. These guys are small They're like as big as your finger and they're very thin. So I do think part of it is just, you know, a feather does fall Slower than a bowling ball when you are not in a vacuum Not in a vacuum. No, but with air resistance it that makes all the difference and that's what we're talking about here is Yeah, you know natural atmospheric conditions Yeah Fascinating parachuting they've got little I guess they're little salamanders with squirrel suits. No. Yes Yes. So next time you go into a redwood forest Look up or don't because there might be falling salamanders for me. Look skyward You'll be looking up to me For others they might not appreciate getting bumped on the head by a salamander. I would love it It would make my I would love to catch one on my head for sure for sure All right, Blair you might not plummet to the earth like a salamander when it's your time to go But we all have aging ahead of us. That's just part of life Even though some people want to avoid aging it does happen And so researchers are trying to figure out, you know, what's going on inside the cells with respect to Aging and how it happens. Well, we know that there is You know our our chromosomes are packed tightly into these structures called chromatin And so the chromatin is all whitely whitely. No tightly wound around itself and around and about and all of the all of the Molecular interactions allow it to take this really tightly packed shape. Some of it is epigenetics that wrap around structures called histones. We have Glycol glycosylated sugared areas that stick out and all of these epigenetic Areas are part of kind of what makes us who we are Makes our bodies work the way that they do and epigenetic stuff While we can inherit some of it a lot of it is stuff that might come about as we As we develop and as we grow so The aging epigenome is something that's of a lot of interest and these researchers just publishing in developmental cell we're looking at large-scale chromatin reorganization around the aging epigenome and they found that with Aging you have There's hierarchies in the chromatin. So some areas are more preserved or they're they're packing and their structure is Preserved better and longer, but as you age more there's more entropy and epigenetic Instability as you age so things that were wrapped around histones. Maybe they're like I don't need that histone anymore And so suddenly you have areas of your genes that are able to be turned into proteins that didn't used to be And that can be bad or it contributes to aging really Along this they found that as the deformation happens There is basically a this entropy or what used to be structured Areas within the chromatin it just gets lazy. And so the structure starts to go away and Additionally, they discovered there is a placenta specific protein type that starts to be excess expressed in your cells Normally this protein is only expressed within the placenta You know and as you're growing in the womb You baby are producing your placenta And so when it's time for your placenta to stop growing There are command signals that say hey placenta stop doing the growth thing. We're good And those are these same placenta specific signals that start to pop up in aging cells with this old Entropic chromatin So it's like a circle of life thing that's going on and I find it super fascinating that You're born And you have these control signals in your placenta That say okay no more placenta It's time to be a baby and enter the world and do all this stuff And then when it's time to start exiting the world your cells are like, okay Let's do that placenta signal again. And it's time for us to you know, maybe exit the world. No No That only works if you can hook me back up 3d print me a placenta, please Get me a placenta So we're in the fanny pack carry it around with me Yeah, I don't know. You that'll be your your fanny pack full of like Yeah, I never ever anyway. Yeah. No you got it I'm all about it. I'll take it. I'll take it Yeah, but it's interesting that the the epigenetic degradation this like as the Epigenome starts to unloosen and unwind things that maybe were packed away related to the placenta by epigenetics Markers over your lifetime suddenly are opened back up again And that they're thinking as a result of the study that they can start looking for this what they call pregnancy specific beta one glycoprotein psg genes As a biomarker for aging So that if we're able to see how much of this pregnancy specific Glycoprotein you have It could really let people know How they are aging, you know at what point in their life And so we might be able to identify aging drivers and intervention targets as well Uh, so it's not all over. It's you know targets are good Right, we like the targets for the promises of blairs forever youth So let me let me ask one clarifying question So if you were able to reverse this signal that wouldn't actually do anything to your aging. This is just a A byproduct of your aging, right? This is a signal of it, right? Not a cause Well, it's also a cause because the action of this particular protein That is to stop the uh the growth and the development of the placenta And so it starts to turn off things that maintain your cells and keep the cells active and healthy and instead allows Uh allows things that degrade cells and degrade metabolism to start coming into play So this could least lead to Treatment It could that's very cool. I like it Yeah, so it's one piece of the puzzle. It's not the whole puzzle It's not stopping this chromatin degradation from happening in the first place, but it is a downstream thing So yeah part of the puzzle neat. Yeah. Oh dan christensen. Thank you so much Dan we're i'm gonna buy so many towels We can get all the towels now. Thank you so much for that donation All right blare, do you have another story here or no? No, I think it's up to you now One more. Well, I think it's you know as we're talking about this, you know, if you and I Start talking more and more about what the next thing we're gonna do is like eventually we'll come to A decision right like a democratic decision really right the well If we had a larger group of people we could all put our voices in Everybody could start talking about what we wanted to do and maybe Come to some kind of consensus and then do it and and coordinate our actions. Yeah Yeah, there's usually a ringleader, but yeah, you can get a consensus out of people You can get you can get a consensus out of people Well, you can also get a consensus out of jackdaws Jackdaws are a kind of corvid related to crows and ravens and they are also as a lot of cities may have crow Springs and crow falls where the crows come through and At in the morning or in the evening you hear the calls of the crows as they all come to roost in the trees Or they all get up and they leave and they go to wherever it is that they're going Jackdaws have this behavior as well. And so some researchers decided that they needed to look at what happens with what with the Sounds that the the communicative sounds that the jackdaws are making and the behaviors that they're showing Does the amount that they ca ca ca? Talk to their jackdaw neighbors does that make a difference in In in what they actually do and it turns out. What do you think Blair? Yeah They are very social animals and so in the mornings when they are going to They roost in the trees in the winter and before they depart There will be one or two birds that start the calling and they call more and more and more and as a larger and larger number of birds Enter into the cacophony of jackdaw morning music uh It does correlate to the probability that they're all going to get up and fly away And go away. So jackdaws Think they yell at each other. Hey joe Time to go. Are you Blair? You ready? Are we ready to go now? No, not yet. Come on Blair. Let's we gotta go come on All right. I'm coming. I'm coming Exactly you imagine a whole neighborhood got to get on the bus How do you get everybody on the bus everybody yells at each other get on the bus? Then they get on the bus jackdaws It's one of the few examples that we have scientifically examined Of this kind of coordinated communication for mass behavioral activity Which I think it's fascinating and that it seems as though we should be looking into this more and more Since there are so many species that do have Birds especially in their migrations these mass movements on a seasonal basis Yeah, I mean Point of finger at any corvid something special is going on especially socially right so just Pour all the research into all the corvids. I want to know. I want to know what they're doing I want to know why they're doing it. I want to know how they're doing it. Yeah, thank you corvids Thank you corvids for telling us and I do have another corvid story about their tiny clever brains for later in the show Yay Yeah more bird stuff brain bird brain stuff later in the show This is this week in science. Thank you so much for joining us for this episode We hope you are enjoying the show if you are enjoying the show, please tell a friend Bring a friend to listen with you this next week. We'd love to hear from them Hey Blair, you want some COVID news you got your towel or you're prepared for COVID stuff COVID news No I guess at least it's not monkeypox news stick with the COVID. Yeah, we're gonna stick to COVID I don't have a monkeypox section for the the rundown yet. Thank you. No This is how we're gonna turn into a security blanket. That's what I'm watching you. You're taking it as a security towel COVID go away We would like it all to go away. Yes. Oh, wouldn't that be so nice? well few studies this week to talk about uh, first one on the docket is uh, published this week in cell metabolism researchers were looking at what exactly is going on in diabetic individuals to Lead to them developing more severe COVID-19 symptoms When they do get infected and apparently what's happening is that ACE2 Is up regulated in hyperglycemia in kidney organoids and patient renal cells And so they assume based on this study that this is likely what's going hap going on in vivo as well So in people where you have hyperglycemia You've got this the ACE2 receptor, which is important to SARS-CoV-2 infection actually They're getting more of them in the kidneys more ACE2 in the kidneys ACE2 is also related to water movement and metabolism within the kidneys so this It has these dual purposes that are very important metabolically but also can be a problem in this particular case Um, and so with this particular study they saw that there were increased Changes to the metabolism as well within these kidney cells and in the kidney organoids that they created and the ACE2 Receptors that were up regulated in their lab experiments boosted cellular infection of SARS-CoV-2 And so it's very likely that this increased amount of ACE2 is leading to increased infection with SARS-CoV-2 specifically Getting in through the bloodstream through the kidneys and in through those cells And that the possibility however, and here's the upside is that Now that they're seeing that there are these metabolism related Effects that increase the ACE2 receptors potentially. There's a way that we can target energy metabolism within renal cells in patients to be able to decrease the likelihood of infection So or at least decrease or at least to help treatment once if somebody does get infected so understanding more about why uh, diabetes is uh, uh, in particular, uh A Problem with this virus is really important for being able to treat it more later Right because as much as we would like it to just go away It's likely going to be around forever now. So we have to Find a way to protect susceptible communities moving forward Exactly yep Forever ever forever ever well even though it's going to be around for a lot longer And we don't really know what's going on with the ba4 ba5 all these other variants yay 17 There is research out currently just came out this last week that uh out of University of wisconsin madison published in nature That the ba2 sub variant Is similar to ba1 in in the severity and in its ability to cause infection So we weren't really sure whether ba2 was the same as the original omicron strain And it pretty much is so omicron Less severe than delta more infectious ba2 is the same way so it's and if you in if I mean for most people who are probably seeing their neighborhoods their communities With ba2 which is the dominant sub variant Around the world almost I mean seven seven dozen countries. It's the dominant variant that You know as you're watching it go through you might also People are getting it more often and but not as many people are That you know potentially are ending up in the hospital but hospitals are starting to fill up again folks So, you know, maybe those masks can help because we know that vaccines should not be the only protection that we have so ventilation masks vaccine is great and finally We've talked about long covet and risk for long covet before and there are Various studies as to the percent of individuals who end up with long covet some Studies have set up to 30 percent of people who are infected with any type of covet end up with long covet Other studies say as little as seven percent of individuals who are infected end up with long covet Well, the question has also been raised as to how does vaccination impact these probabilities and It's not as good as we hoped so vaccination according to a study Out this last week Only reduces the probability of long covet by about 15 percent So it's a little but it's not as much as we were hoping it would be so Uh vaccination as I said should not be our only line of defense. It helps. It's part of the whole system But as cases are rising masking social distancing ventilation Do what we can everyone this so also The math here is important to be attention to if it's only seven percent of people who get coveted have long coveted And yeah, and it's more likely to be the people who are in the hospitals more often who have the long coveted Yeah, right and then it's it's 15 percent of seven percent That's that's still, you know, it's a very long. It's a very small number still so that that is it's Relatively it's a small number But the other thing I was thinking about is if the vaccine is less likely to get you Taking the vaccine prevents you from dying It could actually push those numbers higher Then it would be otherwise because you're you have kind of this confounding variable now of You didn't die. So if you could magically Figure out if people who died from covet were going to get long coveted You might find out that the difference is actually much bigger Yeah, because all those people die who didn't get vaccinated They're not part of the factoring in of who Gets long coveted and who doesn't right? So it kind of it messes with the numbers a little bit So that you have this bigger Physical number you have this larger n as opposed to a percentage right of people with long coveted who are vaccinated Because there's this whole group this whole number of people who who are dead it's it Your brain to think about but it totally influences the numbers Yeah, and yeah, these are the kinds of things that the uh epidemiologists The public health statisticians These are the kinds of things that they're having to take into account to try and figure all this out Yeah, I will let their brain hurts their their brain hurts their brain's hurt for me and I will also say, you know Long covet still sucks and I'm not trying to say that it doesn't But if I was picking I'd rather have long covet than die So it's yeah, it's it's one over the it's which you know And it's tough because there there's some long Levels really horrendous But it's still yeah, it still is a question of like I think overall it seems like the vaccine did an excellent job at preventing death Which was its main job yep yep And prevent yeah preventing death and reducing severe disease as well. So fewer people end up in the hospital Yep, it is true Oh and monkeypox by the way, it's Yes, it's spreading, but it doesn't spread at all the same way that uh sarah kobi 2 does Don't touch any strangers with rashes or anyone with a rash who's been out of the country recently Just don't touch them be fine and people who have been Inoculated for smallpox are probably less likely to be infected with monkeypox and the monkeypox is likely spreading more easily because we have a whole Lot of generations few generations now that have never experienced smallpox because We eradicated it we got rid of it right when we you know so now stores of smallpox and monkeypox vaccine are being brought out of our storehouses to enable vaccination inoculation for various populations that are highly at risk but yeah If it's an obvious rash pustules those kinds of things just stay home and call your doctor stay away from other people people Don't go rubbing up on each other at a rave I don't know if that's how it is that This could be a myth sound advice regardless Regardless It's sweaty. Okay enough about that This is this week in science. It's uh me and Blair tonight talking about all the science that We wanted to bring for ladies night with our towels and science Whoo If you're enjoying the show, please head over to our website twist org and click on the patreon link patreon is how listeners of the show people who enjoy the show like you Help support what we're doing here patreon allows us to be able to keep track of you and to send your rewards Small ones ten dollars and more a month and we will thank you by name At the end of the show there are other things that come in the mail little fun gifties for various levels you can check out How the levels of support work with you and your budget? But any amount really helps us to do this show every single week and keep it going We really appreciate your support and can't do this without you. Thank you All right, let's come back now. There's what is it this time in the show where we don't want to talk about Covid we don't want to talk about the monkeypox We only want to talk about the animals It's time for Blair's animal corner With Blair What you got Blair? Oh my goodness. Would you like to hear about dolphins as pee pals? I knew you would Yes, yes This is all about bottlenose dolphins always fun stories from our buddies the bottlenose dolphins And a recent study finds out this is from the University of st. Andrews that they taste the urine of their friends in the water to figure out who's around They keep their mouths open and sample urine for longer from familiar individuals than unfamiliar ones And so this is uh the first case as far as these researchers know Of a vertebrate shown to have social recognition through taste alone Now this is where Kiki it's time to put on your skeptic hat because here is their reason Dolphins do not have olfactory bulbs wait, what? Leaving the team certain it was taste and not smell at play now. Okay There's back up the water blah blah blah, but they don't have olfactory bulbs. First of all, we've played that game before Yeah, we have With birds, so I don't know we'll see We'll see if we if if truly They do not have olfactory bulbs, but even that The thing is this sounded very similar to me To things that other mammals do and I'll get to that in a second But just to kind of explain what these dolphins are doing they um The bottles nose dolphins they are so first of all, this is a good Individual species to look at this In because they already know that they have signature whistles for specific individuals So they they remember individuals which Is hard to test in other Species in general How do you know this dog from that dog or this cow from that cow? And so because dolphins have been proven to have these whistles that are almost like names for individuals, right? That they can remember them for over 20 years This means they have this baseline understanding of individuals and can tell individuals apart. So then They wanted to see if they could tell them apart by their urine So they presented eight dolphins with different urine samples from familiar and unfamiliar individuals They found that they spent about three times as long sampling the urine from those that they knew they're really Swishing it around to try to figure out what's going on. Oh my goodness So the the basis for this that they might care about the urine also comes from something that's been observed That's called genital inspection. So this is when dolphins use their jaw to touch the genitals of another individual and in many situations There is some urine expressed and so that's a good opportunity for them to taste it and make an association of this urine Steve's urine tastes like this basically And so then when you go when they go into the water and they smell they taste a specific urine They're like, oh, that's Steve Steve was here a little bit ago So this is their theory What this sounds like to me is something that a lot of mammals do That involves the tasting or smelling of urine For example giraffes they will actually Taste the urine the males will taste the urine of the female to see if she's an estrus before they attempt to mate So they okay, they fully, you know, they kind of do their Their special dance where the female goes. Okay. Yeah Basically, you want me to pee for you. I'll pee for you So she pees and then the male tastes it goes. Yes. Now is the time She's an estrus. There's also this whole thing called flemin response Which is where um, mostly hoof stock, but also cats There's a lot of different mammals will smell the urine of a female and if she and they'll do this crazy face Which is the flemin response where they they curl up their front lip like completely And it's actually to expose the specific skin above their teeth so that the the Horma the pheromones can interact with The vomeronasal organ Yes, also called the Jacobson's organ, which is the thing that snakes have to be able to quote-unquote taste the air right It's supposedly we don't have because we haven't found it yet Right and so this is an olfactory sense organ. So they consider this a smell-based organ This seems too similar Yeah for similar that to not be part of this And I was not part of this research sheam and I don't know if they tested, you know If if estrus timing had anything to do with any of this or if it was related with any mating opportunities or anything like that but This is where I would research next if I was in charge of these dolphins Is because it really feels like It is somehow related to this opportunity dolphins came from land mammals So they they have actually a lot more in common With these animals that have phlegmen responses on land than then we like to think because they feel so different But um, so that's what's really ringing true to me about this study The other crazy thing about this Is that the researchers actually think that they're They might be able to use this information to have impacts on human obesity. So stick with me They believe that the Same gene that allows dolphins to identify the lipids in urine that they use to identify individuals also identify other information from them That these are the same that are present in humans where it helps them to know if they've had enough to eat the same lipids So that yeah So they think that studying the gene and dolphins Could sorry. It's the same gene not the same lipids. It's the same gene So they think that studying the gene and dolphins could improve understanding of how we regulate our own intake Seems like a bit of a jump to me But they think that it's related so They they think there's something to that but also knowing that There's human cause pollution like oil spills and other chemical runoff that also are going into the water Mean that there could be an impact to dolphins ability to single signal one another So there's these two other crazy ideas. So one is that somehow you could use this knowledge of this gene to help with human obesity but the other crazy idea less crazy, but still kind of very interesting is that You have to keep in mind when you are spewing pollution into waterways that you could be impacting dolphins ability to taste each other's pee So consider that I will definitely be considering the considering it the next time I try to pollute a waterway But think about the dolphins trying to taste each other's pee Don't pollute I'm gonna say I think that the The link to human obesity is kind of a stretch, but I do appreciate the you know the the implications for Here we have an animal who exists in it's you know We go through air and if you walk through a plume of smoke you walk through pollution that you can smell or you know Something that is noxious That affects the way you breathe or the way you feel You're gonna it's really going to affect you. Um, and if you're an animal Humans, we apparently you know, we've got pheromones pheromones hormones body odor that kind of stuff but We don't use it the same way these other animals do obviously, but if you're an animal like a dolphin Who uses these scents in the water the scent tastes in the water? Yeah We're impacting all sorts of life in the water where they you know use these chemicals to survive Yeah, meanwhile survival if you're a baby leatherback turtle. It's all about the moon Yes, it is and not how you would think actually so When you're a sea turtle hatchling and you emerge from your nest It's usually at night and you have to crawl towards the ocean This is called sea finding you have to do it Quickly and efficiently because other ways you will get it by birds crabs raccoons It's a it's a harrowing journey And the way that you would do this as a baby turtle I'm just gonna keep talking to you the audience as you are all baby turtles You would figure this out because the sea The sea would actually be dimmer than the land Or brighter than the dimmer landward horizon. So the idea is the The moon is out the moon is reflecting on the ocean. It does not reflect off the beach entries behind you So it's brighter towards the ocean. So you got to walk towards the brightness You got a shuffle towards the brightness. Sorry. I forgot turtles Little baby turtle shuffle Yes So this helps them to find the ocean even when it's uneven and maybe they have to go up a bank to go back down They're following the brightness This study looks at uh, this is from florida atlantic university and it's looking at the difference between leatherback sea turtles and loggerhead sea turtles and leatherbacks dermo cellis coriacea they Often will crawl around in circles trying to find the ocean. They have trouble It delays their entry and of course that changes their survival The hardshelled turtles the loggerheads They are More sensitive to light. They have an easier time finding their way to water Those leatherbacks less sensitive harder to figure it out spend more time going around in circles Leatherback eyes backwards Yeah, the ones with the hardshells who have a little bit more protection are like, oh, it's so easy And the ones that are more set and sensitive are like where Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't really make sense. Um So The the other strange thing is then when these researchers looked closer when they first just noticed that the leatherbacks were going around in circles Over and over and over they looked at leatherback eyes And there was not any obvious structural adaptation that might promote improved visual function under dim lights They didn't have a larger cornea. They didn't have a larger lens They weren't able to gather light more efficiently and so the That their eyes are inferior for this task Is ultimately what it comes down to And so the only time that they were really good at getting straight to the ocean is during Closer to the full moon When it was during a new moon when it was very dark. They had a really really hard time. They were going all over the place And so the so this is first of all just helpful to know with turtles because they're endangered obviously and Light pollution could be a problem because if they're trained to go towards brightness and there is Artificial light somewhere that can mess them up This is part of the reason that sea turtle nesting beaches are so well protected and monitored because stuff like that can really mess them up But they're the reason researchers think that these leatherbacks are so poorly equipped for their journey so early in life Is that they actually Are better at seeing In the ocean once they get there Yeah, so the the costs persist basically the the reason it's it's beneficial to Have trouble finding the ocean originally is that They are better once they get in the ocean at detecting prey Mates and favorable habitats locker heads Alternatively are mostly in shallow coastal waters very clear waters easy to navigate all that good stuff The leatherbacks go way deep And so they have to deal with a lot more murky waters darker waters that kind of stuff But just the the way their eye is structured researchers think It's beneficial in the long run, but that does mean that their survivorship is is not great It's very low When they're young it is about one in one thousand to one in ten thousand leatherbacks. We'll see adulthood So it's it's not it's not great That's awful Yeah Wow I had no I had no idea that was the The ratio that's that's why sea turtles lay Hundreds two thousands of eggs depending on the species And yeah, it's uh, it's pretty It's pretty wild There's a question. Uh, couldn't they assist turtles with bright lights that are well placed? So on moonless nights, wouldn't it be a great idea to take big stadium lights and shine them at the ocean? Yes, and I would not be surprised if turtle Uh conservationists currently do that that sounds like something they might do Yeah, I mean What can we do Currently what are the things that we can do to help with these poor little turtles who die at such These such high rates. Well, here's the thing before humans stomped on the scene. Stop. Stop. Stop Probably driving some animals to extinction as they stepped They they did fine because Once they got to the ocean They thrived and their numbers were good climate change wasn't happening So they had these big clutches of eggs and it was okay that one in one thousand survived But now that sea turtles have all these other problems climate change. They have pollution. They have Poaching they have all these other things that are happening to them Now it's too many things Their populations can't handle it and that's why we're seeing this problem It's not it's not that this survivorship and I it sounds really mean but really It was it was part of how it was working before you laid a giant clutch and some of them made it But because we're now having this kind of back-end pressure on adults that didn't really exist before they were Nigh and destructible except for maybe maybe by bull sharks or tiger sharks um that Now there's this extra pressure that is all of the human impact. And so it's Now it's a problem Now we'd like more of them to make it to the ocean Yeah, we would we would like many many more of them to make it to the ocean and not eat plastic bags that they think are jellyfish Or get straw stuck up their nose Get straws up their noses. I thought that was only a problem for elementary school kids Oh, no No, okay. Unfortunately not Ha ha unfortunately That is that is that all you have for the animal corner Just dolphins and turtles today very aquatic episode. It's a very aquatic episode and you know earlier plummeting salamanders From the trees to the seas and beyond Well, I want to talk to you about corvids. Can we talk about birds? I'm going to take it a little bit Yes, I'm going to take it a little bit further For a bit of bird brain conversation. So, uh, there's a bit of question for a very long time Birds have very small brains. How is it possible that some of them have incredible cognitive abilities? corvids Are a family of birds crows ravens jackdaws scrub jays magpies They're all in this family of corvids that are capable of such amazing feats of memory and cognitive ability One of the things that's very interesting about their abilities is that they are very I guess plastic or They they can switch strategies if they need to they are They can adjust what they're working on. So they're not just Focused on only doing things a particular way. They can learn fairly quickly More quickly than other species When it comes to various tests that we've given them So there's this question of how how they do it well a bunch of researchers said well Let's just get down to it and look at their brains. So So they can't compared a whole bunch of brains between chickens pigeons ostriches And some some crows carrion crows and others So they took a whole bunch of corvids and non corvids and looked to see what was going on Because they're like, okay. One of the hypotheses is number of neurons And so number of neurons in different areas of the brain the telencephalon is kind of like the the big Processing area of the brain in the bird brain And so they said, okay, maybe number of neurons there compared across and they said no, it's all pretty much the same Oh interesting Crows and ostriches have very similar number of neurons in their telencephalons Which I find very interesting because ostriches are such big birds They're not very smart And yeah Apparatively very very fascinating here. Yeah. Um, and so then they extended their hypothesis hypothesis a bit to to to suggest that Maybe it's not just the overall telencephalon. That's important but parts of the telencephalon in specific so High neuron counts in what are called associative Paleo areas and these are areas that are thought to drive flexible complex cognition and so they comparatively these are The the associative paleo areas would be Comparable to some of the higher processing cortical regions in the primate brain that allow primates to do A lot of the amazing feats of cognition that we're able to do so they looked in these paleo areas and they're like Corvids have more neurons than chickens and and pigeons which is not really Big deal, but really they're very specific areas We're twice as high in corvids Then in all the other birds. So the corvids had these Very specific these associative paleo paleo areas the meso palium the nido palium the sub palium there's all these areas in the brain that The corvids had more they had it better. Uh, so it really does kind of add to this this story That researchers are trying to figure out is what makes the corvid brain so special and It is apparently the allotment of neurons. So where are the neurons more densely packed? Where are they? Where where are the resources in the brain? And where are the connections happening? And so these associative areas it's kind of it's not just the areas It's the fact that they're associated with each other And so they have connections kind of between them and that's another aspect of the primate brain Which is that there are these connections and networks that allow Very complex thought to occur I'm glad we're figuring this out because otherwise I'd just be convinced that crows are cryptids They're not cryptids. No for the first half of this story. I was like, so what is it then I can't There has to be an explanation. If not, it's magic Right and they're just far and away smarter than other birds Right. I mean except for maybe the parrots the osseans or you know, there are definitely social birds that are very smart But the corvids They are special They have their tool making and strategy and tool storage and communication between each other and memories and things that are special I don't I don't see parrots, you know parrots might be able to identify objects and And learn phrases and do other really cool stuff But it's not the same. Yeah Yeah Um, it's it's still pretty pretty impressive though. Oh, it's definitely still impressive It just feels like on a different level of organization One thing I thought was very interesting So my when I was studying bird brains the area of the brain that I focused on was the hippocampus And the hippocampus is this area that's like usually it's right on the top So you've gotten the pigeon in the rear of the brain it lengthens out and it becomes this very broad Structure that's right on the top. It starts out kind of in the middle section in the chicken It's very similar But the measurements that they did they found that the chicken has massive numbers of Neurons in the hippocampus Compared to other birds, which I find very interesting and I I want to understand why that is but I'm not a graduate student anymore Or a researcher. So somebody else has to do that for me Um, yeah, but the carrion crow man beautiful beautiful big hippocampus very large clear brain structures Very I'm in love with I'm in love with the crow brain Um, they also did their neuron counts to try and determine which neurons were there and yeah, anyway long story short. Yes Crows they corvids they have uh more neurons in the right places to allow More complex cognitive thought You know, if you think that more is better than that's the correlation that that you can therefore draw More is better for some things which apparently includes neurons Yes apparently Apparently neurons in this sometimes specific types in specific animals asterisk asterisk asterisk Asterix um, oh and before we put you to sleep because I really don't want to do that. I don't like putting I mean I really wanted you to put to put you to sleep. I would just get the anesthesia out Knock you out. Put you down Which we talked about on the show is very interesting anesthesia. It has this like wave like it just Soothes the brain and instead of the the brain having like It's massive activity where the people are just that people neurons are like active all over the brain at different times And having all their conversations with other neurons Brains very going on its own thing when uh anesthesia gets in there the brain the neurons all go All together And it's a wave around the brain And it's like they all wanted the neurons all want to do the same thing and all together. It sounds very calming Well here on anesthesia. So yes, in a sense it is um Researchers just uh published this week. They were trying to Figure out look at Anesthesia and the effects on brain functions and on brain activity deep anesthesia there's A phenomenon it's called burst suppression and so you have this Synchronized activity and then a period of silence. This is burst and suppression and the deeper The anesthesia the shorter the phases of of the bursts. So you have burst in lots of quiet, you know So the deeper you're under the less active your brain is And so the more silence or suppression there actually is and you know different anesthetics have different Burst suppression patterns and they vary in their mechanism of action And so these researchers were like what is going on in here? And so they did an fmri study and they decided to compare humans monkeys and rodents in a standardized method That so that it was the same all across the board to see how anesthetized Brains all the different species brains Uh reacted under the fmri and and whether it showed the same pattern and what they found is that All of the species had the same kind of burst suppression activation However The visual cortex in all of the species Wasn't following the same pattern Except for the rats So the visual cortex of monkeys of primate of the primates of humans Um the visual cortex was like i'm not going to play along with your burst suppression game I'm going to do what I want and have my own activity the whole time. So the visual cortex is like anesthesia whatever Except In rats and they found that in rats the visual cortex did exactly what the anesthesia wanted It did the burst suppression it did it did the it did the pattern the same exact way and So the question now that these researchers are raising is What's the difference in the rat brain? Why is the visual cortex? Following the burst suppression pattern when in the macaques the marmosets the humans the visual cortex Obviously was like one of these kids is doing its own thing Why was it different and if it is this different should rats be used in a in a in brain models that um are used for Um anesthesia that are used for neural treatments that are used for so many different, you know, it eventually The research always ends up in humans before it, you know in clinical trials before it gets used But we find this big of a difference in the the pattern of activation And it really makes you wonder about the models that we use for our research Hmm What could this mean? How could this manifest? Physically and practically if the if the visual cortex isn't playing along with anesthesia. What how could that? What could that well? It I don't know. I don't know right I guess that's another big question right what is happening? Why is there continued activation within the visual cortex when It is part of the brain. It's not like it's completely separate but the one thing that they that they ask is like maybe it's because uh primates are primarily visual that uh, there has that there's something to do with Even just uh, the way the visual cortex is activated during deep sleep or the way it's connected to other areas of the brain Because it is such a primary sense For our survival that maybe there is some kind of uh, some aspect Of it's uh, it's underlying importance Right. Yeah primates have binocular vision, which is the forward-facing eyes usually associated with with predators Right rats of course have the the The vision on the sides. I forget what the fancy work for that is but it's um, it's what prey has Yeah, so it's so they're they're inputting that that information completely different because it's not a continuous field of view Like binocular vision is so it's they're processing the information completely different but also you want to think about it evolutionarily from like What that information is giving them it's also different if they're constantly looking for predators but monkeys and primates are are Foraging using them for social interactions hunting kind of all related Yeah, I don't know but I mean they found this they didn't expect to find this and they don't understand Why there's a difference What do you see what cats do our cat do cats do you know just pick another predator that's like similarly Quote-unquote uncomplex like a mouse right and see what's going on Stop calling my cats uncomplex You dog a file. You know what I mean dogs are Quote-unquote uncomplex also, you know all those quadrupeds. I got you kind of Dick figure mammals Carnivora the carnivora. Yes Oh, I don't know We're just wasting our time until the fungi come and eat us all so yeah That's fine. If I get to see a sentient slime mold I will succumb to it. It'll be a great Oh, you're amazing. You can have it. That's fine. Take it. It's fine. You deserve it. You burned it Well, that's it for me. I got brains Animal brains corvid brains you had the the P in the C Yeah, thank you for bringing that Blair. Of course You know, I like to keep it light I know I like it. I like we like it light. We like it fun. We like it enjoyable That's all we want Have we made it to the end of the show? Did we do it? We did it. Oh my gosh, definitely under 90 This once we're done with all this stuff that'll be you know, yeah tight 90. That's what we're heading for Oh my goodness everybody. Thank you so much for listening to the show this week If you have any questions Send them to us. We might be able to answer them on the air. You know, we like answering your questions We could be doing that right now if you had a question for us. We could be doing a quick Answer segment if you had a question But anyway in the meantime, it's time for me to say thanks give shout outs to The people who helped with the show fada Thank you so much for your help on show notes show descriptions on social media so many things They appreciate you so much Identity for thank you for recording the show gourd are in law others who help to keep the chat room Happy and safe and kind places to be thank you for being there Rachel, thank you for editing the show and for your assistance And I want to say thank you very much To our patreon sponsors Thank you too. Teresa smith james chauffeur Richard badge Kent north coat rick loveman pierre valazar brawlfee figaroa john ratness swami Carl cornfield caron tozzy woody ms. Chris wozniak. Dave bun vegaard chef stad. Hal snider donathan styles aka dun stylo john lee alikoff and matty parin garb charmer raggan dun mondes steven albaran Darryl myshox jupalik andrew swanson fredes 104 skiley paul ronovitch kevin reardon noodles jack bryan carrington matt base shon and nina lamb john mckay greg riley marqueson flow gene telly a steve leesman aka zima ken haze howard tan christopher rapin Dana pierce and richard brendan minnish johnny gridley chemi day flying out christopher drier otiam Greg briggs john atwood rudy garcia davilkinson rodney lewis paul philip shane curt larson craig landon sue duster jason olds Dave neighbor eric nappy o kevin parochan erin luthan steve debel bob calder marjorie paul disney david similarly patrick pecoraro tony steele and jason roberts thank you all for your support on patreon and if if you want to support us on patreon hear your name at the end of the show head over to twist.org and click on that patreon link on next week's show We'll be back on wednesday at 8 p.m pacific time broadcasting live from our youtube and facebook channels and from youtube.com slash this weekend science Want to listen to us as a podcast You can do that. Just look for us this week in science wherever podcasts are found and if you enjoyed the show Hey, get your friends to listen to for more information on anything you'd like to Learn about that you heard here today Show notes and links to stories. It'll be available on our website That's at www.twist.org and I don't know maybe someday we'll send out a newsletter again Who knows it'll be a huge surprise when I what's this in my inbox? Rise from twist You can come around sometime You can bug us about that newsletter directly by emailing kirsten at thisweekinscience.com Justin at twist minion at gmail.com or blairbaz at twist.org We like to keep it complicated by not letting anyone have the same emails Anyway, just put twist in the subject line so your email doesn't get spam filtered into oblivion Wait, I didn't make up a funny thing. What would you say blair? Um, let I would say Be sure to put twist in the subject line or your email will be collected by a crow because it'll look nice and shiny We'll take it to their their tree spot. They'll polish it and change it and morph it into a tool They'll they'll store it very carefully But we will never ever see it because they're going to protect it from this human And i'm not good at watching where the crows store their stuff. So yeah, no just put twist in the subject line You can also ping us on twitter where we are at twist science at dr kiki at jackson fly and at blairs menagerie We love your feedback if there's a topic you would like us to cover or address or a suggestion for an interview Please let us know Oh, yeah, and We will be back here again Here next week, and we hope that you'll join us again for more great science news And if you've learned anything from the show remember It's all in your head This week in science This week in science This week in science is the end of the world. So i'm setting up shop got my banner on furl It says the scientist is in i'm gonna sell my advice Show them how to stop the robots with a simple device I'll reverse global warming with a wave of my hand And a little costume is a couple of grand This week science is coming your way So everybody listen to what i say I use the scientific method for all that it's worth and i'll broadcast my opinion all over the air Because it's this week in science This week in science This week in science This week in science In science i've got one disclaimer and it shouldn't be news That's what i say may not represent your views, but i've done the calculations and i've got a plan If you listen to the science you may just get understand Oh my goodness Don't forget your towel Oh blare you've got it going on over there with your towel action You got to use it to its full potential you know you really do get a You know Yes, oh yes the toga toga Yes, i'm ready to go to the heart. It's hard to get it out of the headphones. Yes There we go I'm liking your headwear. It's very nice. Well, you know normally when I get out of the shower This is a twist towel and it is available through zazzle and I got mine last summer and I really really like it It's great and yes blare is crazy. She's fantastic Give blare a prop she will use it. Yeah, how many ways can you use a towel? Blare a cabas do oh my goodness gauron very good Also, you know you've got to remember the there's always the superhero cape too Oh always that's what I was working on earlier To the moon and beyond to infinity and beyond And Yes, I mean I could wear it as a skirt, but you can't see if I'm wearing it as a skirt Very nice So many uses for towels everyone Don't forget your towel day Thank you for joining us for the show tonight It was all good times And blare you'll be here next week. I'll be here next week and just be here next week Yay, he'll be back and he'll be on west coast time this time. He'll be so confused. He's gonna be yeah I'm really tired. I'm gonna guess. Well, it'll be a week later. So yeah, but it'll be nighttime He's used to doing this in the morning I'm I don't know whether that's gonna be good or bad. Yeah, I don't know But he's gonna be also visiting for the first time in ages and so he's gonna be like I gotta go do this. Yeah The social count I have a towel scarf. Oh good. I tried to do that mine was too thick My bees were doing is a nice towel scarf Knight fodder Shanku It'll keep me warm in the winter a loose 120. Yes, Derek Golde Seder says no capes I can't You know capes get caught on things. They're not good. You know what it's it's a it's a decision. It's a risk It's a risk if you're a superhero and you have superpowers Do you really think a cape is gonna hold you back? Is it really gonna be like the limiting thing? Yeah, I mean maybe if we're talking about like Oh, what was the one with the with the shoveler and or this and the What was the what was the one No capes Garev I have two tie-dyed towels that I've made Also a couple of hand towels and some washrex mystery men. Oh, thank you mystery men. Yes. Yes. Yes with the bowling ball. That's right They had trouble with capes, but I mean if you're I know the Incredibles. Yeah, she was Yes, the brilliant Designer, yes I'm not into fashion, okay As long as you have your towel, you're good. I try I got my towel. I don't have a fashion sense, but I have a towel It's important it is Is Wow, are you yawning? I've done it. I've yawned. You've become Wait, no, no tie-dye socks. No, okay. This is I don't do tie-dye anything I don't I don't like tie-dye I love anybody can bring me to find me something that is actually nice looking and tie-dye I mean, I guess basic that would mean it doesn't look like it's been tie-died I feel like I should just open my closet and you can see how much tie-dye I have I have a lot There I don't know. I mean maybe this I I mean maybe I should investigate this like dig into it in therapy or something like I have a thing I don't like uh reggae music and I don't like tie-dye and I I'm just now putting those together Hi Are you familiar with indigo tie-dye because I feel like that's the classy tie-dye It's blue. It's it's monotone. So it's like You don't use rubber bands. I mean you do Here, okay. I'm gonna I'm unplugging my headphones. Hopefully this doesn't Totally not sound But hold on Uh I know there I know there are patterns I know there are many patterns Yes, no capes is a reference to the Incredibles absolutely David, huh? Okay, check this out that I made that's nice You hate it Very ugly Don't listen to me. I told you I'm not into fashion It is for tie-dye, it's very classy. Well, thank you. You're welcome But yeah, my robe is tie-dye my towels are tie-dye my socks are tie-dye wait wait Towels only get to be tie-dye if you put like a sock in the laundry with them Do you want to see my tie-dye towel? You have tie-dye you have tie-dye towels Just coffee count I know gaurav. Yeah, it's very nice and that's sure it looks lovely ombre. I'm sure it does it's just not it's not for me But for me Changed over time It was there was more dye on it before But the other thing that's really cool that I have is I Yeah, is her shirt t-rex. I think it might be Is my shirt what? t-rex. Yes bed sheets, baby Ooh, though, are they night like what's the material their high thread count cotton. Oh Did you do those? Yeah Wow Yeah You're a fancy tie-dyer Wait, I remember weren't you using a tie-dye one of your tie-dye sheets as a backdrop for a while? No, that was fabric that I bought at um Like a Joanne's or something Oh Okay. Yeah, but what you do see this is the hack the garb and Gaurav and Derek they love that. Oh, yeah. Yes. So, um Uh, you go to like a Ross or a tg max or something like that and um Plain white bed sheets and towels and all this kind of stuff are usually really cheap. Yeah You can buy those and then you tie-dye them. It's great And of course you one pot of indigo like I've never used it all I've always put it away like I'm use it later and then I have to throw it away like a month later Um, but you can bad it does. Yeah, it does go bad Um, interesting. It's it's different from the like hyper color tie-dye that you usually see it's um It has natural. What's the deal with it? It's like What's the deal with indigo tie-dye? I have no idea. Um, I don't know much about the indigo tie-dye We just need more it's it's definitely more hippie-dippy. It's like It's more all naturally Yeah Interesting. Yes. He will says indigo tie-dye corner indy uh in I hear my cat indigo powder But it's insoluble in water. So for dyeing you have to turn you have to reduce it to a water soluble form It's like chemistry. It's very cool So you have your indigo you have a reducing agent and then you have a right So you have your soda ash you have your reducer, which I forget what it usually is and then um, you throw that into water and you stir it and it has to sit and then it like quote-unquote makes a beautiful But stinky flower in the center. So it looks like It looks like uh, like a mucky green Like bloom in the center of the pot in the center of the the bucket And if you look at the the film there's like a film on the top of it looks really gross It's like oily looking like almost like iridescent green But if you break it then the water looks kind of Just dark and then when you soak the stuff like when when this sheet came out Yeah, put it then you put it in the sun for it to fix It turned bright green Oh my gosh, when did it turn blue? When you rinse it Fascinating. Yeah, this is very cool See gar of the beauty about this and meet quote-unquote talking colors is that it's just one color Yeah, can you tell the difference between the when it's green and when it's blue? Yeah. Yeah, the green is like a fluorescent green Hi kitty cat She hates being picked up. She just She purrs and puts up with it for two seconds Trying to find a picture of it when it's in the sun and it's turning green Hi kitty Hi kitty bye kitty. She's like I'm out of here Came I shed What are you looking at? Um, I'm trying to find a picture of when it's green The in-between step. I love the I love the the chemistry of it. That's it. That's really interesting Yeah, here's a cool that it has to work in a very particular way to make to yeah My medic is trying to sleep. Um, okay Share please share screen Window this one. Okay So, so yeah, it like turns very green in the sun So this is what it looks like in the sun and then when you um, I see how the blue Yeah, and then when you're about to Wash it out It will it will turn blue in the sun over time. And then when you go to rinse it the interior still looks kind of green It's very cool. Oh, yeah, so like this is kind of what my stuff looks like. Yeah That is very green. Yeah weird And so yeah, so here's like the pot There's the like Let's see some of that green stuff. Oh, yeah, and then the water looks weird and murky and green murky murky Here's the the quote-unquote beautiful, but stinky flower Here it is What do you do? Do you just dump it on your lawn when you're done? Uh, I forget what I did I probably dumped it in a toilet or something Poor toilet the beautiful stinky flower I wouldn't describe it that way, but maybe it is just very stinky to some people. I'm sure it's beautiful The fascinating stinky Lump Exactly Derek it looks like something intelligent wants to crawl out of that And I would like the slime mold My house is is a is a shrine to it that this boy welcome our slime lord masters Yeah truth I love it. I love yeah Ty dying within to go. It's a very fun That's a fun. It's a fun crafty thing too. Yeah, I made a handkerchief for brian And I made him a robe. I made us matching robes when we like Very cute pretty much had just started dating. I made his magic tie-dye robes It was a bold choice very bold choice good choice though That was the part of my dating where I was like I'm gonna go hard. I'm gonna lean real hard into being Unapologetically me to scare away the people that can't handle it Can you handle the Blair? Yeah I'm not the Blair. We don't want you around here Yeah Ooh a tie-dye twist calendar. That's a great idea Yeah That'd be pretty fun We're at the hospital. No, he wears it on camping trips The handkerchief I'm guessing not the robe he wears the robe every day Oh noodles are you gonna pick up one of these towels? These towels are very nice and they're available on Zazzle Zazzle twist Not a calendar towel. It's not tie-dye. Sorry. I am unapologetically not wearing tie-dye Well, you just apologized so That was just a vocal of a verbal tick It happens animals animals in tie-dye. I wonder how I wonder how what imagining you would have of tie-dye calendar Oh I don't know if I have the skills to do animals in the tie-dye. I could do like the background as tie-dye I could definitely do that That would be interesting at our Zazzle Right now. I'm curious if um The towel has sold will No idea. I like it. I like when it shows us how many Orders all time one you're holding it. I this is it. I've got the only one in existence. There you go Hopefully not for long Sort of uh, paul you're apologetic Our highest selling item. Do you want to know? What is it the twist basic logo tea? Oh Our second most popular item. Yeah The mammoth face mask The masks are all very high Then the third most popular is the twist logo mug Then comes the um The cotton face mask that's black with the twist logo on it It's kind of small then the red panda Uh mask mask then the twist logo face mask then the twist trucker hat Oh, cool Then the twist mouse pad Then you guessed it another mask You know, I'm glad everybody was styled up. Yeah, then we have the twist hoodie and Very cool the twist polo shirt The twist hoodie is awesome. Oh, yeah, the polo shirt. Okay. Yeah, a few people have gotten those Um, yeah, and then we have we have some other cool stuff that I have to say I am very proud Here I'm gonna I'm gonna screen share Proud of this one which is sold sold pretty well. Yeah are and lower weird Did something happen that everybody wanted masks? Yeah I like this one. Oh Yeah, that one's a great The dung beetle tote bag the dung beetle grocery tote tote. It even has um the twist logo on the back Yeah, I like that one I like it a lot um, I was hoping to see Oh, yeah, there it is to carry all your well, you know Well that is evoking a word started with s for that Oh Look at all the other cool things you could put it on you can put on a comp compact mirror Yeah, you can you can take these things and put them on things yourself. It's true Gaurav likes the dung beetle tote bag Yes We like it also didn't bottle opener. That's fun What charge hub? Oh a little watch cute Anyway, did you see did you see my uh my my cute Clothing collection. Yeah, I made a collection No, nope No collection. Oh, I feel log out. I think Oh, right and just go to the the thingy The placey the thingy I made a whole a whole little collection of our cute clothes. Oh collections Collections use your eyes and your brain blur Cute How come I can only see the back of this one? Is that all it is? No, I don't think so. I don't know. Oh, yeah, there it is Full of sciency goodness there it is there it is Oh, yeah, I spent a really long time fighting with this one actually to make it look that tank looks great Because you have to like pick a color for this And orient it right It does look kind of like poops But then you don't know It's not a poop tank Yeah, nice little tote There he is Tote it's totes amazing Amazing And it's towel day Come on. Here's all our masks There you go I know it might be good to show the zazzle store more often. You're right, Derek and at some and at one point I used to open it up and go to it and I think I'm a tired person There's lots of clicking and opening but you're absolutely correct. It would be very helpful Very helpful You know what you can add with your towel? What's that? Let's see if I can find it without too much trouble No, it's gonna be trouble It's gonna be the troubles sort by newest please Oh, yes, here we go Just, you know a shower curtain You too Can have a twist shower curtain And alligators on it how appropriate Alligators that Blair made I thought it was a fun pattern Great That's a great pattern doormat a different to student ease doormat. There's two to pick from I know the pillow I kind of want to order these for um My friends with kids I need to get I need to get the throw pillows. Yeah, you're fun I always give them away. I don't have any myself yet I really want this one actually this is the one I think Because my current um duchess and dragon character is a panamanian golden frog really? Yes How does that work? Are you What a character what is your character? He's a grung It's a new expansion Um, okay. It's a frog person and she's a grung bard Bard, okay Cool Kai just got into dungeons and dragons and he is Darn it. I've forgotten the name of it. It's like Kai gets a kiker or something, but it's a bird A bird mage and an arachocra It's a cocra. No, not an arachocra, but it's like a crow. It's like a crow man A crow so the the kengku is what you're talking about kengku. Yes. He's a kengku The thing about the kengku though the reason I've never played as a kengku is that They're not Really supposed to be able to say anything other than repeating things Yes, so he can repeat anything that he's heard right So I told him what he needs to do is Get a note pad. I don't think he's doing this because he's 11 and not that planning ahead yet But what if what he really needs to do is get a note pad so that he can write down the things that people have said that he can say So he can say them. But yeah, they're mimics. Yeah Yeah So testicles leaving and he's saying that oh He's not gonna answer any of his questions, but I'm I'm scrolling back. I don't see any questions Please write them again because I don't ask questions I don't see any Are we selling stuff? Well, we yes twist sells things. We have things that we sell we have merchandise We're just going through it right now um What else did you ask is tie dyeing the topic for this week? No, it's just a topic for the after show Uh Well the things But maybe next week we will answer your questions directly. I don't know what they I don't know You know, the reality is I don't necessarily have the answers I mean I try I definitely try but We don't we we don't always have the answers no No, no indeed Oh and um So I was I saw and I put it on Twitter a while ago as a couple of weeks ago actually now at this point movies I saw moonfall Which I expected to be like just dumb and awful And I really enjoyed it Nice, it was very internally consistent and it was silly, you know like but It was it was fun and I really enjoyed it. So if um Yeah, I was not expecting to but uh my whole family got into it and anyway, moonfall surprisingly surprisingly entertaining Not awful sci-fi I like that's always nice. Yeah Yeah, and it's you know, not all sci-fi has to be serious, right? You can have fun with it. So I liked it Oh Our and lore played Like great who played a kenku our and lore a kenku monk. Thank you monk. This is very fun. Yeah Uh Ha ha it can be foul for sure Waka waka waka. That's funny Oh, I love that Yeah, it's pretty awesome though. There's a uh one of kai's friends mom's mom she Has liked bnd for a long time. So he Pot herself she learned how to be a dungeon master and so Had during coveted had been doing virtual um Dnd games with like a group of her lady friends And then she's like i'm gonna start doing it for the kids and so now she has a whole group of These 11 year old boys who she's leading on a journey And they're having so much fun. That's great Yeah, our and lore you're a mod for dnd beyond that's wow No, that's so cool. That's very cool. That's I definitely have that app in my phone right now. Yeah, I'll let kai know Yeah, being a dm is hard You have to have you have to be ready And I I mean, okay being a dm is hard being a dm for a bunch a bunch of um Short attention span 11 year olds even harder. She's amazing She gets my mom of the year vote That's awesome. Yeah That's great. Brian's trying to build a game right now. He's excited to dm at some point. Oh, that's fun Yeah, I think it would be pretty fun to do a one shot the three of us It could be fun. Yeah Perhaps a fundraiser of some sort Ooh D&D fundraiser I'd have to make up a character beforehand Yeah, we could figure it out Maybe I would have to be a kanku maybe I have a bit of a bird brain. Are there any cat characters? Yeah, there's a lot There's lions. This is I got really upset. It could be a tiger. Uh, yeah, you could definitely I mean you could be so there's um Uh, what are they called tabaxi? Tabaxi Yes, um, they're basically cats and you can like make them look like whatever but there's also like lion things There's a bunch of different types of cats, but like I got frustrated because in the last one I ended up being a frog or originally I wanted to um I wanted to be a um golden retriever uh Bard that was just like overly friendly with everybody Like obnoxiously friendly There's no dog races. There's no dog races in D&D and I'm like you have like six different kinds of cats. How do you have no dogs? That's really funny. Yeah Unusual dr. Kanku. Yes It kind of makes sense Blair is a druid and Justin as a bard a spoonie bard I don't want to do a 36 hour continuous live stream fundraiser That's a long one. Pamela is amazing for doing that. And yes, gold is eight or cat is greater than Yeah Oh the hippos. Yes. So last I looked they're not playable Oh The hippos No hippos for you. Yeah, they're like they're like NPCs basically so they're Right, they can be in a story, but It was not a legal playable character last time I checked Unfortunately, maybe someday You know, I'm gonna jump on that hippo wagon as soon as it's possible Oh, we'll be playable in July. Well, thank you are on lord That's coming up. You can not be a frog and you could be a hippo. Yes. I do really like my frog though That's cool spell jammer Oh Who is the bard in witcher in the series? I mean the tv series, but he's like a golden retriever dog. He's like He's like super friendly to everybody I'll get a song Yeah, I thought it would be really fun to be to be that and then also like get really easily distracted by things Like just randomly chase stuff Oh gotta go Um, also my my frog is Yeah, I think I picked true neutral for her which has been really fun to play actually So she's like not that concerned about laws or what's right or wrong. She just does what's interesting I like that She's very inquisitive. She's like she's very interested in figuring out what people are about and observing information Oh, how similar to you is your character? Not very My very first character I did in d&d was a um gnome druid and I feel like I was just playing myself but Then since then I've done some crazy things like the one that I did for I think a couple years was a um dragonborn cleric who Worshiped the trickster god and was basically like a purveyor of games and gambling and um a swindler and like a Snake oil salesman of sorts, but just also like really friendly Oh, that's fun. So like everyone, you know the first time we fought some people like everybody was like, all right What's our way in and I just kind of walk I'm gonna go Hello Oh Like me really I mean I'm friendly, but otherwise not that friendly. Yeah, and then um Yeah, and then the frog I'm not the frog for sure But I'm playing a monster the week game now and in that Um, I get to play a moody teen I've been using my vocal fry Of course you have To read Shakespeare So in this case I'm a um Half gorgon looking for her lost uncle Half gorgon. Yeah So do you Do you not quite turn people to stone? Do you not turn people to stone? I didn't get any of the powers Okay, but I do have snakes for hair Awesome Are they dead or alive? Oh, they're alive. Oh, yeah, good. That's awesome I need to get my friend david shift shiftman to come on the show completely changing the topic Sorry, I'm just scrolling through things and fada had been posting about sharkano Now this eruption of sharkano, which I really Really don't like that name Excuse me cat hair But um He has a book on sharks. It's out. We should get him on the show to talk about sharks Yes, please Sharks are great Oh and you mentioned earlier that you you were like more money for birds and um So the researcher I used to work for apparently there's a story in new scientists this week apparently Her lab in camber at cambridge university because of brexit and some other funding issues has run out of funding And so they have to rehouse their corvids Hmm, they have a bunch. It's a it is one of the corvid research labs in the in the world One of the only ones take them. I know I will take your corvids But yeah, they're looking for 75 000 a year to be able to maintain the lab and keep the birds Otherwise, they have to get rid of them adopt them out Train them to go back to the wild that kind of thing It's kind of sad Yeah Excuse me. I have got something tickling my throat Yes, Kai enjoyed the dragon prints a lot arnlar I was a that was a favorite in the house The tau herculid meteor shower I hadn't thought about it Unfortunately being up in portland It's always cloudy and so I've just kind of given up Meteor showers Ooh tales of exadia May 31st, that's right soon. How fun The biggest ever oh my goodness Garov that wasn't even on my radar. Thank you for bringing that up Maybe I will be I know go east, you know, I just have to go to The eastern part of oregon where it's just dry and there are skies that you can look up at and Uh and see things that would be nice It's a crapshoot here. Sometimes we have extremely clear nights on sometimes It's sucked in Yeah I feel like most of the time it's clear, but every once in a while We'll just get a fog bank Yeah, we are still right next to the bay Yeah, yeah, it's not quite as clear. I mean the bay is foggy, but Yeah, but redwoods any climates best by government test? Yes Yes, a lot of good Ah see the milky way where we now know there's a black hole because we've now seen it which is so exciting This time of the year is the midnight sun. Eric is it like daytime right now? I'm sure I've just noticed I've been noticing here even in portland That it's lighter later and the sun is up very early in the morning and it's It's very light and within the next month. We're gonna be seeing it'll be it'll be light until about 9 30 up here Yeah Yeah, and so it's completely bright in alaska right now which It's amazing. Wow. I can't imagine what that's like right You have to have a blackout curtains. Yeah Ah You turn 30 this summer solstice. Welcome to 30s. Yeah Yes, Blair wants the telomere pill there's so many others It's too late for me No, it's not Oh my goodness. So I am like so excited or so not so excited so thankful for Modern medicine my dad just went in for open heart surgery this week And last year about a year ago he went in and the surgery went all wrong And we were afraid that we were going to lose him But he survived and then they let him heal and they kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off And I was like and they my dad was like, I don't know if I'm ever going to get this surgery I might might might die before I get the surgery and they finally scheduled it on his wife's birthday and He's doing really great that I got a picture of him today, which I'm very excited. His like his Skin has color like there's blood flowing in his body again. It's amazing He's like yeah two days out of open heart surgery and he already looks better than before he went in That's great. I'm so thankful for For all of the You know, yeah the medicine the surgery the techniques that we have His wife sent me a picture of of the mid surgery of his heart So I've got pictures of my dad's chest open with the heart It's like, oh my god, that's my dad's heart. It's wild Wow I'm not sharing those pictures You know So did they have like an operation theater? That she was in or no, no, no the the surgeons took it. Oh, okay Yeah Drop a junior mint in there Don't drop a junior mint in there. Oh, no. Yeah Thank you noodles. Oh noodles Uh wait blare noodles says hello Hello noodles. What is this in? I don't see noodles over here. Is this discord? Oh, yeah Discord one too many windows to open Oh Derek has a birthday on the 22nd birthdays are coming up all around solsticeurs Uh 4 30 a.m. Sun in Winnipeg. Yeah, it's a bit early, isn't it? Okay, cool desatur. I don't know how flat earthers explain midnight sun. They're nothing they They find out I'm sure It never makes sense. I always find a way to explain it. It's like, well, you know Somebody is turning down turning up the light turning down the light. Oh, I don't know. Yeah Are in lores, right? Probably like 30 different ways each of which contradict the rest. Yeah Yeah, of course Ha Oh, Eric, that's really funny really related to Midnight sun you get used to it or in my case I was born here So I get confused when it gets dark in the summer when I travel Why is the light going out? Unless you travel to Iceland or Norway or speed in other places where it stays up late In the Arctic Circle Thanks, Derek Oh, Derek's birthday will be a twist Wednesday Fantastic How good were the surgeon's photography skills? I mean, they're fine for Derek Did you take the picture of your colon? That's confusing. Put it on your Christmas cards good That's great Oh, I can't get that link. I don't know what that link is are more Noodles what did noodles say about DM the bard and druid classes have really become more frontline power classes than support only Kind of like spite clerics I want to be a spite cleric Yeah Eric nap right valentine's day cards. That would be good. Oh, yeah Yeah Draw it so like the the wall is kind of in the shape of a heart A life like dog costume, I don't think science can explain something like that and I don't want to see it You know, there is a lot of stuff in the world It is outside the realm of science You know, we don't have to explain everything with science. I don't I don't think There's some things we should just let let lie Anthony, oh my gosh, this comes from deep within me we valentine's day Sunset Yeah, okay. It's 10 16 here right now sunset 11 o'clock 6 p.m Wow In anchorage amazing That's amazing Oh, our and lauren wanted to know if we saw the onion. Yes, the onion posted the same article that they always post What? Oh, I'm shooting. It's the same one every time Okay. Yeah. No, I didn't see it, but yeah Yeah I don't want to misquote it Uh, no way to prevent this says only nation where this regularly happens Yeah They post it every single time and I appreciate their dedication to the bit that is how they're gonna do it It's just they don't even edit it at all. I mean, why? Is there anything different? Nope Nothing's changed. How did this happen? No, they blanketed their homepage with every single version of it. Oh, yeah Yeah all of them Yeah, someone else uh on facebook or a few people I saw one person on on facebook today Share a list of all of the school of all shootings since 1998 It's just a massive list And you just it just scrolls and you're just like really How how like I almost did a just wrote the disclaimer tonight about that but then yeah, I did against it, but It's tough. I'm I'm kind of glad you didn't it's like everywhere and Yeah It's again like this is exactly here. I'm just gonna promote the onion for a second So yeah, they uh, they just filled their page with it Every time way to prevent this. Oh look, I've been looking at plant stands. You can tell what my analytics are doing Yeah, so they just posted the whole they plastered the whole homepage with it because it's very frustrating Mm-hmm It is very frustrating And Yeah, what what's ridiculous to me is there's just so many things It's like a majority Not just a small majority, but like a majority of americans want to change Things and they're not changing and it's just like what is happening here? What is going on? Yeah, well, I mean we saw this just a couple weeks ago that the majority of americans wanted to keep roe v. Wade And that you know is not happening. So it doesn't matter what the majority of americans want in this democracy When in the course of human events It becomes necessary Yeah It's just you know, it's that whole representative democracy thing that you know is steeped in racism and sexism and uh ableism and Yeah, it is but it's not It's it's it's also status quo. I mean where You have I don't know where you have the the democratic party Just run by a bunch of people who want to keep everything the same And they're like, oh no, we've got to stay in the center stay in the center. And so like I don't know I'm sick and tired of just stuff Well, the the problem is voting they say you have to stay in the center and then one side keeps shifting And then the center moves you see But they keep saying let's stay in the center and right Yeah, so as things move more, right the center also moves more, right? Dumb yeah Yeah, but yeah Hopefully more people will vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote I mean, there's there's midterms and um Yeah, an election's happening right now that If I was less angry, I would definitely ignore I by and being honest like I have received so many paper print ads and text messages and phone calls about an election for like council people and all sorts of things that Uh But I'm gonna sit down and look through my guide And find endorsements and make my own decision and fill out my ballot Even though it's This system is also stupid because there's a million elections and none of them are days off of work Yeah, and the Yeah, anyway, yeah From baby, you're right too very often you have a structure that requires a particular type of person to navigate it And that promotes more of the same type of person as a candidate. Yeah So yeah, career politicians, right takes money and People who can do that instead of working It means that they come for money or they have been given money I who or or you get get money given to you by bitcoin billionaires Right. Yes. It's interesting though here in uh, or again one of the the the big What is it bitcoin billionaire? He put a whole bunch of money in various races and didn't make a darn bit of difference Oregonians are like, I'm just gonna vote for whoever I want I'm gonna we're not gonna pick that that person That's tough. I mean It's you know What for me v says about the structure that requires a person to navigate it to run It also requires a particular type of person to navigate it to vote Yeah, and when there are barriers put up and there are, you know difficulties and even making it possible Yeah Yeah, Derek. Yay for votes not being bought for once exactly Boy, Pennsylvania are in law. You've got some good stuff going on there Woof. Oh, yeah, dr. Oz. Mm-hmm Who doesn't even live there, right? So That's especially interesting Yeah, we had a huge uh A huge thing. There was a A writer a new york times columnist Um, I am blanking on his name But he apparently grew up in oregon but then left and has been living in new york for Decades and but still has property here in oregon, but was not a resident of oregon and has not voted in any oregon elections for years being a new york resident and so he wanted to come in and run for governor of oregon It's like, uh, no, I I've I moved back for covet So now now I want to be the governor of oregon I see you've got problems and I and everybody was throwing money to support him and it was like, yeah Yeah, he's got great ideas. He's gonna do really great If you're not If you haven't voted in if you're not a resident in the place where you want to be in charge Isn't that a problem like Don't you think you should know more about the place that you want to Run yeah, yeah It's it's all silly you want to govern You need strong term limits so that people Just can have a career Takes a couple years off to do a politic And then go back to their go back to their career And that's it because then you don't have to worry about reelection and about kind of their constituents They can just be elected and do what they think is right For their people And then leave yeah Yeah, I don't know there definitely does need to be something built into the governmental system for institutional memory So that things can happen over time the term limits need to have overlap so that projects can have long term Benefits so it's not like that You have other staff too Right, but I mean I'm thinking in in terms of like Well, I mean for elections and stuff people want to get elected in and they they're not going to run on fixing the sewers You know, they're going to run on You know The big shiny the shiny stuff. I'm going to get you better internet or you know, we're gonna We're going to make your city a more equal place, you know, these big shiny things and Not the things that actually help keep a city running You know, so yeah, well, but you know, why why do they do the shiny things because they want to get reelected, right? Exactly So it's I don't it feels like it should be a sabbatical like you make whatever you made in your last job You just take a couple years off you take a sabbatical to be a council person or a senator or you know a congressman or woman or person or Yeah x yz even the president just Just take some time off and come back It's I don't know. That's yeah I agree and yes our lord there needs to be term limits on the judges That's insane It's it's absolutely ludicrous that you can make decisions for our country for decades For your lifetime Ridiculous Yeah, I agree all politicians should make minimum wage totally yep Yep, and not get handouts all the time So they don't even have to spend the money they make What was it there was that thing a long time a while back where some politician was trying to make a big thing of like I'm gonna live on minimum wage for A week and show you how it's done and they couldn't do it They like had all these exceptions. Well, I'm gonna live on minimum wage except for this And except except for that for my apartment except for like all these and it's like you didn't even do it That was just Your politicking is it annoying propaganda Yeah, no, I I read I read a A piece of investigative reporting from The 80s or 90s in my it was actually it was pretty interesting It was in my Chicano and Latino studies class what it was called at the time And it was about a woman who to write an article went and tried to live on minimum wage as a waitress in the south and There because you factor tips into minimum wage. She only made two bucks an hour like 215 or something like that and um she I think she made it a week maybe 10 days and had to cancel because she ended up homeless and um Had no way to travel between her workplace And like so it was a huge problem where when she had a place to live It was like a trailer in a trailer park and she um Had to take the bus like a couple hours and walk like an hour each way or something And then she lost that spot because she couldn't make the rent and then She ended up living out of her car And then there was such a situation where she couldn't Pay for food for a couple days and she was like cam done I have to give up now Yeah, and that and that's what people do I mean the and It still is the case that minimum wage In some places is calculated that way That it's the tips that make it up to minimum wage. Let's see tips are optional Exactly. So you don't necessarily get it. Yep Yeah, our lord's putting there unless the total tips are less than the 725 minimum wage, which overrides it Okay, so what hasn't always been that way But it's still ridiculous The fact that yeah I mean that's just barely that's just That's not enough nowhere near enough Oh America, huh The world the future all the things There are so many things out there. I think they're you know There are a lot of people working for good. There was just a big on friday a big student walkout for protesting protesting for climate change Which you know the next generation they're already active and they're doing stuff and they're Really pushing youth activism is huge to try and make changes in the way that we do business Yeah, like garab said earlier, it'll be interesting when the younger generations really start voting would be interesting to see what happens, but A lot of these things are choices and we can choose to try to help make things better Pay it forward. I don't I always love the pay it forward idea. What can we do? How can we help others? How can we pay it forward? Donate to help ukraine Donate to help those in need. I saw somebody Who lives in Seattle said hey if you end up in a state where You where you're not able to get an abortion and you know me just give me a call. Let me know you can come here I'll give you housing I support you so you know Maybe we can support by supporting people when they need help if we can offer it in a variety of different ways And we can vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote also vote with your dollars Don't be a mindless consumer a tomaton No Vote with your dollars I spend my dollars at places I like Hello Mr. Tiny corn dog Mm-hmm human science identity for a year hilarious More t-shirts with science. Yes Vote for people who Who appreciate who understand science? Who want science based policy making? Yes Yes, yes, yes All right snored prefect. I just want to I do want to address this um statement I'd vote if I had someone to vote for I refuse to vote against someone just because they're slightly less awful than the other guy That's great. However There are rights that can be taken away as a result of that So consider the fact that sometimes you have to make a decision between Two things you don't want but one is better than the other Because if you do nothing the worst option will succeed And people will straight up lose things and this is exactly what happened in 2016 We are dealing with the fallout of people not voting because they didn't like other option Right now. So I hear you. I understand it sucks, but I'm sorry You have to go vote if you care about people who are In trouble right now. You have to go do it. You pulled your nose and vote. I'm sorry. You have to Otherwise you're contributing to the problem that is destroying lives And that's my soapbox moment for today Who's a box? Yep Anyway, I just I couldn't leave that. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, it's fine You know, it is really a shame that this is you know, the situation that we find ourselves in where this is These are the choices that we have to make right the two-party system is stupid He is I physically can't fix that No, I physically can do Is vote in primaries for the people that I want yeah and then Vote for the better choice in the end and that's it That's all I can do The question according to arne lor would you rather have the squirrel party or the giant panda party elected? Oh, no I think the squirrel party and I'll tell you why they would allocate resources better Oh Blair's gonna give the squirrel stump stumps beaches. Yeah You know Even though oh if I could of course, I will go in hippo v squirrel every time But if I have squirrel v panda, I will vote squirrel And I will smile doing it because I know I'm doing the right thing for myself and for the people I care about I Think this is a new t-shirt that needs to be made Hippo is greater than squirrel is greater than panda. Yeah We can add more in there good Hippo is greater than spider It's greater than spider, which is greater than Oh, right because yeah, you don't have pan and we'll say dolphin Which is greater than squirrel, which is greater than panda Pandas are always bottom of the heap. Yeah, sorry last choice And then under it you write all glory to the hypno toad for sure I love it All right, is it bedtime now? It is bedtime. I get myself out from my stump speech Hahaha fair enough Time for bed. It was energy well spent good resource allocation on your part. Thank you. Thank you All right say good night Blair night Blair say good night kiki Good night kiki. Good night. Everyone. Have a custom where you are. Yeah. Good night. Justin He's actually arriving probably in the daytime and then he's going to be like obviously be but anyway He'll be back next week. Hopefully and Hopefully we will see you all here again. Thank you so much for joining us for science and lots of different conversational talk in the after show that was a lot of fun and I don't know Who are you? Tell us are you team squirrel or team panda? We want to know we want to know as the elections come up. Who are you voting for? Stay safe everybody be healthy and as always be curious. We'll see you next week. Good night