04 August, 2021 – Episode 836 – Do You Give a Hoot About Science?

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This Week: Competitive Microbes, Pollinating Microbes, Daddy Legs, Red Asteroid Bodies, All You can Eat, Life Death Trade-off, Garbage Cockatoos, Animal Art, Parental Birbs, Sleep Sabotage, Oxygen Extinction?, Melting Russia, And Much More…

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Let’s start with some quick science news

Competitive Microbes
Did lengthening days on ancient Earth give photosynthetic bacteria the boost they needed to seed the atmosphere with oxygen?

Pollinating Microbes
Bacteria enhance pollination!

Daddy long legs are called daddy short legs now thanks to scientific DNA meddling
But just because they could, that doesn’t mean they should…

Red Asteroid Bodies
Did they come from beyond Neptune?

Do we really need a study for that?:
All you can eat links to weight gain.

Life Death Trade-off
A muscle protein called CAMKII helps vertebrates survive when they are young, but might lead to the diseases that kill us as we age.

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It’s time for Blair’s Animal Corner?

Cockatoos teach each other dumpster diving
Does this make them more smart or less so?

Can animals own their art?
Chimp-made NFT’s made this question relevant once again.

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What brainy science news does Dr. Kiki have?

Parental Birbs
Exposing birds to young resulted in brain changes leading to parental behavior.

Sleep Sabotage
Loss of sleep results in memory inhibition.

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Let’s finish strong with melting science from Justin!

Oxygenation & Extinction
Event at the end of the Permian period lead to a mass extinction.

Russia is melting
Well, the Russian Arctic is melting just like the rest of the Arctic.

This Week in Science Questions!

Would you trust a benevolent AI to manage human society’s needs? What if we could apply the power of artificial intelligence to solving some of our most pressing problems? Do you think future AI will have what it takes to solve climate change, energy & water distribution, human migration, and more?

If you don’t want to think about AI futures, how about your favorite owl? Which owl makes you hoot? For Owl Appreciation Day, we’d love to hear your thoughts about owls as we share ours every week on the show…

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Leaping lemurs! Has it been a year since our fantastic interview about lemurs with Lydia Greene? Listen to conversation for a reminder of how wonderful these animals are. We also discuss spinning sperm, beetle butts, and bad pandas. Curious about it all? Listen to the show!

This one from 2011 featured so many interesting science stories, from the formation of the moon to poisonous African rodents to the chimeric bacterial gene networks that make us who we are.

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