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Your Vortex Needs Ice, Moving Rocks, Immense Heaven, Bird School, Salamander-boy, Fish Urine Aaphrodesiac!, Fearless Dreadnaughtus, Brain To Brain, Cancer Scanner, Martian Memory Wipe, Dead Russian Sex Geckos, Printed Robobirds, Eat Breakfast No Diabetes, Music Brain!, Pretty Low Sperm, And Much More…
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This Week in Science, coming up next…
Your Vortex Needs Ice
A study published in Nature Communications used observational data and modelling to propose a potential mechanism for the slippage of the polar vortex that causes extreme cold weather events outside of the norhtern pole region, suggesting that melting sea ice is to blame.
Moving Rocks
Death Valley’s famously sneaky rocks have been observed by scientists. Rare ice formation on the Racetrack playa coupled with light winds allows the normally still rocks to slide and create tracks that follow cracks in the ice and force from the wind.
Immense Heaven
Cosmic mapmakers have defined our local supercluster, called Laniakea, or Immense Heaven.
Bird School
Cockatoos learn to manufacture tools, and make improvements, after watching an older bird.
The new X-Man: Salamander-boy
Salamander skin may hold the key to super-human healing abilities!
Fish urine that calms males and excites females? Now that is an aphrodesiac!
Tilapia urine appears to have a pheromone in it that lowers testosterone in neighboring males and stimulates egg production in females. Now that is a shower of gold!
The handsomer the man, the lower his sperm count
Attractiveness was positively correlated with low sperm count in a recent study – indicating a trade off between characteristics for sexual selection and sperm count
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Fearless Dreadnaughtus
The largest dinosaur to date has been discovered, and it’s another plant-eater.
Brain Trade-offs
Two studies highlight the tradeoffs required by the brain. One focuses on development and energy allotment, concluding that toddlers grow less quickly due to the brain’s energy demands. The other concludes that the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex operates in part to balance honesty and self-interest, and that damage to the area results in more self-interested behavior.
Brain To Brain
Researchers successfully transmitted the messages ‘Hola’ and ‘Ciao’ over 5000 miles from the brain of the sender to the brain of the receiver via brain-computer interface and the internet. Receiving individuals experienced the message as phosphenes, or flashes of light, that they then translated appropriately.
Eating breakfast could keep you from getting diabetes
26% of students surveyed in the UK regularly did not eat breakfast. These students all had higher levels of blood values associated with type 2 diabetes.
Losing weight won’t stop diabetes
The type of food you eat is more important than the calories, so losing weight may not stop diabetes. Instead, eat healthier!
Music shapes your brain!
Disadvantaged youth showed congnative development after free community music programming
Cancer Scanner
A team of researchers have developed a handheld laser scanner that can detect Raman scattering nanoprobes contained in malignant tumor cells during surgery.
Martian Memory Wipe
NASA’s Opportunity rover is experiencing memory problems, and will receive a wipe to reformat its flash memory system and decrease reliance on malfunctioning flash memory cells.
Dead Russian Sex Geckos
5 geckos were sent into orbit by the Russians to have sex. None returned to Earth alive, and it is questionable whether they lived long enough to do the deed.
Printed Robobirds
A company called Clear Flight Solutions is 3-D printing robotic birds of prey to keep unwanted birds at bay.
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I'm the host of this little science show. 
Re: brain to brain communication
It is exciting and you are right that It’s like going backwards but what about this analogy: think Morse code in the early history of telecommunications. See how far we have come in just 60 years and imagine how far we could go from here.
Let me start by saying I’ve been listening to this podcast for at least 5 years. I’ve loved the show and I loved all you guys. That being said, Kiki, you’re really becoming too controlling and even have come to have sort of an arrogant tone. I’m not trying to be rude but I just think that you should relax just a bit. Don’t be so quick to jump on Justin so much. The dynamic between you two has become quite frustrating. It really detracts from the show when you two start quarreling and when Kiki, you try to act like you’re above the other two and pretend like you’re much smarter. You need to act as an equal. Please do not take this comment the wrong way but I feel that you may need to take a step back and re-evaluate you’re presense on the show. I really would love to continue enjoying TWIS but I find myself having to skip sections everytime you begin to become overbearing. I know a few of my friends who feel the same way and have already stopped listening for this reason. Please try to keep your professionalism while on the air and don’t snap at Justin. Settle your quarrels off the air. I just want to hear science, I don’t want to hear you competing with justin and Blair for “smarts”. Anyways, I hope you consider what I commented but also hope you don’t take it personally because I love all three of you and I listen to this show every single night. I even play the newest episode over and over while falling asleep until the next one is released. Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful evening.
Thanks for the feedback. I do appreciate it. I walk a fine line as the host and producer of this show. The three of us work together to create a welcome, fun environment for discussing science. However, there are many things that need to be taken into account when making the show. I edit the final podcast down for radio play. I know how much work it’s going to be when we go off on tangents that are slightly related to the conversation simply because there is an axe to grind or the possibility of a joke. While it might be seen as controlling when I try to push us to another story, I am trying to help the show be something that can be appreciated by as many people as possible. If we were broadcasting on real radio, you would see me be much more controlling in order to hit marks for station ids and sponsorship messages, and to get as many stories as possible into the 50 minutes of air time.
Also, I have known Justin for a couple of decades now. I know when he hasn’t prepared and is just winging it, and it frustrates me because I think our audience deserves more from us. That is what you are probably noticing the most in our dynamic. I am sorry about that. Sometimes I feel tired and brittle, and don’t have the energy to be nice and listen.
I will work on the dynamic, but it is something that all three of us need to work on together to make TWIS the best show possible. I do hope you keep listening, and am sorry that we have lost listeners over this.
“Tilapia urine appears to have a pheromone in it that lowers testosterone in neighboring males …” There’s one single reason I do not fully buy into that story: a) it would affect the secreting fish in much the same was as his “adversaries”, would it not? And b) tilapia, often used in intensive aquaponics breeding, are one of the fastest-spawning fish around, so why would not in these setting their fertility rate drop conspicuously?