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What is in the This Week in Science Podcast?
Light Supremacy, Cat Scratch Stretch Marks, Beavers & Frogs, Humans & Nature, Neander Burial, Poo Protection, COVID Update, Dog Talk, Pandas & Poo, Call For Science, Municipal Military, Shrinking Shrew Brains!, Time & Place, And Much More…
Check out the full episode on our YouTube channel. You can do that here.
Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer!!!
Of everything that has ever happened, been done or occurred in the world.
This is the end
The end of everything past.
This is the result of the experiment.
This is now.
And like all now’s.
We are at the beginning.
We are designing the next experiment.
We are at the birth of future,
This is the prelude to everything that is yet to come.
This moment of now comes with great responsibility
Choices now will affect all the now’s to come.
And now is the only moment in which you can do anything about it.
If we make choices based on science and reason and empathy,
we can build a future brighter than the one we started with.
If we ignore science,
if we act without reason and without empathy,
we will fall into a future far worse than where we started.
Whichever world we end up with,
You have made at least one choice that can only help our chances to improve
You are now listening to
This Week in Science,
Coming Up Next…
Let’s start with some quick science news stories…
Light Supremacy
Is optical quantum computing the way forward? A Chinese experiment using very carefully controlled laser beams and beam splitters completed a calculation that would take a regular computer 2.5 million years in less than four minutes.
Bacteria causing neuropsychiatric issues
It’s from cats (of course)
Watershed conservation: it’s all about the beavers!
Reintroduced beavers are the reason amphibians might actually be doing alright, and therefore so are our waterways.
Humans & Nature
Nature is giving us less, while we build more and more.
Neanderthals buried their dead (again)
More evidence that they were a lot like us.
Poo Protection
Honeybees in Vietnam guard their hives from Murder hornets with buffalo dung.
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Now for the weekly COVID-19 Update!
Awareness vs. Fatigue
You influence the pandemic as the pandemic influences you.
Of Mice & COVID
Mice don’t get COVID-19, so researchers figured out how to infect them in an attempt to create more models with which to study the disease.
Now we know why COVID gets some animals and not others.
It’s all about that spike protein. But there is also something to be learned here for our next pandemic…
LET US KNOW WHAT QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS YOU HAVE ABOUT COVID-19, OR INFORM US ON ANY REGIONAL UPDATES, BY EMAILING KIRSTEN@THISWEEKINSCIENCE.COM.
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It’s time for Blair’s Animal Corner!
Dog vocabularies are trash
Or should I say troosh?
Pandas are covered in poop
No, really. On purpose… And you’ll never guess why…
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This Just-in… Science!
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
A call for science in policy! (Listen to the audio here!)
Does equipping municipal police with military equipment reduce crime?
Short answer: No.
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Shrinking Shrew Brains!
Shrews brains shrink in the winter, and regrow in the spring. Who knew?
Time and Place
Your brain has cells that march to a rhythm that allows a sense of space and time.
This Week in Science Questions!
This week, it’s not a question, but a correction!
“Hello TWIS team. On the last episode I heard you mention at the end that we no longer need to get polio vaccines. However, we do still receive polio vaccines as polio still exists in the world. We live in the US and both of my kids were recently immunized against polio.
I think you were thinking of smallpox, which was globally eradicated thanks to vaccines.
Because of the polio vaccines we are close to eradicating polio, which is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Thanks for the great show on science! — Jennifer Herricks”
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