09 September, 2020 – Episode 790 – How the West Was Burned

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What is in the This Week in Science Podcast?

Sleep & Stress, State Pain, Plant Bodies, Arctic Jeans, No Aliens, Mega Pixels, COVID Update, Naked Hearing, Conservation Works, Fishy Walk, Gibbon Gap, Milk Genes, Frigid Birds, And Much More…

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Check out the full episode on our YouTube channel. You can do that here.

Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer!!!
Whatever you are doing right now,
Wherever in the world you may be.

Keep an eye out for something interesting.
Listen to a sound you might not otherwise pay attention to.

Look and listen.
Observe the world of nature.
Life in all its many forms evolved over billions of years
Overcame every possible earthly obstacle to exist.

Look and listen.
Observe the world of technology
accelerating our evolution first with stone tools
giving us the cutting ability of sharp claws that nature had overlooked.
And lastly with the ability to adjust the genome itself…
Influence if not control over our evolutionary future.

Look and listen to the subtle creatures and objects around you
And know that it‘s connected, all connected to observations made long ago,
And observations yet to be made by generation yet to come,
And all these observations, when backed up by a little knowledge
Connect that first mitochondrial eve with you, and you with
This Week in Science
Coming Up Next…

Let’s start with some quick science news stories…

Sleep & Stress
Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory stressed out mice and kept them from sleeping just by triggering a few neurons.

Pain varies from state to state?
At least, opioid prescriptions do.

Plants know where the bodies are buried.
Plants could help point out to coordinates of deceased and missing persons, if we can just figure out how to talk their language, and differentiate dead humans from dead deer.

Arctic Jeans
Your blue jeans are everywhere. A study looking at the eprevalence of microfiberrs in sediments in the canadian Arctic, Laurentian Great Lakes, and shallow suburban lakes in southern Ontario found that not only are microfibers widespread, but blue jean fibers make up a large percentage. The results indicate that blue jeans are an indicator of pollution.

They just aren’t out there
10 million stars searched, no aliens found.

Mega Pixels
The biggest picture ever was just taken by researchers at the Stanford SLAC facility testing the camera for the Vera Ruben Observatory that is being built as part of the LSST in Chile. The equivalent of combining 189 16-Megapixel smartphones, this camera’s image was 3.2 billion megapixels of data. And, they used it to take pictures of romanesco broccoli.

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Now for the weekly COVID-19 Update!

Young Adult Risks
According to a research letter published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, young adults can experience substantial rates of adverse outcomes.

Obesity Risks
In the first meta-analysis of its kind, published on 26 August in Obesity Reviews, an international team of researchers found that people with obesity who contracted SARS-CoV-2 were more likely to be admitted to a hospital and to die.

Religion on COVID

Sturgis on COVID

Rural COVID-19 mortality
It’s highest in counties with more Blacks and Hispanics.

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!

Hearing loss in naked mole rats may be a plus.
They couldn’t listen to all that metal in the lab otherwise, or rather, all the squeaking of their friends and family.

Protected areas are the key to saving species.
In a study that would surprise no one, it was proved that protected areas are vital to saving endangered species. It may not be shocking, but it is important to know when conservation efforts are working!

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Tell us a story Justin!

Walk with the fishes
Skeletal study suggests at least 11 fish species are capable of walking

New ancient ape discovered
3-million-year-old gibbon ancestor fills major gaps in the primate fossil record

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Dr. Kiki’s got some science for you!

Milk Genes
Let’s talk about milk. It does a body good… if you have lactase to break down the sugars. And, a new study of Bronze age skeletons suggests the genes providing lactase production took hold over a very short time, and might be an example of positive selection.

Frigid Birds
Hummingbird torpor is EXTREME!

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