19 April, 2017 – Episode 615 – This Week in Science Podcast (TWIS)

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Marching For Science, Dark Matter Filaments, Hydrogen Around Us, Snow Pack Predictions, Vanishing Rivers, Battery Bottles, Pigeon Society, Pigeon Sex Differences, Bacterial Cancer Diagnosis, Blood For Brains, Rub Weed On It, Frogs For Noses, Blind Cave Evolution, And Much More…

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DISCLAIMER, DISCLAIMER, DISCLAIMER!!!
Forget everything you don’t know…
Ignore anything you didn’t hear…
Put off all tasks not assigned to you…
And pay close attention to the unknown…
This world you are in is full of interesting things…
Life lives here, wonderful, wild, lush lifeforms are everywhere…
And picture this…
And it all got started…
In the Sediment at the bottom of the sea…
From there to here, then to now,
From ocean floor to space explorer…
Even well before the magnificent human mind was involved…
we earthlings took things to extremes…
And now look around…
this wondrous world about you is but a snap shot…
A still image of today…
If we can go as far as we’ve come…
What futures await will look nothing like today…
And to get there…
from here…
we will need but one thing…
This Week In Science,
Coming Up Next…

Marching For Science
People around the globe will be gathering to march for science on April 22nd. Whether or not you are able to march, science is an endeavor we understand to influence our lives on an ongoing basis, and which should be socially supported… not just celebrated.
Since our early years of podcasting, TWIS has reported on policy matters influenced by science because although the practice of science and the empirical gathering of information itself is not partisan, how it is used does and will continue to affect us politically. Beyond that however, our lives are impacted by scientific discoveries each and every day.
And, so, we are beginning a regular segment on the show called “This Week in What has science done for you lately”.
Tell us how science intersects with your life on a regular basis, and we will share it with the rest of our audience to create an ongoing compendium of scientific banality.

Dark Matter Filaments
A statistical analysis of weak light lensing between pairs of Luminous Red Galaxies enabled researchers to get rid of random noise, and to predict the filaments of dark matter that connect the galaxies.

Hydrogen Around Us
The Milky Way is surrounded by a halo of hydrogen gas according to a new analysis of images collected via the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Snow Pack Predictions
Beware of massive reductions in snowpack in the western US. A new analysis predicts that snow pack will decrease by 60% in the next 30 years.

Vanishing Rivers
The retreat of a Canadian glacier resulted in the disappearance of a river. Over the course of just a few days, the melt-water balance that was previously shared between two rivers tipped in favor of one, leaving the other a dry dustbowl. The conditions causing this change are linked to anthropogenic causes of climate change and temperature increase.

Battery Bottles
Turning bottles into batteries… thank you science!

Pigeons pave way for scientific recognition of gender differences
You know how men and women are different? This study indicates that male and female research subjects are also different – go figure!

Greater than the sum of their parts
Pigeons also tell us that animals other than humans can pass on and build from previous individuals’ experiences, proving once again that complex society and generational knowledge permeate species.

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Bacterial cancer diagnosis
Will bacteria one day be the cues we pay attention to?

Blood For Brains
Once again, young blood is beneficial to old mice.

Rub some marijuana on your skin…
And put a frog up your nose

Blind Cave Evolution
It turns out the blind cave fish have to be blind. If they weren’t, they would have left the cave.

LHC Sniffing Hints
Maybe there is a new particle that doesn’t fit the Standard Model of physics. Maybe there isn’t. LHCb is seening faint hints, but nothing definitive yet.

Pokemon Go Benefits
Playing Pokemon Go is good for you!

NASA Image Base!
Search, and you will find…

“ROAD CLOSED FOR BIRD SONG”
That could be the new normal, as a new study shows that bird songs are shortened, and thus breeding success reduced, by traffic noise.

The Plants are Listening
And if they had a bladder, they would have to pee… They can hear running water and can grow towards the source when thirsty. What’s more, they can tell the difference between real flowing water and artificial sounds.

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Don’t forget to tell a friend about TWIS, and to check out our Patreon page!

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I'm the host of this little science show.