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What is in the This Week in Science Podcast?
Perseverance Has Landed!, Art Rocks, Underwater Glider, AI Exploration, Choose Your Roach, Magnetic Extinctions, COVID-19 Update, Cute Clones, MonkeyVision, Taxes & Democracy, Eat Your Shrooms, Seasonal Change, Moldy Memory, And Much More…
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Disclaimer, Disclaimer, Disclaimer!!!
Planet earth is in big trouble
Pandemics,
Global warming induced weather patterns
The lack of sustainable solutions capable of overcoming human laziness
The end is not in sight
But it is a good sight closer than it was just a few years ago
And yes, some humans will work really hard to ensure that changes are made
To keep this planet habitable
Meanwhile… Mars
No it’s not ready to live on
But the worse it gets on earth
And the faster we need to come up with solutions to survive here
The better Mars looks…
It won’t be for everyone!
But for anyone that does go there’s one thing they will need to bring with them
This Week in Science
Coming Up Next…
Let’s start with the science news
Perseverence Has Landed!
The Ingenuity helicopter has reported in. And, the mission has begun to send back images, video, and the first audio from Mars.
Wasp dating site for Aborigines
A two-meter-long painting in Western Australia’s Kimberley region has been identified as Australia’s oldest intact rock painting.
I just wanna glide
Underwater robot effortlessly glides through water like a paper airplane into your teacher’s coffee!
AI Exploration
Researchers let AI algorithms called “Go-Explore” play Atari games, and they totally dominated. Maybe next they will help us do science?
How to pick a fighting cockroach
Not all cockroaches are created equal.
Magnetic Extinctions
We have been told by scientists previously on this show that the Earth’s magnetic pole reversals are no big deal for life on the planet. But, new research looking a old trees suggests that such switches might make life a whole lot harder.
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And, now for the COVID-19 Update…
COVID Update
Vaccines are doing great.
Spike Details
Penn State researchers are detailing the structure of the spike protein to figure out whch parts of it are important.
Selfies & Gorillas
People are going to give gorillas COVID. Stop it.
Avoid the Gym
Please.
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It’s time for Blair’s Animal Corner!
Cloned ferrets could change the game
Black footed ferrets may not have to say curtains, in the first successful cloning of an endangered species in the US
Monkey TV
Tonight, on MonkeyVision, zoo-dwelling saki monkeys lick the screen to get at worms and show an appreciation for abstract art!
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What does Justin have to say about science this week?
Taxes and bureaucracy = Democracy
It just seems to be the glue that holds society together.
Don’t forget to take your mushrooms
They’re good for you!
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Let’s finish strong with science from Dr. Kiki!
Seasonal Change
New evidence links changes in the brain’s opioid receptor to seasonal daylight shifts suggesting a role in socio-emotional aspects of seasonal behaviors.
Moldy Memory
The way that slime molds remember is totally tubular.
This Week in Science Questions!
“Hello Dr. Kiki,
I enjoyed the story about fractals you brought last week. I would like to share something related to it with you…
Art is not science, but art can be informed by science. In particular, music is informed by mathematics, physics, and cognition. Musicologists have long recognized self-similar and recursive structures in music, which are characteristics of fractals. More recently, some composers have intentionally used fractals in their music, usually in digital compositions.
I create self-similar recursive patters of intervals that look like fractals from which I compose. I imagine these fractals to be infinite, but the part that appears in the score is that part that occurs in our hearing range. I used one particular fractal to compose this piece.
I hope you find this interesting.
Best,
Paul”
Do you have questions that you want us to answer? Send us your questions! We will do our best to have answers!
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Want to see what we were talking about at this time last year? Check out this episode of TWIS when we interviewed Dr. Jonathan Eisen from UC Davis about his work on microbial evolution or this one from 2010 in which we discussed butterfly sex & Allison Depsky reviewed the past decade of developments of brain-computer interfaces. How much farther have we come in the last ten years?
I'm the host of this little science show. 
