We'll still be on Instagram, full of shenanigans and making reels. Never stop being curious.

Love ya forever, Trace and Amy

Show Notes:

The Poozeum: https://poozeum.com/

Life Cycle of the Mosquito: https://www.vdci.net/mosquito-biology-101-life-cycle/

University of Melbourne: Male Mosquitos don't want your blood: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/31460-male-mosquitoes-don%27t-want-your-blood--but-they-still-find-you-very-attractive

WPRI.com Blue Whale leaking: https://www.wpri.com/news/street-stories/blue-whale-skeleton-at-new-bedford-museum-still-leaking-oil/

Atlas Obscura, Oozing Whale Skeleton: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-oozing-whale-skeleton-of-new-bedford-new-bedford-massachusetts

Popular Science: https://www.popsci.com/science/blue-whale-leaking-oil/

MSN Lyudmila Trut: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/lyudmila-trut-soviet-scientist-who-sped-up-evolution-with-tame-foxes-that-began-to-look-like-dogs/ar-AA1sMlb1

BMC, The silver fox domestication experiment: https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-018-0090-x

Episode 240 Extreme Lookalikes (where we mention the silver foxes)https://brainjunkpodcast.com/podcast/240-extreme-lookalikes/

Popular Science, Why 60 degrees feels different: https://www.popsci.com/environment/why-fall-feels-colder-than-spring/

Evolutionary ecology of ethanol: https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(24)00240-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534724002404%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

New Scientist, Can all animals get drunk? https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg25934543-000-can-all-animals-get-drunk-what-enables-this-in-those-that-can/

Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241030150809.htm

Penn Engineering Today, The secrets of baseball's magic mud: https://blog.seas.upenn.edu/the-secrets-of-baseballs-magic-mud/

Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud:

Show Notes:

Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-harvard-stadium-pigeon-prank-that-pavlov-would-be-proud-of

MITbloggers YouTube 1982 pranktacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq4rzxw_wYU

Boston.com: https://www.boston.com/sports/college-sports/2018/11/16/mit-hacks-harvard-yale-balloon-prank-1982/

1948 newspaper article (behind a paywall)https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/105095033/

MIT, Interesting Hacks to Facinate People: https://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_topic/harvard.html

Harvard "Huge Ego" hack: https://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2006/H_Y_huge_ego/

Show Notes:

Episode 71: Ants on Stilts (it's just as horrible as it sounds) https://brainjunkpodcast.com/podcast/71-ants-on-stilts/

Current Biology article: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00805-4

Live Science, Ants perform life saving surgery: https://www.livescience.com/animals/insects/ants-perform-life-saving-operations-the-only-animal-other-than-humans-known-to-do-so

TW: Facebook video showing actual leg amputation https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=846736237392641

Pub Med Animals that self medicate: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4267359/

Show Notes:

National Geographic article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/river-crab-ancient-rome

Musei In Commune Roma, The sculpture of Constantine: https://www.mercatiditraiano.it/en/percorsi/percorsi_per_temi/la_statuaria/testa_rilavorata_come_costantino

Wikipedia, Giant Crabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potamon_fluviatile

Freshwater crabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_crab

When a ladybug lands on you: https://www.wellandgood.com/symbolic-meaning-of-ladybugs/

YouTube, Rome's giant crabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=QNbVPkRDaGI

Show Notes:

BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54197198

Kyoto University Ig Nobel announcement: https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/news/2020-09-29

YouTube resonance to vocalize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-plqEyxik

Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/ig-nobel-prizes-reward-research-helium-huffing-alligators-and-knives-made-feces

CNN US: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/us/ig-nobel-awards-alligator-helium-scli-scn-intl/index.html

Journal of Experimental Biology: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/218/15/2442/14244/A-Chinese-alligator-in-heliox-formant-frequencies

Show Notes:

Ball historical timeline: https://www.ball.com/our-company/our-story/history-timeline

Wikipedia on Ball Corp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_Corporation

CPR News 2024, Ball Corp sells aerospace division: https://www.cpr.org/2024/02/16/ball-corp-sells-aerospace-division/

HiRISE camera: https://www.ball.com/newswire/article/123308/ball-aerospace-hirise-camera-returns-stunning-images-from-mars

Deep Impact: https://deepimpact.astro.umd.edu/tech/instruments.html

Ball Aerospace and Hubble: https://www.ball.com/newswire/article/123389/ball-aerospace-hubble-space-telescope-science-instruments-shine-a-light-on-the-universes

Dating a Ball jar: https://www.frenchcreekfarmhouse.com/2018/03/how-to-date-ball-mason-jar.html

Mason Jars a history: https://masonjars.com/history-of-ball-jars-html/comment-page-1/

Journey Indiana Youtube, Ball Family Legacy : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG1z0D_JJzk

Tiktok youthpastorryan talking companies behaving badly: https://www.tiktok.com/@youthpastorryan/video/7305919108434971947?lang=en

Wikipedia r-Gator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-Gator

Honeywell flight control autopilot: https://aerospace.honeywell.com/us/en/products-and-services/product/hardware-and-systems/cockpit-systems-and-displays/flight-controls-and-autopilots

GE hydro power: https://www.gevernova.com/hydropower/

Show Notes:

YouTube sound of Plants "screaming": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-_AGgoJ3VA

Sci News, Plants Emit Ultrasonic Sounds When Stressed, Groundbreaking Study Shows: https://www.sci.news/biology/plant-ultrasonic-sounds-11794.html

How Well do Animals Hear: https://www.lsu.edu/deafness/HearingRange.html

Hidden Hearing, Human hearing ranges: https://www.hiddenhearing.co.uk/hearing-blog/hearing-loss/what-animals-have-better-hearing-than-humans

Show Notes:

Joro Spider (warning, there are spider photos): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/millions-of-joro-spiders-are-moving-up-the-east-coast-heres-what-to-expect/

Wikipedia Joro spider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichonephila_clavata

Wikipedia Jorogumo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jor%C5%8Dgumo

Described and Captioned Media Program: PBS Digital Studios & Monstrum: https://dcmp.org/media/14555-monstrum-jorogumo-the-deadly-spider-woman-from-yokai-lore

(Amy was Right!!!!) Blackarachnia: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Blackarachnia_(BW)

Selkies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie

Show Notes:

Inner voice: https://neurosciencenews.com/anendophasia-inner-voice-memory-26107/

Prevention: inner voice: https://www.prevention.com/health/mental-health/a43128717/inner-monologue/

Not everyone has an inner voice: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38728320/

Sister “issue” aphantasia: https://aphantasia.com/what-is-aphantasia/

Show Notes:

Golden Spurtle World Porridge Making Championship: https://www.goldenspurtle.com/

BBC: World Porridge winner crowned October 2023: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-67053001

Wikipedia World Porridge Making Championship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Porridge_Making_Championship

2023 Golden Spurtle newsletter: https://heyzine.com/flip-book/d871ced870.html#page/1

Bob's Red Mill, Porridge vs Oatmeal: https://www.bobsredmill.com/blog/healthy-living/porridge-vs-oatmeal/

BBC How humble oats have fueled a nation: https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231004-oats-the-humble-grain-that-fuelled-scotland

YouTube Golden Spurtle prep: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJhlAaW5uIA

The Guardian No milk, no rolled oats and always add salt: how to make porridge like a champion

Gravy restaurant: https://gravyrestaurant.com/menu/

Show Notes:

Amazon fake navels: https://www.amazon.com/Belly-Button-Stickers-Fashion-Longer/dp/B0CC5TZ23P?th=1

SCMP Fake belly button article: https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/gender-diversity/article/3230438/fake-belly-buttons-all-rage-china-women-seek-freedom-dress-and-boost-confidence-some-raise-body

Cleveland Clinic limb lengthening: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/24316-limb-lengthening-surgery

Bears and skunk cabbage: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Plants-and-Fungi/Skunk-Cabbage

USDA Forest Service yellow skunk cabbage: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/ipnf/learning/?cid=fsm9_019161

Maryland Biodiversity project & skunk cabbage: https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/view/1660

Nude Cruise: https://cruisebare.com/

Ovulation: https://productions-animales.org/article/download/2583/13696?inline=1

Cheetah vocalization FB: https://www.facebook.com/runningwildconservation/videos/listen-to-jordan-making-stutter-bark-sounds-to-shadow-in-the-camp-adjacent-to-hi/484675892467812/

CNN Travel "Bare-adise" https://www.cnn.com/travel/bare-adise-adventure-nude-cruise-miami-2025/index.html

Pee Pants: https://www.jordanluca.com/collections/denim

Complex designer jeans: https://www.complex.com/style/a/alex-ocho/pee-stained-designer-jeans-sell-out

Wenis. Thanks Merriam-Webster (LOL) https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/weenus-weenis-slang-definition-origin

Show Notes:

Nat Geo https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/silkhenge-spiders-ecuador-mystery

Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkhenge

Internet archive https://web.archive.org/web/20201108125631/https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/01/09/mystery-picket-fence-in-amazon-explained-2/

Earthtouch news network https://www.earthtouchnews.com/discoveries/discoveries/remember-those-mystery-silkhenge-spiders-now-you-can-watch-them-hatch/

Youtube spiders hatching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unc-g9AHl2Y&t=106s

Linkedin post https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dante-fenolio-ms-ph-d-76833a52_silkhenge-spider-amazon-activity-7147602639663316992-gZY4

Live science https://www.livescience.com/silkhenge-returns-video.html

Live science2 https://www.livescience.com/57401-silkhenge-spiders-hatch-on-video.html

Youttube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unc-g9AHl2Y

iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&q=silkhenge&subview=map

Medicinal leeches: https://media.vwr.com/emdocs/docs/scied/Medicinal_Leeches.pdf

Show Notes:

Visdeurbel!

Youtube: Dutch Wall Fish

Scientific American article: Ring the Dam Doorbell

Ballard Locks fish ladder

Wolfenoot

McGill Office of Science and Safety: Do Fish Drink

Show Notes:

Dr. George Murray Levick (1876–1956): unpublished notes on the sexual habits of the Adélie penguin

The Guardian: 'Sexual depravity' of penguins that Antarctic scientist dared not reveal

Live Science: Are penguins really monogamous?

Penguin divorce rates

Penguinsinternational.org: Divorcing Penguins

Edinburgh Zoo pebbles for penguins

Popular Science: Menstruation in Space

NPR: TED Radio Hour

Nautilus: Humpback Whales, getting humpy

Happy Whale

Lincolnshire Wildlife Park's swear parrots: FB page with videos

Smithsonian: Parrots, What the Flock?!

The complete sillyness of reindeer poop "science" Instagram: Toiley T Paper

Penis size and Nose size, it's a real scientific paper, we promise: Penile length and circumference: are they related to nose size?

Show Notes:

Long tailed macaques info from the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center

Sir Attenborough and monkeys

YouTube BBC Video of things getting stolen!!

Scientific Reports paper: Cohort dominance rank and “robbing and bartering” among subadult male long-tailed macaques at Uluwatu, Bali

Poor kiddo bitten by a monkey while touring

Show Notes:

Episode 214 Sky Puppies Mama fruit bats and their kiddos

Episode 242 Bat Chat 1 A smorgasbord of bat shenanigans

University of Bristol: Bats avoiding collisions in the air

YouTube Lens of Time Roll to minute 5:20 for bat smacks

Science: Bats jam each other's signals just like humans jam cell phones

National Geographic: Bats jam each other's sonar

The Sensory & Movement Ecology Lab @ UCCS

Science: Tiger moths jam bat echolocation!!!

Southwest Research Station

Show Notes:

Oceanconservancy.org: Scallops

Fishtek Marine YouTube on the tech and study. Also their website

Science Daily: University of Exeter paper

University of York: Scientists accidentally discover “scallop discos” as an environmentally friendly fishing method

Show Notes:

Lancaster-Philadelphia Turnpike

Somerset Historical Center: The Conestoga Wagon

Windwagon Smith a Disney animated picture from 1961

Wikipedia left and right side

The Economist" Robespierre and driving on the moral side of the road

US Dept. of Transportation Federal Highway Administration: On the Right Side of the Road

UK car glass and their opinion on right side/left side

BBC: A 'thrilling' mission to get the Swedish to change overnight

Show Notes:

UC Davis: Squirrels Use Snake Scent

Royal Society B: Donning your enemy's cloak: ground squirrels exploit rattlesnake scent to reduce predation risk

Nature: Squirrel Masks Scent with Rattlesnake Skin (Cool video of squirrels in action)

Show Notes:

IFL Science: Why Do We Wake Around 3am And Dwell On Our Fears And Shortcomings?

VeryWellmind.com: Military Sleep method

Science Direct: Molecular Clock

US Southwestern University: Understanding the circadian clocks of individual cells

Wikipedia: Suprachiasmatic nucleus

NIH: Visual impairment and circadian rhythm disorders

The New Yorker: The Woman who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave

Benadryl and Alzheimer's possible link

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk, I'm Trace Kerr

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today I'm gonna continue changing your lives because we've talked about how to up your personal hygiene game. And today I'm gonna tell you about why you wake up at 03:00 a.m. And give you some tips and tricks.

[00:00:19] Speaker A: To stop that from happening.

[00:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:00:24] Speaker A: I am not a 03:00 a.m. Wake up person, so this will be interesting.

[00:00:27] Speaker B: You're not what it.

[00:00:29] Speaker A: No.

[00:00:29] Speaker B: Do you wake up in the night?

[00:00:30] Speaker A: No, I'm not a wake upper.

[00:00:32] Speaker B: Oh, that's interesting. Well, Chris and I both are, and I tend to. On a good night, I just wake up once. But oftentimes I will wake up in this somewhere between two and 04:00 a.m.. Time. And so we're both like, why is that happening to us? And some of it is Shelby the cat.

She seems to get the zoomies. So let's back up, too. Greg Murray, professor and director, center for Mental Health in Sweden, Swinburne University of Technology. Swin. Yeah, Swinburne University of Technology.

He's a psychology researcher, and his expertise is in mood and sleep and circadian systems. Oh, and so he talks about this in an article for IFL science. For those of you who don't wake up like trace, it's bad because in the middle of the night, all of the thoughts seem to be. It's never like, I was so good in that meeting today, and I just love these blankets, and it's not that stuff. It's distressing and punitive thoughts, and they're irrational and unproductive. If you are alert enough that you have awoken, usually some people, it might not be that way, but it's definitely the way my brain works. It will worry about everything and anything....

Show Notes:

Johnson & Johnson history of Band-aids

Wikipedia: Band-aid history

Disposable America

The Atlantic: The Story of the Black Band-aid

TruColour Bandages

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to brain junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And I do have a cold.

[00:00:08] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:00:08] Speaker B: But today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about band aids.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: I want to know many things. Did you buy picturey ones for your children, or were you kind of scroogey?

[00:00:20] Speaker B: Here's the thing. I kind of felt like the picturey ones didn't have enough of the nick.

I'm a fan of the fabricy ones because I feel like they stay on better.

[00:00:32] Speaker A: Yeah, but.

[00:00:33] Speaker B: Okay, so, 2024, I just figured this out when I was doing research, is the 100th anniversary of the eponymous bandaid.

[00:00:40] Speaker A: Oh, so they've had them since the 20s?

[00:00:44] Speaker B: Yes.

I went to the Johnson and Johnson website for the history of the bandaid, and I stayed for a bandaid quiz.

[00:00:51] Speaker A: You can do a band. That's fun. I'll do any quiz.

[00:00:55] Speaker B: Same. I got 90%. But I may have done some research and also cheated.

I had already been looking into it, and then I took the quiz, and I was like, I'm so smart. No, it was all but way back in the late 19 hundreds when you.

[00:01:17] Speaker A: And I were young.

[00:01:18] Speaker B: Yeah, way back then, a million years ago, back with the mammoth. You could buy bandaids in a tin.

[00:01:25] Speaker A: Yes, you can again. Now they're, like $5 more than regular bandaids.

[00:01:30] Speaker B: I haven't seen that with the flip top lid.

[00:01:33] Speaker A: I walk down that row, I'm not even there for bandaids. I'm there for whatever else is in that row, and I'm like, I probably need four tins of these fancy bandaids.

[00:01:42] Speaker B: I don't know. But, I mean, that tin, it was just the right size to fit in, like, a shirt pocket. When I was a kid, you had, like, fishing supplies in there. It's almost like the cookie tin. That's actually a sewing kit.

[00:01:55] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.

[00:01:56] Speaker B: The number of times you could open that bandaid tin and it would not be bandaids was about 50 50.

[00:02:02] Speaker A: Yes. Gum. If it's nicely in there. Yeah.

[00:02:05] Speaker B: Okay, so the story of the bandaid. Let me take you back.

[00:02:09] Speaker A: Take me back.

[00:02:10] Speaker B: Back in 1920, Josephine Knight Dixon. Now, Johnson and Johnson says she was accident prone around the kitchen. I feel like she was a woman in the kitchen getting burns and cuts. That just happens.

[00:02:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Because the kitchen was a lot more dangerous in the. Yeah.

[00:02:26] Speaker B: Keep her away from the knives. But back then, we didn't have bandaids, so she would just wrap her fingers in a bit of spare fabric that she had lying know, and it would come untied and it would get dirty....

images: Cloisters Deck from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and and example of cards from today from pixabay

Show Notes:

The strange coincidence of the Instagram guy & 52 card decks

Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Cloisters Playing Cards

Atlas Obscura: Playing cards around the world and through the ages

JSTOR: an excerpt from The Game of Leaves: An Inquiry into the Origin of Chinese Playing Cards

Wikipedia: Chinese Playing Cards

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hey there. Trace here. So Amy and I have a couple projects coming up over the next couple months. She's taking some classes. She's got to do homework. I've got some projects, a fiction podcast that I'm working on writing, and a novel that I'm working on editing. And we need a little more space, a little more time. So we're not stopping brain junk. Absolutely not. We love it too much to quit. But we are going to move to every two weeks instead of every week. So that means this week is an episode, and then we won't have another episode until April 2. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't get your brain junk fixed. We got lots of old episodes. You can head over to YouTube for the really old episodes. I'm slowly uploading more. We're not going anywhere. We're just going to dial it back a little bit for a little while. So enjoy this episode. Yeah, we'll see you in two weeks.

Welcome to Brain junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:59] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today we're going to talk about everything you never knew you wanted to know about playing cards.

Are you a card family? Like old school? Not like games, but the traditional four suit deck.

[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah, we are. Well, you know, it's funny because I grew up as a card family. Chaz did not grow up as a card family. They were a scrabble family. And I have converted him to the crazy eights and the Kings in the know, the old people card games.

[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. Now, I have never played kings in the corner. My family is a rummy family. I think there's some cribbage in there, too, with the little pegs. Children were not allowed to touch that. I think it was an adult escape game because they played it out at the lake and they're like, shouldn't you guys be swimming? Grandpa's out watching go swim, so I need to learn to play that one.

[00:01:55] Speaker A: Well, I can teach you how to play cribbage. Chaz and I play cribbage all the time. Neither of my children like to play cards, which is funny. It began and ended with us. That's it. We're done.

[00:02:05] Speaker B: Now.

It's a generational thing in my family because my grandpa was a military fella for a long time, and so it was an officer's. It's a clubby thing. They would have card night. And so that filtered down into my parents play, and we play. Chris didn't play as much, but the kids liked it when they could start playing with the grandparents, and Allie especially, can win.

[00:02:27] Speaker A: See, now, what you have to do is you get your children, because, like Beckett's person, cam likes to play cards, and so you just have to make sure. You have to be like, are you nice to my child? Do you like to play, know,...

Show Notes:

Wikipedia on the history of flip flops

The Paduka

Kanye West being weird as usual with diamond studded flips

Satra: History of the flip flop

Forbes: This Brand Reinvented Flip-Flops (And Made Them A Sustainable Product)

Business Wire: Global Flip Flops Market to Reach $28.5 Billion by 2030, Fueled by Work-from-Home Trend and Growing Demand in Developing Countries - ResearchAndMarkets.com

Obama first US President photoed in slippahs

Guinness account on X: Andre Ortolf running in flip flops

Longest flip flop throw

Flip Flops History and Production Process

Harper's Bazaar

YouTube: Mexican Moms play chancla or no chancla

Washington Post Flip Flop vs Thongs

recycled rubber flops

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to brain junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today we're going to be discussing everything you never knew you wanted to know about flip flops.

Flip flop.

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Or is it thongs? And then all the gen Z's cringed.

[00:00:19] Speaker B: I know. And it is the very first thing I think of every time you say flip flops. For the longest time, I remember the first time somebody corrected my wrong term use. They're like, oh. And I'm like, oh, all right. So the flip flop, for me, the quintessential flip flop, is the black sole, the rainbow striped straps. Oh, I love those things. My aunts had them out at the lake, and they were the coolest.

[00:00:45] Speaker A: I was just trying to think. I once had flip flops that I wore to camp on an overnight. And I can remember that the middle bit tore out of the bottom of the shoe.

[00:00:56] Speaker B: You suffered for 36 hours was limping.

[00:01:00] Speaker A: Along with one flip flop. O...

Show Notes:

YouTube BBC: Ants Adopt a Caterpillar

YouTube Entomological Society of America: Ants and Blues

The Pattern of Social Parasitism in Maculinea teleius Butterfly Is Driven by the Size and Spatial Distribution of the Host Ant Nests

Entomology Today: Carnivorous Caterpillars Fool Ants by Sounding like Queens

PLOS One: Variation in Butterfly Larval Acoustics as a Strategy to Infiltrate and Exploit Host Ant Colony Resources

Scientific American: Actual audio of the caterpillar mimicking an ant

Avian deception using an elaborate caudal lure in Pseudocerastes urarachnoides (Serpentes: Viperidae)

Herpetological.org Pseudocerastes urarachnoides: the ambush specialist (great pictures of the viper!)

Discover: Meet the Snake

Transcript:

00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to brain junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about deadly animal mimics.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: I want to know a lot about that.

[00:00:15] Speaker B: Well, I have two. It's double header. I can't make up my mind about subjects lately and I'm just going to mash it together.

[00:00:21] Speaker C: Bonus.

[00:00:24] Speaker B: So the first one, I'm going to give you a little scenario. You have a child pretending to be a queen, infiltrating a city, deceiving soldiers into taking care of her, all the while eating the real queen's children.

[00:00:37] Speaker C: Oh, my word.

[00:00:38] Speaker A: That sounds like a marvel plot.

[00:00:40] Speaker C: It does, right?

[00:00:40] Speaker B: Horror movie, Sci-Fi it's not. It's the real life of the large blue butterfly caterpillar.

[00:00:47] Speaker A: I was sure we were going down an ant road.

[00:00:50] Speaker C: Well, wow.

[00:00:52] Speaker B: Kind of.

So, according to the plus one 2014 paper, this is the title. Variation in butterfly larval acoustics as a strategy to infiltrate and exploit host ant colony resources.

[00:01:10] Speaker C: Ooh, that's quite the title.

[00:01:12] Speaker B: It's so much title. There are about 10,000 different buggy critters out there faking their way into ant hills to snack on ants.

[00:01:19] Speaker C: That's a lot.

[00:01:20] Speaker A: Poor ants. I know there's a lot of them.

[00:01:23] Speaker C: But that's not an excuse. There's so many.

[00:01:27] Speaker B: We could eat a couple.

[00:01:28] Speaker C: It'll be fine.

[00:01:33] Speaker A: Okay, you're right. That's true.

[00:01:34] Speaker D: Yeah.

[00:01:35] Speaker B: Of all of these butterflies in the matulina family, they're super cute. They're little blue butterflies. The one I'm go...

Show Notes:

Business Insider: interview with Dr. Goldstein

Am I Doing it Wrong? Jan 2024

The Spruce: 7 Best Bidet Attachments

Splinter free toilet paper

History Channel: All the Ways We've Wiped

CBS news article about Johnny Carson creating a toilet paper shortage

And just in case you're not a dinosaur like Trace and Amy, this is Walter Cronkite

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today we're going to be discussing personal care, which is, I know, one of the things you come to brain junk for, because we care about you, and we want you to know you might not be wiping correctly.

[00:00:21] Speaker A: Oh, no.

[00:00:22] Speaker B: This is a hard truth that we need to share with you.

And this comes from Chris Barton.

[00:00:29] Speaker A: Oh, no.

[00:00:29] Speaker B: Who, like, we're sitting watching whatever we're watching on Saturday or Sunday morning, and he's, uh, is this a brain junk? And he sends me this article that's entitled bad news. You're probably wiping all wrong. And I'm like, yes, it is.

Okay, are you ready?

[00:00:50] Speaker A: No.

[00:00:55] Speaker B: Parents is going to be some low key anatomical terms. Shall we talk about Dr. Evan Goldstein? Absolutely. And he is a nationally renowned anal surgeon.

[00:01:05] Speaker A: Oh, wow.

[00:01:05] Speaker B: That is a very specific specialty. But if you need an anal surgeon, you want them to be nationally renowned.

[00:01:15] Speaker A: That's true.

[00:01:16] Speaker B: Proper functionality there is valuable.

So Dr. Evan Goldstein says that the preferred method of wiping is actually not wiping. He describes when you're looking at someone's anus, which isn't a common occurrence unless you've had a child or a lifestyle different than mine, maybe. There's going to be a lot of editing for this episode that's staying in.

So let's think in terms of babies, if that helps you be comfortable with this subject, because we're going to talk about what an anus looks like right now. Okay.

[00:01:57] Speaker A: Button knot.

[00:01:58] Speaker B: It's like an accordion. It's got wrinkles, and it opens and closes. So there's the wrinkly part. That is specifically the anus where the waste products come out of. It opens, it closes. It's useful. However, in front of that and in back of that, the skin is not wrinkly, and it is very thin, and so the potential for damage is much higher. So he says, please, just don't wipe. Stop. It gets very irritated. Don't tear the skin. He says, it gets angry at us.

So instead of wiping, he says he's a huge bidet fan....

Show Notes:

Journal of Ornithology: Anting behavior in birds

Video of crow anting: aka the spicy spa

Bird Note: anting

Facebook video of bald eagles cartwheeling

Bird Note: Eagles cartwheeling

Palm Cockatoos playing their instruments

Research paper on Palm Cockatoos

Funny vid with Conan O'Brien and a palm cockatoo guest

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And I just saw a spider and I'm terrified. But we're going to do this episode because I'm an adult.

Today we're going to, today we're going to talk about everything you never knew you wanted to know about birds.

[00:00:20] Speaker A: Just everything about birds.

[00:00:21] Speaker B: Everything.

[00:00:22] Speaker A: People grab a hot beverage.

[00:00:24] Speaker C: Yep.

[00:00:24] Speaker B: This episode, it's going to be like 12 hours. It's an eight part episode. No, it's like three things that I really thought were cool. And that's everything. So there you go.

[00:00:33] Speaker A: Excellent.

[00:00:34] Speaker C: Yeah.

[00:00:34] Speaker B: We're winning at information, but I saw the spider. You mentioned ants, and the first thing we're going to talk about is this thing called anting. A-N-T-I-N-G. So it's perfect. It's just synergy. We're just coming together.

[00:00:48] Speaker A: Love it.

[00:00:51] Speaker B: If you don't like ants, just, you have to skip through this beginning little part.

[00:00:56] Speaker A: If you see a whole nest of them, do your feet tingle? If I see a whole pile of them, my feet are like having accidentally.

[00:01:04] Speaker B: Stood with my foot in a red ant nest in Georgia.

They're so spicy.

[00:01:11] Speaker C: Yeah.

[00:01:12] Speaker A: I feel like the warmer it gets, the spicier the ants get.

That far south. Those are some very exciting ants.

[00:01:21] Speaker B: Well, and here's the thing.

[00:01:22] Speaker C: Okay.

[00:01:22] Speaker B: So there's at least 250 species of birds like crows and robins and jays that love that acidic spa treatment.

That is what anting is.

Yeah. Okay, so the very thing that we think birds want, the formic acid.

[00:01:44] Speaker A: Whoa.

Excuse me. I'm so sorry. Did that just blow out your ears? That wasn't an ant effect.

[00:01:50] Speaker B: No, it wasn't. Also, it wasn't a. Dad. Know where you're.

[00:01:54] Speaker C: Yeah.

[00:01:56] Speaker A: Here comes one more. I'm sorry.

[00:01:58] Speaker B: Maybe look at the light.

[00:01:59] Speaker C: There we go.

[00:01:59] Speaker A: Excuse me. Goodness. Okay, Georgia. Spicy ants.

[00:02:05] Speaker C: Yeah.

[00:02:05] Speaker B: So spicy ants. The thing that makes them spicy is formic acid. Although red ants...

Trace brought back a whole bunch of fun flavored chips from Uwajimaya, a fantastic Asian grocery store in Seattle! Check out the show notes for our 5 other taste test episodes!

Show Notes:

P.S. If you like the Non Newtonian fluid cup, it's in our Merch store!

P.S.S. in defense of the Pizza flavored chips, when Trace tried them the next day, she could taste the peperoni.

Other Taste Test episodes:

9: Crazy food (we eat cherry pickles)

138: Turkey Candy Corn

142: Socially Distanced Taste Test

229: Taco Truck Jelly Bean Taste Test!

235: Tailgate Candy Corn

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And we're in the same room together.

[00:00:09] Speaker A: I was just debating. Can I interrupt and say we're here together, right by each other.

[00:00:14] Speaker B: It's kind of weird. And we only have one microphone because equipment. And so we're very close. We're standing very not. We're not huggers. We're very close to each other. But we're here because we're going. I know. We're going to talk about. We're going to do a taste test.

[00:00:28] Speaker A: Yes. And we're having a whole sensory experience right now already. Actually, there are some smells happening here.

[00:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I wanted to do the fun, different potato chips that we don't get here in the United States. But every time I go on, like Amazon or something, the teeny tiny bags were an insane amount of money.

[00:00:49] Speaker A: Yes. Like 39 99 for two bags or something. Absurd.

[00:00:52] Speaker B: And then shipping.

[00:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:00:54] Speaker B: And I was at Wajamaya, which is an asian grocery store over in Seattle this weekend, and they had like a wall of a variety of chips.

[00:01:06] Speaker A: Do you remember when lay's did? They had a whole series, so it was like biscuits and gravy and there was like a korean barbecue or something. That was delightful. But that's as close as we've gotten here in the US to anything unique. Yeah.

[00:01:18] Speaker B: So all different. I immediately texted Amy and I was like, how do you feel about this? And you were like, no seafood. But what we're doing is I put tags on the little chip bags of numbers one through seven.

[00:01:33] Speaker A: Nice.

[00:01:33] Speaker B: And then I made plates with one through seven and then gave it to Chaz. And he was like, we should have double blind randomized. And I was like, no, do not take the numbers off of the bags so we don't know. So we can try to figure out what the flavor is just by tasting it, and then we can check the bags.

[00:01:52] Speaker A: Excellent.

[00:01:53] Speaker B: See how close we were, because I love that idea.

Science. Although it's only two people, I predict.

[00:02:01] Speaker A: That I am going to be very suggestible because my sense of smell is not always particularly reliable. I thought we had an electrical burning smell and they're like, oh, no, that's peach tea or something.

All right. Yeah, that could also be that it wasn't peach tea, but it was something entirely different. And so I'm...

Show Notes:

Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences: Pee is for Pregnant: The history and science of urine-based pregnancy tests

NIH timeline of the history of the pregnancy test

Margaret Crane the 26 year old inventor of the home pregnancy test

Dollar Store pregnancy tests

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about pregnancy and pee.

[00:00:14] Speaker A: I feel like I've experienced enough and I'm done with that. But I'm sure you're going to dazzle me.

[00:00:19] Speaker C: Well, yeah.

[00:00:20] Speaker B: Okay. So have you ever done the pregnancy? I mean, you have two kids, you've done the little stick, like the ept kind of thing? I've had two different versions. I've had the huddled in a bathroom waiting feverishly for not pregnant.

[00:00:35] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:00:37] Speaker B: And then also the yes sort of version.

[00:00:40] Speaker A: Yeah.

Have you seen the commercial? There's a commercial out there where they have both scenarios too, and I think that's a smart advertising tool. It's very inclusive.

[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yes.

[00:00:50] Speaker B: Because you might be thrilled and you might not be thrilled at all.

[00:00:54] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:00:55] Speaker C: Okay.

[00:00:55] Speaker B: So while you're waiting feverishly for those two lines to appear or not appear.

[00:01:00] Speaker A: You wash your hands a lot.

[00:01:02] Speaker C: Yeah.

[00:01:03] Speaker B: You're probably not thinking about the science that got you to that moment.

[00:01:07] Speaker A: I kind of was, because I worked at a shelter and we did drug testing, but I never got any further than that. Like, what's activating this and why is it poppy seeds? It's probably not poppy seeds.

[00:01:23] Speaker B: Well, it's something. Something's in there making things turn purple. Well, for pregnancy test, it turns out that the thing that makes the test positive or negative is the amount of hcg hormone. That's human chorionic gonadotrotropin. And I'm just going to say hcg because. Yeah, it's a mouthful.

[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yes.

[00:01:43] Speaker B: Growing embryos give off hcg and that's in a pregnant person's blood and urine.

[00:01:53] Speaker A: So that's why you have to wait a little bit to have enough to show that something is growing.

[00:01:57] Speaker C: Yes.

[00:01:57] Speaker B: That's also why the test says take it in the morning when you've got the first pea of the day, because it's more concentrated. Yeah. I got to thinking about this because I was watching an episode of the great. It's Catherine the Great.

It's an odd show, but they're trying to figure out if she's pregnant or not. And so she comes out of, like a changing room and there is a sheaf of wheat with the grains on it and it's on the floor on a trace. And they have her pee on the wheat.

[00:02:27] Speaker A: Really?

[00:02:28] Speaker B: And she's told, right, if they green up and sprout that she's pregnant. And I went, ha.

[00:02:34] Speaker A:...

Show Notes:

Check out our shop for fun stuff SHIRTS, CUPS, & MORE

Guinness book of World Records: Most hugs, fastest 300km cycle, 300 pound dead weight hang

Bones in a baby's body

Julia Child Mastering the Art of French Cooking page 300

EF5 Moore Tornado

On This Day things that happened

Wootz steel

The Measure of Things website if you're like Amy and want to know random measurements

Show Notes:

University of Exeter Magic and Occult Science MA

NPR interview with Prof. Sajjad Rizvi

Fun book recommendation (that is not for young kids): The Magicians

A second fun book rec because Trace cannot be stopped: The Lefthanded Booksellers of London

Transcript

[00:00:02] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And this is everything you never knew you wanted to know about getting a master's degree in magic and occult science.

[00:00:17] Speaker A: Oh, this is. Okay, I'm going to shut up. You start talking. I'm interested. Let's go.

[00:00:22] Speaker B: Okay. This caught my eye and I'm like, I would like to talk with trace about how we could actually have a degree in magic and magical things and all because trace and I both, I think you a little bit more than me, love that magical world and books are magical to begin with. But then that just magic within books as part of the plot is completely delightful. And I thought, oh my gosh, we can talk about that. It's going to be great.

[00:00:50] Speaker A: Yes. And then just the weird and the odd and the things where you're like, did I see that out of the corner of my eye? Is this, you know, magic being a concept?

[00:00:59] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.

So you have to go to the University of Exeter in England.

[00:01:05] Speaker A: Fancy this.

[00:01:07] Speaker B: But it is a master's degree. It does have parameters. It's housed in their Arabic and Islamic studies department, which I think is really interesting and not Eurocentric of them and acknowledges the age of our world and that magic is ancient, ancient, ancient this. It's pretty much always existed with people because there's things we couldn't explain.

So I like that it acknowledges that because we're always going to come back around to Europe. Don't worry, we're going to get back there. But we are going to get to Merlin. But we don't need to start with Merlin.

[00:01:40] Speaker A: No.

[00:01:41] Speaker B: And just a quick definition for those of you that hear words but haven't really thought you operationally use them but haven't defined them. Esotericism is secret knowledge for a small group of people. Also describes mystical, spiritual or occult points of view. And occult is supernatural, mystical or magical beliefs, practices or phenomena. Just in case you need a refresher there.

[00:02:03] Speaker A: Esotericism, yes.

[00:02:06] Speaker B: That is part of the wording of their degree. So when people get a little bit oogie boogie about magic and the occult and religion comes into play, they're kind of hand in glove. They are historically. So I just thought it's worth defining those things in case you're like, I'm not talking about converting over to the dark side. Although of course there's always that somebody is going to use magic for evil.

[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:02:33] Speaker B: But let's talk about the educational background first. Exeter was founded in 1855 by Sir Stafford Northcott. It is such a good name and he started a school of arts. He envisioned that as a cultural cente...

In 1886, the US government decided it was time we cataloged every fruit. Lacking the ability to take color pictures, a small group of artists, led by a talented female painter, began to create a record of over 6,000 fruits.

Show Notes:

USDA Pomological Watercolors

United States Dept of Agriculture: Ag magazine article on pomological watercolors

Daily "old fruit pictures" bot on that site formerly known at twitter

Deborah Griscom Passmore's lovingly written obituary Page 1 of 4 and Page 4 of 4.

P.S. We mention a mangosteen and then never explain what it is. Mangosteen is an evergreen tree from Central Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.) The ripe fruits are purple and considered a food and a medicinal item.

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Should we do a different one? Welcome, Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton. I'm here with my cozy cup of tea. And today we have with us Trace Kerr. Trace, tell us a little about yourself.

[00:00:13] Speaker B: I hate everything about that.

[00:00:15] Speaker A: Today we're going to be talking about muffin tops. We're never going to talk about that. We're never going to. I'll circle back. I'm going to try it one more time, but I'll do it properly and won't say Amy Bart like it's a question. I'm going to be decisive that that's my name. Okay.

Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:34] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about pomology.

I didn't think we were going palm P-A-M-P-O-P-O-M. Pomo.

Pomology.

[00:00:48] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah.

It's the science of fruit breeding and production.

[00:00:53] Speaker A: Most things I've heard of a little. I've never heard of that.

[00:00:56] Speaker B: Me neither. And the reason why I know about it, actually, we're not really specifically talking about that, but we are going to be talking about a whole bunch of paintings that were done in what Anson dubbed ye oldie seed catalog, volume one.

[00:01:12] Speaker A: I love that style.

[00:01:15] Speaker B: I do, too.

[00:01:15] Speaker A: My favorite tattoo artist also is an illustrator for botanical books and does a lot of that cool stuff. Anyway, side road.

[00:01:23] Speaker B: Let's get to these botanicals. I am going to send you a couple to look at. I'm going to text them to you. Did the pictures come through? Have you seen them?

[00:01:36] Speaker A: Yes. They're amazing.

The first apple. You all out there, look them up too. It looks like you could pick it up. And it's a screedoesn't it? Does 7497 hand drawn pictures.

[00:02:18] Speaker A: Wow. How many different artists?

[00:02:21] Speaker...

Image: Emma Sharp

Show Notes:

BBC: The strange 19th century sport that was cooler than football

Wikipedia: Foster Powell

National Galleries of Scotland: Captain Robert Barclay-Allardyce

Ultrarunninghistory.com: The Barclay Match

Old Weird Scotland: The Celebrated Pedestrian

Atlas Obscura: How competitive walking captivated Georgian England

Wiki: Emma Sharp and her very fancy walking suit

Ada Anderson

The Pedestriannes: America's Forgotten Superstars

Wikipedia: Pedestrianism

Edward Payson Weston

Ultrarunning history: The first Astley belt

First Women's six day footrace

Smithsonian: The terrible 1904 Olympic marathon

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today we are going to talk about the exciting world of competitive walking.

[00:00:18] Speaker A: Okay, so you said pedestrianism, and I was like, is it politics?

Is it some sort of social, cultural construct? I didn't look it up, though.

[00:00:29] Speaker B: It's 18th and 19th century competitive walking.

[00:00:35] Speaker A: I'm out there with my top hat. I have my monocle. Watch out.

[00:00:39] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, drat. What's the show called? Brian Cranston was the Malcolm in the middle, and there is an episode where he does some trace walking. So if you haven't checked that out in a while, it's worth looking up because Brian Cranston has some sweet moves. But that is not the direction we're going today. Let's return back to the main trail here.

So let's talk about what it is.

Indeed. It was foot wagers, which actually started in the 17th century, when terrible rich people would wager to see whose footmen could keep up with the carriage. No. Yeah, people are terrible.

Let's see how fast the poor people can walk.

That's exactly what it sounds like. And the dudes inside are bedding. It's just like in the fast and furious where they lean their heads out of the carriage and they trash talk a little bit and then they go, and then their guys have to walk. I'm not sure if that's exactly what it's like, but that's what I'm imagining. So that's kind of the start. Foster Powell is supposedly one of the early proponents. He walked 100 miles in 21 hours and 35 minutes, which is wild.

[00:01:51] Speaker A: Go, Forest, go.

[00:01:53] Speaker B: Yeah, and I was doing the math on some of these mileages, and they're pretty fast miles. Like, I toot along and I feel pretty happy and just a l...

Show Notes:

Carl Straat diving bell ship (the video Amy watches during the episode): https://www.tiktok.com/@machinepix/video/7255824577534725418

wocomoMOTORS video short

Ship technology magazine article on the Carl Straat

How the ship works, interview with the captain: https://www.damen.com/insights-center/articles/your-questions-answered-the-german-diving-bell-vessel

Need more weird ships? Check out this wiki of the now decommissioned R/P FLIP

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about diving bell ships.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: I am delighted by swimming, but terrified of drowning. So I'm sort of morbidly fascinated with anything with the word diving. And then this gives me those old timey. Yeah, I'm curious.

[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah. This is going to give you the heebie gajibis.

This all takes place on the Rhine river, which goes from Switzerland through Germany and the Netherlands out to the North Sea. You know what a river through so many developed cities needs? A riverbed cleaning crew.

[00:00:42] Speaker C: Yes.

[00:00:43] Speaker B: So I'm going to send you a TikTok of the Carl strot diving bell ship doing its job.

[00:00:48] Speaker A: Oh, this is much more modern than I expected. I expected old timey.

[00:00:53] Speaker B: Right.

[00:00:54] Speaker A: This is going to scare me more.

[00:00:57] Speaker B: It's going to.

[00:00:59] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh! I can't wait to hear about the things they have found.

Does it make a pressurized cabin on the floor?

[00:01:07] Speaker B: It does.

[00:01:11] Speaker A: Okay. I might have to conquer my fear and get an internship there.

[00:01:15] Speaker B: That is wild. Yeah.

[00:01:19] Speaker B: So what Amy's looking at there is a floating tugboat. It's quite long, very flat, just above the surface of the water. It looks almost like a floating rectangle as opposed to a boat, and has a huge boom, almost like a crane that splits down the middle of the boat. And it reminds me of like a vacuum cleaner attachment with a rectangular room on that far end. And that room that's on the end is open at the bottom and compressed air is pumped into the arm to keep water out of the room. Have you seen it touch down on the riverbed?

[00:01:52] Speaker A: But it's wild.

[00:01:53] Speaker A: It's like a dry river bottom.

[00:01:55] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:01:56] Speaker A: And they're just roaming around, picking up like an old plate.

I wonder how much effort it takes to move it. Or if they can kind of slowly cook along, or if they have to lift up and pressurize. Sit down and pressurize every time.

[00:02:14] Speaker B: I have so many answers to your questions. Okay.

[00:02:17] Speaker A: I'm going to stop talking.

[00:02:18] Speaker B: So this is in the show notes.

[00:02:20] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:02:20] Speaker B: So go and watch the TikTok. So the boat picks a spot and th...

Show Notes:

NIH National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biological Information: Anti-Fel d1 immunoglobulin Y antibody-containing egg ingredient lowers allergen levels in cat saliva by Ebenezer Satyaraj et al.

Very Well Health overview of the paper

In case you're curious, here's the Purina cat food (not sponsored)

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today we're going to talk all about cat allergies and the people you love who get mucusy and how to solve that problem.

[00:00:18] Speaker A: Okay. Because we need to do this because Beckett's person, Cam, who comes over to visit quite a lot, is slightly allergic, although I think they're improving. And I think I might have read this study. So I have some theories. So let's go.

[00:00:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm excited, because this is the thing. So, for those of you who don't have cat allergies, which is 80% to 90% of the population, so high five for you. So ten to 20% of the global population do have an allergy to dogs or cats, cat allergies are twice as common. For those of you blessed with not allergies, it manifests as sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, wheezing skin. My eyes get itchy. Oh, it's not great. And the solutions in these modern times are antihistamines and immunotherapy, which is you go in once a week and you get a shot, and you slowly build up an immunity. So it's just exposure therapy is what it sounded like. Oh, long and slow can take a really long time, and it's expensive. Insurance is like, you could take Benadryl.

[00:01:19] Speaker A: You could just not have a cat.

[00:01:22] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

Well, and this would be, too, for, like, if you have a pine allergy and those kinds of things. But their insurance is, maybe it's better, but mine has never been like, oh, yeah, we support that. They're like, benadryl.

Anywho, there is a solution, so here's why the problem happens. There is an allergen that cats have. It's found on their skin, in their urine and saliva. So it's not actually initially their hair that is the problem. The allergen is called. It's a protein called feld one, and they get it on their fur because they lick. And so there's saliva. That sticky allergen sticks everywhere, and it also can be fluffy and airborne and stays in the air for a long time. That dander. So it's not great if you have a cat allergy. Just not being in the room with the cat is not really enough.

[00:02:19] Speaker A: At the height of my catness, we had three, and I have sat next to people out in public who have turned to me and gone, do you have cats? Because I'm stuffy.

[00:02:31] Speaker B: And what's happening there? Their body is responding to the felD1one with an antibody known as IgY.

I didn't look up how to say this. I tried with one, and I'm like, they don't pronounce this, so I'm going to assume. They say IgY. Shall we assume that?

[00:02:49] Speaker A: I feel confident.

[00:02:51] Speaker B: Good....

image: AlKalenski from pixabay, Antarctic seal and iceberg

Show Notes:

Lindblad Expedition with national Geographic movie

More National Geographic

Research Gate diagrams of wave washing

CBS 8 San Diego, killer whales attacking boats in Spain

We mentions sharks hunting seals in a very sneaky way: Marine Dynamics Shark and Whale Tours

Top 10 animals that kill people. Hippos are top of the list

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about wave washing.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Um, is this going a laundry direction or are we tumbling rocks?

[00:00:18] Speaker B: I know. You're like, it's a wave. Why do we need to clean it? We're not talking about that.

[00:00:23] Speaker A: That's good.

[00:00:24] Speaker B: This is the western Antarctic Peninsula. We're going cold. We're going, you know, a big sea with lots of little chunks of ice floating on it.

[00:00:33] Speaker A: No, thank you.

[00:00:34] Speaker B: Crab eater and Waddell seals versus killer whales. This one is not for the faint of heart.

[00:00:41] Speaker A: Ooh, this sounds like the Oatmeal is doing a cartoon.

[00:00:46] Speaker B: Who would win versus. Okay, so they look like the cute harbor seals you see in reels or TikToks, the ones where they're in the zoo. They got their cute little faces. They're about 600 pounds. Like I said, miles and miles of ice chunks floating on water ten to 20ft across. Crab eater seals or the Waddell seals, they rest on this ice. I would not want to lay on a giant floating ice cube like a crouton. But they're blubbery. They can do it. Okay.

[00:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:01:17] Speaker B: I've sent you a video.

[00:01:22] Speaker A: Okay. We're going to have a nice commercial first.

[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. And what Amy's going to be watching is how these killer whales hunt.

[00:01:32] Speaker A: Oh, I can skip the ad now.

[00:01:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're going to have a couple of seconds of preamble and then you'll.

[00:01:39] Speaker A: See this is the sort of place that has those beautiful big ice structures, too, that have, like, holes through them. Okay. And I'm watching an angry seal get sassy at some orcas. Okay.

Four orcas just swam under a chunk of ice and swamped the seal off of it. Yeah.

[00:01:59] Speaker B: That is wave washing.

[00:02:02] Speaker A: Is this what they also do to the boats now? This is a coordinated effort. That looks like a horror movie. Y'all.

[00:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's four of them. They're in a line. They come out underneath, like the boat that's watching.

[00:02:16] Speaker A: That's horrifying.

[00:02:17] Speake...

P.S. Sugar the sheep had 28 pounds of wool shorn off. That'd make a lot of sweaters!

Show Notes:

Brain Junk Merch

Sugar the Sheep article on UPI with a great link to an Instagram video of Sugar getting sheared

LittleCreekMontana.com history of why sheep need to be sheared

Trigger warning on this scholarly article on precocious mummification; there are full on color photos of an autopsy. Cureus article: A Rare Phenomenon of Natural Precocious Mummification

A less juicy review of the Cureus paper on IFLscience.com

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Trace Kerr.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Amy Barton. And today on brain junk, we are going to talk about a couple little shorties that I'm just excited about and that have absolutely no relationship to one another. Oh, I feel like this is the true spirit of brain junk. Like, just, I'm interested in this and you might be, too.

[00:00:26] Speaker A: Okay, I'm ready.

[00:00:27] Speaker B: I have one very tenuous connection, but we'll let you decide at the end. Our first one is about sheep or a sheep. This fall, late fall, a sheep was found in Australia to be living with a herd of kangaroos. Are they a herd? What's a group of kangaroos called?

[00:00:44] Speaker A: Isn't it a mob?

[00:00:46] Speaker B: Probably. That sounds about right there. Yes, it's a mob.

[00:00:50] Speaker A: Aha.

[00:00:51] Speaker B: Okay, so let's get back on track here. A sheep was observed, and actually it's been for about a year. This sheep has been observed with a mob of kangaroos in the sugarloaf reservoir nature area in Australia. And for those of you who want to know where it's at on the map, it's a little northeast of Melbourne. Looks like maybe about an hour from the bay. Oh, southern central Australia is where this guy is hanging out. And they think sugar ran away about five years ago and has been living with this mob of kangaroos that whole time. And so somebody finally corralled sugar and brought him in because these modern sheep need to be sheared.

[00:01:35] Speaker A: I was going to say, how much wool was on that sheep?

[00:01:38] Speaker B: Quite a lot. But if you look at pictures, that was one of the noteworthy things is sugar was actually in pretty good shape. They sheared him and his skin looked good still, and he seemed to be in good health underneath his overgrown coat. And so apparently, the kangaroo life was good for sugar. And now sugar's living out his days in peace on a sanctuary, joined by other rescue farm animals. So he will still have community. It just won't be kangaroos anymore.

[00:02:13] Speaker A: Wow, that is so much I'm watching.

I don't know where I am. I'm on instagram. So much wool.

[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks so thick. And so that got me to wondering, what did sheep do before modern farming when we sheared the sheep? And the answer to that is pretty simple, that we, over time, have bred shaggy sheep, and that has been...

Show notes:

US Energy Information Administration magnetism explanation with diagrams

Magnets and repelling sharks!

YouTube sharks vs magnets!

Jenny Lawson and her experience with transcranial magnetic stimulation

More info on the science of magnets and your brain from the Mayo Clinic

Frontiers in Zoology: Dogs and pooping on the north south axis...maybe

NASA archive on the history of magnetism

Advanced Functional Materials paper on magnets used to clean oil spills

Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) collab on Another paper on magnets and oil

Transcript

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about how magnets work.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Magnets, how they work.

[00:00:15] Speaker B: My eldest, Anson, his friend Rand, we were talking and he's like, I've listened to the podcast and I want to know, how do magnets work?

[00:00:22] Speaker A: It does the long pause here. Usually I've got banter, there's a gear grind here. I'm like, I feel like I've heard before and there's repelling and attracting, but no, I'm just going to go along for the ride with this one.

[00:00:37] Speaker B: Makes you feel any better. So I googled magnets how, and it was how do magnets get their energy? How does a magnet attract metal? And my favorite, why do magnets exist?

[00:00:52] Speaker A: Feel like they're created too, right?

[00:00:54] Speaker B: I went straight to the US Energy information Administration. Didn't know we had it, but we do same. Let's go back to like 8th and 7th grade. We're heading back to middle school for just a second. So in the middle of an atom, you've got your nucleus and electrons are spinning around it and they're going randomly. It's like a rave, there's music playing, they're going wherever they want to go. And as they spin, each of them is creating a little tiny magnetic field. But because they're all going in random directions, they kind of cancel each other out. Okay, but when you have a magnet, all the atoms have joined into molecules. The molecules make a thing and all of their electrons are spinning in the same direction. So it's like a line dance instead of a mosh pit.

[00:01:39] Speaker A: Yes.

Thank you.

[00:01:42] Speaker B: Okay, and when they're all going in the same direction, it creates a magnetic field and it flows from one end to the other. There's a lot of drawings where they'll have like a rectangle and one end has an n on it and one end has an s on it, north and south, they just kind of say that they're not necessarily...

Also shout out to Hank the dog, he was a goofy guy and much loved by Amy and her family. RIP Hank, you'll be missed.

Show Notes:

NIH National Library of Medicine: Super cool snail slime paper

NPR scientist interview

Snail Facial with REAL SNAILS!

Transcript:

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to Brain Junk. I'm Amy Barton.

[00:00:05] Speaker B: And I'm Trace Kerr. And today is everything you never knew you wanted to know about Snail mucus.

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Oh, I am delighted already.

[00:00:18] Speaker B: It's not just for sidewalks anymore.

[00:00:20] Speaker A: Really? I hope there's some practical use, like this is a part of our perfume or, you know, that chapstick you just used. Okay, dazzle me with grossness, please.

[00:00:30] Speaker B: You're going to love this. Okay, so let's get into mucus first. Such a great word. What do you think of when I say mucus?

[00:00:38] Speaker A: Well, I have asthma, so I immediately think of I have to cough, so mucus is alarming to me It hits that first, not gross.

[00:00:51] Speaker B: Okay. I always think of the frog in princess and the frog when somebody's like, it's slimy. The frog is slimy. And he's like, it's not slime, it's mucus.

[00:01:03] Speaker A: Oh, that's entirely different. Fine. Wonderful.

[00:01:08] Speaker B: Well, snails use mucus as a lot of things. They use it as a glue. They use it to make a slick non stick surface to glide on. And apparently it takes a lot of work to make a snail trail biologically.

[00:01:22] Speaker A: Really? So mucus for snails is like the duct tape of the snail world.

[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah! Well, and I was reading this one paper, and they were saying like 10% of their energy goes into creating.

[00:01:33] Speaker A: That's a lot.

[00:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So slime scientist Antonio Cerullo from University of New York, comparative mucomic analysis of three functionally distinct cornu aspersum species. Say that three times fast.

[00:01:49] Speaker A: I would like to meet this person.

[00:01:51] Speaker B: Well, you know what? There's an NPR four minute long thing where he's interviewed, so I'll have that in the show notes. He is delightful to listen to. So he is digging into the importance of snail secretions.

And so, fun fact, they gathered snail slime in a lot of different ways. So they went to a snail grower who grows them for, like, escargot, that kind of stuff. And they were like, would you mind if we scraped your snails?

[00:02:20] Speaker A: I really hope you're going to tell me that snail mucus is like sweat. And if they're nervous, you can tell from their mucus.

[00:02:29] Speaker B: Oh, no. But they scrape them in different places. So you scrape the back of the snail, the top of that foot, and you get a protective mucus that does all sorts of interesting things. And then snail trail like that, they leave on the ground that has that slick slidy stuff that's going on. And then for the adhesive mucus, they take a petri dish, they stick the snail on it, and they flip it upside down. And then the snail is like, oh, I have to stick. And so it does its sticky stuff. And then the snail moves around on the upside down petri dish, and then they scrape that off, and that gets that third kind of mucus.

[00:03:07] Speaker A: Wow.

[00:03:08] Speaker B: I know! I'm imaginin...

P.S. Trace's lovely sister-in-law, Kathleen made an Excel spreadsheet of all our episodes and it's coming soon to our website for you to dig through.

Show Notes:

Australian woman with a BRAIN WORM

The Nun study

Extra mouse teeth

Popular Mechanics article about supernumerary teeth

2024 tooth clinical trial

Brains at night

And the Science article: Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain

Ghost month

Legend tripping: mourning chairs/devils chairs

flying ticks and the tick video that had Trace reeling!

image: US Army photo of 1905 Arlington national Cemetery time capsule being opened

We didn't hear him in background of the episode, but Leap says hello!

Show Notes:

Norwegian time capsule a bit of a let down: Smithsonian Magazine

Campbell House in Spokane, WA.

1939 New York World's Fair Westinghouse Time Capsule

Some of the oldest American time capsules!

MFA Boston: Massachusetts 1795 Time Capsule

Voyager Golden Records

Oglethorpe University: Crypt of Civilization

P.S. Today is Amy Barton's birthday!!!!! DM her on our Instagram with Bday wishes!

image: Yahoo news

Show Notes:

YouTube: Discover Wisconsin

Boats moving the floaty islands! YOU HAVE TO WATCH

Show Notes:

Check out our merch SHOP!

Air and Space museum Coke can and Pepsi can

Microgavity? What the heck is that?

No spices allowed in space!

We mentioned Mary Roach and her science writing. Check out her books!

Astronaut Chris Hadfield interview about burping in space.

YouTube: Can you cry in space?

Liquid in space video

UK Space Agency video: Fizzy drinks in space

Amy got really dark talking about the moon falling into the Earth. Here's an explanation as to why that isn't going to happen.

The Vomit Comet

We adore them.

image: Pixabay, Herbert Bieser

Show notes:

Video of climbing baby Hoatzin: Youtube

Current Biology: Hoatzin quick guide

Earth Planet Youtube

image: Library of Congress

Show Notes:

Smithsonian Nation Air and Space Museum go here for pictures of: Kiddo the cat

Need some in-depth detail on the airship America, including diagrams and examples of how the crew slept? Check out this Airships.net article!

Show notes:

Historylink.org by Jim Kershner: Armed Cheney citizens forcibly remove the county seat from Spokane Falls to Cheney on March 21, 1881

Spokane Historical by Drew Goodman: Fight for the Spokane County Seat

Wikipedia in-depth history of Spokane

Short Spokane history timeline from Discoveryrobots.org and their references

Care to share a little Brain junk with your friends? Check out our new merch! https://brain-junk-merch.printify.me/products

Show Notes:

Funny thing, Trace used articles from C&EN news but some of those articles aren't available to the "general public". We've got links to other sources covering the information!

Platypusary: Blend of platypus +‎ nursery, coined by Australian naturalist Henry Burrell (1873–1945), the first person who succeeded in constructing a functioning platypusary.

Blue Honey

Chrysippus may have died from laughing at his own joke: Wikipedia

Assassins' teapot: YouTube

Old old water and one crazy scientist

Like how old? over a million years YIKES

Toxic foods

Medical News Today and just how much salt is too much

Stradivarius in C&EN news

Osmoregulation and bull sharks: You might've swum in a lake with one!

More bull sharks!

Flipping over penguins, NOT

Show Notes:

TikTok pigeon pilot footage

NIST history report on pigeons and invention

Wikipedia: Project Pigeon

image: pixabay

Show Notes:

Atlas Obscura: A Brief History of Napkins, From Soft Dough to Paper

Wikipedia on napkins

Culinaria: The Origin of the Fork

Chih pha: The Chinese napkin

We talk about which is better environmentally, paper napkins or cloth. It seems like cloth might be better. Sorry paper napkin stans.

image by: manfredrichter on pixabay

image below: The Ellesmere Chaucer, a beautifully decorated manuscript of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, was created between approximately 1400 and 1410, using iron gall ink for the text lettering. The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Show Notes:

Instagram example of a gall

Davey Insect and Disease Research Center on oak galls

Making Ink from Oak Galls from The Huntington museum in California

Wikipedia on making oak gall ink (support Wikipedia if you can, they are a valuable resource)

UK's Royal Horticultural Society on oak galls and wasps

American Museum of Natural History: Kinsey's wasps

Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County (Trace adores this museum!) Oak Wasp Galls article

Show Notes: (It's a good thing this isn't on paper 'cause there are tons of notes this time)

228: Why Don't We Lay Eggs? We talk about how viruses change who we are.

LiveScience: What is the maximum number of biological parents an organism can have?

Genome Biology and Evolution from Oxford Academic: Genome Expression Balance in a Triploid Trihybrid Vertebrate 

Nature: First UK children born using three-person IVF: what scientists want to know

Famous internet cat might not be a chimera but rather an example of mosaicism. Gotta love a chromosomal triploid

NIH National Library of Medicine and the possibility of having "multiple parents": Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques: Ethical, Social, and Policy Considerations.

Show Notes:

Sandbox Tree info on Britannica

Animalogic YouTube with exploding Sandbox tree seedpods

Water Hemlock is terrible

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Giant Hogweed WARNINGS

Trigger warning for this last link. Photos of a leg burned with Giant Hogweed sap

Show Notes:

258: Quahog Wild

Advanced Earth and Space Sciences paper (Geophysical Research Letters): Drift of Earth's Pole Confirms Groundwater Depletion as a Significant Contributor to Global Sea Level Rise 1993–2010 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2023GL103509

The Smartless podcast

Show Notes:

TikTok video of a Romanian Whirlpool in action

YouTube of ladies washing with a valtoare

WorldRecordAcademy.org article

Peasantartcraft.com about Romanian lifestyle

From Trace's weird word origin deep dive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangle_(machine)

https://www.etymonline.com/word/mangle

Show notes:

Molecular Biology and Evolution article: Major Genetic Risk Factors for Dupuytren's Disease Are Inherited From Neandertals June 2023

Dupuytren Contracture: what exactly is it and how does it affect a person's hands

Nature Ecology and Evolution article: Encounters with archaic hominins Nov 2018

The sailor's handshake and syphilis

Amy mentioned the book The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels and how it led her on a deep dive into handshakes

Show Notes:

Science.org: Tsunami-driven rafting: Transoceanic species dispersal and implications for marine biogeography

Nature Article on Trash

Marine Debris Program: article and video

Science Alert

Coastal Debris

image Mooss from Pixabay

Show Notes:

Youtube of How It's Made: Oreo (go to 3:30 for cream being placed on the cookies!)

Physics of Fluid: On Oreology, the fracture and flow of “milk's favorite cookie®”

Crystal Owens GitHub Oreometer

Quicksand IS a non-Newtonian fluid!

Show Notes:

Step into the way back machine and give our 100th episode a listen(we talk about bomb sniffing rats)!

Cornell Ed article on vaginal plasticity

Phys Org article by Laura Gallup: Bomb-sniffing rodents undergo 'weird' vaginal transformations

Just incase you NEED to know more about thr African Giant Pouched Rat and their stretchy cheeks. Journal of Mammology: Evolution of Cheek Pouches in African Pouched Rats (Rodentia: Cricetomyinae)

YES the FB movie of the snacking rat

P.S. We aren't really looking for someone to organize our episode contents. Not because we don't need it. It's mostly because we run this show on the shoe-stringiest of shoe string budgets

image of brain coral just for comparison to the human brain (credit samkerridge on pixabay268

Show Notes:

PNAS: TMEM161B modulates radial glial scaffolding in neocortical development

UC San Diego Today article: Study Identifies Cause for Excessive Folding of Gyri in Human Cerebral Cortex

Alzheimer's and Nun study from Wikipedia

Photo of the Difference in brain folds rats vs humans

Show Notes:

Communication Biology: Parasitic infection increases risk-taking in a social, intermediate host carnivore

Scientific American: Are Cats responsible for "Cat Ladies"?

Show Notes:

257: Pruney Fingers

2014 NIH reprint of Journal of Neurophysiology Why wet feels wet? A neurophysiological model of human cutaneous wetness sensitivity

IFL Science version

Science Daily: Understanding the Illusion of Wetness

YouTube of The rubber fake hand experiment!

Scientists having to pay to publish

Want to get really mad? Try A Little Wordy

Show Notes:

What is an Anole? Britannica

Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Blog Aug 19, 202: Air bubbles allow some lizards to breathe underwater

Current Biology vol. 31 issue 13, Repeated evolution of underwater rebreathing in diving Anolis lizards

Need your Tuesday to feel more like freshman English? Here's those vocab words that will NOT be on the quiz:

Hydrophobic: tending to repel or not mix with water

Rugose: wrinkled, corrugated

Plastron: large pad worn by fencers

And in case you were curious, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from 1968 with Dick Van Dyke

Snake robot legs video!

Show Notes:

We mention The Muppet Show: if you don't know, here's a clip of Statler & Waldorf

Kids discover how EpiPens work in space from The Smithsonian

Cubes in Space: The Only Global STEM Program for Students 11-18 years of Age
Providing Two Suborbital Flight Opportunities on NASA Missions.

Hopkins students invent a battle ready wound bandage

Joseph-Armand Bombardier teenage inventor of the snowmobile!

The Baby Hot Seat

image: Jackalopes at Wall Drug

Show Notes:

Trace on Instagram

Amy on Instagram

Brain Junk Instagram

Nature March 2023 Mice grow ‘mini-antlers’ thanks to deers’ speedy stem cells

2020 antler cells study with mice: WARNING the pictures are a bit much

Also the actual 2020 Maples Scientific Publishers paper

Mice regrow TOES? Science 1982

image of young puppy and adult dog from Pixabay

Show Notes:

Correction Corner! We got things wrong listing Trey Idecker as the main author of the Cell Systems paper. While Idecker was the Senior author, it was Tina Wang who was First Author.

• UC San Diego article about Tina Wang and Trey Idecker with a charming age graph comparison of Tom Hanks to a Golden Lab.

• Aug 2020 Cell Systems article: Quantitative Translation of Dog-to-Human Aging by Conserved Remodeling of the DNA Methylome by Tina Wang et al.

We mention a Jan 2023 study in Science talking about age reversal in mice!

Show Notes:

Need some low background lead? Let us know if they tell you a price.

The Wiki for more...as if you'd need more after our episode (wink).

We talked about the RAADS-R test for autism. If you're curious you can take it HERE.

Show Notes:

British Medical Journal article You must check out diagrams in the paper!!!!

Ars Technica link to video of people being studied while they try the Silly Walking!!!

Quantifying the benefits of inefficient walking: Monty Python inspired laboratory based experimental study

The classic, the OG, John Cleese as Mr. Teabag, and Monty Python complete with canned laughter

image: b. minnick from pixabay

Show Notes:

DownieLive visit to a cranberry bog. Let us know if YOU see any spiders!

Amy's Instagram for the biscuits

Spider research from the University of Massachusetts: Predation behavior of spiders (Arachnida: Araneae) in Massachusetts cranberry bog ecosystems.

Did you know you can count shell ridges like tree rings to determine age? Clams pictured are not quahogs, but you get the idea of how the ridges look.

Show Notes:

Aber-clam Lincoln article

Ming the Clam--the oldest we've found so far.

Dr. Bruce Liberman commenting on survival of the sluggish

Just incase you are also somewhere on the timeline for a colonoscopy... you have our sympathies. Check this out: What is a colonoscopy?

We were surprised to learn the science of wrinkled-in-water fingers. It's not from absorbing water like we were told as kids.

Show Notes:

A blast from the past Episode 194: Iris Sphincters

The TikTok that got me interested in all things wrinkled fingers Dex (@dexter.mp4)

Nature: Science gets a grip on wrinkly fingers by Becky Summers

PLOS ONE: Water-immersion finger-wrinkling improves grip efficiency in handling wet objects

Newcastle University: Dr. Tom Smulders paper in wet grip vs dry grip in Biology Letters

Learn more with the BBC

Japanese Snow Monkeys

Does cake have anything to do with pruney fingers? Absolutely not. But this is a fun watch. Tomato soup cake with B. Dylan Hollis

Show Notes:

Amy references this study HARD Fear of clowns: An investigation into the prevalence of coulrophobia in an international sample

Top ten fears in America 2022: Chapman University

Show Notes:

Francis Mattson Hines and his art in the dumpster and the wrapped Washington Square Arch

Recycled art in an airport

Art in a couch

Art hidden from an ex-wife

Stewart Little surprise painting on the set!

Past episodes: 244: Stinky Critters for binturong and 34: Wombat Poop

Wombat mama and baby! image by budgme on pixabay

Binturongs hanging out in the sun. image by Kevinsphotos on pixabay

Show Notes:

Australian Geographic Nov. 2020 interview with Alyce Swinbourne about Wombat Bums

⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇Content warning below: wombat butt and the head of a dead fox⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

Smithsonian National Zoo article Binturong females delaying pregnancy (Fun fact, Trace did an internship at the Smithsonian National Zoo Waaaaaaaaaaay back in the day with Golden Lion Tamarin monkeys)

The mutual reltaionship between strangler figs and binturong: NCMNS Education Blog

Show Notes:

NIH report on Redheads and pain thresholds

2004 Study by Daniel Sessler and (Edwin B Liem 1, Chun-Ming Lin, Mohammad-Irfan Suleman, Anthony G Doufas, Ronald G Gregg, Jacqueline M Veauthier, Gary Loyd, ) on Anesthetic requirement in redheads

Redheads might need less analgesics

Want to learn more about skin and melanin? Listen to the Ologies episode on Melaninology!

Show Notes:

Check out this Wiki entry on nightingale floors Trace talked about.

(Amy mentions 4,000 people dying in the years after the fog from long lasting effects. We completely forgot to share the huge number of people who died during the actual days of the event.)

Show Notes:

Getty images of the Great Smog

Want to learn more? Check out this article from The Verge

Memories from people who lived through the great smog: The Guardian

SHOW NOTES:

Amy mentions the Valentines Day Massacre but we didn't want to bring down the mood. Read up here if you want to know

Galentine's Day is Feb 13th! a day for celebrating female friendships! Originating from the TV show ‘Parks and Recreation, the holiday is all about declaring love and affection to the girls who make up our support system

Vinegar Valentines!

Lovebugs

Spanish Fly & toxicity

https://www.kqed.org/pop/20463/the-dark-and-twisted-history-of-valentines-day

https://time.com/4662675/valentines-day-heart-shape-origins/

We mentioned the yooperlite store in our episode too.

There aren't any free Google pictures (sad face) So here's a LINK to pictures of the glowing rocks!!!

Also we talked about strange waves called seiches. Check them out HERE

Episode 238: Uranium Glass if you need more glowing stuff!

Show Notes:

Wikipedia on Paul Bunyan

Want to road trip to all the statues? Check out this road map

Show Notes!

Washington Post recipes in obituaries https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/12/14/obituary-casseroles-funerals/?tag=tastingtablecom-20

Rosa Parks Banana Pancakes on an envelope

4,000 year old recipe for Babylonian Lamb Stew also there's a YouTube version!

Recipes in Obituaries

Nation Geographic article with more deets: Nat Geo

image collated from https://corset-story.com/

Rosie Harte Youtube historian talking about men in corsets--there are some great historical pictures!

The facts and data behind the smell of the Binturong https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/cen-09417-scicon004

image from: Andrius Pašukonis Stanford University (Dad frog wearing his kids and a radio tracker speedo)

Evolutionarily Ecology article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10682-019-09994-z

And just in case you were wondering like we were, it is possible to handle some poison dart frog species bare handed BUT it can damage the very delicate skin of the frog and if you have cuts on your hands they could make you sick. Brain Junk does not condone the holding of poisonous frogs without gloves on. Stay safe out there kids.

#71 Ants with Stilts episode if you're curious about how cringe science can be.

Amy's University bee research: https://www.gonzaga.edu/news-events/stories/2017/5/1/gonzaga-becomes-a-certified-bee-campus-usa

image by David Mark on Pixabay

For adorable pictures of the Egyptian fruit bats https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-translate-bat-talk-and-they-argue-lot-180961564/

Get into the scholarly research nitty-gritty: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.21215

Want to learn more about Wild dog communication? Listen to this oldie but a goodie, http://brainjunkpodcast.com/podcast/bf-12-sneeze-voting/

Take a look at these blood thirsty birbs on Galapagosislands.com

National Geographic vid of the Vampires in action! Not for the faint of heart!

In case you wanted to give it a listen: Ologies Vampire episode with Dr. Jeff Holdeman

image from pixabay.

More resources to check out!

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/for-educators/08.pdf

https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/glass/vaseline-uranium-glass.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass

https://www.iflscience.com/uranium-glass-the-radioactive-glassware-that-could-be-hiding-in-plain-sight-64052

If you're still here, this is Jack perched on his support person, Beckett.

The actual paper! Hold your phone in whatever hand you prefer while reading https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01402-6

Just incase you need MORE of on octopus fix...Amy's husband Chris says it's amazing!

Additional research:

University of Minnesota Research Brief

Check out the California two-spot octopus on

Also Amy mentions Larks and Owls do a fun quiz on yourself to find out what kind of a person you are: Chronobiology Quiz

Some extra research⬇⬇⬇

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0269629

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325694374_Feeling_Hangry_When_Hunger_Is_Conceptualized_as_Emotion

Need to know more about those other episodes we mentioned? Episode 93: Farting Herring & 206:The Smartest Fish?

Measuring Cough Rates in Fish : from the EPA

PBS Fish have Feelings Too

Historical Euphemisms for sexy time

fetishes & feet

https://www.audacy.com/kluv/latest/biologist-explains-why-some-people-have-foot-fetishes

https://www.livescience.com/33525-foot-fetishes-toe-suck-fairy.html

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1057.2762&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Achaemenian Empire and Scaphism

Butterflies drinking blood

Shrike

People pig snacks

Human blood sword

Female Hyena "junk" Check out some more research: https://www.holekamplab.org/

Wounds (ew, ick, gross) and foreskin

Want to get really into the weeds on this Brain Storm? Check out the PubMed.gov abstract: Running speed and REM sleep control two distinct modes of rapid interhemispheric communication

XKCD you should take a look!

images from Pixabay

Check out the Current Biology paper if you want to read more!

And OF COURSE there's video!

Atlas Obscura article by Jessica Hester ! Click the link

Check out the brain behind this topic, Dr. Noc on TikTok

Also Mammals Made By Viruses by Carl Zimmer