Recent Posts

• 173: Mushroom Lightning

  There’s a long tradition of Japanese folklore around the possible relationship between large mushroom harvests and lightning. Researchers decided to put stories to the test. What they discovered was shocking. […]

• 172: Dancing Plague

  During the 1300-1500s there were several accounts of people being afflicted with spontaneous dancing. One group of 400 people were struck with the strange affliction, spent an entire month dancing, […]

• 171: Heavy Metal Snails

  Talk about teamwork! Bacteria and a tiny snail work together to make an iron sulfide infused shell and scaly foot. These intrepid snails live super deep in the ocean the […]

• 170: Penguin Guard Dogs

  Middle Island off the south-western shore Victoria, Australia had a fox problem. A man by the name of Swampy Marsh had the bright idea to protect endangered penguins with Maremma […]

• 169: Naked Man Orchid

  This episode is probably not safe for work. Could your middle schooler listen and giggle like only a 12-year-old could? Certainly. But we’re marking it explicit so you don’t accidentally […]

• 168: The 442nd Infantry

  Once again we dive into a piece of history that should be explored in schools. Thousands of American born Japanese defied prejudice and hate to fight for the US in […]

• 167: Wormnado!

  This amazing image by Tiffanie Fisher says everything you need to know about today’s episode. And no, this isn’t an X-file or the Magnus Archives. This is nature at her […]

• 166: Shenanigans

  It’s that time again for all those bits and pieces that aren’t quite long enough for their own episodes! We’ve mashed together etymology, space toilets, polar bears, an unusual festival […]

• 165: Silently Screaming Tomato

  In a pitched battle against the voracious tomato fruit worm, (aka. corn earworms or cotton bollworm) tomato plants have one sneaky defense…a wasp. It’s a slow plan, but it’s a […]

• 164: Bumblebee Tunnel

  Researcher Sridhar Ravi of UNSW Canberra looks to the humble bumblebee to answer questions about how to program a more nimble drone. The way he and his researchers studied bumbles […]