Blue Streak Science Podcast

• Our first political endorsement!
• The Blue Streak Science News
• The Climate Lounge
• The Asshole of the Month
• Pub Quiz

Political Endorsement Dr. Shannon Hader, Democrat for the 8th Congressional District in Washington

We're coming up on that silly season again, but this time around it seems so much more urgent because so many of us failed to see the reality that we faced during the last election. Part of that reality is that the anti-science and alternative-truth segment of our society have seized power. And folks, they're making the most of it to roll back scientific progress and education.

[caption id="attachment_1215" align="alignright" width="263"] Shannon Hader[/caption]

However, in November we have a chance to slow them down. If we can elect candidates into Congress who understand the importance of science and critical thinking in good government then that will go a long way toward slowing down the damage to our nation and the world that is current happening unabated.  

So this election season the Blue Streak Science Podcast will be endorsing candidates who hold true to the values of science, equality, long-term economic progress, and the preservation and restoration of our natural heritage, both in America and worldwide.

The first candidate we're endorsing is Dr. Shannon Hader who is running to represent the state of Washington's 8th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. Dr. Hader is the former director of the Division of Global HIV & TB at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Do you want to know what the Trump administration is doing to the CDC? Their 2018 budget slashed its funding by $1.2 billion. That a 17% reduction.

Dr. Hader also worked for three years as director of the HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD and TB Administration at the District of Columbia Department of Health.

In making her announcement Dr. Hader said, "Science-based decision-making is under assault at NASA, at the EPA and the CDC, where I felt its effects directly."

Well, we can turn this around by supporting Shannon Hader in her run for Congress. If you live in District 8 of Washington state I strongly urge you to vote for Dr. Hader in the primary on 7 August. If you don't live in the district then you can show your support for science and good government by contributing to her campaign at:  www.drshannonforcongress.com

Science News Baby snake 'frozen in time'

I have Christmas come early, but not as we know it. For most of us, Christmas presents come in boxes and nice wrapping, with little bow on top. But if you are a paleontologist then Christmas present come wrapped in amber. And things have come along a bit since Jurassic Park and John Hammond's preserved mosquito on his walking stick since now we're starting to get fossilized vertebrates, mostly from Myanmar. So far we've had a bird wing, a chick, a lizard and even a feathered dinosaur tail!

This time it's a snake. Rather tragically it is a baby snake that didn't get a great run at life, but the upshot of this is that a lot of the animal has been preserved inside.

Remains like this are like russian dolls: a fossil within a fossil, as the amber itself is a fossil of tree resin. The fact that it started life as a thick sticky tree sap is how creatures come to be trapped in it in the first place, preserved in a stone considerate enough to be transparent and so beautifully that it could make a pharaoh blush!

Although the head is missing, there is enough animal left for it to be identified as a new species. (Xiaophis myanmarensis). It would have lived about 99 million years ago and appears to be a very primitive member of the snake lineage.]

BBC Science and Environment, Live Science, Nature

A New Geologic Age

You might wonder - anyone can subdivide the time of Earth's existence in periods entirely up their will and imagination. But that's not how official geology works! Also, dividing the Earth's history into eons, eras, periods and ages is much less arbitrary than you might think, and …. well… much more scientific! Go figure!

So how does it work, you ask? It rocks! A new geological period is defined when significant chemical trace different from the period before is found in the rock deposits of the Earth's crust. Deposition of such chemicals usually relates to some pretty major climatic event on the planet, which is naturally worthy of marking the start of a new geological period.

The newly categorised period we live in now is called Meghalayan. The name comes from Meghalaya, a northeastern state in India, whose name means "the abode of clouds" in Sanskrit. And a rock scientists analyse from there actually made them consider updating their historical nomenclature for earth's periods. By analyzing a stalagmite growing on the ground of a cave in the Indian state, geologists found that each layer had different level of oxygen isotopes (versions of oxygen with different numbers of neutrons). This change marked the weakening of monsoon conditions from that time. And the change they estimated was significant - between 20-30 percent decrease of monsoon rainfall, so that def qualifies as a new era, I'd say! It apparently started about 4200 years ago and some scientists think it's still too soon to start classifying it as a new era, since it's not well established how widespread the effects of these changes are, but if we have evidence for something for 4200 years, why not take it as rather established.

Live Science, Science News, BBC Science and Environment

International Chronostratigraphic Chart

The Great British Butterfly Count

Calling all my fellow Brits, this is an urgent call to action; Sir David Attenborough needs you. I get two stories this week and I get to mention a different Attenborough brother in each, fantastic!

The legendary Sir David is calling people to take part in the Great British Butterfly Count. This is a massive citizen science survey of British butterfly populations. It's been happening seasonally since 2010 and this year it is running from the 20th of July to the 12th of August, so it really isn't too late to get involved.

The reason that this year in particular is so important is because the conditions at the start of this year means that we should be having a bumper year for butterflies, but in case you haven't noticed; it's recently been very hot and very dry. Drought really isn't a friend of butterflies and with hose pipe bans starting to be seen we could be running into tricky conditions for caterpillars. This means that this could be a really important year for monitoring how conditions affect these beautiful lepidoptera.

You don't need to be a lepidopterist to take part. If you get over to bigbutterflycount.org then they have all of the information that you need there for you to help out. It's also a great thing to do with your kids, I intend to get out there with Matilda.

But this does remind me of a question that I've never found an answer to, so if anyone listening can help, please get in touch. Why do caterpillars get a fancy name when all other larvae just get called a "whatever it is" larvae?]

The Guardian, The New York Times, NPR

Big Butterfly Count

Researchers use 36 years of bike race footage to illustrate Belgium's changing climate

Now first I gotta say a big thanks to Amrita for alerting me on this story because I have missed it and to JD for letting me talk about it.

Since I live in Belgium for 6 years now, this feels like home and I'm dying to cover interesting science from around here cause for such a small country the universities and research centers are doing pretty darn well!

Anywho! To the story! Once upon a time, there was a very observing climatologist, who was also a passionate cyclist (for the record half of Belgium (the northern half, closer to the Netherlands are) called Pieter De Frenne. He works in the department of water and forest management in the Gent University.

He had the brilliant idea to use archive footage of Tour of Flanders from decades back to do a comparative study on the changing climate of the region through the years. This race is one of the most regular ones - always taking place early April each year and always in the same area if not exactly the same route.

So he and his colleagues went through more than 2000h of footage since 1981 until today and selected several landmarks that appear in all the footage through the years and compared them. They mostly settled for trees as these are most easily traceable/recognisable.

What they noticed is that the majority of the trees in the early 80 had barely any leaves yet in early April. Compared to back then, now almost every year most of the trees were well leafed up, meaning that spring is consistently coming much earlier than just two decades ago.

While this might sound like a pleasant thing, it's not necessarily a good thing on a big ecological scale. The consistent changes in the tree part of the ecosystem has a significant effect on all other parts too - insects, birds and other animals in the area whose life is somewhat related/dependant on the trees. For migratory birds for example it can have quite dramatic effects - if they arrive to the usual destination after trees have bloomed, they might be unpleasantly surprised by the fact that their food (larvae or eggs of insects) have already matured/hatched and are either completely gone or much harder to catch and feed the bird's hatchlings.

Also, all vegetation which grows under the trees will be affected - if the tree crown is already in full bloom by the time gras, bushes and flowers show up, they might have much less access to light to be able to complete their life cycle which in turn affects other animals relying on them for food and so on and so forth - the whole ecosystem can change quite dramatically, quite fast.

The scientists then went on to compare their results with other already published scientific data for the ecology of the region and established that they are in fact right and that this "out of the box" method is actually valid and working. They published their own data in the Methods of Ecology and Evolution.

CBC, Methods in Ecology and Evolution

The Climate Lounge

Today's story time feature in the lounge is sure to Tickle you brain. It will certainly help you tick off things on your "To-Learn" lists. It definitely won't have you bored listening to the tick tock of the clock. This story is about ticks.

I'm not a big bug person so you'll excuse me if I don't paint an incredibly intricate picture of what a tick is. But it's a small arachnid whose big fame in the United States is as a carrier for Lyme disease.  Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States and found generally throughout the Mid-Atlantic into the Northeast United States (Think Washington DC to Boston) as well as around the Great Lakes. I grew up in New York and can attest to the fear of lyme's disease. Short story, my older brother was at a soccer tournament when we were young and I, being a dick, hid and scared him into some woods. The rest of his 10 year old boy teammates when in after him. And we never saw him again...No of course not, he walked out the other side and was back to the team in 3 minutes. But in those three minutes in the woods, 4 or 5 kids came back with ticks on them. So knowing what's going on with ticks is sorta important. Lyme disease can be a debilitating bacterial infection affecting the joints, heart and nervous system.

Enter Nathan Nieto and his lab at Northern Arizona University.  From August 2016 to January 2017, his lab ran a pretty cool deal. If you found a tick, you could send it to his lab and he would give all the info you need on the little evil thingie (I'm adding irrational personal feelings here so don't yell at me…). For tick research, they normally get 100 ticks at a time by pretty basic methods like dragging a piece of fabric behind a truck, any adrenaline loving ticks hop on.. TO THEIR DOOM for science. For this public science effort, they budgeted for 2400 ticks, yet received nearly 16,000! They just published their results in PLOS One.

Dr. Nieto's lab were sent ticks from 49 states (no Alaska) and Puerto Rico. Once received they tested them for 4 pathogens including Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacterium that causes Lyme disease. They found some rare ticks but also ticks capable of carrying Lyme disease in 83 counties where they hadn't been recorded before.This really shows the power of citizen science as tick research can be incredibly difficult. A study of this size could never have been done without public involvement.

How does this tie to climate change? Ticks occur on earth. Moving on… No really, ticks rely on warm temperatures to live. As temperatures warm, as winters shrink, as spring comes earlier and fall lasts longer, ticks can be out there for longer. Plus, warmer temperatures can enhance the rate at which a baby tick becomes fully developed. Tick development rates have increased by two times in the US and 5 times in Canada. Not surprisingly, the rate of Lyme disease has doubled since 1991, from about four cases per 100,000 people to eight.

And where does the name come from, since I'm sure you're wondering? Well Lyme Regis in southern England, indirectly. The first case diagnosed as lyme disease occurred in Old Lyme, CT, named after Lyme Regis. Not to go off too far on a tangent but it's interesting so here we go. The northeast US is scattered with town names in reference to England (I grew up in a town called Smithtown inNY) but things get really weird near new york as english settlers ran into dutch settlers who founded New Amsterdam (after stealing land from the native population) which later became New York after the dutch lost to the english in 1674. But the dutch left a legacy in New York as many neighborhoods still bare dutch names. Brooklyn, Bronx, Coney Island, Harlem are all dutch. And even common words used in the US like boss come from the dutch. Ever wonder why Americans call them cookies and the english call them biscuits. THE DUTCH. Fascinating stuff. Tangent over.

NPR CBSnews SierraClub VOX

Asshole of the Month

Donald Trump, President of the United States

In 1962 when I was a year old, Rachel Carson published her landmark book on environmental science called "Silent Spring". That lit a fire in the American consciousness about the environment.

In the 1960's the air in our cities was awful. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire in 1968. Seriously, it caught fire!

I remember hearing about how birds of prey were disappearing because of pesticide pollution. In particular, the pesticide DDT (or more accurately its breakdown product DDE) would move up the food web getting more concentrated with each step, until it was consumed by apex predators such as California Condors, ospreys, and peregrine falcons. The effect of DDT on these raptors was that it caused them to lay eggs with very thin shells, or no shells at all. Those thin shells would crack under the weight of incubation. And this caused their populations to plummet. The iconic bald eagle was nearly extinct in the contiguous states in the 1960's and 70's, as was the peregrine falcon and many other birds.

As a result of increased environmental awareness we made real progress with the Clean Air Act of 1970, the Clean Water Act of 1972, and the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

The Endangered Species Act.

This is the single most important piece of legislation in the United States for conserving biodiversity and slowing down the extinction of species. The Act was passed in 1973 with overwhelming bipartisan support (the House voted 355-4 in favor of the law), and it was done so at the urging of a Republican president, Richard Nixon. How times have changed.

Since its passage, the Endangered Species Act has helped reverse the impending extinction of species from the magnificent Grey Wolf to the Schaus' Swallowtail Butterfly of the Florida Keys. Still, over the decades the law has been criticized by big business and agricultural interests who feel that the Act limits their ability to generate a profit, and to do whatever the want with their property.

Enter the Trump Administration. Last week they proposed to severely restrict the scope of the Endangered Species Act.

This led to Congressional hearings on the Act and has raised the alarm nationwide that one of the nation's best ideas is about to be eviscerated.

Consider this:

• A 2011 Harris Poll showed that 84% of Americans support the Endangered Species Act, with Democrats having the strongest support at 93%.
• 64% of Americans believe it acts a safety net and a balanced solution to save wildlife, plants and fish that are at risk of extinction.
• 63% of Americans believe decisions about whether to remove the Endangered Species Act's protections should be based on science, and not politics.
• 92% of Americans agree that decisions about wildlife management and which animals needs protection should be made by scientists, not politicians.

Seriously, 92% of Americans don't agree that the sky is blue on a sunny day! Yet the same number actually agree that this is a decision that should be made by scientists, and not politicians. There are some issues like gun control and reproductive rights which are terribly partisan, but the Endangered Species Act is not one of those issues.

So, for going against the will and interest of the American people, and for selling out our country's natural heritage to special business interests for a profit, Donald Trump, you are the the Blue Streak Science Asshole of the Month.

Pub Quiz

Joining us today are the Chris MacAlister, Nevena Hristozova, and Tom Di Liberto.

Here's how it works. I ask a science question and our team of science dweebs offer up their witty answers.

1. Remember the online name search last year for that research ship? The consensus was Boaty McBoatface, but they decided to name it after Sir David Attenborough. There's another naming contest going on in the science world...what's it for?
2. This past week a paper came out that suggests Neanderthals could do something the rest of us can do quite easily. What is that?
3. It was announced this week that a fossil of Bigfoot has been found. But that's just what they're calling it. What kind of animal was it really?
4. What gelatinous pink species is invading the waters of the American Pacific Northwest?
5. A Chinese tree shrew loves to eat this food that most animals avoid, but oddly enough, many humans crave. What food is it?

For the answers to today's Pub Quiz just have a listen to the podcast! Ain't we sneaky that way?

Recommended by The Team

Tom: It's not science but it's still fascinating. If you are curious to learn more about the Dutch influence on New York City and on thus on the United States, I highly recommend reading The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto. Even as a New Yorker, the history of New Amsterdam is glossed over in our history books, but the legacy of dutch culture, you could argue, has given New York City the identity it has to this day as a cultural melting pot. Plus, it's crazy to see a place as terraformed as Manhattan depicted as it likely was to Native Americans when the first European colonizers reached it.

Where Have We Been?

Chris: I've been to a roundabout in Chester. I little bit random I'll grant you, but I'm afraid that it gets no less random when I say that I went there to play a gig to a guy on a treadmill!

What's actually going on is that a guy called Steve Hughes is on a mission to raise funds to build the UK's first supertrees. They have some magnificent ones in Singapore.

They are essentially big hollow metal trees and they can be used a frame for plants to grow up, they create habitats for all manner of flora and fauna in the middle of city, returning some biodiversity to places where it has been all but eradicated.

The ones that Steve are trying to fund are nowhere on the scale of Singapore but they will also provide an space for people to come and learn about the trees and what they do, as well as containing weather stations.

So far Steve has run 7 marathons in 7 days in 7 countries and last weekend he ran 100km in 10 hours on a treadmill. He made an event of it, this why I was playing.

If you want to know more or support him the you can check him out on chestersupertrees.org. 

Nevena: Just coming from a panel discussion on cities and urban life beyond growth - how can  cities be drivers of change in production practices and consumption patterns.

Tom: If you find yourself in Washington DC you might catch me in an improv comedy show with the Washington Improv theater. 

JD: I attended another lecture at Bodega Marine Lab. This one was titled "Saviors of the reef? Context-dependent control of algae by coral reef fishes". The speaker was Mike Gil, who is a postdoctoral researcher in Environmental Science and Policy. He is working on coral reef ecology projects in Thailand.

Where Are We Going?

Nevena: Going to a bi-weekly civic hack night - organised by the Civic Hack lab BXL. This edition will be about InfluencAir - citizen science project to measure air quality in Brussels. Never been part of a citizen science project so I'm very curious and excited to see what's it about! 

Tom: So on Saturday August 4th at 6pm, my science improv comedy team The Hypothesis will be performing at the 12th annual Baltimore Improv festival. We're a team made up of all different types of scientist and science enthusiasts who like to walk on the funnier side of science and the sciencier side of comedy.

JD: It's back to the Bodega Marine Lab for me. "Phototaxis and phototropism in symbiosis" by Dr. Shawna Foo of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In Closing

I'd like to thank our newest Patreon supporter, our friend Sam Danby from Norway! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

And that concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any number of podcast directories. And if you have an iOS device like an iPhone or an iPad you can get the new Blue Streak Science app from the App Store.

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

Our hosts today were Chris MacAlister, Nevena Hristozova, and Tom Di Liberto.

I'm JD Goodwin.

Thank you for joining us. And remember...follow the science!

• Conversation with Michael MacFerrin, Research Glaciologist
• Science News
• The Climate Lounge
• Pub Quiz

Science News with Nevena Hristozova and Chris MacAlister An Origin of Cosmic Rays Discovered

In a galaxy far far away…

For real though - it's really far - 4 billion light-years away. My calculations show that with the current tech for space flight we have, we could get there in 76.32 trillion years so it is freaking far!

But anyway, the point is that this galaxy is a blazar - a type of an active galactic nucleus with a relativistic jet directed very nearly or directly towards Earth. These jets are essentially ionized matter traveling at nearly the speed of light. Relativistic beaming of electromagnetic radiation from the jet makes blazars appear much brighter than they would be if the jet were pointed in a direction away from the Earth. So far we knew that blazars are powerful sources of emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and are  sources of high-energy gamma ray photons.

Now though we know something new - because that's the whole point of science! It appears, according to the latest data coming from the so called The IceCube Collaboration, that this blazar galaxy is a source of high-energy neutrinos - one of the most elusive particles in the universe! Their article was published in Science under the title Multimessenger observations of a flaring blazar coincident with high-energy neutrino IceCube-170922A. The astrophysicist Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a leader of IceCube, himself said that so far no one was able to pinpoint the source of this type of neutrinos.

By basically tracing the trajectory of the heavy neutrinos detected in the IceCube, the scientists could determine its place of origin somewhere close-by Orion. In intergalactic distances, this is probably like searching for a sand grain in all the oceans on our planet. But employing a bunch a telescopes including the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, they've found the blazar TXS 0506+056 (I'm so naming my firstborn like this!). And the best part is that we were able to trace this neutrino back to home because it is essentially so elusive! Neutrinos (as their name shows) have no charge so they travel through the universe without much effect from other matter in it. Exactly this reluctance to interact with other matter is the reason why generally neutrinos are so hard to detect and study… It's a beautiful catch 22 in this case!

Science News, BBC News

Cancer Fighting Cancer Cells

They say that you can't fight fire with fire, but this isn't true if you're smart about how you use your fire. Controlled burning is best measure available for controlling wildfires. So could the same be said for cancer? Can you have a little bit of controlled cancer to protect you from the main article? Maybe so, if you're clever enough. It appears that Clemens Reinshagen and a team at Harvard are clever enough as they appear to have pulled this off, in mice.

They have done this by turning cancer cells into double agents. Cancer cells loose in the bloodstream can detect and home in on other tumours and this is the key skill that the team use.

Once our double agent cancer cells have infiltrated the tumour, they commence the next stage of their operation. They release a protein that triggers cell death in the cancer cells; that is, all the cells except our double agents. CRISPR based technology has been used to alter these cancer cells to provide them with protection, so that they can continue their job.

But even once the job is done, you're still left with a patient full of cancer cells, which is clearly less than ideal. So for the final part of the process, a drug is used to prompt the altered cancer cells to do the honourable thing and kill themselves off.

So there we have it; double-agent, assassin, samurai cancer cells. You heard it here first people!]

Science Translational Medicine, Science News

Earliest Evidence of Humans Outside of Africa

2 million years ago! This is a long time ago! Much longer than we thought the early hominids have ventured out of Africa. 2.12mln to be precise - precision is important!

At the same time, a giant rodent weighing nearly 700 kg used to live in South America, just to give you a perspective how different the world was back then.

Nonetheless, there were already established members of the genus Homo who decided that Africa is old news and they went travelling, reaching as far as China.

This is known now thanks to some stone tools unearthed at China's Shangchen site. They were dated to roughly quarter million years before what was previously thought to be the oldest evidence of Homo genus on the Eurasian continent. Unfortunately, no hominid fossils have ever been discovered from this period in the site. Until they do find similarly dated hominid fossils in the area, we'll not know for sure if the representative was a Homo erectus or an earlier hominid.]

Nature, Science News

Otzi's Last Meal

I reckon that you guys should all come over to mine for a big Blue Streak Science get together sometime. I'm already having some ideas for what I'm going to cook you. We could start off with some cereal, followed by a nice piece of venison, and I'll serve that with some poisonous fern. How does that sound?

You know what? I'm thinking that maybe cuisine has come along a bit in the last 5,300 years. This is the story that the stomach contents have been analysed of a man who was naturally mummified in about 3,100 BCE, a man known as Otzi the Iceman,.

His diet of cereal, Ibex and deer was probably pretty standard for him. It's unlikely that treated himself to a lavish last supper as it looks like he was killed in a surprise attack.

With that in mind, the really confusing part of these findings is the poisonous ferns. Why would he be eating poisonous plants? The leading theories that the team have is that it may have been medicinal, to help combat internal parasites, or that he may have wrapped his other food in it leaving some toxic spores behind to be consumed. The team don't know if the food that Otzi ate was fresh or not, so maybe wrapping it in something toxic could help prevent spoilage, or to ward off scavengers.

Although, considering the amount of smoking and recreational substance abuse that still goes on today, maybe it was just what all the cool kids did back then. He may not even have known that it was toxic.

Either way, the amount of detail we are getting about Otzi, over 5000 years after he died, is incredible. And as if this isn't amazing enough, the next objective is to use this information to try and recreate what Otzi's gut microbiome may have looked like, providing another way to peer back in time and see what his life have been like.]

Scientific American, Live Science

The Climate Lounge We're not getting any Younger (Dryas) over here!

Sometimes the news just makes me want to go back to a simpler time. A time without the internet, meddling and farcical meetings. I'm not talking the 20th century either. I'm thinking even farther back. About 13,000 years back when the human population was less than 1 million, and boy did the environment think that was swell, and things were a bit chillier. The planet was just coming out of an ice age. And that meant temperatures were on the upswing along with oceans. It was a wonderful active time…. Geologically. Painfully slow changes humanely.

Then…. All of a sudden (and I don't mean SUDDEN geologically, I mean human sudden like several decades suddenly), the northern hemisphere was plunged back into a colder climate that lasted for a thousand years. A well known abrupt climate change  whose cause has been studied and questioned and fought over (scientifically so it's friendly) for years. It's what is known as the Younger Dryas, named for a flower whose official name is latin mc-latinface… or dryas octopetaia. Either one.

Anyways, recent research led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute or WHOI has a new claim as to what happened. They took sediment cores in the eastern Beaufort sea near where the Mackenzie river empties into the ARctic Ocean which also happens to be near the border of the Yukon and Yellowknife territories. By looking at oxygen isotopes in the shells found in the cores, they determined that a massive glacial flood occurred there near the time of the abrupt Younger Dryas.  This truly humongous flood would have dumped tons of fresh water into the Arctic that the researchers say would have made its way into the Atlantic Ocean.

Where did the water come from? Melting glaciers. Specifically the Laurentide Ice sheet. As it melted it formed massive lakes including Lake Agassiz, a ginormous lake in the middle of modern day canada.. But as the ice sheet melted, what kept those lakes in place suddenly disappeared, allowing them to empty. Now for awhile, the water flowed south through the Mississippi. But eventually, it shifted to flow north. Some researchers have thought it emptied through the St Lawrence seaway into the Atlantic. What makes this research novel is that the meltwater instead flowed north into the Arctic. Now, not all scientists agree...they never do… but regardless of where the meltwater entered the Northern atlantic/Arctic, it's what it does afterwards that's interesting.

Why does that matter? Well it makes more sense as to the mechanism that actually caused the cold change. All of that freshwater slowed or stopped the giant Atlantic ocean conveyor belt known as the "Atlantic meridional overturning circulation" (or AMOC) which brings warm water to Europe. Normally, that conveyor belt of water becomes saltier as it moves north, becoming denser and sinking. The injection of freshwater in the Arctic/North Atlantic disrupts this by freshening the water and not letting it sink. This slows down the conveyor belt which means less warm water to Europe and a plunge into coldness.

Why do we care now? Well there is a HUGE amount of freshwater locked into Greenland. As it melts, it is also depositing fresh water into the North Atlantic, albeit much slower than the sudden Younger Dryas event. However, there is research that says the AMOC is slower than it used to be. While scientists don't think a shutdown is imminent, past events like the Younger Dryas abrupt cooling can give interesting insight into just how our climate system works, especially if we stress it in certain ways. The climate is super duper complex and what may seem like a small regional climate change somewhere can easily snowball (pun intended for this story) into something much bigger, like hemispherically bigger. Let's also keep that thought in mind whenever we talk about geoengineering.

WHOI WaPo

Interview with Michael MacFerrin, Glaciologist

This past winter I had the privilege to chat with Michael MacFerrin, glaciologist, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder. We talked about his work and discoveries on the Greenland's immense ice sheet. Science is hard work, folks! But the rewards and experiences last a lifetime and beyond. Join us as Mike shares his incredible experiences from this frozen wilderness.

Pub Quiz

All in favor of doing the Pub Quiz say "aye"! The ayes have it!

Joining us today are the incredibly intelligent Nevena Hristozova, the immensely imaginative Chris MacAlister, and the intermittently inclement Tom Di Liberto.

Here's how it works. I ask a science question and our team of incomprehensible intellectuals initiate their ingenious answers.

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

1. What animal possesses the most massive eyes?
2. Swiss physician Adolf Fick is credited with fitting the first what in 1888?
3. What is the world's most common eye color?
4. This eye color is in what part of the eye?
5. When you go to an ophthalmologist for an eye exam, you are often asked to look at a chart that has rows of letters in decreasing sizes, with a very large "E" at the top, followed by other letters. What is the name of this chart?
6. Which eye disorder causes an opacity, or clouding in the lens?
7. Your doctor says you have an orbital ecchymosis. What would just about everyone else call it?
8. What would a pirate wear to improve his/her eyesight?
9. Our eyes can detect about 500 shades of what?
10. People of this eye color have a common ancestor who lived about 10,000 years ago. No, what color eyes?

How did YOU do?

Where Have We Been?

Nevena: A bit of shameless self-promotion - I was invited on the 3rd of July to a panel discussion as part of the plenary session of the summer school Let's talk science. It's a collaboration between the Flemish universities and includes half day plenary talks on scicomm topics and 2 or 3 days of workshops on various scicomm skills. I was one of the six reps of universities representing my university as sort of a scicomm role model (yeah baby). So we had a discussion on what's scicomm for us all, what it gives us and why we do it, what's our fav media for scicomm and apparently I stirred the audience by saying that I myself am my fav media because I just love the most to sit and talk with people about science. It was extremely cool and it felt a great honor to have been part of this.

SGS Food Webinars

Chris: I've been to family wedding in Cornwall, which is limited in its level of scientific interest if I'm completely honest. But whilst I was there I was talking to by wife's cousin who is a tattoo artist. This conversation included tattoos, how training tattoo artists need to practice on themselves and the inevitable spectre of unwanted or regretted tattoos. This compelled me to go into science communication mode and share the findings of a surprisingly recent study on why tattoos last for as long as they do, considering how quickly our skin gets replaced. The key is our immune system. The tattoo ink gets locked inside white blood cells that try, in vain, to destroy the ink. This actually ends up preserving them inside and as each immune cell dies, a new one takes its place to continue the preservation. The useful thing about knowing this is that immunosuppression can be used to aid the tattoo removal process.

Tom: I've been taking a 2.5 year old to gymnastics classes where they attempt to get a bunch of toddlers to play group games together. My toddler disagrees and immediately makes a run for the balance beam. In good news, he has great balance and is seemingly indestructable. In bad news, for the other kids, he tends to bounce off everything even other children. Those kids arent so lucky.

Where Are We Going?

Nevena: On the 19th of July, Thursday I'll be attending an online seminar by SGS. It's a Food safety webinar entitled 'How to Improve Food Authenticity, Traceability and Safety using Next Generation Sequencing'. If it's not too late for our listeners with interest in knowing how can authorities can use latest technologies to ensure that what we eat is what the label says. It's at 10am Central European time @sgseventsenter webpage.

In the Blogosphere

Nevena: If I may - an episode of my other podcast, the one I actually produce is just out - it's only our 4th and it's with guests from an account on Twitter called Latino labs promoting diversity in academia. You can listen to it on my blog incubatorium.eu of the right hand side directly or anywhere you catch your podcasts if you search for the Scicomm JC podcast.

Chris: In addition to recent posts about whether dogs can smell fear and how to recreate radiation using a skipping rope. This week, on Matilda's Lab I've finally dealt with a subject that I've been meaning to for a long time: Uncertainty. One of the big misunderstandings of people who question modern science is that we don't prove things; only Mathematicians can do this, instead; all we can do is to minimise our uncertainty about things and accept that what we know can change depending on where the evidence takes us. Ultimately, we are in a non-ending war against ignorance. Ignorance is our default state, so if you (like so many people) are fearful or ashamed about your ignorance, don't be, we all have it. Instead, get out there and do something about it!.

In Closing

Thanks to Michael MacFerrin for sharing his amazing work in the frozen (but thawing) north.

And that concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any of the usual podcast directories such as Overcast. And if you have an iOS device like an iPhone or an iPad you can get the new Blue Streak Science app from the App Store.

And please check out our website is at bluestreakscience.com

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

And our hosts today were Nevena Hristozova, Chris MacAlister, Tom Di Liberto, and JD Goodwin.

Thank you for joining us. And remember…follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• We get an inside look on fossil restoration and paleontology with Mariana di Giacomo of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• Science News
• The Climate Lounge
• Pub Quiz

Science News with Chris MacAlister and Dr. Amrita Sule Wetlands Protection Rule put 'too much emphasis' on science, Trump officials complain

It's time for the continuing adventures of the Trump administration and their valiant efforts to protect you from the scourge of the environment and its evil plans to keep you healthy and alive!

As scientists we shouldn't make assumptions about things but I reckon it's pretty safe to bet that if you're taking time to this science podcast then you probably aren't a fan of White House at the moment. So I'll try to avoid preaching to the converted because there is some other interesting stuff going on.

The broad picture is this. The United States has a Clean Water Act. It's a law that gives isolated wetlands and waterways automatic federal protection. Whilst this may be one of the few environmental protection measures that Trump isn't scrapping, his administration argues that the interpretation of this law is not in keeping with its wording.

To be fair to them, they have a point; the law is impressively vague. The Act says it should apply to "navigable waters of the United States". "What do they mean by that?" you may ask. The Act defines them as "waters of the United States." I'm sure glad that they clear that up! The Supreme Court has attempted to decide what that phrase means 3 times and how far have they got with this? They're split.

To cut a long story short; the Obama administration interpreted the law in a way that not only protected the areas in question but also protected the waters that feed into these waters. After all, what's the point in putting your valuables into a safe and then leaving the door wide open? But it is this interpretation that the White House is questioning stating that Obama's Environment Protection Agency (the EPA) put "too much emphasis on science". Ken Kopocis, who lead the agency at the time, said that "It's baffling for a science-based agency to say that they relied too much on science" and I can see his point. You wouldn't accuse Roger Federer of paying too much attention to Tennis.

But the reason why this accusation is being made is because EPA should rely both on science and law when developing regulation. The defence of the EPA is that, with such a vague law to work with, what's left to rely on other than the science.

For me, the really worrying thing isn't that this argument is being made, it's why is this argument being made? Why would you want to remove protection from these areas; what possible better use could they put it to? Don't go all Big Yellow Taxi on me America, it may not be paradise but we don't need another parking lot!

Science

Human Implants Invaded by Microorganisms

This story definitely makes me think of the time when I had a screw and a rod in my ankle due to a fracture.  But who knew that when these implants were removed a year later they had likely become home to number of microorganisms found in the human body.

Implants like screws from joints, pacemakers, or plates from skulls when first implanted are completely sterile – which makes sense because you don't want any infection. But recent studies showed that, once in place, they start being colonized by fungi and bacterial species which naturally occur in the body.

Previously there have been studies on microorganisms on implants surrounded by infected tissue. However, this is the first time studies have been carried out on implants from people with no such complications.

This study, which was carried out at Costerton Biofilm Center at the University of Copenhagen, looked at around 100 implants from infection free patients. They also looked at implants from patients who were due to have them removed, as well as from deceased patients.

The group found that about 70% of implants were covered with microorganisms. These are not harmful as they had not attacked by the body's immune system.

This is pretty cool because although it is be well known that human bodies are home to microorganisms it has been thought that our tissues and blood are free of them. But given this observation that might not the case, as one possibility is that the bacteria and fungi reach the implants via blood stream.

More studies need to be done to answer questions like – What is the role of these microorganisms who make these implants their home OR Does this colonization by good bacteria/fungi prevent infections?

ScienceNordic

The End of the Road for Kepler Space Telescope

One of our great eyes in the sky is about to close for the last time. The Kepler Space Telescope is about to run out fuel. Supplies have got so low that it has been put into hibernation until the start of August when it gets its slot on the Deep Space Network. At this point it will awake, use the last of its fuel to point its antenna toward Earth, transmit its final message, and then it will be goodnight Kepler. So here at Blue Streak Science, we'd like to take this opportunity to celebrate Kepler and all that it has achieved.

This NASA mission was named after Johannes Kepler, a 17th century German mathematician, astronomer and astrologer (no one's perfect). He formulated the laws of planetary motion and was one of the giants whose shoulders Newton, in his own words, so famously stood upon.

Kepler was launched in 2009, charged with the task of discovering Earth sized exoplanets. It cost six hundred million dollars, and do you want to know what you get for that kind of money? One instrument: but, oh what an instrument; it's photometer can monitor the brightness of 150,000 stars at once, watching for those characteristic dips in radiation caused by a passing satellite.

So how did this one trick pony perform? Well its earthbound predecessor, the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, has discovered 134 exoplanets but it's had a five year head start. Kepler's total is 2,512 with 5,011 candidates still awaiting confirmation.

Kepler's legacy will be the confirmation that exoplanets are very common. And this has massive implications for the greatest question of humanity; are we alone in the Universe? Because the more planets that there are out there, the more chances there are that something may be living on one.

But the search does not stop here, TESS the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, launched in April of this year (as was so expertly covered on this podcast) and should have started collecting data last month. It is expected to discover another 20,000 exoplanets, which is great news for anyone looking for work in exoplanet astrology. You guys are gonna be busy!

Space.com

Raptors of a Feather

Let's go back in time guys. We have a story from the Jurassic World. So, who is it this time? The RAPTORS – my personal favorites, who have made appearance in the entire Jurassic park franchise yet.

Now in the movies we have seen how these intelligent Velociraptors work together and hunt in packs.  But did they do that in real life as well??

Velociraptors as they have been called were similar to another animals called Deinonychus. Bonebeds of Deinonychus surrounding bones of herbivores have indicated that they worked in packs to hunt the prey however this notion has been questioned over years.

But there is another line of evidence, which comes from their tracks which also indicates the same at least in part. In 2008 paleontologists described that velociraptor –like animals walked side by side for a time.

The imprints discovered had the signature of two-toed imprints - with the killing claw held off the ground, indicating that they belonged to deinonychosaurs. And just this year another set of deinonychosaur tracks indicating signs of similar interaction was found.

These tracks are among the aggregation of 300 dinosaur footprints in the  Early Cretaceous rock of eastern China. There are four trackways with 15-18 foot prints and alongside each other in the same direction. 

Theses footprints initially look single toed but then if you think of modern ostriches – who have two toes but them most of their body weight rests on one toe – making an imprint look like single toed.

These footprints were pretty small about 10 cm in length thus likely made by a smaller animal. The most important thing that stood out was that these tracks are very close to each other and go in same direction. At one point you see that one track crossed the other and that one Deinonychosaur was lagging behind but more or less they followed same path.

Now, from these tracks it is difficult to say if this particular pack was hunting or just out on a stroll. Well I guess for this moment back in time, birds of feather were just flocking together.

Scientific American

The Climate Lounge

Thanks JD! It's summer in the climate lounge, so we're going to talk about summery things. Cold drinks with umbrellas. A relaxing day at the beach. And scorching temperatures that have caused horrible things across North America and serve as a scary reminder at what may be not a rare event come the next 50-100 years. Things jumped up a notch there at the end huh? Yeah, I know. Here in the climate lounge we go from 0 to 50….celsius REAL QUICK.

So over the last several weeks a giant heat dome has sat itself in the upper troposphere over much of North America. This has led to sinking, warming air, and a lack of clouds allowing for the summer sun to simply bake the continent. Now it hasn't done all of this in the same place at the same time. The focus of the dangerous heat has shifted across North America (and even been located in Europe).

Chris: [Tell me about it!]

First, temperatures were hot over eastern North America. Temperatures in Washington DC didn't drop below 80 for a couple of days. But the scarier stuff happened farther north in Canada. The hot temperatures in Quebec have led to at least 54 deaths, 24 of which were in Montreal as scorching temperatures descended on a region that is simply not used to that sort of heat. Many of those who died were older and lived in places without air conditioning. Temperatures in montreal stayed near 35 C for nearly a week, the longest period of warmth since 1965. Long lasting heat and warm nights are a very bad combo for the elderly and young. The body simply has no time to recover.

Moving west, the heat dome led to some frankly startingly temperatures out in California. On July 6, the temperatures set all-time recor in 6 locations in southern California. Including 117 in Van Nuys, 118 in Riverside and 111 at UCLA. Downtown LA only hit 108 a daily record that beat the old one by 14 degrees. According to the US's National Weather Service, it hit 120 at Chino which would be the highest ever temperature recorded by an automated site in the region of southern California (coastal or valley). That's absurd. It's sorta hard to explain why because my jaw literally dropped when I first saw that and has remained that way. I mostly subside now on bugs that mistakenly fly into my mouth. It's a living.

What makes this nuts is that California normally sees its hottest temperatures in September when dry winds called the Santa Anas zoom down the mountains and warm as they compress, leading to hot temperatures. To be setting temperature records like this in early july is again, absurd.

So it was hot. Who cares? Its weather right NOT climate. That's sorta missing the point. But listen to an expert Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, "[i]n probabilistic terms, climate change increased the chances of the heat wave by about 20 to 50 times," adding that there is at least a 99% likelihood that human-induced climate change "increased the severity of this heat wave."

Climate change is affecting temperatures now. It's beginning to show its weather cards on the table… As temperatures continue to warm, events like this will become more and more common. And while some folks who are used to hot temperatures may be thinking Psht I can handle that, the last two weeks show some pretty big vulnerabilities. During the heat wave in California, electricity demands skyrocketed and power went out for 12-24 hours. Yes. It was 115 degrees in a place that normally gets hot. And the power still went out.

But even scary is what happened in Canada. Simply put, it's a region not used to the type of heat wave that may be common in 50 to 100 years. And because of that, many residents simply don't have the technology that people more used to the heat do, like air conditioning. And when that happens, sadly people die.

Now it will get hot every summer. It is summer after all. But every year we see glimpses of what in the future we may see as normal. And that could mean drastic changes to the way people, cities and regions exist. Now that is not fatalistic. I'm not saying we're doomed. What I'm saying is, let's acknowledge what we are seeing, and take steps to make it not so bad. Oh and maybe think about who among us will be most affected the quickest thanks to climate change. A little empathy goes a long way...

CNN CBC Wunderground

Interview with Mariana Di Giacomo, paleontologist

Today's interview with Mariana Di Giacomo was like getting a personal behind-the-scenes tour in a science museum. And our tour guide is a paleontologist who specializes in fossil restoration at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. What a treat!

Have a listen to this interview!

Pub Quiz

Joining us for this humdinger of a hootenanny are the hippest of hipsters Chris MacAlister, the humble and housebroken Tom Di Liberto, and the heartwarmingly highfalutin Amrita Sule.

Here's how it works. I ask a science question and our horse stable of highbrow hotshots heartily holler back.

It's not just the letter H today. It's animals that begin with the letter H.

1. Sharp-shinned, Shikra, red-tailed, and the Cooper's are all types of what?
2. Naturally occurring only in Asia, Africa, and Europe there are 17 species of this small spiky mammal.
3. Any of several species of low-flying diurnal raptors or a British military aircraft.
4. There are four species of this carnivore that range from Africa to southern Asia. One species might be welcome in the audience of a comedian.
5. The name of this species means "water horse"? What is it?
6. What birds have the highest metabolic rate of any homeothermic animal?
7. Name any insect from the taxonomic Order Hymenoptera.
8. What is the only known comet visible to the naked eye that may appear twice in a human lifetime?
9. This hard-shelled invertebrate, named for its resemblance to equine footwear, is related to arachnids and evolved about 500 million years ago.
10. This type of whale ranges from 12 to 16 meters in length and weighs around 25 to 30 tons, and was featured prominently in the film Star Trek IV "The Voyage Home". What is it?

How did YOU do?

Recommended by The Team

The British History Podcast

Host Jamie Jeffers takes us on a history adventure. Well, not exactly. Yes, it's a history adventure, but it's also a storytelling adventure with every episode.

It's a chronological retelling of the story of Britain beginning in the most recent Ice Age and it goes forward from there. That's a lot of ground to cover! But Jamie makes every episode worth listening to...sometimes more than once.

So I highly recommend you begin at the beginning, episode one, or you may become lost without the stories that lead up to the current episodes.

You can find that on Apple Podcasts, and Stitcher.

We'll put links in the show notes.

Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Website

Where Have We Been?

Chris: As I mentioned last time I was on; I've been to the Lake District, a little way from Penrith and whilst I never got around to making it to Beatrix Potter's house I managed to capture another type of experience. On our first night at the campsite I took my dog, Cassini, for a short walk before the sun completely set. I'm so glad that I did as I soon became aware that we were not alone. All around me, darting through the air were bats, pipistrelles. "Wow" I thought, "Matilda would love this!" And then responsible parenting thoughts kicked in: "Agh, we've just put her down to sleep". But sod responsible parenting, there's bats everywhere, so I went to get my daughter out of bed. Now I should probably explain at this point that Matilda LOVES bats. Spooky moods in kids TV are ruined because every time a colony of bats emerge unexpectedly Matilda is delighted! We are so lucky to have one of the best zoos in the UK on our doorstep, Chester Zoo, and Matilda's favourite place in the zoo is the bat cave, where Rodrigues Fruit bats and Seba's short-tailed bats are free to fly around you, and possibly shit on you. So the expression on Matilda's face as the pipistrelles started to emerge before her eyes is something that I will never forget. It was one of those moments that reminds me exactly why I do science communication, because there is no greater spectacle than the wonder of nature and no greater feeling than sharing that with someone.

Where Are We Going?

JD: Going to a lecture at Bodega Marine Lab in stunningly beautiful Bodega Bay, California. It's titled "Saviors of the reef? Context‐dependent control of algae by coral reef fishes". The speaker is Mike Gil of the University of California at Davis, and this will be happening on Wednesday, 18 July.

In Closing

Once again, our thanks to Mariana Di Giacomo for sharing her stories from the field and the lab

And that concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any of the usual podcast directories such as Overcast. And if you have an iOS device like an iPhone or an iPad you can get the new Blue Streak Science app from the App Store.

And please check out our website is at bluestreakscience.com

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

And our hosts today were Chris MacAlister, Amrita Sule, Tom Di Liberto, and JD Goodwin.  

Thank you for joining us. And remember...follow the science!

 

Today we begin our pivot towards doing more interviews on the podcast. And we could not have chosen a better person to talk with than our good friend and science outreach superstar Chris Ryu. We had a terrific time talking about the Dorset Science & Technology Centre and the Atom Club. Chris' passion is in science, technology, and coding and his mission is to share this with children and adults in some of the more rural areas of southern England. We applaud the hard work and dedication of everyone involved in this important science outreach development. 

On This Week's Show

• Interview with Chris Ryu of the Dorset Science and Technology Centre
• Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin
• The Climate Lounge
• Pub Quiz

Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin Crow vending machine skills 'redefine intelligence'

Last week a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports revealed further evidence for their cognitive abilities, and shows that these so-called "bird brains" can memorize tool shapes and even recreate them from memory. The subject of the research is the New Caledonian crow. They've been studied for quite some time now. In their native habitat they'll fashion hooks to very precisely snag grubs and other tasty treats from holes and crevices.  

Where does this behavior come from? Are they just copying other crows without thinking about it? Is this a hard-wired behavior that all of these crows possess as instincts? It also could be possible that these crows are memorizing tool designs, and recreating them.

This research was led by Dr. Sarah Jelbert, a post-doctoral research associate in psychology at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Jelbert and her team designed this experiment to see if this behavior, this cumulative cultural evolution, is happening with these crows. They had 8 subjects, and the first order was the train them to recognize what a proper tool looks like. The one that'll "do the trick".  In this case the right tool for the job was a correctly sized piece of paper. The experimenters offered the crows differently sized pieces of paper that they could use on a specially made vending machine...one that dispensed meat.

The crows had to figure out if the larger pieces of paper would release the delicious treat, or a smaller piece of paper. When the correctly sized paper was put into the slot a hidden experimenter opened the hatch and a tasty treat would come rolling out. So the birds were conditioned to understand which size of paper would do the trick.

Here's the best part.

The crows were then given larger sheets of paper. Instead of giving up they used their gray matter to figure it out. The crows began to use their bills and talons to tear and shape the paper into the properly sized tools. They were trained to know what sized tool was needed. This information had to be stored as memory. Then they had the ingenuity to take that information and create the right tool for the job.

This is just one experiment. But it has given researchers a lot to go on for further testing and also observation of crows in the wild. For instance, how long does this memory last? Can a completely different reward experiment be done, and would the crows remember how this one worked when presented with it later? But right now, it looks like one more unique human trait is falling by the wayside.

Nature, BBC Science and Environment, New York Times, ScienceAlert

Scientists are counting seal pups in the Thames Estuary

Maybe a glimmer of good environmental news, for a change!

First we go back in time 60 years, when London's Thames estuary was declared 'biologically dead'. The river was dirty and almost devoid of wildlife. Since then, things have turned around to some extent - and today we have 3500 seals in the Thames. There are two species, harbour and grey seals. Some of them are about to give birth, so scientists are doing a count to work out how they're doing.

Thea Cox, conservation biologist at the Zoological Society of London, says that "Knowing how many there are is a really good indicator of the health of the estuary, what habitat is available to them, what food source is available to them."

This good news story has a sting in the tail - although the river is generally less polluted, we naturally do have to worry about plastic pollution, in particular microplastics, both for our own health as well as that of the seals.

BBC Science and Environment, iNews - Environment

Marshmallow test re-visited

Do you know what the marshmallow test is? It's a test that was first conducted by Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel to see if there is any correlation between early childhood self-control and later childhood success.

Here's how it worked. The experimenter placed a marshmallow on a table in front of a preschool aged kid. Then the grownup promised to give the kid two marshmallows if they could resist stuffing the first one in their cute little face for 15 minutes.

They did these tests in the 1960's on 90 children in a local Stanford preschool. Decades later they came back to their test subjects to measure their success over the years. And yes, there seemed to be a greater degree of success in kids who resisted marshmallow temptation, including higher test scores and a lower body mass index.

The results of this research were published in 1990 and has been a measure of children's willpower since that time.

But a new paper published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that this test, the marshmallow test, may just be a lot of fluff.

The new study was led by Dr. Tyler Watts of New York University, and Dr. Greg Duncan and Haonan Quan, both of the University of California-Irvine. And these researchers made a few changes to the test. They increased the sample size from 90 to 900, and they also included a much greater diversity of kids. And these background factors were given consideration when they analyzed the results.

And according to Dr. Watts the results showed that once the kid's backgrounds were factored in, any differences in delaying gratification didn't result in any statistically meaningful increases in success at a later age.

The results suggest that a child's ability to resist a marshmallow is more influenced by their socio-economic backgrounds. Think about it. If you're growing up not sure about anything in your life, including when your next meal is happening...then you better grab any food while you can. Also, such a background is more likely to sow distrust in adults promising to give them something...like that second marshmallow. And their future success in school and in life is probably far more influenced by the economic disadvantages of their childhood than by any ability to resist a marshmallow, or other food reward.  

Science News, Science, Smithsonian

Poliovirus could treat brain cancer

Glioblastoma is a devastating form of brain cancer - it's the most common type of malignant brain tumour and patients typically do not live for long after diagnosis - best-case scenario is around 20 months. A study published last month by a team at Duke University indicated that a modified form of poliovirus may have some benefits in prolonging life expectancy.

But how would POLIO help with brain cancer? The polio treatment is one of several "oncolytic viruses" being investigated as anti-cancer agents. So researchers have long viewed such viruses as potential tools for directly killing cancer - and the virus kills tumour cells and they now suspect that the viruses might be more effective at marshaling the body's immune system against malignancies, according to the National Cancer Institute. As I said, the virus has been modified, so it will not cause polio (this being a horrible disease, causing paralysis and possibly death). It's modified as follows - the part of the virus that targets and kills nerve cells during a polio infection was swapped with a piece of the common cold virus.

Of 61 people with recurring glioblastoma who were treated with the modified virus, 21 percent were alive after three years. In a "historical" comparison group of 104 patients, who would have been eligible for the treatment but died before it was available, 4 percent lived as long.

The paper is in New England Journal of Medicine. It is an early phase trial and will naturally face much scrutiny in months and years to come.

Science News, Washington Post, LiveScience

The Climate Lounge

Today in the Lounge, I wanted to step back from climate change per-se and talk about an interesting climate feature. DUST! Specifically, Saharan dust that gets transported thousands and thousands of miles across the tropical Atlantic Ocean, causing all sorts of issues.

Every year hundreds of millions of tons of dust gets picked over West Africa and blow west by the trade winds over the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the dust is born at the Bodele depression in north central Chad at the southern end of the Saharan desert. It is actually a dry lake bed that is the lowest point in chad. Winds get funneled through nearby mountains, accelerate through and pick up dry diatoms (microorganisms) left over from a time when the lake was an actual lake and transport them west with the prevailing winds.

Now this dust causes some unbelievable sunsets across the Caribbean but provides a gross hazy view during the day. The view is like when you mistakenly touch the lenses part of your glasses and then put the glasses back on. The dust is your wayward fingers.

But you might be thinking, I'll deal with a hazy day for a good sunset. Well, the dust can also combine with the normal every day human-caused pollution emitted near cities to create extremely hazardous air quality days. In Dallas Texas, 7000 miles away from Africa, the dust combined with human pollution to cause levels of pm2.5 (particles that smaller than 2.5 microns or 0.0001 inches) which were highly elevated.

Why care? Outdoor air pollution, dominated by PM2.5, is responsible for around 4.5 million deaths a year (Landrigan et al. 2017), half of which are in China and India. These particles are such a danger because of just how small they are. At less than 2.5 micrometers, the particles are able to penetrate deep into lungs and even your bloodstream. Extreme exposure to a large amount of PM2.5 can lead to nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeats, reduced lung function, aggravated asthma, and increased respiratory symptoms. In the most vulnerable—those with pre-existing heart or lung disease—exposure to PM2.5 can even lead to death.

But there are some positives, Saharan dust, specifically those diatoms, helps to fertilize the Amazon rainforest with nutrients and helps build beaches across the Caribbean. This dust also lives in what is known as the Saharan Air Layer as it moves across the Atlantic, a layer of air that is hot and dry. This hot and dry air mass also helps to kill off any potential tropical cyclone from developing usually leading to a reduced number of storms. Which is good!. And It's part of the natural climate ecosystem with dust storms happening at the bodele depression about 100 days a year. But it still can cause issues, especially when combined with those non-natural parts of the climate ecosystem.

So the next time you watch a video that brings a tear to your eye and you want an excuse, don't just say you have dust in your eyes, say you have diatoms from the bodele depression in your eyes. You'll be super cool I promise.

Wunderground

Interview with Chris Ryu Pub Quiz In Closing

Thank you Chris Ryu for sharing with our audience all the great things you're doing at the Dorset Science and Technology Centre, and the Atom Club. This is true grassroots science outreach, and they deserve your support. So please check them out at Atom.club.

That concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

Our hosts today were Sophie McManus, Tom Di Liberto, and JD Goodwin.  

Thank you for joining us

Follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• A**hole of the Month
• A Farewell to Koko
• Where's all the Matter?
• Three places struggling to control HIV and AIDS

Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin A Farewell to Koko Sophie McManus

Koko, the famous 'talking gorilla', has died in California aged 46.

Koko was born in 1971 in San Francisco zoo and when she became ill she needed hand-rearing. The student for the job was Penny Patterson, who also taught her some American sign language. In a couple of years Koko learned 80 signs, before she was moved to Stanford University.

It is claimed she could understand 2000 English words and knew 1000 different signs. Apart from that, Penny Patterson described evidence for a sense of humour and a charming and creative sense of word play - she referred to a zebra as a 'white tiger,' a Pinocchio doll as an 'elephant baby,' and a mask as an 'eye hat'. Koko famously loved cats - her favourite kitten was called All Ball, and the way she handled her kittens is obviously full of care. She tickled Robin Williams back in 2001 and it was claimed she 'grieved' when told of his death.

Koko's life and treatment attracted scepticism and criticism as well as plaudits. The former arose from overinterpretation of the results she gave scientists - after all, she was taught to sign, mainly to respond to humans, it was not a spontaneous desire to communicate or chit-chat as human infants have. There is also the danger of projecting human emotions onto animals. For example, my family has dogs, and although we think they show emotions like jealousy (like when one tries to steal the other's food), this may partly be our projections. (Secretly still convinced the young one gets jealous). The fact Koko trembled her lip when told Robin Williams was dead may not be crystal clear signs of grief. An example of projection and over-inference in animal studies is that of the horse Clever Hans.

The criticism was also born of her environment and diet - although she was given many toys (and pets), obviously her home was entirely unnatural for a gorilla, her diet was humanised, she was given many different supplements by a 'naturopath', and she didn't have the chance to socialise with other gorillas. Slate published a fantastic article summarising the many criticisms of ape sign studies.

Her species, the western lowland gorilla, is considered critically endangered today. Today, studies into ape communication such as the study of Koko's life are less likely to receive ethical approval. Quote from Barbara King, an anthropologist - it's not very respectful of the world's biodiversity to insist upon making apes into furry versions of ourselves. Koko taught us so much about the great ape mind, even while she paid a cost, in her own daily life, for our scientific curiosity.

So generally then, Koko was a star, but we shouldn't be looking to replace her.

The New Yorker, NPR, BBC News, Science News, National Geographic

Great article in Slate

Have scientists finally found the universe's missing matter? JD Goodwin

Most of us have heard that everyday matter, the stuff that we can observe like atoms and molecules, make up only a small percentage of the universe. Dark energy comprises about 70%, and dark matter is about 25%. Although we don't know exactly what they are we can calculate their mass by their effects on what we can observe. But there's that roughly 5% of everything that is ordinary matter, more accurately known as baryons. We know this from observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. So we're on pretty solid ground there.

After years of observing galaxies, and using every tool in the cosmologists' toolkit we've only been able to observe half of the predicted baryonic matter, the ordinary matter, that the universe should have.

Last week a paper was published in Nature that just may very well account for the missing baryonic matter in our universe. The paper's lead author, Fabrizio Nicastro said: "The missing baryons represent one of the biggest mysteries in modern astrophysics."

But progess has been made over the years. Astrophysicists have calculated the mass of all the stars in the universe. They then added in the interstellar gas inside of galaxies and this up to about 10%. I'm not talking 10% of the mass of the universe, just 10% of the expected mass of baryons, which as you now know, comprises only about 5% of the universe's total mass.

Still with me here?

Okay, we're up to 10% of baryonic matter. Now add in the gas that surrounds galaxies like gigantic haloes. Then toss in the even hotter gas that fills galaxy clusters. That now brings us up to almost 20%. Better, but not particularly satisfying.

Through some different observational techniques astronomers then turned their attention to the super colossal gas filaments that run between galaxy clusters. And that brought up to 60% of the predicted baryonic matter.

Now we're getting somewhere.

And here's where the this new paper by Nicastro and his team comes into play. They didn't just start looking last week, by the way. They've been at this for almost 20 years. The team used the XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to observe a quasar. A quasar is a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its core that emits intense radiation in the form of x-rays all the way to visible light. According to Nicastro, "After combing through the data, we succeeded at finding the signature of oxygen in the hot intergalactic gas between us and the distant quasar, at two different locations along the line of sight. This is happening because there are huge reservoirs of material – including oxygen – lying there, and just in the amount we were expecting, so we finally can close the gap in the baryon budget of the Universe."

This was one paper, although it took them 20 years to get to this point. Still, they have plans to look at more quasars with the XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra space observatories.

Also, better space observatories are scheduled to be launched in the late 2020's that will provide even more data. But right now it seems we have found all the ordinary matter in the universe.

European Space Agency, SciTech Europa, Outer Places,

These three places show the AIDS epidemic is far from over Sophie McManus

Florida, Russia and Nigeria. Different corners of the world, united by the fact they are all struggling to up the ante against HIV and AIDS infection.

These are the metrics we can use to gauge progress made in the fight against HIV, as explained in an excellent article published in Science. How many people are living with the virus? What is the rate of new infection? What percentage of infected people are receiving antiretroviral drugs, which both stave off disease and prevent transmission? How many infected people have progressed to AIDS and how many have died from it? And how many children are infected by their mothers?

Nigeria, Russia and the American state of Florida stand out from their neighbours because they are 'first' for at least one of the metrics I just mentioned. They all face differing challenges. For example, Nigeria has a high rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission, Russia has a high death rate. Florida has a high new infection rate, partly because many people there with HIV are unaware of their status, as testing isn't as widespread as it could be.

If you are a data nerd, you should look up the article called 'Ending AIDS? These three places show the epidemic is far from over' published on the 14th June on the Science website. There are some great interactive charts and graphics that elegantly sum up the data.

Science

A**hole of the Month Elliot Sudal, publicity seeker and shark abuser

Have you seen the headlines? "World's Sexiest Shark Wrangler? Jaws Are Dropping Over this Ab-Tastic Ocean Expert's Instagram". That was from People Magazine in May.

From the Daily Mail also in May, "Picture of shark wrangler holding a 12-foot hammerhead goes viral – but it's not for the reason you're thinking". I'll tell you the reason. Yes, it's his rippling abs!

I'm talking about Elliot Sudal, the latest internet sensation who hooks and captures these menacing monsters from the deep and wrestles them ashore, all the while looking ABSolutely fabulous doing it. But this is 2018, and the good guys don't slaughter sharks any more.

After wrestling the fearsome beasts on to the beach Mr. Sudal does what any modern day muscle-man would do. He poses alongside, and sometimes sits on these vanquished creatures. He even invites other people to do the same, especially if they look really awesome in a bikini. Being the good guy, Mr. Sudal applies a tag to the shark before dragging it back into the water, after the photo op of course, and lets it go back into the deep.

What a great guy!

According to the Daily Mail, "He works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration," and that "Sudal's job takes him to exotic locations like the Bahamas and Nantucket catching anything from bull sharks to sting rays."

Let's hear what his employer, the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration has to say about their star employee and shark hunter Elliot Sudal:

 

"Mr. Sudal is not and has never been an employee of NOAA Fisheries nor is he formally affiliated with any of the agency's programs.

The agency remains concerned with Mr. Sudal's shark and sawfish handling practices. Physical handling should be minimized, all species should be kept in the water while tagging and then released quickly. During tagging, sharks should not be dragged onto dry sand...for any reason.

Mr. Sudal's tagging of an endangered smalltooth sawfish caught in Florida in April 2017 was investigated by NOAA and resulted in a compliance assistance letter from NOAA's Office of General Counsel informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish."

This public notification by NOAA is highly unusual, and reflects the seriousness of the situation. Mr. Sudal has been presented in the media as an employee of NOAA. That is false. Mr. Sudal has been claiming to be a conservationist. Mr. Sudal has violated nearly every guideline of NOAA's shark tagging guidelines. But hey, those pictures and the viral videos are awesome, huh?

So awesome that they've landed Elliot Sudal on the beach as the Blue Streak Science A**hole of the Month.

The Atlantic, Adventure Sports Network, ABC News, Daily Mail, NOAA shark tagging guidelines, NOAA press release

Where Have We Been?

JD: I visited Point Blue Conservation Science. Point Blue is a private conservation science organization that is, honestly, far bigger and more wide-ranging that I'd thought. They used to be known as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, but they took on the moniker of Point Blue Conservation Science because their scope is much wider than just birds. They are certainly California-centric with research going on all over the Bay Area, offshore including the Farallone Islands, and as far away as Alaska all the way down to Antarctica!

I met several of their key staff members who seemed quite keen to share their research, and hopefully we'll be sharing that with you, our audience.

Where Are We Going?

JD: I have nothing planned, except to practice some video techniques with my new gimbals.

In Closing

And that concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any number of podcast directories, or you can listen to us directly on the Blue Streak Science website where you can check out the show notes for links and other good stuff for each episode.

That website is at bluestreakscience.com

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

Thank you for joining us

And remember...follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• The melt rate of the Antarctic...the news ain't good, folks
• Mars Rover Opportunity Hunkers Down for the Big Dust Storm
• Animals Are Doing their best to avoid us, and staying up late
• Stephen Hawking's ashes buried in Westminster Abbey
• The Pub Quiz
• There is no Climate Lounge today. Tom Di Liberto and his wonderful wife have just brought a new scientist into the world!

Listener feedback

Will Simmonds: "Just wanted to say I love the show, gives me great information and entertainment on my runs. I'm especially loving the pub quizzes, but maybe try expand on the answer with a fact, etc. The New Arsehole of the Month is a fantastic addition. However, I'm rather baffled at how some of these people acquire these high state positions."

Science News with Dr. Amrita Sule and Chris MacAlister Antarctic Melt Rate Has Tripled in the Last 25 Years

Antarctica is a continent roughly the size of United States and Mexico combined. It is covered with ice sheets. If all of this ice were to melt it would increase the water levels by 60 meters. Although this is not going to happen overnight and these ice sheets have more or less remained in place for past 10,000 years.

Antarctic Petrel

But Antarctica is indeed melting!! Reports published recently revealed that Antarctica has lost around 3 trillion tons of ice in just the past 25 years, and this ice loss has accelerated rapidly over the last five years. This is pushing up the global sea levels by 0.6 mm annually – which might seem pretty small but it's not if you look at cumulative increase.

For this new study, satellite measurements have been used to track changes in ice sheets since the early 1990s. These satellites scanned Antarctic ice sheets with altimeters to gain information about its volume. Another type of satellite measurement tracked the speed at which it moves towards the ocean. Some satellites are equipped to weigh the ice sheet by sensing gravitational pull of earth. These measurements are helpful in telling you what is its sea level contribution.

There has been some uncertainty associated with regional differences in Antarctica. This study helps clear that up.  For example, West Antarctica and Antarctic peninsula, have been known for some time to lose ice but not east Antarctica, which has been stable for most time. Therefore East Antarctic has always caught the attention of people who deny the science of Global Warming. But recent studies show higher melt rates in certain regions east Antarctica as well. So there you go!

The majority of losses do come from melting of West Antarctic ice sheets due to warm ocean water melting some glaciers from the bottom up. In 25 years, this has caused about 8 millimeters of sea level rise and about 40% of this rise has happened in past five years. This definitely increases our concern about what the future may hold.

BBC Science and Environment, Live Science, Scientific American, New York Times,

Mars Rover Opportunity Hunkers Down for the Big Dust Storm

Did you guys ever see the Martian, with Matt Damon? Despite the lead character being a botanist and the wealth of good science that is in the film; the main event that triggers the plot of the film, the big Martian storm is not so scientifically accurate. Mars has a much thinner atmosphere than Earth so Martian storms don't reach anything like the severity of our storms. That said, this story is about the Mars rover, Opportunity being put at risk by a Martian storm. And not just any Martian storm but the biggest one ever recorded!

The threat to Opportunity isn't from the physical impact of the storm itself, but from the Martian dust that is getting blow around in it. Opportunity is solar powered and a big storm like this will seriously reduce the amount of sunlight that makes it down to planet's surface. Now, this storm was predicted so Opportunity has been put into maximum power saving mode and now all that the guys at NASA can do now is hope that the batteries can outlast the storm.

This isn't the first time the Opportunity has had to endure a storm like this but there are two crucial differences on this occasion. First, as I said earlier, this is the biggest storm seen to date on Mars, and second; Opportunity is no spring chicken anymore. It is staggering to think about what Opportunity has achieved in its time on Mars. The rover's mission was initially given a duration of 90 days; this mission is now at well over 5000 days and counting! No other rover has ever covered more distance off world. Opportunity completed a Martian marathon 3 year ago and then kept going!

Opportunity will remain in hibernation for a few weeks so we won't know anything until the time comes to rouse it from its slumber. But even if this does spell the end for the opportunity mission, that little rover owes nothing to anyone. It has vastly outperformed anything that anyone ever expected of it and it will have deserved a very well earned rest.

Live Science, Live Science, LA Times, Space.com, National Geographic

Humans Forcing Animals To Become Nocturnal

Coming back to earth, let's see what are WE up to and by WE... I mean human beings. Looks like we have now managed to annoy some animals to an extent that they rather sleep through the day and stay up at night just to avoid us.

Count me in too. We "humans" have now  impacted about 75% of earth's land surface and therefore animals have opted to adapt to a different lifestyle especially when they are in proximity of cities or areas buzzing with human activity. Many animals fear humans and we do come across as noisy and dangerous to them. So they often try to avoid us. But it is becoming more and more difficult for them to migrate to a human free space. Why? Because WE are everywhere.

A study published in Science this week pointed out that mammals across the globe not just limited to coyotes, elephants and tigers have altered their sleep schedules and are becoming increasingly nocturnal to avoid increased human presence.

This kind if behavioral activity has been tracked over last couple of decades by satellites, GPS telemetry or camera traps. This study is a result of meta-analysis of 76 papers about 62 different species spanning six continents.

They looked at a share of nocturnal activity that was conducted by animals  living in regions with low and high levels of human impact or disturbance. Regions with higher human activity correlated with increased nocturnal activity. And theses observations or trends were consistent across continents, habitats, types of animals and even types of human activity.

The author of this study makes a point that, this kind of behavioural shift could have large impacts on ecosystem thus reshaping species interaction. Competitions between predator species could threaten their survival. Also, the animals that are not opting for nocturnal lifestyle could be endangered due to human presence.  

It's important to remember that we are not alone on earth, and more effort should be made to conserve human disturbance free zones especially for most vulnerable and sensitive mammal species.

LA Times, New York Times, Nature,

Stephen Hawking buried in Westminster Abbey, between Darwin and Newton

In the preparation for this show, JD shared his recollection of a biography on Charles Darwin. It contained a chapter about his burial in Westminster Abbey and was entitled "The Agnostic in the Abbey"; well, it would appear that Darwin has now been trumped as the atheist, Stephen Hawking was also interred there last week.

The best way to explain what a privilege it is for Hawking to be buried here is to consider who else has also been bestowed the honour. He rests alongside 18 past monarchs, Geoffrey Chaucer, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and Laurence Olivier there are 5 other people from a scientific background; Margaret Cavendish, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Ernest Rutherford, J. J. Thomson and now Stephen Hawking.

Now there may be critics who say that Hawking doesn't deserve to be laid to rest with the likes of Newton and Darwin. The established works of those two men still form significant pillars within our body of current scientific understanding whereas Hawking's work is still to have its accuracy verified and he hasn't even won a nobel prize. Well guess what, neither did Newton or Darwin! By the time that Darwin died, On the Origin of Species had only been published for 20 years; not nearly enough time to test the theories that he presented. This puts Hawking's ideas very much at the same level.

But we can't just look at the science here. The true power of Stephen Hawking was as a communicator. It's seems so poetic that a man who spent half of his life without a voice has been one of the greatest science communicators of all time. Regardless of his scientific credentials (which are pretty phenomenal) the people honoured in Westminster Abbey are people who have created a lasting legacy in the UK and I can't think of anyone who I have met who has not been inspired by the life of Stephen Hawking.

But I think that we can only end a piece like this by sharing a few pieces of classic Hawking dialogue, like: "I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road", and "Next time someone complains that you have made a mistake, tell him that may be a good thing. Because without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist." And finally, "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope". And even though Stephen Hawking's life may now be over, the hope that he has brought to so many people lives on.

Live Science, The Guardian, Westminster Abbey

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Thank you!

The Effin' Pub Quiz

Dropping the f-bombs today are the fittingly fashionable Amrita Sule, and the fabulously flamboyant Chris MacAlister!

Here's how it works. I ask a science question and our faction of fantastic friends furnish their flashy answers along with some fanciful feedback.

1. This fine fellow was born in Danzig, Poland in 1686 and invented the alcohol thermometer in 1709, and the mercury thermometer in 1714? What was his name?
2. While writing the above question I learned of a word that just may soon become my favorite word in the English language. And that brings me to question 2. I mentioned that Fahrenheit used a mixture of ice, water, and ammonium chloride to determine his first temperature reference point. What is that type of mixture called?
3. What do we call the emission of light by a substance following the absorption of light or other energy by the substance?
4. The preserved impression or remains of an animal or plant whose living tissue has been replaced by minerals is better known as a?
5. Who is this person? An English biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer born in London in 1920 and discovered that DNA crystallizes into two forms.
6. Where might I find the Tevatron?
7. What is a facula?
8. In the human body this is the longest bone. What is it?
9. What do we call a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy?
10. Sleeps on one leg, filters its food, and is pink. What is it?

How did YOU do?

Where Have We Been?

JD: Last week I took a trip out to Point Reyes National Seashore again. I trundled over to the Fish Docks on the beautiful Drake's Bay. Met up with some other birders and searched for the Lawrence's Goldfinches. No dice. I did get great views of many other birds such a lesser goldfinches, a soaring peregrine falcon. The highlight was a large male California sea lion emerging at the surface with a fat chinook salmon in its mouth. It then shook the salmon, tearing it apart, with salmon roe flying everywhere. It was immediately joined by a host of western gulls to help clean up the mess.

Where Are We Going?

JD: Nothing on the agenda, but more birding. I may go back to Point Reyes on Wednesday to give the Lawrence's Goldfinches another shot. I hope to be up to speed by then on the new gimbals I have for taking smooth video with my iPhone. I may even do some audio recording as well.

Chris: Camping in the Lake District.

In the Blogosphere

Chris: I've been doing some homework following last week's show. Sunlight takes 5.3 hours to reach Pluto. JD, you are correct; it takes 8 minutes for light to get to Earth and my figure of 8 minutes is actually the time that it takes light to reach Mercury.

I've also been investigating Space Suit malfunctions. It appears that the worst spacesuit malfunction occurred in 2014 and it was not necessarily what you may have expected as the danger to astronaut Luca Parmitano was of drowning! Now the use of this word isn't some technical definition of suffocation; it actually means drowning in water, in space!

A blocked filter in the space suit caused a leak and his helmet started filling with water from the suit's cooling system during a spacewalk. This eyes, ears, nose and parts of his mouth all filled up with water. He could barely see and had to feel his way back to the air lock.

Why does the suit hold so much water and why a cooling system is needed when it is -270 Celsius outside, but this is because spacesuits need a lot of insulation to protect astronauts so it can get pretty toasty in there so they even have clothing that draws sweat away from the body and then cools it.

Even though NASA have never seem to figure out what caused the failure, they have taken protective action by installing snorkels into helmets now!

This week I am writing about a subject very close to me, sunburn. Not just why it happens but also why its red, when nothing else ever goes red when it gets burnt.

In Closing

Thanks to our intrepid hosts, Amrita Sule and Chris MacAlister!

But most of all, thank you, our wonder audience.

That concludes this episode of the Blue Streak Science Podcast.

If you have any suggestions or comments email us at [email protected]

You can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and any number of podcast directories, or you can listen to us directly on the Blue Streak Science website where you can check out the show notes for links and other good stuff for each episode.

That website is at bluestreakscience.com.

This show is produced by the Blue Streak Science team, and edited by Pro Podcast Solutions.

Thank you for joining us

And remember...follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• New Horizons wakes up to explore the Kuiper Belt
• Hurricanes are slowing down
• Dogs and the flu virus
• The Climate Lounge
• The Pub Quiz

Science News with Nevena Hristozova and Chris MacAlister Organic molecules found on Mars

Mars stinks. Or at least it ought to, based on the fact that in has methane in its atmosphere. Truth is though, that the concentration of methane in the martian air is almost 2000 times lower than the one on earth. But why methane is of interest to scientists is because, on earth at least, it's existence is related to the activity of living forms. Now, methane comes again in the spotlight of researchers, because they've finally had a breakthrough - they've finally detected a pattern in the concentration variations of the gas in the martian atmosphere. Curiosity observed changes in the methane content when travelling cross the planet from north to south. The original hypothesis was that this change is due to chemical conversion of molecules with the help of the strong radiation of the Sun. The counter argument is that while this is possible, its not plausible, or at least not explaining the phenomenon in full. The models predict only about 20% increase in methane if the conversion is due to only sun-catalysed chemical conversions in the summer, while the practically observed increase is with up to 300%. Alternative hypothesis is that there might be methane deposits in the deep ice on Mars, which gets released once the ice and soil get warmed up by the summer sun. It is still very interesting to find out though where did this methane came from in the first place and future ESA missions will look exactly into that - they will be able to drill much deeper in the martian soil and analyze the carbon composition of the methane found there to establish if there's a chance it was made/left behind by living forms.

BBC Science and Environment, LA Times, Science News, National Geographic, New York Times

New Horizons wakes up to explore the Kuiper Belt

Last week I spoke about the discoveries coming from New Horizons' 3 year old data and before we've even finished with all of that data; here comes some more!

After the success of the Pluto flyby the mission was extended for further studies in the Kuiper belt, and why not; after the 9 years getting there?

Pluto's home, the Kuiper belt may be less famous than asteroid belt between Mars & Jupiter but it is a damn sight bigger! Despite covering some 3.5 billion kms to get to Pluto, its taking New Horizons a further 3 years and 1.6 billion miles to complete this leg WITHIN the Kuiper belt!

The new target is called Ultima Thule (much catchier than its official title 2014 MU69). The name, given in March of this year, means; beyond the borders of the known world.  Ultima Thule is exciting for a couple of reasons. It could be both the most distant oldest object ever studied, it is believed to have been orbiting since the very early days of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.

A 20km wide rock may not seem too exciting. But if Pluto has taught us anything t is that surprises are waiting out there to be discovered. And who doesn't get excited about exploring a new world?

I'm ready to get excited again. As with your own tech, if you're not going to use it for some time you may switch to standby mode and this is exactly what's happened to New Horizons. Waking it up means that it's time for the discovery to start again. I think the mission's principal investigator Alan Stern summed it perfectly when he simply said "IT'S HAPPENING, IT'S HAPPENING!"]

Science News, Space Flight Insider, Space.com, NASA Space Flight

Hurricanes are slowing down

I'm getting into deep waters here - this is entirely Tom's turf but my name's not Nevena if I don't do my best so here goes nothing!

Yes - a paper published recently in the journal Nature shows that  hurricanes are moving slower and that seems to be a very very bad thing. Here's why - having both typhoons and hurricanes move slower means that they drag along for longer in a specific area and respectively cause more damage. The warmer air and water also pump more water into the storm so they tend to be much more prominent and drop much more rain for prolonged periods one one place causing more frequently and worse floods. Another research paper published by the NSF analysed 22 storms and modeled how would they develop if they were to happen in the climate conditions of the late 21 century. And it was not pretty! The predictions showed that the rising global temperatures will only cause cyclones to slow down further, making them even more deadly and devastating for the areas affected by them, calculating as much as 25% more rainfall for all the biggest storms analysed in this study. Now you might think - ok rain would be worse but since it's travelling slower at least the damage from the winds will be significantly smaller, but you'd be very wrong - the winds in the storms apparently remain with comparable speed to the ones today. And according to some estimations, this slowing down of storms transitions is very significant, some calculating as much as a third loss of speed for just over half a decade.

These two publications both point to the same outcome using two very different methods - one is analysing historical data, and the other one is making predictions based on computer modeling. The fact that both have similar disturbing conclusions is a hint at the much more versatile unexpected negative effects of global warming we are yet to discover in full.

LA Times, National Geographic, Nature, New York Times

Dogs and the flu virus

You've got your bird flu, your swine flu, now get ready for dog flu!

Bird flu made the case that flu is not just what you called in sick with when you have a bad cold but could actually be a serious, life threatening disease. I could talk all day about the complexities and risks of the flu virus but I won't. Instead we'll focus on the headline points.

Is your dog in danger? No. This story is about discovering that dogs already have many different types of flu virus in them, including some novel ones; not that dogs are dying. Are you in danger? No. So why are we even talking about this?

The reason why people get a flu shot every year is because the flu virus is eternally changing. Antibiotic resistance is not a patch on the flu virus. Flu is a pandemic on a never-ending migration and as flu season sweep around the globe it keeps on changing. It mutates, swaps genes with its hosts and it swaps genes with other varieties of flu. All of this genetic bodging means that the flu that hits you one season can be significantly different from the one that hit you last season, dodging your immune system. So your flu vaccine is guesswork, predictions of what strains will be doing the rounds in the coming season.

The reason this dog story is big news is that all these flu strains together makes for a breeding ground for new strains as they all go about swapping genetic material; increasing the chance of something dangerous like bird flu emerging. Bird flu never transferred directly between humans and was rare as you had to live closely alongside infected birds to get it. But dogs live very close with us, not only raising the potential for infection, but also giving the virus more chance of adapting to infect humans. This has led to claims that we should start vaccinating our dogs for flu, not to protect them but to reduce the number of strains that they are carrying and minimise all this mixing.

JD: This winter we had our dog, Amy, vaccinated against canine flu. It seems there was some of it going around here on the west coast of North America, and it is quite serious if your dog is unlucky enough to contract it. Also, our veterinarian told us that the series of two injections should protect her for life.

Science News, Live Science, National Geographic

Thanks to Nevena Hristozova, the mastermind behind the incubatorium blog. All things sciencey, at incubatorium.eu.

And Chris MacAlister who is the creator of Matildas Lab, whose most recent post is about strapping fake tails to chickens.

The Climate Lounge

Did you know that according to a new paper in Nature, hurricanes are slowing down because of climate change? You do? Because Nevena already covered it really well? How about that science huh? Let me look at my watch...Ok that was only 20 seconds. Give me a word!

Which connects me to... CARBON DIOXIDE. Let's talk CO2! Because we did it guys! Woo! We are number 1! Humans Humans Humans!

This April and May, the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere measured at Mauna Loa in Hawaii reached 410 parts per million. The highest monthly averages ever recorded. May's average was 411.25 ppm, which is like super high.

How high is that? Well it's likely the highest since the Pliocene around 3 million years ago. What's the Pliocene? It's an era of time. What's time?Dudeeee that's deep. Anyway, the pliocene was known to have sea levels 16 to 131 feet higher (5 to 40m), the poles were 10 C or 18F higher with global temps more like 3-4C warmer (5-7F). And giant ground sloths and mastodons roamed the planet, not 7.6 billion humans.

Suffice to say, yikes.

Now this is where I usually get into some super sciency details but I'd like to end with a story instead, if you guys don't mind. Around 3.5 years ago I was lucky enough to get invited to give a talk at a climate resilience conference in Hawaii focusing on the Pacific Islands. And like any normal person, I extended this trip to do some sightseeing with my then pregnant wife (we had just found out a month earlier that we were expecting our first child). Our travels took us the big island, the youngest of the islands and the one that's currently erupting. Now when you are there, the suggestions on things to do usually boil down to 1) see the volcano and 2) Get to the top of Mauna Kea to see the stars and telescopes that peer out into space. We did #1 but thought, Psshhhht space. We instead did the much less traveled adventure and drove up Mauna Loa. Because we wanted to see where the famous Keeling Curve observations (the co2 measurements that i mentioned earlier) were taken. So beforehand, I emailed the NOAA scientists up there and said "Hey, can we come visit?" They said Sure! And gave us the code to the front gate. So on a sunny typically beautiful hawaiian day, my pregnant wife and I drove a rented 4wheel drive jeep up switchback roads to the Mauna Loa observatory. We walked around the machines by ourselves for a little bit before running into one of the scientists. He showed us around making sure to stop at the old famous machines,then pointing out where the steady stream of data was coming in and finally making us sign their guestbook (which contained all sorts of more famous names). But then he surprised us and took us out onto the roof, he grabbed an air sample bottle that they obviously kept for situations like this, when random visitors show up and he let us take air samples on Mauna Loa ourselves and seal the jars. We then went back down and wrote down the current CO2 levels in ppm. 401.23 ppm. A terrifying number back then. It was a time when breaking 400ppm seem unfathomable. And now 411.25ppm, rising and my son is now 2.5 years old

I often get asked how I keep going in such a field like climate science. Communicating it can be so tough. Things can seem so polarized, hopeless. And nowadays, I don't think we alone own that hopeless mantle. But I always say, you have to remind yourself why you keep doing what you are doing

Yes it can be tough, and on some days it can seem impossible to keep going. But on those days, I look to the shelf right above my computer at work, to the photo of my wife and I on our wedding day, to the image of my son showing off the world's largest grin. And smack dab in between them is that little glass tube, full of that brilliant hawaiian air with ugly amounts of CO2 in it.

And as I say these words, at any minute I could get a call telling me my wife is in labor with boy #2. So even though things can seem depressing. Remember, there's A LOT worth fighting for. Keep those things close and let's get to damn work.

Also, don't be afraid of bringing tourist dollars to Puerto Rico and definitely don't forget to keep talking about the island. It's hurricane season and lots of places still don't have roofs.

NOAA, YaleE360

Pub Quiz

1. What is the study of biological processes that have or could have evolved outside or away from the planet Earth?
2. What do we call a global event that arises from large-scale interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere between the southeastern tropical Pacific and the Austral-Indonesian regions?
3. What is the branch of biology that deals with the interactions and relationships between organisms and their environment?
4. What do we call a subatomic particle that carries a negative charge in atoms or molecules?
5. Microorganisms belonging to the domains Bacteria and Archaea that can live and thrive in extreme environments are called what?
6. In thermodynamics, a closed system evolves toward a state of maximum what?
7. Published in 1859, Darwin's "On The Origin of Species", probably the greatest writing in the history of the biological sciences. What was the final word of the final chapter?
8. What do we call organisms who have relatively large cells that have internal membrane-bound structures called organelles, including a cell nucleus?
9. When a species that once existed no longer exists anywhere it is said to be?
10. The study of the inheritance and regulation of gene expression that is independent of the DNA sequence of an organism is called?

Recommended by the Team

We highly recommend a great podcast called "Death in Ice Valley". It's a co-production of BBC's World Service and Norway's public radio service, NRK.

In 1970, in a remote valley in Norway two girls found the body of a woman, badly burnt and surrounded by some strange objects. Her identity has remained a mystery ever since.

Investigative journalist, Marit Higraff, and British BBC radio documentary maker, Neil McCarthy, have spearheaded this most recent investigation, and their goal is to find answers that have evaded police, journalists and crime novelists for the past 47 years.

This is a wonderful podcast and I urge you to have a listen.

Death In Ice Valley

Where Have We Been?

Nevena: Last week, here in Brussels, was held the yearly international forum on food and nutrition from the BCFN foundation. It is an event founded to provide an open space for interdisciplinary discussion on issues of nutrition and sustainability. Experts, international opinion-makers and young research fellows met to share evidence, scientific data and best practices, with the goal of creating a model of sustainable food to reach the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The talks and keynotes tried to lay out effective solutions on urgent issues such as the relationship between hunger and obesity, the proper use of natural resources, the reduction of food waste, the promotion of sustainable diets, the environmental impact of agriculture and the effects of climate change.

And the best part of this event was that it was free to register so anyone who wanted to attend and was fast enough could go (obv they had a somewhat limited number of seating). But talk about open science that was really it!

JD: Last week I spent a morning at Point Reyes National Seashore. This is truly a remarkable piece of land. It's about 280 square kilometers and its peninsula juts about 15 kilometers out into the Pacific.

From the Outer Point you can see the Farallones, an archipelago that's about 50 km away. On a clear day you can also see the top of the Golden Gate Bridge, also about 50 km distant.

There are lots of black-tailed deer, huge tule elk, bobcat, coyotes and mountain lions. I was doing some birding there and saw several peregrine falcons soaring and then swooping around the lighthouse, driving the common murres crazy. I only learned afterward that a pair of Lawrence's Goldfinches are nesting in the area...quite rare for this location.

Chris: This week I have been building. I am building a LIMS (Laboratory Integrated Management System). Our lab records are on old Microsoft Access databases that are slowly grinding to a standstill. A colleague and I visited another lab to look at their off the shelf LIMS and we thought; there's nothing going on here that we couldn't build ourselves, in MS Access. So that is what we are doing; building an all-singing-all-dancing bespoke database system from scratch. Whilst this has been going on for more that the last week, last week we did build some parts of the system that we feared would be the most difficult so I'm feel remarkably chuffed with myself at the moment.

Where Are We Going?

Nevena: Another interesting event which I hope to be able to attend is a meeting called Antitrust and competition issues in the life science sector on July 3rd here in the European Parliament, in Brussels. DG COMP organises a panel to provide an overview of recent developments by DG COMP and the National Competition Authorities in the life science industry, including excessive pricing, market definition, pay-for-delay, and mergers.

This event follow the launch of DG COMP's Pharmaceutical Sector Inquiry in 2008, in which inquiry was the interplay between competition law and the life science sector. A broad range of investigations have taken place, and a number are on-going. DG SANTE will be reporting on biologicals and biosimilars from a regulatory perspective. The event is virtually free since it's 25 euros per person but it also includes a lunch served as it's a lunch meeting followed by the report presentation.

JD: Summer is a slow time of year for lectures and such, so I have nothing planned this week. However, there's a lot of wildlife to be seen in the area and I'm certainly going back to Point Reyes to have a look at those goldfinches, and anything else that wanders in front of my binoculars.

Chris: This week I am writing about spacesuits and the full range of jobs that they perform. Some functions of them are obvious but some are less so, which is something that is not helped by the less than rigorous application of scientific principles in the television and movie making industry.

I will also start turning some attention to this medium myself. I've long planned on producing video content to go alongside my blog and as yet never quite got around to it. I plan to start trying to be more active in pushing this project forward which is leaving me both inspired and full of dread in equal measures.

In Closing

Follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• Evidence for a new fundamental particle
• Pluto has dunes
• CRISPR Gene-Editing Pioneers Win Kavli Prize for Nanoscience
• Oldest Known Lizard Fossil Discovered
• This Week in Science History
• Pub Quiz

Listener feedback

We heard from our good friend, Sam Danby, in Norway. Sam is a new father, a cancer researcher, and a footballer. Sam writes, "Once again, great to have you back with the podcast, and there's something interesting every week. The new 'where you been, what you doing' feature is great!"

Sam also asked about what to do all summer to entertain his 1 year old. Make it a science summer! Two of the best virtual and real places we know of for that are Matilda's Lab, Atom Club, and the Dorset Science and Technology Centre!

Science on!

Science News with Amrita Sule and Chris MacAlister Evidence Found for a New Fundamental Particle

Time for some news from the world of Particle physics. Since past couple of days news headlines have been flashing about – evidence of a new fundamental particle or how an experiment just detected a particle that shouldn't exist.

What is all this fuss about and what particle is this? The MiniBooNE which is short for Mini Booster Neutrino Experiment carried out at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago have detected "sterile neutrinos".

Sterile neutrinos are particles that only interact via gravity and not via any other fundamental interactions of the standard model.

Neutrinos in general are part of matter particles and are nearly massless. They interact through weak nuclear forces and barely interact with matter. They oscillate between three known types or flavors, electron, muon and tau.

In the MiniBooNE experiment, a beam of muon neutrinos was shot towards a giant oil tank. On its way some of these muon neutrinos transform into electron neutrinos and are detected when they interact with oil molecules. These have different masses which allows their detection. In its 15-year run, MiniBooNE has registered a few hundred more electron neutrinos than expected.

This could be because some of the muon neutrinos oscillate into the heavier 4 kind of neutrino – sterile nuetrino (which never interact with anything that isn't a neutrino) and some of these got transformed into electron neutrinos which were detected by the MiniBooNE.  A neutrino excess like this was 1st recorded in the 1990s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico with a different apparatus however the count wasn't as big as miniboone.

This is very exciting as it has been long thought that sterile neutrinos make up the dark matter. Detection of sterile neutrinos could take us a step forward in the direction of understanding dark matter. However, several physicists remain apprehensive and are not fully convinced as sterile neutrinos have not been detected in many other experimental set ups and the evidence of their existence has been weak.

I guess we should let the physics world mull over this.

Science News, Quanta, Live Science

Pluto Has Dunes

This story gets really interesting when you understand how dunes are made and that is that tiny, individual grains of sand get blown around in the wind until they run into something that stops them. Whatever stops them will likely stop many other grains of sand causing a mound. This mound then stops even more sand until you end up with full blown dune. So to distill this down to an equation that even can understand; sand + wind = dunes; and this is what has made it so surprising that dunes have now been discovered on the dwarf planet Pluto.

Pictures from NASA's New Horizon spacecraft taken 3 years ago have seen dunes on Pluto. This is confusing for a couple of reasons. Firstly, no one expected anything to be moving on Pluto due to the extreme cold there. Pluto is so cold that even the water there is frozen harder than rock; it's certainly far too cold to have sand lying around. We also have a problem with the wind, or lack of. Wind is just our atmosphere moving around, but Pluto doesn't really have an atmosphere. It has 0.0001% of the atmosphere that Earth has which means that winds on Pluto are weaker than the beer in a student bar!

To put this into context, if you were to fart on Pluto this would create a hurricane the likes of which that dwarf planet has never seen; at least it would if the fart didn't freeze the moment it left your arsehole. Pluto is so cold that it can freeze farts. And really, this is the solution the puzzle. As any school child will tell you, farts contain methane; and this is what Plutonian dunes are made of. Even if you freeze methane into individuals grains, they are still as light as air; so even Pluto's meagre winds can shift them to create dunes.

So there we have it: Pluto's fart dune created by the lightest breezes known in the solar system.

BBC News Science and Environment, Science News, Scientific American, Nature, National Geographic

CRISPR Gene-Editing Pioneers Win Kavli Prize for Nanoscience

Do you guys know about the World Science Festival (WSF)? Happens around end of May every year. I attended it 2 years ago and was a lot of fun. It's an excellent opportunity to hear about cutting edge research from the scientists itself. The Kavli prize which recognizes scientists for their contributions in three research areas; astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience and is announced every year at the WSF.

This year the nanoscience committee awarded the Kavli prize for. Any guesses?? It's CRISPR-Cas9, a precise nanotool for editing DNA; to  Emmanuelle Charpentier at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkeley), and Virginijus Siksnys at Vilnius University in Lithuania.

CRISPR system, - is primarily used by microbes as a defense against invading viruses. The microbes record and target the DNA sequences of these invading viruses. Teams lead by duo Charpentier and Doudna and separately by Šikšnys first showed that this CRISPR system  from bacteria can be used with an enzyme Cas9 to alter free floating DNA in test tubes – thus making them molecule scissors for tailoring genes. This system, has now evolved into a modern day tool for gene editing.

Charpentier and Doudna were first to publish in Science hence received more attention. Bad luck for Šikšnys, whose paper was rejected by Cell even though it was submitted before those two. Nevertheless, work from all three labs set a foreground that Cas9 can be used as nano-sized scissors to selectively cut pieces of DNA.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system has since then been exploited by scientists around the world to explore its potential in avenues ranging from biomedical sciences to agriculture.

I came across a comment from Cori Bargmann who is a scientist at Rockefeller and a Kavli prize winner herself.  She compares such prizes/awards to winning an Oscar which will push people to see that particular movie. Here a prize for CRISPR could tell the non-science community to be more informed about this as it could very well be a part of their life soon. I am sure I am not the only one rooting for a Nobel prize for CRISPR!!

Quanta, Scientific American, Genome Web

Oldest Known Lizard Fossil Discovered

In creationist news this week; evolutionists have once again changed their mind about the theory of evolution. This time they've change the date that they think reptiles first appeared. By how much you may ask? 10, 15 years? No, by 75 million years! Can you believe it?

Well, back in the world of rational and responsible science reporting  we can justify this change because we have a reptile fossil that is 75 million years older than anything previously discovered. To put this into context, it's moved the date back from 168 million years ago to 240 million years ago.

This is not a new discovery. This fossil of Megachirella wachtleri has been on the books for about 20 years already. What is new is the lizard classification. Small fossils can be trickier to work with than large ones. They are more fragile, harder to find and seem to occur less often. This fossil is half concealed in rock stopping full examination, CT scanning has finally allowed paleontologists to see the full creature.

It's not widely appreciated outside of taxonomic circles how precise the distinctions between some pretty major categories of animals is {Insert Chris' Quiz here}. The divide between reptiles and amphibians is complicated due to the sparse fossil record at this time, that's why the lizard classification is so important.

It suggests that reptiles were around during the mass extinction that ended the Permian period. Forget dinosaurs, this was the big daddy extinction wiping out 96% of all life. There could be parallels with mammals. The dinosaur extinction paved the way for the mammals to diversify, maybe the Permian-Triassic extinction did the same for reptiles?

Science News, Live Science,

Patreon

I have fantastic news. We have our very first Patrons!

They are John and Louise Richardson, are hereby declared official Blue Streakers, with all honors and benefits accorded thereof.

A national holiday will be declared in their honor, and I request that all governments of the world follow suit, and give everyone a day off.

Thank you, John and Louise.

If you also want to help support our podcast and keep this thing rolling you can do so.

We need it. We owe people money! And the way we're getting support is through Patreon.

We've crafted the campaign to give you different levels at which you can give us some support. You can donate as little as a dollar per episode at the Patron Level, all the way up to the Associate Producer Level. Any amount of support that you can give us will help tremendously!

I encourage you to check out our Patreon page at bluestreakscience.com/patreon

On behalf of the Blue Streak Science Team

Thank you!

This Week In Science History

...in 1859, T.H. Huxley gave his first public defense of Charles Darwin's "On The Origin of Species" when he presented his paper to the Royal Institution titled 'On the Persistent Types of Animal Life'. Later when asked why he chose this scientific theory to defend, he replied, "It was the natural selection".

...in 1965, In a classic case of Cold War one-upsmanship American astronaut Ed White spent 20 minutes on a spacewalk outside his Gemini 4 space capsule only 3 months after Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov took a 10 minute stroll outside his space capsule.

Six weeks after astronaut Ed White's spacewalk cosmonaut Ivan Yurkenov took his Siberian husky Misha for a spacewalk and a frisbee toss. However, a malfunction in one of the Soviet's poop bags cut short the otherwise pleasant outing.

...in 1942, Owing to the ongoing Second World War silk was in short supply, so the U.S. military needed a suitable alternative for the manufacture of parachutes. Fortunately, the newly invented material Nylon was available. And so was pilot and stunt parachutist Adeline Gray. Making her 33rd jump Miss Gray convinced the army and the navy that nylon parachutes were safe and durable.

...in 1975, the discovery of imprints of large, soft-bodied, toothless marine worms radiometrically dated to be 620 million years old, was reported in the New York Times, making them the oldest fossils in the United States. The fossils held their place until recently when another even older, toothless, soft-bodied fossil was discovered in the both the swamps of Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

And the rest is science history.

Pub Quiz

Today it's the letter D.

Joining us are the delightful Amrita Sule and debonaire Chris MacAlister.

Here's how it works. I ask a science question and our denizens of deduction deduce the answers.

1. Name an English naturalist and geologist born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in 1809.
2. This molecule is a linear polymer of four building blocks called nucleotides arranged in a double helix.
3. What is a substance or entity that is derived from the breakdown or division of another. For example, a product of the radioactive decay of an element; or cells that are derived from the division of a parent cell?
4. What type of matter can only be inferred only by it gravitational interactions?
5. What is another word for mass per unit of volume?
6. What do we call a region where rivers reach lakes, seas, or the ocean, and deposit their sediment in a broad, flat plains?
7. The change in observed frequency due to relative motion between the source and the observer is also known as?
8. The bending or spreading of light waves when they meet a change in density. What's that called?
9. He was a mathematician and philosopher born in France in 1596, and invented analytical geometry and developed a system which describes geometry in term of algebra. Who is he?
10. Another word for ancestry or heritage?

How did YOU do?

Answers available in the episode.

Where Have We Been?

Chris: The most interesting thing that happened to me in the las week is that the big ISO17025 assessment that I talk about last week didn't happen, so I have another 2 months to wait for that to come around again.

JD: On Monday I was supposed to attend an event at the California Academy of Science on exoplanets. A busy schedule and heavy traffic intervened, so I had to give that a miss.

Where Are We Going?

Chris: I'm going to start investigate the bizarre cases that we talk about off-air last week. Nevena has inspired me to follow up my leads so I will be writing about the people who strapped a fake tail onto a chicken, for science. I also need to build a new rain catch for my daughter's rain station as I seriously underestimated the amount of rain that falls in the UK!]

JD: I'm heading to the Bodega Marine Lab once again for a lecture titled "Primary drivers and consequences of ecological change in marine communities of today and tomorrow" by Tye Kindinger, Postdoctoral Scholar from the University of California, Santa Cruz. As usual it will be preceded by some birdwatching on the Sonoma Coast and a crab sandwich.

In Closing

Until next time...follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• The Nipah virus
• The journal Scientific Reports retracts a paper...oops!
• The mysterious case of the stolen asteroid
• Speaking of asteroids, we learn how birds may have dodged the one that rubbed out the rest of the other dinosaurs
• The Blue Streak Science A**hole of the Month
• And the Pub Quiz

Listener feedback

NeilNextGen from London: "nice to see you guys back and podcasting every week. This is my favorite science podcast all time. I gotta say my favorite part has been the pub quiz. Keep up the good work."

Neil, thank you so much for those words of encouragement.

Science News with Chris MacAlister and Nevena Hristozova Introducing the Nipah Virus

 

Last time I covered an amphibian pandemic, this time we have a possible human one. There's not much room for a jovial attitude for this story.

In the wake of health scares such as HIV, bird flu, Ebola and Zika there is a reason why governments consider a pandemic as one of the top threats to their population.  The new virus on the block is Nipah. Discovered just before the turn of the century in Malaysia and Singapore, and is on the WHO priority list of emerging diseases.

Recent case in Southern India: 11 fatalities & 25 hospitalisations.

The symptoms: fever, vomiting, disorientation, mental confusion, encephalitis and fatal in up 70% of cases.

How likely are you to catch it? Mercifully not very. The primary source of the virus is fruit bats. Other risks are from infected pigs and humans. Unlike Ebola, Nipah does not vertically transmit that easily.

Why is the WHO so concerned? Due to the range of fruit bats and the potential for mutation. The risk is heightened by the lack of any cure or vaccine.

Science News, Live Science

Scientific Reports retracts paper claiming neurological damage from HPV vaccine

That's the type of story I really like seeing - it's about a retracted study allegedly showing that the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine causes neurological damage.

The paper is question was submitted and published by a group led by Toshihiro Nakajima of Tokyo Medical University, and became available online in November 2016. It describes impaired mobility and brain damage in mice given an enormous dose of HPV vaccine along with a toxin that makes the blood-brain barrier leaky.

After many complaints by peers that the experimental setup of the study is flawed and the conclusions are not of sound scientific integrity, the publisher decided to retract the paper despite the disapproval of the original authors.

Unfortunately, the damage might already be done, since the generally low HPV vaccination rates in Japan, had further plummeted since the conclusions made the headlines in the country. Much like what happened with the MMR vaccination rates and the retracted many years ago paper by the practice-banned MD Andrew Wakefield, whose antivax movement is single handedly responsible for the death of many people, including many children from vaccination-preventable diseases.

The main opponents of the Japanese paper are currently criticizing the publishers for taking so long to investigate the publication and retract it, since its publication it's been unfortunately already cited over 20 times and has made the rounds in public madia scaring needlessly many away from a vaccine that is able to save numerous lives from cervical cancer - a very aggressive form of the disease which is reported to affect more than half a million new subjects every year.

Proud to say that one of the leading experts trying to debunk the paper is a professor from the University of Antwerp here in Belgium. Prof. Vorsters also pointed out that since there doesn't seem to be a working method yet to counteract the antivax scare tactics, may be researchers and health professionals should rather focus on pointing out the usefulness of vaccines, rather than wasting efforts to disprove antivax claims.

Science

Asteroid: Stolen From Another Sun?

Another month, another intergalactic visitor. But whereas Oumuamua was a tourist just passing through, asteroid 2015 BZ509 appears to be a bona fide immigrant to our solar system.

I want to take you on journey with me, of skepticism. When faced with a headline like this, my first thought is "How can anyone possibly draw that conclusion about a piece of rock orbiting our Sun?" Oumauamua was fine; it came from outside the solar system a swiftly pissed off again, but a resident asteroid?

My doubts were not helped when I found out that this conclusion is based on the asteroids retrograde (i.e backwards) orbit around the sun that seems to last the same time as Jupiter's. That doesn't seem like much to go off.

Now comes the modern day black magic; computer modelling. These models attempted to recreate the conditions that would allow this kind of orbit to form. The most surprising result from this model is that it suggests that the orbit has most likely been established for about 4.5 billion years.

4.5 billion years ago the planets themselves were only newly formed and as such it is not expected that there would be any resident retrograde orbits. Put all of this together and the most plausible explanation appear to be that a passing visitor has been caught in the gravity of our young solar system and has remained here ever since.

Royal Astronomical Society, LA Times

How birds may have escaped the dinosaur-killing asteroid impact

This story is a tribute for 'the ones who made it out'. Recent re-evaluation of plant residue and fossil data shows that the birds might have escaped a narrow mass-extinction when the asteroid which killed off most dinosaurs hit Earth. We know that the Cretaceous era asteroid wiped out most dinosaurs, but we don't rly think that it actually killed off 3/4s of life in general - including plants.

This new look into the data led Daniel Field at the University of Bath in the UK to hypothesise that the birds that made it out of the extinction were in fact the ground-dwelling ones - ancient ancestors of ducks, chickens, and ostriches for example, while the ones whose species perished were the ones relying entirely on vegetation for food, shelter, nesting… Two types of data hinted to the conclusion - one showed that the lineages of today's ground-dwelling birds are much more vast than the ones living in/on vegetation, but also the fact that in fossils layers laid immediately after the asteroid impact, almost entirely seeds of plants belongs to only a small number of species of ferns.

Once the forests developed gradually again, they presented a massive free ecological niche, which was taken once more by birds choosing to make use of these new habitats.

BBC News Science and Environment, Nature, National Geographic, Science News

A**hole of the Month

When I first got the idea for the A**hole of the Month for the month of May I initially had one person in mind, a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Specifically, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

But the more I read about this, the more I realized that the entire Republican-side of this committee is one colossal, flatulent asshole.

To be fair, there are Democrats on the committee, but they lack any real power since they're the minority party, are probably as aghast and incredulous as I am.

It's the Republicans on this committee...let me repeat the name of that committee. It's the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. These Republicans wouldn't know science if it came up behind them and bit them on their collective ass.

One thing I can guarantee, by the way, is that if we continue on the path recommended by this committee..science will indeed bite us all on the ass, for many generations.

Last week this committee held a hearing on how technology could be used to help us adapt to climate change.

One of the experts at the hearing was Philip Duffy, who is the president and executive director of the venerable Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. His is also a former senior adviser to the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Dr. Duffy served as a Senior Advisor in the White House National Science and Technology Council, and as a Senior Policy Analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He's held senior research positions with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. And he holds a Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford.

The guy has science chops, in a big way.

So, a lot of the questions and comments at this hearing were directed toward Dr. Duffy.

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas showed a chart which showed that rates of sea-level rise have only increased slightly compared with the rate of fossil fuel use.

To which Dr. Duffy pointed out that the chart was from a single tide gauge station somewhere near San Francisco, and that sea levels worldwide rise at different rates.

Strangely enough, Representative Smith somehow forgot to show any charts or graphs that reveal rising atmospheric CO2 levels or temperatures, both of which have climbed at a steady rate in recent decades, right in line as fossil fuel emissions have increased.

So in response to the chart Dr. Duffy replied, "The rate of global sea-level rise has accelerated and is now four times faster than it was 100 years ago."

A smug Representative Smith asked."Is this chart inaccurate, then?"

To which Duffy replied, "It's accurate, but it doesn't represent what's happening globally; it represents what's happening in San Francisco."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California said he was concerned that established climate science (read that as actual science, and not made up bullshit)... he said he was concerned that science has not been questioned more by the committee.

This is a committee, by the way, which has accused federal climate scientists of fraudulently manipulating climate data and has even subpoenaed their records.

But the biggest blast of antiscience flatulence came when Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama questioned Dr. Duffy on the various factors that cause sea level rise, you know, peer-reviewed, testable, and repeatable science.

Instead he offered his own ideas as the why sea levels are rising.

Brooks actually put forth the proposition that erosion is a key factor in sea-level rise.

He said the California coastline and the White Cliffs of Dover tumble into the sea every year, and that contributes to sea-level rise. He also said that silt washing into the ocean from the world's major rivers contribute to sea-level rise.

"Every time you have that soil or rock or whatever it is that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise, because now you have less space in those oceans, because the bottom is moving up."

Duffy responded: "I'm pretty sure that on human time scales, those are minuscule effects."

I might add that we know the seafloor spreads at the mid-ocean ridges, and that seafloor is dragged back into the mantle at subduction zones.

Mountains rise, they get eroded, the earth's crust spreads and it gets drawn back inside the mantle. Oh, and the earth is billions of years old...not 6,000 years.

Brooks doubled-down on his ignorance. Remember, this guy is a member of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

He doubled-down by saying that Antarctic ice is growing.

To which Dr. Duffy replied, "We have satellite records clearly documenting a shrinkage of the Antarctic ice sheet and an acceleration of that shrinkage,"

Brooks, arguing with the scientist countered, "I'm sorry, but I don't know where you're getting your information, but the data I have seen suggests…"

Duffy interrupted, informing Brooks of his sources,  "The National Snow and Ice Data Center and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration."

As an aside, earlier this year, NASA researchers determined that Antarctica's ice loss has accelerated in the last decade. Sea ice extent at both poles were at record lows last year.

There was another representative that brought up the notion that scientists in the 1970's believed the earth was cooling.

This is a widely believed meme by the antiscience fringe that's based on a fake Time Magazine cover from the 1970's. That's right I said FAKE. It was fake. It didn't happen. It was a fake cover that suggested scientists were really concerned about global COOLING back then.

They weren't.

Other media outlets picked this up and and ran with it like it was real. It wasn't. It never was.

And there are even more morons today who cite that as evidence. The only thing it's evidence of is science illiteracy, an abject failure of basic education.

Actual science from the 1970's — certainly not as comprehensive today's science on the subject  — in reality was sounding the alarm about just the opposite idea, that global warming is what we need to be concerned about. Even in the 1970's the idea of global warming was not new. It was already decades old.

Yet in 2018 there are members of the, I still can't get over it, the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that lack even the most basic understanding of science.

In fact, they are unabashedly hostile to science.

And for that, you, the Republicans on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology are the Blue Streak Science A**holes of the Month.

Science

Pub Quiz

Today it's a cacophonous celebration of the letter C

Joining us in this cheerful ceremony are the chisel-chinned Chris MacAlister, and the captivating and convivial Nevena Hristozova.

1. A group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body is also known as?
2. We all know of the technology known as CRISPR or CRISPR/Cas9.  It's a family of DNA sequences in bacteria and archaea, and this technology is used to edit the genomes of even more complex organisms. Question: What does the C in CRISPER stand for?
3. Carcinology is the study of what?
4. What is the largest living rodent in the world?
5. What is the name of the very large flightless birds that live in tropical forests of northeast Australia and New Guinea?
6. Who was the only person to win two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences?
7. What space mission ended on 15 September, 2017 with the so-called Grand Finale as it plunged into the atmosphere of Saturn?
8. What island-filled ocean basin is bordered by Mexico and Central America to the west and south west, the Greater Antilles to the north, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the north coast of South America?
9. Diamond and graphite are different allotropes of what element?
10. What is the geologic period that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 million years ago?

Where Are We Going?/Where Have We Been?

JD: Last week I attended a lecture at the University of California Davis' Bodega Marine Lab. It was titled "Developing and evaluating solutions-based approaches for mitigating global change impacts in aquatic ecosystems". The speaker was David Koweek, Postdoctoral Researcher, Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science. It presented some interesting strategies for dealing with issues such as apoxia, and lowered pH as a result of anthropogenic global warming.

They have these lectures on Wednesday afternoons at the Marine Lab, which is located in a stunning setting on the Sonoma coast. I may attend these a lot more often. Go birding in the morning. Crab sandwiches at Spud Point Marina for lunch, a little more birding, attend a lecture. Sounds like retirement to me.

JD: Next week I'm attending a talk at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco titled  "Are We Alone in the Universe?" The speaker is Lisa Kaltenegger of Cornell University. She's gonna discuss exoplanets and  how we can determine which ones might be suitable for life, as well as techniques and future missions that could detect life on these worlds.

Chris: I visited a laboratory trade show for the first time last week which was a truly eye opening experience. I've been celebrating practical microbiology by running a charity beer festival and I've been exploring the rather trivial question of whether God exists on the blog.

Chris: This week I have an ISO17025 assessment at my lab, this is the international standard for testing and calibration laboratories. I will also be getting ecological with Matilda. We joined the RSPB at the weekend and we shall be making the most of their support to explore the living world around us.

In Closing

Until next time...follow the science!

On This Week's Show

• Megafauna
• Also, Mount Kilauea is still at it...now with a another thing to worry about
• Ebola is back in the news
• I gotta a gut feeling about one of these stories

And let's not forget the Climate Lounge with Tom Di Liberto

Science News Diverse and abundant megafauna documented at new Atlantic US Marine National Monument

Did you know today is the International Biodiversity day? And this story touches on the biodiversity of our vast oceans and deep seas.

To my understanding, documenting deep-sea marine life can be extremely challenging. Often times, marine biologists have to go aboard an airplane to survey some of these regions.

One such hotspot which was surveyed recently, lies on the edge of the continental shelf, where the shallow seas off New England drop sharply into the deep waters of the northwestern Atlantic.

This region is called as Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and is the first American marine national monument in Atlantic waters. this status was designated by President Obama in 2016. I think of it as when a park or a forest area is given a national park status. So it's seems pretty important to me.

Scientists from the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium have surveyed this region aerially three times, since the Summer of 2017. On their latest survey they observed hundreds of Bottlenose dolphins, dozens of whales including the rare Sowerby's beaked whales and dolphins of various species.

These scientists find that such abundance of marine fauna is extraordinary for such a small area. These aerial sightings will help them to study how different species use this biodiverse habitat at different times of the year. These waters, which harbor wide diversity of corals, deep water fishes, and invertebrates FORM a FRAGILE ecosystem which needs to be well protected.     

But you see, new policies recommend that such waters should be opened for offshore drilling which is NO GOOD for  the precious marine life in waters like Northeast canyons.

Science Daily

Hawaiian volcano spews ballistic blocks

I first read this story title as 'Hawaiian volcano spews ballistic bollocks.' I did. My first thought was, therefore, oh. Is that literal? What does that even mean? My second thought was 'ah, I can't read! Wonderful! Writing my thesis is going to be so much fun!'

But what are ballistic blocks? (And ballistic bollocks). They are, terrifyingly, just massive chunks of rock the size of appliances. Not ideal. These are being chucked out by Kilauea, the volcano that has been in a state of continuous eruption on Hawaii since the 80s.

The caldera (bowl where the lava pools) is deflating, increasing stress at the volcano base. There have been 4.4 magnitude earthquakes. The ash plume can be seen from the ISS. This ash can obviously cause health issues when it's breathed in. The locals also have to contend with VOG. That's some sort of horrible gas mix that has sulphur dioxide - highly toxic - mixed in.

So we spoke about Kilauea recently but the Hawaiians' problems are going nowhere for now!

BBC, Popular Science

Congo confirms first urban Ebola case, raising possibility of 'explosive increase in cases'

Ebola, a word that we wish to hear no more. But it has resurfaced again, this time in Congo in the city of Mbandaka, home for 1.2 million people. Congo health officials reported that so far there have been there have been 44 suspected cases of Ebola since April and 25 people have died.

The disease causes internal bleeding and is transmitted to humans through the consumption of contaminated meat or close contact with an infected person.

This makes it extremely difficult to contain Ebola in an Urban setting like Congo, as the number of contacts can amplify much quickly.

Also, the city of Mbandaka lies on the bank of the Congo River which is frequently used by the local people for transportation, increasing the chances of the virus spreading down the river over long distances.

Ebola epidemic which first started in 2014 in West Africa was worst ever recorded and resulted in infecting more than 28,000 and killing more than 11,000. The WHO was blamed then in part for not acting on time.

However, this time WHO is doing everything to contain this outbreak before it gets out of proportion.  A vaccination drive has begun on Monday in the city of Mbandaka. More than four thousand doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by Merck have been shipped to Congo. This is an experimental vaccine which proved quite effective in Guinea in 2015-2016.

Their game plan is that, Whenever a new Ebola case is diagnosed, all the people who might have a made recent contact with the affected individual will be traced and vaccinated so the disease remains contained. We'll just have to wait and watch how this plays out.

But most importantly we should take a pause and appreciate the health workers and doctors without borders who are volunteering in this hard hit area for all their hard work.

Washington Post, NPR

How the gut influences neurologic disease

We don't give our guts nearly enough thought. I am not talking about those awful yoghurt adverts. Your gut is a hugely complex organ system which also has effects on your brain - the crosstalk between the brain and the gut is still being unravelled.

A new study in Nature regarding the link between neurological disease and the gut - using a combination of human cells and animal models. There is a growing body of work on how byproducts can influence the brain - the context for this group in particular is MS.

The new research, from Brigham and Women's Hospital, focuses on the influence of gut microbes on two types of cells that play a major role in the central nervous system: microglia and astrocytes. Microglia are part of the body's immune system, responsible for scavenging the CNS - they are a sort of cleaner cell, hoovering up plaques, dead cells and other rubbish in the brain. But microglia can also secrete compounds that can damage the astrocytes - another type of brain cell, also key to maintenance and support in the brain, in different manners to the microglia. This damage to astrocytes from microglia is apparently thought to contribute to many neurologic diseases, including multiple sclerosis.

However, in this paper, the team reports that byproducts that microbes produce when they break down dietary tryptophan -- an amino acid found in turkey and other foods -- may limit inflammation in the brain through their influence on microglia. So the gut *MAY* be helpful in mitigating inflammatory damage in the brain - at least in the mouse models they used, which had MS. They found evidence for the same sort of pathways in human brain samples.

Science Daily, Nature

The Climate Lounge National Park service quietly releases Sea level Rise projections. Let's talk LOUDLY about it!

Earlier this year, drafts of a report on sea level rises impact on national parks became public mainly for what had been taken out of them... The one thing just so happened to be the main thing that was causing sea level rise in the first place. Climate Change. Yup, every mention of human caused climate change was removed. It's like taking a running leap into thorn bushes thinking that if I just close my eyes at the end, the thorns will disappear. The thorns won't disappear. Because that's a stupid way of thinking.

Fast forward a month and a half and the report has finally been released… quietly with all of the mentions of climate change kept in it but without all of that silly little thing like publicity from outlets such as... the agency it came from…

Ok, so what was this report about again that led to its "odd" treatment? It was a write up created to help 118 coastal parks across the United States prepare for the impacts a changing climate will have on the natural resources and history within those parks. How horrible right? UGH!

Anywaysss, what did the report find? Not surprisingly, as global temperatures heat up, sea levels are expected to rise. And that means for many national parks located along coastlines, problems could quickly worsen over the next century.

The worst hit parks are along North Carolina's outer Banks. In particular, near the Wright Brothers National Memorial, if we continue to keep emitting greenhouse gases, sea levels could rise 2.7 feet by 2100. Nearby, large portions near the Cape Hatteras and Cape Lookout seashores would also be underwater. But that is just one park and one area. Many parks from Historic Jamestowne and Assateague Island, Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, the Florida Everglades and Jean Lafitte National Historic Park in New Orleans and even the national parks, right here where I live in Washington DC would be pretty vulnerable.

The Parks service even included a graphic of what Roosevelt Island in the middle of the Potomac River in Washington DC would look like if a category 3 hurriane made landfall. Hint, the park looks blue… because it's covered in water.

This report is just another in a long list of studies that show just how vulnerable our coasts are to a rising sea because we continue to belch greenhouse gases in the air and do little to change our ways.

For instance, NOAA (in full disclosure I work there but had no hand in this report) issued a report earlier this year that simply looked at how nuisance flooding, minor floods that do little damage but are annoying and occur simply during high tides, would change in various emissions scenarios. The results were pretty shocking. For many places including San Francisco, Boston, New York, Miami, nuisance flooding, that is flooding only due to the tides could happen EVERY DAY by the end of the century if we keep emitting greenhouse gases. And these numbers could increase to over 100 days by 2040-2050, a mere 20-30 years. That's effectively NOW for planning purposes.

We've already done enough damage to ourselves. Hows about we finally stop it, and start getting to work on the healing process.

Reveal News, National Park Service

Pub Quiz Speaking words of wisdom, letter B

1. Africanized bees, also known as killer bees, first arrived in the Americas in what country?
2. What is the class of subatomic particles in which protons and neutrons are included?
3. Calculated in bits per second, this is the amount of data that can be sent through a connection. What is it more commonly known as?
4. This principle in fluid dynamics states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy. What is the name of this principle?
5. A solution consisting of a weak acid and its conjugate base, or vice versa, that is used to maintain the pH value constant in many chemical application is also known as a?
6. A genus of gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria that is a member of the phylum Firmicutes is a?
7. What Beatles album was released on the 8th of May in 1970?
8. Insects of the Order Coleoptera are better known as?
9. Where would you find the nearest corpus callosum?
10. What word in the English language contains the greatest number of the letter "B"?

Did you enjoy this bookish badinage?

In Closing

Thank you, everyone.

And remember, follow the science!