Brain Junk

We've had a hell of a good time spending the past 6 years scrounging up weird science and history junk for you to listen to! It's been a privilege knowing there a lots of fact junkies out there like us, digging through our podcast like raccoons in a trashcan. Our legacy is 328 fantastic episodes and we hope you never stop coming back when you need a little weird and wacky in your life.

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

Love ya forever, Trace and Amy

Show Notes:

The Poozeum: https://poozeum.com/

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud:

Amy lives for a good shenanigan so of course she adores MIT's tradition of playing hacks (aka pranks) on Harvard and Yale. The biggest one you've ever heard of turned out to be a fake but don't worry, there's still some great ones from the past 75 years that were real!

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a weird turn of events, it's ants performing surgery when one of them has a leg injury instead of scientists whacking the legs off. Okay,we lied, the scientists are doing it too...

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine rolling up to excavate an ancient ruin only to spend the day carrying out buckets full of crabs! Today we get to know the Potamon fluviatile crab.

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have you ever wondered if a hit of helium would change the sound of an alligator's bellows? Lucky for us, there are scientists out there who wanted to know.

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amy looks into how companies change over time. Start making glass jars, segue into making aerospace technology, and end up only doing metal fabrication. We look at a few other companies too!

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scientists wanted to know if plants scream and tortured tomatoes to find out the answer. Beckett (Trace's youngest spawn) wanted to know, if plants do scream, can our pets hear it and is this why cats knock plants off shelves?

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

Amy laid the perfect web of "lies"; she lured Trace into an episode about shapeshifting women and then sprang the trap...this episode is about the Joro spider. We talk about the convergence of giant invasive spiders and Japanese mythology.

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

How do we define and study the little voice in your head? Is it something you HEAR, hear or is it something you think? For some of us, there's no inner monologue, for others, it's so loud in there, it's hard to participate in the outside world. Trace fell down the research stairs on this one! It's a double header of things we hear and see in our heads. Get ready for anendophasia and aphantasia!

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

Who knew that a simple combination of oats, water and salt could make for a yearly competition that's lasted for 30 years? We dive into the history of oats in Scotland and the famous Golden Spurtle competition!

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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