Brain Junk

Most headstones have a person's name, some significant dates and maybe a quote. But imagine if your family made it possible for you to share your very best recipe with delighted strangers. Our research adventure into headstone recipes began with stumbling onto a post by Rosie Grant, aka @ghostly.archive on Instagram. Check out her posts for great pictures!

Show Notes!

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

Rosa Parks Banana Pancakes on an envelope

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

Recipes in Obituaries

We know continents shift around like furniture in a room. But can you believe that Australia is on the planet's fastest moving tectonic plate and it's moving on the scale of inches per year? Far enough and fast enough that GPS tracking had to be updated.

Nation Geographic article with more deets: Nat Geo

Often when we talk about historical corset wearing, the first thing we think of is the patriarchy. Because corsets are objects of waist cinching oppression known for mutilating a woman’s internal organs. Right? Turns out, not always. Many women wore them for comfort, designed them to keep their breasts supported, and oh yeah, that patriarchy bit? Well sometimes, men wore them too.

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

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

Happy 2023!!! We're starting the year with an episode to satisfy your inner 12 year old! Pop some popcorn and join us in exploring the weirdly unexpected scents of Bear Cats (aka Binturong), lemon ants, copperhead snakes, and so many more smelly animals.

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

Just like sea horse dads, some poison dart frog dads take a hand in helping to raise their children. We talk about a Stanford University study designed to figure out how and if these little tropical frogs have a mental map of their environment.

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

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

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

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

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

It sounds like impossibly futuristic sci-fi but, a machine learning algorithm and videos of bat behavior were used to partially decode the language of Egyptian Fruit Bats. I KNOW! You have to give this a listen.

image by David Mark on Pixabay

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

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

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

Also known as devil squid because of the bright red color they sometimes display: Humboldt squid have on occasion attacked divers. But mostly they hunt in packs for fish. Mostly. (What's up Aliens reference?!

Let's talk about people who look remarkably similar. For example: Bryan Cranston and Mr. Kerr (Don't tell Chas we're matching him up with Breaking Bad's Walter White again.

In 1964 researchers discovered the sharp beaked ground finch aka the vampire finch. FOR REAL!!! These finches have adapted to long hot dry seasons by drinking blood.

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

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

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

Trace here: I've got one arm trapped under a grumpy old-man-cat named Jack. Jack does not care about science or glowing glass or the fact that my back is starting to cramp. Enjoy this trip down the fancy serving ware aisle and drop us a picture on Facebook if you own any of this really cool glass!

image from pixabay.

More resources to check out!

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

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

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

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

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