Brain Junk

While there are lots of other animals that feel wetness; buckle up, friends, humans can't. When you spill a glass of water on yourself, you are feeling something, but it's not the water. We don't like it either, but it seems to be true.

Show Notes:

257: Pruney Fingers

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

IFL Science version

Science Daily: Understanding the Illusion of Wetness

YouTube of The rubber fake hand experiment!

Scientists having to pay to publish

Want to get really mad? Try A Little Wordy

Some Anoles have the most awesome "in case of emergency" trick! Anoles living near bodies of water can jump in, sink to the bottom, and rebreathe their breath long enough to stay under for over 10 minutes. The science is remarkable (and we learn some cool vocab words).

Show Notes:

What is an Anole? Britannica

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

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

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

Hydrophobic: tending to repel or not mix with water

Rugose: wrinkled, corrugated

Plastron: large pad worn by fencers

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

Snake robot legs video!

We LOVE the delightful and sometimes confounding process of scientific discovery. What makes science even better is when kids get to ask big questions and have access to ways to find answers.

Show Notes:

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

Kids discover how EpiPens work in space from The Smithsonian

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

Hopkins students invent a battle ready wound bandage

Joseph-Armand Bombardier teenage inventor of the snowmobile!

The Baby Hot Seat

Who knew that attempts to discover ways for humans to regrow organs or limbs might send a group of scientists in the direction of trying to grow sitka deer antlers on naked mice? Not us that's for sure. Buckle up, today science gets weird.

image: Jackalopes at Wall Drug

Show Notes:

Trace on Instagram

Amy on Instagram

Brain Junk Instagram

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

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

Also the actual 2020 Maples Scientific Publishers paper

Mice regrow TOES? Science 1982

Turns out the old school calculation for dogs aging seven years to every one of our human years isn't quite accurate. There are better ways to calculate aging with epigenetics (FYI epigenetics is the study of how your behaviors and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work).

image of young puppy and adult dog from Pixabay

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

From the 1960s to the early 2000s, if you needed to make sensitive equipment like a Geiger counter or even sensing equipment for hospital tests, you needed low-background steel. BUT WHAT IS IT? Listen and find out!

Show Notes:

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

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

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

Maybe you know Monty Python from their 1975 movie Holy Grail. They didn't just make movies! From 1969 to 1974 they also did a comedy tv show. A classic sketch was Ministry of Silly Walks. Turns out, it might've been good for more than just a few laughs. Try that Silly Walk workout.

Show Notes:

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

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

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

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

Creepy trigger warning! We talk a bit about spiders. I don't like them either (TK) but it's worth it. We swear! If you google cranberry harvesting you'll quickly run into posts about spiders in the bogs. Turns out, they aren't as much of a creepy problem as Tumblr would have you believe!

image: b. minnick from pixabay

Show Notes:

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

Amy's Instagram for the biscuits

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

Aber-clam Lincoln is a 214 year old quahog clam (look, we don't make the dad jokes, we just share them).

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

Show Notes:

Aber-clam Lincoln article

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

Dr. Bruce Liberman commenting on survival of the sluggish

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

Are you Team Amy, who adores getting wrinkled fingers or are you on Team Trace, who can't STAND having pruney fingers because they're gross (there's no right answer here, except Trace is right).

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

Show Notes:

A blast from the past Episode 194: Iris Sphincters

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

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

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

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

Learn more with the BBC

Japanese Snow Monkeys

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