Crystallise

Why do we dream? And does eating cheese before sleeping make your dreams more vivid? In this week's episode, Rosie answers these questions and more as she delves into the science of dreaming. In our SNPit, Ash celebrates Brazil's first-ever home-built satellite, Amazonia-1, which was launched last week to keep an eye on deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

Episode Sources:

• Scientists identify parts of brain involved in dreaming
• The neural correlates of dreaming
• Why Do Memories of Vivid Dreams Disappear Soon After Waking Up?
• Dreaming May Help Relieve a Bad Day
• Learning while you sleep: Dream or reality?
• How our dreams prepare us to face our fears
• It's black and white: TV influences your dreams
• Sweet Dreams Are Made of Cheese
• Brazil’s first homemade satellite will put an extra eye on dwindling Amazon forests

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Does drinking coffee make you live longer? In this weeks episode, Ash discusses the positive (and negative) health effects of coffee. For our SNPit—some new research using Neanderthal mini-brains to investigate how they were different from modern humans.

Episode Sources:

• Coffee consumption and health: umbrella review of meta-analyses of multiple health outcomes
• Generalised anxiety disorder in adults
• Reintroduction of the archaic variant of NOVA1 in cortical organoids alters neurodevelopment
• Mini brains genetically altered with CRISPR to be Neanderthal-like

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Conspiracy theories have thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, but why do people believe in them? In this week's episode, Rosie discusses the psychology behind belief in conspiracies, mistrust of science, and how to combat "fake news". In our SNPit, Ash tells us about an incredible new technology that uses the heat of your body to charge batteries.

Episode Sources:

• Strange conspiracy theories: from 5G to Meghan Markle
• Why people latch on to conspiracy theories, according to science
• Does Self-Love or Self-Hate Predict Conspiracy Beliefs? Narcissism, Self-Esteem, and the Endorsement of Conspiracy Theories
• The social consequences of conspiracism: Exposure to conspiracy theories decreases intentions to engage in politics and to reduce one's carbon footprint
• Connecting the dots: Illusory pattern perception predicts belief in conspiracies and the supernatural 
• Anxious attachment and belief in conspiracy theories
• Some Capitol Rioters Didn't Vote In Election They Tried To Overturn: Report
• Why do people still believe in conspiracy theories?
• Belief echoes: The persistent effects of corrected misinformation
• Coronavirus misinformation: quantifying sources and themes in the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’
• Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation
• New wearable device turns the body into a battery

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Henrietta Lacks' cells can be found in thousands of labs all over the world, but she never gave consent for that to happen. In this week's episode, Ash discusses the contributions Henrietta's cells have made to science, and whether we should still be using them at all. In our SNPit, Rosie shares some peculiar research about how the presence of parasitic worms may slow down aging.

Episode Sources:

• Henrietta Lacks: science must right a historical wrong
• Deal done over HeLa cell line
• HeLa cells (1951)
• Henrietta Lacks’ ‘Immortal’ Cells
• The parasitic worm product ES-62 promotes health- and life-span in a high calorie diet-accelerated mouse model of ageing
• Gross ways to live long: Parasitic worms as an anti-inflammaging therapy?

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

How does hormonal birth control affect your body? In this week's episode, we discuss the effects of hormonal birth control on your brain, your blood, and your weight, and some of the possible alternatives. For our SNPit, Ash explores some new research that could be a solution for the global food waste problem.

Episode Sources:

• In Ancient Times, Flowers and Fennel For Family Planning
• The Greatest Contraceptive Was Silphium – A Plant That The Romans Ate To Extinction
• Carrot seed for contraception: A review
• The birth of the Pill
• The Economic Impact of the Pill
• The surprising link between women’s brains and the birth control pill | Sarah E. Hill | TEDxVienna
• Birth control pills increase risk of ischemic stroke
• Women's estradiol predicts preference for facial cues of men's testosterone
• Oral contraceptive use in women changes preferences for male facial masculinity and is associated with partner facial masculinity
• Study Finds Key Brain Region Smaller in Birth Control Pill Users
• Menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptive use modulate human brain structure
• Effect of birth control pills and patches on weight
• Oral Contraceptive Use Impairs Muscle Gains in Young Women
• Daré Bioscience and Bayer –MONTHLY HORMONE-FREE BIRTH CONTROL RING
• What you should know about Phexxi, the new birth control gel
• Gossypol: a contraceptive for men
• Efficacy and Safety of an Injectable Combination Hormonal Contraceptive for Men

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Advertised to help with anything from wrinkles to arthritic pain, collagen is the protein of the moment, but do collagen supplements actually do anything? In this weeks episode, Ash investigates collagen, and whether you should save or spend your money.  In our SNPit, Rosie talks about how the future of data could be in bacteria.

Episode Sources:

• What is collagen?
• Do collagen supplements really help your muscles grow and skin glow?
• Eating Collagen Is Becoming a Health Fad, And We Can Only Sit Back And Sigh
• NTU scientists discover fish scale-derived collagen effective for healing wounds
• Why does skin wrinkle with age? What is the best way to slow or prevent this process?
• Collagen-Based Biomaterials for Wound Healing
• How we can store digital data in DNA | Dina Zielinski
• Robust direct digital-to-biological data storage in living cells
• Scientists ‘program’ living bacteria to store data

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Are we living through a mass extinction? This week, Rosie looks into mass extinction events and how they have shaped our planet. In our SNPit, Ash discusses the psychology of organised monkey crime.

Episode Sources:

• Billions of years ago, the rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere caused a worldwide deep freeze
• Poisoned Planet: The Great Oxygenation Event
• New Theory For What Caused Earth's Second-Largest Mass Extinction
• Metal-induced malformations in early Palaeozoic plankton are harbingers of mass extinction
• Familiar Culprit May Have Caused Mysterious Mass Extinction
• The Devonian Extinction Saw the Oceans Choke to Death
• On impact and volcanism across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
• Here's What Happened the Day the Dinosaurs Died
• Dino-Killing Asteroid Hit Just the Right Spot to Trigger Extinction
• The Earth's Sixth Mass Extinction Is Accelerating
• Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction
• Bali’s thieving monkeys can spot high-value items to ransom

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Strange things can be found in lakes — animals that have turned to stone, or enormous hidden pockets of carbon dioxide. In this episode, Ash reveals the science behind three unusual lakes. In our SNPit, Rosie discusses some new research that shows how identical twins are not really identical.

Episode sources:

• Defusing Africa’s Killer Lakes
• The Lake Nyos Incident Is One Of History's Spookiest And Deadliest Disasters
• This Alkaline African Lake Turns Animals into Stone
• Lake That Turns Animals to Stone? Not Quite
• DNA Study Deepens Mystery of Lake Full of Skeletons
• The Skeletons at the Lake
• Identical Twins Are Not So Identical, Study Suggests
• Differences Between Germline Genomes of Monozygotic Twins

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Why do we celebrate the new year on January 1st? In this episode, Rosie discusses how methods of developing calendars and marking time have evolved in different cultures. In our SNPit, Ash takes a look at whether mask-wearing during the COVID-19 pandemic could have a detrimental effect on children's ability to develop emotion-reading skills.

Episode sources:

• Aboriginal Stonehenge: Stargazing in Ancient Australia
• History of our Calendar 
• Keeping Track of Time
• The Mayan Calendar System
• Explainer: the Seasonal Calendars of Indigenous Australia
• Why is the Ethiopian Calendar 7 Years Behind?
• Covering Faces Around Kids Won't Mask Emotions
• Children’s Emotion Inferences From Masked Faces: Implications for Social Interactions During COVID-19

Head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Have you had a DNA test? This week, Ash tells us all about genetic testing, what it is, why you might want to do it, and how not to do it (i.e., why 23andMe is a bad idea). In our SNP, some new research into how both sparrows and humans use wormwood as preventative medicine.


Episode sources:

Angelina Jolie, Inherited Breast Cancer and the BRCA1 Gene

My Medical Choice - Angelina Jolie

The Limits of Ancestry DNA Tests, Explained

23andMe Is Terrifying, but Not for the Reasons the FDA Thinks

It's Not Just Humans. Sparrows Have Been Seen Using Preventative Medicine

Sparrows Use a Medicinal Herb to Defend Against Parasites and Increase Offspring Condition

We'll be taking a short break over the holidays, but in the meantime head to our Instagram or our website for more content, and if you liked this episode, support the podcast by leaving a review wherever you listen!


Music:

AhDah Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/