I Came For Science

How does the brain learn that babies are worth paying attention to?

In the last episode, we focused on understanding how males behave in species with optional paternal care. We continue on this theme by learning about a species with obligate paternal care. Dr. Melina Acosta talks to us about her research on understanding the mechanisms that underlie paternal care in mice and frogs. We discuss the neural and hormonal mechanisms that influence paternal care. We also talk about the hard times we both experienced during grad school and how we each navigated those challenges.

Parents, have you ever felt like you face a tradeoff between parenting and self-care? You are not alone! In this episode, we talk about parenting-- specifically, male parental care in red-winged blackbirds. It turns out, in this species, some males help care for the offspring and others do not. But, why?? Facundo Fernandez-Duque and I discuss his research trying to unravel the variation in male parenting behavior.

Most of us have received a disappointing gift at some point, maybe an ugly sweater from a relative, or a beautifully wrapped package that turns out to be completely useless.

Humans know this feeling well. But surprisingly, so do spiders.

In this episode, our guest, Dr. Maria Albo, takes us into the world of nuptial gift-giving spiders, where males present females with carefully wrapped packages during courtship and many of those gifts are completely worthless.

Imagine a species where females rely on males from another species to reproduce… but never use their genes. That’s not science fiction, that’s real biology, and we are here to tell you the story of the Amazon Molly. In this episode, Laura is joined by Sanaa Khan, a PhD Candidate at University of California, Davis who studies this incredible system. We will be talking about how the species reproduces, what it means for evolution, and what her research is uncovering.

Ahhh, frogs calling. A sure sign of spring. But can you tell the difference between the songs of attractive and unattractive frogs? Our guest, Olivia Feagles, can. In this episode, Dr. Feagles explains how to measure the attractiveness of frog calls. In her studies, she found that female frogs vary in what they find attractive in a male song and how far they are willing to travel for their preferred mate.

Finally, she discusses how the current state of science funding is affecting the future plans of early career scientists like her.

Welcome back to Season 5 of I Came For Science. We launch this season with an interview with Patty Brennan, the OG of genital co-evolution research and so much more. In this episode, we talk about her research, her science advocacy, and how her identity as a Latina in STEM has shaped her science and led to incredible new questions and discoveries that no one before her had thought to look into.

In the spirit of normalizing talking about topics related to sex, we give you "Masturbation: An Evolutionary Perspective". In this episode, Laura interviews evolutionary biologist Matilda Brindle about her research in which she uses evolutionary methods to test hypotheses about when and why masturbation evolved. Matilda shares with us how she came to this area of research, what is known about masturbation in other animal species, what her research has unveiled about the topic, and how her work has been received by colleagues and the general public. Happy listening!

Most tweens and teens have been exposed to porn, whether intentionally or unintentionally. What are the impacts of porn use on adolescents? How should parents or guardians respond to adolescent porn use? These are some of the important questions being addressed by our guest in this episode, Dr. Megan Maas. Laura and Megan discuss the challenges of studying adolescent porn use and what has been found in this area so far. More resources for parents and guardians about porn use, sex education, and more is available at her website: https://www.meganmaas.com/

After Episode 22 where we discussed the diversity and evolution of male genitalia, we had lots of questions. One thing we were left wondering was why we know less about female genitalia and what is the current state of this field. To dig into this topic more, Laura interviewed Dara Orbach who studies the reproductive biology of cetaceans with a focus on understanding the genitalia of both males and females, and how they interact. Together with her collaborators, Dara's work has broken new ground on our understanding of the functions of cetacean clitorises.

Did you know that animal penises come in a wide variety and that some animals have bones in their penises? In this episode, Laura talks with biologists Dave Hosken and Matt Dean about the wide variety of penises found in different animal species. We discuss some of our favorite examples and then explore hypotheses for why such variation evolved. Matt shares his lab's research findings on the evolution, function, and development of the penis bone (a.k.a., the baculum).