This topic was requested by co-host Nathan, who had read several news articles recently suggesting that cats are menaces, plagues upon the world and humankind. IS THIS TRUE?! In this episode, we begin with a brief history on the semi-domestication of cats, and then move into some of their cool and unique biology. Then we discuss cats as invasive species and cats as vectors for Toxoplasma gondii, a crazy parasite! Learn about catnip alternatives and landing on your feet, this week on Petri Dish! Hit us up on twitter: @dishpodcast or via email: petridishpod -at- gmail.com! References:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0139https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article%3Fid%3D10.1371/journal.pone.0147295https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1098612X18771203https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/age.12008https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/cats-rival-dogs-many-tests-social-smarts-anyone-brave-enough-study-themhttps://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-inner-life-of-cats/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5356310/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.jfms.2003.07.001https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6404/aaac06/metahttps://www.pnas.org/content/111/48/17230.fullhttps://abcbirds.org/threat/cats-and-other-invasives/https://www.wired.com/story/cats-australia-bushfires/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/magazine/australia-cat-killing.htmlhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC106833/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-67664-7_6https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14567210https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1690701/pdf/11007336.pdf https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/54/2/118/2797844https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/6/2/19/htm#B2-pathogens-06-00019https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/toxoplasmosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20356249https://jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12929-019-0503-3 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/parasitology/article/toxoplasmosis-in-humans-and-animals-in-brazil-high-prevalence-high-burden-of-disease-and-epidemiology/CD91DD8A60F76A2E4D02752FD6D49802 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0020751909001842?via%3Dihubhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5519211/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1567134818303976https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11011-016-9822-1https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/6/1/3/htmhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4757034/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6564815/

Hey everyone, I hope you checked out our bonus minisode on the new coronavirus! Here is our regularly scheduled full episode, the part 2 on Aging and Immortality! This time we turn our focus to humans, and what the current science says about how to live longer and healthier! Can being hungry all the time make you immortal? Does NAD+ supplements or metformin do anything? Find out!If you like what we do, consider supporting us at www.patreon.com/petridish , even a few dollars a month would help us keep making all the stuff! You can contact us directly via email at petridishpod -at- gmail.com and via twitter @dishpodcast!References:https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-018-0547-yhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.12283https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413115002247https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.12708 http://www.bioscirep.org/content/39/5/BSR20190537.abstracthttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3736576/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-018-0273-6https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.13028?fbclid=IwAR1mNGFIaTnYfkjK7eNJc-UvV0XpzmROVyHCJLRg4MgxwQNXOJ0XcR-8yTUhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1365-2https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/endocrj/advpub/0/advpub_EJ19-0313/_article

Hi Everyone, Happy Year of the Rat! This is a special mini-episode we are releasing on the novel coronavirus currently infecting people in China (and now elsewhere). This short episode covers what a coronavirus is in general, and what we know about this new one. It also has a little conspiracy theory stuff at the end, but that's just for light hearted purposes, because all in all new diseases can be dour business. Listen in to learn some stuff, and realistically, don't panic! Referenceshttps://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00154-whttps://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/pdfs/S0140673620301549.pdfhttps://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.23.20018549v1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3700180/https://www.nature.com/news/inside-the-chinese-lab-poised-to-study-world-s-most-dangerous-pathogens-1.21487https://www.businessinsider.com/china-information-crackdown-on-wuhan-coronavirus-2020-1

For folks in the USA, happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! This week on Petri Dish Nathan and Sean discuss the biology of aging. What does it actually mean to age, when some animals out there are biologically immortal and get to just hang out forever until they get eaten? What happens on a cellular level when we age? What can we learn from other species about the aging process? This is the first part of a two-part series -- next week we'll discuss human aging in the context of what we can try to do to slow or halt it!References:https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/07/1916548117https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867413006454https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247388/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124714010195https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/12/1904611116https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothobranchius_furzerihttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1474-9726.2012.00847.xhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-013-9597-9https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14063https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0539https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bies.201000132https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163714000622https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrniihttps://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/handle/1969.1/173118https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790316303359https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5964061/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6326690/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047637417300015https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-018-0547-yhttps://www.pnas.org/content/115/8/1801.shorthttps://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2019/4502819/abs/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012411596500006Xhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867416309813

Welcome to the first Petri Dish episode recorded in 2020! This one is about the science behind the effects of booze (ethanol), and our current best understanding of what hangovers are and what you can do about them! Would this episode have been more apropos if released closer to New Year's Day? Maybe, but we were all too hung over, so whatever. Tune in for a brief history of alcohol, a discussion of what ethanol does to you, and whether that stuff about a glass of wine a day being good for you is real or not. Do hangover cure IV bangs work? Did you even know that was a thing? What about prairie oysters? Doesn't that sound more like a euphemism for poop than a hangover cure? Tune in!References:https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/164_2017_80https://www.nature.com/articles/s41698-017-0038-6https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6164842/https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/mb/c5mb00740bhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890623813000774https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/54/3/196/5420612https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cdar/2016/00000009/00000002/art00005 https://academic.oup.com/alcalc/article/43/2/124/122754https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4460229https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2362.1976.tb00498.xhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306452214002851https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41782-017-0008-7https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2275637https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/28aa/8f3c4fdceedb3a6eec5b80e744b71465167a.pdfhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hup.2600https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2014/fo/c3fo60481khttps://www.hindawi.com/journals/apm/2012/617942/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0741832919300825

In this week's episode, Sean and Nathan are joined by guest Liliana Escobedo to discuss epigenetics, which is either all of the stuff besides your genes that affects the functions of your cells OR non-genetic stuff that happens in your life that can affect your kids and grandkids, depending on what scientists you ask for a definition! Can eating too much food during your lifetime affect your grandkids through your sperm or eggs getting tweaked? Find out this week on Petri Dish!Featuring a promo for the very fun podcast "The Ladies of Strange":"The Ladies of Strange is a comedy podcast where we talk about everything from true crime, paranormal, conspiracy, and anything else we find questionable, odd, or eerie. Sit down with us every Thursday for a story presented by one of the hosts and learn with us that everyone has something they find strange, let us tell you why (sometimes) it’s not." https://theladiesofstrange.com/Questions or issues? Hit us up @dishpodcast on twitter or email us petridishpod-at-gmail.comReferences:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4391566/https://academic.oup.com/hmg/article/22/23/4726/1162012https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3845587/https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1471-0528.12136https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3695https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg.2016.106http://perspectivesinmedicine.cshlp.org/content/6/5/a022988https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-018-0242-9https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05445-5https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012816363400002Xhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4020004/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-genet-120417-031404https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/prader-willi-syndrome#geneshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002929707605734https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.3695https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.2893https://www.pnas.org/content/111/5/1873.fullhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413116300067https://www.nature.com/articles/s41556-018-0242-9https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084952115001305?via%3Dihubhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B978012816363400002Xhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128132098000091https://jme.bioscientifica.com/view/journals/jme/60/2/JME-17-0189.xmlhttps://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6308/59https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212877818301042http://perspectivesinmedicine.cshlp.org/content/6/5/a022988.full

Hey everyone, this week is part 2 of our episodes on sex, this time focusing on sex determination in humans and Sean's rocky relationship with the field of evolutionary psychology! Nathan and Sean discuss the XY chromosome system, the SRY gene, all sorts of things that can make people fall outside of the XX-XY female-male dichotomy, and more!This episode our very real promo is for a non-fiction horror podcast Pomegranates and Pitchforks! They cover true crime, mythology -- anything that has to do with horror -- check them out! https://pompitchpod.podbean.com/References:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161045https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/479946https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1765-3https://www.pnas.org/content/100/16/9103https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111733https://science.sciencemag.org/content/322/5906/1331https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110524070310.htmhttps://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scientists-discover-evolutionary-advantage-homosexual-sex/https://www.healthguidance.org/entry/17322/1/why-are-men-attracted-to-women-who-wear-makeup.htmlhttps://www.medicaldaily.com/baby-got-back-male-preference-curved-spines-may-explain-why-they-love-big-butts-324324https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1001109https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3699887/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41415714_Evolutionary_Psychology_Controversies_Questions_Prospects_and_Limitationshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136466130500104Xhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/147470491201000406https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11199-010-9895-yhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/147470491401200301https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/does-dark-triad-personality-traits-make-you-more-successful https://psyarxiv.com/mbkr8/

This week on Petri Dish Sean and Nathan dive into the apparently controversial topic of biological sex. In this part 1 of a two part discussion, Sean and Nathan talk about the biological basis for the concepts of 'male' and 'female' in non-human organisms ranging from yeast to plants to reptiles. They bring up different kinds of chromosomal systems, weirdos like the platypus and clownfish, and whether climate change could turn more sea turtles into ladies!In this episode we feature a promo for another podcast, Just the Zoo of Us. If you like animal facts, check them out! https://www.justthezooofus.com/Please contact us if you have any questions or feelings about the episodes! You can reach us on twitter @dishpodcast or by email petridishpod -at- gmail.com. We also have a patreon in case you want to sponsor the work we are doing! patreon.com/petridish .References:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016648015002737https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2413164/#!po=0.735294https://ctswordtail.weebly.com/blog/sex-determination-in-platyfish-and-swordtailshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12900561https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21392300https://www.nature.com/articles/6801068https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692900/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1838700/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2679206/https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/2009/2-4/monoecious.htmlhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11160-009-9123-4https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0044848602000571https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1546509808601132https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14574https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2016.2576

Hey everyone, this week we complete our discussion about cancer. Last episode we talked about what cancer is, where it comes from, and what the different types are. This week, Sean and Nathan talk about the risk factors associated with cancer, the current treatment methodologies, and the next-generation of treatments that scientists are working on!Also featured in this episode is a promo commercial for another podcast called Songbirding, a chill podcast focused around listening to different birds singing -- if that sounds like your thing, then check it out!You can contact us on twitter @dishpodcast and by email at petridishpod -at- gmail.com. Let us know what you think about the episodes, things we missed, or things you'd like us to talk about!References:https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/research/car-t-cellshttps://embryo.asu.edu/pages/teratomashttps://www.pnas.org/content/72/9/3585.shorthttps://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/disparities

Cancer is the leading cause of death worldwide and it is a biologically complex set of diseases, so Sean and Nathan dive in to the biology this week (and next week) on Petri Dish. Cancer affects almost everyone in the world, with millions of people diagnosed each year and almost everyone knowing someone who has had cancer. This episode, they talk about what cancer is, what the main theories are on the cause of cancer, and the different kinds of cancer out there. Next week we discuss current and next-gen treatments for cancer and risk-factors for cancer! Tune in!Have questions? Want to yell at Sean or Nathan? Well, Nathan doesn't read the twitter, but Sean does! Tweet at him @dishpodcast, or email them at petridishpod -at- gmail.com. Check us out at patreon.com/petridish!References:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-019-0420-5https://www.pnas.org/content/116/9/3502https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0100937https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5501415/https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-019-0423-2https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02892-y