The Lab With Brad

Nothing to sneeze at

If you don’t use gold silver or coins, what does one use for money?

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Here are several links with information, and differing notions, on the sale of Manhattan Island.

Keep the Change: The Beads that Bought Manhattan

Was Manhattan really sold for $24 worth of beads and trinkets?

The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island

Here’s more about the use of cacao beans as money.

The Maya civilization used chocolate as money

Chocolate Currency?

And here’s a little something about black pepper, and how it was used as money.

Black Pepper

Why money?

We take a look at economic activity by nonhumans, and the Incas, with a large empire that never used money.

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Here are some links about gift giving in the animal kingdom.

Do Animals Give Gifts?

Why Dolphins Bring Humans “Gifts” From the Sea at Australian Café

Gift giving crows

And here’s more info about the Incas, and the large empire they controlled that never used money.

Inka Economy

Economy of the Inca Empire

On silly names and loud voices

Let’s take a closer look at the sperm whale, with an unfortunate name and the loudest voice in nature.

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Here are links to videos and articles about shattering glass with the human voice.

Can You Shatter Glass With Your Voice?

Jaime Vendera-Glass Shattering MythBuster

MythBusters Episode 31: Breaking Glass

Busting Myths About Sound

And some links to videos and articles about sperm whales and their very loud voices.

Feeling the Force of Sperm Whales Ultrasound

Is it true that sperm whales stun giant squid with sonar?

Sperm Whales Clicking You Inside Out

On dragons, fire, and breathing

For our last question on DND and fantasy fiction, could any animal ever be able to actually breathe fire?

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Special thanks to:

Girls Who Don’t DND

Here’s the website for the Fuel Girls.

Fuel Girls - Fire & Pyro Performances

Here are a couple of things on the jellyfish sting, and the exploding cells behind it.

Jellyfish Sting Mechanism Unveiled; Could Help Design Future Delivery Devices

How does a jellyfish sting?

And here’s one or two things on the bombardier beetle.

The Bombardier Beetle And Its Crazy Chemical Cannon

Bombardier Beetles Squirt Boiling Anal Chemicals to Make Frogs Vomit

Ouch!

13 types of damage in dungeons and dragons, let’s see how many of them we can find amongst actual living creatures.

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Special thanks to:

Girls Who Don’t DND.

Here’s a bit on chicken hypnosis.

Can You Hypnotize a Chicken?

Here’s an article about the firefly that tricks and eats other fireflies.

Firefly “femmes fatales” acquire defensive steroids (lucibufagins) from their firefly?prey

Here’s a silly bit on cats and cucumbers.

Why Are Cats Scared of Cucumbers

Here are a couple of articles about the Rio Tinto, a brightly colored acidic river.

Eukaryotic Organisms in Extreme Acidic Environments, the Río Tinto Case

Why the Red River-The Río Tinto in Spain fascinates scientists?

Here’s a video about several acid shooting animals.

These Invertebrates Shoot Acid

Here’s an article about Japanese honey bees, and how they use heat to defend their hive.

Key genes enable Japanese honey bees to roast hornets

Here’s something on how animals use electricity.

The shocking ways wild animals use electricity

Here’s a video and an article about the sperm whale and it’s oh so very loud voice.

Feeling the Force of Sperm Whales Ultrasound

Is it true that sperm whales stun giant squid with sonar?

And here’s something on the pistol Shrimp.

Pistol Shrimp sonic weapon

To see in the dark

In fantasy novels and roll playing games, some characters can see in the dark. What about in real life?

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Special thanks to:

Girls Who Don’t DND

Here are some articles on human echolocation.

Echolocation: How It Works and How to Learn It

Human click-based echolocation: Effects of blindness and age, and real-life implications in a 10-week training program

Here are some articles about the blind cave fish.

Blind Cave Fish

Sensory Adaptation for a Cavefish

Here are some sites about the star-nosed mole.

Inside the Bizarre Life of the Star-Nosed Mole, World's Fastest Eater

Learn to smell underwater with the star-nosed mole

Here’s an article about active electrical sensing in some weakly electric fish.

Active electrolocation of objects in weakly electric fish

And a bit about the lovely and talented platypus.

Platypus Electroreception: Revealing the Hidden Powers

Whose mind is it anyway?

Fantasy fiction and DND have charm spells and other ways to control one’s mind. We take a look at examples of mind control from nature.

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Special thanks to:

Girls Who Don’t DND

Here’s a paper on false memories.

The false memory syndrome

Here’s a look at parasites that change their host’s behavior.

An overview of parasite-induced behavioral alterations

And here’s a video about parasites that change their host’s behavior.

How parasites change their host's behavior

Healing, magic, and science

For our first episode on the science behind dnd and popular fantasy tropes, we search for healing magic in our actual factual world.

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Special thanks to “Girls Who Don’t DND” for sending us the recorded questions we’re answering.

Here’s a link to another science podcast and their rather well done episode on placebos.

Placebo: Can the Mind Cure You?

Here’s a link to a paper on studying the power of prayer to heal.

Prayer and healing

Things get dicey

We celebrate our 400th episode with the math behind rolling at advantage and disadvantage in D and D.

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Check out our latest attempt at Episode One.

Take 152 of Episode One: Snicker at silly sounding science

Here’s a link to a site that gives you a simple table you can use to look up the probabilities.

Probabilities for Advantage and Disadvantage

And here’s a link to a video that goes into detail of the math behind rolling at advantage and disadvantage.

The unexpected logic behind rolling multiple dice and picking the highest.

Of birds and binary

We examine the game of chicken, also called hawks and doves, plus a bit on bits and binary.

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Check out our latest attempt at Episode One.

Take 151 of Episode One: How many chickens does it take to…?

Here are a couple of videos on the game of chicken, which in game theory, is also called hawks and doves.

Game of Chicken / Hawk-Dove

Game Theory 101: The Hawk-Dove Game