Science Update
Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS
ANCIENT ANATOMY - What dental records from the Mesozoic era can tell us about the lives of dinosaurs. How humans are uniquely adapted to throw baseballs. Also: an automated nature recording system that's monitoring environmental change. And, could vaccinating children protect the elderly as well?
A vocal coaching experiment in rats could lead to better ways to keep our voices strong as we age.
Automated nature recordings track the effects of climate change and habitat disturbance.
AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS - Male lyrebirds groove to their own music. Young fairywrens learn who their enemies are by watching their parents. Robotic seals help improve the quality of life of dementia patients. Also, could rats could help people keep their voices strong in old age?
Young Australian birds learn who their enemies are by watching their parents.
Compositions from different periods in music history have different mathematical properties.
The superb lyrebird of Australia combines its songs with specific dance moves to create an elaborate courtship ritual.
Greater wax moths have evolved the ability to hear sounds at frequencies even their predators can't detect.
EYES, EARS & THE BRAIN - How short-term hearing loss protects the ears. The brain's number hotspot. And: could lasers wipe out cocaine addiction? Also: A nanosponge that soaks up toxins in the body.
Temporary hearing loss protects the ear against long-term damage.
SWEET SCIENCE - What tomatoes can tell us about cutting back on sugar and a diabetes cure for dogs. Also, behind the mechanics of beatboxing, the evolution of whales, and writing your way to a better relationship.
MRI scans of beatboxers show that they've unwittingly borrowed sounds from exotic languages.
HEARING & SOUND - Why hyenas are anything but funny. Can animals dance to a beat? Using sound to save the whales. And physical fitness worsens hearing, but estrogen improves it. Encore presentation from May 22, 2009.
Female songbirds sometimes have a hard time separating truly worthy male crooners from the fly-by-night wannabees.
THE CHANGING ENVIRONMENT - What a scallop's cough can tell us about environmental health, how melting Arctic ice may have caused the earth's last big freeze, and why climate change may have undone the Maya empire. Also: using weather forecasting techniques to predict flu outbreaks, and revisiting the apocalypse myth surrounding the fictional planet Nibiru.
An Australian bird thwarts nest invaders by requiring its young to sing a secret call to get fed.
ARE YOU WREN ENOUGH? Why fairy wrens require their babies to show ID, how coral reefs ask for help, and how one microscopic animal patches itself up with borrowed genes. Also: Host Bob Hirshon went down to NASA Headquarters to report on the discovery of water on the planet Mercury.
Measuring the acoustical signatures of colliding football helmets could help improve helmet safety.
SURVIVAL - Why female Komodo dragons die young, a whale that sounded like a person, and algae that flee their predators. Also: how the brain's insulation differs between us and chimpanzees, and why that insulation is so important to social development.
SOUNDS & SIGNALS: We revisit one of Science Update's most memorable podcasts about the science of communication, from 2009: Prairie dogs sound the alarm, turning bed bugs against themselves, bird songs vary by climate, and improving forensic voice comparison.
Peacocks communicate with sounds that fall below the range of human hearing.
Bowhead whales in the Arctic Ocean sing a large variety songs to communicate with other whales.
Dad's diversity and perilous parenthood.
