Latest news with #LaurenLeffer
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Squirrels could be the key to getting us into deep space
What's the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you'll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci's hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It's your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you'll love the show. By Lauren Leffer Certain species of ground squirrels hibernate underground without any food or water for up to eight months of the year. It's a super-extreme survival strategy, enabled by a complicated cascade of physiological processes, some of which we understand and many of which scientists are still trying to figure out. Helping them along is funding and interest from heavy hitters in the research world like NASA, the European Space agency, and private aerospace companies, because–since the 1960's–those with their eyes on the stars have wondered if human hibernation could enable us to travel farther and more safely in isn't just a long nap. It's closer to death than sleep. While in hibernation torpor, ground squirrels' endure up to a 95 percent reduction in their metabolic rate. Their heart and respiration rates drop to a few beats and breaths per minute. Their brain waves go flat. Their body temperatures plummet to near freezing for some species (or even below freezing for Arctic ground squirrels). Yet amid all of this, the squirrels stay pretty healthy: maintaining muscle mass, reversing pre-hibernation diabetes, experiencing organ regeneration, stalling aging, and undergoing physiological shifts that can ward off things like radiation damage. For these reasons and more, scientists have been studying if we can harness the power of squirrel hibernation for ourselves. It could help propel us to outer reaches of the galaxy. Even if it doesn't, it's poised to fuel some big Earth-bound biomedical advances. Listen to learn more about squirrel-sicles, the challenges of long-distance space travel, and the ultimate in restorative rest. Or read all about it in this Popular Science feature article. By John Green Tuberculosis has been curable since the 1950s, yet it remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world, killing 1.5 million people each year. That's largely due to our failure to get treatment to those who need it. I talk all about how tuberculosis shaped the world—and how humanity has allowed it to thrive thanks to injustice and inequity—in my new book 'Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection.' On this week's episode of Weirdest Thing, I share the story of a man who became consumed with finding a cure for consumption. In the 18th and 19th centuries, TB thrived in the crowded living and working conditions of industrializing cities, yet people believed it was an inherited disease, even romanticizing it as a mark of beauty and artistic sensitivity. James Watt, famed for his contributions to the steam engine, dedicated years to trying to cure TB after his children became ill with the disease. His failed contraption, which treated TB by pushing carbon dioxide into the lungs to reduce the amount of air there, was closer to viable than you might think: the bacteria that causes TB is highly aerobic, meaning it needs lots of oxygen to survive. Sometimes doctors actually collapse one lung to help patients recover from TB. That was much more common in the early 20th century, but it's a technique still employed for some treatment-resistant cases of TB today. Today, despite being curable, TB still kills millions. And recent funding cuts threaten to worsen the spread of drug-resistant TB, raising the specter of a world where the disease regains its early 20th-century deadliness. If you want to learn more, you can find 'Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection' anywhere books are sold. By Rachel Feltman When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it buried thousands of people in ash, preserving eerie casts of their final moments. But one unfortunate resident may have been preserved in an even more extreme way—by having his brain turn to glass. Researchers recently confirmed that glassy black fragments found in a skull from the eruption are vitrified brain tissue, marking the only known case of an animal's tissue undergoing this process. It took a perfect storm of extreme heat and rapid cooling to make this happen, and it's unlikely to have ever happened before—or to ever happen again. Tune into this week's episode to learn how it all went down!
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Chicago's pollution could be keeping river monsters at bay
What's the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you'll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci's hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It's your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you'll love the show. By Lauren Leffer Silver carp pose a big threat to freshwater ecosystems… and also recreational boaters in the U.S. The invasive fish, which can be more than three feet long and upwards of 20 pounds, feed near the water's surface and are easily startled. When boaters go by, the fish leap out of the water by the dozen, and are liable to hit anything in their path—including people. Even when they go undisturbed by humans, the fish still manage to sow chaos. They outcompete native species for food, and cause a complete reorganization of local ecosystems in the waterways where they establish. Already, they've triggered native species declines in the Missouri, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers and watersheds. And they're on the cusp of gaining some big ground. Silver carp are less than 50 miles away from entering Lake Michigan. From there, they could subsequently spread through all of the Great Lakes and the rivers that feed into the lakes. Yet mysteriously, something has been holding them at bay for almost a decade. Unfortunately, science increasingly suggests that thing might be urban water pollution. What's a conservation manager to do? Listen closely to the latest episode of The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week to ponder this environmental conundrum. By Rachel Feltman In October 1968, the deep-sea submersible Alvin was preparing for a routine dive off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Then a crucial cable snapped. Luckily, the hatch was still open—so everyone made it out okay. But unluckily, the hatch was open—so the vessel sank 5,000 feet to the ocean floor. It would remain there for nearly a year before being recovered. Alvin made it back to the surface in surprisingly good shape… and so did some of its cargo. Inside the sub, researchers discovered a metal lunchbox packed with apples, thermoses of beef bouillon, and six bologna sandwiches, all remarkably well-preserved. The sandwiches were only slightly soggy, the apples looked 'pickled,' and despite a grayish tint, the bologna was still pink in the middle. Scientists were baffled. How had this meal survived nearly a year without rotting? In this episode, we explore the incredible journey of Alvin, the strange science of deep-sea decay, and why microbes in the drink just don't seem up to the task of making a sandwich go bad. And, of course, we have to ask the question—who in their right mind actually took a bite? By Laura Baisis We know that dolphins and even dogs can surf in the water—according to viral videos in the early YouTube days. Apparently, bats can also surf. But instead of cruising through the water, the spooky little guys surf the air. A recent study published in the journal Science found that when some of these winged mammals take on long-haul journeys, they will surf along the warm fronts of storms so that they can make it further while spending less energy. They're working smarter, not harder, and taking advantage of the air to travel a longer distance with less work The study looked at a group of common noctule bats. These bats are found across parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa and are one of only four bat species that are known to migrate across all of Europe. Using tiny sensors, the team was able to track the bats' migration. They found that changes in air temperature had a strong association with migratory flight. The bats were more likely to begin their movements just before warm fronts came in, leaving on nights where the air pressure dropped and temperature spiked. They appear to be leaving before incoming storms and then 'surfing' along the air movements that come with warm fronts, like drops in barometric pressure, temperature, and better wind. Importantly, these findings could have implications for bat conservation. Bats can be susceptible to injury from wind turbines, so knowing when migrating bats might be in the area could allow engineers enough time to periodically shut down turbines.
