Podcast for 18 January 2013
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.
Birdsong Bluster
Female songbirds sometimes have a hard time separating truly worthy male crooners from the fly-by-night wannabees.
Detachable Gecko Tails
Gecko tails fall off along pre-determined lines.
Stressed-out Scallops
Scientists can assess the health of marine ecosystems by recording the coughing sounds made by scallops.
Podcast for 21 December 2012
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.
Animal Senses Roundup
Even flies can get sick from eating spoiled food.
Bird Passwords
An Australian bird thwarts nest invaders by requiring its young to sing a secret call to get fed.
Ice Melt & Ice Age
A meltdown of Arctic ice may have triggered the last deep freeze in the Northern Hemisphere.
Podcast for 7 December 2012
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.
Blind Mole Rats
The blind mole rat, like its distant cousin the naked mole rat, never gets cancer.
Coral SOS Signals
Seaweed-covered corals emit a chemical that entices goby fish to clean them.
Snake Venom Painkiller
Scientists have isolated a potent painkiller from the venom of the deadly black mamba snake.
Podcast for 16 November 2012
BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES & BEETLES - How radar helped solve a migration mystery, why malaria could be heading north, and how dung beetles cool themselves off. Also: a 21st century technology that's helping archaeologists crack an ancient code.
Butterfly Migration Radar
Radar data, along with highly coordinated observations, has solved a disappearing-butterfly mystery.
Podcast for 9 November 2012
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.
Dung Beetle Cooling
Dung beetles use balls of fecal matter not only for food and reproduction, but for cooling as well.
Komodo Dragon Housework
Housework may be killing female Komodo dragons at an early age.
Fleeing Phytoplankton
Scientists report that plant-like organisms called phytoplankton flee their predators just like animals do.
Podcast for 19 October 2012
ANIMAL GENES & BEHAVIOR - The genes responsible for cat coat patterns, why male killer whales are momma's boys, what's behind the hummingbird's aerial acrobatics, and how epigenetics explains honeybee castes.
Malaria Heads North
Global warming may drive malaria northward in coming years.
Reversible Bee Brains
When worker bees and nurse bees switch roles, their brains get a genetic re-boot.
Podcast for 12 October 2012
WEIRD SCIENCE: Listen to an archival podcast that delves into the weird and wacky side of science: Behind the legend of the chupacabra, does cracking your knuckles cause arthritis? A physiological explanation for near-death experiences, and animals that live without oxygen.