Rising infections from a dusty devil, and nailing down when our ancestors became meat eaters

Rising infections from a dusty devil, and nailing down when our ancestors became meat eaters

First up this week, growing numbers of Valley fever cases, also known as coccidioidomycosis, has researchers looking into the disease-causing fungus. They’re exploring its links to everything from drought and wildfires to climate change and rodent populations. Staff Writer Meredith Wadman joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss her visit to a Valley fever research site in the desert near Bakersfield, California, where researchers are sampling air and soil for the elusive fungus. Next up, scientists are trying to pin down when meat eating became a habit for human ancestors. It’s long been hypothesized that eating meat drove big changes in our family tree—such as bigger brains and more upright posture. Tina Lüdecke, a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and honorary research fellow at the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, investigated the diet of our ancient hominin relatives Australopithecus. Her team used nitrogen isotope ratios from the tooth enamel in seven Australopithecus individuals in South Africa to determine what predominated in their diets at the time—meat or veg. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meredith Wadman https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zulg8oo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment

A team effort to save a giant fish, the power of moonlight, and how scientists can navigate a tough political environment

First up on the podcast, along Brazil’s Juruá River, local residents have been working with scientists to manage a giant fish called the arapaima—affecting the land, the people, and the economy. Contr...

7 Touko 53min

Watching a spiders’ heart beat, epigenetic ethics, and what science biographies reveal about fame

Watching a spiders’ heart beat, epigenetic ethics, and what science biographies reveal about fame

First up on the podcast, Online News Editor David Grimm shares a batch of fun stories with podcast host Sarah Crespi—from spider hearts racing when traffic gets loud to a disease-preventing house. Sta...

30 Huhti 46min

Cleaning up uranium mining, and how the heart avoids cancer

Cleaning up uranium mining, and how the heart avoids cancer

First up on the podcast, freelance science and environmental journalist Quentin Septer joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a controversial uranium mine getting fast-tracked in South Dakota. Septer c...

23 Huhti 30min

The normals | Episode 3

The normals | Episode 3

The final of a three-part limited Science Podcast series that looks at the history of normal human subjects in research In episode two, we heard what happened to the normals program after church volu...

21 Huhti 33min

How to keep quantum computers cool, whether prediction markets harm public health, and podcasting on podcasting

How to keep quantum computers cool, whether prediction markets harm public health, and podcasting on podcasting

First up on the podcast, quantum computers require extremely low temperatures—less than 1°C away from absolute zero. But getting down to those temperatures has usually required dilution fridges using ...

16 Huhti 50min

The Normals | Episode 2

The Normals | Episode 2

Last time on The Normals, we learned that in the 1950s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) wanted to recruit many healthy volunteers for basic research. Two peace churches, the Mennonites and the...

14 Huhti 27min

A chimpanzee ‘civil war,’ and NASA plans for nuclear propulsion

A chimpanzee ‘civil war,’ and NASA plans for nuclear propulsion

First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Hannah Richter joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss NASA’s plans to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars in less than 3 years. Having not launc...

9 Huhti 42min

The Normals | Episode 1

The Normals | Episode 1

How do we know what's normal in a person? In the early 1950s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) set out to do something unprecedented. It wanted to start studying normal humans on a grand scale....

7 Huhti 23min

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