Brain Junk

• 328: The Last Gasp

  We've had a hell of a good time spending the past 6 years scrounging up weird science and history junk for you to listen to! It's been a privilege knowing there a lots of fact junkies out there like us, digging through our podcast like raccoons in a trashcan. Our legacy is 328 fantastic episodes and we hope you never stop coming back when you need a little weird and wacky in your life. We'll still be on Instagram, full of shenanigans and making reels. Never stop being curious. Love ya forever, Trace and Amy Show Notes: The Poozeum: https://poozeum.com/ Life Cycle of the Mosquito: https://www.vdci.net/mosquito-biology-101-life-cycle/ University of Melbourne: Male Mosquitos don't want your blood: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/31460-male-mosquitoes-don%27t-want-your-blood--but-they-still-find-you-very-attractive WPRI.com Blue Whale leaking: https://www.wpri.com/news/street-stories/blue-whale-skeleton-at-new-bedford-museum-still-leaking-oil/ Atlas Obscura, Oozing Whale Skeleton: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-oozing-whale-skeleton-of-new-bedford-new-bedford-massachusetts Popular Science: https://www.popsci.com/science/blue-whale-leaking-oil/ MSN Lyudmila Trut: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/lyudmila-trut-soviet-scientist-who-sped-up-evolution-with-tame-foxes-that-began-to-look-like-dogs/ar-AA1sMlb1 BMC, The silver fox domestication experiment: https://evolution-outreach.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-018-0090-x Episode 240 Extreme Lookalikes (where we mention the silver foxes)https://brainjunkpodcast.com/podcast/240-extreme-lookalikes/ Popular Science, Why 60 degrees feels different: https://www.popsci.com/environment/why-fall-feels-colder-than-spring/ Evolutionary ecology of ethanol: https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(24)00240-4?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0169534724002404%3Fshowall%3Dtrue New Scientist, Can all animals get drunk? https://www.newscientist.com/lastword/mg25934543-000-can-all-animals-get-drunk-what-enables-this-in-those-that-can/ Science Daily: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/10/241030150809.htm Penn Engineering Today, The secrets of baseball's magic mud: https://blog.seas.upenn.edu/the-secrets-of-baseballs-magic-mud/ Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud:

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• 327: MIT Hacks

  Amy lives for a good shenanigan so of course she adores MIT's tradition of playing hacks (aka pranks) on Harvard and Yale. The biggest one you've ever heard of turned out to be a fake but don't worry, there's still some great ones from the past 75 years that were real! Show Notes: Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-harvard-stadium-pigeon-prank-that-pavlov-would-be-proud-of MITbloggers YouTube 1982 pranktacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq4rzxw_wYU Boston.com: https://www.boston.com/sports/college-sports/2018/11/16/mit-hacks-harvard-yale-balloon-prank-1982/ 1948 newspaper article (behind a paywall)https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/105095033/ MIT, Interesting Hacks to Facinate People: https://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_topic/harvard.html Harvard "Huge Ego" hack: https://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/2006/H_Y_huge_ego/

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• 326: Medical Ants

  In a weird turn of events, it's ants performing surgery when one of them has a leg injury instead of scientists whacking the legs off. Okay,we lied, the scientists are doing it too... Show Notes: Episode 71: Ants on Stilts (it's just as horrible as it sounds) https://brainjunkpodcast.com/podcast/71-ants-on-stilts/ Current Biology article: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00805-4 Live Science, Ants perform life saving surgery: https://www.livescience.com/animals/insects/ants-perform-life-saving-operations-the-only-animal-other-than-humans-known-to-do-so TW: Facebook video showing actual leg amputation https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=846736237392641 Pub Med Animals that self medicate: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4267359/

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• 325: Crabs of Rome

  Imagine rolling up to excavate an ancient ruin only to spend the day carrying out buckets full of crabs! Today we get to know the Potamon fluviatile crab. Show Notes: National Geographic article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/river-crab-ancient-rome Musei In Commune Roma, The sculpture of Constantine: https://www.mercatiditraiano.it/en/percorsi/percorsi_per_temi/la_statuaria/testa_rilavorata_come_costantino Wikipedia, Giant Crabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potamon_fluviatile Freshwater crabs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freshwater_crab When a ladybug lands on you: https://www.wellandgood.com/symbolic-meaning-of-ladybugs/ YouTube, Rome's giant crabs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=QNbVPkRDaGI

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• 324: Helium Alligators

  Have you ever wondered if a hit of helium would change the sound of an alligator's bellows? Lucky for us, there are scientists out there who wanted to know. Show Notes: BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54197198 Kyoto University Ig Nobel announcement: https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/news/2020-09-29 YouTube resonance to vocalize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-plqEyxik Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/ig-nobel-prizes-reward-research-helium-huffing-alligators-and-knives-made-feces CNN US: https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/18/us/ig-nobel-awards-alligator-helium-scli-scn-intl/index.html Journal of Experimental Biology: https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/218/15/2442/14244/A-Chinese-alligator-in-heliox-formant-frequencies

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