Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution, and how the geologic history of the United States can be used to find vital minerals
First up this week, we hear about the advantages of using the body to measure the world around you. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Roope Kaaronen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, about how and why cultures use body-based measurements, such as arm lengths and hand spans. Read the related commentary.
Also on this week’s show, the United States starts a big hunt for useful minerals. Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins me to discuss the country’s Earth MRI project, which seeks to locate rare earth elements and other minerals critical to sustainable energy and technology within its borders.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
About the Science Podcast
Authors: Sarah Crespi; Meagan Cantwell; Paul Voosen
Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi9883
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Weekly podcasts from Science Magazine, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary.
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Folge vom 01.06.2023How we measure the world with our bodies, and hunting critical minerals
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Folge vom 25.05.2023Talking tongues, detecting beer, and shifting perspectives on femalesWhy it’s so hard to understand the tongue, a book on a revolutionary shift toward studying the female of the species, and using proteomics to find beer in a painting First on the show this week, Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to talk tongues: Who has them, who doesn’t, and all their amazing elaborations. We also have the first in a new six-part series on books exploring the science of sex and gender. For this month’s installment, host Angela Saini talks with evolutionary biologist Malin Ah-King about her book The Female Turn: How Evolutionary Science Shifted Perceptions About Females. Finally, detecting beer in early 19th century Danish paintings. Heritage scientist Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo of the Heritage Science Laboratory at the University of Ljubljana talks about her Science Advances paper on using proteomics to dig out clues to artistic practices of the day and how they fit in with the local beer-loving culture. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Angela Saini; Elizabeth Pennisi Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi8592 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Folge vom 18.05.2023The earliest evidence for kissing, and engineering crops to clone themselvesCloning vigorous crops, and finding the first romantic kiss First up this week, building resilience into crops. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss all the tricks farmers use now to make resilient hybrid crops of rice or wheat and how genetically engineering hybrid crop plants to clone themselves may be the next step. After that we ask: When did we start kissing? Troels Pank Arbøll is an assistant professor of Assyriology in the department of cross-cultural and regional studies at the University of Copenhagen. He and Sarah chat about the earliest evidence for kissing—romantic style—and why it is unlikely that such kisses had a single place or time of origin. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Erik Stokstad Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi7436 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Folge vom 11.05.2023Debating when death begins, and the fate of abandoned landsA new approach promises to increase organ transplants but some question whether they should proceed without revisiting the definition of death, and what happens to rural lands when people head to urban centers First up this week, innovations in organ transplantation lead to ethical debates. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel and several transplant surgeons and doctors about defining death, technically. Also in this segment: Anji Wall, abdominal transplant surgeon and bioethicist at Baylor University Medical Center Marat Slessarav, consultant intensivist and donation physician at the London Health Sciences Centre and assistant professor in the department of medicine at Western University Nader Moazami, surgical head of heart transplantation at New York University Langone Health Next up, what happens to abandoned rural lands when people leave the countryside for cities? Producer Kevin McLean talks with Gergana Daskalova, a Schmidt Science Fellow in the Biodiversity, Ecology, and Conservation group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, about how the end of human activities in these places can lead to opportunities for biodiversity. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. Additional music provided by Looperman.com About the Science Podcast [Image: Martin Cathrae/Flickr; Music: Jeffrey Cook] [alt: partially collapsed old barn with podcast overlay] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Kevin McLean; Jennifer Couzin-Frankel Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi6336 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices