Curiosity Killed the Rat

Did you know that - botanically speaking - Halloween Jack O’Lantern Pumpkins are more closely related to zucchini than they are to Kent / Jap pumpkins, butternut pumpkins, or giant pumpkins? This episode, Kade and Matt chat about some awesome PUMPKIN science! Like, speaking of giant pumpkins… how and why do they get so giant?!  What does it take, according to science, to grow amazing pumpkins? We chat about everything from companion planting, to the birds and the bees (that is, quite literally, pollination methods) of male and female flowers. We touch on history and culture, agricultural, and botanical science.  And then, sticking with the plant theme, we answer a listener question about the magic of plants and how they defy gravity to pump water from the ground up without a pumping heart!  As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on X, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to [email protected] We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: Cursed Turnip Jack O’Lantern: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-twisted-transatlantic-tale-of-american-jack-o-lanterns   Great video on Taxonomy and name daddy Carl Linnaeus:  https://youtu.be/F38BmgPcZ_I?si=2nS6wI4zDOZzpB-H   Male and Female Flowers: https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/help-for-the-home-gardener/advice-tips-resources/visual-guides/pollination-of-squash-and-pumpkins   Other Refs: https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/article-abstract/81/3/233/2725697 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362020286_Recent_advances_in_genetics_and_breeding_of_pumpkin_Cucurbita_moschata_Duch https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39117354/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200033556_The_Initial_Domestication_of_Cucurbita_pepo_in_the_Americas_10000_Years_Ago https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335470455_Functional_and_nutraceutical_properties_of_pumpkin_-_a_review https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pce.12502 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf063413d https://brill.com/view/journals/ijps/65/3-4/article-p202_202.xml?language=en

Epilepsy: you've heard of it, you likely know people who have it, but do you know the science behind it? This month, Kade and Matt are joined by Dr Lauren Bleakley to find out just that. Stick around to the end of the episode for our listener question looking at the surprising benefits of chocolate milk! As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on X, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to [email protected] We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: https://florey.edu.au/researcher/lauren-bleakley/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/epi.17447 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/33822003/ https://florey.edu.au/news/2024/05/ferns-story-proves-florey-research-is-life-changing/ https://florey.edu.au/news/2021/09/meet-the-florey-researchers-working-to-give-4-year-old-ebony-and-other-children-with-rare-genetic-epilepsies-a-better-life-through-world-first-research/ Listener Question: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16676705/ https://theconversation.com/is-chocolate-milk-a-good-recovery-drink-after-a-workout-a-dietitian-reviews-the-evidence-236685

This month, Kade and Matt are joined once again by Bodhi for a very special episode: The Philosophy of Science. This will be part 1 of 3 in a special series where we delve into some of the more abstract ideas about science itself. What is science? How effective is peer review? What is burden of proof? And much, much, much more. Make sure to check out the reference list below for further resources on anything we discuss during the episode.  As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on X, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to [email protected] We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: Podcasts as a medium for public discourse between rabbit-hole theorists and academics Rogan, J. [PowerfulJRE]. (2024, July 2). Joe Rogan Experience #2171 – Eric Weinstein & Terrence Howard [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/nrOaFxNex7U?si=QvqPI3c7IaDH5f_1&t=12724 Dissipation Driven Adaptation Green, H. [SciShow]. (2020, June 16). How Cells Hack Entropy to Live [Video]. YouTube. How Cells Hack Entropy to Live (youtube.com). England, J. L. (2013). Statistical physics of self-replication. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 139(12), 121923 1 – 121923 7. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4818538. England, J. L. (2020). Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things. Basic Books. Every Life Is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things - Jeremy England - Google Books Cushman, A. S. (2023). Entropy, Ecology and Evolution: Toward a Unified Philosophy of Biology. Entropy (Basel, Switzerland), 25(3), 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25030405. King, E., Holzer, J., North, J. A., Cannon, W. R. (2023). An approach to learn regulation to maximize growth and entropy production rates in metabolism. Frontiers in Systems Biology, 3, 1-14. httpds://doi.org/10.3389/fsysb.2023.981866. Entropy = messy? Martin, J. S., Smith, N. A., Francis, C. D. (2013). Removing the entropy from the definition of entropy: clarifying the relationship between evolution, entropy, and the second law of thermodynamics. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 6(1), 1-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1936-6434-6-30. Leaves superconduct photons during photosynthesis Engel, G. S., Calhoun, T. R., Read, E. L., Ahn, T., Mančal, T., Cheng, Y., Blankenship, R. E., Fleming, G. R. (2007). Evidence for wavelike energy transfer through quantum coherence in photosynthetic systems. Nature 446, 782-786. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05678 Microtubules display superradiance PBS Space Time [PBS Space Time]. (2024, July 26). Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/xa2Kpkksf3k?si=xAhLJSieFgoR-5lJ&t=740 Hossenfelder, S. [Sabine Hossenfelder]. (2024, May 12). Brain Really Uses Quantum Effects, New Study Finds [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/R6G1D2UQ3gg?si=al7buCxmLEXnp43I&t=200 Babcock, N. S., Montes-Cabrera, G., Oberhofer, K. E., Chergui, M., Celardo, G. L., Kurian, P. (2024). Ultraviolet Superradiance from Mega-Networks of Tryptophan in Biological Architectures. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 128(17), 4035-4046. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c07936. Microtubules form an integrated electromagnetic quantum information network Kuhn, R. L., and Bandyopadhyay, A. [Closer to Truth]. (2023, November 24). Anirban Bandyopadhyay – Quantum Physics of Consciousness [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HbX7wlMspJM?si=QLVU6eFesAsrjf-b&t=303 Ghosh, S., Singh, P., Manna, J., Saxena, K., Sahoo, P., Krishnanda, S. D., Ray, K., Hill, J. P., and Bandyopadhyay, A. (2022). The century-old picture of a nerve spike is wrong: filaments fire, before membrane. Communi

This month Kade & Matt take a break from recording to give listeners a blast from the past with their episode all about crying. Why do our eyes leak when we feel emotions, chop onions, or get poked in the eye? Do these scenarios lead to the creation of different types of tears? How are tears created? WHY? This episode, Kate and Matt delve into all these questions and so many more, as we chat all about crying. We also tackle a listener question about sweating – why do our palms sweat when we get nervous? References: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4035568/ https://athenaeum.libs.uga.edu/handle/10724/36619 https://psych-neuro.com/2014/03/14/the-biochemecial-purpose-of-crying/ https://scienceblogs.com/observations/2011/01/08/why-do-women-cry-obviously-its https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/emotions/crying.htm https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01240/full https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29888936/ https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-87337-001 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/dev.22058 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ejp.1623 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/145/6/e20192719 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-66680-001 https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/29/4/579.short https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02134/full https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4062644/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1069397111404519 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01240/full

Acetylcholine: the greatest neurotransmitter you've never heard of. This month, Kade and Matt deep dive into what makes this chemical fascinating enough to make Kade spend the last 5 years of their life researching it. What does it do? How was it discovered? What makes it special? Listen to the end of the episode to hear Matt take on the role of asking the listener question, further picking Kade's brain about the many quirks of this neurotransmitter. As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on X, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to [email protected] We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/prp2.907 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322320301311?casa_token=XEtugnkWjPoAAAAA:PEamLvvU-dxk9LrKn1uPs_LCj4T1gHdQpFd0CNZ_LXsaadFRiB1f6s0UBtLoBLKjS2GuRfAdp5ei https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bph.15513 https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bph.16081