Recent Episodes
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Beautiful But Deadly
If you have a seashell collection, are there any cone shaped ones? If so, it may have been used to house one of the most venomous animals to humans! The cone snail is also known as cigarette snail because there's only time to smoke a cigarette before paralysis sets in. While that's an exaggeration, a severe sting can paralyze and kill a person.
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Got Worms? Maybe You Need Some
None of us would volunteer to have a parasitic worm dropped into our gut, would we? Not normally? But stories like these are why I continue to be passionate about science. It's just so cool! We're talking about the hookworm, rare in the U.S., but a leading cause of anemia and malnutrition in the world's poverty-stricken areas. Except scientists may have found a use for this parasite.
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People Refusing Vitamin K Shots for Newborns
The anti-vaccine movement that rose during the pandemic is now spreading to other treatments for newborns. Parents are declining vitamin K shots for their newborns, questioning its necessity and potential side effects.
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Ancient Plague
Outbreaks of plague are among the most fatal events in world history. For years, evidence pointed to the Justinian plague as the first which happened in 541 CE. But now, archaeological findings show plague circulated in human communities long before then, among Siberia's hunter-gatherers more than 5,000 years ago.
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Vaping Eliminates Benefit of Smoking Cessation
For people who began vaping as way to stop smoking cigarettes may want to consider quitting after hearing this episode. A large study of people who quit smoking, those who switched to vaping had more than 50 percent higher risk of lung cancer and were twice as likely to die of the disease compared to those who quit outright. The study also suggests that using e-cigarettes to quit traditional cigarettes seems to negate some of the benefits of quitting outright but was still better than continuing to smoke.
