In this latest episode of Yackety Science, co-hosts Matt Smith and Brian Cross answer a myriad of important questions. Such as, why do froggies play possum? And why do monkeys scrump? Why are the Avengers (yes, the superhero collective) nowadays prospecting in South Carolina? And is NASA, in fact, turning to the occult? And perhaps most important of all, does Princess Ariel (yes, the beloved young mermaid often described as "little") sit upon a throne of lies?
Got a question, comment, or correction? Yack right back at us at YacketyScience@gmail.com.
Theme music: “Funky Machine” (ID874) by Lobo Loco (Accessed through FreeMusicArchive.org.; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Image Credit: Common toad Bufo bufo mating ball (multiple amplexus) by Dariusz Kowalczyk. (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Production help provided by PRT's Scott Gregory.
Yackety Science is recorded at the studios of Public Radio Tulsa, Kendall Hall, The University of Tulsa, and at the Center for Creativity at Tulsa Community College.
Links:
Drunken Monkeys
Our ape ancestors’ taste for fermenting fruit may have paved a boozy evolutionary path (Science; July 31, 2025)
https://www.science.org/content/article/our-ape-ancestors-taste-fermenting-fruit-may-have-paved-boozy-evolutionary-path
Hominids adapted to metabolize ethanol long before human-directed fermentation (PNAS; December 1, 2014)
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1404167111
Radioactive Wasps
Radioactive wasp nest found at SC site where US once made nuclear bombs (South Carolina Public Radio; July 20, 2025)
https://www.southcarolinapublicradio.org/sc-news/2025-07-30/radioactive-wasp-nest-found-at-site-where-us-once-made-nuclear-bombs
Thanatosis and Explosive Mating
Thanatosis in the Gold-striped Frog Lithodytes lineatus (Anura: Leptodactylidae) in the tropical dry forest of northeastern Colombia. (Giovany Díaz; ⦁ Cuad. herpetol.⦁ 39 (1): 37-40; 2025)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392285167_Thanatosis_in_the_Gold-striped_Frog_Lithodytes_lineatus_Anura_Leptodactylidae_in_the_tropical_dry_forest_of_northeastern_Colombia
Droop dead! Female mate avoidance in an explosively breeding frog by Carolin Dittrich and Mark-Oliver Rodel (Royal Society Open Science; October 11, 2023)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.230742
Occultation of Uranus
Planteray Alignment Provides NASA Rare Opportunity to Study Uranus by Charles Hatfield (NASA; April 22, 2025)
Disappearing Science (mRNA vaccines)
Press Release from the Department of Health and Human Services
https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/index.html
Public health experts dismayed by RFK Jr.'s defunding of mRNA vaccine research (NPR; Aug. 6, 2025)
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/08/06/nx-s1-5493544/rfk-defunding-mrna-vaccine-research