In this episode of YS, the Yackers are conversationally afflicted by chemical chaos, dirty dragonflies, and bloody-beaked birds! Elsewhere in the program, lithium makes a move on fluorine, and sodium explodes all over Matt’s Chemical Minute, leaving behind what might be described as the tastiest of residues. And Professor Doug Mock — our special guest, who's the George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Biology at OU — reveals (in an evolutionary biology way, mind you) some of the secrets of family strife as well as why you should never turn your back on brother dearest. Join us, folks...as we step into...The Avian Thunderdome!
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)
Episode art work, as seen above: Image modified from great egret (Ardea alba); photo by Mike Baird. CC BY 2.O.
This program was created by Brian Cross and Matt Smith. Production help provided by Public Radio Tulsa'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.
Guest: Douglas Mock, Ph.D.
Profile: Douglas W. Mock, George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Biology
https://www.ou.edu/cas/biology/people/faculty/douglas-mock
More than Kin and Less the Kind
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674012852?&linkCode=sl1&tag=usiloedpodcas-20&linkId=9d98c5b3e73a8a993bf8bd6a4a261e61&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Links:
Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease
Aron, L., Ngian, Z.K., Qiu, C. ⦁ et al.⦁ Lithium deficiency and the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. ⦁ Nature⦁ (2025).
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09335-x
New Moon
New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope
Dirty Dragonflies
The blueprint for survival: the blue dasher dragonfly as a model for urban adaptation [⦁ BMC Ecol Evo⦁ ⦁ 25⦁ , 67 (2025)]
https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-025-02399-3
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