In this episode of Yackety Science, mangrove rivulus fish take a long strange trip...and find their inner chill. Ribozymes lead the way back to life's very beginning. And here in the U.S., bad public policy chases away more good science. And in our Chemical Minute segment, Matt mixes up a chalky Manhattan and talks calcium. And in Ourobookos — our ever-popular book club here at YS — we wrap up our own very strange trip through the past, present, and future of TB.
Got a question, comment, or correction? You can yack right back at us at YacketyScience@gmail.com. And please follow us on Spotify, Instagram (@yacketysciene), Facebook (Yackety Science), and YouTube (@YacketyScience).
Episode Art: Modified from “Mangrove Killifish (Kryptolebias marmoratus)” by Jean-Paul Cicéron (PD)
Theme music: “Funky Machine” (ID874) by Lobo Loco (Accessed through FreeMusicArchive.org.; CC BY-NC-ND 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:
Fish Tripping on Shrooms:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2026.1767175/full?et_cid=5949323
Ribozymes:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt2760
Shirley Meng and Sodium Batteries:
https://www.science.org/content/article/pushed-trump-policies-top-u-s-battery-scientist-moving-singapore
Ourobookos, A Yackety Science Book Club:
"Everything Is Tuberculosis" by John Green
https://magiccitybooks.com/item/3bfSPEKfdTefBznJDiFHpg
“Tuberculosis has been entwined with humanity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty that walks the trails of injustice and inequity we blazed for it. In 2019, author John Green met Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone. John became fast friends with Henry, a boy with spindly legs and a big, goofy smile. In the years since that first visit to Lakka, Green has become a vocal advocate for increased access to treatment and wider awareness of the healthcare inequities that allow this curable, preventable infectious disease to also be the deadliest, killing over a million people every year. In 'Everything Is Tuberculosis,' John tells Henry’s story, woven through with the scientific and social histories of how tuberculosis has shaped our world—and how our choices will shape the future of tuberculosis.”
Our Next Book Selection:
"The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)" by Katie Mack
https://magiccitybooks.com/item/rPCoGQ_-yAUK4cWTOF56zw
“A mind-bending tour through five of the cosmos’s possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, the Big Rip, Vacuum Decay (the one that could happen at any moment!), and the Bounce. Guiding us through cutting-edge science and major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory, and much more, 'The End of Everything' is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.”
[end]