Curiosity Daily Podcast: Perks of Procrastination, Volcano Dwellers, and the Difference Between Club Soda and Sparkling Waters

At the northernmost tip of California lies the southern end of the dramatic Cascade mountain range. And the crowning glory of the range, which ripples down through British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, before it comes to a stunning crescendo at Mount Shasta.

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has managed to watch stars tremble, their light subtly changing as starquakes ripple through their surfaces. Which is pretty cool, because Gaia wasn’t even designed to do it.

Hear about a slingshot launching payloads into space, the impressively modern-looking world’s oldest pants, and how moth wings are able to absorb sound to avoid detection from bats.

Today, you’ll learn about mushrooms that can eat asteroids to make space soil, how our thoughts affect us as we microdose psychedelics, and efforts to 3D print organs like kidneys and lungs!

We discuss the latest in phone hacking technology, how aquaculture may be able to help the global food crisis, and how engaging with people who speak in a foreign accent may help us retain language.

Let’s talk about whether “man flu” is fact or fiction, how the Arctic lakes just threw a curveball at our climate change projections, and the genius new way bats are tricking their predators.

Learn about how Japanese honey bees protect themselves from murder hornets, how a new link has been discovered between ADHD and hoarding disorder, and how your over-the-counter pain meds, might actually be making your pain worse!

A new archeological discovery might be from the day of the big asteroid strike that took down the dinosaurs, bird goo is helping us understand airplane accidents, and find out about the most human-like robot finger you’ve ever seen.

Plastic pollution is growing rapidly across Earth’s ecosystems and its threat to humanity and wildlife is too. Outcomes for health and the environment will be dire unless we tackle it, says a United Nations (UN) report. But the discovery of microplastics in human blood means urgent action is needed.

Today we learn about how doppelgangers can share similar DNA, a recent discovery of a lost lineage in Indonesia, and recent advancements in finding out what causes Alzheimer’s.