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Shark Week

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Photo by: Daniel Day

Daniel Day

Curiosity Daily Podcast: The True Cavity Culprit, Modular Meds, Enzymes vs Plastic

Today, you’ll learn about how your brushing routine may not be the biggest factor in whether or not you get cavities, how a new method of building pharmaceutical production facilities may bring medical access to previously underserved regions, and how the discovery of a plastic-eating bacteria could revolutionize the recycling industry.

Brush but STILL get cavities? You’re not alone (and brushing isn’t enough).

May 13, 2022

Episode show notes:

“Why People Who Brush Still Get Cavities” by Maggie Koerth

“How Can You Get Cavities If You Brush Your Teeth?” by davis & Beyer Dental Health Professionals

“History of Sugar” from Wikipedia

BioNTech is now making vaccines on the go.

“BioNTech plans to make vaccines in shipping containers” by The Economist

“BioNTech Covid vaccine plan to ship container labs to Africa” By Jenny Hill

Thousands of Bacterial Enzymes Hold the Key to Plastic Pollution Clean-up

Scientists suggest that people ingest at least 50,000 plastic particles a year. Health issues linked to the way plastic chemicals act on the body include cancer and infertility. And investigations show that we are breathing in 100 times more microplastics in our homes than was previously thought. So what can help tackle plastic pollution?

“____-Eating Bacteria” is now nothing to fear! It could be the future of recycling.

“The Future of Recycling May Be in Microbes” by Ula Chrobak

“Scientists uncover the secrets of a plastic-destroying enzyme” by Abe Musselman

“Plastic-eating bacteria: Genetic engineering and environmental impact” by Scott Dutfield

"Endlessly recyclable materials could fix our plastic waste crisis" by Katharine Sanderson

Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Next Up

A Guide to Defending the Earth

Let’s say one day astronomers announce that our worst nightmare has come true: a large object is headed towards the Earth with a significant chance of impact. What do we do?

Shark Week: The Podcast - Superstar Kesha Lifts the Gag Order on Saving Sharks

Pop superstar Kesha joins Shark Week’s Luke Tipple on the podcast to discuss her love of sharks, how her music funds her addiction to diving, and how you can find inner peace while under the water. And at the end, our researcher Sierra drops in to tell us that some sharks have teeth in their eyes.

Shipwrecked & Surrounded by Sharks

This week, we do things a little differently, as Shark Week’s Luke Tipple invites Adventure Aaron into the podcast studio to talk about his incredible near-death experience on the open water. Adventure Aaron gets into what it takes to circumnavigate the world in an ocean rowboat, what it’s like to stare eye-to-eye with an oceanic white tip that probably wants you for lunch, and everything else that happened to him when his boat was capsized, and he was lost by himself at sea.

Shark Week: The Podcast - What is the Status of Sharks in our Oceans?

In this season’s final episode, Luke welcomes Emmy-winning filmmaker and conservationist Shawn Heinrichs to discuss the state of sharks in the ocean. They go over how both legal and illegal fishing operations are decimating the ocean’s wildlife, what it’s like to have a hit put out on you for exposing criminal enterprises to the world, and whether or not NOAA’s data on “sustainable” fishing can really be trusted.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Undiscovered Sharks and the State of the Ocean

Luke Tipple invites “The Lost Shark Guy,” Dr. Dave Ebert, who is personally responsible for finding dozens of shark species that were either previously unknown to science or thought to be extinct. He and Luke discuss why shark populations are a direct indicator of how healthy the ocean is, how to find undiscovered sharks, and why diversity in sharks is essential for marine life.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Why is Tagging Baby Great White Sharks So Important?

Luke Tipple speaks with Dr. Riley Elliott, a marine biologist from New Zealand who recently tagged baby great white sharks, which are rarely seen in the wild. They talk about how climate change is affecting shark pupping grounds, why fishers are wrong to think there are “too many sharks,” and about Dr. Elliott’s Great White App, which allows users to track great white sharks in the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Did Alien Tech Crash-Land into the Ocean?

Host Luke Tipple is joined this week by renowned Harvard professor, Dr. Avi Loeb, who recently led a deep-sea expedition to discover if evidence for advanced alien life crash-landed off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2014. They discuss the recent Congressional UFO hearings, how the last seventy years of research into extraterrestrial life has been potentially misguided, and the challenges of searching for tiny objects on the bottom of the ocean.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How Smart Are Sharks?

The discussion turns this week to sharks’ intelligence, and how it varies among species. Host Luke Tipple is joined by Dr. Tristan Guttridge, a behavioral ecologist and veteran of Shark Week whose research has tackled the social smarts, and even personalities, of different kinds of sharks. He sheds light on why we shouldn’t just think of them as dumb fish with rows of razor-sharp teeth. And at the end, our researcher Sierra Kehoe tells us about shark hypnosis.

Shark Week: The Podcast - How To Have A Career in Shark Science

Shark Week’s Luke Tipple tackles the question “How can I work with sharks?” alongside two experts in the field – and their answers are not always the obvious ones. Luke is joined first by Kelly Link, Associate Curator of the Georgia Aquarium who talks about what it’s like to be an aquarist, how it differs from field work, and how to get yourself noticed. The second guest is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag who goes into detail on what it takes to become a prominent scientist, and what other paths you can take if a PhD isn’t for you. And at the end, researcher Sierra stops by to tell us about the world’s smallest shark.

Shark Week: The Podcast - Do Scientists Need to Kill Sharks?

Host Luke Tipple welcomes two guests to discuss how researchers can kill sharks in the name of science – and whether they need to at all. The first is Dr. Neil Hammerschlag, shark researcher and founder of Atlantic Shark Expeditions, and an expert on data-gathering in the field. He’s followed by explorer Fred Buyle, a world-record-breaking freediver whose innovative methods of shark tagging are explored. Plus, our researcher Sierra tells us about how a 50-year study changed our understanding of tiger sharks – and much of the work wasn’t even done by scientists.