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Sibling duo attempt to explain and discuss some fun science; banter and hilarity ensue.
Episodes
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
Thursday Aug 31, 2023
This month on Curiosity Killed the Rat, Kade and Matt tackle a more serious issue: the science of antidepressants. What is depression? How is it caused? How do antidepressants work, and are they actually effective? Stick around to the end of the episode to hear sound guy Matt answer a listener question about the science of noise cancelling headphones!
As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com. We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show.
References:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression science.org/content/blog-post/understanding-antidepressants---or-not https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK361016/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4309382/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739676/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2896866/ https://www.nature.com/articles/mp201080 https://helda.helsinki.fi/items/5f15e844-28d8-41b9-a61c-38b2b3351a95
Listener Question References:
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/what-noise-cancelling-headphones-do/
https://www.soundguys.com/noise-canceling-anc-explained-28344/
https://hearingclinic.co.za/why-can-you-hear-when-your-ears-are-blocked/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK531483/
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Monday Jul 31, 2023
Join Kade and Matt on a wondrous wintery episode where we talk all about snowflakes! How are they formed? What makes them so unique and special? Is everything we think we know about them true? Stick around to end to hear Matt tell some fun facts about native Australian trees!
As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com. We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show.
References:
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/snowflake-science-2023 https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/storms/snowflakes https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/0-387-30720-6_130 https://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/faceting/faceting.htm https://chemstuff.co.uk/2012/12/09/snow-chemistry/2j46o7t/ https://www.everydaychemistries.com/blog/snowflakes https://www.britannica.com/video/187062/snowflakes https://oxsci.org/the-science-of-snowflakes/ https://www.buffalo.edu/news/tipsheets/2018/001.html https://sustainable-nano.com/2016/03/04/science-of-snow/ https://youtu.be/FwGH4gulLX4 https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-snowflake-man-of-vermont/ http://www.snowcrystals.com/science/science.html https://www.science.org/content/article/scienceshot-true-shape-snowflakes https://youtu.be/ao2Jfm35XeE
Friday Jun 30, 2023
Friday Jun 30, 2023
This month on Curiosity Killed the Rat, Kade and Matt are joined by Oliver Anagnostou and Benji Metha to talk about rockets! What is a rocket? How does a rocket actually work? Listen to find out how rocket science really is out of this world! Stick around to the end of the episode for a listener question that answers: what is it that gives us butterflies in our belly?
As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com. We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show.
Find more of Oliver on Instagram:
@oliver.anagnostou
Listener Question Sources:
https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-do-we-get-butterflies-in-our-stomachs-72232 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-0897-4_3 https://journals-biologists-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/jeb/article/218/10/1548/760/Dynamic-digestive-physiology-of-a-female https://www.cambridgebutterfly.com/all-about-butterflies/ https://www.discovery.com/science/Butterflies-in-Your-Stomach
No Combustion?:
Eminem/Hamilton Mashup:
Wednesday May 31, 2023
Wednesday May 31, 2023
This episode on Curiosity Killed the Rat, Kade and Matt talk about bones! Bones may in fact be one of the most under-appreciated parts of the body. Not a bunch of dry pieces of scaffolding holding our bodies together, bones do all sorts of weird and wacky things you may not expect!
As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show
Sources:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2016.1736 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21566758/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0213-0 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4006341/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2387081/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41413-018-0019-6.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S155041311400268X?via=ihub https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-bones-communicate-with-the-rest-of-the-body-180979643/
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
Sunday Apr 30, 2023
Welcome back to season 4 of Curiosity Killed the Rat! This episode, Kade and Matt are chatting all about Testosterone: a hormone that makes you sweaty and hungry and hairy and horny. We often learn about testosterone and its effects on the body in the context of a cisgender male puberty. But testosterone can be important for other individuals, too! This episode, our resident scientist Kade – who has been on testosterone as part of a gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy for several months – will discuss the biology behind testosterone and its effects on the body, specifically through a trans-masculine lens. Kade dives into the different changes that testosterone can cause in the body, like hair growth (and loss!), voice deepening, and muscle changes. Why are some of these changes reversible, while others are permanent? We also tackle a listener question about barking dogs – why don’t males sound deeper? As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also now have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. Episode references: https://www.transhub.org.au/hormones-masculinising https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/masculinizing-hormone-therapy/about/pac-20385099 https://transcare.ucsf.edu/article/information-testosterone-hormone-therapy https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/andr.12278 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000334720400123X https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2013.0926 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7432488/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8770664/#:~:text=Based%20on%20presented%20data%20we,synthase%20within%20the%20corpora%20cavernosa
Saturday Dec 31, 2022
Saturday Dec 31, 2022
During the holiday season in Australia, it's hot and summery, and we're all told to slip slop slap. But what is sunscreen, and how does it actually work? What does SPF mean? Does sunscreen cause cancer? Kade and Matt are joined once again by friend of the show, Dr Catriona Nguyen-Robertson, to talk all things sunscreen.
If you loved what Cat had to say and want to find more from her, you can follow her on twitter @CatrionaNR, Instagram @nyuroscientist, and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_NtXSj9jH06SHNmsKhyfuQ). And, as always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com. We also now have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show.
How your skin looks to UV light:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9BqrSAHbTc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykdJ7yj6snA
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Monday Oct 31, 2022
Just in time for halloween, Kade and Matt are joined by Arin Oliver to talk about weird, gross, and curious aspects of working in a pathology laboratory. From dismembered toes, to human soup, and a deep dive into working in science & sci-com in between, tune in for a spooktacular conversation. Stick around till the end of the episode to find out some of the scientific explanations for why vampires were once thought to be real!
If you want to hear more of Arin, check out their sound cloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-880237105
As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. Images and Websites referenced in the show: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/born-to-the-purple-the-st/ https://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1296679/pdf/jrsocmed00034-0052.pdf https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/primate-diaries/a-natural-history-of-vampires/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/porphyria/symptoms-causes/syc-20356066 http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/hemoglobin/hemoglobv.htm https://www.jstor.org/stable/3814375?saml_data=eyJzYW1sVG9rZW4iOiJjNDRlNzZjZi1lYjZkLTRjYmEtOWQzNS04MmE0ZTAyNmRiYjkiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbklkcyI6WyIxMTQyMzMzMy00NmI0LTQ4MWItYTIyNy0yYzA4OGVhZmUxMTkiXX0#metadata_info_tab_contents https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-new-england-vampire-panic-36482878/
Friday Sep 30, 2022
Friday Sep 30, 2022
This episode, Kate and Matt discuss stomach ulcers, gastritis, the bacteria h. pylori, and one man’s decision to use HIMSELF as a lab rat. That’s right, we tell the tale of Barry J Marshall, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine for his work uncovering the cause of stomach ulcers… and, more importantly, the absolutely insane way he went about proving his hypothesis. We also tackle a listener question about snails… what happens, exactly, when they’re given amphetamines? If you love the logo that inspired this episode, you can find the artist Steff on Instagram @steff_tattoo_artist. You can find Kate on twitter @huckstepkate or on Insta @katehuckstep. And, as always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also now have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show. References: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/professor-barry-marshall-helicobacter-pylori-bacterium/id1212751478?i=1000389540444 https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/professor-barry-marshall-his-professional-history-h/id1212751478?i=1000388990736 https://medlineplus.gov/pepticulcer.html https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/infectious-agents/h-pylori-fact-sheet#q4 https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/press-release/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2432/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2005/summary/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/22/germs-are-us https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283743/ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(84)91816-6/fulltext https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1539101/ Listener Question References: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/100603-crystal-meth-snails-brains-addiction-science https://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/09/snails#:~:text=New%20research%20has%20found%20that,213%2C%20No
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
Thursday Sep 01, 2022
In light of science’s latest and greatest big project on everybody’s lips right now – the James Webb Space Telescope – Kate and Matt are joined by astronomer Stephanie Bernard (and our regular space consultant Benji Metha) to talk about some of the OTHER telescopes out there! What is the Hubble Space Telescope and why was it made? What advantages do space telescopes have over the ones here on earth? Where does astronomy even come from? Stick around ‘til the end to hear Kate answer this month’s listener question all about mozzies! If you loved what Stephi had to say, you can find more of her on her podcast: Spaghettification, at https://www.spaghettification.com.au/, @spagpod on Twitter, and @spaghettificationpodcast on Instagram. You can find Stephi personally on Twitter under @astro_stephi or on Insta under @stephoebe. As usual, you can find more from Benji on Instagram under @benjaminmetha, and find more of Kate @katehuckstep on Instagram or @huckstepkate on Twitter. You can find more of Matt on Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-865675098, or on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJv0HlknPTGfvHpFfv4wL6Qat And as always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, Instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have some coin to chuck our way, it really helps with all the time and effort that does into making the show! Listener Question References: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12083361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127358/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022191016303158?via%3Dihub https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315685/#:~:text=Bananas%20and%20beer%20%5B20%2C21,likelihood%20of%20contact%20and%20biting. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01541-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28195-x https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0122716 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ps.6635 https://youtu.be/38gVZgE39K8
Monday Aug 01, 2022
Monday Aug 01, 2022
This time on Curiosity Killed the Rat, Kate and Matt discuss all things muscle. How do we grow bigger muscles? How to our muscles actually make us move? How do steroids effect our bodies? Stick around to the end for a listener question on how much of our brain do we really need. As always, you can find us @curiosityrat on twitter, instagram, and facebook, and send your listener questions in to curiosityrat@gmail.com We also have a Patreon! If you love our content and want to support us you can jump on to https://www.patreon.com/curiosityrat and become a patron. There is absolutely ZERO pressure but if you have as little as $1/month you can chuck it our way to help us out and show you appreciate all the time and effort that goes into making this show
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29282553/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190125084106.htm https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2018.01887/full https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003188.htm https://cob.silverchair-cdn.com/cob/content_public/journal/jeb/219/2/10.1242_jeb.124495/5/jeb124495.pdf?Expires=1662262469&Signature=GOSSKmvlLzQ5OmbhJexKPEShy~sLFrkAXdDps2EhHcj0VNHPYWJFmIYnhAZAz-Cwa7C9c1-kCNVbCUAIvo8q5QU6qcposdUvKgf2z7uC3ynKJOEgr3ajWHvHpsacKUj4fLPqs07zNb17Jlp85ou71lF8um23gpiHhnDTy3u8epxt6rpZwoacQVEWglTdTZWsMzglYVwdJIrhJnZLJv7o0J49g6kWwah5VFgngf8Ace7ilJcCFcKYhdap53VmO3dq8bPl8mysgabtU9YKjU4XwHtbLpUIUZIwiTka4JqcYbEnbDNjWylGQB93i6Av86t4pB~qWTmYYEun3t4ybkNzeQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIE5G5CRDK6RD3PGA https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/musclesgrowLK.html https://medicalxpress.com/news/2010-11-source-long-term-motor-memory.html https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0047637482901051?via=ihub
Listener Question Sources:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-when-half-brain-better-than-whole/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12301-man-with-tiny-brain-shocks-doctors/#.VBcSYy5dVoc https://www.medicaldaily.com/boy-born-without-brain-trevor-judge-waltrip-dies-after-living-12-years-hydranencephaly-300736