Bite Sized Biology: Recent Episodes
Ames
(S1-S4 CURRENTLY BEING REUPLOADED) Have you ever wondered if blood can be blue? Or if we really only use ten percent of our brains? Or do you think a phalange is an essential part of an airplane engine? Welcome to Bite Sized Biology, a weekly podcast where I, Ames, attempt to answer questions like these and many more in just enough time to take a bite.
Is there any way we can alter the genome of plants and other microscopic organisms to make them more favorable for commercial use and human consumption?
(Reupload - 22 July, 2018)
In today's episode, I attempt to find out more about visual and auditory cues manifest themselves in dreams, and how deaf and other sensory impaired individuals capitalize on this.
(Reupload - 15 July, 2018)
We're all partial to a good manicure, but what if the thing that makes your nails less boring is actually poisoning your brain in the process?
Hotlines:
American Addiction Centers: 1-877-759-8448
National Poison Control Center (US): 800-222-1222
The Recovery Village: 855-610-5879
National Drug De-addiction Helpline (India): 1800-11-0031
(Reupload - 8 July, 2018)
If you’ve been following the news at all recently, you might have heard that the 1975 ban on women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia was lifted. Keeping in line with the theme, in today's episode, I try and find out if women might just be better at driving than their male counterparts.
(Updated to accommodate newer statistics)
(Reupload - 1 July, 2018)
We're all used to seeing giraffes with their long necks swinging about, but do these parts of their body serve a greater purpose than just... being there?
(Reupload - 24 June, 2018)
Numerous textbooks and articles have told us that our tongues can only detect about 4-5 basic flavors. Why then are we able to differentiate between so many kinds of foods items?
(Reupload - 17 June, 2018)
Around 65 percent of Americans believe that we only use 10 percent of our brain. Does this notion have any credibility or is it just urban legend gone wrong?
(Reupload - 10 June, 2018)
Bringing you shiny objects, eating your kitchen scraps and keeping track of your grudges - is there anything these clever birds can't do? Well, how about living in your house?
(Reupload - 3 June, 2018)
Peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, moths and... lamps! It's a perfect pair. But what is the reason behind this association?
(Reupload - 27 May, 2018)
During the 1890s, Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov was researching salivation in dogs in response to being fed. What he discovered, however, changed the course of human psychology forever.
(Reupload - 20 May, 2018)
Death can be scary. It may be scarier to find out that millions of cells in the adult body die every minute, even right now. How does this happen?
(Reupload - 13 May, 2018)
Nearly half the world’s population is at risk of contracting malaria and the disease already kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. How then do mosquitoes – which transmit the parasites that cause the disease – survive?
(Reupload - 6 May, 2018)
Globally, 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 females are colorblind. The most common kinds of color blindness are genetic, meaning they’re passed down from parents. But how is this condition actually inherited?
(Reupload - 29 April, 2018)
The Earth has been blue for over 4 billion years because of the liquid water on its surface. This fact is as irrefutable as existence itself, a tale older than time. But has this always been the case?
(Reupload - 22 April, 2018)
You might treat your furry friends as your children, but is that feeling reciprocated?
(Reupload - 15 April, 2018)
Microwaves are great for heating up last night's dinner, baking a cake or even measuring the speed of light. But is your microwave actually giving you cancer?
(Reupload - 8 April, 2018)
How does life originate? What kind of environment is necessary for life to survive? Is there or has there been life elsewhere in our solar system? For the last episode is my series combining cosmology and biology, we're going to talk about astrobiology. Astrobiology is the study of life in the universe. The search for life beyond the Earth requires an understanding of life, and the nature of the environments that support it. But what does this mean for those of us on Earth?
Official NASA Astrobiology Website: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/
(Reupload - 1 April, 2018)
The Big Bang Theory is the leading explanation about how the universe began. The second episode in my three part series about the relationship between cosmology and biology focuses on the the Big Bang and how it started off evolution almost 14 billion years ago.
(Reupload - 25 March, 2018)
Stephen Hawking, who died on the 14th of March at the age of 76, had lived with ALS for the majority of his life. Anyone deeply vested or even passively interested in the fields of theoretical physics and cosmology would recognize and appreciate him for his esoteric explanations of some of life’s biggest mysteries. This episode is the first in a series of three episodes in honor of Hawking, where I try and find common ground between biology and astrophysics.
(Reupload - 18 March, 2018)
You may have learnt in class that DNA is the brain of a cell, and that every cell contains some kind of genetic material. While that may not always be the case, does this statement hold true for stomach cells?
(Reupload - 11 March, 2018)
If sci-fi apocalyptic movies are to be believed, a cataclysmic mass volcano eruption is just around the corner. Although it is highly unlikely, what would happen if every single volcano did erupt at once? Would we survive?
(Reupload - 4 March, 2018)
Anyone familiar with Italian cuisine or fine dining would be familiar with truffles and have seen this luxurious delicacy pop up in quite a few menus, but what actually are they?
(Reupload - 25 February, 2018)
Our primate ancestors needed them to survive, swinging from tree to tree in the dense forest canopy, but do nails still serve a purpose in our lives?
(Reupload - 18 February, 2018)
In honor of Valentine's Day being next week, today's episode is dedicated to the neuroscience of love: what causes it, what stops it and some other interesting facts I found along the way.
(Reupload - 11 February, 2018)
Capturing your 'energy' in a photograph sure seems like a great idea, but can it ever be done?
(Reupload - 4 February, 2018)
Almost 70 million Americans read their horoscopes every day. Are they just wasting their time reading drivel, or could they be smarter than the rest of us, armed with the knowledge of the future?
(Reupload - 28 January, 2018)
The appendix has gained a reputation for being a useless organ, and the only time it even gets any attention is when it needs to be removed. But does it really deserve all the hate it gets?
(Reupload - 21 January, 2018)
Is it stress? Connective tissue? Gasoline? Today, I explore possible causes for humans randomly bursting into flames and why Charles Dickens may be a better writer than scientist.
(Reupload - 14 January, 2018)
Monkey to man, the tale’s as old as time. But to the average observer, humans have looked the same since the last 100,000 years or so. So, what is it? Has human evolution stopped forever?
(Reupload - 7 January, 2018)
Have you ever wondered if blood can be blue? Or if we really only use ten percent of our brains? Or do you think a phalange is an essential part of an airplane engine? Welcome to Bite Sized Biology, a weekly podcast where I, Ames, attempt to answer questions like these and many more in just enough time to take a bite.