Category: Episodes
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Birds, flowers, and alternative universes
Join us on a journey into your inner child’s mind and ask, why do flowers smell like that? and who is that bird making that sound? Ever wondered what life would be like if flowers didn’t smell like sugar, but smelt like death? Luring in pollinators with the promise of sweet sugary goodness is not […]
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Sex, bugs, and alpha wolves
Alpha wolves and sexual evolution Join us on a journey from a cat’s intestines to a virgin aphid that’s pregnant with another pregnant virgin aphid. Are you an alpha, or a beta? Whether you’re risk-averse or leader of the pack may be determined by parasitic microbes that hijack your nervous system – at least in […]
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Finches, flowers, and organ transplants.
Come with us to the dusty arid outback, where a zebra finch mother sings a peculiar tune to her unborn offspring. Follow us onwards to a tropical island, where a gecko sips leisurely from a flower-cup of sweet, red liquid. Join us in the operating room, and meet the man who’s got the heart of […]
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Millipedes, honeyeaters, and smelly glands.
This week we whip out our scanning electron microscopes for some full-frontal footage of millipedes doing the dirty. Tune in to learn how a leg can also be a penis, why honeyeaters perform ritualistic dances, and in Liz’s own words, “where else has cool glands for good smelling stuff”.
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Crystals, sharks, and devil grass.
Something is lurking in the deep in this week’s episode. Join us as we dive past the sharks having rough coitus, delve through your inner ears and the crystals they possess, and dig into the past, present and future of the devil disguised as your lawn.
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Condoms, cannibalism, and brain-control.
This week things get hot and heavy in The Green Room. The innocent spinifex grass is not only interesting for its doughnut shape, but its ability to make super-slim condoms. Speaking of safe sex, fungus has developed brain-control mechanisms to increase libido of infected organisms. How romantic. But do you want true romance? Male Monarch […]
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Spiders, spinifex, and subterranean beetles.
You know what’s a cool experiment? Looking at 5 million years of evolution in a beetle, as it adapts to life underground. Life below the earth’s surface is rooted with evolutionary mysteries… like why does spinifex grow in the shape of a donut? Is this the work of harmful soil microbes? But we digress, as […]
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Sand, simulations, and sticky spiders.
Why don’t spiders stick to their own webs? The answer may surprise you, along with the myriad of unexpected (and sometimes sexual) functions of a spider’s web. We uncover a 1970s computer simulation that suggests that even selfish organisms can work together to sustain life on our planet. And over to you, Jamaica, where 500 […]
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Brains, goggles, and aphids suck.
This week, we take a sneak peek inside the brain of a grieving crow and a coma patient. They teach us things about how and why we study brains, and the nature of the ego. A wacky team of scientists stick 3D goggles onto some cuttlefish and make them watch TV… for science. And a pregnant aphid is pregnant with pregnant aphids. Wait, what?
The Green Room 