Tag: disease

• Everyone’s Thinking About You and Flies are Climbing

  Do you feel that you worry what other people think of you way more than they worry about what you think of them? Well, a new study indicates that it isn't actually true. People really are obsessing about you just as much as you are obsessing about them. What does this mean? Anthony and Jeff dive in to the psychological implications of the attention gap. Then, scientists has isolated a fungus that causes some very disturbing behavior among common houseflies. Ever heard of Summit Disease? Oh, you're gonna wanna hear this one. Jeff and Anthony work through the terror and form it into a very serviceable movie pitch. [more]

  December 3, 2021Episodes

• Time Crystals and Number Loss

  Time Crystals. We made them. Well, not we, but researchers at two institutions made them simultaneously! Anthony and Jeff discuss what Time Crystals are and how they may revolutionize watches and computers, too! Then the story of a man who lost the ability to see numbers. Jeff and Anthony talk about how this unique condition reveals a lot about how the human brain works. [more]

  August 21, 2020Episodes

• Organ Web

  A study claims to have discovered a new human organ that could help scientists better understand its impact on diseases such as cancer. Reports suggests this organ, called the interstitium, is a series of interconnected, fluid-filled compartments found throughout the body. The study also claims the interstitium is among the body's largest organs. Jeff and Anthony make it through the episode without making a joke about the body's largest organs. [more]

  April 4, 2018Episodes

• Special Aged

  It's pretty extraordinary for people in their 80s and 90s to keep the same sharp memory as someone several decades younger, and now scientists are peeking into the brains of these "superagers" to uncover their secret. The work is the flip side of the disappointing hunt for new drugs to fight or prevent Alzheimer's disease. Parts of the brain shrink with age, one of the reasons why most people experience a gradual slowing of at least some types of memory late in life, even if they avoid diseases like Alzheimer's. But it turns out that superagers' brains aren't shrinking nearly as fast as their peers'. And autopsies of the first superagers to die during the study show they harbour a lot more of a special kind of nerve cell in a deep brain region that's important for attention. Jeff and Anthony remember to try and stay on topic. [more]

  March 12, 2018Episodes