Tag: sports

• Cockroaches Want an Audience and Make it 75% Boys (with Dr Kiki Sanford)

  Jeff and Anthony are joined by neurophysiologist and science communicator, Dr Kiki Sanford! Sports are returning to empty stadiums during quarantine, and a new study shows that having no one cheering in the stands really does eliminate the home field advantage. This correlates with a decades-old study that found cockroaches also like an audience. Jeff, Anthony, and Dr Kiki talk about performance under observation. The, CRISPR is at it again. Scientists have genetically engineered a calf to produce 75% male offspring. Anthony and Jeff express their concerns, but Dr Kiki has a positive outlook on the future of genetic modification. [more]

  July 31, 2020Episodes

• Olympic Meddle

  Elizabeth Swaney is a 33-year-old skier from Oakland, California who competed in the 2018 Winter Olympics for Hungary. She is not a good skiier. Swaney, who said her grandparents came from Hungary, earned her Olympic berth more from attending World Cup events than actually competing. Women’s pipe skiing World Cups rarely see more than 30 competitors, so it’s not hard to meet the Olympic requirement for a top-30 finish. Jeff and Anthony go back and forth on this one. [more]

  March 2, 2018Episodes

• Don’t Sweat the Ball Stuff

  The average athlete loses about a liter of sweat an hour; Alberto Salazar, an American marathoner, lost 3.7 liters per hour and 12 pounds of his total body weight during the 1984 Olympic marathon in Los Angeles. For NFL players, the number is lower than sweat champion Salazar, but much higher than their colleagues in sports like soccer or running. Larger bodies aren’t the only explanation for the higher amount of sweat—linemen weigh more and likely have bigger sweat glands, and more of them. Combined, a troop of sweaty football players might produce a grand total of 41745 mL of sweat per Super Bowl, or 11 gallons. That means one single, precious 10-gallon cooler of salty secretion—with a bonus gallon to make the dunking all the sweeter. Jeff and Anthony weigh in on this juicy topic. [more]

  February 14, 2018Episodes