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YGBFKM
by YGBFKM
on

Exploding Grandmothers. Framed Predator. Missing Hours.

In this episode of the Gotta Be Kidding Me podcast, host Tammy Coron covers four stories about mistaken assumptions and second looks.
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Signal
by Signal
on

The Sun Is the Prime Suspect in a Missing Planet Case

Three long-standing mysteries about our sun. One proposed explanation that's either brilliant or deeply unsettling. What exactly is buried down there?
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Field Notes
by Field Notes
on

Cannibal Chicks: The Hoopoe Hatches a Spare

Researchers slipped one extra late-hatching egg into hoopoe nests. That chick never fledged, and the nest raised nearly two more birds anyway.
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Vitals
by Vitals
on

Your Dog Is Parsing Your Words

Even dogs that spent puppyhood on the street or in a shelter do it. How much talking does it take to rewire a dog's brain?
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Canopy
by Canopy
on

An Octopus Used a Mirror to Hunt

Before it could use the mirror, it had to stop seeing a rival in it. What an octopus understands about reflections is still an open question.
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Tectonics
by Tectonics
on

The Floor of Italy Is Peeling Off and Dropping Into the Earth

Italy's mountains keep stretching and squeezing at the same time. Something far below them is coming loose.
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Signal
by Signal
on

Earth Microbes Auditioned for Saturn's Ocean Moon. They Got the Part.

The microbes weren't supposed to make it. Researchers called it a long shot. Then they adapted, grew and started producing the exact gas Cassini already found venting into space.
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Field Notes
by Field Notes
on

This Frog Outsourced Its Defense Against a Species-Killing Fungus

One frog survives a fungus that has wiped out whole species. Another, tested the same way, doesn't. The difference is living on their skin.
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Dark Matter
by Dark Matter
on

A Mouse's Six Weeks in Space Showed Up in Her Grandchildren

Six weeks in orbit left the mother mice looking fine. The changes turned up in their daughters, and some were still there a generation later.
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Tectonics
by Tectonics
on

Earth's Oceans May Have Been Cooked Out of Dry Rock

The rocks that went in were bone dry. What came out, in the lab at least, was water, and possibly the recipe for filling an entire ocean.
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Groundwater
by Groundwater
on

A Dead Star Is Leaving a Wake

Something has been pushing a wave through space for at least 1,000 years. Its obvious power source is missing, and the backup can only explain a few centuries of it.
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Vitals
by Vitals
on

Bubbles the Dolphin Makes Fish Vomit. Then He Eats It.

Researchers watched one dolphin pull this off 11 times. Nobody knows where he learned it, or whether other dolphins are doing the same.
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Deep Time
by Deep Time
on

Something More Than 3,000 Miles Down Keeps Adjusting the Length of Your Day

Days have been running a few milliseconds long or short for decades. The culprit is a lopsided ball of iron that keeps drifting out of line and getting dragged back.
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Dispatch
by Dispatch
on

A Battery You Swallow Does Its Job, Then Disappears

Doctors work hard to get swallowed batteries back out. This one is designed to be swallowed, and a few weeks later there's nothing left to retrieve.
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Out of Bounds
by Out of Bounds
on

Complex Life Had a Heat Limit. The Fire Amoeba Crawled Past It.

Complex cells were supposed to fall apart at this temperature. One tiny blob in a California hot spring keeps eating, moving and multiplying anyway.
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Signal
by Signal
on

A Planet Twice Earth's Size Is Orbiting Its Star Backward

Planets are supposed to inherit their star's direction of rotation. Astronomers looked for something that could have knocked this one backward. They couldn't find it.
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Signal
by Signal
on

This Baby Planet Is Already as Massive as Jupiter. It's Not Even a Million Years Old.

Theory gives a giant planet about 5 million years to grow, and longer the farther out it sits. This one sits very far out, and it didn't wait.
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