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Life is strange, naturally you want to hear about it. Strange by Nature is your guide to the strange, weird and unbelievable side of nature. Professional naturalists present weekly curated stories about just how strange nature can get.
Episodes
Wednesday Sep 25, 2024
Wednesday Sep 25, 2024
Rachel starts us off with a mysterious river of blood in Antarctica. Okay, so not actually blood but what is causing this strange red river to flow out of a glacier on the bottom of the world?
Kirk is up next and he talks us though the de-extinction of the Wooly Mammoth. What is the current state of research and what reasons are both to do it and to avoid it? De-extinction is a complicated and controversial topic. Kirk and Rachel debate the merits.
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Monday Sep 16, 2024
Monday Sep 16, 2024
You may have seen this one in the headlines. Kirk does a deep dive on the science behind this fascinating phenomenon. Scientists have turned the skin of mice completely transparent in a simple reversible technique using the same dye that makes Doritos orange. This strange result could have huge impacts on science and medicine.
Rachel also talks about a creature this week but it isn't invisible, just very difficult to find. She tells us about the strange critically endangered Northern Bald Ibis. This strange shorebird nests on cliffs and castles and scientists have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the population going.
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Wednesday Sep 11, 2024
Wednesday Sep 11, 2024
Victoria is with us this week and she brings us the tale of giant Coconut Crabs that just may have eaten Amelia Earhart.
Not to be outdone, Kirk tells us about the mysterious disappearing Y chromosome. Will it eventually disappear all together? What does that have to do with the platypus?
Rachel takes a look at the weird jobs ribs play in snakes from digestion to locomotion to defensive displays like the cobra hood. So strange.
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Wednesday Sep 04, 2024
Wednesday Sep 04, 2024
Having survived wild thunderstorms, your intrepid hosts return with tales of the strange.
Rachel brings us a story of the coolest (coldest) lava flowing on Earth. It still isn't cold enough to pick up with your hands but it's super strange.
Victoria heads to the ocean to veer into Rachel's lane and shares with us the marvels of the Disco Clam, an amazing creature with a cool way to survive in the wild.
Kirk wraps this week up with some new research that possibly suggests that our mitochondria could be messing up our DNA in a way that could lead to early death in humans.
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Wednesday Aug 28, 2024
Wednesday Aug 28, 2024
This week Kirk starts us off with a bizarre story about the weirdly human trait of blushing when we are embarrassed. He then tells us about a wild new study that had teenage girls blushing while in an MRI machine all though the magic of Karaoke.
Rachel this week tackles pollination and flips the script on how and why we think it happens. It turns out, once again, nature laughs at our little boxes and loves to do things different than we expect.
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Wednesday Aug 21, 2024
Wednesday Aug 21, 2024
I can't believe I am about to type this sentence but Rachel's topic this week is Foot-long Neurotoxic Invasive Terrestrial Flatworms. Yeah. That's...that's a lot.
So as not to leave the neurotoxin train, Kirk follows that up with a discussion of Cobras, cobra venom, neurotoxins, and necrotic flesh. Good news though, there's a possible new cure to talk about.
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Wednesday Aug 14, 2024
Wednesday Aug 14, 2024
This week, Kirk brings us a story about ants that perform surgery on injured colony members. Warning, the only surgery they know is amputation.
Rachel, talks about a fish that was seen living inside of a jellyfish.
Victoria caps it all off this week by getting extra weird talking about inter-species fornication. Why do they do it? It's quite a ride.
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Wednesday Aug 07, 2024
Wednesday Aug 07, 2024
This week, Victoria talks about the bird pirates of the sea, the Great Skua. These birds have an incredible memory for people they don't like and they have also been known to steal other animals eyeballs. Woah.
Kirk is up next with a story about the epic battles waged by Pavement Ants. These colonies go head to head battling colony vs colony but their strange behavior is acutaly making them highly dominant in their urban habitats.
Rachel is up last and she tackles the topic of Fireflies. It turns out there's more to their dispaly than jut pretty lights. They are flashing their butts to find a mate (or maybe a meal.)
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Wednesday Jul 31, 2024
Wednesday Jul 31, 2024
This week it's back to the briny deep as Rachel talks about a program to train sharks to eat lion fish. It's the latest in a strange list of ways people have been trying to control this invasive fish species.
Kirk brings us the strange tale of the 2000 foot tall WEAU TV tower in Wisconsin that was responsible for thousands of bird deaths every year until it fell. The truly strange part is that the antenna wasn't special. "Tower kills" account for somewhere between 4 and 50 million bird deaths in the US every year. It's a sobering story about our responsibility to help migrating birds.
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Wednesday Jul 24, 2024
Wednesday Jul 24, 2024
On this week's show, Kirk talks about the uncomfortable middle path. How does ambiguity shape our choices? Why do things that are not quite one thing or the other make us uncomfortable.
Up second, Rachel takes us to New Zealand to talk about the heaviest parrot in the world. the Kākāpō aka, the Moss Chicken.
Enjoy these two very different and strange topics this week!
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