Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe

Daniel and Kelly interview Dr. Marcelo Wood about what addiction does to our brains, why some of us become addicted to drugs while others don't, what drugs do to our brains in the long term, and more.

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Daniel and Kelly talk about whether physicists are trying to understand the expansion of the Universe, or pull the cosmic wool over everyone's eyes. Also, horse milk comes up.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about alternatives to the Big Bang, scurvy, and supercontinents.

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Daniel and Kelly talk about the differences between conservation and rewilding, and discuss some of the successes, failures, and wild ideas that have come from the rewilding movement so far.

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Daniel and Kelly talk about what a recent simulation project can tell us about how the Universe got so clumpy.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about crackpots, hearing meteors, and the age of everything.

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Daniel, Kelly, and Katrine take on the origins of life. They discuss competing definitions for "life", whether it's even helpful to have a definition, the oldest evidence we have for life, and how we think life got started.

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Daniel and Kelly review the recent movie 'Disclosure Day' and discuss some tough questions about knowledge and secrecy.

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Daniel and Kelly are joined by Dr. Manuel Lerdau to answer listener questions about toxic plants, seed germination, and micropropagation.

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Daniel and Kelly explain the limitations of chemical rockets and how physics can propel humans to the outer reaches of the solar system.

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It's July 2026, and the United States is dealing with an outbreak of cyclospora. Diarrhea makes people think of Kelly, so today we're dealing with the many questions Kelly has gotten about parasites in our food supplies.

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Daniel and Kelly answer listener questions about tick-induced meat allergies, experiencing quantum effects, and fibroids.

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Daniel and Kelly chat with DKEU's audio engineer, Mat Keselman, about the physics of sound and give a behind the scenes look at how Mat works his magic.

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Daniel and Kelly break space, twist time, and then put it back together to explain the most important concept in relativity you've never heard of.

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Daniel and Kelly wonder how many Extraordinaries are planning on becoming supervillains as they discuss how to make Jupiter explode, the changing colors of children's hair, and whether or not aliens could discover electromagnetism without iron.

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Daniel and Kelly chat with Dr. Chelsea Wood about rat lungworm - a particularly unpleasant nematode parasite that is spreading way outside of its native range.

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Daniel and Kelly talk about what it means to be a physics fudge factor and whether DM is fudgy or solid science.

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Dr. John Hutchinson is back to help Kelly and Daniel answer listener questions about how fast animals can grow, how fast animals can go, and whether animal size impacts average lifespans. Also, cheese.

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Daniel and Kelly explore what lice can teach us about human evolution, and the role lice have played in some of humanity's most devastating wars.

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Daniel and Kelly dissect the evidence presented in recent peer-reviewed science papers for pre-Sputnik artificial satellites in Earth orbit.

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Daniel and Kelly marinate in ethanol and saltwater, and reflect on the symmetries of antiparticles.

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Daniel, Kelly, and Katrine talk about what bathing does to your microbiome, and weigh up the pros and cons.

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Daniel and Kelly walk through the early history of the Universe to explain how forces can be unified, or broken.

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Zach joins Daniel and Kelly for a segment on art and science communication. Then Daniel and Kelly explore the concept of absolute hot, and what makes some rocks glow.

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Daniel and Kelly talks about a species of social amoeba that will die to help others. Why the heck does it do that? And bonus: the amoeba are farmers!

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Daniel and Kelly talk about the James Webb Telescope and something mysterious it saw

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions from listeners about earthworms, the origins of the galaxy, and snails!

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Daniel and Kelly talk to Prof. Scott Egan about the meaning of species in modern biology.

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Daniel and Kelly explain the bizarre Tychonic model of the solar system, which for centuries stood as a valid theory alongside the Copernican model.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about relativistic paradoxes, parasitoid wasp viruses, and detector technologies.

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A recent paper found tantalizing evidence that rural raccoons are showing evidence of domestication. So how long until we all have pet raccoons? And how well do we really understand the domestication process anyway?

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Daniel and Kelly dig into the mysterious concept of quantum contexuality: how measurements depend on each other.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about muscle memory, water-less showers, and why everyone can't be ambidextrous.

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Over 50% of Earth's surface is the deep seabed. Dr. Andrew Thaler joins Daniel and Kelly to talk about the amazing diversity of life on the deep seabed, the resources found here, and the rules that govern this region.

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Daniel and Kelly explain how signals get jammed, how to avoid being jammed, and whose music makes the best jam.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about aliens watching Earth, about lone species, and about the size limits of intelligence.

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Parasites can have amazingly complicated life cycles - moving through a series of host species, and looking quite different while residing within each type of host. Frankly, this stumped scientists for a long time. In today's episode, Daniel and Kelly take a stroll through the history of science to explore how we finally started to figure parasite life cycles out.

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Daniel and Kelly explain the nature of the quantum vacuum, whether its real or philosophical, and if it's possible to use to make your toast.

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Daniel and Kelly explain how cells in a fetus or in an adult know what they're supposed to do, and discuss whether opposable thumbs are necessary for the development of tools and technology.

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Daniel and Kelly talk to Dr. Steve Brusatte about his new book "The Story of Birds". We discuss if chickens are really dinosaurs, if we know what color dinosaur feathers were, and why birds survived the devastating asteroid collision with Earth while pterosaurs didn't.

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Daniel and Kelly explain the role of AI in physics and speculate about its future impact on discoveries and curiosity.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about Odderon particles, Langerhans cells, and black holes within black holes.

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Daniel, Kelly, and Katrine talk about biofilms, and how they can be delicious, adorable, and bad. For the bad ones, we discuss current tactics for overcoming them.

Show links:

1. Nature's cutest symbiosis: The Bobtail Squid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ivMSCi-Y2Q

2. The Joyful Microbe's guide to Kombucha: https://joyfulmicrobe.com/kombucha/(Notice the lighthearted joy, no fear mongering here!)

3. Beautiful image of a phenazine mutant of Pseudomonas: https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/883781

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Daniel and Kelly discuss whether ideas from science fiction have inspired real scientific or technological progress.

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Daniel and Kelly answer questions about innate behaviors and what it means to "decode" a genome with help from Dr. Benjamin de Bivort.

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If a rattlesake bit an octopus, would its venom have any effect? Daniel and Kelly bring venom expert Dr. Matt Giorgianni on to the show to answer this listener question, and to talk about the evolution of snake venom.

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Daniel and Kelly explore Penrose's Orchestrated Objective Reduction Theory that aims to explain consciousness, quantum measurements, quantum gravity and anaesthesia!

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Daniel and Kelly answer listener questions about what creates the morning fog, why bats don't get dizzy, and the cauchy horizon.

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Daniel and Kelly talk about what Vibrio cholerae does to your body, and the methods we have to combat it. They also talk about some of the really bad methods we tried using in the past. Like, real bad.

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Daniel and Kelly dive into the history of medicine, and discuss the data John Snow collected to argue that cholera is transmitted through contaminated water and not foul-smelling air. These data bolstered the emerging germ theory of disease.

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