Quirky Creepy and Freaky Olivia Streit

We're back! Did you know about sea cucumbers? Did you know sea cucumbers sometimes have some fishy friends? Now you do! Tune on in to hear about sea cucumbers, some ramblings about their cousins, and the fishy friend that lives with them in one of the stranger of the symbiotic relationships in the ocean. 

We know why cats purr, but do we really know HOW cats purr? After a new paper was released in early November, now we do! Or at least we have some new insight into it. Tune in to learn more about cats, the aerodynamics behind your cat's purr, some new cat discoveries, and find out the nitty gritty behind how cats make their purring sounds. Sources: Herbst, C.T, Prigge, T., Garcia, M., Hampala, V., Hofer, R., Weissengruber G.E., Svec, J.G., Fitch W.T. 2023. Domestic cat larynges can produce purring frequencies without neural input. Current Biology, 33:4727-4732Why cats purr is a surprisingly long-standing mystery. Now we're one step closer to solving it. https://www.livescience.com/animals/cats/why-cats-purr-is-a-surprisingly-long-standing-mystery-now-were-one-step-closer-to-solving-it
How cats purr: The mystery unraveled at last! https://cats-magazine.com/2023/10/11/how-cats-purr-the-mystery-unraveled-at-last/
 

What happens when you introduce a species of butterfly to a new island, and not one, but two new wasps also show up? A parasitic wasp version of nesting dolls! For our Halloween episode, we're talking about some butterfly body snatchers who also have body snatchers; a butterfly's parasitic wasp also has a parasitic wasp! Tune in to learn how one caterpillar can have two hidden parasitoids at once, just how tiny a wasp can be, and who the Glanville Fritillary Butterfly was named after!

Can jellyfish learn despite not having a brain? This week we're talking about a recently published paper providing evidence that box jellyfish are capable of types of learning previously thought to require, well, a brain! Tune in to learn more about box jellyfish, their nervous systems, and what sorts of things a jellyfish can learn!
 
The paper: 
Bielecki, J., Nielsen, S.K.D., Nachman, G., and Garm, A. 2023. Associative learning in the box jellyfish Tripedalia cystophora. Current Biology 33, 1-10. 

It's a good time of year for newt finding! This week we're talking all about our little Eastern Newt and other salamander friends. Have you ever wondered what makes a newt different from a salamander? Tune in to find out! 

Have you ever wondered what triggers the feeling of sleepiness at night? Or what about what happens while you're sleeping? This episode is all about the cycles of sleep: what the different stages of sleep there are, and how we cycle through them, and the circadian rhythms we have that cycle us through these sleep-wake patterns every day.