Bone Lab Radio The Bone Lab

What makes us human? We learn about the ways in which cognitive abilities and hand evolution worked hand in hand.
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Colma, California is an odd place: the dead outnumber the living. This imbalance arose through massive cemetery relocations to free up space in nearby San Francisco. In this episode, we unearth obscure Bay Area history with volunteers who work to identify human remains inadvertently unearthed during SF home renovations. This is a story of death and devotion in a city in flux.
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Early in the history of matchsticks, factory workers in London were plagued by a gruesome and debilitating illness: their jaw bones would glow green in the dark and eventually crumble apart. It was discovered that a chemical interaction was occurring between the combustible white phosphorus used in match heads, and the mineral comprising their own skeletons. This is a story about consumer convenience, occupational hazards, and some of the worst bosses in history.
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Perhaps, there is nothing more human than the multitude of ways that we honor the dead. Each culture has its own attitude about death and its own funeral traditions. This episode is a story from a mountainous location in the Philippines where the native Igorot people suspend caskets high above a lush valley.
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Have you ever wondered if there was a skeleton in your backyard? Would you know how to identify which bones were which? In this episode, we join a group of children as they try to assemble and identify the bones of a mystery skeleton.
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In this episode, our founder, Kate, tells a story about soccer, knee pain, and some secret lab shenanigans.
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