Peer Revue James M Roche

What makes someone interested in plants? How can you cultivate a fascination in plants? Why does it matter? You will find out by listening to this week's episode of Peer Revue which was recorded live at the Australian National University's Woroni radio station.

This week we are looking at the CSIRO's Strengthening Australia's Pandemic Preparedness report. Pandemics can kill hundreds of millions indiscriminately and are one of the biggest threats to humankind so it might be an idea to do something about them.

Males might not need a contraceptive pill after decades of research on contraceptive underwear. I also talk about Ozempic, how bone size and animal size aren't necessarily related and how bees can teach other bees.



Check out the original paper:

Roger Mieusset and Louis Bujan, 1994, The potential of mild testicular heating as a safe, effective and reversible contraceptive method for men



Bumblebees socially learn behaviour too complex to innovate alone https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07126-4

Why can't a cell live forever? If a cell can't live forever, how can a whole jellyfish? That's right there's an immortal jellyfish.

How should you use emojis to include people with low vision? Why is Australia's social cohesion weakening? Should we tie down rats and pull out their fur to figure out if they go grey?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-1935-3

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-stress-really-make-hair-or-fur-turn-gray-2020030619062

https://scanloninstitute.org.au/mapping-social-cohesion-2023

https://livehowyouwant.wordpress.com/2021/03/22/for-what-purposes-if-any-is-painful-experimentation-on-animals-justified/

Why aren't there more solar eclipses? We'll find out.

In 2023 the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has cancelled cough syrups containing Pholcodine because of a link to allergic reactions with general anesthetic. However other safe cough syrups, which have shaky evidence for their effectiveness can still be bought.