A Little Bit Of Science

A Little Bit Of Science
  • 4.1 (8)
  • SCIENCE
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed. 

  1. AI Inflates the Ego, Ancient Drop Crocs and Gen Z Survey Findings

    2D AGO

    AI Inflates the Ego, Ancient Drop Crocs and Gen Z Survey Findings

    AI is giving people a confidence boost they might not deserve, especially among those who consider themselves tech-savvy. Studies show that using AI for problem-solving leads many to overestimate their own abilities, with higher AI literacy actually making users more likely to trust the machine and question themselves less. The smarter we think we are with technology, the more likely we are to fall for its digital flattery. Meanwhile, ancient Australia was home to predators that make today’s wildlife look tame. Fossil evidence suggests that five-metre crocodiles once hunted by dropping out of trees onto unsuspecting prey. This twist on the classic crocodile encounter adds a new layer of terror to Australia’s already legendary roster of dangerous animals. Forget snakes in the grass. Sometimes the real threat was lurking above. On the cultural front, Gen Z is challenging old standards and rewriting the rules on everything from ironing to mental health. Some in this generation long for a less digital era, question the value of traditional skills, and proudly reject the notion that neat clothes equal good character. They also claim credit for baggy jeans and even admit to being the most annoying generation to work with. From digital delusions to tree-dwelling crocs and Gen Z’s new priorities, the only thing we can count on is that the world refuses to stay boring.   CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction  00:48 AI and the Dunning-Kruger Effect 02:11 AI Literacy and Overconfidence 02:51 AI's Impact on Self-Assessment 06:59 Australian Wildlife and Myths 07:35 Legend of the Drop Croc 08:57 Generational Differences 10:10 Gen Z's Perspective 11:03 Skills and Inventions 12:52 Annoying Generations at Work 13:40 Conclusion and Call to Action   SOURCES: AI Is Causing a Grim New Twist on the Dunning-Kruger Effect Generation Conflicted: How Do Gen Zers Compare Themselves to Past Generations? Evidence of ancient tree-climbing 'drop crocs' found in Australia Australia’s oldest crocodylian eggshell: insights into the reproductive paleoecology of mekosuchines See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    15 min
  2. Chickens Choose the Hot Girls, Accidental Video Game WR and Are Jackalopes Real?

    12/30/2025

    Chickens Choose the Hot Girls, Accidental Video Game WR and Are Jackalopes Real?

    It’s pretty natural for humans to gravitate towards the most attractive person in the room. But do animals do it too? At Stockholm University, researchers decided to see if chickens could spot a hottie. They trained these birds to peck at faces on a screen and found that chickens prefer the same facial features that humans rate as attractive. Apparently, hotness isn’t just a matter of human opinion. Even a chicken can pick out a looker. Does that make us RSPCA approved? Accidentally Breaking a Video Game World Record In 2007, Billy Baker started writing a book about jugglers. At the time,  there was a controversial movement to turn the performance art of juggling into a competitive sport but this story isn’t about juggling. It’s about video games. During his research, Baker’s curiosity led him from online juggling forums down the rabbit hole of video games where he learned the world record of Tetris stood at 327 lines. Here’s the twist…his own wife easily scored up to 500 or 600 lines on her old Game Boy at home. She was just casually breaking a video game world record without even knowing. Jackalopes: When Myth Meets Mutation You’ve heard of the jackalope, right? That legendary rabbit with antelope horns. Turns out, they might just be real. Back in 1933, virologist Richard Shope discovered a virus that causes rabbits to grow cancerous horn-like growths all over their face. Suddenly, the jackalope isn’t just a campfire story. What if the tales we’ve written off to be myths were actually sightings of cancerous rabbits?    CHAPTERS: 00:00 Theories of Physical Attractiveness 02:29 Chickens and Human Hotness 06:27 Juggling and Competitive Sports 07:46 Speedrunning Super Mario Brothers 10:37 Cryptozoology and Mythical Creatures 11:47 The Jackalope: America's Mythical Creature 12:15 Historical References to Horned Rabbits 14:38 The Shope Papilloma Virus Discovery 17:08 Modern Day Jackalope Sightings   SOURCES: 'Bizarro World’: That's what my wife and I entered when we drove up to an arcade in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, where she would attempt to break an official world record in the classic video game Tetris. Ghirlanda S, Jansson L, Enquist M. Chickens prefer beautiful humans. Hum Nat. 2002 Sep;13(3):383-9. doi: 10.1007/s12110-002-1021-6. PMID: 26192929. INFECTIOUS PAPILLOMATOSIS OF RABBITS See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    18 min
  3. Radio Ventriloquism, Conkers Controversy and Stone Skimming Cheaters

    12/23/2025

    Radio Ventriloquism, Conkers Controversy and Stone Skimming Cheaters

    A ventriloquist once ruled the radio waves, captivating millions with stage tricks that made no visual sense but somehow worked perfectly through a speaker. The world’s love for a good illusion runs deep, stretching from ancient oracles channeling voices through their bellies to audiences mesmerised by dummies with invisible lips. Humans have always been drawn to spectacle, even when it requires a leap of imagination. The world of competitive chestnut-smashing, known in England as Conkers, has moved far beyond childhood nostalgia. Now it is a battleground for grown-up pride, world championships and the occasional controversy. When the stakes are glory and bragging rights, even a simple game can become the centre of suspicion and scandal. Even stone skimming is not immune to drama. The World Stone Skimming Championships recently faced its own rule-bending episode, with contestants trying to perfect their throws in shady ways that organisers had to address. Whether it’s radio dummies, nut-bashing or stone skipping, humans will always find a way to turn even the silliest competition into a drama.   CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction  02:27 The Curious Case of Radio Ventriloquism 05:18 King of Conkers Controversy  08:53 Stone Skimming Championships and Cheating Scandals 12:18 Conclusion and Listener Engagement SOURCES: Cheating scandal rocks world stone skimming championships ‘King Conker’ cleared of cheating at World Conker Championships The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    13 min
  4. Ethics of Sex with Aliens, Dogs’ Cuteness Tactics and the StaffCop Office Overlord

    12/16/2025

    Ethics of Sex with Aliens, Dogs’ Cuteness Tactics and the StaffCop Office Overlord

    Academics are now seriously debating the ethics of sex with aliens, with questions swirling around intergalactic consent, the boundaries of romance and whether Captain Kirk’s escapades would pass the cosmic sniff test. Some call it unnatural, others say it’s all about happiness and agreement, and a few even claim to have had their own close encounters. Until E.T. shows up with a clear answer, the verdict is equal parts fascinating and unresolved. Back on Earth, dogs have been quietly evolving to manipulate us with their eyes. Thanks to unique facial muscles and lightning-fast eyebrow moves, modern pups can pull off that “feed me” look better than any wolf ever could. We bred dogs to be emotionally expressive, and now they’re experts at tugging our heartstrings, turning the human-canine relationship into a masterclass in mutual manipulation. Meanwhile, StaffCop is turning offices into digital panopticons, logging every keystroke and screenshot in the name of productivity. While management loves the promise of accountability, for employees it means more paranoia, less privacy and a creativity drought. With science and technology serving up weirder dilemmas than ever, it’s safe to say the workplace is starting to look a little too much like 1984.   CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 00:47 Ethical Dilemma: Sex with Aliens 03:27 Exploring Alien Reproduction 07:53 Human-Alien Sexual Encounters 13:46 Ethics and Consent in Alien Relationships 19:07 Dogs Using Their Eyebrows to Manipulate Humans 23:01 Employee Monitoring Software 27:16 Ethical Concerns and Privacy 31:47 Conclusion and Listener Engagement SOURCES: This Guy Paints the Sex He Allegedly Has with Aliens Would you have sex with an alien? How many men here would be willing to have sex with a legitimate alien from another planet? Alien Attraction What is StaffCop? The science behind puppy-dog eyes, and other ways our canines communicate with us See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    33 min
  5. Poetry for AI Hacking, Flatulent Foods as Aphrodisiacs and Penile Tuberculosis

    12/09/2025

    Poetry for AI Hacking, Flatulent Foods as Aphrodisiacs and Penile Tuberculosis

    A Rome-based research team discovered poetry can jailbreak AI systems by bypassing safety filters that normal prompts can't crack, making verse a genuine cybersecurity vulnerability. Medieval physicians believed flatulent foods like beans and onions were aphrodisiacs because intestinal gas supposedly enhanced sexual performance, Palmer Luckey, the tech billionaire behind Oculus, now advocates for submarines that tunnel through Earth's crust for national defense, while a Dublin man contracted penile tuberculosis from working with deer in a rarely documented case of genital TB. Poetry defeats AI security by exploiting how language models process poetic structure, proving Aristotle's warnings about poets in governance were surprisingly futuristic. Medieval fart-based aphrodisiacs never worked but show humanity's eternal optimism for simple bedroom solutions, while Luckey's crust-submarine idea sounds insane until you remember he actually made VR mainstream. The Dublin TB case demonstrates that tuberculosis can infect any body part and that working with animals carries risks nobody considers - including your g******s contracting lung diseases. The biggest threats to AI are poets, the worst aphrodisiacs involved intestinal wind, crust submarines might actually happen, and deer can give you dick tuberculosis. Science is weird, history is weirder, and Palmer Luckey wants to make it weirder still.   CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 02:07 Plato's Republic and AI Poetry 03:54 The Power of Poetry in AI 07:59 Historical Aphrodisiacs and Fertility 19:01 Simultaneous Orgasms and Farting 19:36 Windy Meats and Fertility Myths 24:19 Palmer Luckey and Virtual Reality 31:00 Penile Tuberculosis: A Rare Case 36:50 Smart Toilets and Privacy Concerns SOURCES: ‘End-to-end encrypted’ smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted Scientists Discover “Universal” Jailbreak for Nearly Every AI, and the Way It Works Will Hurt Your Brain Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models Palmer Luckey on the Future of Warfare Beans, ale & 'windy meats': surprising 17th-century aphrodisiac When Beans were the Food of Lust Why you don’t want to get tuberculosis on your penis See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    38 min
  6. Interspecies Love, Annual Frozen Dead Guy Day, and Stinky Brazilian Butt Lifts

    12/02/2025

    Interspecies Love, Annual Frozen Dead Guy Day, and Stinky Brazilian Butt Lifts

    Sika deer on Japan's Yakushima Island let macaque monkeys groom them in exchange for food scraps and sexual mounting, creating what scientists awkwardly call "interspecies sexual behaviour with mutual benefits." Nederland, Colorado hosts annual "Frozen Dead Guy Day" festivals celebrating Bredo Morstoel, whose body has been preserved in a shed on dry ice for decades after his grandson's cryogenic dreams failed. Brazilian Butt Lifts cause "BBL smell" - a rancid odour from fat necrosis when transferred fat cells die and rot inside the body, which surgeons rarely mention before surgery. Milan researchers found commuters offered seats to pregnant women more often when Batman was on the train, proving superhero costumes trigger prosocial behaviour because nobody wants to look bad in front of Batman. AI-generated recipes tell people to bake cakes for days and combine impossible ingredients, confidently presenting unworkable instructions that ruin dinner. Chinese researchers discovered rock, paper, scissors players stick with winning choices or switch after losses, revealing predictable patterns that can be exploited. From deer trading sex for grooming to frozen dead guy festivals and butt lifts that smell like death - nature is uncomfortable, humans are weird and technology can't cook. Maybe stick to human recipes, don’t try to freeze Grandpa and think twice before committing to a bouncy-butt medical procedure.  CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 00:35 Interspecies Sexual Mutualism 01:24 Unexpected Observations: Monkeys and Deer 06:15 Frozen Dead Guy: A Bizarre Tale of Cryogenics 14:03 Batman and Prosocial Behavior 20:20 Hilarious AI-Generated Food Recipes 30:39 The Ultimate Rock, Paper, Scissors Strategy 33:54 The Dark Side of Plastic Surgery 39:59 Conclusion and Final Thoughts   SOURCES: Rock, Paper Scissors Study  Unexpected events and prosocial behavior: the Batman effect https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/thanksgiving-dinner-ai-recipes-slop https://www.aiweirdness.com/ai-recipes-are-bad-and-a-proposal-20-01-31/ https://www.aiweirdness.com/the-neural-network-has-weird-ideas-16-03-05/?ref=aiweirdness.com https://aiweirdness.tumblr.com/post/190721709472/ai-vintage-american-cooking-a-combination-that?ref=aiweirdness.com https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/macaque-monkey-deer-mate-sex-ride https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a60887514/diy-cryonics-frozen-dead-guy/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_Dead_Guy_Days https://www.vice.com/en/article/bbl-smell-is-real-and-just-as-gross-as-it-sounds/ https://plasticsurgery.org.au/procedures/surgical-procedures/buttocks-lift/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    40 min
  7. Mad Scientist Misadventures, Mind-Reading AI, and the Fishy Origins of Fingers

    11/25/2025

    Mad Scientist Misadventures, Mind-Reading AI, and the Fishy Origins of Fingers

    Horseshoe theory proposes that political extremes loop back around until far-left and far-right ideologies find disturbing common ground, sharing authoritarian tactics, propaganda methods, and contempt for democratic norms despite claiming opposite values.  Scientists are using AI to decode brain activity and caption your thoughts, raising serious questions about privacy and future thought-policing. The technology has remarkable potential for medical applications like helping locked-in patients communicate, but it's also concerning for policing applications where authorities might claim to know what you're thinking even when the AI is wildly guessing. Despite frankly not-so-great accuracy, it sets us on a path toward the dystopian surveillance that sci-fi has warned about for decades. Your fingers and toes developed from genetic blueprints originally designed for a fish's cloaca, meaning your hands evolved from ancient fish butt architecture through evolution's tendency to repurpose existing solutions. Your ability to type, paint, play piano or give someone the finger exists because millions of years ago evolution looked at fish butt genes and decided to work with them.  Harry Whitaker's attempt to collect every element from the periodic table ended with police at his door after he stockpiled explosives and radioactive materials, proving that even well-intentioned scientific curiosity needs tempering before it crosses into illegal weapons manufacturing. CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction  01:40 Exploring Horseshoe Theory in Politics 03:33 The Impact of Trump on Science and Health Policy 04:38 Pandemic Preparedness and Public Health 09:33 AI Mind Captioning: Decoding Brain Activity 14:13 Evolution of Tetrapod Digits 14:55 Genetic Regulatory Landscapes 15:33 Research on Fish and Mice Genes 16:18 The Role of Hox Genes 19:54 Harry Whitaker's Science Obsession 25:19 Conclusion and Call to Action   SOURCES: NIH Directors: The World Needs a New Pandemic Playbook https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-decodes-visual-brain-activity-and-writes-captions-for-it/ https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1j8we4e52lo https://futurism.com/science-energy/police-uk-chemistry-explosives?utm_source=beehiiv&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=futurism-newsletter&_bhlid=4a7d20a111b1d23ddf489d65fbd96596ee739749 https://www.sciencealert.com/fish-buttholes-may-be-the-reason-we-now-have-fingers-study-finds See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    26 min
  8. Atomic Gardening, Microwave Conspiracies and the Rise of Phubbing

    11/18/2025

    Atomic Gardening, Microwave Conspiracies and the Rise of Phubbing

    Scientists in the mid-20th century created "atomic gardens" where they bombarded plants with gamma radiation to induce beneficial mutations like disease resistance and higher yields. Microwaves have been accused of causing cancer, destroying nutrients,and functioning as listening devices. "Phubbing" - phone snubbing - describes ignoring someone in front of you to look at your phone, and it's become the modern signature of distraction. We've created connections across continents through technology yet find it increasingly difficult to maintain eye contact with people sitting across from us. The accidental side glance at notifications has become so normalized that we barely register the social damage it causes, making it a choice we make every time we prioritize the buzzing rectangle over the human in front of us. From gamma-ray gardens to microwave paranoia and phone addiction ruining dinners, this week showed that human curiosity and technological advancement create both excellent outcomes and noteworthy disasters. We've learnt to mutate plants with radiation and overcome irrational appliance fears, yet somehow can't put our phones down long enough to have a proper conversation - proving that some technological problems are harder to solve than others.   CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction  01:32 The Birth of Atomic Gardening 04:09 Muriel Howorth and the Atomic Gardening Society 12:25 The Legacy and Impact of Atomic Gardening 12:59 CJ Spies and the Atomic Golf Balls 13:39 Radiated Golf Balls: The New Sensation 14:04 Introducing the Food Babe 14:48 Microwaves and Nutrient Destruction 17:17 Microwaves and Radiation Exposure 19:57 Microwaved Water and Negative Energy 22:45 Phubbing: The Modern Social Dilemma 26:18 Wrapping Up: Listener Interaction and Feedback   SOURCES: Atomic Gardening https://proto.life/2021/05/a-short-history-of-atomic-gardening/ http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/atomic-gardening-breeding-plants-with.html http://www.atomicgardening.com/1966/03/01/whatever-happened-to-the-atomic-garden/ https://minnstate.pressbooks.pub/peppermintkings/chapter/global-peppermint/   Microwave Conspiracies  https://www.science20.com/cool-links/the_food_babe_took_down_her_goofy_microwave_oven_post_science_win-140892 https://www.vox.com/2015/4/7/8360935/food-babe https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf970670x https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200714-is-it-safe-to-microwave-food Phubbing https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563218302978   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    27 min
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4.1
out of 5
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About

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed. 

Information

  • Creator
    A Little Bit Of Science
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    412
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 A Little Bit Of Science
  • Show Website
    A Little Bit Of Science

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