February 2024 Science Round Up: From Micro-Vertebrates to Moon Landers

Prepare to embark on a scientific odyssey with us, your hosts Jason and Kris Zakowski, along with Bunsen and Beaker, the Science Dogs, guiding you through a universe of discoveries that span from earth-shattering medical innovations to the far reaches of outer space.

This episode promises to test your grey matter with a live interactive Kahoot game, where we uncover the smallest vertebrates and touch on the unexpected benefits of weight loss drugs.

Buckle up for tales of lunar landings gone awry, as we recount the Odysseus Moon Lander Incident and celebrate the quick thinking of Intuitive Machines, ensuring their place in space exploration annals.

Feel the pulse of our digital era as we navigate the tangled web of social media's effects on teenagers, illuminated by recent Congressional sessions with Mark Zuckerberg. Examine the fine line between its advantages and the rising concerns over mental health.

From the classrooms of British Columbia to home living rooms, we explore the challenge of keeping our youth safe and balanced in a connected world. Then, marvel at medical marvels that reimagine the fight against cancer and aging, alongside the cosmic bounty hauled back from asteroid Bennu by the Osiris-Rex spacecraft, offering a treasure trove of secrets about the origins of our solar system.

Concluding this adventure, we share the heartwarming success of a CAR T-cell transplant, bringing new hope to cancer patients everywhere.

Thanks for listening!

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:09

Hello Science Enthusiasts, welcome to Science Chat. My name is Jason Zakowski. I'm the dog dad of Bunsen Beaker the Science Dogs on social media.

Speaker 3: 0:19

My co-host is Hi there, I'm Chris Zakowski. I'm the dog mom to Bunsen and Beaker and the cat mom to Ginger.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Science Chat normally brings you an expert that we interview, but once a month we do a science news roundup, kind of like the greatest hits of the month, and we have some really cool stories today for both people who are on Twitter, audio or audio spaces hello, welcome. And everybody watching live hello. So we are multicasting live to Twitter, audio, twitter video, facebook video and Instagram. So welcome to Science Chat. So we're going to start with a game. Chris, are you logged in? Are we good to go?

Speaker 3: 1:03

I'm in the game.

Speaker 2: 1:04

You're in the game. You're in the game. Okay, so time for Science Chat. Yeah, so we got some fun comments on Twitter. I love that. Yeah, we'd love for you to play to Coot. There's no prize, aside from trying to beat Chris and the mission, should you choose to accept it is. Oh man, I screwed that up. Normally I have my sound effect ready to go. There it is.

Speaker 3: 1:30

That's okay.

Speaker 2: 1:31

There. I have to play only a little bit or we got a copyright strain. The mission, should you choose to accept it, is to try to beat Chris at Coot, and that's it. You're all. Chris is in. Chris is in. Okay, I'm going to share the screen and we're going to get started. So if you're watching live video, you get to see the game live and I'll read the questions for the folks who are playing, for the folks that are playing, button audio only.

Speaker 2: 2:05

So last call, here we go. Three, two, one. Now these are all science news items. I don't think Chris has an advantage. Okay, here we go. Science chat, february 27th. Okay, here's the first question, question number one the smallest vertebrate was just named this week. It was the Brazilian fleet toad, the pygmy hummingbird, the shrinking shrew or the fly most. This was kind of interesting. It was a new vertebrate or maybe not so new, but they made the distinction. It was probably the smallest vertebrate in the world and it was the Brazilian fleet toad and it literally is about the size of a flea. It is very, very, very small. That's kind of shocking actually. I don't know Did you, it is.

Speaker 2: 3:04

Oh, Chris, you got that.

Speaker 3: 3:06

I did. But then there was also a new snake discovered. Species of snake in the Amazon.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Yes, Was that the? What was going on with that snake?

Speaker 3: 3:16

I just saw a picture of it hiding in the hole and I said nope to that article.

Speaker 2: 3:21

You don't want to look at the snake.

Speaker 3: 3:23

Not really.

Speaker 2: 3:25

Okay, All right. Question two a wild side effect and a good one from taking one of those popular weight loss drugs has been found to be so. This is those like um Wagovi or Ozempic. Hair loss was reversed or opiates were less addictive, Fingernails grew slower or the need for water decreased. This is a weird side effect that people had from the drug, and it was folks who were addicted to opiates found that they were not as addicted, or not addicted at all, to opiates. So it was a very weird side effect of that drug they found in a study that seemed to help people's addictions with opiates. Pretty weird.

Speaker 3: 4:18

But it does cause. Or hair loss is a problem, and then also um water consumption has to be increased, otherwise it doesn't go down the digestive system.

Speaker 2: 4:29

Yeah, that's right. So there are some other side effects that range from mild to severe, depending on how you respond to it. Oh, chris, you got that one right.

Speaker 3: 4:40

Oh, it's a slider.

Speaker 2: 4:42

It's a slider. This many lasers were part of the National Institute of Fusion to get fusion going, so this was a big story. Last year it was a big story and they needed this many lasers to basically make a tiny, tiny star. All right, it's very dramatic. How many lasers.

Speaker 3: 5:09

I know this is just so excruciating Watching it go like back and forth 192.

Speaker 2: 5:15

It took a hundred, did you?

Speaker 3: 5:16

give them a buffer.

Speaker 2: 5:17

Yeah, it was a pretty big buffer.

Speaker 3: 5:19

Oh, look at that.

Speaker 2: 5:20

It's a buffer of 10 on either side. Oh, chris and Miley Pants got that right. Dr, it's a lot of people got that right. You're probably listening to the podcast that was on the Science Podcast this week.

Speaker 3: 5:32

Thank you for listening to the Science Podcast.

Speaker 2: 5:34

That's right, Okay. Scientists have melded these two food items together. One of these is real rice and meat to make rice meat. Eggs and fish to make egg fish. Nuts and nuts to make nuttanas. Corns and pea to make pea corn. One of these is actually true, and it's rice meat. They used rice and protein from an animal source to grow and scaffold the protein onto the rice, and they made enough of it that it was safe to eat. The experimenters had a little supper. They thought it tasted great. Now it's nothing to write home. If you need to get your protein, it's maybe not the best source. They effectively tripled the protein of rice by making rice meat, but the hope is it could be a way to economically and ethically make meat in the future by making rice meat. Chris, would you eat rice meat?

Speaker 3: 6:46

No.

Speaker 2: 6:47

You're not going to get down with some rice meat?

Speaker 3: 6:51

Do you think it's a vegetarian option?

Speaker 2: 6:53

Well, is it? It's animal protein, so probably not, but it's like it's new thing, I don't know. It's super weird. Okay, chris, you're running away with this one. Okay, last one. This remarkable organism keeps itself 10 degrees cooler, I think. That's like about 50 Fahrenheit in Direct sunlight all day. So whatever the ambient temperature is, even if it's smoking hot, this organism keeps itself cooler. A ready, ready-eared slider turtle, the Spanish thistle, the Mallard duck or the African elephant one of these keeps itself 10 degrees cooler, no matter what. And it's the Spanish thistle. That was a tough one. Yeah, it's a special thistle and it has to do with, like its structure. It's super good at Keeping itself cool because it's really spiny. So they're studying it as a way to maybe cool off houses, maybe make your house kind of spiny. Okay, and doc. And third, we've got dr Liz in second place, we've got Miley pants. And Chris, you're very good at these trivia's, you got first place. What's with the mustache on your, your dude, your person?

Speaker 3: 8:12

I mean it's a goatee.

Speaker 2: 8:15

Is it a goatee? Okay, well, welcome. Well, welcome to science chat. If this is your first time ever tuning in, welcome, hello, normally. Well, not normally, it depends. We try to have a science guest that we interview. Last week we were talking to dr Goose, right, that was awesome. He was a really interesting guy, yeah, so awesome. But what we, what we're also gonna be doing, is these little right roundups. These are not gonna last the whole hour, they're gonna go as long as they go, and we've picked five kind of really fun science news items to talk about. Do you want to go first, or should I go first?

Speaker 3: 8:55

You should go first, because I am Looking now that I have it on my screen, but then I need to. I Just you go first.

Speaker 2: 9:08

Okay. So if you're watching live, I had a bit of time to put together some. This program we're using the stream yard is really powerful. I was able to like put some slides into a thing and it just accepted them so we can have some visual aids while we're talking. If you're watching live and you're just, if you're just listening, then we'll, we'll try it, we'll try our best, okay, so my my, you know I love space, so of course I'm gonna be talking about space and I'm gonna be talking about the odysseus robotic lander. Now it's both a good news, bad news kind of story. Let's get to the good news. So this was the first time Something from the United States since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 landed on the moon.

Speaker 3: 10:02

So Before Jason and I were both born.

Speaker 2: 10:05

Yeah, like I that was. You know, it's not like we're spring, we're not like we're super young, but this happened before we were born. We're not part of that. I didn't, I was not around, you were not around, so it's been a while since the anything like built in North America, I want to say, has got to the moon and the little lander Odysseus had a bunch of little payloads that NASA had and and like I tried to do a little more research and it kind of ran out of time. I apologize, I don't know what all of the payloads do, but one of the most major Scientific payloads on Odysseus was a lidar radar or lidar Laser system, and the idea was it was gonna use lasers to like map the floor of the moon. And and a way to kind of explain this in something that relates to me is, the newest 3d printers use that same kind of thing to level the bed. So I'm kind of I do 3d printing and the old 3d printers the the thing that printed. You had to make sure it was perfectly like going, so the plastic stuck and If you didn't do that, you had spaghetti plastic everywhere. It would print. It would be a disaster. So the newest 3d printers. They actually use lasers to map the surface of the print bed and they change where it's high and low so your print gets a. There's a better chance to stick laser. Chris is doing air quotes, thank you. So that was one really cool thing, that this, that the little payload. One of the payload experiments was it was gonna kind of map the area in hopes that in the future if some Astronauts wanted to land there, they would have detailed data on the ground, which is super cool.

Speaker 2: 11:57

Now, remember that laser system because the, the, the private enterprise that built the thing called intuitive machines. They goofed up big time there. They did not turn on their own laser system To land the little lander, they forgot and it was already orbiting the moon. Can you map? I don't know whose job it was to turn the laser on, if it was easy as like a switch, like Bob was, you know, he didn't have his coffee that morning and he forgot to turn on his laser. But they didn't have a laser to land the little probe guy. So they actually had to work extremely quickly and think outside of the box. And the payload, the late, the lidar, they use that to map the landing site.

Speaker 2: 12:46

So had had odesius not had that, that, that experiment on it, it may not have landed at all. And because it wasn't really built to help the craft land, the odesius did not land where it was supposed to land. It was, like, I think, a kilometer off. Like it was, it was close. You know, a kilometer when you're moving that quickly is not too bad, but it it fell over. So If you're watching live I can kind of move my slides forward. So it was supposed to land perfectly straight up and down and then what want? No, it tipped over and fell. Luckily it was. It fell in the right way that the, the solar panels could still get power and it wasn't gonna last long.

Speaker 2: 13:33

This little guy was not gonna last long. It was about an eight-day mission before it would die. It was had, it was short and sweet and and I think in the next 24 hours is what they are, what they're saying it's Gonna be toast and part of it is because it tipped over. So I'm not sure what experiments it can get done while it tipped over, but they're, they can do some stuff and it still landed on the moon. I believe a famous quote is like Any landing you can walk away from is a success. So there's no people, obviously on odesius and maybe you could have walked away from the little tip, but yeah, it had a rough go and it crashed a little bit. So that's the story about odesius and this. This happened a couple days ago. That's why I'm saying like in the next 24 to 48 hours there they're kind of thinking that's gonna be the end of this little probe guy, that's gonna be the end of it.

Speaker 3: 14:34

I commented the lasers were on the outside.

Speaker 2: 14:36

The lasers were on the outside, so they, so they probably could do some of those lidar tests of the ground. So that's great. Oh, we've got a whole bunch of. Is there a whole bunch of comments on? Oh.

Speaker 3: 14:48

I went through them.

Speaker 2: 14:49

Okay, people are just like saying hello. Okay, sorry, I just thank you for commenting on Twitter. That's really fun and, of course, if you're watching us live, you can comment live. We'll listen, we'll listen along and try to find them. It's harder to monitor the Instagram comments, but I'll take a look. Anyways, I've got a little photo of Bunsen and Beaker on the moon, ready to do some doggy science if you're watching live, and that's the Odessia story, as much as I could do research on in the last couple of days. So it's kind of cool good news, bad news situation. So, chris, over to you. What are you gonna talk about?

Speaker 3: 15:30

I wanna talk about social media and teens.

Speaker 2: 15:33

You're gonna talk about social media and teens.

Speaker 3: 15:35

Okay, oh yeah, there they are. They'll be your stream yard, so hopefully our audience is aware that there were some sessions in Congress talking about the impact of social media. Mark Zuckerberg was part of that and he is the CEO of Metta.

Speaker 2: 15:56

Right.

Speaker 3: 15:57

And the idea was they were going to talk about social media's impact on children and he claimed that there was no causal link to worsened mental health.

Speaker 2: 16:09

Yeah, he probably good job in saying that. I think if he said otherwise, there'd be big issues in front of Congress.

Speaker 3: 16:16

Right, but recent studies do suggest that there is a clear connection between teen social media use and reduced well-being, and that includes increased depression and anxiety.

Speaker 2: 16:32

And teens use social media quite a bit.

Speaker 3: 16:37

Frequently yes. Yes they do so. One specific study focused on Facebook's introduction on college campuses in the mid 2000s, and what that revealed was an increase symptoms of depression and anxiety among the students.

Speaker 2: 16:55

Right.

Speaker 3: 16:56

And because current research shows, or current studies show, social media is a big part of young people. Like teenagers, they're daily light.

Speaker 2: 17:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:08

So, based on about 1300 responses from 13 to 17 year olds, so this happened in 2022. 35% of teens use at least one of five social media platforms more than several times a day. So the oh yeah, there they are. There's the picture. So the five social media platforms are what do you think they are?

Speaker 2: 17:40

I don't know. Oh, you're talking like what social media platforms teens use?

Speaker 3: 17:45

Well, what do you think like based on your perception?

Speaker 2: 17:47

Yeah, definitely not 100% not Twitter, not X, I would guarantee you. That's not one of them, because whenever I like, bring up Bunsen and Beaker on Twitter to my class. They have like no idea what Twitter is and they will never use it. They that is not a platform that they even is on their radar.

Speaker 3: 18:06

Okay, well, they do use YouTube.

Speaker 2: 18:11

Yes, of course yeah.

Speaker 3: 18:13

TikTok.

Speaker 2: 18:14

TikTok. Of course there was a kid doing a TikTok dance in my class today. Some Beyonce. Beyonce had a new song, chris, and there's like a dance, no. I'm not gonna dance.

Speaker 3: 18:27

Okay, instagram and Snapchat yes.

Speaker 2: 18:34

And then also.

Speaker 3: 18:34

Facebook, which was a little bit surprised because I thought kids were off Facebook.

Speaker 2: 18:38

No, facebook is coming back for teenagers. Okay yeah, they like Facebook because of its functionality, like it can do a lot of stuff.

Speaker 3: 18:48

Yeah, it does have a good interface. I'm sorry, jason Bunsen was doing really good Now he is not, so just give me a second, it's okay.

Speaker 2: 18:59

So I can cover my part as Chris is talking to Bunsen. Bunsen probably wanted to mention that there are some like when they ask kids in these surveys like what is good about social media. You know there's a couple of things that we can't knock social media 100% for being bad. It does do good things for teens, Like it allows them to express themselves in ways that you know previous generations never could have and it allows them to connect with people that are like, minded across huge distances. Like I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think like teenagers today.

Speaker 2: 19:39

When I was a teenager, maybe I would have liked to build costumes, because I'm into cosplay as an adult and there's no way in my small rural community I would have found anybody that even would have cared about that, because it was kind of a niche thing at the time. And then a couple of other ones is, you know, like it allows them to find other teams, that teams that maybe are coping or having similar life situations. It also take on some leadership roles. There's kids that are in charge of, like, moderating discord services and things like that. But, as Chris said, there's a lot of drawbacks and, if we're honest, the drawbacks probably far exceed the good that comes from social media for teenagers. So back to you, Chris.

Speaker 3: 20:32

So you talked about the healthy social media.

Speaker 1: 20:35

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 20:38

And now I'm going to talk about the unhealthy social media.

Speaker 2: 20:40

Yeah, this is like the meta analysis stuff. Yeah, go ahead.

Speaker 3: 20:44

Yeah, so negative effects of social media use on teens is the distraction piece. It distracts them from homework, exercise and family activities connecting with the family. Yeah, it disrupts sleep.

Speaker 2: 20:58

Oh, big time, yeah, but video games too. I find video games with some of the boys is terrible. Sorry, chris, go ahead yeah.

Speaker 3: 21:06

That's okay. And plus they're doing research on the blue light and how that impacts you and keeps you alert, and then it's hard to fall asleep. Also, being on social media could lead to information that is biased or not correct, so again putting yourself in your confirmation bias zone, and then you can spread rumors and be hateful or share too much personal information, right, yeah, so it's also displays an unrealistic view or an unrealistic window into other people's lives, because we kind of just put our best face forward and implications of that is a negative of impact.

Speaker 1: 22:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:02

Also the data line. You know those negative online predators and exploiting teens? Yeah, and it exposes teens to cyber bullying.

Speaker 2: 22:16

Yeah, bullying is a big one on social media. Somebody made a comment in the chat about that.

Speaker 3: 22:21

Yeah, which can raise the risk of mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression.

Speaker 2: 22:28

So what's what's happening with social media then? Like what's? Is there any recommendations? Well, I can. I can say, like British Columbia excuse me, british Columbia, the province right next door to us they banned cell phones in schools, the entire province. You cannot use a cell phone in a school, so that was. That's something that entire province is dealing with right now. So like the little picture of kids on phones, and you're not allowed to have phones in schools at all. They're in your locker. That's where it is. I think you can have it at lunch, but anywhere anytime else than that, it's taken away from you if you're not following the law. That's from K to 12 in all schools in British Columbia, so I think Quebec has a similar rule in Canada too. Didn't they just pass that no cell phones in the classroom.

Speaker 3: 23:17

And that's in my school.

Speaker 2: 23:18

Yeah, so it's piecemeal in Alberta. My school doesn't have that, your school has that.

Speaker 3: 23:25

And, coming from a school where cell phones were used versus one where they're not, I saw a definite positive impact of having no cell phones, oh yeah, I've had cell phones.

Speaker 2: 23:35

Yeah, like I, my Kim, my Kim, 30, like super academic kids, they're working on some bronze and Lowry equations. And I go out there and this, like good kid, this, this girl, this good kid, um, she's watching YouTube. I'm like, what are you doing? And I she's like, oh sorry, and I made her put her phone away, but like she had been watching YouTube for like five minutes before, I like made my rounds and found what she was doing, you know. So, like, what's the matter with you? We're supposed to be working, why are you watching YouTube? I get it. Youtube is definitely more excited than writing bronze and Lowry reactions.

Speaker 3: 24:12

So, having said that, um despite that, they're doing um ongoing research. There needs to be a combination of both qualitative and quantitative um research methods, uh to help um give us a bigger picture. Um cause, then that could lead to more concrete guidance for young people, parents and schools regarding social media, because that currently locked in.

Speaker 2: 24:39

Absolutely yeah, and it's just, I think it's, it's something that should be taught in schools, just may. Parents may or may not do an excellent job of teaching their kids social media literacy, um, but I like that's something that should be probably infused in every grade with kids because it's so ubiquitous everywhere. Um, social media literacy and things like that. Um, and and one thing that we're finding anecdotally is like the, the, the Gen Z kids are definitely a little bit more social media savvy than the youngest, youngest kids, which are the Gen Alpha kids. That's anecdotally from teachers. They're the Gen Alpha's are not as social media savvy and everybody's very confused as to why. So that's like Ellie's age, she's like a Gen Alpha's and she, ellie and Rafi.

Speaker 3: 25:34

Yeah, they're, they're little they're little, little yeah. And Melissa did not let Ellie, or does not Ellie have let Ellie have a cell phone?

Speaker 2: 25:44

Nope, good for her, good for her.

Speaker 3: 25:48

But then some of her young friends have a cell phone.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Yeah, like in grade one and grade two. Anyways, that's not for us to judge what other parents do, we're only here to give information. Um, should we go to me for my next thing, chris?

Speaker 3: 26:03

Yeah, that sounds great.

Speaker 2: 26:04

Okay. Also, if you're listening and you want to get in on the conversation, drop a comment and then in about 10, 15 minutes we'll open up the floor to have people that maybe want to ask questions or give their own two cents, cause we. That's part of the show too, okay. So onto me. I'm going to be talking about the immune system, so I'm just going to back up my slides. There we go, all right, it's minus, a little technical, so I'll try my best to break it down. Um, the, the, the, the really, really eye catching headline is the fountain of youth. Uh, have you seen a movie with the fountain of youth in it before? Chris, or something that just makes you younger? No, what about?

Speaker 3: 26:46

Indiana Jones, the Benjamin Button.

Speaker 2: 26:49

With the Brad Pitt? What about Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail? Remember where they go through all of that trouble to get it, and there's like the night at the end, anyway. So, like people, we're alert. Well, okay, it's like a 20 year old movie, anyways.

Speaker 3: 27:05

Probably over 20 years.

Speaker 2: 27:06

Is it older than 20? That's awful, yeah. So people are always trying to look younger. Right, I would like to look a little younger. I think we can all. As you start to age, you're like, oh boy, I wish I was 10 years younger, I wish I looked 20 years younger, or whatever, right.

Speaker 3: 27:24

So You're just using the filter on StreamYard.

Speaker 2: 27:28

Yeah, so if you're watching me live, I'm using this slight AI filter that kind of smooths out my face. So it's. I think Christy said it makes me look like 10 years younger.

Speaker 3: 27:43

I think you look great, regardless, okay all right, thank you.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Thank you. So my voice is the same, though it doesn't change my voice. Anyways, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory there may be a breakthrough with keeping people young, and they found that the specialized white blood cells called T cells can be tricked into. Instead of fighting like pathogens that get into your body, they'll fight aging. So these genetic modifications of these white blood cells can target the cells that are part of the aging process.

Speaker 2: 28:27

Now they're not gonna repair DNA damage. That's why you get wrinkles and why everything that's alive eventually dies is as DNA duplicates itself. There's tiny little breaks in the DNA. On the end it just kind of gets all messed up, cause it's like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. That's why, as you get older, you look a little blurry. Not really, not really at all.

Speaker 2: 28:55

But if we can reprogram the T cells that normally fight pathogens to try to take out these they're called sensitive cells, those cells, as they replicate when we, as we age, they cause inflammation. So while this won't make everybody younger, the hope is there are some aging diseases from this specific type of cell that we can actually use our own cells and reprogram them to kill them, and in mice, by reprogramming the mice T cells, they actually led to a healthier life by getting rid of these aging, these quote unquote aging cells, the sensitive cells I hope I'm not saying that right Sonnescent, sonnescent yeah, I practiced it before I knew, as I was saying it, senescent. So these senescent cells are again responsible for aging and by kind of eliminating them you lower, they had less body weight, so they're a little slimmer, they had better metabolism and the mice seemed to live a healthier life and had less noticeable aging issues.

Speaker 3: 30:13

So Well, and they had increased physical activity.

Speaker 2: 30:16

Yeah, they were more active. Now I don't want to like give everybody hope that this is gonna stop you from aging at all, but these specialized cells, if we knock them out, the hope is that it might extend the lifespan of people that have inflammation due to, you know, these cells being really really present in their body. So that's a little bit of the fountain of youth. They're called CAR T cells. That's the mutated, or not the mutated, the genetically engineered T cell.

Speaker 3: 30:54

Yeah, and they're currently used to treat blood cancers. Yeah, yeah, like this research yeah, go ahead. This research suggests the potential exists and extends to those other age-related diseases which could lead to that fountain of youth or lead toward a path of long-term aging, Lead toward a path of longer, healthier life.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Yeah, so it's a sen-sensitant. How do you say that again, Chris? I keep messing it up. Sensitant.

Speaker 3: 31:25

Senescent.

Speaker 2: 31:26

Senescent. Oh, my goodness, I can't say that word, senescent. I lost my train of thought cause I screwed up the word. Anyways, we've been they've been reprogramming our own cells for a while and these T cells go after blood cancer. So they're like well, why don't we just send them after these aging cells? And it worked, and mice seem to work. I don't know how long a mouse lives, like three to four years, two to three years. I don't think they live very long. So maybe it gave them an extra, like couple months. But hey, scale that up to humans, maybe, maybe. All right, chris, over to you for the last news item.

Speaker 3: 32:07

I want to talk about those space rocks from my favorite asteroid, Bennu.

Speaker 2: 32:11

Bennu.

Speaker 3: 32:13

Yes, so you may remember, I got so excited in 2016 about the exploration and you know what? Someone is not cooperating.

Speaker 2: 32:27

Bunsen's excited too about Bennu.

Speaker 3: 32:29

Yeah, look, there he is on Bennu.

Speaker 2: 32:33

Yeah, he, Beaker and Bunsen are on Bennu in the picture.

Speaker 3: 32:38

So the Osiris-Rex spacecraft successfully collected 121.6 grams of pristine space rocks from the asteroid Bennu, and that was more than double of their goal, which is awesome.

Speaker 2: 32:56

It's about 4.2 ounces.

Speaker 3: 33:03

I'm sorry, jason, this is what's happening upstairs here, so if you could address this issue while I go on mute.

Speaker 2: 33:11

Okay Bunsen's having, he's having a rough go, okay. So, hey, it's live. Yeah, so they got more than they expected and the spacecraft actually like dumped its canister into Earth's atmosphere last year and it landed and they transported this like precious cargo to the Johnson Space Center. And I talked about this on the Science Podcast and they're all like hush hush about it. They're like, oh boy, how much did we get?

Speaker 2: 33:44

And when they open it up, there's this very famous photo if you're watching live, where they had all of the Osiris-Rex rocks, the rocks from Bennu inside of it and they unlocked the full sample early this year, on January 10th, and the geologists that work for NASA are all like super excited because it's material from outer space. And that's kind of the gist of it is that they were able to get material from outer space by doing like a little drive-by and blasting the asteroid with like a bit of pressurized air and that blew up the rock into the collecting tool, which sucked it back up into the Osiris-Rex little probe and then the probe flew back to Earth and dumped off its cargo. So the whole thing is just so very, very cool. I can't wait to see what they find out about the rocks you can imagine, like, as a lay person like myself I'm not a geologist, I know nothing about space rocks, but just thinking about, like, how cool it is.

Speaker 2: 34:58

If you're that person, I'm sure they're, like you know, in a clean room with gloves handling the rocks, like the stuff that's from outer space, from an asteroid, that's like flying around that would never have ever got to Earth and they actually got some of the material from it and the rocks that came out of it is kind of like a dark color. Hey, like would you say it's like a dark, dusty, volcanic rock type color. That's what it looks like. Yeah, it's super cool. It's super cool. So the science news item we don't know anything about the rocks yet because they're like analyzing the heck out of them. But that's that story. Did you want to add anything, chris?

Speaker 3: 35:49

No, I think you got it all.

Speaker 2: 35:51

Okay, perfect, All right. So that's kind of it for the science news roundup our part. If you have any questions, comments or things you'd like to add, feel free to come up and request to speak if you're on audio, or throw a comment into chat and we'll talk about that. So we'll give you a second, and if not, that's okay. It's just a fun little recap of some really interesting news items. We were going to do one this week in Science News. This week in Science News. Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3: 36:32

I'm getting nostalgia for the podcast or for the. I'm trying to think of nothing's happening for the podcast.

Speaker 2: 36:42

Right, yes, if you're watching live, I'm just going to share the screen. So did that not work? Oh yeah, it worked. There we go. Yeah, so the Science Podcast is on good pods in lots of different places. That's the show that Chris and I make the podcast, and we'd love for you to listen to it. So, anyways, it's in our links, you know, in our profile and things like that. So there's a little spot of it there. Jen came up. Jen, do you have a question, comment or something you'd like to add?

Speaker 1: 37:18

Just want to say thanks for the Kahoot. They're always fun.

Speaker 3: 37:21

Okay.

Speaker 1: 37:22

Yeah, chris and Jason. Thanks, that's fun. Chris, we're coming for you, we're getting close to beating you.

Speaker 1: 37:27

She's so good at these, I know, I know, but we're getting closer. You know, like I don't know a lot about social media and the reason is that, for a lot of different reasons, I was never part of it until literally about a year ago, if that One of my students, you know, asked me to be part of Instagram and I did that, which I stalked. And so you know, the question I have about the studies are like are some, like, is some social media worse than others? You know, is there anything about that in any of those studies? And yeah, so, Chris, you were talking about that. So any comments about that? And again, I have no idea. Also, because both of my kids are special needs, so they're not involved with that, even though they're adults.

Speaker 1: 38:19

So you know, and I think, about the cell phones and things like that, we don't allow them, you know, in class, at the universities and things like that. But we do have situations where, you know, the students are actually now expected to be sort of on call all the time, if that makes sense, with their cell phones. So sometimes they'll come up to me and say you know, I've got this emergency, I've got this thing coming. You know, can I have my cell phone right. So that's really changed how things are. So I've thrown a lot of things out there. But you know that's what I've kind of noticed, you know, in the last year. So any comments welcome about that.

Speaker 2: 39:01

Chris, do you want to go first? I have I read some of the studies so I can answer that as well. I don't know. This is Chris' item, so go ahead.

Speaker 3: 39:08

I was just going to say that social media doesn't affect all teams the same way, so the different platforms can have different impacts. But the use of the social media is linked with both healthy and unhealthy effects, and it varies from one teenager to another and it depends on what they see and do online. And so I always talk about you being an open vessel and you feel yourself with what you feel yourself, and if it's negative, it's going to come in and then it does definitely have to come out, so that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 39:45

That makes sense of the parents being there, right, you know to see how that's going, so to speak.

Speaker 3: 39:53

And it also depends on how much time the person is spending online and their maturity level and any pre-existing conditions that they may or may not have, as well as their personal life circumstances. So cultural, social and other economic factors could be an impact. Go ahead Jay.

Speaker 2: 40:15

Yeah, so a couple things from my high school. When there's big incidences of bullying, it's any platform, so it could be Facebook, which is shocking that young kids would use Facebook at all, let alone for nefarious acts To Snapchat, to Instagram. There's another one that's really popular, sometimes called Discord, which is like a. It's more for gaming. Like gamers use Discord, but, like anything, could be bad, like what Chris said.

Speaker 2: 40:49

The ones that are the most addictive, though, are the ones that are really good at keying in on the kids' algorithm, and that would be TikTok. Like, tiktok is really really addictive for kids, because if you watch a video and you like it which means you're interested in you watch it for a certain length of time. Tiktok's like oh, you like that video, here's all of it, and then you're just watching video after video after video of the stuff that you like the best. The other social media platforms would love. They would love to take TikTok's algorithm, figure out what they're doing and then apply it. Twitter would love that for their For you page. Instagram would love it. Facebook is okay, but, like TikTok's algorithm in the studies was like by far the best. They didn't really determine if it was addictive, but they found it was the best for holding the attention of teens, If that makes sense, jen.

Speaker 1: 41:55

Yeah, and that's frightening. And I imagine, like when you think about holding a tension, it's not always good. Attention, right? I mean, if you're a young person and you're watching something that is different or horrible or whatever, you're going to keep watching it. Yeah, and so that's frightening. Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 42:15

Yeah, just a funny anecdote. Two funny anecdotes. I you know Bunsen and Beaker on TikTok, and I was watching this girl who was a extremely strong lady. She was doing a squat, like you know, like you have the barbell and you do a squat. I tell the story to my kids and I watched the whole video of like her lifting an incredible amount of weight, like more weight than I could ever squat in my life. And then TikTok's like oh you like muscly women doing squats. Here's video after video after video of all of the muscly women you could ever want doing squats.

Speaker 2: 42:56

So that was awkward for me for a while. Until that I was like, oh God, I see what TikTok's doing. No, I don't want to watch this. And then the other time that happened to me is I was just on TikTok, mindlessly scrolling, you know is for whatever reason, and there was like somebody with disgusting toenails, like really, I think it was probably like an older person and they didn't have any foot care and they were at somewhere where somebody was trimming their toenails and I was like morbidly curious at how somebody's toenails and feet could look like that. So I watched it and then it was TikTok was like oh you love disgusting toenail clipping videos.

Speaker 2: 43:42

Here are thousands of them, literally thousands of toenail clipping videos. And I was like, oh God, tiktok. No, I don't want to see this. Get back to dogs or science or whatever. So luckily, I'm into Baldur's Gate 3. So I watched a couple Baldur's Gate videos and now it's like, oh you like Baldur's Gate 3. Here's all the Baldur's Gate 3 videos. Anyways, I don't think I told you about the muscly women doing squats. Chris, chris is shaking your head.

Speaker 2: 44:14

No that would be awkward. You'd be like what are you doing? I'm like that's not me, it's the algorithm.

Speaker 1: 44:25

Okay, but you're not the first person that's said that sort of thing in the last, I'd say, couple weeks and people are starting to say, even on X, be careful what you actually engage in, because you're feeding that algo. To say this is okay, and it's really kind of inspired me to actually start following more accounts that are what I like, which is more sort of nature, science, geology and things like that, and I think we should just do that, whether or not it matters to the algo. Yeah, so anyway, thank you.

Speaker 2: 45:06

Thanks, jen, I appreciate that. Okay, well, I think we have no more comments or questions, and that's what the science roundup is. Once we're done, we're kind of done. We'll go on with our evening. So thank you everybody for coming. We'll do a little wrap up. What?

Speaker 3: 45:23

In the chat, Dawn said that her hubby had the car T cell transplant for multiple myeloma and two weeks in the hospital and two more weeks in a hotel near the cancer center and the remission is still holding.

Speaker 2: 45:40

Oh, that's awesome.

Speaker 3: 45:41

That's awesome, and Dawn is also going to be my Pokemon friend.

Speaker 2: 45:45

Yay. Yay, it's awesome I should just change the title of the space to Pokemon go. Come be Chris's friend.

Speaker 3: 45:56

Well, I that's kind of like the date line. Oh look, this phone will take you.

Speaker 2: 46:05

Okay, thanks for coming to science chat tonight everybody. It's the roundup. We're to be transparent, we're not. We're having a little bit of trouble getting science guests for science chat. I'm having to go to other platforms to try and find folks.