Season 6 Episode 8: Eclipses, Growls, and Genetic Puzzles with Dr. Agus DeGanzo

 As Kris and I gear up to witness our very first total solar eclipse, we're bringing you all the stunning science that this rare event has to offer.

Embrace the darkness with us for an extended four and a half minutes of groundbreaking research and chuckle along with eclipse-themed jokes to keep things light. Plus, we're sinking our teeth into a study on dog growls, deciphering what our canine pals are really trying to tell us with their vocal repertoire.

Delving into dreams of prehistoric proportions, Dr. Augusta Gonzo joins us to weave tales from a childhood captivated by "Jurassic Park" to the reality of spearheading genetic research in cystic fibrosis.

We'll unravel the complexities of this genetic disorder and celebrate the leaps in treatment extending lives. And about those dinosaurs—could we really clone them? We're mixing scientific fact with fantasy as we discuss the plausibility and ethics behind bringing back the mighty lizards of yore, and why we're still captivated by the idea.

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Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:08

Hello science enthusiasts. My name is Jason Zikowski. I'm a high school chemistry teacher and a science communicator, but I'm also the dog dad of Bunsen and Beaker, the science dogs on social media. If you love science and you love pets, you've come to the right place. Put on your lab coat, put on your safety glasses and hold onto your tail. This is the Science Podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Science Podcast. We hope you're happy and healthy out there. This is season six, episode eight.

Speaker 2: 0:40

You know it looked like it was going to be spring last week but, being in Alberta, canada, there was a hard nope. Back to winter land. It's been snowing for two days straight and we have just as much snow as we had before the Great Melt. I don't know. It's supposed to stay cold for a bit longer. Bunsen loves it, beaker loves the snow. We're all just getting a little bit sick of the winter. Usually by the end of March, winter is gone. It's in the rearview mirror, but we still have to look and we still have to drive through it. All right.

Speaker 2: 1:14

Well, what's on the Science Podcast? This week? In science news I'm going to be talking about the upcoming eclipse. I am so excited because Chris and I are going to see it. I think it's timely to talk about what's going on with it this year. What is the eclipse In pet science we're going to be looking at? In pet science, we're going to be looking at a study on dog growls. Our guest and ask and expert is Dr Augusta Gonzo, who is going to be talking to us about cystic fibrosis and cloning dinosaurs. What a fun mix. All right, you know we have to have some eclipse jokes. Here we go. What do you call it when you fall in love on April 8th? A total eclipse of the heart. What do you call road tripping to the eclipse? Well, you're going where the sun don't shine. Okay, on with the show, because there's no time like science time.

Speaker 2: 2:13

This week in science news let's talk about the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8th. This is a big deal for Chris and I because we've never seen a total eclipse. None in our life have happened where we live, and the next one that's coming close isn't going to happen until 2044. I was wrong about that. I flippantly have been saying you know, the next eclipse that's going to happen over Alberta is like in 600 years. No, I was wrong. I missed the 2044 one, and then I think the next one doesn't happen for like another 600 years. So but there's one, I think, that comes right over our house in 2044. That's a while away. So it's a good thing that Chris and I are going to see the one that's happening on April 8th.

Speaker 2: 3:00

Solar eclipses are so dramatic. My sister and her husband and kids went to the last one that happened Was it five years ago, six years ago and they said it was absolutely amazing. And I saw a video footage of people like openly weeping. And why are they so dramatic and why is the one coming up supposed to be so extraordinary? Well, 2017 was the one that happened, the latest. This year's eclipse will last even longer and the sky will become even darker and the sun will have even more activity. Places like where we're going in Texas, they're expecting millions, millions that number just is such a huge number Millions of people to come to Texas to look at the solar eclipse. What makes it kind of special for North America is it's the last one to cross for the next 20 years, the one I mentioned in 2044. That's the next one that's coming. So this is a super rare opportunity to see something this major. Now, why is it such a big deal from a scientific standpoint? Well, the moon is going to be at a point in its orbit that's close to Earth in April and that makes the moon appear exceptionally large. Anyone who's in the path of totality that's going to be where we're going starts down in Mexico and it goes up through Texas and then kind of the mid Eastern states all the way up through Quebec, into parts of the Maritimes and then out into the ocean. The moon is going to completely block out the sun and it will be dark for nearly four and a half minutes. So this is a long period of time for that darkness, for the blocking of the sun, and the last one I think was about no-transcript, is a huge deal.

Speaker 2: 5:00

Now there's a whole bunch of experiments planned and there are kind of repeats from the last time. All of the scientists have better instruments to take better readings. There was a WB57 jet plane that basically followed the eclipse in 2017. So it flew along in the path of totality so they could keep watching the entire blockage of the sun. And this is that same airplane is going to be in the air again and they've got even better instruments to take like readings of the corona effect, like the glowing and the snarling of the outer ring of the sun, and it's just going to give them more information.

Speaker 2: 5:44

They've got better cameras and spectrometers. It's going to give them better detailed views of the sun's surface. And because the eclipse is twice as long as the last one they're hoping to discover because of how bright the sun is when the sun's kind of glow gets knocked down a bit. They're actually hoping to find some asteroids which exist in the orbit between Mercury and the sun and normally we it's impossible to find them because the sun is so bright and those asteroids are so small. Devices called spectrometers are going to collect the light from the sun to determine what's in the corona. So a spectrometer kind of busts up light into its spectras and then they can compare that to things on earth to determine what elements are in the corona of the sun. And this one physicist in Texas is going to put a spectroscope up in a kite just in case there's clouds that could block out the event. So if you're listening to this and you're listening to this before the total eclipse, maybe make the track to see it, if you can. It's a big to do for Chris and I to go. We have to fly halfway across North America, we had to take time off work, but I think it's a once in a lifetime thing Well, maybe twice for us, and I'm still alive when the next one comes around but it's on my bucket list to see. That's science news for this week.

Speaker 2: 7:09

This week in pet science we're going to look at studies that talk about dog growls. The title for this one study got me. I was looking for things to talk about and the title is from 2024, beware I am large and dangerous. Human listeners can be deceived by dynamic manipulation of the indexed at all context of agnostic dog growls, and I love the beware I am large and dangerous because Bunsen sometimes sounds like that when he's growling. So I had to delve more into the study. Okay, so first off, definitely, dog growls are mostly messages that warn potential aggressors to stay away. So to us and to other dogs, we can recognize roughly the physical size of the dog based on its growl. A dog that is really threatened, it can alter its acoustic qualities to actually appear larger than it is. It's a way of throwing its voice to seem bigger, conveying false information about their size.

Speaker 2: 8:19

There are three sound dimensions in growls pitch, timber and duration and I know I had to go into more information about like. What does that mean? What are those three things mean? So pitches, weather sound is like higher, low and that's determined by the frequency of the sound. Waves, like high frequencies are higher pitch sounds and low frequencies are lower pitch. I think we all kind of get what pitch is. Timber is the quality that distinguishes between two sounds of the same pitch, so you might have two growls of the same pitch. But timber is reflected in the distribution of the intensity. So a wider distribution can maybe make a growl sound more gruff and hoarse. That might enhance its threatening nature. And obviously, duration is something that's a little bit easier to wrap your head around. It's like how long or short a sound is Okay. So pitch, timber and duration.

Speaker 2: 9:18

Now the researchers within the study they demonstrated that dogs can modify all three of those growls to influence the perception of their body size and it's dependent. And it's dependent on the situation. A dog that is feeling very, very threatened will lower its pitch and make its growl longer, which makes other dogs perceive it as more aggressive. And these are warnings when a dog attacks or a dog bites. One of the things that is common is generally there's very little of any growling. There's no growling because that's a. You know, if you're attacking somebody you're giving them a warning that you're gonna attack.

Speaker 2: 10:01

One interesting thing from the study is they actually played growls to over 300 human participants and the humans listened to the two different growls and they had to indicate which growl came from a larger dog. So they had like and which dog was louder, and the results were super extensive and detailed. Overwhelmingly, the human listeners were super good at detecting which dog was larger and that confirmed previous research that showed that growls convey information to humans about the size of the animal Probably an evolutionary advantage. If you hear something in the bushes to quickly determine like I should stay away from that. It sounds quite large, it's too bad. Moose don't growl, they just kind of like move about. They're actually quite quiet. When the dogs who were recorded with the growl were quote unquote threatened by a very large person like a big man, and then they were threatened by a smaller person, the same dog, the growl was different and it was different enough that it tricked the humans who were listening. The people who were listening and were presented with those two different growls, overwhelmingly thought that the growl that was growling towards the larger person was from a larger dog. But the dog was the same size. The doggie just changed that. Those the pitch and the timber of their growl to make themselves seem bigger, to scare off the larger human.

Speaker 2: 11:35

One thing that's important to mention with the study is not all growls are aggressive. Their communication. Bunsen growls when he is like happy in playing. He's never gonna bite anybody, but that's just kind of the sound that he makes sometimes when he's really excited and he's playing. Now, if a dog is growling all the time and then following that up with nips and bites, that's a behavior management issue for your pet. But I should just make that comment that I'm sure there are people out there whose dog growls but the growl is not aggressive, it's a play sound or it's a happy sound. There's a big difference between that and a warning like stay away. All right, a whole bunch of information about growling. So I guess if a dog can trick humans and other dogs into making it seem bigger, what happens if we lower our voice?

Speaker 2: 12:29

Hello, I am a big giant guy, something like that. That's Pet Science for this week. Hello everybody, here's some ways you can keep the science podcast free. Number one in our show notes sign up to be a member of our Paw Pack Plus community. It's an amazing community of folks who love pets and folks who love science. We have tons of bonus Bunsen and Beaker content there and we have live streams every Sunday with our community. It's tons of fun. Also, think about checking out our merch store. We've got the Bunsen stuffy, the Beaker stuffy and now the Ginger stuffy. That's right, ginger the Science Cat has a little replica. It's adorable. It's so soft, with the giant fluffy tail, safety glasses and a lab coat. And number three if you're listening to the podcast on any place that rates podcasts, give us a great rating and tell your family and friends to listen to. Okay, on with the show. Back to the interviews. It's time for Ask an Expert on the Science Podcast, and I have Dr Agust De Gonzo with me today. Agust, how are you doing?

Speaker 1: 13:37

Hi Jason, I'm very good. Thank you for inviting me to your podcast.

Speaker 2: 13:43

No worries, I'm actually really excited to talk to you. You're a rate up our alley, you do science and you love pets, and that's a great combination for being a guest on our show. Just real quick, where are you in the world? Where are you calling into the show from?

Speaker 1: 14:01

I currently live in Chapel Hill, north Carolina, the United States, and I work at the University of North Carolina, here at the School of Medicine.

Speaker 2: 14:11

And have you moved around quite a bit in your life. This is just like a temporary place while you're working there or what's going on.

Speaker 1: 14:19

I've lived all over the world, but I went to college in Argentina and after that I moved to the United States. Here in North Carolina I did my first postdoc and then I moved to Boston for a year and a half. I did a second postdoc there and now I'm back in North Carolina and I think this is the pink, the Fence Jave. Yeah, this is the last one.

Speaker 2: 14:47

No, yeah yeah, what's your training in science? You like what. What type of scientist are you? What's your training in science?

Speaker 1: 14:54

I have an undergrad degree in genetics. I have a PhD in reverse vaccinology and molecular virology, so I'm basically a molecular biologist. I got hired here because I am a molecular biologist and I'm currently working on cystic fibroceps.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Were you? Were you a science kid growing up with science you're calling, or did you kind of find it later in life?

Speaker 1: 15:21

Oh, yes, I was sick. I was a scientist since I was like four years old. Yes, I used to, you know, go in my backyard and pick up bugs and these and all these kind of things, and my parents also did a great job at Encourage me to do that. They gave me like Microscopes and science kids and all this sapphire clothing to go into the backyard, and for hours at a time. So, yes, I always wanted to. Yeah, I always wanted to be a veterinarian because I loved animals and my entire life. But then, growing up, I did. I found out that I want, I mean, to dinosaurs, like dinosaurs is it's my name means dinosaurs, to me at least. So when I grew up a bit, I started well, I, I am a huge fan of dinosaurs. So I discovered dinosaurs and I wanted to be a paleontologist. And then Jurassic Park appeared in our lives. I was a kid so I wasn't allowed to watch the movie because I was very little when that was. That was on.

Speaker 2: 16:31

Right, but mom you violent scenes. If you're right, yes he was PG 13.

Speaker 1: 16:37

I think, yeah, I was like five.

Speaker 1: 16:39

Yeah so, yeah, no, but when I grew up a bit more and I was also into books a lot, my mom gave me the book Dressed Part for I think it was for my birthday or Christmas, because they're very close together, so I don't remember which one specifically and In one summer I read the book 21 times. I was 12 years old and I found out that I could be a genetic engineering Specialist, which actually doesn't doesn't exist as a, as a title, as a degree. So From then on I wanted to be a Genetic engineer. Again. That doesn't exist. So I went to college and and Just study genetics and after that, because I wanted to clone a dinosaur, that's Wouldn't want to clone a dinosaur, so that's that's. That was how I discovered that I was a scientist my entire life.

Speaker 2: 17:49

Oh, I love that story. You're curious from an early age and you just kept Pursuing something. Did somebody ever tell you that doesn't exist? What's, what are you doing? And you're like, nah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go to school for it.

Speaker 1: 18:04

Actually, I found out when I was 18 years old that that degree doesn't exist because I went to. You know, yeah, when I was preparing myself to go to college, I started, okay, genetic engineer, you know, in Google, um, and yeah, that doesn't exist. What you can have is a genetics degree. Also, you're not gonna clone the dinosaurs for a living, which was sad, but again, I can't. I, I kept myself, I kept training myself until maybe one day, if I get, maybe, elon Musk to support my idea.

Speaker 2: 18:36

I love it. So, goose, we'll get to talking about dinosaurs a little bit later, but currently you're working on cystic fibrosis. I believe you mentioned yes, so my question is for folks who are listening. Maybe could you break down what cystic fibrosis is and what you're doing with it currently. I think we'd be so interested in that.

Speaker 1: 18:59

Yes, of course. So cystic fibrosis it's a disease that it's congenital, that means that you carry in your genes and there are several levels of the disease. All the mutations are located in a locus, a loci actually. That is called CFTR. It's a cystic fibrosis transfer receptor and when there are several types of mutations, that gives the person the severity of the disease. This disease was very, very bad when the science wasn't just developed and people with that, with any kind of mutation, had an experience of life of 36, 35 years old. And now, thanks to science and all the medicine and everything, they are up to the same, almost the same expectancy of life as a regular person 65, 70. Yes, and that's one of the well, I cannot believe it. It's like wonderful.

Speaker 1: 20:12

So I work at the cystic fibrosis center in UNCME School of Medicine. It's one of the biggest in the world. So what we do it's huge and we have different areas. We have the clinical area where we treat patients and we have the research area where I work. So what I'm working on now it's in basic science on CFTR. We are trying to discover new ways this mutated proteins and receptors interact with each other and gives the patient the severity of the disease and also basic science can be applied to discover new targets and recovery medicine for cystic fibrosis. Because since this is something congenital, that means that we have it in our genes the entire life. So we cannot replace the genome per se, but what we can do it's gene therapy. So we find places in the genome that are wrong and what we do it's replace, give the patient their replacement, and so everything in the cell, in the cells can work correctly.

Speaker 2: 21:44

Amazing. I had no idea that cystic fibrosis treatment has come along that far.

Speaker 1: 21:51

Yes, me neither. I found out when I joined this position and they actually. Well, I didn't quite tell what is my specialty. So I'm a molecular biologist, but because I want to clone dinosaurs no, that was a joke I trained myself on a lot of things and now I'm an expert on genomics. So they hire me because they want to understand what happens in the genome using all this big data and all these genomics tools that are very, very new, and actually I learned some of them back in 2019 here at UNC, and back then the technology was one to two years old. Now it's five, six and, yeah, we have a lot of more. Everything is commercial. You can available, so you can buy and do things and do it easier, and that's what we were trying to do Find new targets for new medicines to improve the patient's life and experience of the flight. Also, I didn't mention this, but 65% affects different parts of the body. I specialize in lungs, but it also affects the digestive system.

Speaker 2: 23:13

Right, yes, I think I knew that, and thank you for clarifying, because it's not just the lungs, it's the whole digestive system too, yeah. And I got a follow-up question, agus, if you don't mind me asking If you're. The whole research body of the world makes some breakthroughs with gene therapy, like is that a cure for cystic fibrosis? Would that just like eliminate it if you had it?

Speaker 1: 23:46

Is that the goal? It's a cure, virtually, because what you're doing is curing the patient, but they have to take the medicine for life. Okay, because again, the genes are mutated, so the default function of every cell in their bodies are going to have the wrong protein working wrongly. So if gene therapy, what can do it's provide a replacement for that wrong protein mutations, so it's virtually a cure because they don't have any symptoms.

Speaker 1: 24:32

I follow someone on Instagram that he's a climber, he has cystic fibrosis and he has a perfect normal life because he takes all these medicines. And it's amazing because what happens in our and what it has in common the cystic fibrosis in the airways and in the digestive system what it has in common is the mucus production. So what happens is that there's a chronic inflammation of the airways and the digestive tract, so the cells produce a lot of mucus. The mucus starts clogging the airways, so they have problems to breathe and also to digest food and feed themselves. So every target now are trying to decrease the amount of mucus that the person produces and also decreasing inflammation, because the chronic inflammation is not healthy. You are all the time. Everything is inflamed, everything gets like you're a new system, it's on a dangerous zone all the time, like if something is happening and it's actually not, it's just your genius that are wrong. But yeah, that's the main goal of the cystic fibrosis center.

Speaker 2: 26:01

Amazing. Well, I so appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about that. I was wondering if I could ask you a kind of a fun question and you've alluded to it a couple of times in the interview and that's the question should we clone dinosaurs? Oh, definitely.

Speaker 1: 26:20

So you're on Team Urath? Yes, you're on.

Speaker 2: 26:23

Team. We need to be building a Jurassic Park because of this.

Speaker 1: 26:26

Yes, Well, I don't know what Jurassic Park per se, because it's dangerous, but also, bringing that amount of animals with, they're going to get more I'm talking very scientifically now Bringing all these animals with, all these their new systems, and they're going to they're not going to like it here. This is a modern world. They're things that they are not used to because they've never lived in places like this and also we are so annoying as human beings. So that's another thing for the poor things. But, yeah, we should definitely make a clone dinosaur because they would be great pets. That's one thing I want to try. Saratops I don't know, I don't care, I don't have a backyard big enough, I don't know she's going to sleep with me on my bed. And also imagine chicken McNuggets T-Rex McNuggets they're. They would be great, Even if they are not. You're eating a dinosaur and also, if they kill you, it's the best way to get killed. But it's not like oh, I got killed by a bear, yeah, I got killed by a T-Rex, it's even better.

Speaker 2: 27:41

So without. So you know that some very fun and fun and lighthearted answers. My follow-up, though, is like is there technology to do that? Like in Jurassic Park and I've heard other paleontologists debunk it they got blood from like millions of years old.

Speaker 3: 28:03

Is there.

Speaker 2: 28:03

Is there technology to clone a dinosaur?

Speaker 1: 28:07

No, unfortunately there, it's not. Because, well, dna is the main molecule that drives life. Every living thing on Earth has DNA, and DNA doesn't survive the fossilization process Sometimes. Well, it does, but the fossil has to be very young, just to say, like a mummy or maybe those animals that are frozen permafrost that they're finding all the time. But there's also another thing that we are very.

Speaker 1: 28:45

We are experts on cloning mammals because they're easier to clone, because they're also our medicine. It's similar to veterinary because it's like the same, basically the same thing. We have sperm and eggs all the mammals, all the same. But it's bit different and it's more complicated when you have eggs on a shell, like birds. I'm talking about birds because they're dinosaurs. So if you clone a chicken, you're basically cloning a dinosaur, if you're, if you're, we're talking about bringing back dinosaurs from the once extinct, from 65 million years ago.

Speaker 1: 29:26

That is impossible, it's sad to say for me, but yeah, it's impossible. So, because there are not not enough DNA. So I work at the Jurassic Foundation as a communication communication director and my boss there is. She's in Tessano, she's one of the best paleontologists in the country and she works here at Raleigh at the North Carolina State University and the Museum of North Carolina and they're working on proteins and little molecules that did survive the falsification process. So it's very interesting. Yeah, it's a very interesting research, because they started like diluting the fossil with the old chemicals until they got organic molecules and they were reactive to antibodies. So that's another thing. It's like yeah, they are birds, dinosaurs are birds, birds are dinosaurs, because now you can see that. So it's very interesting research but unfortunately we cannot and we are not going to have ever the technology to clone it, to bring back dinosaurs. Maybe to clone a dinosaur like a bird, but not to bring them back.

Speaker 2: 30:52

Is there this may be more paleontology than you know genetics. Is there a remote possibility that frozen in the ice somewhere is like a preserve the frozen dinosaur? Or is that like just too too old?

Speaker 1: 31:11

Yeah, because? Yes, because in these 65 million years that passed, the continents were. Back then there was a huge panjia continent. Now they're all split and they're the spare of the world. So back then it has what? Geologically what has to happen is that that ice has to be also that old, and I don't think they found ice as old as dinosaurs If they found million, 65 million year old ice, I thought you'd be a better chance of the dinosaur.

Speaker 1: 31:53

But also even in the mountain maybe there are like permafrost that is very old, but I think most mountains are not that old. The oldest are the smallest because of erosion, so they don't have the eastern mountains of the United States, the Appalachians. Yes, the ones that we have here, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:16

Right, well, ok, so you're still on team. Clone a dinosaur yes, Unfortunately not likely that that's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 32:27

No, I'm going to try, though, but I'm going to see you try, but what? Let's see.

Speaker 2: 32:36

So, pop question, pop culture question for you Do you like the older Jurassic Park movies or do you like the newer Jurassic Park movies with Chris Pratt?

Speaker 1: 32:46

Well, I'm biased because it's Jurassic dinosaurs, so I love them all, but I do love the first ones better because I don't know nostalgia from childhood, but I am Again. I cannot say that Jurassic World are not good, because I did like them and I also like Chris Pratt, and yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2: 33:14

Yeah, ok, well, that's cool. I just wanted to get your opinion on that. I generally lean towards the original Jurassic Park. I think it is for nostalgia purposes.

Speaker 1: 33:24

But also when I watch it all the time, like all the time, and I have the different versions Blu-ray, dvd, everything, and when you see that movie. I went to the movies to see them last year when it was the 30th anniversary, and it's been 30 years and the CGI it's still perfect. So that's another thing. It's still a good movie because of the special effects and everything, so also, of course, the story. But yeah, also I would like them to release maybe a TV show based on the books, because, even though the movies are, have you read Jurassic Park?

Speaker 2: 34:13

I read the book. Yeah, absolutely. I was a little frustrated when the movies came out, because they switch the age, swap the two kids right, yes, they do that and also well, they did a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 34:24

There's some changes.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:28

Genaro didn't die. So there was another guy died in the books. That is not in the movies at Regis, but I did like him in the books, so I don't know. I miss him in the movies because he would be a good character.

Speaker 2: 34:46

And also Sounds like a job for a streaming service.

Speaker 1: 34:49

Yes, right, yeah, of course HBO they're doing all these things.

Speaker 2: 34:53

Because if you do, max, make that subscription worth something. That's right. Yes, who would you cast as the new Dr Grant, or would you go back to the well of the original Dr Grant?

Speaker 1: 35:13

Yeah, I would go to the original Dr Grant, I don't know, because he's great, he's so good. He's Dr Grant, like in the movies, in the books. It's like I don't know if you are a fan of Harry Potter, I am. Yeah, I'm a fan of him. It's like Snape Snape in the books is the same as in the movies. Oh yeah, alan Whitman was great. He was perfect.

Speaker 2: 35:35

Alan Whitman is a king.

Speaker 1: 35:37

Yes, even if they recast Snape in the TV shows that are upcoming, they're never going to be like Alan Whitman.

Speaker 2: 35:48

Yeah, I don't see anybody else as Dr Ian Malcolm besides Jeff Goldblum.

Speaker 2: 35:56

That too, I don't know how I would watch it. And if it wasn't Jeff Goldblum, my bill, even though Jeff, they're all older now, right, I love that. Yeah, but again, yeah, but I mean, they could be older who cares? Right, they could be in their 70s, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, of course, love it. Well, doc, can we move to some of our standard questions? This has been really fun so far. Yeah, of course, yeah. So we have a couple of standard questions on the podcast that we ask our guests all the time, and I mean I love answering asking these two questions, and the one is it hits the heart of our show, mixing Pets in Science, and that's for our guests to share a pet story with us. I was wondering if you could do that.

Speaker 1: 36:41

Oh, yeah, of course. So, as I mentioned before, I'm a fan of Harry Potter and my dog is named Harry Potter and he's just next to me, he's here, just hear his name and it's he knows I'm talking about him. So a year, two years ago, I moved back to. I moved to Boston for a postdoc, mm-hmm, and unfortunately I found out that Bostonians don't like dogs. Oh, so that was a kind of a shock. You cannot walk your dog parks there. So that was again kind of a shock.

Speaker 1: 37:17

So I got him registered as a service dog and so I could walk him and live with him because I love him. And at one time I was at the Museum of Science and that was the best day for him because they I was a member of the Museum of Science in Boston and they saw him, they love him, because who didn't love my dog? And they made him an Honorary member of the Museum of Science and that was the best. It was like, oh, we were so happy and we took a picture with the T-Rex outside the the museum and we Went to every exhibition and he didn't understand anything because, of course, he's a dog, but then again, it was really good.

Speaker 2: 38:09

I'm sorry if you mentioned it and I didn't catch it. What type of dog is Harry Potter? Oh, he's a golden retriever.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Oh right, okay so it's a cause. Enough beaker.

Speaker 2: 38:18

Yeah, you've sent, yet You've got some photos on your social media. And on your computer. It's the one in the bottom right hey yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:29

It doesn't look like now.

Speaker 1: 38:31

He's just now requesting for pets just next to me, because, yeah, he heard his name is okay, what I thought. What are you talking about? About me? I?

Speaker 2: 38:42

Love it. Very funny. When you were growing up, did you have any pets?

Speaker 1: 38:48

I did I have? I used to have dogs and hamsters. Oh, hamsters are fun little pets. I love them and, again, always I named all of them as Harry Potter Potter characters. So I had Harry to, I had Ron, I had Hermione, I had Professor McGonagall to. That was my sister's, though, okay.

Speaker 2: 39:18

A Physicist that I've had on the show she names her hamsters after particles, like subatomic particles that's so cute. And like neutrino, like there. She's great with all the little names of the little animals, so very cute. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit about Harry Potter. Do you ever say when Guardian levioso to have Harry Potter pickup stuff around the house?

Speaker 1: 39:45

Um, I Now have to do that. I never.

Speaker 2: 39:53

That was the Voldemort to Harry Potter. Like this Harry Potter, not like a thing. Is that his Voldemort?

Speaker 1: 39:58

Yes, the Robert bike vacuum. He's so much sorry. The what the robot vacuum, you know, the one that goes, the intelligent vacuum that goes to your house.

Speaker 2: 40:11

He hates it. He hates it. Oh my goodness, it's the Dark Lord.

Speaker 1: 40:15

Yes, it's his Voldemort and it's not a Voldemort. But maybe the squirrels are kind of friends, but it's like you know, free enemies they like each other but they don't, so they're not Voldemort to him. Maybe it's Litherines.

Speaker 2: 40:32

There's Slytherin, that's right. Yeah for him. You're not sure if they're on your side. Sometimes they're on your side. You gotta, you gotta hang out with them. You gotta coexist. Okay, I got it. Yeah, I like that. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit about your pets, doc. I appreciate that the other standard question we ask is a super fact. We challenge our guests to tell us something that they know. That, can you know, blows people's minds.

Speaker 1: 40:58

Okay, have one for us. Yeah, I have one. Speaking of hamsters, because I found out recently that they get COVID as Like as we do, the same reasons, and they can die of COVID. Yes, so for everyone, to any everyone that has pets, hamsters, pets If you get tested positive, you have to isolate yourself from your pets because they are so close related to us, like a far distant cousin, that they get Sarcasm to and develop COVID as the same symptoms as we do. They have coughs, little cute coughs that are not good. They're just cute but they're not good. So, and also, since they're smaller than us, they can get killed easily. So that that's a Fun fact, but it's not a fan fact. It's like, yeah, a fact that you wear right Um, is there treatment for them?

Speaker 2: 41:57

like, would you take them to a vet if you noticed that what they were, they had Like COVID, like coughs.

Speaker 1: 42:04

No, no, they're not, because they're also not any treatment for us, because it's the virus. You have to wait for the virus to get killed by your, by your system. Okay, so that's, that is the thing you have to isolate yourself From them until your you get test was negative again right.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Well, that is interesting. That is a super fact. I didn't know that, huh yeah these are.

Speaker 1: 42:29

These are, I think, also cats can develop, they can get, because With COVID I know this because of my vaccineology PhD so Sarcoby 2 is the virus and SARS and COVID-19 is the disease, right. So when you can get SARS-CoV-2, if you can get infected by the virus and not develop that disease, covid-19. So I think cats and some gorillas they get the virus, but they did. They don't develop the symptoms. So they basically are carriers of the virus. But it hamsters that because they're closely related to us in bats, that bats are the, the main host. They develop everything, they get infected. They develop COVID-19, everything.

Speaker 2: 43:24

Interesting. Well, I appreciate that. A little bit of tidbit there for everybody. Doc, we're at the end of our chat. I do want to ask do you have a social media presence? Do you have some accounts people could follow?

Speaker 1: 43:37

Yes, I do have my professional Twitter account that it's a August DeGanzo PhD. I share mostly our most recent Work that I get in published and I follow a lot of paleontologists and I found I follow a lot of other scientists and I do and I do science communications through that channel and my research gate. That is also a social media for scientists. It's a Agustin DeGanzo and you can find. You can find me as Agustin DeGanzo research gate on Google and I think that those are my name Social media.

Speaker 2: 44:18

We'll make sure that some of those links are in the show notes, so people can click away and then and then connect with you there. Doc, thank you so much for being a guest on our show today and chatting what you do with cystic fibrosis. I do appreciate the lighthearted and fun, but also Educated, educational discussion about cloning dinosaurs, thank you.

Speaker 1: 44:37

Well, thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me and having me here. I got a very fun time with you and I hope you get back to Bonsai, namibia, care for me.

Speaker 3: 44:48

Okay, it is time for story time with me. If you don't know what story time is, story time is when we talk about stories that have happened within the past one or two weeks. I will start. I have a story about the farm cats. I don't usually have stories about the farm cats, but today I have some stories about the farm cats. So, if you didn't know, in addition to ginger on, like not in our house, but on in at my grandpa's house, which is just up the just up the dirt road from us, like, not like, not super far away, like a five-second walk, super, super close he has cats too and he has four cats and Two of them, two of them, are scavengers.

Speaker 3: 45:40

One of them is layer, is named Larry. He's a scavenger. He's a black and white cat. He was rescued from the outside world and then brought inside and because he was a kitten, like he wasn't that much of an outside cat, because, like you can't really bring an outside cat inside, but we did that with with Larry, with no consequence really. And then Mouse is a barn cat that that came from my mechanic. So, like my mechanic works on my car and my grandpa's car and he had barn cats and like. He was like did you want a cat? And then my grandpa's like yes, and so we named that cat mouse, because he's not a good listener and he looks for food as as much as he can. So when we're cooking, larry and mouse are looking for the scraps that go on the floor.

Speaker 3: 46:33

And today, pop, today, papa got McDonald's and he got fries for Emily Senai I, and once we were done with our fries, larry and Mouse were fighting over who could get in the bag and Larry had his entire head and body in the bag and couldn't get out. So Larry was stuck in the McDonald's bag looking for fries and then Mouse got jealous. So we had to basically get Larry out of the bag and throw them as far away as possible so that we could throw out the bag before they came back, cause they don't learn from you like Mouse, and Larry don't learn from you grabbing them and like moving them somewhere else. They just come back as soon as they can. So yeah, that's my story. Is the scavenger cats at Papa's house. Dad, do you have a story?

Speaker 2: 47:35

Well, I don't know the story that mom is going to say, or but the one that is of big consequence. This week was on Saturday. I was trying to get across the creek and we had a great big melt and the creek was running like to the crazy. It became a. It became a fast flowing creek with. That was very wide and I was trying to cross it to basically switch out the card on the camera, on our wildlife camera, and also collect beaker, who was digging. Sometimes when she gets digging she doesn't, doesn't listen, great.

Speaker 2: 48:12

And I heard some shouting on the other side of the creek and Chris is like Bunsen has a moose leg and I was, and I was, oh my God, it started again. Because that's what happens in the melt All of the legs come out of the snow, of whatever animal died during the winter. But it wasn't a moose leg, it turned out it was a deer leg and Bunsen was so happy to have a leg. You know it's. He's been waiting. He hasn't found a leg since last winter, so it's been a while and you know it's gross and we have to get it away from him because he can't just eat a random leg. Who knows what kind of stuff is in it, you know. You know dogs eating bones. That can cause problems, which it did for him one time. So but he was very happy for his leg and I'm not going to lie. I was a little happy for him that he found a leg also, and that's my story, mom, do you have a story?

Speaker 3: 49:10

Was that your story or do you have a different story?

Speaker 4: 49:13

I can build upon that story. So, yes, bunsen got a moose leg and he was so happy and I was very happy that he gave it back to me. And then what happened is I gave it to Jason and I said here you go, and Jason got some video of it and then Jason was walking with the moose leg and Bunsen snatched it right out of his hand, snatched it right away and started running with it. So that happened. But then I got the leg back from Bunsen later and then I put it into the compost, which is where Jason puts the legs. When we find them, they go into the compost.

Speaker 4: 49:56

And then I took Bunsen and Beaker for a walk all by myself, because Jason was busy last week, and so I took them. And then what happened was I looked in the compost and there was no leg in there. I'm like what. I put the leg in the compost and it wasn't there anymore. The bone was gone. And when I came back from the walk, bunsen snatched the bone right out of the grass, out of the tall grass. He found it in the tall grass and I don't know how he knew it was there, but he was so happy because he had his bone once again that I had to take away from him and that is my story.

Speaker 2: 50:35

He can find them like so easily.

Speaker 4: 50:38

I know it's like he has bone d'ar like radar for bones, yes, very good, but that's my story.

Speaker 3: 50:49

Bunsen makes all the noise while we're doing all of this stuff and Beaker is quiet, except for when we try to put her, because if we separate her and Bunsen they're going to make noise. But we put her and Bunsen in a different room with chews and she finished hers in like three seconds and she wanted out of the room.

Speaker 2: 51:10

And she also gets mad at Bunsen. She tries the bully Bunsen to get a chew.

Speaker 3: 51:14

Yeah, because one chew isn't enough for her. She needs the other one because it's unfair if Bunsen is still chewing his chew when she's done. Anyway, thank you so much for listening to this podcast episode's story time and I hope to see you all on the next podcast episode. I think dad still puts me at the end, so thank you so much for listening to the end of the podcast. And there she is. She's jealous, Alright. Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. Bye, bye.

Speaker 2: 51:50

That's it for this week's show. Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to the science podcast. If you'd love to support our show, think about joining up on the pop pack. There's a link in the show notes and a shout out to Dr Augusta Gonzo what a cool interview and what an awesome guy. We'd also like to give a shout out to the top dogs. That's the top tier of the pop pack plus. That's a perk of joining the community. Chris, take it away.

Speaker 4: 52:18

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Speaker 2: 53:04

For science, empathy and cuteness.