Graycen and Alison talk about the marshmallow test, fairy circles, music, and whether bees understand the concept of zero. There’s a blatant attempt to attract the youthz with a Tide Pod reference– sorry not sorry. Then Max Levy comes on to talk about dengue virus and a recent paper from CU Boulder. Listen here or subscribe on iTunes!
For our discussion about the so-called marshmallow test, Alison read this article by Jessica McCrory Calarco for The Atlantic. If you’re really into desserts, take a look at the original study and the new replication study. Alison also recommends watching videos like this one of kids resisting the temptation to partake in the joys of marshmallows.
This article for The Atlantic, in which writer Joshua Sokol visits the fairy circles of the Namib Desert with the research group of Norbet Jürgens, is an incredible read. Read both sides of the math vs. biology fight over how fairy circles arise, and then read the math-and-biology explanation.
The story about the increasing homogeneity of pop songs came from this visual essay at The Pudding. Not all of it made the episode, but we also talked at length about this piece from The Pudding, which catalogs the vocabulary of hip hop artists. As far as we can tell, everything from The Pudding is an extreme delight.
Be sure to check out the original study on bees recognizing the empty set in Science — it’s super short and breezy! It’s also summarized here by Georgia Guglielmi.
We talked to Max Levy and our own Alison Gilchrist about this paper about dengue virus by Alex Stabell et al. (including Alison!). Read Max’s interview with Stabell at the Science Buffs STEM blog.
Buffs Talk Science 