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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 180 (4-24)

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

KUT's O’Dark 30 features the very best from the world of independent radio that we can find here on PRX and elsewhere. Sunday nights at 10 on Austin's KUT 90.5 we present 3 hours of a bit of everything from the big wide world of independent radio production.

Episode 180 (4-24) includes Clever Apes: Breaking the fossil record...Five Second Rule...Stories of Transformation...99% Invisible #65- Razzle Dazzle (Director's Cut)...The Mikie Show #49, Sheril...WTF Episode 204 with Todd Hanson...My First Travel Partner...Letter to My Mom: You Haven't Lost Me

Clever Apes: Breaking the fossil record

From WBEZ | Part of the WBEZ's Clever Apes series | 08:25

In this installment, Gabriel Spitzer discovers how an ancient specimen might rewrite prehistory, and maybe medical books, too.

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Dinosaurs loom large in our imaginations not just because they were in fact enormous, but also they are so ridiculously old. There has always been a big, impenetrable curtain separating us from prehistoric life. Sure, we have some ancient bones, but those had long since turned to stone. Any actual tissue, the stuff of flesh-and-blood creatures, is irrevocably lost, lasting only a few tens of thousands of years in most cases. Maybe a few stray organic molecules could persist for a few million if, say, they were frozen deep within primeval ice.

So, needless to say, it came as something of a shock when Mary Schweitzer discovered that she had some 68-million-year-old dinosaur tissue on her hands.

The find was and is controversial. Many scientists are skeptical or outright dismissive of the idea that tissue could have persisted inside the partially fossilized thigh bone of a T. rex. But since then Schweitzer and her collaborators have gradually built up evidence that the find is real. And most recently, Joseph Orgel of the Illinois Institute of Technology has begun to understand how mummified dino-flesh could possibly have survived a thousand times longer than was thought possible.

Orgel used x-ray diffraction, a kind of molecular imaging technique, to understand how the dinosaur tissue is structured in detail. The particular stuff they have in hand is collagen, a material found in our bones, tendons, blood vessels and skin. It is itself a hardy molecule, and Orgel found that the protein sequences preserved in their fossils came from the innermost, protected part of the collagen fiber. So it’s possible that collagen’s tough, ropelike structure preserved a tender bit of dinosaur jerky inside.

Keep in mind, this is not DNA. We will not be cloning Barney from this stuff. But understanding how these proteins can be shielded from decay for so long could hold practical lessons for modern medicine. If you’re repairing, say, a bone or cartilage, you might be able to leverage or mimic nature’s ability to make durable organic materials that don’t degrade, in effect, forever. 

Also in today’s episode, we consider another example of design inspired by biology. Dr. Phillip Messersmith’s muse is the blue mussel – a bivalve that secretes a unique adhesive to stick itself to rocks or boat hulls or wherever it feels like sticking. This stuff turns out to have some key qualities that a surgeon would envy. It starts as a liquid and solidifies quickly, it functions well under water and it’s sticky as hell.

That’s a big advantage over the medical glues out there that doctors use to attach or repair tissues. The safest ones are too weak. The strongest ones (basically, super glue) are toxic. Messersmith and his lab-mates at Northwestern University are using the fundamentals of the mussel glue to design their own version, which they demonstrated for us on some sausage casing.

So someday, maybe they’ll be able to install a dino-inspired bone patch in your body, and lock it down with some mussel glue.

Five Second Rule

From Ruth Eddy | 02:09

Most of us have heard of the five second rule, but how strictly is it followed and is there any truth to the bacteria defense of time.

Artworks-000041201048-8a1xja-t200x200_small Most of us have heard of the five second rule, but how strictly is it followed and is there any truth to the bacteria defense of time.

Stories of Transformation

From Atlantic Public Media | Part of the The Transom Radio Specials series | 54:00

Two audio diaries: a street kid who decides to wise-up and a person born in the wrong body

Running_small Two people talk about their own personal transformation. Finding Miles is the story of a person named Megan who began a slow and difficult transition into manhood. Running from Myself is the story of of boy who used to rob people and decided to stop. 

99% Invisible #65- Razzle Dazzle (Director's Cut)

From Roman Mars | Part of the 99% Invisible (Director's Cut) series | 10:15

This is probably not what you think of when you think of camouflage.

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[For standard 4:30 length version, go to: http://www.prx.org/pieces/90040-99-invisible-65-razzle-dazzle-standard-4-30-ve]

Becoming invisible with your surroundings is only one type of camouflage.  Camofleurs call this high similarity or blending camouflage.  But camouflage can also take the opposite approach.  

Think about zebras: it's hypothesized that their stripes make it difficult for a predator to distinguish one from another when the zebras are in a large herd. The stripes also might make zebras less attractive to blood sucking horseflies. This is called disruptive camouflage.

When it comes to humans, the greatest, most jaw-droppingly spectacular application of disruptive camouflage was called Dazzle.

Dazzle painting emerged in the 1910s as design solution to a very dire problem: American and British ships were being sunk left and right by German U-Boats. England needed to import supplies to fight the Central Powers, and these ships were sitting ducks in the Atlantic Ocean.  They needed a way to fend of the torpedoes.  

Conventional high-similarity camouflage just doesn't work in the open sea.  Conditions like the color of the sky, cloud cover, and wave height change all the time, not to mention the fact that there's no way to hid all the smoke left by the ships' smoke stacks.  

The strategy of this high-difference, dazzle camouflage was not about invisibility.  It was about disruption.  Confusion.

Torpedoes in the Great War could only be fired line-of-sight, so instead of firing at where they saw the ship was at that moment, torpedo gunners would have to chart out where the ship would be by the time the torpedo got there.  They had to determine the target ship's speed and direction with just a brief look through the periscope. 

The torpedo gunner's margin of error for hitting a ship was quite low.  Dazzle painting could throw off an experienced submariner by as much as 55 degrees.  

A journalist at the time referred to these dazzling ships as "a flock of sea-going Easter eggs."

An American "Women's Reserve Camouflage Corps" did some of the painting.

Our expert this week is Roy Behrens, a professor graphic design at the University of Northern Iowa.  He's published several books about camouflaue, and also runs the Camoupedia blog.

The Mikie Show #49, Sheril

From Michael Carroll | Part of the The Mikie Show series | 28:03

If you click the little play arrow down there you’ll be able to join us as we speak with Sheril Kirshenbaum, author and science writer. Besides being Director of The University of Texas at Austin’s Project on Energy Communication, she has written or co-written three books about science, has given a TED talk and is a science advisor to NPR’s Science Fridays program. I asked her how to boil an egg.
Just kidding. We talk about the future of energy and women in science, many things. Plus, a few more guests come by, but they asked that I don’t reveal their names at this time. And there’s a quiz and some news, all the things you need to know if you know what to need!
A translation of that previous sentence would be appreciated.

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If you click the little play arrow down there you’ll be able to join us as we speak with Sheril Kirshenbaum, author and science writer. Besides being Director of The University of Texas at Austin’s Project on Energy Communication, she has written or co-written three books about science, has given a TED talk and is a science advisor to NPR’s Science Fridays program. I asked her how to boil an egg.

Just kidding. We talk about the future of energy and women in science, many things. Plus, a few more guests come by, but they asked that I don’t reveal their names at this time. And there’s a quiz and some news, all the things you need to know if you know what to need!

A translation of that previous sentence would be appreciated.

WTF Episode 204 with Todd Hanson

From WTF with Marc Maron | Part of the WTF with Marc Maron series | 58:59

Marc sits down with Todd Hanson, one of the original writers for The Onion. Todd is responsible for some of the smartest, funniest satire of the past two decades. But something goes unspoken during this conversation, and prompts a second discussion about a major event in Todd’s life.

Banner_todd_hanson_small Marc sits down with Todd Hanson, one of the original writers for The Onion. Todd is responsible for some of the smartest, funniest satire of the past two decades. But something goes unspoken during this conversation, and prompts a second discussion about a major event in Todd’s life.

My First Travel Partner

From Travel with Rick Steves | Part of the Mother's Day Features - Travel with Rick Steves series | 05:39

In honor of the first Mother's Day since the death of his own mother last year, the host of the public radio show "Travel with Rick Steves" talks about his first travel partner: His mother.

Trs_logo_small In honor of the first Mother's Day since the death of his own mother last year, the host of the public radio show "Travel with Rick Steves" talks about his first travel partner: His mother.

Letter to My Mom: You Haven't Lost Me

From Curie Youth Radio | 02:21

A letter from daughter to mom about love, hope, and Chuck E. Cheese

Images_small Curie Youth Radio is a writing and radio production class at Curie High School on Chicago's Southwest side. Here, students create their own stories: fresh takes on everything from snowball fights to gang warfare. They see their stories as a way for teenagers in one Chicago high school to reach out to the rest of the world.