Not all birds can fly. Penguins, ostriches, and kiwis are some famous examples.
It’s pretty easy to figure out if a living bird can fly. But it’s a bit tricker when it comes to extinct birds or bird ancestors, like dinosaurs. Remember, all birds are dinosaurs, but not all dinosaurs evolved into birds.
Scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum wanted to figure out if there was a way to tell if a dinosaur could fly or not. They found that the number and symmetry of flight feathers are reliable indicators of whether a bird or dinosaur could lift off the ground.
Ira talks with two of the study’s co-authors about their research and how it might help us understand how dinosaur flight evolved. Dr. Yosef Kiat is a postdoctoral researcher and Dr. Jingmai O’Connor is the associate curator of fossil reptiles at The Field Museum in Chicago.
Sacre Bleu! Some French Cheeses At Risk Of ExtinctionThere’s bad news for the Camembert and brie lovers out there: According to the French National Center for Scientific Research, some beloved soft cheeses are at risk of extinction. The culprit? A lack of microbial diversity in the mold strains used to make Camemberts and bries.
As with many foods, consumers expect the cheese they buy to be consistent over time. We want the brie we buy today to look and taste like the brie we bought three months ago. But there’s a downside to this uniformity—the strain of Penicillium microbes used to make these cheeses can’t reproduce sexually, meaning it must be cloned. That means these microbes are not resilient, and susceptible to errors in the genome. Over the years, P. camemberti has picked up mutations that make it much harder to clone, meaning it’s getting harder to create the bries we know and love.
Joining Ira to talk about this is Benji Jones, senior environmental reporter at Vox based in New York City.
Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com
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884: Pandas Return To Washington, D.C. | A Lesser-Known Grain Called Kernza
883: How Health Misinformation Spreads | A Play About Ben Franklin And His Son
882: Searching The Universe For Clues To The Ultra-Small
881: What Makes ‘SuperAgers’ Stay Healthy For So Long?
880: Asheville Was Never A ‘Climate Haven.’ Nowhere Is.
879: The Science Behind Hurricane Milton | ‘Unsettling’ Warm Water In Lake Michigan
878: How Campaigns Use Psychology To Get Out The Vote
877: How Gut Microbes Are Linked To Stress Resilience
876: How Magnetic Brain Stimulation Helps Relieve Depression
875: How The Origin Of Life On Earth Can Help Find Life In Space
874: Hurricane Helene's Effect On The Global Tech Industry | A Stretchy Band-Aid For The Heart
873: Herbicides Approved For Public Land | Hidden Physics In Van Gogh’s ‘The Starry Night’
872: Improving Hospitals’ Support For Teens In Mental Health Crises
871: Greenhouse Gases From Anesthesia | Fighting Militarization In The Mariana Islands
870: Empowering Older Adults To Step Up For The Climate
869: Microsoft Makes Deal To Restart Three Mile Island | Fish That Use Their Legs To Taste
868: Former NIH Director Reflects On Public Mistrust In Science
867: How Are AI Chatbots Changing Scientific Publishing?
866: These Artists Serve Up Environmental Crises Through Food
865: Surgeon General Takes On Parental Stress And Mental Health
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