Visiting a mummy factory, and improving the IQ of … toilets

On this week’s show: New clues to the chemicals used for mummification, and the benefits and barriers to smart toilets

First up this week: What can we learn from a mummy factory? Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about mummy chemistry and why we don’t know much about what was used to preserve these ancient bodies. Online News Editor Michael Price makes a special appearance.

Next up, how having a smart toilet can contribute to your health. Seung-Min Park, an instructor in the Department of Urology at Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote this week in Science Translational Medicine about the powers of data-collecting toilets to improve health and the psychological and ethical barriers to adopting a smart toilet of your very own.

This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.

[Image: Portugal2004/iStock; Music: Jeffrey Cook]

[alt: toilet with podcast symbol overlay]

Authors: Sarah Crespi; Andrew Curry; Michael Price

Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg9654 

About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast

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