A Little Bit Of Science

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Over a few hundred years from the year 1200 on, the people of Easter Island / Rapa Nui built an amazing pocket universe - a flourishing civilisation with their own system of writing and amazing carved stone Moai.But then it collapsed.Will tells Rod what happens, and why the story of what happens matters!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!Sources:Benny Peiser’s ‘From Genocide to Ecocide: The Rape of Rapa Nui’. https://web.archive.org/web/20100610062402/http://www.uri.edu/artsci/ecn/starkey/ECN398%20-Ecology,%20Economy,%20Society/RAPANUI.pdfDiNapoli, Crema, Lipo, Rieth and Hunt’s ‘Approximate Bayesian Computation of radiocarbon and paleoenvironmental record shows population resilience on Rapa Nui (Easter Island)’ in Nature Communications https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8225912/BingUNews: ‘Resilience, not collapse: What the Easter Island myth gets wrong’ https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/3155/resilience-not-collapse-what-the-easter-island-myth-gets-wrongPrinceton: ‘Jacob Roggeveen, 1659–1729’ http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/pacific/roggeveen/roggeveen.htmlEaster Island Travel: ‘Ship logs of 1722 voyage of Jacob Roggeveen’ https://www.easterisland.travel/easter-island-facts-and-info/history/ship-logs-and-journals/jacob-roggeveen-1722/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chatbots are everywhere these days - your bank, your phone company, your facebook... your therapist? Well actually, they were therapists first... Rod tells Will the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!Sources:https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-eliza-effect/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666827020300062http://www.jabberwacky.com/j2convbydate-N6641part2https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=4137https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23615538https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weizenbaumhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA_effecthttps://www.businessinsider.com.au/therapy-chatbot-depression-app-what-its-like-woebot-2018-1https://news.mit.edu/2008/obit-weizenbaum-0310See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know the Nazis embraced a bunch of dumb - awful - ideas. But their ideas about how the universe worked? Well that was sincerely whackadoo...Will tells Rod the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!SourcesWilly Ley: Pseudoscience in Naziland, http://www.alpenfestung.com/ley_pseudoscience.htmChristina Wessely: Cosmic Ice Theory—Science, Fiction and the Public, 1894–1945. https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/projects/DeptIII-ChristinaWessely-WelteislehreEric Kurlander: Hitler’s MonstersEric Kurlander: A Song of Ice and Fire https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/song-ice-and-firePhilip Ball: How 2 Pro-Nazi Nobelists Attacked Einstein’s "Jewish Science" [Excerpt]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-2-pro-nazi-nobelists-attacked-einstein-s-jewish-science-excerpt1/The Occult Bistory of the Third Reich: Horbiger http://thirdreichocculthistory.blogspot.com/2011/07/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We've all ridden in Ferris Wheels - including some that are getting really pretty gigantic. But have you ever wondered where they came from? Rod tells Will the story of Ferris's Wheel!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!---------------Sources:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-25/what-happens-when-every-city-has-a-giant-ferris-wheelhttps://interestingengineering.com/the-worlds-largest-ferris-wheel-has-just-opened-in-dubai?utm_source=IGStory&utm_medium=Article&utm_campaign=organic&utm_content=Oct27https://pressofatlanticcity.com/history/look-back-atlantic-citys-almost-famous-somers-wheel/article_289d2b62-27a5-59d4-b1a0-44821117ed61.htmlhttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/history-ferris-wheel-180955300/https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2019/05/06/history-of-the-ferris-wheel-new-jersey-william-somers-george-ferris/1116618001/Ferris Wheels: An illustrated History N.D.Anderson (2006) https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/0968.htmhttps://web.archive.org/web/20130118143455/http://www.hydeparkhistory.org/newsletter.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Gale_Ferris_Jr.https://petticoatsandpistols.com/2015/02/02/ferris-pleasure-wheel/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grey Owl had a crucial message for the world - but was he the right person to bring it?The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You didn't know you needed to know it, but penis prosthetics and penis transplants are both VERY IMPORTANT and VERY SCIENCE. They are! It's true! Rod tells Will the story of where they're up to!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Curt Herzstark had an invention ready to go... but he never knew it would save his life.Will tells Rod the story of the Curta pocket calculator!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We use a lot of sand. In fact, it's the number two thing we use as a species after water! But because we use so much, there's some bad things that happen as well...Rod tells Will all about the world of sand mining!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know that even though the ground beneath our feet feels solid, it's actually moving nice and slowly towards somewhere else. But the science underpinning this idea? It was actually a huge fight...Will and Rod explore, joined by Tanja Pejic of Geoscience Australia!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, joined today by Dr Tanja Pejic of Geoscience Australia!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People have taken things to enhance their performance for ages - but the things they've taken, that's what's weird...Rod tells Will the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bikes are awesome! But during the biggest bicycle craze of the 19th century, medical opinion on bikes went a little bit weird... Will tells Rod the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Art forging - and catching art forgers - is a booming business these days. And on both sides, science has a key role to play...Rod tells Will the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We love science here at the Wholesome Show, but what if you used science to make a workplace more efficient? Would you be a good person? Or is that dangerous?Will tells Rod the story of Taylorism, or Scientific Management!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The treatments we have available for various psychiatric issues aren't either vast... or precise. Which is why electroconvulsive therapy is still a regular thing... Rod tells Will and special guest Shaam Al Abed the history!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, joined today by Shaam Al Abed and this time brought to you by Brain Teaser as well as The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Symbolic communication is ours! Just for us humans! Or... maybe it's not...Will tells Rod the story of Karl von Frisch and the bee waggle dance!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, simple question. If someone says their leg isn't really part of them, how should we help?Rod explains apotemnophilia to Will!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Doomsday devices suck. Just straight up not great. The Soviets built one at the Cold War, and now we've potentially got another one on our hands.Will asks Rod if we can get the bitcoin doomsday device back in the tube!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Would you stay in Hitler's sea side resort? You can if you want, but it's a weird building...The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prions are freaking horrible. Don't eat them if you can utterly avoid it. @willozap explains to @rodl what happens if you do.The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So this is by far our most communist episode ever - and it's about people being worked to death. Cool cool! Rod tells Will all about karoshi!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly supported by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're pretty used to the idea of extinction. Species live, species die, it sucks, but... it's kind of a fact of the modern world.But we didn't always think this way. In fact, the idea of extinction took a lot of work to get off the ground. Will tells Rod all about it!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey listener, are you having surgery anytime soon? Hugs if you are, it can be scary! Well, Rod is about to go under the knife... and to calm himself, he went and explored three (terrible) stories of surgeons behaving badly. Enjoy!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ok listener, this is the big question: did the SARS-CoV-2 virus - you know, the goddamn bug that's making Australians wear masks even now - leak from a lab in Wuhan?Ok I lied. That's not even the big question. The big question is not whether it SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab leak, but whether research like that was opening dangerous doors... The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ok, this is the question listener: after you die, would you be interested in being frozen for reanimation in the future? Or do you think that sounds like the biggest scam around?Rod tells Will the story of cryonics!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So scientists, what science would you do if ethics were not an issue? We trawl through the mad scientists of Reddit to explore some options!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How scientists communicate is... not historically great. And Randy Olson's got opinions. We sit down to explore!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, and joined today by Randy Olson!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We all know the facts of Covid-19. Wash your hands, wear a mask, stay 1.5m away from the rest of the universe. This is good advice! But the science it's based on... is interesting.Rod tells Will the story of the aerosol vs droplets saga!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Rosetta Stone is a byword for an amazing tool able to unlock a world... and it did give the modern world knowledge of hieroglyphics. But the translation wasn't exactly easy...Will tells Rod the story of the translation of hieroglyphics!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lithium is a tiny tiny atom - it's basically the third tiniest! But it also helps enormously with mental health issues. Which is super weird. Even weirder was how it was discovered, and it involved guinea pigs and urine!Rod tells Will the story of John Cade's discovery of Lithium!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the middle of the 19th century, Ireland's population declined by about 2 million people over the course of just a few years. Half of that number fled the country, the other half starved. What (or who) caused it? Will tells Rod all about the Great Famine!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Condoms! What are they? Where did they come from? Where are they going next?Rod tells Will all about it!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, would you go over Niagara Falls in a barrel? If you're on the fence, what would tip you the other way? Would it be peer pressure?Will tells Rod the story of teenage decision making, and the first trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should psychiatrists be able to contribute to political discussion? To considering who is or isn't fit for office? Should they... diagnose from afar?Rod tells Will the story of Bandy Xenobia Lee's fight against the Goldwater Rule!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There are times when animals... hit the wrong numbers. Like not just hundreds, not just thousands, but millions or billions or even trillions - and everything is ruined. Will tells Rod the story of animal swarms!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New technologies have opened up a whole new range of things we can do - monitor each other from afar, trap our genitals in internet enabled chastity belts, make sex dolls somewhat like real life. But the big question now isn't 'can we', it's 'should we'.Rod and Will sit down for an exploration of key ethical issues in this high tech world, with our senior ethics correspondent Adam Henschke!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ok listener, this is it - right in the centre of the Venn diagram of Wholesome Show topics. We've got nasty racists, bad accents, the Soviet Union, terrible people and a whole lot of spies chasing turds!Will tells Rod a story that doesn't really need to be heard...The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's not surprising that an Australian scientist got a Nobel prize for drinking something weird - but how he lined up the ducks to get there, that's the story...Rod tells Will the story of Barry Marshall, Nobel Prize winner!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, proudly brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the early 19th Century, John James Audubon achieved something truly amazing - but he needed to commit a stupendous fraud to do it...Will tells Rod the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People have used leeches in medicine for thousands of years - but the story is not quite what you might think. Will tells Rod all about it!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the 1930s, a blizzard blew through Wisconsin, and some cattle got sick - what happened then is a story of the development of one of the world's most important drugs!Rod tells Will the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know that the world is controlled by the tuning frequency of our music industry? (It's not). That this was deliberately designed by the Rothschilds and the US Navy and the Nazis to control our bodies? (It wasn't).Ok, this isn't true. But it's a fun conspiracy theory, and it lets us explore how conspiracy theories work with Professor Colin Klein from the ANU Philosophy Gang!The Wholesome Show is Dr Will Grant and Dr Rod Lamberts, joined today by Professor Colin Klein, and brought to you by The Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Anti-Vaccination movement is... a broad church. Steven Brandenburg takes a leaf from every pew!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's a story about things (lies) going viral. It involves moon beavers, 24 tonnes of glass, and a scientist jumping into the air declaring 'thou art the man!'. Enjoy!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Here's a question for you - if you're healthy, what temperature is your body? Did you say 37 (or 98.6) degrees? Congratulations, you're kinda right! But also... kinda wrong... It turns out body temperature varies whether you're male or female, whether you're menstruating or not, whether you measure in the mouth or the ear or the forehead or the anus, or even - and here's the strange part - what decade you live in...Rod tells Will the story of body temperature!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ok, 2020 sucked. But surely it wasn't 100% disaster?To round off the year, Will explores some of the silver linings of 2020 with Rod and special guest Janie! Thanks heaps to Inger Mewburn, Aparna Lal, Bec Colvin, Anna Raupach, Saul Cunningham, Jill Sheppard, Sharon Friel, Mark Howden and Arnagretta Hunter for additional silver linings!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, joined today by Janie and proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Real physical mermaids - do they exist? (No). But if they don't exist, where do the fake ones come from?Rod tells Will the story of the Feejee Mermaid!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Listener, it's pretty obvious from here you have an IQ of 158, maybe 159. But what does that mean? Where did it come from? And what percentage of it is bullshit?Rod tells Will the story of IQ!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From about 1990 onwards, something really, undeniably good happened, on a vast - near global - level.But no one really knows why.Will tells Rod the story!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mass psychotics illnesses suck. Some are about dancing, some are about nervous ticks, some... are about genitals.Rod tells Will the history (and science) of penis panics!The Wholesome Show is Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant, proudly brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.