Why am I not surprised about the discovery of condoms made from sheep guts? Or about the dystopian future of VR airport pat-downs? And I will continue to withhold my surprise about an in-depth analysis of boring people. This episode is a wild ride through science’s strangest corners. No sheep were harmed in the writing of this article, though their dignity may never recover.

We're exploring a world where your body emits light (just not enough to read by), cuttlefish have better impulse control than most adults, and apex predators are apparently more civilised than Black Friday shoppers. 

Have you ever wondered what happens to all that medication that gets flushed down the toilet or washed down the sink? Well, we found out: over-medicated fish! And while we are wondering about things, how about the legitimacy of allowing an AI-based recreation of a murdered individual to present to the court in a trial? Fear not though, humanity will not have to endure such horrors for as long as we thought as a recent discovery has wiped eons of the life of our known universe. So strap on your dunce caps (we explore the origin of those too in this episode) and make room in your brains for a little bit of science!

From politicians swimming in fecal water to underground ant trafficking rings. We're exploring a world where the US Health Secretary voluntarily bathes in decades-old poop water, ant smuggling is apparently a lucrative criminal enterprise, and Elon Musk's AI has developed a concerning obsession with letting the world know about the latest genocide.

From environmental impacts of AI politeness to the linguistic mysteries of snow, today's science roundup may leave you with more questions than answers, and that’s the way we like it. We're exploring a world where being nice to robots could harm the planet, scientists gave elephants LSD (yes, really), and Australian’s get creative with their election day propaganda.

From mind-bending virtual reality choices to paradoxical barbers, hungry indecisive donkeys to real-world science funding crises, we're taking you on a wild ride through philosophy's greatest head-scratchers. And just when you think we couldn't make this journey any more interesting, we'll throw in a monster-sized sturgeon that would make Jaws think twice about who rules the waters.

G'day science lovers! Buckle up, because today we're diving into everything from bottom-end evolution to deliberately poisoning yourself and your child with a deadly jellyfish (yes, really). Here’s a recap of our recent escapade through intriguing science headlines.

We’re taking a look at some of science's most fascinating recent developments that sound more like science fiction than reality. From the potential resurrection of dire wolves (yes, they were real, not just Game of Thrones fantasy) to the surprisingly modest paychecks of our space-exploring heroes, we're going down the rabbit hole of the extraordinary alongside the unexpectedly ordinary in the world of scientific discovery.

Welcome to our first episode back as the new and improved “A Little Bit Of Science”.  We're Rod and Will and it’s best if you think of us as your slightly unhinged tour guides through the bits of science that probably won't win Nobel Prizes but will definitely make you the most interesting person at your next dinner party.

In the 1990s, Samuel T. Cohen, the father of the neutron bomb, became extremely vocal about the fact that the Soviets had discovered a new raw material that could potentially spell the end of organised society. Red mercury had hit the market.

Apparently, when detonated in combination with conventional high explosives, it could create city-flattening blasts like a nuclear bomb. And, it would help make nuclear fusion weapons more efficient and considerably smaller. It was an arms dealer’s dream!

In theory, red mercury could produce enormous pressures and temperatures, sufficient to initiate a mini pure fusion explosion. Traditionally, fusion weapons need a fission component to trigger the deuterium fusion. However, with red mercury, this fission step is supposedly unnecessary. Cohen described it as a remarkably non-exploding high explosive. Sounds like something from a Marvel movie right?

Born just outside Vienna, Austria in November 1860, Hanns Hörbiger was an engineer by trade. He invented a steel valve for a blast furnace blowing engine which changed the game for efficient steel production. He also played a key role in the design and construction of the Budapest subway, the third in the world at the time. He was obviously a clever man. A real thinker. And some might say, a complete nut job.

A keen astronomer, one evening Hörbiger pointed his telescope at the moon and suddenly realised, it was all made of ice. It was so shiny! How could it not be ice? He looked at Mars. He looked at Neptune. He looked at the Milky Way…Everything in the cosmos was ice. And not only was it made of ice, but ice was the driving force of the entire universe.

Strangely, the German scientific community at the time thought Hörbiger was bonkers and didn’t pay attention to anything he said. World War I was happening so, you know, people had other things to think about.

But Hörbiger was not dissuaded. He became a total zealot and decided that all he needed to do was convince the masses of his ideas. Then the academic scientists would be pressured to agree.

Humans love a good apocalypse. Give us a blockbuster about a virus that obliterates the population, an asteroid that wipes out the entire planet, or anything with aliens and we lap it up. But have you ever thought about what will actually kill us at the finish line? Sure, we’d like to think the zombie apocalypse will be the winner, but if we’re talking about plausible ways to exterminate humanity, what’s a good way to go?

The end of the world as we know it isn’t all fiction. We've come pretty close to getting wiped out a few times actually. Genetic analysis shows humanity plummeted to perilously low numbers—about 1,200 breeding humans at one point (yes, we are all related). Hundreds and thousands of years ago, intense volcanic activity in Siberia caused global warming and wiped out 96% of the population.

But alas, we survived. We might be inbred, but it seems total annihilation is harder to pull off than you think. The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago didn’t do it, nor did the black plague. So what could be our final end?

What do humans and lobsters have in common? Apart from the fact that both have social hierarchies and serotonin, not all that much really. Last time we checked, we don’t live underwater or have tasty claws.

But despite the differences, esteemed (and often controversial) Canadian psychologist and Harvard Professor, Jordan Peterson, has become rather well known for his theory linking human social hierarchies to lobsters.

The first rule in Peterson’s book is “Stand up straight with your shoulders back." Indeed, aggressive and dominant lobsters stand up to exert their authority. Lobsters also don’t really like each other much on the whole, except when they're trying to mate. Mostly they’re just trying to be macho and make all the other lobsters their subordinates. The males compete for the best territory to win access to most females.

So the moral of the story is, just be a dickhead because you’re the same as a lobster?

No one likes being told what to do. As soon as we can choose for ourselves, humans thrive on the sense of agency to wear what we want, eat what we want, say what we want and do what we want. And that includes laughing.

So why did so many television shows include a laugh track, telling us when to laugh at something? Was it an attempt to manipulate us? Or perhaps the jokes weren’t funny enough to conjure up a genuine guffaw. The Big Bang Theory was the last show to incorporate a laugh track and that ended in 2019. So with laugh tracks pretty much dead now, what caused producers to kick the canned laughter? You mean they have to rely on clever scriptwriting, innovative directing and engaging actors?!

Could the laugh track be dead forever?

Reality TV is a genre that has wormed its way into our screens, our culture, and—for many of us—our guilty pleasures. While some might dismiss these shows as frivolous entertainment (we’re using the term “entertainment” generously here), maybe there’s more to it than good old fashioned wife swapping, marrying strangers and surviving in the wild with nothing but a six-pack and an epic tan.

Perhaps reality TV is so popular because it holds up a mirror to society, showcasing the full spectrum of human emotions. Watching real people in real situations causes us to reflect on our own life choices and experiences. Or perhaps it’s all completely fake, scripted rubbish that makes the producers a hell of a lot of money. As a writer of The Simpsons, Dana Gould put it, reality TV is “people who aren’t actors working with people who aren’t writers in an amateur production of nothing.”

But how “real” is reality TV… really?

Christopher Havens was a smart kid. While it mightn’t have been the best move for his social status in the fourth grade, he was so keen on maths that he even tutored his classmates. Nerd alert! Maybe that’s why he eventually got caught up in the wrong crowd. He just wanted to fit in and be cool like everyone else.

And of course, being cool meant smoking weed and drinking alcohol, which led to mushrooms and LSD. And then things eventually spiralled into pain pills and crystal meth, which spiralled even more out of control, resulting in him murdering someone. Sigh.

Before going to prison, Haven’s dad gave him some helpful advice to survive incarceration - be the shark, not the clownfish. So, of course, Haven interpreted that advice as beating up another prisoner so he could join a gang. While that act might have confirmed his loyalty to the gang, it also opened the door to his new accommodation in solitary confinement. AKA Hell on earth.

Nothing but blank concrete walls, the smell of your own shit, and a bright fluorescent light to keep you company all day and all night. It was enough to drive a person mad, and by the sounds of the constant kicking and screaming next door, his neighbours were already there. Thankfully Havens was thrown a lifeline…in the form of a maths puzzle.

Back in the old days, there were pretty slim pickings about what to do for a career. Basically, people just did what their father or mother did. Then, as education became more available to the masses, every parent’s dream was for their child to become a doctor, lawyer or accountant. Secure a respectable job and make the big bucks.

But what if you didn’t want to drag out your days in an ordinary job, working for the man in a major multinational corporation? What if you were more interested in say, mystical and astrological matters?

In 1996, when Rod was deciding his career fate, there was actually a one-year diploma in Astrology and Jungian psychology from The Urania Trust in London. He nearly signed up but chickened out and did the corporate grad entry thing instead. He loved it (NOT). Don’t make his mistake! Whatever you’re interested in, there’s a degree out there and some of them are pretty wild.

World War II pilots ate a bunch of carrots. Back then, people were well aware that vitamin A was critical for healthy eyesight and that carrots were a good source of beta-carotene. So in 1940, versions of high-carotene strains of carrots were being tested on pilots to reduce night blindness. This was pretty important at the time because during the 1940 Blitzkrieg, the Luftwaffe often struck under the cover of darkness. The British government issued citywide blackouts to make it more difficult for German planes to hit targets, so maximising vision among pilots and civilians was critical.

The year before, the RAF had built the new secret Airborne Interception Radar (aka AI). Instead of being limited to land-bound detection stations, the AI Radar was on planes, able to pinpoint enemy bombers before they even reached the English Channel.

In 1940, RAF night fighter, John Cunningham, became the first pilot to shoot down an enemy plane using AI. He eventually tallied 20 kills - 19 of them at night - and became known as “cat eye” Cunningham. But, the Poms needed to make sure the Germans didn’t know about the secret of their success. So, the UK Ministry of Food came up with a different reason: Carrots.

Make the Germans think that carrots gave Cunningham night vision.. And just don’t mention the little Airborne Interception Radar that he had on his plane.

Besides unnecessary wars, assassinations and scandalous affairs, what comes to mind when you think about American presidents? The Oval Office, the Star-Spangled Banner, Air Force One, the official military salute… and of course golf.

With the exception of three presidents (Hoover, Truman and Carter), golf has been the presidential sport of choice throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. While Hoover avoided golf during the great depression (a bit rude while everyone was starving), others like Woodrow Wilson were fanatics, playing over 1600 rounds during his presidency.

But when it comes to golf, there’s one President who brings a flair of colour to the green - and we’re not talking about the colour of his polo shirt. This president is renowned less for his golfing prowess and more for his boastful claims of golf accolades and notorious cheating habits. None other than Donald Trump.

We all have our idiosyncrasies, those automatic things we do each day that form the way we are in the world. Whether we scrunch or fold, or leave the toilet seat up or down, these are things we do (or don’t do) automatically. Much like the urgent need to crap your dacks in a Japanese bookstore.

That’s right, there is a significant portion of Japanese people who feel overcome by a heaving sensation in the rectal passage whilst browsing books.

In 1985, 29-year-old Japanese woman, Mariko Aoki, contributed an article in the Hon no Zasshi or “Book Magazine” about her strong urge to defecate whenever she visited a bookstore. Surprisingly, a significant number of readers wrote to the editorial department to share their similar experiences. Who would have thought so many people had been fending back faeces in the fiction section?! Turns out a lot.