2 weeks Ago
This week in science: fish healing hearing, loneliness cures, and Conan the Bacterium ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: It's time for our science news roundup from Short Wave, NPR's science podcast. I am joined by Emily Kwong and Jessica Yung - good to have you both back here. EMILY KWONG, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
JESSICA YUNG, BYLINE: Hey. How are you doing? SHAPIRO: I'm great. So, as usual, you've brought us three science stories that caught your attention this week.
What are they this week? YUNG: The secret behind the world's most radiation-resistant microorganism. KWONG: Cures for our loneliness epidemic. YUNG: And why some animals can restore their hearing naturally, even though other animals, like us, cannot.
SHAPIRO: I'm intrigued that there is a radiation-resistant microorganism, this, like...
KWONG: Oh, just you wait. SHAPIRO: ..
.Super-tiny little thing. What is it? YUNG: Oh, totally.
OK, so formally, this bacteria is called Deinococcus radiodurans. It was discovered back in the 1950s and has been long known to withstand radiation doses thousands of times higher than what it would take to kill a human or any other living thing. KWONG: Which is why scientists have given it this funny nickname - Conan the bacterium, a resilient superhero of the microbial world.
SHAPIRO: Do kids today even know what "Conan The Barbarian" is? I feel like that's such a dated reference. KWONG: True. Email us, kids.
Let us know. SHAPIRO: OK. I'm assuming scientists have just been dying to find out the secret to this Conan the bacterium's radiation resistance ever since.
YUNG: Yeah, definitely because the implications could be really huge, like helping protect astronauts from radiation in space or other kinds of, like, medical applications. But over the years, scientists have suspected that the bacteria's radiation shield has probably something to do with these ingredients inside of its cells, like phosphate, manganese and peptides. MICHAEL DALY: The big question has been, how are.
.. Emily Kwong.
