In another world, I would've found this bug to be really cool. But unfortunately, the only reason I'm familiar with this bug is because of coming into close encounters with it. And my anxiety does not appreciate it.

Sources:

Rove beetles and the 10 plagues of Egypt

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08759-7/fulltext

Endosymbiont source of pederin

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC137826/

Insects vs LEDs (very digestible and well written research paper)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5108255/

Rove beetles vs LEDs

⁠https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387343033_Exploring_the_Use_of_White_Light_Emitting_Diodes_to_Mitigate_'Acid_Fly'_Attacks⁠

Also shout out to HowStuffWorks for all the lightbulb knowledge I wish I had during physics 101.

A world killer strain, New Zealand GMO politics, activated sludge, and why semen has such a distinct smell. All from a small genus of bacteria that many scientists say isn't even a valid genus. There's a lot to get into!

The tea:

Dr. Ingram's original paper

http://www.ask-force.org/web/debate/KlebsiellaHolmes1999.pdf

Dr. Ingram's testimony to NZ

https://gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2001/4029-dr-elaine-inghams-testimony-executive-summary-before-the-new-zealand-royal-commission-on-genetic-modification?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The rebuttal

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0102/S00070.htm

Apologies and back and forth (extra tea)

https://gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2001/8951-full-story-of-the-dr-elaine-ingham-controversy-over-klebsiella-p

Other fun papers:

Drancourt et al. (2001) study

https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/ijsem/51/3/0510925a.pdf?expires=1760686959&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=BAE95A55980B8131308A058DE1EEFED3

Ma et al. (2022) study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923250821000656#bib9

Research America Survey

https://www.researchamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/National-Survey-on-Attitudes-on-Food-and-Nutrition-Brief.pdf

(The long wait in between episodes definitely had nothing to do with the full release of Slime Rancher 2 and I definitely did not spend hours trying to 100% complete the game.)

Includes lots of fun (and not so fun) facts about cats. And I probably talk way too much about scientific classifications.

Here's some cool articles I read:

Overview

https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/parasitology/cytauxzoonosis-in-cats/

https://vetfolio-vetstreet.s3.amazonaws.com/mmah/32/c5acc9bf3640cdadae03c60626f921/filePV_27_01_69.pdf

Apicomplexan life cycle

https://www2.tulane.edu/~wiser/protozoology/notes/api.html

Collars Efficacy Study

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23760871/

Ointment Efficacy Study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401718303558?via%3Dihub#sec0010

What if I told you that the power house of the cell is actually just an enslaved bacterium?

Some cool papers and helpful articles I read while researching:

Khan Academy - Cellular Respiration

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cellular-respiration-and-fermentation

Mitochondrial DNA uses

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6562384/

About DNP

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3550200/

Cyanobacterial toxins and Qatar

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/17482960903286066

Wolbachia in Aedes aegypti

https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1000833

If I took a shot of water for every time I said the word "cockroach" or "wasp", I would be so hydrated I wouldn't need a daily reminder to drink more water.

This was such a fun episode to make! I never thought I'd feel sympathy for a cockroach or fond of a wasp, but here we are. I also may have had too much fun with GarageBand.

Here's some really cool articles I came across while researching:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-wasp-turns-cockroaches-into-zombies1/

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1213384110

https://karger.com/bbe/article/92/1-2/32/47275/How-Not-to-Be-Turned-into-a-Zombie

You may have heard about cordyceps fungi - the fungus that basically zombifies ants. But what about the mind controlling horsehair worm? Me neither. Let's talk about it!

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982223013015

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/09-1565.1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0065308X05590043

https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7471.html

https://www.kobe-u.ac.jp/en/news/article/2021_06_29_01/

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10228-024-00955-3

The very first episode!

I ramble about a species of cattle eyeworm called Thelazia gulosa. Specifically, what is it? Where is it? And if it's called a cattle eyeworm, how did it end up in a human eyeball?

This was definitely a learning curve! I learned a lot through the process of making this, and I have a lot of ideas on how to improve for the next episode. But of course, I'm also open to outside feedback and advice :)

I plan to start working on the next episode after publishing this, so if this kinda stuff interests you, stick around! I promise I'll actually have a cohesive script to mitigate the rambling haha