We Have Concerns

How far can you fall and still survive? Such is the question posed by a new article in Mental Floss. Jeff and Anthony discuss the answer... which might surprise you! (Not that they discuss it... oh, you get what I mean) GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! I...

Back in the 1960s, neuroscientist John C. Lilly ran a NASA-funded research unit where humans attempted to communicate with dolphins. Somewhere along the line, LSD got thrown into the mix, a researcher became sexually involved with a dolphin, and things generally got a bit weird. Anthony and Jeff discuss how the hell this happened and what it did to dolphin science. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOU...

Alex Honnold climbed the mighty El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without any safety gear in about four hours using only his hands and feet. The 31-year-old became the first person to climb the 3000-foot granite wall alone without a safety harness or ropes to catch him if he fell. Is he crazy or stupid? Or both? Neuroscientists recently studied Honnold’s brain. They hadn’t seen anything like it...

With each passing breakthrough in artificial intelligence, we’re asking our machines to make increasingly complex and weighty decisions. Trouble is, AIs are starting to act beyond our levels of comprehension. In an effort to bridge the growing gap between man and machine, the Pentagon is launching a new program to create machines that can explain their actions in a way we puny humans can understan...

Virtual reality systems can create out-of-body experiences — and these experiences may be able to reduce the fear of death, according to a recently published study. Anthony, Jeff, and special guest Anita Sarkeesian discuss whether technology can deliver a zen-like calm in the face of death. Thanks to Anita for joining us! Find her show at https://feministfrequency.com/ We recorded a special, doubl...

For the past few years, a new scientific tool known as CRISPR-Cas9 has been hailed as the future of medicine. But a new study, published in Nature Methods , found that using CRISPR-Cas9 to edit a genome can result in hundreds of unintended mutations being introduced. Is this tool still the future, or should we slow down and pump the brakes on gene editing? Jeff and Anthony discuss. GET BONUS EPISO...

A start-up called Ambrosia is charging $8,000 for blood transfusions from young people. About 100 people have signed up to receive an infusion, founder Dr. Jesse Karmazin announced at the Code Conference. Anyone over age 35 can become an Ambrosia customer, said Karmazin, but most of the early adopters tend to be of retirement age. Anthony and Jeff discuss the ethics of this startup and idea of tec...

Authorities in Kuwait had been tracking a homing pigeon that was coming from Iraq. According to local newspaper Al-Rai, there were 178 ecstasy pills were found in a small bag attached to the bird's back. Anthony and Jeff discuss bird mules, and the escalation of sick bird prankz into something serious. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all yo...

When humans work together with not-very-smart robots, they’re better at solving problems than when they work only with other people, new research says. Jeff and Anthony debate the value of getting stuff wrong. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re e...

Scientists have healed severe bone fractures in pigs by blasting tiny bubbles with ultrasound in the animals’ bones. The technique encourages the pigs’ bodies to regenerate themselves, and could one day be used to help humans — especially the elderly — heal dangerous bone injuries. Jeff and Anthony discuss the procedure to understand how it works. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT...

Virtual rabbits across Second Life will fall asleep and never wake up, now that the their digital food supply has been shut down by a legal battle. The player-made and player-sold Ozimals brand of digirabbits are virtual pets that players breed and care for in the sandbox MMO, and even need to feed by buying DRM-protected virtual food. But they rely on servers and soon the rabbits will run out of...

Researchers at Tilburg University in the Netherlands surveyed both scientists and highly educated nonscientists and asked them to rate the two categories of people in terms of objectivity, rationality, integrity, open-mindedness, intelligence and cooperativeness. Both groups rated scientists higher on every one of these measures, yet scientists perceived bigger differences between the two groups t...

Fear, for the most part, is controlled by the brain’s amygdalae, but a team of researchers at University College Cork have discovered that the gut microbiome, that collection of bacteria that lives within your digestive system, appears to also have an effect on the response to and processing of fear in mice. Anthony and Jeff discuss what this might mean for humans, and how the biome will be used t...

On October 30, 1919, Tony Pizzo arrived in New York City chained to his bicycle. He had pedaled 3,000 miles in five-and-a-half months, attached to his bike by a three-and-a-half-foot chain and handcuffs welded shut around his wrists. All because of a bet. Jeff posits that this fits yet another in the recurring Chronicles of a Badass segments, but does Anthony agree? GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGO...

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada recently unveiled what is perhaps the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever unearthed. That’s because, 110 million years later, the bones remain covered by the creature’s intact skin and armor. Anthony and Jeff discuss the discovery and what it means for B- and C-list dinosaurs everywhere. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VIS...

When residents of other countries are asked “What’s a dead giveaway that someone is American?” one trait comes up over and over again: big, toothy grins. Why do Americans smile so much? Anthony and Jeff dive into the research on the topic and decide whether its worth being happy about. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have...

A huge fish covered in ‘tattoos’ has been caught in the Philippines. Where you would expect plain scales, the fish has intricate blue designs of a crown and a shield, lettering and entwined plant leaves instead. But why? Only Jeff and Anthony can possibly unravel this mystery: The mystery of the tattooed fish. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Ge...

An exhaustive comparison of Neandertals’ injuries to those of people today finds that water tubing and mishaps involving tables, result in top-heavy fracture patterns most similar to those observed on Neandertal fossils. This analysis illustrates just how little modern evidence reveals about ways in which our evolutionary relatives ended up so battered. Jeff and Anthony tackle the question of whet...

All mammals poop in 12 seconds and there’s an equation for the ‘duration of diarrheal defecation'. All this and more revealed in a new paper from Nobel Prize winning scientists from Georgia Tech. Jeff and Anthony dive deep into poop science, and come out smelling like experts. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns...

A new paper by Kate Sweeny, psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, argues there's an upside to worrying. Anthony, a professional-level worrier, agrees, but Jeff needs some convincing. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sweet We Have Concerns merch by swinging by http://wehaveconcerns.com/shop Hey! If you’re e...

Researchers have discovered that mole rats can survive for 18 minutes without oxygen. What is even more astonishing is how they manage it. The mole rats effectively become plants, altering their metabolism so that cells are powered by fructose rather than glucose, a process which requires no oxygen. Anthony and Jeff discuss the usefulness of such an ability and how humans might benefit. GET BONUS...

Scientist Federica Bertocchini of the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain discovered a worm that eats plastic bags and leaves behind antifreeze. Jeff and Anthony discuss the potential of this natural solution to the plastic waste problem, and whether that ends up being good or bad for the worms. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/weh...

For a study published in the journal Nature Communications, researchers from Philadelphia suspended premature lambs, a close animal model for human fetuses, in a special bag filled with lab-made amniotic fluid, allowing them to further develop for four weeks—longer than in past similar attempts. Anthony and Jeff discuss the benefits of artificial wombs and whether they'd like to see what it would...

Researchers in the US say they've created a fluid with negative mass in the lab. What it means is that, unlike pretty much every other known physical object, when you push this fluid, it accelerates backwards instead of moving forwards. Jeff and Anthony try to work through what this means for the universe and for Tru TV's Impractical Jokers. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http...

We don't always have a good sense of why we fight. What pushes us to the point of conflict, when we know it will make us unhappy? And why does it leave us feeling so glum afterward? Jeff and Anthony take a look at findings from the world of psychology to investigate some less-than-obvious answers. GET BONUS EPISODES, VIDEO HANGOUTS AND MORE. VISIT: http://patreon.com/wehaveconcerns Get all your sw...