A caterpillar that haunts spiderwebs, solving the last riddles of a famed friar, and a new book series

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

First up on the podcast, bringing Gregor Mendel’s peas into the 21st century. Back in the 19th century Mendel, a friar and naturalist, tracked traits in peas such as flower color and shape over many generations. He used these observations to identify basic concepts about inheritance such as recessive and dominant traits. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad talks with host Sarah Crespi about the difficulty of identifying genes for these phenotypes all these years later. We also hear some other stories from the plant world, including evidence that wavy fields are more attractive to insects and a tree benefits from being struck by lightning. Next on the show, a carnivorous caterpillar that haunts spiderwebs, camouflaged in its insect prey’s body parts. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Daniel Rubinoff, a professor in the department of plant and environmental protection sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, about how such an adaptation might have evolved and the overlooked importance of insect conservation. Finally, we kick off our 2025 books series on the science of death and dying. Books host Angela Saini and books editor Valerie Thompson talk about the challenges of putting this year’s list together and the reads they are looking forward to. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Erik Stokstad; Kevin McLean; Valerie Thompson; Angela Saini Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:07.4	The school is the academic arm of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
0:11.6	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding.
0:15.3	Researchers at the Icon School of Medicine in Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in many fields vital to advancing
0:21.5	the health of patients, including cardiology, cancer, immunology, neuroscience, and artificial
0:27.7	intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:34.6	This is a science podcast for April 25th, 2025.
0:38.3	I'm Kevin McLean, filling in for Sarah Crespi.
0:41.3	First up, staff writer Eric Stock said, joined Sarah Cresby to talk about why 21st century researchers
0:46.3	are still interested in Gregor Mendel's teas.
0:49.3	They also cover a couple of recent plant stories, including why wavy fields might be more attractive to insects,
0:55.1	and a tree that benefits from being struck by lightning. Next on the show, entomologist Dan Rubinoff
1:00.9	joins me to talk about a carnivorous caterpillar that haunts spider webs, camouflaged in its insect
1:06.5	prey's body parts. We discuss how such an adaptation might have evolved and the overlooked importance
1:12.1	of insect conservation. And finally, we kick off our 2025 book series. This year's theme is
1:18.2	the science of death and dying, but the conversation is surprisingly lively. And how could it
1:23.0	not be with books host Angela Saney and books editor Valerie Thompson, right? They talk about the challenges of putting this year's list together and the reads they're
1:30.7	looking forward to.
1:37.8	Now we have staff writer Eric Stocksted.
1:40.7	He wrote this week about identifying genes in peas.
1:46.0	These are pea plants. Identifying genes for traits that were written about way back in the 1800s by Gregor Mendel. And after we get
1:52.6	through with Mendel's peas, we'll talk about some of the other stories Eric has worked on in the last
	...

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