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Curiosity Weekly

Do Turkeys Really Drown in Rainstorms?

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6964 Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Neil Shubin is back to talk about the viruses lurking in your DNA. You’ll also learn about whether it’s true that turkeys are so dumb that they drown in rainstorms, and why domineering people don't rise through the ranks any faster.

Additional resources from biologist and author Neil Shubin:

Turkeys Don't Drown in Rainstorms by Ashley Hamer

Despite the stereotype, selfish, domineering people don't rise through the ranks any faster by Kelsey Donk

Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Ashley Hamer and Natalia Reagan (filling in for Cody Gough). You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

 

Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/do-turkeys-really-drown-in-rainstorms


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com.

0:07.0

I'm Ashley Hamer.

0:08.0

And I'm Natalia Reagan.

0:09.0

Today, Neil Schuman is back to talk about viruses lurking in your DNA.

0:13.6

You'll also learn about whether it's true that turkeys are so dumb

0:16.8

that they drown in rainstorms and why domineering people don't rise through the ranks any faster. Let's satisfy some curiosity.

0:25.0

I don't want to freak you out, but not all of your DNA comes from your ancestors.

0:31.0

Nearly 8% of the human genome comes from viruses.

0:35.2

Viruses!

0:36.2

In your DNA!

0:38.2

But according to today's guest, those viral genes have a silver lining.

0:42.4

Neil Schubin is a biologist and best. those viral genes have a silver lining.

0:43.0

Neil Schubin is a biologist and best-selling author, and his latest book is entitled Some Assembly

0:48.2

Required, decoding 4 billion years of life from ancient fossils to DNA and I asked him how the heck

0:55.5

did viruses end up in our DNA? Well good question so I think what a

1:00.8

virus is I guess is very relevant you know virus is, I guess this is very relevant,

1:03.3

you know, virus is a little piece of genetic material,

1:05.7

either RNA or DNA, it's a tiny little piece of genetic material,

1:08.8

surrounded by a shell, more or less.

1:10.7

And there are a huge diversity of viruses, I should say, you know, the estimate, just

1:16.3

in the ocean of viruses, there are 10 to 31st power of them, that is a 10 with 31st

1:22.3

zeros, number of viruses in the ocean.

...

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