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Science Friday

Hemp and CBD, Phytosaurs, Mosquito Control. Dec 7, 2018, Part 1

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Natural Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Friday, Life Sciences

4.4 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2018

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Good news could be coming soon for anyone interested in hemp, the THC-free, no-high strain of cannabis whose use ranges from fibers to food to pharmaceuticals. If the 2018 Farm Bill passes Congress in its current form, growing hemp would be legal and products derived from hemp would be removed from their current legal gray area. Cornell horticulture professor Larry Smart explains why a plant that hasn’t been grown legally in the U.S. for nearly a century will require a monumental effort from scientists to catch up to crops like soybean and tomatoes. Plus, Dr. Esther Blessing, an assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU Langone Health, breaks down where the research stands on other uses of CBD, and what we still don’t know. Then: Mass extinctions are a window into past climate disasters. They give a glimpse of the chemical and atmospheric ingredients that spell out doom for the Earth’s biodiversity. Scientists have identified five big mass extinctions that have happened in the past. The end Triassic mass extinction—number four on the list—happened around 200 million years ago, when three-quarters of the Earth’s species went extinct. But the exact play-by-play is still a mystery. Paleontologist Randy Irmis at the Natural History Museum of Utah and his team are searching for phytosaur fossils, and Science Friday producers Katie Hiler and Lauren J. Young joined him in the field. Plus, could the answer to controlling mosquitos be...more mosquitos? Or, at least, more mosquitos with a bacterial infection. We check in with Valley Public Radio reporter Kerry Klein on the State Of Science. And it's been a big week for space news. Science Friday director Charles Bergquist joins Ira for the News Round-up.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi there, Ira here. You know, the end of the year is right around the corner, and we want to hear your favorite science stories of 2018. What affected you the most? Or was there an interesting discovery that you're still talking about? We want to hear from you. Record a voice memo with your name, city, and what your top story is, and email it to Voices

0:22.4

at Science Friday.com. That's a voice memo, your name, city, and what the top story is,

0:28.2

email it to Voices at Science Friday.com.

0:33.2

This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Plato. Later in the hour, we'll be talking about the research behind farming hemp.

0:40.4

Soon to be legal in the U.S. if the current farm bill goes through. But first, you know how the winter holidays can get so busy, so much traffic, circling, circling, circling, circling the Earth, I'm talking about circling the Earth, of course.

0:56.3

It's been a busy week for spaceflight around the planet.

0:59.4

And if all goes according to plan, seven different rockets are scheduled to launch over a period of just five days.

1:06.5

Joining me now to talk about that.

1:08.2

Another science news from the week is Charles Berkis, Science Friday Director and Contributing Producer.

1:13.7

He's here in our New York studios.

1:15.3

Charles.

1:16.0

Hi, Ira.

1:16.7

Let's talk about some of these rockets.

1:19.3

Tell me about this Chinese rocket.

1:21.4

Yeah, so this is pretty exciting.

1:23.3

It launched just minutes ago, a Chinese rocket, carrying the Changa 4 mission.

1:29.0

And what's really cool about this is it's going to try to make the first ever successful

1:33.7

landing on the far side of the moon.

1:36.9

It's probably end of this month, first couple days of January, we're not quite sure of

1:41.1

the timeline here.

1:42.8

But if all goes well, this is going to be super cool.

1:44.8

We've never been there before.

...

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