Mammoth ivory trade may be bad for elephants, and making green electronics with fungus

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this week’s show: The potentially harmful effects of prehistoric ivory on present-day elephants, and replacing polymers in electronics with fungal tissue First up this week on the podcast, we hear about the effect of mammoth and mastodon ivory on the illegal elephant ivory trade. Online News Editor Michael Price joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how as melting permafrost has uncovered fossilized ivory from these extinct creatures, more has entered the ivory trade. The question is: Does the availability of this type of ivory reduce the demand for ivory from elephants, or does it endanger them more? Next, making electronics greener with fungus with Doris Danninger, a Ph.D. student in the Soft Matter Physics Division at the Institute of Experimental Physics at Johannes Kepler University, Linz. Doris and Sarah discuss the feasibility of replacing the bulky backing of chips and the casing of batteries with sheets of fungal tissue to make flexible, renewable, biodegradable electronics. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. [Image: RudiHulshof/iStock; Music: Jeffrey Cook] [alt: photo of an elephant tusk with point facing the camera with podcast overlay symbol] Authors: Sarah Crespi; Michael Price Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adf8340 About the Science Podcast: https://www.science.org/content/page/about-science-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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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.
0:07.8	Icon Mount Sinai is the academic arm of the eight hospital Mount Sinai health system in New York City.
0:13.9	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding.
0:18.0	Researchers at Icon Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in many fields vital to
0:23.0	advancing the health of patients, including cancer, COVID and long COVID, cardiology, neuroscience, and
0:30.4	artificial intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way. Morgan State
0:37.3	University, a Baltimore, Maryland,
0:39.4	Carnegie R2 doctoral research institution, offers more than 100 academic programs and awards
0:45.4	degrees at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels, is furthering their mission of
0:50.4	growing the future leading the world. Morgan continues to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment.
0:57.4	With a four-year quadrupling of research, more than a dozen new doctoral programs,
1:02.4	and eight new national centers of excellence, Morgan is positioned to achieve Carnegie R1
1:07.8	designation in the next five years.
1:10.4	To learn more about Morgan and their
1:12.3	ascension to R1, visit Morgan.edu slash research. This is a science podcast for November 18th,
1:25.3	2022. I'm Sarah Crespi.
1:28.1	Each week I interview journalists and scientists
1:30.9	that publish in science and the sister journals.
1:33.6	First up this week, the effect of mammoth
1:36.1	and Macedon ivory on the illegal elephant ivory trade.
1:41.0	Online news editor Mike Price joins me to discuss
1:44.0	how melting permafrost has uncovered more
	...

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