Micro Wave: You Mite Want To Shower After This
Short Wave
NPR
4.7 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2020
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
That's because there are tiny mites that live on your skin — including your face. They come out at night and mate. And we're not totally sure what they eat. See? Don't you feel better already?
Researcher Megan Thoemmes tells us about the lives of these eight-legged creatures — and what they can tell us about ourselves.
Also, if you can believe it, Short Wave launched a year ago today. Happy anniversary to us! And thanks for listening!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey yo, Maddie Sify here with shortwave reporter Emily Kwong. Hey Kwong. Hey yo. So first |
| 0:11.6 | things first, big day. We are celebrating shortwave's one year anniversary. Happy anniversary, |
| 0:22.4 | Maddie. Happy anniversary, Kwong. I'm so excited about this. Like it's been a whole year. |
| 0:27.3 | Since we launched shortwave, nothing really happened in science this past year, but we made it work. |
| 0:32.0 | Right. It's been a wild ride. Let's say that. Let's say that. And you promised me for our anniversary |
| 0:39.5 | episode that I could talk about whatever I wanted. Well, all great relationships involved |
| 0:45.1 | compromise. So here we are. Here we are indeed, ma'am. I thought we could celebrate with a |
| 0:50.8 | microwave episode about how you're never truly alone. Oh, okay. That sounds nice. You're |
| 0:59.2 | definitely still going to feel that way when I tell you why. Okay. I knew there was a catch. |
| 1:05.5 | Don't make me regret this. What is it? Well, it's simply that you, me, most likely every adult out |
| 1:12.5 | there have microscopic mites living in our skin. Oh, you made me regret it. They've been found |
| 1:22.0 | on lots of places on your body. And yes, one of those places is your face. Mites? Like bugs on your |
| 1:29.3 | face? Well, okay. So technically, don't worry. No, they are not insects. They are arachnids, |
| 1:34.8 | which is different. So think more closely related to ticks or spiders. This isn't better. |
| 1:41.9 | That's not better. Let's just let's just all have an open mind here. I will point out that you and |
| 1:46.5 | the rest of our listeners were living your life totally fine before I told you this. |
| 1:51.5 | Okay, we're going to talk later because this is not an anniversary present. So today on the show, |
| 1:56.5 | we celebrate our one year anniversary by talking about the mites who have done nothing wrong, |
| 2:02.5 | that live on your skin. What they can teach us about where we've come from and what they do on |
| 2:08.3 | your face while you sleep at night. What is that supposed to mean? I'm Maddie Sophia and this is |
| 2:13.2 | shortwave from NPR. Okay, so this episode, we've got another one of our micro waves. So a few |
| 2:27.9 | science tidbits and some listener mail. And today, we are talking about the microscopic mites that |
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