Poop of Youth, Robot Roaches, Chatty Fungus

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Science

4.6 • 963 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about how we might be flushing the secret to anti-aging down the toilet, how cyborg cockroaches could save your life one day and how mushrooms may be talking to each other!

The connection between poop and aging.

“Fecal Transplants Reverse Hallmarks of Aging in the Gut, Eyes, and Brain” by The University of East Anglia
- https://scitechdaily.com/fecal-transplants-reverse-hallmarks-of-aging-in-the-gut-eyes-and-brain/
“Fecal Microbiota Transfer Between Young and Aged Mice Reverses Hallmarks of the Aging Gut, Eye, And Brain” by Aimée Parker, Stefano Romano, Rebecca Ansorge, Asmaa Aboelnour, Gwenaelle Le Gall, George M. Savva, Matthew G. Pontifex, Andrea Telatin, David Baker, Emily Jones, David Vauzour, Steven Rudder, L. Ashley Blackshaw, Glen Jeffery & Simon R. Carding
- https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-022-01243-w

Search and rescue roaches.

“Robotised insects may search collapsed buildings for survivors” by The Economist
- https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/robotised-insects-may-search-collapsed-buildings-for-survivors/21808326
“S'pore team turning cockroaches into life-saving cyborg bugs at disaster sites” by Clara Chong
- https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/spore-team-turning-cockroaches-into-life-saving-cyborg-bugs-at-disaster-sites

Mushroom talks.

“Language of Fungi Derived From Their Electrical Spiking Activity” by Andrew Adamatzky
- https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.211926
“Mushrooms may Communicate with Each Other Using Electrical Impulses” by Elizabeth Gamillo
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mushrooms-may-communicate-with-each-other-using-electrical-impulses-180979889/
“Fungi Appear to Talk in a Language Similar to Humans” by Hannah Osborne
- https://www.newsweek.com/fungi-language-communication-talk-similar-humans-1695146
“The Fungus Among Us May Have Their Own Mushroom Language” by Melissa Truth Miller
- https://nerdist.com/article/mushrooms-fungus-may-communicate-via-language-50-words/
“Do Trees Talk to Each Other?” by Richard Grant
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/

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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 Discovery.
0:09.0	Time flies when you're learning super cool stuff. I'm Nate.
0:12.0	And I'm Callie. If you're dropping in for the
0:14.1	first time welcome to curiosity where we aim to blow your mind by helping you to
0:17.9	grow your mind. If you're a loyal listener, welcome back. Today you'll learn
0:21.7	about how we might be flushing the secret to anti-aging down the
0:25.0	toilet, how mushrooms may be talking to each other, and how cyborg cockroaches
0:30.0	could save your life one day. Without further ado, let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:35.0	Hey, do you remember when we talked about scientists who created a pill made from poop that can help prevent
0:40.0	allergic reactions?
0:41.0	Yeah, that's one of the harder stories to forget. Not that I want to forget any of them.
0:46.4	Are we talking about poop again today? Yes, but this time researchers found that poop might not only be our solution to allergies, but it might even be the source of the mythical fountain of youth.
0:57.0	A recent study found evidence that transferring fecal matter from young mice into old mice can reverse some of the effects of aging in the eyes,
1:04.7	brain and gut. Okay so let me get this straight. Scientists took poop from one mouse
1:09.1	and put it into a different mouse.
1:13.0	How do you go about transferring poop?
1:16.0	Okay, to start, researchers cleared the recipient mouse's gut by giving them an antibiotic cocktail
1:21.0	for three days to flush out their system. Then
1:23.7	researchers gave them a fecal slurry through a tube down their throat. They
1:28.9	created this slurry by mixing fecal pellets from two donor mice.
1:32.0	Well if you could never say fecal pellets from two donor mice.
1:33.0	If you could never say fecal slurry again,
	...

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