Science Of ‘The Last Of Us’ Fungi, New U.S. Nuclear Power. Feb 3, 2023, Part 1
Science Friday
Science Friday and WNYC Studios
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🗓️ 3 February 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
The European Union reached a major renewable energy milestone in 2022. For the first time, wind and solar generated more energy in the European Union than any other power source. Ira talks with science writer Roxanne Khamsi about Europe’s energy future and other top science stories of the week, including deer harboring old COVID strains, an endangered marsupial who’s losing a lot of sleep in search of sex, and why mammals live longer in groups.
U.S. Approves First Small Nuclear Reactor Design
Late last month, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave final approval to the first small-modular nuclear reactor design, known in the industry as SMR. It’s not the kind of power plant you might picture when you think of nuclear—gone is the massive cooling tower and tall, domed containment building, in favor of a 15-foot-diameter steel cylinder equipped with passive cooling. And instead of being bespoke designs built to order on site, these reactors can be manufactured in a factory and hooked together in the field—an approach that can shave years off the construction time for a new nuclear facility.
Read the rest at sciencefriday.com.
’The Last Of Us’ Hands Fungi The Spotlight
The Last of Us, a new TV show from HBO, has had audiences hooked from the very first episode. The sci-fi show and the video game it’s based on tells the story of people trying to survive a mass fungal outbreak: one that turns ordinary people into murderous, mind-controlled monsters.
The fungus in the story, Cordyceps, is a real one. It’s known to take over the minds of insects like ants, moths, and beetles and control them to advance its own survival, but that doesn’t happen with humans. Dr. Patty Kaishian, mycologist and visiting professor of biology at Bard College, joins Ira to talk about the science behind The Last of Us. They dig into what’s real, what’s fiction, and how fungi shape our lives.
Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Science Friday. I'm Aruplato. A little later in the hour, we'll tease a part what's |
| 0:05.2 | fiction in HBO's new fungi filled series The Last of Us. Plus thinking about new |
| 0:32.0 | technology for a small modular nuclear reactors. But first speaking of energy, there's a milestone |
| 0:38.8 | in renewable energy. For the first time, wind and solar generated more energy in the European |
| 0:44.5 | Union than any other source of power. Joining me now to talk about this and other top science |
| 0:50.0 | stories of the week is Roxanne Comsey, science writer based in Montreal. Roxanne, welcome back to |
| 0:55.8 | Science Friday. Thank you so much, Ira. I am energized to be here. I can tell. Let's take |
| 1:01.9 | make use of that. Let's talk about what's going on in the EU. Who would have thought, right, |
| 1:07.0 | years ago more energy generated by a wind and solar? Yeah, I mean, I could barely believe it |
| 1:15.0 | when I read this news, but apparently according to this think tank called Ember, |
| 1:20.0 | there's been this massive shift where now as of 2022 last year, wind and solar overtook these |
| 1:27.1 | other forms of energy sources. And the reasons that that happened are really interesting, |
| 1:32.1 | but it's really a landmark moment if you think about how far we've come in terms of renewables. |
| 1:36.3 | And the reason why it happened, what was the catalyst as we say in science? |
| 1:41.2 | Well, so they point to three factors, which I find fascinating that it's so multifactorial. |
| 1:47.1 | One of them is the war in Ukraine, which obviously has created all sorts of disruptions to |
| 1:54.8 | the flow of energy from places like Russia. And another reason is that there was a massive drought, |
| 2:01.5 | and so there was less energy coming from hydro, which has historically produced a bunch of energy. |
| 2:07.6 | And then kind of related to that, the weather has been a little bit milder, so there was less of |
| 2:12.8 | a demand for energy. So these three forces kind of combined to create this environment where |
| 2:19.8 | wind and solar now have taken the forefront. I would imagine that we're seeing the same pattern |
| 2:24.4 | taking place in the US. We are except it's slightly different. So over in Europe, now wind and |
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