Sex and the SETI

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2011

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Birds do it. Bees do it. But no one sings about how they do it. And frankly, not even Cole Porter can make bedroom behavior that involves decapitating your mate sound romantic. And what rhymes with “cannibalism?” But the animal world abounds with bizarre sexual behavior… and it’s all perfectly normal. Find out how female spiders lure males to their doom… why dolphins are the friskiest of mammals… whether E.T. would have sex… and why sexual reproduction evolved in the first place. Also, why the marketing gurus have it all wrong: driving a Hummer or wearing Gucci won’t help you land a mate. Find out what will. Guests: Olivia Judson - Evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London and author of Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex Lori Marino - Evolutionary Biologist at Emory University Sharon Moalem - Neuro-geneticist, evolutionary biologist and author of How Sex Works: Why We Look, Smell, Taste, Feel, and Act the Way We Do Geoffrey Miller - Evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico and author of Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior Descripción en español Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
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0:43.0	Listen to What's New With Wired, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:47.0	That's What's New With Wired, wherever you get your podcasts. When it comes to diversity in the animal kingdom, there may be nothing that beats the sheer range of sexual behavior.
1:12.0	Sure, birds do it, bees do it, but when you take time to examine just how they do it, well, consider honeybee, hanky-panky. The male honeybee mates with a queen bee and then...
1:22.1	The male actually explodes and his body falls to the ground and he leaves his genitalia in position.
1:28.0	When you say in position, you know, it's still in the Queen Bee.
1:31.0	Still in the Queen Bee. Still in the Queen B.
1:33.0	And if you're close enough, you can hear it happening.
1:35.0	There's an audible snap as the male breaks in heart.
1:38.0	Even Cole Porter would have trouble making that sound romantic.
1:42.0	Olivia Jutson is an evolutionary biologist at Imperial College in London,
	...

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