Did you know that corals can live deep underwater where it's pitch black and freezing cold?

The truth is that there are actually more species of corals in deep water than there are in shallow water.

It's Friday, February 2nd, and happy thanks Friday, y'all.

I'm sci-fi producer Rasha Eredi.

I had no idea that corals could live thousands of feet underwater.

I always imagine them in shallow, warm waters with the sunlight shining down on them. But deep sea coral reefs are

huge. In fact, scientists just revealed the largest one in the world. Later, we'll learn how

scientists mapped it and what makes deep sea corals so special. But first, let's check in on this

week's biggest science stories. Here's Iroflisdo.

Cephalis is on the rise in the U.S. A new federal report on sexually transmitted infections in Americans revealed syphilis cases rose 80% between 2018 and 2022,

with total cases being more than 200,000. That's the highest count in the U.S. since, what,

1950. But while the syphilis epidemic is growing, other STI rates are down. Joining me to help

explain this and other science news of the week is Rachel Feldman, host of the podcast,

the weirdest thing I learned this week. Welcome back, Rachel.

Thanks for having me, Ira. All right. This case of sexually transmitted infections and syphilis,

what's going on here? Yeah, so as you said, we've seen an 80% rise since 2018. And these are the 22 numbers, which just got

released. And the CDC was very clear that they suspect 2023 was worse. Obviously, this is

troubling, but it's not surprising. You know, for the past few years, every time these reports

have come out, the CDC has been sounding the alarm on syphilis.

They think this is due to a decrease in condom use, but also largely due to issues in access to good health care, you know, social and economic conditions, stigma.

So a lot of this has more to do with with deep

systemic issues than with anything actually related to sexual behavior. What do you mean by

...