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Thank you. and quote, Science Podcast to receive special offers. Welcome to the Science Podcast for November 13, 2015.

I'm Sarah Crespi.

In this week's show, Suzanne Bard interviews Lauren Salon

about the winners and losers after one of Earth's largest mass

extinction events. And David Graham is here with stories on Grandma's Immunological Inheritance,

gambling on studies, and essential genes.

Support for the Science podcast is provided by AAAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Now we have David Grimm, editor for our daily news site. He's here to talk about some recent online stories. I'm Sarah Crespi.

First up, we have a story on immunity from grandmothers. When babies are born, they have a pretty naive immune system.

But they do get a little bump from their moms.

Immune molecules from mothers, including antibodies, do cross the placenta and offer a small

amount of protection.

But now it looks like grandmothers might also contribute to this protection. How could this happen?

We don't know that grandmothers can pass along this protection,

but there is this idea that these early maternal immune compounds that you mentioned

might have educational effects.

...