Wed. 07/07 - Algae Beer, Lead-Poisoned Emperors, & mRNA Flu Vaccines

Cool Stuff Ride Home

Reggie Risseeuw and Marques Pfaff

News, Tech News, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Could lead poisoning have led to the fall of Rome? The Australian craft brewery using algae to offset their carbon emissions. And Moderna has started human trials of their mRNA flu vaccine. Sponsor: Credit Karma, creditkarma.com/podcast Links: The White House killed William Henry Harrison (Washington Post) How Lead (Maybe?) Caused the Downfall of the Roman Empire (Reactions, YouTube) Did lead poisoning cause downfall of Roman Empire? The jury is still out (Ars Technica) Why ancient Rome kept choosing bizarre and perverted emperors (Vox) The first artificial sweetener poisoned lots of Romans (Gizmodo) Cities With the Most Contaminated Tap Water in the US (Business Insider) The craft brewery using algae to cut emissions (BBC) 'What the hell is that?': Brewery uses algae to reduce carbon emissions (Sydney Morning Herald) Each sixpack of beer contributes to climate change. 'Going green' might be the solution (ABC Australia) The Algae Project (Young Henrys Brewing) Moderna starts human trials of an mRNA-based flu shot (The Verge) mRNA vaccine yields full protection against malaria in mice: Recent advancements allow for novel approaches against an old enemy (Science Daily) Are mRNA flu shots in the works? Yes, but not for the upcoming flu season. (Washington Post) Moderna to Trial HIV and Flu Vaccines With mRNA Technology (Verywell Health) America used fewer fossil fuels in 2020 than it has in three decades (The Verge) Kottke.Org Jackson Bird on Twitter See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Kotke Ride Home for Wednesday, July 7th, 2021. I'm Jackson Bird.
0:12.2	Could lead poisoning have led to the fall of Rome? The Australian craft brewery using algae to
0:20.2	offset their carbon emissions.
0:22.4	And Moderna has started human trials of their MRI flu vaccine.
0:27.8	Here are some of the cool things from the news today.
0:33.3	There have been books upon books written about the fall of Rome. Explanations for the fall
0:39.3	typically include things like military overspending and failures, the rise of Eastern
0:44.5	empires, economic troubles, including an over-reliance on slave labor, government corruption,
0:50.6	the spread of new ideas shaking the Romans' long-held values. But there's another possible
0:55.9	theory. And it's one that reminds me a bit of the newer findings that three U.S. presidents in the
1:02.0	mid-19th century probably died due to the contaminated water supply at the White House. Because this, too,
1:09.6	is a kind of slow-burn quasi-infrastructure issue that they didn't exactly
1:14.6	understand at the time, and which had potentially even bigger ramifications than the
1:19.5	White House's water.
1:21.1	It's a theory that's been around for a while, but is getting kicked around again
1:24.1	thanks to a new video from PBS's reactions series on YouTube, produced by the
1:28.8	American Chemical Society. The theory goes that, yes, government corruption did play a crucial
1:34.4	role in the fall of the Roman Empire, specifically corrupt and unstable emperors,
1:40.1	emperors who may have been unstable due to lead poisoning.
1:49.8	Host Samantha Jones explains in the reactions video that lead was everywhere in Rome,
1:54.6	so the likelihood that the emperor's brains and many other people's brains were being addled by lead poisoning is fairly high. And just as a refresher on some of the strange
2:00.7	alleged behavior from some of the
	...

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