Why Do I Love the Fly That’s Eating My Brain?

Radiolab for Kids

WNYC

Parenting, Education For Kids, Stem, Education, Pets & Animals, Radiolab, Podcast, Storytelling, Children, Kids & Family, Kids, Science, Terrestrials, Educational, Nature, Family-friendly, Fun, Animals

4.4 • 934 Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode asks how scientists see the world. We bring you two stories — one about a math guy and a bug guy. First, how the math guy, or one of our country's greatest mathematicians, Steven Strogatz, first became enchanted with math as a kid. Then, a story about a human developing a soft corner (literally) for a fly that lived in his scalp — the botfly. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne went on a research trip to Costa Rica and returned home with a botfly feeding on his flesh. His friend Sarah Rogerson was a little less charmed, and they both were surprised by the creature that ultimately emerged from his head.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Wait, you're listening.
0:02.0	Okay.
0:03.0	All right.
0:04.0	Okay.
0:05.0	All right.
0:07.0	You're listening to Radio Lab.
0:09.0	For again.
0:11.0	Radio.
0:12.0	From WNYS. C. He? Look at
0:28.8	Hey there, Lulu here. It is the dog days of summer. The air is hot, the mosquitoes are biting. And in honor that, we are going to play a story about a fly with an even gnarlier bite than the mosquito.
0:37.0	The Botfly.
0:47.0	It's a pretty wild, kind of funny, a little bit gross story, but not that gross. I believe in you, you can handle it. And this was from part of a show that we did just about scientists
0:54.0	and how weird and lovely they are
0:57.4	and how they often see the world differently
1:01.2	than the rest of us.
1:04.0	I have found this to be true.
1:05.0	It's why I love to interview scientists.
1:08.0	They can see beauty in gross places or fascination in boring places and so our for our story today we're going to hear
1:15.9	two stories one about a math guy and one about a bug guy and I hope you enjoy I going to kick it off to Radio Lab hosts Jad Abum Rod and Robert
1:27.1	Krollich, who begin with the story of how one of our country's greatest mathematicians first became entranced with math
1:38.8	as a kid. For Steve Stroggets, a mathematician who we sometimes have on the show, it all started with a pendulum.
1:53.0	He was sitting in math class.
	...

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