Blue Streak Science Podcast

Black Widow Spider - Latrodectus mactans It was one of those weeks in science; an embarrassment of riches. And talk about abundance, our universe may contain upwards of 2 trillion galaxies! You know, a trillion here, a trillion there and soon we're talking big numbers here. Okay, follow along with me. A virus that incorporates a gene from a spider. First, that's cool because it's a virus using the DNA of a complex organism. The gene happens to be a gene that codes for black widow venom. That's right. Black widow venom. Now this virus, a bacteriophage, uses that gene to poke holes in bacteria. Whoah! Then we talk about 5,000 to 19,000 year old human footprints, lots of 'em, in volcanic sediment. These footprints tell numerous stories about ancestors and it is just so fascinating. It's so easy to visualize them and imagine who they were, and what they were doing.  What The Hell Was That? We reveal the answer to last week's terrifying and disturbing sound. No, no listener or host got the correct answer, bu