Regina Barber

So when that happens, the starlight goes through the exoplanet's atmosphere, if it has one, and studying that light can show if the atmosphere has certain molecules like CO2 or methane.

And CO2 and methane could be, but don't have to be, signs of life.

Well, at least these kinds of habitable exoplanets.

And these scientists said that we really just need, like, better telescopes to get to the bottom of this.

Close, Elsa.

It was a bacterium from Central Asia spread by fleas on rodents that hitched a ride from the shores of the Black Sea to what is now Italy in 1347.

And this raised a question, like why were Italian states worried about famine that year?

Martin Bauch, a historian in Germany, has a really cool hypothesis.

He thinks it might have to do with volcanoes that erupted a few years prior.

His team hypothesized that volcanic activity in 1345 led to extreme rainfall.

It also led to widespread flooding and ultimately crop failure throughout Europe.

Yeah, it's like that's sick.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a gory tale.

But for the common good.

OK, so a recent study in the journal Nature Communications found that sick ants send chemical messages to their nest mates signaling that they're sick.

Then worker ants pick up those signals and destroy the sick ants before they infect the others.

Because, you know, like a fungal infection could take out the whole colony.

Wait, so these ants are like self-sacrificing?

And while the acid kills off the fungus, it also kills the pupae.