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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
new shows new music new movies keeping up with pop culture sometimes feels like a full-time job thankfully over at pop culture happy hour it's literally our job we break down what's actually worth watching listening to and pretending you already knew about so the next time someone says did you see that you can say yeah obviously follow npr's pop culture happy hour wherever you get your podcasts you're listening to shortwave from npr
Hey, short wavers. Regina Barber here.
And Hannah Chin with our biweekly Science News Roundup.
And we're lucky enough to have Sasha Pfeiffer back on the show third time in a row. Hi, Regina. Hi, Hannah. Fun to be back with you.
All right, Sasha, our first topic is about beans and bean plants' surprising chemical counterattack against caterpillars, which are a common garden pest.
Ah, you know, given that fiber has become such a wellness trend with everybody fiber-maxing, I'll be very interested to hear about this one.
I mean, we also have an episode about fiber-maxing. It just came out.
Then we're going to talk about another pest. We're going to be talking about how best to teach mice.
And lastly, we've got one more story about pests. This time it's how the bug-repellent DEET could have a major Achilles heel.
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Chapter 2: What innovative defense mechanism do bean plants use against caterpillars?
Plants release them all the time. Like cut grass smells a specific way. That's the plant's chemical response to being wounded.
Interesting. The cut grass smelling a specific way reminds me of flowers smelling sweet because they're trying to attract bees.
Yeah. And these are both chemical responses, right? But the specific compound that attracts wasps is really only triggered via caterpillar spit. So the bean plant doesn't call wasps in if, say, You cut a leaf or if you damage the plant in a different way. And Sasha, this is just one of multiple ways that plants have really evolved to defend themselves.
If you think about the thorns of a rose or the spines of a cactus or bitter, poisonous leaves, or I guess in this case, this strategy, right? Calling in some aerial reinforcements from the insect world.
It's like calling in the drones.
Yes, exactly.
All right. You also mentioned for your second topic, new ways to speed up learning in mice. Tell us about that one.
Yeah, so I brought you a study just published in the journal Science. In lab experiments, researchers typically give mice little rewards to help them learn tasks. But in this study, they found that giving them bigger rewards less frequently actually helped the mice learn a lot faster. Here's Josh Dudman, one of the authors of the study.
We discovered that we had been substantially underestimating how efficiently animals can learn. We could essentially take some of the slowest learners and move them all the way up to the fastest learners.
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Chapter 3: How do plants communicate distress to attract wasps?
Speaking of which, on the app, we've got podcasts, broadcasts, digital stories, a bunch of stuff to help you know what's going on with the world and keep up with the news. So download the NPR app and sign up for push notifications so you can know when the latest Shortwave episode drops.
So, Sasha, did you enjoy our pest control adaptation episode? I did. Makes you think differently about beans, I think.
Everybody needs more fiber, right? Does anybody get enough?
Not in America. Yeah, over 90% of us are not getting enough.
Not good.
Well, come back anytime, Sasha. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
This episode was produced by Mallory Yu and Aru Nair. It was edited by Christopher and Taliata. Tyler Jones checked the facts. David Greenberg and Tiffany Vericastro were the audio engineers.
I'm Regina Barber. And I'm Hannah Shin. Thanks for listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
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