Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
Hey, short wavers. Regina Barber here. And Emily Kwong. With our biweekly science news roundup featuring the hosts of All Things Considered. And today we are back with space case Scott Detrow.
Listen, I like space, as you know, but I'm also a fan of apes making out. And that's why I'm here today. I heard that's a topic.
Yes, we're going to pucker up to some weird research. We're also going to talk about space moths.
Yes, and we are going to talk about another moon story, Scott. But this time it's ours and how it was made.
You know, I think last time we talked about one of Jupiter's moons. Yeah. So I'm glad we're closer to home this week.
Yeah.
Moon, moon. You know, buy local. Get excited for all of that on this episode of Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
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Chapter 2: How far back in evolutionary history does kissing go?
After nine months in space, more than 80% of these spores germinated once they were back on Earth. From this, scientists calculate the spores could go about 15 years in space conditions and still germinate. The team published their results in the journal iScience.
So are we going to terraform with them?
Well, the paper points out that moss and other bryophytes can survive low light. They're great at making oxygen and fixing carbon, and they could be good at transforming other planets' surfaces into fertile soil.
But the scientists have only shown that the spores can survive, you know? They haven't shown that the moss, the green fuzzy stuff that you see on Earth can grow in space under this extreme radiation.
Chapter 3: What methods did scientists use to study kissing in primates?
Finally, we're going to talk about a moon. This week it's our moon, a close-to-home moon.
Yes.
Gina, I'm always pro moon stories. Tell me about this week's.
Yes, Scott. Okay, right now, in the sky, there's a moon.
True.
Okay. And then in the beginning, when the solar system was forming, there was a proto-Earth and no moon. No moon. Then something maybe the size of Mars came and smashed into proto-Earth, and that debris from that giant crash made the moon. And the name of this, like, planet-smashing object was Theia.
Now, a new paper in the journal Science is attempting to figure out what this object, Theia, was made out of and where in the solar system it came from. Here's how Kelsey Preisel put it. She's a geochemist from Purdue University who didn't work on this study.
For me, this paper reads kind of like a planetary whodunit, where we're trying to figure out how do we form the Earth-Moon system.
All right, so where did Theia the Earth Smasher... Yeah. It's like a mythological phrase. Yeah, it's like a Marvel villain. Yeah.
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