Curiosity Daily Podcast: The Invisible Harm of Thirdhand Smoke, Why Whales Get Lost During Solar Storms, and A Massive Virus That Blurs the Line Between Life and Non-Life

Episode Show Notes:

Moviegoers contaminate nonsmoking movie theater with 'thirdhand' cigarette smoke by Kelsey Donk

• Moviegoers contaminate nonsmoking movie theater with “thirdhand” cigarette smoke. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/aaft-mcn030220.php
• Thirdhand smoke wafting off moviegoers hurts air quality in theaters. (2020, March 5). Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/thirdhand-smoke-fumes-air-quality-movie-theaters
• Sheu, R., Stönner, C., Ditto, J. C., Klüpfel, T., Williams, J., & Gentner, D. R. (2020). Human transport of thirdhand tobacco smoke: A prominent source of hazardous air pollutants into indoor nonsmoking environments. Science Advances, 6(10), eaay4109. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aay4109

Massive viruses that blur the line between living and non-living by Cameron Duke

• Al-Shayeb, B., Sachdeva, R., Chen, L.-X., Ward, F., Munk, P., Devoto, A., Castelle, C. J., Olm, M. R., Bouma-Gregson, K., Amano, Y., He, C., Méheust, R., Brooks, B., Thomas, A., Lavy, A., Matheus-Carnevali, P., Sun, C., Goltsman, D. S. A., Borton, M. A., … Banfield, J. F. (2020). Clades of huge phages from across Earth’s ecosystems. Nature, 578(7795), 425–431. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2007-4
• Huge bacteria-eating viruses close gap between life and non-life: Large bacteriophages carry bacterial genes, including CRISPR and ribosomal proteins. (2020, February 12). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200212131458.htm

Solar storms blind whales because they mess with magnetoreception by Cameron Duke

• Solar storms may leave gray whales “blind” and stranded. (2020). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200224111356.htm
• Granger, J., Walkowicz, L., Fitak, R., & Johnsen, S. (2020). Gray whales strand more often on days with increased levels of atmospheric radio-frequency noise. Current Biology, 30(4), R155–R156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.01.028
• Johnsen, S., & Lohmann, K. J. (2008). Magnetoreception in animals. Physics Today, 61(3), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2897947

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