Discover this podcast and so much more

Podcasts are free to enjoy without a subscription. We also offer ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more for just $11.99/month.

With All Our Mites

With All Our Mites

FromBig Picture Science


With All Our Mites

FromBig Picture Science

ratings:
Length:
54 minutes
Released:
Dec 11, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

ENCORE  You are not alone.  You can’t see ‘em, but your face is a festival of face mites. They’ve   evolved with us for millennia.  And a new study finds that hundreds of different tiny spiders, beetles, and – our favorite - book lice make your home theirs.  But before you go bonkers with the disinfectant, consider: eradicating these critters may do more harm than good.  Some are such close evolutionary partners with humans that they keep us healthy and can even reveal something about our ancestry. But then there are bed bugs.  Pests without redemption.  However, their newly-sequenced genome may help us end their nightly nuisances.  And of course some microscopic critters are deadly.  So when it comes to bugs: when do we accommodate and when do we attack?   Guests: Michelle Trautwein – Curator of entomology, California Academy of Sciences Matt Bertone –  Entomologist, North Carolina State University Joshua Benoit -- Insect molecular biologist, University of Cincinnati  Thomas McDade – Biological anthropologist, Northwestern University
Released:
Dec 11, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Big Picture Science: A smart and humorous take on emerging trends in science and technology. Tune in and make contact with science. We broadcast and podcast every week. bigpicturescience.org