This week’s episode is a reminder that science news is basically three genres on rotation: animals behaving badly, humans believing wild things with full confidence, and researchers doing work that sounds like a plot twist in a sci‑fi novel. We’ve got dolphins running ocean heists, urine therapy finding new ways to stay alive online, and mice with human brain cells making everyone quietly ask, “Are we sure we’re comfortable with this?”

First up, dolphins. There are reports of them stealing fish from seabirds mid-hunt, which is already rude, but it can get even stranger when you look at what counts as “food” in the ocean. This is where kleptoparasitism comes in, the polite term for stealing someone else’s meal, including forcing prey to regurgitate and then grabbing the half-digested leftovers.

Then we move to urine therapy, which refuses to die on the internet despite being widely debunked. Online groups still treat it like a miracle health hack, and some people are now trying to use AI as a validation machine. When chatbots push back, they rephrase prompts or wrap them in poetry to slip past safety filters and get the answer they want.

Finally, we get to the research that makes you sit back a bit. Scientists are experimenting with mice that have been given human brain cells to study brain development and neurological disease. The aim is medical insight, but it still raises the bigger question about where the ethical line sits, and how we stop “we can” from automatically becoming “we should”.

 

CHAPTER MARKERS:

00:00 Intro

01:45 Urine Therapy 

04:11 Esoteric Prompts 

07:26 Medical Reality Check

08:00 Schmief Belief 

09:08 Kleptoparasitism Dolphin Thieves

11:50 The Fish Puke Feeding Strategy

15:16 Who Eats Whom Database

19:31 Flowers for Algernon Recap

22:42 Human Neurons in Rats

 

SOURCES:

https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/6158/

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/urine-therapy-ai

https://whoeatswhom.org/?ref=404media.co

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003988&ref=404media.co

https://www.science.org/content/article/dolphin-chased-fish-until-it-puked-then-ate-vomit

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2589612-human-organoids-restore-cognition-in-mice-with-half-a-brain

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2342138-human-neurons-transplanted-into-a-rats-brain-influence-its-behaviour/

This week&rsquo;s episode is a reminder that science news is basically three genres on rotation: animals behaving badly, humans believing wild things with full confidence, and researchers doing work that sounds like a plot twist in a sci‑fi novel. We&rsquo;ve got dolphins running ocean heists, urine therapy finding new ways to stay alive online, and mice with human brain cells making everyone quietly ask, &ldquo;Are we sure we&rsquo;re comfortable with this?&rdquo;
First up, dolphins. There are reports of them stealing fish from seabirds mid-hunt, which is already rude, but it can get even stranger when you look at what counts as &ldquo;food&rdquo; in the ocean. This is where kleptoparasitism comes in, the polite term for stealing someone else&rsquo;s meal, including forcing prey to regurgitate and then grabbing the half-digested leftovers.
Then we move to urine therapy, which refuses to die on the internet despite being widely debunked. Online groups still treat it like a miracle health hack, and some people are now trying to use AI as a validation machine. When chatbots push back, they rephrase prompts or wrap them in poetry to slip past safety filters and get the answer they want.
Finally, we get to the research that makes you sit back a bit. Scientists are experimenting with mice that have been given human brain cells to study brain development and neurological disease. The aim is medical insight, but it still raises the bigger question about where the ethical line sits, and how we stop &ldquo;we can&rdquo; from automatically becoming &ldquo;we should&rdquo;.
&nbsp;
CHAPTER MARKERS:
00:00 Intro
01:45 Urine Therapy&nbsp;
04:11 Esoteric Prompts&nbsp;
07:26 Medical Reality Check
08:00 Schmief Belief&nbsp;
09:08 Kleptoparasitism Dolphin Thieves
11:50 The Fish Puke Feeding Strategy
15:16 Who Eats Whom Database
19:31 Flowers for Algernon Recap
22:42 Human Neurons in Rats
&nbsp;
SOURCES:
<a href="https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/6158/">https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/6158/</a>
<a href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/urine-therapy-ai?utm_source=www.garbageday.email&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=ai-companies-are-bracing-for-impact&amp;_bhlid=1ce8d020ad702ec23115757d06045f9d23dbcd4a">https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/urine-therapy-ai</a>
<a href="https://whoeatswhom.org/?ref=404media.co">https://whoeatswhom.org/?ref=404media.co</a>
<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003988&amp;ref=404media.co">https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003988&amp;ref=404media.co</a>
<a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/dolphin-chased-fish-until-it-puked-then-ate-vomit">https://www.science.org/content/article/dolphin-chased-fish-until-it-puked-then-ate-vomit</a>
<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2589612-human-organoids-restore-cognition-in-mice-with-half-a-brain">https://www.newscientist.com/article/2589612-human-organoids-restore-cognition-in-mice-with-half-a-brain</a>
<a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2342138-human-neurons-transplanted-into-a-rats-brain-influence-its-behaviour/">https://www.newscientist.com/article/2342138-human-neurons-transplanted-into-a-rats-brain-influence-its-behaviour/</a>

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed. 

From tales of historical idiocracy and scientific genius to weird and wacky cultural phenomena, Dr Rod Lamberts and Dr Will Grant are here to take you on a wild conversational journey, deep diving into the crevices of science, history and culture that you never knew existed.

Bizarre science history from academics with beers