98: Extremophiles & Astrology

What are the most EXTREME lifeforms on Earth, and how are they surprisingly important to study? And what is the long yet recent history of astrology, and why do we reach for it?

Things we Talk About: The Seal Stream Sea lion running Paper Clipping: Female Astrologer Paper Clipping: Suffragette Books Paper Clipping: WW2 and Astrology Paper Clipping: Pimms Ad

Timestamps: (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:23) Extremophiles (00:57:55) Astrology (01:43:59) Outro

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We’ve put tardigrades through every red bull task imaginable but they’re NOT extremophiles, extremotolerant vs extremophiles that thrive, thermophiles at 122 celsius, anglophiles, what would it suck to experience, psychrophiles, acidophiles and alkaliphiles, hypobarophiles experiencing 500x our pressure, oligatroph, polyextromophiles, life has found a way in so many extreme places, the chernobyl black mold, not just growing towards radiation but eating Hot Particles, fungi have survived harsh radiation in the Earth’s past, melanin lets the fungi handle and perceive radiation safely, it’s similar to photosynthesis though in the same way a tsunami is similar to a glass of water, conan the bacterium can live inside nuclear reactors, DNA redundancy, krill that makes antifreeze proteins, osmoconfromers, acidophile taken to a lab and finally thriving at .7 ph, it’s also hard as hell to capture and study and keep these extremophiles alive, extremophiles gave us PCR, we also us extremophile e coli, bioremediation is what I took when I failed bio and was tutored by an extremophile, we have so much to do-actually that was pretty funny, bioplastics, what extreomophiles teach us about astrobiology, letting some bacteria chill on the outside of the ISS for 3 years, damn girl you’re making me re-evaluate the limits of life, our nuanced and conflicting feeling on astrology, yay we get to read our horoscopes- wait fuck why am I happy about that? babylonian horoscopes, star charts for things like seasons actually were right, the Enuma Anu Enlil collection of omens, what’s your mother’s maiden name and pincode horoscope, the legacy of the endless pig, uh oh we’re having fun talking about horoscopes, medieval astrology in the royal court and the sciences, before we knew about the earth going around the sun the stars explained the seasons, in the 1700s astrology was seen as a sham, of course royal watching tabloids bring about astrology 2.0, scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to say about princess margaret, globe conflict 2 electric boogaloo, a pims advert is a rich text, the horoscope test, god the people yearn for therapy, the barnum effect, zodiacs are part of our culture - so something to connect with, the correlation of uncertainty and horoscope popularity, how to manage uncertainty without horoscopes, video games offer a structure and challenge and reward that can help people cope with hard times.

Sources: NOAA: What is an Extremophile? Life: Extremeophiles and Extreme Environments Nature: Life in Extreme Environments PMC: Genomics of an extreme psychrophile, Psychromonas ingrahamii The Biologist: Eating Gamme Rays for Breakfast Research Gate: A Case Study of Strains Inhabiting Chernobyl Reactor No. 4 Chemical Communications: : The Incredible Cell Membrane Adaptations of Extremophiles to Harsh Environments Life: Extremophiles and Extremophilic Behaviour Biotechnology Advances: Structural Features of Thermozynes Science: Conan the Baterium Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews: Oxidative Stress Resistance in Deinococcus radiodurans Polar Biology: Cold Resistance the Krill Euphausia superba Extremophiles: Picrophilus oshimae Life: Biotechniological Applications of Extremophile Research Wiki: Thermos aquaticus Frontiers in Microbiology: DNA Polymerases as Useful Reagents for Biotechnology PNAS: Microbial Growth at Hyperaccelerations up to 403,627 × g Frontiers in Microbiology: Extremophiles and the Limits of Life in a Planetary Context Journal of Indian Institute of Science: Bioprospecting Extremophiles for Astrobiology NASA: Astrobiology Frontiers in Microbiology: DNA Damage and Survival Time Course of Deinococcal Cell Pellets During 3 Years of Exposure to Outer Space New Scientist: Radiation Resistant Bacteria Could Survive Journey From Earth to Mars

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2013 Paper: The Solar Eclipse Omen Texts from Enūma Anu Enlil National Geographic: History of Horocopes My Modern Met: Mystical History of Astrology British Newspaper Archive BBC: Who Actually Writes Horoscopes 2020 Paper: The Man Behind the Horoscope Column- R H Naylor 2005 Paper: A History of Astrology Part I: Origins to the Romans The Guardian: How Astrology Paved the Way for Predictive Analytics BBC: Is Astrology Backed By Science? 2022: Even The Stars Think That I Am Superior BBC: Is There Any Science in Astrology? Scientific American: Is Astrology Real? Here’s What Science Says McGill University: How Astrology Escaped the Pull of Science BBC: The Anxieties and Apps Fuelling the Astrology Boom