0:00

One of my favorite episodes of the

0:02

weirdest thing I learned this week tells

0:04

the story of Tarar, a legendary 18th

0:06

century showman known for eating literally anything

0:08

he could get his hands on, possibly

0:11

up to and including a French toddler.

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drink responsibly. At

1:17

Popular Science, we report and write

1:19

dozens of science and text stories every

1:22

week. And while most of the stuff

1:24

we stumble across makes it into our

1:26

articles, we also find plenty of weird

1:28

facts that we just keep around the

1:30

office. So we figured, why not share

1:32

those with you? Welcome to the weirdest

1:34

thing I learned this week from the

1:36

editors of Popular Science. I'm Rachel Feltman.

1:38

I'm Amanda Reed. And I'm Liz Clayton

1:40

Fuller. Liz, welcome back to the show.

1:42

So great to have you. Thank

1:45

you for having me back. I'm really excited that you asked

1:47

me to come back. Listeners,

1:49

many of you probably heard and remember Liz from

1:52

2023. But for anyone who has forgotten

1:55

or who missed that episode and will now

1:58

obviously circle back and catch up. Live!

2:01

What a tie! There's a little

2:03

bit about for you are and

2:05

and what you deal with were

2:07

not dragging you onto the shell.

2:09

A success! When I'm not on

2:11

the show, I am typically painting

2:13

the burbs. So I am a

2:16

scientific illustrator and streamer and educator

2:18

and my career is really centered

2:20

around painting bird. So I'm an

2:22

artist and I paint birds for

2:24

scientific publications, educational outreach, research papers.

2:26

I also run my own little

2:28

bird. been since. I paint birds for

2:30

myself to and I like to put him in

2:33

little cowboy hats and boots. A success and

2:35

the I stream on Twitch as well. So

2:37

I'm on the bird person on the internet.

2:39

Such a great person to be up soon

2:42

as someone about a better does it better

2:44

Things you can be known for on the

2:46

internet, safe and so on. The weirdest name

2:48

in this league we surveyed offering up some

2:51

kind of factor t as we found in

2:53

the course of reading writing, reporting, painting, burbs,

2:55

etc and decide which on with this absolutely

2:57

have to care more about first then once

3:00

we've all had time to spin or little

3:02

science yarns we reconvene and decide what. The

3:04

weirdest thing we learned this week actually

3:07

was in a chill, noncompetitive. Sasha.

3:10

Oh. And before we actually get into

3:12

the show. Also, That

3:14

thing they keep saying is gonna happen.

3:16

Just an airgun to do a una.

3:18

Ah so unless now happening like really,

3:20

see on, I think we're gonna try

3:22

to make it happen in like early

3:24

April. So. Definitely. Follow

3:26

me undies, an followed up on twitch or

3:28

email me at the toilet paper com or

3:30

higher it'll feldman that com. Ah if you

3:32

have questions you want to sniff for the

3:34

Q and A but yet. Given out

3:36

for bonus content. Of. A Now I'm actually

3:38

going into the So. Sorry. All

3:41

the event apply it to get you in

3:43

the loop for bonus content and also feel

3:45

follow me on pizzeria obsolete and distressing I

3:47

live at a self a minute why do

3:49

you sir with your teeth. Yards.

3:52

So my keys is

3:54

many things: art, rocket,

3:56

science, Lube. His successor.

4:00

Oh my Yes move Move. Wow.

4:02

Funny. A perfect. I

4:05

can. always you're more. I'm Cylon

4:07

Elites, He's yeah. And whenever something.

4:10

comes up that like related to sex

4:12

acts. And I don't know it. I'm.

4:14

Really excited till I feel like my may had

4:17

is so full. Of assorted.

4:20

Sexual. Health related set aside

4:22

like the world remains full

4:24

of mystery. And

4:26

also as the person bringing

4:28

this back to Rachel felt

4:30

that author and as such

4:32

as accessory work. Arm,

4:35

I'm honored. Somalia has a wonderful

4:37

live with your teeth. Okay

4:39

so my to use today is. Burns

4:42

making milk it will more likely

4:44

than you think the who the

4:46

hell? wow. Yeah,

4:49

Wow. Cool mighty is is

4:52

that hermit crabs are doing

4:54

something both incredibly adorable and

4:56

incredibly upsetting. With. Our

4:59

garbage. And while cause

5:01

we're that. I would

5:03

love for you the start to the

5:05

hinges on my own excessive sweating Every

5:07

royals for and. Suit.

5:10

Older A very good. I

5:12

loved that Are and do

5:14

I is. This story also

5:16

filled with. Greasy. Little

5:18

Seco thought that success say I'm.

5:22

So. Lil the

5:24

has a long history from

5:26

the Romans using olive oil

5:29

as personal lubrication. To.

5:31

Pay why Jellies star as

5:33

a surgical lubricant. And.

5:35

We have a literal rocket science

5:38

to thank for Astro Boy I'd

5:40

which if you're not familiar, it's

5:42

another incredibly well known lubricant brand.

5:44

I would call it a lubricant.

5:47

Oh gee, I feel like that

5:49

and like K Y like. I'm

5:52

on a family feud. It's like. Naval.

5:54

Lubricant. and like those two or

5:56

less or yeah, definitely ones on

5:58

their so let us. all

6:00

travel back in time to

6:03

1977 and the building

6:05

of the space shuttle enterprise which

6:07

yes is named after the star

6:10

trek ship nerd i believe nasa

6:13

nerds nasa had like a

6:15

ship naming yes

6:17

spaceship naming contest and everyone

6:19

was like star trek and

6:22

nasa was like all right so

6:24

those were the like very quaint days

6:27

when that was how a contest would

6:29

end and not bode mik boat face

6:31

that's exactly what i was thinking is

6:33

also quaint now now you couldn't get

6:35

something as wholesome as bode mik boat

6:37

face but true i digress true we've

6:39

been through so much we have we have been

6:41

through so much put me put

6:43

me on the ship put me on the spaceship

6:46

um enterprise was nasa's

6:48

first space shuttle orbiter

6:51

so unfortunately it was not capable of space

6:53

flight and it was really a prototype

6:55

but it paved the way for the space

6:57

shuttle program as a whole a

7:01

young scientist by the name of

7:03

daniel x ray and that's

7:06

ray w r a y

7:09

was working at the edwards air

7:11

force base in california to improve

7:13

heat transfer in the enterprise's cooling

7:15

system he discovered

7:18

a water-soluble non-toxic solution

7:20

that became more slippery

7:22

when wet and

7:24

like most nerds he thought you could

7:26

put this on your penis uh

7:30

he bottled up this magical liquid

7:32

and gifted it to a male

7:34

colleague as a gag birthday gift

7:37

the male colleague did indeed put the

7:39

solution on his penis as a man

7:41

would do and and

7:46

he came back to daniel ray

7:48

asking for a refill and

7:50

it wasn't like a little bit of this

7:53

stuff it was like a pint right gag

7:55

gift size you you would have seen

7:57

per dr mr ray it was a literal paint.

8:00

And from there, the rocket scientist

8:02

knew he had something incredible on

8:04

his hands. So

8:07

Dan made 300 different versions

8:09

of his solution before landing

8:11

on the afterlife formula we

8:14

know today. And he

8:16

proceeded to license it to a North Hollywood

8:18

based company in 1982. And then after that,

8:22

he just went back to rocket science. He

8:24

was like, All right, I've done my lube

8:26

thing back to the world of mixing

8:29

physics and chemistry and

8:32

engineering together to achieve

8:34

the fruits of space. However,

8:38

when the company he licensed his liquid

8:41

creation to closed in 1991, Daniel Ray

8:46

purchased the rights back got a $8,500

8:48

business loan and formed biofilm, which is the current parent

8:54

company of astroglide. Whoa. And

8:56

gave it the name we

8:58

know today. So yes, the

9:01

name astroglide is a nod to

9:03

its rocket science roots. And

9:06

the formula has remained relatively unchanged.

9:10

It's made of purified water, glycerin,

9:12

which in skincare is used as

9:15

a humectant to draw moisture from

9:17

the atmosphere and trap it in

9:19

your skin. Propylene glycol,

9:21

which helps bind water to the

9:24

skin and prevents moisture loss. And

9:27

polyquaternium seven, which is used

9:29

to improve moisture levels, but

9:31

also makes products feel more

9:33

velvety and slippy. You often

9:36

find them in like shampoos

9:38

and conditioners. And I think

9:41

maybe lotions, but I know definitely shampoo

9:44

and conditioner. And polyquaternium

9:46

seven is the only change

9:48

in the astroglide formula we

9:50

have. Astroglide used

9:53

to include polyquaternium 15,

9:55

but it is

9:57

a little more irritating. I know.

10:00

know it's technically an antimicrobial, but

10:02

it has been known to give

10:04

people rashes, which you don't really

10:06

want around your

10:08

sensitive bits. So

10:11

when it no longer became available,

10:13

the company subbed it for polyquat

10:15

seven, which is more common. And

10:19

Daniel X. Ray was an

10:21

incredibly interesting guy. His

10:24

middle name was Xenophon,

10:26

just like the Greek

10:28

historian and philosopher. He

10:30

chose it when the DMV told him, Hey,

10:32

bud, you need a middle name on your

10:35

driver's license. Just off

10:37

the cuff. Just throwing that out there. Good

10:39

for him. It

10:42

gets better. It gets absolutely better. Dan

10:45

was super active in his community.

10:47

So active that

10:49

one city official said, we have to

10:52

be careful that we not ask him

10:54

to get into too many things because

10:56

he's still willing to jump right in.

10:59

We don't want to abuse that willingness

11:01

to lend a hand. Oh,

11:04

good guy. And like, there's

11:06

there's an entire San Diego

11:09

Tribune article about him working

11:12

on this like fourth of July parade

11:14

that started as like a small venture

11:16

and went to become like a $45,000

11:19

celebration. So again, he put his heart

11:27

into everything, including his community.

11:30

Sadly, Daniel X. Ray passed away in

11:32

2018 after a

11:34

quick battle with cancer, but his

11:37

legacy lives on in the hearts

11:39

of his community and the hands

11:41

of people using Astor glide today.

11:43

Yeah, everywhere. Many people everywhere. But

11:46

I, I first came

11:48

upon this fun little fact.

11:50

I write about a

11:53

whole gamut of things for Popeye

11:56

for the Popeye gear vertical. One

11:59

of them is sex toys and naturally

12:01

when you're doing like sex

12:04

toy reporting you have to mention what lubes

12:07

are good with what toys because

12:09

silicone based lube will mess up

12:11

your silicone based toys and

12:14

um astroglide

12:16

well-known water-based lubricant

12:20

and then I was

12:23

doing the research and I was like oh astroglide

12:27

rocket science perfect beautiful incredible

12:29

it's going in the story

12:31

I love that what a

12:34

life what a life

12:36

what a life and what a legacy I

12:38

mean if you had asked me why is

12:40

it named astroglide I'd be like because it

12:42

sounds cool you know yeah I really

12:44

I had read the whole like

12:48

here's the here's the connection to

12:50

rocket science and then it hit

12:52

me later that the astroglide was

12:54

like related to oh yeah spades

12:56

I love

12:58

that actually incredible thank

13:00

you so much for for sharing that Amanda I

13:03

can't believe I didn't know that I can't believe

13:05

it's never come up um

13:07

I I feel like you

13:10

know when you're playing Mario Party

13:12

and you like magically usurp the

13:14

person in first it like been

13:16

very I have not

13:19

usurped Rachel at all but I

13:21

do feel there's a lot of pride

13:23

in my heart right now for giving Rachel

13:25

filming a fun sex fact that's an honor

13:27

that you feel that way about about telling

13:30

me sex facts so thank you all right

13:32

we're gonna take a quick break and then

13:34

we'll be back with more facts one

13:42

of my favorite episodes of the weirdest

13:45

thing I learned this week tells the

13:47

story of Tarar a legendary 18th century

13:49

showman known for eating literally anything he

13:51

could get his hands on possibly up

13:53

to and including a human corpse and

13:55

a french toddler and as a modern

13:57

woman on the go I get it

13:59

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16:11

Okay,

16:22

we're back. And I'm going to talk

16:24

about hermit crabs and what they're

16:27

getting up to with our

16:29

cry ridge. But first, I actually need

16:31

to apologize to the

16:34

countless hermit crabs that

16:36

I unknowingly neglected as

16:38

a child. Wow. In the course

16:40

of researching this episode, I had

16:43

to face some hard truths about my

16:46

hermit crab legacy. Because I grew up spending

16:48

my summers at the South Jersey Shore and

16:50

in Ocean City and Wildwood, you like could

16:52

not walk 50 feet down the

16:54

boardwalk without encountering a cage full

16:57

of hermit crabs for sale. And like they always

16:59

came with the same little dinky little plastic enclosure

17:01

with a handle and half of it. And they

17:03

all they usually had shells that were like painted

17:05

a bunch of bright colors sometimes even like there

17:08

would be like painted like Spongebob whatever.

17:11

And they were very much build of having

17:13

like very brief low key lifespans like the

17:15

messaging was that you'd definitely be in the

17:18

market for a new hermit crab by the

17:20

next summer, just by nature of

17:22

the lifespan of a hermit crab. I think

17:24

they probably told you you should come back and

17:26

buy a shell at some point. But like, that

17:29

definitely, there wasn't really

17:31

an expectation that they

17:33

would have ongoing upkeep. I

17:35

definitely treated them like oversized sea monkeys like

17:38

I said them, I kept them

17:40

in my room, I loved them. But like, you

17:42

know, I expected them to die very quickly. One

17:44

time one of them went missing and I found

17:46

it in my sock drawer alive like two weeks

17:48

later. And that probably should

17:50

have clued me into the fact that like, actually,

17:52

if I if I cared for

17:54

this hermit crab, it could be with me for a long

17:57

time. But I was like six, so I did not figure

17:59

that out. But yeah,

18:01

it turns out hermit crabs can live

18:03

for decades. Wow. I

18:05

didn't know that either. Oh, dang. You

18:08

know, it depends on the

18:10

species. It's hard to know

18:13

what sort of stage of life the hermit crabs

18:15

I bought in Ocean City, New Jersey were in

18:18

when they came to me. But still, definitely

18:21

they should have lived

18:23

more than a few months. So

18:26

that's on me and also on,

18:28

I don't know, capitalism. Yeah,

18:31

definitely. It's like we have caps

18:33

playing in the background for them. We

18:36

have a memorial fund set up. I

18:38

hope they're all resting peacefully in hermit

18:40

crab heaven. In

18:42

researching this episode, it is pegged to

18:44

a new study that I will get to in a minute. But

18:46

I was like, oh my God, hermit crabs are actually

18:48

insanely cool. So I'm going to go on a little

18:50

bit of a dive

18:53

into their whole deal because

18:55

I really, as bad as this makes

18:57

me feel, sorry, as bad as this makes me

19:00

feel, it also really blew my mind. So

19:02

yeah, hermit crabs actually, they do swap their

19:04

shells and that's supposed to happen about every

19:07

12 months. They

19:09

grow and they molt and they need a bigger

19:11

shell. But I

19:14

never really stopped and thought about how

19:17

it's so weird that this crab

19:20

needs shells from other animals. And yeah,

19:23

they evolved to have bodies that require shells

19:25

for protection, but they do not create their

19:27

own shells. And they've

19:30

been doing this for at least 200 million years. Like

19:33

the fossil record shows hermit crabs

19:35

living in shells that are not

19:37

made by crab for

19:41

200 million years at least. And

19:43

yeah, they were tooling around, you

19:45

know, shopping for discarded mollusk shells

19:48

to use with their homes. And

19:50

I recommend everybody look up what a hermit crab

19:52

looks like without their shell. They have

19:54

these very squishy little bodies that kind

19:56

of look like shrimps at the end. They are curled

19:59

up. They're curlicue?

20:01

Amazing. Yeah, yeah. And their

20:03

bodies are like weirdly asymmetrical.

20:06

And it's a shape that would be super

20:08

impractical for a crab that wanted to like

20:10

act like a crab. Also, hearkening back to

20:13

our live show episode, hermit crabs not actually

20:15

crabs. Most crabs, not crabs. Don't worry about

20:17

it. I know if you're going to tell

20:19

me like Rachel, stop calling them crabs. They

20:21

are hermit crabs. So not

20:24

crabs. Go listen to the live

20:26

show episode if you don't know what I'm talking

20:28

about. Serotonin's like, no, wasn't serotonin. Who is late

20:31

it? Yeah, serotonin's

20:33

like that one. Yeah.

20:35

So these weird asymmetrical bodies, very

20:38

impractical if they were trying to like

20:40

walk around on their own, but they're

20:42

designed to fit into and then grip

20:45

onto like as many shapes of

20:47

shell as possible. They basically evolved

20:50

to like be really

20:53

good at like curling up and pressing

20:55

their body against any

20:57

shape of shell. And what

20:59

a weird thing to evolve to do.

21:01

You know, I really respect it. One

21:05

paper he found about their evolution was titled

21:07

A Stranger in His Own Home, which I

21:09

just love. Wait, that's

21:11

incredible. Wow. Yeah.

21:14

And yeah, well, a

21:16

few marine species apparently will shack

21:18

up inside immobile structures like coral.

21:21

Most of the hundreds of species of hermit

21:23

crabs use shells or sometimes hollow pieces of

21:25

wood or stone or other objects, as I'll

21:27

get to in a second, to create these

21:29

little mobile homes. They

21:32

evolved from free living crabs, quote

21:34

unquote, crabs sometime before 200 million

21:36

years ago. And in at least

21:38

a couple of cases, they've evolved

21:40

back into shell free crabs with

21:42

harder exoskeletons, sort of like, you

21:45

know, marine mammal

21:47

style. And yeah, Alaskan king

21:49

crabs and porcelain crabs are

21:51

both descended from hermit crabs.

21:55

Oh, sick. Yeah, I did not

21:57

realize this. Who knew?

21:59

Those are two very different

22:01

kinds of crab school

22:05

Are such a weird such a weird

22:08

bunch so they really they they come

22:10

in all sorts and

22:12

actually the there was

22:15

a lot of debate for a long time about

22:17

how closely these

22:19

species were related and like which

22:22

represented the sort of Older

22:25

branch of the evolutionary tree and a lot of

22:27

the debate was like they're so weird looking It

22:29

would be so weird for this one to come

22:32

from that one but Thankfully

22:34

now we can look at DNA and that

22:36

helps figure stuff out which you really need

22:38

when you're looking at quote-unquote crabs Quote-unquote

22:41

crabs new new popsign merch idea

22:44

crabs aren't real just on a

22:46

shirt on a sticker Everything

22:49

is a crab. Nothing is crab Perfect.

22:52

Yeah, and so hermit crabs Today

22:55

do you know they need

22:57

to get new shells when they grow and

22:59

molt? and I'm

23:02

just gonna say a few more random things about this before I get

23:04

into the study cuz again, I'm just like I I

23:07

Feel like we got to respect the hermit

23:09

crab hustle and I didn't for too long.

23:11

So now it's I'm making it everyone's problem

23:15

so Shells used by hermit

23:17

crabs. Generally they have to be quote

23:19

remodeled Which is when

23:21

they hollow out the shell to make it lighter Like

23:24

most shells that are just like have

23:26

been dumped by another animal will

23:29

be too heavy and

23:32

Generally if you try to just

23:34

like Force the hermit crab

23:36

to go into a random Unremodeled

23:39

shell they'll die from how heavy

23:41

it is And

23:43

it also takes a lot of energy to hold up the shells So

23:46

most hermit crabs will

23:48

like inherit a previously remodeled shell

23:50

and It's

23:54

like they've carved out the interiors and the

23:56

shell cannot for generations So actually you can

23:58

find hermit crabs like thriving in areas areas

24:00

where the snails that they get their shells from have

24:02

been extinct for a long time. The

24:05

question that I didn't really find an answer to

24:07

is like, who first remodels the shells?

24:10

But I guess the answer is just that it's a

24:12

very rare energy intensive thing. And maybe

24:14

in situations where that's the only option,

24:16

some big crab will do it and

24:19

then other hermit crabs get to benefit.

24:21

But it's just because they reuse the

24:23

shells so much, you

24:25

don't need tons of hermit crabs doing

24:27

the remodeling in order for tons of

24:29

hermit crabs to be able to have

24:32

enough shells. That's amazing. I

24:35

keep thinking of like an HGTV

24:37

show that's like hermit crab shell

24:40

remodeling. Absolutely. And there's no shiplap.

24:42

Yeah, thanks, none. No shiplap in

24:44

sight. Well, and it's really fascinating

24:47

because they do fight

24:49

over shells, but there's also all of this

24:51

like very complex cooperation. So

24:55

there's like, apparently

24:58

this very sort of

25:00

ritualistic process that hermit crabs, I'm not sure

25:02

if this applies to all species, but at

25:04

least some species of hermicrons will go through

25:06

if there are two of them in one

25:09

of the ones the other shell. There's this

25:11

whole process where the aggressor will like be

25:14

bothering the crab it wants to shell from

25:16

until the crab retreats, like,

25:18

you know, it's fully inside the shell. And

25:21

then the attacker will like turn

25:24

the shell over and then start

25:27

whacking its shell against the shell. And

25:29

they call this wrapping behavior. And

25:32

it's enough to like make

25:34

a sound inside the shell. And

25:38

it seems like, according

25:40

to what I read, there's

25:43

generally little to no contact happening between

25:45

the two crabs while this happens. But

25:48

after a certain number of like bangs, often

25:51

the defending crab will exit its

25:54

shell and then kind

25:56

of wait there while the

25:58

attacker goes and checks out. the

26:00

shell and decides if they want it, they'll

26:02

still be like holding on to their own

26:04

shell and then like scoping out the new

26:06

shell. And if

26:09

they decide, yeah, I'm going to take

26:11

this one, then the other

26:13

crab will take the abandoned shell because

26:15

it's better than being left for dead.

26:17

And it seems like, you

26:19

know, on the one hand, it's like, why, why does the

26:22

crab emerge when it's

26:24

not being like literally, it's not having its life

26:27

literally threatened. But it kind

26:29

of makes sense because it's like if

26:31

the attacking permit crab could theoretically

26:34

like break the shell

26:36

of the crab, it's attacking, you know,

26:38

so it's sort of like, okay, better that I

26:41

let you think about stealing my shell and

26:43

then I get to take yours, then

26:45

you break my shell and I

26:47

have no shell to go into and

26:50

I die. So it's just very, of

26:52

course, I'm I'm projecting but like very

26:54

complex strategic maneuvers,

26:56

I feel on behalf of the

26:58

hermit crabs. Because if it, put

27:00

a hermit crab on the NBC

27:02

show, Trade. Oh, absolutely. And

27:04

yeah, because if a hermit crab gets stuck without another

27:07

shell to go into nearby, they will get eaten

27:09

very squishy and weird. So like, um,

27:14

let's see, there's another, then there's

27:17

another shell swap fact

27:19

that really blew my

27:21

mind. And this has been observed in both

27:24

terrestrial and marine species, they'll

27:26

form what scientists call

27:28

vacancy chains. So

27:31

basically, it starts with a crab, finding

27:33

a new empty shell, or stealing

27:35

a new empty shell, and being

27:37

like, Oh, this looks pretty nice. But then it's

27:39

like, Oh, this is too big. I can't, this

27:41

is I would not be able to comfortably live

27:43

in the shell. So they go into their own

27:46

shell, but they wait by the

27:48

vacant fall for like, apparently as

27:50

long as like half a day. And so

27:53

new crowds will arrive. And they'll like

27:55

also start looking at their shell. And if

27:58

it's too big, they'll wait. And

28:00

scientists have seen groups of up to 20

28:03

individuals gather, like, and

28:05

they'll literally hold on to each other in a

28:07

line from the largest to the smallest crab. And

28:10

then a crab will arrive that's

28:12

the right size for the empty

28:14

shell and they'll take it. And so they'll leave

28:16

their old shell and then all the crabs will

28:18

move up the queue to take

28:22

the next biggest shell. Wow.

28:24

That is amazing. And also

28:26

the cutest thing I've ever pictured in my

28:28

mind is just all of them holding each

28:31

other's shell. There are. What

28:33

a smarty. There is video

28:36

so I will post a

28:38

video on popsci.com/weird. And you

28:40

can also find stuff related

28:43

to episodes, by the way, on my Patreon,

28:45

usually a day or two after the new

28:47

episodes go up. I'm trying to post all

28:50

that stuff there plus some bonus new

28:52

things. But

28:54

yeah, and, you know, permacrops are always adorable.

28:57

Like, they can also, they'll also like gang

28:59

up. Basically, if some if one crab has

29:01

like a really nice shell, other

29:04

crabs will gang up on it and

29:06

steal it because they can count on this

29:08

chain happening, where it's like, yeah, only one

29:10

of us is going to get this really

29:12

nice shell. But then like, we'll all get

29:14

to trade up to the next nicest

29:17

shell in the attacking gang.

29:21

Really, it's like, I'm fascinated if I had

29:23

learned that this was a hermacrop so

29:25

like as a teenager, I think I I think I

29:27

would have a different profession. I

29:30

don't know how much more market there is for

29:33

hermacrop specialists, but and

29:35

the shells themselves are also like a complex

29:38

little eager system because they'll have parasites that

29:40

live inside that keep the shell clean. But

29:43

then they also will

29:45

sometimes like put amenities that

29:47

amenities on the

29:49

outside of the shell so that they have

29:51

like little stinging powers. Not all hermacrops are

29:54

into that some of them won't get into

29:56

a shell if it has a stinger on it. But some

29:58

of them specifically are like I

30:00

love my you know my

30:03

pieces of flair and yeah

30:05

my weaponized home exactly My

30:08

ultimate crib. Yeah. Yeah, so Okay,

30:13

I promise that there was actually some new research here

30:15

and not just able to learn termic

30:18

crabs are cool So

30:20

what happens when children short supply? Apparently

30:23

when a homemade snail shell isn't available

30:25

a store-bought chunk of plastic will do

30:30

So people have spotted and taken pictures of

30:32

and I will post this Hermit's

30:34

crap hermit crabs wearing bottle caps light

30:37

bulb bases and other bits of

30:39

trash for years and actually Let

30:42

me I'm gonna drop

30:45

a Link in

30:48

the chat. So you guys can like odd. Oh

30:51

Oh Yeah,

30:55

it's very cute and like once you start thinking

30:58

about it, you're like, oh no, but it's very

31:00

cute so

31:02

Polish researchers decided to delve into

31:04

the internet record of Trash

31:07

wearing hermit crabs to try to learn more because

31:09

they did a search of the existing literature They

31:12

were basically like we've seen these photos. How much what

31:14

do we know about this? They looked

31:16

through the scientific literature. They only found

31:18

four studies on hermit crabs using human

31:21

debris as Shells, so

31:23

then they searched Flickr

31:26

iNaturalist Google images YouTube

31:28

and alchemy with the

31:30

same keywords they had searched Scientific

31:32

journals for to find photographic evidence of

31:34

this phenomenon and they were able to find 386

31:38

individuals with artificial shells representing

31:40

10 of the world 16 terrestrial

31:43

hermit crab species And

31:45

they also spotted the behavior in every tropical

31:47

region on the planet so

31:50

obviously with a study like this, it's not

31:52

systematic enough to say like This

31:55

tells us that X percent of all hermit

31:57

crabs do this, but it did show them

31:59

that it's like very common across

32:01

different species, which is not nothing.

32:04

Um, and they gleaned as much info as

32:06

they could from each photo, uh, like, you

32:09

know, location and background and the color and type

32:11

of the stuff the hermit crabs are using and

32:14

the species of the hermit crab, uh,

32:16

to try to determine like why and how

32:18

crabs would resort to living in garbage. Um,

32:22

and based on the photograph, they found that

32:24

85% of the hermit crabs choosing

32:28

to live in trash were using

32:31

plastic. Um, very often white

32:33

or black bottle tops. And

32:35

then it was about 5% each of

32:37

metal, glass, and a combination of the

32:40

two. Um, it definitely seems

32:42

like, uh, sort of light bulb bases

32:44

were, were a common combination of metal

32:46

and glass. Um, which

32:48

makes sense cause they're, I guess sort of the

32:50

right shape. And this makes

32:52

sense because, you know, they look for shells

32:54

that are big enough to protect them, but

32:56

they're also taking into

32:58

account like the, uh,

33:01

color to see like

33:03

how conspicuous it might make them.

33:05

So it makes sense that sort of like white

33:08

and black bottle tops that

33:11

are like pretty low profile, uh,

33:13

would be pretty popular. Um,

33:16

but like, why are the crabs

33:18

using plastic in the first place? Um,

33:20

they have some theories. Uh, it could

33:22

be that, uh, there's

33:24

a lack of natural shells. Um,

33:27

the local snail populations may

33:29

be dropping like the researchers are like, that

33:32

wouldn't be surprising to us given like climate

33:34

change and, you know, habitat degradation, uh, but

33:36

they don't know that for sure. They

33:39

also think it's possible they're attracted to the plastic

33:41

in the first place because, um, of chemicals that

33:43

leach out of the plastic that are known to

33:46

mimic the odor of food for hermit crabs.

33:49

Um, which is a thing we already know about for reasons I'll

33:51

get back to in a minute, uh, but

33:53

they also pointed out that like a

33:56

light, but hearty shell is very,

33:58

um, desirable and it's. It's possible

34:00

that in some cases, hermit crabs are like,

34:02

this is great. This is the best shell

34:04

I've ever seen. Like, it's

34:06

so light and so durable. So,

34:10

you know, it's possible that at least

34:12

in some cases, hermit crabs are like

34:14

hot diggity dog. I can't

34:17

believe how

34:19

fortunate I am to discover this entirely new type

34:22

of shell that's exactly everything I wanted in

34:24

a shell. Everyone's

34:27

going to be so jealous of my

34:29

sick shell. Exactly. At the shell gathering,

34:31

it's a little housing lineup. Oh, yeah.

34:34

They're going to be very desirable. They're

34:37

going to touch my cool shell with

34:39

their little, quote

34:41

unquote, crab arm. And

34:44

they're going to go, dang. I

34:46

wish I was in a different place in the queue. Exactly.

34:50

And of course, you know, that doesn't

34:53

mean that this isn't troubling. It reminds

34:55

me of the episode where I talked

34:57

about birds using anti-birds to

34:59

build nests. And it's like, that can be

35:01

a good thing for

35:03

individual birds and really awesome that they

35:06

are figuring out how to make the

35:08

most of this trash. And it's still

35:10

bad that there's so much trash everywhere.

35:14

A 2021 report by the

35:16

Environmental Investigation Agency found

35:18

that in just 65 years, plastic production has

35:20

increased by 18,300%, which is, that makes

35:23

me feel bad. That

35:30

is too many percent. It's too

35:32

much. And experts think that

35:34

by 2050, it's possible the amount of plastic in

35:36

the ocean will weigh more than the amount of

35:38

fish in the ocean. And plastic

35:40

in the ocean likely kills about 100,000 animals every

35:44

year. And hermit crops specifically,

35:46

we also know are under

35:48

threat from plastic. There

35:50

was a study a few years ago on

35:52

these remote islands in the Pacific, like

35:55

really far from any mainland. And

35:58

researchers found that. hermit

36:01

crabs were climbing into plastic

36:03

bottles probably because they

36:05

smell like food and then getting stuck

36:07

inside because of the shape and this

36:09

is also known to happen in tires

36:11

actually because they can't climb back up

36:13

the sort of you know curved edge

36:16

of a tire and then here's

36:18

here's the really bad part when

36:20

hermit crabs die or

36:22

their flesh is torn the smell attracts

36:24

other hermit crabs because it's

36:26

like in when Harry met Sally when he's

36:29

like you got to check the obituaries for

36:31

an apartment that's what the hermit crabs are

36:34

doing they are

36:37

known to swarm not to

36:39

like eat their fallen brethren but

36:42

to take their shells yeah and

36:44

so what happens is that then more hermit

36:47

crabs go into the bottle

36:49

and this study estimated that even on

36:51

just these remote islands that half a

36:53

million hermit crabs are dying each year

36:56

because of plastic bottles which

36:58

is just wild and there's

37:01

even evidence that exposure to micro

37:03

plastics can impact hermit

37:05

crab cognition not surprising because it's also

37:07

been shown to you

37:09

know impact lots of animals cognition

37:12

but it may specifically make them less

37:15

able to evaluate shells to pick the

37:17

best one based on size which

37:20

seems like a very specific thing but it's also

37:22

like that's kind of the primary point of hermit

37:24

crab cognition so you

37:26

know if anything's impacted that that would be

37:28

impacted as well so

37:31

yeah very mixed feelings about this because

37:33

they are adorable and a couple of

37:36

researchers have said like we should learn

37:38

from these hermit crabs they are reusing

37:40

they they're already some of the best

37:42

recyclers in the world they use their

37:44

shells for generations and now

37:46

they are you know reusing plastic better

37:49

than humans do for sure but we

37:52

should still you know useless plastic keep

37:54

it out of the ocean we have

37:56

a lot of big plastic problems

37:58

to solve if we don't want

38:01

to cause a bunch of catastrophes in the near

38:03

future. However, hermit

38:05

crabs, they're coming out on

38:07

top. I

38:10

feel the silver lining. They're

38:12

making the best out of a bad

38:15

situation. Yep, exactly. Um, I

38:17

was doing some of my own looking

38:19

at hermit crabs and I came across

38:23

a Reddit video, I'll put it in

38:25

the chat, where it is a

38:28

hermit crab. Oh, no, it's the

38:30

one, it has a little butt

38:32

scratching arm and it scratches its own little

38:34

butt. Wow. The wonders of

38:37

hermit crab anatomy never

38:39

see. So that's what they're doing in there. Wow.

38:42

Yeah, no wonder they want some kind of safety. They're

38:46

just scratching their butt. They're

38:49

just like, oh, pretty shell. And then they just

38:51

get in the shell and they're like, all right,

38:53

here I am. Just

38:56

got to scratch my butt for until the next gathering where

38:58

I got a hold hands with my friends. And

39:02

then for another decade after that. Well,

39:07

um, thank you for, uh, patiently, uh, enduring my

39:09

many hermit crab facts. Um,

39:14

we're going to take a quick break and then we'll be back

39:16

with one more fact. Taste

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Market. Must be 21 plus. Please

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drink responsibly. Okay,

40:05

we're back. And, um, Liz,

40:08

tell us about Bird Milk. Bird

40:11

Milk, yes. Okay, so I

40:14

stumbled on this fact as you

40:16

stumble on many facts, which

40:19

was while I was playing a video game.

40:21

So some of you out there may or

40:23

may not be familiar with Animal Crossing, in

40:25

which there is a pigeon

40:28

barista named Brewster. And sometimes

40:32

he offers you with

40:34

your latte, pigeon milk.

40:37

And I thought, what, what

40:39

does that mean? What, what is pigeon milk?

40:42

Is that a real thing? Is this like

40:44

a cute video game thing that we came

40:46

up with? So I dove headfirst

40:48

into the world of bird milk,

40:50

and I learned so much. So

40:55

in a world of upwards of 10,000 different

40:57

species of birds, there are

41:00

only three types of birds

41:02

that create bird milk. And

41:04

it's doves and pigeons, which is like

41:06

one group, flamingos and

41:09

emperor penguins. And

41:11

that's it. Flamingos are

41:14

my favorite animal. I love learning a

41:16

new flamingo. Yes, this is a very

41:18

good one. So bird

41:20

milk, as you might imagine, you may or

41:22

may not know, birds do not have nipples.

41:24

So bird milk

41:27

is like functionally similar to

41:29

mammalian milk, but is created

41:31

totally differently and does not really bear

41:34

much physical resemblance to mammalian milk. We're

41:36

going to circle back to that because

41:38

it's a, it's a little tough to

41:41

swallow. That's not, I'm not trying to

41:43

make a bird milk pun, but we'll,

41:45

we'll come back to that. Wow.

41:50

So, so how do birds make

41:52

milk? So they secrete it from

41:54

the lining of their crops. So I'm throwing

41:56

a lot of bird terms at you. So what is

41:58

a crop? crop. So in

42:00

a bird's digestive system, their crop is

42:02

kind of like a little sack in

42:04

their throat.

42:07

And most birds use

42:09

it for food storage, like temporary

42:12

food storage. If you find like a

42:14

lot of really good food, you can put it in

42:16

your crop, save it for later kind of situation. And

42:19

so when I was like, okay, I'm going to have

42:21

to explain crop, of course, I

42:23

learned that most birds have crops. And I

42:26

said, okay, who doesn't have a crop?

42:28

And apparently owls don't have crops. So

42:30

no milk for owls. But that's just

42:32

sort of a side fact about

42:34

crops. Milk for owls would kind

42:36

of be like a crazy indie

42:39

band. Yes. Someone

42:41

out there go ahead and take that name

42:43

and give us a shout out. Free idea.

42:45

Free idea. It's yours. Yes. So interestingly,

42:48

the hormone that stimulates

42:50

the production of bird milk

42:52

is prolactin, which you might be

42:54

familiar with because it's the same

42:56

hormone that stimulates milk production in

42:59

mammals. So same, same

43:01

as us humans. So let's

43:04

start with pigeon milk. So the

43:07

modern day pigeon or rock dove,

43:09

they live in, you know,

43:12

you see them around, they live in

43:14

cities. It's a really, really unforgiving

43:16

environment. And when their babies are born,

43:18

pigeons don't have like a

43:21

super reliable way of like foraging

43:23

for very like fat and protein

43:25

nutritious food. So it's thought that

43:27

the ability to make crop milk

43:29

kind of arose from this problem.

43:31

So they start to secrete their

43:33

crop milk a few days before

43:35

the eggs are due to hatch.

43:37

And interestingly, in the case of

43:39

pigeons and doves, both the male

43:41

and female pigeons make

43:43

crop milk. So both of the

43:45

parents are making milk for their

43:47

babies. And by the way,

43:49

pigeon babies are called squabs. So when

43:52

the squabs are born, they

43:54

are fed a diet of exclusively crop milk for

43:57

the first week or two of their life, and

43:59

then gradually Remember we were talking about

44:01

the crop being sort of like a food

44:03

storage situation. So they're

44:05

making this milk in their crop and gradually

44:07

they start to like also store

44:09

food in the crop with the milk

44:11

to kind of like soften it up

44:14

a little bit for the baby. Wow.

44:17

They're getting their first solids. Exactly.

44:19

They're getting their first solids with

44:21

the help of the pigeon

44:23

milk. So I

44:26

mentioned pigeons and doves and

44:28

this is I'm going to do a lot

44:30

of like bird fact sidebars

44:32

that are important to me emotionally.

44:37

We love bird facts here on Weirdest Thing

44:39

I Learned This Week and by we I

44:42

mean me. Thank you,

44:44

Amanda. So

44:46

pigeons and doves, everyone

44:49

is always like, what is the difference?

44:51

And I feel like there's a big

44:53

emotional difference when you're identifying a pigeon

44:56

versus a dove, but they're actually scientifically

44:58

in the exact same family. And literally

45:00

the difference between pigeons and doves is

45:02

marketing. Doves

45:07

are thought of as like so cute

45:09

and like fancy and pigeons are like,

45:11

you know, city birds, but like pigeons

45:13

deserve so much love and respect. They've been through

45:15

a lot. And

45:18

you can take one home as a pet.

45:20

Exactly. That's true. So pigeons

45:23

and doves are the same just just so

45:25

everyone knows. So pigeon

45:27

milk is extremely high in protein

45:29

and fat and it

45:31

actually has higher levels of each of those

45:33

things than human or cow milk. It

45:36

contains antioxidants and immune enhancing factors. So

45:38

it really gives these like baby pigeons

45:41

like a good start for their little

45:43

hard city life. I'm not

45:45

about to tug at your heartstrings too much,

45:47

but they really mean the pigeon milk. And

45:50

a couple of folks did

45:53

studies where pigeon milk was fed

45:55

to baby chickens and it improved

45:57

their growth rate by a 38%. So

46:03

when Brewster offers you pigeon

46:05

milk in Animal Crossing, he

46:09

thinks of you as a baby bird and

46:11

he just really wants to give you a

46:13

little jump start on your life. So it's

46:15

very sweet. Although...

46:18

Thank you, Brewster. Continuing to be a king.

46:20

Exactly. I will... I

46:22

do feel like now is the time though that

46:25

I have to tell you just for full

46:27

transparency that bird milk

46:29

is more like

46:31

the texture of cottage cheese than milk.

46:35

So let that inform your

46:37

decision if you want that extra

46:39

pigeon milk or not, but know

46:41

that it's coming from a good place,

46:43

at least from Brewster's perspective. And

46:47

at least also from a health perspective. True.

46:49

We gotta make those protein gains. Exactly.

46:54

So that's sort of the section on

46:56

pigeon milk. And so now I want to talk

46:59

about flamingo milk. So all three

47:01

of the types of birds that sort

47:03

of have this milk capability evolved it

47:05

for different reasons. So

47:07

similarly to pigeons, flamingo male and females

47:10

can produce the milk for their babies.

47:13

And the reason that they evolved the ability

47:15

to create milk is that flamingos have a

47:17

very specific mechanism for feeding. Like if you

47:19

picture a flamingo in your mind's eye, they've

47:22

got that super funky beak and you always

47:24

see them just like fully face down in

47:26

the water, like doing their thing. And

47:28

essentially what they're doing is they put their

47:31

head in the water, they open their mouth

47:33

and then they close it and they've got

47:35

like all this water in their mouth and

47:37

then they press the water out. It's almost

47:39

like a baleen type structure, like with whales.

47:41

So they press all the water out and

47:44

what's left is all these little teeny tiny

47:46

shrimps that give them their nutrition and are

47:48

their diet. And

47:52

when baby flamingos are born, their

47:54

beaks are not developed for that type

47:56

of feeding. Like it takes quite a

47:58

while for them to. develop into

48:00

that sort of structure. Like they're

48:02

just, they're just a regular little

48:04

baby bird beak at first. Like

48:07

you, I, I highly recommend everyone

48:09

look at baby flamingos because a

48:11

they're super ugly cute. B they're

48:13

not pink at all when they're born,

48:16

which we will cover as well. And

48:18

C they have just like regular little beaks

48:21

to start. So because

48:23

they cannot feed themselves like this,

48:26

um, flamingo, um, mom and dad produce

48:28

crop milk for them and feed them

48:30

the crop milk until they're developed enough

48:33

to feed on their own. And

48:35

another really sort of radical metal

48:38

thing about flamingo milk specifically is

48:40

because of that shrimp rich diet,

48:42

which contains a lot of carotenoids,

48:45

which make everything pink and red,

48:48

their milk is bright red. So

48:50

there's a very viral video of

48:52

a flamingo dad, like dripping

48:54

flamingo milk onto the flamingo mom's head.

48:56

And then it dripping down into the

48:59

baby's mouth and it's bright red. And

49:01

everyone on the internet was like, it's

49:04

murder, you know, like so

49:10

that's very, um, very intense looking,

49:12

but actually it's just flamingo milk. So

49:14

nobody needs to be scared. And

49:17

yeah, uh, flamingo babies are born

49:19

sort of kind of a

49:21

pale fuzzy gray. And then as they

49:23

get more carotenoids in their diet, they

49:26

turn pink. And while the

49:28

parents are producing flamingo milk and using

49:30

up all these nutrients and these carotenoids,

49:32

they actually pale in color a little

49:34

bit. Like they are literally putting so

49:37

much of their energy into making milk

49:39

that they change color. Wow. So

49:42

that's the flamingo milk section. And

49:46

now the penguin milk section. So this

49:48

one's really interesting because I was

49:51

like penguins. I can't like just these three

49:53

types of birds are so radically different from

49:55

one another. I was like, how is this

49:57

possible? So in the case of.

50:00

penguins, only the

50:02

male emperor penguin creates milk

50:05

and it's because they are the one

50:07

that sit on the egg and incubate

50:09

it on their feet for like two

50:11

months in the Antarctic winter while

50:14

the female goes out to the sea to

50:16

like get fish. So during that time if

50:18

the egg hatches to be able to like

50:20

tide over that chick and be able to

50:22

give them nutrients, the

50:24

prolactin hits, they start producing crop

50:26

milk and they are able to

50:28

feed their babies this super rich

50:30

fatty substance until the female comes

50:33

back with actual fish to feed

50:35

them. So again it's kind of

50:37

like these three

50:39

very different circumstances created

50:41

sort of the exact same

50:43

solution to the problem. So

50:45

yeah that's that's kind of

50:47

your crash course on bird milk and of course I

50:49

had to make an illustration about

50:51

this because that is my way. So

50:56

I did a painting of a pigeon holding

50:58

a glass of milk and it says

51:01

want a curdle? So and

51:05

I think I'll have to do a flamingo and a

51:08

penguin as well but yeah that's bird

51:10

milk baby. Wow. I

51:15

wonder if it's lactose

51:17

free. Great question.

51:20

Amazing question. I really

51:22

feel like where it's it's

51:26

anyone's guess how

51:29

long it will take before someone tries to

51:32

make bird

51:35

milk a superfood. Yes.

51:37

Oh absolutely. I can see it gracing the aisles

51:42

of Erewhon's Marl. Another

51:45

sidebar is that while I was researching

51:48

this you know I looked up

51:50

bird milk and it said bird milk not to

51:52

be confused with birds milk and

51:54

I thought okay what

51:57

does that mean and it's a type

51:59

of candy. It's like originated

52:01

in Poland and it's literally

52:03

just like a chocolate

52:05

bar filled with a marshmallowy type

52:07

Substance and it's called birds milk

52:09

because in ancient Greece They

52:11

used to be like oh the milk of

52:13

a bird like so rare and so like

52:16

fancy because it Because it didn't

52:18

really exist. So anyway, got it. Another

52:20

another bird's milk. Don't do they know

52:24

exactly, they didn't know yet but Um

52:28

Wow, so I had heard

52:30

of pigeon milk only very like

52:34

derisively like So

52:38

this is a fascinating and I

52:42

again I'm like wow I Did

52:45

not have enough respect for these birds of

52:47

their nasty milk. Yes, just because I don't

52:50

want to consume it. It's not for me.

52:52

So Um, it's true. You

52:54

know Yeah, everyone, please

52:56

give pigeons some love if there's anything

52:59

you take away from this is that pigeons

53:01

are amazing, you know Yeah, stop

53:03

calling them the rats of the

53:06

sky because that that

53:08

goes to seagulls. I Am

53:11

I just started

53:14

a D&D campaign where I am a pigeon But

53:17

that is no cool Pigeon

53:20

but like what's your class? Like

53:22

wizard. No, I'm a I'm a bard. I'm a

53:26

really troublesome pigeon bard

53:28

named Chip Skylark and That

53:31

is oh And

53:34

you're gonna sing shiny beak and me or

53:37

what it's already come up. We've only had

53:39

one session that is already come up and

53:43

Yeah, my pigeon is modeled after the hot

53:45

pigeon that showed

53:48

up in New York once People

53:51

Google if you don't know but yeah that pigeon is

53:53

like people learning about the

53:55

hot pigeon I think is how many

53:57

people learned that pigeon is just a

53:59

random the name we call

54:01

some doves. Yes, exactly. It

54:04

is simply a marketing issue. Yeah.

54:07

Well, I'm doing my best with

54:09

my hot pigeon

54:13

barred D&D character. Liz,

54:16

thank you so much for coming on.

54:19

Would you remind our listeners where they

54:21

can find you? Yes. So

54:23

y'all can find me anywhere as

54:26

I paint burbs. And yes, that's

54:28

B-I-R-B-S. You can find

54:30

me on Twitch and Instagram,

54:32

TikTok, Twitter, and also

54:34

I paint burbs.com for

54:36

some bird goodies.

54:38

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54:40

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54:45

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