June 5, 2025 • 25 mins
The cosmic dance of our solar system is more precarious than we realize, with rogue stars potentially disrupting Earth's orbit and sending us hurling into space—though the probability is a reassuring 0.2% over 5 billion years.
Recent research reveals singing to babies significantly improves their overall mood, highlighting the universal evolutionary importance of lullabies as emotional regulation tools across cultures.
Oh and Cockatoos have taught themselves how to drink from fountains.
• Computer simulations show passing stars could disrupt our solar system with catastrophic consequences
• Mercury would likely be the first planet affected, potentially creating a domino effect of planetary collisions
• Earth has a 0.2% chance of being ejected from our solar system in the next 5 billion years
• Parents who sing to babies under four months old observe significantly improved infant moods
• Singing to babies appears to be a universal human behavior with evolutionary advantages
• Sydney's cockatoos demonstrate remarkable intelligence by operating public drinking fountains
• Around 70% of local cockatoos attempt to use fountains with 50% succeeding
• Birds coordinate complex movements and wait in line, suggesting possible social bonding behavior
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zukoski.
And I'm Chris Zukoski, we'rethe pet parents of Bunsen,
beaker, bernoulli and Ginger.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You've come to the right spot, so put on your
safety glasses and hold on toyour tail.
This is the Science Podcast.
Hello everybody and welcomeback to the Science Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode 17 of season 7.
I thought I'd be all excited totalk to you about the Aurora
(00:45):
Borealis or the Northern Lights,because we were in line to get
an incredible show a couple daysago, but a massive storm system
moved in.
It didn't really rain, but itblowed and was super windy and
cloudy and we had zerovisibility of the night sky for
like three nights in a row Superdisappointing.
Had zero visibility of thenight sky for like three nights
(01:05):
in a row Super disappointing,though there were some
incredible photos way west of usin the mountains, where it was
a lot clearer.
We're nearing almost 40 podcastepisodes where Chris has been a
co-host.
Let us know if you like theformat I've mentioned.
Before I was feeling a littleburnt out doing it by myself and
now with Chris, it's been somuch more fun to have somebody
(01:27):
to bounce ideas off of.
I think I might bring her intothe intro preamble, like what
we're doing right now.
Anyways, let us know what youthink.
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Well, what's on the show thisweek?
We have two science items thisweek.
One is a little doom and gloomabout our little place in the
world, on earth, being flung outinto the darkness of space
(01:49):
thanks to a rogue star.
The good news article there wasa huge study done and they
looked at if it was a good ideato sing to babies.
Um, and it turns out it's greatfor babies and for parents or
guardians Very cool.
And our pet sciences articleisn't really about pets because
they're wild animals, thoughthey can be pets.
(02:10):
It's all about the cockatoos ofSydney and how they're up to
some shenanigans.
All right, let's get on withthe show, because there's no
time like science time.
This week in science news we'vegot a little bit of bad news.
Good news situation with theEarth relative to flinging us
(02:31):
out of the sun's orbit.
That's the bad news, but we'llget to the good news as well.
I'm not sure if that'ssomething you think about on a
daily basis, chris, that wecould be flung out of our orbit.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I've actually never thought about it before in my
life.
I was today years old whenreading the article and getting
prepared to talk about it thatoh, wait a second, there is a
catastrophic potentialexistential crisis happening.
(03:04):
But then I felt a lot betterwhen I looked at the percentage,
or the percent chance of thishappening.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
When I was a teenager , I read a short story.
I think it was like do you knowwho Isaac Asimov is?
Does that ring a bell to you?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, I read a lot of science fiction when I was
younger and there was like ashort story collage.
I don't think it was IsaacAsimov that wrote it, but it was
a situation where something hadknocked earth out of its orbit
and flung us into space.
So it was like the perspectiveof a family that had was
(03:41):
watching the sun disappear.
Everything was getting reallycold, and so they had.
They made space age survivalbunkers but they needed to go
outside to get oxygen, but theoxygen was snow because it was
so cold outside.
So they had to scoop up theoxygen and bring it inside and
warm it up for everybody tosurvive on.
(04:02):
So I do have experience withthe short story along these
lines.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's really interesting and terrifying a
little bit.
So why this is important now iscomputer simulations are able
to reveal a new but lowprobability, although it is a
significant risk to Earth andother planets.
So if a passing star hasgravity, which it does, that
(04:31):
gravity could disrupt the solarsystem, which could cause
another planet to collide withEarth or do a domino effect, or
Earth to be hurled into the sunor out of our solar system
entirely.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So the danger is there, even though if it's
infinitesimally small, Mercuryis really small, but it is
affected by Jupiter, and anykind of star that passes by
could worsen the risk.
And you might be wondering whatstar are we talking about?
There are stars that have beenflung away from their system.
(05:08):
If they're like a binary starsystem, they get slingshotted
into outer space.
They're called rogue stars, sothat's what we're talking about.
Here is a random star that justblows by our neck of the woods,
and this research comes to usfrom the Planetary Science
Institute in Iowa and it waspublished on May 7th.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So the computer simulations that they did agree
with earlier studies, and once,basically once, mercury's orbit
becomes extremely elliptical,it'll be very chaotic.
So they, as they're watchingthe simulations, there's some
things that could or couldhappen, like Mercury usually
crashing into the sun orcrashing into Venus, and if that
(05:55):
happens that could push Venusor Mars to crash into Earth.
Or you know what, earth itselfmay crash into the sun and Venus
or Mars can toss earth closerto Jupiter.
And then you know what Jupiterhas an immense gravity and that
might eject earth from the solarsystem entirely.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So it all starts with Mercury.
Once Mercury starts, withchaotic Mercury.
Yeah, that little, teeny tinyplanet right next to the sun.
Chaotic Mercury?
Yeah, that little, teeny tinyplanet right next to the sun.
So their simulations ran over atime span of 5 billion years,
and all of these scenarios areextremely unlikely, though they
(06:38):
did happen right.
I'm reminded of Doctor Strangein the Avengers movie.
He had one.
There was one.
One way they beat the bad guyright.
So it did happen.
The chance of this catastrophefor Earth, as you mentioned, is
very small.
Over five billion years.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
We have a 0.2% chance in their simulations of meeting
our demise by being flown intothe sun, another planet, or out
into the inky darkness of space.
But, however, it's still a muchhigher risk than the previous
studies, which actually didn'taccount for the gravitational
pull of passing stars.
So that's the problem if apassing star hangs out for a bit
, it has a gravitational pullthat causes chaos as well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So these close stellar encounters, I guess, if
you could call them that, haveactually already shaped the
solar system and could explainwhy giant planets have those
elliptical orbits instead ofperfectly circular ones, because
you would think of the birth ofour solar system and everything
going in a circular manner.
But it doesn't and we haveelliptical orbits.
(07:53):
So those rogue stars haveplayed a role in the shaping of
our solar system.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let's also talk about a little teeny planet like
Mercury, and that's Pluto.
Pluto was downgraded to a dwarfplanet from a regular planet.
I think Pluto was a planetplanet when you were in school,
Chris, it was for me.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, it was a planet planet.
And then one Friday afternoonthey said what do you think,
should this be a dwarf planet?
And chaos ensued, but notinterplanetary chaos like the
demise of our solar system, butdefinitely the demise of Pluto
being known as a planet.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And one thing that's odd about Pluto is, even though
it's really far away, it's theoutermost planet at the time.
It's a dwarf planet.
Now it crosses Neptune's orbit.
It has this weird orbit whereit comes inside Neptune's orbit
and any of those passing starscould really mess with that
resonance that Pluto has withNeptune.
As Neptune comes in it affectsPluto not enough to like really
(08:55):
mess with Pluto too much.
But there is a gravitationaltug there and a star would mess
with Pluto by knocking it out ofthat kind of delicate balance.
And if it is knocked out ofthat delicate balance, the
simulation show it could skim byour giant planets of Jupiter
and Saturn or get chucked intoout into space or even die by
(09:19):
crashing into one of the biggerplanets.
And the chance in theirscenario of this happening to
Pluto something catastrophic inthe next 5 billion years was 4%.
So sucks to be Pluto.
They are much bigger risked forthis disaster than we are.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
But it's still a small risk, very small.
These doomsday scenarios areimprobable.
They do highlight how evendistant stars can subtly reshape
our solar system's fate, evenover billions of years.
And like how you started, it isanother reminder of the dynamic
and sometimes chaotic nature ofour planetary systems.
(10:02):
Like we think we're just goingaround revolving and doing our
thing and something could comeand we don't have Bruce Willis
to do the Armageddon.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
If you're listening to this, it's not something to
start to worry about.
It was just a really fun storythat had some interesting
consequences for us.
If things go awry, there'snothing we can do about it.
It's not like we can putrockets on the outside of this,
outside of earth, and send usback into orbit.
We've got much bigger problems,like making sure your alarm is
(10:36):
turned on and you're up for work, than what we're talking about
today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, and our son is not like.
Basically, our son is going tolive for another five billion
years within this time frame,it's OK.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, this is not something we need to worry about
tomorrow.
All right, that's our firstscience news article we need to
worry about tomorrow.
All right, that's our firstscience news article.
Our second science news articleis definitely a little bit more
on the upbeat side and it hasto do about singing to babies.
Chris, did you sing to the ourboys when they were little baby
(11:12):
babies?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You may recall, I had lion King on repeat.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yes, Because with Duncan I remember that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Because with Duncan he would cry and I do not carry
a tune very well, but what Iwould do is I would have Lion
whoa.
That is cool that there is somecurrent research about how
(11:40):
singing to your babysignificantly improves their
mood.
But I do sing aloud and I don'tstop singing just because the
kids are toddlers or babies.
I actually sing all day in myclassroom.
I sing the morning song, goodmorning, but it's not like good
morning to you, it's just wordsthat come out of my mouth and I
(12:02):
also sing about the math song.
We're getting out our pencilsand I just just sing it up and I
think hopefully it improvespeople's moods in my classroom.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
But they're not babies.
No, they're definitely highschoolers, but maybe there's
something about the power ofvoice and singing.
That's something that we coulddo a research article on about.
How does singing affect peopleinto their later life, not only
babies?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I can't sing at all, so I don't sing in my classroom.
I don't know if I sung to ourboys when they were babies.
I don't know if I did hum.
Maybe come a song Like maybe Ihummed a song, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
No, I would sing whatever songs and you're like
this is a weird song, this is aweird game.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, you would make up songs, that's right.
I'm like I don't think this is.
I don't think I'm not.
I don't know if you're supposedto.
I don't know if you're allowedto do that.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
What the heck I, but I did.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and I can't sing either.
What.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I can't sing either.
You said you can't carry a tune.
I already prefaced it with thatI can't either, but I did it
anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, all right.
This aside from, I mean, thestudy doesn't say can you just
make up a song and just likefreestyle it?
It's from the University ofAmsterdam and it included 110
parent-infant pairs and thebabies were under four months
old, most of them.
The parents were split into twogroups.
(13:30):
So here comes the science wasencouraged to sing more to their
babies with songs liketutorials, karaoke,
infant-friendly songbooks orjust incorporating music into
their daily life.
So that's probably you justsing a newsletter to them or
something like that, I don'tknow.
The control group received thesame materials after four weeks.
(13:53):
One group had the song supportearly and one group did not.
For those four weeks, parentsreceived smartphone surveys at
random times, asking about theirinfant mood, if their baby was
fussy, how they felt and howfrequent they were doing musical
behavior.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And the findings are there that the parents who sing
more their babies benefit.
So, yeah, it's so awesome, it'sso heartwarming.
You know, parents increasedtheir singing when they felt
encouraged and supported becausethey found it to be natural and
they found that singing wasused especially when calming
(14:32):
fussy babies, even though theresearchers didn't specifically
instruct hey, if you have afussy baby, try singing to it.
So that kind of flowednaturally and the parents
intuitively use music to sootheinfants, which highlights the
power of music in emotionalregulation, or regulating your
(14:56):
emotions.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Some of the most surprising outcomes that were
that the babies whose parentssang, most of them had
significantly higher moodratings, and this wasn't just in
the moment of singing butoverall mood.
So it wasn't just like from thesong, it was a long lasting
effect.
Now, singing didn'tsignificantly affect caregiver
mood in the short term, butresearchers think long-term
(15:21):
benefits for parents arepossible.
Probably if you have a lessfussy baby, in the long term you
are going to be a little bitless frazzled as a young parent.
That's something that reallyshould be taught in school.
Like when you decide to havekids, you may get a baby that
just never stops.
School Like when you decide tohave kids, you may get a baby
that just never stops crying.
(15:41):
Like you may get a baby thatcries a lot Think of an annoying
sound and then it just neverstops and you don't have sleep.
But you'll get through it.
But it's a tough time.
I was thinking about that theother day that sometimes I think
we romanticize being a parent.
For some people, especially ifyou've got a very fussy baby, it
(16:03):
can break your brain when youdon't get any sleep.
We were pretty lucky,especially with Adam.
He was a good baby.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, we had good babies.
Maybe it's because I sang tothem.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Maybe it was because you sang to them.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It could be.
I'm singing a song and then Ijust would sing as I did, some
stuff, and that's how that's allyou do, folks.
You just make it up as you goand you just put it to a catchy
tune, and I don't know.
That's how I bonded with myboys.
They're so amazing.
Now, jason, you are a musicalyourself, like you play the
piano, and so the boys reallyenjoy it.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I would hold the boys and play the piano.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, yeah.
So to be fair, you definitelyare musical and you used
something within your skill set,which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So it's really exciting as there's a new eight
month study underway withparents and babies under four
months old to explore thoselonger term impacts, because
this one was very short fourweeks so it's an eight month
study, which is prettysignificant.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
No, I love that.
Any more research that we cando showing the positive
parent-child bond and how musiccan play a role, because infant
directed singing is universal inhumans.
They found it cross-culture andpeople can recognize the
context of foreign songs if it'sa dancing song or a lullaby and
(17:25):
this is connected topotentially evolution.
Singing may signal safety tobabies and the lullabies are
reassuring to babies Like I'mhere, I see you, I'm looking out
for you, and that emotionalsignaling may help explain why
lullabies are so universallycalming and comforting for
(17:46):
infants.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
We've done stories about how dolphins sing to their
babies.
They have a special song thatthey sing to their little babies
Very cute.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And it's an easy, accessible tool.
All you have to do is put somewords together to a little bit
of a melody and even if youcan't sing, even if you can't
carry a tune, you can maybecarry a melody and it's a
remarkable simple way to supportinfant mental well-being.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
All right, that's it for Science News this week.
This week in pet science, we'regoing to talk about cockatoos.
Now I have to we have topreface this with these are not
people's pet cockatoos.
It was just such a fun newsitem that I thought we could
talk about it.
Cockatoos are parrot adjacentand, chris, you know how much.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I love parrots.
You love them so much.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Cockatoos are super cute too, so I don't know.
There's something about thosebirds that I don't know.
They just I love them so much.
They're very cool animals, andthis study is about how
cockatoos in Sydney have figuredout how to turn on and off
public drinking fountains whenthey're thirsty, and this was
(19:01):
published on June 4th in BiologyLetters.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So the reason why it's significant and why it's
newsworthy is because studyingthe cockatoos adaptation to
urban environments was important, and in September of 2018,
Barbara Klump, who is abehavioral ecologist now at the
University of Vienna, sawcockatoos using a drinking
(19:26):
fountain at a park in WesternSydney, Australia.
While tracking their foraginghabits and you know what Barbara
asked around and park rangersand the local surveys that were
completed confirmed that thiswasn't just a one-off Cockatoos
actually regularly did drink outof the water fountains.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So the researchers set up cameras, very similar to
our trail cams, to capture thisremarkable behavior on camera
can you imagine being likebarbara clump, the first
ecologist to see this, and she'sguys, the cockatoos are using
the water fountains.
People were probably like, ohbarbara, what are you talking
(20:10):
about?
They can't use, they're birds,they're not people.
You have to be able to turn thefountain like the.
It's a knob, right, we're gonnaget into it.
But then she was probablyvindicated when the, when the
footage came up, kind of likewhen we saw norbert or the
beaver for the first time, wewere vindicated that he was real
and he was real.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
There he is.
Yeah, our trees were gettingchopped down.
Looks like a beaver.
Don't see the beaver?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
oh, got the beaver on camera yeah, that was a very
exciting moment.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Anyways, that was a very exciting moment for sure.
So cockatoos actually can gripthe fountain handle with one
foot and then they twist it withthe other, which activates the
spring inside, which releaseswater, and then they lean their
bodies to the side to make surethat they can apply enough force
.
And then they lean their bodiesto the side to make sure that
they can apply enough force, andthen they tilt back to sip the
water.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And it actually requires a lot of coordination
on the part of the bird sohere's some fun data from the
researchers that tracked all ofthese individual cockatoos and
their drinking fountain habits.
They found about 70% of thelocal cockatoo population tried
to use the fountains, so that'sway over majority, and half of
(21:22):
them were successful, and thismay suggest a form of local
animal culture.
This is a tradition of usingfountains shared within the
cockatoo communities.
They may actually teach eachother this or, by watching,
learn right, there's some debate.
Like the corvids, the ravensdefinitely do teach skills and
(21:45):
songs and warnings to theiroffspring and their community.
So not so sure about cockatoosyet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
The drinking culture like this that the cockatoos are
doing is rare.
Chimpanzees use moss sponges todrink, but the cockatoo
behavior is even more unique tosee it in birds.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So what would drive a cockatoo to do this, right?
Don't they have watereverywhere in these parks for
the cockatoos to slip to sip outof?
I can't imagine they're notbeing water present.
You know what I mean.
Like why would they choose this?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
this is spending so much effort on those fountains,
where they need that incrediblecoordination.
And the researchers watch thebirds line up patiently and they
sometimes waited up to 10minutes for their turn to drink
from the fountain.
And some possible explanationsare that the fountains might be
safer and predator-free watersources and they could be using
(22:47):
the fountain as a way to promotesocial bonding within their
group.
And you know what?
Maybe the water just tastesbetter than the muddy creeks,
the muddy waterways that arenearby.
So all three factors could beat play.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Oh, these hoity-toity cockatoos don't like the muddy
water.
They want the fresh water fromthe water fountains.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I like the fresh water from the water bottle.
So I love that Sydney'scockatoos show this impressive
problem solving and then alsosharing within our culture,
using public drinking fountainsfor refreshment and what,
possibly for a social reasonlike hey, let's get together for
high tea at noon, and then theyall flock to the fountain and
(23:33):
it does.
The behavior does highlight thefascinating adaptability and
that high intelligence that youwere talking about of those city
parrots.
So how are they adapting totheir urban environment?
And you know what they're doingit one sip at a time.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I love this story so much so I spent a bunch of time.
There's a whole bunch of photosand videos of the birds doing
this, so I may or may not havewasted half of my lunch break
looking at these cockatoos.
Over my lunch break, in ourshow notes, I'll do something
special.
I'll have a link to the photosof these impressive water
(24:09):
sipping cockatoos.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
All right, that's Pet Science for this week.
That's it for this week's show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
We'd like to give a shout outto the Top Dogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon-like community, the Paw
Pack.
Check out the show notes.
You can sign up to support us.
We'd love it, and one of theperks of being a top dog is you
get your name shouted out at theend.
(24:34):
Chris, let's hear those names.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Amelia Fetig Rhi, oda Carol Hainel, jennifer Challen,
linnea Janik Karen Chronister,vicky Otero, christy Walker,
sarah Bram, wendy, diane Masonand Luke Helen Chin, elizabeth
Bourgeois, marianne McNally,catherine Jordan, shelley Smith,
laura Steffensen, tracyLeinbach, anne Uchida, heather
(25:00):
Burbach, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Brimer, mary Rader, biancaHyde, andrew Lin, brenda Clark,
brianne Hawes, peggy McKeel,holly Burge, kathy Zerker, susan
Wagner and Liz Button.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
For science, empathy and cuteness.
Hello science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zukoski.
And I'm Chris Zukoski, we'rethe pet parents of Bunsen,
beaker, bernoulli and Ginger.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You've come to the right spot, so put on your
safety glasses and hold on toyour tail.
This is the Science Podcast.
Hello everybody and welcomeback to the Science Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode 17 of season 7.
I thought I'd be all excited totalk to you about the Aurora
(00:45):
Borealis or the Northern Lights,because we were in line to get
an incredible show a couple daysago, but a massive storm system
moved in.
It didn't really rain, but itblowed and was super windy and
cloudy and we had zerovisibility of the night sky for
like three nights in a row Superdisappointing.
Had zero visibility of thenight sky for like three nights
(01:05):
in a row Super disappointing,though there were some
incredible photos way west of usin the mountains, where it was
a lot clearer.
We're nearing almost 40 podcastepisodes where Chris has been a
co-host.
Let us know if you like theformat I've mentioned.
Before I was feeling a littleburnt out doing it by myself and
now with Chris, it's been somuch more fun to have somebody
(01:27):
to bounce ideas off of.
I think I might bring her intothe intro preamble, like what
we're doing right now.
Anyways, let us know what youthink.
We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Well, what's on the show thisweek?
We have two science items thisweek.
One is a little doom and gloomabout our little place in the
world, on earth, being flung outinto the darkness of space
(01:49):
thanks to a rogue star.
The good news article there wasa huge study done and they
looked at if it was a good ideato sing to babies.
Um, and it turns out it's greatfor babies and for parents or
guardians Very cool.
And our pet sciences articleisn't really about pets because
they're wild animals, thoughthey can be pets.
(02:10):
It's all about the cockatoos ofSydney and how they're up to
some shenanigans.
All right, let's get on withthe show, because there's no
time like science time.
This week in science news we'vegot a little bit of bad news.
Good news situation with theEarth relative to flinging us
(02:31):
out of the sun's orbit.
That's the bad news, but we'llget to the good news as well.
I'm not sure if that'ssomething you think about on a
daily basis, chris, that wecould be flung out of our orbit.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I've actually never thought about it before in my
life.
I was today years old whenreading the article and getting
prepared to talk about it thatoh, wait a second, there is a
catastrophic potentialexistential crisis happening.
(03:04):
But then I felt a lot betterwhen I looked at the percentage,
or the percent chance of thishappening.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
When I was a teenager , I read a short story.
I think it was like do you knowwho Isaac Asimov is?
Does that ring a bell to you?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Okay, I read a lot of science fiction when I was
younger and there was like ashort story collage.
I don't think it was IsaacAsimov that wrote it, but it was
a situation where something hadknocked earth out of its orbit
and flung us into space.
So it was like the perspectiveof a family that had was
(03:41):
watching the sun disappear.
Everything was getting reallycold, and so they had.
They made space age survivalbunkers but they needed to go
outside to get oxygen, but theoxygen was snow because it was
so cold outside.
So they had to scoop up theoxygen and bring it inside and
warm it up for everybody tosurvive on.
(04:02):
So I do have experience withthe short story along these
lines.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
That's really interesting and terrifying a
little bit.
So why this is important now iscomputer simulations are able
to reveal a new but lowprobability, although it is a
significant risk to Earth andother planets.
So if a passing star hasgravity, which it does, that
(04:31):
gravity could disrupt the solarsystem, which could cause
another planet to collide withEarth or do a domino effect, or
Earth to be hurled into the sunor out of our solar system
entirely.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So the danger is there, even though if it's
infinitesimally small, Mercuryis really small, but it is
affected by Jupiter, and anykind of star that passes by
could worsen the risk.
And you might be wondering whatstar are we talking about?
There are stars that have beenflung away from their system.
(05:08):
If they're like a binary starsystem, they get slingshotted
into outer space.
They're called rogue stars, sothat's what we're talking about.
Here is a random star that justblows by our neck of the woods,
and this research comes to usfrom the Planetary Science
Institute in Iowa and it waspublished on May 7th.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So the computer simulations that they did agree
with earlier studies, and once,basically once, mercury's orbit
becomes extremely elliptical,it'll be very chaotic.
So they, as they're watchingthe simulations, there's some
things that could or couldhappen, like Mercury usually
crashing into the sun orcrashing into Venus, and if that
(05:55):
happens that could push Venusor Mars to crash into Earth.
Or you know what, earth itselfmay crash into the sun and Venus
or Mars can toss earth closerto Jupiter.
And then you know what Jupiterhas an immense gravity and that
might eject earth from the solarsystem entirely.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So it all starts with Mercury.
Once Mercury starts, withchaotic Mercury.
Yeah, that little, teeny tinyplanet right next to the sun.
Chaotic Mercury?
Yeah, that little, teeny tinyplanet right next to the sun.
So their simulations ran over atime span of 5 billion years,
and all of these scenarios areextremely unlikely, though they
(06:38):
did happen right.
I'm reminded of Doctor Strangein the Avengers movie.
He had one.
There was one.
One way they beat the bad guyright.
So it did happen.
The chance of this catastrophefor Earth, as you mentioned, is
very small.
Over five billion years.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
We have a 0.2% chance in their simulations of meeting
our demise by being flown intothe sun, another planet, or out
into the inky darkness of space.
But, however, it's still a muchhigher risk than the previous
studies, which actually didn'taccount for the gravitational
pull of passing stars.
So that's the problem if apassing star hangs out for a bit
, it has a gravitational pullthat causes chaos as well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So these close stellar encounters, I guess, if
you could call them that, haveactually already shaped the
solar system and could explainwhy giant planets have those
elliptical orbits instead ofperfectly circular ones, because
you would think of the birth ofour solar system and everything
going in a circular manner.
But it doesn't and we haveelliptical orbits.
(07:53):
So those rogue stars haveplayed a role in the shaping of
our solar system.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Let's also talk about a little teeny planet like
Mercury, and that's Pluto.
Pluto was downgraded to a dwarfplanet from a regular planet.
I think Pluto was a planetplanet when you were in school,
Chris, it was for me.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yeah, it was a planet planet.
And then one Friday afternoonthey said what do you think,
should this be a dwarf planet?
And chaos ensued, but notinterplanetary chaos like the
demise of our solar system, butdefinitely the demise of Pluto
being known as a planet.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
And one thing that's odd about Pluto is, even though
it's really far away, it's theoutermost planet at the time.
It's a dwarf planet.
Now it crosses Neptune's orbit.
It has this weird orbit whereit comes inside Neptune's orbit
and any of those passing starscould really mess with that
resonance that Pluto has withNeptune.
As Neptune comes in it affectsPluto not enough to like really
(08:55):
mess with Pluto too much.
But there is a gravitationaltug there and a star would mess
with Pluto by knocking it out ofthat kind of delicate balance.
And if it is knocked out ofthat delicate balance, the
simulation show it could skim byour giant planets of Jupiter
and Saturn or get chucked intoout into space or even die by
(09:19):
crashing into one of the biggerplanets.
And the chance in theirscenario of this happening to
Pluto something catastrophic inthe next 5 billion years was 4%.
So sucks to be Pluto.
They are much bigger risked forthis disaster than we are.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
But it's still a small risk, very small.
These doomsday scenarios areimprobable.
They do highlight how evendistant stars can subtly reshape
our solar system's fate, evenover billions of years.
And like how you started, it isanother reminder of the dynamic
and sometimes chaotic nature ofour planetary systems.
(10:02):
Like we think we're just goingaround revolving and doing our
thing and something could comeand we don't have Bruce Willis
to do the Armageddon.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
If you're listening to this, it's not something to
start to worry about.
It was just a really fun storythat had some interesting
consequences for us.
If things go awry, there'snothing we can do about it.
It's not like we can putrockets on the outside of this,
outside of earth, and send usback into orbit.
We've got much bigger problems,like making sure your alarm is
(10:36):
turned on and you're up for work, than what we're talking about
today.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, and our son is not like.
Basically, our son is going tolive for another five billion
years within this time frame,it's OK.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, this is not something we need to worry about
tomorrow.
All right, that's our firstscience news article we need to
worry about tomorrow.
All right, that's our firstscience news article.
Our second science news articleis definitely a little bit more
on the upbeat side and it hasto do about singing to babies.
Chris, did you sing to the ourboys when they were little baby
(11:12):
babies?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You may recall, I had lion King on repeat.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yes, Because with Duncan I remember that.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Because with Duncan he would cry and I do not carry
a tune very well, but what Iwould do is I would have Lion
whoa.
That is cool that there is somecurrent research about how
(11:40):
singing to your babysignificantly improves their
mood.
But I do sing aloud and I don'tstop singing just because the
kids are toddlers or babies.
I actually sing all day in myclassroom.
I sing the morning song, goodmorning, but it's not like good
morning to you, it's just wordsthat come out of my mouth and I
(12:02):
also sing about the math song.
We're getting out our pencilsand I just just sing it up and I
think hopefully it improvespeople's moods in my classroom.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh, that's fun.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
But they're not babies.
No, they're definitely highschoolers, but maybe there's
something about the power ofvoice and singing.
That's something that we coulddo a research article on about.
How does singing affect peopleinto their later life, not only
babies?
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I can't sing at all, so I don't sing in my classroom.
I don't know if I sung to ourboys when they were babies.
I don't know if I did hum.
Maybe come a song Like maybe Ihummed a song, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
No, I would sing whatever songs and you're like
this is a weird song, this is aweird game.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, you would make up songs, that's right.
I'm like I don't think this is.
I don't think I'm not.
I don't know if you're supposedto.
I don't know if you're allowedto do that.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
What the heck I, but I did.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Yeah, and I can't sing either.
What.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I can't sing either.
You said you can't carry a tune.
I already prefaced it with thatI can't either, but I did it
anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, all right.
This aside from, I mean, thestudy doesn't say can you just
make up a song and just likefreestyle it?
It's from the University ofAmsterdam and it included 110
parent-infant pairs and thebabies were under four months
old, most of them.
The parents were split into twogroups.
(13:30):
So here comes the science wasencouraged to sing more to their
babies with songs liketutorials, karaoke,
infant-friendly songbooks orjust incorporating music into
their daily life.
So that's probably you justsing a newsletter to them or
something like that, I don'tknow.
The control group received thesame materials after four weeks.
(13:53):
One group had the song supportearly and one group did not.
For those four weeks, parentsreceived smartphone surveys at
random times, asking about theirinfant mood, if their baby was
fussy, how they felt and howfrequent they were doing musical
behavior.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
And the findings are there that the parents who sing
more their babies benefit.
So, yeah, it's so awesome, it'sso heartwarming.
You know, parents increasedtheir singing when they felt
encouraged and supported becausethey found it to be natural and
they found that singing wasused especially when calming
(14:32):
fussy babies, even though theresearchers didn't specifically
instruct hey, if you have afussy baby, try singing to it.
So that kind of flowednaturally and the parents
intuitively use music to sootheinfants, which highlights the
power of music in emotionalregulation, or regulating your
(14:56):
emotions.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Some of the most surprising outcomes that were
that the babies whose parentssang, most of them had
significantly higher moodratings, and this wasn't just in
the moment of singing butoverall mood.
So it wasn't just like from thesong, it was a long lasting
effect.
Now, singing didn'tsignificantly affect caregiver
mood in the short term, butresearchers think long-term
(15:21):
benefits for parents arepossible.
Probably if you have a lessfussy baby, in the long term you
are going to be a little bitless frazzled as a young parent.
That's something that reallyshould be taught in school.
Like when you decide to havekids, you may get a baby that
just never stops.
School Like when you decide tohave kids, you may get a baby
that just never stops crying.
(15:41):
Like you may get a baby thatcries a lot Think of an annoying
sound and then it just neverstops and you don't have sleep.
But you'll get through it.
But it's a tough time.
I was thinking about that theother day that sometimes I think
we romanticize being a parent.
For some people, especially ifyou've got a very fussy baby, it
(16:03):
can break your brain when youdon't get any sleep.
We were pretty lucky,especially with Adam.
He was a good baby.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, we had good babies.
Maybe it's because I sang tothem.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Maybe it was because you sang to them.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It could be.
I'm singing a song and then Ijust would sing as I did, some
stuff, and that's how that's allyou do, folks.
You just make it up as you goand you just put it to a catchy
tune, and I don't know.
That's how I bonded with myboys.
They're so amazing.
Now, jason, you are a musicalyourself, like you play the
piano, and so the boys reallyenjoy it.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I would hold the boys and play the piano.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, yeah.
So to be fair, you definitelyare musical and you used
something within your skill set,which is awesome.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So it's really exciting as there's a new eight
month study underway withparents and babies under four
months old to explore thoselonger term impacts, because
this one was very short fourweeks so it's an eight month
study, which is prettysignificant.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
No, I love that.
Any more research that we cando showing the positive
parent-child bond and how musiccan play a role, because infant
directed singing is universal inhumans.
They found it cross-culture andpeople can recognize the
context of foreign songs if it'sa dancing song or a lullaby and
(17:25):
this is connected topotentially evolution.
Singing may signal safety tobabies and the lullabies are
reassuring to babies Like I'mhere, I see you, I'm looking out
for you, and that emotionalsignaling may help explain why
lullabies are so universallycalming and comforting for
(17:46):
infants.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
We've done stories about how dolphins sing to their
babies.
They have a special song thatthey sing to their little babies
Very cute.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And it's an easy, accessible tool.
All you have to do is put somewords together to a little bit
of a melody and even if youcan't sing, even if you can't
carry a tune, you can maybecarry a melody and it's a
remarkable simple way to supportinfant mental well-being.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
All right, that's it for Science News this week.
This week in pet science, we'regoing to talk about cockatoos.
Now I have to we have topreface this with these are not
people's pet cockatoos.
It was just such a fun newsitem that I thought we could
talk about it.
Cockatoos are parrot adjacentand, chris, you know how much.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
I love parrots.
You love them so much.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Cockatoos are super cute too, so I don't know.
There's something about thosebirds that I don't know.
They just I love them so much.
They're very cool animals, andthis study is about how
cockatoos in Sydney have figuredout how to turn on and off
public drinking fountains whenthey're thirsty, and this was
(19:01):
published on June 4th in BiologyLetters.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So the reason why it's significant and why it's
newsworthy is because studyingthe cockatoos adaptation to
urban environments was important, and in September of 2018,
Barbara Klump, who is abehavioral ecologist now at the
University of Vienna, sawcockatoos using a drinking
(19:26):
fountain at a park in WesternSydney, Australia.
While tracking their foraginghabits and you know what Barbara
asked around and park rangersand the local surveys that were
completed confirmed that thiswasn't just a one-off Cockatoos
actually regularly did drink outof the water fountains.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So the researchers set up cameras, very similar to
our trail cams, to capture thisremarkable behavior on camera
can you imagine being likebarbara clump, the first
ecologist to see this, and she'sguys, the cockatoos are using
the water fountains.
People were probably like, ohbarbara, what are you talking
(20:10):
about?
They can't use, they're birds,they're not people.
You have to be able to turn thefountain like the.
It's a knob, right, we're gonnaget into it.
But then she was probablyvindicated when the, when the
footage came up, kind of likewhen we saw norbert or the
beaver for the first time, wewere vindicated that he was real
and he was real.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
There he is.
Yeah, our trees were gettingchopped down.
Looks like a beaver.
Don't see the beaver?
Speaker 2 (20:36):
oh, got the beaver on camera yeah, that was a very
exciting moment.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Anyways, that was a very exciting moment for sure.
So cockatoos actually can gripthe fountain handle with one
foot and then they twist it withthe other, which activates the
spring inside, which releaseswater, and then they lean their
bodies to the side to make surethat they can apply enough force
.
And then they lean their bodiesto the side to make sure that
they can apply enough force, andthen they tilt back to sip the
water.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
And it actually requires a lot of coordination
on the part of the bird sohere's some fun data from the
researchers that tracked all ofthese individual cockatoos and
their drinking fountain habits.
They found about 70% of thelocal cockatoo population tried
to use the fountains, so that'sway over majority, and half of
(21:22):
them were successful, and thismay suggest a form of local
animal culture.
This is a tradition of usingfountains shared within the
cockatoo communities.
They may actually teach eachother this or, by watching,
learn right, there's some debate.
Like the corvids, the ravensdefinitely do teach skills and
(21:45):
songs and warnings to theiroffspring and their community.
So not so sure about cockatoosyet.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
The drinking culture like this that the cockatoos are
doing is rare.
Chimpanzees use moss sponges todrink, but the cockatoo
behavior is even more unique tosee it in birds.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So what would drive a cockatoo to do this, right?
Don't they have watereverywhere in these parks for
the cockatoos to slip to sip outof?
I can't imagine they're notbeing water present.
You know what I mean.
Like why would they choose this?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
this is spending so much effort on those fountains,
where they need that incrediblecoordination.
And the researchers watch thebirds line up patiently and they
sometimes waited up to 10minutes for their turn to drink
from the fountain.
And some possible explanationsare that the fountains might be
safer and predator-free watersources and they could be using
(22:47):
the fountain as a way to promotesocial bonding within their
group.
And you know what?
Maybe the water just tastesbetter than the muddy creeks,
the muddy waterways that arenearby.
So all three factors could beat play.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Oh, these hoity-toity cockatoos don't like the muddy
water.
They want the fresh water fromthe water fountains.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
I like the fresh water from the water bottle.
So I love that Sydney'scockatoos show this impressive
problem solving and then alsosharing within our culture,
using public drinking fountainsfor refreshment and what,
possibly for a social reasonlike hey, let's get together for
high tea at noon, and then theyall flock to the fountain and
(23:33):
it does.
The behavior does highlight thefascinating adaptability and
that high intelligence that youwere talking about of those city
parrots.
So how are they adapting totheir urban environment?
And you know what they're doingit one sip at a time.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
I love this story so much so I spent a bunch of time.
There's a whole bunch of photosand videos of the birds doing
this, so I may or may not havewasted half of my lunch break
looking at these cockatoos.
Over my lunch break, in ourshow notes, I'll do something
special.
I'll have a link to the photosof these impressive water
(24:09):
sipping cockatoos.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
All right, that's Pet Science for this week.
That's it for this week's show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
We'd like to give a shout outto the Top Dogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon-like community, the Paw
Pack.
Check out the show notes.
You can sign up to support us.
We'd love it, and one of theperks of being a top dog is you
get your name shouted out at theend.
(24:34):
Chris, let's hear those names.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Amelia Fetig Rhi, oda Carol Hainel, jennifer Challen,
linnea Janik Karen Chronister,vicky Otero, christy Walker,
sarah Bram, wendy, diane Masonand Luke Helen Chin, elizabeth
Bourgeois, marianne McNally,catherine Jordan, shelley Smith,
laura Steffensen, tracyLeinbach, anne Uchida, heather
(25:00):
Burbach, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Brimer, mary Rader, biancaHyde, andrew Lin, brenda Clark,
brianne Hawes, peggy McKeel,holly Burge, kathy Zerker, susan
Wagner and Liz Button.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
For science, empathy and cuteness.
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