February 28, 2025 • 26 mins
Energized by scientific discoveries about probiotics and ancient Mars, we share insights into pet health, including urgent safety tips for pet owners. Today brings stories of microbiology—with probiotic sugars—and pet news worth reflecting on.
• Discussion on probiotics and sugar cravings
• Key takeaways from the Mars studies revealing ancient water sources
• Heartfelt pet care tips following a dog’s medical emergency
• Insights on monitoring signs of intestinal distress in pets
• Exploration of the connections between Mars’ past and life beyond Earth
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (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 2 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 1 (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.
Hi and welcome back to theScience Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode four of seasonseven.
Here on the farm we have hadsome balmy temperatures, warm
(00:44):
like shorts weather.
Okay, maybe not like shortsweather for the average person,
but when it gets up to about sixabove Celsius it is so smoking
hot in February.
People wearing shorts andflip-flops and Crocs and walking
in the snow barefoot I'm notactually exaggerating.
Chris was walking in the snowbarefoot, adam was walking in
(01:06):
the snow barefoot and I havejust been wearing shorts outside
because after you go throughminus 25 and minus 30 and it
warms up to six degrees Celsius,you might as well live in a
sauna.
The snow is melting rapidly but, to be fair, there's just so
much of it.
It's not going to go for awhile.
We're in for some coldertemperatures coming up, so it's
(01:26):
just a bit of a reprieve.
On the animal front, bunsencontinues to improve.
He's not at 100 percent, butevery day he's walking stronger,
with less tippy tapping andBernoulli's loving play school.
Beaker is just a good girl self.
And Ginger wants to escape andGinger wants to escape, so we've
been taking her in the catbackpack.
Okay, what's on the show?
This week In science news weactually have two science
(01:50):
articles.
One is about probiotic yogurtand sugar.
Okay, so that's one, and theother article is about some new
findings about ancient weatheron Mars, which is really cool.
In pet science, we break downthat viral story of a Bernice
Mountain Dog that ate 44 foreignobjects.
(02:11):
We got tagged in it so manytimes because, of course,
bernoulli's a bit chewy, butthere's some good pet science
and kind of like things to watchout for in that section.
Okay, let's get on with theshow, because there's no time
like science time.
All right, this week in sciencenews, chris, we're going to
talk about sugar.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You love sugar, you love it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, okay, you got me.
I love I have a sweet tooth,for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You do.
You really like sugar All thetreats and at Christmas time
your family does baking.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's deadly.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's deadly.
It is deadly.
Yeah, I always try and avoidthe sugary cookies and all the
snacks, but then once I starthaving one, then I just can't
stop.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, there's some sweets I like and some sweets I
don't.
But I do have a sweet tooth forsure I like.
I don't know.
I guess my family that was big.
We had lots of treats andsweets Not necessarily good for
your health or for your weight.
So this news item that we'relooking at is a bit of a
commentary on probiotics.
(03:23):
There's lots of claims outthere that probiotics may help
with sugar cravings.
So the song of the sugar getsknocked down with proper
probiotic use A lot ofprobiotics that you see on in
yogurts and in capsule form.
The advertised benefits, suchas they improve your gut health,
they give you more energy andthey reduce your sugar cravings.
(03:47):
So the question is if you takea daily probiotic dose, will
that really reduce your cravingsfor sweets?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I don't know if that's true, because they've
done a lot of studies in micewhich suggest a link between gut
bacteria and sugar consumption,which suggest a link between
gut bacteria and sugarconsumption.
Mice physiology is not the sameas human physiology, so gut
health in mice is quitedifferent than gut health in
humans.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So if it's good for the mouse, is it good for the
human?
Here we move to nature,microbiology and a study from
China that identified a bacteriaand molecule affecting sugar
preference.
The bacteria was a bacterioidVolgatus.
And a study from China thatidentified a bacteria and
molecule affecting sugarpreference.
The bacteria was a bacterioidVulgatus and the molecule was
(04:35):
actually vitamin B5, which thebacterium produces.
Mice lacking a sensor in theirgut had reduced levels of this
bacteria and thus vitamin B,leading to an increased amount
of sugar that the mice wanted toeat.
And if they gave the mice thatbacteria and vitamin B, it
lowered their sugar intake.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
So, interestingly, the vitamin B5, and I don't want
to say the name incorrectly,but I'm going to try
pantothenate that stimulates theGLP-1 production.
Now, if you're familiar withthe GLP-1, that is, it gained a
lot of attention recentlybecause drugs like Ozempic mimic
(05:15):
its effect, which controls theblood sugar and weight.
It controls your blood sugar,which then reduces your cravings
and impacts your weight.
The GLP-1 triggers theproduction of a protein which
influences the brain's appetitecontrol center, and the exact
(05:35):
role of that protein, or FGF2-1,in the hypothalamus is unclear,
but it does appear to reducethe desire for sugar unclear,
but it does appear to reduce thedesire for sugar.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So those things like Ozempic, they mimic that GLP-1,
which, in this pathway, reducesyour craving for sugar.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, so it stabilizes your blood sugar,
which affects your cravings forthat sugar.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
That sugar and in the mice model, the vitamin B5
stimulated GLP-1.
Okay, so this seems really rosy, but we have to put our
skeptical hats on.
There's a couple limits to justdeciding to take this bacteria
every day so it stimulates theGLP-1 in your body.
(06:21):
This only reduced sugarcravings in mice lacking that
receptor, meaning it might notwork.
In humans who have an intactreceptor, there's concerns that
this bacteria might contributeto intestinal inflammation.
You might just get intestinaltrouble from taking this
bacteria.
Furthermore, the biggestchallenge with all of this is
(06:44):
that no human studies haveconfirmed these effects in
humans, and you mentioned before, chris, that what works in mice
with their physiology doesn'tnecessarily transfer to humans.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's right.
But then, additionally,companies are not required to
test probiotics specifically inhumans before marketing them, to
test probiotics specifically inhumans before marketing them,
so that it's an untested fieldwhere they can make claims
because they're not regulated bythe FDA.
Because if they're making adietary supplement, that's not
(07:19):
covered by the Food and DrugAdministration, so they can
market those probiotics freelyas long as they don't make the
claim that they treat disease.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So they can allude to things that it does reduce
sugar cravings, but they can'tsay it treats obesity, for
example.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Exactly so it's a loophole.
And evidence supporting theirclaims often comes from animal
studies which don't necessarilyreflect what would happen in a
human.
So it's a bit of a circle,right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
So the conclusion I think is perhaps with regulation
of your appetite for sugar isprobiotics might be a little
overhyped.
Remember, many probioticproducts don't even contain the
bacteria we're talking about.
And if they do help, yourindividual responses will
probably vary quite a bit basedon your own biology.
(08:15):
So keep your skeptical hat on.
They may not help with sugarcravings, but obviously if they
are helping you that's great, Iguess.
Don't go into it thinking thatthey will.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
But you can still enjoy yogurt, because calcium is
good for your bones.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, that's right.
Okay, that's our first sciencearticle for this week In science
news round two.
Chris, let's talk about Mars.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Sailor Moon, sailor Mars.
Every time I think about Mars,every time I think about mars,
every time I think about it, Ithink about sailor moon, sailor
mars, sailor mercury yeah yeah Ijust think of the martian movie
yeah, we were in a sessionabout the artemis yeah and the
presenter loves space, lives andbreathes space and is so
(09:01):
excited about mars.
And that's when she mentionedthat she watches the March
Martian and I said I have astory for you.
Every time the Martian comes on, Jason stops what he's doing
and watches it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So where this the tie-in is with our study.
I always love covering spacestuff.
I love space too.
I love Mars.
Mars is really cool.
Well, the conclusion from thestudy is that Mars's red color
may not be from what we thought,and ancient Mars is thought to
be warm, or warmer and wet.
(09:38):
Yeah, and the chemistry mayprove it wasn't warmer.
It was probably really cold inorder to get that red hue and
the potential coastline.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So there's actually two new studies that explore
Mars' past and its interactionwith liquid water.
In these studies, scientistshave identified a possible
ancient beach in Mars' northernhemisphere ancient beach in
(10:07):
Mars's northern hemisphere aswell as a water-containing
mineral, which you alluded to,but it's called ferrihydrite.
That may explain the planet'sred hue.
So they were mistaken on whatthey thought caused the iron
oxide.
So these discoveries of thepossible ancient beach and the
water containing mineral bariahydrate offer new insights into
(10:28):
Mars's climate and liquid waterhistory over 3 billion years ago
.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So there's always been a debate, as long as I can
remember, that Mars was cold anddry or warm and wet, and these
studies that we're talking aboutwas that early Mars was wet,
not dry, and probably reallycold.
So this may help settle thatdebate.
The research that we're goingto be talking about, the data,
comes from China's Zhurong rover, which landed on Mars in 2021
(10:56):
and investigated this theory.
It used ground penetratingradar to detect subsurface
structures.
It found a sloping region, andthat sloping region resembles
the sloping on Earth's beaches.
Also, it foundpebble-to-sand-sized sediments,
which is common in coastalregions.
This was all published in lateFebruary, like only a couple
(11:20):
days ago, and this is theevidence that there was this big
beach.
Probably you wouldn't want toswim in it, it would be really
cold, but it's not there anymore, it's all dried up.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Do you think it would have been colder than the North
Sea?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh, I don't know.
I've swam in the Pacific Oceanoff of Vancouver Island.
That's chilly.
Now there's some other thingsthat they were able to rule out,
obviously because when you findstuff like this, you have to
debate what it could be.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The scientists definitely considered
alternative explanations forthat sloped feature that they
found, and one of those wouldhave been windblown sand dunes,
but the shape doesn't match theMartian dunes that they can
already see.
They also thought maybe itcould be river deposits, but
that's unlikely given thesediment distribution.
(12:09):
And lastly, they consideredlava flows, but the structure
lacks volcanic characteristics,so the coastal-like sediment
deposits support the ancientshoreline hypothesis.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Now, if you're somebody who loves thinking
about life outside of Earth,there are huge implications here
for the habibility of Mars.
In the past, the site was ashoreline and Mars did have a
lot of water.
This is the perfect locationfor life to develop, because on
Earth the earliest life formsdeveloped along our shorelines.
(12:45):
Now, this doesn't confirm therewas like full-size oceans like
there was on Earth, but it doessupport the idea of large bodies
of water in Mars' ancient past.
Very exciting.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That is very exciting .
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Now this leads us into the second part, which is
the debate on what makes Marsred.
I have actually taught kidswrong, if this turns out to be
true, because I taught kids thereason that Mars is red.
It comes from hematite, whichis an iron oxide that doesn't
contain water, and the hematitedoesn't match the light
(13:22):
absorption properties of Martiandust.
This was published again only afew days ago in Nature
Communications.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So a team of scientists conducted light
absorption and reflection testson minerals and compared that to
the Martian dust samples, andthey actually discovered that a
mixture of fairy hydrate andbasalt best matched Mars'
surface color.
So fairy hydrate is awater-containing iron oxide and
(13:53):
basalt is a volcanic rock.
And to get the best color matchone part fairy hydrate to two
parts basalt.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So all of this fairy hydrate suggests cold, wet
conditions on ancient Mars.
Unlike hematite, fairy hydraterequires water to form.
This suggests that Mars hadliquid water when its red
surface formed.
Very exciting.
And in order to stabilize fairyhydrate on Mars like what we
see today, ancient Mars had tobe cold and acidic.
(14:23):
Ferrihydrate on Earth isunstable and will turn
eventually into more stabletypes of iron compounds like
hematite.
But on early Mars these cold,acidic conditions probably
preserved it until the surfacewater disappeared.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
So the bigger picture .
Combining the two studies, wehave a new vision of early Mars.
Mars had large bodies of liquidwater, you know what,
potentially even seas or oceans,and the planet experienced a
cold to very cold climate.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's cool.
I feel bad because I didliterally this year.
It's in whatever like whatwe've known why Mars is red.
I literally told the kids thisyear it was hematite.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That's okay.
You can just go back and sayyou know what A new scientific
discovery may have proved mewrong.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We're always learning more about space, and that's
what makes space so exciting.
That's science news for thisweek weekend.
Pet science and pet news.
Oh man, we think Bernoulli'sbad, but there's another dog out
there that is 44 times worse,chris.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Bernoulli eats everything non-edible.
That's not true.
We are very diligent and wewatch him like a hawk.
But his latest is picking uphangers off the floor.
And we have plastic hangers andI'm going to be honest with
everybody, I can't actually buythese hangers anymore.
There is nowhere on the planetthat has the hangers I like.
(15:59):
So I really very sad thatBernoullilli has taken himself,
taken it upon himself to chewthem.
Error for me is having them onthe floor by the clothes pile
the laundry basket yeah, wethere.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
He takes them out of the laundry basket, but it
doesn't matter, we put somethingaway from him.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
We baby proof and he yoinks it out I don't know he's
adam came home with a bag ofsocks.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I don't know what he was doing with those socks like
a big bag of socks and I gotbusy this morning and brunelli
shredded the socks into the bag.
He shredded the bag and therewere socks everywhere he loves
plastic, I don't know I know,and we got tagged this.
This is why we're doing this isbecause this literally happened
today.
Bernoulli shredded that bagfull of socks and then we got
(16:52):
tagged with this incrediblestory of a Bernice Mountain Dog
that survived, thank God,because this dog ate 44 socks
thank god because this dog ate44 socks.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Jason.
The seven month old bernicemountain dog named luna actually
had quite a few foreign objects, dozens of foreign objects,
leading to the emergencyoperation to have them out it
wasn't 44 socks, it was 24 socksand a whole other bunch of
other crap.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I'm just super glad she survived.
So why would this maybe be petscience or pet news?
There are symptoms that yourdog will have if they have
blockages or they're full offoreign objects.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Owners actually noticed the symptoms, which
prompted them to seek emergencycare.
What they noticed was frequentvomiting, luna having a firm,
swollen, distended abdomen orstomach, and she was in
discomfort and distress.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, it's similar to bloat, which makes it really
scary.
They might be very tired orpacing and full of discomfort.
If you touch their belly theycould be in pain.
They might have a weird hunchedposture or reluctance to move.
If it gets serious, they'll dieright, they'll go into shock
and they'll die.
So this is a very serioussituation and you need to seek
(18:18):
emergency care immediately.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So do you want to know what was in Luna's stomach?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Go ahead, it's wild 24 socks.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, a small onesie which is a baby shirt, like baby
clothing.
She had a hair scrunchie, twohair ties, a shoe insert like a
Dr Scholl's shoe insert and 15miscellaneous cloth pieces.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
What were they?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
They were miscellaneous cloth pieces.
I'm not sure they might havebeen pre-chewed up socks that
were in varying stages ofdigestion.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
The x-rays taken before the surgery revealed a
mass of these objects insideLuna's stomach.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Oh my God.
Now, I did mention Lunasurvived.
She underwent two huge surgicalprocedures, like if Bunsen did
have bloat.
That's a serious medicalprocedure.
I think they gave us like acoin flip if you would survive,
right, if it was bloat, it'slike a 50-50 thing.
It wasn't good, no.
So Luna survived, thankgoodness.
(19:28):
She had gastronomy, which is anincision in the stomach to
remove all of that stuff, andentomology, which is a procedure
to remove the onesie that hadgot all the way into her
intestine.
Oof, that's horrible, and thisis coming to us from Corona,
california, and the veterinarianteam was a bunch of heroes.
(19:48):
They did the surgery and Lunasurvived.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Now, jason, I didn't tell you about a co-worker's dog
.
So she has a puppy and he'sjust over a year and she has two
kids, but her daughter is indance, which you wear like these
little clothes, like the danceand skating.
So very similar, right, theoutfits are minimal.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And then she wears leotard onesies.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, leotard onesies , but then also tights.
And she had left the leotardonesie, which is astronomically
expensive, like $500.
And the leotards, like thetights, on the floor, and half
of the leg of a tight was gone.
Oh man, where did it go?
(20:34):
My coworker had to take her dogto the vet, and this is a bit
of a gross part.
So if you don't want to listenyou can fast forward.
But the vet put their fingerinto the dog's butt and said I
can feel it, I can feel it, Ijust can't get it.
I just can't get it.
And so they were talking aboutwhat are we going to do?
(20:57):
Are we going for surgery?
What's going to happen?
And the vet said, oh, just giveme.
I can feel it, so just give meone more chance.
And so he did some palpitationsof the stomach area and then he
ended up getting it and hepulled it out of the dog's butt.
God, and my co-worker said thatwas the worst smell that she
(21:23):
has ever smelled in her entirelife.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh man, three years was it probably three years ago,
two or three years ago, we morethan that.
Three years ago, when Beakerwas little, we would get from
there.
There's like a local companythat made raw food that we would
get for Bunsen and Beaker, andthey had cow knuckles.
You remember those that Bunsenloved to chew.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And we thought nothing of it and he ate a whole
cow knuckle.
We definitely supervised bunsen.
And in the blink of an eye youget busy with something and 10
minutes, 20 minutes go by and heate the whole thing and that
caused a blockage.
But when we took him in they wehad x-rays right and they're
like oh yeah he's got a piece ofbone stuck in his intestine but
(22:10):
the vet was pretty sure hewould pass it because of the
size.
Yeah, and he passed it.
So, poor Bunsen, at two o'clockin the morning because he was
uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He was really uncomfortable and he went.
I took him out to poop.
I was there, that chunk of bonethe size of a a golf ball shot
out of his butt like a rocket.
Yeah, like you, like you like apotato cannon it wasn't smelly,
(22:44):
but there was a bunch of otherstuff that came out right after
that that was a little backed up.
Hippo spray, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Hippos poop and they turn their tail and it's looked
like a windmill of poop.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, but he didn't need surgery and, as the vet
thought, bunsen did pass it.
It was a scary 12 hours becausehe was really uncomfortable and
puking and couldn't poop.
But there you go, there you go.
There's definitely some tips.
So if you're listening andyou've got a little dog, or you
got a dog, what can we do tomake sure this doesn't happen?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
There are things that you can do to prevent this.
Keep your small objects likesocks and hair ties and other
non-food items out of reach.
Supervise their chewing habitsand provide safe, appropriate
chew toys.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, and their chewing habits, and provide safe
, appropriate chew toys.
And then monitor what.
No more cow knuckles for Bunsen.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, we didn't do any more.
Yeah, no, there were absolutelyno more cow knuckles for Bunsen
.
And then this is what we needto do with Bernoulli is monitor
Bernoulli and other dogs thatare prone to eating non-food
items, which is a conditionknown as pica.
So I don't know if he has thator if he condition known as pica
.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So I don't know if he has that or if he just likes
plastic pica, not sure he didpuke the other day and there was
a couple bits of plastic in thepuke.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But most of it was like crap.
He ate outside the grass anddirt, so it was on him really,
but beakers puked before byeating grass.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
But you know what Luna's case is a reminder that
intestinal blockages can happensuddenly and require urgent
medical attention.
If a dog shows any symptoms,early intervention is important.
So things like behavioralchanges, like being lethargic
and weak or restless, or pacing,whining, that hunch posture
(24:32):
that you were talking about,yeah, that's what happened with
Bunsen.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
He could get some out , but not all.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Some but not all.
And then it shot out of hisbutt like a potato cannon.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I'll leave this up to our wonderful listeners.
Chris, you can Google imagethis, and it's in the story of
the vet posing with all 44 itemson a table after they remove
them from the dog.
It's, you know how police posewith when they've busted
criminals with the drugs and theguns.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh me, yeah, that's what it's like, so you can
Google image that yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yes, self, yes, but what you can't Google image is
my colleague's dog, leotardtight, because he took that
tight out of the dog's butt andthen it smelled so bad he's
usually I like to examine it,but this is so vile it's going
away.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's pet news for this week.
That's it for this week show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to us.
And a special shout out to thetop dogs coming back week after
week to listen to us.
And a special shout out to theTop Dogs, our top tier of the
Paw Pack, our Patreon-likecommunity.
We'd love your support.
So check out the show notes.
One perk as Chris reads outyour name if you're a Top Dog,
chris, take it away.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Amelia Fettig Rhi Oda , carol Pano, 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
(26:07):
Burback, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Breimer, mary Rader,bianca Hyde, andrew Lin, brenda
Clark, brianne Hawes, peggyMcKeel, holly Burge, kathy
Zerker, susan Wagner and LizButton.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
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 2 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
If you love science.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
And you love pets.
Speaker 1 (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.
Hi and welcome back to theScience Podcast.
We hope you're happy andhealthy out there.
This is episode four of seasonseven.
Here on the farm we have hadsome balmy temperatures, warm
(00:44):
like shorts weather.
Okay, maybe not like shortsweather for the average person,
but when it gets up to about sixabove Celsius it is so smoking
hot in February.
People wearing shorts andflip-flops and Crocs and walking
in the snow barefoot I'm notactually exaggerating.
Chris was walking in the snowbarefoot, adam was walking in
(01:06):
the snow barefoot and I havejust been wearing shorts outside
because after you go throughminus 25 and minus 30 and it
warms up to six degrees Celsius,you might as well live in a
sauna.
The snow is melting rapidly but, to be fair, there's just so
much of it.
It's not going to go for awhile.
We're in for some coldertemperatures coming up, so it's
(01:26):
just a bit of a reprieve.
On the animal front, bunsencontinues to improve.
He's not at 100 percent, butevery day he's walking stronger,
with less tippy tapping andBernoulli's loving play school.
Beaker is just a good girl self.
And Ginger wants to escape andGinger wants to escape, so we've
been taking her in the catbackpack.
Okay, what's on the show?
This week In science news weactually have two science
(01:50):
articles.
One is about probiotic yogurtand sugar.
Okay, so that's one, and theother article is about some new
findings about ancient weatheron Mars, which is really cool.
In pet science, we break downthat viral story of a Bernice
Mountain Dog that ate 44 foreignobjects.
(02:11):
We got tagged in it so manytimes because, of course,
bernoulli's a bit chewy, butthere's some good pet science
and kind of like things to watchout for in that section.
Okay, let's get on with theshow, because there's no time
like science time.
All right, this week in sciencenews, chris, we're going to
talk about sugar.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You love sugar, you love it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Okay, okay, you got me.
I love I have a sweet tooth,for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
You do.
You really like sugar All thetreats and at Christmas time
your family does baking.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's deadly.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
It's deadly.
It is deadly.
Yeah, I always try and avoidthe sugary cookies and all the
snacks, but then once I starthaving one, then I just can't
stop.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, there's some sweets I like and some sweets I
don't.
But I do have a sweet tooth forsure I like.
I don't know.
I guess my family that was big.
We had lots of treats andsweets Not necessarily good for
your health or for your weight.
So this news item that we'relooking at is a bit of a
commentary on probiotics.
(03:23):
There's lots of claims outthere that probiotics may help
with sugar cravings.
So the song of the sugar getsknocked down with proper
probiotic use A lot ofprobiotics that you see on in
yogurts and in capsule form.
The advertised benefits, suchas they improve your gut health,
they give you more energy andthey reduce your sugar cravings.
(03:47):
So the question is if you takea daily probiotic dose, will
that really reduce your cravingsfor sweets?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I don't know if that's true, because they've
done a lot of studies in micewhich suggest a link between gut
bacteria and sugar consumption,which suggest a link between
gut bacteria and sugarconsumption.
Mice physiology is not the sameas human physiology, so gut
health in mice is quitedifferent than gut health in
humans.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So if it's good for the mouse, is it good for the
human?
Here we move to nature,microbiology and a study from
China that identified a bacteriaand molecule affecting sugar
preference.
The bacteria was a bacterioidVolgatus.
And a study from China thatidentified a bacteria and
molecule affecting sugarpreference.
The bacteria was a bacterioidVulgatus and the molecule was
(04:35):
actually vitamin B5, which thebacterium produces.
Mice lacking a sensor in theirgut had reduced levels of this
bacteria and thus vitamin B,leading to an increased amount
of sugar that the mice wanted toeat.
And if they gave the mice thatbacteria and vitamin B, it
lowered their sugar intake.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
So, interestingly, the vitamin B5, and I don't want
to say the name incorrectly,but I'm going to try
pantothenate that stimulates theGLP-1 production.
Now, if you're familiar withthe GLP-1, that is, it gained a
lot of attention recentlybecause drugs like Ozempic mimic
(05:15):
its effect, which controls theblood sugar and weight.
It controls your blood sugar,which then reduces your cravings
and impacts your weight.
The GLP-1 triggers theproduction of a protein which
influences the brain's appetitecontrol center, and the exact
(05:35):
role of that protein, or FGF2-1,in the hypothalamus is unclear,
but it does appear to reducethe desire for sugar unclear,
but it does appear to reduce thedesire for sugar.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So those things like Ozempic, they mimic that GLP-1,
which, in this pathway, reducesyour craving for sugar.
Am I getting that right?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, so it stabilizes your blood sugar,
which affects your cravings forthat sugar.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
That sugar and in the mice model, the vitamin B5
stimulated GLP-1.
Okay, so this seems really rosy, but we have to put our
skeptical hats on.
There's a couple limits to justdeciding to take this bacteria
every day so it stimulates theGLP-1 in your body.
(06:21):
This only reduced sugarcravings in mice lacking that
receptor, meaning it might notwork.
In humans who have an intactreceptor, there's concerns that
this bacteria might contributeto intestinal inflammation.
You might just get intestinaltrouble from taking this
bacteria.
Furthermore, the biggestchallenge with all of this is
(06:44):
that no human studies haveconfirmed these effects in
humans, and you mentioned before, chris, that what works in mice
with their physiology doesn'tnecessarily transfer to humans.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
That's right.
But then, additionally,companies are not required to
test probiotics specifically inhumans before marketing them, to
test probiotics specifically inhumans before marketing them,
so that it's an untested fieldwhere they can make claims
because they're not regulated bythe FDA.
Because if they're making adietary supplement, that's not
(07:19):
covered by the Food and DrugAdministration, so they can
market those probiotics freelyas long as they don't make the
claim that they treat disease.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
So they can allude to things that it does reduce
sugar cravings, but they can'tsay it treats obesity, for
example.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Exactly so it's a loophole.
And evidence supporting theirclaims often comes from animal
studies which don't necessarilyreflect what would happen in a
human.
So it's a bit of a circle,right.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
So the conclusion I think is perhaps with regulation
of your appetite for sugar isprobiotics might be a little
overhyped.
Remember, many probioticproducts don't even contain the
bacteria we're talking about.
And if they do help, yourindividual responses will
probably vary quite a bit basedon your own biology.
(08:15):
So keep your skeptical hat on.
They may not help with sugarcravings, but obviously if they
are helping you that's great, Iguess.
Don't go into it thinking thatthey will.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
But you can still enjoy yogurt, because calcium is
good for your bones.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, that's right.
Okay, that's our first sciencearticle for this week In science
news round two.
Chris, let's talk about Mars.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Sailor Moon, sailor Mars.
Every time I think about Mars,every time I think about mars,
every time I think about it, Ithink about sailor moon, sailor
mars, sailor mercury yeah yeah Ijust think of the martian movie
yeah, we were in a sessionabout the artemis yeah and the
presenter loves space, lives andbreathes space and is so
(09:01):
excited about mars.
And that's when she mentionedthat she watches the March
Martian and I said I have astory for you.
Every time the Martian comes on, Jason stops what he's doing
and watches it.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So where this the tie-in is with our study.
I always love covering spacestuff.
I love space too.
I love Mars.
Mars is really cool.
Well, the conclusion from thestudy is that Mars's red color
may not be from what we thought,and ancient Mars is thought to
be warm, or warmer and wet.
(09:38):
Yeah, and the chemistry mayprove it wasn't warmer.
It was probably really cold inorder to get that red hue and
the potential coastline.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So there's actually two new studies that explore
Mars' past and its interactionwith liquid water.
In these studies, scientistshave identified a possible
ancient beach in Mars' northernhemisphere ancient beach in
(10:07):
Mars's northern hemisphere aswell as a water-containing
mineral, which you alluded to,but it's called ferrihydrite.
That may explain the planet'sred hue.
So they were mistaken on whatthey thought caused the iron
oxide.
So these discoveries of thepossible ancient beach and the
water containing mineral bariahydrate offer new insights into
(10:28):
Mars's climate and liquid waterhistory over 3 billion years ago
.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
So there's always been a debate, as long as I can
remember, that Mars was cold anddry or warm and wet, and these
studies that we're talking aboutwas that early Mars was wet,
not dry, and probably reallycold.
So this may help settle thatdebate.
The research that we're goingto be talking about, the data,
comes from China's Zhurong rover, which landed on Mars in 2021
(10:56):
and investigated this theory.
It used ground penetratingradar to detect subsurface
structures.
It found a sloping region, andthat sloping region resembles
the sloping on Earth's beaches.
Also, it foundpebble-to-sand-sized sediments,
which is common in coastalregions.
This was all published in lateFebruary, like only a couple
(11:20):
days ago, and this is theevidence that there was this big
beach.
Probably you wouldn't want toswim in it, it would be really
cold, but it's not there anymore, it's all dried up.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Do you think it would have been colder than the North
Sea?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh, I don't know.
I've swam in the Pacific Oceanoff of Vancouver Island.
That's chilly.
Now there's some other thingsthat they were able to rule out,
obviously because when you findstuff like this, you have to
debate what it could be.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
The scientists definitely considered
alternative explanations forthat sloped feature that they
found, and one of those wouldhave been windblown sand dunes,
but the shape doesn't match theMartian dunes that they can
already see.
They also thought maybe itcould be river deposits, but
that's unlikely given thesediment distribution.
(12:09):
And lastly, they consideredlava flows, but the structure
lacks volcanic characteristics,so the coastal-like sediment
deposits support the ancientshoreline hypothesis.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Now, if you're somebody who loves thinking
about life outside of Earth,there are huge implications here
for the habibility of Mars.
In the past, the site was ashoreline and Mars did have a
lot of water.
This is the perfect locationfor life to develop, because on
Earth the earliest life formsdeveloped along our shorelines.
(12:45):
Now, this doesn't confirm therewas like full-size oceans like
there was on Earth, but it doessupport the idea of large bodies
of water in Mars' ancient past.
Very exciting.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
That is very exciting .
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Now this leads us into the second part, which is
the debate on what makes Marsred.
I have actually taught kidswrong, if this turns out to be
true, because I taught kids thereason that Mars is red.
It comes from hematite, whichis an iron oxide that doesn't
contain water, and the hematitedoesn't match the light
(13:22):
absorption properties of Martiandust.
This was published again only afew days ago in Nature
Communications.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
So a team of scientists conducted light
absorption and reflection testson minerals and compared that to
the Martian dust samples, andthey actually discovered that a
mixture of fairy hydrate andbasalt best matched Mars'
surface color.
So fairy hydrate is awater-containing iron oxide and
(13:53):
basalt is a volcanic rock.
And to get the best color matchone part fairy hydrate to two
parts basalt.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
So all of this fairy hydrate suggests cold, wet
conditions on ancient Mars.
Unlike hematite, fairy hydraterequires water to form.
This suggests that Mars hadliquid water when its red
surface formed.
Very exciting.
And in order to stabilize fairyhydrate on Mars like what we
see today, ancient Mars had tobe cold and acidic.
(14:23):
Ferrihydrate on Earth isunstable and will turn
eventually into more stabletypes of iron compounds like
hematite.
But on early Mars these cold,acidic conditions probably
preserved it until the surfacewater disappeared.
Very cool.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
So the bigger picture .
Combining the two studies, wehave a new vision of early Mars.
Mars had large bodies of liquidwater, you know what,
potentially even seas or oceans,and the planet experienced a
cold to very cold climate.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
That's cool.
I feel bad because I didliterally this year.
It's in whatever like whatwe've known why Mars is red.
I literally told the kids thisyear it was hematite.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
That's okay.
You can just go back and sayyou know what A new scientific
discovery may have proved mewrong.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
We're always learning more about space, and that's
what makes space so exciting.
That's science news for thisweek weekend.
Pet science and pet news.
Oh man, we think Bernoulli'sbad, but there's another dog out
there that is 44 times worse,chris.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Bernoulli eats everything non-edible.
That's not true.
We are very diligent and wewatch him like a hawk.
But his latest is picking uphangers off the floor.
And we have plastic hangers andI'm going to be honest with
everybody, I can't actually buythese hangers anymore.
There is nowhere on the planetthat has the hangers I like.
(15:59):
So I really very sad thatBernoullilli has taken himself,
taken it upon himself to chewthem.
Error for me is having them onthe floor by the clothes pile
the laundry basket yeah, wethere.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
He takes them out of the laundry basket, but it
doesn't matter, we put somethingaway from him.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
We baby proof and he yoinks it out I don't know he's
adam came home with a bag ofsocks.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I don't know what he was doing with those socks like
a big bag of socks and I gotbusy this morning and brunelli
shredded the socks into the bag.
He shredded the bag and therewere socks everywhere he loves
plastic, I don't know I know,and we got tagged this.
This is why we're doing this isbecause this literally happened
today.
Bernoulli shredded that bagfull of socks and then we got
(16:52):
tagged with this incrediblestory of a Bernice Mountain Dog
that survived, thank God,because this dog ate 44 socks
thank god because this dog ate44 socks.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
Jason.
The seven month old bernicemountain dog named luna actually
had quite a few foreign objects, dozens of foreign objects,
leading to the emergencyoperation to have them out it
wasn't 44 socks, it was 24 socksand a whole other bunch of
other crap.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I'm just super glad she survived.
So why would this maybe be petscience or pet news?
There are symptoms that yourdog will have if they have
blockages or they're full offoreign objects.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Owners actually noticed the symptoms, which
prompted them to seek emergencycare.
What they noticed was frequentvomiting, luna having a firm,
swollen, distended abdomen orstomach, and she was in
discomfort and distress.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Yeah, it's similar to bloat, which makes it really
scary.
They might be very tired orpacing and full of discomfort.
If you touch their belly theycould be in pain.
They might have a weird hunchedposture or reluctance to move.
If it gets serious, they'll dieright, they'll go into shock
and they'll die.
So this is a very serioussituation and you need to seek
(18:18):
emergency care immediately.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
So do you want to know what was in Luna's stomach?
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Go ahead, it's wild 24 socks.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, a small onesie which is a baby shirt, like baby
clothing.
She had a hair scrunchie, twohair ties, a shoe insert like a
Dr Scholl's shoe insert and 15miscellaneous cloth pieces.
Wow.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
What were they?
Speaker 2 (18:49):
They were miscellaneous cloth pieces.
I'm not sure they might havebeen pre-chewed up socks that
were in varying stages ofdigestion.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
The x-rays taken before the surgery revealed a
mass of these objects insideLuna's stomach.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Oh my God.
Now, I did mention Lunasurvived.
She underwent two huge surgicalprocedures, like if Bunsen did
have bloat.
That's a serious medicalprocedure.
I think they gave us like acoin flip if you would survive,
right, if it was bloat, it'slike a 50-50 thing.
It wasn't good, no.
So Luna survived, thankgoodness.
(19:28):
She had gastronomy, which is anincision in the stomach to
remove all of that stuff, andentomology, which is a procedure
to remove the onesie that hadgot all the way into her
intestine.
Oof, that's horrible, and thisis coming to us from Corona,
california, and the veterinarianteam was a bunch of heroes.
(19:48):
They did the surgery and Lunasurvived.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Now, jason, I didn't tell you about a co-worker's dog
.
So she has a puppy and he'sjust over a year and she has two
kids, but her daughter is indance, which you wear like these
little clothes, like the danceand skating.
So very similar, right, theoutfits are minimal.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
And then she wears leotard onesies.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, leotard onesies , but then also tights.
And she had left the leotardonesie, which is astronomically
expensive, like $500.
And the leotards, like thetights, on the floor, and half
of the leg of a tight was gone.
Oh man, where did it go?
(20:34):
My coworker had to take her dogto the vet, and this is a bit
of a gross part.
So if you don't want to listenyou can fast forward.
But the vet put their fingerinto the dog's butt and said I
can feel it, I can feel it, Ijust can't get it.
I just can't get it.
And so they were talking aboutwhat are we going to do?
(20:57):
Are we going for surgery?
What's going to happen?
And the vet said, oh, just giveme.
I can feel it, so just give meone more chance.
And so he did some palpitationsof the stomach area and then he
ended up getting it and hepulled it out of the dog's butt.
God, and my co-worker said thatwas the worst smell that she
(21:23):
has ever smelled in her entirelife.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Oh man, three years was it probably three years ago,
two or three years ago, we morethan that.
Three years ago, when Beakerwas little, we would get from
there.
There's like a local companythat made raw food that we would
get for Bunsen and Beaker, andthey had cow knuckles.
You remember those that Bunsenloved to chew.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
And we thought nothing of it and he ate a whole
cow knuckle.
We definitely supervised bunsen.
And in the blink of an eye youget busy with something and 10
minutes, 20 minutes go by and heate the whole thing and that
caused a blockage.
But when we took him in they wehad x-rays right and they're
like oh yeah he's got a piece ofbone stuck in his intestine but
(22:10):
the vet was pretty sure hewould pass it because of the
size.
Yeah, and he passed it.
So, poor Bunsen, at two o'clockin the morning because he was
uncomfortable.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
So uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
He was really uncomfortable and he went.
I took him out to poop.
I was there, that chunk of bonethe size of a a golf ball shot
out of his butt like a rocket.
Yeah, like you, like you like apotato cannon it wasn't smelly,
(22:44):
but there was a bunch of otherstuff that came out right after
that that was a little backed up.
Hippo spray, yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Hippos poop and they turn their tail and it's looked
like a windmill of poop.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Yeah, but he didn't need surgery and, as the vet
thought, bunsen did pass it.
It was a scary 12 hours becausehe was really uncomfortable and
puking and couldn't poop.
But there you go, there you go.
There's definitely some tips.
So if you're listening andyou've got a little dog, or you
got a dog, what can we do tomake sure this doesn't happen?
Speaker 2 (23:17):
There are things that you can do to prevent this.
Keep your small objects likesocks and hair ties and other
non-food items out of reach.
Supervise their chewing habitsand provide safe, appropriate
chew toys.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, and their chewing habits, and provide safe
, appropriate chew toys.
And then monitor what.
No more cow knuckles for Bunsen.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, we didn't do any more.
Yeah, no, there were absolutelyno more cow knuckles for Bunsen
.
And then this is what we needto do with Bernoulli is monitor
Bernoulli and other dogs thatare prone to eating non-food
items, which is a conditionknown as pica.
So I don't know if he has thator if he condition known as pica
.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So I don't know if he has that or if he just likes
plastic pica, not sure he didpuke the other day and there was
a couple bits of plastic in thepuke.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
But most of it was like crap.
He ate outside the grass anddirt, so it was on him really,
but beakers puked before byeating grass.
Speaker 2 (24:10):
But you know what Luna's case is a reminder that
intestinal blockages can happensuddenly and require urgent
medical attention.
If a dog shows any symptoms,early intervention is important.
So things like behavioralchanges, like being lethargic
and weak or restless, or pacing,whining, that hunch posture
(24:32):
that you were talking about,yeah, that's what happened with
Bunsen.
Speaker 1 (24:35):
He could get some out , but not all.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Some but not all.
And then it shot out of hisbutt like a potato cannon.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
I'll leave this up to our wonderful listeners.
Chris, you can Google imagethis, and it's in the story of
the vet posing with all 44 itemson a table after they remove
them from the dog.
It's, you know how police posewith when they've busted
criminals with the drugs and theguns.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh me, yeah, that's what it's like, so you can
Google image that yourself.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Yes, self, yes, but what you can't Google image is
my colleague's dog, leotardtight, because he took that
tight out of the dog's butt andthen it smelled so bad he's
usually I like to examine it,but this is so vile it's going
away.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
That's pet news for this week.
That's it for this week show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to us.
And a special shout out to thetop dogs coming back week after
week to listen to us.
And a special shout out to theTop Dogs, our top tier of the
Paw Pack, our Patreon-likecommunity.
We'd love your support.
So check out the show notes.
One perk as Chris reads outyour name if you're a Top Dog,
chris, take it away.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Amelia Fettig Rhi Oda , carol Pano, 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
(26:07):
Burback, kelly Tracy Halbert,ben Rather, debbie Anderson,
sandy Breimer, mary Rader,bianca Hyde, andrew Lin, brenda
Clark, brianne Hawes, peggyMcKeel, holly Burge, kathy
Zerker, susan Wagner and LizButton.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
For science, empathy and cuteness.
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