Co-hosts Matt Smith and Brian Cross mix up a powerful cocktail of mamba venom and xenon gas in the headlines. Matt’s Chemical Minute reaches a premature climax with the ultimate element: carbon. And Brian visits the Sutton Avian Research Center to learn more about bobwhites, prairie chickens, and the history of shotgun ornithology.

Got a question, comment, or correction? Yack right back at us at YacketyScience@gmail.com.

Theme music: “Funky Machine” (ID874) by Lobo Loco (Accessed through FreeMusicArchive.org.; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Production help provided by Scott Gregory.

Yackety Science is recorded at the studios of Public Radio Tulsa, Kendall Hall, University of Tulsa, and at the Center for Creativity at Tulsa Community College.

Links:

Sutton Avian Research Center:

Sutton Avian Research Center

Wild Brew Fundraiser

Xenon Gas and Mountaineering:

They Inhaled a Gas and Scaled Everest in Days. Is It the Future of Mountaineering? (NYT; May 27, 2025)

Snake Venom

He injected himself with venom for decades. Can his antibodies help snakebite victims? (Science, May 2, 2025)

Disappearing Science:

NIH Grants Terminated: https://grant-watch.us/nih-data.html

NSF Grants Terminated: https://grant-watch.us/nsf-data.html

The Low Road to Cathode

In this episode, co-hosts Matt Smith and Brian Cross dig into penguin poop, gene editing, and the insidious nature of hydrogen. Cosmic ray spallation makes its last appearance in Matt’s Chemical Minute, and in the first of two episodes featuring the Sutton Avian Research Center, Executive Director Chad Ellis stops by to talk bird conservation in the state of Oklahoma.

Got a question, comment, or correction? Yack right back at us at YacketyScience@gmail.com.

Theme music: “Funky Machine” (ID874) by Lobo Loco (Accessed through FreeMusicArchive.org.; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Production help provided by Scott Gregory.

Yackety Science is recorded at the studios of Public Radio Tulsa, Kendall Hall, University of Tulsa, and at the Center for Creativity at Tulsa Community College.

Links:

Sutton Avian Research Center:

Sutton Avian Research Center

Wild Brew Fundraiser

Gene Therapy for Babies:

Gene-editing therapy made in just 6 months helps baby with life-threatening disease: Custom CRISPR paves the way for treating genetic disorders in tailormade ways (Science, May 15, 2025)

Patient-Specific In Vivo Gene Editing to Treat a Rare Genetic Disease by Musunure et al. NEJM, May 15, 2025)

Penguin Poop in Antarctica:

Boyer, M., Quéléver, L., Brasseur, Z. et al. Penguin guano is an important source of climate-relevant aerosol particles in Antarctica. Commun Earth Environ 6, 368 (2025).

Insidious Hydrogen and the Death of Batteries:

Scientists may have an explanation for why some batteries don’t last (Science News, Sept. 27, 2024)

Disappearing Science:

NIH Grants Terminated: https://grant-watch.us/nih-data.html

NSF Grants Terminated: https://grant-watch.us/nsf-data.html