Today we are going to start to cover a real scientific disaster story. No it isn’t the hollywood variety although maybe it should be. We have the movie Oppenheimer although to tell the whole story here requires multiple main characters. Perhaps a TV series then. I have known I wanted to tell this story for some time but have struggled on the best way.

It starts at the gas pump and the question: Ever wondered why all pumps say “unleaded gas”? Or perhaps asked the question why would they need to? This is a story about scientific discovery, advocacy, environmentalism and corporate greed. The next sibling episode (they can stand alone) has direct ties to the manhattan project and the age of the Earth.

Covering a bit about the history of lead Flint, Michigan came up. Here are some links to see how that is still playing out however if you want to do a deep dive don't stop at just these two links!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/07/01/flint-lead-pipes-replacement/

https://eos.org/articles/flint-10-years-later

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Deformation and gravity go hand in hand in volcano monitoring like hot apple pie and icecream. They fit together great. as these two techniques tell us so much more together than separately.

This time I reached out to a friend to share her research!

Remember volcanic eruptions are dynamic. The amount of force and material involved in an eruption … Even if the eruption is small the changes can be significant to the overall system.

Volcanologists can see or image magma chambers that are close to the surface through a number of different monitoring techniques. Today we will focus on gravity and deformation. Mass flux and how the earth's surface moves in response to changes at depth!

Using what keeps us all attached to the ground's surface to monitor what is moving up towards us. This episode is full of hot material!

This time it is all about insects and their respiratory systems?! They represent so much of the biomass on earth.

Depending on the study and methods used there is more weight on earth within insects than humans. With over 8 billion humans and each of us weighs a lot more than an insect…… There are a lot of them. They form the backbone of many ecosystems.

Today though we will specifically focus on their respiratory system. How do they breathe? It is not like they have lungs like we do. Or gills like fish. I vaguely remember grade school biology and going over the number of legs and like.

You know what? I have never given it much thought. But now that I have …… I am intrigued!

Stealing the words from todays guest “With over 1 million identified species of insects, they’re a great vehicle for studying evolution There are all kinds of new things coming out of it, probably the most significant of which is flight”

So lets get into it! Time to follow the buzz to see if the Ant-ticipation i am chirping about is going to fly over our heads.

Please welcome Dr Hollister Herhold a Research Associate in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, and Research Scientist in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City!

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