Why seals don’t drown, and tracking bird poop as it enters the sea

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

First up this week, Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss stories from the sea, including why scientists mounted cameras on seabirds, backward and upside-down; newly discovered organisms from the world’s deepest spot, the Mariana Trench; and how extremely venomous, blue-lined octopus males use their toxin on females in order to mate. Read more or subscribe at science.org/scienceadviser. Next on the show, J. Chris McKnight, a senior research fellow in the Sea Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews, talks about testing free-living seals to see how they respond to different carbon dioxide or oxygen levels in the air. It turns out they don’t respond like other mammals, which go into panic under high carbon dioxide; instead, seals appear to directly detect oxygen, a safer bet when your life is mostly spent diving deep underwater. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Christie Wilcox Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a science podcast for March 21st, 2025.
0:09.0	I'm Sarah Crespi.
0:11.0	First this week, newsletter editor Christy Wilcox.
0:13.5	She's here to discuss stories from the sea.
0:16.0	We'll talk about seabird's contribution to ocean nutrients, new organisms from the Mariana
0:20.6	trench, and how males of the extremely venomous blue-lined octopus use their toxins on females.
0:26.9	Next on the show, researcher Chris McKnight talks about testing free-living seals to see how they respond to different carbon dioxide or oxygen levels in the air.
0:36.1	It turns out they don't act like other mammals, which go into a panic with high carbon dioxide.
0:42.2	Instead, seals appear to directly detect oxygen, which could be a safer bet when your life
0:47.1	is mostly spent diving deep underwater.
0:53.7	Now we have Christy Wilcox. She's the editor for our daily newsletter, Science Advisor. She's brought a trio of ocean or marine stories. Hi, Christy. Welcome back to the podcast. Hi, Sarah. Thanks for having me again. Sure. So let's dive right in. I think we should start with the venomous octopus story.
1:11.5	I know.
1:12.4	I know this is the one that you care the most about.
1:16.5	I mean, I did write a whole book on venomous critters.
1:19.4	So, yeah, I am a big fan.
1:21.8	Okay.
1:22.2	And this is the super scary.
1:23.9	If you're a person who likes to go tide pooling off of Australia,
1:27.3	this is a scary octopus. It's a
1:29.3	blue-lined octopus, and it has a pretty famous venom on board, right? Yes, yes. So it's one of
1:35.8	the four species that we consider to be blue-ringed octopuses. They all have a incredibly
1:43.2	potent paralytic in their venom called tetrototoxin.
	...

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