Latest Episode Of Science Vs Explores The Invasion of Cicada Broods

There are a lot of fads, blogs, and strong opinions, and then there’s the Science Vs podcast, hosted by Wendy Zukerman, to break down what’s fact, what’s not, and what’s somewhere in between. To kick off its 10th season, Science Vs returned with a comprehensive exploration of one of the more prominent health and wellness trends today - immune boosting.

 The second episode was just released yesterday, and it explores an invading horde that will descend upon the United States. No, it's not China, or Russia, or any other sovereign nation.

It is cicadas.

Last emerged exactly 17 years ago in 2004, cicadas are expected to show up within the next few months and hit almost a third of states, from down in Georgia as far north as New York State and Michigan in one of their largest swarms on record - being called Brood X. But where do they come from? And are they actually dangerous?

Science Vs host,Australian science journalist Wendy Zukerman, explains in the episode that  the classic cicada hum is actually the mating call from male cicadas, trying to tempt female partners to choose them over thousands of other options  

There is a flesh-eating fungus in the soil infecting cicadas, which some scientists recently discovered ALSO contains psychedelics, she explains.  

For the past 17 years the cicadas have been underground, feasting on nutrients from tree roots, and they keep track of time by the flowering cycles of trees


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This season on Science Vs, the podcast will go beyond its award-winning coverage of the coronavirus and delve into a variety of new topics ranging from a study of the cicada swarms to whether aliens could really exist to snake antivenom and much more.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out the rest of the upcoming 10th season of Science Vs so that you can separate fact from fiction. 



 

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