Please enjoy this impromptu podcast episode with my youngest daughter! Thank you for joining us! If you would prefer to read, the transcript is people!
(00:00:01):
Hi, and welcome back to the Curiosity Chronicles.
(00:00:05):
I am your host, Taylor Cecilia Brooke, and with me today, I have a very special guest.
(00:00:11):
Would you like to introduce yourself?
(00:00:14):
All right, tell them your name.
(00:00:16):
My name is Lucy Costello Luella.
(00:00:19):
Your name is Lucy Luella Costello,
(00:00:22):
yeah,
(00:00:22):
and you're joining me here today on the Curiosity Chronicles,
(00:00:24):
right?
(00:00:25):
Yeah.
(00:00:26):
What do we do at the Curiosity Chronicles?
(00:00:28):
Um, we...
(00:00:30):
Tell you things that we're curious about.
(00:00:33):
We tell you things that we're curious about.
(00:00:35):
Yep, yep, yep.
(00:00:37):
So what should we figure out today?
(00:00:40):
What are you curious about today?
(00:00:45):
How do fireflies glow?
(00:00:47):
How do fireflies glow?
(00:00:49):
Okay, we will look that one up.
(00:00:50):
What else are we going to talk about today?
(00:00:52):
Um, how?
(00:01:01):
How are seeds made?
(00:01:05):
Oh, how are seeds created?
(00:01:06):
Like how do they start in the flowers?
(00:01:08):
That's a great question.
(00:01:10):
All right, one more.
(00:01:11):
How do snakes shed their skin?
(00:01:25):
Oh, that's right.
(00:01:26):
You wanted to know why and how they shed their skin.
(00:01:29):
The other day, we were in the car, and you wanted to know why snakes molted.
(00:01:33):
And I thought it was because that's what happens when they grow, but I'm not entirely sure.
(00:01:37):
So today, we're going to look it up, aren't we?
(00:01:40):
All right.
(00:01:41):
So the first one, we need to figure out how fireflies glow.
(00:01:46):
Let's figure this out.
(00:01:48):
Okay.
(00:01:49):
What do you think is going to happen?
(00:01:51):
How do you think they glow, Lucy?
(00:01:52):
I think it's because...
(00:01:57):
They have a special part of their body that glows.
(00:02:01):
Yeah.
(00:02:01):
Do you think it's a chemical or do you think it's like just a part of their body?
(00:02:05):
I think inside the little glowing thing, they have something that is attached to their body and it glows.
(00:02:14):
So you're pretty close.
(00:02:16):
Apparently,
(00:02:17):
according to the AI overview on Google,
(00:02:20):
fireflies light up through a chemical reaction in their abdomens called bioluminescence.
(00:02:27):
This reaction occurs when oxygen combines with luciferin,
(00:02:33):
an organic compound,
(00:02:35):
and luciferase,
(00:02:37):
an enzyme,
(00:02:38):
in the presence of adenose triphosphate,
(00:02:42):
which fuels cellular work.
(00:02:44):
So essentially,
(00:02:45):
there's a chemical reaction in their tummies,
(00:02:48):
and it causes all of their insides to light up.
(00:02:53):
Now, why is that only fireflies?
(00:02:58):
Why do fireflies light up and not the rest of the insects?
(00:03:06):
Well, sometimes when it's too dark for some insects, they light up a little bit.
(00:03:20):
Yeah.
(00:03:21):
Yeah.
(00:03:21):
You think so?
(00:03:23):
Like, which ones?
(00:03:25):
Uh, I think, like, um, spiders.
(00:03:35):
Wait, those aren't insects.
(00:03:38):
Um, like, cockroaches.
(00:03:44):
Oh, really?
(00:03:45):
You think those glow?
(00:03:47):
Mm-hmm.
(00:03:47):
Interesting.
(00:03:48):
Okay, are you ready to learn six things we didn't know about lightning bugs?
(00:03:52):
This is the science behind fireflies from pestworld.org.
(00:03:58):
Fireflies aren't actually flies.
(00:03:59):
What?
(00:04:01):
Yeah, apparently they're beetles.
(00:04:03):
What?
(00:04:04):
Yeah.
(00:04:07):
Oh, that's really funny.
(00:04:08):
So some fireflies don't glow, right?
(00:04:15):
Oh, so the ones in the family that glow are different from the ones who don't.
(00:04:23):
And the ones who do glow have wings and the other ones don't.
(00:04:28):
And they're often referred to as glow worms.
(00:04:33):
Okay, so fireflies have light organs that are located beneath their abdomens.
(00:04:38):
And more than 2,000 species bear the name firefly, but not all of them glow.
(00:04:44):
Those that do mix oxygen with a pigment called luciferin to generate light with very little heat.
(00:04:54):
Apparently, it's the most efficient light in the world.
(00:05:01):
Apparently, fireflies in Southeast Asia will synchronize their flashes.
(00:05:05):
And in the U.S.,
(00:05:06):
this phenomenon occurs during the first few weeks of June in the Great Smoky
(00:05:11):
Mountains in Tennessee.
(00:05:12):
We're going to have to go check that out sometime.
(00:05:14):
Synchronized firefly flying.
(00:05:17):
Ooh.
(00:05:21):
Okay.
(00:05:25):
Oh.
(00:05:26):
Fireflies use their lights to ward off predators.
(00:05:29):
Okay.
(00:05:30):
But apparently, Firefly blood also contains a defensive steroid called leucobufagins.
(00:05:38):
Wow, that's really interesting.
(00:05:40):
All right.
(00:05:41):
That was a lot.
(00:05:42):
I still don't know.
(00:05:44):
Okay, so apparently...
(00:05:49):
Bioluminescence,
(00:05:50):
which is what fireflies have,
(00:05:52):
is rarer on land than in water,
(00:05:55):
but there are several species of bug that emit their own light in addition to fireflies.
(00:06:02):
You were not wrong.
(00:06:04):
Lucy, there is in fact an exceedingly rare glowing cockroach.
(00:06:11):
It relies only on light.
(00:06:14):
bioluminescent bacteria.
(00:06:15):
So it has to like eat the bacteria it creates.
(00:06:18):
That's how it survives.
(00:06:19):
That's super interesting.
(00:06:21):
That is kind of gross.
(00:06:23):
Okay.
(00:06:26):
So now we are going to... Did you learn everything you wanted to learn about fireflies?
(00:06:35):
Yeah.
(00:06:36):
Okay.
(00:06:37):
Great.
(00:06:37):
So now we're going to see how is a seed created?
(00:06:41):
How do seeds...
(00:06:46):
How do seeds work?
(00:06:48):
How do seeds know which way is up?
(00:06:49):
How do seeds germinate?
(00:06:51):
There's so many, so many.
(00:06:53):
Okay.
(00:06:54):
Oh, this is a great diagram.
(00:06:57):
Okay.
(00:06:57):
But how did, this is like the chicken and the egg question.
(00:07:00):
How is this?
(00:07:01):
So I'm assuming, but see, this is the problem.
(00:07:05):
I'm not even finishing my sentences, am I?
(00:07:09):
So we have the fruit, right?
(00:07:10):
Or the legumes.
(00:07:13):
Or the flower or the vegetable, right?
(00:07:15):
Yeah.
(00:07:17):
Okay.
(00:07:17):
And you have those seeds, but vegetables, kind of.
(00:07:25):
Corn, yes.
(00:07:27):
Potatoes, no.
(00:07:28):
Broccoli, yes.
(00:07:29):
Oh, that's confusing.
(00:07:30):
Okay.
(00:07:31):
So you have the seed, and it grows into a plant, right?
(00:07:35):
Yeah.
(00:07:36):
And then you get the seed from the plant, right?
(00:07:39):
But how did the seed get, how was the seed first created?
(00:07:44):
That's what I want to know.
(00:07:49):
I do too.
(00:07:52):
How was the first seed made?
(00:07:54):
Here we go.
(00:07:54):
Let's see.
(00:07:57):
Oh, interesting.
(00:08:00):
Okay, so scientists believe that the first plant to use seeds was an extinct seed, fern, called aphids.
(00:08:08):
Elkisnea polymorpha, which lived during the Devonian period around 400 million years ago.
(00:08:18):
These plants evolved cup-like structures called
(00:08:21):
cupules along their branches to protect the developing seed, which was called an ovule.
(00:08:28):
The capsules are made up of groups of branches that enclosed the ovule and its associated tissues.
(00:08:34):
The earliest seeds were lobbed, creating a sheltered chamber at
(00:08:40):
one end of the seed.
(00:08:41):
Within the cupule,
(00:08:42):
the seed was also enclosed by a layer of tissue called the integument,
(00:08:48):
which eventually develops into the seed coat.
(00:08:53):
Okay, ready?
(00:08:54):
Before seeds existed,
(00:08:56):
plants reproduced using spores,
(00:08:58):
which are called single-celled structures that are different from seeds in a few ways.
(00:09:03):
The genes for seeds may have helped
(00:09:05):
plants defend themselves against pathogens and herbivores.
(00:09:09):
Plants may also have acquired some of these genes from fungi or other microbes
(00:09:16):
through a process called horizontal gene transfer.
(00:09:20):
Oh, so that's super interesting.
(00:09:22):
Basically, the seed came about through evolution.
(00:09:29):
So it evolutionized from the plants getting different bacterias and microbes and
(00:09:34):
all that.
(00:09:35):
And it created the seed.
(00:09:37):
But here's another great question.
(00:09:38):
Someone from the conversation, curious kids, where did the first seed come from?
(00:09:47):
They haven't always used seeds and they came a bit by bit over a really long time
(00:09:53):
to like the evolution that I was talking about.
(00:09:56):
Um,
(00:10:00):
So here's how this works according to the conversation.
(00:10:02):
When a living thing has a feature which works well, it'll be able to live longer and have more young.
(00:10:07):
These young will probably have similar features thanks to their parents.
(00:10:10):
Plants started using seeds to spread their young somewhere between 385 million and 365 million years ago.
(00:10:19):
Before seeds, plants used spores.
(00:10:22):
And some plants today still do that, such as algae, mosses, and ferns.
(00:10:27):
You might have spotted the tiny brown dots on the underside of the fern leaves.
(00:10:32):
Have you ever been walking outside and you see a leaf on the ground that has all these little dots on it?
(00:10:37):
So then are called spores.
(00:10:40):
Can you kind of see that?
(00:10:42):
Yeah, that's how those plants grow.
(00:10:46):
Spores are different from seeds in a few ways.
(00:10:49):
A spore is made up of just one part, a single cell, while a seed contains many cells.
(00:10:56):
each with different jobs spores have to work harder what's that um that is the walk
(00:11:04):
and jump of a horse tail uh spore so there's lots of things that can produce spores
(00:11:13):
like mushrooms yes like mushrooms exactly um
(00:11:20):
Today, plants with seeds do things a little differently.
(00:11:22):
There are two main types, angiosperms and gymnosperms.
(00:11:27):
Angiosperms are flowering plants.
(00:11:29):
Their seeds develop inside of fruit like apples, tomatoes, or even rose hips or holly berries.
(00:11:35):
Okay.
(00:11:35):
Is that a holly berry?
(00:11:38):
I think so.
(00:11:39):
Yes, that looks like a holly berry.
(00:11:43):
Gymnosperms, such as pine trees, grow their seeds inside a hard cone.
(00:11:49):
the upsides of seeds.
(00:11:50):
Seeds have evolved because they are better at helping plants survive.
(00:11:53):
They also have a hard coat, and they are better at spreading their young.
(00:12:00):
Well, that was super interesting, and now we understand how all of this started.
(00:12:03):
So originally it was spores, and then it moved, right?
(00:12:07):
Yeah.
(00:12:07):
What is next?
(00:12:10):
Why do snakes molt?
(00:12:14):
Was that our last one?
(00:12:16):
Okay.
(00:12:18):
Snakes molt or shed their skin for a number of reasons,
(00:12:22):
including growth,
(00:12:23):
parasite removal and skin damage.
(00:12:27):
Wow.
(00:12:28):
As they grow, their skin doesn't grow with them.
(00:12:30):
So new skin grows underneath and then they have to shed its old skin to make new
(00:12:35):
room to make room for the new skin.
(00:12:37):
How crazy is that?
(00:12:39):
If there's a parasite embedded in the snake's skin, the shedding will remove it.
(00:12:44):
And then if something happens,
(00:12:46):
if something damages the outer layer of a snake's skin,
(00:12:49):
it'll molt then as well.
(00:12:52):
That is super interesting.
(00:12:53):
So there's a lot of reasons why a snake would need to molt.
(00:13:01):
Are you doing another one?
(00:13:02):
Well, that was our last one.
(00:13:04):
Do you have any other questions for today or anything that you want to tell my
(00:13:07):
subscribers or share with my subscribers?
(00:13:10):
Yeah.
(00:13:10):
Yeah, what do you want to say?
(00:13:22):
I want to do something about raccoons.
(00:13:25):
You want to do something about raccoons?
(00:13:26):
You want to learn about raccoons next?
(00:13:28):
Yeah, but why?
(00:13:30):
do raccoons, um, why raccoons, um, why do raccoons, um, really wash their food?
(00:13:44):
Um, why raccoons, um, why do raccoons' hands have to be sensitive to what they're eating?
(00:13:53):
So I'm assuming it's because they can't see very well, but let's look this up.
(00:13:58):
Why do raccoons...
(00:14:04):
Why do raccoons wash their food?
(00:14:08):
Ah.
(00:14:12):
Apparently, when they dunk it in water, they get more sensory information.
(00:14:16):
It's called dousing.
(00:14:19):
When they wet their paws, it makes it more sensitive.
(00:14:22):
So I'm assuming it's just because...
(00:14:24):
It helps them understand what they're eating so they don't eat something that they should,
(00:14:28):
although they are trash pandas.
(00:14:31):
So I'm pretty sure they eat pretty much everything.
(00:14:34):
Yeah.
(00:14:35):
Yeah.
(00:14:36):
Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
(00:14:37):
Even cardboard.
(00:14:38):
You think they eat cardboard?
(00:14:39):
Yeah.
(00:14:40):
Oh, really?
(00:14:40):
Yeah.
(00:14:41):
Oh, my.
(00:14:42):
And I also think they eat poisonous mushrooms.
(00:14:46):
You think they eat – well, I wonder if they're actually poisonous to the raccoons.
(00:14:49):
Or if they're only poisonous to the humans.
(00:14:51):
Because some mushrooms aren't poisonous to animals.
(00:14:54):
And there's a lot of fruits and flowers and things out there that we can't eat.
(00:14:59):
But lots of animals can, right?
(00:15:01):
Yeah, but why can't we eat them?
(00:15:03):
Well, because our biome can't break them down and it makes us sick.
(00:15:08):
Yeah, it's kind of like how dogs can eat raw meat.
(00:15:11):
And we can't really eat very much raw meat.
(00:15:13):
Yeah.
(00:15:14):
Yeah, kind of crazy, huh?
(00:15:16):
But if you put a lot of salt on lots of raw meat, you can eat all of it.
(00:15:25):
Are you talking about salt curing?
(00:15:26):
Yeah.
(00:15:28):
Yes.
(00:15:29):
So that's how they used to cure meat back in the day.
(00:15:31):
They used to put a ton because they didn't have refrigerators because they didn't have electricity.
(00:15:35):
So it's called salt curing.
(00:15:38):
And they just crusted the whole piece of meat in salt.
(00:15:42):
Kind of crazy, huh?
(00:15:45):
I did that with something a few.
(00:15:46):
Oh, I did that with the carnitas that were too salty.
(00:15:49):
I must have too salted it too far.
(00:15:52):
Are you okay?
(00:15:54):
Yeah.
(00:15:55):
Are you ready to be done?
(00:15:56):
Yeah.
(00:15:57):
Yeah.
(00:15:58):
Would you like to say bye to my subscribers?
(00:16:01):
All right.
(00:16:01):
Bye.
(00:16:03):
All right.
(00:16:04):
And that wraps a silly little episode with my sweet little four-year-old,
(00:16:08):
Lucy,
(00:16:09):
in the Curiosity Chronicles.
(00:16:11):
I hope you learned a little bit about raccoons, snakes, fireflies, and seas.
(00:16:17):
It was a unique episode.
(00:16:19):
Have a wonderful day, and we will talk to you later.
(00:16:22):
Bye!
Share this post