98: Extremophiles & Astrology

What are the most EXTREME lifeforms on Earth, and how are they surprisingly important to study? And what is the long yet recent history of astrology, and why do we reach for it?Things we Talk About:The Seal StreamSea lion runningPaper Clipping: Female AstrologerPaper Clipping: Suffragette BooksPaper Clipping: WW2 and AstrologyPaper Clipping: Pimms AdTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:04:23) Extremophiles(00:57:55) Astrology(01:43:59) OutroSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: We’ve put tardigrades through every red bull task imaginable but they’re NOT extremophiles, extremotolerant vs extremophiles that thrive, thermophiles at 122 celsius, anglophiles, what would it suck to experience, psychrophiles, acidophiles and alkaliphiles, hypobarophiles experiencing 500x our pressure, oligatroph, polyextromophiles, life has found a way in so many extreme places, the chernobyl black mold, not just growing towards radiation but eating Hot Particles, fungi have survived harsh radiation in the Earth’s past, melanin lets the fungi handle and perceive radiation safely, it’s similar to photosynthesis though in the same way a tsunami is similar to a glass of water, conan the bacterium can live inside nuclear reactors, DNA redundancy, krill that makes antifreeze proteins, osmoconfromers, acidophile taken to a lab and finally thriving at .7 ph, it’s also hard as hell to capture and study and keep these extremophiles alive, extremophiles gave us PCR, we also us extremophile e coli, bioremediation is what I took when I failed bio and was tutored by an extremophile, we have so much to do-actually that was pretty funny, bioplastics, what extreomophiles teach us about astrobiology, letting some bacteria chill on the outside of the ISS for 3 years, damn girl you’re making me re-evaluate the limits of life, our nuanced and conflicting feeling on astrology, yay we get to read our horoscopes- wait fuck why am I happy about that? babylonian horoscopes, star charts for things like seasons actually were right, the Enuma Anu Enlil collection of omens, what’s your mother’s maiden name and pincode horoscope,  the legacy of the endless pig, uh oh we’re having fun talking about horoscopes, medieval astrology in the royal court and the sciences, before we knew about the earth going around the sun the stars explained the seasons, in the 1700s astrology was seen as a sham, of course royal watching tabloids bring about astrology 2.0, scraping the bottom of the barrel for anything to say about princess margaret, globe conflict 2 electric boogaloo, a pims advert is a rich text, the horoscope test, god the people yearn for therapy, the barnum effect, zodiacs are part of our culture - so something to connect with, the correlation of uncertainty and horoscope popularity, how to manage uncertainty without horoscopes, video games offer a structure and challenge and reward that can help people cope with hard times.Sources:NOAA: What is an Extremophile?Life: Extremeophiles and Extreme EnvironmentsNature: Life in Extreme EnvironmentsPMC: Genomics of an extreme psychrophile, Psychromonas ingrahamiiThe Biologist: Eating Gamme Rays for BreakfastResearch Gate: A Case Study of Strains Inhabiting Chernobyl Reactor No. 4Chemical Communications: : The Incredible Cell Membrane Adaptations of Extremophiles to Harsh EnvironmentsLife: Extremophiles and Extremophilic BehaviourBiotechnology Advances: Structural Features of ThermozynesScience: Conan the BateriumMicrobiology and Molecular Biology Reviews: Oxidative Stress Resistance in Deinococcus radioduransPolar Biology: Cold Resistance the Krill Euphausia superbaExtremophiles: Picrophilus oshimaeLife: Biotechniological Applications of Extremophile ResearchWiki: Thermos aquaticusFrontiers in Microbiology: DNA Polymerases as Useful Reagents for BiotechnologyPNAS: Microbial Growth at Hyperaccelerations up to 403,627 × gFrontiers in Microbiology: Extremophiles and the Limits of Life in a Planetary ContextJournal of Indian Institute of Science: Bioprospecting Extremophiles for AstrobiologyNASA: AstrobiologyFrontiers in Microbiology: DNA Damage and Survival Time Course of Deinococcal Cell Pellets During 3 Years of Exposure to Outer SpaceNew Scientist: Radiation Resistant Bacteria Could Survive Journey From Earth to Mars---2013 Paper: The Solar Eclipse Omen Texts from Enūma Anu EnlilNational Geographic: History of HorocopesMy Modern Met: Mystical History of AstrologyBritish Newspaper Archive BBC: Who Actually Writes Horoscopes2020 Paper: The Man Behind the Horoscope Column- R H Naylor2005 Paper: A History of Astrology Part I: Origins to the RomansThe Guardian: How Astrology Paved the Way for Predictive AnalyticsBBC: Is Astrology Backed By Science?2022: Even The Stars Think That I Am SuperiorBBC: Is There Any Science in Astrology?Scientific American: Is Astrology Real? Here’s What Science SaysMcGill University: How Astrology Escaped the Pull of ScienceBBC: The Anxieties and Apps Fuelling the Astrology Boom Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinlearn