Spotlight on Science: A Green New Deal and Molecular Animation

"Some people are interested in overhauling the economy to get us off of fossil fuels, and some people are interested in insects who fling pee. That's science for you." News reporter Franklin Lewis talks with science writer Becky Hoag about the latest in science news and research, including: - Action on climate change can be difficult to square with political realities, but will the ambitious goals of U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal push through? - With a possibly temporary end to the government shutdown, the National Science Foundation is dealing with a backlog of work. How are they dealing with it, and how could it affect us? - How one study found that alligators are using rocks to stay underwater to "do all the alligator-ish things that they do." - A visit from Janet Iwasa, Ph.D., to the University of Oregon for her lecture on molecular animation and how the benefits of interdisciplinary efforts to record science. - How some insects are flinging bodily fluids to deter would-be predators. "How some insects fling their pee" (Science News for Students): https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/how-some-insects-fling-their-pee Franklin Lewis and Becky Hoag produced this podcast, and Podcast Editor Ryan Nguyen edited. Graphic: Kelly Kondo/Emerald. Music is "Zombie Disco" by Six Umbrellas: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Six_Umbrellas/The_Psychadelic_And/6_Six_Umbrellas_-_Zombie_Disco