WEBVTT - Asparagus Pee Science, Tardigrades' Weird Mating Habits, and Criminal Software

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to How Stuff Works Now. I'm your host, Lauren

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<v Speaker 1>vocal Baum, a researcher and writer. Here it has Stuff Works.

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<v Speaker 1>Every week, I'm bringing you three stories from our team

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<v Speaker 1>about the weird and wondrous advances we've seen in science, technology,

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<v Speaker 1>and culture. This week, the mating habits of microscopic tartegrades

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<v Speaker 1>have finally been caught on film, and they're appropriately weird unrelated.

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<v Speaker 1>If you can smell asparagus in urine, you can thank

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<v Speaker 1>your ancestors for a few newly identified genes. But first,

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<v Speaker 1>a more sober story from senior writer Jonathan Strickland and

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<v Speaker 1>our freelancer Kate Kirshner. Software that's supposed to manage criminal

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<v Speaker 1>court cases has been throwing some serious errors, leading to

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<v Speaker 1>innocent people being thrown in jail. Imagine being arrested for

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<v Speaker 1>a crime you didn't commit. Your throne in jail. Your

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<v Speaker 1>life is turned upside down. Nobody framed you. It's not

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<v Speaker 1>due to police corruption. You're are in the slammer because

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<v Speaker 1>of a computer error. This isn't just an upsetting hypothetical situation.

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<v Speaker 1>This is something happening to too many people right now

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<v Speaker 1>in places like Alameda County, in California. At Fault is

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<v Speaker 1>a criminal system management software package called the Odyssey Case Manager.

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<v Speaker 1>It's meant to track and organize criminal cases and make

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<v Speaker 1>the judicial system more efficient. It's software used in several

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<v Speaker 1>jurisdictions across the United States, and it's leading to innocent

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<v Speaker 1>people being put in jail. In some instances, the system

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<v Speaker 1>shows warrants as active even after they've been dismissed, and others,

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<v Speaker 1>the software has mistakenly tagged people as sex offenders, forcing

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<v Speaker 1>them to register as such. This is far more serious

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<v Speaker 1>than getting the Blue screen of death before you're able

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<v Speaker 1>to save your work. According to ours technic as Cyrus Farivar,

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<v Speaker 1>Alameda County has been relying upon an older case management

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<v Speaker 1>system called Corpus. It's possible that the twenty six documented

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<v Speaker 1>errors popped up when county employed Yes tried to convert

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<v Speaker 1>old files into the Odyssey Case Manager format. Whatever the

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<v Speaker 1>underlying reason for the errors, the result is sobering. Justice

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<v Speaker 1>isn't just blind, She's also working on a buggy computer system.

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<v Speaker 1>Next up, staff editor Eves Jeff Coote and our freelance

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<v Speaker 1>writer Jesselyn Shields explain how researchers came to identify the

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<v Speaker 1>genes responsible for the dubious advantage of being able to

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<v Speaker 1>smell asparagus P. If you're not one yourself, you've probably

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<v Speaker 1>heard about people who can smell asparagus in their P.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers found hundreds of variants across multiple deans, but

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<v Speaker 1>the study doesn't address a lot asparagus, of all foods,

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<v Speaker 1>makes our urine stink and why our bodies have obviously

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<v Speaker 1>put so much effort into detecting metabolas asparagus MP. Research

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<v Speaker 1>going back to the nineteen fifties has shown that some

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<v Speaker 1>people produce asparagus sent at urine and some don't, some

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<v Speaker 1>people can smell it and some can't, and some of

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<v Speaker 1>that research identified the two metabolites responsible for the odor,

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<v Speaker 1>but nobody had investigated whether the ability to smell these

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<v Speaker 1>two compounds, called methane ethiol and s methyl diosters is

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<v Speaker 1>written on our genes. In the new study, the research

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<v Speaker 1>team at Harvard found that of nearly seven thousand participants,

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<v Speaker 1>about could smell the metabolize in their urine after eating asparagus,

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<v Speaker 1>and six could not. They called the latter group asparagus anosmic.

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<v Speaker 1>After looking at nine million genetic variants and those who

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<v Speaker 1>are asparagus anosmic. They linked the deficiency to eight hundred

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<v Speaker 1>seventy one sequence variations and chromosome one on genes related

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<v Speaker 1>to our sense of smell. Strangely enough, even though women

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<v Speaker 1>are known to correctly and consistently identify smells more often

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<v Speaker 1>than men, fewer women reported being able to smell their

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<v Speaker 1>own asparagus p. Because the study relied on the participant's reports,

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<v Speaker 1>the researchers aren't sure whether some of the women fibbed

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<v Speaker 1>about the smell of their urine out of modesty. The

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<v Speaker 1>researchers can see that the study has limitations. For instance,

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<v Speaker 1>it only included people of European descent, so there's no

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<v Speaker 1>telling whether the same genetic variants would be in people

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<v Speaker 1>of other ethnicities. Also, self reporting always leaves a little

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<v Speaker 1>wiggle room for interpretation, and subjects reported on the smell

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<v Speaker 1>of their own urine rather than the urine of other people.

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<v Speaker 1>But don't worry if you can't smell the asparagus on Europe.

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<v Speaker 1>The researchers have your back, they write in their report.

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<v Speaker 1>Future replications studies are necessary before considering targeted therapies to

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<v Speaker 1>help anosmic people discover what they are missing. Finally, this week,

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<v Speaker 1>senior writer Robert Lamb and That Men's Jocelyn Shields explore

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<v Speaker 1>the strange, amazing mating habits of everyone's favorite microscopic space

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<v Speaker 1>faring animal, tartar grades. We all know tartar grades, or

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<v Speaker 1>water bears, or tough as nails. This little micro animal

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<v Speaker 1>as a fighter if there ever was one, and it's

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<v Speaker 1>a new study in the Zoological Journal points out they're

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<v Speaker 1>also lovers with an absurd amount of foreplay. Tartar grades

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<v Speaker 1>thrive in a variety of habitats, from the Himalayan mountains

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<v Speaker 1>to the deep ocean, and they're the only known animal

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<v Speaker 1>capable of surviving the harsh void of outer space. Dry

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<v Speaker 1>them out, freeze them up, but decline of assabaran bounce

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<v Speaker 1>right back. Subjected to any of these trials, a tartar

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<v Speaker 1>grade will transform into a desiccated little husk. But when

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<v Speaker 1>it's over, you just add a little water to the

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<v Speaker 1>corpse in a will plump right back up to life

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<v Speaker 1>and munch on some alergy like nothing happened. When brought

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<v Speaker 1>back to Earth after spending ten days blasted by space radiation,

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<v Speaker 1>a tartar grade will happily revive and lay a clutch

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<v Speaker 1>of viable eggs. But what about tartar grade love making? Now,

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<v Speaker 1>they're around the twelve hundred species of the philing tartar

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<v Speaker 1>Gradia out there, and not all of them mate in

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<v Speaker 1>the same way. Summer bisexual, summer, hermaphroditic, and others reproduce

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<v Speaker 1>a sexually. But new video footage captured by a team

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<v Speaker 1>of researchers at the Sickenberg Museum of Natural History and Gorlitz, Germany,

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<v Speaker 1>provides some insight into how the deed is done in

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<v Speaker 1>one bisexual species of tartar Grade called Isocivius dot CiCi.

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<v Speaker 1>And though it might not look like much to the

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<v Speaker 1>untrained eye, the researchers assure us that things get weird.

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<v Speaker 1>The animals mate right after the female has molded, something

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<v Speaker 1>that happens several times a year. The researchers paired off

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<v Speaker 1>thirty male female couples and then filmed them in flagrante

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<v Speaker 1>de lecto. They found that after the female's outer skin detaches,

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<v Speaker 1>she lays eggs inside it. If for whatever reason, no

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<v Speaker 1>male happens to waddle by after she lays her eggs,

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<v Speaker 1>no biggie, she just reabsorbs them back into her body,

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<v Speaker 1>but if there is a male around, he sort of

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<v Speaker 1>wraps his body around her head and the to engage

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<v Speaker 1>in an hour long mutual stimulation marathon, in which he

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<v Speaker 1>might ejaculate several times into the space between her old

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<v Speaker 1>skin and her new skin, fertilizing her eggs in the

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<v Speaker 1>process while you've got your self new plumbus i mean

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<v Speaker 1>tarte grades. Witnessing this unusual sex spectacle is raised almost

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<v Speaker 1>as many questions as it's answered. For instance, how does

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<v Speaker 1>the mail direct his steam into the right place if

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<v Speaker 1>he's essentially injecting it under her skin? And why so

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<v Speaker 1>much for play? But hey, perhaps we shouldn't be too

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<v Speaker 1>surprised that the ultimate rugged survivor organism is also an

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<v Speaker 1>accomplished lover with a flair for the exotic. That's our

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<v Speaker 1>show for this week. Thank you so much for tuning in.

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<v Speaker 1>Further thanks to our audio producer Dylan Fagan and our

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<v Speaker 1>editorial liaisons Alice and Laddermilk and Christopher Hassiotis. Subscribe to

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<v Speaker 1>now Now for more of the latest science news, and

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<v Speaker 1>send us links to anything you'd like to hear us cover,

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<v Speaker 1>plus your New Year's resolution, Though before warned, I'll hold

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<v Speaker 1>you accountable. You can send us an email at now

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<v Speaker 1>podcast at how stuff works dot com, and of course,

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