WEBVTT - The 2025 Ig Nobels, Part 1 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:06.760 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:14.880 Hey you welcome to each Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:15.920 My name is Robert. 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:17.440 Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.400 And it's that time of year again. The exact time 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.200 of year again has shifts for us anyway. Sometimes it's 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.480 late September, other times it's early November. But this is 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:33.239 generally the window in which we aim to discuss the 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:38.400 latest winners of the Ignobel Prizes, the ig Nobels. For 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.760 anyone who has forgotten, or maybe you're new to the show, 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.520 you don't know what I'm talking about. It's a series 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:46.400 of awards given out once a year by a scientific 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:50.839 humor journal called the Annals of Improbable Research, edited for 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:55.280 many years now by Mark Abraham's. The publication's stated purpose 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.320 is to quote honor achievements that first make people laugh 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:00.840 and then make them think. You can learn much more 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.000 about them at improbable dot com. They have a wonderful 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:06.280 list where you can just you can scroll through all 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:11.759 the winners over the years, different peer reviewed papers, scientific papers, 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.840 and sometimes just individual researchers that are singled out for 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.959 these different studies that are in one way or another 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:26.000 comedic and hilarious, but also deep down our legitimate science 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.120 that it is often answering very important questions or things 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.920 on the borders of very important questions, things that are 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:37.640 still part of the ever growing expanse of scientific curiosity. 0:01:37.959 --> 0:01:42.319 Yeah, I would say usually are legitimate science. Occasionally something 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:45.959 will get highlighted that is itself intended to be satirical. 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:48.520 But I almost think of that as kind of like 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:53.120 remember in the days of America's Funniest Tone videos, when 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:56.440 there would be the occasional video that was funny on purpose. 0:01:57.480 --> 0:02:00.320 I never liked that. Even as a kid. I would 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:03.240 watch that be like, uhh, that's not acceptable. You can 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.240 only this has to be an accident or it doesn't work. 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.280 I remember watching America's Funniest to videos with a skeptical 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.960 eye too, and thinking that looks set up. Yea, they 0:02:15.040 --> 0:02:17.720 intended for that sled to roll right into the house. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:21.320 Clearly this was maybe the third or fourth take. I 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.800 can see the sled marks now. I kind of got 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:26.440 sidetracked there because I didn't intend for you to draw 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.920 the same conclusion about that, Like I hate the satirical 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.440 papers that get featured or something. I mean, the reology 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:35.480 of cats. One was funny, yeah when done right, but 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:37.560 it's perfect. 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.720 Yeah right. But the point being that occasionally it is 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:41.880 something that is just supposed to be silly from the 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:44.120 get go. But most of what gets featured on the 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:49.079 Ignobels is just actual research of one kind or another 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.920 that people end up finding funny. Maybe it's because the 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:58.040 subject matter is farts or something. Maybe it's because the 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.840 the conclusion that the paper comes to seems blindingly obvious 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.440 or weirdly counterintuitive. I guess there are a lot of 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.720 different ways that a scientific paper can end up being funny. 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.919 But one thing I always really enjoy about doing these 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:16.680 episodes is that usually even when something seems really silly 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:20.000 at first glance, once you actually read into it, there's 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.160 kind of some interesting stuff going on underneath the hood. 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.280 Yeah, absolutely, and I think that. I mean that's one 0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:27.480 of the reasons we keep coming back to covering the 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.840 IGNO bells is, Yeah, it's genuinely laughter inducing, but once 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.639 you dig into them, there's something fascinating there, and it's 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.240 not always something that we would necessarily devote an entire 0:03:37.320 --> 0:03:41.920 episode too. Though we should also note that sometimes the 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.960 honorees are very recent studies other times they may just 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:47.680 be decades old. So sometimes we'll get excited for the 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:49.480 Ignobells and we're like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's something we 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:50.400 covered that years ago. 0:03:50.600 --> 0:03:52.880 There is one paper this year about like a guy 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:57.640 who documented his own fingernails growing for decades and it 0:03:57.680 --> 0:03:59.560 has been a while, but I know we covered that 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.240 on the show. Oh I think maybe we did an 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:03.920 episode about fingernails or something where we got into this. 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.600 Yeah. Yeah, So they cast a wide net, both in 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:11.280 time and space. Yeah, And sometimes I think, you know, 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:13.480 you're talking about the different ways papers are funny. Sometimes 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.560 it's about the methodology alone. For instance, earlier that this 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.960 was not an Ignobel winner yet. But earlier this year 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:28.560 I chatted with Rusalind Dakin about hummingbirds and one and 0:04:28.600 --> 0:04:32.760 then you know, hummingbirds perfectly natural thing to study, fascinating creatures. 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:37.280 But one of the studies they were doing with the 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:41.000 methodology that they employed, involved putting little necklaces around their necks, 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.240 and like, that is in and of itself hilarious. Right, 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.120 anytime we put little bits of clothing or something even 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:51.920 akin to clothing on an animal for scientific purposes, it's 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.279 going to cause us to giggle. On some level where 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.800 it's going to make me giggle. Anyway, serious scientists may disagree. 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.719 Why did you make a diaper for category pillar as well? 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:01.800 It was for science? 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:06.880 Yeah, exactly. So, as always, or as recently has been 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.559 the case, we are not going to discuss all the winners. Again, 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:13.640 go to improbable dot com if you want to go 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:16.640 through and explore all the different honorees this year, but 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:18.440 we are going to pick and choose a few and 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:20.080 we're going to discuss them over the course of a 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:21.520 couple of episodes this week. 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.960 All right, well, Rob, I know you looked into this 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:27.719 year's Nutrition Prize. Do you want to start with that one? 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.720 Yeah? Yeah, This this one was pretty fun. This was 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:33.800 probably the first one I selected. It went to a 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:38.840 paper by Danielle Deddy, Gabriel h. She Nagabeto, Roger Meek 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:43.400 and Luca Luisselli. And it is the title of the 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.599 paper published an African Journal of Ecology was Opportunistic foraging 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.720 Strategy of rainbow lizards at a seaside resort in Togo. 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:57.160 And the paper in question was a Nigerian, Togalese, Italian 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:01.280 French production and was awarded quote for studying the extent 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:03.599 to which a certain kind of lizard chooses to eat 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.120 certain kinds of pizza, and it published in twenty twenty three. 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:09.839 I feel like this is a big step up in 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.960 the world of pizza. Rat pizza, pigeon, pizza. Lizard is 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:16.719 just the next place it had to go. 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:21.360 Right, right, It's obvious why this one. Any non human 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:25.400 animal eating pizza is just inherently funny, And I don't know, 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.279 it's hard to really describe why this is the case. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:32.880 I mean, the word pizza itself can be funny given 0:06:33.040 --> 0:06:36.560 certain contexts, and on top of that, I don't know, 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.000 there's something just very comedic about a slice of pizza. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:41.600 I don't know. I don't know if it's if it's 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.159 inherent to the slice of pizza, or is it just 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:47.320 the way that we often use the slice of pizza 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.400 right pizza. 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.400 I think it's because pizza is very far from a 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:56.799 food found in nature. If a bird comes and plucks 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:01.360 a grape off of your plate, that's not that funny. 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.279 It's a little bit funny. If it comes and plucks 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.680 a French fry off your plate, that's funnier than a grape, 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.679 because the bird in nature would never encounter a fried 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.280 piece of potato, but it's still basically just a piece 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:17.160 of potato. Something has happened to it. A pizza is 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:20.080 a whole production. You have made a dough, you have 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.600 made a sauce, you have you know, you have created 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:26.440 cheese out of milk and probably added some other things 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.800 to it. It's all this stuff coming together and producing 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:35.080 this very synthetic, technological product. And the fact that an 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.000 animal is taking your pizza away. I think that's what's 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:38.760 funny about it. 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:41.600 I think you're right. But yeah, plus the triangular slice 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:47.520 that especially screams unnatural, man made, but you know, pizza 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:49.760 rat doesn't care. Pizza rat is going to drag that 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:56.280 slice away for its own, its own consumption. So this study, 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:01.240 again that doesn't involve rats. It involves rainbow lizards a 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:06.000 gama agama, and in particular, we're dealing with rainbow lizards 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.920 in urban African environments, so in cities, in towns, or 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:16.000 very specific to this particular study, at beach resorts, and 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:20.720 so lizards eating pizzas. This is even more hilarious. You know, 0:08:21.280 --> 0:08:24.880 we're clearly getting into teenage mutant into turtle territory. Here 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.960 brings to mind not only the pizza loving Turtles themselves, 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:34.079 but also fellow mutant Mondo Gecko. I don't know how 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.000 many episodes of the old cartoon Mondo Gecko actually factored 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:40.920 into I included an image of this particular character for 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:47.200 you here, Joe, obviously a half human, half lizard hybrid 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:48.400 with a lot of attitude. 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.200 Oh man, So I was into the Turtles when I 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.800 was younger, But I don't know if I genuinely remember 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.960 this guy or not. I'm getting that tingling half memory 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.480 feeling right now, but it could be a false positive. 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.320 Yeah. I did not have time to go back and 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.720 watch any of these episodes in full, but I did 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.520 notice that there is an episode titled Michelangelo Meets Mondo Gecko, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.080 and one of the pizza's reference in the episode is 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.560 locks and cream cheese. Just a reminder i'd forgotten this, 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:22.440 but the teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon program frequently mentioned 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.000 gross sounding pizzas that the Turtles were ordering, or into, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.440 or had consumed like the day before. See. 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.400 I always thought of them as just getting your standard 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:34.600 pepperoni pizza or cheese pizza. That's what they show in 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:36.160 the ads for the show. 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.520 Right, right, But no, they were ordering all sorts of 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:44.600 strange pizzas. And I did a short detour in my 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:48.800 research here, and I discovered a YouTuber somebody who goes 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.160 by the name of Kirk Cooks that's with a K, 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:56.439 and apparently on YouTube over the course of I don't know, 0:09:56.600 --> 0:10:02.600 multiple episodes, maybe even years, this guy cooked all sixty 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:06.040 seven pizzas mentioned on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle series, 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.920 So things like anchovies and butterscotch ice cream, pepperoni and marshmallow, 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.760 pickled herring, and caramel fudge, and of course locks and 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.000 cream cheese, which I just referenced. 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:19.400 Clearly the most reasonable of all. 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:22.319 The Yeah, I did check out that episode, and that 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:27.040 was that was what the host was said, like, this 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:30.160 one had the possibility to actually be pretty good, and 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:32.000 it seems like they were pleased with it. 0:10:32.200 --> 0:10:34.240 That's the most reasonable of the ones you mentioned, because 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.160 it's the only one that doesn't have candy on it. 0:10:36.880 --> 0:10:38.520 Yeah, a number of them had some sort of like 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.280 gross candy candy situation going on, And I did not 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:44.920 watch all of these reviews, but I can only assume 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.640 that the grosser ones were indeed gross, So I mean 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.960 that was part of the humor of the turtles being 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:53.560 into these strange pizza orders. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:56.560 Wait, Rob, do you personally I mean, hey, we don't 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.040 shame people for the foods they like here. You know, 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.320 a lot of strange sound foods are delicious. But Rob, 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.920 do you personally have like a standard pizza topping that 0:11:03.960 --> 0:11:04.760 you can't stomach? 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:09.440 Ooh? I mean, I mean there are things that are 0:11:09.440 --> 0:11:12.040 not in my diet anymore, but in terms of toppings 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:16.000 that I just that I've historically had an issue with. 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.680 I think I was a little cranky about pineapple for 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:23.520 a while, but I think I had pineapple on a 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.360 pizza not too long ago, though to be clear, it 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.040 was not the sort of classic ham in pineapple combo, 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.800 and I think I ended up liking it. So I 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.920 suspect that my problem was not with pineapple on a 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:43.160 pizza but fruit meat combos. Okay, because there were other 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.280 like fruit meat combos back when I ate meat that 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:49.960 I also didn't like, like prostudo and melon like some 0:11:50.000 --> 0:11:52.440 people love that. I just never it was never for me. 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.240 I can see that I'm not the biggest pineapple guy either. 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.360 You know, I'm not opposed to sweet flavors on a pizza, 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.200 but pineapple is like so sweet and so juicy, it 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.320 just seems a little over the top for me. The 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:04.760 big one that I can't do that a lot of 0:12:04.760 --> 0:12:08.400 people love is not a topping, but an alternate sauce, 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.640 And people love these barbecue chicken pizzas with barbecue sauce 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.200 is the pia. I can't deal with barbecue sauce and 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:16.680 the sauce. That's just that's not doing it for me. 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.360 I remember having some of those, like California Pizza kitchen 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.360 type thing, and I liked it back in the day. 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.199 I think I can take some barbecue sauce out of context. 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.400 Apparently I can't. I just can't hang all right. 0:12:29.480 --> 0:12:33.960 So getting back to the actual study here, we've firmly 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.240 established why it is funny. You know, it's lizards eating pizza. 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:44.240 Why does it matter? Well, despite being hilarious, the study 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:47.800 here too is certainly a valid inquiry. As we've discussed 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.880 on the show before, human cities, especially greatly alter the 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.760 lifestyles and diets of the creatures that continue to thrive 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.240 in them, and for most of you listeners, this is 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.400 instantly going to bring to mind things like pigeons and 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:01.880 rats obviously, but it also concerns all manner of creatures 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.480 that find ways to thrive in human augmented environments. Highly 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:11.040 adaptable creatures with varied opportunistic diets often do quite well. 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.040 And in parts of Africa that means rainbow lizards. You 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:19.080 know what they're eating from our refuse why and then 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:21.640 what it's doing to their health and door behavior is 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.160 totally worth studying. If for no other reason you might 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.360 think of it as like they're eating pizza because of us, 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.120 it's kind of our responsibility to figure out why this 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.080 is happening and what are the ramifications. 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:33.960 Yeah, entirely makes sense, and I would think that you 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:38.000 could also probably learn some interesting things about the lizard 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.640 and about its relationship to its environment by studying what 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:43.400 kinds of pizza it likes best. 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:48.040 Exactly exactly now, Joe, I included an image of a 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:51.720 gama agama for you right here, the rainbow lizard. I 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.480 do encourage listeners out there when it is safe to 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:56.800 do a search as well, so that you can see 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:57.520 this creature. 0:13:57.559 --> 0:13:57.719 It is. 0:13:57.880 --> 0:14:00.280 It's quite a stunning lizard. You can understand why was 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.240 subsequently introduced into Florida. Via the reptile trade. Like it's 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:05.080 a gorgeous lizard. 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.560 Yeah, yeah, it's striking, bright orange head. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.600 Bright orange head, dark body. Yeah. So they're also known 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:15.400 as the common agama and the red headed rock agama. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:19.920 It's found throughout most of Sub Saharan Africa, which is 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:23.720 a considerable range. It's endemic to a number of Sub 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:27.600 Saharan African countries and has also again unfortunately, been introduced 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:32.920 into Florida via the reptile trade. They're primarily insectivores. They 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:37.160 live in social groups built around feuding lead males and 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:42.800 apparently the conflict between these males. It's more pronounced in 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.880 urban environments because they're kind of constricted in their territory, 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:49.440 so they can't spread out as much and they grow 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:53.960 to around thirty centimeters or eleven point eight inches in length. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:56.640 Now in the paper, the authors point out that the 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:02.000 species has high ecological plasticity, especially so far as thermal 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:06.720 ecology and foraging strategy goes. So in rural areas they're 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.360 strictly diurnal, but in urban areas they apparently make use 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:15.120 of artificial lighting to become nocturnal foragers. And apparently most 0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:17.520 of this has to do with keeping their body temperature up, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.680 taking advantage of those lights to stay warm in the night, 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.080 and continuing to hunt. Oh interesting at first. When I 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.320 first read it, I thought, oh, well, you know, insects 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.120 drawned with lights, and maybe that's a part of it. 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.000 I didn't read that specifically, but it seems like thermal 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:35.600 regulation is the main feature here now. In addition to 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:38.840 eating insects, though, it has for a while been observed 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:43.320 that they will sometimes eat certain bread based foods, and 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:48.760 this led directly into this study that considered that asked 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.040 the question what sort of pizzas do they prefer? And 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:57.560 this took place at a particular seaside resort in Togo. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:00.800 I'm going to read from the paper here. After having 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:05.320 opportunistically observed an adult male quote stealing a piece of 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:08.400 four cheese pizza from tourists by climbing a table, we 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:13.040 decided to investigate whether this behavior was occasional or usual 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:18.640 in this rainbow lizard population. So again, observations of adult 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.000 lizards not only you know, dining on thrown away slices 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.520 of pizza or you know, pizza bones in a garbage can, 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.960 but just straight up stealing slices of pizza pizza rat 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.480 style from human tourists. 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.200 That's a bold lizard. Yeah, has become accustomed to our 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:35.320 delicious foods. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.640 Yeah. So the researchers here decided to do a little 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.840 taste test. They set up feeding stations for the lizards 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.560 that featured two different pizza selections, so a little bit 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.280 of a you know, like a pizza bar scenario, but 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.240 with only two choices. One choice was the four cheese pizza, 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.320 which they had already been observed stealing, and the others 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.640 was a four seasons pizza. I don't know about you, 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.320 Joe was not super familiar with this, but it's apparently 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:07.280 traditional in many areas. It's divided into four sections, So 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:10.600 one quarter of the pizza is artichoke hearts for spring, 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.719 and then another quarter is basil and tomatoes for summer, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.880 and then another quarter is mushrooms for autumn, and then 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:18.600 another section is ham for winter. 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:21.639 I just looked it up. No, I've never had one 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:22.280 of these before. 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.240 Yeah, I mean, you know, sound I guess it sounds 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.280 fine to me. I have no objections, but but you know, 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:31.560 we'll get to what the lizards think. So the lizards 0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.960 here had a choice between a cheese pizza and a 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:38.320 mostly veggie pizza, but one that also featured a little 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.160 bit of meat, and all of the rainbow lizards observed 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.720 went purely for the four cheese pizza. 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:49.320 Interesting. I wonder, why could that be visual differences or 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.280 it's actually like nutritionally preferable to them, or. 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.080 I wonder, Yeah, the authors here right that this suggests 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:00.640 quote that they may have some chemical cues attracting them, 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.600 or that the specific four cheeses type may provide nutrients 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.800 that are more easily digested, which I mean that also, 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:12.200 I realized sounds a little crazy, right because we're talking 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:16.000 about cheese here, we're talking about a dairy product, and 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.080 it's you know, it's one thing to talk about mammals 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:23.600 consuming dairy even when they shouldn't, such as you know, 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.720 giving a cat a saucer of milk. Yes, they do 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:28.480 it in the cartoons and in the movies all the time, 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.280 but I think most of us know by this point 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:33.840 you're not supposed to do that. But these are lizards, right, 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:38.119 Why would lizards need cheese? Why would lizards need milk? 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:40.680 In fact, I was looking around and like, in general, 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.560 pet owners who have lizards are generally reminded, do not 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:49.920 feed your lizard milk. Do not give your lizard cheese. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.359 They don't need it, they can't handle it. 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:55.800 Interesting, okay, But then did the researchers like study like, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:58.919 were the lizards who were eating this pizza like in 0:18:59.040 --> 0:18:59.679 bad health? 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:00.200 No? 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.679 Apparently, so this is definitely one of those areas where 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.920 more research is required. But it seemed to be this 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.879 be the case that the pizza eating lizards were doing. Okay, 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:13.800 it's not like they were getting bloated on pizza and 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.280 then just like you know, dying in the sun or anything. 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:21.040 They seem to be in good overall health. And it 0:19:21.080 --> 0:19:23.000 seemed like one of the leading hypotheses here is that 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.639 they're perhaps benefiting from a high fat, high calorie energy 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:30.639 boost when they eat this cheese pizza, specifically the cheese here. 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.119 As for like the bread itself, I don't. I don't. 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.960 I'm not to understand that that has any like real impact. 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:41.480 But maybe that's the main way that these lizards, lizards 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.880 have been observed to obtain cheese like this off of 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.119 a you know, a type of food that has spread 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.960 around the world, like invasive pet lizard species. In this case, the. 0:19:52.920 --> 0:20:08.639 Pizza rob I've found a slightly related story. Would you 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.120 like to hear about it? It's only sort of related. 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.399 It's not about lizards eating pizza, but it's close. 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:16.840 Hey, it's close. Even then, we should definitely explore it. 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:19.720 Okay, So did you know that one of the most 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:26.000 extreme cases of constipation ever documented in nature was caused 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.280 by a lizard eating at a pizza parlor? 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:31.639 Wow? This absolutely sounds unreal. 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.560 To be clear, we have no evidence that the lizard 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:40.119 was eating pizza itself, but I guess we can't be sure. 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.840 But part of the cursed concoction that this lizard consumed 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.440 seems to have been sand contaminated with pizza grease and 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.480 some other stuff, including other lizards that may also have 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:58.800 been eating pizza grease and greasy sand. So yeah, delicious, right. 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:01.760 So here My source is a press release on the 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.920 website of the Florida Museum of Natural History from April 0:21:04.960 --> 0:21:09.600 twenty twenty by Halle Marchesi, and the story goes like this, 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:14.240 Some researchers at the University of Florida and at the 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:20.680 Florida Museum came into possession of a remarkable specimen, an 0:21:20.720 --> 0:21:27.480 adult female northern curly tailed lizard. The species is Leocephalus caronadus, 0:21:28.160 --> 0:21:33.400 and this northern curly tailed lizard was so constipated when 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:37.240 they found it that the mass of impassable poop in 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:41.560 its digestive tract had become almost eighty percent of the 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.960 animal's total body mass. I think the exact figure was 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:49.840 seventy eight point five percent. Yikes, so more poop than lizard. 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:52.520 Wow. Wow. I mean, the only thing that even comes 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.600 close to this were examples we've discussed of specific scorpion 0:21:56.840 --> 0:22:00.240 species that lose their ability to poop if they have 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.480 to eject their tail and therefore cannot poop for the 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:08.240 rest of their lives. But that this sounds even more impressive. 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:11.520 So at the time, and I don't know if this 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.080 has been surpassed since, but I kind of doubt it. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:18.119 The authors believed this was the largest feces to body 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.919 mass ratio ever recorded in a living animal, so it 0:22:22.040 --> 0:22:25.640 was the most constipated a live animal had ever been 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.320 as far as we have documented. Obviously, we can't know 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:31.200 what has happened out there in nature, but the most 0:22:31.280 --> 0:22:33.280 constipated animal we've ever seen. 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.080 Do you think this? I'm imagining the cinematic moment where 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:38.480 the researchers suddenly get really serious and one is like, 0:22:39.000 --> 0:22:41.000 you know, I think this is it. I think this 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.680 is the largest feces to body mass ratio ever recorded. 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:46.040 I think it's happening. 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.159 Oh, I think I'm about to describe that moments. So 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:52.840 one of the researchers, a PhD candidate at the time 0:22:52.880 --> 0:22:57.840 named Natalie Klaunch, is quoted in this press release saying 0:22:57.880 --> 0:23:00.960 that when they caught the lizard, they first assumed because 0:23:00.960 --> 0:23:02.960 it was an adult female, they first assumed it was 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:07.040 about to lay eggs quote, but when we went to 0:23:07.119 --> 0:23:10.120 feel for eggs, it just felt like it was full 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:13.920