Fun Fact or Fake Factoid?! Game Rematch (with Claire Caballero)

0:00Jim? Yes? Claire? Yes. Are you ready for a rematch? Oh, yeah. Yes, it's been a long time coming. Thanks, Heather Swift. Okay, so for those of you who are just turning in, turning in, this is a rematch of a game fun fact or fake factoid. Let's get into it. Hey, I'm Melissa. I'm Jim. And I'm a chemist. And I'm not. And welcome to chemistry for your life. The podcast apps, you understand the chemistry of your everyday life. And this is a bonus edition, but a super special bonus edition. I invented a game last time Claire was here visiting us called fun fact or fake factoid because factoid now has been used so often that people think it just means a little fact, but technically it means a fact that is often shared that's not true. So last time

1:06there was a heated match and Jim came out on top, which Claire instantly brought up. So I think there are some feelings. So we're going to have a rematch. And I will again promise the winner a little treat. That's what it was. It was a little treat. And Jim got a sonic drink, not the one that he's drinking today. Yes, it's funny because I like have not been going. It's not very much, but almost gets me like a really good taunt. You know, like, oh, yeah, remember last time we uh, what treat did I get? Was it an ice cold cherry lime made? I think it was. But yeah, I did. I happen to go on today. But I actually forgot that I won until that's crazy. Because I never forgot that I know, but because it makes sense of because I've like, that's what happens with the layers and layers of episodes that we record. Or it's like, I remember these, the science lesson from the episodes we did with you. But I actually don't really remember the fake

2:10fact was we talked about. And if you had told me that you won, I'd be like, oh, okay, probably. So I just believe you. Yeah. Well, I did change the rules a little bit. Last time the rule was like, if there's any truth to it, we'll accept it. But this time the rule is, it's either right or wrong. So it's either it's either all the way true or not true at all. In the way that it's worded, but the way that you're wording it, like, okay, I'm sure you like didn't do a sturdy, right? No, I just tried not to do you dirty. Okay. All right. Are you ready for your first fun fact? Yeah. Or fake factoid. A woman's brain can shrink during pregnancy. I'm going to call this a fun fact. Okay. Oh, can shrink. I know that there's like a lot of things that change. Well, I find I've read into that. I'm going to go fun fact also. Oh, I was hoping for Claire on

3:14this one to come out ahead. Yes, it is a fun fact. Okay. I knew that. I was like, oh, I have a neuroscience here. She'll know. You should force us to alternate who goes first just so there's not a like, yeah, I mean, that's true. That's true. A little harder. A little harder going first. Yeah, that's like, what if I think it sounds really dumb to say fun fact? And so I don't. Oh, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Okay. Well, here is the deets on this. I did check each one of these to make sure they were accurate. And this is from Tom V on Instagram. There is I read a research paper and from the abstract, it confirmed there is a pronounced decrease in gray matter volume and cortical thickness across the brain in women's pregnancy. Most of it comes back. But actually in white matter, there is an increase in the microstructural integrity. Which you can, you can look at using MRI. Nice. And also there is, and I don't know if there's

4:22an increase in cerebral stride, cerebral spinal fluid, but it's changed. And there are very few regions of the brain that are completely untouched by a transition to mother. Wow. Isn't it crazy? That is so crazy. The reason I had a bit of a lean on this one, otherwise I maybe would not have any sort of, but like my wife, every time she's been pregnant, she'd be like, I, like she has just pregnancy brain. Right. And some of that, you could argue it's just like, oh, you're fatigued, like your body's putting a lot of energy into something, you know, totally different. Yeah. Growing a whole person. And, but she would talk about it in a way like, no, it's like a brain, my brain feels different. Yeah. It's not just like a more tired, it's like a fog. And who knows you could prove that is the thing you're feeling. Right. But she saw something about what happens to women's brains when they're pregnant. And so I wonder because your brain uses a lot of glucose, like a lot of the glucose everybody makes, your brain uses a lot of it. So I wonder, I'm like, is the like, maybe like taking it? Like, I don't know, maybe like, I'm like, baby,

5:25stealing. Yeah. I'm like, they take a lot of speculation. Yeah. I need just like diverse it. Yeah. I'm, I don't know. I'm like, I can't divert that much because it's like you're, you need to like, you need your brain, but if your brain is smaller than it's a percentage, it's a big difference. Yeah. I don't know. I wonder if that paper speculated anything. Probably. Probably. I've got the link to it in the show notes if you would like to look at them to me or on our website. Okay. Next question. Kuala's or I guess this fun fact or fake factoid and JB have to go first. Kuala's have unique fingerprints. Whoa. I'm going to go fake factoid. Okay. Let me say fun fact. Okay. Claire is in the lead. This is a fun fact.

6:26This is from party penguin on Instagram that Kuala's do have unique identifiable fingerprints like humans. And in some cases, they're difficult to discern from human fingerprints. Do you already know that? I saw it on Instagram. Maybe I don't know if this is true, but they were like, they found a Kuala fingerprint and a murder scene and like they could, I don't think that's true, but I was like, I feel like the other part is true enough that, but yeah, that is so crazy. Like that they're like our fingerprints. Yeah. And they're, I did read, I found a book that verified this. I was going to see if I have the name. That's crazy. I know. And it, I, it speculated that it potentially was about like the evolution advantages, like your fingerprints are healthy grabbed. I think because there are some also like monkeys. I don't know which ones that have them too. So that is so strange. Yeah. So I don't think of like animals having like fingers like us. I know

7:28what I mean, like how am I like? Yeah, I was just thinking about like I was like a primate. Maybe I would go fun fact. I was thinking like just another animal. I'm gonna, my gut was just telling me like, I don't know why they would need that. You know what I can tell you? That's like a teddy bear. Yeah. Yeah. That's like the size of the little teddy bear. Yeah. Okay. Next fun fact or fake vac toy. I was going to say question. It was not really a question. But Claire to go first, the body temperature of birds is 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Either be like, I feel like it's really high, really low, like compared to us. No, I'll go out fake factoid, fake factoid, okay? I'm going to fake too. It just seems too high. Okay, y'all are right. Oh, good. Yeah. But also, but also that here's this one's submitted by me. Okay. Nice. Because I'm taking a bird class this semester. Yes. Yes. And I misheard my professor and this is really embarrassing. I was then talking to my nephew

8:32on the phone later. And he's learning about birds. It is, you know, second grade class. And we're trading bird facts. And I said that one. And my brother goes, is that right? And I was like, yeah, that doesn't make sense. Does it? Because it'd be like almost boiling blood. They were like 100. He said there are several degrees warmer than humans. And I misheard him when he was saying like, you know, whatever he was like saying, like, he was saying one, two, three, and then hundred, but he was like 100, 100, 200, 103. So I misheard him. And I did not think critically about it. That is so funny. Well, I, one of the reason I thought about that too, I was like, adjusting the temperature of our water heater one time. And it has a little warning that it says what temperature water specifically becomes like where it can burn you. I was just like a wide doubt to put in that in boiling. I think over 120 degrees starts to be like,

9:33this is too hot for humans. So I was like, it feels to me like animals like burn, burn. Yeah. It's similar temperatures. Like they don't, they shouldn't have, you know, so I was like, this these birds would be like, they're bloods boiling. As soon as my brother said that, I was like, that was stupid. So I wanted to put myself on blast. Dude, that is so funny. So their body actually can be above 100 consistently though. It's like 103, 104, 102, 200, no, 100 and two. Yeah. And it can be a challenge for them because it is so hot. That's a temperature at which proteins start to break down. And so that's part of why they have to be eating so often is because they have to constantly be feeling all bodies that are warmer. But part of why it's good that they're warmer is because reactions happen faster with more energy. So if they have higher body temperatures, their reactions are happening more efficiently, allows them to fly and flying is a

10:34huge adaptation advantage. And they are hotter than normal, but not as hot as my brain is heard. I'm also not surprised because smaller animals, I'm pretty sure, have just like hotter body temperatures because they have higher metabolism and like faster heartbeats. And it all has to do with like a principle where it's like the smallest surface area to like more, which doesn't make any sense to me. I also might be wrong on that. But you might be doing fake factories right now. Yeah, I might be doing it right now. Like even like the mice that we use like in our lab, like their heart rates are like 500 beats a minute. Wow. Yeah, that is crazy. Yeah, he turns a scale in a lot of different. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm like birds are time. But some of them are really big. So we are at I have two correct and Claire has three correct. That's right. Okay. That's your turn to go first. You're trying to go first. There is a dead wasp inside every fig. I'm going to go fake factoid. Okay. I'm going to go fun fact. I feel like I've heard of either a

11:53variation of this or something, but I think I'm going to go fun fact. I think this is crazy. Okay. This is I have a difficulty time calling it, but I'm going to say this is a fake factoid. Sometimes it happens. That's exactly right. Yeah. So this I was first told by my sister in law, a dinner and then Tori on Instagram replied to our story and said that she thinks about fig wasp all the time, but she didn't say what the fun fact was. So then I had to go, you know, do more digging and wasp fig wasp specifically do pollinate figs. Okay. And for naturally occurring figs, the female wasp will climb into actually figs are not fruit their flowers. So they'll climb into these flowers of the figs and lay their eggs if it's a certain type of flower. So if it's the right type of flower of the fig flower, basically, you can layer eggs and then the

12:54eggs will hatch and basically they'll breed within that fig and then they'll go out the fig flower, they'll go out and we would never see or eat them. Sometimes she'll go into the wrong fig flower, the one that's the opposite. I can't remember if it's a male or female that turned into a fruit. It's not a fruit. I think it's just a flower. It's just a fleshy flower that we eat. Well, even fruits are, I think, I think all fruits are, it gets all the same, isn't it? Oh, I think they're no. I can't remember. Okay, sorry, sorry. This is the wrong side. Sorry. I can't remember. Yeah, more hunks I answer for me. No, not my side. In my bird class, I'm thinking right now, I'm like, I haven't, I realized I haven't take a biology since high school. I'm like, I shouldn't be allowed. But sometimes they'll go into the wrong flower. And they can't lay their eggs. And so they just die in there. Wow. But their bodies start to decompose and there's likely enzymes that are put out by the fig that

13:55break it down. So it's not like even in those figs, there's not like a whole wasp in there. But there is a potential that you could be eating a fig that had a, a wasp. So just like, big newtons are never going to be the same for me. Okay, but we did find is like at some point we started to find some figs that were able to, you know, become ripe or whatever to be Paul, like turn into fruit, whatever the eating form that we can do without the wasp going into pollinated. So we propagated those and those are typically used for like big newtons, etc. But you can still buy some of the other types of figs that do have, they have been pollinated. You know, that's good because I was just about to say, I'm like, that's kind of sad if we just got rid of all the other figs because those wasps made those figs. You don't wash, you do need, yeah, it's like the wasps needed the figs and the figs needed the wasps, right? So it's like, my mother's two ticons. Yes. I don't have to eat wasps with the wasps console. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So sorry to all the biologists for butchering that basic

15:01fig anatomy that I just did. But so I was torn on this to say whether it was technically a fun factor or fake factory because you said the rules, you know, yeah, that's why that was why that rule came from. So it's now it's great. Okay, I have two more fun facts, but I have a backup fun fact. Okay. If this, you know, like fun factor or fake factory, whatever. Okay, so the, did I say that one? I did say that one was submitted by okay. I'm not saying there's a bit of vital after. Okay, the next one is the marking on eggs are made by the twists in the birth canal of birds. Even though I'm taking a bird class, this is not my submission. Markings on eggs. What do you mean by markings? Like specks? Yeah. Speckles and something like that. Okay. Yeah. Oh, interesting. Is it my turn to be over? Yes. I think so. Yeah. We'll say it one more time. The markings on eggs are made by the twists in the birth canal of birds.

16:06I'll say fake fake factory fake factory. Okay. I'm also going to fake that toy. Okay. Okay. You are both correct. I was going to say we're both wrong. So the, there are pigments that are deposited in the process of the egg being formed and laid, but they're not based on the curves or bins. The colors are added first by the shell gland. So that's like when the shell is being made, there's pigment put into the shell. It's also when it's being formed. And then there's another superficial layer of pigment that's deposited in the, as the very last step, basically before the egg is actually laid. So, but they're intentionally deposited. It's not just like from bins in the right. Yeah. Didn't even know that that was possible. Yeah. I thought there was like not even many of that. Yeah. Birds are out here pigmenting things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was just kind of

17:12like, I don't know anything about this, but I'm just sort of leaning toward like, I feel like my guess would be it's not that. Yeah. That's like, I don't know what it is, but I just don't know what, yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. It's like something that you can really easily see it being like, no, here's how it is. And this is what it happened. And it's like, oh, yeah, I've never taken a birth class. I have no idea. Okay. This. So that one was submitted by Sam on Instagram. It was, it's so close that I feel like outside of the details of of a scientific podcast, that's good enough. That's like, yeah, well, in the twist of the birth canal, so when the pigments deposit. Yeah. But it's not because. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Woodpeckers have tongues that are long enough. They can wrap around their skulls multiple times. I have to start. Yep.

18:14Oh, I'm going to go fun fact. I was, I'm also going to go fun fact. I don't think that's crazy enough to be fun. You guys are correct. That's gross. That's really crazy. It's the mental image of that. But I guess why are they just mental image? Because here is actually so good. Thank you. I actually brought my bird class. Incredible. Oh my gosh. Why? I think it helped tongues crazy long. Yeah. If I remember correctly, I think they it like could help protect their brains in there. So it physically actually wraps around their brain. I think, like when I said, yes, I believe it because like the weird image of it in its skull. Okay, that's really crazy. I think if you had said that, I don't think I would have said yes. I don't think I would have, like, I think because I was like, oh, maybe it's long enough to do that. Yeah. But the fact that it actually does that inside of it. I know. I know. I know. I don't even know that they, I mean, I guess perhaps they're tied. So I have to do a backup.

19:16Okay. Let me think about it. Let me think about which of my backup here I can use. Okay. You have to answer different ones for this. And I think you should go at the same time. That's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. We should have done that all along, I think. Wait, who submitted that one? It's not a hard people that that one was submitted by me. That was you. People listening or watching and hearing to do this and that was kind of hard every time. I think this time we do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think I'll do like a count of three. Yeah. Or you can hold up a number or something so I could verify your answer. Okay. Okay. Let me let me pull something out of my brain here. I think I'll do two more. Yeah. And you have to answer at the same time for both over them, I think. Okay.

20:18Okay. Parads have created their own class of pigments that are not found anywhere else on Earth. You're going to count down. If you think it's a fun fact, do a one. If you think it's a fake factor, do it too. Okay. Okay. Three, two, one. Fun fact. Fun fact. Okay. I did like raw paper scissors shoot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're both correct. Oh, yes. You're both correct. You can watch the footage back. I promise I didn't want to sing that. Yeah. I watched it. Okay. Okay. Where are you laughing? Just like, what have we just tied? Like, what have we just can't keep going? Okay. Okay. I got another one.

21:18Bald eagles can't take off from the ground. They have to either get lift from the wind or jump off of cliffs to be able to soar. They can't generate enough power to take off in flight from the ground without assistance. Whoa. Okay. That's it. Can't thank for a second. Mm-hmm. Okay. I think I've got my answer. No. I'm like, oh, should I think about it? Okay. Okay. I think I think I can. Okay. You have to say at the same time. Are you ready? Okay. Okay. Three, two, one. Big factoid. I don't want my gosh. Okay. I think I just got to keep pulling things out of my brain. Was it, were we right or no? You're both correct, but probably not for the reason you think

22:20that is true for California condors. Whoa. But it's not true for bald eagles. Yeah, dang. California condors can't, they're so big that they can't generate enough power to lift that off of the ground. That is so interesting. Albatross also, they need the wind to be able to do that so they're like run until they can get enough wind to take off into the air. I almost had fun fact, but then I remember the Super Bowl. They had a bald eagle on top of a horse. It was part of a commercial. And then they had the actual bald eagle on horse at the Super Bowl and the bald eagle like flew off the horse off of its perch. So I was like, he didn't jump off. He just flew off. So much. I saw in real time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Super Bowl, you can learn things at the Super Bowl, I guess. Okay. Are you ready? Yes. Yes. Okay. The, uh, hang on, let me think. I want to make sure I say this exactly right because

23:20I don't want to be a perpetrator of false or true information based on what I tell you guys. You know, like the wrong way. Okay. Pulling on all my bird knowledge. I'm hoping this one's of, uh, please be about movies. Oh yeah, should I go somewhere else? I'm trying to think of fake factoids or fun facts that people have told me like, you know, when I've been like out on the town or something that I might actually that's not true, but you don't want to be rude and say that, you know, so it's like, yeah. Okay. Actually. Okay. I hope I haven't told one. I want to be this these things. I will tell you if you have, I mean, if I remember that it came from you, I guess that is.

24:21Yeah. Dang it. Okay. Female black bears do not have a mama bear instinct. Female black bears do not have a mama bear instinct. That's what I said. Okay. You ready? No, no, I'm not ready. Sorry. Okay. Yeah. I'm ready. Three, two, one, fun fact. Dang it. Y'all are both bright. Because I've only seen brown bears with their cubs. Yeah. I mean, not in the wild, but like onto the story of a researcher who picked up a baby, uh, baby bear cub on a podcast. I was two of the bear biologists and the and the mama bear just ran away. But but grizzly bears do. Yeah. Okay. Next one. Okay. The red color in birds comes from structural

25:25arrangements of molecules, not from the color of the molecules themselves. And you're saying it all? Okay. Okay. Okay. You ready? I think so. Okay. Three, two, one, fun fact. You finally picked something different. Okay. You said fun fact. You said fake factoid. Clare's on it. Oh my gosh. That is true of some colors, but not the red color. What color is it? So red colors come from carotenoids or carrot, carrot colors. And um, poor friends, I think, give a little bit of a red, reddish, ready color. And poor friend is actually, I believe the thing that holds on to oxygen in the blood. I remember correctly. Oh, that's him. Wait. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But poor friend is wide bond. It's like whenever you have

26:30a white dog and they be sort of become yellow as they like grow older, that's what poor friends are breaking down. Yeah. Um, I don't know for sure about that. I can't comment on that. That could be a fun fact or fake factoid. I don't know. Yeah. Where do you learn that? Um, I just learned it because that's what happens to our mice and rats because they're all bino mice and rats and they be sort of become like yellow or I would say like age to get like discolored. So I do believe the poor friend is isolated from blood. And that's part of how they deposit porphan on their shells in the other question. So, um, I believe it is like iridescence is from structure and blues. Actually, like, I watched a really cool American Chemical Society video about this was on my birthday today about how mountain blue birds that bright blue color is not from a blue pigment. It's from they like deflect light, the structure, the microstructure of those birds and also like certain blue butterflies. The microstructure is such that they they deflect the exact right

27:34wavelengths to get it to appear to be. Wow. I was thinking about the number of times we've talked about color and how very weird and not intuitive color is. I've talked about like the structure stuff where it's like way back to like talking about antioxidants to write that. It's like high antioxidant levels, high, you know, vibrancy in colors. It's about that where it's like that's the presence of something. But it's not that DNA accidents are this color. Yeah. It's that in the they're more present makes the yeah, it's just like, you know what I mean? So I was like, this just seems like based on what we've talked about. I'm a little lean this way, but I really have no idea. It's like the thing that helped tip me over is I know that flamingos are pink because they eat shrimp. Specifically because they eat shrimp. So I'm like, it has to be that the pigment. I mean, maybe it's not. But I'm like, in my mind, I like the pigment from the shrimp. That is like getting I'm pretty sure that's what happens. And I know

28:39that what I think that I've learned is that birds will take their nutrients and deposit them in like they're able to use the nutrients to deposit pigment into their feathers. Wow. And so that's part of why more brightly colored males are more attractive for sexual selection. Yeah, because they're like, you're melting. You're good for it. You're gonna be able to get your provider. You can be able to get berries for me in nine. Wow. That's interesting. Yeah. So some of them are taking it and depositing it and others the way that their feathers grow literally gives the structure. And there's like the different ways that it scatters light is called for the structural kind is coherent and in coherent. And so coherent is like blue bird is blue no matter how you look at it. But a lot of the your descents on hummingbirds that like it looks like it's whatever from different angles. That's an incoherent scattering. So the light isn't scattered exactly the same way. So it looks like it's different colors. So birds are colored both from

29:40structure and from pigment. Hey, and this is your first house for your rear class. Yep. Thanks you have so much more to learn. How I'm so cool. I learned so much about birds. It's great. It really came in clutch for this game. Yeah, it really did. Because I feel like I was getting tricky with y'all there. Yeah. I also think our listeners maybe knew better than to submit their fun box because they got got last time by this game. So we got less emissions from them than normal. But I really wanted to bring it back. Yes. Very fun game. Congratulations. Now I'll have to come back and break the tie. I know. Yes. Yes. And you'll have to let me know your treat order. Like what's a little pick me up tree, you know, think about it. Oh, I will. And then I'll report back to our listeners whenever I do it. All right. Well, that's been fun fact or fake factoid with this game. Thank you so much Claire for coming and joining us. Thank you for having me. Thanks for bringing us a different scientific perspective and for answering lots of chemistry

30:41mysteries that I've had for a while. I'm glad I can answer all your questions. Yeah. Yay. The rematch is going to happen at some point. So if you have a fun fact or fake factoid, submit it to us on our website at chemforyourlife.com, chemforgyourlife.com, share that's an idea. And if you will put fun factor fake factors in like that in the description. So I won't read it that most will just read it instead. That'd be better. Yeah. Otherwise, you know, but I'll be honest, but I don't want to I don't want to read it because I want to play the game. Yeah. And or a question or idea or follow up or whatever, you know how to find us chemforgyourlife.com that just share all the things with us. And we had to help us keep our show going and contribute to cover the cost of making it. You can join our super cool chem community of patrons on patreon.com slash chemforgyourlife. That's patreon.com slash chemforgyourlife. You get to be one part of a super cool chem community, too. You get an ad free feed of the show, three you get a bonus episode every single month. A few of the things ways to interact with us. Just a lot of fun and most

31:43importantly, you keep the show going and you keep it free for everybody else. It's very important to us that everyone has an easy free access to the show somewhere and you all make that possible. If you're not really do that, you can still help us by subscribing and for your podcast app, rating, writing, viewing, apple podcast or Spotify, subscribing on YouTube or oops, I meant forgot to mention by merch on our website at chemforgyourlife.com slash store. A bunch of ways for you to support the show, but the free ways the subscribing ways are great because they just help people find it, help the chemistry if they're every day life be explained to them. Right. If you want to know more about our show, you can check out our show notes in our for today's episode or you can go to our website. This episode of chemistry for your life is created by me, Melissa Cleaney and them. They're Kabirah and Jim Robinson. We always like to give a shout out. A special thank you to our patrons who make this make our community possible and who made this episode possible. So thank you to Hunter R. Chris and Claire S. Steven B.

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