Pandemic Dental Problems, Modern Love, Save Parasites

The Pandemic is Really Bad For Your Teeth. Here’s Why. (0:32) Guest: Tammy Chen, Central Park Dental Aesthetics, Midtown Manhattan The pandemic appears to be causing a spike in dental problems. Manhattan dentist Tammy Chen says she’s seen “more tooth fractures in the last six weeks than in the previous six years.” She wrote about this in the New York Times recently. What is going on with our teeth? What Love and Relationships Look Like During COVID-19 (17:48) Guest: Daniel Jones, Editor, Modern Love, New York Times Just like everything over the past six months, relationships have changed. Some of us are finding ourselves closer than ever to the people in our lives. Others are finding ourselves more isolated. What Do We Do with Old Solar Panels? (36:46) Guest: Garvin Heath, Senior Scientist, Resources and Sustainability Group, Strategic Energy Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory Solar energy has taken off in America the last 20 years. It’s normal in most communities now to see homes with their own rooftop panels harvesting sunlight. But the US has not yet prepared for what’s about to happen with solar energy. All those panels were only designed to last 25 or 30 years. That means in the next decade, there will be millions of them heading to landfills. Can’t Breathe While Exercising? You May Have EILO—Not Asthma. (52:52) Guest: J. Tod Olin, Pulmonologist, Director, Exercise and Performance Breathing Center, National Jewish Health Hospital If someone has trouble breathing when they exercise hard, they must have exercise-induced asthma, right? Well, it could also be something called exercise induced laryngeal obstruction or EILO. It’s not very well known, but pulmonologist Tod Olin estimates that one-third of people who are diagnosed with asthma actually have EILO or both asthma and this condition. New Colonies of Emperor Penguins Found on Antarctica (1:10:40) Guest: Peter Fretwell, Geographic Information Officer, British Antarctic Survey A bit of good news for you today: scientists just found thousands of penguins. These emperor penguins weren’t lost, we just didn’t know they existed. This is a big deal because these colonies in Antarctica are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The Campaign to Save Parasites (1:24:38) Guest: Chelsea Wood, Professor of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington All the talk about saving endangered species has never once mentioned the need to keep parasites from going extinct. Why then have a bunch of biologists from all over the world, signed onto a global call to “save the parasites”?  Can you imagine walking around with a T-shirt that says that–and maybe a picture of an icky tapeworm?