Hi all, We've missed you so! Give us an episode or two to get back into the swing of things but we have some solid "News to Us" and 2 kick ass stories! Let us know what you think by hitting us up on twitter @phunkmachine and @part_dinosaur or check out our website for all the episode details at podcastbraindump.com! 

Oh hi hello!  We start things off strong with Andrew throwing down some spider facts and Elyse talking Marmaduke and a huge freaking flower.  Then we dive into a new fossil amphibian, the lone star tick, and butterfly reproduction strategies.  Basically, it's a dump of Brain Dumps.  As always, the links to the articles talked about today will be up on podcastbraindump.com and if you have a 'news to you' email us at [email protected].  Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe and...

Hello you magnificent creatures!  We've again taken a little hiatus but we're back and more dump-y than ever!  Andrew's News to him turned out to be phony so Elyse does two! The first News is a hat known as an amadou cap, which is made from a truly unique material.  We then go full National Treasure to talk about a copy of the Declaration of Independence found recently.  Instead of talking about this week's discoveries we sit down for story time with Elyse.  We travel back in time to meet...

Hi there!  We took a week off and because of it, Elyse turned into a time bomb of useless facts and we're passing the savings on to youuuuuuu!  Andrew starts off strong with a fact about Time Magazine during the OJ trial.  Then Elyse devolves into ramblings as she shares facts about vitamin D and the history of marketing the avocado.  After sharing a study that highlights potentially harmful chemicals in feminine products, we talk about a frog that was used as an early pregnancy test!  That...

Our 'News to Us' starts with female dragonflies at the bar, and Elyse hearing about a crazy cool reptile for the first time (shoutout to the tuatara!) We then get to talk briefly about a find that was brought to a conference for physical anthropologists all about Homo naledi and their brain features.  Looking at some sassy tadpoles gave us some insight into cannibalism in the animal kingdom.  Then we went really into ( some might say too into) cannibalism in humans.  We touch on the plight of...

    Our discoveries go from bat flies, to trial by combat, to the history of chloroform then it's on to the news! We start with a newly discovered salt water clam known as a shipworm.  Then we cover a new, very teeny dinosaur and some exciting new research about naked mole rats!  We finish this episode talking about the city nature challenge and the LA March for Science.  Thanks everyone for listening and as always check out the stories at podcastbraindump.com and feel free to email us at...

Hi there everyone!  It's been a while and we missed you!  We also missed a ton of science news, so strap in for Elyse babbling for an hour!  But first we have some 'News to Us'.  Andrew shares the entomology of a well used phrase and Elyse talks about parasitic worms! Then we get down to business.  We talk rabbit fever, yellow fever, citizen science, new spiders and Cassini.  It's a lot and we might get a little loopy but we get through it.  Next week we'll be back to our regular scheduled...

Elyse straight up lies by calling this a short episode.  First, we tackle a 'News for You' about Ceratopsian beaks.  Then we talk about the ever growing challenges in understanding mosquitos.  We touch on how they spread disease, what we're doing to overcome that, and what they're doing to overcome what we're doing...it's a cycle.  Thankfully, there is some exciting news coming out in the citizen science world.  Next we visit a very special fish that puts other venomous animals to shame!...

Andrew and Elyse take a deep dive into Spielberg's 1993 classic, Jurassic Park.  We discuss the animal's real life counterparts and analyze what paleontologists today are doing to try and learn more about these amazing animals.  We also peer into the types of science being done in the movie to see if there is any merit.  Everything is very much keeping a nostalgic eye on the movie.  Let us hit you right in the childhood.  Enjoy!

Our 'News to Us' starts with a sad incident at Zoo Knoxville this week that is still shrouded in mystery; hopefully we'll know more once more tests have been done.  Andrew then takes us on a fantastical journey to see how much Harry Potter is worth IN FANTASY MONEY!  Our first news story is all about shaking up the dinosaur phylogenetic tree so we take a deep dive into how taxonomy became a thing in the first place and how the earliest dinosaur species were classified.  Lastly we take a look...

This week's episode is packed! Our news to us somehow ranges from diseased chimps to breakfast food.  Then we set our sights on CERN and the amazing experiment that hopes to understand gravity's effect on antimatter.  We also do some breaking down of vocabulary to figure out what exactly that means.  Once we say the words lasers about a thousand times we move on.  What we move on to is a beautiful and sad display of a female chimp as well as the upsetting rhino poaching event from a couple of...

Elyse looses her mind in this first installment of 'News for You'. She tries to figure out the origin of dogs; it shouldn't be hard, it probably isn't, but Elyse makes it super difficult.  Because of reasons.  If you are able to get through some very good dogs and dog relatives, you're rewarded with some amazing news about a potential gene therapy for patients with Sickle Cell Anemia.  This is only a case study but is potentially life saving stuff.  We then finish with a look at the Indian...

Our 'News to Us' takes a look at the future with 3D printed houses and a look at the past with the origins of the word 'buccaneer'.  In our first news story, we compare a sleep deprived Andrew to two African elephants and see who fairs better without shut eye (hint: it is not Andrew).  Then we focus on the world of the woolly mammoth with a study looking at the problems that faced the woolly mammoths inhabiting Wrangler Island 4,000 years ago.  The last thing we discuss is the media frenzy...

Andrew opens with an amazing 'News to him' about a mysterious Oregon lake.  Elyse did what she does best, and talks poop. Namely, a poop phenomena (poopnomena?)  We then spend almost the entire episode on the TRAPPIST-1 system.  Exoplanets galore!  This new discovery opens up whole new questions.  Are we alone out there?  We go on some pretty epic tangents that opens up discussions on whole new episodes.  It gets weird, and we know that everyone is talking about this story, but it is as...

We come to the exciting conclusion of our two parter on the Cambrian explosion!  The episode starts with Andrew shedding light on how WWI effected the U.S. and Elyse describes a con artist plant that fools dung beetles.  Then we go in depth on possible reasons the Cambrian Explosion came about in the first place.  I want to reiterate that these are just 6 possible ideas to how this amazing event happened and there are tons of others out there!  We also dive into the types of animals we start...

     Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Today we talk laurel and geckos and then settle in for our longest episode yet.  The reason?  For explosions! More specifically the Cambrian Explosion.  This episode describes the billions of years leading up to the Cambrian.  We cover the formation of earth, first signs of life, an oxygen crisis and everything in between.  This is just a cursory glance at what happened on our planet, so we can understand the lead up to the Cambrian Explosion, which we'll...

We missed you!! To celebrate we're coming back strong with a competitive 'News to Us' featuring a Hawaiian firehose and some brand new species of flies.  Next we take a look at a very special Cambrian fossil about 540 million years old that could give us insight into some early deuterostomes.  There is some anus talk (they make us who we are!) and Andrew does claim the recreation of the fossil reminds him of a testicle with a mouth.  Lastly we head to space to debate what oxygen is doing on...

    We have a slightly shorter episode today due to some goings on at Casa de Brain Dump.  But this episode is full of fun facts about Churchill and venom (not together) and following the news to us, we dive deep into what it means to critically think.  The nature of science is brought up, and we discuss how science can be portrayed in the media.  We touch on how repeatable experiments holds the key to legitimate science and cite a study done by Mary Schweitzer that supports earlier...

On this week's 'news to us' we get really depressed about lemurs and we talk Titanic! Then we go back billions of years. Billions! To the start of complex life on earth as we know it.  Tiny organisms making bigger organisms, the universe is wild.  We then bring it a little closer to home by talking about some pretty sudsy viruses.  Viruses that are literally 5 times over than we originally believed.  Lastly, we talk about some pretty impressive trilobite eggs.  These trilobite eggs give us...

This week's 'News to us' turned into a competition for who had the funnest facts; you decide: venom, nature toilets, or space mountains? Andrew starts off strong with information on Brazil's Snake Island and the infamous Golden lancehead (Bothrops insularis).  Elyse talks about a beautiful poop where you eat situation and the solar system's tallest mountains.  Our first news story is all about dinosaur eggs.  Specifically, the ones recently analyzed by the Proceedings of the National Academy...

'News to Us' starts off about fruit and takes a left turn into child birth.  After that we tackle two huge stories of 2016 that remind Andrew and Elyse that scientists are humans and sometimes that means Kardashian style drama will be attached to new findings.   In May 2016, Nature published the findings on Neanderthal constructions in France.  This could prove a much more complex culture than most credit Neanderthals with having.   We then go into the mystery of King Tut's tomb. Last year...

This week's 'news to us' ranges from The Princess Bride to cat spies.  Afterwards we take a look back at 2016, because "everyone's doing it mom!" and focus solely on SPACE.   Next week will be a grab bag of scientific accomplishments in 2016 but inspired by the amazing life of Vera Rubin, we walk through our top 3 space stories.  First being LIGO detecting gravitational waves back in February.  Then we travel 4 lightyears away to hang out with Proxima b and learn what Stephen Hawking and...

We start the episode with 'news to us'.  Elyse learned about early human ancestors and Andrew is skeptical.  It's touch and go there for a minute, but once we cross that bridge we are knee deep in insect news!  Some baby fungus gnats get their prey in a remarkable and gross way.  A new spider species (we think) is discovered in Ecuador and worms that shoot slime out of their faces remind Elyse how amazing nature is and forces Andrew to come up with a better name than face canon.  As always,...

And so it begins... Our inaugural Brain Dump episode is all about dinosaurs.  Namely, the news surrounding the incredible dinosaur tail encased in amber, published in Current Biology this week.  We talk about what this means for furthering our understanding of dinosaurs and I crush Andrew's dreams of a dino pet.  Giraffe extinction makes an unusual appearance and I call Lida Xing my new hero...because he is.  The links for everything discussed are below.  As always, what is said on the...