I Heard It on NPR

September 27, 2021

 

I’ve found out some interesting things from listening to National Public Radio. (I’d hear a lot more, but I generally only tune in when all the other radio stations in my car are playing lousy music.)

 

New medications for humans used to be tested only on male rats, so their different effects on females were never taken into account. You may ask yourself, “Why?” I ask myself, “Who took the time to separate the sexes?” Also, of course, “Why?”

 

There is an annual convention for vacuum cleaner aficionados. At least one working vacuum is 80 years old. Many of the owners do their own repairs, but there are specialty shops that do repairs as well.

 

Plants are not as passive as we used to believe. In addition to standard protection devices like thorns, spines, or a bitter taste, there’s a more focused one: Some plants, when being bothered by a predator, emit pheromones that attract predators of their predators. Just because they can’t move doesn’t mean they’re not sneaky.

 

 

This concludes my “Boy, that’s fascinating!” segment.