Plumage! Dance battles! Possible holographic disco birds? Natural History Museum of LA ornithology curator Dr. Allison Shultz is a professional plumologist aka feather expert. We visit the museum’s collection of rare specimens and chat about everything from fossilized dinosaur feathers to peacock tails, the fanciest roosters, quill pens, pigments, flight feathers, the blackest black birds, and why birdwatching is like seeing tiny purple raccoons zoom overhead. Birds: like Pokemon Go but weirder.
Visit Dr. Allison Shultz’s website and follow her on Twitter
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Plumology episode + tons of science links
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Sound editing by Steven Ray Morris, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media and Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer & Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm
Black Hole Theory Cosmology (WHAT ARE BLACK HOLES?!) Part 1 with Ronald Gamble, Jr.
Smologies #38: CARNIVORES with Rae Wynn-Grant
Hydrochoerology (CAPYBARAS) with Elizabeth Congdon
Theoretical & Creative Ecology (SCIENCE & ECOPOETRY) with Madhur Anand
Smologies #37: PROTEINS + DNA with Raven “The Science Maven” Baxter
Evolutionary Anthropology (METABOLISM) with Herman Pontzer
Carcinology (CRABS) Part 2 with Adam Wall
Carcinology (CRABS) Part 1 with Adam Wall
Ethnoecology (ETHNOBOTANY/NATIVE PLANTS) with Leigh Joseph
Smologies #35: COMPUTER PROGRAMMING with Iddris Sandu
Alieology (YOUR HOST): an Ask-Me-Anything Goofy Hang
Smologies #34: PENGUINS with Tom Hart
Lemurology (LEMURS) with Lydia Greene
Quasithanatology (NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES) with Bruce Greyson
Smologies #33: SCORPIONS with Lauren Esposito
Syndesiology (CONNECTIONS) with James Burke
Audiobook Mixtape 3: Gift Ideas from the Ologists’ Brains
Smologies #32: CLOUDS with Rachel Storer
Abstract Mathematology (UH, IS MATH REAL?) with Eugenia Cheng
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