SoT 266: Sperm Whales Have Teeth
Channel: Science on Top
Date: 2017-06-10

SoT 266: Sperm Whales Have Teeth
http://scienceontop.com/266

Baleen whales - the toothless filter feeders - used to be around 10m long. Then 3 million years ago they started to grow to the enormous size they are today (blue whales can grow be 30 metres long!).
A new study has found that gastric bypass surgery disrupts the gut microbiome so significantly, that patients have a completely different bacteria makeup in their guts after surgery. And the new gut flora appears to promote weight loss.
An increase in the number of baby dugongs on the Great Barrier Reef indicates a revival of seagrass meadows following the devastation wrought by Cyclone Yasi in 2011.
Newly developed recognition software is helping underwater drones search for submerged mines and even map starfish colonies. Not only do the drones pilot themselves, they use pattern-matching to identify points of interest and relay that back to humans.

This episode contains traces of meteorologist Kait Parker at The Weather Channel responding to Breitbart's misrepresentation of climate data.

http://scienceontop.com/266

Chapters:
00:00:39 Why Did the Biggest Whales Get So Big? https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/why-did-the-biggest-whales-get-so-big/527874/
00:07:08 Obesity Surgery May Work by Remaking Your Gut Microbiome https://www.wired.com/2017/05/obesity-surgery-may-work-remaking-gut-microbiome/
00:14:14 Sea Cow Baby Boom Is Good News for Great Barrier Reef http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/05/dugongs-australia-great-barrier-reef/
00:18:11 Underwater drones use sound to send snaps of the ocean floor https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431283-400-underwater-drones-use-sound-to-send-snaps-of-the-ocean-floor/
00:22:53 Science on Top http://scienceontop.com