The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week Thank Your Local Horse, OG Canners, Busting Bird Gender Norms
Aug 27, 2025
Nathan H. Lents, a biology professor and author of *The Sexual Evolution*, joins to discuss the intriguing behaviors of birds, including why some are especially vocal during mating. The conversation also covers the unexpected role of horses in creating snake antivenom and the history of canning, tracing its origins back to the military needs during Napoleon's time. Lents critiques scientific biases in studying female animal behavior, urging a reevaluation of how we understand agency in both birds and humans.
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Convergent Evolution Points To New Antivenoms
- Venom resistance repeatedly evolves across species via similar molecular changes, offering leads for lab-made antivenoms.
- Researchers used museum tissue and human immune-cell DNA to derive broadly neutralizing antibodies as alternatives to animal-based production.
Replace Animal Incubation With Lab Antibodies
- Do invest in research that replaces animal incubation with synthetic or monoclonal antibody methods for antivenom.
- Prioritize approaches that reduce allergic reactions and scale production without relying on live horses.
Napoleon's Prize Sparked Canning Invention
- Rachel Feltman recounts Nicolas Appert's 1795 prize-driven invention of food bottling and early canning for Napoleon's army.
- Appert used glass, cork, wax, and boiling but didn't know microbes caused spoilage until Pasteur decades later.
