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Let's Learn Everything!

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Dec 15, 2022 • 1h 27min

30: The HaLearnDay Spectacular! 2022

On a very special holiday episode, Tom, Caroline, and Ella give the gift of learning!  We've wrapped up our favorite fun facts to give to each other, and even gotten a few presents from some special guests!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the the gin craze, no free gin advertisements, gin street and beer street, wrapping paper foley work, pumpkin toadlet balance, silly UK laws, yeah and maybebeallowedtoshootacrossbowatacathedral, keep your kite flying private, kite footloose, beached whales for the queen, suspicious salmon makes sense, honey tummys, more grenades on mars by 2025, dinosaur time breaks caroline’s brain, hey these brussels sprouts aren’t bad now, brussels sprouts hipsters, Britain’s dedicated tv popularity analyst, tom regifts a fun fact, and now I’m thinking about animal genitals, Cotesia and Drosophala: like a good cheese and a fine wine.Vine Pair: The Gin CrazeHistory: The Gin CrazeWilliam Hogarth’s Beer Street and Gin LaneSmithsonian Magazine: Pumpkin ToadletSemicircular canal size constrains vestibular function in miniaturized frogsInsect Orientation: Stay on Course with the SunNIH: Vestibular SystemWright Brothers FlightOdd laws you may unknowingly breakLegislation.org: Salmon Act 1986Bee BubblingHuman Objects on MarsWhy it's Hard to Land on MarsPerseverance's 10 Million NamesPhoenix Lander Mini DVDWright Flyer Cloth on MarsTyrannosaurus RexStegosaurusThe Brussel Sprouts RenaissanceTV PickupTV Pickup QuotesThe Length of a Short Sperm
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Dec 1, 2022 • 1h 52min

29: What's in a Scientific Name, How Many Cells are in a Human, and What the British Museum Stole

What is the science of scientific naming, and could it actually be life saving?  How many cells are in a human body, and why is it important to know?  And how exactly did the British Museum... "acquire" all these artifacts?Watch Tom's PowerPoint Comedy Show!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: what does tom smell like? naming is hard for computer science, naming is a science, reading 12 million paper titles by hand, single use acronyms, polynomial naming, Ranunculus mother of dragons, the dino hip mixup, smooth transitions, the fermium wars, we all know what happened to element 102, berkelium californium americium, should we name elements after living people, Ella is the only true Swiftie, half of all exoplanets are named Kepler, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now, why? she’s a millipede, Ella will get an answer, humans have 1 cell technically, c elegans has exactly 1031 cells, don’t embarrass yourself by saying how many cells are in a mouse, we enter the wheels and doors debate, Ella sperm fact rick rolls us, the number of kinds of cells, tom is bad at math, every time a scientist questions a number an angel gets its wings, Livers Georg, Ella is heartbroken we don’t have a number, what’s the point of counting cells? the British Museum keeps 99% of things in the disney vault, offering a replica of the rosetta stone instead, Britain legally cannot return items without government approval, all the stuff we never knew about Moai statues, what does queen Victoria need with a Moai statue, her majesty declares finders keepers, actualy these stolen things mean as much to Britain now, most Britains want the items returned, there is so much to learn from this!Sources:Judith Winston's Review of Binomial NomenclatureThe Growth of Acronyms in the Scientific LiteratureThe Long and Short of Abbreviations (UA Medical Acronym)Dinosaur Hip Naming MixupHow Many Named Species are Valid?Review of the Transfermium WarsIUPAC 1994 Naming DecisionNaming ExoplanetsA Flu by Any Other NameNature on WHO NamingTaylor Swift's Millipede---Number of Bacteria In Your BodySpermTypes Of Cells In The Human BodyAn Estimation Of The Number Of Cells In The Human Body---Human Remains in the British MuseumBritish Museum: Rosetta StoneBritish Museum: Moai of rapa Nui (Easter Island Statues)CNN: British Museum Discusses fate of Easter Island StatuesBritish Museum: Benin BronzesThe Guardian: British museum ‘Has Head in sand’ Over Return of ArtefactsBritish Museum: The Parthenon SculpturesBritish Museum: Maqdala CollectionYouGuv: Should Britain Return Historical Artefacts to Their Country of Origin?Culture war: the case against repatriating museum artifactsNYT: Investigators, Citing Looting, Have Seized 27 Antiques From the MetCNN: Manhattan DA returns 58 antiquities to Italy, including 21 seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Nov 17, 2022 • 1h 39min

28: Cerebral Organoids, Are Cats Liquids, and The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

How can you study a brain without a brain?  In what ways is a cat actually like a liquid?  And why do we say The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread?Images we Discuss:Rat BrainCats Sitting in ThingsBread Crumbs---Watch the SciShow Episode Ella Wrote!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: brains are complex and hard to access, organoids, organettes, organittos, induced pluripotent stem cells are cool, Madeline Lancaster, DNA is amazing, scientific serendipity, try to make a brain and accidentally make a heart, human neurons in rat brains, ethical concerns, that does not make Caroline feel better, brain-on-a-chip, dish brain, great words, Pong, sentience, liquid cats, solid cats, gas cats, Slime, Ig Nobel, first make you laugh then make you think, atoms, God made cats a solid so you can pet them, mountains flow, Ella does not, the joy of the surface, scientists communicating science well, bread was invented in 1954, bread archaeology, cooking is a kind of fossilization, archaeobotanist, that’s what it means to specialize in bread, throwing it all into the bread business, SLICED BREAD IS MADE HERE, sound, sensible, and a progressive refinement, bread innovation, twin style bread, Caroline is not a world leader in bread innovation, a delicious stick of butter, idioms, a manifestation of the peculiar, irreversible binomial, to sell something for a song, don’t shit in the blue cupboard, the burnt bread crumbs of language.Sources:First Brain Organoids PaperStem Cells @ Lunch Digested PodcastThe Use of Brain OrganoidsFirst Electrically Active Brain OrganoidsHuman Neurons Transplanted Into Rat Brain StudyHuman Neuron in Rat Brain ImageBrain-On-A-Chip ReviewNeurons Play Pong---On the Rheology of CatsTed Talk on the Rheology of CatsPBS: Are Cats Liquid?Crustal Melting and the Flow of MountainsA Hydrodynamic Approach To Cancer---NPR on 14,000 Year Old BreadPaper on Analyzing the Oldest BreadArranz-Otaegui's Presentation on the Prehistory of BreadInvention of Sliced BreadFirst Sliced Bread AdSliced Bread AdsThick & Thin BreadDated BreadTwin Style BreadFowler's Modern English UsageSaeed's SemanticsPolish Idiom Translation
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Nov 3, 2022 • 1h 27min

27: Zoologist Ash Campbell, Kleptoparasitism, and Australia's Best Animal

Today our guest Ashlen Campbell asks us: how do you stop a seagull from stealing your chips?  And what can that teach us about the wild world of kleptoparasitism?Our Favorite Ash Videos: Erythrism, Blathers ExposedAsh's Kleptoparasitism ListAsh's Follow Recommendations: @luccasbiohub  @drkyliesoanes @zoe_kean_sci @sarawebbscience @astrokirstenVisit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us with a Maximum Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Majored in zoology minored in chips, temperature effects on fish, dam spreadsheets, mosquitos don’t like skrillex, bee gom jabbar test, the beach scene, Miriam Rothschild & Theresa Clay coined Kleptoparasitism, bullying birds to throw up, not having a chip and getting hit by Ash’s ford fiesta, peacrabs have to steal to survive, messy definitions are interesting, stealing from siblings isn’t kleptoparasitism, neon cuckoo bees steal candies from babies, snails grabbing food from your throat, fossils caught stealing, mother feed me, taking care of other fishes babies, “he’s such a good father”, sneak spawning, The Real House Nest Husbands of Chesapeake Bay, swat raiding bees, kleptothermy, the answer is a seagull economy, kleptoplasty is eating batteries, floral larsony, hyenas change their sleep schedules to avoid thieving lions, green goblin otter hostage situations, eat worse chips, weighing the complexities of stealing, studying chip stealing, only you can stare at seagulls, the adorable and horny antechinus, “nothing here is okay”, nitpicking jurassic park, am I misrepresnting data? at least I have rainbow fish in animal crossing. being wrong on the internet, erudoot. Sources:Fleas, flukes, & cuckoos; a study of bird parasitesIyengar’s Kleptoparasitism ReviewKleptobiosisPea crab (Pinnotherida)Neon cuckoo bee (Thyreus nitidulus)Wentletrap (Epitonium clathratulum)Brachiopod fossilsBarn Owl Nest SwitchingThree Spined SticklebackLestrimelitta Niitkib (toxin producing bee)Fork-tailed drongoGarter snake (2001)Garter snake (2012)KleptopredationPhotosynthetic Sea SlugToxomerus Larva Stealing from SundewFloral LarcenyPlant Stealing Pollinators from Other PlantsLions and Hyenas, Change in Activity PatternsCougar/ Black Bear CompensationGulls and ploversGull gaze
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Oct 20, 2022 • 1h 48min

26: Pain, Vampiric Animals, and Penny Dreadfuls

How do we define pain, and what animals can feel it?  How similar are vampires to real vampiric animals?  And what are penny dreadfuls and how were they actually... good?Visit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: pain is bad, but pain is good, what animals can feel pain, if they can feel kink pleasure from pain they can feel pain, it’s time to define pain for you guys, ella swoops in on a Tom joke, pain is like art, the international association for the study of pain, a funny example of pain, nuance baby! the 2 nail people is a great couples halloween costume, Descartes' pain theory started off so well, nociceptors, how do you test pain? injured flies, are we JigSaw? injecting bee venom into fish, ASC change fish pain laws, vampires are found in almost every culture, we need to protect the ice caps or the vampires will get out, hematophagy and sanguivores, vampire bugs and fish and birds, the fake vampire squid that eats poop, monogamous but false vampire bats, vampire bats are more beautiful and there’s a reason why, super speed super climbing and super stealth bats, blood heat vision with pit organs, biting with incisors not canines, blood is a thin gruel, vampirism is a radical dietary lifestyle, bats help each other out, barfing blood for friends, Twilight has the most scientifically accurate vampires, Ella bamboozles us, as literacy booms so does the need for cheap exciting stories, Varney came before Dracula and invented the tropes, The String of Pearls: a Romance (allegedly) and the origin of Sweeney Todd, tag yourself I’m women with daggers, 45% of victorian britain was under 20, children reading books to each other, the literature of rascaldom, half-penny dreadfullers, how many books were actually popular at their time, our horror recommendations, Junji Ito.Sources:The Nature and Science of Pain - Pain AustraliaA Biological Substrate for Somatoform DisordersAre We Wrong to Assume Fish Can’t Feel Pain - The GuardianAnimals Can Feel Pain A Biologist Explains Why - VoxA History of Pain ResearchHistory of Pain: A Brief Overview of the 17th and 18th CenturyPain Principles - Neuroscience OnlineCan Ants Feel Pain?Fish Do Not Feel Pain and its Implications for Understanding Phenomenal Consciousness, 2015Insects Can Experience Chronic Pain - Smithsonian MagazineInvertebrate Nociception, 2017Do Fish Feel Pain? A Matter of Scientific Debate (Dr Sneddon Quote)Farmed Fish Feel Pain, Stress and Anxiety - The GuardianWhy Fish Do Not Feel Pain (Key, 2016)Anthropomorphic Denial of Fish Pain (Sneddon and Leah, 2016)---Vampirism LoreHematophagy in InsectsVampire SquidNYTimes on Vampire BatsField Idenfitication Guide for BatsThe 3 Vampire Bat Abilities & Biting HabitsHeat Sensing in BatsHow Vampire Bats BiteComparative Study of Bat IncisorsVampirism as a Radical Dietary LifestyleFood Sharing in Vampire BatsFood Sharing Reciprocation StudyFood Sharing after Grooming Study---Varney the VampyreThe String of PearlsLeaves from a Prison DiaryDisseminating Impure Literature': The 'Penny Dreadful' Publishing Business Since 1860How Gruesome Penny Dreadfuls Got Victorian Children ReadingBritish Library on Penny DreadfulsGuardian on Penny DreadfulsVictorian Children's Periodicals: Penny Dreadfuls
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4 snips
Oct 6, 2022 • 1h 42min

25: 🎂 The Timeline of Timekeeping, Origins of Speech, and the Birthday of Birthdays

It's the show's birthday!  And we're going to celebrate with LEARNING!  How much do we really know about the history of keeping time?  When did human speech first arise, and how would we even figure that out?  And when did the concept of birthdays have its birthday?Visit our NEW MERCH STORE!Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Your favorite podcast on your favorite torso, the blind watchmaker, time technology is not like iphone upgrades, Ancient or Recent, France’s decimal clocks, counting knots on a ship, of course people cared about keeping time back then, escapements brought us TikTok, the not so timey wimey etymology of clock, putting clock inventions in the right order, we had sundials in the 1800s, you’re holding like 20 different iphones, redefining the second, ephemris time was a “ridiculous decision”, keeping time in space without the Earth, the importance of NTP, UTC is confusing fairly for everyone, what is speech? language vs speech, are there speech fossils? diaphragm is the only one we don’t talk about, laryngeal descent theory, teaching monkeys to talk, is this theory good science? “you guys are so smart”, speech research is so multi-disciplinary, you love a great review, deconstructing the theory, the reconstruction was so bad the mouth wouldn’t have been able to swallow, they forgot to check other animals for descended larynxes oops, speech may have developed waaay earlier, bodies ready for speech vs brains ready for speech, research beef, quoting “mic drop”, “i thought the answer would be simple and i was really really wrong”, one of the hardest problems in science, the birthday of birthdays, what do you need for a birthday? defining birthdays by caesium, Wurdi Youang, pharaoh “birthdays” being born as gods, celebrating my birthday by driving away evil spirits, celebrating the mother on birthdays, i brought you “pure intentions” for your birthday, Claudia Severa’s birthday invitation tablet, the first birthday candles, god i hope they get the short candles this year, and a fun science burrito blanket.Sources:Scientific American Chronicle of TimekeepingHelen Morgolis' History of TimekeepingHistory of the HourglassHistory of 1900s ClocksLouis Essen's Account of Redefining the SecondAtomic Clock HistoryModern Atomic ClocksNPL on Atomic ClocksNasa JPL on Atomic ClocksHistory of NTPGoogle on NTPThe Atlantic on Modern Time Phone LinesUTC FAQ---The New Review of Speech OriginsThe descended Larynx is not uniquely humanA ‘Mic Drop’ on a Theory of Language EvolutionHuman Ancestors May have Evolved Speech more than 25 Million Years AgoNPR on When did Human Speech Evolve---BBC on Stargazing in Ancient AustraliaThe Guardian on Wurdi YouangCalendars of the PastRoman Birthday Rituals
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Sep 22, 2022 • 1h 44min

24: Self Experimentation, Amputation Archaeology, and Learning to Love PowerPoint

What are the pros and perils of self experimentation? What archaeological clues do we have to the first human amputation?  And why should we actually learn to love PowerPoint?See Tom Perform PowerPoint Comedy on October 4th at Caveat NYC! (or stream it!)Go to Ella's Women in Science Photography Exhibition in London October 25th!Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!We also learn about: Santorio Santorio, sitting in a chair for 30 years, two pieces of toast, 1500s diet culture, insensible perspiration, basal metabolism, the origin of sleep studies, cave dwellers and time perception, he likes caves a little too much, sleep cycle, stomach ulcers, rats in straight jackets taking ice baths like david blaine, drinking bacteria broth and winning a nobel prize, scientists will literally drink rotten milk to get a paragraph in a paper, reaching 631mph in a rocket chair, shout out to David Hunter, setting research back several decades, venereal disease, tropical hookworm, giving yourself worms for science, do not try this at home, Caroline always starts with Egypt, ancient prosthetics, Egyptian healthcare, what is a human, 1.8 million year old tooth, Georgia is a state not a country, tackling misinformation, human remain hotspot, the earliest surgery, trepanation, ancient community care, “7 days ago, that was the end of my script”, modern humans, medical knowledge is older than we realise, we’re still figuring anthropology out, Ella loves powerpoint, sweating bullets, God named powerpoint, overhead transparencies, Caroline doesn’t know what an overhead projector is, Tom and Ella are getting old, Edward Tufty is evil, Tom Lumperson is coming for Edward Tufty, everyone is a presenter, accessibility, an unfeasible culture of productivity, David Burn, Tufty vs Burn, Powerpoint Art, Powerpoint theatre, Powerpoint comedy, Tiktok is actually Powerpoint, Powerpoint as a programming language, beautiful things in the wildest places.Sources:Santorio SantorioInsensible persirpiationWeighing chair replicaMammoth Cave StudyMichel Siffre Cave ExperimenterMichel Siffre Cabinet InterviewH. Pylori Stomach Ulcer TimelineBarry Marshall Discover Magazine InterviewInfective dose of Campylobacter jejuni in milkJohn Paul StappStewart AdamsPritchard and HookwormsJasper LawrenceJimmy Bernot TwitterWhipworm Clinical trialsHookworms for multiple sclerosis---Limb Amputation in Ancient Egyptians (2010 Paper)The Guardian - Archeologists unearth 1.8 million Year Old Human ToothA Short History of Surgery by K. M. BegelmanThe Oldest Amputation on a Human Skeleton in France (2007 Paper)Upper Palaeolithic Hand Images with Missing Phalanges (2018 Paper)Surgical amputation of a limb 31,000 years ago in Borneo (2022 Paper)---Robert Gaskins on Naming PowerPointNYTimes Reporting on Microsoft Buying PowerPointTufte's Article "PowerPoint is Evil"NYTimes Teacher Interview on PowerPointDavid Byrne's Learning to Love PowerPointDavid Byrne's UC Berkley PresentationDavid Byrne's Blog about the PresentationVulture's "Why is PowerPoint Having a Comedy Moment?"Neil Cicierega's SlideShare GemsThe Lorde and Jack Antonoff PowerPointTom Wildenhain's Paper "On the Turing Completeness of MS PowerPoint"Tom Wildenhain's Presentation "On the Turing Completeness of MS PowerPoint"
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21 snips
Sep 8, 2022 • 1h 47min

23: Plastic's Past, Imperfect Pitch, and the Dumb History of Generation Naming

What is the history of plastic, and what could the future hold?  Why is perfect pitch, not so perfect, and do any animals have it?  And how on Earth did we end up with these meaningless names for generations?Support us on Maximum Fun!Join our Discord!Catch Sidney Gish on Tour!We also learn about: what is plastic? plastics are an invasive species, natural plastics, explosions are at the root of a lot of science, guncotton, oops we made it explosive, should have bought those 666 horses, patent drama, ella slumdog millionaires celloid tennis balls, flammable films, pronouncing bakelite, carrier bags vs plastic bags, the great pacific garbage patch, plastic quiz, all plastics made still exist, the future of plastics, testing our perfect pitch, Tom interviews Sidney Gish, being able to tell home depot paint swatches doesn’t make you a master architect, my brain is wet wet mud, the 1 in 10,000 number is bogus, guessing sine waves vs pianos, the Levitan Effect, more people have pitch memory than perfect pitch, perfect pitch in animals, dolphin octave mirroring, mosquitos matching pitch to mate, let’s bone doooooown, playing happy birthday for rats, describing happy birthday like an alien, perfect pitch RAMPANT among birds, birds understand spectal vocoder music, what is a generation? the origins of generation names, Strauss-Howe generational theory, retrofitting a logical system from a random idea, backfilling generations to arthurian times, THEY WERE PLAYWRIGHTS, there should never just be One center for research, a london doctor once said…, generational character archetypes, social theory shouldn’t sound like a D&D campaign, millennial and their avocado toast, why don’t millennials like Blue’s Clues anymore? people have always been complaining about “lewd wicked children”, scientists vs the pew research center.Sources:The Science Museum: The Age of PlasticEssentials of Polymer Science and EngineeringUN: From Birth to Ban: A History of the Plastic Shopping BagNat Geo: Great Pacific Garbage PatchThe Ocean Clean Up: The Great Pacific Garbage PatchPlastic Bag StatisticsEarth Day: Fact Sheet- Single Use PlasticsClimate Foresight: The Future of Plastics is UncertainUniversity of Birmingham: The Fate and Sustainable Future of Plastic---Carden & Cline's Excellent Review of the Myth's of Perfect PitchMarisa Hoeschele's Amazing Review of Animal Pitch PerceptionGuessing Sine Waves vs Piano Notes ExperimentPitch Memory TV Theme ExperimentThe Levitin EffectMating Mosquitos HamonizeSinging Happy Birthday to RatsSongbird Hearing AnatomyStarling Spectral Shape Experiment---Pew Research: The Whys and Hows of Generations ResearchMillennial Means NothingOpen Letter to the Pew Research Center on Generation LabelsThe Avocado Toast ArticleBBC History on Complaining about the Youths
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Sep 6, 2022 • 7min

A Big Announcement...!

A very special announcement!Episodes we recommend for new listeners:1: Time Illusions, Electric Bees, and Fakespeares5: The History of Pregnancy Tests, The Middlest Size, and FanFiction19: The Science of Gay, How Many Songs Fit in DNA, and Niche SportsSupport us on Maximum Fun!
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5 snips
Aug 25, 2022 • 1h 42min

22: Magnetic Mysteries, The Real Trolley Problem, and Hitchbot

How do animals sense magnetic fields? Why was the first Trolley Problem written? And who was Hitchbot?Images we talk about:- Hitchbot with SantaSupport us with a Max Fun Membership!Join our Discord!We also learn about: the first compasses, captain McDonalds, “epistemologically unacceptable”, magnetic bacteria, magnetic dip, pooping north, the table of good boys, let’s do a study, it’s more intersting that dogs Sometimes poop north, alignment during excretion, I’d rather study dogs than leopards, we don’t know how animals sense magnetism, the beaks of birds the brains of seaturtles the tummies of honeybes and the nasal passages of rainbowtrouts, four years from landing on the moon and we haven’t put a magnet on a bird yet, quantumn eyeballs, the European Robin is famously racist, Phillipa Foot, putting hypotheticals to the test, mice actors, hypotheticals don’t predict real behavior, Foot’s paper was about abortion, you know the hippocratic oath is pretty cool actually, do no harm is not in the oath, the self driving trolley problem, dogs vs cats, ethics boards on hypotheticals, the real car trolley problem is more nuanced, a robot with a thumb, Ella beats Tom to the joke, can robots trust humans, hitchbot meets santa, hitchbot loves Ten Bundy, have you seen this robot? how do we feel when a robot dies, so thoughtful of review corner to be at the end, and… some exciting news???Sources:                Myths in MagnetosensationMagnetic BacteriaAviation Skybrary on Magnetic DipDogs Poop NorthLeopards Poop NorthThe Arctic Tern's MigrationMagnetoreception remains a MysteryFinding the Magnetoreception OrganQuantumn Eyeballs---The First Trolley ProblemBritannica on the Trolley ProblemOf Mice, Men, and Trolleys: Hypothetical Judgment Versus Real-Life Behavior in Trolley-Style Moral DilemmasMedical Ethics and the Trolley ProblemSelf-driving Car Trolley ProblemMIT's Moral Machine Experiment---Web Archive of hitchBOT's WebsiteThe Vessel on hitchBOTServo Mag on hitchBOTInnovation Heroes Podcast: The Hitchhiking Robot’s Guide to the UniverseDW The hitchhiking robot's guide to GermanyMcMaster University hitchBOT in the NetherlandsInternational Journal of Social RoboticsSmith and Zeller the death and lives of hitchBOTFraser et al How do we feel when a robot dies?hitchBOT’s destruction

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