In this episode of Yackety Science, the team takes on the domesticating effects of abundant trash, and they dig deeper into ice cores, climate science, and the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Matt continues his pun-filled rampage across the periodic table with a look at scandium. And finally, Brian scans the brain (metaphorically speaking) of Dr. Evan White to find out more about his work at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.

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Episode Art: Image by B. Cross with raccoon taxidermy by Black Moth.

Theme music: “Funky Machine” (ID874) by Lobo Loco (Accessedthrough FreeMusicArchive.org.; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Production help provided by Scott Gregory.

Yackety Science is recorded at the studios of Public Radio Tulsa,Kendall Hall, University of Tulsa, and at the Center for Creativity at Tulsa Community College.

Links:

●Beyond EPICA: Ancient ice core could help explain mysterious shift in Earth’s ice ages by Elise Cutts (Science 7 May 2026)

● Trash Panda Domestication: Apostolov et al. 2025. Tracking domestication signals across populations of North American raccoons (Procyon lotor) via citizen science-driven image repositories. Front Zool. 22(1):28.

The Laureate Institute for Brain Research (LIBR)

Dr. Evan White

“Dr. White’s laboratory aims to establish and advance neuroscientific understanding of cultural factors that are protective against poor mental health among American Indians utilizing a strength-based framework. A focus of this research is implementing multi-modal neuroscience and psychophysiology with a particular emphasis in electroencephalography/event-related potentials. . .”

Click here to find out more about participating in a neuroscience study at LIBR.

Ourobookos, A Yackety Science Book Club

Next Book Selection:

The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

“. . . a mind-bending tour through five of the cosmos’s possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, the Big Rip, Vacuum Decay (the one that could happen at any moment!), and the Bounce. Guiding us through cutting-edge science and major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory, and much more, The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.”