We’re heading back through deep time on Whimsical Wavelengths — but this time, we’re not walking with dinosaurs, we’re flying with them! Flight has evolved at least four separate times in Earth’s history, and today’s episode focuses on one of the earliest masters of the skies: pterosaurs.

Host Jeffrey Zurek is joined by Dr. Adele Pentland, palaeontologist and lead author of the paper describing Haliskia peterseni, a newly discovered anhanguerian pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Australia. The research, published in Nature’s Scientific Reports, sheds new light on prehistoric ecosystems and the diversity of Australia’s flying reptiles.

Adele discusses the discovery process, what makes Haliskia special, and how Australia fits into the global pterosaur record. We also touch on the art of science communication — from museum exhibits to fossil-inspired stamps and children’s books.

Links from the episode:

Research Paper: Haliskia peterseni in Scientific Reports

Adele Pentland’s Website

Book Mentioned Nature People by Cesar Puechmarin

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Plastic and the environment and what you think you know. A discussion about science which honestly misses the mark but a useful discussion. Understanding the good is just as important to the bad

The first fully synthetic plastic was developed in 1907. What they needed was an electrical insulator. Thanks to alternating current (covered in season 1 too with Nikola tesla!) electricity was being wired to new places creating a problem of how to insulate these wires. With that success companies began to research and explore what other plastics could be made. WW II created more demand for synthetic substitutes. Resources were scarce. Needed things at scale. Plastic could do that.

Shortly after WWII, some thought of plastic and created an almost utopian vision of a future with abundant material wealth thanks to an inexpensive, safe, sanitary substance that could be shaped into anything. How disappointed they would be with today… The 1960’s brought about environmentalism with plastic debris starting to collect on beaches, the sea and the environment. The 70’s saw the leaded gasoline come to final phase out plan, CFC’s were next. But plastic stayed. There has been some regulatory push particularly more recently.

Outside of the intro and outro, I feel I failed at digging into more nuance in the discussion. But it is definitely an interesting discussion. Today's guest has published a book and has made the podcast circuit to bring to light that plastic is not necessarily an enemy.

One of Dr Chirs DeArmett's book can be found for free here :https://plasticsparadox.com/

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Diving straight into the deep end of the universe: supermassive black holes!

An episode with enough gravitational pull that you can’t help but get sucked in.

Host Dr. Jeffrey Zurek welcomes Dr. James Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at the American Museum of Natural History and City University of New York, to explore the strange physics and luminous surroundings of the darkest objects in the cosmos.

At the center of the conversation is Dr. Chan’s recent paper in The Astrophysical Journal:

“Reverberation Mapping of Lamp-post and Wind Structures in Accretion Thin Disk.”

Together, they discuss how light echoes and flickers around black holes can reveal their inner geometry — from the “lamp-post” models of X-ray emission to the chaotic winds that shape accretion disks. It’s a look into how we can study what can’t be seen, using timing, modeling, and a dash of cosmic detective work.

Paper at the center of the episode: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2409.15669

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I scream you scream we all scream for Ice cream.

Time for some sweet delicious science delivered right here on whimsical wavelengths. Food science! Love the breath we get to explore here. This discussion is going to investigate some of the science that goes into perfecting and understanding the greatest frozen dessert that comes in so many different flavours. Yes, ice cream!

Ice cream like other materials, like magma, melt, freeze and deform in complex ways depending on structures within the material. In past episodes I have talked about eruption dynamics and how the viscosity or resistance to flow changes eruption style. Well viscosity or more broadly Rheology (how a substance flows under a force over time) is important here too!

The crossover between scientific disciplines is real! So be ready to chill here on Whimsical Wavelengths as we scoop into the coolest science around! This week's guest is no soft serve when it comes to sweet science— So grab your spoons and prepare for the brain freeze.

Today's guest studied how fat networks within dairy foods like ice cream can alter sensorial and rheological properties. Today she applies that science background as an industry consultant and science communicator. Dr. Abigail Thiel!

Here is Dr. Abigail Thiel's

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@AbbeytheFoodScientist

Blog:https://abbeythefoodscientist.com/

Also she has a kids Colouring book out!

Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0FGJWXGHD?ref_=litb_stb_nodl

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGJWXGHD

Its the start of Season 2!! Time for Basaltic plinian eruptions, melt inclusions, viscosity and more. Today we going to head into one of my papers!

Because it’s one of my papers that means heading back to volcanology. Like other historical scientists covered here on Whimsical wavelengths I will follow where the data is pointing. Follow the path.

When I was planning my PhD, yes I was in the envious position of basically picking my projects, I knew I wanted to do more at Masaya Volcano. Masaya is however complicated. It is a unique volcano in many ways.

Here I'll focus on two things:

1. Masaya is persistently active. It has been in a perpetual state of unrest for 100’s of years. The last eruption of any significant amount was 1772 where it produced a lava flow from the central cone. Since that time there have been degassing, occasional lava lakes, and small vent clearing explosions. There is not many volcanoes on earth able to claim constant activity for 100’s of years.
2. It can have basaltic Plinian eruptions……

Basaltic plinian eruptions. For those who know a bit about volcanoes this may seem like an oxymoron.

Join the pod to find out all this apparent oxymoron!

Paper at the center of the episode:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0377027318303470

example Basaltic plinian eruptions at Masaya (there are lots but here is one):

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-022-00585-5#:~:text=Las%20Sierras%2DMasaya%20volcanic%20system,%2DTIL)13%2C20.

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Time for someone who some have called the greatest scientist you have not heard of. Likely the reason average IQ's have no fallen (even if it feels like they have - idiocracy)!

This is the sibling episode to the last one. The rise of Leaded Gas. This time the story starts with Dr. Clair Patterson a geochemist. Before the PhD and discovering the age of the Earth, Clair Patterson and his wife Laurie (also a chemist) became civilians working on the Manhattan project. No not in New Mexico designing the bomb like depicted in the movie Oppenheimer. Instead they got to work on the problem of concentrating Uranium. A 235U electromagnetic separation plant (figure in the post!) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

From there on to a PhD. The following of the data lead to lead being everywhere. Before advocating for the elimination of lead he developed the first clean room and found the age of the earth by dating a meteorite (fragment of which is picture with the post). His work brought about the downfall of leaded gasoline. His story has been told many times before but probably not like this. Even if you already know the story I bet there is new nuggets here. Whimsical even....

So with the release of this episode, season 1 is done! Time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t.

Special thanks to those who did give me feedback throughout the year. It was needed. Embrace the terrible puns and jokes, don’t apologize for them! Was just one piece of advice I got.

And of course thanks to all the guests that agreed to come on the podcast! Some without any tie to someone I know and they took a chance to share their work. A unknown podcast showing up in an email or call out ask.

The next 3 eps will be encore additions. Some of my favourites from this inaugural season and then on September 15 season 2 will start!

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Today we are going to start to cover a real scientific disaster story. No it isn’t the hollywood variety although maybe it should be. We have the movie Oppenheimer although to tell the whole story here requires multiple main characters. Perhaps a TV series then. I have known I wanted to tell this story for some time but have struggled on the best way.

It starts at the gas pump and the question: Ever wondered why all pumps say “unleaded gas”? Or perhaps asked the question why would they need to? This is a story about scientific discovery, advocacy, environmentalism and corporate greed. The next sibling episode (they can stand alone) has direct ties to the manhattan project and the age of the Earth.

Covering a bit about the history of lead Flint, Michigan came up. Here are some links to see how that is still playing out however if you want to do a deep dive don't stop at just these two links!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/07/01/flint-lead-pipes-replacement/

https://eos.org/articles/flint-10-years-later

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Deformation and gravity go hand in hand in volcano monitoring like hot apple pie and icecream. They fit together great. as these two techniques tell us so much more together than separately.

This time I reached out to a friend to share her research!

Remember volcanic eruptions are dynamic. The amount of force and material involved in an eruption … Even if the eruption is small the changes can be significant to the overall system.

Volcanologists can see or image magma chambers that are close to the surface through a number of different monitoring techniques. Today we will focus on gravity and deformation. Mass flux and how the earth's surface moves in response to changes at depth!

Using what keeps us all attached to the ground's surface to monitor what is moving up towards us. This episode is full of hot material!