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

Whimsical Wavelengths Links

Facebook:www.facebook.com/WhimsicalWavelengths

Instagram: @whimsical.wavelengths

Bluesky: @whimsicallambda.bsky.social

Email: whimsical.wavelengths@gmail.com

Patreon: patreon.com/WhimsicalWavelengths

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/

Links for Whimsical Wavelengths:

Facebook:www.facebook.com/WhimsicalWavelengths

Instagram: @whimsical.wavelengths

Bluesky: @whimsicallambda.bsky.social

Email: whimsical.wavelengths@gmail.com

Patreon: patreon.com/WhimsicalWavelengths

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

Links for Whimsical Wavelengths:

Facebook:www.facebook.com/WhimsicalWavelengths

Instagram: @whimsical.wavelengths

Bluesky: @whimsicallambda.bsky.social

Email: whimsical.wavelengths@gmail.com

Patreon: patreon.com/WhimsicalWavelengths