artificial intelligence Archives - This Week in Science - The Kickass Science Podcast · Dr. Kirsten Sanford Science Media

Just A Little Duct Tape & Science

February 6, 2026·2 hr 7 min·5 clips

Scientists can now distinguish human-made water vapor from natural sources using specific oxygen isotopes.

The show opens in motion. Episode 1046 was recorded on Wednesday, February 4th, 2026, and Dr. Kiki tees up duct tape, flies, roadkill, and microphones before the conversation settles into science. The politics note lands early. Science does not get treated as sealed off from civic life; the host says this show has always connected the two because science is political. Then roadkill becomes the lab, which is exactly as weird and useful as it sounds. Dead animals on the roadside can be samples, but only if someone finds them before damage and cellular decomposition ruin the tissue. The line is blunt: if the specimen has to be peeled off asphalt, that useful window has probably shut. Permits make it messier. The conversation points out that some places still require permission to take wildlife samples, even when the animal is already dead. That creates awkward edge cases for people harvesting roadkill for food, depending on local rules and how those rules define taking wildlife. The science problem is just as slippery. Roadside samples may overselect animals that were young, sick, visually impaired, hard of hearing, less able to avoid cars, or simply living near roads. Bias sneaks in sideways. A convenient pile of samples may only represent one slice of a species. The segment keeps circling the practical questions: who got hit, how fresh is the tissue, what permits apply, and what hidden variables came along for the ride. Funny, until it matters. Very Twiss.

As heard by us

A scrappy science conversation about roadkill, bias, and why the method matters.

This episode starts from duct tape and opens into a science conversation about politics, roadkill, ethics, sampling bias, and the care needed before dead animals are treated as usable data.

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