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Hey, Wowzer fans, Mindy here.
And before we start the show, I gotta let you know that this November, with a special new episode featuring our friends at Circle Round and Terrestrials on Radiolab for Kids,
And don't miss when Elmo from Sesame Street stops by Wow in the World to make us all belly laugh on November 24th.
Oh, but that's not all, Reg.
On December 1st, we are sharing our 250th episode of Wow in the World with all of you.
We think this one is going to be music to your ears.
Literally.
Did I mention it's a musical?
And if you're a member of the World Organization of Wowzers...
Oh boy, do I have a surprise for you.
You can listen to our 250th episode early with me and other members from around the world on Saturday, November 22nd, at 7 pm.
Eastern.
That's right, we are throwing another listening party.
Join us as we dance along to our new songs.
React to the episode with other members in the chat and more.
Grownups.
If you want your wowzer to join this members-only listening party, you can sign up to become a member today at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
Already a member?
Well, you can find the link and password to join the event when you sign in at Tinkercastcom.
Slash wow.
That's it.
It's going to be a November to remember.
But for now, let's get on with the show.
Woo!
These are our seats right here.
Okay, everyone, get settled.
Oh, I'm so excited.
The movie trailers are about to begin.
My favorite part.
Everyone got their popcorn?
I brought corned beef.
What?
Where did you get that?
From the deli.
It's got the juice.
No, I've got the juice.
What?
I bought an extra, extra, extra large lemonade.
What the... Is that a five-gallon bucket of lemonade, Dennis?
Mm-hmm.
You're not going to make it past the first trailer without having to go to the bathroom.
I have to tinkle.
Quiet!
Shh.
You shush.
Everyone, please stay quiet.
The trailers are about to begin.
In our world, insects are seen as pests.
Ugly bug, get it, get it.
But in another reality, bugs are heroes.
Look, it's bumblebee, the pollination champion.
And among the bug superheroes, one tiny creature stands out from the rest.
Look, that little bug stands out from the rest.
Could it be?
That's right, it's me, the glassy winged sharpshooter.
She may be small, but she never cowers.
For the glassy-winged sharpshooter is loaded with... PP power!
Hi-yah!
Oh, now I really have to go.
All right, come on.
From the masterminds at the journal Nature Communications and scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology comes Super Propulsion.
Rise of the glassy-winged sharpshooter.
Get ready to get super-soaked.
Where's the bathroom?
I don't know.
You're no help.
Excuse me, random stranger.
Can you please direct me to the nearest restroom?
Random stranger?
Dennis, it's me, Guy Raz.
Well, I'm sorry.
It's very dark in here.
Just do like I do and super soak your pants, boy.
I don't want to super soak my pants.
I want to know where the bathroom is.
None of us know where the bathroom is, Dennis.
Go out and look for one.
But what if I get lost?
Shh.
Dennis, you're not going to get lost.
Just go out and... Excuse me.
We're getting a lot of noise complaints, and so now you all have to leave.
No, thank you.
Uh... But why?
We just got here.
Can I offer you some corned beef, sir?
Um, no.
And where did you get that?
From the deli.
Uh...
You're talking during the movie and you brought in outside food?
Well, we're inside, so it's inside food.
You all need to leave right now.
Come along, please.
But... Come on, Mindy.
Come on, everyone.
Let's go.
We'll be back.
And with even more corned beef.
For the premiere of Super Propulsion Rise of the Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter coming to this theater this summer.
Ma'am.
OK, sorry.
We're leaving.
Well, that was embarrassing.
What?
What?
What are we gonna do now?
Yeah, I'm bored.
Yeah, entertain us, Mandy.
Yeah, Mandy.
Well uh, we have a pretty long hike through the woods to get back home, so maybe we could uh Wait, I have an idea.
What?
You do?
This better be good.
Yeah, remember how we just watched a movie trailer for the glassy-winged sharpshooter?
Yeah?
Well, I know it was a superhero movie.
Did you know that the glassy-winged sharpshooter is in fact a real insect?
Tell us more, Guy Raz.
Why, tell you.
When you can show us?
Yes.
I mean, maybe.
Maybe?
Well, like Mindy said, we do have a long hike home through the forest, so maybe we could find one.
Find a glassy-winged sharpshooter in the wild?
Sure, why not?
Nope, too small.
What?
Can't you hear nothing?
She said it's too small.
Huh?
The glassy-winged whatchamacallit is too small.
They only average about 12 millimeters in length.
How am I supposed to see that?
It's okay, don't you worry, because here in my adventure toolkit, I've got cats!
What?
Mindy's got cats?
Yeah, and Mindy needs to come up with a new joke.
No, no, I've got magnifying goggles!
Ooh!
Here's a pair for you, Guy Raz.
Thank you.
And here you go, Dennis.
Grandma G-Force, a pair for you, Mr. Fingerlings.
Oh!
Cool!
How do they work?
Okay, well, let me help you here, Dennis.
First of all, you put them on like this.
Ow!
And then you switch them on with this button here.
Ah-ha!
Okay, so what are we looking for, Garage?
First of all, it's Guy Raz.
And second of all, the glassy-winged sharpshooter insect we're looking for is a small insect, about as big as the tip of my pinky finger.
All right, let's have a look at this pinky finger.
Everyone's talking about what?
No okay fine, sheesh.
Okay, come on everyone, let's get into the forest so we can start looking.
All right, oh boy, let's sing songs.
Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go.
Guy Ross knows the way to Chesapeake Bay and Mindy has tennis elbow.
What do I don't?
Why don't you know any mother's songs?
Um, no.
Okay, so, Guy Ross.
Yes?
This glassy-winged sharpshooter.
It's small and brown, no bigger than the size of a fingertip.
Pinky fingertip.
Right, and its wings are clear and glassy with a yellowish tint at the base.
Okay, so it looks like a bug?
Yes, yes, exactly.
It looks like a bug.
But it's not actually a bug, right?
What?
No, I mean, yes, Dennis, it's actually a bug.
Oh!
Ew.
Searching, searching, searching, searching.
I'm tired.
What?
Grandma G-Force, don't just sit down in the middle of the trail.
Why not?
Yeah, Mr. Rossy.
Why not?
Well, because you'll block the... It's fine, Guy Raz.
We'll just leave a trail of breadcrumbs.
They'll find their way back home.
Dennis?
What is it, Dennis? on my shoulder!
Okay, uh, hold still.
Wait a minute.
That's not just any bug.
That's a... A glassy-winged shark!
Well, tell it to go creepy crawl around somewhere else.
My shoulder is private property.
This is incredible.
I've never seen one so close up before.
I have to admit, I'm feeling a little starstruck.
Yeah, she's a little movie star.
Too bad we'll never see your movie, little glassy winged sharpshooter.
We've been kicked out of the movie theater for the last time.
Wait a minute, Mindy.
What, Guy Raz?
What if we... didn't have to see her superhero movie to witness her powers in action.
You mean her pee-pee powers?
Well, uh... Bugs don't really have pee-pee powers, Granny G. That was just made up for the movie.
Actually, Dennis, it wasn't.
What?
You mean this glassy-winged sharpshooter actually has pee-pee powers?
Uh-huh.
Bugs go pee?
Not only do they pee or urinate rather, but this particular bug can pee with more power than any other known creature on Earth.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, Mindy and I were doing a little scientific research before the movie.
Brag.
Why were you doing research on a movie?
Because the movie was based off of a real-life scientific study published in the journal Nature Communications.
Huh.
And in this study, a biophysicist from the Georgia Institute of Technology named Saad Bamla.
Hold on, hold on.
What, Dennis?
Did you say a biosynthesis?
No, no, no, no.
A biophysicist.
Oh, what's that?
I got this, Guy Raz.
Dennis, a biophysicist is a scientist who studies the way living things work...
Using physics.
Ah.
Right.
So a biophysicist might study the mechanical way that humans or plants or animals move and make energy.
Got it.
And to do this, they might zoom all the way into the most basic cellular level of the living thing.
They zoom in?
Like with magnifying goggles?
Well, they've got their own ways of magnifying in the form of microscopes and other tools, but essentially yes.
Huh.
Okay.
Continue.
All right.
Now, where was I?
You were at the beginning.
I interrupted you after like four words.
Oh, right.
You did.
You know what, Guy Raz?
Maybe it's best that we do this story time style.
Story time style?
Yeah.
Like this.
Once upon a time, a young biophysicist named Saad Bamla was walking around his backyard enjoying a sunny day.
I just love the sun and my yard and croquet.
What?
No.
Saad Bamla does not like croquet.
What?
How do you know?
Just pick something more science-y.
Fine.
I just love the sun and my yard and...
Complex systems?
That's better.
Then when, much to his surprise, he came upon a small brown insect with beautiful glassy wings and big red eyes.
Ooh, what big red eyes you have.
What even are you?
It was a beautiful glassy-winged sharpshooter.
That's me.
Now, he had seen this bug many times before, but this time there was something different about her.
Something unusual, something he'd never seen a bug do before.
What in the world wide web are you doing, G-Force?
I mean, mystery bug.
Sweet relief.
She was peeing.
That is both gross and amazing.
You see, this sharpshooter bug had been drinking from a plant that provided her with endless amounts of a gooey substance called xylem sap.
Yum, yum, yum.
Get it in my tongue.
And while this sap was full of nourishing minerals and nutrients, it was also full of a little something called water.
Water!
I've heard of that!
Dennis!
Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
Continue.
Now, this sap was actually 95 water, and the little sharpshooter had been drinking up to 300 times her body weight in a single day.
Glug, glug, glug.
I'm a thirsty little bug.
Which meant that when she wasn't drinking, she was... Her!
Oh, wow.
Ah, sweet relief.
In fact, she spent so much of her day peeing that she had to come up with an energy-efficient way to do it.
I'm not gonna waste all my energy going to the bathroom all day long.
Pee-pee, you're gonna work for me.
You see, while other sap-drinking insects preferred to pee...
Jet stream style?
The glassy winged sharpshooter was not like other insects.
You got that right.
Over time, she and her ancestors had evolved to pee a little differently.
A little more efficiently.
With a little help from a tiny tail-like appendage that Sod Bomla later nicknamed The Butt Flicker.
Huh.
When it was time to pee, she would open her butt flicker.
Butt flicker activated.
Twist her butt.
And produce a single droplet of pee.
That's a lot for little old me.
And just as the droplet grew to the perfect size, her butt flicker would wind up and launch that little pee droplet into the air and away from her body.
So long, little pee-pee.
Right into my eye.
Oh, snap.
My bad.
I forgive you.
Thomas Fingerling, I mean Saad Bamla.
The scientist invited her to come back to his lab so he could get a closer look.
Okay, little buggy, you're coming with me.
Wow, so you can watch a little bug pee?
Yeah, but with all my fancy science microscopes and high-speed video equipment and laboratory stuff.
Okay, let's go.
Okay.
And off they went back to Saad Bamla's laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology and, using high speed video and magnification tools, he continued to observe this little sharpshooter and her unusual peeing style.
Ah, sweet relief.
Whoopee, again, again.
Ah, sweet relief.
Okay, cool.
Now let's watch that back in slow motion.
All right, there goes the butt flicker.
Looks to be moving pretty fast.
And here goes the pea droplet to the air.
But Sodbomla discovered was that the little pea droplets were whizzing through the air almost twice as fast as her butt flicker was flinging.
You mean flicking.
Whatever.
He also discovered that this particular way of peeing used four to eight times less energy than if she were to produce a jet stream of pee.
But licking pee is the only way for me.
Wow, look at her go.
It didn't take long before Saad Bamla realized that this was a piece of super propulsion.
You got that right.
Super propulsion happens when the thing being launched moves faster than the launcher itself.
And while we know that other animals have spring-loaded appendages to help them jump or fly...
This was the first time an animal this small had ever been known to use super propulsion.
I'm the best at super propulsion.
And what makes it even more wow is that a creature this small could fling a heavy pea droplet the size of a bug-sized beach ball away from its body so fast.
My golly, I've never seen anything like it.
It was a new discovery.
It was?
Oh, boy.
So Sawbombla ran outside and blabbed about it to all of his scientist friends.
Hey, everyone.
Get a load of this pea-flinging bug.
Okay, bug.
Do your trick.
I like your monkey.
What?
Eventually, his discovery was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
And soon, everyone was talking about the glassy-winged sharpshooter.
I'm rich and famous now.
You sure are.
And the classy winged sharpshooter and the biophysicist lived happily ever after.
The end.
Hooray!
Okay, now roll the credits.
The credits?
Yeah, the credits for the movie we just watched.
I want to see who did what.
Dennis, we didn't watch a movie.
We just told a story.
Well, I played the role of the pea-flaking bug.
Ooh.
And I played the role of the handsome young scientist.
Oh, wow.
Dennis.
And now I'll play the role of the film critic.
Five stars.
A must-see.
Well, I guess maybe it did feel a little like a movie.
Yeah, and we didn't even get kicked out.
Okay, now let's talk sequels.
I'm thinking trilogy.
Speak to my agent.
You know, maybe the sequel will be how scientists take what they've learned from this discovery And use it to create an invention that will Save the world.
I want to do the voiceover!
What?
Ahem.
Once upon a time, butt-licking super propulsion pee became super duper popular.
And the tiny bug that started it all.
That's me.
Became super best friends with a handsome young scientist.
I'm de-aged with CGI, but my muscles are real.
Oh, well, well.
Coming this summer to a theater near you.
It's a movie. narrated by me, Dennis, the greatest narrator in the universe.
Dennis?
What?
Wow in the World will be right back.
Grownups, this message is for you.
Hey, grownups.
It's Mindy and Guy Raz here from Wow in the World.
Mindy and I have some Brand new WoW in the World toys out in the world just in time for the holidays.
Made for the kids who love science and for the ones who don't.
From our 100 experiments, that wow kit to the telescope and astronomy kit.
Our wow in the world toys help your wowzer learn about their world through play.
Plus, you can hear exclusive audio content from me and Guy Raz to help your wowzer discover even more wows.
Grownups.
Give the gift of wow and wonder this holiday season with our latest wow in the world toys designed with your curiosity.
That's it.
Back to the show.
I'm from Washington, D.C.
My wow in the world is that axolotls can regrow their limbs and even small parts of their brain.
Hi, Mimi and Guyrod.
My name is Mabel.
I live in Glen Falls.
And my wow in the world is that a group of blue jays are called the party.
Say hi to Reggie.
Grandma G-Force.
Well, I guess.
The sleigh cat live in la california and my round the world today is that narwhals, their horns are not horns at all, they're actually front shoes, isn't that?
Bonker balls?
Say hi to wedgie and the slade cat.
Oh, that's cool, dude.
And BBB.
Hi, I'm Tannen, and I'm in USA Charlotte.
And my wow in the world is that turtles can breathe through their butts.
Hi, my name is Kate, and I live in South Carolina, Fort Mill.
And my wow in the world is that otters can hoard their breasts for five minutes.
Say hello to Thomas Fingerling.
Gnarly.
Puppies.
Hi, my name is Layton, and I'm from Bentonville, Arkansas.
My wow in the world is that prehistoric guinea pigs were as big as a cow and their bite was as strong as a tiger.
Bye.
Wow in the World is written by Mindy Thomas and Tom Van Kalken with help from me, Guy Raz.
Original sound design and music editing is done by our supervising producer, Jed Anderson and Tyler Thull.
You can also hear Jed Anderson in the voices of Dennis Thomas Fingerling, Reggie and many of the other silly characters you hear on our show.
Jessica Bode keeps our facts straight as our fact checker.
And Meredith Halpern-Ranzer powers the wow at Tinkercast.
Our theme song was composed and performed by three-time Grammy nominees, the Pop-Ups.
Find them at thepopups.com.
Special thanks to Steph Sosa, Henry Moskal, Ruth Morrison, Rebecca Caban, Kit Ballinger, Sana Ali-Mohamed, Anna Zagorski and all of the other Tinkerers at Tinkercast HQ.
To keep the wows rolling, visit us at Tinkercast.com.
There you can learn more about becoming an official member of the World Organization of Wowsers.
Learn about upcoming events, shop our wow shop, find our best-selling books and learn about all of our other amazing podcasts from Tinkercast.
Grown-ups, you can follow Wow in the World on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at Wow in the World.
And our email address is hello... at Tinkercast.com.
And if you're a kid with a big wow to share with us, call us at 1-888-7-WOW-WOW for a chance to be featured at the end of our show or an upcoming episode of Two What's and a Wow.
Thanks again for listening and until next time, be fun wowing!
Wow in the world was made by Tinkercast. and sent to you by Wondery.
