Volcanoes. Trees. Drunk butterflies. Mars missions. Slug sex. Death. Beauty standards. Anxiety busters. Beer science. Bee drama. Take away a pocket full of science knowledge and charming, bizarre stories about what fuels these professional -ologists' obsessions. Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.
Carcinology (CRABS) Part 1 with Adam Wall
Claw hands! Beady eyes! Pinching forces that could crack your skull! Gentleman, scholar, curator of the Natural History Museum’s crustacea collection and Carcinologist Adam Wall takes us on a tour of the museum’s crab bunker to discuss everything from the tiniest to the most hauntingly giant crabs, discovering new species, crabs that are NOT crabs, sea monkeys, hairy crabs, hermit crabs, crab dongs, crab butts, crab butters, the secret history of secret Maryland spices, Amelia Earhart rumors, giant invasive crabs in Norway, behind the scenes Hollywood crabs, and so much more. So dazzling and comprehensive and weird – we had to crack this episode in two. Make sure to catch next week’s.
View Adam’s papers on ResearchGate
Find him barely ever posting on Twitter
A donation went to NHM.org’s Marine Biodiversity Center’s fairy shrimp research
More episode sources and links
Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes
Other episodes you may enjoy: Pectinidology (SCALLOPS), Echinology (SEA URCHINS & SAND DOLLARS), Scatology (POOP), Biomineralogy (SHELLS), Oceanology (OCEANS), Lutrinology (OTTERS), Conotoxinology (CONE SNAIL VENOM), Cheloniology (SEA TURTLES), Cnidariology (CORAL)
Transcripts and bleeped episodes
Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month
OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, stickers, totes!
Follow @Ologies on Twitter and Instagram
Follow @AlieWard on Twitter and Instagram
Editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions
Transcripts by Aveline Malek
Website by Kelly R. Dwyer
Theme song by Nick Thorburn