Shawn Fitzmaurice
Professional Voice Actor
Dr. Janna Levin, University of North Carolina School of the Arts You probably know a lot about science because of art. Think of the expertly built T-Rex at a science museum, the beautiful animations of stars and planets in your favorite sci-fi film, maybe you’re reading your child an illustrated book about bugs, or those creatively shot photos in your biology text? Art is communication, and when pared with Science, is a powerful [...]
The holy grail of health care, arguably, is a cure for cancer. For decades we’ve relied on treatments like radiation therapy and chemotherapy, which don’t always work and can have some horrible side-effects. After all, chemotherapy was inspired by mustard gas around the time of World War I. But cancer cells are part of our own bodies so they are always with us, and our immune system recognizes them and kills them. Sometimes the cancer grows [...]
Some of the great scientific theories unify our knowledge and have fundamentally changed the way we look at the world. Heliocentrism, for example, is the theory that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun. Though at one time it was soundly rejected by the community at large, it best explained the motions of objects in the sky. In science, a theory is an accepted method of interpreting facts. It’s based on evidence, and careful observation and cannot [...]
You’re made of atoms. The fact that you’re not all hydrogen means that your home star (in your case, the Sun), is made from recycled material. In fact, the Sun is made from atoms that have come into being over several star’s lifecycles; Star is born, star manufactures new and different atoms in its core, star explodes. A new star is made from the materials and new atoms from the exploded star. Rinse. Repeat. Do this for [...]
If your papa was actually a rolling stone, his whereabouts would be predictable. If a boulder and a small rock are rolled down a hill together, logic, instinct, and all the insight you have will tell you that the boulder will travel further than the stone. What you might not have realized is that both objects, generally, rolled the same number of times. Based on this, the rolling stone’s travel distance is predictable! This same [...]
What was it that attracted you to your mate? How did they impress you? Humans aren’t the only animals that work hard to attract a partner, in fact it happens throughout the animal kingdom. Often it works like this: Boy meets girl, boy hisses, flaps, or rams his horns against another boy to impress girl. Girl either accepts or rejects boy. Baby animals are made… or not. How has evolution produced these often strange and sometimes [...]
If you’re a male animal, you might be far more gorgeous than your female partner. Think about the flowing mane of a lion, the majestic antlers on an elk, or the artistically intricate patterns on a peacock’s feathers. Hear the broadcast version in this player. https://www.voiceovernerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Fitzpatrick-female-animal-beauty.mp3 But now researchers are zeroing in on what qualifies as female beauty among many animal species. They are far more muted than the signals that we see in males, so [...]
Crocodiles and their ancestors were around a hundred million years before the dinosaurs. One of the largest of the early crocodile family was discovered right here in North Carolina. It has been investigated and described by Dr. Lindsay Zanno, Director of the Paleontology and Geology lab at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, at NC State University. The Carolina Butcher Or Carnufex Carolinensis, to use the [...]
The Galapagos islands are famous for their association with Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution by natural selection. Being isolated, the islands acted much like a controlled laboratory for clear observation of basic evolutionary adaptations among species. Within the Galapagos also live species which have not yet had their evolution defined by the islands’ environment. Interestingly, they may be relying on some more deep-seated and complex survival strategies. Blue-Footed Boobies are large sea birds that [...]
Yes, we’re still discovering new dinosaurs! In this podcast, learnabout a new dinosaur discovered by paleontologist Doctor Lindsay Zanno of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina. A predator, carnivore, 2-legged animal, Siats Meekerorum may have looked and behaved a lot like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it lived in a much earlier time period, and was not closely related. What in evolution would cause the similarity? And why did this one particular person become [...]
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