What’s the weirdest thing you learned this week? Well, whatever it is, we promise you’ll have an even weirder answer if you listen to PopSci’s hit podcast. The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week hits Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and everywhere else you listen to podcasts every-other Wednesday morning. It’s your new favorite source for the strangest science-adjacent facts, figures, and Wikipedia spirals the editors of Popular Science can muster. If you like the stories in this post, we guarantee you’ll love the show.
FACT: There’s a retirement home for penguins
By Rachel Feltman
Geriatric penguins deserve love too. That’s why the New England Aquarium in Boston recently opened a home for its aging African penguin colony. This sort of assisted living facility cares for penguins well into their thirties–far beyond the age they’d reach in the wild. In this penguin paradise, older birds can live comfortably away from the hustle and bustle of younger, more rambunctious penguins.
The senior penguins even get hydration treatments, acupuncture, and custom shoes for those with foot ailments. Notably, one resident, affectionately named Beach Donkey, received treatment for foot dermatitis and trained to wear her custom shoes during fun field trips around the aquarium.
Tune in to this week’s episode to hear all of the heart-warming details about this old folks’ home for penguins.
FACT: Rats are eating… bats?
By Kendra Pierre-Louis
In this episode, I explore a shocking discovery about the dietary habits of rats over in Germany. Researchers studying the carcasses of bats in a cave system were astonished to find evidence that common rats have developed a method of catching and eating bats mid-flight—something previously unknown to science. Captured on wildlife cameras, this unsettling footage shows rats leaping to snatch bats from the air, raising concerns about new pathways for disease transmission.
FACT: Chicago’s rat hole wasn’t made by a rat
By Jess Boddy
A week before we recorded this episode, Rachel emailed me a link to a study about the Chicago rat hole. Of course, the fact alone that there was a single study about one of the most peculiar cultural occurrences in my home city was enough to take it on as a Weirdest Thing–so this week, I do just that.
For those unaware, Chicago’s “rat hole” was an iconic piece of sidewalk in which a rat (or so we thought) plunked into the concrete when it was wet. It left a perfect rat-shaped imprint, in which local Chicagoans would come to toss coins, holy water, Pokemon cards, bottles of Malort, and much more. We were making pilgrimages, so to speak.
One scientist was doing some post-grad research in the city when this all went down in January 2024, and he decided to run a study on the measurements of the creature that left the iconic imprint. The true identity of the rat hole’s “rat” will probably surprise you. Listen to this week’s episode to hear the whole tale!
