The Scientists Who Studied Pee, Poop, and Won Prizes

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In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole spotlight two researchers whose work sounds ridiculous… until you realize it’s brilliant.

Meet Dr. David Hu and Dr. Patricia Yang, engineers who study fluid dynamics by asking the questions no one else would:

• Why do almost all mammals pee in the same amount of time?
• Why is wombat poop shaped like a cube?
• And how can studying animal waste improve engineering, medicine, and early cancer detection?

🚽 Why mammals over 3 kg empty their bladders in ~21 seconds
 🐘 How urethra length turns gravity into an efficiency tool
 🧊 The real reason wombat poop is square (and it’s NOT the sphincter)
 🏆 How this research earned two IG Nobel Prizes
 🧠 Why “weird” science often leads to the biggest breakthroughs

What starts as slow-motion videos of animals peeing ends up influencing biomimicry, manufacturing, plumbing systems, and colon cancer diagnostics.

🎧 This episode proves that curiosity-driven science—even the gross kind—can quietly change the world.