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b"Can Science Find An Antidote to Americium?\\nWith some poisons, there\\u2019s an antidote \\u2014 something you can take to block the effects of the poison, or to help remove it from your body. But when the harmful chemical is a radioactive element, options are limited. Iodine pills can be used to help block radioactive iodine I131 from being absorbed by the thyroid, but there aren\\u2019t many other drugs that can help deal with contamination with other radioactive substances. One of the two existing medications can only be delivered via IV in a clinic.\\nThis week, the NIH announced the start of an early clinical trial for an oral drug delivered as a tablet that could potentially be used to bind and remove radioactive elements including plutonium, uranium and neptunium from the body. Rachel Feltman, editor at large at Popular Science, joins Ira to talk about that trial and other stories from the week in science, including an experimental universal flu vaccine, research into the amount of trace DNA humans shed every day, and an update on the planet Saturn\\u2019s moon count.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nDebunking Common Myths About Being Fat\\nWeight loss is big business. Americans spend roughly $60 billion each year trying to lose weight, forking over cash for supplements, diet plans, and gym memberships. Yet somewhere between 90 to 95% of diets fail.\\nMuch of what we think we know about the relationship between weight and health is based on a series of assumptions that don\\u2019t always match up with the latest science.\\nScience Friday producer, Shoshannah Buxbaum talks with Aubrey Gordon, co-host of the podcast Maintenance Phase and author of the recent book \\u201cYou Just Need To Lose Weight\\u201d and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, about the history of the Body Mass Index or BMI. She discusses why the word \\u201cobesity\\u201d is tangled up in stereotypes about fat people, the flaws in commonly cited mortality statistics, and how anti-fat bias translates into worse healthcare for fat people.\\nRead an excerpt of\\xa0\\u201cYou Just Need To Lose Weight\\u201d and 19 Other Myths About Fat People\\xa0here.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nWhat To Do When 500-1,000 Crows Roost In Your Neighborhood\\nLaura Young was at a breaking point when she submitted a post titled \\u201cRequest: Make 500-1,000 crows leave my street alone\\u201d to the subreddit r/lifeprotips in January. \\u201cI think you can tell that I was feeling very frustrated and running out of options and I clearly needed help,\\u201d she said.\\nStarting last October, Laura\\u2019s neighborhood in Baltimore was the site of a massive crow roost. And unlike past years\\u2019 roosts, which usually only last a few weeks with a few dozen crows, this one showed no signs of leaving. \\u201cThe numbers that they\\u2019ve attracted ever since then are unbelievable,\\u201d she said. \\u201cI mean, we\\u2019re at the point where it is frightening to walk out at night.\\u201d\\nAccording to Laura, hundreds of them filled the trees in the park outside her apartment. \\u201cAnd they\\u2019re all screaming,\\u201d she said. \\u201cIt is loud enough to wake you up indoors with all the windows closed. I don\\u2019t think anyone on my block has slept past 6:00am in three months.\\u201d\\nThere was the noise, and then there was the poop: coating the streets, the buildings, and the cars. \\u201cIt is just disgusting. I\\u2019ve never spent so much money on car washes in my entire life,\\u201d she laughed.\\nTo read the rest, visit sciencefriday.com.\\n\\n\\xa0\\nTo stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.\\nTranscripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on\\xa0sciencefriday.com."