Kissing relieves allergies and starting an ant-sized fight club

Allergies are annoying, but maybe getting rid of them can be fun? Does a 30-minute make-out session help alleviate allergy symptoms?

What matters in a battle between two armies? Army size? The strength of individual soldiers? Or does it depend on the battlefield?

In this episode, Lu and Tirth take a quiz on classic scientific studies, investigate whether smooches ditches itches, and discuss how Age of Empires 2 and ants can be used to test out real world battlefield strategies.

Timestamps:

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:21 Classic scientific studies quiz
• 13:48 Allergy study
• 24:55 Battlefield study
• 34:54 Let’s read some mail (argumentum ad baculum)
• 38:18 What did you learn today, outro

Article links:

• Kimata, 2003. Kissing reduces allergic skin wheal responses and plasma neurotrophin levels. Physiology & Behavior. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031938403002956?via%3Dihub
• Lymbery et al., 2023. Complex battlefields favor strong soldiers over large armies in social animal warfare. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2217973120
• Wreen, 1995. Knockdown arguments. Informal Logic. https://informallogic.ca/index.php/informal_logic/article/view/2421

Studies from the quiz:

• Chau et al., 2011. Chemical processes in the deep interior of Uranus. Nature Communications. https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms1198
• Frey et al., 2016. Four hot DOGs in the microwave. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/455/2/2058/1114769
• Thomson, 2007. Children crying at birthday parties. Why? Economic Theory. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27822533
• Eck, 2006. When is a bologna sandwich better than sex? A defense of small-n case study evaluations. Journal of Experimental Criminology. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-006-9014-9
• Paynter, 2008. Practice makes perfect: Rectal foreign bodies. Emergency Nurse. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18372783/
• Galuzzi et al., 2025. What if my left hand wants to grab a cookie but my right one disagrees? A single case study of chronic anarchic hand syndrome rehabilitation. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09602011.2026.2620568
• Black et al., 2013. Are Children “Normal”? The Review of Economics and Statistics. https://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/95/1/21/58040/Are-Children-Normal?redirectedFrom=fulltext

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