Learn about why political parties may arrive at their positions by pure chance, with some help from opinion cascades; why the Great Oxygenation Event led to a bigger die-off than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs; and, whether infrared and ultraviolet light show up in rainbows.

In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:

• What If Political Parties Arrive at Their Positions by Pure Chance? — https://curiosity.im/32U0blu
• Earth's Biggest Die-Off Happened Long Before the Dinosaurs — https://curiosity.im/2OeeM76

Additional resources discussed:

• An Example of the Herschel Infrared Experiment — http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/herschel_example.html
• Ritter Discovers Ultraviolet Light — http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/ritter_bio.html

Download the FREE 5-star Curiosity app for Android and iOS at https://curiosity.im/podcast-app. And Amazon smart speaker users: you can listen to our podcast as part of your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing — just click “enable” here: https://curiosity.im/podcast-flash-briefing.

Find episode transcript here: daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/pure-chance-of-political-positions-why-earth-has-oxygen-infrared-and-ultraviolet-in-rainbows">https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/pure-chance-of-political-positions-why-earth-has-oxygen-infrared-and-ultraviolet-in-rainbows