Twitter: @ScienceMagazine (followed by 142 science writers)
Site: www.sciencemag.org
100 episodes
2021 to present
Average episode: 30 minutes
Open in Apple Podcasts • RSS
Categories: News-Style
Podcaster's summary: Weekly podcasts from Science Magazine, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary.
| Episodes |
| 2023-Mar-16 • 21 minutes An active volcano on Venus, and a concerning rise in early onset colon cancer On this week’s show: Spotting volcanic activity on Venus in 30-year-old data, and giving context to increases in early onset colon cancer | | First up this week, a researcher notices an active volcano on Venus in data from the Magellan mission—which ended in 1994. News Staff Writer Paul Voosen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how to find a “fresh” lava flow in 30-year-old readings. | | Next up, a concerning increase in early onset colon cancer. Kimmie Ng, director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer ... |
| 2023-Mar-09 • 39 minutes Compassion fatigue in those who care for lab animals, and straightening out ocean conveyor belts On this week’s show: Compassion fatigue will strike most who care for lab animals, but addressing it is challenging. Also, overturning ideas about ocean circulation | | First up this week: uncovering compassion fatigue in those who work with research animals—from cage cleaners to heads of entire animal facilities. Host Sarah Crespi and Online News Editor David Grimm discuss how to recognize the anxiety and depression that can be associated with this work and what some institutions are doing to help. | |... |
| 2023-Mar-02 • 29 minutes Battling bias in medicine, and how dolphins use vocal fry On this week’s show: Researchers are finding new ways to mitigate implicit bias in medical settings, and how toothed whales use distinct vocal registers for echolocation and communication | First up this week: how to fight unconscious bias in the clinic. Staff Writer Rodrigo Pérez Ortega talks with host Sarah Crespi about how researchers are attempting to fight bias on many fronts—from online classes to machine learning to finding a biomarker for pain. | Next up on the show: a close look at toothed whale vo... |
| 2023-Feb-23 • 32 minutes Shrinking MRI machines, and the smell of tsetse fly love On this week’s show: Portable MRI scanners could revolutionize medical imaging, and pheromones offer a way to control flies that spread disease | First up this week: shrinking MRI machines. Staff Writer Adrian Cho talks with host Sarah Crespi about how engineers and physicists are teaming up to make MRI machines smaller and cheaper. | Next up on the show, the smell of tsetse fly love. Producer Kevin McLean talks with Shimaa Ebrahim, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of molecular, cellular, and dev... |
| 2023-Feb-16 • 27 minutes Earth’s hidden hydrogen, and a trip to Uranus On this week’s show: The hunt for natural hydrogen deposits heats up, and why we need a space mission to an ice giant | First up this week: a gold rush for naturally occurring hydrogen. Deputy Editor Eric Hand joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss drilling for hidden pockets of hydrogen, which companies are just now starting to explore as a clean energy option. | Next up, big plans for a mission to Uranus. Kathleen Mandt, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, shares ... |
| 2023-Feb-09 • 30 minutes Using sharks to study ocean oxygen, and what ancient minerals teach us about early Earth On this week’s show: Shark tags to measure ocean deoxygenation, and zircons and the chemistry of early Earth | First up this week: using sharks to measure ocean deoxygenation. Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins us to talk about a group of researchers putting data logging tags on sharks in order to study how climate change is affecting oxygen levels in some of the ocean’s darkest depths. | Next up, what can 4-billion-year-old minerals teach us about chemistry on early Earth? Producer Meagan Can... |
| 2023-Feb-02 • 26 minutes Visiting a mummy factory, and improving the IQ of … toilets On this week’s show: New clues to the chemicals used for mummification, and the benefits and barriers to smart toilets | First up this week: What can we learn from a mummy factory? Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about mummy chemistry and why we don’t know much about what was used to preserve these ancient bodies. Online News Editor Michael Price makes a special appearance. | Next up, how having a smart toilet can contribute to your health. Seung-Min Park, an instructor ... |
| 2023-Jan-26 • 23 minutes Wolves hunting otters, and chemical weathering in a warming world On this week’s show: When deer are scarce these wolves turn to sea otters, and chemical weathering of silicates acts as a geological thermostat | First up on this week’s show we have a story about a group of Alaskan wolves that has switched to eating sea otters as deer populations have dwindled. Science journalist Jack Tamisiea tells host Sarah Crespi about some of the recently published work on this diet shift, and wildlife biologist Gretchen Roffler weighs in on the conditions on the island where this is ... |
| 2023-Jan-19 • 37 minutes Bad stats overturn ‘medical murders,’ and linking allergies with climate change Statisticians fight bad numbers used in medical murder trials, and the state of allergy science | First up on this week’s show, we have a piece on accusations of medical murder. Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss her story on how statisticians are weighing in on cases where nurses and doctors are convicted of murdering patients based on bad statistics. This segment was produced by Kevin McLean with sound design by James Rowlands. | Also on this week’s show: Allerg... |
| 2023-Jan-12 • 31 minutes Peering beyond the haze of alien worlds, and how failures help us make new discoveries Data on hazes and clouds may be key to understanding exoplanets, and NextGen letter writers share the upside of failure | Hazes and clouds could keep exoplanets’ secrets hidden, unless researchers can re-create them here on Earth. After celebrating JWST and its ability to look far back in time and help us look for habitable exoplanets as the 2022 Science Breakthrough of the Year, News Intern Zack Savitsky talks with host Sarah Crespi about an overlooked problem with using telescopes to examine exoplanets’ a... |
| 2023-Jan-05 • 24 minutes A controversial dam in the Amazon unites Indigenous people and scientists, and transplanting mitochondria to treat rare diseases Keeping an eye on the largest hydroelectric project in the Amazon basin, and helping patients with deletions in their mitochondrial DNA | We are starting off the new year with producer Kevin McLean and freelance science journalist Sofia Moutinho. They discuss a controversial dam in the Brazilian Amazon and how Indigenous peoples and researchers are trying to monitor its impact. | Then, host Sarah Crespi speaks with Elad Jacoby, an expert in pediatric hematology and oncology at the Sheba Medical Center and T... |
| 2022-Dec-22 • 30 minutes Year in review 2022: Best of online news, and podcast highlights On this week’s show: A rundown of our favorite online news stories, and some of our favorite moments on the podcast this year | This is our last show of the year and it’s a fun one! Dave Grimm, our online news editor, gives a tour of the top online stories of the year, from playful bumble bees to parasite-ridden friars. | Then, host Sarah Crespi looks back at some amazing conversations from the podcast this year, including answers to a few questions she never thought she’d be asking. Highlights include why ... |
| 2022-Dec-15 • 30 minutes Breakthrough of the Year, and the best in science books On this week’s show: Science’s Breakthrough of the Year and runners-up, plus the top books in 2022 | You might not be surprised by this year’s breakthrough, but hopefully you won’t guess all our runners-up. Producer Meagan Cantwell is joined by Greg Miller, who edited the section this year. The two discuss the big winner and more. | In our second segment, host Sarah Crespi is joined by Science Books Editor Valerie Thompson to chat about the best books in science from this year, and one movie. | Books mentio... |
| 2022-Dec-08 • 33 minutes The state of science in Ukraine, and a conversation with Anthony Fauci On this week’s show: The impact of war on science in Ukraine, and a conversation with Anthony Fauci as he prepares to step down | Some scientists in Ukraine have been risking their lives to protect scientific facilities, collections, and instruments amid the war. Contributing Correspondent Richard Stone traveled to Kharkiv and Chornobyl earlier this year to meet researchers living and working through the conflict. He spoke with host Sarah Crespi to share some of their stories. | Then we have a conversation ... |
| 2022-Dec-01 • 26 minutes A genetic history of Europe’s Jews, and measuring magma under a supervolcano On this week’s show: A medieval German cemetery yields clues to Jewish migrations in Europe, and supercomputers help researchers estimate magma under Yellowstone | First up this week on the podcast, we explore the genetic history of Jewish people in Europe. Contributing Correspondent Andrew Curry talks with host Sarah Crespi about researchers working with rabbis and the local Jewish community to apply new techniques to respectfully study remains in a medieval Jewish cemetery in Germany. | We also have a sto... |
| 2022-Nov-24 • 24 minutes Artificial intelligence takes on Diplomacy, and how much water do we really need? On this week’s show: Meta’s algorithm tackles both language and strategy in a board game, and measuring how much water people use on a daily basis | First up this week on the podcast, artificial intelligence (AI) wins at the game Diplomacy. Freelance science journalist Matthew Hutson joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the advances needed for an AI to win a game that requires cooperation and trust between human and AI players. | Next, we hear about how much water people need to stay hydrated. It’s not the... |
| 2022-Nov-17 • 25 minutes Mammoth ivory trade may be bad for elephants, and making green electronics with fungus On this week’s show: The potentially harmful effects of prehistoric ivory on present-day elephants, and replacing polymers in electronics with fungal tissue | First up this week on the podcast, we hear about the effect of mammoth and mastodon ivory on the illegal elephant ivory trade. Online News Editor Michael Price joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how as melting permafrost has uncovered fossilized ivory from these extinct creatures, more has entered the ivory trade. The question is: Does the availabilit... |
| 2022-Nov-10 • 40 minutes Kurt Vonnegut’s contribution to science, and tunas and sharks as ecosystem indicators On this week’s show: How sci-fi writer Kurt Vonnegut foresaw many of today’s ethical dilemmas, and 70 years of tunas, billfishes, and sharks as sentinels of global ocean health | First up this week on the podcast, we revisit the works of science fiction author Kurt Vonneugt on what would have been his 100th birthday. News Intern Zack Savitsky and host Sarah Crespi discuss the work of ethicists, philosophers, and Vonnegut scholars on his influence on the ethics and practice of science. | Researchers featured... |
| 2022-Nov-03 • 26 minutes Cities as biodiversity havens, and gene therapy for epilepsy On this week’s show: How urban spaces can help conserve species, and testing a gene therapy strategy for epilepsy in mice | First up on the podcast, we explore urban ecology’s roots in Berlin. Contributing Correspondent Gabriel Popkin joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss turning wastelands and decommissioned airports into forests and grasslands inside the confines of a city. | Next, we hear about a gene therapy strategy for epilepsy. Yichen Qiu, a recently graduated Ph.D. student and researcher at University ... |
| 2022-Oct-27 • 46 minutes Space-based solar power gets serious, AI helps optimize chemistry, and a book on food extinction On this week’s show: Cheaper launches could make solar power satellites a reality, machine learning helps chemists make small organic molecules, and a book on the extinction of foods | First up on the podcast, space-based solar power gets closer to launch. Staff Writer Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about how reusable rockets bring the possibility of giant solar array satellites that beam down gigawatts of uninterrupted power from space. | After that, we hear about small organic molecule synthesi... |
| 2022-Oct-20 • 20 minutes Snakes living the high-altitude life, and sending computing power to the edges of the internet On this week’s show: How some snakes have adapted to the extremes of height and temperature on the Tibetan Plateau, and giving low-power sensors more processing power | First up on the podcast, tough snakes reveal their secrets. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Liz Pennisi about how snakes have adapted to the harsh conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. | Next on the show, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks about moving more computing power to the edges of the internet. She is joined by Alexander Sludds, a... |
| 2022-Oct-13 • 28 minutes Climate change threatens supercomputing, and collecting spider silks On this week’s show: Rising waters and intense storms make siting high-performance computer centers a challenge, and matching up spider silk DNA with spider silk properties | | (Main Text) | First up on the podcast this week, News Intern Jacklin Kwan talks with host Sarah Crespi about how and where to build high-performance computing facilities as climate change brings extreme conditions to current locations. | Spiders are creeping into the show this week. Kazuharu Arakawa, a professor at the Institute fo... |
| 2022-Oct-06 • 39 minutes Linking violence in Myanmar to fossil amber research, and waking up bacterial spores On this week’s show: A study suggests paleontological research has directly benefited from the conflict in Myanmar, and how dormant bacterial spores keep track of their environment | First up on the podcast this week, Staff Writer Rodrigo Pérez Ortega joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss links between violent conflict in Myanmar and a boom in fossil amber research. | Also on the show this week, we hear about how bacterial spores—which can lie dormant for millions of years—decide it’s time to wake up. Kaito Ki... |
| 2022-Sep-29 • 38 minutes Giving a lagoon personhood, measuring methane flaring, and a book about eating high on the hog On this week’s show: Protecting a body of water by giving it a legal identity, intentional destruction of methane by the oil and gas industry is less efficient than predicted, and the latest book in our series on science and food | First up on the podcast this week, Staff Writer Erik Stokstad talks with host Sarah Crespi about why Spain has given personhood status to a polluted lagoon. | Also on the show this week is Genevieve Plant, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, ... |
| 2022-Sep-22 • 25 minutes Can wolves form close bonds with humans, and termites degrade wood faster as the world warms On this week’s show: Comparing human-dog bonds with human-wolf bonds, and monitoring termite decay rates on a global scale | First up on the podcast this week, Online News Editor David Grimm talks with host Sarah Crespi about the bonds between dogs and their human caretakers. Is it possible these bonds started even before domestication? | Also this week, Sarah talks with Amy Zanne, professor and Aresty endowed chair in tropical ecology in the Department of Biology at the University of Miami. They discuss a ... |
| 2022-Sep-15 • 27 minutes Testing planetary defenses against asteroids, and building a giant ‘water machine’ On this week’s show: NASA’s unprecedented asteroid-deflection mission, and making storage space for fresh water underground in Bangladesh | First up on the podcast this week, News Intern Zack Savitsky joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the upcoming NASA mission, dubbed the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, that aims to ram a vending machine–size spacecraft into an asteroid and test out ideas about planetary defense. | Also this week, Sarah talks with Mohammad Shamsudduha, an associate professor in humani... |
| 2022-Sep-08 • 24 minutes Why the fight against malaria has stalled in southern Africa, and how to look for signs of life on Mars On this week’s show: After years of steep declines, researchers are investigating why malaria deaths have plateaued, and testing the stability of biosignatures in space | First up on the podcast this week, freelance science journalist Leslie Roberts joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss why malaria deaths have plateaued in southern Africa, despite years of declines in deaths and billions of dollars spent. Leslie visited Mozambique on a global reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center where researchers are inves... |
| 2022-Sep-01 • 40 minutes Using free-floating DNA to find soldiers’ remains, and how people contribute to indoor air chemistry On this week’s show: The U.S. government is partnering with academics to speed up the search for more than 80,000 soldiers who went missing in action, and how humans create their own “oxidation zone” in the air around them | First up on the podcast this week, Tess Joosse is a former news intern here at Science and is now a freelance science journalist based in Madison, Wisconsin. Tess talks with host Sarah Crespi about attempts to use environmental DNA—free-floating DNA in soil or water—to help locate the r... |
| 2022-Aug-25 • 34 minutes Chasing Arctic cyclones, brain coordination in REM sleep, and a book on seafood in the information age On this week’s show: Monitoring summer cyclones in the Arctic, how eye movements during sleep may reflect movements in dreams, and the latest in our series of books on the science of food and agriculture. | First up on the podcast this week, Deputy News Editor Eric Hand joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the first airborne campaign to study summer cyclones over the Arctic and what the data could reveal about puzzling air-ice interactions. | Next on the show, Sarah talks with Yuta Senzai, a postdoctoral res... |
| 2022-Aug-18 • 25 minutes Monitoring a nearby star’s midlife crisis, and the energetic cost of chewing On this week’s show: An analog to the Maunder Minimum, when the Sun’s spots largely disappeared 400 years ago, and measuring the energy it takes to chew gum | We have known about our Sun’s spots for centuries, and tracking this activity over time revealed an 11-year solar cycle with predictable highs and lows. But sometimes these cycles just seem to stop, such as in the Maunder Minimum—a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 with little or no sunspot activity. News Intern Zack Savitsky joins host Sarah Crespi to... |
| 2022-Aug-11 • 23 minutes Cougars caught killing donkeys in Death Valley, and decoding the nose On this week’s show: Predators may be indirectly protecting Death Valley wetlands, and mapping odorant receptors | First up this week on the podcast, News Intern Katherine Irving joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the first photos of cougars killing feral donkeys in Death Valley National Park. They also discuss the implications for native animals such as big horn sheep, and plans to remove donkeys from the park. | Also this week on the show, Paul Feinstein, professor of biology in the department of biol... |
| 2022-Aug-04 • 24 minutes Invasive grasses get help from fire, and a global map of ant diversity On this week’s show: A special issue on grass, and revealing hot spots of ant diversity | This week’s special issue on grasses mainly focuses on the importance of these plants in climate change, in ecosystems, on land, and in the water. But for the podcast, Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about their dark side: invasive grasses that feed fires and transform ecosystems. | Also this week on the show, Evan Economo, a professor in the biodiversity and biocomplexity uni... |
| 2022-Jul-28 • 39 minutes Probing beyond our Solar System, sea pollinators, and a book on the future of nutrition On this week’s show: Plans to push a modern space probe beyond the edge of the Solar System, crustaceans that pollinate seaweed, and the latest in our series of author interviews on food, science, and nutrition | After visiting the outer planets in the 1980s, the twin Voyager spacecraft have sent back tantalizing clues about the edge of our Solar System and what lies beyond. Though they may have reached the edge of the Solar System or even passed it, the craft lack the instruments to tell us much about the ... |
| 2022-Jul-21 • 42 minutes Possible fabrications in Alzheimer’s research, and bad news for life on Enceladus On this week’s show: Troubling signs of fraud threaten discoveries key to a reigning theory of Alzheimer’s disease, and calculating the saltiness of the ocean on one of Saturn’s moons | Investigative journalist Charles Piller joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles brought to light by a neuroscientist whistleblower. | Next, researcher Wan Ying Kang talks with Sarah about Saturn’s bizarre moon Enceladus. Kang’s group wrote in Science Advances about modeling t... |
| 2022-Jul-14 • 34 minutes The Webb Space Telescope’s first images, and why scratching sometimes makes you itchy On this week’s show: The first images from the James Webb Space Telescope hint at the science to come, and disentangling the itch-scratch cycle | After years of delays, the James Webb Space Telescope launched at the end of December 2021. Now, NASA has released a few of the first full-color images captured by the instrument’s enormous mirror. Staff Writer Daniel Clery joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss these first images and what they mean for the future of science from Webb. | Next on the podcast, Jing Feng... |
| 2022-Jul-07 • 31 minutes Running out of fuel for fusion, and addressing gender-based violence in India On this week’s show: A shortage of tritium fuel may leave fusion energy with an empty tank, and an attempt to improve police responsiveness to violence against women | First up this week on the podcast, Staff Writer Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new hurdle for fusion: not enough fuel. After decades of delays, scientists are almost ready to turn on the first fusion reactor that makes more energy than it uses, but the fast-decaying fuel needed to run the reactor is running out. | Also this... |
| 2022-Jun-30 • 21 minutes Former pirates help study the seas, and waves in the atmosphere can drive global tsunamis On this week’s show: A boost in research ships from an unlikely source, and how the 2022 Tonga eruption shook earth, water, and air around the world | For decades, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society caused controversy on the high seas; now it’s turning its patrolling ships into research vessels. Online News Editor David Grimm discusses how this change of heart came about with host Sarah Crespi. | Also this week, how atmospheric waves can push tsunamis around the globe. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with... |
| 2022-Jun-23 • 43 minutes Using waste to fuel airplanes, nature-based climate solutions, and a book on Indigenous conservation On this week’s show: Whether biofuels for planes will become a reality, mitigating climate change by working with nature, and the second installment of our book series on the science of food and agriculture | First this week, Science Staff Writer Robert F. Service talks with producer Meagan Cantwell about sustainable aviation fuel, a story included in Science’s special issue on climate change. Researchers have been able to develop this green gas from materials such as municipal garbage and corn stalks. Will... |
| 2022-Jun-16 • 39 minutes A look at Long Covid, and why researchers and police shouldn’t use the same DNA kits On this week’s show: Tracing the roots of Long Covid, and an argument against using the same DNA markers for suspects in law enforcement and in research labs for cell lines | Two years into the pandemic, we’re still uncertain about the impact of Long Covid on the world—and up to 20% of COVID-19 patients might be at risk. First on the podcast this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to share a snapshot of the current state of Long Covid research, particularly ... |
| 2022-Jun-09 • 30 minutes Saving the Spix’s macaw, and protecting the energy grid Two decades after it disappeared in nature, the stunning blue Spix’s macaw will be reintroduced to its forest home, and lessons learned from Texas’s major power crisis in 2021 | The Spix’s macaw was first described in scientific literature in 1819—200 years later it was basically poached to extinction in the wild. Now, collectors and conservationists are working together to reintroduce captive-bred birds into their natural habitat in northeastern Brazil. Contributing Correspondent Ka... |
| 2022-Jun-02 • 27 minutes The historic Maya’s sophisticated stargazing knowledge, and whether there is a cost to natural cloning On this week’s show: Exploring the historic Maya’s astronomical knowledge and how grasshoppers clone themselves without decreasing their fitness | First this week, Science contributing correspondent Joshua Sokol talks with producer Meagan Cantwell about the historic Maya’s sophisticated astronomical knowledge. In recent decades, researchers have set out to understand how city structures relate to astronomical phenomena and decipher ancient texts. Now, collaboration between Western scholars... |
| 2022-May-26 • 38 minutes Saying farewell to Insight, connecting the microbiome and the brain, and a book on agriculture in Africa What we learned from a seismometer on Mars, why it’s so difficult to understand the relationship between our microbes and our brains, and the first in our series of books on the science of food and agriculture | First up this week, freelance space journalist Jonathan O’Callaghan joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the retirement of NASA’s Mars InSight lander. After almost 4 years of measuring quakes on the surface of the Red Planet, the lander’s solar panels are getting to... |
| 2022-May-19 • 41 minutes Seeing the Milky Way’s central black hole, and calling dolphins by their names On this week’s show: The shadow of Milky Way’s giant black hole has been seen for the first time, and bottlenose dolphins recognize each other by signature whistles—and tastes | It’s been a few years since the first image of a black hole was published—that of the supermassive black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy came about in 2019. Now, we have a similar image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way—our very own galaxy. Staff Writer Daniel Clery joins... |
| 2022-May-12 • 27 minutes Fixing fat bubbles for vaccines, and preventing pain from turning chronic On this week’s show: Lipid nanoparticles served us well as tiny taxis delivering millions of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, but they aren’t optimized—yet, and why we might need inflammation to stop chronic pain | The messenger RNA payload of the mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 is wrapped up in little fatty packets called lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). These fat bubbles were originally designed for something much different—carrying molecules into cells to silence genes. But they were u... |
| 2022-May-05 • 21 minutes Staking out the start of the Anthropocene, and why sunscreen is bad for coral On this week’s show: Geoscientists eye contenders for where to mark the beginning of the human-dominated geological epoch, and how sunscreen turns into photo toxin | We live in the Anthropocene: an era on our planet that is dominated by human activity to such an extent that the evidence is omnipresent in the soil, air, and even water. But how do we mark the start? Science Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about how geoscientists are choosing the one place on Earth that best shows t... |
| 2022-Apr-28 • 42 minutes Using quantum tools to track dark matter, why rabies remains, and a book series on science and food On this week’s show: How physicists are using quantum sensors to suss out dark matter, how rabies thwarts canine vaccination campaigns, and a kickoff for our new series with authors of books on food, land management, and nutrition science | Dark matter hunters have turned to quantum sensors to find elusive subatomic particles that may exist outside physicists’ standard model. Adrian Cho, a staff writer for Science, joins host Sarah Crespi to give a tour of the latest dark matter particle candida... |
| 2022-Apr-21 • 38 minutes Protecting birds from brightly lit buildings, and controlling robots from orbit On this week’s show: Saving birds from city lights, and helping astronauts inhabit robots | First up, Science Contributing Correspondent Josh Sokol talks with host Sarah Crespi about the millions of migrating birds killed every year when they slam into buildings—attracted by brightly lit windows. New efforts are underway to predict bird migrations and dim lights along their path, using a bird-forecasting system called . | Next, we hear from Aaron Pereira, a researcher at the German Aerospace Cen... |
| 2022-Apr-14 • 25 minutes Desert ‘skins’ drying up, and one of the oldest Maya calendars On this week’s show: Climate change is killing critical soil organisms in arid regions, and early evidence for the Maya calendar from a site in Guatemala | Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how climate change is affecting “biocrust,” a thin layer of fungi, lichens, and other microbes that sits on top of desert soil, helping retain water and create nutrients for rest of the ecosystem. Recent measurements in Utah suggest the warming climate is causing a declin... |
| 2022-Apr-07 • 24 minutes A surprisingly weighty fundamental particle, and surveying the seas for RNA viruses On this week’s show: A new measurement of the W boson could challenge physicists’ standard model, and an abundance of marine RNA viruses | Staff Writer Adrian Cho joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a new threat to the standard model of particle physics—a heavier than expected measurement of a fundamental particle called the W boson. They chat about how this measurement was taken, and what it means if it is right. | Next, Sarah talks about the microscopic denizens of Earth’s oceans wi... |
| 2022-Mar-31 • 25 minutes Probing Earth’s mysterious inner core, and the most complete human genome to date On this week’s show: A journey to the center of the center of the Earth, and what was missing from the first human genome project | Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about the many mysteries surrounding the innermost part of our planet—from its surprisingly recent birth to whether it spins faster or slower than the rest of the planet. | Next, Sarah chats with Adam Phillippy about the results from the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium, an effort to create a complete and de... |
| 2022-Mar-24 • 27 minutes Scientists become targets on social media, and battling space weather On this week’s show: Why it’s tougher than ever to be a researcher on Twitter, and a highlight from this year’s AAAS Annual Meeting | First up, Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady talks with host Sarah Crespi about the harassment that COVID-19 researchers are facing and a survey conducted by Science that shows more media exposure is linked to higher levels of abuse. | Next, producer Meagan Cantwell shares another interview from this year’s AAAS Annual Meeting. She talks... |
| 2022-Mar-17 • 28 minutes The challenges of testing medicines during pregnancy, and when not paying attention makes sense On this week’s show: Getting pregnant people into clinical trials, and tracking when mice aren’t paying attention | First up, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how scientists can overcome the lack of research on drug safety in pregnancy. | Next, Nikola Grujic, a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Neuroscience at ETH Zürich, talks about rational inattention in mice and how it helps explain why our brains notice certain things—and miss others. | Thi... |
| 2022-Mar-10 • 31 minutes Monitoring wastewater for SARS-CoV-2, and looking back at the biggest questions about the pandemic On this week’s show: We have highlights from a special COVID-19 retrospective issue on lessons learned after 2 years of the pandemic | First up, Contributing Correspondent Gretchen Vogel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss what scientists have learned from scanning sewage for COVID-19 RNA. And now that so many wastewater monitoring stations are in place—what else can we do with them? | Next, we have researcher Katia Koelle, an associate professor of biology at Emory University. She wrote a ... |
| 2022-Mar-03 • 19 minutes A global treaty on plastic pollution, and a dearth of Black physicists On this week’s show: The ins and outs of the first global treaty on plastic pollution, and why the United States has so few Black physicists | First up, Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the world’s first global treaty on plastics pollution–and the many questions that need answers to make it work. Read a related Policy Forum here. | Up next, we hear from some of more than 50 Black physicists interviewed for a special news package in Science about the barriers Bl... |
| 2022-Feb-24 • 31 minutes Securing nuclear waste for 100,000 years, and the link between math literacy and life satisfaction On this week’s show: Finland puts the finishing touches on the world’s first high-level permanent nuclear repository, and why being good at math might make you both happy and sad | First up, freelance science journalist Sedeer El-Showk joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss his visit to a permanent nuclear waste repository being built deep underground in Finland, and the technology—and political maneuvering—needed to secure the site for 100,000 years. | Also this week, Pär Bjäl... |
| 2022-Feb-17 • 24 minutes COVID-19’s long-term impact on the heart, and calculating the survival rate of human artifacts On this week’s show: A giant study suggests COVID-19 takes a serious toll on heart health—a full year after recovery, and figuring out what percentage of ancient art, books, and even tools has survived the centuries | First up, Staff Writer Meredith Wadman talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new study that looked at more than 150,000 COVID-19 patient records and found increases in risk for 20 different cardiovascular conditions 1 year after recovery. | Also this week we have Mike Kestemon... |
| 2022-Feb-10 • 27 minutes Merging supermassive black holes, and communicating science in the age of social media On this week’s show: What we can learn from two supermassive black holes that appear to be on a collision course with each other, and the brave new online world in which social media dominates and gatekeeps public access to scientific information | First up, Staff Writer Daniel Clery talks with host Sarah Crespi about the possibly imminent merger of two supermassive black holes in a nearby galaxy. How imminent? We might see a signal as early as 100 days from now. | Also, this week we have a spec... |
| 2022-Feb-03 • 20 minutes Building a green city in a biodiversity hot spot, and live monitoring vehicle emissions On this week’s show: Environmental concerns over Indonesia building a new capital on Borneo, and keeping an eye on pollution as it comes out of the tailpipe | First up this week, Contributing Correspondent Dennis Normile talks with host Sarah Crespi about Indonesia’s plans for an ultragreen new capital city on the island of Borneo. Despite intentions to limit the environmental impact of the new urban center, many are concerned about unplanned growth surrounding the city which could threaten rare... |
| 2022-Jan-27 • 24 minutes Fecal transplants in pill form, and gut bacteria that nourish hibernating squirrels On this week’s show: A pill derived from human feces treats recurrent gut infections, and how a squirrel’s microbiome supplies nitrogen during hibernation | First up this week, Staff Writer Kelly Servick joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss putting the bacterial benefits of human feces in a pill. The hope is to avoid using fecal transplants to treat recurrent gut infections caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile. | Also this week, Hannah Carey, a professor in the department of comparative b... |
| 2022-Jan-20 • 27 minutes A window into live brains, and what saliva tells babies about human relationships On this week’s show: Ethical concerns rise with an increase in open brain research, and how sharing saliva can be a proxy for the closeness of a relationship | Human brains are protected by our hard skulls, but these bony shields also keep researchers out. With brain surgeries and brain implants on the rise, scientists are getting more chances to explore living brains. Staff Writer Kelly Servick joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the ethics of doing research on patients undergoing intense medical p... |
| 2022-Jan-13 • 28 minutes Cloning for conservation, and divining dynamos on super-Earths On this week’s show: How cloning can introduce diversity into an endangered species, and ramping up the pressure on iron to see how it might behave in the cores of rocky exoplanets | First up this week, News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about cloning a frozen ferret to save an endangered species. | Also this week, Rick Kraus, a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, talks about how his group used a powerful laser to compress iron to pressures similar to thos... |
| 2022-Jan-06 • 28 minutes Setting up a permafrost observatory, and regulating transmissible vaccines On this week’s show: Russia announces plans to monitor permafrost, and a conversation about the dangers of self-spreading engineered viruses and vaccines | Science journalist Olga Dobrovidova joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about plans to set up a national permafrost observatory in Russia. | Then Filippa Lentzos, senior lecturer in science and international security in the department of war studies and in the department of global health and social medicine, and co-director for the center for science a... |
| 2021-Dec-23 • 42 minutes Top online stories, the state of marijuana research, and Afrofuturism On this week’s show: The best of our online stories, what we know about the effects of cannabinoids, and the last in our series of books on race and science | First, Online News Editor David Grimm brings the top online stories of the year—from headless slugs to Dyson spheres. You can find out the other top stories and the most popular online story of the year here. | Then, Tibor Harkany, a professor of molecular neuroscience at the Medical University of Vienna’s Center for Brain Research, ... |
| 2021-Dec-16 • 31 minutes The Breakthrough of the year show, and the best of science books Every year Science names its top breakthrough of the year and nine runners up. Online News Editor Catherine Matacic joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss what Science’s editors consider some of the biggest innovations of 2021. | Also this week, Books Editor Valerie Thompson shares her list of top science books for the year—from an immunology primer by a YouTuber, to a contemplation of the universe interwoven with a close up look at how the science sausage is made. | Books on Valerie’s list: |... |
| 2021-Dec-09 • 23 minutes Tapping fiber optic cables for science, and what really happens when oil meets water Geoscientists are turning to fiber optic cables as a means of measuring seismic activity. But rather than connecting them to instruments, the cables are the instruments. Joel Goldberg talks with Staff Writer Paul Voosen about tapping fiber optic cables for science. | Also this week, host Sarah Crespi talks with Sylvie Roke, a physicist and chemist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, and director of its Laboratory for fundamental BioPhotonics, about the place where oil meets water. Despit... |
| 2021-Dec-02 • 24 minutes The ethics of small COVID-19 trials, and visiting an erupting volcano There has been so much research during the pandemic—an avalanche of preprints, papers, and data—but how much of it is any good? Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the value of poorly designed research on COVID-19 and more generally. | In September, the volcano Cumbre Vieja on Spain’s Canary Islands began to erupt. It is still happening. The last time it erupted was back in 1971, so we don’t know much about the features of the pa... |
| 2021-Nov-25 • 43 minutes Why trees are making extra nuts this year, human genetics and viral infections, and a seminal book on racism and identity Have you noticed the trees around you lately—maybe they seem extra nutty? It turns out this is a “masting” year, when trees make more nuts, seeds, and pinecones than usual. Science Staff Writer Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many mysteries of masting years. | Next, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Jean-Laurent Casanova, a professor at Rockefeller University and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, about his review article on why some pe... |
| 2021-Nov-18 • 20 minutes Wildfires could threaten ozone layer, and vaccinating against tick bites Could wildfires be depleting the ozone all over again? Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about the evidence from the Polarstern research ship for wildfire smoke lofting itself high into the stratosphere, and how it can affect the ozone layer once it gets there. | Next, we talk ticks—the ones that bite, take blood, and can leave you with a nasty infection. Andaleeb Sajid, a staff scientist at the National Cancer Institute, joins Sarah to talk about her Science Translational Medicine... |
| 2021-Nov-11 • 24 minutes The long road to launching the James Webb Space Telescope, and genes for a longer life span The James Webb Space Telescope was first conceived in the late 1980s. Now, more than 30 years later, it’s finally set to launch in December. After such a long a road, anticipation over what the telescope will contribute to astronomy is intense. Daniel Clery, a staff writer for Science, joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about what took so long and what we can expect after launch. | You might have heard that Greenland sharks may live up to 400 years. But did you know that some Pacific rockfish can live to... |
| 2021-Nov-04 • 29 minutes The folate debate, and rewriting the radiocarbon curve Some 80 countries around the world add folic acid to their food supply to prevent birth defects that might happen because of a lack of the B vitamin—even among people too early in their pregnancies to know they are pregnant. This year, the United Kingdom decided to add the supplement to white flour. But it took almost 10 years of debate, and no countries in the European Union joined them in the change. Staff Writer Meredith Wadman joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the ongoing folate debate. | Last ye... |
| 2021-Oct-28 • 40 minutes Sleeping without a brain, tracking alien invasions, and algorithms of oppression Simple animals like jellyfish and hydra, even roundworms, sleep. Without brains. Why do they sleep? How can we tell a jellyfish is sleeping? Staff Writer Liz Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about what can be learned about sleep from these simple sleepers. The feature is part of a special issue on sleep this week in Science. | Next is a look at centuries of alien invasions—or rather, invasive insects moving from place to place as humans trade across continents. Sarah talks with Matthew MacLachl... |
| 2021-Oct-20 • 41 minutes Soil science goes deep, and making moldable wood There are massive telescopes that look far out into the cosmos, giant particle accelerators looking for ever tinier signals, gargantuan gravitational wave detectors that span kilometers of Earth—what about soil science? Where’s the big science project on deep soil? It’s coming soon. Staff Writer Erik Stokstad talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for a new subsoil observatory to take us beyond topsoil. | Wood is in some ways an ideal building material. You can grow it out of the ground.... |
| 2021-Oct-14 • 30 minutes The ripple effects of mass incarceration, and how much is a dog’s nose really worth? This week we are covering the Science special issue on mass incarceration. | Can a dog find a body? Sometimes. Can a dog indicate a body was in a spot a few months ago, even though it’s not there now? There’s not much scientific evidence to back up such claims. But in the United States, people are being sent to prison based on this type of evidence. Host Sarah Crespi talks with Peter Andrey Smith, a reporter and researcher based in Maine, about the science—or lack thereof—behind dog-... |
| 2021-Oct-07 • 28 minutes Swarms of satellites could crowd out the stars, and the evolution of hepatitis B over 10 millennia In 2019, a SpaceX rocket released 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit—the first wave of more than 10,000 planned releases. At the same time, a new field of environmental debate was also launched—with satellite companies on one side, and astronomers, photographers, and stargazers on the other. Contributing Correspondent Joshua Sokol joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the future of these space-based swarms. | Over the course of the first 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic, different var... |
| 2021-Sep-30 • 32 minutes Whole-genome screening for newborns, and the importance of active learning for STEM Today, most newborns get some biochemical screens of their blood, but whole-genome sequencing is a much more comprehensive look at an infant—maybe too comprehensive? Staff Writer Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the ethical ins and outs of whole-genome screening for newborns, and the kinds of infrastructure needed to use these screens more widely. | Sarah also talks with three contributors to a series of vignettes on the importance of active learning for students in science, technolog... |
| 2021-Sep-23 • 43 minutes Earliest human footprints in North America, dating violins with tree rings, and the social life of DNA Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss fossilized footprints left on a lake shore in North America sometime before the end of Last Glacial Maximum—possibly the earliest evidence for humans on the continent. Read the research. | Next, Paolo Cherubini, a senior scientist in the dendrosciences research group at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, discusses using tree rings to date and authenticate 17th and 18th century violins worth mill... |
| 2021-Sep-16 • 17 minutes Potty training cows, and sardines swimming into an ecological trap Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the health and environmental benefits of potty training cows. | Next, Peter Teske, a professor in the department of zoology at the University of Johannesburg, joins us to talk about his Science Advances paper on origins of the sardine run—a massive annual fish migration off the coast of South Africa. | This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. | [Image: Steven Benjamin; Music: Jeffrey Cook] | [Alt text: sardines i... |
| 2021-Sep-09 • 23 minutes Legions of lunar landers, and why we make robots that look like people Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for NASA’s first visit to the Moon in 50 years—and the quick succession of missions that will likely follow. | Next, Eileen Roesler, a researcher and lecturer at the Technical University of Berlin in the field of human-robot automation, discusses the benefits of making robots that look and act like people—it’s not always as helpful as you would think. | This week’s episode was produced with help from ... |
| 2021-Sep-02 • 27 minutes Pinpointing the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and making vortex beams of atoms Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many theories circulating about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and why finding the right one is important. | Next, Ed Narevicius, a professor in the chemical and biological physics department at the Weizmann Institute of Science, talks with Sarah about creating vortex beams of atoms—a quantum state in which the phase of the matter wave of an atom rotates around its path, like a spiral staircase. | This week’s episode was produced wit... |
| 2021-Aug-26 • 36 minutes New insights into endometriosis, predicting RNA folding, and the surprising career of the spirometer News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new way to think about endometriosis—a painful condition found in one in 10 women in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows on the outside of the uterus and can bind to other organs. | Next, Raphael Townshend, founder and CEO of Atomic AI, talks about predicting RNA folding using deep learning—a machine learning approach that relies on very few examples and limited data. | Finally, in this month's edition of our limited se... |
| 2021-Aug-19 • 27 minutes Building a martian analog on Earth, and moral outrage on social media Contributing Correspondent Michael Price joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the newest Mars analog to be built on the location of the first attempt at a large-scale sealed habitat, Biosphere 2 in Arizona. | Next, William Brady, a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department at Yale University, talks with Sarah about using an algorithm to measure increasing expressions of moral outrage on social media platforms. | This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. | About the Science Podca... |
| 2021-Aug-12 • 29 minutes A risky clinical trial design, and attacks on machine learning Charles Piller, an investigative journalist for Science, talks with host Sarah Crespi about a risky trial of vitamin D in asthmatic children that has caused a lot of concern among ethicists. They also discuss how the vitamin D trial connects with a possibly dangerous push to compare new treatments with placebos instead of standard-of-care treatments in clinical trials. | Next, Birhanu Eshete, professor of computer and information science at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, talks with producer Joel Gold... |
| 2021-Aug-05 • 32 minutes A freeze on prion research, and watching cement dry International News Editor Martin Enserink talks with host Sarah Crespi about a moratorium on prion research after the fatal brain disease infected two lab workers in France, killing one. | Next, Abhay Goyal, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, talks with intern Claire Hogan about his Science Advances paper on figuring out how to reduce the massive carbon footprint of cement by looking at its molecular structure. | Finally, in a sponsored segment from the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office, Se... |
| 2021-Jul-29 • 46 minutes Debating healthy obesity, delaying type 1 diabetes, and visiting bone rooms First this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the paradox of metabolically healthy obesity. They chat about the latest research into the relationships between markers of metabolic health—such as glucose or cholesterol levels in the blood—and obesity. They aren’t as tied as you might think. | Next, Colin Dayan, professor of clinical diabetes and metabolism at Cardiff University and senior clinical researcher at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetic... |
| 2021-Jul-22 • 24 minutes Blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease, and what earthquakes on Mars reveal about the Red Planet’s core First this week, Associate Editor Kelly Servick joins us to discuss a big push to develop scalable blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease and how this could advance research on the disease and its treatment. | Next, Amir Khan, a senior scientist at the Physics Institute of the University of Zurich and the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zürich, talks with multimedia intern Claire Hogan about marsquakes detected by NASA’s InSight lander—and what they can reveal about Mars’s crust, ma... |
| 2021-Jul-15 • 23 minutes Science after COVID-19, and a landslide that became a flood First this week, Staff Writer Jennifer Couzin-Frankel joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a new series on how COVID-19 may alter the scientific enterprise and they look back at how pandemics have catalyzed change throughout history. | Next, Dan Shugar, associate professor of geoscience and director of the environmental science program at the University of Calgary, talks with producer Joel Goldberg about a deadly rock and ice avalanche in northern India this year and why closely monitoring steep mountai... |
| 2021-Jul-08 • 39 minutes Scientists’ role in the opioid crisis, 3D-printed candy proteins, and summer books First this week, Editor-in-Chief Holden Thorp talks with author Patrick Radden Keefe about his book Empire of Pain and the role scientists, regulators, and physicians played in the rollout of Oxycontin and the opioid crisis in the United States. | Next, Katelyn Baumer, a Ph.D. student in the chemistry and biochemistry department at Baylor University, talks with host Sarah Crespi about her Science Advances paper on 3D printing proteins using candy. | Finally, book review editor Valerie Thompson ta... |
| 2021-Jul-01 • 37 minutes Preserving plastic art, and a gold standard for measuring extreme pressure First this week, Contributing Correspondent Sam Kean talks with producer Joel Goldberg about techniques museum conservators are using to save a range of plastic artifacts—from David Bowie costumes to the first artificial heart. | Next, Dayne Fratanduono, an experimental physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, talks with producer Meagan Cantwell about new standards for how gold and platinum change under extreme pressure. Fratanduono discusses how these standards will help researc... |
| 2021-Jun-24 • 30 minutes Does Botox combat depression, the fruit fly sex drive, and a series on race and science First this week, Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady talks with host Sarah Crespi about controversy surrounding the use of Botox injections to alleviate depression by suppressing frowning. | Next, researcher Stephen Zhang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses his Science Advances paper on what turns on the fruit fly sex drive. | Finally, we are excited to kick off a six-part series of monthly interviews with authors of books that highlight the many inter... |
| 2021-Jun-17 • 21 minutes Keeping ads out of dreams, and calculating the cost of climate displacement First this week, News Intern Sofia Moutinho joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss scientists concerns about advertisers looking into using our smart speakers or phones to whisper ads to us while we sleep. | Next, Bina Desai, head of Programs at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre in Geneva, discusses how to predict the economic impact of human displacement due to climate change as part of a special issue on strategic retreat. | This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. | Liste... |
| 2021-Jun-10 • 26 minutes Finding consciousness outside the brain, and using DNA to reunite families See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. |
| 2021-Jun-03 • 36 minutes Cicada citizen science, and expanding the genetic code First this week, freelance journalist Ian Graber-Stiehl discusses what might be the oldest community science project—observing the emergence of periodical cicadas. He also notes the shifts in how amateur scientists have gone from contributing observations to helping scientists make predictions about the insects’ schedules. | Next, Jason Chin, program leader at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology, discusses how reducing redundancy in the geneti... |
| 2021-May-27 • 25 minutes Cracking consciousness, and taking the temperature of urban heat islands First this week, Lucia Melloni, a group leader in the department of neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, talks with host Sarah Crespi about making the hard problem of consciousness easier by getting advocates of opposing theories to collaborate and design experiments to rule in or rule out their competing theories. | Next, TC Chakraborty, a Ph.D. candidate at Yale University, shares his Science Advances paper on why it’s important to measure air temperature on the ground ... |
| 2021-May-20 • 22 minutes Ecstasy plus therapy for PTSD, and the effects of early childhood development programs on mothers Staff Writer Kelly Servick talks with host Sarah Crespi about the pairing of a specific type of psychotherapy with the drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, for treating post-traumatic stress disorder. | Also this week, Pamela Jakiela, an economics professor at Williams College, discusses the importance of knowing how early childhood development interventions like free day care or parenting classes have an effect on caregivers, particularly mothers. | This week’s episode was produced with help from Po... |
| 2021-May-13 • 33 minutes Cutting shipping air pollution may cause water pollution, and keeping air clean with lightning News Staff Writer Erik Stokstad joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss possible harms from how the shipping industry is responding to air pollution regulations—instead of pumping health-harming chemicals into the air, they are now being dumped into oceans. | Also this week, William Brune, professor of meteorology and atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University, University Park, talks about flying a plane into thunderstorms and how measurements from research flights revealed the surprising amount ... |
| 2021-May-06 • 28 minutes Chernobyl’s ruins grow restless, and entangling macroscopic objects Rich Stone, former international news editor at Science and current senior science editor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Tangled Bank Studios, joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about concerning levels of fission reactions deep in an inaccessible area of the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Though nothing is likely to come of it anytime soon, scientists must decide what—if anything—they should do tamp down reactions in this hard-to-reach place. | Also on this w... |
| 2021-Apr-29 • 20 minutes Storing wind as gravity, and well-digging donkeys Contributing Correspondent Cathleen O’Grady joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about a company that stores renewable energy by hoisting large objects in massive “gravity batteries.” | Also on this week’s show, Erick Lundgren, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University, talks about how water from wells dug by wild horses and feral donkeys provides a buffer to all different kinds of animals and plants during the driest times in the Sonora and Mojave deserts. | This week’s episod... |
| 2021-Apr-22 • 25 minutes Rebuilding Louisiana’s coast, and recycling plastic into fuel Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Warren Cornwall about a restoration project to add 54 square kilometers back to the coast of Louisiana by allowing the Mississippi River to resume delivering sediment to sinking regions. | Also on this week’s show, Dion Vlachos, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware, Newark, and director of the Delaware Energy Institute, joins Sarah to talk about his Science Advances paper on a low-temperature process ... |
| 2021-Apr-15 • 38 minutes Why muon magnetism matters, and a count of all the Tyrannosaurus rex that ever lived Host Sarah Crespi talks with Staff Writer Adrian Cho about a new measurement of the magnetism of the muon—an unstable cousin of the electron. This latest measurement and an earlier one both differ from predictions based on the standard model of particle physics. The increased certainty that there is a muon magnetism mismatch could be a field day for theoretical physicists looking to add new particles or forces to the standard model. | Also on this week’s show, Charles Marshall, direc... |
| 2021-Apr-08 • 26 minutes Magnetar mysteries, and when humans got big brains Host Sarah Crespi talks with Contributing Correspondent Joshua Sokol about magnetars—highly magnetized neutron stars. A recent intense outburst of gamma rays from a nearby galaxy has given astronomers a whole new view on these mysterious magnetic monsters. | Also on this week’s show, Christoph Zollikofer, a professor of anthropology at the University of Zurich, talks about the evolution of humanlike brains. His team’s work with brain-case fossils suggests the complex brains we carry around... |