2018 Scifri Year In Review. Dec 28, 2018, Part 1

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

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🗓️ 28 December 2018

⏱️ 47 minutes

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Summary

In 2018, natural disasters around the world bore the unmistakable fingerprints of human-caused climate change. The federal government’s 1,600-page National Climate Assessment predicted even more extreme events—floods that destroy infrastructure, warming that spreads disease, and deadly record high temperatures. But global carbon emissions set a new record this year, and experts say that humanity is nowhere close to meeting its goal of limiting total temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius. It was also a red-letter year for space missions. NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to get a closer look at the sun’s corona. And after nine years of detecting exoplanets, the Kepler Space Telescope finally ran out of fuel. In the world of medicine, scientists grappled with the ethical questions concerning human gene editing, many of which are still unanswered. Sarah Kaplan, science reporter for the Washington Post, and Rachel Feltman, science editor with Popular Science, join Ira to discuss the year in science news. Plus, we check back in with a few of the State of Science stories from this year including conservation projects in Wyoming, lead levels in Chicago drinking water, and the algae blooms that formed off the coast of Florida.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Science Friday. I am I. Flato. You know, it's only a matter of days now until we wave goodbye to 2018, and what a challenging year it's been.
0:10.9	2018 may be best remembered as a year of unprecedented natural disasters, right? We had wildfires in California, hurricanes along the east coast, a volcanic eruption in Hawaii,
0:24.8	and there were some thrilling moments to remember, too. Scientists launched the Parker Solar
0:30.6	probe to study the temperature of the sun's corona, and don't forget the moment the world
0:35.5	waited with bated breath for the Mars InSight
0:38.4	lander to touchdown on the red planet.
0:41.2	20 meters, 17 meters, standing by for touchdown.
0:48.1	Touchdown confirmed.
0:49.9	Inside is all the stuff of the Mars.
0:56.7	Always great to hear that sound. And we covered those stories and some less well-known ones, too.
1:00.7	We won't be taking call today, but we already asked you to weigh in on your favorite science
1:06.5	stories of 2018.
1:08.4	And here's Perry from Princeton, who chose this one. My favorite science story of
1:13.0	2018 was when you interviewed a researcher who was saying how the nerves and the nose are
1:20.8	connected straight to the brain and how people that breathe through their nose have better
1:25.6	memory potentially than people who breathe through your mouth.
1:29.3	That just really made me think in a different way.
1:32.4	Yeah, I remember that one also. Thanks for geeking out with us, Perry.
1:35.7	Joining me now to discuss some of the highlights from the worlds of science, technology, medicine in 2018.
1:42.0	A couple of our expert news roundup guests. Sarah Kaplan, science reporter with the
1:46.6	Washington Post. Welcome back, Sarah. Good to be here. And Rachel Feldman, science editor at Popular
1:52.1	Science. Good to see you again. Thanks for having me, Ira. Okay, let's kick off things with a pick from a listener.
	...

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