A radioactive waste standoff and science’s debt to the slave trade

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News, News Commentary, Science

4.3 • 842 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A single factory in Malaysia supplies about 10% of the world’s rare earth oxides, used in everything from cellphones to lasers to missiles. Controversy over the final resting place for the slightly radioactive byproducts has pushed the plant to the brink of closure. Host Meagan Cantwell talks with freelance writer Yao Hua Law about calls to ship the waste back to where it was originally mined in Australia, and how stopping production in Malaysia would mean almost all rare earth production would take place in China. In another global trade story, host Sarah Crespi talks with freelance writer Sam Kean about close links between the slave trade and early naturalists’ efforts to catalog the world’s flora and fauna. Today, historians and museums are just starting to come to grips with the often-ignored relationships between slavers and scientists. This week’s episode was edited by Podigy. Download the transcript (PDF) Ads on this show: Kolabtree and MagellanTV Listen to previous podcasts. About the Science Podcast [Image: James Petiver, 1695; Music: Jeffrey Cook] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is supported by the Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
0:04.0	the academic arm of the Mount Sinai health system in New York City,
0:07.5	and one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:10.7	What are scientists and clinicians working on to improve medical care and health for women?
0:15.5	Find out in a special supplement to Science magazine prepared by the Icon School of Medicine
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0:27.0	of Medical Research-Dash-Womeness Health. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:33.3	Morgan State University, a Baltimore, Maryland-Karnege R2 doctoral research institution,
0:39.2	offers more than 100 academic programs and awards degrees at the baccalaureate,
0:44.0	master's, and doctoral levels, is furthering their mission of growing the future, leading
0:48.7	the world. Morgan continues to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment.
0:54.4	With a four-year quadrupling of research, more than a dozen new doctoral programs,
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1:07.4	To learn more about Morgan and their ascension to R1, visit morgan.edu slash research.
1:17.6	Welcome to the science podcast for April 5, 2019. I'm Sarah Crespi. In this week's show, Megan Cantwell
1:27.4	talks with freelancer Yao Huala
1:29.2	about the controversy over a Malaysian processing plant for rare earth minerals, which are important
1:36.2	components for many electronics. And I talk with freelance journalist Sam Keen about
1:41.4	science's debt to the slave trade and how historians and museums are
1:46.3	confronting the tainted origins of so many natural history collections.
1:53.0	Rare earth minerals, REEs for short, are essential in a vast array of technologies, from your
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