You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey, Share Waver, Regina Barbara here.

With Aaron Scott, and Ari Shapiro.

Ari is taking a break from all things considered to chat with us for another shortwave roundup of

science and the headlines.

It's my favorite kind of break.

I hear we are talking about a record low for sea ice in Antarctica today?

Yes, and how a sleepless night can ease depression in mice.

And the weird strange anatomy of starfish,

you're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Okay, Ari, you're the guest. Where do you want to start?

Bad news first. Let's get the grim Antarctic news out of the way.

See ice. Tell me about it.

So Ari, this is of course not great news. Our NPR colleague Rebecca Hersher just reported

on new science about melting ice across Antarctica. Today we're going to

focus specifically on research about Antarctica's sea ice. And when we say

sea ice, we mean the sea water around the continent that freezes and floats

on the ocean surface, and it happens each winter.

Each Antarctic winter, which would be summer here in North America, where we are.

Right.

Deep winter in Antarctica is in July, August, and September, and in September the sea ice is at its most expansive for the year.

And usually at that point, there's so much sea ice that it doubles the size of the continent.

Doubles, wow.

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