Tickling in review, spores in the stratosphere, and longevity research

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

First up on the podcast, Online News Editor Michael Greshko joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about stories set high above our heads. They discuss capturing fungal spores high in the stratosphere, the debate over signs of life on the exoplanet K2-18b, and a Chinese contender for world’s oldest star catalog. Next on the show, a look into long-standing questions on why and how our bodies respond to tickling. Producer Meagan Cantwell talks to Konstantina Kilteni, an assistant professor at the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour and the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute. They discuss how standardizing approaches to testing tickling in the lab could get us closer to answers. Finally in this episode, the first in our book series on the science of death, with books host Angela Saini. Saini interviews Nobel Prize–winning biologist Venki Ramakrishnan about developments in longevity research and his book Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi, Angela Saini, Michael Greshko, Meagan Cantwell 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, one of America's leading research medical schools.
0:07.4	The school is the academic arm of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
0:11.6	It's consistently among the top recipients of NIH funding.
0:15.3	Researchers at the Icon School of Medicine in Mount Sinai have made breakthrough discoveries in many fields vital to advancing
0:21.5	the health of patients, including cardiology, cancer, immunology, neuroscience, and artificial
0:27.7	intelligence. The Icon School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, we find a way.
0:34.9	This is the Science Podcast for May 29, 2025.
0:38.3	I'm Megan Cantwell filling in for host Sarah Crespi.
0:42.3	First up, online news editor Michael Greshko joins Sarah to go over a handful of stories,
0:48.3	from chemical hints of life on an exoplanet to finding fungal spores all the way up in the stratosphere. Next on the show, I talk with Constantine Kilteni about why it's so tricky to understand the science of tickling.
1:01.0	Finally, as part of our series of books on the science of death and dying,
1:05.0	host Angela Saney interviews author Venki Ramakrishna about his book, Why We Die, The Science of New Aging and the
1:12.4	Quest for Immortality.
1:33.3	Now we have Michael Greshko. He's an online editor for our news site. And he's going to talk about three space-related stories with us this week. Hi, Michael. Welcome to the science podcast for the very first time.
1:39.6	Thank you so much for having me. It is honestly such a treat to be here. We're going to talk about space, but we're going to start close to Earth and then move out.
1:47.8	So stratosphere is, I guess you could see, the edge of space.
1:50.5	It's very far up.
1:51.5	This is where planes fly.
1:52.8	This is where the ozone layer is.
1:54.7	And also fungal spores.
1:56.5	Right, Michael?
1:57.0	That is right.
	...

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