Overview
646 Episodes
The Department of the Interior seeks to remove the lesser prairie chicken’s endangered species designation. What would that mean?
Transcribed - Published: 16 May 2025
How well do we understand the long-term health risks to firefighters? Plus, researchers across the country are breeding pest-resistant trees.
Transcribed - Published: 15 May 2025
Scientists at the Missouri Botanical Garden are preserving diverse plant species. And, how micronutrients could help address world hunger.
Transcribed - Published: 14 May 2025
On-screen and in hospitals, fake body parts are getting more and more realistic. That helps medical students practice for real procedures.
Transcribed - Published: 13 May 2025
Katalin Karikó was ignored, demoted, and dismissed for decades. Then she won a Nobel Prize.
Transcribed - Published: 12 May 2025
Proposed budget cuts for NASA would jeopardize space research. And an executive order could change the political tides for deep sea mining.
Transcribed - Published: 9 May 2025
Bacteria are not as simple as their reputation suggests. Understanding how they communicate may lead to better disease treatments for us humans.
Transcribed - Published: 8 May 2025
A passion for fashion among the “bone collector caterpillar,” who wears a coat of body parts, and an artist who makes fabrics that remember.
Transcribed - Published: 7 May 2025
Millions of years ago, iguanas somehow got from North America to Fiji. Scientists think they made the trip on a raft of fallen vegetation. Also, the marine reptile’s fossilized fetus is cluing paleontologists into the lives of ancient sea creatures.
Transcribed - Published: 6 May 2025
In “Into the Unknown,” an astronomer explores the mysteries of the cosmos and the limits of what science can test.
Transcribed - Published: 5 May 2025
Scientists bring us a lab-grown chicken nugget and texturally accurate, plant-based calamari. We’ll bite.
Transcribed - Published: 2 May 2025
Vocal researchers are learning how death metal singers safely produce extreme vocal distortions, in hopes of improving vocal health care.
Transcribed - Published: 1 May 2025
“Rise of the Zombie Bugs” explores how parasites create real-life zombies in the insect and invertebrate world.
Transcribed - Published: 30 April 2025
Research suggests that better understanding the psychological and neurological components of chronic pain may lead to better treatments.
Transcribed - Published: 29 April 2025
Researchers isolated one kind of cone in the eye and aimed lasers at it to allow subjects to see a super vibrant teal shade they call “olo.”
Transcribed - Published: 28 April 2025
How will market uncertainty and a lack of federal support for climate efforts affect the future of clean energy in the United States? Plus, many wetlands are disappearing, but Louisiana’s “accidental” Wax Lake Delta is growing—and informing coastal restoration techniques.
Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025
How will market uncertainty and a lack of federal support for climate efforts affect the future of clean energy in the United States? Plus, many wetlands are disappearing, but Louisiana’s “accidental” Wax Lake Delta is growing—and informing coastal restoration techniques.
Transcribed - Published: 25 April 2025
With the help of cat owners, a new project investigates cats’ biology and aims to link some of their behaviors to their genes.
Transcribed - Published: 24 April 2025
With brain-implanted devices, people with paralysis have been able to command computers to “move” virtual objects and speak for them.
Transcribed - Published: 23 April 2025
In “Connecting Dots: A Blind Life,” inventor Josh Miele recounts his life story and path to becoming an accessibility designer.
Transcribed - Published: 22 April 2025
Are traffic engineering decisions based on evidence-based research? Not as much as you might think.
Transcribed - Published: 21 April 2025
The Webb Space Telescope picked up traces of dimethyl sulfide on planet K2-18b. On Earth, the molecule comes from microbes and phytoplankton. Also, researchers captured the first confirmed video of a colossal squid swimming in its natural habitat—almost 2,000 feet deep.
Transcribed - Published: 18 April 2025
A cell animator and a museum designer tell us how they translate scientific findings into visual experiences.
Transcribed - Published: 17 April 2025
Bringing back Southwest peach orchards won’t be easy, but researchers are on the lookout for remaining trees—and they need help. And, the newly discovered Lokiceratops is challenging paleontologists’ understanding of how horned dinosaurs evolved and existed together.
Transcribed - Published: 16 April 2025
Utterances like “um,” “wow” and “mm-hmm” aren’t just fillers—they keep conversations flowing. Also, new research suggests the artificial sweetener saccharin could kill antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Transcribed - Published: 15 April 2025
Nominee Jared Isaacman prioritized a Mars mission in his confirmation hearings, raising questions about the fate of the Artemis lunar program.
Transcribed - Published: 14 April 2025
We go inside the scientifically accurate ER world created for the TV show with one of its medical consultants.
Transcribed - Published: 11 April 2025
The ISS is set to be decommissioned in 2030. Several companies are competing for NASA contracts to build commercial space stations.
Transcribed - Published: 10 April 2025
What happens when AI moves beyond convincing chatbots and custom image generators to something that matches—or outperforms—humans?
Transcribed - Published: 9 April 2025
It’s not just in your stuffy head. Seasonal allergies are getting worse as pollen season gets longer and more intense.
Transcribed - Published: 8 April 2025
Food allergies are on the rise. For kids with less severe peanut allergies, one potential treatment could be found in the grocery aisle.
Transcribed - Published: 7 April 2025
The cuts hit multiple agencies, affecting work on HIV, gun violence prevention, vaccines, minority health research, and more.
Transcribed - Published: 4 April 2025
Emergency response experts say that funding and staff cuts at the National Weather Service could mean less reliable weather forecast. And, babies like music, but they generally have preferences. A music therapist reveals the best kinds of music to soothe a baby.
Transcribed - Published: 3 April 2025
When the Chicago-size iceberg drifted away, scientists seized the opportunity to study the life and geologic formations hidden below.
Transcribed - Published: 2 April 2025
Mental health information on social media can be both revelatory and misleading. How do clinicians and their patients make sense of it?
Transcribed - Published: 1 April 2025
Engineers take an in-depth look at why the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed and how to prevent future tragedies.
Transcribed - Published: 31 March 2025
The company has genetic data of 15 million people, which could be shared with a future buyer. Here’s how to delete it. Plus, an experimental coating could make golf balls roll more reliably on greens with different conditions.
Transcribed - Published: 28 March 2025
Certain words are overrepresented in text written by AI language models. A study investigates why such patterns develop. Also, the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, typically shorten as an organism ages. But when some fat-tail dwarf lemurs hibernate, they lengthen.
Transcribed - Published: 27 March 2025
TB kills more than a million people each year. Dr. Mireille Kamariza has spent her career developing better detection and treatment tools.
Transcribed - Published: 26 March 2025
In a new book, author John Green traces how the disease has impacted culture, geography, and even fashion over the centuries.
Transcribed - Published: 25 March 2025
Researchers built the largest 3D map of our universe yet. What they found supports the idea that dark energy could have evolved over time.
Transcribed - Published: 24 March 2025
After nine months aboard the International Space Station, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have finally landed back on Earth. Also, a German physicist and homebrewer discovered brief, intense physical reactions that happen when you uncork a bubbly swing-top bottle.
Transcribed - Published: 21 March 2025
The framework of Adverse Childhood Experiences started with an unexpected finding over 30 years ago. How is our approach changing? Plus, butterfly memories from our listeners.
Transcribed - Published: 20 March 2025
Former NIH director Dr. Harold Varmus speaks out about what recent budget cuts and policy changes could mean for science.
Transcribed - Published: 19 March 2025
Fungal networks in the ground ferry crucial nutrients to plants. But how do brainless organisms form complex supply chain networks? Also, in this year’s baseball spring training, the new Automated Ball-Strike System is helping settle challenges to home plate pitch calls.
Transcribed - Published: 18 March 2025
Layoffs at the agency, which releases weather forecasts and monitors extreme weather, could have serious implications. Also, funds for climate and sustainability-focused farming projects have been indefinitely frozen, even though the USDA has already signed contracts.
Transcribed - Published: 17 March 2025
Mathematician Dr. Steven Strogatz breaks down the history of the math concept and brings it full circle to recent science.
Transcribed - Published: 14 March 2025
A new book explores how prehistoric plants and dinosaurs co-evolved, and puts the spotlight on often overlooked flora.
Transcribed - Published: 13 March 2025
An international team of researchers used drones to study narwhals and learn more about their behavior. And, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North and South America in the early morning hours of March 14.
Transcribed - Published: 12 March 2025
A new study of butterfly populations in the US shows a 22% decline among over 500 species in just 20 years.
Transcribed - Published: 11 March 2025
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