Podcasts about scifri

If you've ever been a child, had a child, or seen a child face down in a supermarket aisle screaming, you know that parenting can be tough. But humans aren't the only ones raising their young, so how do animals deal with toddlers that won't follow directions or little ones that are constantly begging for snacks? Parent and science journalist Elizabeth Preston, who wrote the book “The Creatures' Guide to Caring,” joins Host Flora Lichtman to tackle some SciFri listeners' parenting problems, from dawdling to the bedtime pop-out. Read an excerpt from “The Creatures' Guide to Caring: How Animal Parents Teach Us That Humans Were Born to Care.” Guest: Elizabeth Preston is a science journalist and the author of “The Creatures' Guide to Caring.” Other episodes you may enjoy: How Do Animals Understand Death? Why It Took Decades For This Octopus To Be Recognized Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We recently got a call from a SciFri listener in Florida who has autoimmune arthritis. He told us that over the years he'd taken 10 drugs, and each out eventually stopped working. He then tried to enroll in a clinical trial for a new drug for his condition, but he was rejected specifically because he was on his 10th drug. Today we're digging into clinical trials and how they work. Are there incentives for drug developers to leave out “problem children”? Or is it more complicated than that? Flora talks with lawyer and bioethicist Holly Fernandez Lynch about what clinical trials are designed to do, how participants are chosen, and where FDA regulation comes into play. Guest: Dr. Holly Fernandez Lynch is an associate professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Other episodes you may enjoy: Why so many studies can't be replicatedCan ‘Suggestion-Box Science' Make Public Health More Useful? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Just about every animal with a backbone yawns (maybe even dinosaurs), but why we do it is still something of a mystery. A SciFri listener from Texas recently spotted some research that suggests yawning could play a role in clearing waste products from the brain, and asked us to get to the bottom of it. Biomechanical engineer Lynne Bilston, an author on that study, joins Flora to discuss the findings and what they could mean for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. Plus, about a third of Americans aren't getting the recommended seven hours of sleep per night, according to a new CDC report. We check in with sleep researcher Stuti Jaiswal to break down the report and find out how to get a better night's sleep. Check out an MRI video of what yawning looks like inside the body. Guests:  Dr. Lynne Bilston is a biomechanical engineer at UNSW Sydney in Australia. Dr. Stuti Jaiswal is a physician scientist and co-director, education at Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego, California. Other episodes you may enjoy: Does Taping Your Mouth Shut Help You Sleep? The Brain's Glial Cells Might Be As Important As Neurons Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Kemi Doll was in medical school, she learned that Black women are twice as likely to die from uterine cancer as white women, and also suffer disproportionately from other uterine-related conditions. What wasn't explained was why. Now a gynecologic oncologist, Doll has made it her mission to change these trends and improve care for Black women.  She joins Flora to discuss her new book, “A Terrible Strength: The Hidden Crisis of the Black Womb and Your Survival Guide to Healing.” They explore the way systemic racism and the normalization of Black women's pain lead to later diagnoses of uterine cancer and poorer health outcomes for a range of gynecologic conditions including fibroids, endometriosis, and heavy periods. And Doll explains the problem with using reproductive health as a synonym for uterine health.  Guest:  Dr. Kemi Doll is a gynecologic oncologist and professor at the University of Washington Schools of Medicine and Public Health.  Other episodes you may enjoy: Endometriosis Is Common. Why Is Getting Diagnosed So Hard? A Black Physician's Analysis Of The Legacy Of Racism In Medicine Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Cameras and sensors are just about everywhere, recording your face, how you walk, where you go, your heart rate. And AI is making it easy to amass and analyze that data about all of us.  Privacy attorney Anne Toomey McKenna joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the ubiquity of biometric surveillance and how data brokers are gathering and selling our information, including to law enforcement.  Guest:  Anne Toomey McKenna is an attorney specializing in privacy and biometric surveillance. She's on the Advisory Board for AI Policy at the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers - USA.  Other episodes you may enjoy: Why Worry About My Data If I Have Nothing To Hide? New Products Collect Data From Your Brain. Where Does It Go? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Breaking news out of eastern Oklahoma! A hole in the sky has opened. Through it, an unidentified turtle-shaped craft has descended. Alerts say that this is first contact.  So it goes in the sci-fi thriller “Hole in the Sky.” In the book, author Daniel H. Wilson imagines this moment where we meet alien life for the first time. It's set in the heart of Cherokee Nation and follows characters including a military man, a NASA scientist, and a Cherokee father named Jim who is just trying to survive the alien entity. Wilson joins Flora for a conversation about the book and how he integrated elements of Cherokee culture with science fiction. They get into the ways we project our own fears—like genocide and slavery—onto aliens, and how science fiction helps us imagine the unimaginable.  The SciFri Book Club is reading “Hole in the Sky” during May and June. Join us to read along!  Read an excerpt from “Hole in the Sky.” Guest:  Dr. Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and bestselling author of “Robopocalypse,” “Hole in the Sky,” and several other books. He holds advanced degrees in machine learning and robotics and lives in Portland, Oregon. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Beavers are having a moment, thanks to the new Pixar movie “Hoppers.” Amid some body-swapping shenanigans, the film is about humans coexisting with wildlife—particularly oversized rodents capable of reworking landscapes in profound ways.  The beaver science consultant on “Hoppers,” Emily Fairfax, joins Flora to talk about beavers' brilliant, chaotic landscape engineering, and how the creatures show up in the movie. Then, reporter Zac Ziegler walks Flora through a successful beaver-centric engineering project in Oregon.  Guests:  Emily Fairfax is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. She was a science consultant for the Pixar movie “Hoppers.” Zac Ziegler is a reporter at KLCC in Eugene, Oregon. Other episodes you may enjoy: How The Humble Beaver Shaped A Continent Beavers Build Ecosystems Of Resilience Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Want SciFri gear? Check out our new shop! Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Deep in an active nickel mine near Sudbury, Ontario, researchers are installing and calibrating a set of sensitive detectors. They hope that the location roughly 6,800 feet underground will screen out much of the ordinary radiation and cosmic rays felt on the surface, and allow their detectors to sense tiny disturbances caused by a dark matter particle passing close to the nucleus of one of the germanium atoms in a target material. If successful, the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment may shed some light on the nature of dark matter, an unseen something that is thought to make up around 85% of the matter in the universe. Priscilla Cushman, a physicist who has been working on the project for over 20 years, joins Host Flora Lichtman to describe the hunt, the timeline of the experiment, and the big unknowns facing the SuperCDMS team.  Guest:  Dr. Priscilla Cushman is spokesperson for the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment, and a professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Other episodes you may enjoy: Listening for the cosmic ‘dark ages,' from the lunar far side Most Powerful Neutrino Ever Is Detected In the Mediterranean Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Hurricane season officially begins in June. And in the event of a big storm, local and state governments often rely on help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA. But, President Trump has questioned the value of the agency.   “I've never been a big fan of FEMA. I like to keep it local. I like to see governors and neighboring states help each other as opposed to FEMA,” Trump said in March. We've heard this from the administration about other federal agencies, but FEMA is a special case. People have mistrusted this agency since its founding in the late 1970s.   Host Flora Lichtman talks with Micah Loewinger, co-host of the show “On The Media,” who traced FEMA's history in a new series called “American Emergency: The Movement to Kill FEMA.” Guest:  Micah Loewinger is co-host of On The Media.Other episodes you may enjoy: As Disasters Escalate, What's The Future Of FEMA? Can We Geoengineer Our Way Out Of A Natural Disaster? Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

Animal neuroaudiologist Pete Scheifele joins us to answer some burning questions from SciFri listener Paul: Why can dogs and cats hear a wider range of frequencies than we do? Is it in their ears, their brains? And what would life be like if you had dog ears or cat ears? And, scientists have created the first “smell map” of the nose using a mouse model. Host Flora Lichtman talks with neurobiologist Bob Datta about this latest research, and what it tells us about olfaction. Guests:  Dr. Pete Scheifele is a neuroaudiologist at the University of Cincinnati and executive director of the FETCHLAB, an animal audiology clinic and lab. Dr. Bob Datta is a neurobiologist at Harvard Medical School. Other episodes you may enjoy: What's That Smell? An AI Nose Knows Blood In The Water: Shark Smell Put To The Test Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that's keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-4-SCIFRI

In recent months, AI music has moved from novelty act into the realm of listenable music. For the first time, AI-generated songs from AI-generated artists are on the Billboard top 100 charts, and more musicians are coming out saying they use AI in their songwriting process.  Is this just another tech upgrade to the music-making process or does it signal something bigger in the industry? To investigate, SciFri producer and musician Dee Peterschmidt talks to journalist Kristin Robinson, who covers AI in the music industry, and Laurie Spiegel, an electronic and algorithmic music pioneer. Guests: Kristin Robinson is a senior writer for Billboard, based in Los Angeles, CA. Laurie Spiegel is a composer and programmer based in New York, NY Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

We're bringing you a special bonus episode from our friends at the live call-in show “The Middle with Jeremy Hobson.” Jeremy is joined by Science Friday Host Flora Lichtman and theoretical astrophysicist Priya Natarajan to talk about how trust in science can be restored. It took a hit with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Trump Administration has now elevated science skeptics to positions of power and proposed giant cuts in scientific research. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFt4YEb-tA อัปเดตเรื่องอุณหภูมิโลกปี 2025 https://www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the-climate-2025-close-behind-2024-as-the-hottest-start-to-a-year/ https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2025-course-be-joint-second-warmest-year-november-third-warmest-record ข้อมูลน้ำฝน น้ำท่วม ประเทศไทย https://www.krungsri.com/en/research/research-intelligence/flood-impact-2025 อัปเดตต้นตอไฟไหม้ LA https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/10/la-zombie-fire-jonathan-rinderknecht https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvG9TswEE5o อัปเดต ไข้หวัดนก https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/10/health/bird-flu-viruses-health.html อัปเดต Bennu https://www.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/sugars-gum-stardust-found-in-nasas-asteroid-bennu-samples/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LyH6jTefU8 Update หนูแมมเมาส์ กับไดร์วูล์ฟ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N4yUJLIcjM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUKyZxqKpY ไปดูหุ่นยนต์ในงาน CES 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yCsNuEuPBw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIhzUnvi7Fw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ISdRkS37I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83TiUbFY6fY https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vsKK3thQ_SQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZllfrHRc4g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iM5e1frCis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut3QFPr7hyo แถมเรื่องแผงโซลาร์ติดระเบียงที่เยอรมัน podcast ของ SciFri พูดเรื่องนี้และความคืบหน้าอื่นๆ ด้านพลังงานแสงอาทิตย์ https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/rise-in-solar-evergreen/

Growing up, Daisy Hernández was told that her aunt had become ill from eating a bad apple. She watched as her aunt became sicker and sicker, and didn't learn until years later that she was living with Chagas disease. It affects around 8 million people, mostly across the Americas, and yet many of us have never heard of it.Hernandez's book, The Kissing Bug, is SciFri's first book club pick of the year. Host Flora Lichtman speaks with Hernández about her book, the story of her aunt who died of Chagas, and how a disease that affects so many people can be so neglected. Read an excerpt of The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease.Guest: Daisy Hernández is a journalist and the author of The Kissing Bug. She's based in Chicago.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

It's winter, and the SciFri team is already dreaming of warmer weather. How about a mind vacation to one of the hottest places on earth, an erupting volcano? Tamsin Mather has trekked to volcanoes in Chile, Guatemala, Italy, and beyond to learn their secrets. She joins Host Flora Lichtman to field your burning volcano questions, like what's the deal with glass shards that look like hairballs? Guest: Dr. Tamsin Mather is a professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford in the UK.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

After years of getting your emails and phone calls, we know that SciFri listeners are in the 99th percentile when it comes to nerdy knowledge. We're putting your fact retention skills to the test with the first ever Super Food Science Excellence Trivia Blowout (SFSETBO).Host Flora Lichtman teams up with trivia kingpin Mangesh Hattikudur, co-host of the podcast “Part-Time Genius,” to quiz one lucky listener on her food science knowledge.Guest: Mangesh Hattikudur is the co-host of “Part-Time Genius” and co-founder of Kaleidoscope.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

After years of development, lab-grown fish is taste-test ready for the public. Four restaurants in the US are serving up cultivated salmon made by the company Wildtype. Producer Kathleen Davis gives Host Flora Lichtman a rundown on how Wildtype tastes, initial public perception, and the upstream battle to take cultivated meat mainstream. Plus, SciFri heads to Burlington, Vermont, where scientists are cooking up the foods of the future—including the building blocks of cell-cultured meat. Flora digs in with foodie researchers Alexis Yamashita and Rachael Floreani about why innovation is critical to a sustainable food future.Guests: Adam Tortosa is a chef and the owner of Robin in San Francisco, California.Alexis Yamashita is a community organizer and PhD student in food systems at the University of Vermont. Dr. Rachael Floreani is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Vermont.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

In mid-September, artists from around the country convened in Laurel, Maryland, for one of the splashiest events in the wildlife art world: the Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. At the annual event, artists compete to have their excruciatingly detailed waterfowl painting appear on the Federal Duck Stamp, which is a waterfowl hunting license. This year, Digital Producer Emma Gometz was there to watch the duck drama unfold. They join Host Flora Lichtman to explain why artists take this competition so seriously, how duck stamps support conservation, and who took the crown this year.Read our article about the 2025 competition.Plus, Interlochen Public Radio reporter Claire Keenan-Kurgan shares the story of a volunteer group determined to bring one of the world's rarest flowers back to a small river island in Illinois.Guests: Emma Gometz is Science Friday's Digital Producer of Engagement. They write SciFri's “Science Goes To The Movies” series and are a journalist and illustrator based in Queens, NY.Claire Keenan-Kurgen is a reporter for Interlochen Public Radio in northern Michigan.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Summer may be winding down, but we're not quite ready to let go of beach days, backyard cookouts, or ice cream cones. We love ice cream here at SciFri, so we're pulling a few of our favorite ice cream science stories out of the freezer this week.Back in 2015, ice cream expert Maya Warren sat down with Host Ira Flatow to help us understand a science mystery of “unmeltable” ice cream that made the evening news in Cincinnati.That same summer, Ira spoke to Jeff Potter, author of Cooking for Geeks, and Brian Smith, founder of Ample Hills Creamery, who give us science-backed tips for making smooth, velvety ice cream at home.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

It's shaping up to be one of the worst tick years yet, and concerns about Lyme disease—which is transmitted through the bites of some species—are high. Aside from a short-lived vaccine released in the late 1990s, people have not had the opportunity to get vaccinated against Lyme disease. But if our dogs can get vaccinated, why can't we? Host Flora Lichtman speaks with immunologist and Lyme disease expert Linden Hu about the ongoing quest for a vaccine against Lyme disease, and our evolving understanding of the disease.  Guest: Dr. Linden Hu is a Professor of immunology at Tufts University School of Medicine.Read an article from SciFri about the research towards finding an anti-tick vaccine.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

We are rounding up your questions about roads. What confounds you about traffic, or how interstates are laid out? Are there certain road design elements that ignite your road rage? Tell us about it: we've got a traffic engineer in the passenger seat this week, ready to answer your questions. Call us at (877) 4-SCIFRI or 877-472-4374.In this episode, 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.Huh? The Valuable Role Of InterjectionsListen carefully to a spoken conversation and you'll notice that the speakers use a lot of little quasi-words—mm-hmm, um, huh? and the like—that don't convey any information about the topic of the conversation itself. For many decades, linguists regarded such utterances as largely irrelevant noise, the flotsam and jetsam that accumulate on the margins of language when speakers aren't as articulate as they'd like to be.But these little words may be much more important than that. A few linguists now think that far from being detritus, they may be crucial traffic signals to regulate the flow of conversation as well as tools to negotiate mutual understanding. That puts them at the heart of language itself—and they may be the hardest part of language for artificial intelligence to master.Read the rest of this article on sciencefriday.com.A Sweet New Treatment For Antibiotic Resistant Infections?Researchers have discovered that the artificial sweetener saccharin has powerful antimicrobial properties. A new study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine suggests that saccharin can actually kill antibiotic resistant bacteria by interfering with DNA replication and cell division. The researchers also concluded that, with the help of traditional antibiotics, saccharin could even be used as an effective wound treatment.Host Ira Flatow talks with study author Dr. Ronan McCarthy, professor in biomedical sciences and director of the Antimicrobial Innovations Centre at Brunel University of London.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The outbreak of H5N9 avian influenza occurred at a California duck farm in November 2024. Also, new research pinpoints 298 parts of the genome associated with higher risk of bipolar disorder. This could lead to better treatments.Another Strain Of Bird Flu Discovered In CaliforniaThis week, the World Organization for Animal Health reported that it had been notified by the USDA that a November outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza on a California duck farm was caused by a strain not before seen in the United States: H5N9. The dominant bird flu strain circulating currently, H5N1, has led to massive culling of bird flocks, has infected dairy cattle, and has killed almost 500 people around the world since 2003. The US reported its first human death from bird flu earlier this month.Experts stressed that the new strain did not itself appear to be an immediate human threat. But the rise of a new strain is troubling and points to the risk of a viral phenomenon known as “reassortment,” in which different viruses mingled in a host can sometimes exchange bits of viral code, forming new strains.SciFri's Charles Bergquist joins Flora Lichtman to talk about H5N9 and other stories from the week in science, including a spacewalk that was meant to include a search for microbes on the outside of the International Space Station, a possible positive side effect of scratching an itch, and the discovery of 66 million-year-old fossilized vomit.Understanding Bipolar Disorder Through The GenomeBipolar disorder is one of the most common mental illnesses—it affects an estimated 40 million people worldwide, about 2.8% of the population. Bipolar disorder can cause extreme mood swings, and be debilitating without treatment.In an effort to untangle the mysteries of where bipolar disorder originates, researchers studied the genomes of more than 40,000 people with the condition. When comparing these genomes to those of people without bipolar disorder, the researchers were able to pinpoint 298 different parts of the genome associated with the mental illness. With this better understanding of the genome, better, more targeted treatments for bipolar disorder may be possible.Joining Flora to talk about this research is Dr. Niamh Mullins, assistant professor of psychiatric genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

After her SciFri internship 20 years ago, Flora went on to become a beloved science journalist, video producer, and podcaster. Now she's back! Also, several different fires are causing extreme damage in the Los Angeles area. Strong Santa Ana winds are one factor behind their rapid spread.Science Friday Now Has Two Hosts: Meet Flora Lichtman!Big news! Science Friday now has two hosts—Ira Flatow, the program's founder, and veteran science journalist Flora Lichtman. Going forward, you'll hear both of them regularly on the air and on our podcast. Flora joins Ira to introduce herself and talk about her background, from her start as an intern at Science Friday 20 years ago to her role as a video producer, then a writer for Bill Nye, and as creator of the podcast “Every Little Thing.”Los Angeles Wildfires Burn For Days, Stoked By Santa Ana WindsThis week, the Los Angeles area has been battered by at least five separate wildfires. Tens of thousands of acres have burned, and thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. Fire experts had warned on January 2 that conditions were ideal for wildfires in parts of Southern California. One factor that has helped these fires spread rapidly? Unusually strong Santa Ana winds.On the other side of the country, Winter Storm Blair has caused freezing temperatures and up to a foot of snow across the Midwest and up into the East Coast, putting more than 60 million people under weather alerts.Joining Ira Flatow to discuss these and other top stories of the week is Umair Irfan, science correspondent at Vox, based in Washington, D.C.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Today, we're taking time to reflect on all that 2024 brought us in the world of science, from the total solar eclipse in April to the demise of the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars and the rise of the blockbuster GLP-1 weight-loss medications. SciFri producers Kathleen Davis and Charles Bergquist join Ira to wrap up the year in science, in a conversation recorded in a live event at WNYC's Greene Space.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

A program trains women as tactile medical examiners to identify tumors before they show up on imaging scans. And, in a materials science discovery, scientists made a liquid silk solution that hardens and picks up objects—not unlike Spider-Man's web.How Blind Women In India Are Detecting Early Breast CancerBreast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide, just behind lung cancer. And the earlier a breast tumor is found, the more likely it is that the person survives their diagnosis.An international program called Discovering Hands trains blind women to detect even the smallest lumps and bumps through breast exams. The idea is to leverage the blind examiners' sense of touch, which may be more acute than sighted people's, to feel for breast abnormalities and, hopefully, catch cancer in an early stage.Discovering Hands has a cohort in India, a country where only around one in every two people diagnosed with breast cancer survive, and imaging equipment can be expensive or hard to come by.SciFri producer Rasha Aridi talks with science journalist Kamala Thiagarajan, who reported on Discovering Hands' program in India for NPR's global health blog, Goats and Soda.Accidental Breakthrough Makes Web-Slinging Silk A RealityWe're all familiar with Spider-Man—the red-suited hero who swings through New York using spider silk that shoots from his hands. While Peter Parker has a radioactive spider to thank for his shooting webs, scientists at Tufts University have made their own version of liquid silk that solidifies and can pick up objects.This discovery was made accidentally, says biomedical engineer Dr. Marco Lo Presti of the Tufts University Silklab. Lo Presti found that combining silk from a silkworm with dopamine and acetone made the silk change from a flexible liquid to a hardened fiber that attaches to objects.Lo Presti joins guest host Kathleen Davis to talk about the possibilities of liquid silk adhesives, and the advancements he'd like to see to make the technology better.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The Accidental Discovery That Gave Us ‘Forever Chemicals'When it comes to PFAS chemicals—known as “forever chemicals”—we often hear that they're used in nonstick coatings, flame retardants, and stain repellants. But those examples can hide the truth of just how widespread their use has been in modern life.A new season of the “Hazard NJ” podcast looks at the origin story of PFAS chemicals, and the accidental discovery of PTFE—aka Teflon—in a DuPont laboratory in southern New Jersey. “Hazard NJ” host Jordan Gass-Pooré joins guest host Kathleen Davis to talk about the history of PFAS, their effect on the environment and health of New Jersey residents, and work towards cleaning up the PFAS mess.A Play About Pregnancy Inspired By Mushroom ResearchPeople are finding all sorts of uses for mushrooms these days, but we're going to focus on two of them: how scientists are using them in robots and how playwrights are using them in theater. A few weeks ago, SciFri producer and host of our “Universe of Art” podcast D Peterschmidt moderated a panel at the Science In Theater Festival in Brooklyn, New York.The festival is put on by a company called Transforma Theatre that stages science-inspired plays. Each year, they pair playwrights with scientists to make short plays that explore the research focus of the scientist.Director and playwright Hannah Simms was paired with Dr. Andrew Adamatzky, a professor of unconventional computing, who's learning how to connect various parts of nature, like mushrooms, to computers, and consulted with Hannah during the writing process. The play, called “Fruiting Body,” is about a fungal-computing scientist who, while pregnant, creates a fetal heart monitor powered by mycelium, which turns out to be sentient. While the concept is definitely science fiction, it is based on real unconventional mushroom research.D talks with Hannah to learn why she wanted to explore her pregnancy through the lens of mushroom research. They're also joined by Dr. Anand Mishra, a research associate at Cornell University's department  of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who explains how he helped build a robot that's powered by king oyster mushroom mycelium.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

“The Burning Earth” examines over 800 years of history to demonstrate how violence against people and the planet are one and the same. Also, the host of the “Hazard NJ” podcast talks about the origins of PFAS “forever chemicals” and their impact on New Jersey residents.How Empire and Environmental Destruction Go Hand-In-HandA new book called The Burning Earth: A History takes on a massive question: How did we get here? “Here” being this point in environmental history and decades deep into the climate crisis. Over the span of 800 years of history, the book connects the dots of how the pursuit of empire, environmental destruction, and human migration led us to this moment in time.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with author Dr. Sunil Amrith, a historian at Yale University. They discuss some common threads that run through human and environmental history, why peace has to be a part of climate action, and what we can learn from understanding the past.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The effect, known as the Hubble Tension, has been confirmed by James Webb Space Telescope observations. Also, despite near daily warnings of food recalls, 2024 hasn't been that different from previous years.The Universe Is Expanding Faster Than ExpectedThere's still a lot to be learned about the physics of our universe—and one of the most perplexing ideas is something called the Hubble Tension. That's an observation, made around a decade ago, that the universe seems to be expanding faster than it should be according to cosmologists' understanding of its earliest days. Now, two years of James Webb Space Telescope observations of supernovae have confirmed those previous measurements made by the Hubble telescope, meaning that the puzzle isn't just due to some instrumental error.Casey Crownhart, climate reporter at MIT Technology Review, joins Kathleen Davis to talk about that finding and other stories from the week in science, including a new quantum computing chip from Google, efforts to improve electrical control of prosthetics, proposed new protections for monarch butterflies, and more.Are Food Recalls Actually On The Rise? Not Really.It feels like there's been an onslaught of food recalls this year. The Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture have issued recalls for items like cucumbers and carrots, deli meat and smoked salmon, which have been contaminated with pathogens like salmonella, E. coli, and listeria.There were just over 1,900 food recalls in the fiscal year ending in October 2024. While that number has been increasing since an initial dip in recalls early in the COVID-19 pandemic, it's still lower than the numbers seen in the several years before the pandemic.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Byron Chaves, food scientist and professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, about why it feels like there are so many food recalls this year, how a recall happens, and what food safety tips you should know as a consumer.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Just in time for Thanksgiving, a potato researcher explains potato varieties, potato nutrition, and some tubular tuber facts. And, irregular, fatty marbling gives meat a unique texture. Recreating that in plant-based products isn't easy.A Horn Of Potato PlentyThe potato is a versatile vegetable—baked, roasted, fried, mashed—it can bring something to just about any menu. But, how exactly do these tasty tubers end up on our tables? We'll give you a crash course in potato science, including how potatoes are grown (hint: not from seeds!) and what scientists look for when they develop new potato varieties.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Rhett Spear, assistant professor in the Plant Sciences Department at the University of Idaho. Adding Marbling To Fake Meat For That Extra-Realistic BitePlant-based meat products have evolved over the past few decades. You can find them in many forms, like sausages, deli meats, and faux chicken nuggets. During the holiday season, no plant-based meat is more famous than the Tofurky Roast, a round imitation turkey.Despite improvements in flavor for plant-based meat products, there are still lots of challenges to getting fake meats to mimic their real counterparts. One tough one is textural: instilling a marbling effect. This is the effect of irregular fat deposits, which occur naturally in animal meat.Plant-based meat has a uniform texture by design. Because each product is processed to be a certain way, the randomness and irregularity of fat pockets is taken out of the equation. But some food scientists are working on adding more of this meaty texture to plant-based meat.Joining guest host Kathleen Davis to discuss the challenges and possibilities for the next stage of plant-based meat is Dr. David Julian McClements, distinguished professor in food science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

We recently asked our listeners which dubious health claims they've been seeing in their social media feeds or being circulated by friends and family. Unsurprisingly, we received a ton of questions about nutrition, including: Is seed oil bad for you? Does apple cider vinegar really lower blood sugar? What is the difference between processed and ultraprocessed foods? To answer those questions and more, SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with RDN Jessica Clifford, a nutrition specialist at Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Colorado State University. Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Fifty-three days after Hurricane Helene, residents of Asheville can safely drink their tap water without boiling it. Why did it take so long? And, tribes' historic lands on the Gulf Coast are being lost to the sea. To slow it down, one tribe has turned to oyster shells.The Struggle To Restore Drinking Water After Hurricane HeleneWhen Hurricane Helene barrelled through the southeastern US in September, it dumped an estimated 40 trillion gallons of water on the region. That resulted in immense flooding that destroyed roads, buildings, power lines, and other infrastructure.And it also impacted the region's potable water supply. For weeks, residents in Asheville, North Carolina, didn't have access to clean drinking water because the extensive flooding washed large amounts of sediment into the local reservoir. As of Monday, limited access to potable water was restored, marking the first time in 53 days that local residents didn't have to boil tap water to drink it.Before that access was restored, we heard from listeners Sarah and Alison in Asheville who had their own questions about the water quality in their city, and the science behind sediment issues in a local reservoir.Guest host and SciFri producer Kathleen Davis is joined by Dr. Sarah Ledford, associate professor of geosciences at Georgia State University, to figure out why it can take so long for cities to clean their potable water after a storm like this and what other regions expect from the aftermath of future extreme weather.Using Oyster Shell Reefs To Counter Sea Level Rise In LouisianaOn a hot Friday morning, the sun beat down on volunteers gathered at the edge of the water in southern Plaquemines Parish. They passed heavy sacks of oyster shells to each other down a line. The volunteers loaded the shells onto boats to use them for building an oyster reef to help slow land loss in Grand Bayou Indian Village.“The oyster reef is a living thing. Baby oysters are going to attach to it. It's going to grow. It's going to become bigger,” said James Karst with the Coalition for Coastal Louisiana, the organization that built the reef. “But when the sea level rises, because oysters are growing on it, it will grow vertically as well, so it will continue to add protection.”Louisiana's land loss is an existential crisis for many of the tribes who live along the coast. Grand Bayou Indian Village, a small community, home to the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha tribe, is watching its lands wash away. Nearly 1,000 people lived in the village in the 1940s, but now there are only about a dozen homes raised on stilts right along the edge of the bayou. Boats are the only way to get around.“You can look at the GPS and it will indicate a different color for where land is,” said Karst. “You'll be looking at this on the screen, then you'll look up and there is no land there. It's just open water.”Volunteers built the reef by stacking bags of recycled oyster shells in the water, up and down the shoreline. The shells came from restaurants in New Orleans. The coalition recently expanded its oyster recycling services to Baton Rouge.Read the full story at sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On November 24, 1974—50 years ago this November—a pair of paleoanthropologists made the discovery of a lifetime: a set of 47 bones, hidden in the dusty, rocky hills of a fossil site in Hadar, Ethiopia. The skeleton belonged to a 3.2 million year old hominin, which came to be nicknamed Lucy.She marked the very first specimen of Australopithecus afarensis—a species of early hominins that were very likely our own ancestors. Lucy might be the most famous fossil in the world, and she's transformed our understanding of human evolution.SciFri's Kathleen Davis looks back at 50 years of Lucy with the people who know her best: Dr. Donald Johanson, founding director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and the paleo legend who discovered her, as well as Dr. Zeray Alemseged, paleoanthropologist at the University of Chicago who discovered “Lucy's baby.” They discuss what Lucy has taught us in the last 50 years, why she remains a scientific icon, and how understanding our ancestral origins helps us understand humanity.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

This was the sixth test launch of the Starship vehicle, which could eventually carry humans and cargo to the moon. It was extremely loud. Also, divers have recovered seeds of a long-lost rye variety from a 146-year-old shipwreck in Lake Huron. Scientists hope to bring it back to life.SpaceX's Starship Completes In-Orbit Engine TestOn Tuesday, the rocket company SpaceX conducted another test flight of its Starship spacecraft. In the uncrewed mission, the sixth test of the system, the company was seeking to test its ability to restart the Starship engines while in orbit, a function that's necessary for in-space maneuvering. The rocket did launch successfully, and the engine test worked. However, at the last minute the company elected not to try to repeat an October maneuver in which it caught a returning SuperHeavy rocket booster at the launch tower, citing safety concerns.SciFri's Charles Bergquist joins guest host Kathleen Davis to talk about the launch, and related research into the tremendous sound created by the system's launch and reentry. They also discuss other stories from the week in science, including the discovery of a saber-toothed kitten in Siberian permafrost, efforts to use light to help destroy PFAS chemicals, a company using Pokemon Go game data to train an AI, and more.Michigan-Based Team To Resuscitate Shipwrecked Rye SeedsIn 1878, a wooden schooner named the James R. Bentley set sail from Chicago to Buffalo, New York. But strong winds and rough waters damaged the ship, and it sank to the bottom of Lake Huron. The crew was saved, but the ship's cargo—a large shipment of rye—sank with it. In the years since the shipwreck, that particular variety of rye has faded out of existence.Now, almost 150 years later, a Michigan-based team is trying to bring the long-lost rye back to life. They dove to the shipwreck, retrieved a tube full of seeds, and are planning to use gene technology to recreate the rye variety. Their goal is to encourage farmers to grow it, so that distillers can use it to make whiskey.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Eric Olson, professor of wheat breeding and genetics at Michigan State University, and Chad Munger, founder and CEO of Mammoth Distilling.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Great news for the nearly-extinct monarch butterflies, which will pass through the area as they migrate back to Mexico. Also, to find out how blood affects aging, scientists can surgically connect two animals and let blood circulate between them.After California's Park Fire, A Second Bloom of MilkweedDon Hankins examines a bright yellow-green patch in the meadow. The land all around is charred by fire. But here, there's a sort of miracle at work. Native milkweed has sprung up and bloomed for the second time this year. This is not something these plants, Asclepias eriocarpa, also known as Indian milkweed, are known to do.They bloomed in late spring and early summer and had already done so this year when the Park Fire roared through. But the fire seemed to happen at just the right time to coax a second flowering, one that is likely to line up with the return migration of the monarch butterflies south to overwinter in Mexico. Monarchs rely on these flowers to complete their life cycle. For researcher Don Hankins, this is a surprise delight.“We may be coming back into some knowledge here that hasn't been practiced in a long time,” said Don Hankins, a professor at Chico State, who teaches classes in geography with a focus on fire. He is also a California Plains Miwok traditional cultural practitioner.Read the rest at sciencefriday.com.Inside The ‘Creepy' Procedure That Taps Into Young BloodWhile fictional vampires suck the blood of the young to live forever, some researchers have found that certain elements in young blood actually can improve the health of the old. This is possible through a spooky procedure called parabiosis, in which the circulatory systems of two animals are joined, letting the blood flow from one into the other.By connecting old mice and young mice through parabiosis, researchers have observed how different molecules in the blood impact symptoms of aging. While some outcomes have excited experts, enthusiastic biohackers attempting to defy their own aging might have jumped the gun. There's a long way to go before we understand how elements of young blood might be harnessed to treat aging humans.Emma Gometz, SciFri's digital producer of engagement, talks to Dr. Tony Wyss-Coray, a neurology professor at Stanford University who has used parabiosis (which he once described as “creepy”) to help reveal how components of our blood affect our cognition as we age. They discuss parabiosis, vampires, and how far the field has to go before humans can benefit.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Throughout history, humans have given a lot of thought to death. We've grappled with our mortality, created elaborate burial rituals, and contemplated how best to mourn the loss of a loved one.But what about other animals? How do they understand death? Scientists have begun looking at this question more closely in the last two decades.For example, chimpanzees have a wide variety of responses to death based in part on their relationship with the deceased. Possums put on elaborate displays to fake their own deaths. Ants can tell another ant is dead by the chemicals it omits, but have no concept of what death actually means.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Susana Monsó, associate professor of philosophy at the National Distance Education University in Spain and author of Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Metaphors can help us understand complicated scientific concepts. But they can also have a downside. And, a pair of musicians wrote a concept album inspired by moths—and found that humans have more in common with the insects than they expected.How Metaphor Has Shaped Science, For Better Or WorseHere at Science Friday, we're big fans of metaphors. They can make complicated scientific concepts easier to understand, for both non-experts and scientists themselves. For example, “the big bang” helps us visualize the beginning of the universe. Or we can understand DNA's role better as a “building block of life.”But some of these scientific metaphors also have a downside, and can even set research back.Sam Harnett and Chris Hoff are the hosts of the podcast series “The World According to Sound,” and they sat down with Science Friday's Director of News and Audio, John Dankosky, to talk about their new project, “An Inexact Science.” They discuss a special two-hour episode that explores how language and metaphor have shaped science, for better or worse.Intertwining The Lives Of Moths And Humans Through MusicBefore the pandemic, Peter Kiesewalter didn't think much of moths. Like a lot of people, he'd thought of them mostly as pests. But when his brother Tobi, an interpretive naturalist for Ontario Parks and moth enthusiast, showed him macro photos he'd taken of them, he was blown away. “[They were] absolutely stunning,” Peter says. “The amount of colors and hair were just extraordinary.”Peter is a Grammy-nominated musician based in New York City. He's composed music for ABC News, Monday Night Football, and even a “Winnie The Pooh” show. As COVID-19 spread in 2020, work for him and his partner Whitney La Grange, a professional violinist, dried up. So they hunkered down at the family cottage in Ottawa, Canada, along with Tobi's family. Peter was looking for a new show idea, and when his brother opened up the world of moths to him, he was hooked. “I had to find a way to interpret moths artistically,” he said. “And I started to find connections between them and us.”That led to “The Moth Project,” a concept album and stage show that combines moth science and visuals with a whole ecosystem of musical genres: 80s pop, funk, classical, covers, even spoken word. Each song ties a stage of a moth's life (emergence, flight, migration) to a universal human experience. But for Peter, a lot of these songs turned out to be far more personal than he initially thought.SciFri producer and host of our Universe of Art podcast D Peterschmidt sat down with Peter and Tobi Kiesewalter and Whitney La Grange to find out how this album came together and how understanding moths could better help us understand ourselves.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On October 14, NASA launched Europa Clipper, its largest planetary mission spacecraft yet. It's headed to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which could have a giant ocean of liquid water hidden under its icy crust. And where there's water, scientists think there may be evidence of life. The spacecraft is equipped with nine different instruments and will complete nearly 50 flybys of Europa, scanning almost the entire moon.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Padi Boyd, NASA astrophysicist and host of the agency's podcast “Curious Universe,” about the launch and the excitement at NASA. Then, Ira checks in with two scientists who are working on the mission about what they're excited to learn: Dr. Ingrid Daubar, planetary scientist at Brown University and a Europa Clipper project staff scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; and Dr. Tracy Becker, planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute and a deputy principal investigator for the ultraviolet spectrograph on the Europa spacecraft.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Two giant pandas on loan from China have arrived at the Smithsonian's National Zoo. Also, originally from Central Asia, Kernza doesn't need to be replanted every year, unlike crops such as corn and soybeans.Pandas Return To Washington, D.C., ZooOn Tuesday, two VIPs (Very Important Pandas) arrived at Washington's Dulles International Airport, en route to new quarters at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.The arrival marks a new chapter of “panda diplomacy,” which leverages the public's affection for the cute, charismatic animals to both strengthen US-China ties and fund conservation initiatives. Sophie Bushwick, senior news editor at New Scientist, joins SciFri's John Dankosky to talk about the giant pandas' arrival and other stories from the week in science.Scientists Push For A Lesser-Known Grain Called KernzaOn a recent weekday afternoon, dozens of people filled the cozy taproom at Blue Jay Brewing Company. On tap that day was a fresh creation called New Roots. The American Lager was a hit, with many of the patrons going back to the bar for another glass.Blue Jay's owner and brewer, Jason Thompson, was also pleased with the result of this experimental beer, which he described as “earthy, almost nutty,” with a “lingering honey-like sweetness to it.” Those flavors came from his choice to use a novel grain called Kernza for 25% of the 600 pounds of grain needed for the whole brew, he said.Read the rest at sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The ring would have gradually fallen to Earth as meteorites, correlating to a spike of impacts seen in the geological record. Also, a new AI tool can judge whether sand came from a beach, a river, a glacial deposit, or a wind-blown dune.Earth May Once Have Had A Ring Like SaturnHundreds of millions of years ago, Earth may have looked quite different when viewed from space: Scientists propose it may have had a Saturn-like ring, made up of lots of smaller asteroids.The new paper, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, proposes that this ring formed around 466 million years ago. A major source of evidence is a band of impact craters near the equator. The researchers also posit the ring would have shaded this equatorial area, possibly changing global temperatures and creating an icehouse period.Ira speaks to Rachel Feltman, host of the Popular Science podcast “The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week,” about this and other top science stories of the week, including how lizards use bubbles to “scuba dive” underwater, and ancient cave art that possibly shows a long-extinct species.An AI To Identify The Environment A Grain Of Sand Came FromIf you were given a bucket of sand and asked to determine where it came from, you'd probably have a hard time guessing if it was from a beach, a riverbank, the playground down the street, or a Saharan sand dune.There are experts who can make a guess at that sort of ID, using a categorization process that takes skill, a scanning electron microscope, and hours of time. Now, however, researchers report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they've developed an AI model that can quickly judge whether a sample of sand came from a beach, a river, a glacial deposit, or a wind-blown dune.That type of identification isn't just of interest to geologists. Sand is one of the world's most in-demand resources, second only to water in use. And different applications need different types of sand—for instance, making concrete and mortar requires angular sand for good adhesion and stability. These kinds of needs have given rise to illicit sand mining, sand theft, and sand smuggling. A way of rapidly identifying the origins of a sample of sand could be useful to investigators, or to companies seeking to ensure sustainability goals.Michael Hasson, a PhD candidate in Stanford's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, joins SciFri's Charles Bergquist to discuss the new SandAI, and the challenges of tracking grains of sand.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

The heaviest antimatter nucleus to date was spotted in a particle accelerator. It could provide new insights into the nature of matter. And, research indicates different songbird species might intentionally travel together during migration, giving each other a possible boost in survival.Physicists Create Heaviest Antimatter Nucleus YetAntimatter is one of science's great mysteries. It is produced all around us for fractions of a second, until it collides with matter, and the particles annihilate one another. But what is it?Antimatter is just like matter, except for one thing. Its particles have the same mass as ordinary matter, but an opposite charge. For example, an electron has a negative charge, so an anti-electron—called a positron—weighs the same, but has a positive charge.Antimatter is a natural product of some types of radioactive decay and cosmic ray collisions, but it can also be made in particle colliders here on Earth. But making antimatter particles this way is difficult and expensive—let alone controlling them enough to create an entire anti-atom. NASA estimates that creating a gram of antimatter would cost about $62.5 trillion.But why does antimatter matter? It may hold the key to understanding one of the universe's biggest mysteries: why there's something rather than nothing. Cosmologists say that during the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been created in equal amounts. But everything around us today is mostly matter, meaning either that there was an excess of matter created, or that matter and antimatter don't quite follow the rules physicists expect.Recently, scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider spotted 16 instances of the heaviest exotic antimatter nucleus observed to date: antihyperhydrogen-4.To explore what this breakthrough means for antimatter research, SciFri producer Charles Bergquist talks to Dr. Jamie Dunlop, associate department chair for nuclear physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory.Different Bird Species May Team Up For MigrationThis season, billions of birds will take to the skies as they flock to their wintering grounds. With so many different species on the move, they're bound to run into each other. A new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that this mixing and mingling might not be coincidental.In fact, different bird species could have their own social networks that might boost each others' survival.SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with lead author Dr. Joely DeSimone, migration ecologist at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Appalachian Laboratory, about untangling avian relationships.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health to help answer our listeners' top questions about the updated COVID-19 vaccines.This Q&A, which includes questions from our audience members, has been adapted from our interview with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire. It has been edited for clarity and brevity.If I've already had COVID and it wasn't so bad, why should I even bother with this new booster?There's always a chance that COVID-19 will cause more than the sniffles, or that you could end up in the emergency room—especially for older people. Why take that chance when you have the option to go to your local CVS and, in many cases, get a free vaccine that has been proven to decrease your chances of more severe disease?My hope is that as time progresses, people become more comfortable with the idea of getting seasonal vaccinations for COVID-19 along with flu.  Is the new COVID-19 vaccine one shot?Yes.Read the full Q&A at sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Kids and teens are back in school, and the battle over the smartphones in their pockets is becoming more prominent. For years, teachers and parents have lamented about the distractions these devices cause in and out of the classroom. Last year, the US surgeon general declared a youth mental health crisis, citing social media as a significant factor, and more than 40 US states are suing Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, arguing that the company intentionally manipulated their apps to addict teens and kids.A 2021 survey showed that 76% of US public schools prohibit cellphones. Seven states have implemented bans, and 14 more recently introduced similar legislation.To parents and educators, it might seem that phones and social media are bad for kids and bad for learning. But research shows that the reality is more complicated, with some suggesting that a blanket smartphone ban isn't necessarily the solution.So what are the best ways to approach school phone bans? What do we know about the psychological effects of smartphones on kids and teens? And why does this research tend to defy simple answers?To answer these questions, guest host and SciFri producer Kathleen Davis is joined by Dr. Emily Weinstein, co-director of the Center for Digital Thriving at Harvard University, and the author of Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (And Adults Are Missing), and Sandy Roberts, education program manager at Science Friday and former middle school teacher.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Samples of 2.5 billion-year-old mantle rocks found at spreading ocean ridges could put bounds on models of how the planet formed. And, researchers decreased the amount of lignin in poplar tree wood, making it stronger and slower to deteriorate.‘Time Capsule' Rocks Provide Clues About Earth's MantleIf you're looking to really learn about the history of our planet, look to geology. Ancient rocks can provide a time capsule of the conditions in which they formed. But even the geologic record has its limits—rocks and minerals get weathered, buried, heated, melted, and recycled over time—so geologists need to search out rare super-old geologic holdouts to tell about the earliest times.Writing in the journal Nature in July, researchers described what they can learn about the chemical history of Earth's mantle, the geologic layer beneath the planet's crust, from studying 2.5 billion-year-old rocks collected at spreading ocean ridges. They found that these unusual mantle rocks didn't necessarily have to have been formed in a world with less available oxygen, but could have been produced just by the mantle layer being hotter long ago.Dr. Elizabeth Cottrell, chair of the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, joins Ira to talk about the research and why a collection of old rocks is an important part of international scientific infrastructure.Genetically Engineering Stronger Poplar Tree WoodTrees play a big role in the fight against climate change: They can soak up carbon dioxide from the air and store it for centuries in the form of biomass. But it turns out that trees could be doing even more.In 2023, Science Friday covered how the company Living Carbon had genetically engineered poplar trees to have a more efficient photosynthesis process. This allowed the trees to grow twice as fast and store 30% more carbon biomass than regular poplars, making them ideal for the carbon credit market.Recently, researchers at the University of Maryland also experimented with genetically modifying poplar trees. But this time, they had a different goal in mind. They modified the tree to reduce the amount of lignin in its wood. This made the wood stronger without the need for harsh chemical processing. It also slowed the deterioration rate of the wood, which allows it to store carbon for longer periods.To explain more about this “super wood,” SciFri guest host Sophie Bushwick is joined by the lead plant geneticist on the study, Dr. Yiping Qi, associate professor at Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture at the University of Maryland.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

You might be familiar with a gigabyte, one of the most popular units of measure for computer storage. A two-hour movie is 3 gigabytes on average, while your phone can probably store 256 gigabytes.But did you know that your body also stores information in its own way?We see this in DNA, which has the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive, and reproduce. In computing storage terms, each cell of our body contains about 1.5 gigabytes worth of data. And with about 30 trillion cells in our bodies, we could theoretically store about 45 trillion gigabytes—also known as 45 zettabytes—which is equivalent to about one fourth of all the data in the world today.Recently, a group of researchers was able to develop a technology that allows computer storage and processing using DNA's ability to store information by turning genetic code into binary code. This technology could have a major impact on the way we do computing and digital storage.To explain more about this technology, SciFri guest host Sophie Bushwick is joined by two professors from North Carolina State University's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Dr. Albert Keung and Dr. Orlin Velev.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

ESA officials said it was only the ninth time an asteroid was spotted before reaching Earth's atmosphere. And, as the climate changes and summer temperatures linger, educators are increasingly worried about keeping kids safe from heat exhaustion.An Asteroid Impact, Spotted In AdvanceOn Wednesday, an asteroid named 2024 RW1 burned up in the atmosphere above the Philippines. As asteroids go, it was not especially notable. Astronomers say objects the size of 2024 RW1, which was about a meter in diameter, encounter the Earth about every two weeks. Due to local weather conditions, not many ground observers were able to see the fireball produced by the impact on the atmosphere. But astronomers on the Catalina Sky Survey project had observed the asteroid a few hours earlier as it approached the planet, and were able to give a prediction for where and when it was likely to enter the atmosphere. European Space Agency officials said it was only the ninth time people were able to spot an asteroid in advance of Earth impact.SciFri's Charles Bergquist joins guest host Sophie Bushwick to talk about that astronomical event and other stories from the week in science, including work on gold nugget geophysics, a potential advance in pain medications, and the mystery of a missing pregnant shark.Extreme Heat Is Making Learning—And Teaching—More DifficultKids across the United States just kicked off a new school year. But in recent years, summer weather has spilled over into fall, with temperatures staying hotter than normal through September and even into October. Sitting in a sweltering classroom can make learning difficult—and even dangerous.A recent story in The 19th describes how learning and teaching have become more challenging as the climate heats up. Guest host Sophie Bushwick talks with The 19th reporter Jessica Kutz about her reporting and what solutions might be on the horizon.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

You might have noticed that the seasons don't quite behave like they used to. In some places, fall and spring seem to fly by, while winter and summer are much longer and feel more intense. This shift is known as season creep, where the timing of the seasons starts to shift.This phenomenon is mostly due to climate change creating temperature imbalances and throwing weather patterns off kilter year-round. And it can cause problems for plants and animals as their natural cycles fall out of sync. But what does it mean for human behavior?Seasonal Affective Disorder, often called seasonal depression, tends to hit during the cold, dark winter months. But as the seasons start changing more quickly and unpredictably, the shift could have a wide range of effects on us that we're only just beginning to understand.SciFri guest host Rachel Feltman is joined by Dr. Michael Varnum, social psychology area head and associate professor at Arizona State University, to discuss these questions.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.   Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

On July 17, Apex the stegosaurus was sold at Sothebys in New York City for a record $44.6 million. The buyer was billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, who says he plans to loan the fossil to American institutions for display.But despite Griffin's statement, some paleontologists aren't too happy about the trend of fossils going up for auction.The sale of dinosaur fossils has become more and more profitable in recent years. Eight out of the ten most expensive fossils have been sold in the last four years. This trend of rising sale prices leaves museums and research institutions unable to pay for fossils that could benefit paleontological research.Paleontologists fear that as more and more fossils become privately owned, the availability of fossils for research and even access to dig sites might decrease or be restricted.SciFri guest host and producer Kathleen Davis is joined by Dr. Steve Brusatte, professor of paleontology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to talk about the potential scientific impacts of privatizing and selling fossils.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

It may seem like everyone is either getting COVID-19 this summer, or knows someone who has. That's because for the fourth year in a row, COVID cases are experiencing a summer surge.The CDC now tracks COVID-19 mostly through wastewater and found that viral activity has multiplied more than four times from the beginning of May to now. The CDC classifies the viral activity level as “high.”So what's behind this surge? And why does it keep happening in the summer?SciFri's John Dankosky talks with Jessica Malaty Rivera, infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator at the de Beaumont Foundation, about what's behind the surge and how to stay safe.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

New research suggests that polymetallic nodules found 13,000 feet deep produce “dark oxygen” by electrolyzing water. Also, at higher altitudes, the air is less dense, which makes it harder for birds in flight to generate lift. The turkey vulture has a solution. Deep-Sea ‘Nodules' May Produce Oxygen, Study FindsAn international team of researchers recently discovered that some 13,000 feet below the ocean's surface, oxygen may be produced through natural electrolysis. The group found that small lumps called polymetallic nodules at the bottom of the ocean appeared to act as geo batteries, producing enough electricity to break down water and make oxygen.That observation challenges the idea that photosynthesis is necessary to produce enough oxygen for living organisms. The researchers hypothesize that this could be a source of oxygen for deep-sea creatures. But while it gives some answers as to how life can thrive at the bottom of the sea, it also raises a lot of new questions.Science Friday guest host and producer Charles Bergquist is joined by the lead electrochemist of the study, Dr. Franz Geiger, the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern University, to answer some of these questions.One Bird's Physics Trick For Flying At High AltitudesIf you've ever taken a trip to a higher elevation, you know that the air gets thinner as you go up. If you're not acclimated to the altitude, it can feel harder to breathe. That thinner air also makes it more difficult for birds and airplanes to fly, because it's harder to produce the lift forces in thinner air. But it turns out that turkey vultures have a way of dealing with that problem.Researchers observed turkey vultures in flight at different altitudes and found that rather than flapping harder or more rapidly to deal with decreased lift, the turkey vulture exploits the lower drag in thinner air to fly faster, using increased speed to help balance the lift equation. Dr. Jonathan Rader, a postdoctoral research associate in biology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and an author of a report on this research published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, joins SciFri's Charles Bergquist to explain how flying things work to adapt to different flight conditions.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

You know that disappointing feeling when you're ready to make a delicious meal, but you crack open the refrigerator only to find mushy tomatoes, dried-out bread, or oozing strawberries?Refrigeration fundamentally changes the chemistry of our food, but at this point, most of the United States' food system relies on the use of refrigerators. Almost three-quarters of the food on an average American's plate has been refrigerated during production, shipping, and storage. So how did we end up relying so heavily on the fridge? And on a warming planet, can refrigeration keep its cool?A new book called Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves challenges the definition of “freshness” and our relationship with the fridge. SciFri's John Dankosky talks with author Nicola Twilley, co-host of the podcast “Gastropod.”Read an excerpt from Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet.Transcript for this segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.