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Allergies Are Weird. So Are Cats
Episode 881
Katie Wu is a bona fide cat person. She has two of them: twin boys named Calvin and Hobbes. Every night, they curl up in bed with her, bonking their little noses together, rubbing their fur and whisk…
Published on 2 years, 8 months ago
Why We Should Care About Viruses Jumping From Animals To People
Episode 880
The phenomenon of zoonotic spillover — of viruses jumping from animals to people — is incredibly common. The question is: which one will start the next pandemic? NPR science desk correspondent Micha…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
Eunice Foote: The Hidden Grandmother Of Climate Science
Episode 879
Today, most climate science is done with satellites, sensors and complicated computer models. But it all started with a pioneering female physicist and two glass tubes. Eunice Foote, the woman behind…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
Why Scientists Just Mapped Every Synapse In A Fly Brain
Episode 878
To really understand the human brain, scientists say you'd have to map its wiring. The only problem: there are more than 100 trillion different connections to find, trace and characterize. But a team…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
Perennial Rice: Plant Once, Harvest Again And Again
Episode 877
Rice is arguably the world's most important staple crop. About half of the global population depends on it for sustenance. But, like other staples such as wheat and corn, rice is cultivated annually.…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
News Round Up: Algal Threats, An Asteroid With Life's Building Blocks And Bee Maps
Episode 876
After reading the science headlines this week, we have A LOT of questions. Why did the Virgin Islands declare a state of emergency over a large blob of floating algae? What can a far-off asteroid tel…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
Why Pandemic Researchers Are Talking About Raccoon Dogs
Episode 875
A few weeks ago, raw data gathered in Janaury 2020 from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — was uploaded to an online virology database. I…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
If ChatGPT Designed A Rocket — Would It Get To Space?
Episode 874
From text churned out by ChatGPT to the artistic renderings of Midjourney, people have been taking notice of new, bot-produced creative works. But how does this artificial intelligence software fare …
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
What we lose if the Great Salt Lake dries up
Episode 873
Dotted across the Great Basin of the American West are salty, smelly lakes. The largest of these, by far, is the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
But a recent report found that water diversions for farming, c…
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago
Venus And Earth: A Tale Of Two 'Twins'
Episode 872
Planetary scientists announced some big news this week about our next-door neighbor, Venus. For the first time, they had found direct evidence that Venus has active, ongoing volcanic activity.
"It's …
Published on 2 years, 9 months ago