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Sleeping without a brain, tracking alien invasions, and algorithms of oppression
Simple animals like jellyfish and hydra, even roundworms, sleep. Without brains. Why do they sleep? How can we tell a jellyfish is sleeping? Staff Wr…
4 years, 5 months ago
Soil science goes deep, and making moldable wood
There are massive telescopes that look far out into the cosmos, giant particle accelerators looking for ever tinier signals, gargantuan gravitational…
4 years, 5 months ago
The ripple effects of mass incarceration, and how much is a dog’s nose really worth?
This week we are covering the Science special issue on mass incarceration.
Can a dog find a body? Sometimes. Can a dog indicate a body was in a spot …
4 years, 5 months ago
Swarms of satellites could crowd out the stars, and the evolution of hepatitis B over 10 millennia
In 2019, a SpaceX rocket released 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit—the first wave of more than 10,000 planned releases. At the same time, a n…
4 years, 5 months ago
Whole-genome screening for newborns, and the importance of active learning for STEM
Today, most newborns get some biochemical screens of their blood, but whole-genome sequencing is a much more comprehensive look at an infant—maybe to…
4 years, 6 months ago
Earliest human footprints in North America, dating violins with tree rings, and the social life of DNA
Contributing Correspondent Lizzie Wade joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss fossilized footprints left on a lake shore in North America sometime before…
4 years, 6 months ago
Potty training cows, and sardines swimming into an ecological trap
Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about the health and environmental benefits of potty training cows.
Next, Peter Teske,…
4 years, 6 months ago
Legions of lunar landers, and why we make robots that look like people
Staff Writer Paul Voosen talks with host Sarah Crespi about plans for NASA’s first visit to the Moon in 50 years—and the quick succession of missions…
4 years, 6 months ago
Pinpointing the origins of SARS-CoV-2, and making vortex beams of atoms
Staff Writer Jon Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the many theories circulating about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and why finding the right one…
4 years, 7 months ago
New insights into endometriosis, predicting RNA folding, and the surprising career of the spirometer
News Intern Rachel Fritts talks with host Sarah Crespi about a new way to think about endometriosis—a painful condition found in one in 10 women in w…
4 years, 7 months ago