Podcast Episodes
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How to make an Arctic ship ‘vanish,’ and how fast-moving spikes are heating the Sun’s atmosphere
The Polarstern research vessel will spend 1 year locked in an Arctic ice floe. Aboard the ship and on the nearby ice, researchers will take measureme…
6 years, 4 months ago
Unearthing slavery in the Caribbean, and the Catholic Church’s influence on modern psychology
Most historical accounts of slavery were written by colonists and planters. Researchers are now using the tools of archaeology to learn more about th…
6 years, 4 months ago
How measles wipes out immune memory, and detecting small black holes
Measles is a dangerous infection that can kill. As many as 100,000 people die from the disease each year. For those who survive infection, the virus …
6 years, 5 months ago
A worldwide worm survey, and racial bias in a health care algorithm
Earthworms are easy … to find. But despite their prevalence and importance to ecosystems around the world, there hasn’t been a comprehensive survey o…
6 years, 5 months ago
Trying to find the mind in the brain, and why adults are always criticizing ‘kids these days’
We don’t know where consciousness comes from. And we don’t know whether animals have it, or whether we can detect it in patients in comas. Do neurosc…
6 years, 5 months ago
Fossilized dinosaur proteins, and making a fridge from rubber bands
Have you ever tried to scrub off the dark, tarlike residue on a grill? That tough stuff is made up of polymers—basically just byproducts of cooking—a…
6 years, 5 months ago
An app for eye disease, and planting memories in songbirds
Host Sarah Crespi talks with undergraduate student Micheal Munson from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, about a smartphone app that scans photos in …
6 years, 6 months ago
Privacy concerns slow Facebook studies, and how human fertility depends on chromosome counts
On this week’s show, Senior News Correspondent Jeffrey Mervis talks with host Sarah Crespi about a stalled Facebook plan to release user data to soci…
6 years, 6 months ago
Cooling Earth with asteroid dust, and 3 billion missing birds
On this week’s show, science journalist Josh Sokol talks about a global cooling event sparked by space dust that lead to a huge shift in animal and p…
6 years, 6 months ago
Studying human health at 5100 meters, and playing hide and seek with rats
In La Rinconada, Peru, a town 5100 meters up in the Peruvian Andes, residents get by breathing air with 50% less oxygen than at sea level. Internatio…
6 years, 6 months ago