Delta Variant in Kids, Myers-Briggs Personality Test, Suicide in Communities of Color. Aug 20, 2021, Part 1
Why The Delta Variant Will Make More Kids Sick As cases of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 continue to spike around the U.S., children are one of the hardest-hit groups (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/delta-variant-sick-kids/) . As children under 12 remain ineligible for vaccination, they and other unvaccinated groups are facing the highest rates of infection and hospit...
47m Aug 20, 2021
47m
Elephantquakes and Margaret Atwood. August 13, 2021, Part 2
A Stomp, A Roar, An Elephantquake? An adult African elephant, the largest land animal on Earth, can weigh as much as two tons. Their activities—walking, playing, even bellowing—might shake the ground beneath them. But research in the journal Current Biology finds that the signals from an elephant’s walk are capable of traveling as far as three kilometers, while a roaring bull, or male elephant...
47m Aug 13, 2021
47m
Electric Fish Communication, Science Crimes, Lighting Cave Art. August 13, 2021, Part 1
This Fish Is The Master Of The Poignant Pause When listening to a well-practiced speaker, like during a lecture, a political event or during a favorite public radio show, you may notice they use pauses for dramatic effect.  This type of nuance in communication may seem distinctly human, but we’re not the only species that takes advantage of pauses in speech to make a point. Enter the electric...
47m Aug 13, 2021
47m
Bad Data, CRISPR Therapies, Wildfire Impact, Oilbirds. August 6, 2021, Part 2
How Imperfect Data Leads Us Astray Datasets are increasingly shaping important decisions, from where companies target their advertising, to how governments allocate resources. But what happens when the data they rely on is wrong or incomplete? Ira talks to technologist Kasia Chmielinski, as they test drive an algorithm that predicts a person’s race or ethnicity based on just a few details, li...
48m Aug 06, 2021
48m
Infrastructure Package, Covid News, Line3 Pipeline. August 6, 2021, Part 1
President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Sees The End Of The Road President Biden’s huge infrastructure bill is finally seeing the end of the road. The nearly 2,000 page bill covers infrastructure improvements—everything from roads to broadband. The package also includes funding for projects that would build up the country’s climate change resilience (https://www.vox.com/22598883/infrastructure-d...
48m Aug 06, 2021
48m
Gut Fungi, Olympic Challenges, Planetary Seismology. July 30, 2021, Part 2
Getting To Know The Fungus Among Us (In Our Guts) Your gut microbiome is composed of more than bacteria—a less populous, but still important, resident is fungi. Many people’s lower digestive tract is home to the yeast Candida albicans, the species implicated in vaginal yeast infections and oral thrush. But new research published in the scientific journal Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles...
49m Jul 30, 2021
49m
New CDC Mask Rules, Viral Persistence, Disaster Preparedness. July 30, 2021, Part 1
With Delta Rising, New Rules On Masks And Vaccines This week, the CDC released new guidelines for mask use in the U.S. (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/delta-variant-masks-vaccines/) , just months after many cities and towns relaxed mask mandates. The guidance says that “to reduce their risk of becoming infected with the Delta variant and potentially spreading it to others: CDC recommen...
48m Jul 30, 2021
48m
Shellfish Deaths, Chemical Safety, Humpback Songs. July 23, 2021, Part 2
Billions Of Sea Creatures, Lost To Heat Waves A couple weeks ago, the Pacific Northwest saw record-breaking temperatures. News coverage captured countless people suffering, and dying, during triple-digit heat the region had never seen before. Portland and Seattle reached their highest temperatures ever recorded. Canada set a new record for the highest temperature ever seen in the country with ...
48m Jul 23, 2021
48m
Surgeon General, Blockchain. July 23, 2021, Part 1
Flooding Worldwide Fits Climate Change Models While the western United States is burning again this summer, other parts of the world are drowning (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/flooding-climate-change/) . Germany, Belgium, and China saw floods this week after intense rainstorms that dropped many inches of rain in matters of hours, killing hundreds and displacing thousands. In Turkey a...
49m Jul 23, 2021
49m
Songbird Mystery, Sweat, Betelgeuse. July 16, 2021, Part 2
Songbirds Suffer Mystery Illness From The East Coast To The Midwest The reports started in late May: Songbirds in Washington, D.C. and neighboring regions were being found dead, often with swollen and crusty eyes. In the days that followed, similar sightings came from many states, including Kentucky, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. Now, the symptoms have been seen as far west as Indian...
48m Jul 16, 2021
48m
New Battery Technology, COVID Rise From Unvaccinated Populations. July 16, 2021, Part 1
Research For New Battery Technology Is Gaining Steam As countries around the world set their goals for decarbonizing their economies, it’s becoming clear that batteries may play a pivotal role in smoothing out the peaks and valleys of solar and wind power productions, as well as driving a shift to electric vehicles, and providing power for other parts of our lives. Lithium-ion batteries are n...
47m Jul 16, 2021
47m
John McPhee’s Annals Of The Former World. July 9, 2021, Part 2
Writing, Like Geology, Requires A Little Digging When author John McPhee first considered the piece of writing that would become his 1998 book, Annals of the Former World, he envisioned a short, un-bylined article in The New Yorker, in which he would visit a road cut on Route 80—a piece that could probably be completed in a few days. Instead, that idea became a 700-page coast to coast explorat...
47m Jul 09, 2021
47m
African Wild Dogs, Spotted Lanternfly, Seashells. July 9, 2021, Part 1
Sniffing Out How To Save African Wild Dogs One of the most endangered mammals on Earth, African wild dogs are known for their oversized ears, social bonds, and highly efficient hunting style (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-wildlife-shows-dont-tell-you-about-african-wild-dogs?loggedin=true) . That predatory nature is now contributing to their threatened status, as their...
48m Jul 02, 2021
48m
Garden Hotline, Benjamin Franklin. July 2, 2021, Part 2
The Science Of Your Summer Vegetable Garden Planting and tending to a vegetable garden is both an art and a science. If all goes well, you’ll be enjoying delicious homemade salads all summer long. But if your tomatoes get too little water, or if the soil is too acidic, or if pests get to the lettuce before you do, then all that hard work may have been for nothing. Whether you’re a seasoned gr...
48m Jul 02, 2021
48m
Extreme Heat, COVID Delta Variant, Poe’s Science. July 2, 2021, Part 1
The Alarming Impacts Of Extreme Heat This week, the Pacific Northwest was hit by a record breaking heat wave, with temperatures rising as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon. Experts say of all the extreme weather events brought on by climate change and heat waves stand to do the most damage to the environment, infrastructure, and human health (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segm...
48m Jul 02, 2021
48m
Cephalopod Week Wrap Up, California Carbon Credits Error. June 25, 2021, Part 1
California’s Climate Program Is Actually Adding Carbon To The Atmosphere California has a reputation as the state that’s doing the most about climate change. And the lynchpin of those efforts is California’s Cap-and-Trade program, where the state’s biggest polluters—like ExxonMobil, BP, and others—are required to offset their carbon dioxide emissions by investing in carbon reduction strategies...
48m Jun 25, 2021
48m
UFO Report, Animal Play, Alzheimers and Music. June 25, 2021, Part 2
Is The Truth About UFOs Out There? Over the past several years, U.S. Navy pilots have reported several instances of ”unexplained aerial phenomena” while in flight (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/truth-ufos/) . They’ve recorded videos that show (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/15/politics/ufo-report-briefing-pentagon-fighting/index.html)  shapes that appear to move in unusual ways, zooming ...
48m Jun 25, 2021
48m
Immunocompromised and Covid, Summer SciFi Reading. June 18, 2021, Part 2
COVID-19 Vaccines May Not Protect Immunocompromised People This week, California  (https://covid19.ca.gov/safely-reopening/) and New York (https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-covid-19-restrictions-lifted-70-adult-new-yorkers-have-received-first) , two of the states hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, announced that they were relaxing almost all coronavirus-related busin...
48m Jun 18, 2021
48m
Marijuana And Medicine, Cephalopod Week, Environmental Antidepressants. June 18, 2021, Part 1
How To Talk About Medical Marijuana With Your Doctor Over the last decade, cannabis has had a moment. Thirty-six states and Washington D.C. have legalized it for medical use. (Fifteen states, plus D.C., have also legalized weed recreationally.) Altogether, about 5.5 million people in the U.S. now have medical marijuana cards. One of the primary arguments for expanding marijuana laws is the dr...
48m Jun 18, 2021
48m
Health Equity And Trans Health, Human-Robot Relationship. June 11, 2020, Part 1
Biden’s New Assistant Secretary Of Health On Protecting Trans Youth The American healthcare system is facing some incredible challenges: Black and Latino communities were hit harder by COVID-19, and have lower vaccination rates than white, Asian, and Native American communities. The opioid crisis is still raging, climate change is disproportionately impacting the health of communities of color...
48m Jun 11, 2021
48m
Alzheimer’s Treatment Controversy, Science Mistakes, Chonky Fish. June 11, 2020, Part 2
FDA’s Approval Of Debated Alzheimer’s Treatment Raises Controversy This week, the FDA gave the green light to a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The drug, a monoclonal antibody called aducanumab, is the first Alzheimer’s treatment to receive approval in almost 20 years. It targets the amyloid protein that forms the tangled plaques found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s. B...
1hr 1m Jun 11, 2021
1hr 1m
Genetics of Depression, Engineering Humans for Space, Tech Ethics. June 4, 2021, Part 2
Research Reveals 178 Genes Are Associated With Depression If you have a family member that suffers from depression, chances are you may have more than one. Doctors often say “depression runs in families,” but scientists really had no good idea how—until a major analysis (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00860-2)  of the genomes of 200,000 military veterans uncovered the 178 genes tha...
48m Jun 04, 2021
48m
Fauci On 40 Years Of HIV/AIDS, Watermelon Origins, Venus Missions. June 4, 2021, Part 1
Anthony Fauci Reflects On 40 Years Of HIV/AIDS Research Every week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releases its regular report of the latest developments on emerging diseases—a living record documenting decades of medical history, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). In May 1981, former MMWR editor Michael B. Gregg got a call about an unusual deadly ...
48m Jun 04, 2021
48m
Sand Sustainability, Jane Goodall, Morphing Pasta, Cicada Snacks. May 28, 2021, Part 2
Shifting The Sand Business To Greener Practices Sand is one of the most in-demand natural materials on the planet—some 50 billion tons of sand and gravel are mined (https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?333451%2FUncovering-sand-minings-impacts-on-the-worlds-rivers)  every year. It’s because the humble sand is a key ingredient in many materials, from concrete and asphalt to microchips and glass. But ...
48m May 28, 2021
48m
Vaccine Hesitancy, Colorado River Drought, Alternative Syrups. May 28, 2021, Part 1
How Do We Overcome Vaccine Hesitancy? This Memorial Day weekend, many people will be traveling to the beach, hitting the road or socializing with friends—maskless—for the first time in over a year. As of this week, 50% of people over 18 are now fully vaccinated. Another 15 to 20% of people are taking a “wait and see” approach. (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/vaccine-hesitancy/) Of thos...
48m May 28, 2021
48m
Cybersecurity, Baseball Physics, Opioid Trial. May 21, 2021, Part 2
Americans’ Online Security Needs An Update Last week, all eyes were on the shutdown of a gas pipeline that delivered fuel to large portions of the Southeastern US. The shutdown was not due to a leak or planned pipeline maintenance, but to a ransomware attack that took billing computers at the pipeline operator offline (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/american-online-security/) . The att...
49m May 21, 2021
49m
Global Vaccination, Malaria Vaccine, Zombie Wildfires. May 21, 2021, Part 1
How Do You Solve a Problem Like World Vaccination? Here in the U.S., it feels as if we’ve turned a corner in the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the population can be vaccinated, and restrictions for masks and distancing are loosening. But we won’t be able to get a handle on the pandemic until the rest of the world has access to a vaccine. If you thought distributing shots to rural areas here in th...
48m May 21, 2021
48m
NFTs and Art, Neuralink, Preserving Endangered Foods. May 14, 2021, Part 2
What’s Behind The Blockchain-Based Art Boom? From multi-million dollar (https://www.prestigeonline.com/th/pursuits/art-culture/beeple-nft-art-christies/)  art sales to short NBA video clips (https://nbatopshot.com/) , non-fungible tokens have taken off as a way to license media in the digital realm. The blockchain-based tokens, which function as a certificate of ownership for purchasers, produ...
48m May 14, 2021
48m
New Mask Rules, Pain Algorithm, Assorted Nuts, Muldrow Glacier. May 14, 2021, Part 1
Fully Vaccinated Can Unmask Often, CDC Says As the number of vaccinated Americans continues to rise and evidence mounts that the vaccines may reduce viral transmission in addition to lessening disease severity, the CDC announced Thursday that fully-vaccinated people may be able to go mask-free except in specific crowded indoor situations (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/vaccinated-unmas...
47m May 14, 2021
47m
Beetles, Wildfires, Woodchip Bioreactor. May 7, 2021, Part 2
A Beetle’s Chemical (And Plastic) Romance For many species of beetle, the key to finding a mate is scent: Both females and males give off pheromones that signal their species, their sex, and even their maturity level. How do researchers know? In experiments with dead beetles that have been sprayed with female pheromones, live males reliably attempt to mate with the dead insects. But when one ...
48m May 07, 2021
48m
Herd Immunity, Crossword Program. May 7, 2021, Part 1
Weighing COVID-19 Vaccinations For Teens Federal officials are reporting that the Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 (https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-business-coronavirus-vaccine-health-government-and-politics-cf218f1f24fdccd4e06c024b0a869d20)  by early next week—just as Canada became the first country to do so (https...
48m May 07, 2021
48m
Viking Metal, Possible Futures, Global Pollination. April 30, 2021, Part 2
Uncovering Metal Crafts Of The Viking Age Vikings are often associated with scenes of boats and fiercely-pitched battles. But new research, published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01308-1) , shows they also had other, calmer skills. The paper details advances in the cast metalwork of objects, such as keys and ornamental brooche...
48m Apr 30, 2021
48m
The Past And Future Of Plastics Tech. April 30, 2021, Part 1
The Future Of Plastics Plastics do a lot of good. They’re sturdy, they’re clean, and the COVID-19 pandemic has really highlighted their benefits, with personal protective equipment like disposable gloves and masks. But its durability is also its biggest problem. We’ve all seen photos of piles of plastic trash washed up on beaches, and animals surrounded by plastic bags and straws. Those mater...
48m Apr 30, 2021
48m
Gender-Affirming Health Care, Defining ‘Life’. April 23, 2021, Part 2
Proposed Legislation Threatens Trans Rights Nationwide Since the start of the 2021 legislative session, members of more than 30 state legislatures have proposed over 100 bills (https://www.aclu.org/legislation-affecting-lgbt-rights-across-country)  that would limit transgender children’s ability to play sports, or access gender-affirming medical care such as puberty blocking medications. One s...
48m Apr 23, 2021
48m
Climate Summit, Offshore Wind, Hummingbirds. April 23, 2021, Part 1
World Leaders Gather Virtually For Climate Summit Forty world leaders attended an international summit on climate change to discuss how each country would commit to decreasing emissions (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/news-climate-summit/) . Sophie Bushwick from Scientific American fills us in on the commitments stated during the meeting. Plus, she talks about China launching its space...
48m Apr 23, 2021
48m
History Of Conservation, Right Whales Decline. April 16, 2021, Part 1
Conserving More Than Just the Planet’s ‘Beloved Beasts’ Historically, “conservation” simply meant not overhunting a game animal, preserving sufficient populations to continue to hunt the following year. Over time, however, conservationists have learned to broaden their focus from individual animals to entire ecosystems, protecting not just species, but the food webs and habitat they need to th...
48m Apr 16, 2021
48m
Understanding Caribbean Volcano Eruption, Billions Of T-Rexes, Pterosaur Necks, Lost Feasts. April 16, 2021, Part 2
Understanding St. Vincent’s Volcanic Eruption Since April 9th, the Caribbean island of St. Vincent has been rocked by eruptions at the La Soufrière volcano. Over the last week, plumes of ash and gas have rained down on the island, and dense masses of debris, called pyroclastic flows, are destroying everything in their path. Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated.   La Soufrière h...
47m Apr 16, 2021
47m
Piano AI, Giraffes, Alzheimer’s, Mime Psychology. April 9, 2021, Part 2
New AI Composes Songs From Silent Performance Videos There have been many awkward attempts in the quest to train algorithms to do what humans can. Music is a prime example. It turns out that the process of turning the individual notes of a composed piece into a fully expressive performance—complete with changes in loudness and mood—is not easy to automate.  But a team at the University of Was...
48m Apr 09, 2021
48m
Future For Long COVID Patients, Getting COVID Info To Sihk Truckers. April 9, 2021, Part 1
What Does The Future Look Like For COVID-19 Long-Haulers? There’s something strange happening with some people who’ve gotten sick with COVID-19: Somewhere between 10 and 30% of people who are infected are stuck with long-lasting effects and complications.   People dealing with long-term symptoms after a coronavirus infection are known as COVID long-haulers, and as the pandemic gets longer, t...
48m Apr 09, 2021
48m
Pollination, Beekeeping How-To, Sunflower Project. April 2, 2021, Part 2
The Buzz Over Non-Bee Pollinators When you think of pollinators, bees are probably the first insect that comes to mind. But there are actually all sorts of insects and animals that contribute to pollination, like moths, beetles and many kinds of flies—from hoverflies to gnats. Pollination biologist Robert Raguso joins SciFri to explain how different pollinators have different ‘personalities,’...
47m Apr 02, 2021
47m
Unexpected Physics, Controlling Cow Methane, Spring Break. April 2, 2021, Part 1
Signs The Standard Model Of Physics May Be Incomplete The pandemic has slowed many projects around the world, but scientists and engineers are nearing completion of a long-planned upgrade and maintenance period at CERN’s massive Large Hadron Collider project in Switzerland. The collider is currently cooling down and testing components, and aiming to start up for its third major run late this y...
47m Apr 02, 2021
47m
Spring Climate Effects, Octopus Sleep, Housing and Health. March 26, 2021, Part 2
In New York, Essential Workers Face Eviction If you walk through many towns during this pandemic, you can tell that something is different just by looking at the storefronts. Some businesses have limited hours, others have capacity restrictions. Still other businesses are temporarily closed. Some are gone altogether. The pandemic has also had other financial effects that are harder to see—and ...
47m Mar 26, 2021
47m
Racism And Mental Health, How To Milk Ticks. March 26, 2021, Part 1
The Mental Health Costs Of ‘Everyday’ Racism On March 16, a 21-year-old white man killed six Asian women and two other people in multiple shootings in Atlanta. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians and Asian-Americans in the U.S. have experienced a rise in racist attacks, which psychologists say are tied to anti-Chinese rhetoric from the former White House administration, as well as...
47m Mar 26, 2021
47m
SciFri Extra: The Origin Of The Word 'Introvert'
Science Diction (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/science-diction) from Science Friday is back! Their latest episode is all about a recent buzzword: "Introvert."  In 2013, introverts staged their comeback. For decades, they’d been told to get out of their shells and *smile*, while those  showy, gregarious extroverts were held up as the American ideal. But when one author published a kind o...
29m Mar 20, 2021
29m
Greenland Plants, Privacy and Big Data, Rainbows. March 19, 2021, Part 2
Under A Mile Of Ice, A Climate Clue Scientists studying sediment taken from a core sample of the Greenland ice sheet just 800 miles from the North Pole have found remnants of ancient plants, freeze-dried under more than a mile of ice. Using several different dating techniques, they say the soil, twigs, and leaves date to sometime within the last million years—probably on the order of several h...
49m Mar 19, 2021
49m
COVID Questions, Introvert Origin. March 19, 2021, Part 1
Rise In Anti-Asian Violence Is At The Intersection Of Racism And Disease Earlier this week, eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area massage parlors. Six of the victims were Asian-American women. In 2020, reported attacks on Asian-Americans increased by 150% over those reported the previous year in some of the country’s most populous cities, according to data compiled by California State...
48m Mar 19, 2021
48m
Virtual Disease, Daydreaming, Geoengineering. March 12 2021, Part 2
Learning From World Of Warcraft’s Virtual Pandemic The widespread infection of roughly four million virtual characters (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-flu-virtual/online-blood-plague-offers-lessons-for-pandemics-idUKTRE53Q4HI20090427?edition-redirect=uk)  all started with a giant snake demon. In 2005, the massively multiplayer online video game World Of Warcraft introduced a special event ...
47m Mar 12, 2021
47m
Jackson Water Woes, Giant Telescope Mirror, Shark Sex. March 12 2021, Part 1
What Went Wrong With Jackson, Mississippi’s Water? Residents of Jackson, Mississippi have been dealing with a water crisis since a storm rolled through town on February 15th. The city’s water system was damaged, leaving thousands of residents without running water at home (https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/what-went-wrong-with-jackson-mississippis-water/) . People have relied on water dis...
47m Mar 12, 2021
47m
Conversations, Baby Teeth, Tasmanian Tiger. March 5, 2021, Part 2
When Is It Time To Say Goodbye? Imagine you’re having a conversation with someone. You may get the sense that they have somewhere else to be. Or you might start feeling restless, and use an excuse to cut the conversation short. Sometimes, you feel like you could talk for HOURS. Chances are you’re wrong every time.  In a study published (https://www.pnas.org/content/118/10/e2011809118)  this w...
50m Mar 05, 2021
50m
Implementing Oregon’s Drug Policy, Wisconsin Wolf Hunt, Johnson & Johnson Vaccine. March 5, 2021, Part 1
Oregon Just Decriminalized Small Amounts of All Drugs. Now What? On February 1, a big experiment began in Oregon: The state has decriminalized small amounts of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. In the November election, voters passed ballot Measure 110 by a 16-point margin. Now, if you’re caught with one or two grams of what some refer to as “hard drugs”, you won’t be...
47m Mar 05, 2021
47m