Does Mars Have What It Takes to Support Life?
NASA’s Curiosity rover finds evidence of methane and organics on the Red Planet.
12m Dec 18, 2014
12m
The Best Science Books of 2014
Science writers Deborah Blum and Annalee Newitz join Ira to share their favorite science books of 2014.
26m Dec 11, 2014
26m
DIY Holiday Gift Hacks
Avoid the long lines and hack your holiday gifts, from homemade perfume to 3-D printed ornaments.
20m Dec 11, 2014
20m
Food Failures: Cookie Science Secrets
In this episode, Cooking for Geeks author Jeff Potter gives home bakers tips on how to achieve cookie perfection using different sugars, fats, and flours.
16m Dec 11, 2014
16m
Alan Alda Challenges Scientists to Answer: What Is Sleep?
Alan Alda’s “Flame Challenge” asks scientists to answer the big questions that keep them up at night to 11-year-olds around the world.
17m Dec 11, 2014
17m
Evidence Mounts for Liquid Water on Mars
NASA reveals new evidence for a large lake that could have existed for millions of years on Mars.
12m Dec 11, 2014
12m
How Long Does a President’s Legacy Last?
In 1991, 53 percent of students tested could recall Lyndon Johnson as the 36th president; that number dropped to 20 percent by 2009, according to a new study released in Science.
8m Dec 04, 2014
8m
Near City Streets, an Insect Cleaning Crew
Ants and other insects could be able to remove thousands of pounds of food waste from street medians and city parks each year.
9m Dec 04, 2014
9m
What’s Killing West Coast Starfish?
Scientists have linked an unprecedented starfish die-off along the West Coast to a virus.
7m Dec 04, 2014
7m
Test Launch Marks New Phase for NASA
NASA is in early stage test flights for Orion, its updated crew capsule, but the spaceflight landscape is changing.
17m Dec 04, 2014
17m
You Are ‘When’ You Eat
In mice, eating within an 8-12 hour window helped to prevent and even reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes.
12m Dec 04, 2014
12m
Paola Antonelli: ‘Design Is More Than Cute Chairs’
For MoMA curator Paola Antonelli, “design” includes computer interfaces, video games, and maker kits.
17m Dec 04, 2014
17m
Climate Deal or Not, Fight Against Global Warming Has Begun
Last year, for example, new solar plants outpaced coal installations in the U.S., and carbon-trading schemes across state and national borders have already begun.
22m Dec 04, 2014
22m
An Art Movement Where Art and Science Collide
In the new art movement “art-sci,” artists take inspiration from science, use scientific techniques in their artwork, and inspire new science.
17m Nov 27, 2014
17m
Does Your Genome Belong to Your Family, Too?
Should doctors share information about your risky genes with your family, since they, too, might harbor that suspect DNA sequence?
29m Nov 27, 2014
29m
Ig Nobel Prizes Salute Science’s Strange and Silly
In a Science Friday holiday tradition, we’re playing highlights from this year’s 24th First Annual Ig Nobel awards ceremony.
47m Nov 27, 2014
47m
Meet The Brain Scoop’s Emily Graslie
YouTube science star Emily Graslie takes viewers behind the scenes of natural history museums with “The Brain Scoop.”
12m Nov 20, 2014
12m
Into the Wormhole: The Science of 'Interstellar'
It’s a sci-fi epic set among black holes, wormholes, and tesseracts. But director Christopher Nolan and physicist Kip Thorne say Interstellar doesn’t break the laws of physics.
28m Nov 20, 2014
28m
Ghosts of Early Language May Linger in the Brain
Chinese adoptees living in Canada, who now speak only French, still process Chinese sounds as native speakers do, even if they have no conscious recall of word meaning.
12m Nov 20, 2014
12m
‘Hot’ for Turkey
Female wild turkeys parse the courtship performances of males to determine their genetic potential.
6m Nov 20, 2014
6m
Food Failures: The Science of Sides
Find out how to avoid Turkey Day trip-ups in the latest episode of our “Food Failures” series.
17m Nov 20, 2014
17m
Would You Trust a Robot to Schedule Your Life?
Given access to your Google calendar, a personal assistant named Amy will happily schedule all your appointments. The catch? She's a machine—a digital personal assistant.
17m Nov 20, 2014
17m
‘New Environmentalism’ Moves Beyond Pollution and Climate Change
Gus Speth, a longtime Washington insider, says it’s time to consider consumerism, economic instability, and a functional democracy as core environmental issues.
17m Nov 13, 2014
17m
Mining Wikipedia Data to Track Disease
By analyzing access to specific health-related pages on Wikipedia, researchers may be able to identify—or even forecast—potential disease outbreaks.
11m Nov 13, 2014
11m
Here Kitty, Kitty: The Genetics of Tame Animals
Researchers discuss the possible genetic underpinnings that make certain cats and rats tame.
18m Nov 13, 2014
18m
Horns, Claws, and Teeth: The Animal Weapons Arms Race
Doug Emlen, author of “Animal Weapons,” unpacks the evolutionary arms race that pushes horns, claws, teeth and other animal defenses to the extreme.
18m Nov 13, 2014
18m
Lacking Funding, Some Scientists Turn to the Crowd
Scientists frustrated by a lack of research dollars are turning to crowdfunding.
17m Nov 13, 2014
17m
The First Touchdown on a Comet
The European Space Agency’s Philae lander is the first probe to touch down on a comet.
12m Nov 13, 2014
12m
George Washington Carver: Renaissance Man
Carver was a painter, singer, and piano teacher, taught farmers the virtues of crop rotation, and developed hundreds of recipes for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans and pecans.
17m Nov 06, 2014
17m
Spilling Our Guts: Decreased Diversity in the Human Microbiome
How can hospital stays and the evolution from apes to humans change the diversity of our microbiome?
17m Nov 06, 2014
17m
Opening Up the Synthetic Biology Toolkit
Synthetic biologist Christopher Voigt and biotechnologist Stephen Streatfield discuss current trends in synthetic biology.
18m Nov 06, 2014
18m
Piecing Together the Puzzle of Insect Evolution
One hundred researchers studied 144 insect species to fill in the blanks of insects’ evolutionary history.
12m Nov 06, 2014
12m
Apple Science, From American Beauty to Zestar
Between new crosses and old heritage varieties, there’s a world of apples beyond the Red Delicious.
22m Nov 06, 2014
22m
U.S. High-Speed Internet Lags Behind on Price, Cost
For less than $40 a month, residents of Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Bucharest, and Paris can enjoy lightning-fast Internet download and upload speeds of 1,000 Mbps.
12m Nov 06, 2014
12m
Could This 3-D Printer Print Itself?
This week, HP announced its new 3-D printer, which it claims can print materials strong enough to lift up a car—and do it 10 times faster than anything on the market today.
9m Oct 30, 2014
9m
Ebola Vaccines Fast-Tracked As Outbreak Slows
Jon Cohen, a staff writer covering the outbreak for Science magazine, says that despite the vaccines’ success in monkeys, their efficacy in humans is far from guaranteed.
13m Oct 30, 2014
13m
Behind the Monster Music: Why Some Tunes Scare Us
Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin and Sound Opinions co-host Jim DeRogatis discuss the neuroscience of spooky songs.
18m Oct 30, 2014
18m
A Haunted House Turned Scientists’ Lab
Scientists turn Pittsburgh’s ScareHouse into a real-world lab to discover why some brains thrive on fear.
18m Oct 30, 2014
18m
Doctors ‘Unwrap’ a 3,000-Year-Old Mummy
Radiologists use CT scans to piece together the life, and death, of Egyptian mummies.
13m Oct 30, 2014
13m
Creature Double Feature
Witness two tales that will make your skin crawl and your mind reel with fear and curiosity.
8m Oct 30, 2014
8m
Countering Memory Loss With Cocoa Compounds
Researchers try to counteract age-related memory decline with cocoa flavanols.
8m Oct 30, 2014
8m
Scientists Sniff Smelly Comet
The Rosetta spacecraft has detected the scent of a comet...and it stinks.
9m Oct 30, 2014
9m
Fossil Find Pushes Back Neanderthal-Human Mixing
Researchers say a leg bone discovered in a Siberian river bank belongs to a man who lived some 45,000 years ago.
7m Oct 23, 2014
7m
Making a Meal From a Mouthful of Seawater
A manta ray can filter 240 gallons of seawater per minute.
9m Oct 23, 2014
9m
You Observed...Everything
The Science Club meets to discuss your observations of the world around you, from spider habitats to lunar eclipses.
25m Oct 23, 2014
25m
Hand Sanitizer May Increase BPA Absorption
Hand sanitizer and similar products could increase the amount of BPA absorbed by the skin.
12m Oct 23, 2014
12m
Meet ‘The Innovators’ Who Made the Digital Revolution
Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators shows how the digital revolution was a team effort.
27m Oct 23, 2014
27m
Nerve Transplant Allows Paralyzed Man to Move Legs Again
The pioneering treatment uses cells from the nasal cavity and strips of nerve from the ankle to repair a spinal injury.
12m Oct 23, 2014
12m
Is Your ‘Priceless’ Painting a Fake? Better Ask a Scientist
Techniques from physics and chemistry can help scientists and art historians sniff out art forgeries.
15m Oct 16, 2014
15m
The 'First' Battle of Gas Versus Electric
As plug-in electric vehicles struggle to carve out a slice of today's auto market, it's worth remembering the first such battle—at the turn of the 1900s.
11m Oct 16, 2014
11m