Science Friday
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Science Friday
Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff.
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The decades-long movement to kill FEMA
Hurricane season officially begins in June. And in the event of a big storm, local and state governments often rely on help from the Federal Emergency...
What cats and dogs hear + A 'smell map' of the nose
Animal neuroaudiologist Pete Scheifele joins us to answer some burning questions from SciFri listener Paul: Why can dogs and cats hear a wider range o...
How do you study microplastics in a plastic-filled lab?
The news we hear about plastic is often alarming: We have a spoon’s worth of plastics in our brains, and there are microplastics in our hearts, lymph...
What is ibogaine, and why is it in the news?
In mid-April, President Trump issued an executive order to set aside funding and loosen the bureaucratic process at the FDA to fast-track psychedelic...
The long history of birds, from velociraptors to pigeons
Comparing a backyard sparrow to a fearsome velociraptor seems odd, but modern birds are indeed living dinosaurs. Scientists are finding more and more...
Your DNA is constantly mutating, and that’s a good thing
Our bodily systems are rife with mutations. In fact, your DNA is mutating right now. These errors, and attempts to repair them, are a key to understan...
Maine nearly became the first state to ban data centers
Data centers make controversial neighbors: They’re loud, they use a lot of water, and can drive electricity prices up. Following public concern and or...
What urban design tells us about democracy
The way ancient societies like the Greeks, Maya, and Khmer Empire built their cities can tell us a lot about how a place was governed. Did rulers live...
Listening for the cosmic ‘dark ages,’ from the lunar far side
What did the universe look like before any stars turned on? Astronomers call that time the “dark ages,” and while they think it may be possible to see...
How do you describe nature? Two poets help us
To mark Earth Day, we asked you to tell us about your favorite places on the planet. You took us to the woods near Traverse City, Michigan, to a lake...
The lucky breaks that make our Earth home
What makes Earth special, and why are we here at all? In his book “Why Do We Exist? The Nine Realms of the Universe That Make You Possible,” astrophys...
How New Jersey tamped down PFAS in drinking water
Nearly all Americans have some type of PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals,” in their blood. The chemicals, which are linked to numerous health...
How a particle accelerator illuminated 56 human organs
A new imaging technique using a particle accelerator is giving researchers an unprecedented level of detail of our organs, producing scans 100 billion...
Simone Giertz’s journey from robot comedy to high-end design
In the 2010s, inventor Simone Giertz (pronounced “Yetch”) began making videos that straddled the line between practical and absurd. What if you had a...
When a dolphin whistles, what does it mean?
What are dolphins actually saying with their iconic, high-pitched whistles? Dolphin communication researcher Laela Sayigh is trying to find out. She’s...
Inside the lives of astronauts’ families
“This was not easy, being 200,000+ miles away from home. Like before you launch, it feels like it's the greatest dream on earth. And when you're out t...
Green stuff, brown stuff: Secrets to a great compost pile
If you’re a gardener, thinking about getting your soil in shape probably means thinking about compost. But composting can be a mysterious process. Wha...
Why so many studies can’t be replicated
How do we know what we know? That's where science comes in—it gives us a method for testing our ideas and getting trustworthy results. But some resear...
How a sound designer gave an alien its voice (and 250 words)
Movies may be a largely visual medium, but sound plays a huge role in setting tone, creating new worlds, and fleshing out characters. Sound designer E...
Can GLP-1 drugs treat addiction?
GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound are prescribed for weight loss, diabetes, and blood-sugar management. But as more people use them, pati...
What a sperm whale’s birth tells us about whale culture
Scientists recently published the first footage of a sperm whale birth, and it was a crowded ordeal. More than 10 other sperm whales were there for th...
Is the US backing out of the electric vehicle market?
Last year, Chinese carmaker BYD sold millions of electric vehicles, overtaking Tesla to become the world’s biggest seller of EV cars. And BYD cars wer...
Can algae help pull microplastics out of our water supply?
Microplastics and nanoplastics have been found just about everywhere: in our soil, our bodies, and our water. Recent research involving bioengineered...
Artemis II test flight heads toward the moon
On Wednesday, NASA’s Artemis II mission launched, kicking off on a roughly 10-day trip that will carry four astronauts around the moon and back to Ear...
Should Pluto be a planet again?
In 2006, a vote by the International Astronomical Union determined that Pluto was no longer a planet. The decision sparked a heated public debate, and...
How to poop better, according to a gastroenterologist
For many of us, what happens in the bathroom stays in the bathroom: According to a recent survey, 1 in 3 Americans are too embarrassed to talk about t...
Harnessing the superpowers of silk
A listener recently called in asking how they might get a pair of functioning web shooters so they could operate as a local Spider-Man. While web shoo...
CERN finds a new particle + News alerts for the cosmos
Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland have announced that they discovered a new subatomic particle. Roughly four times more massive...
Move over, vibe-coding. Vibe-proving is here for math
When ChatGPT first came onto the scene, it wowed users with its writing abilities, but drew laughs for generating images of seven-fingered hands and s...
Is Punch the monkey really just like us?
When Punch the monkey was abandoned by his mother, zookeepers gave him a surrogate and unexpected source of comfort: a stuffed animal. Videos of Punch...
Could bird flu still spark a pandemic?
Bird flu has flown off the national news radar, with only scattered, local reports of dead birds in parks and poultry farms. Is it simply no longer a...
The secret powers of flowers
Flowers peeking up through the soil are a welcome sight after a long cold winter—and are one of the first markers of spring. Biologist David George Ha...
Apple: trying to think different for 50 years
The Apple Computer Company was founded on April 1, 1976, and in the 50 years since, the company has evolved from a handful of Silicon Valley misfits t...
‘Project Hail Mary’ brings a new kind of alien to the big screen
Science fiction nerds, rejoice: the long-awaited adaptation of “Project Hail Mary” is in theaters now. Host Flora Lichtman chats with book author Andy...
Building a digital ant gallery, from the ground up
A project called Antscan has generated high resolution images of thousands of ants, representing over 700 species. To make it happen, researchers brou...
The heaviness and (not) hope of climate change
For decades, renowned environmental writer Elizabeth Kolbert has taken readers to remote corners of the planet to understand how all life is connected...
Could a ‘digital twin’ help you get better health care?
There’s an idea bubbling up in medicine called the “digital twin.” The concept is to take personal health data like genetics, blood test results, tiss...
Who uses Farmers’ Almanacs? + Zebra finch home design
Farmers’ Almanacs have been around for hundreds of years, offering detailed advice about things like the best time to plant certain crops, and when to...
Slow Breaking News: A Giant Tortoise Revival
In February, conservationists released 158 young tortoises onto Floreana Island in the Galapagos. The Floreana tortoise subspecies had long been thoug...
How Is AI Being Used In The Iran War?
The military use of AI is capturing headlines this month. After a dustup with the Pentagon, the AI company Anthropic is out, and OpenAI is in. Meanwhi...