Four years ago this week , the world as we know it changed. Schools shut down, offices shuttered, and we hunkered down at home with our Purell and canned foods, trying to stay safe from a novel, deadly coronavirus. Back then most of us couldn’t fathom just how long the pandemic would stretch on. And now four years later, some 1.2 million people have died in the U.S alone and nearly 7 million have been hospitalized as a result of a COVID-19 infection, according to the CDC. So, what have we learne...
Mar 20, 2024•18 min•Ep. 732
Think about the best meal you’ve ever eaten: Maybe it was in a restaurant in a far-off city, or perhaps it was a home-cooked meal made by someone you love. No matter where or what it was, odds are what made it so memorable was the flavor. Flavor is arguably the most important part of a meal. If the flavor of something is off, or undetectable, it can jeopardize your enjoyment. There’s a lot of chemistry and biological science behind how and what we taste. Flavorama: A Guide to Unlocking the Art a...
Mar 19, 2024•18 min•Ep. 733
Roe v. Wade was overturned almost two years ago, and a lot has changed in terms of abortion choices in the United States. Some states have effectively banned abortion, while others have such confusing laws that it’s difficult for the people who live there to know what their reproductive rights are. The post-Dobbs landscape hasn’t just affected the care people can receive: It’s also changed where physicians choose to work, especially if they’re in states where they can be criminally prosecuted fo...
Mar 18, 2024•18 min•Ep. 729
A recent study looked into life-threatening Acanthamoeba infections, and a few deaths, linked to the use of tap water with devices like neti pots. And, in ‘The Balanced Brain,’ Dr. Camilla Nord explores the neuroscience behind mental health, and how our brains deal with life’s challenges. Scientists Warn Against Nasal Rinsing With Unboiled Tap Water Researchers at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention published a study Wednesday that examined 10 cases of life-threatening Acanthamoeba in...
Mar 15, 2024•25 min•Ep. 730
It’s a common refrain from elementary school to adulthood: “I’m bad at math.” It’s a hard subject for a lot of people, and it has a reputation for being—let’s face it—boring. Math isn’t taught in a flashy way in schools, and its emphasis on memorization for key concepts like multiplication tables and equations can discourage students. It’s not hard to understand why: Math has long been seen as a boy’s club, and a straight, cis boy’s club at that. But Kyne Santos , a drag queen based in Kitchener...
Mar 14, 2024•18 min•Ep. 726
Humans need sufficient sleep to function. The conventional wisdom is that we need around 8 hours each night to be at peak performance. But for people with idiopathic hypersomnia , or IH, no amount of sleep can shake a profound feeling of sleepiness. Some can sleep for over 24 hours, despite using stimulants and multiple alarm clocks. Others fall asleep while driving or doing other daily activities. IH is rare. It affects just a small fraction of 1% of people, and the underlying cause is unknown ...
Mar 13, 2024•17 min•Ep. 725
How Election Science Can Support Democracy This week, the election season shifted into full gear with the Super Tuesday slate of primaries. But as the ballot options become more cemented, it’s not just pollsters and campaign operatives who are preparing for the elections—scientists are too. The Union of Concerned Scientists has established what it calls an election science task force , looking at everything from ballot design to disinformation to voting security. Dr. Jennifer Jones, program dire...
Mar 12, 2024•19 min•Ep. 724
Could A Planet Like Arrakis From ‘Dune’ Exist? “Dune: Part II” is one of the year’s most highly anticipated films, and it picks up where the first film left off: with Paul Atreides escaping into the desert on the planet Arrakis . It’s a scorching-hot world that’s covered in dunes, and home to giant, deadly sandworms. Obviously “Dune” and its setting are fictional, but could there be a real planet that resembles Arrakis? And if so, could it sustain life? Ira talks with Dr. Mike Wong, astrobiologi...
Mar 11, 2024•31 min•Ep. 728
In 1977, NASA launched Voyager 1 and 2. Their mission? To explore the farthest reaches of our galaxy. Their missions were only supposed to last about four years, but it’s been almost 50. They’re now in interstellar space , navigating the region between stars. But since November, Voyager 1 has been sending unintelligible data back to Earth, raising concerns that it could be nearing the end of its mission . Ira talks with Maggie Koerth, science writer and editorial lead at Carbon Plan, about Voyag...
Mar 08, 2024•13 min•Ep. 727
For many people in the US, the threat of nuclear weapons is out of sight and out of mind. But the nuclear complex is alive and well. In fact, the state of nuclear weapons is evolving in the US. The United States, among other countries, is giving its nuclear arsenal—which contains about 5,000 weapons—a makeover. This modernization costs around $50 billion a year, which will amount to more than $1.5 trillion over the next few decades. With the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in ...
Mar 07, 2024•17 min•Ep. 723
"I heard elders talk about 'the shakes,' but I now know that language reflects deep historical inequities that have denied us access to healthcare, knowledge, and research that could help us alleviate burdens and strengthen our health—enough with the shakes!" —Senegal Alfred Mabry, in Cell Parkinson’s disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the United States. According to a 2022 study, some 90,000 people a year in the US are diagnosed with Parkinson’s. It’s a progressive ...
Mar 06, 2024•18 min•Ep. 722
In the trees, through the water, and under the dirt: Snakes evolve faster than their lizard relatives, allowing them to occupy diverse niches. Also, researchers are working to understand just how baleen whales are able to produce their haunting songs. Snakes Are Evolutionary Superstars Love ‘em or hate ‘em, new research shows that snakes deserve our recognition as evolutionary superstars. The study, published last week in the journal Science, found that snakes evolve faster than other reptiles, ...
Mar 05, 2024•25 min•Ep. 721
The United States eliminated measles back in 2000, but it still pops up every now and then. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 35 measles cases across 15 states had been reported this year as of February 22. Early last month, a measles outbreak began at an elementary school in Broward County, in southern Florida. As of February 28, the Florida Department of Health reported 9 cases for Broward County—out of 10 for the whole state. Measles is one of the most in...
Mar 04, 2024•18 min•Ep. 720
The Greek philosopher Pythagoras had specific ideas about the mathematical ratios behind music. It turns out that he was wrong. Also, the charcoal-like substance known as biochar packs carbon into a stable form, making it less likely to escape into the atmosphere. Pythagoras Was Wrong About Music The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras proposed a mathematical argument for what music sounds best to the ear: According to legend, he said listeners preferred music with chords adhering to perfect ma...
Mar 01, 2024•19 min•Ep. 719
Almost 70 years ago—in the middle of the Cold War—the United States and the Soviet Union kicked off the race to space, and that high-stakes sprint transformed humanity’s relationship with space forever. Ultimately the USSR launched the first satellite, Sputnik, and the U.S. put the first humans on the moon. Now we’re in a different space race . But this time, there are a lot more contenders. There are more satellites in orbit than ever before, NASA is trying to put humans on Mars, countries are ...
Feb 29, 2024•18 min•Ep. 718
Sharks are somewhat notorious for their sense of smell and ability to sniff out prey deep in the ocean. There’s that persistent myth that sharks can smell a drop of human blood from a mile away. But that’s not exactly true. While sharks can smell human blood, they are more interested in sniffing out what’s for dinner: other fish, crustaceans, and molluscs. Ocean currents also play a role in how far a scent can travel. However, shark noses are just as powerful as any other fish in the sea. SciFri...
Feb 28, 2024•18 min•Ep. 717
How can some people recall random facts so easily? It may have to do with what else they remember about the moment they learned the information. Also, in Kenya, an invading ant species pushed out ants that protected acacia trees. That had cascading effects for elephants, zebras, lions, and buffalo. A ‘Jeopardy!’ Winner Studied How Trivia Experts Recall Facts When contestants play “Jeopardy!,” it can be amazing to see how quickly they seem to recall even the most random, obscure facts. One multi-...
Feb 27, 2024•25 min•Ep. 714
OpenAI, the company behind the chatbot ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E, unveiled its newest generative AI product last week, called Sora , which can produce extremely realistic video from just a text prompt. In one example released by the company, viewers follow a drone’s-eye view of a couple walking hand-in-hand through snowy Tokyo streets. In another, a woman tosses and turns in bed as her cat paws at her. Unless you’re an eagle-eyed AI expert, it’s nearly impossible to distinguish thes...
Feb 26, 2024•17 min•Ep. 716
Private Spacecraft Makes Historic Moon Landing Thursday evening, the Odysseus moon lander successfully soft-landed on the moon, becoming the first U.S spacecraft to do so in over 50 years. The lander mission wasn’t created by NASA or another government space agency, but by the company Intuitive Machines, making it the first commercial mission to successfully soft-land on the surface of the moon. The mission was part of a NASA program called the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program, which ai...
Feb 23, 2024•19 min•Ep. 715
The field of chemistry is filled with visual experiences, from molecular diagrams to color-changing reactions to data displayed as peaks and waves on a spectrograph. Those experiences and representations are not very accessible to blind and low-vision people. In a recent article in the journal Science Advances , a group of researchers describes using 3D printing to create translucent raised images known as lithophanes that can represent high-resolution chemical data in a tactile and visual form ...
Feb 22, 2024•17 min•Ep. 713
The explosion of AI-powered chatbots and image generators, like ChatGPT and DALL-E , over the past two years is changing the way we interact with technology. Their impressive abilities to generate lifelike images from written instructions or write an essay on the topic of your choosing can seem a bit like magic. But that “magic” comes at a steep environmental cost , researchers are learning. The data centers used to power these models consume an enormous amount of not just electricity, but also ...
Feb 21, 2024•18 min•Ep. 712
How Do You Know If A Feathered Dinosaur Could Fly? Not all birds can fly. Penguins, ostriches, and kiwis are some famous examples. It’s pretty easy to figure out if a living bird can fly. But it’s a bit tricker when it comes to extinct birds or bird ancestors, like dinosaurs. Remember, all birds are dinosaurs, but not all dinosaurs evolved into birds. Scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum wanted to figure out if there was a way to tell if a dinosaur could fly or not . They found that the number a...
Feb 20, 2024•23 min•Ep. 711
Climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann won a defamation lawsuit against two conservative writers last week. The verdict was 12 years in the making. In 2012 writers Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn accused Mann of manipulating his data related to his famous 1998 “hockey stick” graph, which depicts rising global temperatures after the industrial revolution. Simberg compared him to former Penn State football coach and convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky in a blog post for a libertarian think tank. Ste...
Feb 19, 2024•18 min•Ep. 710
If successful, Odysseus will be the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon since the Apollo mission. And, in East Palestine, Ohio, the stream that flows under residents’ houses is still polluted following a train derailment and chemical spill. Odysseus Lander Is On Its Way To The Moon Just after 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, February 15, SpaceX successfully launched a commercial spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its destination? The moon. If the lander—named Odysseus—makes it a...
Feb 16, 2024•21 min•Ep. 709
Over the past few years, many cities around the world have changed dramatically as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with shifts in office use and commuting patterns as well as where people choose to live, work, and play. But there are other major changes to communities on the horizon as well—such as the need to adapt to the changing climate and sea level rise, and move urban infrastructure away from dependence on fossil fuels. Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins are co-CEOs of Gensler, a global archi...
Feb 15, 2024•18 min•Ep. 708
Looking into space can be pretty daunting. How do we make sense of the vast expanse above our heads, the millions of stars we might be able to see, and the billions more we can’t? Now, what about listening to space ? That’s the task that Sam Harnett and Chris Hoff gave themselves, for their series “Cosmic Visions.” They’re the team behind “ The World According to Sound, ” a podcast that’s brought our listeners close to the sounds of science over the last few years. This new series takes listener...
Feb 14, 2024•18 min•Ep. 707
Colorectal Cancer Rates Are Rising In Young People Gastrointestinal medicine practitioners have noticed something strange in recent years: More and more young people are being diagnosed with colorectal cancer. It used to be incredibly rare for anyone under the age of 50 to be diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Cases were generally limited to people with excess weight who live a sedentary lifestyle. But practitioners are increasingly seeing people in their 40s, 30s, and even 20s without prior risk...
Feb 13, 2024•24 min•Ep. 706
Uché Blackstock always knew she wanted to be a doctor. Her mother was a physician at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Uché and her twin sister, Oni, would often visit their mother at work, watching her take care of patients. And they loved to play with their mother’s doctor’s bag. The sisters went on to become the first Black mother-daughter legacy students to graduate from Harvard Medical School. SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Uché Blackstock, emergency physician and ...
Feb 12, 2024•18 min•Ep. 705
Hycean planets were thought to be covered by oceans of water, but a new study suggests it could be magma instead. And, author Rafi Kohan explains the psychological and physiological responses to trash talk, ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. Faraway Planets Could Have Oceans Of Magma Far beyond our solar system are hycean planets —planets that have hydrogen-rich atmospheres and are covered in giant oceans. Scientists have long believed that those oceans were made of water, but a new study throws a wren...
Feb 09, 2024•20 min•Ep. 704
A new study uses artificial intelligence to show that each of our ten fingerprints are remarkably similar to one another. Plus, honey could be the secret ingredient in building a more eco-friendly “memristor,” which transmits data through malleable pathways. Is Each Fingerprint On Your Hand Unique? We often think about each fingerprint as being completely unique, like a snowflake on the tip of your finger. But a new study shows that maybe each person’s fingerprints are more similar to each other...
Feb 08, 2024•19 min•Ep. 701
