Science Magazine Podcast - podcast cover

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Magazinewww.science.org
Weekly podcasts from Science Magazine, the world's leading journal of original scientific research, global news, and commentary.

Episodes

Podcast: Tracking rats in a city slum, the giraffe genome, and watching human evolution in action

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on finding clues to giraffes’ height in their genomes, evidence that humans are still evolving from massive genome projects, and studies that infect humans with diseases on purpose. Warren Cornwall joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss an intense study of slum-dwelling rats. [Image: Mauricio Susin] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 19, 201622 min

Podcast: Rocky remnants of early Earth, plants turned predator, and a new artificial second skin

Online News Editor Catherine Matacic shares stories how the Venus flytrap turned to the meat-eating side, a new clingy polymer film that shrinks up eye bags, and survey results on who pirates scientific papers and why. Hanika Rizo joins Julia Rosen to discuss evidence that parts of Earth have remained unchanged since the planet formed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 12, 201622 min

Podcast: Why animal personalities matter, killer whale sanctuaries, and the key to making fraternal twins

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on a proposal for an orca sanctuary in the sea, the genes behind conceiving fraternal twins, and why CRISPR won’t be fixing the sick anytime soon. Elizabeth Pennisi joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss bold birds, shy spiders, and the importance of animal personality. [Image: Judy Gallagher] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 05, 201628 min

Podcast: Patent trolls, the earthquake-volcano link, and obesity in China

Online News Editor Catherine Matacic shares stories on howearthquakes may trigger volcanic eruptions, growing obesity in China’s children, and turning salty watersweet on the cheap. Lauren Cohen joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the rise of patenttrolls in the United States and a proposal for cutting back ontheir sizable profits. [Image: © Alberto Garcia/Corbis] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 28, 201631 min

Podcast: Sizing up a baby dino, jolting dead brains, and dirty mice

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on a possibledebunking of a popular brain stimulation technique, using “dirty” mice in the lab to simulate the human immune system, and how South American monkeys’ earliest ancestors used rafts to get to Central America. Kristi Curry Rogers joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss insights into dinosaur growth patterns from the bones of a baby titanosaur found in Madagascar. Read the research. [Image: K. Curry Rogers et al./Science] Learn more about your a...

Apr 21, 201627 min

Podcast: Tracking Zika, the evolution of sign language, and changing hearts and minds with social science

Online news editor Catherine Matacic shares stories on the evolution of sign language, short conversations than can change minds on social issues, and finding the one-in-a-million people who seem to be resistant to certain genetic diseases—even if they carry genes for them. Nuno Faria joins host Sarah Crespi to explain how genomic analysis can track Zika’s entry date into Brazil and follow its spread. [Image: r.a. olea/Flickr] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 14, 201623 min

Podcast: Spreading cancer, sacrificing humans, and transplanting organs

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on evidence for the earth being hit by supernovae, record-breaking xenotransplantation, and winning friends and influencing people with human sacrifice. Staff news writer Jocelyn Kaiser joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how small membrane-bound packets called “exosomes” might pave the way for cancer cells to move into new territory in the body. [Image: Val Altounian/Science] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 07, 201621 min

Podcast: Building a portable drug factory, mapping yeast globally, and watching cliffs crumble

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on yeasty hitchhikers, sunlight-induced rockfalls, and the tiniest gravity sensor. Andrea Adamo joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a revolutionary way of making drugs using a portable, on-demand, and reconfigurable drug factory. [Image: Tom Evans] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 31, 201622 min

Podcast: Battling it out in the Bronze Age, letting go of orcas, and evolving silicon-based life

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on SeaWorld’s plans for killer whales, the first steps toward silicon-based life, and the ripple effect of old dads on multiple generations. Andrew Curry joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a grisly find in Northern Germany that suggests Bronze Age northern Europe was more organized and more violent than thought. [Image: ANDESAMT FÜR KULTUR UND DENKMALPFLEGE MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN/LANDESARCHÄOLOGIE/S. SUHR ] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...

Mar 24, 201628 min

Podcast: The latest news from Pluto, a rock-eating fungus, and tracking storm damage with Twitter

News intern Nala Rogers shares stories on mineral-mining microbes, mapping hurricane damage using social media, and the big takeaway from the latest human-versus-computer match up. Hal Weaver joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss five papers from New Horizons Pluto flyby, including a special focus on Pluto’s smaller moons. [Image: Saran_Poroong/iStockphoto] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 17, 201626 min

Podcast: Nuclear forensics, honesty in a sea of lies, and how sliced meat drove human evolution

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on the influence of governmental corruption on the honesty of individuals, what happened when our ancestors cut back on the amount of time spent chewing food, and how plants use sand to grind herbivores‘ gears. Science’s International News Editor Rich Stone joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss his forensics story on how to track down the culprits after a nuclear detonation. [Image: Miroslav Boskov] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

Mar 10, 201628 min

Podcast: Glowing robot skin, zombie frogs, and viral fossils in our DNA

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on zombification by a frog-killing fungus, relating the cosmological constant to life in the universe, and ancient viral genes that protect us from illness. Chris Larson joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss a new type of robot skin that can stretch and glow. [Image: Jungbae Park] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 03, 201626 min

Podcast: A recipe for clean and tasty drinking water, a gauge on rapidly rising seas, and fake flowers that can fool the most discerning insects

Online News Editor Catherine Matacic shares stories on what we can learn from 6million years of climate data, how to make lifelike orchids with 3D printing, and crowdsourced gender bias on eBay. Fernando Rosario-Ortiz joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how approaches to water purification differ between countries. [Image: Eric Hunt/Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0]0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 25, 201627 min

Podcast: Combatting malnutrition with gut microbes, fighting art forgers with science, and killing cancer with gold

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on how our abilities shape our minds, killing cancer cells with gold nanoparticles, and catching art forgery with cat hair. Laura Blanton joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss how nourishing our gut microbes may prevent malnutrition. Read the related research in Science. [Image: D. S. Wagner et al., Biomaterials, 31 (2010)] Authors: Sarah Crespi; David Grimm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 18, 201624 min

Podcast: The effects of Neandertal DNA on health, squishing bugs for science, and sleepy confessions

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on confessions extracted from sleepy people, malaria hiding out in deer, and making squishable bots based on cockroaches. Corinne Simonti joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss whether Neandertal DNA in the human genome is helping or hurting. Read the related research in Science. [Image: Tom Libby, Kaushik Jayaram and Pauline Jennings. Courtesy of PolyPEDAL Lab UC Berkeley.] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 11, 201622 min

Podcast: Taking race out of genetics, a cellular cleanse for longer life, and smart sweatbands

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on killing cells to lengthen life, getting mom’s microbes after a C-section, and an advanced fitness tracker that sits on the wrist and sips sweat. Michael Yudell joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss an initiative to replace race in genetics with more biologically meaningful terms, and Lena Wilfert talks about drivers of the global spread of the bee-killing deformed wing virus. [Image: Vipin Baliga/(CC BY 2.0)] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

Feb 04, 201631 min

Podcast: Babylonian astronomers, doubly domesticated cats, and outrunning a T. Rex

Online news editor David Grimm shares stories on 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex tracks, a signature of human consciousness, and a second try at domesticating cats. Mathieu Ossendrijver joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss newly translated Babylonian tablets that extend the roots of calculus all the way back to between 350 B.C.E. to 50 B.C.E. Read the related research in Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 28, 201627 min

Podcast: A planet beyond Pluto, the bugs in your home, and the link between marijuana and IQ

Online News Editor David Grimm shares stories on studying marijuana use in teenage twins, building a better maze for psychological experiments, and a close inspection of the bugs in our homes. Science News Writer Eric Hand joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss the potential for a ninth planet in the solar system that circles the sun just once every 15,000 years. [Image: Gilles San Martin/CC BY-SA 2.0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 21, 201619 min

Podcast: Wounded mammoths, brave birds, bright bulbs, and more

In this week’s podcast, David Grimm talks about brave birds, building a brighter light bulb, and changing our voice to influence our emotions. Plus, Ann Gibbons discusses the implications of a butchered 45,000-year-old mammoth found in the Siberian arctic for human migration. Read the related research in Science. [IMG: Dmitry Bogdanov] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 14, 201617 min

Podcast: Dancing dinosaurs, naked black holes, and more

What stripped an unusual black hole of its stars? Can a bipolar drug change ant behavior? And did dinosaurs dance to woo mates? Science's Online News Editor David Grimm chats about these stories and more with Science's Multimedia Producer Sarah Crespi. Plus,Science's Emily Underwood wades into the muddled world of migraine research, and Jessica Metcalf talks about using modern microbial means to track mammalian decomposition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jan 08, 201633 min

The Science breakthrough of the year, readers' choice, and the top news from 2015.

Robert Coontz discusses Science's 2015 Breakthrough of the Year and runners-up, from visions of Pluto to the discovery of a previously unknown human species. Online news editor David Grimm reviews the top news stories of the past year with Sarah Crespi. Hosted by Susanne Bard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 17, 201540 min

Artificial intelligence programs that learn concepts based on just a few examples and a daily news roundup

Brenden Lake discusses a new computational model that rivals the human ability to learn new concepts based on just a single example; David Grimm talks about attracting cockroaches, searching for habitable planets, and looking to street dogs to learn about domestication. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: Rodrigo Basaure CC BY 2.0, via flickr] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 10, 201525 min

How our gut microbiota change as we age and a daily news roundup

Paul O'Toole discusses what happens to our gut microbes as we age; David Grimm talks about competent grandmas, our tilted moon, and gender in the brain. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: Dhinakaran Gajavarathan CC BY 2.0, via flickr] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dec 03, 201529 min

Can "big data" from mobile phones pinpoint pockets of poverty? And a news roundup

Joshua Blumenstock discusses patterns of mobile phone use as a source of "big data" about wealth and poverty in developing countries; David Grimm talks about gene drives, helpful parasites, and electric roses. Hosted by Sarah Crespi. [Img: A.A. JAMES] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 26, 201529 min

Bioengineering functional vocal cords and a daily news roundup

Jennifer Long explains how scientists have engineered human vocal cords; Catherine Matacic talks about vanquishing a deadly amphibian fungus, pigeons that spot cancer, and more. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: Jaime Bosch MNCN-CSIC] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 19, 201528 min

The consequences of mass extinction and a daily news roundup

Lauren Sallan discusses the consequences of a mass extinction event 359 million years ago on vertebrate body size; David Grimm talks about grandma's immune system, gambling on studies, and killer genes. Hosted by Sarah Crespi. [Img: Robert Nicholls] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 12, 201521 min

The evolution of Mars' atmosphere and a daily news roundup

Bruce Jakosky discusses where Mars' once-thick, CO2-ish atmosphere went and the first data from the MAVEN mission to study the Red Planet; David Grimm talks about worm allergies, fake fingerprints, and toilets for all. Hosted by Sarah Crespi. [Img: NASA] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nov 05, 201524 min

The origins of biodiversity in the Amazon and a daily news roundup

Lizzie Wade discusses whether the amazing biodiversity of the Amazon Basin was the result of massive flooding, or the uplift of the Andes mountain range. David Grimm talks about microbes aboard the International Space Station, the fate of juvenile giant ground sloths during the Pleistocene, and singing classes as social glue. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: ©Jason Houston] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 29, 201532 min

The neuroscience of reversing blindness and a daily news roundup

Rhitu Chatterjee discusses Project Prakash and the neuroscience behind reversing blindness in children, teenagers, and adults in rural India; David Grimm talks about where dogs came from, when life first evolved, and holes in the brain. Hosted by Susanne Bard. [Img: Francois de Halleux CC BY-NC-ND 2.0] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 22, 201533 min

Pluto's mysteries revealed and a daily news roundup

Alan Stern discusses the first scientific results from the New Horizons July 14 flyby of Pluto, which revealed details about the dwarf planet's geology, surface composition, and atmosphere; Catherine Matacic talks about dino temps, Paleo-sleeping, and editing pig organs. Hosted by Sarah Crespi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 15, 201526 min