No, Covid-19 Vaccines Won't Make You Magnetic. Here's Why
No matter how many videos you’ve seen of people sticking spoons to their faces, that’s just not how magnets work. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jul 06, 2021•8 min
Science, Spoken
Get in-depth coverage of current and future trends in technology, and how they are shaping business, entertainment, communications, science, politics, and society.
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Episodes
The Mystery of Betelgeuse's Dimming Has Finally Been Solved
Astronomers say a cold patch and a stellar burp are behind the star's strange dip in brightness. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jul 05, 2021•7 min
The Delta Variant and Low Vaccine Rates Could Spell Trouble
Vaccines are effective against the variant, but experts worry about states where fewer people are inoculated. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jul 02, 2021•6 min
A Clever Robot Spies on Creatures in the Ocean's ‘Twilight Zone’
Mesobot looks like a giant AirPods case, but it's in fact a sophisticated machine that tracks animals making the most epic migration on Earth. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jul 01, 2021•7 min
The Challenge of Covid-19 Vaccines for the Immunosuppressed
Recent studies find transplant patients and immune-suppressed people who get the shot don’t make many antibodies. But that research is just beginning. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 30, 2021•14 min
How Do You Make a Robot Walk on Mars? It's a Steep Challenge
Meet SpaceBok, a little four-legged machine that's taking the first steps toward walking on the Red Planet's brutal terrain. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 29, 2021•10 min
How to Protect Species and Save the Planet—at Once
A major new report calls on humanity to tackle the biodiversity and climate crises simultaneously. Here's what that might look like. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 28, 2021•10 min
A New Way to Understand the Brain's Intricate Rhythm
Researchers have found evidence in humans that individual neurons time their firing to a deeper beat. But there’s a mystery: What does it mean? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 25, 2021•10 min
A Zombie-Fire Outbreak May Be Growing in the North
“Overwintering” fires smolder under the snow, reigniting vegetation in the spring. New research shows the zombies may proliferate in a warmer world. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 24, 2021•8 min
How Risky Is It to Send Jeff Bezos to the Edge of Space?
Today's commercial spacecraft have a safety advantage, thanks to simpler designs and suborbital missions. But with rockets, nothing is certain. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 23, 2021•10 min
A New Way to Shape Metal Nanoparticles—With a Magnetic Field
Making the tiny nanoparticles used in everything from electronics to paint isn't easy. But a new experiment creates order out of chaos. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 22, 2021•8 min
Tour Clothes Spew Microfibers Before They’re Even Clothes
The clothing supply chain releases some 265 million pounds of microfibers that wash into the environment each year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 21, 2021•9 min
The Drought Is Making the Klamath River’s Baby Salmon Sick
Dry conditions are worsening a warm-water disease that’s sweeping through juvenile fish. Their deaths will create a future crisis for both fish and human populations. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 18, 2021•6 min
You Need to Weigh Some Water. All You’ve Got Is a Paper Clip
OK, so you might need a couple other supplies, but your best option is to do what MacGyver would do: Turn it into a scale. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 17, 2021•8 min
The Sneaky, Lying Flower That Pretends to Be a Rotting Beetle
Aristolochia microstoma finds love by smelling like death. Coffin flies can’t resist. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 16, 2021•7 min
Peanut the Waiter Robot Is Proof That Your Job Is Safe
Restaurants are struggling to hire people, so one Jersey Shore grill employed a machine. It confirms that humans remain indispensable. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 15, 2021•9 min
How Many People Die When Polluters Exceed Their Limits?
A new report tallies the death toll from excess emissions by looking at air pollution and spikes in local ozone levels. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 14, 2021•12 min
Climate Change Is Erasing Humanity’s Oldest Art
Extreme weather is rapidly eroding the limestone caves where people first drew images 40,000 years ago. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 11, 2021•9 min
Nature Can Save Humanity From Climate Doom—but Not On Its Own
By restoring ecosystems, conservationists can help the land sequester carbon. But it's still no substitute for drastically cutting emissions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 10, 2021•9 min
This Evolutionary Gift May Protect Coral From Climate Change
Coral in the Red Sea is unusually heat tolerant. The secret to its success may lie in the lucky confluence of geography and genetics. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 09, 2021•9 min
Walden Pond Is Now Teeming With Jellyfish—but Don't Panic
The tiny jellies, which arrived sometime after Henry David Thoreau, are an example of how a non-native species can coexist peacefully with its new environment. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 08, 2021•9 min
A New Brain Implant Translates Thoughts of Writing Into Text
In early experiments, a paralyzed man with implants in his premotor cortex typed 90 characters per minute—by envisioning he was writing by hand. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 07, 2021•6 min
Mexico City Could Sink Up to 65 Feet
Due to a phenomenon called subsidence, the metropolis's landscape is compacting—and parts of the city are now dropping a foot and a half each year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 04, 2021•9 min
The Yankees Covid Outbreak May Be Bad News for Ditching Masks
The spate of cases is a bad bounce—and it might show that lifting mask mandates for the vaxxed won’t be a grand slam. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 03, 2021•8 min
Researchers Shed Light on the Perils of Firefly Tourism
A new study shows how bug spray, flashlights, and foot traffic can spell disaster for the fragile insects. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 02, 2021•7 min
What If Gravity Is Actually a Double Copy of Other Forces?
An enigmatic connection between the forces of nature is allowing physicists to explore the quantum side of gravity. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Jun 01, 2021•9 min
Bad Weather Forecasts Are a Climate Crisis Disaster
Predicting the output of solar panels is tricky—but getting it right could slash carbon emissions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
May 31, 2021•9 min
US Teens Can Get Their Covid Shot. What's Next for Schools?
Kids as young as 12 are now authorized for Pfizer’s shot. That could make it easier for campuses to reopen this fall—but introduces a whole new set of decisions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
May 28, 2021•10 min
This Is Your Brain Under Anesthesia
For the first time, researchers were able to observe, in extra-fine detail, how neurons behave as consciousness shuts down. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
May 27, 2021•10 min
Hurricane ‘Price Tags’ Could Reveal the Cost of Global Warming
A new study shows that climate-driven sea level rise made the damage from Superstorm Sandy $8 billion worse around New York City. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
May 26, 2021•8 min
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