The ring would have gradually fallen to Earth as meteorites, correlating to a spike of impacts seen in the geological record. Also, a new AI tool can judge whether sand came from a beach, a river, a glacial deposit, or a wind-blown dune. Earth May Once Have Had A Ring Like Saturn Hundreds of millions of years ago, Earth may have looked quite different when viewed from space: Scientists propose it may have had a Saturn-like ring , made up of lots of smaller asteroids. The new paper, published in ...
Sep 20, 2024•23 min•Ep 864•Transcript available on Metacast The heaviest antimatter nucleus to date was spotted in a particle accelerator. It could provide new insights into the nature of matter. And, research indicates different songbird species might intentionally travel together during migration, giving each other a possible boost in survival. Physicists Create Heaviest Antimatter Nucleus Yet Antimatter is one of science’s great mysteries. It is produced all around us for fractions of a second, until it collides with matter, and the particles annihila...
Sep 19, 2024•19 min•Ep 863•Transcript available on Metacast SciFri producer Kathleen Davis talks with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health to help answer our listeners’ top questions about the updated COVID-19 vaccines . This Q&A, which includes questions from our audience members, has been adapted from our interview with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire. It has been edited for clarity and brevity. If I’ve already had COVID and it wasn’t so bad, why should I e...
Sep 18, 2024•18 min•Ep 862•Transcript available on Metacast Part of the reason it’s difficult to talk about climate change is that it can be hard to see a long-term positive outcome for people and the planet. But Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, argues that to prevent the worst effects of climate change, we have to start by asking ourselves, what if we get it right? She’s the author of a new book with that same title, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures . In the book, she poses that qu...
Sep 17, 2024•18 min•Ep 861•Transcript available on Metacast Kids and teens are back in school, and the battle over the smartphones in their pockets is becoming more prominent. For years, teachers and parents have lamented about the distractions these devices cause in and out of the classroom. Last year, the US surgeon general declared a youth mental health crisis , citing social media as a significant factor, and more than 40 US states are suing Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, arguing that the company intentionally manipulated their apps to addict...
Sep 16, 2024•18 min•Ep 860•Transcript available on Metacast SpaceX Crew Completes First Citizen Spacewalk Big news in the world of commercial space flight: On Thursday morning, Jared Iasaacman and Sarah Gillis, members of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, became the first civilians to complete a spacewalk. The mission is a collaboration between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Isaacman, a billionaire tech entrepreneur. While outside the spacecraft, the two crew members conducted mobility tests on their spacesuits. SciFri Producer Kathleen Davis talks with Jason Dinh,...
Sep 13, 2024•24 min•Ep 859•Transcript available on Metacast Samples of 2.5 billion-year-old mantle rocks found at spreading ocean ridges could put bounds on models of how the planet formed. And, researchers decreased the amount of lignin in poplar tree wood, making it stronger and slower to deteriorate. ‘Time Capsule’ Rocks Provide Clues About Earth’s Mantle If you’re looking to really learn about the history of our planet, look to geology. Ancient rocks can provide a time capsule of the conditions in which they formed. But even the geologic record has i...
Sep 12, 2024•18 min•Ep 858•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve ever seen a cute cow video on social media, you might notice they seem to have a lot in common with dogs. They can wag their tails, they love to gobble down tasty treats, and if you’re lucky, they might flop over for a nice belly or neck scratch. Cows are clearly emotional animals, but how smart are they exactly? That’s the question that neuroscientist and author Dr. Gregory Berns had when he and his wife moved from Atlanta to the Georgia countryside in 2020, and started raising cows o...
Sep 11, 2024•18 min•Ep 857•Transcript available on Metacast Shark fishing is alive and well, but the fishermen who do it are increasingly prioritizing conservation. And, an unknown ant was spotted in Manhattan in 2011, and it quickly spread through New York City. We now know what it is. Fishing For—And Saving—Sharks off the Jersey Shore At an undisclosed beach at 5:30 p.m. in New Jersey, shark fisherman AJ Rotondella and two clients wait for beachgoers to leave. Once the beach is empty, Rotondella cuts up some chunks of fish as bait , and casts lines int...
Sep 10, 2024•18 min•Ep 856•Transcript available on Metacast You might be familiar with a gigabyte, one of the most popular units of measure for computer storage. A two-hour movie is 3 gigabytes on average, while your phone can probably store 256 gigabytes. But did you know that your body also stores information in its own way? We see this in DNA, which has the instructions needed for an organism to develop, survive, and reproduce. In computing storage terms, each cell of our body contains about 1.5 gigabytes worth of data . And with about 30 trillion cel...
Sep 09, 2024•18 min•Ep 855•Transcript available on Metacast ESA officials said it was only the ninth time an asteroid was spotted before reaching Earth’s atmosphere. And, as the climate changes and summer temperatures linger, educators are increasingly worried about keeping kids safe from heat exhaustion. An Asteroid Impact, Spotted In Advance On Wednesday, an asteroid named 2024 RW1 burned up in the atmosphere above the Philippines. As asteroids go, it was not especially notable. Astronomers say objects the size of 2024 RW1, which was about a meter in d...
Sep 06, 2024•25 min•Ep 854•Transcript available on Metacast A new study suggests that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs may have originated from the outer parts of the solar system. And, invasive spotted lanternflies often lay eggs on vehicles and shipped goods. Now researchers are training dogs to sniff them out before they hatch. Asteroid That Killed The Dinosaurs Was A Carbon-Rich Rock Around 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the Earth, blasted debris everywhere, plummeted the planet into cold darkness, and ended the age of dinosaurs...
Sep 05, 2024•20 min•Ep 853•Transcript available on Metacast Eels have fascinated humans for thousands of years, even captivating big thinkers like Aristotle and Freud. Despite having been around for some 200 million years , eels are still rather mysterious creatures. For example, scientists still aren’t sure exactly how they spawn. But those unanswered questions haven’t stopped humans from wanting to eat them. So much so that they’re now endangered in some areas—and a lucrative criminal enterprise has risen up to poach baby eels from the wild. Guest host...
Sep 04, 2024•18 min•Ep 852•Transcript available on Metacast Did you know that almost every star you see in the night sky has at least one planet orbiting it? Here’s something even wilder: There are some celestial bodies that look a lot like planets, but just float around freely in the cosmos, unattached to any particular star. They’re called rogue worlds . With data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astrophysicists just identified six right here in our own Milky Way galaxy. So what can we learn from these rogue worlds? Can they teach us anything about...
Sep 03, 2024•18 min•Ep 851•Transcript available on Metacast You might have noticed that the seasons don’t quite behave like they used to. In some places, fall and spring seem to fly by, while winter and summer are much longer and feel more intense. This shift is known as season creep, where the timing of the seasons starts to shift . This phenomenon is mostly due to climate change creating temperature imbalances and throwing weather patterns off kilter year-round. And it can cause problems for plants and animals as their natural cycles fall out of sync. ...
Sep 02, 2024•18 min•Ep 850•Transcript available on Metacast Several states have reported cases of the rare but serious mosquito-borne illness eastern equine encephalitis. And, the new sci-fi movie "Slingshot," about an astronaut’s mental breakdown, prompts questions about how to prepare humans for long-term space travel. Mosquito-Borne Diseases Are Spreading As Temperatures Rise This week, a New Hampshire man died of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare but extremely serious disease caused by a mosquito-borne virus. Human cases of EEE have also been...
Aug 30, 2024•24 min•Ep 849•Transcript available on Metacast Your teeth don’t just chew your food—they connect you to the deepest of deep history on Earth. Teeth have existed, in some form, for half a billion years, making them more than 250 million years older than dinosaurs. They came before the evolution of warm bloodedness, eggs, and even limbs. From that very first set of chompers emerged a bewildering and diverse group of teeth, including narwhal tusks, sharks’ pearly teeth, snake fangs, and, of course, ours. Now teeth are the subject of a new book ...
Aug 29, 2024•18 min•Ep 848•Transcript available on Metacast According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the maternal mortality rate in the United States is very high compared to other wealthy countries: About 22.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This is on par with China and Iran, based on UNICEF data. So why is the US maternal mortality rate so high? It may have to do with how we fill out death certificates. A study from earlier this year found that misfiling of information in death certificates may be inflating the numbe...
Aug 28, 2024•19 min•Ep 847•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a phenomenon known as the “overview effect,” a changed perspective some people experience after seeing the Earth from space. Retired astronaut Dr. Cady Coleman says that for her, it was a sense of home and connection . “First of all, I just don’t feel that far away,” she said. “I feel like home is bigger than we thought and I just happened to be the one of the furthest out people. But the overwhelming sort of sentiment that I have is if only everyone knew how connected they could be, the...
Aug 27, 2024•19 min•Ep 846•Transcript available on Metacast Sequoia National Park is largely designated as wilderness. That complicates efforts to protect its iconic trees from worsening wildfires. Also, archaeologists keep finding older and older cave art. Here’s what it could tell us about how humans evolved over time. Protecting Sequoias From Wildfire Raises Tricky Questions Sequoia National Park in California is known for its towering, iconic sequoia trees, some of which are thought to be thousands of years old. Severe wildfires fueled by climate cha...
Aug 26, 2024•21 min•Ep 845•Transcript available on Metacast A new study measuring microplastics in organs of the recently deceased found that about two dozen brain samples were 0.5% plastic by weight. Also, having an IUD inserted in the uterus is extremely painful for some people. The CDC now recommends that doctors use local anesthetics. Study Finds A Staggering Amount Of Plastic In Human Brains It only takes a quick look at our streets and waterways to be reminded that plastic pollution is a big problem. But that’s just the plastic that we can see. An ...
Aug 23, 2024•23 min•Ep 844•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been a hot and rainy summer in many parts of the US, and it’s been hard to spend as much time in nature as many of us would like. Heat waves and unpredictable weather have sometimes made it riskier to be outside. Maybe you’ve chosen an easier hike, or doubled up on water bottles, or stayed inside when you’d much rather be outdoors with friends and family. If you’ve been feeling apathetic about the outdoors, a new book called Forest Walking, Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North Ameri...
Aug 22, 2024•18 min•Ep 843•Transcript available on Metacast The space elevator has been a staple of science fiction for decades, from The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke to the Apple TV show “Foundation.” But the work and theories to make it a reality have been in development since the late 19th century. It’s a simple concept: Imagine a long cable, stretching from the Earth’s surface to a satellite locked in orbit 22,000 miles high. It would work like elevators here on Earth, enabling us to send things—and people—up into space. And it would mak...
Aug 21, 2024•17 min•Ep 842•Transcript available on Metacast A new potential Alzheimer’s therapy uses 40-hertz frequencies of light and sound to stimulate the brain. Research applying this treatment to mice showed a substantial decrease in amyloid plaques, a key biomarker for the disease, and an improvement in cognitive function . Clinical trials testing the efficacy of this method in humans are underway. But how exactly does this treatment work? Could it be a game changer in Alzheimer’s patients? And what potential does it have for other degenerative dis...
Aug 20, 2024•13 min•Ep 841•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Anthony Fauci has a long history with Science Friday. Ira first met him in the early 1980s while covering the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He has been a frequent guest on the program, discussing everything from the common cold to SARS, food allergies to Ebola, and malaria to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. After leading the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years, Fauci stepped down in December 2022. But he certainly hasn’t disappeared from the public eye. He’s been called to ...
Aug 19, 2024•26 min•Ep 840•Transcript available on Metacast Data from the Mars InSight lander points to the presence of liquid water underneath its crust. Also, some national and state parks are changing the way they open up campsite reservations online to make them more accessible to everyone. Scientists Find Strong Evidence For Liquid Water On Mars Scientists discovered that there could be oceans’ worth of liquid water hidden underneath Mars’ surface. More than 3 billion years ago, Mars had lakes, rivers, and maybe even oceans on its surface. It was ve...
Aug 16, 2024•22 min•Ep 839•Transcript available on Metacast To gaze upon a full T. rex skeleton is to be transported back in time. Dinosaur fossils are key to understanding what these prehistoric creatures looked like, how they moved, and where they lived. But there’s one type of dinosaur fossil that’s sometimes overlooked: poop. Its scientific name is coprolite. These fossilized feces are rarer than their boney counterparts, but they’re key to better understanding dino diets and ecosystems. This all raises an important question: How scientists know if s...
Aug 15, 2024•19 min•Ep 838•Transcript available on Metacast Solar holds great promise as a clean energy solution, as the sun is an incredibly abundant resource, and panels can be placed unobtrusively on roofs and in fields. And solar panel technology has advanced quite a bit over the past few decades: panels have become less expensive, more efficient, and more widely used. Panels also generally fare well, considering that they’re outside in inclement weather year after year. Recent advancements with perovskite solar cells —a type of cell whose name refer...
Aug 14, 2024•18 min•Ep 837•Transcript available on Metacast It’s become clear to farmers and home gardeners alike that climate change is affecting the gardening landscape, literally. The climate is warming, pests are moving into different regions, and there’s a growing need for vegetable varieties that are resilient to the stresses of this new age. In the world of organic farming, the job of creating those new varieties falls to a plant breeder : someone who, often painstakingly, crosses plants until they create a new variety. Dr. Jim Myers, one of the m...
Aug 13, 2024•17 min•Ep 836•Transcript available on Metacast On July 17, Apex the stegosaurus was sold at Sothebys in New York City for a record $44.6 million. The buyer was billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of the hedge fund Citadel, who says he plans to loan the fossil to American institutions for display. But despite Griffin’s statement, some paleontologists aren’t too happy about the trend of fossils going up for auction. The sale of dinosaur fossils has become more and more profitable in recent years. Eight out of the ten most expensive fossils have been ...
Aug 12, 2024•17 min•Ep 835•Transcript available on Metacast 
