When you picture a dinosaur, what does it look like? For Jingmai O'Connor , paleobiologist and associate curator of reptiles at the Field Museum of Chicago, the dinosaurs she studies look a lot more like birds. "If you looked at an artist's reconstruction of something like Velociraptor or Microraptor ... you would see that it pretty much looks the same as a bird," Jingmai says. "In terms of the plumage, the soft tissues covering the body, it would have looked very, very birdlike." In this episod...
Jan 15, 2025•13 min•Ep 1205•Transcript available on Metacast The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine generates enough of an antibody response to protect against severe disease for six months. But other vaccines offer years-long — even lifelong — immunity, such as the measles or yellow fever vaccines. Is there a way for scientists to tell how long a person's immunity will last? A team at Stanford Medicine might have found a way to do just that — with the help of some of the cells found in our bone marrow. Questions about vaccines or the respiratory season? Email us at s...
Jan 14, 2025•9 min•Ep 1204•Transcript available on Metacast Air quality in the Los Angeles region has plummeted due to smoke from the ongoing wildfires. With all that smoke comes possible risks to human health. So what actually is smoke and why is it so harmful? Jessica Gilman , an atmospheric chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, explains what smoke is made of, how it behaves in the atmosphere and smoke's role in climate change. Plus, tips for how to lessen your exposure. Check out the CDC's recommendations for avoiding smoke...
Jan 14, 2025•14 min•Ep 1203•Transcript available on Metacast Over 29,000 acres in the greater Los Angeles area are on fire right now. The fires emerged after the Santa Ana winds swept into the Los Angeles area Tuesday. The largest is the Palisades fire, which is quickly burning through the Pacific Palisades and Malibu communities. It's one of four ongoing critical fires — only one of which is partially contained. Ahead of the windy week, a Red Flag Warning was issued for an increased fire risk due to the strong winds, low humidity and higher temperature. ...
Jan 10, 2025•10 min•Ep 1202•Transcript available on Metacast Fluoridating the public water supply has been common practice for nearly 80 years in the U.S. It's an acclaimed public health intervention that helps prevent cavities. For just as long, some have raised concerns about the practice that can veer from evidence-based to unsubstantiated conspiracy. An analysis by government researchers, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics , is adding to the debate. The research found that exposing babies and kids to high levels of fluoride might be associated with n...
Jan 08, 2025•12 min•Ep 1201•Transcript available on Metacast Some weapons used by the U.S. military are so powerful they can pose a threat to the people who fire them. Today, we meet two Marines, William Wilcox and Michael Lozano, who spent years firing missiles and rockets, then developed the same rare brain condition: arteriovenous malformation, or AVM. The condition sends high pressure blood from a tangle of abnormal blood vessels directly into fragile veins, which can leak or burst. Most AVMs are caused by genetic changes that affect the growth of blo...
Jan 07, 2025•12 min•Ep 1200•Transcript available on Metacast There are hundreds of atomic clocks in orbit right now, perched on satellites all over Earth. We depend on them for GPS location, Internet timing, stock trading ... and space navigation? Today on the show, hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber learn how to build a better clock. In order to do that, they ask: How do atomic clocks really work, anyway? What makes a clock precise? And how could that process be improved for even greater accuracy? For more about Holly's Optical Atomic Strontium Ion C...
Jan 06, 2025•15 min•Ep 1199•Transcript available on Metacast Funeral services begin today for former President Jimmy Carter. He died Sunday, at 100-years-old. Carter brought attention to global health challenges, particularly "neglected" tropical diseases like Guinea worm. With reporter Jason Beaubien, we look at that decades-long effort and how science was central to Carter's drive for a better world. Questions or comments for us at Short Wave? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org — we'd love to hear from you! Listen to every episode of Short Wave s...
Jan 04, 2025•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast (encore) Snowflakes. These intricate, whimsical crystals are a staple of magical wintry scenes, but how big can they really get? Well, according to the Guinness World Record keepers, the " largest snowflake " ever recorded was a whopping 15 inches in diameter. It was spotted near Missoula, Montana in 1887. But Kenneth Libbrecht , a physicist at Caltech, has long been skeptical of that record. So he set out to find what makes a snowflake a snowflake and whether that 1887 record is scientifically ...
Jan 03, 2025•11 min•Ep 1197•Transcript available on Metacast Happy New Year, Short Wavers! What better time to contemplate the conundrum that is zero than this, the reset of the year? Zero is a fairly new concept in human history and even more recent as a number. It wasn't until around the 7th century that zero was being used as a number. That's when it showed up in the records of Indian mathematicians. Since then, zero has, at times, been met with some fear — at one point, the city of Florence, Italy banned the number. Today, scientists seek to understan...
Jan 01, 2025•12 min•Ep 1196•Transcript available on Metacast 2024 was full of science news. There was a total solar eclipse, the Paris Olympics, elections in the United States and elsewhere, technological breakthroughs and many space launches. But perhaps above all, it was a huge year in health. So, today, we're talking through some of 2024's biggest health stories — from what's in our drinking water supply, to bird flu, obesity drugs and this year's record heat. They're also the stories we think will continue to be big in 2025. See you in the new year, S...
Dec 31, 2024•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast The thick-billed parrot is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. These brightly colored birds once roamed across the American Southwest and as far south as Venezuela — but today, the only wild population remaining lives high in the forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. For years, conservation organizations like OVIS ( Organización Vida Silvestre ) and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have been working on a multi-faceted conservation project to save these birds. ...
Dec 30, 2024•14 min•Ep 1194•Transcript available on Metacast In pop culture, squirrels are often seen as jerky, excited critters on the hunt for nuts to stuff themselves with and tuck away for later. But squirrels are on the hunt for something a bit meatier in the California Bay Area. Their target: local voles. The entire process — from hunt to kill — was captured on video. Want to hear more biology stories? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org ! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wa...
Dec 27, 2024•10 min•Ep 1193•Transcript available on Metacast In the early 20th century, a blight fungus wiped out most of the 4 billion American chestnut trees on the eastern seaboard. The loss was ecologically devastating. Short Wave host Emily Kwong dives deep into how scientists are trying to resurrect the American chestnut tree — and recent controversy over a plan to plant genetically modified chestnuts in the wild. Want to hear about more efforts to recover endangered or lost species? Let us know by emailing shortwave@npr.org ! Learn more about spons...
Dec 25, 2024•14 min•Ep 1192•Transcript available on Metacast On Christmas Eve, scientists at field stations across Antarctica sing carols to one another...via shortwave. On today's episode, the Short Wave podcast explores shortwave radio. We speak with space physicist and electrical engineer Nathaniel Frissell about this Antarctic Christmas Carol tradition and his use of shortwave radio for community science. Read more about Santa Net, which connects children (known in the shortwave radio community as "little harmonics") with Santa. Want more tech stories...
Dec 24, 2024•10 min•Ep 1191•Transcript available on Metacast There are many statistics out there that prove that flying on a commercial airplane is safe, that plane crashes are overall pretty unlikely. Still, up to an estimated 40% of Americans feel some fear at the thought of flying. So, amid the travel rush of the holiday season, we ask MIT aeronautical engineer Mark Drela : How does a plane lift off and stay up in the air? Interested in more stories on physics? Email us at shortwave@npr.org . We'd love to hear from you! Listen to every episode of Short...
Dec 23, 2024•15 min•Ep 1190•Transcript available on Metacast Towana Looney became the first living person in the world to get a kidney from a new kind of genetically modified pig last month. Health correspondent Rob Stein got exclusive access to be in the operating room. Towana is a 53-year-old grandmother from Gadsden, Ala. She's been on dialysis for four hours a day, three days a week since 2016. Her immune system would reject a human kidney. So the Food and Drug Administration made an exception to its usual clinical study requirements to allow Looney t...
Dec 20, 2024•14 min•Ep 1189•Transcript available on Metacast Old mines leave behind a a pressing problem: Huge holes that make the landscape look like a chunk of swiss cheese. But in Germany, some scientists and city planners are turning these into lakes. The largest one will be the biggest artificial lake in Germany when it's done, with a shoreline of 26 kilometers or about 16 miles all around. But it's not as easy as simply filling the holes with water. It takes a LOT of research to get this science right. Interested in more environmental stories? Email...
Dec 18, 2024•14 min•Ep 1188•Transcript available on Metacast AI uses a lot of power. Some of the next generation data centers may use as much power as one million U.S. households. Technology companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta hope nuclear power will offer a climate solution for this energy use. Nuclear power plants can deliver hundreds of megawatts of power without producing greenhouse gas emissions. But some long-time watchers of the nuclear industry are skeptical that it's the right investment for big tech companies to make. Read more of ...
Dec 17, 2024•14 min•Ep 1187•Transcript available on Metacast Racism is often covered as a political, cultural, or news story. But how is it affecting people's health? That's the question Cara Anthony , a KFF News reporter, wanted to answer: not just on an individual scale, but on a community-wide one. So for the past few years, she's been reporting on a small town in the Midwest that illustrates that health issue: Sikeston, Missouri. Today on the show, Cara walks host Emily Kwong through Sikeston's history — and what locals and medical experts have to say...
Dec 16, 2024•14 min•Ep 1186•Transcript available on Metacast The federal government has been tracking the weather for more than 150 years. Yet over the last few decades, the rise of the Internet and big tech have made weather forecasting a more crowded space. Today, our colleagues at NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator report on the value of an accurate forecast and the debate over who should control weather data. Follow The Indicator on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by s...
Dec 14, 2024•9 min•Ep 1185•Transcript available on Metacast In the 1950s, scientists exposed a tin of meat to a dose of radiation that they expected would kill all forms of life. But one organism defied the odds and lived: Conan The Bacterium. Turns out this microorganism, known to science as Deinococcus radiodurans, is capable of surviving extreme levels of radiation — thousands of times the amount that would kill a human. So what's Conan's secret? Want more stories about the microbial world? Let us know by emailing us at shortwave@npr.org ! Learn more ...
Dec 13, 2024•9 min•Ep 1184•Transcript available on Metacast Thor. Loki. Heimdall. They're not just Norse gods or Marvel characters. They're also the names of various Asgard archaea . These microscopic organisms are found all over the world, from marine sediment to mud volcanoes to hydrothermal vents. A growing body of research suggests we owe them an evolutionary debt. This episode, Emily and guest host Jon Hamilton explore the wild world of archaea : Where are they from? What do they do? And what can they tell us about the origins of life on earth? Inte...
Dec 11, 2024•14 min•Ep 1183•Transcript available on Metacast If you crossed WALL-E with a floor lamp, it might look a little like the PhytoPatholoBot. These robots aren't roving through space or decorating a living room — they're monitoring the stems, leaves and fruit of Cornell AgriTech's vineyards, rolling down each row and scanning for mildew. In this episode, host Emily Kwong and producer Hannah Chinn take a trip to Cornell to check out these new robots. How do they work? How effective are they? And what do local grape farmers – and neighbors – think ...
Dec 10, 2024•14 min•Ep 1182•Transcript available on Metacast The next four years may be challenging for foreign-born scientists who want to work in the United States. Foreign-born workers account for about half of the doctoral-level scientists and engineers working in the U.S., but the incoming Trump administration wants to make it harder for them to get H-1B visas. Some scientists worry a scarcity of H-1B visas may prompt top foreign researchers to work in other countries. If you liked this episode, consider checking out some more episodes on the brain, ...
Dec 09, 2024•12 min•Ep 1181•Transcript available on Metacast Centuries ago, Southwest tribal nations tended vast orchards of peach trees. But in 1863, thousands of those trees were cut down by the United States government when it ordered the Diné to leave their land as part of the Long Walk. Horticulturalist Reagan Wtysalucy wants to bring that those Southwest peaches back. Want to hear more Indigenous science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org to let us know! Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Sho...
Dec 06, 2024•15 min•Ep 1180•Transcript available on Metacast The Vertebrate Genomes Project: It's an ambitious effort by an international group of scientists to create a "Genome Ark" by sequencing the genomes of about 70,000 animal species. The hope is that through all of this gene sequencing, scientists will be able to answer some basic but important questions like: What makes a bird, well, a bird? What makes a mammal a mammal? Plus, with so many species on the verge of extinction, can scientists record their genetic information before they go extinct – ...
Dec 04, 2024•15 min•Ep 1179•Transcript available on Metacast In neuroscientist Kelly Lambert 's lab at the University of Richmond, rats hop into cars, rev their engines and skid across the floor of an arena. Researchers taught these tiny rodents to drive — and turns out, they really like it. But why? Host Regina G. Barber talks with Kelly about her driving rats, and what they tell us about anticipation, neuroplasticity, and decision making. Plus, why optimism might be good for rats, and for humans too. Want to hear more fun animal stories? Let us know at ...
Dec 03, 2024•15 min•Ep 1178•Transcript available on Metacast This Cyber Monday, a meditation on holiday sales. A quick trip to pick up presents can turn into an hours-long shopping spree thanks to all the ways stores use research from fields like consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing to entice you. Retailers create urgency and scarcity to push you to give into the emotional part of your brain, motivated by the release of dopamine. But with the help of NPR business correspondent Alina Selyukh , we get into the psychology of sales and discounts: Why it's...
Dec 02, 2024•14 min•Ep 1177•Transcript available on Metacast Beaked hazelnuts are a wild food native to North America. Indigenous peoples in British Columbia have passed down stories of these hazelnuts as a vital food source their ancestors planted and cultivated. These stories motivated Chelsea Geralda Armstrong of Simon Fraser University to look more deeply at the genetics of the beaked hazelnut and determine just how widely it was cultivated. Indigenous rights attorney Jack Woodward hopes research like this can make a difference in the Land Back moveme...
Nov 29, 2024•10 min•Ep 1176•Transcript available on Metacast 
