Science, Spoken
2,361 episodes — Page 22 of 48
Archaeologists Discover the Largest, Oldest Maya Monument Yet
The structure, believed to have served as a ceremonial center 3,000 years ago, was discovered in Tabasco, Mexico. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Police Tactics Could Turn Protests Into Covid-19 Hot Spots
Sure, large crowds already carry a risk of transmission. It's just worse when you teargas people, make them cough on each other, and bus them to jail. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
When Health Care Moves Online, Many Patients Are Left Behind
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, more doctors are turning to telemedicine. That's a problem for tens of millions on the wrong side of the digital divide. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Drop in Commercial Flights Is Bad for Hurricane Forecasts
Passenger jets and cruise ships normally gather key weather data. But full docks and empty skies make it hard to predict the details of incoming storms. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Trump’s New Space Force Missile Might Be Too ‘Super-Duper’
To go that fast, it would need a ridiculous amount of fuel—and even then, it might never come back down. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Rigorous Hand-Washing Will Be Part of Covid-19's New Normal
The simplest hygiene tasks are the toughest to maintain—take it from the health care experts who have advice about how to make the habit stick. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
In Minneapolis, Neighbors Are Mobilizing—Offline
Worried about infiltration from extremist groups or police surveillance, residents are turning to pre-internet tactics to help protect homes and local stores. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Turns Out 4 ‘Blank’ Dead Sea Scrolls Actually Have Text
A new analysis revealed what scientists believe is a passage from the book of Ezekiel. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Whoooaaa Duuuuude: Why We Stretch Words in Tweets and Texts
Notice you've been elongating your words lately? You're actually loading them with a whooooole lot of meaning. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Smart City Planning Could Slow Future Pandemics
The Covid-19 crisis is an opportunity to rethink how cities are designed—and make them better equipped to stop disease from spreading. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Sleep When the World Is Falling Apart
It's not easy to relax in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. But there are some simple tips and techniques that can help you get some shut-eye. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
What It’s Like to Be First to Fly a Brand New Spacecraft
Robert Crippen is the only living NASA astronaut to have flown on a new spacecraft for the first time. The Crew Dragon flyers will join his elite club this week. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Will Wildfire Smoke Worsen the Pandemic? We're About to Find Out
When seasonal blazes descend on California, millions could be inhaling smoke, which is known to predispose people to lung diseases. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
On the Moon, Astronaut Pee Will Be a Hot Commodity
Urine can be used for landing pads, gardens, and drinking water. But will there be enough to go around? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How School Shutdowns Have Longterm Effects on Children
Similar situations after natural disasters offer clues about the potential academic and mental health impacts of lockdowns. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Carbon Dioxide Emissions Have Dropped 17 Percent During the Pandemic
Some regions, like the US and the UK, have seen their outputs fall by a third, due in large part to people driving less. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Robot Can Guess How You're Feeling by the Way You Walk
Walk like you're angry, and the emotionally intelligent machine will give you more room, leaving your personal bubble intact. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
‘Milestone’ Evidence for Anyons, a Third Kingdom of Particles
Physicists have long known that the universe is made from two kinds of particles: fermions and bosons. Now there's a third that behaves totally differently. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Secret Space Plane is Carrying a Solar Experiment to Orbit
The idea of beaming solar energy to Earth with radio waves is decades old. But this weekend, the technology gets its first test in orbit. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Hungry City Rats Are Looking for a New Lunch Spot Near You
As restaurants have shuttered, the rats who depend on an eternal garbage buffet are becoming more bold and competitive—and looking for new homes. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Albert Einstein's Son Tamed the Mississippi River
Multiple structures now keep the river from roaring into the Atchafalaya—but they may be inadequate against climate change. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Science Fairs Are Canceled. Maybe That’s Just as Well
It’s time to reconsider these earnest events—and find ways for kids to experience the joyous, collaborative nature of real scientific discovery. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Bizarre Insect Is Building Shelters Out of Microplastic
Caddisfly larvae typically construct protective cases out of sand grains and silk. Now they're also using microplastic particles. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
NASA's EmDrive Leader Has a New Interstellar Project
Harold White left NASA in December to join a new nonprofit focused on building the technologies to bring humans to the outer solar system and beyond. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Mental Health App Is Tailor-Made for Your Pandemic Woes
Covid Coach, from the National Center for PTSD, offers exercises and resources for dealing with uncertainty, isolation, and unemployment. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Neuroscience of Why You Could Really Use a Hug Right Now
For those quarantined alone, the lack of human touch can feel agonizing. A neurological phenomenon called "skin hunger" explains why. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Race to Get Convalescent Plasma to Covid-19 Patients
Blood centers across the nation are trying to get antibodies from coronavirus survivors to patients who want this experimental treatment. But it’s not easy. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Physicists Clear the Air With a Sweet Frickin' Laser Beam
Fast laser pulses produce a shock wave in air that pushes water vapor aside. That clears channels in clouds for transmitting optical data from satellites. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The World Is Still Producing More Oil Than It Needs. Why?
Today, petroleum producers around the world will start shutting down wells after the Covid-19 pandemic caused demand to plummet. What took them so long? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Covid-19 Was Here Earlier Than Most Americans Thought. Now What?
Epidemiologists aren't surprised that virus was spreading in the US in early February. But those early days offer lessons for how to catch the next wave. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Legacy of Math Luminary John Conway, Lost to Covid-19
Conway, who passed away on April 11, was known for his rapid computation, his playful approach, and solving problems with “his own bare hands.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Brain Implant Restored This Man's Motion and Sense of Touch
After his accident, Ian Burkhart didn’t think he’d ever be able to move or feel his hand again. A small chip in his brain changed everything. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Spot the Coronavirus Doctor Robot Dog Will See You Now
Boston Dynamics' famously deft robot gets a job screening patients at a hospital. But there's still much that it and other medical robots can't do. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Deepwater Horizon Disaster Fueled a Gulf Science Bonanza
A decade after the worst oil spill in US history, researchers have turned out a massive data set charting the health of the ecosystem. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Real Reason Veterinarians Gave a Tiger a Covid-19 Test
It’s hard for humans in New York City to get a test for the coronavirus. So when a Bronx Zoo tiger tested positive for Covid-19, it invited some questions. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
New Covid-19 Antibody Study Results Are In. Are They Right?
Two preprints of California serosurveys offer surprising estimates about the infection rate, and have caused a Twitter “peer review” uproar. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Cold, Hard Work of Delivering Oxygen to Ventilators
Oxygen is in the air. Getting it to a Covid-19 patient struggling to breathe can be trickier than it seems. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Africa's Huge Locust Swarms Are Growing at the Worst Time
As coronavirus takes hold and farmers plant crops, the continent faces a new wave of locusts 20 times larger than one earlier this year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
‘Common Sense’ Is No Substitute for Science in a Pandemic
The scientific method isn't perfect, but it's better than the alternative when lives are at stake. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
What if Covid-19 Returns Every Year, Like the Common Cold?
A new Harvard study models how long we’d have to keep social distancing if the virus turns out to be seasonal, like its coronavirus cousins. It could be years. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A New, Plastic-Busting Enzyme Can Break Down Water Bottles
The end result of the reaction is a raw material that can be reused in new products. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Death Cuts the Degree of Separation Between You and Covid-19
If knowing someone who has died would make the pandemic concrete for someone in the US—real and actionable—how many have to die? Here's the grim math. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Turns Out, Traffic Spreads Like the Coronavirus
Researchers use models meant for infectious diseases to show how congestion proliferates. That may mean a vaccine for traffic jams is on the horizon. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How a Real Dog Taught a Robot Dog to Walk
Instead of coding a mechanical quadruped's movements line by line, Google researchers fed it videos of real-life pups. Now it can even chase its tail. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Political Promise of Carbon Taxes
Putting a price on emissions has become a bipartisan issue. Now we just need to do it the right way. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Solar Power Is Sustainable for the Economy, Too
We've been talking about the potential for the sun's energy for decades. Now it can be more profitable to save the planet than to ruin it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Fishy Fix to a Methane-Spewing Crop
Rice has the biggest carbon footprint of any grain. Bite by bite, bacteria-guzzling minnows can make it much smaller. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Solar Panels Could Be the Best Fad Ever
Installing an array on your roof is environmental exhibitionism—and it's contagious. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Search for the Next Big Idea in Magnetic Field Mapping
A new competition challenges scientists to innovate on how we map Earth's constantly shifting magnetic field—and make navigation safer and more accurate. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why Stress-Baking and Cleaning Make You Less Anxious
You're not the only one who finds #quarantinebaking so soothing. Turns out, it has a lot to do with the neuroscience of mindful meditation. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices