Science, Spoken
2,361 episodes — Page 4 of 48
The Real Problem With the Boeing 737 Max
Two tragic crashes over the past six years, then a third plane with loose bodywork—the aircraft designed to send Boeing’s reputation soaring has sent it into a tailspin.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Norway’s Deep-Sea Mining Decision Is a Warning
Politicians claim the move could provide vital minerals for the green transition. Critics say opening up exploration creates geopolitical headaches and is environmentally unsound.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why Humans Are Putting a Bunch of ‘Coal’ and ‘Oil’ Back in the Ground
Startups are processing plant waste into concentrated carbon to be buried or injected underground. It’s like fossil fuels, but in reverse.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
There’s a Huge Covid Surge Right Now and Nobody Is Talking About It
The US is in the midst of the largest Covid surge since Omicron, but with minimal testing and good population immunity, the wave is largely being ignored.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Your Body Adapts to Extreme Cold
Scientists are finding a dynamic story in human physiology linked to frigid temperatures—a story that climate change may rewrite.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Yes, the Climate Crisis Is Now ‘Gobsmacking.’ But So Is Some Progress
This is the year that “absolutely gobsmackingly bananas” summed up the climate emergency. But dramatic descriptors extend to the huge gains humanity has made too.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Critical Infrastructure Is Sinking Along the US East Coast
Up and down the Atlantic Coast, the land is steadily sinking, or subsiding. That’s destabilizing levees, roads, and airports, just as sea levels are rising.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Gel Injected Into the Scrotum Could Be the Next Male Contraceptive
Biotech company Contraline has safely implanted a sperm-blocking hydrogel in 23 men. It’s designed to be a fully reversible vasectomy.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Former NBA Star Rick Fox Is Making a Play for Carbon-Neutral Concrete
Carbon-neutral concrete could transform construction’s footprint—if it can scale in time. At Partanna Global, Bahamian basketball star and actor Rick Fox is trying to speed things up.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Your Eco-Friendly Lifestyle Is a Big Lie
Eating organic and switching to low-energy light bulbs feels like the green thing to do, but are people missing the bigger opportunities right in front of them?Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Demographic Time Bomb Is About to Hit the Beef Industry
A tiny proportion of Americans—particularly boomers—eat the majority of the nation’s beef. Can clever framing sway a younger generation?Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why Deleting Carbon From the Atmosphere Is So Controversial
Delegates agreed on a historic climate deal at COP28. But without more ambition, humanity will have to rely ever more on a contentious strategy: carbon removal.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Snow Sports Are Getting More Dangerous
Extreme conditions caused by climate change are making winter sports more risky. From Colorado to Washington, that’s also making mountain rescue missions even more perilous.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Energy Drinks Are Out of Control
Highly caffeinated drinks have become a cultural staple. But following a death allegedly related to Panera Bread’s Charged Lemonade, has our collective obsession with energy drinks become unsafe?Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
You Know It’s a Placebo. So Why Does It Still Work?
As researchers try to make sense of “open-label” placebos—fake drugs that proudly announce their fakeness—the mysterious effect is starting to show up beyond the world of medicine.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Oh Good, Hurricanes Are Now Made of Microplastics
When Hurricane Larry made landfall two years ago, it dropped over 100,000 microplastics per square meter of land per day. It’s another ominous sign of how plasticized the environment has become.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Elon Musk’s New Monkey Death Claims Spur Fresh Demands for an SEC Investigation
An animal welfare advocacy group claims in a letter to the SEC that Elon Musk again made statements about the health of Neuralink test subjects that may have misled investors.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Dr. Clara Nellist Collides Art and Science
This particle physicist, science communicator, and member of the team who uncovered the Higgs Boson wants everyone to know that art and science aren’t mutually exclusive.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Brilliant COP Agreement? It Depends Who You Ask
The agreement at COP28 satisfies no-one. But it’s probably the best that countries could have hoped for.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Here’s Scientific Proof Your Cat Will Eat Almost Anything
Free-ranging domestic cats eat over 2,000 animal species across the globe, including hundreds at risk of extinction. It’s a problem with no easy solution.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Pill Tracks Your Vitals From the Inside
An ingestible “digital pill” that measures heart rate and breathing from inside the stomach could detect the warning signs of sleep apnea, cardiac distress, and even opioid overdoses.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The First Crispr Medicine Is Now Approved in the US
The one-time gene editing fix is meant to halt debilitating pain crises for sickle cell patients, who formerly could only be cured with a risky stem cell transplant. Read the full story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Don’t Worry, It’s Just ‘Fire Ice’
Methane hydrate is an ice-like substance you can set on fire. Now scientists have found that more of it may be in danger of melting—and releasing powerful greenhouse gas—than previously realized.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Ishwaria Subbiah Is Reimagining Cancer Care
All but raised in oncology wards, Dr. Subbiah is on a mission to make cancer care work for everyone, including those usually overlooked.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Ozempic Could Also Help You Drink Less Alcohol
Mounting evidence bolsters the idea that drugs like semaglutide—better known as Ozempic or Wegovy—can hamper a thirst for booze.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Want to Store a Message in DNA? That’ll Be $1,000
French startup Biomemory is rolling out a credit-card-sized storage device that uses DNA to encode a kilobyte of text data.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Nergis Mavalvala Helped Detect the First Gravitational Wave. Her Work Doesn’t Stop There
The dean of MIT’s School of Science embraces skepticism and failure, and she wants the next generation of scientists to jump right in.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Cicadas Are So Loud, Fiber Optic Cables Can ‘Hear’ Them
In 2021, scientists experimenting with fiber optics picked up a strange signal: the cacophony of cicadas. It could lead to a new way of monitoring insects.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Cutting-Edge Cancer Treatment Is Under FDA Investigation—for Cancer Risk
CAR-T cell therapy harnesses the immune system to attack blood cancers. Six years after approving the first treatment, the FDA is investigating whether it can give rise to secondary cancers.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski Will Change How You Think About Space
Pioneering a new field in cosmology, Dr. Pasterski explores diverse perspectives in physics and astronomy—and whether the universe might actually be a hologram.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Paula Johnson Is Breaking Down the Barriers to Better Health
An accomplished cardiologist and the first Black woman president of Wellesley College, Dr. Johnson's life's work is improving quality of care for women and women of color around the world.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
It’s Time to Log Off
There’s a devastating amount of heavy news these days. Psychology experts say you need to know your limits—and when to put down the phone. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Jessie Christiansen Wants to Help You Discover the Next Exoplanet
As project scientist on NASA’s Exoplanet Archive, Dr. Christiansen is a huge advocate for citizen science—and making sure anyone can be a planet hunter.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Emissions Should Be Plummeting. Instead, They’re Breaking Dangerous New Records
Ahead of COP28, a scathing new UN report warns that the world is barreling toward an avoidable catastrophe. It’s a plea for world leaders to step up their ambition.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The First Crispr Medicine Just Got Approved
The gene-editing therapy, called Casgevy, uses Crispr to prevent debilitating pain in patients with sickle cell disease. It also eliminates the need for regular blood transfusions in people with beta thalassemia.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Alison Todd’s Inventions May Save Your Life
An inventor, molecular biologist, and diagnostic scientist, Dr. Todd cofounded SpeedDx, which serves communities worldwide. And that’s just the beginning.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Dr. Michelle Wong Brings the Science of Skincare to New Audiences
Misinformation about skincare runs rampant on social media. The chemist behind the Lab Muffin Beauty Science blog is here to clear things up.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Single Infusion of a Gene-Editing Treatment Lowered High Cholesterol
It’s still early days for a novel form of gene therapy called base editing, but this small study in people with extremely high cholesterol shows striking results.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Wegovy Slashes the Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in a Landmark Trial
The drug semaglutide is already widely used for weight loss. Now its maker is presenting new evidence that it can reduce cardiovascular illnesses and deaths.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Hidden, Awful Way That Climate Change Imperils Animals
As ocean temperatures climb, so do creatures’ metabolisms. If extra food isn’t available, they’ll starve. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The FDA Approves Weight Loss Drug Zepbound, a Wegovy and Ozempic Rival
Eli Lilly is about to release Zepbound, a new entrant in the superheated competition for blockbuster weight loss drugs.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
New Jersey Keeps Newborn DNA for 23 Years. Parents Are Suing
All US states take pinpricks of blood from newborns to test for diseases. New Jersey stores them for decades and may allow them to be used in police investigations.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Euclid Space Telescope’s Spectacular First Photos of Distant and Hidden Galaxies
Images from the European Space Agency’s newest telescope show the power of instruments that will create 3D surveys of a third of the sky, covering 10 billion years of cosmic history.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The World’s Broken Food System Costs $12.7 Trillion a Year
The hidden costs of the global food system are equivalent to 10 percent of global GDP, according to new analysis from the United Nations.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Scientists Have Finally Found the Origins of a Mysterious Asteroid
Astronomers show how a 50-meter space rock orbiting near Earth isn’t a typical asteroid: It probably blasted off the moon millions of years ago. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Ultra-Efficient Farm of the Future Is in the Sky
Take a tour of a rooftop laboratory where scientists show how growing crops under solar panels can produce both food and clean energy.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
As Extreme Heat Increases, Heart Attacks Will Rise
Dangerously hot days are becoming more common. That will trigger heart attacks and strokes in people made vulnerable by age, race, and the layout of cities.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Everyone Was Wrong About Why Cats Purr
Cats purr when they’re happy and kittens purr so their mothers can find them. But it turns out purring may be more like a snore than a smile.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
These Plants Change Color When Exposed to a Pesticide
Genetically engineering plants to change colors when they encounter a contaminant could help scientists better understand their needs—and the environment.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
If You Didn’t Care About Antarctica’s Icy Belly, You Will Now
Scientists are getting an ever-clearer picture of the undersides of deteriorating glaciers. It’s not looking good.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices