Science, Spoken
2,361 episodes — Page 5 of 48
Why Antidepressants Take So Long to Work
A clinical trial reveals the first evidence of how the brain restructures physically in the first month on SSRIs—and the link between neuroplasticity and depression.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Mystery of Cosmic Radio Bursts Gets Bright New Clues
New research from two teams shows that these fleeting blips can be faster and brighter, and come from much further away, than previously thought.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Glacial Lakes Threaten Millions in a Warming World
A Himalayan lake fed by melting ice just released a devastating flood in northern India. Thousands of other unstable lakes are getting bigger every year.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Surprising Way Clean Energy Will Help Save the Snowpack
As if we needed another reason to quickly ditch fossil fuels: Cleaner snow melts much more slowly.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
New Trials Aim to Restore Hearing in Deaf Children—With Gene Therapy
For the first time, researchers are testing an approach that involves replacing a mutated gene in the inner ears of children with severe hearing loss.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
These Gene-Edited Chickens Were Made to Resist Bird Flu
Avian influenza can wipe out entire poultry flocks. An early experiment with Crispr suggests that gene editing can protect chickens against infection.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Chum Salmon Are Spawning the Arctic. It’s an Ominous Sign
The fish may be a harbinger of dramatic warming in the north—and rapidly transforming ecosystems.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Inside the Race to Crush Paris’ Bedbug Crisis
Humans are teaming up with dogs to eliminate the blood-sucking pests, but there's no overarching strategy, just eye-watering costs.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
NASA’s Psyche Mission Is Off to Test a Space Laser (for Communications)
The Psyche probe is heading to its namesake metal-rich asteroid. Along the way, it will demonstrate a near-infrared laser system to send high-rate data hundreds of millions of miles home.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Groundbreaking Human Brain Cell Atlas Just Dropped
The comprehensive collection of 21 studies attempts to map all the brain’s cell types, and offers hope of one day being able to trace brain diseases to their genetic roots.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This First Peek Inside NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Capsule Is a Glimpse Back in Time
Scientists finally opened the rock sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx captured a treasure trove of material from the solar system’s earliest days.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Monkey Got a New Kidney From a Pig—and Lived for 2 Years
Human donor kidneys are in short supply. A new experiment that tested gene-edited organ transplants in monkeys showed that pig kidneys may one day be viable substitutes.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Heat Waves in the Ground Are Getting More Extreme—and Perilous
The atmosphere is rapidly warming, but the soil is also prone to heat waves. Scientists are racing to understand the consequences.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
New Malaria Vaccines Offer a Real Shot at Fighting the Disease
A malaria vaccine that could protect millions of children against the parasite-borne disease is expected to roll out early next year. It follows another formula that has already had moderate success.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Neuralink Keeps Dead Monkey Photos Secret
Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup conducted years of tests at UC Davis, a public university. A WIRED investigation reveals how Neuralink and the university keep the grisly images of test subjects hidden.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Lab Just 3D-Printed a Neural Network of Living Brain Cells
Mini-brains that work and grow like their full-size counterparts could offer an alternative to animal testing, and advance the quest for personalized medicine.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
September's Record-Shattering Heat Was ‘Absolutely Gobsmackingly Bananas’
Last month was so hot, scientists are struggling to find words for it.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The ‘Green’ Future of Furniture Is a Sofa Stuffed With Seaweed
Foam rubber—like the filling inside your couch—produces an enormous amount of CO2. A Norwegian company called Agoprene thinks seaweed could be the solution.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why It’s Too Soon to Call It Covid Season
Covid seems to spike twice a year—but unlike with flu season, not in a predictable pattern. That could be due to the virus, the environment, or the people it is infecting.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Revelation About Trees Is Messing With Climate Calculations
Trees make clouds by releasing small quantities of vapors called “sesquiterpenes.” Scientists are learning more—and it’s making climate models hazy.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
DNA Drives Help Identify Missing People. It’s a Privacy Nightmare
Police are hosting events to collect DNA samples that can help solve missing persons cases. But when people put their DNA in a commercial database, it can used for other purposes.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Make a Pig Heart Transplant Last in a Person
The first human to receive a genetically engineered pig heart survived two months. Surgeons are hoping this transplant will last longer.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How NASA Is Protecting Its Precious Asteroid Bennu Sample
The OSIRIS-REx capsule containing a “treasure trove” of space rocks has now arrived at Johnson Space Center, where scientists will gingerly unpack it.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Is About to Bring Asteroid Pieces Back to Earth
The OSIRIS-REx probe is carrying rock samples from the asteroid Bennu, millions of miles away. If it works, it will be only the third such retrieval in history.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Medieval French Skeleton Is Rewriting the History of Syphilis
Christopher Columbus was blamed for bringing syphilis to Europe. New DNA evidence suggests it was already there. Maybe both stories are true.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The US Is Mobilizing an Army to Fight the Climate Crisis
The American Climate Corps will employ tens of thousands to prepare the country for the pain ahead. But it'll need to get much, much bigger.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Pair of Sun Probes Just Got Closer to Solving a Solar Enigma
The solar corona is hotter than expected, and scientists are using European Space Agency and NASA spacecraft to figure out why.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Here Come the Glow-in-the-Dark Houseplants
Startup Light Bio has created a bioluminescent petunia using mushroom genes and plans to start shipping the plants next spring.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Treaty Could Stop Plastic Pollution—or Doom the Earth to Drown in It
The UN has released a draft of what might become a landmark agreement to protect human health and the environment. Emphasis on might.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
NASA Didn’t Find Aliens—but if You See Any UFOs, Holler
The agency assembled a panel of experts to figure out how to handle future sightings, in case the truth is out there.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Libya’s Deadly Floods Show the Growing Threat of Medicanes
Entire neighborhoods of the Libyan city of Derna have vanished following devastating floods wrought by Storm Daniel. Such storms are rare—but climate change will supersize them.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Covid Boosters Can’t Outpace New Mutations. Here’s Why They Still Work
The latest vaccines are designed to target XBB.1.5, the dominant variant throughout much of 2023—until now.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Blue-Green Algae Is Filling Rivers With Toxic Sludge
Harmful algal blooms are taking over as the world warms and grows richer in carbon dioxide—and there’s no easy fix.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Investigation of SpaceX’s Starship Explosion Is Complete—and Elon Musk Has More Work to Do
Following a joint “mishap investigation” by SpaceX and the FAA, the federal agency listed 63 issues that must be addressed before launches can resume at the Texas site.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Scientists Just Tried Growing Human Kidneys in Pigs
Transplant organs are scarce. Could growing ones with human cells in pigs alleviate the shortage?Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
What Ever Happened to the Tiny House Movement?
Tiny houses started as a minimalist revolution. They ended up as an Instagram aesthetic.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Flesh-Eating Bacterium Is Creeping North as Oceans Warm
The Vibrio vulnificus pathogen thrives in hot coastal waters, and beachgoers can contract it via a small cut or scrape. It can also kill them in two days.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Weight-Loss Drugs Ozempic and Wegovy Can Also Protect the Heart
A new study shows that semaglutide reduces heart failure symptoms like fatigue and swelling by bringing down body weight.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The High-Stakes Calculus of Preventing Wildfires by Burying Power Lines
Investigators are eying the Lahaina wildfire as yet another deadly blaze started by electrical equipment. Putting lines underground would help—at a steep cost.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Paper Coffee Cups Are Just as Toxic for the Environment as Plastic Ones
Supposedly eco-friendly cups are still coated with a thin layer of plastic, which scientists have discovered can leach chemicals that harm living creatures.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
DART Showed How to Smash an Asteroid. So Where Did the Space Shrapnel Go?
Last year’s NASA mission proved it was possible to knock an incoming near-Earth object off course. But that creates debris—which might also be a threat.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Massive Campaign to Air-Drop Tiny Rabies Vaccines to Raccoons
Raccoons are a main carrier of rabies in the US. A government effort distributes millions of tasty vaccines to protect both animals and people.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Race to Save Yellowknife From Raging Wildfires
Some residents of Yellowknife are staying behind to fight back wildfires that could soon engulf the Canadian city. Others have shared harrowing stories as they race to escape the flames.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Battle Against the Fungal Apocalypse Is Just Beginning
Fungal infections are rising worldwide and climate change may be to blame. Medicine isn’t ready.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
India’s Lander Touches Down on the Moon. Russia’s Has Crashed
While India’s spacecraft landed on the lunar surface, the Russian one collided with it. The mixed record shows that developing a lunar economy won’t be easy.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Winds That Doomed Lahaina
Gusts primed the Maui landscape to burn, then drove an out-of-control blaze. It’s a worst-case scenario that’s growing increasingly common around the world.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Hilary Turned Into a Monster Storm
Mexico and the western US are reeling from record-shattering rainfall. Blame high ocean temperatures—and prepare for worse to come as the planet warms.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Montana Youth Win a Historic Climate Case
A victory for Montanans’ right to a clean, healthy environment could set a precedent for other climate lawsuits throughout the United States.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Russia and India Are Racing to Put Landers on the Moon
Robotic spacecraft from both countries are aiming to touch down on the moon’s southern hemisphere, as one’s space program waxes and the other wanes.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Use of AI Is Seeping Into Academic Journals—and It’s Proving Difficult to Detect
Ethics watchdogs are looking out for potentially undisclosed use of generative AI in scientific writing. But there’s no foolproof way to catch it all yet.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices