Science, Spoken
2,361 episodes — Page 6 of 48
How to Help and Donate to Wildfire Victims in Hawaii
From the Hawaii Community Foundation to the Maui Food Bank, donations to these groups aid people impacted by the recent disaster in Lahaina.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Cities Aren’t Supposed to Burn Like This Anymore—Especially Lahaina
Humans figured out how to prevent huge fires in urban areas over a century ago. Why have they gotten so bad again?Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Injecting a Gene Into Monkeys’ Brains Curbed Their Alcohol Use
Chronic drinking depletes the brain’s dopamine levels. A single dose of a gene therapy reset them, and stopped the craving for alcohol.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How NASA Nearly Lost the Voyager 2 Spacecraft Forever
The space agency lost touch with the beloved spacecraft following a faulty command signal. Here’s how it happened—and how engineers worked to bring it back. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Scary Science of Maui’s Wildfires
Wildfires were once rare across the Aloha State. But drought, invasive species, and human development have pushed Hawaii into a fiery new age.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Weird Way That Human Waste Is Killing Corals
Wastewater fuels blooms of reef-smothering algae. Better engineering and an army of funny-looking fish can come to the rescue.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Mystery Genes That Are Keeping You Alive
Nobody knows what around a fifth of your genes actually do. It’s hoped they could hold the secret to fixing developmental disorders, cancer, neurodegeneration, and more.Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Everyone Was Wrong About Antipsychotics
An unprecedented look at dopamine in the brain reveals that psychosis drugs get developed with the wrong neurons in mind. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Covid’s Summer Wave Is Rising—Again
Covid-19 cases are slowly increasing across the US for the fourth summer in a row. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Prosthetic Limb Actually Attaches to the Wearer’s Nerves
A prosthetic arm that connects directly to the nervous system gives the user fine control over the motions of individual fingers—just by thinking and trying to move. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The First Pill for Postpartum Depression Is Almost Here
Current treatments for depression after giving birth are either slow to work or hard to get. The FDA is considering a new tablet that relieves symptoms within days. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Mystery of the Colorado River’s Missing Water
Snow is falling—but it doesn’t show up to replenish the river. In a drying West, researchers are racing to find out where it goes. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder—but Memorability May Be Universal
When humans and a neural network viewed pieces of art, they all found the same images memorable. What those images have in common offers a glimpse into what fascinates the brain. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Heat Waves Aren’t Just Getting Hotter—They’re Sticker Too
This summer's extraordinary heat is but a preview of what's to come: Humidity not only makes daytime highs more miserable, it extends the hotness through the night. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why Scientists Are Clashing Over the Atlantic’s Critical Currents
Is the system of currents that runs through the Atlantic about to shut down, creating climate chaos? Depends on who you ask. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Coming Soon Near You: Bears
Extreme heat and other weather events are driving bears closer to humans’ campgrounds and hiking trails—and that’s no good for either species. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Rare Case of Green Hairy Tongue Is Pure Nightmare Fuel
Patients with hairy tongue syndrome—which can also turn tongues black, brown, yellow, or blue—often report gagging, mouth dryness, or bad breath. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Startup Wants to Give Farmers a Closer Look at Crops—From Space
A UK company cofounded by an astrophysicist combines AI with radar satellite imagery to keep track of vegetation, and eventually to make forecasts about its growth. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Ticks and the Diseases They Carry Are Spreading. Can This Drug Stamp Them Out?
A small study showed that feeding deer a type of ivermectin reduced the number of ticks drinking their blood. (Yes, it’s that ivermectin. No, you shouldn’t eat it.) Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why Songs Get Stuck in Your Head—and How to Stop Them
Maybe it’s a commercial jingle, a TikTok song, or a new summer bop. Here’s how to trick your brain into hitting pause. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The US Finally Approved an Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill. Here’s What to Know
By early 2024, a tablet called Opill will be sold in pharmacies without a prescription, making it easier for uninsured and young buyers to access. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
An Ancient Battle Is Playing Out in the DNA of Every Embryo
Millions of years ago, retroviruses invaded the human genome. Today some of these viral remnants threaten the developing embryo while others fight to defend it. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Weird Weather Is Making Air Travel Even Worse
Flight delays, cancellations, and violent turbulence are becoming increasingly common as extreme weather ramps up. Things are likely to get worse with climate change. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Arctic Is a Freezer That’s Losing Power
As glaciers retreat, methane-rich groundwater is bubbling to the surface. That may be warming the climate, accelerating the Arctic’s rapid decline. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Hair Loss Study Raises New Questions About Aging Cells
A protein secreted by seemingly dormant cells in skin moles causes hair to grow again. That’s a big—and potentially useful—surprise. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Old Memories Can Prime Brains to Make New Ones
Creating a memory takes energy, and brains only have so much. A study using snails shows how they can be primed for future learning. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Microplastic Crisis Is Getting Exponentially Worse
Plastic production is skyrocketing, pushing microplastic pollution to dangerous new levels. Now research shows even the Arctic is increasingly contaminated. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Why People Stop Using Drugs Like Ozempic
Drugs like semaglutide—better known as Ozempic or Wegovy—could be lifelong treatments for obesity, but what little data scientists have suggests that people don't stick with them for long. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Rare Domestic Resurgence of Malaria Is Circulating in the US
The mosquito-borne disease was eliminated here long ago. Now “revenge travel,” global migration, poor public funding—and maybe climate change—could help it come back. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
One Shot of a Kidney Protein Gave Monkeys a Brain Boost
An early experiment in older rhesus macaques suggests that an injection of klotho improves working memory. Could it one day help people? Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How a Human Smell Receptor Works Is Finally Revealed
After decades of frustration, researchers have determined how an airborne scent molecule links to shapeshifting olfactory receptors in the nose. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Scientists Are Gene-Editing Flies to Fight Crop Damage
The spotted-wing drosophila is a threat to fruit growers across the US and Europe. Crispr could thwart the pest’s numbers. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Air Pollution Is Deadlier Than You Think
Poor air quality doesn’t just cause lung cancer. It may also be responsible for other cancers, strokes, diabetes, and more. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Health Care Data Is a Researcher’s Gold Mine
Patients and clinicians generate huge amounts of data that could advance care. But turning the system into an R&D powerhouse means ripping up the rules. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
More People Are Going Blind. AI Can Help Fight It
Early detection is crucial for treating eye disease. AI-enhanced eye scan analyses could spot warning signs quicker—and reach patients at scale. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
In the Future, Patients Won’t Go to the Hospital—It Will Come to Them
Virtual wards provide people with remote care and monitoring, allowing patients to go home sooner and hospitals to run more efficiently. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Heat Waves Are Unleashing a Deadly but Overlooked Pollutant
Indian cities, afflicted by rising temperatures and poor air quality, are becoming hot spots of ozone pollution, which has proven a difficult problem to fix. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Pain and Promise of Europe’s Abortion Laws
The continent’s abortion laws are a patchwork of progress and setbacks. And for many, accessing the right care at the right time is still a lottery. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Find the Titanic Sub Before It’s Too Late
Rescue teams are scrambling to find the sub, which has gone missing near the wreckage of the Titanic, before those aboard run out of oxygen. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Bird Populations Are in Meltdown
Humans rely on birds to eat insects, spread seeds, and pollinate plants—but these feathered friends can’t survive without their habitats. Read the story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nuclear-Powered Cargo Ships Are Trying to Stage a Comeback
Faced with the difficult task of decarbonizing, some shipping companies are taking another look at a polarizing solution—nuclear fission. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Check the Air Quality Near You
Here’s what to know about wildfire smoke and invisible pollutants, and how you can use your phone to decide whether it’s safe to spend time outside. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Psychedelic Therapy Is Here. Just Don’t Call It Therapy
Psilocybin is on the cusp of becoming legally available in Oregon—but not as a medical treatment. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Gentle Brain Stimulation Can Improve Memory During Sleep
Stimulating the frontal lobes of sleeping epilepsy patients improved their recall of information—and may one day help treat Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Satellites Keep Photobombing Space Images. Astronomers Need a Fix
A new technique could aid Hubble Space Telescope users, but the problem will get worse for observatories on Earth. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Bees Get All the Love. Won’t Someone Think of the Moths?
More research is showing that moths are secret, critical pollinators, even of crops that feed humanity. Save the bees, but save the moths too. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Kakhovka Dam Collapse Is an Ecological Disaster
Water surging from the broken Ukrainian dam is killing animals, destroying habitats, and unleashing pollution. The effects may be irreversible. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Age of Flames Reaches the US East Coast
Canadian wildfires are spewing smoke into New York City and Washington, DC, threatening the health of millions. Welcome to the “Pyrocene.” Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Genomics Are a Lifesaver for Patients With Rare Diseases
The 100,000 Genomes Project has a massive database to help doctors and patients solve baffling medical cases and diagnose cancers. Read this story here. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Quest for a Switch to Turn on Hunger
While weight-loss drugs are dialing down the urge to eat for many, others desperately need something that can convince their body to consume more. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices