Science, Spoken
2,361 episodes — Page 9 of 48
2022 Wasn't the Hottest on Record. That's Nothing to Celebrate
Last year was one of the warmest measured, say NASA and NOAA. It would have been even more sweltering if not for La Niña, which will soon fade away. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Let’s Go to Mars. Let’s Not Live There
Space agencies and companies aim to send people to the Red Planet. But settling there would be hell on—well, you know what we mean. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
You Don’t Need to Fear a World of 8 Billion Humans
Some environmentalists warn the planet can’t handle so many people, but we may need to rethink our approach to rising populations. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Here’s What’s Next for Pig Organ Transplants
2022 was a breakthrough year for xenotransplantation, a procedure that could be a lifeline for patients in desperate need of a donor. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Eating Too Much Salt Could Cause Stress Levels to Rise
Holiday feasts tend to be salt-heavy—but early animal experiments are finding that overindulging in the condiment could take an emotional toll. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A More Elegant Form of Gene Editing Progresses to Human Testing
Instead of cutting out chunks of the genome to disable malfunctioning genes, base editing makes a smaller, more precise swap. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Bittersweet Defeat of Mpox
The epidemic has largely subsided, but largely because queer men seem to have learned more from AIDS and Covid-19 than the authorities did. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Vertical Farming Has Found Its Fatal Flaw
Europe’s energy crisis is forcing companies to switch strategies or close down. The industry’s future hangs in the balance. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Russia Has Turned Eastern Ukraine Into a Giant Minefield
Vast swathes of the country have been vindictively laced with explosives, threatening the civilian population both physically and mentally. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Mystery of Nevada’s Ancient Reptilian Boneyard
Whale-sized shonisaurs dominated the ocean 230 million years ago. A fossil cluster offers a fascinating glimpse at how they lived—based on where they died. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Bio-Based Plastics Aim to Capture Carbon. But at What Cost?
Growing crops to make plastic could theoretically reduce reliance on fossil fuels and even pull carbon out of the atmosphere, but at an enormous environmental cost. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Far Can You Fly a Battery-Powered Jumbo Jet?
The answer explains why electric cars are everywhere, but electric aircraft are still a novelty. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How the UN’s ‘Sex Agency’ Uses Tech to Save Mothers’ Lives
Big Data, drones, diagnostics—the United Nations and other groups hope to innovate the world out of a maternal and reproductive health crisis. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Grim Origins of an Ominous Methane Surge
During the coronavirus lockdowns, emissions of the potent greenhouse gas somehow soared. The culprit wasn't humans—but the Earth itself. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Antihelium Offers Hope in the Search for Dark Matter
An experiment at the Large Hadron Collider suggests there’s a chance of catching this elusive evidence as it floats through our galactic neighborhood. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Smart Way to Get Ahead of the Next Flu Surge
Internet-connected thermometers can quickly show how influenza is spreading—so measures to control the disease can be targeted more effectively. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Real Fusion Energy Breakthrough Is Still Decades Away
US nuclear scientists have achieved the long-sought goal of a fusion ignition—but don't expect this clean technology to power the grid yet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Do You Prove There’s Ice on the Moon? With a Lunar Flashlight
A briefcase-sized satellite will ping lasers at the lunar South Pole to locate ice and map it for future human explorers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Orion Moon Capsule Is Back. What Happens Next?
The craft survived a 26-day voyage and a scorching descent. Now it’s time for NASA engineers to learn what went wrong—and what went right. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
‘Solar Twins’ Reveal the Consistency of the Universe
Physicists study starlight to find whether the fine structure constant, whose value makes our universe possible, really is the same everywhere. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Next Great Overdose-Reversing Drug Might Already Exist
Fentanyl-related substances have a bad reputation, but they could also save lives. In the US, a legislative battle to expedite research is heating up. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Extraordinary Shelf Life of the Deep Sea Sandwiches
How did a lunch last underwater for 10 months? The answer relates to how carbon moves in the deep sea, and has implications for fighting climate change. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Low-Cost Test for Hearing Loss Lives on a Smartphone
Audiology screening can be inaccessible for kids in low-resource areas. By utilizing off-the-shelf products, these scientists are trying to change that. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Electronic Second Skins Are the Wearables of the Future
Flexible e-skins could be used to measure wearers’ blood pressure, temperature, and oxygen levels in real time, assisting with diagnoses and health care. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Era of One-Shot, Multimillion-Dollar Genetic Cures Is Here
Gene therapies promise long-term relief from intractable diseases—if insurers agree to pony up. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Proactive Way to Detect Cancer at Its Earliest Stages
Medtech firm Earli is working on a way to make tumors announce themselves as they appear—and even provide directions to where they are in the body. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Pop-Up Farming Pods to Help Colonizers Grow Crops on Mars
Interstellar Lab’s inflatable BioPod is designed to help plants survive inhospitable conditions on Earth and allow explorers to settle on the Red Planet. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Pliocene-Like Monsoons Are Returning to the American Southwest
As carbon concentrations rise, conditions are becoming more like they were 3 million years ago, when the area was wetter and the rain was heavier. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
'Gold Hydrogen’ Is an Untapped Resource in Depleted Oil Wells
The fuel can be produced by adding bacteria to spent drill holes—meaning there are thousands of potential hydrogen sources worldwide. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
For Alzheimer’s Scientists, the Amyloid Debate Has No Easy Answers
For years, potential therapies that attack this brain protein have failed to help patients in clinical trials. Now—surprisingly—a new drug shows promise. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Vertical Farming Needs to Grow More Than Salad
Indoor agriculture promises to massively reduce the water and land needed to support crops. But at the moment, it only works for a tiny percentage of foods. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Use a Laser to Kick an Electron out of a Molecule
By firing pulses quintillionths of a second long, physicists study the fleeting motion of an electron leaving two bonded atoms. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Turns Out Fighting Mosquitoes With Mosquitoes Actually Works
New evidence indicates that an effort to stamp out disease-carrying insects is working. The key? Mosquitoes genetically engineered to kill off their own kind. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Tiny Aerosols Pose a Big Predicament in a Warming World
Fossil fuels are rapidly heating the planet, but their aerosols also help cool it. Just how much, though, is a major uncertainty in climate science. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
NASA Will Not Change the James Webb Telescope's Name
The moniker, which honors a former agency administrator accused of enforcing anti-LGBTQ policies, has long been controversial. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Your Phone Can Determine If a Bridge Is Busted
Any smartphone in any car can pick up a span’s unique vibrations. Tracking how that changes over time reveals hidden structural problems. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Europe’s Cities Are Getting More Crowded—That’s a Good Thing
The sprawling mass of suburbia has been a disaster for the environment. But now smaller, denser cities herald a renaissance in city living. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
No, Qatar’s World Cup Can’t Be Classed as Carbon-Neutral
Despite efforts to reduce emissions, the 2022 FIFA tournament is highly carbon-intensive. And its road to net-zero relies on questionable carbon credits. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Countries Hit Hardest by Climate Change May Finally Get Their Due
After 30 years of talk about forcing wealthy polluters to compensate those bearing the brunt of climate damage, the COP27 conference seems poised to act. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Brace Yourself for a Triple Wave of Seasonal Viruses
Many people haven’t been exposed to common respiratory viruses following the pandemic, meaning they might be more vulnerable to getting ill this year. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Gulp of Engineered Bacteria Is Meant to Treat Disease
A small study of people with a rare disorder that prevents them from processing protein is an early attempt at creating “living” medicines. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Personalized Crispr Therapy Is Designed to Attack Tumors
In a small study, researchers modified patients’ immune cells to target their particular cancer—but it only worked for a third of volunteers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How Peaceful Crowds Turn Into a Deadly Crush
It doesn’t take stampeding or unruly behavior to result in massive tragedies like the one in Itaewon. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The Sci-Fi Dream of a ‘Molecular Computer’ Is Getting More Real
Chemists have long conceptualized tiny machines that could fabricate drugs, plastics, and other polymers that are hard to build with bigger tools. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Caustic Shift Is Coming for the Arctic Ocean
Scientists have already begun to observe the ecological effects of acidifying oceans on sea life. The changes ahead may be more drastic. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
How to Detect a Man-Made Biothreat
The US government is funding tech to determine whether genetic alterations in a virus or pest are an evolutionary quirk—or a lab-engineered danger. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
This Platform Makes Sure Companies Stick to Their Climate Pledges
Lubomila Jordanova explains how her carbon-reporting firm—Plan A—uses relentless data analysis to guarantee businesses aren’t greenwashing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Thawing Permafrost Exposes Old Pathogens—and New Hosts
Climate change is disrupting delicate arctic habitats, which could unearth frozen viruses and transport them elsewhere. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
The ‘Brightest of All Time’ Gamma-Ray Burst Sparks a Supernova Hunt
Telescopes around the world are capturing photons from the blast, and researchers anticipate exciting discoveries ahead. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
A Clever Way to Map the Moon’s Surface—Using Shadows
How shade is cast reveals details of the rugged lunar landscape, allowing NASA to create 3D models for astronauts and rovers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices