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Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday is the source for entertaining and educational stories about science, technology, and other cool stuff.

science life sciences

All Episodes

00:18:31

A Blind Inventor’s Life Of Advocacy And Innovation

Science Friday ·

2025/04/22

In Connecting Dots: A Blind Life, inventor Josh Miele recounts his life story and path to becoming an accessibility designer.When inventor and scientist Josh Miele was 4 years old, a neighbor poured sulfuric acid on his head, burning and permanently blinding him. In his new book Connecting Dots: A Blind Life, Miele chronicles what happened afterwards, growing up as a blind kid, and how he built his career as an inventor and designer of adaptive technology.Host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Joshua

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00:18:40

The Lack Of Science In Road Design Is Deadly

Science Friday ·

2025/04/21

Are traffic engineering decisions based on evidence-based research? Not as much as you might think.If you’ve seen a car crash on the side of the road, you might look at it and think that the person at fault is the driver. But how much blame should be shared by the people who designed those roads in the first place?Well, some traffic engineers are calling for the field to accept more blame for the crashes and the tens of thousands of annual fatalities that happen on our roads, including Dr. Wes

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00:18:53

How ‘Science Interpreters’ Make Hidden Science Visible

Science Friday ·

2025/04/17

Imagine you’re diving into a cell. You’re paddling around in the cytoplasm, you’re climbing up a mitochondria. If you’re having a hard time picturing this, that’s okay! There are professionals who do this for a living.We wanted to learn more from expert science interpreters, who take the results section of a research paper and translate it into something tangible, like a 40-foot dinosaur skeleton or a 3D animation of cellular machinery too small to see.At a live event in Salt Lake City in March,

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00:18:28

How Interjections Regulate Conversation | Saccharin...

Science Friday ·

2025/04/15

We are rounding up your questions about roads. What confounds you about traffic, or how interstates are laid out? Are there certain road design elements that ignite your road rage? Tell us about it: we’ve got a traffic engineer in the passenger seat this week, ready to answer your questions. Call us at (877) 4-SCIFRI or 877-472-4374.In this episode, utterances like “um,” “wow,” and “mm-hmm” aren’t just fillers—they keep conversations flowing. Also, new research suggests the artificial sweetener

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00:15:01

Trump’s Nominee For NASA Administrator Meets Congress

Science Friday ·

2025/04/14

On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation heard testimony from Jared Isaacman, President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA. During the confirmation hearing, Isaacman indicated a priority of sending humans to Mars—while maintaining the agency’s plans to return people to the lunar surface.In response to a question from Senator Ted Cruz, Isaacman said “I don’t think we have to make any tough trades here, Senator. I think if we can concentrate our resources at the world’s

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00:20:32

How Real Doctors Brought ‘The Pitt’ To Life

Science Friday ·

2025/04/11

We go inside the scientifically accurate ER world created for the TV show with one of its medical consultants.What is it actually like to work in an emergency room? To deal with overcrowded waiting rooms, a shortage of hospital beds, and a constant flow of life-and-death health conditions—while trying to maintain your sanity at the same time?That’s the focus of “The Pitt,” a new medical drama on Max from the creators of “ER,” starring one of that show’s key actors, all grown up: Noah Wyle. The first

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00:17:24

What Will Replace The International Space Station?

Science Friday ·

2025/04/10

NASA is planning to decommission the International Space Station by the end of 2030. The ISS, which began operations in 2000, is reaching the end of its lifespan and has become costly to maintain. NASA selected SpaceX to construct a vehicle that would “de-orbit” the football field-sized station, pushing it down into the atmosphere where it’ll burn up safely over the Pacific ocean.So what comes next? So far, NASA has awarded contracts to private companies including Axiom Space, Blue Origin, Northrup

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00:17:16

Forecasting Cuts Spark Worries About Hurricane Season...

Science Friday ·

2025/04/03

Emergency response experts say that funding and staff cuts at the National Weather Service could mean less reliable weather forecast. And, babies like music, but they generally have preferences. A music therapist reveals the best kinds of music to soothe a baby.Forecasting Cuts Leave Some Worried For Hurricane SeasonMany in Georgia are still recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene last fall.Now, firings and funding cuts at the National Weather Service and other agencies have some experts

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00:24:28

23andMe Bankruptcy | A Coating That Can Slow A Golf...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/28

The company has genetic data of 15 million people, which could be shared with a future buyer. Here’s how to delete it. Plus, an experimental coating could make golf balls roll more reliably on greens with different conditions.After 23andMe Bankruptcy, Customers Urged To Delete Their DataIf you’re one of roughly 15 million people who used 23andMe to unlock information from their DNA, consumer advocates have a message for you: Delete your data. On Sunday, the company, which has customers send saliva

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00:24:27

AI Word Choice | When Dwarf Lemurs Hibernate, Their...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/27

Certain words are overrepresented in text written by AI language models. A study investigates why such patterns develop. Also, the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, typically shorten as an organism ages. But when some fat-tail dwarf lemurs hibernate, they lengthen.‘Delving’ Into The ‘Realm’ Of AI Word ChoiceSeveral years ago, some eagle-eyed readers of scientific papers noticed an unusual trend—an increase in the number of abstracts using certain words. The terms, including “delve,” “realm,”

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00:18:48

The Evolving Science Of How Childhood Trauma Shapes...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/20

The framework of Adverse Childhood Experiences started with an unexpected finding over 30 years ago. How is our approach changing? We know that experiences from our childhood, both good and bad, shape who we become as adults. But, understanding what kinds of early experiences have staying power into adulthood and the wide range of impacts they can have is an emerging science.In the 1980s, Dr. Vincent Felitti ran a weight loss clinic in San Diego, California. He noticed that some patients who

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00:18:40

How Plants Powered Prehistoric Giants Millions Of...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/13

When you imagine prehistoric life, it’s likely that the first thing that comes to mind are dinosaurs: long-necked Apatosauruses, flying Pterosaurs, big toothy Tyrannosaurs. But what don’t get as much attention are the prehistoric plants that lived alongside them.Plants, shrubs, and trees played a key part in the food chains of dinosaurs, and many dinosaurs evolved to match the plant life available to them. The Apatosaurus’ long neck, for example, developed to reach leaves high up in prehistoric

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00:17:33

Where Have All The Butterflies Gone?

Science Friday ·

2025/03/11

A sweeping new study on one of the most beloved insects, maybe the only truly beloved insect—the butterfly—details its rapid population decline in the United States. The new research, published in the journal Science widens the butterfly net and looks at how more than 500 species have fared over the past 20 years.Researchers found that many populations are taking a nosedive. What’s causing the downswing, and is there anything we can do?Host Flora Lichtman talks with two of the study authors, Dr

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00:18:25

What Does Dismantling USAID Mean For Global Health?

Science Friday ·

2025/03/10

On the very first day of Donald Trump’s second term, he signed an executive order targeting foreign aid programs, especially the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).Comprising less than 0.1% of the federal budget, USAID provides international humanitarian and development aid for poverty eradication, education, disease prevention, and medical programs. The Trump administration has cut off funding for these programs and most of the USAID staff was placed on leave or laid off.Since

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00:18:36

The Effort To Save Thousands Of Donor Kidneys | Ocean...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/06

Last year, 9,000 deceased donor kidneys were discarded due to storage and time limitations. A kidney “life support” machine could change that. Also, the SS United States will join Florida’s 4,300 artificial reefs—human-made places for fish and other marine life to live. How do these reefs work?The Effort To Save Thousands Of Donor Kidneys From Being WastedSylvia Miles was diagnosed with lupus in 2006, a chronic autoimmune disease that causes the body’s immune system to attack healthy

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00:18:29

Where Does Plastic And Other Trash Go After We Throw...

Science Friday ·

2025/03/05

A journalist traveled to five continents to learn about the afterlife of our trash, and why most “recyclable” plastic actually isn’t.Have you ever gotten to the end of, say, a jar of peanut butter and wondered if it should go in trash or recycling? If it’s worth rinsing out? And where will it actually end up?Journalist Alexander Clapp had those same questions, and went to great lengths to answer them—visiting five continents to chronicle how our trash travels. Along the way, he discovered a

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00:22:37

The Best Tail For Balance | Bindi Irwin Wants Kids To...

Science Friday ·

2025/02/27

The bone and joint structures in mammal tails help them keep their balance. Could those benefits be adapted for robots? And, in her first children’s book, conservationist Bindi Irwin takes little readers on a journey through Australia Zoo.In Search Of The Best Tail For BalanceIf you have met a cat, you’ve probably at some point been amazed by how acrobatic they are. They’re able to reorient themselves effortlessly, even in midair. It turns out that a lot of that twistiness comes down to having a

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00:17:50

A Vaccine For Pancreatic Cancer Continues To Show...

Science Friday ·

2025/02/26

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, and about 90% of diagnosed patients die from the disease. A team at Memorial Sloan Kettering has been working to improve those outcomes by developing a new mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer.A few years ago, the team embarked on a small trial to test the vaccine’s safety. Sixteen patients with pancreatic cancer received it, and even though it was a small study, the results were promising: Half the participants had an immune response, and in those

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00:18:14

What Happens To Your Body When You’re Grieving

Science Friday ·

2025/02/20

We have lots of expressions to describe the pain of loss—heartache, a broken heart, a punch in the gut. These aren’t just figures of speech: While grief is an emotional experience, it’s also a physical one. Studies show that grief can change your physiology, most dramatically in the cardiovascular and immune systems.One staggering finding? A heart attack is 21 times more likely to happen in the 24 hours after the death of a loved one. And after the death of a parent, risk of ischemic heart disease

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00:19:05

Can Men and Women (Baboons) Really Just Be Friends? |...

Science Friday ·

2025/02/19

Can Men and Women (Baboons) Really Just Be Friends?In the romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally,” the central premise, as Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan’s characters stay friends throughout the years, is, can men and women really just be friends?In the movie, the answer is no, not really. Spoiler alert: They do get together in the end. But what if we take that concept and bring it to the animal kingdom, specifically to primates?The Kinda baboon is known for its distinct social behaviors. Individuals

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